Deliberately omitted
What the system refuses to build is as load-bearing as what it does. Each omission traces to a principle.
Every item here has been asked for, or would be the obvious next step in a bigger system. Each one would cost more in clarity than it returns. Adding one isn't forbidden, but it needs a decision record that answers the reason given here.
What's left out
| Not in the system | Because | Principle |
|---|---|---|
| Themes beyond the two grounds | Light and dark already cover it. A third theme is surface area with no job, and every theme is another set of contrast pairs to keep honest. See D-001. | 03, 04 |
| A shadow or elevation stack | Depth comes from three flat surface levels: ground, raise and lit. Stacked shadows would add noise for a hierarchy that's already legible. | 03, 04 |
| A fourth hue | Two semantic hues (earned, refused) and one system hue (focus) is the whole palette. A new hue would start diluting meaning and break "one hue, one meaning". See D-002. | 02, 04 |
| Gold, silver or bronze | The top three are told apart by the board's own tile states (solid, traced, lit), not by three metal colours that would each be a new hue with one job. | 02, 05 |
| An icon library | A handful of 20px stroked glyphs, drawn to one spec. More icons means more to misread and more to keep consistent, for a game that needs almost none. | 04 |
| A component-count target | A small, opinionated set beats a large generic one. Growth follows demand (what earns a place), never a roadmap goal. | 04 |
| An animated mode switch | Changing mode is a quiet 0.5s cross-fade, not a moment. Celebrating it would contradict the calm. | 03 |