Balance is the act of tuning the strings of reality. It is the meta-narrative control panel, the space where the player, as a nascent or fully-realized Eidolon, adjusts the very parameters of perception and existence to suit their journey. This is not merely a “settings menu”; it is an interface for negotiating the dialectic between the game’s intended vision and the player’s personal needs.

Our philosophy is one of radical empowerment. We provide the tools to experience the full, subjective, and sometimes overwhelming vision of ATET, but we also provide the tools to calibrate that experience, making it as accessible or as challenging as you desire.

1. Subjective Interface Calibration

The Subjective Interface is the core of the game’s experiential design. However, its use of perceptual distortion can be challenging. These settings allow you to tune its intensity, from full philosophical immersion to a more objective and accessible presentation.

2. The Eidolon’s Prerogative

These settings govern your relationship with the game’s meta-narrative and its community of creators.

• The Workshop (Creative Mode)

  • Status: Locked | Unlocked
  • Description: By default, access to the Eidolon’s world-weaving tools is a state achieved through play. Unlocking this setting from the start allows you to bypass the Anamnesis cycle and begin immediately as a creator. This is a “cheat” or “sandbox” mode, perfect for designers, storytellers, and those who wish to experiment with the full creative power of the game without constraint.

• The Confluence Stream (Community Content)

  • Status: Off | Curated | On “
  • Description: This setting controls how the game integrates content from the Confluence hub.
    • Off: Your Tapestries will only ever be seeded with base game content. A pure, single-player experience.
    • Curated: The game will only seed content from officially vetted or highly-rated community creators.
    • On: You open the floodgates. The game will freely draw from the entire Confluence, seeding your worlds with any and all community-made Factions, Quests, and Artifacts, creating a truly chaotic and unpredictable shared universe.

3. Narrative Resonance Control (Experimental)

ATET is a game that explores the full spectrum of the human (and non-human) condition. This includes mature, difficult, and potentially triggering themes. The following settings are an experimental attempt to provide players with more granular control over their narrative experience. They are not intended to erase difficult content, but to change how it is presented.

• Symbolic Filtering & Refraction

  • How it Works: This menu will present a list of core Symbol Tags that the Director AI uses to categorize narrative events (e.g., [Body Horror], [Existential Dread], [Child Harm], [Betrayal], [Sexual Violence]). You can select any tag and choose a “Refraction” method. Instead of removing the event, the system will attempt to re-frame its presentation.
  • Refraction Example: An event tagged [Body Horror] might describe a visceral, graphic transformation. If you set this tag to “Refract to Psychic,” the game will present the same event not through graphic visual description, but through the psychological horror of the experience—a description of mental collapse, psychic screams, and a shattered sense of self. The narrative weight and trauma remain, but the expression of it is changed from physical to mental.
  • Fade to Black: A more direct option. When an event with a filtered tag occurs, the screen will fade to black, and the outcome will be summarized in a neutral, descriptive text, bypassing the immediate experience entirely.

• Our Pledge: This system will require ongoing community feedback to be effective and respectful. It is our commitment to exploring how to create powerful, mature art that is also mindful of its players’ well-being.

• Default “ESRB Modes”: To simplify this for players who prefer a broader level of control over the game’s mature content, we will also offer a selection of predefined Narrative Resonance Presets. These presets act as master switches, automatically configuring the Symbolic Filtering and Refraction settings to align with different levels of thematic intensity, similar in spirit to content ratings. A player might choose between “The Unfiltered Tapestry” (the default, full experience), “The Veiled Weave” (which automatically refracts the most common and intense visceral themes into psychological or symbolic representations), or “The Allegorical Thread” (a more heavily filtered mode focusing on the mythic core of the narrative while minimizing direct, harsh depictions). Players can select a preset as a starting point and then further customize individual Symbol Tag filters, giving them both convenience and fine-grained control over their experience.

4. Additional Parameters

• Narrative Velocity

  • Options: Meditative | Standard | Chaotic
  • Description: This setting adjusts the temperament of the Director AI.
    • Meditative: The Director prioritizes stability and quiet moments. Crises are rarer and the pacing is slower, focusing on introspection and gradual change.
    • Standard: A balanced experience of calm and crisis.
    • Chaotic: The Director actively seeks to create narrative tension. Faction conflicts escalate faster, personal dramas are more frequent, and the world is generally more volatile and unpredictable.

• Eidic Yield

  • Options: Symbolic Scarcity | Standard Flow | Abundant Meaning
  • Description: This is the game’s core “difficulty” setting. It controls the rate at which your Incarnations accumulate Eidos from their experiences.
    • Symbolic Scarcity: A challenging mode where only the most profound and significant events yield meaningful Eidos, requiring a more deliberate and thoughtful play style to progress.
    • Standard Flow: The intended baseline experience.
    • Abundant Meaning: A more forgiving mode where Eidos is gained more readily, allowing for faster meta-progression and access to creative tools.

• Standard video, audio, input options.

• Custom key bindings subsections and standalone options menus provided by Confluence add-ons.