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Anamnesis:

The Eidolon Tapestries

Anamnesis

Anamnesis is the central cycle of ATET: the act of remembrance through experience, and the rediscovery of truth through narrative iteration.

To undergo Anamnesis is to live. To live is to remember. To remember is to change.

The player begins each cycle of play by choosing Anamnesis — stepping into an Incarnation, within a Tapestry, shaped by forgotten Thread and unseen Eidos.

Contents

Nature of Anamnesis

Anamnesis is not just how the game starts; it is the ethos of the entire experience.

Each playthrough is a fragment of something larger: a life lived, a pattern glimpsed, a myth remembered through repetition. Through each Incarnation, the player uncovers meaning — sometimes deliberately, sometimes by accident.

With each cycle, the veil lifts a little more. Truth is not unlocked, but unfolded.

No single life contains the whole. But together, they begin to form something coherent — or at least, familiar.

Philosophical Frame

In narrative and gameplay terms, Anamnesis is shaped by:

  • From Platonic epistemology: anamnesis as the soul’s recollection of truths known before birth
  • From Reincarnation Myths: the belief that wisdom arises not from one life, but from many
  • From interactive narrative: stories as systems of branching memory, where repetition breeds understanding

In ATET, Anamnesis is not an escape from death — it is what death enables.

Gameplay Function

Entry Point

The player chooses Anamnesis to begin a new Thread:

  • A random or partially-shaped Incarnation is generated
  • The player is placed into a Tapestry — stable or unstable, strange or familiar
  • The world unfolds, reacts, teaches, resists, and remembers

Lived Experience

Through the lived Thread, the player:

  • Accumulates Eidos, often without realizing it
  • Encounters Facts, Fictions, and Faiths that may echo prior playthroughs
  • Shapes a Tapestry in ways subtle and profound
  • Dies — or transcends

Reflection and Return

Once an Incarnation ends:

  • The player reflects (through narration, symbolism, or revealed structure)
  • Their legacy is remembered through retained Eidos and possible emergent myth
  • A new Anamnesis may begin, now changed by what has come before

Narrative Economy

Anamnesis is both loop and lineage:

  • It defines the core progression system (accrual of Eidos)
  • It creates a sense of symbolic memory across procedural worlds
  • It enables genre, theme, and tonal variance through recursive identity
  • It gives meaning to death, failure, and nontraditional play

Anamnesis is not about mastery. It is about pattern recognition, inner coherence, and mythic return.

Design Intent

Why Anamnesis exists:

  • To turn the game’s loop into a philosophical ritual — an experience of meaning, not just progression
  • To reject the notion that each playthrough “resets”; instead, every run is a recollection in disguise
  • To frame death not as failure, but as closure — the end of one verse in a longer poetic form
  • To invite players to begin again because of what they remember, not in spite of it

Key Design Notes

  • Players should never be required to explain Anamnesis — they should feel it through the rhythm of play
  • The word itself should become symbolic through exposure; its familiarity a kind of spiritual comfort
  • Visual and auditory motifs can reinforce the feeling of return, variation, and resonance
  • Anamnesis is where mystery and memory meet; players are always chasing something half-remembered and never fully grasped

Details

At its heart, ATET is a Social Simulation RPG with roguelike structure and emergent narrative focus. The player inhabits a procedurally generated Incarnation within a Tapestry, navigating personal needs, cultural tensions, and metaphysical mysteries to accumulate Eidos.

The Essential Cycle

Like many open ended games, ATET’s core game loop revolves around a cyclic story beat, formed by player actions and designed interventions.

What Choices Matter Most?

Interpersonal choices. The core gameplay emerges from interacting with other entities (human or otherwise) whose:

  • Needs are systemic (e.g., food, shelter, belonging)
  • Beliefs derive from their personal Eidos
  • Memories are shaped by past events, including the player’s; what one remembers is not necessarily what occurred

This creates a narrative feedback loop:

  • NPC’s Goals and Quests arise from their condition
  • Player actions shape their reputations and relationships
  • Larger structures (Factions, mythologies, conflicts) emerge from local interactions

Think of it as:

Dwarf Fortress social schema + Maxis-style personality engines + belief modeling as gameplay

There may be action, even brutal ultra-violence; but it’s in service to narrative consequence.

Tempo of Action

The game alternates between:

  • Slow survival / planning - base-building, cultural integration, introspection
  • Sudden crisis or drama - accidents, conflict, betrayal, opportunity
  • Ritual pacing - cultural or metaphysical events tied to time, symbol, or fate

The player is not told the tempo; they discover it by participating. Think of a Story Beat Heuristic Model, responsive to Eidos saturation and dramatic rhythm.

Primary Player Verbs

The player’s agency is built around expressive, interpretive actions:

In early gameplay, this may look like:

A Botanist trying to interpret alien Flora to survive the aftermath of a crash.

At its most grandiose, it could become:

Unit 734 setting the foundations of a thousand Tapestries.

Design Goals

  • Give social simulation the same mechanical depth usually given to combat or crafting.
  • Tie all gameplay back to personal myth-making: who the player chooses to be remembered as.
  • Model motivation, beliefs, and perception as systems that drive gameplay rather than simply decorate it.