The user guide and project scope: what Demiurge makes, in the order it makes it.
This is the guide to the whole project. Its sections follow the order in which Demiurge builds a world: first the principles and the scales of space and time, then the star system, the planet and its geology, the surface, the land, life and its history, intelligence, peoples and races, culture, the present-day world, realms, languages, game statistics, the output, the two defaults, and the framework that joins the modules.
Each section opens with its status. Built means it is working and tested in the current build; partial means some of what the project aims at is done. Where something is not built yet, the section says so under a Still to build heading, so that the scope is as plain as the progress.
The text is the project’s own working document, revised as the project is; the technical detail lives in the module specifications it names. Use the search box to find a topic.
- 1PrinciplesBuilt
- 2The scales of spacePartial
The sea has regions and zones in two layers (surface and floor). Large lakes have a rim and a freshwater middle. Rivers and ridgelines are barrier zones . See Geography a
- 3The scales of timePartial
- 4Cosmic foundations: the star systemBuilt
Impacts ( src/solar-system/impacts.ts , data/impacts.json ), built 20 October ( Decisions Log §38): impacts belong to the solar-system model and are worked out when the s
- 5Planetary formation and geologyBuilt
The table of version 1 stands: accretion, core, first crust, bombardment, outgassing, oceans, continents, plate tectonics that begin, rift, weld and end, supercontinents
- 6Surface, climate and waterPartial
Decided 19 October, built 20 October ( Decisions Log §3, §10). Every calculation works in kelvin , from the star to the culture module: the surface, the geography’s cells
- 7Geography: the land in detailBuilt
Zones from a lattice of 25 km² tiles in 15 kinds of ground; rivers divide the ground; barrier zones; habitability; subzones. Unchanged from version 1.
- 8Life: its originBuilt
Conditions for life on every planet and moon, the origin as an integrated hazard, the chain of later steps, the life presets ( default , common , rare ), and galactic haz
- 9Biodiversity and evolutionPartial
Classification is as in version 1: no fixed categories, rank earned by divergence, groups recorded by designation.
- 10IntelligencePartial
Built: WT’s intellect tree as a chain of traits: spatial memory, extended juvenile period, long lifespan, cooperative breeding, social cognition, vocal apparatus and lear
- 11Peoples and racesPartial
Six races, each one definition read by three modules: species (culture), prefers (where it begins), body (RPG and magic), language (body plan or a fixed preset).
- 12Culture and civilisationBuilt, with gaps
The core of version 1 stands: ways of life, 144 technologies (was 138), deposits, competence and corruption, the strains of decline, fortification, states, rulers and rul
- 13The present-day worldBuilt
WT Step 15’s present-day world is now produced: the largest states with their governance, diplomacy and conflicts; learning by field (energy, communication, transport, me
- 14Realms and settlementsBuilt, with gaps
Realms grown on the map or from the culture history; districts read from their zones; changing who holds what; natural barriers and crossings; settlements as subzones. Ne
- 15Language and namingPartial
Phonetics, morphology, names and piped languages as in version 1. New, all built:
- 16RPG adaptationPartial
The world is converted into statistics by a profile .
- 17Output, export and interfacePartial
Character and creature sheets, virtual-tabletop formats, printable maps (still the blocky 2 000-cell grid), zone- and region-scale maps of rivers, realms and settlements,
- 18ModesRedesigned 19 October; partly built
The default is a generated world that evolves naturally , which the user follows in real time and can pause to look into any part in detail. At the start the user chooses
- 19Framework, localisation, performance and the desktop appBuilt
Decided 19 October: the release is a downloadable desktop application . Needed: