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docs(wiki): establish Sova Transit District game world glossary

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45 files covering the v0.1 vertical slice content: 17 NPC profiles
across 3 tiers, 5 triangles, 3 social sites, 7 factions, 6 technology
entries, 3 contraband types, knowledge vocabulary (FactIds, entity
attributes, relationship states), and monologue authoring guide.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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2026-02-12 16:18:49 +01:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 4.6
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docs/wiki/factions/concord-assembly.md
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# The Concord Assembly
**Type:** Faction — Legislative Government
**Status:** Canonical
**Scope:** Reach-wide
**Governance Role:** Legislative / Executive
**Headquarters:** Core Systems (TBD)
**Structure:** Representative legislature, proportional delegation by settled system
---
## Overview
The Concord Assembly is the Settled Reach's representative governing body. Every settled system sends delegates proportional to population. The Assembly debates policy, regulates gate access, funds institutions, and maintains the legal framework that holds the Reach together. Sessions are held in the Core Systems and broadcast across the Meridian.
The Assembly is the closest thing the Reach has to a legitimate government — and legitimacy is its only real power. It doesn't control the gates (the [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) does). It doesn't control identity technology (the [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) does). It doesn't control the economy (the [Syndics](syndics.md) do). What it controls is the law, the budget, and the fragile consensus that the Reach is better off unified than fragmented.
---
## What They Control
- **Legal framework** for the entire Settled Reach
- **Gate activation approvals** (though the Institute performs the actual work)
- **Institutional funding** (Institute, Commission, military)
- **Trade regulation and dispute mediation** between systems
- **Citizenship law** (who qualifies for lattice implantation, re-embodiment rights)
---
## Internal Tensions
**Core vs. Frontier:** The Assembly's defining fault line. Core system delegates prioritize stability, institutional power, and centralized governance. Frontier delegates want local autonomy, resource sovereignty, and reduced taxation. Every major vote splits along this axis. The frontier delegates are outnumbered by population but loud enough to be heard.
**Institutionalists vs. Reformers:** Some delegates believe the current system — slow, consensus-driven, deliberately cautious — is the only thing preventing the Reach from fragmenting. Others believe the system is corrupt, captured by Syndic lobbying, Perpetual influence, and institutional inertia. Both sides have evidence.
**Transparency vs. Security:** Assembly votes are public. Institutional budgets are not. The Commission and Institute classify everything. The Assembly funds institutions it cannot fully monitor. How much oversight should elected representatives have over organizations they created but can no longer control?
---
## What They Want
- **Short-term:** Prevent the Reach from fragmenting along Core-Frontier lines
- **Long-term:** Maintain legitimacy as the governing body while real power — gate control, lattice access, economic infrastructure — is held by institutions and Syndics they can influence but not command
---
## Power & Vulnerability
| Power | Vulnerability |
|-------|---------------|
| Legal authority (universally recognized) | Depends on institutions it can't directly control |
| Control over institutional funding | Lobbyists (Syndics, Perpetuals, Institute) shape outcomes |
| Cultural legitimacy (represents the social contract) | Slow decision-making means reactive, not proactive |
| Dispute mediation (the alternative is conflict) | Frontier systems questioning the contract itself |
---
## Faction Relationships
| Faction | Relationship | Dynamic |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) | Conditional ally | Legal backing; Commission enforces Assembly law but resists oversight |
| [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) | Conditional ally | Assembly funds Institute; Institute resists disclosure |
| [Syndics](syndics.md) | Rival / Dependent | Assembly regulates commerce; Syndics lobby to weaken regulation |
| [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) | Antagonist | Guardians undermine Assembly authority; Assembly dismisses Guardian concerns |
| [The Unbound](the-unbound.md) | Ambivalent | Unbound citizenship rights are an unresolved legal question |
---
## Mechanical Hooks for Gameplay
- **Legislative events:** Player actions can trigger Assembly debates. Expose a conspiracy and an emergency session follows. Destabilize a frontier system and Separatist delegates push for autonomy.
- **Access to institutional data:** Assembly investigators can request (but not compel) data from the Commission or Institute. Legal authority with institutional resistance.
- **Public vs. private information:** Assembly debates are broadcast. What's said publicly differs from what's said in backrooms. The player might attend a session and overhear the real conversation afterward.
- **Vote manipulation:** Lobbyists, Perpetuals, and factions all try to swing votes. The player can participate — gather leverage, offer information, make deals.
---
## NPC Archetypes
- **The Idealist Delegate:** Believes the system can work, fights for reform from within
- **The Pragmatist Delegate:** Keeps the lights on through compromise, distasteful but functional
- **The Captured Delegate:** In someone's pocket (Syndics, Perpetuals, Institute) — useful if you know who holds the leash
- **The Assembly Investigator:** Legal authority meets institutional obstruction
---
## v0.1 Relevance
The Concord Assembly is **referenced but not directly present** in the v0.1 vertical slice. Its influence is felt through:
- The legal framework that gives the detective jurisdictional authority
- News ticker headlines about Assembly proceedings (background texture)
- The institutional hierarchy that assigns Commission investigators to districts like Sova
- NPC dialogue referencing "the Assembly" as distant governance — recognized, not loved
The Assembly is the water the v0.1 fish swim in. Nobody in Sova Transit District thinks about the Assembly day-to-day, the same way nobody thinks about the legislature that passed the labor laws governing their shift schedule. But the Assembly's decisions created the Commission, funded the Institute, and wrote the regulations that make lattice smuggling illegal. Every tension in the district traces back to Assembly policy, however distantly.
---
**Cross-References:**
- [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) — Regulatory body the Assembly funds
- [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) — Research institution the Assembly funds
- [Syndics](syndics.md) — Commercial interests that lobby the Assembly
- D-036: Sova Transit District setting (Concord Assembly as governance)
- Round 16: Full faction development
---
**Status:** Canonical
**Created:** 2026-02-12
**Updated:** 2026-02-12
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# Guardians of Autonomy
**Type:** Faction — Counter-Institutional Resistance Movement
**Status:** Canonical
**Scope:** Reach-wide (decentralized)
**Governance Role:** Subversive / Counter-institutional
**Headquarters:** None (decentralized cells and safe houses)
**Structure:** Loose network of individuals and autonomous cells
**Colloquial Name:** "Severance" (after their counter-surveillance technology)
---
## Overview
The Guardians of Autonomy are a decentralized network of individuals and groups who believe the Settled Reach's institutional infrastructure — the neural lattice, the Meridian, the imprint system — constitutes a surveillance and control apparatus so pervasive that meaningful freedom is impossible. They are not anti-technology. They are anti-*centralized* technology.
The Guardians occupy a precarious position in Reach society. They are dismissed as paranoid conspiracy theorists by institutional authorities, admired as civil libertarians by sympathizers, and feared as subversives by those who depend on institutional stability. The complicating factor is that the Guardians are occasionally, verifiably *right* — their intelligence networks have exposed real institutional crimes, real surveillance overreach, real cover-ups. The problem is separating the signal from the noise, because the Guardians' paranoia generates enormous quantities of both.
---
## What They Do
- **Develop countermeasures:** Lattice spoofing, Meridian dead zone generators, signal masking, encrypted off-Meridian communication. This is "Severance" technology — the colloquial name for both the tech and, by extension, the movement.
- **Maintain off-grid communities** that operate outside institutional oversight
- **Run intelligence networks** that monitor institutional activities — the most extensive informal intelligence apparatus in the Reach (because paranoid people who watch institutions notice things)
- **Investigate conspiracies, institutional overreach, and Founder-related anomalies** — with varying degrees of credibility
- **Support whistleblowers and political dissidents** who flee institutional retaliation
---
## What They Control
- Counter-surveillance technology (Severance tech)
- Intelligence networks that operate outside the Meridian
- Safe houses, dead drops, off-grid infrastructure
- Knowledge of institutional vulnerabilities
- Popular support among civil libertarians, [Unbound](the-unbound.md) communities, and frontier populations
---
## Internal Tensions
**Paranoia Spectrum:** Some Guardians are rational skeptics — trained analysts with institutional backgrounds who turned whistleblower. Others see conspiracies everywhere, in every lattice update, every Commission policy, every Institute classification. The faction's credibility suffers because it's genuinely hard to distinguish signal from noise, even internally.
**Collaboration vs. Isolation:** Some Guardians work with Separatists, Unbound groups, or even sympathetic [Assembly](concord-assembly.md) members. They believe in building coalitions. Others trust no one outside the cell — and some don't even trust their own cell members. The organizational culture varies wildly between groups.
**Violence vs. Exposure:** Some Guardians believe the best weapon is information — expose institutional crimes publicly, let public opinion do the work. Others believe direct action (sabotage of surveillance infrastructure, targeted disruption of Commission operations) is the only language institutions understand. Both wings claim to represent the movement's true purpose.
---
## What They Want
- Decentralized technology that cannot be used for mass surveillance
- Transparency in institutional operations (especially the [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) and [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md))
- Protection for whistleblowers and political dissidents
- Proof of what they suspect: that the institutions are hiding something fundamental about the Builders, the gates, or the lattice
---
## Power & Vulnerability
| Power | Vulnerability |
|-------|---------------|
| Counter-surveillance expertise (Severance tech) | Targeted by Commission as subversives |
| Intelligence networks outside Meridian | Internal paranoia makes coordination difficult |
| Popular support among civil libertarians | Public perception as conspiracy theorists |
| The fact that they're occasionally *right* | Small, resource-poor, organizationally fragmented |
---
## Faction Relationships
| Faction | Relationship | Dynamic |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) | Primary antagonist | Commission IS the centralized surveillance the Guardians exist to oppose |
| [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) | Antagonist | Institute classification = institutional secrecy = Guardian target |
| [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) | Hostile / Conditional | Guardians undermine Assembly authority; occasional sympathetic delegates |
| [Syndics](syndics.md) | Hostile | Guardians disrupt Syndic commerce and expose exploitative practices |
| [The Unbound](the-unbound.md) | Ideological allies | Shared skepticism of centralized technology; different methods |
| [The Ring](the-ring.md) | Supply chain | Severance tech flows through criminal distribution networks like the ring |
---
## Mechanical Hooks for Gameplay
- **Information asymmetry:** Guardians know things nobody else does — and they're dismissed as paranoid. Access to Guardian intelligence gives the player information that may be true, may be paranoid extrapolation, or may be both.
- **Counter-surveillance gameplay:** Guardians teach the player how to spoof lattice tracking, avoid Meridian surveillance, create dead zones, operate invisibly. Essential for stealth and investigation builds.
- **Trust dynamics:** Guardians don't trust institutions. They might not trust the player. Building relationships requires proving you're not compromised — and proving a negative is the hardest thing in the Reach.
- **Conspiracy validation:** The storyteller (D-005) can make Guardian paranoia *justified*. Sometimes the conspiracy is real. Sometimes the Guardians were right all along. The player doesn't know which until they investigate.
---
## NPC Archetypes
- **The Rational Skeptic:** Legitimate investigator with credible sources and measured conclusions
- **The True Believer:** Sees conspiracies everywhere — occasionally correct, which reinforces the pattern
- **The Whistleblower:** Former institutional insider who fled with evidence and is now hunted by their former employer
- **The Off-Grid Hermit:** Untraceable, unchipped, free — and perhaps more lonely than liberated
---
## v0.1 Relevance
The Guardians are **indirectly present** in the v0.1 vertical slice through their technology:
- **[Severance counter-surveillance equipment](../contraband/severance-equipment.md)** is the ring's tertiary contraband. Devra uses a handheld Meridian dead zone generator during sensitive meetings in [Corridor B-7](../locations/krenn-system/maintenance-corridors.md). This technology originates from Guardian supply chains.
- **The `contraband.severance_tech` FactId** represents the moment when the investigation touches something larger than a local smuggling ring. Discovering Severance tech in the ring's inventory raises the question: who is the end user? Is the ring just a distribution node in a Guardian supply chain?
- **NPC references:** Workers in the district are aware of the Guardians as a cultural phenomenon. The [Unbound](the-unbound.md) residents are sympathetic. Mainstream workers dismiss Guardian claims the way people dismiss conspiracy theories — unless they've personally experienced Commission overreach.
- **The Guardians are rumored** to operate in the Krenn System but are not a visible presence in Sova Transit District. This rumor is itself information: it means Guardian infrastructure exists somewhere nearby, and the ring has access to it.
The Guardians function in v0.1 as a narrative thread that extends beyond the vertical slice's boundaries. The Severance tech in the ring's inventory is a loose end — a reminder that the district's smuggling operation connects to something larger, something political, something the detective wasn't sent to investigate but might stumble into.
---
**Cross-References:**
- [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) — Primary institutional antagonist
- [The Ring](the-ring.md) — Severance tech distribution channel
- [The Unbound](the-unbound.md) — Ideological alignment
- [Severance Equipment](../contraband/severance-equipment.md) — Guardian-sourced technology
- D-037: Contraband specification (Severance as tertiary contraband)
- Round 16: Full faction development
---
**Status:** Canonical
**Created:** 2026-02-12
**Updated:** 2026-02-12
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# The Lattice Commission
**Type:** Faction — Regulatory Institution
**Status:** Canonical
**Scope:** Reach-wide (universal jurisdiction)
**Governance Role:** Regulatory / Enforcement
**Headquarters:** Core Systems (TBD)
**Structure:** Bureaucratic-hierarchical, semi-autonomous from Assembly
**Public Perception:** "Necessary but intrusive. The tax authority of neural technology."
---
## Overview
The Lattice Commission is the regulatory body governing neural lattice technology, imprint protocols, re-embodiment standards, and the Meridian information network. They set rules, investigate violations, certify lattice tiers, and mediate the boundary between individual privacy and institutional access.
The Commission is the institution most citizens interact with directly — and the one they have the most complicated feelings about. Everyone agrees lattice regulation is necessary (the alternative is uncontrolled neural modification and identity fraud). Everyone resents the Commission's intrusiveness. The tension between "we need them" and "we hate what they do" defines the Commission's position in Reach society.
In the v0.1 vertical slice, the Commission is the detective's employer and the smuggler's adversary. Commission regulation is what makes lattice smuggling profitable — and what makes lattice smuggling morally ambiguous, because Commission certification costs price most citizens out of enhanced lattice capability.
---
## What They Regulate
- **Lattice implantation standards** and tier certification
- **Imprint facility licensing** and backup protocols
- **Re-embodiment ethics** (body matching, continuity verification, clone transfer standards)
- **Forking prohibition** — the biggest legal and cultural taboo in the Reach. Unauthorized duplication of an imprint is the Commission's primary enforcement focus.
- **Meridian access and data privacy** standards
- **[Unbound](the-unbound.md) rights** — citizens who refuse lattice technology fall outside the Commission's direct regulatory framework, creating jurisdictional ambiguity
---
## What They Enforce
- **Anti-forking laws:** Unauthorized imprint duplication is the Reach's most severe crime
- **Imprint theft and lattice tampering** investigations
- **Re-embodiment protocol violations** (body trafficking, continuity fraud)
- **Unauthorized lattice modification** — Category 3 violation. Fines and potential lattice restriction. This is the law the v0.1 smuggling ring violates.
- **Meridian surveillance** when legally authorized (requires jurisdictional approval)
---
## Internal Tensions
**Privacy vs. Security:** The Commission's defining contradiction. The neural lattice is simultaneously a personal cognitive tool and the most powerful surveillance infrastructure ever created. Commissioners who prioritize citizen privacy clash with those who prioritize societal security. Every major case tests this boundary. Neither side is wrong.
**Institutional Independence vs. Political Pressure:** The Commission is nominally independent. In practice, the [Assembly](concord-assembly.md) controls their budget, the [Syndics](syndics.md) lobby for deregulation that would increase profits, and the [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) shares jurisdiction on matters touching gate technology and Builder research. The Commission's decisions have massive economic and political consequences, and everyone wants to influence them.
**Unbound Rights:** The Commission enforces laws that apply to lattice-bearing citizens. The [Unbound](the-unbound.md) — those who refuse lattice technology — fall outside that framework. How much authority should the Commission have over people who've opted out of the system it regulates? This question has no settled answer and generates recurring political conflict.
---
## What They Want
- Functional regulation of the most powerful technology in the Reach
- Institutional legitimacy and public trust
- Prevention of forking (existential risk to identity continuity)
- Balance between individual privacy and societal security
---
## Power & Vulnerability
| Power | Vulnerability |
|-------|---------------|
| Universal jurisdiction (every lattice-bearing citizen) | Hated by [Guardians](guardians-of-autonomy.md) (Big Brother) |
| Legal authority to request lattice data | Resented by [Syndics](syndics.md) (want less regulation) |
| Investigative resources + institutional backing | Pressured by [Assembly](concord-assembly.md) (clearance rates) |
| Cultural authority (most citizens accept regulation) | Vulnerable to corruption (access to everyone's lattice data is immense leverage) |
---
## Faction Relationships
| Faction | Relationship | Dynamic |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) | Conditional ally | Assembly provides legal authority; Commission resists oversight |
| [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) | Shared jurisdiction | Both study lattice technology; Institute classifies findings Commission needs |
| [Syndics](syndics.md) | Rival | Commission regulates Syndic operations; Syndics lobby for deregulation |
| [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) | Primary antagonist | Guardians' core mission is counter-surveillance; Commission IS the surveillance |
| [The Unbound](the-unbound.md) | Jurisdictional tension | Unbound refuse Commission's technological basis; Commission's authority doesn't cleanly extend to them |
| [The Ring](the-ring.md) | Enforcement target | Commission regulation creates the conditions for smuggling; Commission investigators pursue the consequences |
---
## Mechanical Hooks for Gameplay
- **Investigations:** Commission investigators are the Reach's closest equivalent to police. Playing as one provides legal authority, institutional resources, and political obstruction in equal measure.
- **Lattice data as evidence:** With legal authorization, the Commission can access imprint records, lattice tracking data, Meridian activity logs. Incredibly powerful — and incredibly intrusive.
- **Forking as high-stakes crime:** If the storyteller seeds a forking conspiracy, the Commission is the primary investigative body. The player might be hunting the same conspiracy from a different angle.
- **Privacy as a resource:** Characters who value privacy fear the Commission. Characters who value security trust them. The player's relationship depends on build, faction, and playstyle.
---
## NPC Archetypes
- **The Idealist Commissioner:** Believes in privacy rights, resists institutional overreach
- **The Authoritarian Commissioner:** Security above all other considerations
- **The Corrupt Commissioner:** Sells lattice data, takes bribes, leverages access
- **The Field Investigator:** Boots on the ground, navigating impossible politics
---
## v0.1 Presence
The Commission is **directly present** in the v0.1 vertical slice:
- **The detective** is a Commission field investigator (or Commission-licensed operative), assigned to Sova Transit District to investigate suspected smuggling
- **[Sera Venn](../npcs/sera-venn.md)** (THE FRIEND, detective path) is a Commission field tech stationed at Sova
- **Commission kiosk** on Level 3 of the district — unmanned, for compliance reporting. The most recent liaison rotated out 3 months ago; replacement delayed. This institutional gap is what allowed the ring's operations to escalate.
- **Inspection schedule:** Quarterly lattice compliance sweeps, announced 2 weeks in advance. The ring times operations around these.
Commission presence in Sova is intermittent by design: the system is established enough not to warrant permanent enforcement, not important enough for a dedicated office. This gap — the lag between oversight visits — is what makes small-scale smuggling viable. The detective's arrival represents an unscheduled enforcement action that disrupts the district's carefully balanced equilibrium.
---
**Cross-References:**
- [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) — Legal authority, funding
- [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) — Primary opposition
- [The Ring](the-ring.md) — v0.1 enforcement target
- [Sera Venn](../npcs/sera-venn.md) — THE FRIEND, Commission field tech
- D-037: Contraband specification (Commission regulation as root cause)
- D-017: Perception modes (lattice tiers as Commission-regulated capability)
---
**Status:** Canonical
**Created:** 2026-02-12
**Updated:** 2026-02-12
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# The Syndics
**Type:** Faction — Commercial Network
**Status:** Canonical
**Scope:** Reach-wide
**Governance Role:** Commercial / Economic
**Headquarters:** Distributed (no central authority)
**Structure:** Network of competing commercial interests — shipping combines, re-embodiment consortia, span gate construction firms, Meridian service providers, information brokers
---
## Overview
The Syndics are not a faction in the ideological sense. They are a network of commercial interests that operate across the Settled Reach. They don't have a manifesto. They have portfolios.
Shipping combines, re-embodiment consortia, span gate construction firms, Meridian service providers, information brokers — the Syndics are the economic infrastructure of the Reach. They build the span gates, manufacture the bodies, run the freight networks, and operate the commercial layer of the Meridian. If you move between systems, buy a new body, access entertainment, or receive a shipment, you're touching Syndic infrastructure.
The Syndics' power comes not from ideology or legal authority but from the fact that the Reach cannot function without them. They are the reason re-embodiment is widely accessible — and the reason it's commodified. The player navigates that tension.
---
## What They Control
- **Re-embodiment infrastructure:** Most body manufacturing and imprint facilities are Syndic-operated. The [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) regulates them, but the Syndics own the means of resurrection.
- **Span gate construction:** Local infrastructure (interplanetary gates) is built by Syndic firms under [Assembly](concord-assembly.md) contract. This gives them leverage over system development.
- **Meridian commercial layer:** Advertising, entertainment, commerce, data brokerage. If you access the Meridian, you're using Syndic infrastructure.
- **Shipping and logistics:** Moving goods between systems requires gate access, which requires Syndic shipping networks. Sova Transit District exists because Syndic logistics demands exist.
---
## Internal Tensions
**Stability vs. Disruption:** Some Syndics profit from stability — logistics, bodies, established markets. Others profit from disruption — frontier speculation, new gate activations, crisis arbitrage. These competing interests lobby the Assembly for opposite policies.
**Monopoly vs. Competition:** Syndic combines compete with each other for contracts, gate access, and system dominance. Alliance structures are transactional and temporary. Today's partner is tomorrow's competitor if the margins shift.
**Regulation vs. Deregulation:** The Commission's regulatory authority limits Syndic profit in re-embodiment and Meridian data access. Some Syndics want deregulation to increase margins. Others want regulation to lock out smaller competitors who can't afford compliance costs. Both sides frame their position as being about public welfare.
---
## What They Want
- Predictable returns on infrastructure investments
- Access to new markets (frontier systems, new gate activations)
- Favorable regulatory environments (or regulators they can influence)
- Perpetual clients (literally — long-lived citizens are their best customers)
---
## Power & Vulnerability
| Power | Vulnerability |
|-------|---------------|
| Economic: control over resurrection, infrastructure, logistics | Dependent on gate access they don't control |
| Information: commercial data flows across the Reach | Vulnerable to Assembly regulation |
| Influence: lobbyists in Assembly, relationships with Perpetuals | Public backlash if re-embodiment becomes inaccessible or exploitative |
| Indispensability: the Reach can't function without them | Competition — Syndics undercut each other constantly |
---
## Faction Relationships
| Faction | Relationship | Dynamic |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) | Rival / Client | Assembly awards contracts, regulates commerce; Syndics lobby to shape regulation |
| [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) | Rival | Commission regulates Syndic operations; Syndics push for deregulation |
| [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) | Collaborative / Competitive | Syndics want access to gate technology for commercial exploitation |
| [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) | Antagonist | Guardians disrupt Syndic commerce and expose exploitative practices |
| [The Unbound](the-unbound.md) | Market gap | Unbound don't participate in Syndic re-embodiment economy; represent untapped or unreachable market |
---
## Mechanical Hooks for Gameplay
- **Commercial intelligence:** Syndics track money, bodies, shipments. Working with Syndics gives access to financial records, supply chain data, body transfer logs.
- **Bribery and leverage:** Syndics operate transactionally. They'll sell information, provide bodies, grant access — for a price or a favor.
- **Infrastructure control:** Syndics can deny services. No imprint backup? No body on arrival? That's a Syndic decision. They can also be coerced, bribed, or hacked.
- **Moral complexity:** Syndics aren't evil. They built the resurrection economy. But they also commodified it. The player navigates that.
---
## NPC Archetypes
- **The Fixer:** Broker who can get anything for a price — the living embodiment of transactional relationships
- **The Consortium Executive:** Long-term thinker who invests in stability because stability is profitable
- **The Frontier Speculator:** Opportunist who profits from chaos — new gates, new markets, new crises
- **The Syndic Insider:** Has dirt on everyone and trades in leverage as naturally as breathing
---
## v0.1 Relevance
The Syndics are **referenced but not directly present** in the v0.1 vertical slice. Their influence is felt through:
- **Sova Logistics Consortium:** The district's primary employer is a Syndic operation. Workers at [The Terminal](../locations/krenn-system/the-terminal.md) work for a Syndic-affiliated freight handling company. Their wages, schedules, and working conditions are Syndic-determined.
- **Supply chain:** The contraband moving through the ring originates in Syndic-adjacent manufacturing — aftermarket lattice components and medical-grade neural replacements diverted from Syndic supply chains (D-037).
- **Economic pressure:** The wage-to-cost-of-living squeeze that makes smuggling rational is a consequence of Syndic pricing. Medical-grade lattice replacements are expensive because Syndics control the legitimate supply chain.
- **NPC dialogue:** Workers reference "the consortium" or "corporate" as the distant entity that sets their pay and conditions. It's not personal — the Syndics don't have a face in Sova. They have a payroll system.
The Syndics are the economic water the district swims in. They created the conditions for the smuggling operation without ever intending to, simply by pricing the legitimate market at a level that makes black-market alternatives rational.
---
**Cross-References:**
- [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) — Regulates Syndic operations
- [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) — Awards contracts, sets regulation
- [The Terminal](../locations/krenn-system/the-terminal.md) — Syndic-affiliated employer
- D-037: Contraband specification (Syndic supply chain as diversion source)
- D-036: Sova Transit District (Syndic logistics consortium as employer)
---
**Status:** Canonical
**Created:** 2026-02-12
**Updated:** 2026-02-12
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# The Ring (Sova Smuggling Operation)
**Type:** Faction — Informal Criminal Network
**Status:** Canonical
**Scope:** Local (Sova Transit District)
**Governance Role:** None (informal economy)
**Headquarters:** None (distributed across district, coordination in [maintenance corridors](../locations/krenn-system/maintenance-corridors.md))
**Structure:** Flat hierarchy, informal, no official name
**Informal Names:** "The arrangement," "the side work," "helping out" — NPCs refer to it obliquely, never directly
---
## Overview
The Ring is not an organization. It is an arrangement — a network of logistics workers in Sova Transit District who use their freight access to move contraband through the span gate system. The ring has no charter, no insignia, no recruitment process. It exists because the economic conditions in the district make smuggling a rational supplement to legitimate income, and because the community has collectively decided that what happens between the wall layers is not their concern.
The ring has been operating for approximately two years. In that time, it has become part of the district's unofficial economy. People know, or suspect, or deliberately don't ask. The ring isn't violent. It isn't chaotic. It's a business that runs alongside the legitimate one, and most of the district's 800 residents have decided that's fine.
This is the social fabric the detective walks into. This is the life the smuggler protects.
---
## What They Move
Three categories of contraband, in order of volume (D-037):
1. **[Unlicensed lattice components](../contraband/lattice-components.md)** (primary): Aftermarket neural lattice modifications that bypass [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) certification. Enhanced capability mods, custom occupational modifications, components that let people exceed their certified lattice tier. The ring is smuggling *access*, not weapons.
2. **[Medical-grade neural replacements](../contraband/medical-grade-replacements.md)** (secondary): Replacement lattice components diverted from [Syndic](syndics.md) supply chains. For people whose lattices are degrading and who can't afford institutional replacement through certified channels. This is healthcare — and the moral dimension that makes the ring sympathetic.
3. **[Severance counter-surveillance technology](../contraband/severance-equipment.md)** (tertiary): Equipment sourced from [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) supply chains. Small-scale — handheld Meridian dead zone generators, lattice spoofing tools. The ring doesn't care about ideology; they move product. But the product has political implications.
---
## Structure
**Flat hierarchy. No titles. No formal roles.** People do what they're good at.
| Function | NPC | How It Works |
|----------|-----|-------------|
| Off-station coordination | Nils Davan (off-stage, Kael's older sibling) | Gives orders, arranges incoming shipments, communicates through dead drops |
| Local coordination | [Devra](../npcs/devra.md) | Manages operations, maintains off-station contacts, legitimate business front at bar |
| Scheduling cover | [Voss](../npcs/voss.md) | Adjusts shift schedules to create coverage gaps. Takes a cut. |
| Cargo handling | [Kael Davan](../npcs/kael-davan.md) | Physically routes flagged containers to holding area during legitimate shift work |
| Inspection bypass | [Torek Lintar](../npcs/torek-lintar.md) | Compromised inspector — looks away during inspection of flagged containers |
| Courier | [Renn](../npcs/renn.md) | Transfers contraband from Terminal to [Corridor B-7](../locations/krenn-system/maintenance-corridors.md) during night shifts |
| Distribution | [Pell](../npcs/pell.md) | Dead drop pickups, local distribution. Wavering — considering cooperation with authorities. |
| Lookout | [Tav](../npcs/tav.md) | Watches entry points during corridor operations |
| Handoff point | [Lera Sessik](../npcs/lera-sessik.md) | [The Last Shift](../locations/krenn-system/the-last-shift.md) back room serves as a handoff point. Lera knows. Lera doesn't ask. |
| Off-station fence | [Sabel](../npcs/sabel.md) | Receives and distributes contraband to end users off-station |
---
## How It Works
1. Contraband arrives in legitimate freight shipments (mixed with legal cargo, doctored manifests)
2. [Torek](../npcs/torek-lintar.md) looks away during inspection at The Terminal
3. [Kael](../npcs/kael-davan.md) and others route flagged containers to temporary holding area
4. During night shift (01:00-04:00), [Renn](../npcs/renn.md) transfers cargo through the break room service hatch to [Corridor B-7](../locations/krenn-system/maintenance-corridors.md)
5. [Devra](../npcs/devra.md) coordinates with [Sabel](../npcs/sabel.md) for off-station distribution
6. Small items go to the dead drop alcove for [Pell](../npcs/pell.md) to collect
7. Larger items move through Lera's back room at [The Last Shift](../locations/krenn-system/the-last-shift.md)
**Timing:** Operations occur every third night shift rotation, during shift transitions when oversight is thinnest. Post-inspection windows (2-3 days after scheduled Commission sweeps) are preferred for larger shipments.
**Security model:** Normalcy. Nobody does anything dramatic. Everything happens within the flow of legitimate work. If a container is flagged, it's rescheduled. If someone is watched, they go quiet. Patience is the ring's greatest asset.
---
## Community Role
The ring is the district's economic immune system. The honest truth is that people who don't participate directly still benefit:
- **The bar profits** from ring members buying drinks and conducting business
- **Maintenance workers** get tips for "noticing things late"
- **Families** get lattice upgrades they couldn't afford through legitimate channels
- **Medical needs** get met through diverted medical-grade components
- **The general economy** benefits from supplemental income circulating through local businesses
A ring member earns an extra 400-800 credits/month beyond their standard logistics salary of 2,400 credits/month. In a district where living costs run ~2,200 credits/month and margin is 200 credits, that supplemental income transforms "barely comfortable" into "secure."
This is why the community tolerates the ring. Not because people are criminal or corrupt, but because the arrangement serves real needs that the legitimate economy doesn't. Everyone has made an implicit calculation: the risk of exposure is lower than the cost of losing the supplemental income.
---
## Vulnerability
The ring has been operating long enough that cracks are forming:
- **Spending tells:** [Torek](../npcs/torek-lintar.md) has been spending visibly beyond a standard dock worker's income — new jacket, buying rounds, lattice accessories. This is the most observable vulnerability.
- **Wavering members:** [Pell](../npcs/pell.md) is considering cooperation with authorities. Their increasingly erratic behavior (shorter dead drop visits, social withdrawal) is observable.
- **Internal suspicion:** [Renn](../npcs/renn.md) suspects Pell is unreliable and has communicated this to Devra/Nils. Internal tension creates observable social friction.
- **Escalation pressure:** Nils (off-station) is pushing for higher volume. Local operators want to keep things small. This creates friction between ambition and safety.
- **The detective:** An unscheduled enforcement presence in a district accustomed to intermittent oversight. The detective's arrival is the external pressure that tests every crack.
---
## Mechanical Integration
### Knowledge Graph Flags
| FactId | Smuggler Starting Level | Detective Starting Level |
|--------|------------------------|-------------------------|
| `contraband.ring_exists` | KnowsDetails (member) | Suspects (case briefing mentions irregularities) |
| `contraband.lattice_components` | KnowsDetails (handles cargo) | None → Suspects (manifest analysis) |
| `contraband.supply_chain` | KnowsOf (knows general flow) | None |
| `relationship.ring_membership` | KnowsDetails (knows who's in) | None → builds through investigation |
### Perception Differences
**Smuggler sees:** Family. Colleagues. The people who make the arrangement work. Each member has a name, a history, a reason for being involved. Voss has a daughter who needed lattice surgery. Kael's doing it for Hael. Renn needs the money. The ring isn't a criminal organization — it's mutual aid that happens to be illegal.
**Detective sees:** A network. Nodes and connections. Behavioral patterns that suggest coordination. Manifest discrepancies that suggest doctoring. Financial anomalies that suggest supplemental income. The ring is a case — a puzzle to be solved, a structure to be mapped, evidence to be assembled.
Both perspectives are accurate. Neither is complete.
---
## Thematic Function
The ring exists to pose the game's central moral question: *Is this wrong?*
The smuggler knows the people. The detective sees the crime. The player, regardless of character, must decide what the arrangement means. Is the ring a service or a violation? Is the detective doing justice or doing harm? Is there a resolution that doesn't break something the community needs?
The ring has no clean answer. That's the point.
---
**Cross-References:**
- [Sova Transit District](../world/sova-transit-district.md) — The ring's territory
- [The Terminal](../locations/krenn-system/the-terminal.md) — Where cargo enters the ring's pipeline
- [The Last Shift](../locations/krenn-system/the-last-shift.md) — Handoff point, social coordination
- [Maintenance Corridors](../locations/krenn-system/maintenance-corridors.md) — Physical smuggling route
- [NPC Index](../npcs/index.md) — Ring member profiles
- D-037: Contraband specification
- D-027: Vertical slice definition
---
**Status:** Canonical — v0.1 core narrative element
**Created:** 2026-02-12
**Updated:** 2026-02-12
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# The Unbound
**Type:** Faction — Cultural Movement
**Status:** Canonical
**Scope:** Reach-wide (concentrated on frontier)
**Governance Role:** None (cultural/philosophical position, not a political organization)
**Headquarters:** None (no organizational structure)
**Structure:** Decentralized, voluntary, individual choice
---
## Overview
The Unbound are citizens of the Settled Reach who have chosen to live without a neural lattice. In a civilization where the lattice is as universal as breathing — used for communication, work, identity verification, information access, re-embodiment backup — choosing to go without is a radical act. Radical, and profoundly inconvenient.
The Unbound are not a faction in the organizational sense. They have no leaders, no charter, no political agenda. "Unbound" is a description, not a membership card. What unites them is a shared rejection of the neural lattice and the institutional infrastructure built around it — the [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md)'s regulatory framework, the Meridian network, the imprint backup system, and the assumptions about identity and continuity that lattice technology enables.
The motivations for going Unbound are diverse: philosophical conviction (the lattice mediates experience in ways that diminish authentic consciousness), religious belief (various traditions across the Reach consider the lattice a violation of natural cognition), political protest (refusing the Commission's jurisdiction by refusing the technology it regulates), frontier practicality (some settlements predate reliable lattice infrastructure), or simply personal choice.
The result is the same: Unbound citizens exist outside the surveillance, communication, and identity systems that structure everyone else's life. They cannot be tracked by lattice signature. They cannot access the Meridian. They cannot back up their neural imprint. When an Unbound person dies, they die permanently. This makes them invisible to institutional systems — and profoundly vulnerable in ways that lattice-bearing citizens cannot fully comprehend.
---
## What It Means to Be Unbound
### What You Lose
- **Meridian access:** No information network. No real-time news, no messaging, no entertainment feeds, no digital commerce. Communication is voice, written text, or physical presence.
- **Identity verification:** Lattice signatures are the Reach's primary ID system. Without one, you cannot be automatically identified. This is both a freedom and a burden — boarding a ship, entering a restricted area, or proving your identity requires alternative documentation.
- **Re-embodiment backup:** No imprint means no resurrection. Death is death. This is the most consequential choice: in a civilization where most people functionally cannot die, the Unbound accept mortality.
- **Enhanced perception:** No lattice overlay, no augmented senses, no institutional data feeds. What you see is what your biology provides. For most Unbound, this feels like clarity. For institutional citizens, it would feel like blindness.
- **Economic participation:** Many economic systems assume lattice connectivity. Unbound citizens operate in parallel economies — physical currency, barter, analog record-keeping.
### What You Gain
- **Privacy:** Total, absolute, structural privacy. No one can track you, read your lattice data, access your imprint, or monitor your cognitive activity. The Commission has no jurisdiction over a mind it cannot reach.
- **Cognitive autonomy:** No external influence on your thought processes. No subliminal Meridian advertising. No lattice-mediated emotional regulation. No institutional access to your neural patterns.
- **Mortality as meaning:** The Unbound philosophical position holds that death gives life weight. When you cannot be resurrected, every moment is singular. This is not a consolation — it's a conviction.
- **Community:** Unbound communities develop intense social bonds precisely because they cannot rely on institutional safety nets. Trust is personal, not technologically mediated.
---
## Internal Tensions
**Diversity of Motivation:** The Unbound are not a unified movement. A frontier farmer who never had lattice access has little in common with a Core Systems philosopher who removed theirs as an act of intellectual commitment. A religious Unbound community in the mid-Reach shares few values with anarchist Unbound cells in frontier stations. The label unites people whose choices have the same external form but very different internal reasons.
**Engagement vs. Withdrawal:** Some Unbound advocate for political engagement — representation in the [Assembly](concord-assembly.md), legal protections, institutional accommodation. Others believe engagement with institutional systems is itself a compromise. The withdrawal position holds that the only authentic Unbound life is one that exists entirely outside the lattice-bearing world.
**Vulnerability vs. Freedom:** The Unbound's greatest asset (invisibility to institutional systems) is also their greatest vulnerability. Without lattice tracking, Unbound citizens can disappear — into frontier margins, into criminal networks, into exploitation. The Commission's limited jurisdiction over Unbound populations means fewer protections as well as fewer constraints.
---
## What They Want
The Unbound don't have unified demands. Individual Unbound might want:
- Legal recognition of non-lattice identity systems
- Protection from discrimination in employment, housing, and services
- Accommodation in institutional systems that assume lattice connectivity
- Simply to be left alone
---
## Faction Relationships
| Faction | Relationship | Dynamic |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) | Jurisdictional tension | Unbound refuse the technology the Commission regulates; Commission's authority doesn't cleanly extend to them |
| [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) | Ambivalent | Unbound citizenship rights are an unresolved legal question; some Assembly delegates advocate for them, others ignore them |
| [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) | Ideological allies | Shared skepticism of centralized technology; Guardians use tech to resist tech, Unbound simply refuse it. Different methods, overlapping values. |
| [Syndics](syndics.md) | Market gap | Unbound don't participate in Syndic re-embodiment economy; too small a population to matter commercially |
| [Veil Institute](veil-institute.md) | Minimal | Institute studies technology the Unbound reject; some Institute researchers view Unbound cognition as a research interest (ethically fraught) |
---
## Cultural Significance
The Unbound matter disproportionately to their numbers because they represent the road not taken. In a civilization built on neural technology, the Unbound are a living question: *What if we didn't?*
Every lattice-bearing citizen has, at some level, accepted that their mind is connected to institutional infrastructure. The Unbound haven't. Their existence is a constant, quiet challenge to the assumption that lattice integration is natural, inevitable, or good. For some citizens, this is threatening. For others, it's fascinating. For most, it's irrelevant — until they need to interact with an Unbound person and realize how thoroughly their own life depends on technology they've never questioned.
The Unbound also represent the only people in the Reach who face permanent death. This gives their choices a weight that lattice-bearing citizens — who treat death as an interruption, not an ending — cannot fully appreciate. When an Unbound person risks their life, they're risking everything.
---
## v0.1 Relevance
The Unbound are **peripherally present** in the v0.1 vertical slice:
- **A few district residents are Unbound by choice** — mostly older workers who came from frontier backgrounds. They're known, accepted, and unremarkable. Nobody makes a fuss about it. This is consistent with Krenn System culture: mind your business.
- **Olin** (drifter/new arrival at [The Last Shift](../locations/krenn-system/the-last-shift.md)) may or may not be Unbound. Olin's lattice status is ambiguous — they don't have a detectable lattice signature, which could mean they're Unbound, or that they're using Severance spoofing technology, or that their lattice is non-standard. This ambiguity is load-bearing for the detective's investigation: an absent lattice signature is data, and the interpretation of that data depends on the detective's assumptions.
- **Moral context:** The Unbound's existence enriches the contraband question. Some of the ring's medical-grade lattice components serve people transitioning *into* lattice use from Unbound status — or people whose lattices are failing and who face a choice between expensive institutional replacement and becoming effectively Unbound. The Unbound aren't just a philosophical position; they're the alternative that lattice smuggling helps people avoid.
- **The detective's analytical lattice** cannot automatically identify Unbound citizens. In a district where the detective's primary investigative tool is lattice-mediated perception, Unbound individuals are blind spots — people who exist outside the detective's institutional gaze. This is mechanically significant.
---
**Cross-References:**
- [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) — Jurisdictional tension
- [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) — Ideological allies
- [Olin](../npcs/olin.md) — Ambiguous lattice status (v0.1)
- D-017: Perception modes (Unbound exist outside lattice-mediated perception)
- D-037: Contraband specification (medical context for lattice access)
- Round 16: Full faction development
---
**Status:** Canonical
**Created:** 2026-02-12
**Updated:** 2026-02-12
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# The Veil Institute
**Type:** Faction — Research Institution
**Status:** Canonical
**Scope:** Reach-wide
**Governance Role:** Research / Containment
**Headquarters:** Core Systems (TBD, likely near high-bleed Founder Gates)
**Structure:** Academic-institutional, semi-autonomous from Assembly
**Mandate:** Study Founder gate technology, the Interstitium, Builder phenomena, and gate activation
---
## Overview
The Veil Institute is the Settled Reach's primary institution for studying the setting's deepest mysteries: the Founder Gates that enable interstellar travel, the Interstitium through which those gates transit, the Builder civilization that may or may not have created them, and the anomalous phenomena (Gyre events, perception effects, signals) that emerge from the boundaries of understood physics.
The Institute is funded by the [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) and operates with semi-autonomous authority. In practice, this means they take Assembly money and resist Assembly oversight. The Institute knows more about the infrastructure of the Reach than any other faction — and shares the least.
This tension — between knowledge and disclosure, between research autonomy and democratic accountability, between studying existential mysteries and controlling who gets to know what they find — defines the Institute's character. They are simultaneously the Reach's greatest hope for understanding the universe and its most opaque institution.
---
## What They Control
- **High-bleed Founder Gates:** Direct access to and study of gates exhibiting anomalous Interstitial interactions
- **Gyre event response and classification:** When something strange happens near a gate, the Institute responds, investigates, and classifies. The classification is often more restrictive than the event warrants.
- **Gate activation research and execution:** When the Assembly approves activation of a dormant Founder Gate, the Institute does the work
- **Interstitial data collection:** Sensor arrays, transit logs, anomaly detection systems
- **Classified research archives:** The largest collection of information about the Reach's infrastructure that no one is allowed to read
---
## Internal Tensions
**Publish vs. Classify:** The Institute's defining conflict. Field researchers want to share findings with the scientific community — that's what science is. Administrators classify everything for "security reasons." The real motivations vary: institutional control, fear of public panic, evidence of something they don't want known, or genuine concern that some knowledge is dangerous. The result is the same: the people who discover things are not allowed to tell anyone.
**Contact vs. Containment:** Some researchers believe Builder contact — or at least a deeper understanding of Builder phenomena — is the Institute's ultimate goal. Others believe Builder phenomena are existential threats to be managed and contained, not engaged with. Institute policy oscillates between these poles depending on recent events and who's directing research.
**Assembly Oversight vs. Autonomy:** The Institute is funded by elected officials but resists democratic accountability. How much authority should the Assembly have over research that might determine the fate of the species? The Institute argues that political interference in existential research is dangerous. The Assembly argues that unaccountable institutions with existential knowledge are more dangerous.
---
## What They Want
- Resources to study the gates and the Builders
- Autonomy to pursue research without political interference
- Control over gate activation decisions
- Containment of Builder-related phenomena that could destabilize the Reach
---
## Power & Vulnerability
| Power | Vulnerability |
|-------|---------------|
| Monopoly on gate activation expertise | Dependent on Assembly funding |
| Control over high-bleed gates and Interstitial data | Public distrust due to classification policies |
| Institutional authority backed by Assembly | Internal leaks (whistleblowers defecting to [Guardians](guardians-of-autonomy.md)) |
| Knowledge of what's actually happening at the infrastructure level | Existential risk if they mishandle a Gyre event or gate activation |
---
## Faction Relationships
| Faction | Relationship | Dynamic |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) | Conditional ally | Assembly funds Institute; Institute resists oversight. Mutual dependence, mutual resentment. |
| [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) | Shared jurisdiction | Both study neural technology at different levels; Commission wants Institute data that Institute classifies |
| [Syndics](syndics.md) | Competitive / Collaborative | Syndics want commercial exploitation of gate technology; Institute wants research control |
| [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) | Antagonist | Guardians see Institute classification as institutional secrecy; Institute sees Guardians as a leak risk |
| [The Unbound](the-unbound.md) | Minimal contact | Unbound reject the technology the Institute studies; Institute views Unbound as research subjects (ethically fraught) |
---
## Mechanical Hooks for Gameplay
- **Classification as gameplay barrier:** The Institute has the answers. Getting access is the challenge. Institutional authority, hacking, social engineering, whistleblowers, theft — the player has options, all of them costly.
- **Perception scaling:** Institute researchers at higher ascension tiers perceive more during gate transits. Playing as or working with the Institute ties directly to the perception mode system (D-017) and the Builder mystery.
- **Gyre events as investigation triggers:** The storyteller spawns a Gyre event. The Institute responds. The player investigates. What the Institute says publicly versus what they actually know creates investigative tension.
- **Moral ambiguity:** The Institute classifies things for legitimate security reasons — and to cover up their own mistakes, ethical violations, or existential ignorance. The player navigates that distinction.
---
## NPC Archetypes
- **The Field Researcher:** Wants to publish, frustrated by classification, believes knowledge should be free
- **The Administrator:** Institutional control over scientific truth — not evil, just convinced secrecy is necessary
- **The Whistleblower:** Defected with evidence, now targeted by the institution they served
- **The True Believer:** Convinced Builder contact is imminent and transformative — and may be right
---
## v0.1 Relevance
The Veil Institute is **not present** in the v0.1 vertical slice. Its relevance is entirely contextual:
- **Gate infrastructure:** The Founder Gates and span gates that the district depends on exist because the Institute activated them. The span gate hum that defines Sova's atmosphere is, ultimately, an Institute-managed phenomenon.
- **Future narrative threads:** The Severance technology in the ring's contraband (D-037) hints at Guardian operations, which hints at institutional secrets the Guardians are trying to expose, which hints at the Institute. The thread is there for future development but not pulled in v0.1.
- **Worldbuilding depth:** NPC dialogue might reference "the Institute" in the same way people reference NASA — a distant, prestigious, vaguely mysterious institution that does important things nobody fully understands.
The Institute is important for the full game's narrative architecture. For v0.1, it provides background depth — the sense that the universe extends beyond what the player can see.
---
**Cross-References:**
- [Concord Assembly](concord-assembly.md) — Funding body
- [Lattice Commission](lattice-commission.md) — Shared jurisdiction
- [Guardians of Autonomy](guardians-of-autonomy.md) — Primary opposition (leaks, exposure)
- D-017: Perception modes (Institute research connects to lattice tier system)
- Round 16: Full faction development
---
**Status:** Canonical
**Created:** 2026-02-12
**Updated:** 2026-02-12