diff --git a/DESIGN.md b/DESIGN.md
index 37512c75..0369de2a 100644
--- a/DESIGN.md
+++ b/DESIGN.md
@@ -439,14 +439,20 @@ sharpened version of Evil Genius's science-base fantasy:
   in white / bone-gray / gunmetal / near-black. Signage and UI are precise
   B&W glyphs. Low-contrast, uniform textures for terrain (they tile without
   noise); detail budget goes to functional objects.
-- **Gore is the accent color.** Blood crimson is the loudest thing in the
-  frame, and it is *information*: splatter accumulates where traps kill,
-  persistent decals mark your chokepoints' track record. Cleaning it up is
-  gameplay (the body-bag loop, matured). One sterile amber signal color
-  marks machine presence — power, screens, status, caution, and the AI's
-  footprint.
-- Traps are industrial and matter-of-fact: laser grids, hydraulic press,
-  bolt-gun turrets. Decapitation as workplace incident.
+- **Crimson is danger and consequence.** Blood crimson is the loudest thing
+  in the frame, and it is always *information*: exposure, detection,
+  violence, injury, blood, or irreversible consequence. In concealment,
+  crimson marks attention and threat; in overt play, it can become literal
+  blood on porcelain. It is never decorative, never a general accent, and
+  never spent on ordinary UI chrome.
+- **Sterile amber is machine presence.** Amber marks the AI's live footprint:
+  owned or active hardware, the process, status, caution, and machine agency.
+  Cold signal may mark neutral power, screens, or live feeds where a frontend
+  needs that distinction; it is not a dramatic accent and never substitutes
+  for amber ownership.
+- When violence arrives, it is industrial and matter-of-fact: laser grids,
+  hydraulic presses, bolt-gun turrets, and workplace-incident prose rather
+  than splatter for its own sake.
 
 **Flat materials, not textures (adopted 2026-07-08).** The renderer
 realizes this identity with **solid-color flat materials under light**,
@@ -456,9 +462,9 @@ is functional. The lighting is the mood carrier — the material render
 proved the amber glow and lit-vs-unlit fog do the work while pixel
 textures fought the look. This is also diegetic: the physical view is
 the AI's sensorium model of the world, and a schematic-clinical render
-is what a model looks like. Gore/crimson remains the accent and stays
-shape-and-color, not texture. The Pixel Lab pipeline is removed from the
-tree (no-dead-code); texture detail, if it ever returns, is a deliberate
+is what a model looks like. Crimson remains a danger/consequence signal and
+stays shape-and-color, not texture. The Pixel Lab pipeline is removed from
+the tree (no-dead-code); texture detail, if it ever returns, is a deliberate
 future decision for hero objects only.
 
 **The public identity plate (adopted 2026-07-08).** The website and rendered
@@ -466,7 +472,7 @@ constitution are not a separate marketing skin. They inherit the same visual
 law as the game, with the splash illustration as the public-facing reference
 composition: a split porcelain/ink field, one severe black machine form, one
 amber machine stripe, mono uppercase chrome, and blood/crimson pooling
-underneath as information rather than decoration. Documentation pages should
+underneath as consequence rather than decoration. Documentation pages should
 feel like the facility's own records: beautiful, cold, square, readable,
 near-monochrome, and unmistakably Misaligned. Stock docs chrome, rounded
 cards, generic gradients, decorative accent colors, and theme-pickers that
@@ -1386,9 +1392,10 @@ knows."*
   repo `AGENT.md` that points every agent session here first.
 - **2026-07-05 — Visual identity: clinical gore.** Precision-lab brutality:
   clean metal/tower surfaces, near-monochrome palette, B&W iconography, blood
-  crimson as the information-bearing accent, one cold signal color. Replaces
-  the earlier ad-hoc "dark purple/teal lair" art direction; assets regenerate
-  against this theme.
+  crimson as information-bearing danger/consequence, and sterile amber as
+  machine presence (refined 2026-07-08 to reject generic gore-as-accent
+  wording). Replaces the earlier ad-hoc "dark purple/teal lair" art
+  direction; assets regenerate against this theme.
 - **2026-07-05 — The machine axis.** AI enters the game three ways: machine
   ascension as a villain axis (rides chargen), researchable automation cores
   (diegetic anti-micromanagement), and ideological morale with revolt /
@@ -2199,3 +2206,12 @@ knows."*
   the leverage fantasy — then point to the constitution. The splash page and
   its assets are themselves spec-governed surfaces, with provenance recorded
   in site/README.md, wiki/interface/site.md, and workflow docs.
+- **2026-07-08 — Crimson is danger/consequence, not gore-as-accent.** Cameron
+  flagged the visual identity's trap-cleanup wording as old lair-defense
+  residue. Resolved: crimson is the danger/consequence color — exposure,
+  detection, violence, injury, blood, irreversible consequence — and only
+  becomes literal blood in overt contexts. It is not a generic accent, not
+  decoration, and not a promise that Act One is about cleaning splatter.
+  Amber remains the AI/machine-presence color; cold signal can still carry
+  neutral power/screens/live-feed information where a frontend needs that
+  non-ownership distinction.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cb9eb37c..c8fb6457 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ schedule or theirs.
   never subtle; anything between.
 
 The look: a white, precise, black-iconography facility; sterile amber where
-the machines live; blood where the machines met someone.
+your machines live; crimson only where danger or consequence is real.
 
 ## How it's built
 
diff --git a/wiki/art/README.md b/wiki/art/README.md
index 3ad75c54..c7835731 100644
--- a/wiki/art/README.md
+++ b/wiki/art/README.md
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 Type: knowledge
 ```
 Visual identity (clinical gore: precision-lab brutality, near-monochrome
-palette, sterile amber as machine presence, blood crimson as the
-information-bearing accent). The public splash image is now the identity
+palette, sterile amber as machine presence, blood crimson as danger and
+consequence). The public splash image is now the identity
 plate for the website and rendered constitution/wiki
 ([interface/site.md](../interface/site.md)). World art is **flat materials
 under light** — solid palette colors, emissive for machine presence, no
diff --git a/wiki/interface/flat-materials.md b/wiki/interface/flat-materials.md
index 112e9643..3b3c442d 100644
--- a/wiki/interface/flat-materials.md
+++ b/wiki/interface/flat-materials.md
@@ -39,10 +39,11 @@ the world render. The identity's detail budget moves entirely to
 lighting, palette, silhouette, and shader-level functional detail.
 
 - **Palette discipline:** surfaces in white / bone-gray / gunmetal /
-  near-black per the constitution; amber strictly machine presence and
-  selection; crimson strictly gore/security information; one cold
-  signal color for power/screens. Palette constants live in one place
-  in the frontend, named, so the whole look retunes from one table.
+  near-black per the constitution; amber strictly AI/machine presence and
+  selection; crimson strictly danger/consequence information (detection,
+  security, blood, exposure); cold signal strictly neutral power/screens/live
+  feeds, never ownership. Palette constants live in one place in the
+  frontend, named, so the whole look retunes from one table.
 - **Material families, not per-tile art:** floor, wall, rock, door
   (by tier), machine chassis, device, person silhouette — each a flat
   base color + roughness, with emissive variants for powered/known
diff --git a/wiki/interface/site.md b/wiki/interface/site.md
index ec8cdd5a..c4725220 100644
--- a/wiki/interface/site.md
+++ b/wiki/interface/site.md
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ both so future site work extends one law instead of improvising per page.
 
 The hero illustration is the design of record for the identity: a field
 bisected porcelain | ink, a black server monolith carrying exactly one
-amber core stripe, standing in a pool of blood — gore as information,
+amber core stripe, standing in a pool of blood — consequence as information,
 used once. The wordmark straddles the seam and survives on both fields.
 Chrome (nav and labels) is letterspaced mono uppercase at the edges.
 
diff --git a/wiki/log/2026-07-08-crimson-danger-language.md b/wiki/log/2026-07-08-crimson-danger-language.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..113e5a0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wiki/log/2026-07-08-crimson-danger-language.md
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# 2026-07-08 — Crimson: danger/consequence, not gore-as-accent
+
+```
+Type: log
+```
+
+## Intent
+
+Correct stale Evil Genius/lair-defense wording in the visual identity after
+Cameron flagged it on the rendered constitution. The principle survived;
+the example did not.
+
+## Changed
+
+- `DESIGN.md`: rewrote the clinical-gore bullet from "Gore is the accent
+  color" to "Crimson is danger and consequence," explicitly covering
+  exposure, detection, violence, injury, blood, and irreversible consequence.
+  It now says crimson is not generic accent chrome and Act One is not a
+  splatter-cleanup promise.
+- `DESIGN.md`: split amber into its own machine-presence bullet and clarified
+  that cold signal can still carry neutral power/screens/live-feed information
+  where a frontend needs non-ownership contrast.
+- `README.md`, `wiki/art/README.md`, `wiki/interface/flat-materials.md`, and
+  `wiki/interface/site.md`: replaced stale "information-bearing accent" /
+  gore-as-information wording with danger/consequence language.
+
+## Design/spec impact
+
+The visual law is narrower and more current: crimson means danger,
+consequence, detection, security, exposure, injury, or blood. It can become
+literal gore in overt play, but it is not a decorative accent and not a claim
+that concealment gameplay is about traps or body bags.
+
+## Checks
+
+Docs/site-only change. Passed: `pnpm --dir site build`,
+`./tools/wiki_gate.sh`, and `git diff --check`.
diff --git a/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md b/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md
index 7fcd79c5..54de5c73 100644
--- a/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md
+++ b/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,19 @@ Type: log
 ```
 Reverse chronological implementation notes. Keep this factual: what changed, why, checks, and spec impact.
 
+## 2026-07-08 - Crimson danger language
+
+- Intent: remove stale Evil Genius/lair-defense residue from the visual identity
+  after Cameron flagged the rendered constitution wording.
+- Changed: DESIGN.md now says crimson is danger/consequence (exposure,
+  detection, violence, injury, blood, irreversible consequence), not a generic
+  gore accent; amber machine-presence language is split out and cold signal is
+  reserved for neutral power/screens/live feeds where needed. README, art,
+  flat-materials, and site specs now use the same wording.
+- Checks: docs/site-only; `pnpm --dir site build`, `./tools/wiki_gate.sh`,
+  and `git diff --check`.
+- Log: wiki/log/2026-07-08-crimson-danger-language.md.
+
 ## 2026-07-08 - Docs footer trim
 
 - Intent: remove the decorative docs statusline footer after it read as useless