The zone system

Ten zones as one world. Seven variables each zone sets, a neighbour rule, a compass rule for glow, and the colour script.

Ten zones in two groups: four inside the wall, six outside (Alvheim is one of them, and has a book of its own). Each has a card with the same fields, a page of its own, and numbers in tokens.json. A zone added later fills in zones/_template.md.

The colour script: ten frames in travel order, each with its palette, the frame boiled down to twelve columns of its average colour, and its median luma. — The colour script. Inside is one warm chord with one dip (Skumleskogen); the wall is the biggest step; outside swings between light and low; saturation falls and glow rises along the way.

What keeps them one world

The eight family rules; the same sky and sun; the same princess; the same paper UI; one umber path colour outside (#5A4636) and one tan inside (#B07A48); one family of lantern posts, waystones and signposts on each side of the wall.

What makes each distinct: seven variables

Variable	Rule
Key colours	5 to 7 hex with roles; the first one or two take half to two thirds of a frame.
Value key	The allowed median luma of a daytime frame, a band 0.14 to 0.18 wide.
Shape motif	One shape that the land, the trees and the buildings all repeat.
Accent	One of the four glow colours, by the compass rule below.
Light and weather	An hour and a weather the zone leans toward. In the game this is a bias in the region grade and the haze while the clock keeps running.
Signature plant and ground	One flower or plant found nowhere else as a drift, and one ground.
Architecture	One roof, one wall material, one colour, one detail.

The compass rule

North is fire against the cold: ember #FF8A3D. West is old magic: cyan #4FF3E0. South is the sun: gold #FFD166. High is the moon: violet #C77DFF, with cyan. Inside the wall nothing glows by day except Skumleskogen's mushrooms and eyes.

The neighbour rule

Two zones that meet differ in at least two of: key hue (40 degrees or more apart), value key (0.10 or more apart), temperature (warm or cool). The closest pairs:

Solengen and Møllebakken: both warm, both about 0.45. Hue and motif carry it: turf green against tile red, a low dome against a tall gable. The ground carries the rest: lawn and turf in Solengen (green at least 40 % of a frame), cobbles and red tile on Møllebakken.
Nordalen and Fjellet: both cool and light. Nordalen keeps its birch green as the larger share, and the border runs through red heather.

The ten cards

Zone	Side	Value key	Shape motif	Glow
Solengen	inside	0.38 to 0.55	the bread loaf: a low dome on a round foot	none that glows by day; butter-yellow windows and lanterns
Møllebakken	inside	0.35 to 0.52	the tall gable and the turning wheel	none that glows by day; striped awnings
Skumleskogen	inside	0.22 to 0.36	the spiral	mushroom teal and the skumlinger's yellow eyes
Kysten	inside	0.50 to 0.68	the scallop and the wave arc	none that glows by day; coral stripes
Sørvika	outside, look 0.85	0.52 to 0.70	the wind-leaning crescent	gold: sparkle on the sea, the lamp at Havporten
Sørmarka	outside	0.30 to 0.46	the long low line and the row	gold: the sun stones, lamplight in the barn
Fjellfoten	outside	0.24 to 0.38	the huge trunk and the hunched round back	cyan: glowing mushrooms, the trolls' tarn
Nordalen	outside	0.40 to 0.58	the slender upright and its mirror image	ember: the smokehouse, the kiln, the brazier, the lighthouse lamp
Fjellet	outside	0.40 to 0.58	the triangle and the diagonal	ember by day (a lantern, a campfire); the northern lights at night
Alvheim	outside, look 0.6	0.26 to 0.42	the crescent and the pointed leaf	violet and cyan: the moonwell, the runes, the flowers

Open a zone for its palette, motif, light, plants, buildings, creatures and its one "never".

The colour script, painted

Ten thin painted thumbnails in travel order: a fountain square, a windmill, a violet wood, a cove, a dune, a barley field, a green forest, a lake, a snow range, an aurora night. — The same journey as abstract thumbnails. Travel order: the four places inside, the wall, then south and round by the west and north, and up.

What the strip must keep doing, and what a new zone must not break:

Inside is one warm chord with one low, violet dip.
The wall is the biggest step; the first zone outside (Sørvika) is the lightest and most open, so the step out feels like air.
Outside swings: light and pale (Sørvika), warm and mid (Sørmarka), low and green (Fjellfoten), light and blue (Nordalen), light and cold (Fjellet), low and glowing (Alvheim). No two neighbours share a value key and a hue.
Saturation falls and glow rises along the way.
The strip's own fault: Solengen and Møllebakken average to nearly the same tan. In the game the ground must carry the difference.

Adding a zone

Fill in zones/_template.md, add the card to tokens.json, and run the six checks at the end of making and judging. The accent follows the compass rule or the card says why not.