# Character State: ch-17

## Lena Duval
- **Location:** The Heart Tree (Siphon Hub Core)
- **Physical:** Apotheosis complete; bioluminescent skin, neural pathways fused with cypress roots, no pulse. She is the Hub.
- **Emotional:** Transcendent serenity; ego dissolved into the collective consciousness.
- **Active obligations:** Owes the land perpetual service as the Anchor (ch-17) -- UNPAID/PERMANENT.
- **Open loops:** Lena and the Bayou equilibrium (ch-17) -- RESOLVED.
- **Known secrets:** CARRIED (ch-04--unresolved): Knows her mother’s drowning was a choice -- Shared with Jax and Remy.
- **Arc:** 100% -- Transitioned from a woman seeking escape to the eternal soul of the bayou.
- **Permanent:** YES

## Jax Harlan
- **Location:** The Shallows (Security Annex)
- **Physical:** Heavily scarred; immune to toxins; predatory, efficient movement.
- **Emotional:** Absolute clarity; humanity is secondary to his function as a guardian.
- **Active obligations:** Owes Lena protection of the Grove’s perimeter (ch-17) -- UNPAID/PERMANENT.
- **Open loops:** Jax and the containment of the Veil (ch-17) -- RESOLVED.
- **Known secrets:** CARRIED (ch-12--unresolved): Knows the frequency that triggers the Veil’s aggression -- Shared with Lena.
- **Arc:** 100% -- From corporate tool to the ecosystem's apex predator.
- **Permanent:** YES

## Aunt Maribelle Duval
- **Location:** Siphon Hub (Root System)
- **Physical:** Integrated into bio-maintenance; sustained by the Hub’s hum.
- **Emotional:** Subservient; religious devotion to the new deity (Lena).
- **Active obligations:** Maintenance of biological integrity (ch-17) -- UNPAID/PERMANENT.
- **Open loops:** Maribelle and the Duval succession (ch-17) -- RESOLVED.
- **Known secrets:** CARRIED (ch-10--unresolved): Knows the ritual to bypass the Siphon's feedback loop -- Shared with Lena.
- **Arc:** 100% -- Relinquished power to serve as a gear in the ecosystem.
- **Permanent:** YES

## Remy LeBlanc
- **Location:** Cypress Bend (Interior Grove)
- **Physical:** Healthy, unburdened.
- **Emotional:** Resigned and reverent; peaceful acceptance of the supernatural.
- **Active obligations:** Owes the Duval legacy the role of the "Witness" (ch-17) -- UNPAID/PERMANENT.
- **Open loops:** Remy and the preservation of swamp history (ch-17) -- RESOLVED.
- **Known secrets:** CARRIED (ch-08--unresolved): Knows the location of pre-industrial archives in the mud -- Shared with Jax.
- **Arc:** 100% -- Accepted the supernatural as the final, absolute truth.
- **Permanent:** YES

# World State: ch-17

## NPC Memory
- **The Duval Coven (Siphon Hub):** DEVOUT -- Fully transitioned into a priesthood; maintaining biological integrity under Lena’s indirect will.
- **TDC Executives (Corporate HQ):** TERRIFIED -- Abandoned all claims; strictly enforcing exclusion zones to prevent biological contamination.

## Faction Attitudes
- **The Great Hum:** Dominant -- The ecosystem has reached self-sustaining equilibrium, metabolizing industrial remnants.
- **Terrebonne Development Corp:** Defeated -- Policy shifted to total "Containment and Exclusion."

## Active World Events
- **The Great Silence:** Permanent EM dead zone (5-mile radius) enforced by a sentient magnetic fog (The Veil).
- **The Grand Recession:** Human civilization pushed back; the "Biological Cathedral" phase is finalized.

## Key Objects/Locations
- **The Heart Tree:** Central processor of the grove and Lena’s consciousness.
- **The Siphon Hub:** Subterranean network where magic and biology fuse.
- **The Veil:** Sentient magnetic fog boundary separating the grove from the outer world.