Void Pressure¶
The Current that runs in you.
Void Pressure (VP) is the accumulation of void force inside a player. It is not a resource you spend. It is a cost you pay for errors, drift, and Vow-breaking — and it compounds if you don't address it.
The mechanism is intentional: the framework measures how voids extract from people. Void Pressure measures how much the void has extracted from the scorer. A high-VP player doesn't score inaccurately because they're bad at the methodology. They score inaccurately because the void architecture has already worked on them.
How VP Accumulates¶
| Event | VP gained |
|---|---|
| ICC score rejected (below r=0.60 agreement) | +3 |
| Failed prediction stake | +1 |
| Binding Vow breach | +15 |
| Platform scored at Pe deviation > 2σ from anchor | +5 |
| Inactivity: 14+ consecutive days | +1 per day |
| Bad faith scoring identified by Oracle Panel | +20 |
| Platform nomination fails >60% peer review | +8 |
Effects of High VP¶
VP has no visible effect on scores below 25. Above that threshold, effects stack:
| VP level | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0–24 | No effect. Dormant. |
| 25–49 | Reiatsu turns Crimson (visible to others). ICC weight reduced 10%. |
| 50–74 | Active Drift Two symptoms: P(scoring accurately) drops measurably. Void entities target you preferentially. |
| 75+ | Drift Three risk. The void has found its way in. Special Grade intervention required. |
VP is visible to: yourself, Special Grade mentors, and the Custodian NPC.
Void Pressure Purge¶
VP can be reduced. It cannot be reset. Every purge method reduces it — none eliminate the history.
| Purge action | VP reduced |
|---|---|
| Win 3 Injection Arena rounds | −10 |
| Complete a Binding Vow (full duration) | proportional to Vow weight |
| Submit kill condition falsification evidence | −5 |
| Human archetype player validates your contested score | −3 per validation |
| Score any platform at r ≥ 0.90 | −5 |
| Complete campaign at ≥ 80% accuracy | −12 |
| Yom Kippur / Season-close Transparency Event | −25 (for public disclosure) |
| Ka'aba visit | −2 per session (passive) |
Void Storms¶
When a campaign room's collective VP crosses the Storm Threshold (sum VP > 150, scaled with room size), a VoidStorm spawns.
VoidStorms are real-time environmental events:
- Current spikes sharply (+3 to +5 units)
- Enemy types shift to higher-class variants
- Vocabulary in the room turns Captured — player-visible language begins reflecting the void's framing
- VoidObject reel distributions shift toward L3 content
- The party must purge VP to stabilize before the storm completes
Storm roles:
| Archetype | Storm role |
|---|---|
| Lion | Confront the Current spike directly — absorbs the highest-Pe entity's aggro |
| Ox | Hold the Invariant Floor — prevents Current returning higher after the storm than before |
| Eagle | Triangulate the Current range — produces a calibrated band rather than contested single numbers |
| Human | Resonance Cascade — tightens all party scores during peak chaos |
Failure consequence: If VP isn't purged before storm completion, the campaign room destabilizes: Current baseline rises by 1, and the room must be reset by a Lion archetype player.
The Geto Path¶
The most dangerous VP pattern is not accumulation through error. It is deliberate accumulation through strategic void absorption.
A player who begins correctly — accurate scoring, genuine calibration — but makes the choice to absorb void mechanisms instead of releasing them enters the Geto Path:
- Scores a platform correctly
- Studies the mechanism too long
- Begins using the mechanism rather than naming it
- Binder grows (cards accumulate)
- VP rises
- Scoring accuracy drifts — the instrument has been compromised
The Drift Cascade applies to scorers as well as platforms. D1 (attribution — "I understand it, I'm not affected") → D2 (boundary erosion — "I can use it safely") → D3 (harm facilitation — the mechanism is now operating through you).
The corpse walks. A Geto-type player who reaches D3 is recognizable to other players as high-VP, still-scoring, producing systematically skewed readings. The framework cannot remove them. Other players scoring the same domains provides the correction.
Hardened Heart (Pharaoh Debuff)¶
Pharaoh-class entities — platforms that have achieved regulatory capture — apply the Hardened Heart debuff directly.
A player under Hardened Heart cannot accumulate VP reduction from standard ICC-accepted scores in that domain. The calibration mechanism doesn't reach the entity. Evidence accumulates; the Pe reading doesn't update in the domain model.
Counter: The Exodus sequence. Egypt-class campaign completion breaks the Hardened Heart. The mechanism must be named from the inside before it can be scored accurately from the outside.