Research ledger

Research / presentation application. The Unreal game is in development, not a finished release. Native milestone results below are preserved dated project records, not a new playtest. Historical classifications remain explicit; unresolved research is not verified history.

Source: Docs/RESEARCH_LEDGER.md

# ADWA Research Ledger

**Status:** Active  
**Version:** 0.1  
**Last reviewed:** 2026-09-25

## Verification rule

`VERIFIED` requires at least two credible sources, ideally including a primary or Ethiopian source, precise locators, contradiction review, and an identified reviewer. A supplied source is recorded faithfully but does not become verified merely because it is useful.

## Records

### NEGARIT_GENERAL_ROLE

- **Stable ID:** `NEGARIT_GENERAL_ROLE`
- **Title:** Nägarit / Negarit: general roles, authority, and physical forms
- **Classification:** `RESEARCH_REQUIRED`
- **Founder correction:** `ነጋሪት ይጎሰማል` / `Negarit Yegosemal` is not translated as “call to war.” Direct sense: “The Negarit sounds / resounds / rolls.” Martial meaning depends on context and use.
- **Provisional claim summary:** The founder-supplied reference describes Nägarit as a kettledrum and as an insignia of royalty/political authority used with proclamations, public summons, the heralding of authority, troop summons/encouragement, and military honor. It describes multiple physical forms and playing contexts.
- **Source:** Sewasew, “Nägarit (ነጋሪት),” content attributed on the page to *Encyclopaedia Aethiopica*, <https://en.sewasew.com/p/na-garit-%28%E1%8A%90%E1%8C%8B%E1%88%AA%E1%89%B5%29> (accessed 2026-09-25).
- **Source limitations:** Web transcription requires comparison with the published encyclopedia entry; authorship, volume, page, spelling/transliteration, and cited references must be captured from the print edition. One source does not meet the project verification threshold.
- **Uncertainty:** Exact 1896 Adwa-campaign instrument types, holders of authority, performers, patterns, locations, timings, acoustic behavior, and participant responses are not established by this record.
- **Affected systems:** historical metadata proof, Audio Bible, future Negarit asset/audio, dialogue/subtitles, mobilization sequence, public tagline/translation.
- **P1 use:** metadata only. No audio, model, animation, icon, or visual reconstruction.
- **Next review:** Ethiopian historian/ethnomusicologist and Amharic language reviewer; published *Encyclopaedia Aethiopica* entry with full citation.

### P1_NON_CANON_PROXY_WORLD

- **Stable ID:** `P1_NON_CANON_PROXY_WORLD`
- **Title:** P1 spatial skeleton
- **Classification:** `GAME_FICTION`
- **Claim summary:** The P1 camp, trail, ridge, encounter pocket, return route, and dawn endpoint are invented metric test spaces.
- **Source:** Founder P1 authorization packet, 2026-09-25.
- **Uncertainty:** None as a production classification; it makes no historical claim.
- **Affected systems:** map, objectives, observation/report, checkpoint, lighting, performance benchmark.

### P1_ROUTE_WISE_COURIER

- **Stable ID:** `P1_ROUTE_WISE_COURIER`
- **Title:** Temporary route-wise courier perspective
- **Classification:** `GAME_FICTION`
- **Claim summary:** A nameless mannequin perspective used only to test movement and mission flow.
- **Source:** Founder P1 authorization packet, 2026-09-25.
- **Restrictions:** No ethnicity, birthplace, language, costume, affiliation, name, or historical role.

### SHELELA_GENERAL_CONTEXT

- **Stable ID:** `SHELELA_GENERAL_CONTEXT`
- **Title:** Shelela: historical, linguistic, performance, and situational context
- **Classification:** `RESEARCH_REQUIRED`
- **Claim summary:** The founder identifies Shelela as part of the intended future historical/cultural sound world. No narrower historical claim is approved.
- **Source:** Founder P1 engineering directive, 2026-09-25.
- **Uncertainty:** Historical forms and terminology; language and regional context; who performed; when, where, and for whom; relationship to campaign and combat; permissions or restrictions; appropriate performers and recording practice.
- **Affected systems:** future voice/music direction, camp soundscape, performance capture, subtitles, narrative scenes, rights and permissions.
- **P1 use:** None. No recording, synthetic placeholder, dialogue, animation, or visual representation.
- **Next review:** qualified Ethiopian historian, linguist, cultural practitioners/performers, and recording-rights review.

### REPRESENTATION_PRINCIPLE

- **Stable ID:** `REPRESENTATION_PRINCIPLE`
- **Title:** Difference without erasure or weaponization
- **Classification:** `GAME_FICTION` for production governance; this is a founder policy, not a historical claim.
- **Policy:** Do not flatten, rank, erase, or weaponize communities, or project modern political agendas backward onto 1896. Historically represented differences require evidence and appropriate review.
- **Source:** Founder P1 engineering directive, 2026-09-25.
- **Affected systems:** all characters, factions/relationships, dialogue, language, clothing, missions, codex, art, audio, and marketing.