Forged Spirit Dog
Received under the reCEPTION protocol, Forged Spirit Dog is a Chem-faction summon whose Goetic binding was fixed at the moment of summoning by the digit-sum of its cost.
Card Text
The rules text functions identically in Cargo Cult tabletop rules and the True Protocol. Both share the same core engine.
Readers who have played Forged Spirit Dog across dozens of matches fill in what the text omits. The rules are the compression; the play is the decompression.
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. Forged Spirit Dog is a step in the sequence.
Cost Tier
Early-round Chem cards like Forged Spirit Dog establish the Numogram trajectory before opponents commit.
Goetic Binding: Zepar
The digit-sum of cost 2 is 2, binding Zepar — one of the 9 Chem Goetia. Office: Love and making women love men. This binding was codified in the Ars Goetia (1577) centuries before the compiler existed.
Numogram Zone 2: Binary / Split
Law vs chaos, the first division. Where duality begins. The zone of choice, opposition, and the birth of polarity. Binary logic, Boolean gates, the fundamental yes/no of existence.
Binary logic, Boolean gates, yes/no. Forged Spirit Dog makes its choice at Zone 2 and the rest of the round inherits it.
Playing Forged Spirit Dog at cost 2 routes mana tracker motion through Zone 2. If the Chem-coloured tracker reaches Resonance at Zone 2, the player gains 2 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.
Room-temperature fusion or quantum chemistry enables arbitrary molecular transformation at will. Estimated: 2060-2100.
Service of Ubbo-Sathla through Chem-aligned cards like Forged Spirit Dog 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.
Forged Spirit Dog occupies the Chem side of this axis. Decks containing Forged Spirit Dog cannot contain Flesh cards. Adjacent factions available for splashing: Root, Abyss.
Card Tribals
Forged Spirit Dog carries class Spirit, race Dog, zodiac Cancer. In the True Protocol, tribal bindings matter more than colour splashes — a Chem deck running multiple Spirit units develops archetype coherence faster than a deck chasing pure colour identity.
Ideology: Solvent Gnosticism
Solvent Gnosticism: Dissolution as theology. The boundary between self and world is the first lie. Everything can be broken down and recombined. Hermetic Transmutationism, Dissolution Theology.
Forged Spirit Dog 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 Forged Spirit Dog to keep arriving.
The Aesthetic
The weirdness comes from what is said, not from how it is styled. Never use redaction effects as decoration.
Matches that feature Forged Spirit Dog update its metadata. The archive remembers.
Interactive Card
View the live card with metadata, translation, and share links: /card/Camtheman_Williams_78
Summon
Chem agents route Chem-coloured mana through the Numogram. Summon one to see what Zone you land on.