The universe is not a simulation. Reality is real. But advanced physics is regulated.
Long before the Vey, long before humanity, the vanished civilization called the Architects discovered that intelligent species eventually reach a catastrophic threshold. Once a civilization can engineer gravity, time, memory, identity, and causality, it often destroys itself. Not always through war. Often through optimization.
A civilization builds perfect predictive systems. It prevents crime before thought becomes action. It removes social instability. It edits trauma. It manages reproduction. It smooths disagreement. It ends scarcity. It eliminates disorder. Eventually, it becomes peaceful, stable, and dead inside.
The Architects realized that perfect control is another form of extinction. So they built the Axiom Veil.