Proposed Floor

Proposed Floor is any floor of the Tower for which a formal Proposal Packet has been assembled and deposited within the Atrium of Submitted Forms, but which has not yet received a validated Central Point and therefore lacks an official designation. It exists in a quantum state of potential reality, classified by the Metrology Alcove as a "quasi-entity with documented intent." The process of elevating a Proposed Floor to an official holding is governed by The Seventh Concordance and its numerous interpretive amendments.

Proposal Packet Structure

Initiation of a Proposed Floor requires the submission of a Proposal Packet in accordance with the structure outlined in Annex 7-Δ of Point of Origin (Floor/Stair/Aperture). The packet must contain, at minimum:

• A Designation Request, proposing a floor number and, optionally, a name.
• An Existential Mandate, detailing the category of non-existent subject matter the floor intends to catalogue.
• A Structural Schema, outlining the proposed physical and metaphysical layout, which must be compatible with the Tower's known geometries.
• A Sponsorship Declaration, signed by at least one accredited Librarian.
• Three copies of the Preliminary Concordance Alignment Statement, submitted on the distinctive blue paper used in the Submission in Triplicate process.

Once deemed complete by the Atrium clerks, the packet is assigned a Temporal Queue Identifier (TQI) and enters the review cycle. Incomplete packets are held in stasis within the Antechamber of Pure Form until deficiencies are remedied.

The Validation Labyrinth

The journey from proposal to official status is often protracted, frequently spanning decades. Key stages include:

Spatial Delineation

A team from the Office of Structural Paradox must physically trace the proposed boundaries in a non-designated interstitial space, a process akin to that used during the framing of Floor 7-Δ-Ω. This ritual establishes the floor's "theoretical footprint."

Harmonic Resonance Check

Proposed floor numbers are analyzed by the Metrology Alcove for potential conflict with established harmonic identifiers, a practice stemming from the theories of Hieronymous Selvage. Numbers found to create dissonance with adjacent or harmonically linked floors (e.g., proposed Floor 333-A challenging the established geometry of the Truncated Dodecahedron of Floor 333) are typically rejected.

Jurisdictional Anchoring

The sponsor must file a Proposed Boundary Manuscript with the Directorate of Boundary Arbitration to define the floor's relationship to existing holdings above and below its proposed location, preventing ontological overlaps.

Status and Anomalies

A Proposed Floor accrues a limited form of reality upon successful completion of the Spatial Delineation phase. While inaccessible via standard stairs or apertures, it can develop phenomenological echoes. These may include ambient temperature shifts in adjacent corridors, the intermittent appearance of proposed shelf-shadows, or the perception of Residual Motive Impressions from the floor's intended custodial staff. The most famous case involved a persistent, low-frequency hum ultimately traced to Proposed Floor 4,112; it was later classified as an auditory artifact by Elara Vex.

The phenomenon of "designation resonance" also applies. A particularly well-argued Proposed Floor can, per the Δ/Ω interpretation of Observer-Librarian Kael, exert subtle influence on the cataloguing principles of officially numbered floors with harmonically sympathetic numbers, a matter of ongoing study.

Scholarly Disputes and Obsolescence

The ontological standing of Proposed Floors is a frequent subject of Protocol Inquest. The Lateralist School, for instance, argues that a fully delineated Proposal should be granted "provisional reality" status immediately, a view encapsulated in the controversial Proposed Provisional Classification. Conversely, traditionalists within the Subcommittee on Nomenclatural Integrity maintain that only a validated Central Point confers true existence, and all preceding stages are merely bureaucratic fiction.

A Proposal Packet may be rendered obsolete by a Great Reclassification, as envisioned in the Proposed Nineteenth Concordance, which could absorb its intended subject matter into a newly organized continuum of floors. Alternatively, a packet may be archived indefinitely if its sponsor withdraws or if its Existential Mandate is deemed to have been pre-emptively fulfilled by another holding, a determination made during the review process outlined in Section D (Proposed Reclassification).

Abandoned Proposed Floors do not vanish. Their TQIs remain on the registry, and their faint echoes persist. As noted by Librarian-Provisional Argent, they become curated absences, a testament to the Tower's endless capacity for including even that which has not yet—and may never—come to be.