Build specification

Time Travel and Temporal Ambiguity#

Bellwether treats time as observable anomaly, not settled cosmology. The family can appear across four ages, but the game never states whether they travel, remember, reincarnate, branch, simulate, copy, or stage the evidence.

The Second Bell quest#

The player enters a tidal chamber, rings a bell once, leaves a short note, and returns through an age-glimpse to find an older version of the note. Stella’s map places the chamber in inconsistent positions; Orson’s repair marks predate materials used; Psy claims this proves nothing. The player chooses an interpretation and returns. The quest completes on observations, return safety, and recorded interpretation—not proof.

State rules#

• Canonical state records the bell, chamber, observed artifacts, and world effects.
• Player state records which evidence they saw and their interpretation.
• Instance state records a specific safe age-glimpse and occupancy.
• Ephemeral effects record parallax/light only.
• No temporal Action may rewrite an immutable Record. A changed past appears as a new branch/evidence relationship until product canon says otherwise.

Reference: assets/reference/generated/second-bell-concept.png.