Develop Warpkeep 0.4 gameplay, Verdant Citadel and sealed realm delivery

[ael-dev3]

Warpkeep 0.4 is being developed as a professional Verdant Citadel foundation around the readable loop gather → choose → build → benefit → return. The current published branch checkpoint is facc882c on codex/prepared-keep-bindings-fix; the functional implementation checkpoint is 55b787e0.

The 0.4 presentation contract covers the complete handoff inspiration library: bounded voxel presentation, layered Verdant Forest dressing, restrained Pelagic-style water, terrain and atmosphere research, Townscaper/Tiny Glade settlement readability, climate separation, strategic return clarity, accessibility, and the Dream Loop review process. Each reference has a concrete source owner or an explicit deferral in docs/agent-notes/0.4.0/visual-foundation-contract.md; no copied code or media, replacement engine, deep simulation, or unlicensed dependency is implied.

The player-facing foundation now includes a coherent Verdant Citadel palette and silhouette, bounded masonry progression, layered forest and water framing, portrait-safe panel width, safe-area spacing, touch-sized controls, readable resource/status hierarchy, reduced-motion and fallback paths, and explicit pending/not-spendable semantics. The existing gather/build/return authority remains intact while deeper editing and simulation stay deferred.

This checkpoint also hardens the connected local QA rails. Browser journeys follow the explicit realm-directory selection before Terms or restored-session checks; the disposable Vite graph is prewarmed before title/realm/Inner Keep transitions; Windows identity, process cleanup, startup readiness, and private browser boundaries remain fail-closed; and redundant Inner Keep scene reconciliation is throttled so routine authority refreshes do not rebuild the full visual graph.

Validation at this checkpoint:

• npm run typecheck passes.
• Focused Inner Keep scene and full-stack security suites pass 89/89.
• npm run verify:visual-foundation passes 3/3.
• A connected Windows run has passed the title gateway and restored current-agreement seam. The remaining machine-level limitation is a renderer-thread stall during the second Inner Keep project transition, so the full browser probe is not yet a release pass.
• Verify and CodeQL for facc882c are pending; no current full CI pass is claimed.

Open gates before shipping 0.4 are the complete connected browser journey, physical-device performance and touch review, authenticated owner journey, live G001/G002/PTR provider evidence, deployment/recovery proof, final-family preparation, and release freeze. This draft PR is a development checkpoint, not a claim that 0.4 is shipped.