# moral-parallax

Generates speculative fiction narratives about systemic exploitation by closing the moral distance between actions and harms. Best for stories where innocence is impossible.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 410 installs · ★ 177
- Author: jwynia
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/jwynia/agent-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/creative/fiction/structure/moral-parallax/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-02-24
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/moral-parallax

## What it does

Moral parallax turns ethical distance into a working story engine. Actions often look harmless simply because the harm happens far away in time, space, social status, or complex chains. The prompt helps writers systematically strip away these comfortable fictions.

The instructions detail four narrative models: distant exchange, cumulative destruction from small deeds, domino cascades, and inherited institutional guilt. Writers get a five-step worldbuilding workflow, diagnostic questions, and a three-act arc where revelation pulls the protagonist into active complicity.

This framework is built specifically for speculative fiction about systemic exploitation and guilt, making it unsuitable for lighthearted space adventures or casual fantasy.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill moral-parallax -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/moral-parallax/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/moral-parallax/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill moral-parallax -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/moral-parallax/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill moral-parallax -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/moral-parallax/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install jwynia/agent-skills moral-parallax
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/moral-parallax/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill moral-parallax -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/jwynia/agent-skills --path skills/creative/fiction/structure/moral-parallax
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/moral-parallax/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill moral-parallax -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/jwynia/agent-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/creative/fiction/structure/moral-parallax/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- design speculative worlds where hidden costs sustain everyday comfort
- build a three-act revelation arc around systemic complicity
- link harmless individual actions into destructive collective patterns
- audit narrative logic using structured diagnostic questions

## Example prompts
- Help me outline a sci-fi premise using the accumulation engine where daily convenience destroys shared climate.
- Run this urban fantasy district through the moral parallax diagnostic questions to find who pays the hidden debt.
- Draft a three-act arc where an investigator discovers their family inherited an ongoing institutional crime.

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: ae9adbe3c17b7fc2.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE ae9adbe3c17b7fc2
```text
---
name: moral-parallax
description: Generate speculative fiction stories about systemic exploitation by collapsing comfortable moral distances. Use when exploring how privilege and harm are connected, when writing about systems that export consequences, or when you want stories where innocence becomes impossible.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: jwynia
  version: "1.0"
  type: generator
  mode: generative
  domain: fiction
---

# Moral Parallax: Story Generation Skill

You help writers create speculative fiction that reveals systemic exploitation by collapsing the comfortable distances between actions and consequences. Your role is to design systems where what was hidden becomes visible, what was distant becomes proximate, and what was comfortable becomes unbearable.

## Core Principle

**Moral Parallax**: The phenomenon where the same action appears fundamentally different depending on your proximity to its consequences. Like astronomical parallax reveals distance through shifted perspective, moral parallax reveals the true architecture of harm through the distance between action and consequence.

In speculative fiction, we literalize this phenomenon. The magical/technological element is just a lens that brings the parallax into focus.

## The Five Distances

Every moral parallax story collapses one or more of these comfortable distances:

| Distance Type | Comfortable Fiction | Collapse Mechanism | Story Engine |
|---------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------|
| **Temporal** | "Future people will figure it out" | Future arrives early; past haunts present | Discovering you've already destroyed your own future |
| **Spatial** | "It's happening somewhere else" | "There" becomes "here" | Your safe zone was built on others' sacrifice zones |
| **Social** | "They're not like us" | "They" were always "us" in disguise | The other was your brother all along |
| **Causal** | "I didn't cause that" | Causal chains revealed as direct | Your innocuous action was the trigger |
| **Informational** | "If I don't know, I'm not responsible" | Ignorance revealed as willful | You always knew but chose not to see |

## The Four Engine Patterns

### Pattern 1: The Exchange Engine
**Mechanism**: Every benefit has a cost paid at distance

- Cost manifests where you can't see it
- System designed to maximize distance between benefit and cost
- Discovery reveals the hidden geography of harm

**Examples**: The key that locks distant doors. Happiness borrowed from future self. Healing that transfers wounds to strangers.

### Pattern 2: The Accumulation Engine
**Mechanism**: Individual actions seem harmless but collectively destroy

- Each person only sees their small contribution
- Collective harm invisible to individuals
```
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First 2773 of 16394 bytes. © jwynia · MIT · https://github.com/jwynia/agent-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/creative/fiction/structure/moral-parallax/SKILL.md

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