To Survive is to persist. It is the fundamental, driving impulse imbued in an Incarnation, the baseline Goal. It is the act of maintaining the integrity of one’s Thread against the constant pressures of a Tapestry that is often indifferent, and sometimes, actively hostile.

Within ATET, Survival is not merely a gameplay state; it is a core philosophical concept. It is the gravity of being, the powerful, instinctual pull towards existence that gives the choice of self-sacrifice its profound and terrible weight.

The Innate Fact of Mortality

Every Incarnation, upon Awakening, is seeded with an undeniable, high-priority piece of knowledge: the awareness of its own fragility. This is not a vague fear; it is a hard-coded, systemic Fact embedded within its core consciousness.

• The Knowledge: Agents understand that the depletion of critical Needs—such as Sustenance, Oxygen, or physical Integrity from damage—will lead to the cessation of their current form. They know that starvation, suffocation, and violence will end their life within this Tapestry.
• The Primal Goal: This innate knowledge generates the most fundamental of all Goals: ContinueExisting. This Goal has a high base priority and is perpetually active, driving the agent to seek food when hungry, shelter when cold, and safety when threatened. For most beings, in most situations, this is the Goal that will win any contest of priority.

This system ensures that all agents, from the simplest creature to the most complex political leader, are grounded in the relatable, visceral struggle for existence.

The Narrative Override - The Power of Belief

The drive to survive, while powerful, is not absolute. It is a Goal like any other, subject to the same cognitive processes of appraisal and prioritization. An Incarnation’s Belief system is capable of overriding this primal instinct, reframing the act of dying from a failure state into a necessary, or even desirable, outcome.

This is where the most powerful stories are born. The choice not to survive is the ultimate expression of an Incarnation’s Faith.

• Martyrdom for the Collective: As seen in Benevolent Leader, Anya’s Faith in her community was so strong that her Goal to “Save the Colony” was appraised as having a higher value than her own ContinueExisting Goal. Her sacrifice was not an act of irrationality; it was the ultimate logical conclusion of her worldview.
• Zealotry for a God: A devout member of a cult, as in Cultist, might possess a Faith that frames death as a “glorious union” with a higher power. For this agent, the Goal of “Achieve Union” is appraised as infinitely more rewarding than mere survival. They do not fear death; they seek it as the final step of their pilgrimage.
• Duty Above Self: A soldier of the Hegemony, steeped in a Faith of duty and order, may choose to hold a position against impossible odds. Their Goal to “Fulfill Duty” can override their personal SafetyNeed, because their identity is more invested in their role as a soldier than in their existence as an individual.
• Despair and Narrative Collapse: Conversely, an agent who has lost all hope—whose core Beliefs have been shattered and whose Goals have all failed—may see no value in the ContinueExisting Goal. In this state of profound despair, the agent may simply cease to act in its own self-interest, accepting an end it feels it has already reached.

The Social Fabric of Survival

The value a society places on survival is one of its most defining characteristics, shaping its laws, ethics, and social structures. This is determined by the dominant Faith of the Faction.

• The Pragmatists of Homestead: For the people of Homestead, survival of the community is the highest good. Individual survival is secondary. Their Faith promotes communal action and shared burdens because it is the only way to ensure the group persists through the Long Gloom.
• The Zealots of Nova Roma: For the Hegemony, the survival of the idea of the Hegemony is paramount. Individual lives are expendable resources in service to the grand narrative of the Unbroken Spire. They will sacrifice legions to preserve a symbolic outpost because the Fiction of their permanence is more important than the Fact of their individual lives.

An Incarnation’s relationship with a Faction is therefore a negotiation of survival. To be a member is to adopt, at least partially, the Faction’s valuation of what is worth dying for.

Design Considerations & Prototyping Focus

The ability for agents to choose death is a powerful narrative tool, but it must be handled with extreme care to avoid creating dissonant or trivializing outcomes.

• Player Agency and Clarity: For the player, a choice that leads to the end of their Incarnation must be deliberate and clear. The Subjective Interface must communicate the immense stakes of a self-sacrificial act, ensuring it feels like a conscious, meaningful choice, not a gameplay mistake.
• Robust NPC Logic: An NPC’s decision to sacrifice itself must be a rare and momentous event, triggered only by an extremely high-strength Faith or a critical, no-other-option scenario. The system must be balanced to prevent agents from acting against their own survival for trivial reasons.
• Narrative Weight: The game must treat death with reverence. The Eidos generated from a selfless sacrifice should be unique and powerful, reflecting the gravity of the choice. The death of an Incarnation should always feel like the end of a story, not just the loss of a game piece.

The central challenge in prototyping will be balancing the primal, understandable drive to Survive with the rich narrative potential of an agent choosing, for reasons that are entirely their own, not to. This balance point is where a simple survival simulation becomes a true philosophical playground.