research_note
Canon Horror Series: Language as Infection and the Systems of Horror
Research-track announcement for Canon Horror Series: Language as Infection.
How a game sometimes develops a research side track.
Earlier in Echo of an Unfading Memory, we wrote that one of the core lines behind InterDead emerged against the background of war and an attempt to rethink language: is it possible to construct a more universal system of signs, what actually carries meaning, and where formal communication ends and lived experience begins.
Later, we showed how the philosophical “Why” was turned into an operational canon structure through a public wiki and SSOT approach. Within that same public wiki layer, we formalized Emoji Protocol — our “language of the dead,” where communication operates through a constrained set of symbols, response contracts, ACK logic, and the constant risk of misinterpretation.
From these internal discussions, a side research track emerged, framed as Language as Infection — Media Communication as a Mechanism of Harm.
Initial public research snapshot
The current corpus includes:
- Language as Infection — Media Communication as a Mechanism of Harm
- After the Nuclear Strike — The Transformation of Japanese Horror from Monster to Infected System
- When Disaster Becomes Environment — Chernobyl and the Spatial Model of Horror
- Viruses and Bioweapons — Infection Mechanics and Media Analogues
All materials are published as bilingual working papers / preprints and are not peer reviewed.
We have also prepared a journal version of the work and plan to release it publicly soon. So if the idea resonates but four papers already feel like excessive cognitive load, a more compressed version is coming.
Key references
Echo of an Unfading Memory — In Place of an About InterDead:
No evidence for generational differences in the conventionalisation of face emojis:
doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2025.100750
Leibniz (1666): a glossary of source terms and a brief explanation:
Leibniz 1666 conspect%20-%20a%20glossary%20of%20source%20terms%20and%20a%20brief%20explanation.md)
We formalized the “Why” and reinforced canon discipline through a public wiki and SSOT:
How We Turned the Why into a Reproducible Canon Contract for InterDead
Emoji Protocol:
Canon Horror Series v1.0: Language as Infection and the Systems of Horror