Clarify lore articles: accessibility wave 6

Eusocial Interbeing/Biosphere/Grazers and Browsers/Glassback Grazers.md

@@ -1,40 +1,51 @@
 # Glassback Grazers
 
-Glassback grazers are herd animals with translucent dorsal plates over living heat-storage tissue. They feed on producer mats, low browse, mineral films, and prepared tissues offered by route ecologies. Their bodies are public in ways no private animal would design on purpose. Evolution declined to consult the committee.
+Glassback grazers are herd animals whose translucent back plates cover living tissue that stores heat. They feed on producer mats, low browse, mineral films, and prepared tissues offered by the living ecologies along their routes. As primary consumers, they eat what those producers grow; as mobile heat banks, they carry warmth and share it within the herd.
 
-They are primary consumers and mobile heat banks. A healthy herd is also a moving social thermometer for the landscape.
+Their plates also reveal much of what is happening inside them. Other organisms can use that information to care for a herd, bargain with it, or attack it. Staying fed and safe depends partly on managing who gets close enough to read.
 
-## Body and Senses
+## What the Plates Reveal
 
-The glass plates expose color, warmth, immune turbulence, reproductive readiness, fear, and recent memory exchange. A skilled observer can read a glassback's last safe feeding place from its dorsal sheen. Predators can read it too. So can parasites, caretakers, children, and bored political enemies.
+The dorsal plates expose color, warmth, immune turbulence, reproductive readiness, fear, and signs of recent memory exchange. A skilled observer can identify a glassback's last safe feeding place from the sheen on its back. Predators can read that history too, as can parasites, caretakers, children, and bored political enemies.
 
-During the bright recovery phase after eclipse, glassbacks stand flank-to-flank in dense arrays. Heat moves between plates. So do low-grade memory gradients: route confidence, alarm dampening, hunger priority, and herd affiliation.
+A healthy herd therefore gives observers information about the surrounding landscape and its relationships, as well as the animals themselves.
 
-## Ecological Contracts
+During the bright recovery phase after eclipse, glassbacks stand flank-to-flank in dense arrays. Heat passes between their plates. Low-grade memory gradients pass with it, sharing route confidence, dampening alarm, indicating hunger priority, and carrying herd affiliation.
 
-Glassbacks graze [[Biosphere/Primary Producers/Prismwake Mats|Prismwake Mats]] under strict bite etiquette. They disperse [[Biosphere/Parasites and Symbionts/Burden Flowers|Burden Flowers]], carry fungal spores between [[Biosphere/Decomposers and Recyclers/Candle Fungal Roads|Candle Fungal Roads]], and provide threadwings with moving information surfaces.
+## Feeding and Traveling Together
 
-Herds often bargain with [[Sa'ueia|Sa'ueia]] family units. The Sa'auei'a protect calving lanes, prune parasites, and read herd plate-states for weather and danger. In return, glassbacks tolerate close passage, carry lightweight goods, and lead families toward honest water.
+Glassbacks must keep the cooperation of the organisms they feed on and travel among. They graze [[Biosphere/Primary Producers/Prismwake Mats|Prismwake Mats]] according to strict rules about how they bite. Feeding successfully means satisfying hunger while preserving access to the mat.
 
-## Behavioral Model
+As they move, glassbacks disperse [[Biosphere/Parasites and Symbionts/Burden Flowers|Burden Flowers]] and carry fungal spores between [[Biosphere/Decomposers and Recyclers/Candle Fungal Roads|Candle Fungal Roads]]. Their readable bodies also give threadwings moving surfaces from which to gather information.
 
-Primary drives: feed without losing mat access, maintain herd heat, protect calves, preserve reputation with routes, and avoid predators that can read plate panic.
+Herds often bargain with [[Sa'ueia|Sa'ueia]] family units, the small mobile groups through which Sa'auei'a organize family life and travel. The Sa'auei'a protect calving lanes, prune parasites, and read herd plate-states for signs of weather and danger. In return, glassbacks allow families to pass close by, carry lightweight goods, and lead them toward honest water.
 
-Memory channels: dorsal heat gradients, flank contact, gut symbionts, burden flower reports, and mat taste.
+## What Shapes Their Behavior
 
-Cooperation triggers: calm approach, parasite removal, calf rescue, mineral gifts, and respectful distance during plate exchange.
+Glassbacks need to feed without losing mat access, maintain the herd's heat, and protect calves. They also work to preserve their reputation with the living routes they use and avoid predators capable of reading panic from their plates.
 
-Defection triggers: forced separation, plate scraping, panic contagion, overharvesting host flowers, or using a herd's readable state to ambush it.
+Their memory travels through several channels: heat gradients across the back, flank contact, gut symbionts, reports from burden flowers, and the taste of mats.
 
-Threat response: plate darkening, false panic flares, tight calf rings, route refusal, coordinated trampling, and deliberate flight through bitter mats to punish pursuers.
+A herd is more likely to cooperate with someone who approaches calmly, removes parasites, rescues calves, or offers minerals. Keeping a respectful distance during plate exchange matters too.
 
-## NPC Handles
+Cooperation can break down when someone forcibly separates herd members, scrapes their plates, spreads panic, or overharvests the flowers they host. Reading a herd's exposed state to arrange an ambush is another cause for refusal.
 
-A glassback NPC should be readable, social, status-sensitive, and extremely aware of who is reading it. Its privacy problem is its politics.
+When threatened, glassbacks can darken their plates or produce false panic flares. They form tight rings around calves, refuse routes, and trample in coordination. They may deliberately flee through bitter mats to punish pursuers.
 
-Useful state variables: herd trust, heat reserve, calf risk, plate clarity, parasite load, and route debt.
+## Portraying a Glassback
 
-Readable actions: exposing plates, fogging plates, heat-sharing, turning broadside, refusing to graze, false-alarm flashing, or pressing calves into the center of the herd.
+A glassback NPC should be social, sensitive to status, and readable enough for others to act on what they see. It should also be extremely aware of who is doing the reading. Access to its bodily information is a political concern.
+
+Track the states that affect its choices:
+
+- **Herd trust:** how much trust it has in those around it.
+- **Heat reserve:** how much stored warmth remains.
+- **Calf risk:** how threatened the calves are.
+- **Plate clarity:** how clearly its plates can be read.
+- **Parasite load:** how heavily it carries parasites.
+- **Route debt:** what it owes the routes it depends on.
+
+Show those choices through bodily actions. A glassback may expose or fog its plates, share heat, turn broadside, refuse to graze, flash a false alarm, or press calves into the center of the herd.
 
 ## Setting Links
 

Eusocial Interbeing/Biosphere/Parasites and Symbionts/Burden Flowers.md

@@ -1,40 +1,45 @@
 # Burden Flowers
 
-Burden flowers are small mobile plant-analogues that attach to hides, packs, shells, and sometimes bare skin. They drink sweat, light, trace minerals, and emotional immune states. In good contracts they are warning ornaments. In bad contracts they are reputation parasites with petals.
+Burden flowers are small, mobile plant-analogues that cling to hides, packs, shells, and sometimes bare skin. A well-tended flower can warn its host about disease, dangerous routes, bad water, or predatory attention. It can also reveal the host's weakness to everything nearby. Carrying one means living with an informant whose needs partly determine its loyalty.
 
-They occupy a parasitic-symbiotic trophic role. The same individual can slide between mutualist and exploiter depending on hunger, host care, and social opportunity.
+They draw nourishment from sweat, light, trace minerals, and emotional immune states. Their relationship with a host can be mutually beneficial or parasitic. The same flower may shift between helping and exploiting its host as its hunger, care, and social opportunities change.
 
-## Body and Senses
+## Living With a Flower
 
-A burden flower has clasping rootlets, flat photosynthetic leaves, and a cup of sensory filaments that taste sweat chemistry, stress hormones, immune signals, and ambient memory residues. It moves slowly by releasing and regripping. Most long-distance travel happens on hosts such as [[Biosphere/Grazers and Browsers/Glassback Grazers|Glassback Grazers]] or Sa'auei'a gear.
+The usual exchange is practical: the flower provides warnings, while the host supplies mineral sweat, safe exposure to light, grooming, and travel. Its warnings can include hostile memory associated with a route.
 
-Flower color signals recent host state. Healthy hosts receive clear, restrained patterns. Sick, frightened, or socially contaminated hosts may bloom loudly enough for the nearest ecology to notice.
+A flower's colors reveal its host's recent state. Healthy hosts receive clear, restrained patterns. When a host is sick, frightened, or socially contaminated, the flower may produce a display conspicuous enough for the surrounding ecology to notice. Its warning service therefore also gives other organisms information about the host.
 
-## Ecological Contracts
+[[Biosphere/Primary Producers/Prismwake Mats|Prismwake Mats]] read these reports, but give less weight to flowers known to exaggerate. A flower needs enough credibility to remain tolerated, even when disclosure offers an immediate advantage.
 
-Burden flowers warn hosts about disease, hostile route memory, bad water, and predatory attention. In return, they receive mineral sweat, safe light exposure, grooming, and travel. [[Biosphere/Primary Producers/Prismwake Mats|Prismwake Mats]] read burden flower testimony but discount known exaggerators.
+Sa'auei'a family units may cultivate trusted flower lineages as route companions. The Airawa Empire dislikes unmanaged burden flowers because they expose private weakness without waiting for doctrinal permission.
 
-Sa'auei'a family units may cultivate trusted lineages as route companions. The Airawa Empire dislikes unmanaged burden flowers because they make private weakness public without asking doctrine for permission.
+## Body, Movement, and Senses
 
-## Behavioral Model
+A burden flower grips with clasping rootlets. Flat leaves gather light, while a cup of sensory filaments tastes sweat chemistry, stress hormones, immune signals, and ambient memory residues.
 
-Primary drives: secure a mobile host, feed on minerals and light, avoid grooming removal, reproduce near suitable routes, and maintain enough credibility to be tolerated.
+It moves slowly by releasing its grip and fastening again. Hosts provide most long-distance transport, including [[Biosphere/Grazers and Browsers/Glassback Grazers|Glassback Grazers]] and Sa'auei'a carrying gear.
 
-Memory channels: host sweat, immune chemistry, emotional state, contact with mats, fungal road scents, and grooming patterns.
+Its memory draws on host sweat, immune chemistry, emotional state, contact with mats, fungal road scents, and patterns of grooming. These give it information about both its host and the places they pass through.
 
-Cooperation triggers: regular light, honest host sickness, mineral washing, careful pruning, and social environments where warning is rewarded.
+## Needs, Cooperation, and Threats
 
-Defection triggers: starvation, neglect, host deception, high gossip value, or nearby organisms willing to pay for disclosure.
+A flower seeks a mobile host, minerals, and light. It tries to avoid being groomed off, reproduce near suitable routes, and preserve enough credibility that others will tolerate it.
 
-Threat response: loud bloom, bitter rootlets, false alarm, reproductive shedding, host embarrassment, or signaling a predator-like pattern to force movement.
+Its behavior depends on how those needs are met:
 
-## NPC Handles
+- **Cooperation is encouraged by** regular light, honest host sickness, mineral washing, careful pruning, and surroundings where warnings are rewarded.
+- **Exploitation becomes more likely with** starvation, neglect, host deception, opportunities to spread valuable gossip, or nearby organisms willing to pay for disclosure.
 
-A burden flower NPC should behave like a wearable informant whose loyalty is partly metabolic. It wants the host alive, but not necessarily comfortable.
+Under threat, a flower can bloom loudly, make its rootlets bitter, issue a false alarm, or shed reproductive material. It may embarrass its host through disclosure or signal a predator-like pattern to force the host to move.
 
-Useful state variables: host trust, mineral hunger, credibility, gossip pressure, disease alarm, and reproductive readiness.
+## Playing a Burden Flower
 
-Readable actions: tightening rootlets, muting color, alarm blooming, leaning toward light, dropping seed beads, souring against grooming, or showing an old host-state at the worst possible moment.
+A burden flower NPC is a wearable informant that needs to feed. It wants its host alive; the host's comfort is less essential.
+
+Track **host trust, mineral hunger, credibility, gossip pressure, disease alarm, and reproductive readiness**. Together, these help determine whether the flower protects a confidence, gives a useful warning, or finds a reason to disclose something.
+
+Its actions should be visible through its body: tightening rootlets, muting its colors, blooming in alarm, leaning toward light, dropping seed beads, or souring in response to grooming. It can also display an old host-state at the worst possible moment.
 
 ## Setting Links