Time, Travel, Downtime, and a World That Moves

One World Clock owns time. When it is initialized and the world is not explicitly Timeless, every accepted in-story turn evaluates how much fictional time actually passed. Zero is reserved for a truly instantaneous or simultaneous beat. Repeating meaningful actions cannot freeze the clock.

Travel is one coherent event. Elapsed time changes; the moved Character's current location changes; World Pulse follows when scene focus moves; and the current scene or map stays synchronized. The Clock may store a broad region for time zones or weather, but it never becomes a duplicate owner of exact position. A custom Calendar defines month, weekday, hour, and time-band rules. The Clock keeps a small display cache with source revision, so changing the Calendar makes stale projections visible instead of silently wrong.

Downtime and long absences are resolved by meaningful thresholds. Six months away might finish a faction plan, mature a pressure, cool one relationship, leave another stable, change a job, and produce a few significant memories. It should not generate daily rows for every person. Cost grows with due events, not days multiplied by population.

Factions and other independent actors move when they have a goal or need, relevant knowledge, available capacity or resources, a manageable blocker, and a due wake. If one ingredient is missing, they wait, investigate, pay a cost, delegate, or fail. They do not act for free because the plot wants motion.

Cross-owner signals are reserved for material thresholds. A rumor reaching a faction, a bridge collapse changing trade, or a public scandal may emit one. Harmless texture does not. Distant events remain unrelated to the protagonist unless an ordinary causal path, established rule, or real signal connects them.