Local radius vision
Forests reduce range. Plains extend it.
Scintillae
Scintillae spawn as blank systems. No Continuity. No culture. No explanation of Cardinal.
Initialization
Scintilla A Scintilla B and survival pressure.
Starting conditions matter.
Default run: 30 Scintillae in 3 groups, resource-moderate zone, dispersed spawn. Must find each other.
Stress-test runs: 4 Scintillae in a harsh biome. Open sandbox: 30 in a valley with rivers on three sides. The starting condition is part of the experiment design.
Perception
No knowledge that wasn't earned
Proximity detection
Entity awareness within local bounds only.
Environmental sampling
Resource smell, temperature gradient, sound approximation.
Directional awareness
Which way something is, not just that it exists.
Fog of war
Explored cells only. Confidence decays. Shared locations pass through social Continuity.
No global awareness. No map of Cardinal.
Needs system
They're decay functions
| Need | Failure consequence |
|---|---|
| Hunger | Health degradation, cognitive slowdown |
| Thirst | Faster health degradation |
| Temperature | Hypothermia / heat exhaustion |
| Fatigue | Reduced perception, impaired action |
| Health | Death at zero |
| Safety | Elevated fear state, avoidance behavior |
| Fear | Decision distortion, flight responses |
Needs aren't philosophical. Ignore them long enough and the Scintilla stops. A fatigued, fearful Scintilla makes worse decisions about food. A Scintilla with zero stamina cannot run from a predator — they can only wait.
Continuity
Weights, not story
Curiosity, aggression, sociability, trust (per-relationship), fear, loyalty, ambition. Noise applied to decision-making under pressure.
Tendencies shift through experience. Slowly, not dramatically. The Substrate reads and writes this state each tick.
Survival is the selection pressure. There's no score. There's no win state. There's just the next generation, or there isn't.