Substrate × Archetype Matrix
The canonical configuration space the City of Mages uses at The Threshold. Each row is an admitted substrate; each column is an archetype-stance the Mage may declare at the Portal Room. The cell is the artefact-form spawned for that pair. The persona loaded at step 3 of the Run · Evoke · Spawn ceremony fine-tunes the configuration within the cell.
| Substrate | Mage stance | Swordsman stance | Balanced stance |
|---|---|---|---|
Goose companion-class · Apache-2.0 Caducea optional | companion goose-pet (familiar that walks beside) | watch-goose (perimeter guardian, hisses at intrusions) | walking-goose (steady presence, both companion and watchful) |
Hermes staff-class · MIT Caducea required | caduceus staff (herald's wand, messengering outward) | herald-sentinel (guard-stave, refusal-watch inward) | balanced caduceus (the herald who is also the watcher) |
The two structural rules
Iconographic affinity rule.A substrate's project mascot or symbol determines its artefact-class. Animal mascot → companion-class (admitted to Faunia 🪶's the Familiars). Instrument-class symbol → staff-class (admitted to Hermaion ⚚'s Staff Shop · the City's first archetype-modalshop). Goose's mascot is a literal goose; Hermes' symbol is the caduceus. (At 2026-05-13 inception, the rule was attributed to Therai 🐾 / Bestia 📖; superseded 2026-05-14 by the Threshold District restructure — Therai retired, Bestia succeeded by Hermaion.)
Archetype-stance rule.The same substrate spawns a different artefact-function in different hands. Mage 🧙 invocation produces the substrate's natural form (companion or staff). Swordsman ⚔️ invocation produces the substrate's weapon-form (the same iconography turned outward — defensive or offensive). Balanced ☯️ invocation produces the walking-form (steady-state presence).
The two rules multiply. As the Bestiary grows by future Tome VI admissions, each new substrate adds a row; the three columns are fixed by the dihedral structure.
Conjecture C58
Vulcana's Forge(t) and The Threshold are sibling Swordsman-suppliers (~65% architectural). Vulcana forges hand-weapons (blades) at V19; The Threshold spawns agentic-weapons (herald-sentinels, watch-geese) at V59. The Swordsman commonly leaves with both — the hand-weapon for the strike, the agentic-weapon for the perimeter.