Game 1 World Hooks
Scope
This file is the exposure table for universe-level world facts that are observable inside Game 1's Shielded Zone (Wardhearts and Nexuses, the Ancient Shield, demon gates and gate scarring, taint fields and corruption, demon presence, the Afterwar wound, the Demon King remains taxonomy as it surfaces locally, the false-king and Crownrot patterns as they manifest politically). Per pr-file-conventions.md, this file MAY use revealed for in-Zone observables — what the player can see and understand directly during play. Cosmological mechanism behind a revealed effect remains capped at hinted in this table; mechanism-level entries belong in lh-game1-cosmology-hooks.md. The false-king / heart-fragment fact may reach hinted early and revealed only as a deliberate late-game political reveal.
Exposure table
ul-* fact reference | Fact summary | Game 1 exposure tier | Where it surfaces in Game 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — Wardhearts suppress demon-origin corruption in their local area | The starting Nexus / Wardheart creates a pocket of reduced corruption | revealed | Player observes the safe-zone vs tainted-zone contrast directly from Act 0 onward |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — a Nexus is the mortal-world manifestation of a Wardheart site | Nexus structures (ruins, stones, shrines) are visible at the anchor | revealed | The starting Nexus and other in-Zone Nexus sites are visited and explored |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — a damaged or dormant Wardheart still suppresses corruption weakly | Damaged Nexus sites are still safer than their surroundings | revealed | Player observes that even damaged Nexus sites in the Zone are habitable rims around tainted territory |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — an active stable Wardheart creates a Shielded Zone | The Zone exists because the anchor exists | revealed | The Zone's boundary is observable; its dependency on the anchor is shown by failure as the anchor weakens |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — the Ancient Shield is the sustained ward-field anchored by a Crown-Wardheart | The Zone's safety depends on a damaged major anchor | hinted | Ward scholars' notes; the failing shield is observable but its anchor nature is suspected, not stated |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — Wardhearts exist at multiple scales | There are lesser Wardhearts and Crown-Wardhearts | hinted | Player finds smaller damaged Nexus sites in exploration; comparison with the Crown anchor reveals scale |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — the Wardheart cosmological mechanism (leyline anchor, divine-adjacent stabilization) | What Wardhearts are at the metaphysical level | hidden | Not surfaced in Game 1 — the game shows effects, not mechanism |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — Wardhearts can be created by gods, vessels, or mortal builders | The variation in Wardheart origin | hinted | Different Nexus sites in the Zone bear different ritual marks and architectural styles; origin is not narrated |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — the Crown-Wardheart anchors the Zone's defender office | The Zone's nominal defender holds office at the anchor | hinted | NPC dialogue references the public office of defender without explaining the cosmological link or settling the title labels |
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md — whether mortals can create new Wardhearts without divine assistance | Mortal-only Wardheart creation | hidden | Not surfaced in Game 1 |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — demons come through gates | Gates are visible as corruption sources | revealed | Demon-gate features are in-Zone observable threats from Act 0 |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — demon gate closure requires world-law-correct methods | Simple assault disperses demons but does not close the gate | hinted | Attempting to fight at a gate without a proper closure ritual reopens the threat; NPC commentary references this |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — demons are real existential enemies, not misunderstood | Demon presence is hostile, not neutral | revealed | Demon encounters are uniformly hostile; no Game 1 content presents demons as victims or neutral parties |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — demon essence is not destroyed by mundane force | Mundane weapons disperse but do not kill | hinted | Player observes that ordinary weapons drive demons off temporarily but the threat returns; scholar fragments hint at why |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — demon ranks form a hierarchy | Visible difference between minor demons and stronger demon types | revealed | Player encounters distinct demon classes; rank distinctions are observable |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — Demon Knight rank exists | Sub-King demon lords exist | hinted | A late-game encounter or NPC report references a Demon Knight without committing the term as canon vocabulary |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — abandoned gates leave scars: taint fields, wound regions, corrupted leyline segments | Gate scarring is visible across the Zone | revealed | Player observes taint fields and corrupted terrain at and around former gate sites |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — the demon-origin layer exists | Demons "come from somewhere else" | hinted | Occasional NPC reference; in-Zone observables show the gate, not the layer behind it |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — Afterwar wound-fields exist | Old, deep corruption fields persist from the prior Cycle peak | revealed | Player encounters wound-fields that predate the recent demon wave |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — remains are not inert; they corrupt and influence the surrounding world | Wound-fields are active threats, not historical scars | revealed | Player observes that wound-fields attract lesser demons and degrade nearby ward systems |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — heart-fragment / false-king pattern exists | Something of the old Demon King may have anchored to a mortal vessel | hinted (early) → revealed (late political arc only) | Early acts: anomalous corruption behaviour near the political centre; late acts: confrontation reveals the false-king's nature. See gl-game1-false-king.md |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — Heartbound demons (lesser demons controlled through a stolen heart-fragment) | Some lesser demons in the Zone behave with unusual coherence | hinted | Mid-to-late acts: demons near a heart-fragment behave with unusual coordination; the binding mechanism is suspected, not stated |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — Crownrot is the recurring pattern of demonic corruption of authority structures | The Zone's polity shows authority-rot symptoms | hinted (early) → revealed (late political arc) | Early: signs of Crownrot in governance and ritual decay; late: the connection to demonic corruption becomes legible |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — the Afterwar period follows a Demon King defeat with remains still active | Game 1 is set in an Afterwar, not at peak Cycle | hinted | NPC commentary: "we stopped the worst, but the wounds remain"; never committed as cosmological framing |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — Shielded Zones sustain a public ruler-defender office | The Zone has a public office of defender tied to holding the line | revealed | NPC dialogue and political structures openly reference the office; specific title labels vary and are not treated as settled canon |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — the public ruler-defender may also be the false-king | The defender role can be held by a Crownrot-affected ruler | hinted (early) → revealed (late political arc only) | Early: signs that the public defender's behaviour is not what it appears; late: the political reveal lands. See gl-game1-false-king.md |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — remains taxonomy beyond heart-fragments | The full set of remains types | hidden | Not surfaced in Game 1 — only heart-fragment-class effects are observable |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — whether a remains-bearing vessel can be freed without destruction | The redemption-versus-destruction question | hidden | Not surfaced in Game 1 |
ud-world-law.md — True Harm requires divine-touched, ritually-prepared, or runic-worked methods | The category-level structure of effective anti-demon methods | hinted | Player discovers through play that ordinary weapons fail and that some materials and rituals work; categories are surfaced obliquely, not as a published list |
ud-world-law.md — specific True Harm material instances | Which specific metals, rituals, divine-touched weapons exist | referenced once | Game 1 content surfaces specific materials through discoverable activities (rune research, shrine excavation, ward-craft work); each material is encountered through play, not narrated upfront |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — Afterwar polity patterns; surviving safer-side nations hold defensive lines | Surviving safer-side nations hold defensive lines; their banners, coins, maps, and rumours surface in the Zone before any direct envoy contact | revealed | Player encounters banners, coins, map fragments, and survivor rumours from Acts 0–4; direct envoys arrive at Province/Crown scale (Acts 5–6). See gl-game1-surviving-nations.md |
ul-demon-king-remains.md — Afterwar period state | Two-thirds to three-quarters of the continent is blighted | revealed | Player observes the blighted landscape directly from Act 0; surfaced in ../local/gl-afterwar-state.md |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — gate mechanics; demon essence | Spawn pools produce lesser demons from local taint matter without an open gate | hinted | Scholar NPCs note that closed spawn sites continue to produce without a gate; the player observes recurrence; surfaced in ../local/gl-game1-demon-remains.md and ../local/gl-afterwar-state.md |
ul-demon-cosmology.md — gate types | Residual gates in the Zone are lesser-grade only — no Royal Gate is active | hinted | NPC commentary on gate-scale distinctions; no in-Zone gate approaches the prior peak's Royal Gate scale; surfaced in ../local/gl-game1-demon-remains.md and ../local/gl-afterwar-state.md |
ud-world-law.md — mundane force rule applied to Earth tools | The MC's Earth-derived tools follow the True Harm rule (disperse but not destroy) | revealed | Player discovers through play that Earth-derived tools fail to destroy demon essence; scholar commentary; surfaced in ../local/gl-mc-earthborn-backgrounds.md |
ul-hero-calling.md — misaligned Calling / Wardheart-pull pattern; ud-world-law.md — mundane force rule | Earthborn background selection shapes traits, affinities, starting items, and play-style biases | revealed | Background selection at character creation; trait/affinity effects observed through play; surfaced in ../local/gl-mc-earthborn-backgrounds.md |
ul-hero-calling.md — Calling history; old order of Called heroes | Calling Shrines and hero-road traces are in-Zone discoverable lore sites | revealed | Player discovers shrine sites and hero-road waymarkers; they produce lore fragments rather than generic mechanical bonuses; surfaced in ../local/gl-game1-old-hero-traces.md |
ul-cosmology.md — super-world structure; wards across seas | Impassable ocean — no navigable route reaches another continent in Game 1 | revealed | Player encounters no navigable ocean route; NPC dialogue explains conditions (wardless seas, broken lighthouse chains, abyssal demons, navigational fog) without cosmological detail; surfaced in ../local/gl-game1-cosmology-traces.md and ../local/gl-afterwar-state.md |
Cross-references
This file references the following universe-scope sources:
ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.mdul-demon-cosmology.mdul-demon-king-remains.mdul-hero-calling.mdul-cosmology.mdud-world-law.mdpr-file-conventions.md(for the Game 1 reveal-tier ceiling rule)
Mechanism-level entries (cosmological mechanisms that sit behind revealed effects) live in lh-game1-cosmology-hooks.md. A reveal of a surface effect in this table does not authorize a reveal of the underlying cosmology; the mechanism remains at hinted or hidden per the cosmology hooks table.