An Eidolon is the echo of a self that persists beyond self-hood; a mythic synthesis of memory, intention, and impact, arising from many woven Threads.
Within ATET, an Eidolon is not a person, god, or ghost — but it may resemble all three. It is the culmination of accrued Eidos, shaped by Tapestries lived and unwoven, by Incarnations remembered and forgotten, by patterns repeated or broken.
To become Eidolon is to step beyond the weave, not to escape it, but to begin weaving anew.
Contents
Nature of Eidolon
Eidolons are formed from convergence: when enough meaning condenses across experience, identity ceases to be singular. Instead, it becomes archetypal — a living principle, seeded in one Incarnation but composed of many.
You do not play as an Eidolon in the traditional sense. You become one slowly, through play. Certain narrative thresholds, metaphysical insights, or accumulations of Eidos will open the path toward Eidolon-hood.
As an Eidolon, the player begins to shape not just stories, but the conditions under which stories emerge.
Philosophical Frame
In narrative and gameplay terms, Eidolon draws on:
- From Platonism: the ideal form behind appearances; what the soul remembers it once knew
- From mythic consciousness: heroes and deities whose stories recur because they express enduring patterns
- From post-self theory: the notion that identity is narrative coherence, not a fixed essence
An Eidolon is not the self magnified, but the self transcended. It is memory structured into principle.
Gameplay Function
Approaching Eidolon
Players progress toward Eidolon by:
- Accumulating high levels of diverse or thematically unified Eidos
- Repeating or evolving archetypal narrative patterns across Incarnations
- Achieving synthesis between Fact, Fiction, and Faith
- Encountering mythic symbols or moments tied to self-recognition
- Accepting, rejecting, or reweaving past Threads with awareness
This progression is subtle. There is no “ascension meter.” The world itself will begin to reflect the player’s mythic resonance before any mechanical acknowledgment.
Eidolon State
Upon becoming Eidolon, the player gains access to:
- Direct Tapestry creation tools: constructing new realities from chosen or inherited Eidos
- Meta-narrative influence: ability to bend or rewrite aspects of how new worlds are generated
- Selective inheritance: shaping the qualities of future Incarnations, even before the Tapestry begins
- Symbolic permanence: becoming a persistent myth, echo, or force across all subsequent play
Not all players will reach this state. Not all should. Eidolon is not a reward, it is a transformation.
Post-Eidolon Play
Once the player has become Eidolon, they may:
- Seed archetypes or themes into procedural generation
- Influence the evolution of future Faiths and Fictions
- Appear in future Tapestries as a myth, omen, or force; possibly even as an NPC or antagonist
- Deliberately erase, corrupt, or revise aspects of their legacy
The player may also choose to relinquish Eidolonhood, returning to a lower narrative state - a rebirth.
Narrative Economy
Eidolon is the culmination of the game’s long-term narrative loop:
- It gives persistent meaning to player action across all prior Incarnations
- It opens space for creative authorship of new Tapestries, no longer bound by random generation alone
- It introduces a sense of legacy, transformation, and mythic recurrence
- It allows the player to interact with their own past; not as a character, but as a concept
Design Intent
Why Eidolon exists:
- To complete the philosophical arc of the game: from experience, to memory, to myth, to principle
- To give long-term players meaningful authorship over future play without removing the game’s emergent unpredictability
- To allow for personalized symbolic closure, or reinvention, on the player’s journey
- To embody the tension between self-hood and dissolution, authorship and surrender
Key Design Notes
- Eidolon is not a power fantasy; it is a shift in scale and perspective
- The game should never tell the player they have become Eidolon in plain terms, the world simply begins to behave differently
- Becoming Eidolon should feel earned, mysterious, and reversible
- Eidolon legacy effects should subtly haunt or inform future Tapestries, but not dominate them
- The concept must remain legible even to players who never reach it; the name should echo long before it manifests
Details
Of course. Here is a draft for the new content in Eidolon.md, following the structure and tone of the existing documentation.
Design
An Eidolon is the echo of a self that persists beyond self-hood; a mythic synthesis of memory, intention, and impact, arising from many woven Threads.
Within ATET, an Eidolon is not a person, god, or ghost — but it may resemble all three. It is the culmination of accrued Eidos, shaped by Tapestries lived and unwoven, by Incarnations remembered and forgotten, by patterns repeated or broken.
To become Eidolon is to step beyond the weave, not to escape it, but to begin weaving anew.
Details
At its heart, the Eidolon state is a metaphysical world-builder; a narrative design tool that serves as the game’s core meta-progression. It is the phase of play where the player transitions from being an actor within a story to becoming its primary author. Where Anamnesis is about living a narrative, Eidolon is about authoring one.
The Weaver’s Cycle
The gameplay of the Eidolon state is a contemplative, creative ritual. It is the “workshop” between lives, as described in On the Implications of Platonic Idealism.
- Reflect on the Unraveled Tapestry: Upon the completion of a Thread, the player enters the reflective state, witnessing the life they lived as an Eidic Constellation.
- Synthesize and Interpret Eidos: The player does not simply receive a score. They engage with the fragments of their past, combining and interpreting the Facts, Fictions, and Faiths they have harvested to form their creative palette.
- Create a new Tapestry: Using a conceptual “Loom,” the player weaves the foundational rules of the next reality, choosing its core themes, metaphysical laws, and potential for conflict or harmony.
- Seed the Weave: The player can place specific narrative seeds into their new creation—the echo of a past hero, a legendary Artifact, a persistent cultural Faith, or the very Gnostic Fragments of the MEMETIC-COGNITO-HAZARD.
- Choose the point of Anamnesis: The Eidolon’s final act is to define the starting conditions for the next Incarnation, setting the stage for their own return to the world of the living.
What Choices Matter Most?
Authorial choices. The core gameplay emerges from defining the parameters of the next story.
- Thematic Coherence vs. Narrative Chaos: Will the new Tapestry be a grounded world governed by hard Facts, or a surreal dreamscape where powerful Fictions can warp reality? The player’s choice of Eidos as a building material directly shapes the genre of the next playthrough.
- Seeding Conflict vs. Harmony: Does the player design a world with two ideologically opposed Factions destined for war? Or do they weave a Tapestry founded on a unifying Faith of cooperation? The player sets the initial conditions for the emergent social simulation.
- The Nature of Truth: The player has the power to define the very “truth” of the next world. Is reincarnation a known Fact, a hidden Faith, or a forgotten Fiction? The answer to that question will fundamentally alter the society that emerges.
Tempo of Action
The tempo of the Eidolon state is The Stillness Between Worlds. It is contemplative, strategic, and self-paced. There are no immediate threats or survival pressures. It is a quiet, creative space where the player can experiment with the narrative tools they have earned, reflecting on the consequences of their past lives and setting their intentions for the future.
Primary Player Verbs
The Eidolon’s agency is built around verbs of creation and intention:
- Reflect: Witness and understand the patterns of a completed life.
- Create: Weave the foundational laws and themes of a new reality.
- Interpret: Combine and give meaning to disparate fragments of Eidos.
- Seed: Place specific narrative elements or legacies into a new Tapestry.
- Commit: Finalize the new world and initiate the cycle of Anamnesis, returning to the world as an Incarnation.
Design Goals
- Make meta-progression a creative and expressive act, not just a numerical one.
- Give tangible, authorial purpose to the Eidos system.
- Empower players to become co-designers of their own narrative experiences.
- Create a profound and satisfying loop that bridges seemingly disparate playthroughs with thematic and causal continuity.