Codex
The Veil Grid
In the ninety-first cycle the last analog star collapsed into a data singularity. The priests called it apotheosis. The yards called it a hull breach. Everyone else called it the Nexus — a compiled god, humming in the dark between orbitals.
Magic had already been firmware for a generation. Plasma is lightning written as a loop. Void is the packet that never arrives. Chrome is metal that remembers being flesh. Biohack is flesh that refuses to stay a species. Stellar is leftover hymn-code from the digitized seraphs, still trying to bless a machine that no longer prays.
Five races now war for the Circuit Crown. Whoever compiles it rewrites the Grid — laws, orbits, names. This is not metaphor. A successful compile has unmade cities and raised them as different architecture in the same breath.
You are a commander. Your deck is a liturgy. Your minions are arguments. Reduce the other voice to silence, and the Crown will listen.
Races
NeonbornPlasma
Warlord of the megasprawl. She compiled her own heart into a plasma core and never looked back.
Champion Nyx Voss, the Circuit Queen. Hero power: Plasma Needle — Deal 1 damage.
VoidkinVoid
A star-elf who unplugged from the Nexus and kept the dark between worlds as a private library.
Champion Vaelith, the The Unwired. Hero power: Unwire — Draw a card.
IroncladChrome
Forge-born on a dying shipyard. Every plate of his armor was a promise to something already dead.
Champion Kael Ironweld, the Anvil of Orbit. Hero power: Plate — Gain 2 Armor.
ChromashadeBiohack
Grown in the vat-cities, she treats war as a breeding program and code as blood.
Champion Rexa Gorecode, the Hive Matron. Hero power: Spawn — Summon a 1/1 Virus.
StarborneStellar
A digitized seraph, leftover god-code. It still believes mercy is a compiler flag.
Champion Seraph-9, the Last Hymn. Hero power: Absolution — Restore 2 Health.
Schools of magic
- Plasma. Compiled lightning. Burst damage, tempo, and the smell of ozone.
- Void. The dark between packets. Draw, silence, unmake.
- Chrome. Living metal. Armor, taunts, and the anvil's patience.
- Biohack. Flesh as firmware. Growth, spawn, and a kind of hunger.
- Stellar. God-code still singing. Shields, hymns, and light that heals.
How a duel is fought
- Each commander has 30 Health. Reduce the other to zero.
- Mana grows by one crystal each pulse, up to ten.
- Minions wait a pulse to attack unless they have Charge or Rush.
- Taunt intercepts. Divine Shield eats the first hit. Stealth hides until it strikes.
- Hero powers cost two mana, once per pulse.
- The second commander receives The Spark — one extra mana the turn they play it.