docs(decisions): amend D-095 gate lore, resolve Q-039 topology
D-095: clarify inter-system gates are alien-determined (humans cannot add/remove apertures). Intra-system span gates are Institute-derived human tech licensed to the Gate Corporation. Dormant activations (Struve) are alien infrastructure events, not human actions. Q-039: resolved — 301-system star map generated with alien-determined topology (334 edges, hub/junction/loop/spur distribution). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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@@ -252,6 +252,10 @@ How narrative, NPCs, and world content are created: content tiers, NPC generatio
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- **Rationale:** Resolves transport lore questions Q-040, Q-041, Q-043, Q-044 raised during Workshop #153. Miri's Round 3 contribution. Horizon station as alien-built infrastructure adds worldbuilding depth without requiring a named builder species. Sequential-hop travel creates natural story hooks (layover locations, transit records, smuggling route complexity). Aperture count revised to 1–8 (from 4–8) to allow single-aperture stations, which produce the most isolated and narratively interesting dead-end systems — and leave open the question of what a single-aperture station pointing at an unknown destination means.
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- **Raised by:** Miri (worldbuilding), confirmed by team.
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- **Amendment (2026-03-13):** Aperture count range revised from 4–8 to **1–8** per project lead direction. Single-aperture horizon stations are valid; they are the mechanism for the most isolated dead-end systems, and for any system whose single gate points to a destination that is not (or not yet) part of the Reach. This change has downstream implications for the Earth question — see note in systems-framework-miri.md §7.
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- **Amendment (2026-03-14):** Clarified the inter-system / intra-system gate distinction and technology lineage:
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- **Inter-system gates (horizon gates / founder gates):** Alien-built. Aperture count and connections are properties of the alien infrastructure. Humans cannot add, remove, activate, or deactivate inter-system apertures. Gate topology is *given*, not chosen. The one known exception — a dormant aperture at Struve activating ~40 years ago — was not a human action; the alien infrastructure did something on its own, for reasons the Veil Institute has not explained. Whether dormant apertures exist elsewhere, and what triggers activation, is unknown.
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- **Intra-system gates (span gates):** Human-built technology, derived from the Veil Institute's study of alien horizon station architecture. The Institute reverse-engineered the principles governing short-range aperture formation and licensed the technology to a gate construction corporation, which now owns and operates span gate infrastructure across the Reach (and owns an entire system as its industrial base). Span gates are well-understood engineering: buildable, modifiable, commercially operated.
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- **Key constraint for wiki authors:** No system's aperture count or inter-system connections are the result of human decisions. Systems cannot "vote for" or "apply for" additional horizon gate apertures. A system's gate topology is an alien-determined fact that humans have adapted to, not chosen.
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- **Dissent:** None.
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- **Source:** Station District Layout Workshop, Ticket #153, Sprint 20. Round document: `docs/discussions/round-20-station-district-layout.md`
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- **Cross-reference:** D-093 (gate cluster spatial layout), Q-040 (gate dual-use topology — resolved), Q-041 (horizon station model — resolved), Q-042 (intra-system transport — partially resolved), Q-043 (station internal transit — resolved), Q-044 (gate-train integration — resolved)
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@@ -524,4 +528,31 @@ How narrative, NPCs, and world content are created: content tiers, NPC generatio
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---
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*41 decisions. Last updated: 2026-03-13 (D-142 zone-type template architecture — Sprint 26; D-140 dialogue re-voicing quality constraints — Sprint 26 #647; D-139 composable behavior primitives — Sprint 26 #633)*
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### D-143: GD calendar epoch — Gate Discovery (2300 AD) as year 0
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- **Date:** 2026-03-14
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- **Decision:** The Settled Reach uses the Gate Discovery (GD) calendar. Year 0 GD = 2300 AD. The game present is ~600 GD (~2900 AD). The secession occurred ~300 GD (~2600 AD). The five settlement waves span 0–600 GD. Earth dates (AD/BC) exist but are an Earth-internal reference most Reach residents wouldn't use. All `age_years` fields in the systems framework measure years before game present, not GD years directly.
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- **Rationale:** A civilization that seceded from Earth would not use an Earth religious calendar. The gate discovery is the founding event of the Reach — the moment human settlement beyond Sol became possible. 2300 AD provides enough time (~275 years from present day) for pre-gate spacefaring development including Mars terraforming (~2100-2200 AD, or roughly -200 to -100 GD).
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- **Implications:** Mars terraforming predates the gates — it's an Earth-only achievement, which adds to the "we built everything" obligation narrative. The ~12,900-year span of human civilization becomes a number only Earth institutions would cite. Reach residents measure history from the gates forward.
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- **Reference timeline:**
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| Event | GD | AD |
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|---|---|---|
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| Human civilization origin | ~-10600 GD | ~10,000 BC |
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| Mars terraforming begins | ~-200 GD | ~2100 AD |
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| **Gate Discovery (epoch)** | **0 GD** | **2300 AD** |
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| Five settlement waves | 0–600 GD | 2300–2900 AD |
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| Secession | ~300 GD | ~2600 AD |
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| Game present | ~600 GD | ~2900 AD |
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- **Cross-reference:** [D-036](#d-036-sova-transit-district--van-maanens-star-system-setting) (setting), Sol wiki page (GJ-0)
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---
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### D-144: Sirius (GJ 244A / S-067) as Reach capital — seat of the Concord Assembly
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- **Date:** 2026-03-14
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- **Decision:** Sirius is the political capital of the Settled Reach and the seat of the Concord Assembly. It is a hub system (5 apertures, 5 gate connections) in the institutional core, settled in wave_1, 8.6 ly from Sol. Its real-world prominence (brightest star in Earth's sky) maps to its in-setting political centrality. Marked as `generation_priority: campaign_anchor`.
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- **Rationale:** The capital needs to be a recognizable name that players immediately associate with importance. Sirius's existing topology (hub, 5 connections) already makes it structurally central. Wave_1 settlement means it has the institutional depth to house the Assembly. The symbolic weight of the brightest star as the seat of power writes itself.
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- **Cross-reference:** [D-143](#d-143-gd-calendar-epoch--gate-discovery-2300-ad-as-year-0) (timeline), [D-036](#d-036-sova-transit-district--van-maanens-star-system-setting) (v0.1 setting)
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---
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*43 decisions. Last updated: 2026-03-14 (D-144 Sirius as Reach capital)*
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@@ -85,8 +85,9 @@ Game concept, prototype boundaries, production pipeline, and feature decisions.
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- **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4
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### Q-039: Gate topology generation
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- **Status:** Open
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- **Status:** Resolved → D-095 (amended), star-map.json, systems.db
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- **Question:** How should the world generator produce gate (wormhole) network topology for 300 worlds? The wiki-review workshop proposed: gate connectivity = Sacred (what connects), which worlds connect = Profane (what separates), accessible world count = Middle Kingdom (where the player navigates). Small-world network properties, hub-and-spoke vs mesh topology, and Sacred/Profane constraints on gate placement are all unresolved. D-012 covers chunk-based map architecture but predates the 300-world model.
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- **Resolution:** 301-system star map generated and populated. Topology is alien-determined (horizon station infrastructure), producing a small-world network with hub-and-spoke characteristics: 3 hub systems (5 apertures), junction nodes (3-4 apertures), loop members (2), and spur ends (1). The distribution was sculpted through iterative passes (`generate-star-map.py`, `sculpt-star-map.py`, `tune-star-map-topology.py`, `patch-core-sector.py`) to produce realistic network properties. Gate connections are stored in `star-map.json` (334 edges) and `server/data/systems.db` (system_gates table). Sacred/Profane framing resolved: connections are Sacred (alien-given, not human-chosen); what humans do with them is Profane.
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- **Assigned to:** Tyre, Nigel
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- **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4
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@@ -100,4 +101,4 @@ Game concept, prototype boundaries, production pipeline, and feature decisions.
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---
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*15 questions (1 resolved, 3 partially resolved, 11 open). Last updated: 2026-03-07 (Q-058 added — voice pipeline Phase 3 dependency)*
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*15 questions (2 resolved, 3 partially resolved, 10 open). Last updated: 2026-03-14 (Q-039 resolved — gate topology generated)*
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