diff --git a/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-ch-epilogue.md b/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-ch-epilogue.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e453448d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-ch-epilogue.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# 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.
\ No newline at end of file