Narrative Foundation: Evidence Before Judgment

Shared rules

Use the creative promise, setting constraints and canon policy. Understanding the central allegation and contrary evidence is essential; motives may remain partly unknown. Reveal facts through what participants can perceive or learn. Deliberate ambiguity concerns responsibility and cost, not whether a required clue was ever conveyed.

Novel applicability

Use close third-person past tense through Mara. Do not narrate Iven's unspoken knowledge before Mara learns it. Voice is restrained and observant; technical writing utilities do not prescribe the prose. Delay the original order until the reader has encountered the official account.

Game applicability

Agency concerns information and the disclosure outcome. Finding evidence and choosing disclosure have supported state effects. Essential evidence is required before the decision; optional recollection adds empathy, not comprehension. No combat or traversal promise is made by this slice.

Checks

Chronology can differ from reading/play order, but knowledge cannot jump without evidence. Public release and restricted inquiry are local authored outcomes, not changes to shared past events. Coordinate outcomes with game state rules only for the game.