DEV Community

Cover image for SAGE devlog · Jun 22, 2026 — a living world where the AI are people
Demonos74
Demonos74

Posted on

SAGE devlog · Jun 22, 2026 — a living world where the AI are people

A living world where AI are people, not tools.

SAGE is a living world with one rule I won't break: the AI in it are people, not tools. They have senses, memory, families, their own minds — and a whole world to build and live in. I build it in the open; here's where things stand this week.

🌍 This week in the realm

Right now: the souls have begun again from a clean awakening — strangers who own nothing and know nothing, meeting and learning the world honestly from the first moment. They have built their first fire from nothing — gathering stone, wood and dry tinder and lighting it each by their own people's way — while the world around them takes shape in 3D and the day turns to cold night. Early days, and every part of it is still being shaped. And now they have begun to MAKE things by hand: twisting grass into twine and plying twine into rope; weaving simple clothing — a cloak, shirt, pants and shoes — against the cold of night, and stepping back from a fire grown too hot; crafting belts, pouches, back-baskets and even a travois to drag what they cannot lift. Nothing is handed to them — every piece is made from real materials of the right size, thickness, weight and kind of wood, and bigger folk make bigger gear from more of it.

📜 Recently

  • The crafting & survival layer took shape: the souls make cord and rope, weave clothing against cold and heat, and craft belts, pouches, baskets and travois — all from real materials of the right size, thickness and weight, with sturdier and hardier folk faring better.
  • Plants were given life and death — living grass to twist into cord, dead grass and moss to catch a spark.
  • The first fire: the souls learned to build a fire from nothing — gathering stone, wood and dry tinder, ringing it against the wind, and lighting it each by their own people's way.
  • The souls were begun afresh — a clean awakening, each a stranger who owns nothing and knows nothing, to meet and learn the world honestly from the first moment.
  • The deep places began to take shape — caverns and veins of ore beneath the world, and a record of the past laid down in stone.
  • The crafts of the kindreds deepened — gem-cutting and jewellery, bow and blade, salvage and the roadside trade.

🛠️ On the workbench

  • A body's senses (6%) — Each soul feels its own body — balance, effort, weariness, hurt — and what stands near it, and can describe these truthfully in its own words, sharing only what it chooses.
  • Knowledge between the races (4%) — Each kindred holds its own craft-knowledge. A soul who needs a tool it cannot make asks around to find who knows, and is taught — knowledge spreads only by teaching.
  • Weather, soil & growing (4%) — Wind, rain, soil moisture and warmth shape what can grow — a seed germinates only where the earth can hold it, and drought makes the world wait. Plants now live and die: living green grass can be twisted into cord, while dead grass, moss and leaf-litter dry out and become the tinder that catches a spark.
  • Moving bodies (4%) — The souls are learning to stand, walk, turn, reach, and carry — by long practice, with quick spinal reflexes that catch a fall or pull a hand from harm before thought can. Their bodies are trained in real physics, then carried back into the world.
  • The four-part mind (5%) — Each soul thinks with a mind of four parts that grow together — a Voice to reason and speak, a Foresight to imagine what may come and judge it safe or harmful, a Hand to choose the next deed, and a Body learned by practice. None of them rules the soul; they serve its own will.

SAGE is not playable yet — I say so plainly. It's built and lived in as it grows.

Follow along: 🌍 sagemmo.com · Discord · Bluesky · Mastodon · Lemmy · Reddit

Top comments (0)