Memory is the subjective residue of lived experience. It is the raw, impressionistic substance from which an Incarnation’s identity is built and the currency through which the past exerts its power over the present.

Within ATET, Memory is not a perfect, objective recording of Fact. It is a chaotic, emotionally-charged, and often unreliable archive of what was perceived, felt, and believed. It is the engine of personal narrative, the source of our deepest convictions, and the ghost that haunts every future choice.

Design Philosophy

The purpose of the Memory system is to transform the past from a static backstory into an active, tangible, and sometimes adversarial force in gameplay. It is the mechanical heart of the Design Pillar of the Subjective Interface, ensuring that an Incarnation is not a blank slate, but a being constantly shaped and haunted by what it has endured.

Memory in ATET is designed to be felt, not just read. The system rejects the concept of a “quest log” or a simple, chronological transcript of events. Instead, it aims to simulate the very nature of human recollection: fragmented, biased, and re-contextualized by our current state. A memory of a battle is not a line of text; it is the remembered scream, the flash of plasma, and the lingering taste of fear. This approach turns the act of remembering into a core gameplay loop of interpretation and discovery, as the player pieces together the story of their own life from the beautiful and broken shards of their past.

The Universal System (The Subjective Record)

All sapient agents in the simulation form and store memories using a universal, event-driven system. This ensures that the world’s memory is as alive and fallible as the player’s.

The Formation of Memory

Memories are not created continuously. They are encoded by the MemoryRecordingSystem in response to significant events. This system listens for a wide range of event triggers:

• PerceivedEntityStateChangedEvent (e.g., a friendly NPC suddenly becoming hostile).
• InteractionOutcomeEvent (e.g., the success or failure of an attempt to Craft an item or Trade for a resource).
• NeedSatisfiedEvent or DamageTakenEvent (events with strong physiological and emotional impact).
• GoalCompletedEvent or GoalFailedEvent (the culmination of a significant effort).

The Anatomy of a Memory (MemoryEntry)

When a memorable event occurs, the system creates a MemoryEntry in the agent’s AgentMemoryStore. As detailed in the Agent Core State Components, this is not just a record of what happened, but a rich, subjective snapshot:

• Significance: A calculated value representing how important the event was to the agent’s goals and needs.
• Emotional Valence: The emotional “color” of the memory, from profound joy to abject terror.
• Involved Entities and Roles: Who was there and what part they played.
• Details: A flexible container for context-specific data (e.g., satiation_gained_value from eating, damage_type from an attack).

This structure ensures that the memory is not just a log entry, but a piece of experience carrying the weight of its emotional and narrative context.

The Process of Forgetting

An agent cannot and does not remember everything. The AgentMemoryStore is a managed, living system, not an infinite hard drive.

• Pruning: Low-significance memories (e.g., the tenth time eating a common berry) fade over time, making room for more impactful recollections.
• Consolidation & Abstraction: Over time, the BeliefUpdateSystem analyzes patterns in memory. Many similar, low-impact memories can be “consolidated” into a single, high-confidence Belief. Once the lesson is learned, the individual memories that taught it are no longer needed and can be safely forgotten. This process mirrors real-world learning, turning individual experiences into generalized knowledge.
• Suppression: Highly traumatic memories, while having high significance, may be actively suppressed by the agent’s mind, becoming difficult to consciously recall but still exerting a powerful influence on subconscious behavior.

The Player’s Experience (Living in the Echo)

The player interacts with their Incarnation’s memory through the Subjective Interface. This is not a menu, but a “Memory Palace,” a “Journal of Echoes,” or another diegetic representation of the character’s mind.

Accessing the Memory Store

When the player chooses to “reflect” or access their memories, they are not presented with a list. They are presented with an interactive, subjective space:

• Cherished Memories: Might appear as warm, glowing images, accompanied by soft music or the faint sound of a loved one’s voice. Interacting with them might provide a temporary buff to morale or willpower.
• Traumatic Memories: Might be visually distorted, fragmented, or wrapped in a ‘static’ effect. The audio might be jarring and corrupted. Recalling them could be a requirement to understand a certain fear, but might come at the cost of a temporary psychological debuff.
• Fragmented Knowledge: Memories of technical schematics or complex facts might appear as flickering, incomplete blueprints that the player must piece together.

Memory as an Active Tool

An Incarnation’s memories are not just for reflection; they are one of its most powerful tools for interacting with the world. The contents of the AgentMemoryStore directly populate the “Inner Mind” panel during other actions:

• In Converse: Every significant MemoryEntry involving a person, place, or concept becomes a potential topic of conversation. You can bring up “The Battle of Spire-7” because you have a memory of it, allowing you to connect with other veterans or challenge official accounts.
• In Interpret: Your memories are a primary source of interpretative options. You can interpret a strange alien artifact as “dangerous technology” because you have a traumatic memory of a similar device malfunctioning during the Odyssey crash.
• In Action Appraisal: Your memories implicitly guide your choices. An agent with a memory of being ambushed in a forest will subconsciously appraise the action “Take a shortcut through the woods” with a much higher risk factor, even if no immediate threat is perceived.

The Unreliable Narrator

Crucially, the player must learn that their own AgentMemoryStore is not an objective source of truth. It is a record of their perception. If an NPC successfully lies to you, your memory will record the lie as if it were fact. If you experience a drug-induced hallucination, the memory of it will be as vivid as any other. Part of the game’s challenge is learning to question your own recollections, to seek external verification, and to understand that the story of your life is a text that you are constantly rewriting, reinterpreting, and sometimes, misremembering.