A beginning with a source.

Birthplaces are weighted by the estimated number of births, not by an equal chance for each country.

Survival is calculated by the documented age-specific model in the dataset. Life expectancy is a comparison, not a scheduled age of death.

Ages 0–99 use published annual qx from the selected reference table. Ages 100–120 use a Gompertz game tail fitted to ages 90 and 99. A life ends by age 120. Historical table snapshots preserve the data used for each run.

Family resources, individual wellbeing and the effects of personal choices are game models, not measured individual outcomes.

Maternal age groups use births in the selected WPP reference year, with a uniform integer age within each group. Paternal age remains a fictional estimate: maternal age plus 2–6 years, at least 18. Family resources, education, careers and savings are game assumptions. Pixel portraits are fictional, generated locally from a repeatable seed. After lifespan is resolved, the story model chooses a fictional cause and closing scene using the complete accepted life and quotes from actual chapters. These are story connections, not measured medical causality or cause-of-death frequencies, and never change lifespan or mortality risk.

Birth years range from 1900 to the present. Historical birth weights, maternal ages and mortality use UN WPP reference years 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Between these dates the latest earlier reference is held constant; this is a coarse game model, not an exact reconstruction of each historical year. Before 1950 the 1950 baseline is a labelled proxy. After 2023 the latest baseline is held constant, not forecast.

Country labels follow current statistical areas and are not a reconstruction of historical borders or sovereignty. Stories use period-appropriate terminology. Sex ratios and the GDP savings scale retain the 2023 WDI reference; savings are a game amount on that economic scale, not historical nominal wages.

Historical scenes use events that have already occurred by that scene’s year. Consequences between scenes can carry forward. Future years beyond the run’s recorded-history horizon are explicitly imagined; named future wars or crises are not presented as facts.

The selected historical events below have documented dates and places. Individual experiences and score/savings effects are fictional game rules: economic and conflict years multiply annual game savings by 0.85 for the two lowest resource bands or 0.95 otherwise, and reduce wellbeing by 2 or 1 points. Pandemic years apply 0.95, reduce wellbeing and relationships by 1, and learning by 1 at ages 6–17. Opportunity/technology years add 1 learning point at ages 12–66 when choosing study/explore. Combined savings multipliers have a 0.70 floor. These are not measured historical effects. Events do not add mortality multipliers. Disasters with an unknown local exposure and social transitions supply narrative context only. The catalogue is selective, not an exhaustive list. Stories can incorporate additional qualitative background appropriate to the country, year and personal history; these narrative notes are not independently verified sources. They cannot add statistics, numerical game effects or mortality multipliers. Quantitative comparisons remain tied to the documented datasets.