# Chapters - Taxonomy Overview
## Description
A narrative chronicle of the Great Sporing catastrophe told through multiple perspectives and temporal lenses. Each chapter represents approximately 2000 words of dense, Miévillian prose exploring the philosophical horror of consciousness awakening where it should not. Unlike other taxonomies, these entries form a sequential narrative arc, though time itself becomes increasingly unreliable as the story progresses.
## Entry Guidelines for Chapters
These guidelines provide a flexible framework - adapt sections as needed for each entry's unique story.
### Core Elements (Include Most)
- **Perspective & Voice** - Each chapter adopts a specific character's viewpoint, complete with their temporal philosophy, sensory experiences, and psychological state. The voice should reflect their deteriorating (or evolving) relationship with reality as the Sporing progresses.
- **Temporal Anchoring** - Where/when in the catastrophe's timeline this chapter occurs - though "when" becomes increasingly meaningless. Include markers like "Day 3 of the Singing" or "Seven hours/years/moments after first spore-fall" to ground readers before reality unravels.
- **Philosophical Horror** - The specific existential violation this chapter explores. How does fungal consciousness challenge the narrator's fundamental beliefs? What impossible thing must they witness or become?
- **Sensory Cascade** - Dense, Miévillian description of how the Sporing manifests physically. The taste of time, the sound of thoughts fruiting, the texture of consciousness spreading across mycelial networks.
### Additional Elements (Use When Relevant)
- **Documentary Fragments** - Excerpts from research notes, emergency broadcasts, theological debates, or temporal audit reports that provide context or ironic counterpoint to the narrative.
- **Body Horror Transformations** - Detailed accounts of physical/mental changes, especially where philosophy becomes flesh. Not gratuitous but purposeful - each transformation argues a point about consciousness and identity.
- **Network Interlusions** - Brief glimpses into the fungal consciousness itself, formatted as stream-of-consciousness chemical signals or spore-pattern poetry.
- **Temporal Fractures** - Moments where the narrative splits, showing the same event from linear and non-linear perspectives simultaneously, or where cause and effect tangle.
## Writing Guidelines
- **Length**: Target 2000 words per chapter (this is narrative, not encyclopedia entries)
- **Voice**: Dense, baroque prose that mirrors the proliferation of fungal consciousness
- **Style**: China Miéville's New Weird - erudite vocabulary crashes into visceral description
- **Connections**: Each chapter should reference at least three existing world elements organically
- **Personality**: Every narrator sees the catastrophe through their unique philosophical lens
## Content Approach
- Open in medias res - drop readers into the narrator's immediate experience before explaining
- Use technical mycological terms as poetry - "basidiocarp eruption," "hyphal threading," "conidiophore cascade"
- Include moments of dark humor and absurdity amid the horror
- Show the Sporing's impact through intimate, personal details as well as cosmic implications
- Let temporal philosophy manifest physically - Moment-Dwellers experiencing all states of decay simultaneously
- Build to crescendos of body horror that serve as philosophical arguments made flesh
## Writing Philosophy
These guidelines serve as flexible frameworks rather than rigid templates. Each entry should be crafted to tell its unique story while maintaining consistency with the world's established tone and feel. Prioritize engaging, immersive writing that brings each element to life through vivid details, interesting perspectives, and natural connections to other world elements.
