Skip to content
WalkRPG Wiki

Defining image — `Mapa, która się przepisuje`

D-012: Defining image — Mapa, która się przepisuje

The defining cosmic image of WalkRPG is the self-rewriting map (Mapa, która się przepisuje / The Map That Rewrites Itself) — a pocket-format Cech map mid-rewrite, with ink that has not finished drying, double-printed lines where roads moved overnight, region names half-written or written twice. The Walker is implied / absent; the viewer of the image is the Walker.

ENG handle: defining-image.self-rewriting-map. Research artifact at ops/research/defining-image.md; local decision log at ops/decisions/2026-05-19-d012-defining-image.md.

Three candidates considered on a cause / consequence / response axis: A — self-rewriting map (consequence — RATIFIED); B — four books in the void (cause — rejected, borderline on Trop 8 + Trop 2); C — seals at the borders (response — rejected, borderline on Trop 6).

Visual language (canon-locked):

  • Warm parchment background (#f0ece3 or aged variant per design-system §1.2).
  • 18th-century Polish surveyor’s hand. Restrained ornamentation. No high-fantasy flourish.
  • Three rendering techniques: double-printed lines (current + ghost-blue alpha), half-erased typography on region names, edge-of-frame drift (corner curls, grid extends past frame and re-enters offset).
  • Six region color tokens as accent washes per region (Plenny gold, Frostlands blue, Mglica fog-green, Bęber rust, Targosie coral, Łuk Przejścia violet).
  • POV: first-person cartographic. The viewer holds the map’s edges.
  • Forbidden: no central figure, no magical glow, no cosmic background.

The specific illustration is re-illustratable across major versions. The visual language above is canon-locked.

Two-scale strategy:

  • Cover-art scale — full self-rewriting map (cinematic).
  • Icon scale — Cech ring motif over a fragment of moved coastline (new entry icon.defining-image-fragment in design-system §4.2; NOT a re-use of icon.cech-seal).

Reasoning: strongest brand differentiator (no other property foregrounds a self-rewriting map), best fit to D-006 Filar 2 (walking-as-mapping), cleanest forbidden-trope record (passes all 11), best scalability across aspect ratios, best color-token integration, lowest D-013 coupling.

Open-questions answered at ratification: (1) foundation.mdx tie-in passage deferred to D-013 authoring; (2) icon inventory adds new entry icon.defining-image-fragment; (3) versioning policy: specific illustration re-issuable, visual language canon-locked; (4) brand-kit reference at D-012 ratification (ui-designer W-level), commissioned cover art at phase 13+ marketing milestone.

Coordination with D-013: the image asserts the map updates because someone walks it. All three D-013 walking-rule candidates remain compatible. D-013 research (parallel to this /decide) returned R1 — krok przepisujący (redaction) — as recommended at 0.90 confidence. R1 is resonant (not merely compatible) with this image: the image’s verb (przepisać) IS R1’s verb.

Follow-up work (W-level, post-ratification): narrative-designer authors wiki/src/content/docs/lore/canon/defining-image.mdx (PL). ui-designer authors brand-kit reference appendix in design-system. system-reviewer runs raw audit on existing load-bearing files (foundation.mdx, frakcje.mdx, regions.mdx, protagonista.mdx); narrative-designer + CEO triage produces audit digest at wiki/src/content/docs/audits/.