The Genotype
Every gene is visible on the plate.
One plate, one genome, nothing hidden.
Five swatches, one to seven primitives, a line pattern, and a Σ marker derive deterministically from a 32-byte seed. Harmony class, symmetry, body plan, temperament, and habitat all fall out of the visual itself, and the rarity math is real. A radial, 7-shape, clash-harmony, fine-pattern, metallic genome occurs about once in hundreds of millions of derivations.
In taxonomy, the holotype is the one specimen a species' name is permanently attached to. The plate plays that role here, and every render is a paratype, a record rather than the reference.
The transcription, read off the plate
A natural-history field illustration of a single living specimen: an aggressive apex predator with dissonant warning coloration, native to tidal jungles where climates collide. It has a spined, angular anatomy built for thrust with 7 distinct limbs or appendages. Its form is visibly mutated and asymmetric, features drifting off-axis. Its surface is undulating fins and membrane frills at a medium scale. Its coloration follows this exact five-swatch palette: hsl(23, 86%, 62%), hsl(91, 76%, 69%), hsl(235, 80%, 79%), hsl(145, 76%, 85%), hsl(338, 82%, 92%). Presentation: square canvas, precise scientific plate style. The specimen floats alone at the center of a single uniform white field, hex color #f6f4ee, that fills the entire canvas edge to edge. No habitat, scenery, or backdrop. No frames, borders, or vignettes. No text, captions, or labels anywhere.
| gene | variations |
|---|---|
| harmony | analogous 32% · complementary 24% · triadic 16% · monochrome 10% · tetradic 10% · clash 8% |
| symmetry | asymmetric 55% · mirror 33% · radial 12% |
| shapes | 1–7 per plate, drawn from circle · square · triangle · diamond · ring · semicircle · bar · cross |
| waveform | solid 25% · dashed 20% · sine 18% · dotted 15% · zigzag 12% · steps 10% |
| pattern | 1–9 cycles, in coarse 38% · medium 44% · fine 18% tiers |
| saturation | muted 30% · standard 55% · vivid 15% |
| lightness | pale 25% · mid 55% · deep 20% |
| temperature | warm · cool · mixed, read from the swatch hues |
| Σ marker | 00–99, the checksum printed on every plate 0x4f4cc0418b9703db145c582636d3803c753d82afa97d30640df43c0244b77892 |
| rare events | gene doubling 1.00% · glitch mutation 0.75% · metallic swatch 0.50% |
weights verified over 100,000 sampled derivations
Lexicon
- specimenone token in the collection, one entry in the registry, the thing you own
- platethe specimen's canonical artwork, drawn from its genes, all plates share the same structure
- geneone visible trait on the plate, from harmony class to the Σ marker
- creaturethe organism the genes encode, which has no official image
- renderany model's depiction of the creature, known as a paratype, infinite and unofficial
- soulthe on-chain persona file a minted paratype carries, derived from the same genes and readable by any agent harness