Oligodendrocyte precursor cell

An oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) is a young glial cell that can mature into a new oligodendrocyte. In Arborwake, precursors are how a bare Quiet Tracts segment gets new myelin.

In the brain#

• OPCs are found throughout the adult brain.
• After myelin is lost, some OPCs can mature into new oligodendrocytes and remyelinate axons. This takes time and does not always succeed.
• Microglia can influence this repair, for example by clearing myelin debris, but they do not make myelin themselves.
• The plan treats the precursor-to-oligodendrocyte timing in the game as heavily time-compressed fiction, not a clinical repair protocol.

In the game#

• No escort. Plan v0.5 had the Ranger lead a precursor at its own pace. On 1 November the user ruled "Oligos don't walk, they only extend", and the escort was dropped.
• Maturation in place. The approved repair kit shows a precursor idle, stalled, then maturing into the installed oligodendrocyte. The new cell wraps by extension and can keep or retract its process.
• The Ranger's part. Clear the myelin debris, protect the site and keep the tract segment from being lost.

Development#

• The Quiet Tracts repair kit (precursor states, maturation, wrap, segment states and debris) was a candidate on claude/cell-slime and was approved by the user on 2 November.
• In the alpha The lead's audit records the repair kit as present in the alpha's encounter snapshot. This wiki has not seen it in play.

See also#

• Oligodendrocyte
• Myelin, demyelination and repair
• The Five Stretches

Sources#

1. .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_THE_LONG_WAKE_COMPLETE_GAME_PLAN_v0.5.md (working copy, not in Git)
2. .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_COMPANIONS_NARRATIVE_AND_SYSTEMS_DOSSIER_v0.5.md (working copy, not in Git)
3. docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-01-claude-workstreams-todo.md (working copy, not in Git)
4. docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-full-project-reconciliation-audit.md (working copy, not in Git)
5. 16c9aab43:art/characters/tract-repair/state-board-4x.pngcopy