(Was UNIVERSE §17.)
The game is primarily an autobattler progressing through events and fights.
Combat is horizontal. The Tower is vertical.
The battle occupies a readable side-on horizontal band while architecture extends above, below and behind it. Visible allies: 4 fighters + 1 Porter. Cartographer is behind the camera.
The combat surface is not a purpose-built arena. It may be a broken arcade top, surviving gallery, fractured aqueduct, giant cornice, collapsed support or architectural ledge. Mechanically flat terrain may be visually irregular.
Depth hierarchy: combat band = maximum readability; local architecture = location identity; architectural abyss = dense distant Tower softened by atmosphere.
Gameplay backgrounds may be architecturally dense, but density must be depth-separated and locally suppressed behind active combat silhouettes.
Global hierarchy: Tower > creatures > humans. Local gameplay hierarchy: combatants > combat surface > local architecture > distant architecture.