7.6 KiB
W2 Decision Record — Narrator Role, Content Modes, and AI-Native Production
Project: W2 — Ancient Egypt Media
Portfolio: Autonomous Enterprise Portfolio
Location: .project/DECISIONS/
Status: Approved direction
Date: September 18, 2026
Owner: Ken Schaefer
1. Decision Summary
W2 will remain an AI-native media product, and the recurring narrator will be treated as an in-world Pyramid TTRPG character, not merely as a conventional documentary narrator.
Episode 1 will remain historically accurate and source-bounded.
The narrator's character role changes the perspective and presentation, but it does not relax the factual requirements of historical-mode episodes.
W2 may later produce content in multiple clearly identified narrative modes:
- Historical
- Speculative / Fringe
- Pyramid Fiction
The audience must be able to distinguish which mode is being used.
2. AI-Native Production Principle
W2 should use AI wherever it improves:
- creative quality;
- production speed;
- production cost;
- consistency;
- experimentation;
- commercial potential.
Potential AI-assisted or AI-generated production areas include:
- research assistance;
- drafting;
- narration;
- imagery;
- animation;
- music;
- editing;
- metadata;
- production automation.
Platform disclosure requirements are treated as compliance obligations, not as editorial filters.
The project should not avoid otherwise desirable AI-created content merely to avoid an AI disclosure label.
Creative and commercial decisions should instead be driven by:
- audience value;
- originality;
- quality;
- product identity;
- factual intent;
- production efficiency.
W2 should avoid generic, repetitive, low-value mass production regardless of whether the content is produced by AI or humans.
3. Narrator Role
The W2 narrator is not simply an external documentary presenter.
The narrator is conceived as a recurring Pyramid-universe priest-character who is familiar with:
- funerary rites;
- sacred language;
- ritual practice;
- temple or court traditions;
- religious symbolism;
- the worldview of the setting.
The narrator should sound like a person who understands the rites from the inside rather than a modern lecturer explaining them from outside the culture.
This distinction is part of the W2 product identity.
4. Historical Episode Mode
Episode 1 will use:
Mode: Historical
Narrator: Pyramid-universe priest-character
The episode remains historically accurate and source-based.
The narrator may influence:
- tone;
- cadence;
- emphasis;
- metaphor;
- ritual perspective;
- emotional framing;
- storytelling style.
The narrator may not introduce unsupported material as historical fact.
In Historical Mode, the narrator is constrained by the episode research package.
5. Historical-Mode Knowledge Boundary
In Historical Mode, the narrator may speak only from claims supported by the approved:
- source dossier;
- claim list;
- primary-text references;
- editorial interpretation.
The narrator must not introduce:
- invented historical events;
- invented quotations;
- invented archaeological evidence;
- unsupported causal claims;
- unmarked Pyramid game lore;
- speculative claims presented as established fact.
The character voice changes the perspective, not the evidence standard.
6. Example of the Difference in Voice
A conventional documentary narrator might say:
The Pyramid Texts contain ritual utterances intended to assist the deceased king in his transformation and afterlife.
The Pyramid priest-character might convey the same supported idea in a more internal voice:
These are not merely words carved for remembrance. They are rites for a king who must rise, transform, and join those who do not perish.
The second form may be used only when the underlying historical meaning is supported by the episode's research.
7. Narrative Modes
W2 may eventually publish content in three major modes.
7.1 Historical Mode
Purpose:
Present source-based history through the perspective of the recurring Pyramid narrator.
Requirements:
- claims must be evidence-based;
- uncertainty must remain visible;
- narrator voice may enrich presentation but not invent facts.
7.2 Speculative / Fringe Mode
Purpose:
Explore disputed, fringe, alternative, or unconventional interpretations.
Requirements:
- the content must be clearly identified as speculative;
- established evidence must be distinguished from conjecture;
- the narrator may explore possibilities without presenting them as settled fact.
Examples may include:
- disputed astronomical interpretations;
- alternative ritual readings;
- fringe historical theories;
- speculative reconstruction.
7.3 Pyramid Fiction Mode
Purpose:
Present explicit fictional material from the Pyramid TTRPG setting.
Requirements:
- game-world fiction must be clearly identified as fiction;
- the narrator may speak freely as an in-world character;
- fictional lore may diverge from historical evidence where appropriate to the setting.
This mode may support:
- lore videos;
- fictional histories;
- character monologues;
- ritual descriptions;
- game-world stories;
- product promotion.
8. Audience Clarity Principle
W2 should preserve audience trust by clearly distinguishing among:
- historical evidence;
- scholarly interpretation;
- speculation;
- game-world fiction.
Creative freedom is encouraged, but mode confusion is not.
The audience should not need to guess whether a statement is intended as:
- historically supported;
- debated;
- speculative;
- fictional.
9. Pyramid Narrator as Product IP
The recurring narrator should be treated as a cross-product intellectual-property asset, not merely a TTS voice.
Potential future uses include:
- historical videos;
- Pyramid fiction videos;
- Field Notes;
- sourcebooks;
- audiobooks;
- trailers;
- game dialogue;
- interactive media;
- promotional material;
- future digital games.
The character identity may therefore include more than:
- voice profile;
- reference audio.
Future product development may define:
- name;
- background;
- role within the Pyramid world;
- visual identity;
- narrative history;
- relationships to other game characters;
- canon boundaries.
No additional character development is required for Sprint 0 unless needed for Episode 1.
10. Sprint 0 Decision
Episode 1 remains:
Historically accurate
The narrator will be used as:
A Pyramid priest-character presenting source-bounded historical material from an in-world ritual perspective.
Sprint 0 should not expand into:
- fringe-history episodes;
- fictional Pyramid lore episodes;
- full narrator-character development;
- additional channel formats
until Episode 1 is published.
11. Architectural Consequences
This decision affects W2 architecture in the following ways:
- Narrator assets remain W2 product assets.
- Pyramid Narrator v1 should be preserved as a versioned canonical asset.
- Episode metadata should identify the content mode.
- Historical-mode production must reference the approved research package.
- Future speculative and fiction modes should use explicit labeling.
- The narrator may become reusable across multiple W2 product forms.
- Generic TTS infrastructure may later become a Shared Service, but the narrator identity remains part of Withered Sanctum / Pyramid product IP.
12. Product Principle
The narrator is not a machine reading history. He is a character from the Pyramid world interpreting history through the language and worldview of a priest — while Historical Mode remains bound to evidence.