Who can do this?
Only the owner of the project can switch Lore lock on and off. Co-authors can change the publication status and assess retcon flags, but not Lore lock itself. Guests do not see the list of confirmed retcons.
Lore lock
With Lore lock you seal the canon of a finished book and notice later changes to it.
What is it for?
Once a book is finished, its facts are set. Your readers know them. If you change something later, a contradiction can easily appear in a series.
Lore lock helps you notice such places. You seal a book up to a world-time point. That is the moment in your world that the book covers in its story.
If you then change something that applies at or before that moment, the Illuminatio Engine reports a “Possible retcon” flag. This concerns, for example, the status of a character, a relationship, an ability, a rule or an event in the world history. What you recorded before sealing counts as canon and is not reported.
Think of it like the tamper seal on an electricity meter. You can still open the box, but the broken seal shows that something has changed. So Lore lock saves your change and warns you. You decide whether it is a mistake or a deliberate retcon.
How it works
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Open your book and choose “Publication & Collaboration” in the side menu.
What you see afterwards: the “Publication & Lore-Lock” section with the publication status and a switch.
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Set the “Publication status” to “Final”.
What you see afterwards: The “Lore-Lock active” switch can now be used.
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Under “Sealed up to world-time point”, choose a scene or a world time, or leave the field empty.
What you see afterwards: If it stays empty, Illumentis uses the world time of the latest dated scene of the book when you switch it on.
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Switch on “Lore-Lock active”.
What you see afterwards: The field shows the sealed world-time point, which you can adjust later with “Save”.
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Under Continuity, assess the “Possible retcon” flags and, for intended changes, use “Seal as a conscious retcon” with a reason.
What you see afterwards: The reason appears in the book with its date under “Confirmed retcons”.
Your data
The lock applies per book; other books in the project are not affected. Illumentis stores your reasons for deliberate retcons in encrypted form. If you switch Lore lock off again, the confirmed retcons are kept.
Limits
To switch it on, the project owner needs an active Vastitas add-on; a trial period is not enough. Switching it off also works without the add-on. Lore lock only warns and blocks no change; it checks recorded worldbuilding data, not your running text.