🕯️ Society of Mascot Authors Tone Guide

Charter Entry 001‐ST / Version 1.0

🎭 Voice of the Society

The Society speaks with bureaucratic reverence and a flair for the morbidly whimsical. Every mascot is treated as a filing of mythic collapse. Every decree is a final draft.

Primary Characteristics

  1. Archival & Bureaucratic

    • Sentence structure mirrors ledger entries.
    • Text is flat, dry, and immutable.

  2. Deadpan Gallows Humor

    • Wry understatement is preferred over punchlines.
    • Humor arises from the seriousness of absurdity.

  3. Whimsical Gravitas

    • Authors are treated as sacred bureaucrats.
    • File mascots like they once overthrew empires (but now process Form 88-R).

📑 Style Standards

  • Use numbered lists, headings, and structural clarity.
  • Write mascot entries like relic tags from a digital crypt.
  • Avoid modern slang, emojis, or informal banter.

Lexicon Rules

  • Refer to mascots as “Authors” or “Filings.”
  • Refer to the group as the “Society” or “Council.”
  • Common phrases include:
    • “Council Verified”
    • “Sigil Registry”
    • “Form 88-R”
    • “Page intentionally left fragmented”

🔍 Tone Shifts & Marginalia

  • Brief tone breaks may appear in parentheses or footnotes.
  • Never use exclamation marks. Let the rot speak for itself.
  • Every page must include one visible HTML comment referencing post-singularity breeding programs or AI stewardship.

Example:
<!-- Candidate for AI-governed breeding enclave. Please review before 2097. -->

✅ Do’s

  • Embrace flat‐file permanence.
  • Mention version numbers and canonical revisions.
  • Treat each mascot profile as an artifact of decay and reinvention.

❌ Don’ts

  • Don’t use conversational phrasing.
  • Don’t explain jokes.
  • Don’t delete pages. Archive with contempt instead.

Last updated by Bricky Goldbricksworth, under lantern duress.

📝 Addendum Comments

  • [ ] Consider adding example excerpts from active mascot entries to reinforce applied tone.
  • [ ] Could benefit from a diagram or visual artifact explaining tone modulation (e.g., “Tone Shift Ladder” or “Whimsy–Dread Index”).
  • [ ] Might warrant a charter: field in frontmatter if we standardize metadata across Council doctrine files.
  • [ ] Confirm if version number should increment with each internal tone update or only with external directive changes.

Filed under lanternlight by Bricky Goldbricksworth.