cc-agentic-framework 1.14.1

package/framework/modules/writer/skills/writer/building-worlds/CONSISTENCY-PILLARS.md

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+# The Five Consistency Pillars
+
+These five pillars maintain reader trust and world believability. Violate them only intentionally and with explanation.
+
+---
+
+## Pillar 1: Magic Has Costs
+
+**Rule:** Every use of power requires payment. No free lunch.
+
+### Why This Matters
+- Creates stakes and tension
+- Forces meaningful choices
+- Prevents magic from trivializing problems
+- Makes success feel earned
+
+### Cost Categories
+
+| Category | Types | Story Function |
+|----------|-------|----------------|
+| **Physical** | Exhaustion, pain, injury, aging, death | Creates vulnerability windows |
+| **Mental** | Sanity, memory, personality change, madness | Long-term character consequences |
+| **Material** | Consumed components, rare ingredients | Economic stakes, scarcity plots |
+| **Social** | Reputation, relationships, isolation | Character development, moral weight |
+| **Temporal** | Time to cast, recovery periods, cooldowns | Tactical decisions, urgency |
+| **Moral** | Ethical compromise, corruption, guilt | Theme exploration, character arc |
+
+### The Cost Scaling Principle
+
+Costs should scale with power:
+
+| Power Level | Cost Level | Example |
+|-------------|------------|---------|
+| Minor | Negligible | Light spell → slight fatigue |
+| Moderate | Noticeable | Healing wound → exhaustion, needs rest |
+| Major | Significant | Resurrection → permanent sacrifice |
+| World-changing | Extreme | Stopping war → death or worse |
+
+### Consistency Check
+
+Before any magic use, verify:
+- [ ] Cost established previously or in-scene
+- [ ] Cost proportional to effect
+- [ ] Character actually pays the cost
+- [ ] Cost creates real constraint (not just flavor)
+- [ ] Same spell costs same each time
+
+### Anti-Pattern: The Meaningless Cost
+
+**Bad:**
+```
+She cast the healing spell and felt tired. Then she walked
+five miles to the next town and fought three bandits.
+```
+
+**Good:**
+```
+She cast the healing spell. The world grayed at the edges.
+When she woke, it was dark. Her legs wouldn't hold her.
+
+"Can you walk?" he asked.
+
+"Tomorrow. Maybe." She closed her eyes. The five miles
+to town would have to wait.
+```
+
+---
+
+## Pillar 2: Geography Matters
+
+**Rule:** Distance, terrain, and environment are real constraints.
+
+### Why This Matters
+- Creates realistic logistics
+- Enables meaningful journey narratives
+- Shapes culture and politics
+- Provides natural conflict sources
+
+### The Distance Rule
+
+Travel takes time. Be consistent.
+
+| Travel Type | Speed (miles/day) | Considerations |
+|-------------|-------------------|----------------|
+| Walking | 15-25 | Terrain, weather, fitness |
+| Horseback (sustained) | 25-35 | Horse care, rest stops |
+| Forced march | 30-40 | Exhaustion, casualties |
+| Ship (sail) | 50-100 | Wind, currents, coastline |
+| Caravan | 10-15 | Slowest member, cargo |
+
+**Calculate it:** If City A to City B is 300 miles, the journey is 10-20 days on foot, not "a few days later."
+
+### Terrain Effects
+
+| Terrain | Effect on Travel | Effect on Culture |
+|---------|------------------|-------------------|
+| Mountains | Slow, dangerous passes | Isolated valleys, defensible |
+| Desert | Water limits distance | Oasis settlements, traders |
+| Forest | Navigation difficult | Hidden communities, ambush |
+| River | Highway OR barrier | Trade centers at crossings |
+| Coast | Sea access | Fishing, naval power, trade |
+| Plains | Fast travel | Hard to defend, pastoral culture |
+
+### The Supply Question
+
+Armies and large groups need:
+- Food (people eat ~2lbs/day)
+- Water (people drink ~1 gallon/day)
+- Fodder for animals
+- Shelter or camping gear
+- Weapons maintenance
+
+**The Campaign Constraint:** An army can only go where it can be fed. This shapes military history.
+
+### Consistency Check
+
+Before any journey or military campaign:
+- [ ] Distance calculated reasonably
+- [ ] Time passed matches distance
+- [ ] Supplies addressed or explained
+- [ ] Terrain affects the journey
+- [ ] Weather mentioned if relevant
+- [ ] Same route takes same time each time
+
+### Anti-Pattern: The Teleporting Army
+
+**Bad:**
+```
+"The enemy army crossed the mountains in three days."
+
+[Reader notes: those same mountains took the heroes two weeks]
+```
+
+**Good:**
+```
+"The enemy army crossed the mountains in three days."
+
+"Impossible. That's two weeks of march, minimum."
+
+"They didn't march. They flew." He pointed upward. The dragons
+had changed everything.
+```
+
+---
+
+## Pillar 3: History Has Weight
+
+**Rule:** Past events cast long shadows. Consequences persist.
+
+### Why This Matters
+- Makes world feel lived-in
+- Provides motivation and conflict sources
+- Creates depth without exposition
+- Enables dramatic irony
+
+### Types of Historical Persistence
+
+| Category | Duration | Example |
+|----------|----------|---------|
+| **Physical** | Centuries | Ruins, modified landscapes, monuments |
+| **Political** | Generations | Borders, treaties, grudges, alliances |
+| **Cultural** | Long-lasting | Traditions, holidays, naming patterns |
+| **Personal** | Lifetimes | Family histories, inherited feuds |
+| **Linguistic** | Very long | Place names, old words, idioms |
+
+### The Ripple Effect Framework
+
+Every major historical event creates ripples:
+
+**Immediate (0-5 years):**
+- Direct survivors' trauma/triumph
+- Physical destruction/construction
+- Political reorganization
+- Economic disruption
+
+**Medium-term (5-50 years):**
+- Children raised with stories
+- Monuments and memorials
+- Laws changed in response
+- Cultural attitudes shift
+
+**Long-term (50+ years):**
+- Event becomes legend/history
+- Descendant identities form around it
+- Physical evidence weathers
+- Interpretations diverge
+
+### The Scar Test
+
+For any major historical event, identify:
+1. **Physical scars:** What changed in the landscape?
+2. **Political scars:** What borders/powers shifted?
+3. **Cultural scars:** What taboos/traditions emerged?
+4. **Personal scars:** What families were affected?
+
+If you can't identify at least one, the event hasn't been integrated.
+
+### Consistency Check
+
+For historical events referenced:
+- [ ] Timeline is consistent with other events
+- [ ] Visible evidence exists (or explained why not)
+- [ ] Cultural attitudes reflect the event
+- [ ] Characters act consistent with their relationship to history
+- [ ] Different groups remember differently (perspective)
+
+### Anti-Pattern: The Forgotten Apocalypse
+
+**Bad:**
+```
+"The Great War killed half the population twenty years ago."
+
+[City appears fully populated, prosperous, no visible effects]
+```
+
+**Good:**
+```
+The city was half-empty, even now. Twenty years wasn't enough
+to fill the houses the war had emptied. You could see it in
+the architecture—old elegant buildings chopped into apartments,
+workshops in what used to be ballrooms.
+
+The children born after had a look. Hard. Like they'd learned
+early that nothing was permanent.
+```
+
+---
+
+## Pillar 4: Cultures Have Logic
+
+**Rule:** Every custom, belief, and practice exists for a reason.
+
+### Why This Matters
+- Makes cultures feel real
+- Enables organic world-building
+- Prevents random "weirdness for weirdness"
+- Creates deeper understanding
+
+### The Origin Principle
+
+Every cultural element has an origin. Common sources:
+
+| Origin Type | Examples |
+|-------------|----------|
+| **Practical survival** | Don't eat poison fish → fish taboo |
+| **Historical trauma** | Invasion → xenophobia, defensive architecture |
+| **Resource scarcity** | Water shortage → sharing rituals, purity laws |
+| **Religious revelation** | Prophet's vision → dietary laws, holidays |
+| **Accident/coincidence** | King wore blue at victory → blue = good luck |
+| **Borrowed/adapted** | Learned from neighbors, adapted to fit |
+
+### The Logic Test
+
+For any custom, you should be able to answer:
+1. What need does this meet?
+2. What conditions created it?
+3. Why does it persist?
+4. What would make it change?
+
+**Note:** You don't need to explain this to readers. But you should know it.
+
+### Internal Logic vs. External Logic
+
+| Internal Logic | External Logic |
+|----------------|----------------|
+| Makes sense within the culture | Makes sense to outside observer |
+| "We do this because ancestors did" | "They do this because environment X" |
+| Characters believe this reason | Actual historical/practical cause |
+| May include myth/religion | Grounded in cause and effect |
+
+**Both should exist.** Characters have internal logic; the author knows external logic.
+
+### Consistency Check
+
+For cultural practices:
+- [ ] Can explain origin (even if characters don't know it)
+- [ ] Practice fits environment/history
+- [ ] Characters treat it as normal (not exotic to themselves)
+- [ ] Variations exist (regional, class, generational)
+- [ ] Practice has consistent rules
+
+### Anti-Pattern: The Inexplicable Taboo
+
+**Bad:**
+```
+"The Northern people never touch copper. Nobody knows why.
+It's just their weird custom."
+```
+
+**Good:**
+```
+"The Northern people never touch copper."
+
+"Religious thing?"
+
+"Practical. The copper in their rivers is toxic. Leaches into
+anything copper touches. They learned the hard way a few
+centuries back." She shrugged. "Now it's tradition. Younger
+generation probably doesn't even know why anymore."
+```
+
+---
+
+## Pillar 5: Power Has Limits
+
+**Rule:** No character, faction, or magic is omnipotent. Everyone has constraints.
+
+### Why This Matters
+- Creates believable conflict
+- Prevents "Why doesn't X just...?" questions
+- Enables meaningful opposition
+- Makes victories earned
+
+### Types of Power Limits
+
+| Limit Type | Description | Example |
+|------------|-------------|---------|
+| **Scope** | Can affect X but not Y | Fire mage can't affect water |
+| **Scale** | Works on individuals not armies | Healing one person takes all day |
+| **Knowledge** | Doesn't know how to do something | Ancient magic lost |
+| **Permission** | Not allowed by rules/society/magic | Forbidden magic has consequences |
+| **Resources** | Lacks materials/energy/people | Army needs food to march |
+| **Opposition** | Others actively prevent | Enemy mages counter spells |
+| **Personal** | Moral lines they won't cross | Won't kill children |
+| **Time** | Takes too long | Ritual needs a month |
+
+### The "Why Don't They Just..." Test
+
+For every powerful entity, answer these:
+
+1. **The Conquest Question:**
+   "Why doesn't [powerful faction] just conquer everyone?"
+
+2. **The Problem-Solving Question:**
+   "Why doesn't [powerful character] just solve [main conflict]?"
+
+3. **The Prevention Question:**
+   "Why doesn't [powerful faction] just prevent [conflict]?"
+
+If you can't answer, you have a power-limit problem.
+
+### Power Limit Examples
+
+| Powerful Entity | Limit Explanation |
+|-----------------|-------------------|
+| Ancient wizard | Knowledge gaps; some things forgotten |
+| Wealthy kingdom | Enemies would unite against aggression |
+| All-seeing seer | Sees possibilities, not certainties; paralyzed by choice |
+| Immortal elf | Patient to fault; moves too slowly |
+| Powerful god | Bound by rules of divinity; mortals must choose |
+
+### Consistency Check
+
+For powerful characters/factions:
+- [ ] Limits clearly established
+- [ ] Limits are meaningful (not easily bypassed)
+- [ ] Limits explain inaction on major problems
+- [ ] Limits are consistent (don't disappear when inconvenient)
+- [ ] Opponents have equivalent limits
+
+### Anti-Pattern: The Inexplicably Inactive Power
+
+**Bad:**
+```
+The wizard could destroy cities with a thought. He could read
+minds, teleport anywhere, and raise the dead. But he didn't
+help the heroes because he was "busy with other matters."
+```
+
+**Good:**
+```
+"Help us," she begged.
+
+The wizard's eyes were kind. And sad. "Child, do you know what
+I see when I look at the future? Every branch, every
+possibility. Every good outcome you'd celebrate. Every horror
+that follows. I know what happens if I intervene."
+
+"Then why—"
+
+"Because I also know what happens if I don't. And neither
+future is good. The choice must be yours. That's the only
+mercy I can offer. That the choice is yours."
+```
+
+---
+
+## The Consistency Audit
+
+Periodically review your world:
+
+### Per Chapter/Scene
+- [ ] Magic costs match established rules
+- [ ] Travel time matches distance
+- [ ] Characters act consistent with their history
+- [ ] Cultural practices make sense
+
+### Per Part/Arc
+- [ ] Timeline remains consistent
+- [ ] Power levels haven't crept
+- [ ] Established rules haven't bent
+- [ ] History is referenced appropriately
+
+### Per Book
+- [ ] All five pillars maintained
+- [ ] No unexplained exceptions
+- [ ] World feels coherent
+- [ ] New elements build on established ones
+
+---
+
+**Next:** See [GEOGRAPHY-HISTORY.md](./GEOGRAPHY-HISTORY.md) for designing physical worlds and timelines.