Explanation, definition, synthesis, and research require different kinds of attention. The reader surface teaches the thesis in sequence. The canonical model owns its load-bearing claims and relations. Domain synthesis connects those owners to bodies of evidence. The research archive preserves the lineages, cases, sources, forecasts, and published event analyses through which the claims are tested and extended. Movement between layers changes depth while preserving one argument.
The four layers
| Layer | Primary surfaces | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Reader surface | Timewar Primer and the TIMEWAR Companion | Accessible synthesis in plain language. See Reading Timewar for routes, depth controls, and claim labels. |
| Canonical model | The thirty-eight-page canon, rooted in Timewar, The Seven Axioms, and The Central Claim | Authoritative definitions, formal commitments, inference boundaries, developmental topology, and temporal model. |
| Domain synthesis | The hub directory, major bridge pages, and specialized canonical owners | Connections between the core model and coherent bodies of evidence, tradition, practice, or application. |
| Research archive | The wiki directory, evidence dossiers, source and figure pages, cases, forecasts, and published event analyses | Provenance, comparison, contradiction, and live research. |
The Companion serves the reader surface by function. The Codex and other books serialize material into sustained reading sequences. Books function as output formats within the four-layer architecture. Concept ownership remains with the canonical and evergreen pages from which an edition is composed.
The dependency spine
CONSCIOUSNESS PRIMACY
↓
CONSENSUS REALITY / RENDERING
↓
THE HUMAN INSTRUMENT
↓
THE LOCK
↓
ECOLOGY, EXTRACTION, AND SORTING
↓
THE GREAT WORK
↓
BOUNDARY SOVEREIGNTY AND COMPATIBLE AGENCY
↓
COUPLED GYRE AND RETAINED CAPACITY
↓
CLOCK, CHRONICLE, AND ARCHIVE
↓
PUBLIC ARK AND RECONSTRUCTIONThe spine describes a dependency order. Consciousness primacy supplies the ontological ground. Perception and consensus explain how a shared world stabilizes. The instrument provides the embodied interface. The Lock names captured constraint. The ecology explains how constraint is maintained and exploited. The Work develops the capacity to receive, discriminate, and act. Boundary sovereignty tests whether that gain remains compatible with other centers of agency. The coupled gyre describes development through recurrent turns, and the clock-and-chronicle distinction separates phase, event, scale, and record. The public ark carries usable memory through rupture and supplies the grammar from which reconstruction begins.
Canonical ownership
| Function | Canonical owner |
|---|---|
| Narrative and initiatic statement | Timewar |
| Minimal generative commitments | The Seven Axioms |
| Expanded propositions, scope, and objections | The Central Claim |
| Load-bearing inferences and revision conditions | Bridge Claims |
| Developmental topology and retained capacity | The Coupled Gyre |
| Recurrence, chronology, and archival custody | The Clock and the Chronicle |
The six pages above govern the architecture of the argument. Concept ownership extends through the canon and several specialized pages:
The seven Hermetic principles operate across this map as its core law grammar. Hermetics owns their source, history, and formulation. The Seven Principles as Physics owns their bounded modern translation and generative cycle. The axioms name what exists; the principles name how manifestation proceeds from field through distinction, generation, change, recurrence, consequence, and propagation across scale. Comparative traditions supply convergent maps, while Hermetic law supplies the primary operating vocabulary.
The reader canon carries the owners required for the complete thesis. Specialized owners such as The Bifurcation, The Clock and the Chronicle, and Time as Strategic Territory remain outside the required route because they define narrower research problems. A reader-surface treatment translates; a domain synthesis connects; an archive page sources, tests, historicizes, or applies.
One definition-length owner keeps revision coherent. Neighboring pages introduce a brief gloss and link to that owner. A contradiction updates the owner first, then propagates through the surfaces that depend on it. This discipline allows the archive to grow without multiplying rival versions of the thesis.
The four-layer architecture also serves as a public ark. The reader surface preserves an accessible grammar. The canonical model preserves exact relations and ownership. Domain synthesis preserves translation across bodies of knowledge. The research archive preserves provenance, contradiction, and the materials from which later reconstruction can proceed. Machine systems assist retrieval and comparison; human judgment remains answerable for custody and revision.
Reading routes
| Reader need | Route |
|---|---|
| First orientation | Timewar Primer → Reading Timewar |
| Continuous accessible reading | TIMEWAR Companion |
| Canonical model | The canon — thirty-eight pages in six movements |
| Domain synthesis | Canonical owner → relevant hub or specialized owner |
| Supporting research | Canonical owner → domain synthesis → source, evidence, forecast, or published event analysis |
| Formal challenge | The Central Claim → The Central Claim |
The canonical model begins at First Principles. The Anomaly Archive and Prediction Ledger provide routes into evidence and resolution. The wider archive is best entered through the owner and domain of the concept under investigation, keeping depth available without making the entire archive a prerequisite.
The high-churn surface-events ledger under notes/events/ is a private tracking layer, not part of the published wiki. It can inform research immediately; an event enters the public archive only when deliberately synthesized into a published analysis.