# Content Architecture — Star Freight

> The delivery structure for systems. This is NOT lore dumping.

## World Structure

One star system: **the Threshold** — a dense, resource-rich system at the junction of five civilizations' territories. It's a crossroads, not a frontier. Everyone is here because the system is worth fighting over economically. The player starts on the fringe of this system, blacklisted from the human military sector, and has to work their way into the rest.

~20 stations across 5 cultural sectors, connected by ~40 space lanes of varying danger.

## The Five Civilizations

### 1. The Terran Compact (Human)

**Identity:** Humanity's colonial government in the Threshold. Bureaucratic, corporate-military, fractured internally between fleet command, corporate interests, and frontier settlers. The "default" culture — familiar but not friendly. This is who disgraced you.

**Gameplay role:** The establishment. Clean contracts, regulated markets, predictable prices. Safe but low-margin. The player's starting reputation is *negative* here because of the disgrace — Compact stations charge you surcharges, officials give you the cold shoulder, and military contracts are locked until you rehabilitate your name. The merchant path runs through here: clawing back Compact standing IS the redemption arc.

**Trade specialty:** Manufactured goods, processed alloys, medical supplies, military surplus. They import raw materials and exotic biologicals. Stable prices, small margins, high volume.

**Cultural mechanic: Paperwork.** The Compact runs on permits, licenses, and certifications. Want to haul medical cargo? Need a med-transport license (costs credits, requires standing). Want to dock at a military station? Need clearance. The bureaucracy is the obstacle and the reward — each permit you earn opens a new tier of contracts and goods. Crew members with Compact backgrounds can expedite paperwork.

**Combat style:** Organized. Compact patrols fight in formation, use coordinated tactics, and call for reinforcements. Compact bounty hunters are professional and well-equipped. You don't want to fight them — but if they're chasing you for smuggling, you might not have a choice.

**Stations (4):** Fleet hub (military, restricted), corporate trade station (main market), frontier outpost (rough, fewer regulations), orbital shipyard (repairs/upgrades, expensive).

---

### 2. The Keth Communion (Alien — Arthropod Collective)

**Identity:** A civilization of insectoid beings who operate through consensus and seasonal cycles. They're not a hive mind — individuals have personalities — but decisions are collective and tied to their biological calendar. They're builders, farmers, and engineers. Patient, observant, and slow to trust. Once you're in, you're *in* — Keth loyalty is deep. Offend the collective and every Keth port knows within days.

**Gameplay role:** The cultural depth test. Trading with the Keth is the most profitable in the system *if* you understand their customs. Their bio-engineered goods are in demand everywhere. But cultural missteps spread fast through the Communion — one mistake can lock you out of 4 stations simultaneously. Crew members with Keth backgrounds are essential for navigating their customs. The Keth are neutral on the merchant/pirate spectrum — they don't care what you do with other civilizations as long as you respect *them*.

**Trade specialty:** Bio-crystal, organic compounds, bio-engineered food, living materials. They produce things nobody else can grow. They import processed metals and technology — their biology is advanced but their engineering relies on trade. High-margin goods but culturally gated access.

**Cultural mechanic: Seasonal Protocols.** The Keth operate on a biological calendar — harvest, dormancy, spawning, emergence. Each season changes what they trade, how they negotiate, and what customs apply. During harvest, gift-giving opens doors. During dormancy, business slows and pushing deals is offensive. During spawning, outsiders are restricted from inner stations. During emergence, they're celebratory and generous. Knowing the calendar is money. Ignoring it is disaster.

**Combat style:** Swarming. Keth don't fight often, but when they do, they attack in coordinated groups with expendable drones screening for heavier units. Individual Keth combatants are fragile but fast. Their ships are organic-hulled — self-repairing over time but weak to energy weapons. Keth pirates don't exist (the Communion polices its own), but Keth bounty hunters pursue debts collectively.

**Stations (4):** Communion hub (seasonal market, elder council), nursery station (restricted during spawning, bio-goods), growth platform (agricultural output, food trade), relay node (transit hub, less formal customs).

---

### 3. The Veshan Principalities (Alien — Reptilian Feudal)

**Identity:** A feudal civilization of tall, cold-blooded reptilian beings organized into competing noble houses. Each Principality (house) controls stations and lanes in their sector. They're proud, martial, and obsessed with honor — but "honor" means something specific: debts paid, promises kept, strength demonstrated. They respect directness and despise deception. Internal house rivalries create opportunity for an outsider who plays the politics right.

**Gameplay role:** The combat/reputation interplay. The Veshan respect strength — fighting their pirates, winning their dueling challenges, and keeping your word earns standing fast. But their feudal structure means standing with one house can cost you with another. The player must navigate which houses to cultivate. The Veshan are the gateway to the best weapons and ship combat upgrades. On the pirate spectrum, the Veshan don't distinguish between "merchant" and "pirate" — they care about *honorable* vs *dishonorable*. A pirate who keeps their word is welcome. A merchant who lies is scum.

**Trade specialty:** Weapons, armor, ship combat systems, rare minerals from deep-system mining. They import food (their worlds are mineral-rich but barren), luxury goods, and bio-products from the Keth. High-value, high-risk goods. Veshan markets are volatile — house politics cause sudden price swings.

**Cultural mechanic: The Debt Ledger.** Every interaction with the Veshan creates a debt — given or owed. Sell them cargo below market? They owe you a favor. Accept their hospitality? You owe one. The debts are tracked and called in. Refusing to honor a debt is the worst offense. The Debt Ledger is a gameplay system: you accumulate favors and obligations with specific houses, and they become currency for access, contracts, and aid. Crew members with Veshan backgrounds understand which debts are safe to take.

**Combat style:** Duelist. Veshan fight with honor protocols — they issue challenges, accept surrenders, and respect worthy opponents. Their ships are heavy, slow, and hit hard. In ground combat, Veshan warriors favor melee and close-range — they close distance fast and hit like trucks. A defeated Veshan who was fought honorably may offer respect (standing boost). One who was ambushed or tricked will swear vengeance.

**Stations (4):** House Drashan citadel (martial, best weapons market), House Vekhari trade port (mercantile house, volatile market), House Solketh mining station (raw minerals, deep-system, dangerous lanes), neutral arena station (dueling, disputes settled, mercenary contracts).

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### 4. The Orryn Drift (Alien — Nomadic Cephalopod)

**Identity:** A civilization of boneless, color-shifting cephalopod beings who live on massive slow-moving ship-stations (drifts) rather than fixed ports. The Orryn are traders, information brokers, and intermediaries — they deal with everyone and judge no one. Their culture values adaptability, cleverness, and the flow of information. They're the galaxy's middlemen. They change color involuntarily based on mood, which means they can't lie face-to-face — so they've built an entire culture around radical honesty delivered through layers of context and implication.

**Gameplay role:** The black market and information hub. The Orryn trade with every civilization and maintain neutral standing by policy. They're where you go when nobody else will deal with you. Smuggling contracts, rare goods, cross-civilization brokerage, intelligence on trade routes and faction movements — the Orryn have it all, for a price. They don't care about merchant vs pirate — they care about *interesting* vs *boring*. An Orryn broker who finds you predictable will stop offering the good contracts. Their drifts move through the system on slow orbits, so their stations appear in different sectors over time — a unique mechanic.

**Trade specialty:** Information, brokered deals, rare cross-civilization goods, contraband, luxury items. They don't produce much — they move things between people who can't or won't deal with each other directly. Their margins come from knowing who needs what. Orryn prices are negotiable but their opening offers are high. Haggling is expected and respected.

**Cultural mechanic: The Telling.** Because Orryn can't hide emotion (their chromatophores betray them), their culture is built on radical transparency delivered through elaborate verbal framing. Business meetings begin with "the Telling" — both parties state their true position, needs, and constraints before negotiating. Skipping the Telling or lying during it is the gravest insult (and they'll know, because you're not a cephalopod — but your crew member might catch the social cues). Playing the Telling well — honest but strategically framed — earns standing. The Orryn respect a clever honest trader more than a generous dishonest one.

**Combat style:** Evasive and dirty. The Orryn avoid combat when possible — they'd rather pay, talk, or disappear. When forced to fight, they use ECM, decoys, jamming, and escape tactics. Orryn ships are fast, fragile, and covered in countermeasures. In ground combat, Orryn use environment manipulation — smoke, hacks, gravity tricks, disorientation. They fight to escape, not to win. Orryn pirates are rare but terrifying: they use information warfare to set traps, redirect patrols, and isolate targets.

**Stations (3 — mobile):** The Grand Drift (main market, information brokerage, largest), The Quiet Drift (smuggling, contraband, underworld contacts), The Scholar Drift (navigation data, maps, cultural archives, rare knowledge). All three move on slow orbital paths — their sector location shifts over the course of the game.

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### 5. The Sable Reach (Mixed — Outlaw Territory)

**Identity:** Not a civilization — a power vacuum. The Sable Reach is the unclaimed space between the four civilizations' territories: asteroid belts, dead stations, debris fields, and the ruins of a collapsed sixth civilization (the Ancestors, long dead, tech still valuable). It's where pirates base, outlaws hide, salvagers hunt, and desperate people end up. There's no government, no customs, no law. Multiple pirate factions, independent operators, and scavenger crews compete for territory and salvage.

**Gameplay role:** The pirate path's home turf and everyone's danger zone. The Sable Reach is where the pirate reputation spectrum lives. Operating here builds underworld standing, gives access to pirate factions, stolen goods, black market upgrades, and Ancestor salvage (the most valuable and dangerous tech in the game). The Reach is also the most dangerous area — pirate ambushes are common, there's no law enforcement, and the Ancestor ruins have their own hazards. For the merchant path, the Reach is a place you pass through nervously on shortcut routes. For the pirate path, it's home.

**Trade specialty:** Salvage, Ancestor artifacts, stolen goods, black market weapons, unregistered ship parts. Nothing is produced here — everything is found, stolen, or stripped from wrecks. Prices are chaotic and negotiation-dependent. The Reach is the only place to get Ancestor tech, which every civilization wants but won't officially trade for.

**Cultural mechanic: Reputation as Law.** There are no customs, no protocols, no permits. The only currency is your reputation among the outlaw factions. Are you known as someone who keeps deals? Who fights fair? Who double-crosses? The pirate factions have their own internal codes — some are honorable raiders (Robin Hood types), some are ruthless (take everything, leave nothing). Your standing with each faction determines who will trade with you, who will ambush you, and who will offer you a place at their table. Crew members from the Reach know which factions to trust.

**Combat style:** Chaotic and varied. Every pirate faction fights differently — the Ironjaw Syndicate uses brute-force boarding tactics, the Phantom Circuit uses hacking and system disruption, the Ancestor Cult fights with scavenged alien tech that's powerful but unpredictable. The Reach itself is hazardous — asteroid fields, radiation zones, and Ancestor defense systems that activate unpredictably.

**Stations (5 — informal):** Ironjaw Station (Syndicate base, brute-force pirates, bare-knuckle market), Circuit Haven (Phantom Circuit hideout, tech/hacking, information black market), Ancestor's Cradle (salvage hub near the biggest ruin field, Ancestor tech trade), Freeport (neutral ground, independent operators, the closest thing to a town), The Boneyard (ship graveyard, cheapest repairs in the system, dangerous to reach).

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## Inter-Civilization Dynamics

These relationships create the player's opportunity space. Every trade route between civilizations carries political weight.

| | Compact | Keth | Veshan | Orryn | Sable Reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Compact** | — | Trade partners (Compact needs bio-goods, Keth needs tech) | Cold war (border disputes, proxy conflicts) | Tolerated (useful but distrusted) | Hostile (active enforcement) |
| **Keth** | Trade partners | — | Wary (Veshan aggression, but Keth food exports needed) | Friendly (Orryn respect Keth customs) | Minimal contact (Keth avoid lawlessness) |
| **Veshan** | Cold war | Wary but dependent | — (internal house rivalries) | Useful (Orryn broker house disputes) | Complicated (some houses hire Reach pirates as proxies) |
| **Orryn** | Tolerated | Friendly | Useful | — (neutral by policy) | Business (Orryn trade everywhere) |
| **Sable Reach** | Hostile | Avoided | Complicated | Business | — (internal faction wars) |

**Key tensions that create player decisions:**
- Hauling Keth bio-goods to Veshan space is profitable but politically loaded during their periodic disputes
- The Compact wants Ancestor tech but won't officially deal with the Reach — they need middlemen (you)
- Veshan houses hire Reach pirates as proxies against each other — running these contracts is lucrative but burns Compact standing
- The Orryn broker deals between everyone, but their prices mean you can cut them out for better margins — at the cost of their goodwill and intelligence
- The Compact's enforcement of the Reach border creates smuggling opportunities that every other civilization quietly benefits from

## Mission / Encounter Families

| Family | Core Mechanic | Where | Combat? | Est. Count |
|--------|---------------|-------|---------|-----------|
| Trade run | Buy/sell/margin calculation | Any → Any | Lane risk | ~30 variants |
| Bounty contract | Track + capture/kill | Any sector | Ship and/or ground | ~15 targets |
| Smuggling run | Contraband transport, avoid patrols | Compact ↔ Reach usually | Evasion, sometimes combat | ~12 routes |
| Escort job | Protect NPC cargo through dangerous lane | Any sector | Ship combat | ~10 variants |
| Faction errand | Deliver message/item, negotiate deal | Within a civilization | Varies | ~20 (4 per civ) |
| Cultural event | Navigate custom, attend festival, honor debt | Keth/Veshan/Orryn stations | Rarely | ~15 events |
| Salvage run | Enter Ancestor ruins, extract tech | Sable Reach | Hazards + combat | ~8 sites |
| Pirate raid | Attack a target for loot (pirate path) | Any lane | Ship + boarding | ~10 targets |
| Proxy war job | Run ops for a Veshan house against another | Veshan sector | Varies | ~8 contracts |
| Investigation | Follow leads about your disgrace | Cross-system | Varies | ~10 story beats |
| Crew loyalty | Personal mission for a crew member | Their home sector | Varies | 1 per crew (4–6) |

## Pacing Curve

**Early game (hours 1–5):** Fringe operations. You're broke, blacklisted, working cheap jobs around Freeport and the edges of Keth space. Learning the cultures by stumbling through them. First crew member recruited. First pirate encounter. First taste of the Reach.

**Mid game (hours 5–15):** The system opens up. You've built standing with 1–2 civilizations. You can access better contracts, restricted goods, factional work. The pirate/merchant spectrum starts to diverge meaningfully. Veshan house politics pull you in. The disgrace investigation heats up — someone doesn't want the truth found. Crew loyalty missions become available.

**Late game (hours 15–22):** High-stakes operations. Running Ancestor tech between civilizations. Brokering cross-faction deals (or sabotaging them). The conspiracy behind your disgrace connects to the inter-civilization power balance. Your reputation is strong enough that factions actively court or oppose you. Final crew loyalty missions lock in.

**Endgame (hours 22–25):** The truth comes out. The player's position on the spectrum determines which civilizations back them, which oppose them, and what "resolution" looks like. Multiple endings based on reputation portfolio across all 5 factions.

## Narrative Escalation

1. **Personal:** You're surviving. Taking any job. Learning who you can trust.
2. **Local:** You've got standing. Factions notice you. Rivals appear. The disgrace investigation reveals the conspiracy was deliberate.
3. **Political:** Your actions shift the balance between civilizations. The Compact/Veshan cold war is heating up. Someone framed you because you were close to something that threatened the power structure.
4. **Systemic:** The conspiracy is bigger than one disgraced pilot. The Ancestor ruins contain something that could shift the balance of power in the Threshold permanently. Every faction wants it. You're the only one positioned to broker — or seize — the outcome.

## Cast Roles

| Character | Civilization | Narrative Role | Mechanical Role | Arc |
|-----------|-------------|---------------|-----------------|-----|
| Player | Terran (disgraced) | Protagonist | Captain — combat leader, final decisions | Disgrace → redemption or reinvention |
| TBD — Keth navigator | Keth | Cultural lens for Keth, estranged from home | Navigator — route bonuses, Keth customs | Exile → reconciliation or independence |
| TBD — Veshan fighter | Veshan | Honor culture mirror, questions player's choices | Fighter — frontline combat, Veshan debt ledger | Debt of honor → resolution |
| TBD — Orryn broker | Orryn | Information source, morally flexible | Tech/face — hacking, negotiation, Orryn contacts | Radical honesty vs survival |
| TBD — Reach mechanic | Sable Reach | Underworld connection, pragmatic survivor | Engineer — ship repairs, Reach faction knowledge | Outlaw → finding a place |
| TBD — Compact defector | Terran | Insider knowledge, guilt over the system | Medic — healing, Compact bureaucracy navigation | Loyalty to institution vs person |
| TBD — wildcard | Any | Late-game recruit, tied to the conspiracy | Specialist — unique combat + story access | Revelation |

## Faction Logic

Each civilization has internal factions that subdivide reputation:

- **Compact:** Fleet Command (military), Corporate Board (trade), Frontier Council (settlers) — the player's disgrace is a Fleet issue, not corporate or frontier
- **Keth:** The Communion is unified externally but has seasonal political shifts — elder councils rotate by season
- **Veshan:** Houses Drashan (martial), Vekhari (mercantile), Solketh (mining) — standing is per-house
- **Orryn:** The three Drifts operate semi-independently — Grand (mainstream), Quiet (underworld), Scholar (knowledge)
- **Sable Reach:** Ironjaw Syndicate (brute force), Phantom Circuit (tech/hacking), Ancestor Cult (relic hunters), independents

## Key Branching Points

1. **First pirate job** — taking or refusing the first Reach contract sets the early-game tone
2. **Veshan house allegiance** — committing to a house in the proxy wars locks out the others
3. **Keth seasonal crisis** — a spawning-season emergency forces a choice between Keth loyalty and profit
4. **Compact rehabilitation offer** — Fleet Command offers to clear your record IF you spy on the Orryn. Accept (merchant path accelerator, betrayal cost) or refuse.
5. **The Ancestor discovery** — what you do with the game-changing Ancestor tech in the late game determines the ending
6. **Crew ultimatums** — crew members from conflicting civilizations force choices when inter-civ tensions peak

## Replay Structure

No NG+. Replayability comes from:
- Different reputation paths (merchant vs pirate vs balanced)
- Different Veshan house allegiances
- Different crew compositions (each crew member opens different civilization access)
- The disgrace investigation has multiple resolution paths
- The Ancestor discovery has 3–4 outcomes depending on who you give it to (or keep it)

## Content Reuse Doctrine

**Hand-authored:** Crew loyalty missions, investigation story beats, key faction events, cultural customs, NPC dialogue trees for named characters.

**Systemic (Portlight engine):** Trade prices, lane encounters, pirate ambushes, patrol checks, weather/hazard generation, NPC standing-aware greetings, consequence-driven encounters.

**Hybrid:** Bounty targets (hand-authored personality + systemic combat), cultural events (hand-authored custom + systemic calendar triggering), faction errands (hand-authored premise + systemic reputation gates).

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## Unresolved Questions

- How many named NPCs per civilization? Portlight has 134 across 20 ports. Same density?
- How many trade goods total? Per-civilization exclusives + universal goods?
- How does the Ancestor tech work mechanically? Ship upgrades? Combat abilities? Trade goods? All three?
- How many pirate captains in the Reach? Portlight has 8 named captains — same scale?
- How mobile are the Orryn drifts? Do they move on a fixed schedule or event-driven?
- What does the Compact rehabilitation arc look like mechanically? Standing thresholds + specific missions?
- How many total crew members can you have? Portlight has 10 companions — 6–7 feels right for the scope with deeper loyalty arcs.

## Contradictions Discovered

- "5 deep civilizations" vs "medium scope" — this doc defines substantial depth per civ. The Portlight engine handles the systemic layer, but hand-authored content (customs, named NPCs, loyalty missions) still needs budgeting. Content Budget Ledger must track this.
- "Sable Reach is not a civilization" but it has the most stations (5) — it's the largest area by content because it contains multiple pirate factions. This might need trimming, or the Reach stations should be smaller/simpler than civilization stations.
- "Orryn drifts move" is a cool mechanic but adds simulation complexity. Must decide if this is worth the engineering cost or if it's a luxury feature for the Cut Ledger.

## What Must Be Proven Next

- System Laws: how reputation, cultural knowledge, and the Debt Ledger actually work as mechanics
- Numbers Ledger: trade good prices per civilization, margin targets, crew costs
- Economy proof: 3 trade runs across different civilizations showing how cultural standing affects margins
- One Veshan Debt Ledger interaction walked through beat by beat
- One Keth seasonal protocol interaction walked through beat by beat
