The System
The System and The Tower are two distinct game-lore concepts.
The Tower is topography: Tiers, Biomes, Locations, and the Bounties that the Tower passively issues for actions taken across that topography. See tower.md.
The System is the substrate of growth and content: Leveling, the Emergence of Monsters, Skills, Loot, and Relics. The System governs how Ascenders accumulate power, how the world generates challenges, and how the artifacts of play come into existence.
Neither is supernatural. Both are matter-of-fact features of the world the Ascenders inhabit.
Scope (provisional)
Section titled “Scope (provisional)”The Tower’s domain:
- Tiers and the topography that contains them
- Biomes that classify Tier-level character
- Locations within Tiers (taxonomy still open canon; see ADR-011 audit notes)
- Tower Bounties (see bounties.md)
The System’s domain:
- Leveling and growth dynamics
- Monster emergence and difficulty scaling
- Skills (Combat Skills, Utility Skills — see relics.md for the Combat-vs-Service tradeoff)
- Loot generation
- Relics (see relics.md)
Skills
Section titled “Skills”Skills are the active capabilities of an Ascender. They fall into three categories: Active, Passive, and Reactive.
Skill categories
Section titled “Skill categories”Active Skills are deliberately invoked by the Ascender. They require an intentional action and consume a resource (typically Charge) when used.
Passive Skills are always-on modifiers that reshape how other abilities function or how the Ascender interacts with the world. They do not require activation and do not consume resources directly.
Reactive Skills trigger automatically in response to specific conditions. They are the building block of Broken Builds: a Reactive Skill can fire when another Skill fires, creating chains and loops that the Tower’s verification layers must check for validity.
Acquisition channels
Section titled “Acquisition channels”Ascenders acquire Skills through three channels. Two grant Skills directly; one contributes indirectly through raw XP.
System-granted on Level-up. When an Ascender gains a Level, The System offers a selection of Skills drawn from a pool. The available pool depends on the Ascender’s Archetype, which is locked from the start. System-granted Skills are always Combat Skills. The System does not grant Utility Skills through Level-up.
Relic-carried. A Relic may carry one or more Skills as part of its properties. Equipping the Relic makes those Skills available to the Ascender. Relic-carried Skills can be Combat or Utility, depending on the Relic’s design. Relic-carried Skills are locked upon the Relic’s creation and cannot be altered.
Trained from other Ascenders or NPCs. Training does not grant Skills directly. It yields raw XP, which contributes to Level gain and thus indirectly to System-granted Skills. The project does not currently track Skill Proficiency as a separate stat.
Skill permanence and evolution
Section titled “Skill permanence and evolution”Skills acquired by an Ascender are permanent. They cannot be unlearned. Instead, Skills evolve through upgrades at milestone Levels (5, 10, 15, and so on). Each upgrade offers options for more specific focuses, producing a large variety of Skill expressions from a common base.
This permanence and evolution system applies to Ascender-acquired Skills. Relic-carried Skills do not evolve; they remain fixed as granted at Relic creation.
Restrictions by channel
Section titled “Restrictions by channel”| Channel | Combat | Utility | Grants Skill directly |
|---|---|---|---|
| System Level-up | Yes | No | Yes |
| Relic-carried | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Training | — | — | No (grants raw XP) |
This partition creates the structural basis for the Combat-versus-Service tradeoff (see relics.md Combat versus Service tradeoff). Hybrid builds are possible through Relics that carry Utility Skills, but an Ascender cannot receive Utility Skills from The System on Level-up, nor acquire Skills directly through Training.
Connection to Domain Primitives
Section titled “Connection to Domain Primitives”For the Simulation’s implementation, each Skill — regardless of category or channel — is modeled with three fields:
- Triggers: the condition that causes the Skill to execute
- Conditions: additional predicates that must hold for the effect to apply
- Effects: the mechanical consequence of the Skill’s execution
These fields are defined in the Domain Primitives layer (HCWS-820.1).
Open canonical questions
Section titled “Open canonical questions”- How does The System present itself in-world? Is it an impersonal force, a perceived mechanic, or something Ascenders directly interact with?
- Where does The System originate? Is it a property of the world itself, distinct from but parallel to The Tower?
- What is the relationship between The System and The Tower? Coexistent, independent, layered, derived?
- Are there other distinct in-world systems beyond The Tower and The System?
- What governs Monster emergence — density, level scaling per Tier, spawn triggers?
- Reactive Skill chain depth and limits: deferred until Simulation results inform whether hard limits, soft limits, or pure Tower verification are appropriate.