# Character State: ch-17 (FINAL)

## Lena Duval
- **Location:** The Heart Tree (Siphon Hub Core)
- **Physical:** Apotheosis manifest; neural networks fused with the cypress root system; skin pulses with rhythmic, bioluminescent sap-flow.
- **Emotional:** Transcendent serenity; ego dissolved into the "Great Hum."
- **Active Obligations:** Anchor of Cypress Bend — PAID (Eternal).
- **Open Loops:** Lena/Great Hum symbiosis — RESOLVED (Irreversible).
- **Known Secrets:** Carries the trauma/knowledge of her mother’s ritual sacrifice; Jax remains unaware of the specific cost.
- **Arc:** 100% — Transformed from a runaway to the sentient deity of the ecosystem.
- **Status:** Permanent Resident (Living God).

## Jax Harlan
- **Location:** The Shallows (Perimeter)
- **Physical:** Veil-adapted physiology; predatory reflexes; systemic immunity to the Bend’s toxins.
- **Emotional:** Inhuman focus; fierce, soul-bound devotion to the borders and Lena.
- **Active Obligations:** Perpetual protection of the Veil — UNPAID (Ongoing).
- **Open Loops:** External intrusion (TDC/Military) — RESOLVED (Expelled).
- **Arc:** 100% — From cynical outsider to the supernatural apex predator.

## Aunt Maribelle Duval
- **Location:** Subterranean Siphon Hub
- **Physical:** Bio-hybrid; functions as a vital filtration organ for the Bend’s life-force.
- **Emotional:** Contented utility; finds peace in absolute service.
- **Active Obligations:** Maintenance of biological integrity — UNPAID (Ongoing).
- **Arc:** 100% — Shifted from manipulative matriarch to a selfless biological component.

## Remy LeBlanc
- **Location:** The Interior Grove
- **Physical:** Biologically frozen; age-suspension facilitated by the Heart Tree.
- **Emotional:** Peaceful resignation; nostalgic historian.
- **Active Obligations:** Preservation of oral history — UNPAID (Ongoing).
- **Arc:** 100% — Became the bridge between human memory and post-human reality.

# World State: ch-17 (FINAL)

## NPC Memory
- **The Coven:** DEVOUT. Operating as a high-priesthood to regulate the Great Hum’s homeostasis.

## Faction Attitudes
- **The Great Hum:** DOMINANT. The swamp is a unified, conscious machine.
- **Humanity/TDC:** REJECTED. Cypress Bend is recognized as sovereign, lethal, and unreachable territory.

## Active World Events
- **The Great Silence:** Permanent 5-mile EM dead zone; all technology serves as scrap within the Veil.
- **Directed Evolution:** Completion of the "Biological Cathedral." Flora and fauna are now extensions of Lena’s will.

## Key Locations
- **The Heart Tree:** Neural core of the collective consciousness.
- **The Siphon Hub:** Subterranean network distributing refined life-force to the inhabitants.
- **The Veil:** Sentient, predatory fog boundary; the definitive border between the mundane and the sacred.

## Voice Signature (Lena Duval - Finalized)
- **Verbal Tic:** "Gator's truth" (Denoting undeniable natural laws).
- **Sentence Pattern:** Rhythmic, bayou-chant cadences; clipped when commanding, meandering when sensing the network.
- **The Reach:** Tactile through the network (feeling the roots, the mud, the silt).
- **Tone:** She no longer apologizes or barters; she states the reality of the land. "The cypress don't lie, cher—they are the only truth left."