Methodology
The canon-vs-invention policy — how this site keeps fiction, folklore, and fact in their own lanes.
The three lanes
Every statement on this site travels in one of three lanes, and the lane is always marked:
- Character canon — fictional material about Velvet Damnation Cat Jon: his persona, nine lives, the Velvet Club, the cast, the rituals, the prowl. Invented for the Vizlings character, used consistently across the site. Labeled wherever it appears.
- Real-world material — genuine mythology and folk belief about cats (Bastet, the nine-lives saying, familiars), cited honestly in Cats in Mythology and nowhere else. Documented as belief or history, never inflated.
- Site apparatus — the design, the stream concept, the social pack: real things about this site, described plainly (the stream player is a labeled mockup; the images are AI-generated dramatization art).
Canon vs. invention: the policy
- Canon is the invented continuity this site commits to: nine lives in a fixed order, the club’s house rules, the cast roster. It is fiction, but it is consistent fiction — the site never contradicts its own canon.
- Invention beyond canon is not smuggled in: new details introduced on one page (a habit, a line, a ritual) are written to fit the established canon, and anything that would break canon is revised or cut.
- The boundary with reality is absolute: character canon never borrows the authority of real history or real people. Cat Jon is never presented as historical, mythological, or real.
Persona lines are not quotations
The Lines page carries twelve persona lines. Each is original dialogue written for the fictional character. The page labels every line as a persona line and states plainly that it is not a sourced quotation. No line on this site is ever presented as coming from a real person, a book, or a historical source — because none of them do.
No real people, ever
This site never depicts a real person — not in images, not in words, not by implication. Every image is AI-generated dramatization art of a fictional cat character. The cast members are fictional. The “Velvet Damnation” character referenced in The Cast is a separate fictional character, kept distinct from Cat Jon.
Uncertainty and correction
Where the site discusses real-world material (the Mythology page), uncertain origins are labeled uncertain — e.g., the exact origin of the nine-lives saying is unknown, and the page says so. If an error is found, the fix is to correct the page and note it, not to quietly rewrite.
Why this matters
A character reference is useful only if you can trust its labels. Fiction labeled as fiction is a playground; fiction labeled as fact is a lie. This site’s whole method is keeping the labels honest — so the velvet night stays fun, and the facts stay facts.