An engine for persistent worlds where truth is centralized, perception is distributed, and meaning is emergent.
Noesis is a shared reality engine designed to separate world truth, perception, and narrative into distinct, enforceable layers.
The core assumption behind Noesis is simple:
A world should exist independently of what any single participant can perceive.
The engine enforces objective state and perception rules, while narrative is treated as a derived and interpretive process — human, AI-driven, or hybrid.
The world has a single, authoritative state. Facts are validated and enforced by the engine, not by narration or interpretation.
Each entity perceives only a subset of reality. Visibility, interaction, and presence are governed by explicit perception rules.
Narrative is not authored directly by the engine. It emerges from the interaction between world state, perception, and interpretation.
Noesis is structured around three layers:
-
World layer
Objective entities, locations, rules, and constraints. -
Perception layer
Mechanisms defining what each entity can see, hear, or interact with. -
Narrative layer
Interpretation and description of experience, external to the core engine.
Only the first two layers are enforced by Noesis itself.
Noesis is not bound to a single implementation, but the current reference stack includes:
-
TinyMUX
Used as the authoritative world and perception engine (entities, locations, Rx/Tx, reality levels). -
Python
Integration layer, tooling, orchestration, and external services. -
Discord
Primary user-facing interface for interaction and presentation. -
AI (LLMs)
Used as narrators, interpreters, or witnesses of world events — never as arbiters of truth.
- A backend engine for persistent, shared worlds
- A system where perception is treated as data
- A foundation for worlds with hidden layers, partial knowledge, and asymmetrical awareness
- A platform for experiences where uncertainty and limited perception are intentional design elements
- A game engine with predefined mechanics
- A chatbot-driven RPG system
- A replacement for human or AI narration
- A simulation assuming full observability or omniscience
Noesis is currently in an early exploratory and prototyping phase.
Current focus areas include:
- defining a stable ontological core,
- formalizing perception mechanics,
- validating the separation between truth, perception, and narrative,
- establishing a reproducible development environment.
APIs and interfaces should be considered unstable at this stage.
Noesis is built around a single guiding idea:
A world becomes more believable when it knows more than any of its inhabitants.
This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0).
You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software, including for commercial purposes.
Any modifications to MPL-licensed source files must remain open under the same license.