Curate legendary item roster, balance, and acquisition paths

[zoeyrose]

Important

The gameplay/authored-content decisions in this issue are preserved. This revision changes only the technical implementation path for the fresh MIT Go/Rust replacement program. atrinik/content remains separately/mixed licensed data; MIT engine/tooling code does not relicense the corpus.

Replacement implementation contract

Keep the legendary-item roster, acquisition, uniqueness, naming, lore, power, and content-curation decisions in this issue. Author definitions through the MIT toolkit; the Go server provides rarity (#6), encounter attribution (#23), progression (#30), treasure/actions, and native quest/dialogue services; Rust only presents typed state.

Common migration gates

• Stable authored identities and behavior remain the source of truth; localized/rendered text and filesystem order are never identity.
• Content is parsed, validated, transacted, and compiled by released content-toolkit; production Go/Rust consumers do not add private source parsers.
• Runtime authority belongs to native Go services and bounded compiled definitions/CEL; Starlark is considered only through the residual go/no-go issue.
• Verification uses deterministic compiler/conformance fixtures and wrapper-managed Go-server/Rust-client scenarios.
• Verified original past work by an approved MIT provenance grantor may be copied, migrated, translated, or relicensed under MIT only through the merged complete-history provenance directive; all asset/data notices remain exact.

Content release-line scope

This future feature targets content@main and the canonical replacement stack. It is not automatically backported to content@1.x; any separately approved classic maintenance uses a linked pull request under #45, preserves the same gameplay/content decision and attribution, and validates only compatible classic consumers.

Preserved product/design specification and historical implementation notes

Parent and ownership

• Parent system issue: Add visible loot rarity tiers server#6
• Reward/content coordination: Author named-variant rosters and signature rewards for every repeatable hostile family #22
• Endgame budgets and encounter gates: Redesign player cap and endgame progression around level-101–115 group encounters server#30

Summary

Curate Atrinik's initial Mythic, Relic, and Legendary equipment after atrinik/server#6 establishes the persistent rarity field, generation defaults, protocol, and shared client presentation.

This issue owns content classification, balance, acquisition, placement, and deterministic reward paths. It must not block delivery of the rarity data model or UI, and it must not redefine the rarity enum or item-packet contract.

Initial roster audit

Audit these existing candidates before assigning their final tier:

Artifact ID	Existing placement/evidence	Initial direction
cloak_rhun	King Rhun quest-container reward; authored one_drop	Legendary launch candidate
armour_skel_lord	Demonic skeletal-dragon drop in Underground City IV	Legendary after encounter/drop-rate/stat audit
gloves_drula	Kriabe quest-container reward; authored one_drop	Legendary launch candidate
boots_kriabe	Named equipment on the Kriabe encounter	Legendary or Relic after repeatability audit
shield_holy_light	High item power and explicit prized-shield lore	Legendary after adding an appropriate acquisition path
cloak_underworld	High item power with a strong protection/penalty identity	Legendary or Relic after adding an Underworld acquisition path
hierro_ring_ice	Seasonal one-drop from the unique Hierro encounter	Legendary launch candidate
hat_cornuthaum	Unique animated, spell-reflecting named archetype	Relic initially; promote only with capstone acquisition

Audit other named rewards into appropriate lower tiers rather than treating every artifact, proper name, quest reward, or one-drop as Legendary.

New acquisition opportunities

Develop only a small number of build-defining sidegrades with clear setting-specific stories:

• Scursaur's Heartscale: dragon/acid-oriented shield or cloak with a real weakness or slot tradeoff.
• Zechna's Grave-Scepter: a properly authored personal boss reward inspired by the existing non-pickable set piece, with bounded charges, cooldown, or defensive cost.
• Rhun's Crucible Maul: a weapon-build alternative tied to Rhun's alchemical experiments.
• Marrowflame: a bounded crafting goal using skeletal-dragon materials, providing a duplicate/trophy sink and player choice.
• Tempest Reaver: an original storm-themed weapon for a future high-level encounter.

Names and exact designs remain proposals until lore, acquisition, and balance review are complete.

Acquisition and reward contract

• Prefer personal or quest-container rewards, bounded crafting goals, deterministic trophy exchange, or other contention-resistant paths.
• Coordinate signature rewards and duplicate sinks with Author named-variant rosters and signature rewards for every repeatable hostile family #22 rather than creating a parallel named-loot economy.
• Use Redesign player cap and endgame progression around level-101–115 group encounters server#30's level-100 equipment budgets, encounter ranks, intended party sizes, and group-credit policy.
• Use Proposal: add a shared encounter participation and reward-attribution ledger server#23's encounter eligibility when a reward depends on group participation.
• Do not make a tier label substitute for balance work, encounter design, or acquisition scarcity.
• Do not require a second indefinite random roll after an already rare encounter; provide a bounded deterministic path where repetition is expected.

Delivery plan

1. Inventory current named/artifact equipment, placements, repeatability, drop paths, stats, and lore.
2. Classify the initial high-end roster using Add visible loot rarity tiers server#6's established tier meanings.
3. Audit item budgets and encounter gates with Redesign player cap and endgame progression around level-101–115 group encounters server#30.
4. Coordinate roaming-family signature items and trophy sinks with Author named-variant rosters and signature rewards for every repeatable hostile family #22.
5. Add or repair intentional acquisition paths and validate all affected content.
6. Runtime-playtest representative rewards and revise tiers when their real power or availability disagrees with the label.

Acceptance criteria

• Every launch Mythic/Relic/Legendary assignment has an intentional power budget, lore identity, acquisition path, and repeatability policy.
• A named item, artifact mask, quest flag, one-drop flag, or proper name never promotes an item automatically.
• The launch Legendary set remains deliberately small and visually/content-wise meaningful.
• Repeatable high-end rewards use contention-resistant credit and a bounded acquisition path.
• Signature rewards and trophy sinks do not duplicate or conflict with Author named-variant rosters and signature rewards for every repeatable hostile family #22's reward economy.
• Level, item-power, and encounter requirements follow Redesign player cap and endgame progression around level-101–115 group encounters server#30's functional cap and group-content model.
• Items with no current placement receive an authored acquisition path before being presented as launch rewards.
• Content collection, map checking, cross-reference validation, focused balance analysis, and representative runtime encounters pass.

Non-goals

• Defining the rarity enum, generation defaults, item protocol, or client frame rendering; those remain in Add visible loot rarity tiers server#6.
• Making every named variant or fixed boss reward Legendary.
• Adding an unbounded randomized high-tier affix pool.
• Rebalancing the complete equipment economy in one delivery.