Grounded Reality vs. Metaphysical Simulation

The design of Anamnesis: The Eidolon Tapestries is built upon a deliberate and potent narrative tension. On one hand, it seeks to present a grounded, relatable science fiction world; a universe of blue-collar freighter captains, desperate colonists, and complex political states. The stories within this layer are driven by familiar, human-scale motivations like survival, love, greed, and duty.

On the other hand, the game is a deep, metaphysical simulation. Its core loop is governed by abstract, cosmic principles: the cycle of Anamnesis, the harvesting of Eidos, and the player’s eventual ascension to the role of a world-weaving Eidolon.

These two realities, if presented with equal clarity, are mutually corrosive. A universe where the Fact of reincarnation is common knowledge renders the stakes of a single, mortal life trivial. A story about a desperate struggle for survival loses its weight if the protagonist knows that death is merely a transition to a creative workshop. The grounded reality and the metaphysical simulation, when allowed to fully overlap, threaten to invalidate one another, creating a world that is neither relatable nor philosophically coherent.

This document provides the foundational principle designed to resolve this tension, ensuring that these two layers do not collapse into a contradiction, but instead form a rich, discoverable, and compelling whole.

The Guiding Principle: Subjective Scarcity

The central principle guiding the player experience is that of Subjective Scarcity. This principle states:

Knowledge of the universe’s true metaphysical nature is not a given; it is the game’s most valuable and scarce resource.

The default state of any Incarnation within any Tapestry is one of grounded ignorance. They are born into the sci-fi reality, not the metaphysical one. The cosmic rules of Eidos and the Eidolon cycle are not common knowledge; they are a profound and dangerous mystery, a hidden truth that must be earned, discovered, or revealed through the arduous process of living. The game is not a simulation of a world where everyone is an enlightened philosopher; it is a simulation of a world where most are simply trying to get by, haunted by faint echoes of a reality they do not understand.

This principle is enforced through four key pillars of design.

1. The Actor’s Veil: Distinguishing Player and Incarnation Knowledge

A critical distinction must always be maintained between what the player knows and what the Incarnation knows. As a player completes multiple Threads, they will inevitably learn the game’s meta-rules. They will understand the value of generating certain kinds of Eidos. This meta-knowledge is a core part of the player’s progression as an Author.

The Incarnation, however, is always the Actor. Its behavior is governed by its own anatomy, its own Memories, and its own Beliefs. The game’s core AI systems, especially the Action Appraisal, must always operate from the Incarnation’s limited, subjective perspective. The player cannot simply force their character to perform an action because they, the player, know it will yield valuable Eidos. They must guide a character whose motivations are immediate and grounded. This creates a compelling and deliberate tension between the player’s long-term, authorial goals and the Incarnation’s short-term, personal ones.

2. The UI as Filter, Not Window: The Role of the Subjective Interface

The Subjective Interface is the primary mechanism for enforcing the Actor’s Veil. It must never present objective, metaphysical data. There are no “Eidos Gained +10” notifications. There is no progress bar for “Ascension to Eidolon.”

The interface shows only the subjective, sensory, and psychological consequences of the metaphysical. An Incarnation with a powerful, inherited Eidic fragment does not see a stat bonus; they experience it as a recurring dream, an inexplicable talent, or a haunting, intrusive thought. The player learns to connect these subjective experiences to their growing meta-knowledge, but the Incarnation remains immersed in its own reality. The UI is a filter for a consciousness, not a window into the game’s source code.

3. Learning Through Living: Anamnesis as the Path to Truth

The game will never explicitly explain the nature of the Eidolon, the Tapestry, or the full cycle of Anamnesis through tutorials or lore dumps. The only path to this knowledge is the core loop itself.

The player’s journey of understanding is designed to mirror the philosophical process of inquiry. The first few lives are for gathering data, for forming a Faith about how the universe works. The Reflect phase after an Incarnation’s death is the only time the veil is briefly lifted, where the messy experience of a life is seen to distill into the clean essence of Eidos. This makes the player’s own learning process a diegetic and central part of the game. The “tutorial” is the first, confusing, and likely tragic life. The “endgame” is the hard-won clarity that comes from having lived, died, and reflected enough to finally perceive the pattern.

4. Grounded Narratives, Obscured Metaphysics: Implications for Design

This guiding principle has direct, actionable implications for all content creation.

• For Narrative & Quest Design: All scenarios, quests, and character motivations must be framed from the perspective of agents living within the grounded reality. Their goals must be immediate and relatable: to find a cure, to protect a community, to avenge a wrong, to make a profit. The metaphysical layer is the subtext, not the text.
• For Lore & World-Building: The lore found within a Tapestry: datachrons, books, oral histories; should reflect the prevailing ignorance of its inhabitants. They will speak of ghosts, spirits, divine inspiration, or inexplicable madness; not of Eidos, Harvesters, or narrative dissonance. The truth is a heresy, a forbidden knowledge, as exemplified by the Gnostic Fragments.
• For Onboarding: The Initial Experience must prioritize teaching the player how to be an Incarnation. It must ground them in the visceral struggles of survival, social interaction, and choice from a limited perspective. The promise of becoming an Author is the reward for mastering the life of an Actor.

Conclusion: A Coherent Duality

The Principle of Subjective Scarcity resolves the core tension by establishing that Anamnesis is not two conflicting games. It is one game with two distinct, but deeply interconnected, layers of reality. The player’s journey is a guided traversal between them; from the grounded, subjective, and often confusing life of the Actor, to the enlightened, objective, and responsible perspective of the Author, who then chooses to return to the beautiful, necessary fiction of a single, meaningful life. This ensures that the game’s sci-fi world retains its weight and the game’s metaphysical systems retain their mystery, creating a single, coherent, and profound player experience.