Open Questions¶

Unresolved worldbuilding and design questions to be addressed. Add to this list as they arise. Questions reference concepts detailed in Cosmology, Locations, Factions, and Devices.

Integration Debt — 2026-06-18 elemental-magic change¶

Spawned by the Forgotten / Connected / Primal change (2026-06-18). Obligations are consistency fixes the change requires; opportunities are optional enrichment. Action these (largely the handoff agent's job), then trim this section. Metaphysics_Summary.md and IdeaBank.md were already reconciled in the same pass.

Obligations (consistency): - [x] WorldbuildingSynthesis.md — stale "Magic Systems and Theory" (high). Still teaches the old model: Primal as bloodline-inherited / Glyphein-locked (~lines 87, 111), "Primal = direct expression of an Eidolon's aspect" (~101), and "magic is your birthright / inherited together" stated as universal (~37, 77). Rewrite to carve out Primal as the lineage-unlocked exception (the Forgotten / the Connected / communion-with-the-scattered; terrain-coupled). Single biggest contradiction surface. — reconciled 2026-06-18. - [ ] Locations.md:~113 (med) — "expedition members… develop traditional elemental magic" reads generic; reframe as the Connected mechanism (displaced + Forest-steeped → awaken Primal). The expeditioner is the archetypal Connected. - [ ] Locations.md:~15 (low) — "command the elements with symbols and Exousia" conflates runescript (Investment) with elemental command (Primal); disambiguate. - [ ] Party_Combat.md (verify-only, low) — confirm no status/synergy row implies Phaidros/Sophia elemental magic is innate-from-lineage rather than Connected. (Burning row already correctly Device-derived.)

Opportunities (enrichment): - [ ] Locations.md (The Unknown / Forest vs. inert city, ~88–95) (med) — state explicitly that the Forest blooms Primal and the city starves it (terrain-coupling), beyond the existing Consumption/recharge framing. - [ ] Factions.md — homes for the Connected (med). Orders of the apart/exiled/iconoclastic (the heretical Bahá'í-analogue order ~90–93; the Adventurer's Guild "draws people who don't fit in" ~129–133; Mendicants/Dervishes who venture beyond the walls) are natural in-world enclaves where the Connected surface. - [ ] Factions.md — Elpidi (Order of Pious Sun, ~178–190) (low) — Blooming = radiant/divine in the new damage-map; their sun-worship aligns strongly with Blooming-radiant. Optional linkage. - [ ] Factions.md / Henosis (~13–15, 73) (low) — the ritual cursing/fear of the Forest is a ready folk-religious frame for fearing/not-naming elemental magic and "the Forgotten." - [ ] Society.md:~31–33 (low) — folk practices among foresters/expeditioners could seed in-world folk explanations for elemental "gifts" (the nameless Forgotten; why elemental magic "has no people"). - [ ] Locations.md (old Kyanos, ~7–24) (low) — old-Kyanos as a bloodline melting-pot is a place to seed historical Connected elementalists.

Metaphysics fine details still open (consolidated for the handoff; the damage-type item is also tracked under Magic & Exousia): - [x] ~~psychic damage-type → which Archē?~~ Wisdom (provisional, 2026-06-18); arcane → Investment and occult → toxic Exousia confirmed. Folded into the full Archē → damage-type map. - [ ] Shaping & Blooming treatments — accepted in principle (Shaping = self-binding; Blooming = seeding) but not yet canon: pending Disruption-warping + Paidi/Harmony reconciliation. Moved to the durable item under Magic & Exousia. - [x] ~~Primal's Hypodochē-equivalent~~ — resolved & canon: Primal can't be bound (called, not stored); an elemental Device = stored Exousia + an Investment Set. See Cosmology — Forms, Devices. - [x] ~~The Forgotten — finer points~~ — resolved & canon: former people left ambiguous-to-absent; folk belief "the elements belong to no house"; kept separate from the Cosmic Wound (design-bible "may-link" note). See Cosmology — The Forgotten. - [x] ~~The Connected — finer points~~ — resolved & canon: dual access confirmed (Sophia); Connection added as a term with a slow drift toward full alignment (spiritual + physiological), checked by being split; the drift's far extreme is the only Synagōgē path (Phaidros's whisper). The Rigidity-flavored terminal failure ("the Stilling") parked in IdeaBank. See Cosmology — The Connected.

Naming & Terminology¶

Provisional or unsettled names and terms that need finalizing. When one resolves, update every doc that uses the working term.

[ ] The state religion — Henosis vs. Henoa vs. Dairism (and the relationship between the faith's name, its goal-doctrine "henosis," and the Daire/Circle practices). See Henosis.
[ ] The government — the Union vs. Cember vs. Daire. See The Union.
[ ] The Saint/Herald canonization tier — working name the Imams.
[ ] The senior-clergy tier — working name "senior Jurists" (the raw notes used "Ayatollah").
[ ] The ascetic sub-order — working name the Mendicants (a.k.a. Dervishes).
[ ] The heretical order — the Bahá'í-analogue still needs an in-world name. See Factions — Sub-sects.
[ ] Cyrus & Sophia's profession — what is their shared pre-Disruption profession called? Cyrus is canonically a Runic Builder; Sophia shared a private research/engineering firm with him. Settle whether their shared role is "Runic Builder," an "Aligner" (per the Aligning / Alignment training referenced in the glimpses), or another term — and reconcile the Runic Building vs. Aligning vocabulary.
[ ] The Elpidi's protective Device — the treasured Device that shields the Elpidi from the Consumption needs a proper name (working name: the Elpidi Ward) and a settled form/mechanism (likely a Hope/Innovation soulshard-hybrid).
[ ] Named Devices generally — many entries in Devices.md are names without descriptions (Altesh, Wreth, Cruin, Ioril, Rukar, etc.), and several Devices referenced elsewhere are undescribed. Settle names/functions opportunistically as they become story-relevant.
[ ] See also the Eidolons section for unsettled Eidolon titles and Wisdom's race name.

Eidolons¶

See Cosmology — The Eidolons for the current known table.

[ ] What are all the Eidolons and their corresponding shadows? (Known: Wisdom/TBD, Hope/Despair, Temperance/TBD, Humility/Pride, Courage/TBD, Justice/TBD, Truthfulness/TBD, Innovation/TBD, Liberation/TBD, Reliability/Rigidity — "the Forgotten", scattered/uninhabited)
[x] ~~Which Archē's gift is Primal (elemental magic)?~~ The Forgotten — the scattered Archē of Reliability (design-bible; in-world nameless). It has no living people, so Primal is reached not by blood but by the Connected (apartness + steadfastness). See Cosmology — The Forgotten.
[x] ~~Which Eidolon is tied to Vanarism (body-shaping)?~~ Temperance.
[x] ~~Which Eidolon's gift is Investment/Imbuing?~~ Innovation.
[ ] What is the shadow corresponding to Wisdom?
[ ] What is the shadow corresponding to Innovation?
[x] ~~Which Eidolon is targeted by the Ascension Ceremony?~~ Innovation — the Glyphein bloodline's god, harvested via its own Investment art. The Kuklos populace are Innovation's descendant Glyphein (hence their consensus is condition #2). See Cosmology — The Disruption. Innovation is intended as only the first of several thrones the Collective means to take.
[x] ~~Is Cyrus of the harvested bloodline?~~ Yes — Cyrus is of Innovation (Glyphein, through his Source mother), the very bloodline the Disruption harvests, and of Wisdom's founding desert stock through his father — which is the thread by which Wisdom reaches him. This dual heritage is why he can become the Eidolon of Innovation in his secret ending. See Cyrus.
[ ] Wisdom's countermove — channel. Wisdom, fearing she is next after Innovation, secretly empowers Cyrus. Open: by what channel — a Phantasma, a boon, a re-attunement of his resonance, a Thronos/Pneumatophoros relationship? Does Cyrus know the source of his gift?
[x] ~~Humility's role in the Disruption.~~ Resolved — Humility is the primary actor; the Collective is her arm. But her aim is only to have the Sophronoi subsume other peoples (enlarge her domain), not to unseat a god; the god-supplanting knowledge came from a second actor. The result may escape her control. See Cosmology — The hands behind it.
[ ] Humility vs. her own instrument. If the Collective's supplanting ambition could turn on Humility herself, how does she respond as the story unfolds — rein them in, race them, or fall to them? (Long-game; intersects the Cosmic Wound.)
[ ] How many Eidolons exist in total?
[ ] What are the specific Glyphein bloodline clusters corresponding to each Eidolon? Which unassigned Eidolons (Courage, Justice, Truthfulness, Liberation) correspond to Glyphein clusters vs. distinct races?
[ ] What are the titles for each Eidolon?
[ ] What is Wisdom's race called?
[ ] What magic types correspond to each unassigned Eidolon?

Eidolon mechanics (inhabitation, blending, new arisals):

[ ] Who is the current Katochos of each known Eidolon? Are they mortal, long-lived, or indefinite? Are any of them named historical figures?
[ ] Under what conditions does a new Virtue/Eidolon arise and take its first Katochos? Has this happened in recorded history? Are there dormant Virtues that have never been inhabited?
[ ] When two peoples intermix enough to blend their Eidolons, what does the process look like — slow merger, discrete event, or something triggered by a specific act? Does a single Katochos emerge from the blending, or does the throne sit empty until a new one arises?
[ ] Do the Vices have their own Katochoi, or is the Vice always carried by the same person holding the Virtue (just a dominant face versus a suppressed one)?
[ ] Can the people → Eidolon drift ever be reversed at speed, or is it always the generational slow pull?

Magic & Exousia¶

See Cosmology — Exousia, Praxis, Hypodochē.

[ ] Which Exousia waveform property encodes Archē-alignment? (Frequency, amplitude, rotation, or something else?)
[ ] What are the distinct forms of magic corresponding to each Archē-bloodline?
[x] ~~Innate vs. Device-driven power, per character.~~ Resolved at the character level — see the per-character zone profile. Augmentations act as internal Exousia sources (Sophia, Lione work citywide); Cyrus's magic is Device-borne (citywide); Paidi's light heals are innate (heavy heals gated); Chiranjeevi's Vanarism is self-contained. Consumption: only Vaughn is fully susceptible (no magic → can't vent); Phaidros, as a Connected native Primal channeler, vents by casting and is now resistant. (Exact per-ability tagging deferred to the kit pass.)
[x] ~~How does magic behave across the Disruption's zones?~~ Settled — the Exousia shell model: Forest = free substance (magic costs only MP; ampoules recharge); inert city = no substance (magic needs an external source; techniques unaffected). The Forest's recharge-vs-Consumption trade and the casting-vents-the-Consumption rule are canon. Full gameplay treatment: Exousia Economy.

Praxis, Exousia, and Husks:

[x] ~~How is a soulshard produced?~~ Willing partial surrender; it remains open whether forcible extraction is possible (see below).
[ ] Can a soulshard be forcibly extracted against the donor's will? If so, the output would be toxic — but what would the extraction itself do to the donor? (Potential plot-rich horror.)
[ ] Can Praxis itself (as opposed to a crystallized soulshard) be extracted? The current framing says no, but the setting wants to leave room for an exotic method or ancient apparatus that could do it. (Also in IdeaBank — Will Extraction.)
[ ] Could artificial Praxis exist — a Device or apparatus that directs Exousia without a living soul? (Also in IdeaBank — Artificial Praxis.)
[ ] Shaping & Blooming — treatment + Disruption-warping + Paidi reconciliation. Accepted in principle (2026-06-18): Shaping = self-binding (Praxis locked into one's own body — the body as Hypodochē) and Blooming = seeding (Praxis committed into a living, growing system, repayable as the creation thrives). (Distinct Greek terms vs. reusing "Hypodochē" — TBD.) Open riders before this becomes canon: (1) the Disruption has warped both Forms — safeguards removed / something changed (define what, and the fallout — plausibly body-horror runaway for Shaping/Vanarites, uncontrolled growth for Blooming); (2) reconcile Blooming with Paidi's Harmony / Mien system (she is Elpidi/Hope → Blooming — how do her resource-stances relate to the seeding treatment?). Investment and Primal already have their treatments. (Also IdeaBank — Other-Form Metaphysics.)
[ ] Map every Archē/Form → damage type(s). (Dedicated mapping question.) Current: Primal (the Forgotten) = fire/ice/lightning/earth/wind/water; Shaping (Temperance) = necrotic/disease/bleed; Blooming (Hope) = radiant/divine; Investment (Innovation) = arcane; psychic = Wisdom (provisional, 2026-06-18); occult = toxic Exousia (a cross-cutting source-quality, not a peopled Form); physical (slash/pierce/blunt) = non-magical technique. arcane→Investment and occult→toxic are confirmed. Still unmapped: Humility, Courage, Justice, Truthfulness, Liberation have no damage type yet — assign as their Forms/peoples are developed. (Design-side: per-ability tagging across the archetype files.)
[ ] How much permanent Investment in how short a span tips a caster into Husk territory? (What's the rough pacing?)
[ ] Are Husks salvageable — can the emptied soul be restored? Or is the transformation terminal?
[ ] Are Husks a present-day phenomenon (encountered in the Forest, for example), a historical artifact of old Kyanos's excesses, or both?
[ ] In hybrid workings with a soulshard, whose Archē-signature does the result carry — the Investor's, the donor's, or a mixed signature?

The Disruption¶

See Cosmology — The Disruption and Locations — Kuklos.

[ ] The Cosmic Wound — is there a primordial fracture beneath the Spiral? (Deepest reveal — held for far beyond this story / multi-game horizon.) Salvaged from the deprecated Eternal Spiral framework, where a primordial wound in the world-soul leaked unstable Exousia. Not imported as-is, but held open as a setting-scale question: is the Eternal Spiral's turning a Tikkun (repair) of some original wound — and if so, what wounded the world? Leading candidate: the Wound is Skyne's absence — the empty throne and the death-echo he left when he returned home and died, a standing fracture the world has bled from ever since. The faint tearing at the targeted Archē during the Disruption (which the Collective does not understand) is the first on-page glimpse of it. Do not resolve on-page for a long while — this is a slow burn across the larger series.
[x] ~~What is the Disruption, in light of the new metaphysics?~~ RESOLVED (see Cosmology — The Disruption). The Disruption is the engineered Ascension Ceremony targeting Innovation. Its central act is the Domain overwrite (condition #1): Devices strip the land's Innovation-resonance; the displaced Exousia compounds outward into the layered zones. The old "magic-cancer" is reconciled as the Consumption — overaccumulation (insanity + cancerous growth) in souls whose resonance no longer matches their surroundings; the opposite pole to Husking, not the same thing. Condition #2 is met by both spiritual death (the Consumed outer bloodline) and engineered despair (the sheltered inner Glyphein). Exemptions: old-resonance survivors, Vanarites (reshape it away), Elpidi (a treasured Device). The Collective is in partial control only. Wisdom interferes by empowering Cyrus, fearing she is next.
[ ] What are the specific stages of the metaphysical terraforming occurring in the Disruption zones?
[ ] How does the Exousia-inert zone around Kuklos work mechanically? What maintains it?
[ ] What are the "purpose-built magical devices" that initiated the ceremony? Where are they?

The Disruption Problem — a chain of constraints that creates complications for technology:

People have Exousia.
Land has Exousia.
The land realigns itself over time to match the Exousia of its residents.
The Disruption changed the Exousia of the land.
Devices require Exousia specific to the land.
Devices require runes specific to the land.

This means pre-Disruption Devices no longer function properly in terraformed zones, and new Devices must account for the altered Exousia landscape. How exactly does this work in practice?

Ascension¶

See Cosmology — Ascension and Skyne.

[ ] What are the specific conditions Cyrus would need to know/fulfill for the secret ending Ascension?
[ ] When the Elders plan to "disable their own protection and ascend in one fell swoop" — what does this look like in practice? Is there a physical device, a ritual, both?
[x] ~~Is the Enlightenment revelation to the Sophronoi Elders Humility's doing, an envoy's, or unrelated?~~ An envoy's — the Enlightenment came from Euphen's brother (the secondary actor), not Humility. Humility (primary actor) drives the Sophronoi toward subsumption; she did not author the god-supplanting knowledge. Her prison-memory of the higher world (via blood memories of Skyne) is the root of the pride that fuels her program. See Cosmology — The hands behind it.
[ ] If Ascension succeeds, does the ascendant reach the higher world Skyne came from, or only take the dead god's echo-throne in this one?

Locations¶

See Locations for detailed location descriptions.

Kyanos (pre-Disruption):

[ ] How did Devices and Exousia technology develop over time?
[ ] What role did the desert tribes play in the city's cultural identity?

Kuklos Anankes (post-Disruption):

[x] ~~Where does the farmland sit?~~ Small but highly productive strip near the second city gate (see Locations — Kuklos).
[ ] Where do they get clothes, and from what fibers?
[x] ~~What does the religion look like in practice?~~ See Henosis and Society.
[x] ~~What do they use for currency?~~ Plant-based money — seeds and seed-pods grown from living mints, tended by elite farming families and dominated by female Jurist financiers. See Society — Economy.
[ ] What is the total population? (Size: ~2-mile diameter, ~3.14 sq mi interior, moderately dense.)
[x] ~~What does the government structure (The Union) look like in detail?~~ See The Union. (How the Union, Henosis, and the Collective share the Decagram in practice is only partly settled — the civic seat and great Bethel co-locate there; the working arrangement is still loose. See Religion, Government & Society.)
[ ] What exactly is the Research District? Its remit is currently tentative.
[ ] How are the three outer gates and the three outer districts oriented relative to each other, the river, and the Forest?

Races & Peoples¶

See Factions for detailed profiles of known races and peoples.

[ ] Are there other non-Glyphein races besides the Vanarites, Elpidi, and Sophronoi?
[ ] Cheria Sofias (Greek: Xeria Sofias, lit. "Hands of Wisdom") — also called the Yomenites. One of the Eidolon of Wisdom's tribes that wandered the desert. Adapted to desert life, treated water as gold, battled other tribes, wore animal skins, pilgrimaged to mountains (West), seas (North), and wetlands (East). What is their relationship to the Vanarites — ancestors, a separate group, or a renamed people?
[x] ~~What is the Vanarites' relationship to the Eidolons?~~ They have their own Eidolon (TBD), tied to Shaping magic.
[x] ~~Are the Elpidi a distinct race?~~ Yes. Eidolon: Hope, shadow: Despair, Magic: Blooming.

Apotheosis¶

The umbrella name for character-specific transformations triggered by the gauge previously called "Burst." Each playable character has a uniquely-named Apotheosis form (Harmonic Resonance for Paidi, Maelstrom for Sophia, Shadow Lord for Euphen, Crimson Vessel for Chiranjeevi, Omnific Mirror for Lione, Magnum Opus for Adam, with Cyrus/Vaughn/Phaidros still in design).

[ ] The entire Apotheosis system needs comprehensive worldbuilding development. Currently it exists as a mechanical concept (a gauge that fills and triggers a transformation) but has no metaphysical, social, or historical grounding. Open question categories:
- Metaphysics. What is Apotheosis? A manifestation of Praxis at peak intensity? An Eidolon-touched moment? A separate magic? How does it relate to existing concepts (Exousia, Hypodochē, Skorpismos, Investment, Husking)?
- Phenomenology. What does it look and feel like to witness an Apotheosis? To undergo one? Visual signatures common across forms, or wildly variable per character?
- Specificity. Why does each character have a unique form? Tied to their Archē? Bloodline? Training? Wound? Devotion?
- Knowledge. Who in the world knows about Apotheosis? Is it documented history, a Collective secret, fringe folklore? Are there pre-Disruption cases?
- Access. Why are these nine specific characters capable of it? Rare gift, common-but-rarely-activated, trauma-triggered, condition-gated?
- Cost. Beyond the gauge, is there a price? Does repeated use deplete, damage, or bind something?
- History. Have prior Apotheoses shaped the world? Could the Eidolons themselves be "permanent" Apotheoses of long-ago mortals?
Until this is built out, every individual character's Apotheosis description is mechanical-only and the cast's combined Apotheoses don't add up to a coherent system. Significant lore project — likely deserves a dedicated brainstorming session and its own canonical wiki page, not just a single-thread question.

Factions & Characters¶

[x] Paidi's tradition vs. the Elpidi. Resolved — chose path (a): the Elpidi's sun-worship is now canonically a discipline of harmony (the Sun sings; piety means attuning to its song), which grounds Paidi's Harmony resource, her Harmonic Resonance Apotheosis, and her musical "Miens." See Factions — The Elpidi and Paidi.

Religion, Government & Society¶

See Henosis, The Union, The Adventurer's Guild, and Society.

Naming questions for the religion, the government, and the clerical and sub-order tiers now live under Naming & Terminology.

Substance:

[ ] The Mendicants ↔ Vanarism. How literally is the Mendicants' adversity-seeking ascetic practice linked to Vanarism, beyond the surface echo?
[ ] Pentagram vs. Decagram. The raw notes named a central holy "Pentagram"; normalized to the canonical Decagram (whose ten-pointed star matches the faith's iconography). Working assumption: the great Bethel sits within the Decagram precinct. Confirm, or split it into a distinct adjacent holy site.
[x] ~~The Nacrine ↔ Sophia.~~ Resolved — Sophia was a Nacrine: grandfathered into the order after the Disruption, it is the institutional form her coerced Collective service took, and the source of the augmentations she still bears. She is now a renegade from it. See Sophia and Factions — the Nacrine.
[ ] The Adventurer's Guild leader. Identity of the heretical-purge survivor who leads the guild and has Vanarite/Elpidi ties — a named NPC to develop?
[ ] "False Theurgy." What is Theurgy in this cosmology, and how does Henosis doctrine (purity, perfection, coming unity) map onto the true Ascension/Eidolon metaphysics? What makes it "false"?
[ ] The Henoa Secundi's true nature. "Returned" ~60 years ago alongside "a particular Elder's emergence." Is the Henoa Secundi an Elder, a Collective puppet, or a genuine claimant — and which Elder?
[ ] The Imams ↔ Seven Elders. Confirm the mapping (seven Imams as mythologized Elders). The raw note breaks off mid-thought ("…the actual Disruption-era events that"); what was intended there?
[ ] The Mother Pearl / Nacreous Matrix provenance. Origin of the royal female lineage and the harem, and how the augmentation/"hollow research" behind the Nacrine vestments connects to Collective experimentation.
[ ] Slavery & indenture. Extent, mechanics (caste/debt/ownership), and how they bear on the story's themes.

Story¶

See Factions — Key Figures for known character details.

[ ] Euphen's brother — the secondary actor. The Disruption's secondary architect is now established as an unnamed brother of Euphen, a wanderer from the higher reality who gave the Sophronoi Elders partial knowledge of how to supplant an Archē — almost certainly the figure remembered as the Master of Those Who Know (the Enlightenment). Open: his name; his motive for arming the Elders; what exactly he revealed (and what he withheld, since the knowledge is partial); his current whereabouts; and what Euphen knows or feels about him (handle as a slow reveal — see euphen-extended-origin).
[ ] Confirm the Master of Those Who Know = Euphen's brother identification (currently "almost certainly"), or split them into two figures.
[ ] What is Dominus's identity among the Seven Elders?
[ ] Story drafts out of sync (sync when next revised). docs/story/Story_Overview.md and docs/story/Outline_v0.md are v0 working drafts predating current canon: they use stale terms ("Aeon" → use Archē/Eidolon; "preliminary parliamentary system" → the Union is now a constitutional monarchy) and don't reflect Sophia's Nacrine background or Henosis.
[ ] "Elder Sophia" vs. the character Sophia. Outline_v0.md conflates the party member Sophia with the Wisdom Eidolon ("Elder Sophia… Wisdom bestows time manipulation"). Clarify whether the Act-3 "Elder Sophia" is the character, a Pneumatophoros of the Wisdom Eidolon, or a separate figure. (The Kuklos "Sophia/Wisdom" district name is an unrelated coincidence.)

Set Aside — Concepts for Reuse¶

Terms and scraps that were considered but set aside for potential use elsewhere have moved to IdeaBank.