Rules
1. Purpose
This document defines the binding rules that govern the construction of ritual systems within the lab.
Its purpose is to ensure consistency, completeness, and enforceability across all ritual system instances, preventing partial specification, implicit assumptions, or selective application of constraints.
These rules are procedural and mandatory.
2. Definition
Rules are non-negotiable requirements that every ritual system instance must satisfy in order to be considered valid within the lab.
Rules do not describe content. They describe compliance conditions.
Violation of any rule renders a ritual system invalid until corrected.
3. Mandatory Dimension Declaration
Every ritual system must explicitly declare all mandatory design dimensions:
- Ritual Provenance
- Liturgy
- Language and Speech
- Atmosphere
- Instrumentation
- Structural Limits
- Genre Relations
- Symbolic Density
- Temporal Behavior
No dimension may be omitted. No dimension may be left implicit.
4. No Defaults Rule
Default values are forbidden.
Every dimension must be explicitly specified, even if the declaration is a prohibition (e.g. “symbolism prohibited”).
Silence, absence, or assumed neutrality do not constitute valid declarations.
5. Separation of Structure and Content
Structural documents must not contain:
- lyrics or ritual text
- style prompts
- musical notation
- aesthetic description
- narrative explanation
Content artifacts must not redefine structure.
Cross-contamination invalidates the affected document.
6. Constraint Precedence
When conflicts arise:
- Canon overrides all lab documents
- Construction framework overrides individual ritual systems
- Explicit constraints override implicit behavior
- Structural limits override stylistic preference
No exception mechanism is permitted.
7. Explicit Prohibition Rule
Anything not explicitly permitted is considered prohibited.
Permissions must be declared per dimension.
Assumed allowance constitutes drift.
8. Inheritance and Reuse
Ritual systems may reuse structural patterns, but inheritance must be explicit.
Implicit inheritance of:
- liturgical structure
- provenance bias
- language register
- temporal behavior
is forbidden.
Reuse without declaration constitutes violation.
9. Validation Requirement
Before generation, each ritual system must be validated for:
- complete dimension declaration
- internal consistency
- absence of prohibited content
- compliance with structural limits
Unvalidated systems must not be executed.
10. Enforcement
Rule enforcement is procedural, not interpretive.
When a violation is detected:
- execution is halted
- the violation is logged
- corrective action is required
No discretionary override is allowed.
11. Failure Conditions
This ruleset is considered failed if:
- rules are treated as guidelines
- violations are tolerated for convenience
- partial systems are executed
- enforcement is skipped or delayed
Failure requires immediate suspension of affected systems.
12. Systemic Role
These rules stabilize the ritual system construction process.
They ensure that ritual systems are complete, auditable, and resistant to drift before any content is produced.