Science guardrails

The science guardrails are the rules that keep Arborwake's biology honest. Their core is one sentence from the project rules: classes and signalling-inspired abilities are fictional mechanics, not fixed biological phenotypes or clinical claims.

The rules#

1. No owner narrative. The human whose body holds this world is never shown, named or diagnosed. See Sleep and stress research.
2. A changed shape is not inflammation. Arousal or microglial shape change alone is not a diagnosis.
3. Models are models. Rodent findings such as the neurovascular relay are model-dependent, not universal.
4. Keep facts separate. Baseline activity, a response to a challenge, neural function, support and injury are different facts. Priming needs a later challenge.
5. The Ranger cannot do everything. Some problems belong to other cells.
6. Myelin loss is a separate story. The Quiet District repair is not caused by stress or media use.
7. Injury is a different insult. It cannot be cured by a short engulfing sequence. See Acute brain injury.
8. No good and evil cells. No M1/M2 factions, "evil activated microglia" or "demonic cytokines". A costly mediator is not evil.
9. Silence is not death. A dim signal is not automatically neuronal death. Named residents are never deleted for a player's failure.
10. No medical meters. No mental-health meter, therapy mechanic or human diagnosis.
11. The simulation wins. A character can be wrong, but the story must not contradict the simulation.
12. Learn by play. The reason an action helps should come from play, not a quiz.

Also decided#

• Cells are never humanoid. Cute, slime-like and cellular, with no faces with lips, legs, gloves or hats.
• Nothing is sold as treatment. The Apothecary deals in signalling, not bottles (user, 1 November).
• Neuron loss is failure. Losing a neuron or tract segment fails the room; it is never a grading cost.
• Labels separate four kinds of claim: observed in the game, experimentally supported, model-specific and fictionalised. An optional Field atlas carries them.

In the game#

These rules shape every page in this wiki. For example, Imprints are not fragments of a resident's body, and the companion roles (observer, roamer, keeper) are not microglial subtypes.

Development#

• Plan v0.5 §2 lists the twelve boundaries. AGENTS.md on main carries the fictional-mechanics rule.
• The research reviews state that their findings bound the design; they do not approve any game rule.

See also#

• Stress-associated neuroinflammation
• Microglia
• Arborwake: The Long Wake

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. 1ded4c01c:AGENTS.mdcopy
4. 1ded4c01c:docs/integrated-design-v2/STRESS_STORY.mdcopy