SANJIESAN LORE / Rule exceptions
An exception needs witnesses as well as a reason
An exceptional use of a fictional ability can make sense in the author’s notes while later dialogue behaves as though everybody saw it. Keep the reason for the exception and the knowledge of it separate. This narrow exercise checks who can reasonably refer to the event in your original draft.
Write the exception as one event
Describe what happened, which established limit it appears to cross and what the draft says allows it. Leave an undecided explanation marked undecided. Put the event on a small board rather than revising the rule silently. World Anvil’s whiteboard reference supports linking notes and articles, but the exercise can use index cards. A connection between records is not itself an explanation of why the exception belongs in the setting.
Separate witness, report and inference
List who directly sees the event, who hears a report and who only infers what occurred. Give each person the specific information available at the next relevant scene. A witness may misunderstand the cause while accurately seeing the result. Keep that difference visible instead of making every character quote the author’s hidden explanation. If someone learns the rule has an exception, inspect whether their next plan should change or whether another stated reason keeps it unchanged.
Check later references to the event
Find dialogue and decisions that depend on the exception. Attach the knowledge route or revise a premature reference. Preserve intentional secrecy when it matters to the plot, and label a proposed rule change separately for review. In an established universe, an unapproved workshop idea cannot expand an official power merely because the scene would be easier. The useful record states what happened, who knows which part and which later choices depend on that knowledge.