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jpmschweitzerandClaude Opus 4.6 b672b9c269 feat(docs): restructure wiki taxonomy with templates and Krenn System entry (#301 , #319 )

Move wiki from docs/wiki/ to root wiki/. Add 14 category templates with
YAML frontmatter, governance model, hierarchical spatial structure
(system > station > district > location). Populate Krenn System entry
as first concrete star system. Update cross-references in workshop and
sprint docs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-02-13 00:58:45 +01:00

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Sova Transit District

Type: Station District Status: Canonical Station: Station Sova System: Krenn System District Age: ~40 years (most recent major retrofit) Population: ~800 (workers + residents) Construction: Prefab-modular base with layered retrofits

Overview

Sova Transit District is a freight logistics district on Station Sova — the v0.1 vertical slice setting. This is where the game happens. Everything the player sees, everyone they meet, every routine they observe exists within this 40-year-old retrofitted freight hub and its worker amenities.

The District's Character: Quotidian-with-undertow.

Comfortable enough to be complacent. Tight enough that an extra income source is tempting. People work here, drink here, live here. Routines are predictable. Faces are familiar. And beneath that predictability, a smuggling operation runs smoothly because the community has collectively decided not to notice.

Physical Layout

Size: ~800 meters circumferential span (Ring 1 section), 3 vertical levels

Construction History:

Original (140 years ago): Freight bay with basic cargo handling
First retrofit (~80 years ago): Interior partitions created office spaces, break rooms
Second retrofit (~40 years ago): Worker amenities added (bar, residential pods), logistics hub expanded
Ongoing maintenance: Continuous patching, creating architectural complexity

Spatial Structure:

Level 1 (lowest): Freight bay floor, cargo handling, span gate access, logistics hub (The Terminal)
Level 2 (middle): Worker amenities (bar, food vendors, small retail), residential pods
Level 3 (highest): Observation gallery (overlooks freight bay), administrative offices, Commission kiosk (unmanned most of the time)

Between the Levels: Maintenance corridors, service hatches, spaces between old and new construction. This is where the smuggling infrastructure lives. Corridor B-7 is the primary off-books route.

The district contains three social sites — clusters of NPCs who regularly interact within connected physical spaces. These are the atomic units of v0.1 content.

1. The Terminal (Logistics Hub)

Type: Workplace NPCs: 5 (Voss, Kael Davan, Resha, Torek Lintar, Drin) Function: Cargo sorting, scheduling, inspection, paperwork Hours: 24-hour operation, three 8-hour shifts Full profile ->

2. The Last Shift (Bar)

Type: Social Venue NPCs: 6 (Lera Sessik, Harek, Maret Korr, Sera Venn, Sess, Olin) Function: After-shift drinks, social hub, information exchange Hours: 14:00 - 02:00 station time Informal Name: "Lera's" (used by regulars) Full profile ->

3. Smuggling Spaces (The Ring's Infrastructure)

Type: Criminal operation / repurposed infrastructure NPCs: 5 (Devra, Renn, Pell, Sabel, Tav) Function: Contraband transfer, off-books meetings, dead drops Locations: Maintenance Corridor B-7, back room at The Last Shift, storage area in logistics hub Full profile ->

Economy & Employment

Primary Employers:

Sova Logistics Consortium (freight handling, scheduling, inspection)
Station Services (maintenance, hospitality, retail)
Self-employed (bar owners, food vendors, small operators)

Wage Reality: Standard logistics salary: 2,400 credits/month. Station living costs: ~2,200 credits/month (housing pod, food, necessities). This leaves 200 credits margin — enough to survive, not enough to thrive.

Economic Pressure Mechanisms:

Medical expenses (lattice maintenance, injury treatment)
Family support (children, aging parents)
Lattice upgrades (professional capability enhancement)
Emergency reserves (job loss, station emergency)

The Grey Economy: Smuggling provides supplemental income that transforms "barely comfortable" into "secure." A ring member might make an extra 400-800 credits/month — enough to cover lattice upgrades, save for family, or simply breathe easier.

This is why the community tolerates the ring: everyone benefits indirectly. The bar profits from smugglers buying drinks. Maintenance workers get tips for "noticing things late." Even flat NPCs who aren't involved benefit from the economic activity.

Daily Rhythms

Shift Schedule:

Morning (06:00-14:00): Day shift, highest freight volume, gate cycles every 4-6 minutes
Afternoon (14:00-22:00): Swing shift, moderate volume, bar opens, social activity peaks
Night (22:00-06:00): Night shift, lowest volume, gate cycles every 12-15 minutes, smuggling window

Shift Transition (13:45-14:15): The corridor between the logistics hub and bar district becomes a chokepoint. Everyone heading from work to drinks passes through the same 40 meters. This is where the smuggler notices patterns and the detective observes routines.

The Week Cycle:

5-day work cycle + 2-day rest (station standard)
Day 1-4: Normal operations
Day 5 (end-of-cycle): Higher bar attendance, card games, social peak
Rest days: Quieter district, skeleton crew at logistics hub, bar closed Day 1 morning

Seasonal Rhythms: None. Station life has no seasons. This creates psychological monotony that smuggling occasionally interrupts.

Institutional Presence

Lattice Commission:

Permanent Presence: None. Commission kiosk on Level 3 (unmanned, for compliance reporting).
Liaison Rotation: 3-6 month assignments. Most recent liaison rotated out 3 months ago; replacement delayed.
Inspection Schedule: Quarterly lattice compliance sweeps (announced 2 weeks in advance).

This gap — the 3-month window without a Commission presence — is when the smuggling operation escalates. The detective's arrival represents an unscheduled enforcement action, triggered by something flagged at system level.

Station Security:

Patrol Presence: 2 officers on-duty per shift, primarily concerned with accidents and violence
Authority Limit: Security handles safety; Commission handles contraband. Security officers know this distinction and generally look away from grey-market activity that doesn't threaten station safety.

Meridian Coverage & Information Infrastructure

Coverage Map:

Logistics Hub: Comprehensive (real-time tracking, manifest systems, surveillance)
Bar District: Strong (standard social monitoring, Meridian feeds)
Residential Pods: Standard (personal lattice connectivity)
Maintenance Corridors: Degraded (older infrastructure, dead spots)
Between-Wall Spaces: Minimal or absent (off-map, no official coverage)

Dead Spots: Corridor B-7 and the storage area behind the logistics hub main floor are known Meridian gaps. The ring uses these for off-channel communication. NPCs who need to discuss something sensitive go for a walk to the "quiet spots."

Atmosphere & Sensory Details

Sound:

Omnipresent: Span gate hum (bass-frequency vibration, pitch rises with transit volume)
Logistics Hub: Cargo machinery, scanner beeps, conveyor belts, shouted instructions
Bar District: Conversation murmur, glass on surfaces, Meridian music feeds
Corridors: Ventilation hum, footsteps on metal grating, echoes
Night: Gate hum drops to low throb, ventilation dominates, occasional distant voices

Smell:

Logistics Hub: Industrial lubricant, recycled air, occasionally cargo scent (organic shipments)
Bar District: Cooking (protein paste, vegetables, synthetic spices), alcohol, crowd scent
Corridors: Recycled air with metallic undertone, faint industrial chemicals
Morning: Ozone scent post-gate-transit (fades quickly)

Lighting:

Logistics Hub: Bright industrial white (functional, slightly harsh)
Bar District: Warm amber (cheaper fixtures, comfortable)
Corridors: Dim utilitarian (spaced fixtures, shadows between lights)
Maintenance Areas: Emergency red or no light (bring portable lights)

Visual Texture:

Bilingual signage (Concordat Standard + Krenn vernacular)
Hand-lettered informal signs ("Lera's," shift schedules, lost-and-found notices)
Wear patterns (scuffed floors, patched walls, graffiti in maintenance areas)
Personal touches (locker decorations, shift-end artwork, stickers)

Local Complaint: "The ventilation in Sector 3 has been unreliable for months. Station maintenance says it's on the list." — Universal safe topic. If an NPC is complaining about ventilation, they're NOT talking about something else.

Total NPCs in District: 17 (15 standard + 2 FRIEND-tier)

Population Distribution (D-029 Entanglement Ratio: 30/50/20):

Flat NPCs (3, ~18%): Drin, Sess, Olin — routines, greetings, atmosphere
Triangle NPCs, Mundane (7, ~41%): Voss, Maret Korr, Torek Lintar, Lera Sessik, Harek, Resha, Sera Venn
Triangle NPCs, Entangled (7, ~41%): Kael Davan, Devra, Renn, Pell, Sabel, Tav, Naia Tamm (referenced)

The Five Triangles: See NPC Index for full triangle diagram.

The Smuggling Operation ("The Ring")

Structure: Informal network, no official name. NPCs refer to it obliquely ("the arrangement," "the side work," "helping out").

What They Move: Unlicensed lattice components (primary), medical-grade neural replacements, Severance counter-surveillance tech

How It Works:

Contraband arrives in legitimate freight shipments (mixed with legal cargo)
Torek Lintar (compromised inspector) looks away during inspection
Kael Davan and others route flagged containers to holding area
Renn (courier) transfers contraband to Corridor B-7
Devra coordinates off-station contact (Sabel)
Product distributed through informal networks

Operational Timing: Night shifts (lowest oversight), shift transitions (confusion/distraction), post-inspection windows (2-3 days after scheduled Commission sweep)

Community Role: The ring is the district's economic immune system. People who don't participate directly still benefit: bars profit, families get lattice upgrades they couldn't afford, medical needs get met. This creates collective investment in not noticing.

v0.1 Narrative Stakes

The Smuggler's Stakes:

Home: This is their community, their livelihood, their daily life
Relationships: Everyone here is a colleague, friend, or known quantity
Risk: The detective threatens to dismantle the social fabric that keeps them secure

The Detective's Stakes:

Assignment: Institutional mandate to investigate manifest discrepancies
Authority: Commission jurisdiction, but local resistance
Isolation: No social network, no institutional backup in-district, operating alone in hostile social terrain

The Convergence: Both characters are following the same threads (manifest discrepancies, NPC behavioral changes, Corridor B-7) from opposite sides. The smuggler knows what's happening and must protect it. The detective suspects something and must discover it. They're heading toward the same revelation from opposite directions.

Mechanical Integration

Knowledge Graph Flags (FactIds):

location.sova_transit_layout (KnowsOf: detective has map, smuggler knows shortcuts)
location.corridor_b7_restricted (KnowsDetails: smuggler knows access, detective discovers through investigation)
contraband.ring_exists (Smuggler: KnowsDetails from background, Detective: Suspects -> KnowsOf -> KnowsDetails through gameplay)

Perception Differences:

Smuggler: Sees home, notices routine deviations as threats, identifies NPCs by first name and relationship
Detective: Sees crime scene, notices patterns as evidence, identifies NPCs by role and case file data

Monologue Triggers: 60+ location-specific triggers across three social sites, filtered by character

Worldbuilding Notes

Why Sova Transit Works:

Economically grounded: The financial pressure is specific and relatable
Socially coherent: 800 people, everyone knows everyone, patterns are visible
Architecturally complex: Layered construction provides hiding places
Institutionally thin: Enforcement gaps make smuggling viable
Morally ambiguous: The ring serves real needs, not just greed

The Honest Truth: If Sova Transit District feels real — if the player can imagine working here, drinking here, living here — then the smuggling operation becomes a moral dilemma instead of a simple crime. That's the game.

Cross-References:

Krenn System — Star system profile
Station Sova — Station profile
NPC Index — Full character roster
D-036: Sova Transit District as v0.1 setting
D-027: Vertical slice definition

Status: Canonical — v0.1 playable setting Created: 2026-02-11 Updated: 2026-02-12

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