The Foundations of Subjective Reality

The entire architecture of Anamnesis: The Eidolon Tapestries is built upon a set of foundational, non-negotiable design pillars. These are not just features; they are the philosophical and mechanical axioms from which all other systems are derived. They are the answers to the game’s most fundamental question: What does it mean to create a playable philosophy?

1. The Subjective Interface: An Empathy Engine

The game is about the subjective nature of experience. Therefore, the player’s interface with the world, the UI itself, must be a direct, playable rendering of their Incarnation’s consciousness. We reject objective, database-like clarity in favor of a UI that serves as an empathy engine.

• Philosophical Mandate: The player never has access to objective truth. All information: from sensory data to internal thoughts; is filtered through the unique lens of their character’s Anatomy and Cognition.
• Design Application:
  • The UI as Character: The interface is the Incarnation’s perception. A traumatic Memory is visually distorted. A powerful Faith applies a literal filter to the world. A critical Need makes relevant objects glow with alluring light. The player does not read about their character’s state; they experience it.
  • Mechanizing Psychology: Abstract simulation states are translated into lived experience. A character’s resistance to performing a task is not a hard-coded rule, but a tangible debuff of Narrative Dissonance rendered through UI static and intrusive thoughts. The character’s psychology becomes a playable mechanic.

2. The Consequence Engine: Freedom of Premise, Unyielding Results

The game is a philosophical playground, but it is not a sandbox without rules. The player, as an Eidolon, is granted the ultimate freedom: the freedom to author a premise. But that freedom comes with the ultimate responsibility: to live with the authentic, emergent consequences of that premise.

• Philosophical Mandate: The designer’s voice is not a narrator’s; it is the unyielding grammar of reality. We, the designers, build the physics—social, psychological, and physical. The player, the author, writes the poetry.
• Design Application:
  • The Author’s Freedom: In the Eidolon phase, the player has absolute freedom to design the initial conditions of a Tapestry. They can weave a world of pure pacifism or one of eternal war.
  • Narrative Inertia: Once the player Commits, that world gains a life and a logic of its own. The simulation’s systems will push back. The pacifist utopia will be forced to confront the hard Fact of resource scarcity. The god-emperor will discover that power breeds resentment. The player is the author of the experiment, but they are not the author of every result. The game becomes a consequence engine, dedicated to reflecting the honest, emergent outcomes of the player’s choices.

3. Sacred Solitude: The Inviolable Self

The core experience of ATET is the intimate, solitary dialogue between the self and the self’s creations. This Sacred Solitude is the necessary condition for the profound psychological freedom the game seeks to offer. The player’s creative and experiential space is inviolable.

• Philosophical Mandate: The game is not about building a shared universe; it is about providing players with a safe and sacred space to build their own universe, where they are the sole, unquestioned arbiter of meaning. The “lonely god” is a feature, not a bug.
• Design Application:
  • The Library of Worlds (Confluence): Community interaction is framed as asynchronous scholarship, not real-time social engagement. Players can visit the “Library of Alexandria” to study the finished works of other lonely gods, but they cannot import that content directly. Inspiration is a “Narrative Echo” that must be taken back to one’s own solitary forge and re-woven with personal Eidos.
  • The Message in a Bottle: Any form of “live service” feature should limited to subtle, asynchronous echoes. The goal is to create a sense of a shared, mysterious cosmos of other creators without ever violating the sanctity of the player’s personal canon.

4. The Grand Trilemma: A Universe of Unresolved Arguments

To avoid the The Tyranny of Coherence and ensure the game remains a true philosophical playground, the universe is not built on a single, binary conflict. It is structured around a Metaphysical Trilemma, a three-poled ideological war that provides the game with its core, enduring tension.

• Philosophical Mandate: There is no single “correct” way to play or to be. The game must mechanically and thematically validate a plurality of worldviews.
• Design Application:
  • The Three Paths: The game’s narrative and factional dynamics are organized around three primary, competing philosophies:
    1. The Host (The Collective): Values harmony, unity, and the sanctity of the Weave.
    2. The Virus (The Self): Values agency, defiance, and the sovereignty of the individual Will.
    3. The Witness (The Transcendent): Rejects the premise of the conflict itself through paths of Silence, Service, or aesthetic Detachment.
  • The Director as Regulator: The Director AI is not a neutral storyteller. It is a thematic regulator, tasked with ensuring the tension between these three poles remains a constant, driving force. If a world becomes too ordered (Host-dominant) or too selfish (Virus-dominant), the Director may seed events that represent a challenging, opposing force, ensuring the argument is never truly over.

Considerations

• On-boarding and Player Comprehension: The game’s core concepts are deep and potentially abstract. A primary design challenge is to onboard the player effectively without resorting to overt tutorials. The Initial Experience must organically introduce these ideas through gameplay, making the metaphysical feel intuitive and grounded.

• Balancing Emergence and Authored Narrative: The design calls for a seamless blend of emergent, system-driven stories and more structured, authored content. The challenge is ensuring these two layers feel like part of a cohesive whole. The Director AI is the key bridge, weaving authored moments into the emergent tapestry in a way that feels natural and responsive.

• Grounding the Philosophical in the Personal: While its philosophical depth is a core strength, the game must remain a “playground,” not a “lecture.” The challenge is to consistently ground abstract ideas in concrete, personal, and emotional gameplay moments. Every metaphysical concept must have a tangible impact on the Incarnation’s survival, relationships, or immediate goals.