Implication-Dependent Fauna

Implication-Dependent Fauna is a classification of living entities whose physical manifestation, sustenance, and continued existence are contingent upon the logical necessity or semantic coherence of a referenced proposition within the Tower's archival holdings.

Definition and Causal Mechanism

Implication-Dependent Fauna are distinct from Archival Fauna, Symbiotic Fauna, or Custodial Fauna in that their ontological status is not fixed by accession or discovery, but by inference. The foundational principle, established in Ordinance on Non-Catalogued Fauna, Clause 12, states: "A thing whose existence is a necessary consequence of a formally accepted premise shall be treated as extant for all procedural and custodial purposes." For example, a documented premise stating "All gryphons possess iridescent feathers" implicitly necessitates the existence of at least one gryphon. The gryphon, as an entity, thus becomes dependent on the ongoing archival integrity and logical weight of that premise.

Their physical mass and metabolic needs are calculated using the Mass-Implication Tables maintained by the Office of Mass and Momentum. A creature's "implication quotient" determines its dietary intake, which must be supplied by the Directorate of Predictive Annotation to prevent ontological collapse.

Subcategories and Examples

The Great Taxonomy of Implied Fauna further refines this category. Key subclasses include:

• Syllogistic Fauna: Entities whose existence is derived from a logical syllogism (e.g., a "Socratic Snail" implied by a series of documented philosophical dialogues).
• Semantic-Anchor Fauna: Creatures that manifest to embody the precise meaning of a defined term whose definition requires an exemplar. Their health is tied to the term's usage frequency in new accessions.
• Narrative-Consequent Fauna: Beings that arise from the unavoidable plot conclusions of archived fictional accounts. Their population can fluctuate with scholarly interpretations.

Common examples referenced in the Field Guide to Unseeable Fauna include the Gryphon|gryphon, the Solipsistic Sparrow (which only exists when observed by another implication-dependent entity), and the Bureaucratic Behemoth, implied by the intersecting jurisdictions of seven separate Concordance annexes.

Custodial Protocols

Custody of Implication-Dependent Fauna falls under Implied Fauna guidelines originally drafted by Lysander the Implied. Keepers must regularly audit the source documents for logical erosion, amendments, or redaction that could weaken the implicative chain. Concordance 44 enshrines their right to sustenance, but the provisioning schedule is a perpetual point of contention between the Directorate of Predictive Annotation and the Office of the Comptroller.
A critical protocol, per Amendment 7 to the Nineteenth Concordance, forbids the direct observation of an Implication-Dependent creature by the author of its source premise, as this creates a paradox loop that can drain ink from surrounding folios.

Scholarly Disputes

The primary debate concerns the "priority of implication" versus "catalogued reality." The Vorn Criterion argues that any fauna dependent on an implication must, by definition, be a subset of Implied Fauna and should not have a separate taxonomic category. Proponents of the separation, however, cite the practical administrative burdens documented in the Mass-Implication Tables annex of Concordance 309, which are unique to dependency cases.
A further, more esoteric dispute involves whether these creatures cease to exist during archival blackout periods (mandated by Concordance 117 for system maintenance), or if they enter a state of "potential suspension." The latter view is supported by the absence of decomposition during these periods, though critics attribute this to the suspension of custodial observation protocols rather than the creatures' own state.

Related Phenomena

Implication-Dependent Fauna are often confused with, but are legally distinct from, Questions Dependent on Unverifiable Premises, which are procedural objects, not living entities. They also share a border with Passive or Ambient Fauna, though the latter are not logic-bound. Instances of Winged Anomalies have sometimes been retrospectively classified as Implication-Dependent, particularly when their flight patterns are found to trace logical operators in three-dimensional space. The care of especially aesthetic specimens may be delegated to the Gallery of Literal Portraits for temporary display, provided their implicative documents travel with them.