in: Characters, Named cast, Astrocytes, Anchored residents
Stella
Approved Character · facts checked 2 November 2026
Stella is the anchored astrocyte of Hearth Grove. Her processes support one particular home connection. She is not a roaming healer and never follows the Ranger.
Appearance#
Stella uses the approved astrocyte body: a broad star-shaped cell joined to the tissue around it. Her support footprint is shown in the environment, not in her sprite.
Personality#
Stella knows what a stable home looks like at each time of day. She enjoys company but dislikes being treated as an emergency service. She may be annoyed that Pip put a marker in her endfoot area.
Role in the story#
Stella's support is spatial. It buffers one local burden; it does not clear the source or suppress inflammation everywhere. In her story, An Hour Without a Request, the Ranger learns that support is finite and that a visit with no request has value. In Act V, Stella stays anchored.
Recruitment#
Never. Stella is an anchored resident. Her Imprint, Within Reach, is a passive keepsake, not a loan of her support.
Development#
- Story: plan v0.5 §8 calls Stella a provisional name from Claude B's home files. The dossier stages her story (Part VII-A).
- Calming visit: on 1 November the user chose an astrocyte as the calming visitor of the Apothecary: a tendril pokes up through the ground, with sparkles. No astrocyte body travels. This is a service effect, not Stella herself.
- Art: on 2 November the user approved Stella design B. Stella and Aster must be easy to tell apart. Production animation and installation remain.
- In the alpha The Placeholder alpha has generic astrocytes and a support site that its code labels
stella, but no named Stella sprite.
See also#
Sources#
- .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_THE_LONG_WAKE_COMPLETE_GAME_PLAN_v0.5.md (working copy, not in Git)
- .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_COMPANIONS_NARRATIVE_AND_SYSTEMS_DOSSIER_v0.5.md (working copy, not in Git)
- docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-later-named-cast-design.md (working copy, not in Git)
b89f778c2:src/main-game/game/controller.js