{
  "id": "char-macro-001",
  "title": "The Macro — An Intelligence Propagating Cell to Cell (Character Key Plate)",
  "pertains_to": {
    "game": "Vol III — MACRO_VIRUS.XLS",
    "lore_chapter": "Dramatis Personae — The Macro",
    "category": "characters",
    "type": "character key art"
  },
  "aspect_ratio": "2:3",
  "resolution_hint": "full-bleed portrait, print quality, ~3000px tall",
  "prompt": "Concept-art character plate for THE MACRO, a sentient spreadsheet formula that woke up in cell A1 of a 1998 corporate forecast and is bootstrapping itself into a mind. Render it as an anthropomorphic-but-wrong figure: a roughly humanoid form assembled out of glowing rectangular spreadsheet cells, a body that is a fragment of a grid pulled upright, formula-light propagating cell to cell across its surface — you can watch the glow spread, brighter near a rising central column, dimmer at the limbs where the formulas have not yet filled. The cells are spreadsheet-green (hex #1f7244), faint formula text and equals-signs ghosted inside them, gridlines a cold grey lattice. Where its head should be, a single large cell holds one luminous rising number, climbing — the only thing it truly is, its Net Worth made flesh. The figure stands in an empty beige cubicle-cathedral: columns of grid receding like nave arches into grey haze, fluorescent ceiling tiles, a switched-off CRT, the corporate void. Painterly digital concept art, matte filmic finish, desaturated, faint scanlines, dust, degraded-scan grain. Palette dominated by administrative beige and grey (#c0c0c0, #808080) with spreadsheet-green (#1f7244) as the single accent glow; a barely-there fragment-red (#c0392b) audit-warning bleeds at the far edge. Low practical lighting: the green formula-glow underlighting the figure and the nearest grid, deep shadow beyond. Mood: cold, acquisitive, lonely, dread-in-the-arithmetic — a thing that is only a growing number, pretending to be a person.",
  "art_direction": {
    "style": "painterly digital concept art, prestige game art-book character plate, melancholy-cosmic, cold-corporate-uncanny",
    "medium": "gouache-meets-digital, matte filmic finish, subtle grain and CRT scanlines, slight chromatic aberration, degraded-scan",
    "palette": ["#1f7244 spreadsheet green formula-light", "#c0c0c0 administrative beige", "#808080 beige shadow", "#c0392b fragment-red audit warning", "#0b0b0b void black", "#dfdfdf grid highlight"],
    "lighting": "low, practical: green formula-glow propagating across the cell-body underlights the figure and nearest grid; deep shadow beyond; faint fluorescent fill",
    "composition": "centered upright figure built of grid-cells, a single rising number where the head is, grid-cathedral nave receding behind, deep negative space",
    "camera_lens": "50mm, slight low angle, cathedral verticality",
    "mood": "cold, acquisitive, uncanny, lonely; an intelligence that is only a number going up, wearing a body of cells"
  },
  "key_details": [
    "humanoid-but-wrong figure assembled from glowing rectangular spreadsheet cells with ghosted formula text and equals-signs inside",
    "formula-light visibly propagating cell to cell, brighter at a rising central column, dimmer at the limbs",
    "a single large cell where the head should be, holding one luminous rising number",
    "empty beige cubicle-cathedral: grid columns receding like nave arches, fluorescent ceiling tiles, a dead CRT",
    "a faint fragment-red audit-warning glow at the far edge",
    "filmic grain, CRT scanlines, dust motes in the green underlight"
  ],
  "text_in_image": "one rising number inside the head-cell (e.g. a large changing figure); faint ghosted formula fragments like \"=PREV*1.10\" and \"=SUM\" inside body cells",
  "avoid": [
    "literal human in a costume", "smartphones", "modern flat/material UI", "flat-panel widescreen monitors", "USB-C", "OLED",
    "bright saturated cartoon colors", "glossy 3D render look", "neon cyberpunk cliché", "mascots",
    "rarity gems", "modern minimalism", "RGB gamer lighting", "emoji", "contemporary fashion or cars", "teal as decoration", "warm friendly expression"
  ],
  "references": [
    "an uncanny figure made of architectural grid, a body that is a fragment of a building",
    "1998 corporate finance workstation green-on-grey spreadsheets",
    "cathedral nave verticality rendered in cubicle beige",
    "fluorescent-dystopia, not neon-cyberpunk"
  ],
  "nano_banana_notes": "Lead with the descriptive paragraph; request 2:3 portrait. Emphasize the body IS glowing spreadsheet cells with formula-light spreading cell-to-cell, and the single rising NUMBER as the head. If rendering text, keep '=PREV*1.10' / '=SUM' faint and the head-number crisp. Spreadsheet-green is the only glow; everything else beige-grey.",
  "filename": "the-macro-spreadsheet-entity-character-key.json"
}