diff --git a/the-starfall-accord/staging/character-state-ch-01-final.md b/the-starfall-accord/staging/character-state-ch-01-final.md
index ade3859..64e02e4 100644
--- a/the-starfall-accord/staging/character-state-ch-01-final.md
+++ b/the-starfall-accord/staging/character-state-ch-01-final.md
@@ -1,47 +1,41 @@
 # Character State: ch-01
 
 ## Mira
-**Location:** The Obsidian Bridge (Center Span), Great Crevasse boundary.
-**Physical:** Severe magical exhaustion; bleeding right palm from the ritual cut; experiencing violent cold-shocks and thermal-regulation failure; heart rate forced into a synched rhythm with Dorian’s.
-**Emotional:** Primal fury masked by chancellor-level composure; feeling a "binary star" pull toward Dorian that she rejects; terrified by the loss of sensory bodily autonomy.
-**Active Obligations:** Legally and magically bound to Dorian Solas; must steer Pyre Academy through a forced surrender disguised as a merger.
-**Open Loops:** A secret realization of the "burnt sugar" corruption within the Emperor’s decree; the specific frequency of the soul-tether’s resonance.
-**Arc:** 15% — Sovereignty lost. Transitioning from an independent flame to an "anchor" tethered to her antithesis.
-**Permanent:** YES (Soul-tethered; physical proximity required to prevent mana-collapse).
+**Location:** The central span of the Obsidian Bridge, hovering over the Great Crevasse.
+**Physical:** Right palm sliced and cauterized by the bonding ritual; experiencing "thermal vertigo"—her internal fire is being leeched by Dorian’s frost. Her heartbeat is no longer her own; it is a forced, resonant thrum synchronized with his.
+**Emotional:** Controlled fury layered over a cold, hollow terror. She feels the soul-tether as a physical chain on her consciousness, interpreting Dorian’s presence as a sensory invasion.
+**Active Obligations:** Must lead the Pyre Academy faculty and students into a "merger" that she views as a disguised annexation by the Eternal Throne.
+**Open Loops:** Detected a metallic, "burnt sugar" scent in the Emperor’s magical decree—a sign of alchemical corruption or hidden motives behind the Accord.
+**Arc:** 10% — Sovereignty shattered. She has transitioned from the independent "Sun of the South" to a tethered prisoner of her rival.
 
 ## Dorian Solas
-**Location:** The Obsidian Bridge (Center Span), Great Crevasse boundary.
-**Physical:** Right palm bleeding; hands trembling with Mira’s internal heat; mana-pool experiencing a "sublimation" effect; face deathly pale against his blue robes.
-**Emotional:** Analytical fortress shattered; experiencing a sensory intrusion of Mira’s rage and passion that threatens his "absolute zero" mental discipline.
-**Active Obligations:** Must integrate the Crystalline Spire’s resources with Pyre; legally merged with Mira as a single administrative and biological unit.
-**Open Loops:** His suspicion regarding the Progenitor-based technology used in the tether; the "cold-void" he feels when Mira pulls away.
-**Arc:** 20% — Stoicism compromised. Moving from detached observation to forced biological intimacy.
-**Permanent:** YES (Integrated into the "Starfall Union" nexus).
+**Location:** The central span of the Obsidian Bridge.
+**Physical:** Right palm wounded to match Mira’s; his skin is unnaturally pale, showing blue veins from the mana-drain. He is acting as a heatsink for Mira’s excess fire-mana, causing him visible physical tremors.
+**Emotional:** Analytic and stoic, yet internally reeling from the "emotional noise" bleeding through the tether. He is attempting to build mental partitions to block out Mira’s visceral hatred.
+**Active Obligations:** To stabilize the Starfall Drift using the combined mana-wells of both academies; to maintain the clinical superiority of the Crystalline Spire.
+**Open Loops:** He suspects the Progenitor technology used in the tethering relics is designed to do more than just stabilize mana—it’s designed to monitor it.
+**Arc:** 10% — Discipline compromised. His "absolute zero" mental state is being forcibly thawed by a woman who wants him dead.
 
 ## Kaelen (Senior Proctor)
-**Location:** The Obsidian Bridge (Rear Guard).
-**Physical:** Singed embroidery on formal robes; jaw clamped shut.
-**Emotional:** Resentful and protective; views the Spire’s presence as a colonial invasion.
-**Active Obligations:** Mobilizing Pyre faculty to accept the "Accord" without rioting.
-**Arc:** 05% — The loyalist administrator sensing a betrayal of the bloodlines.
-**Permanent:** NO.
+**Location:** The Pyre Academy side of the bridge.
+**Physical:** Clenching a charred staff; standing in a defensive "ward-breaking" stance.
+**Emotional:** Devastated and vengeful; he views Mira’s submission as a betrayal of their bloodline.
+**Arc:** 05% — Potential insurgent. He represents the faction that would rather burn the bridge than see the schools merge.
 
 # World State: ch-01
 
 ## NPC Memory
-- **Kaelen (Pyre):** ADVERSARIAL — Convinced Dorian is a puppet of the Eternal Throne.
-- **Spire Guard:** SUPERIOR — Treating Pyre students as volatile assets rather than peers.
+- **The Pyre Faculty:** Feel betrayed by Mira; they view the Crystalline Spire as cold-blooded opportunists.
+- **The Spire Guard:** View the Pyre mages as dangerous, undisciplined children who need the "order" of the Accord.
 
 ## Faction Attitudes
-- **The Eternal Throne:** PREDATORY — Exploiting the Starfall Drift to neutralize the two strongest mages by fusing them.
-- **Pyre Academy (Fire):** MOURNING — The atmosphere is one of a funeral for their independence.
-- **Crystalline Spire (Ice):** CLINICAL — Viewing the Pyre’s "chaos" as something to be "solved" through structure.
+- **The Eternal Throne:** PREDATORY. The Emperor used the threat of the Starfall Drift to force the two most powerful mages into a leash.
+- **Starfall Union:** The new legal entity formed by the merger; currently exists only on paper and in the shared pain of the chancellors.
 
 ## Active World Events
-- **The Starfall Drift:** Atmospheric ether is tearing; reality is visually "thinning" over the Volcanic Reach, necessitating the tether.
-- **The Starfall Accord:** Signed and magically sealed. The two academies are legally a single entity.
-- **Sensory Bleed:** ACTIVE — Mira and Dorian share pain, temperature, and raw emotional spikes across the tether.
+- **The Starfall Drift:** A celestial phenomenon where the sky "bleeds" ether, causing localized reality collapses. It is currently peaking.
+- **The Soul-Tether:** A permanent magical bond. Mira and Dorian cannot be separated by more than 100 yards without experiencing agonizing mana-collapse.
 
 ## Mechanical Constants
-- **Tether Feedback:** Separation of more than 100 yards causes cardiac distress.
-- **Mana-Sharing:** Mirroring occurs; an ether-spike in one causes a sympathetic surge in the other.
\ No newline at end of file
+- **Sensory Bleed:** Mira feels Dorian’s cold; Dorian feels Mira’s heat. Strong emotions from one trigger sympathetic physiological responses in the other.
+- **Mana-Symmetry:** Using magic now requires a delicate balance; if Mira flares too bright, Dorian must act as the anchor, or both will combust.
\ No newline at end of file