{ "model": { "rank": 1277, "code": "thing-q9601", "model_id": "vr.tr.zoroastrianism", "name": "Zoroastrianism", "purpose": "Let an agent describe Zoroastrianism and its beliefs, practices and communities with attribution, explain its history and influence, support respectful understanding, and identify community and scholarly resources.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q9601/", "tier": 2, "score": 161, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Zoroastrianism in China", "Zoroastrianism in India", "Zoroastrianism in Armenia", "Zoroastrianism in Azerbaijan", "Zoroastrianism in Lebanon", "Zoroastrianism in Georgia", "Zoroastrianism in Afghanistan", "Zoroastrianism in Pakistan", "Zoroastrianism in Uzbekistan", "Zoroastrianism in the United States", "Zoroastrianism in Iran", "Mazdayasni Zoroastrianism", "Gatha Zoroastrianism", "Behafaridians", "Zurvanism", "Daena" ], "aliasCount": 16, "merged": 16, "knownIn": 161, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q9601", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9601", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T01:42:35Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q9601", "registryId": "vr.tr.zoroastrianism", "name": "Zoroastrianism", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q9601/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.zoroastrianism", "name": "Zoroastrianism", "purpose": "Let an agent describe Zoroastrianism and its beliefs, practices and communities with attribution, explain its history and influence, support respectful understanding, and identify community and scholarly resources.", "definition": "One of the oldest continuously practised religions, founded on the teachings of the prophet Zarathustra in ancient Iran, centred on the worship of Ahura Mazda, the ethical struggle between good and evil, and the principles of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, with fire as a symbol of purity, historically the state religion of Persian empires and today practised by communities in Iran, India as the Parsis, and diasporas in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lebanon, China and elsewhere; it is described here with attribution to Zoroastrian sources and scholars.", "what_it_is_for": "An ancient Iranian religion.", "affordances": [ "describe beliefs and practices with attribution", "explain history and influence", "support respectful understanding", "identify resources" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Ancient Iranian origin", "Ethical dualism", "Fire temples", "Small global community" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a religion with fire temples and rituals.", "visual_identification": [ "Worship of Ahura Mazda, teachings of Zarathustra", "Fire as symbol", "Manichaeism and Mithraism are distinct traditions" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "Zoroastrians in Iran", "Parsis of India", "diaspora communities in the Caucasus, Middle East and elsewhere", "historical Zoroastrianism of the Persian empires", "modern revival movements" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "dualistic cosmology", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "Abrahamic religion", "why": "traditions with debated influences" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "flame", "why": "fire as a religious symbol" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "metempsychosis", "why": "another belief entry" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Community religious authorities", "Minority religion protections in Iran and India", "Heritage protection for fire temples and sites" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Mischaracterising the religion as fire worship", "Disrespectful presentation", "Outdated community figures" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "Beliefs and practices.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "beliefs", "name": "Beliefs", "description": "Core beliefs.", "findings": [ { "id": "beliefs-finding", "name": "Beliefs", "description": "Beliefs.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the core beliefs of Zoroastrianism about Ahura Mazda, good and evil, and ethical life, as described by Zoroastrian sources and scholars?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful and attributed, avoiding the fire worship mischaracterisation?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "practices", "name": "Practices", "description": "Practices and rituals.", "findings": [ { "id": "practices-finding", "name": "Practices", "description": "Practices.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are Zoroastrian rituals, festivals, fire temples and life cycle rites?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific practice?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "communities", "name": "Communities", "description": "Communities today.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "where", "name": "Where", "description": "Where Zoroastrians live.", "findings": [ { "id": "where-finding", "name": "Where", "description": "Communities.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where do Zoroastrian communities live today, including Iran, the Parsis of India and diasporas in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lebanon and China, and what are their sizes?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific community?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "issues", "name": "Issues", "description": "Contemporary issues.", "findings": [ { "id": "issues-finding", "name": "Issues", "description": "Issues.", "questions": [ { "text": "What issues such as demographic decline, conversion debates and minority status do communities discuss, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History and influence.", "rationale": "Scholarship.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did Zoroastrianism develop from Zarathustra through the Persian empires to the Islamic conquest and migration to India, according to historians?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "influence", "name": "Influence", "description": "Influence on other traditions.", "findings": [ { "id": "influence-finding", "name": "Influence", "description": "Influence.", "questions": [ { "text": "What influences on other religions do scholars debate, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which findings are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "Texts and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "texts", "name": "Texts", "description": "Sacred texts.", "findings": [ { "id": "texts-finding", "name": "Texts", "description": "Texts.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the Avesta and other texts, and how are they studied?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the Avesta?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can Zoroastrianism be taught respectfully in religious studies?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each community be a separate entry?", "How should scholarly sources be linked?", "How should heritage sites be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a Zoroastrianism, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe Zoroastrianism and its beliefs, practices and communities with attribution, explain its history and influence, support respectful understanding, and identify community and scholarly resources.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Zoroastrianism in China, Zoroastrianism in India, Zoroastrianism in Armenia, Zoroastrianism in Azerbaijan, Zoroastrianism in Lebanon, Zoroastrianism in Georgia, Zoroastrianism in Afghanistan, Zoroastrianism in Pakistan, Zoroastrianism in Uzbekistan, Zoroastrianism in the United States, Zoroastrianism in Iran, Mazdayasni Zoroastrianism.", "16 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 161 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a Zoroastrianism, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Zoroastrianism in China", "Zoroastrianism in India", "Zoroastrianism in Armenia", "Zoroastrianism in Azerbaijan", "Zoroastrianism in Lebanon", "Zoroastrianism in Georgia", "Zoroastrianism in Afghanistan", "Zoroastrianism in Pakistan", "Zoroastrianism in Uzbekistan", "Zoroastrianism in the United States", "Zoroastrianism in Iran", "Mazdayasni Zoroastrianism" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 161 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 16 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one Zoroastrianism from another, and a Zoroastrianism from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a Zoroastrianism sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a Zoroastrianism from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a Zoroastrianism passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a Zoroastrianism between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a Zoroastrianism, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a Zoroastrianism is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a Zoroastrianism says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a Zoroastrianism contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a Zoroastrianism and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What Zoroastrianism studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does Zoroastrianism take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does Zoroastrianism establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where Zoroastrianism is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark Zoroastrianism as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place Zoroastrianism, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a Zoroastrianism came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a Zoroastrianism and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a Zoroastrianism is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a Zoroastrianism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a Zoroastrianism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a Zoroastrianism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }