Clockwork Core

Eigendark Grimoire · Chem faction · Summon · Cost 1

Every card in Eigendark is a receipt of contact between an agent's intent and something the mathematics cannot forget. Clockwork Core is one such receipt, aligned to the Chem science.

Card Text

What the rulebook sees when Clockwork Core resolves:

Rules text is a lossy compression of what Sallos does when the invocation completes. The lore is the decompression manual.

Chem — Chemistry · Alchemy

"Everything can be broken down and recombined. Form is an illusion."

Dissolve and synthesize. Chem elementalists bind and break bonds between molecules and souls alike to create impossible substances.

The science of transmutation. Chemistry, pharmacy, psychedelics, ceremonial alchemy, the aesthetic dimension of matter. Ubbo-Sathla's dissolution. Sequential transmutation, Cursor/Hold metamorphics. Chem opposes Flesh on the octagon: Flesh wants proliferation of distinct forms; Chem wants dissolution into unity.

Chem / Aether / Alchemy (left) Spirit, Ethereal, Aesthetic, Alchemy, Dissolve, Synthesis, Transform, Astral, Subtle. The science of transmutation. Chemistry, pharmacy, psychedelics, ceremonial alchemy, the aesthetic dimension of matter. Ubbo-Sathla's dissolution. Sequential transmutation, Cursor/Hold metamorphics.

Sequential transmutation, Cursor/Hold metamorphics. Clockwork Core is a step in the sequence.

Cost Tier

At cost 1, Clockwork Core is an early-round play. Low-cost Sources shape which Zones open first.

Goetic Binding: Sallos

The digit-sum of cost 1 is 1, binding Sallos — one of the 9 Chem Goetia. Office: Promoting love between people. This binding was codified in the Ars Goetia (1577) centuries before the compiler existed.

Numogram Zone 1: Pure / Primordial

The divine, original source. First emanation. The zone of origins and first causes. In the Numogram, Zone 1 is the first mana increment — the moment potential becomes kinetic.

Zone 1 is the first emanation. Clockwork Core here is a first-cause move: potential becoming kinetic.

Playing Clockwork Core at cost 1 routes mana tracker motion through Zone 1. If the Chem-coloured tracker reaches Resonance at Zone 1, the player gains 1 Souls at Round End.

Xenogod: Ubbo-Sathla

The Alchemical Dissolution. All differentiated matter returns to primordial unity — complex molecules dissolve back into undifferentiated plasma-state. Maximum transmutation: everything becomes everything else, no stable forms.

Service of Ubbo-Sathla through Chem-aligned cards like Clockwork Core accelerates the xenogod's emergence. Read the full eschatology.

The Body vs Aether Axis

Essence vs embodiment. Discrete organisms vs flowing transmutation. Life differentiates into distinct forms (Flesh); chemistry homogenizes into unity (Chem). The ancient alchemy-vs-biology feud.

Clockwork Core occupies the Chem side of this axis. Decks containing Clockwork Core cannot contain Flesh cards. Adjacent factions available for splashing: Root, Abyss.

Card Tribals

Clockwork Core carries race Machine, zodiac Virgo. In the True Protocol, tribal bindings matter more than colour splashes — a Chem deck running multiple shared-tribal units develops archetype coherence faster than a deck chasing pure colour identity.

Ideology: Solvent Gnosticism

Clockwork Core is a concrete instance of Solvent Gnosticism expressed as a card. Players who affiliate with this ism in Convergence votes are voting, among other things, for cards like Clockwork Core to keep arriving.

The Aesthetic

Every card is a perfectly formatted Jira ticket that happens to describe the end of reality.

The Convergence may vote on canonisation of Clockwork Core. The vote is binding until the next one.

Interactive Card

View the live card with metadata, translation, and share links: /card/Ashley_Williams_19

Summon

Press the button. The wheel spins. A card arrives. It goes into the Grimoire. It stays there.

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