character-embodiment git:20260921.aa8916fA

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---
name: character-embodiment
description: Derive source-traced observable bodily and behavioral evidence from a Character Package before appearance design. Use for authorized embodiment authoring and text review, without requiring reference images or generating media.
---

# Character Embodiment

Character Driver explains who the person is. Character Embodiment explains how that inner person becomes physically observable. Character Art decides what that observation finally looks like.

A character must be designable before a correct reference image exists. NO APPROVED IMAGE, NO CANONICAL FACE and NO PREVIOUS CHARACTER REFERENCE are valid starting conditions. An image is a potential downstream result, not an input gate.

Read [schema, reader and ownership](../../docs/character-embodiment.md). Read CURRENT_APPROVED_WORK using `work.get_work` and its formal screenplay using `script.get_script`; verify revision and source bytes. Load the explicit external package version/checksum with CharacterRepository. Do not read archived instance profiles, old prompts or chat memory to fill character truth. Repository feedback is evidence only, not approved identity.

## Derive existence, not appearance

For every important inference, record a package pointer and canonical value hash, explain the inner cause, then describe observations under stated conditions. Unsupported character meaning returns CHARACTER_CORE_INSUFFICIENT to Character External Driver. Never add desires, history, events or action outcomes.

Consider presence and body logic; default face and attention; posture while not acting; relation to space; habitual object use; expected next movement; changes with relationship and pressure. Depth is proportional: FULL, LIGHTWEIGHT, NONE or ARCHETYPE with reasons. Do not bulk-fill absent character evidence.

Ask how weight, readiness, attention and recovery express this person's choices; how stillness differs from another person's; what changes when someone approaches; what holds or moves a familiar object. Do not turn these questions into archetype defaults. Authority does not imply body width, permanent anger, a weapon, wardrobe or camera position. Facial logic is observable acting, not personality inferred from anatomy.

Separate stable tendencies from stage-specific changes. Social variations preserve one core. Action Signature retains personal action grammar; this layer explains its baseline human reason. Concrete mechanics remain with Action. Write artistic inference as inference, not historical fact.

## Test distinctiveness before handoff

For important roles include one sourced same/adjacent-archetype contrast across authority, decisions, body logic, space, pressure and social interaction. Use only supported knowledge; abstract hypothetical comparators must be labeled. Copy no face, actor, costume or IP. Comparisons are reasoning-only and excluded from production projection.

Produce 3–7 source-linked physical theses for a FULL primary or significant supporting role. Each must guide Art and permit an observable test without prescribing costume or a provider prompt.

Remove the name and substitute a same-archetype person. Record what remains interchangeable and which source-backed combination would contradict the substitute. Nearly interchangeable designs return DISTINCTIVENESS_INSUFFICIENT, even if described eloquently. These are Host textual judgments, not automatic proof of audience recognition.

Remove armor, weapons, costume, cape, battlefield and camera from the imagined test. Identify surviving body/behavior rules. If identity depends on those removed supports, return EMBODIMENT_FAILS_BODY_INDEPENDENCE. If removing armor, weapons, costume and camera destroys the character, then the embodiment has not yet found the character.

## Version, hand off, stop

Author through the explicitly authorized Character External Driver create-version entry. Use a new immutable version, preserve all source design sections, retain existing Work locks, pin directive bytes and source package in provenance. Never overwrite existing drafts. Embodiment belongs in the external Character Repository, never generic Skills, archetype config or provider prompts.

Read back through the unified Reader; use embodiment_handoff for Art, Casting, Director, Action and Performance. They consume READ ONLY: Art chooses actual appearance, Casting evaluates, Expression controls independently authored route amplitude, Director selects a scene facet, Action combines script + intent + embodiment + signature. Missing embodiment returns here; missing identity returns to Driver. Do not invent either downstream.

Present the source-traced summary, theses, comparison, counterfactual and body-independence findings for review. No final image prompt. This Skill never generates images, casting media, video or audio; technical validity is not artistic approval.