A Tapestry is a constructed reality; a world or plane of existence, woven from threads of Fact, Fiction, and Faith.

Within ATET, each Tapestry is both a stage for lived experience and a dynamic artifact of narrative design. It is neither a static setting nor a simple game level; it is a living weave of meaning and memory, responsive to the player’s choices and the accumulated weight of prior Threads.

Every Tapestry is unique. None are perfectly stable.

See also: The Grim Tapestry

Nature of Tapestry

Players do not merely explore Tapestries; they inhabit, shape, and sometimes unravel them.

Each Tapestry arises from:

• The initial seed configuration chosen or generated for the world
• The weight and interplay of woven Facts, Fictions, and Faiths
• The accumulated Eidos of the player, subtly influencing tone and thematic focus
• Emergent phenomena produced through player action and in-world dynamics

As a player engages with a Tapestry, it evolves. Stories propagate; ideologies crystallize; perceptions shift. A Tapestry may grow more stable, more chaotic, more oppressive, or more dreamlike depending on the forces at play.

No Tapestry lasts forever. Some collapse under narrative strain. Some ossify into stasis. Some are deliberately unwoven by the player to seed the next cycle.

Philosophical Frame

In narrative and gameplay terms, the Tapestry draws upon:

• From mythology: the image of the world as a woven cloth; every thread a story, every pattern a culture.
• From systems theory: a complex adaptive system; sensitive to initial conditions, constantly evolving.
• From postmodern narrative: reality as an unstable construct mediated by perception, story, and belief.

Thus: Tapestries are not “settings”; they are fragile, living narratives that remember what has been done within them.

Gameplay Function

Creating Tapestries

Players initiate new Tapestries by:

• Seeding the weave with selected or procedurally-drawn Facts, Fictions, and Faiths
• Choosing (or accepting) thematic, aesthetic, and structural biases influenced by their prior Eidos
• Selecting an Incarnation through which to experience the world

Living and Shaping Tapestries

Players engage with Tapestries through:

• Exploring and experiencing the world’s emergent dynamics
• Altering its weave through narrative choices, cultural influence, or metaphysical intervention
• Weaving new Threads, seeding or transforming Facts, Fictions, and Faiths
• Observing how the Tapestry responds to instability, harmony, or contradiction

Collapsing and Transcending Tapestries

A Tapestry ends when:

• Its narrative coherence collapses (through excess instability or deliberate sabotage)
• The player chooses to transcend or unravel the world to begin a new weave
• Various narrative goals are reached, such as a particular Incarnation meeting a particular fate

When a Tapestry ends, the player retains Eidos and meta-knowledge to influence future creations.

Narrative Economy

Tapestries are the primary stage of play, but also the chief vector of narrative persistence:

• Prior Facts, Fictions, and Faiths may recur or mutate across Tapestries
• Player actions in one Tapestry can subtly or overtly influence the generation of future ones
• Some emergent elements, such as particularly resonant Fictions or entrenched Faiths, may propagate “between worlds”

Thus: the player is never simply “starting over” between runs; they are participating in an evolving myth-cycle.

Design Intent

Why Tapestries exist:

• To make the game’s core loop an act of world-weaving, not just exploration or conquest
• To give player choices both local (within a Tapestry) and global (across all played Tapestries) significance
• To support the interplay of stability and change inherent to the game’s philosophical themes
• To foster emergent narrative discovery, surprise, and replayability

Key Design Notes

• No Tapestry should feel purely authored; they must retain an organic, emergent quality
• Highly stable Tapestries are not necessarily “better”; they may become oppressive or brittle
• Highly unstable Tapestries are not necessarily “bad”; they may become surreal or revelatory
• Players should come to recognize recurring motifs, myths, and patterns across multiple Tapestries — yet never fully predict them
• The process of weaving, living, and unwinding Tapestries is intended to evoke a cycle of anamnesis: remembering, reinterpreting, and reweaving the past into new forms