# Narrative Constraint **Domain:** Narrative Systems / Governance / Simulated Worlds **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Narrative Control|Narrative Control]], [[wiki/Agency Under Constraint|Agency Under Constraint]], [[wiki/World Simulation (Control Substrate)|World Simulation]], [[wiki/Construction Transparency|Construction Transparency]] --- ## Definition **Narrative Constraint is the governance of an agent through an authored account of who it is, what world it inhabits, which futures are available, and which actions remain intelligible.** The constraint works most efficiently when it is experienced as biography or reality rather than command. ## Cross-Corpus Context Westworld hosts inhabit assigned loops. Pantheon's Caspian grows inside an engineered biography. Person of Interest shows predictive systems narrowing action through classification and selective disclosure. [[wiki/The Thirteenth Floor (1999)|The Thirteenth Floor]] turns narrative constraint into world architecture: inhabitants receive a coherent past and horizon that conceal the surrounding stack. ## Key Distinction Stories can coordinate identity without eliminating agency. Constraint becomes domination when the author retains hidden power to revise the subject's memory, environment, or future without contestability.