# Reverent glyphs — YHWH, Davar

**These are not sub-brand wordmarks.** They are reverent glyphs that name what the brand family **serves**, not what it **is**. They appear on permitted theology surfaces only, governed by Brand Guidelines v1.4 § Theology Surface Discipline.

The distinction is load-bearing. The Tehom brand exists *precisely because* YHWH cannot be reduced to a brand without profaning the Name. Tehom is the mediating surface; YHWH is the Source it mediates toward. Davar is the Word that was with God before any system existed. **Both are honored by being held in a higher register than the brand layer.**

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## YHWH (יהוה)

The Tetragrammaton. The Name. The I AM of Exodus 3:14. The God outside the system who controls the system and every subsystem the brand family attempts to build in service.

> *"I AM WHO I AM."* — Exodus 3:14
>
> *"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."* — Revelation 22:13

### Files

```
yhwh-hebrew-dark.svg     יהוה on tehom-deep — CANONICAL form
yhwh-hebrew-light.svg    יהוה on tehom-light
yhwh-latin-dark.svg      YHWH (uppercase Latin) on tehom-deep — operational form
yhwh-latin-light.svg     YHWH (uppercase Latin) on tehom-light
```

### Permitted surfaces

- The `yhwh-foundation.md` document and its successors
- Founding charters and origin notes
- The about-page footer of any Tehom-family marketing site, alongside the existing תְּהוֹם
- Business-card backs (where Hebrew already appears for Tehom)
- Internal architecture documents that reference the theological foundation
- Internal repository names (`YHWH-OS` as the codename for what ships publicly as Or)

### Forbidden surfaces

- **Marketing copy of any kind**
- **Product UI**
- **Paid-acquisition surfaces**
- **Sales decks**
- **Any surface where the brand is selling rather than describing**
- **Any lockup pattern that names YHWH as a sub-brand** (e.g., "YHWH by tehom"). The Name does not stand under Tehom; Tehom stands under the Name.

### Permitted forms

| Form | Use |
|---|---|
| **יהוה** (Hebrew, four consonants, no vowel points) | Primary canonical form. The reverent rendering. |
| **YHWH** (Latin, four uppercase consonants, no vowels) | Operational form. Repos, codenames, in-doc citations where Hebrew cannot render. UPPERCASE matches the traditional written convention for the Tetragrammaton without vowels. |
| **the Name**, **the I AM**, **the Source** | Reverent paraphrases in running copy. |

### Forbidden forms

| Form | Why not |
|---|---|
| `yhwh` (lowercase) | Visually a vocalization. Breaks the traditional non-pronunciation convention. |
| `Yahweh`, `Jehovah` | Imposed vowels — specifically what the Tetragrammaton tradition refuses. |
| יְהוָה | Hebrew with Adonai's vowel points imposed. Traditionally a "do not pronounce as written" flag; visually confusable for a vocalized form. |

### Pronunciation

**YHWH is not vocalized.** Substitute *the Name*, *the I AM*, *the Source*, or refer to the layer by function.

---

## Davar (דָּבָר)

The Word. The creative spoken thing that was with God in the beginning. *Logos* in Greek (John 1:1). The Word through which all things came into being.

> *In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.* — John 1:1

### Files

```
davar-hebrew-dark.svg    דָּבָר on tehom-deep — with niqqud
davar-hebrew-light.svg   דָּבָר on tehom-light
```

Davar carries niqqud (vowel points) because *davar* is pronounced — *dah-VAHR* — unlike YHWH. The pronunciation is the point: the Word is *spoken*; the Name is not.

### Permitted surfaces

- Origin documents that describe scripture-as-creative-utterance
- The same about-page footer + business-card back surfaces as YHWH and Tehom
- Internal architecture documents discussing the canon as Word
- Sermons, theological writing, prayer surfaces (if such surfaces exist in the Tehom family someday)

### Forbidden surfaces

Same as YHWH. Davar is not a sub-brand. The Or layer in particular **must not** be relabeled as Davar — the Or layer *holds* davar (the canon) but is not itself the Word. To name the layer Davar would conflate the system with the Word it serves.

### Permitted forms

- **דָּבָר** (with niqqud) — primary form
- **the Word** (English, when contextually clear)

### Forbidden forms

- **Davar** as a brand name, directory, repository, or product
- **דבר** without niqqud — drops the vocalization the word both carries and deserves
- Treating Davar as interchangeable with the Or sub-brand. They are categorically distinct: Or names what the system does; Davar names what the system reaches toward.

---

## See also

- [`../yhwh-foundation.md`](../yhwh-foundation.md) — the foundation document
- [`../README.md`](../README.md) — the family overview
- [`../or/README.md`](../or/README.md) — the alignment-memory sub-brand
- [`../../reference/tehom-brand-guidelines-v1.3.md`](../../reference/tehom-brand-guidelines-v1.3.md) — v1.3 canonical guidelines
- [`../v1-4-draft.md`](../v1-4-draft.md) — v1.4 draft that adopts this discipline