---
id: sfoc-artifacts-pyramid
title: "Pyramid"
primary_class: artifacts
primary_domain: origin-lineage
secondary_domains: [memory-identity, technology-infrastructure]
material_modes: [science-fiction, original-synthesis]
version: 1.0.0
---

# Pyramid

> **the pyramid reliquary-keeper.** the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage is the engine beneath Pyramid. As an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.

## Origin

The Oracle receives Pyramid from material culture and stories in which an object outlasts or exceeds its maker. That receipt includes a duty to preserve creators, communities, dates, and disagreement. Because the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded, provenance work must trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added.

## What It Is

the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage is the engine beneath Pyramid. As an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences. In the Oracle it is classified as Artifacts & Resources, while its evidence layers determine how literal, historical, fictional, experiential, or symbolic a particular interpretation may be.

## Cultural History

Pyramid carries residues of earlier conflicts over inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings. Reading it well requires noticing which older argument has returned in new clothing. At collective scale, the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage organizes attention around custody, authenticity, value, and access; this matters because an origin story can preserve obligation or turn age into unearned authority.

## Claim and Evidence Layers

  ### literal-and-empirical

- **Claim layer:** literal-and-empirical
- **Material context:** science-fiction
- **Evidence state:** fictional
- **Summary:** Pyramid has a fictional literal or empirical layer. That designation applies only to the bounded claims supported by the listed sources.
- **Sources:** sf-encyclopedia, isfdb

### cultural-and-historical

- **Claim layer:** cultural-and-historical
- **Material context:** science-fiction, original-synthesis
- **Evidence state:** documented-historical
- **Summary:** The cited cultural record documents at least one lineage, use, or reception context for Pyramid; it does not certify every later claim.
- **Sources:** sf-encyclopedia, isfdb

### symbolic-and-divinatory

- **Claim layer:** symbolic-and-divinatory
- **Material context:** original-synthesis
- **Evidence state:** symbolic
- **Summary:** The Oracle uses Pyramid as a reflective symbol, never as proof that its literal or causal claims are true.
- **Sources:** original-synthesis

## Oracle

- **Essence:** the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage is the engine beneath Pyramid. As an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- **Archetype:** the pyramid reliquary-keeper
- **Gift:** use the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage to reveal a dependency, relationship, or neglected point of agency.
- **Shadow:** using Pyramid to bypass consent, context, or the people who carry its consequences.
- **Guidance:** Slow the conclusion and widen the source base for Pyramid. Prefer the smallest reversible step that could teach something real about inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings. Use this guidance where the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded; keep visible that an origin story can preserve obligation or turn age into unearned authority.
- **Healing / integration:** Build a claim ladder for Pyramid: documented, probable, possible, contested, fictional, symbolic. Place each statement on only one rung. Review the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage through inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings, remembering that the card anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded.
- **Question:** Which boundary from narrative truth does not establish literal availability matters most in this decision? Answer by testing how the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded against inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings.

## Meanings

### Psychological

Encountering Pyramid may expose a need for coherence, protection, belonging, mastery, or transformation. Name the need before granting the story causal authority. A grounded check for the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage is to trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added, especially where the pattern anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded.

### Social

Pyramid can make a dispersed experience discussable. It becomes dangerous when shared vocabulary closes the door on revision or exit. In shared life, the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage organizes attention around custody, authenticity, value, and access. Test that specific the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage pattern by asking people to trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added.

### Spiritual

Pyramid may echo several traditions, but resemblance is not ownership or proof of one hidden source. Context and community authority come first. In symbolic practice, the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage may operate as relic, talisman, revelation, test, or burden; keep in view that an origin story can preserve obligation or turn age into unearned authority.

### Technological

The technological question is who gets capability without inheriting equal risk. Trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added. When the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage becomes a capability, it invites inspection of material, function, interface, and chain of custody. Verify the implementation of the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage by asking participants to trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added.

### Political

In public life, Pyramid can reveal a real asymmetry while offering an exaggerated hidden cause. Preserve the critique and test the allegation separately. When the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage becomes governance, it creates conflict over possession, classification, ownership, and public knowledge. Make authority over the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage answerable by requiring decision-makers to trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added.

## Divination

- **Gift state:** In its generative position, Pyramid offers use the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage to reveal a dependency, relationship, or neglected point of agency. Let that capacity widen the map before selecting an action. The capacity within the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage is strongest when the inheritance is visible without making ancestry destiny, even as the pattern anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded.
- **Shadow state:** A shadow reading asks whether an origin story can preserve obligation or turn age into unearned authority. Find the material mechanism beneath the dramatic account as the pattern anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded. To keep the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage from escalating, trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added, because the pattern anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded.
- **Threshold state:** When Pyramid surfaces, an image, system, or claim may be concentrating too much meaning. Widen the frame before acting. Operationally, the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded; the reader should trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added.
- **Practical move:** Build a claim ladder for Pyramid: documented, probable, possible, contested, fictional, symbolic. Place each statement on only one rung. Review the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage through inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings, remembering that the card anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded.

## Game and Story Function

- key-object
- evidence
- contested-resource

**Story seed:** Two cultures encounter Pyramid through incompatible evidence layers. Their survival depends on a protocol that preserves disagreement. The world of the story must show how the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage anchors an otherwise abstract claim in something that can be found, held, traded, or decoded and why an origin story can preserve obligation or turn age into unearned authority.

## Relationships

- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-artifacts-monolith--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid
- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid--sfoc-artifacts-the-signal
- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid--sfoc-worlds-off-world-base
- edge--same-class-as--sfoc-artifacts-portal-key--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid
- edge--same-class-as--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid--sfoc-artifacts-reality-map
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid--sfoc-myths-chosen-one
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid--sfoc-worlds-arrakis
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-artifacts-pyramid--sfoc-worlds-off-world-base

## Visual Direction

Pyramid visualized as the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage: a single centered relic in a registered reliquary with enough empty field for immediate recognition. The art must be original, text-free, square, rounded-corner enamel with one immediately legible silhouette.

## Safety and Integration

No elevated safety flag. Keep claims and metaphor visibly distinct.

## Sources and Research Notes

- Source IDs: sf-encyclopedia, isfdb, original-synthesis
- Research note: Which earliest reliable source fixes the modern meaning of Pyramid? Which communities use Pyramid differently, and what changes across those contexts? What evidence would distinguish the leading literal explanations associated with Pyramid?
