Theseus

A narrative decomposition and recomposition engine. Theseus takes stories apart -- plank by plank -- into their structural components (world, characters, style, plot, scenes), then uses those components to build new vessels.

Named for the Ship of Theseus paradox: if you replace every plank of a ship, is it still the same ship? Theseus asks the same question of fiction. Extract the world-building from one novel, the character depth of another, the pacing of a third. At what point does the result stop being derivative and become original?

Pipelines

Forward Pipeline (Write)

Build original fiction through a disciplined sequence:

1. World Building -- Setting, rules, history, factions, geography, culture
2. Character Design -- Unique personalities, speech patterns, motivations, flaws, relationships
3. Language Styling -- Prose voice, tense, POV, vocabulary constraints, stylistic rules
4. Plot Outlining -- Full story arc with character arcs mapped against plot beats
5. Scene Outlining -- Chapter breakdowns into individual scenes with POV, goals, conflicts, outcomes
6. Chapter Writing -- Full prose from outlines, enforcing style guide and character voice
7. Character Sheet Update -- Sync all character sheets after every chapter

Steps 5-7 repeat per chapter.

Reverse Pipeline (Analyze)

Decompose existing fiction into structural components:

1. EPUB Ingestion -- Extract chapters from EPUB into markdown
2. Chapter Analysis -- Narrative technique, voice, pacing, craft decisions
3. Scene Extraction -- Map scenes within chapters (structure, goals, conflicts, beats)
4. Style Extraction -- Reverse-engineer prose style guide from text
5. Character Extraction -- Build character profiles from textual evidence
6. Plot Extraction -- Map act structure, arcs, subplots, narrative promises
7. World Extraction -- Reconstruct world bible from setting details

Derivative Pipeline (Blend)

Combine extracted DNA from multiple sources into something new:

• Source Blending -- Select structural elements from analyzed books, set divergence levels, map what to draw and what to invent fresh
• World Divergence -- Transform an extracted world into a new parallel setting

Directory Structure

theseus/
  templates/                    # Reusable templates
    character-sheet.md
    book-scaffold.md
  books/                        # Original works in progress
    book-title/
      world/world-bible.md
      characters/
      style/style-guide.md
      plot/plot-outline.md
      chapters/
        ch01/
          outline.md
          chapter.md
  analysis/                     # Analyzed source material
    book-title/
      metadata.md
      chapter-manifest.md
      raw-chapters/             # (gitignored -- copyrighted text)
      extracted/
        world-bible.md
        style-guide.md
        plot-outline.md
        characters/
        chapters/
  .cursor/
    rules/                      # Always-on writing rules
    skills/                     # Task-specific AI skills

Skills

Write

Skill	Purpose
world-building	Generate world bibles from prompts
character-design	Build detailed, unique character sheets
language-styling	Establish and enforce prose style
plot-outlining	Structure full narrative arcs
scene-outlining	Break chapters into scene beats
chapter-writing	Produce full prose from outlines
character-sheet-update	Keep character sheets current after writing

Analyze

Skill	Purpose
epub-ingestion	Extract EPUB chapters into markdown
chapter-analysis	Analyze prose technique and craft
scene-extraction	Map scene structure within chapters
style-extraction	Reverse-engineer style guides from text
character-extraction	Build character profiles from text
plot-extraction	Map plot structure from text
world-extraction	Reconstruct world bibles from text

Derive

Skill	Purpose
source-blending	Combine elements from multiple analyzed books

Core Principles

• Character realism is non-negotiable. Every character must have a distinct personality, consistent voice, believable motivations, and genuine flaws. No character should feel interchangeable with another.
• Follow the pipeline. World before characters. Characters before style. Style before plot. Outlines before prose. Never skip steps.
• Track continuity. Every promise, secret, injury, emotional shift, and relationship change gets recorded. Character sheets are the source of truth.
• Voice consistency. Once a style guide exists, all prose conforms to it.
• No disposable characters. Every named character gets a sheet. Walk-ons get a minimal sheet.