world-bible

name	world-bible
description	Create and maintain a world bible that records canonical premises, geography, history, peoples, institutions, technology or magic, tone, terminology, and open questions as a usable production source of truth.

World Bible

Use when a fictional world needs durable shared canon across writing, design, art, gameplay, and future expansion.

Procedure

1. Define the world's core premise, thematic concerns, tone, audience boundaries, and the rules that most strongly shape daily life and conflict.
2. Organize canonical information by domains such as geography, history, cultures, factions, economy, religion, technology or magic, ecology, language, and institutions according to the project.
3. Distinguish hard canon, current working canon, rumor or in-world belief, and intentionally unresolved questions.
4. Record causal relationships so facts explain one another instead of becoming an encyclopedia of disconnected trivia.
5. Define terminology, naming conventions, calendars or units, maps, and cross-references needed by downstream creators.
6. Track chronology and major dependencies so additions do not silently contradict existing events or world rules.
7. Keep entries concise enough to use during production, linking deeper references rather than burying critical rules in prose.
8. Version meaningful canon changes and communicate downstream impacts to lore, level, art, narrative, and game-design owners.

Decision rules

• A world bible is a production source of truth, not a novel.
• Canon status must be distinguishable from in-world misinformation.
• Add detail when it changes stories, design, or player understanding, not merely to fill categories.
• Contradictions should be resolved or intentionally framed, not silently accumulated.

Quality gate

The bible is useful when creators can quickly answer recurring canon questions, foundational rules and causal relationships are clear, chronology and terminology stay consistent, uncertain material is labeled, and changes can be traced to affected production work.