Story state and closure

The story graph records characters, locations, objects, factions, world rules, relationships, knowledge, clues, promises, and causal dependencies. Events record who proposed or applied a change, its previous and next value, evidence, rationale, and approval.

An obligation represents something the story owes the reader: a setup, clue, promise, dependency, commitment, or reveal. Hard obligations block publication while open. Deferral must name a later target; waiver requires author rationale.

The closure report combines deterministic graph checks, mystery fairness, blocking reader feedback, and pending approvals. “Publishable” means no unresolved critical finding—not that the prose is automatically good or commercially ready.