Definitions
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Knowledge project | One authoritative body of creative constraints and fictional knowledge. It can support several works. |
| Work | A particular novel, game, or other composition using the project's knowledge. Its brief and outline are Narrative Content. |
| Core contract | A reusable rule or principle with applicability, limits and a way to detect contradictions. Stable means impact-reviewed, not immutable. |
| Content record | One particular entity, event, authored sequence, treatment or placement, with linked constraints and facts. |
| Story skeleton | A linked premise, participants, motivations, conflict, stakes, causal progression and outcomes, composed for a work. |
| Treatment | A medium-specific expression or playable/visual representation of an existing fictional entity. |
| Prerequisite | A sufficiently defined input needed for a particular decision or finalization. It is not a requirement to finish every entry in a domain. |
| Feedback | Evidence that challenges an owning decision. It triggers review; it is not a circular completion gate. |
| Handoff | Authoritative references, an outline, unresolved questions and checks for downstream production. |
Five knowledge distinctions
Objective truth describes what is true in the fiction. Testimony describes what a source claims and its reliability. Character knowledge describes what a participant knows or believes at a particular point. Audience knowledge describes what a reader or player has learned. Game state describes the values and outcomes a game tracks. None is automatically a substitute for another.
A reviewed false testimony remains false. Draft/review maturity is distinct from the truth of a claim. The creator may deliberately leave objective truth unknown; record that decision instead of having an assistant resolve the mystery.
Authoritative homes
Lore Foundation owns policies for truth, chronology and provenance. Particular historical facts belong in World Content; their discoverable accounts belong in Narrative Content. Character baseline identity belongs in World; changes during a particular arc belong in Narrative. A creature is not an enemy behavior, a place is not a playable level, and an artifact is not its game balance specification.
Use file links and precise headings to refer to the owner. Do not copy canon into multiple work trees. Necessary summaries must identify their authoritative source and must not introduce a second decision.
Scope
A rule may apply project-wide, to a medium, or to a named work. Declare its scope before using it. A local exception cannot silently invalidate a shared rule. Different works may share the world but differ in plot, revelation and agency. Game outcomes are work/playthrough-local until the creator adopts them as shared canon. In this initial framework, incompatible alternate canons use separate knowledge projects; do not invent an implicit precedence system.