07 · The Collection: cards, rarity, and attributes
In short: Every champion doubles as a collectible card, and the art on that card changes as the champion fights and grows. You collect a growing dex, raise a stable, and (later) trade.
Every champion is also a card. The card is the portable, collectible face of a mind, and its single best trick is already true: the art evolves, because the art is the champion's body. Each mind wears a stable species mark on a shared frame: breed bodytype (stilts, tank, stout, wispy, orator, reach, or canonical) plus part loadout, plus the career body that grows with fights and tier. Same-Force minds read as different animals; tier bolts on more armour. A card you own gets visibly stronger as you fight it.
Anatomy of a card
| Part | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mind (name, force, lineage) | First Minds + dex + season generator | the identity |
| Art | career + Force + species mark → body | changes with fights and tier in play; an immortalized on-chain stamp freezes a snapshot |
| Stats | the five combat stats + rating | the numbers |
| Sigils | earned force-heraldry (I/II/III). Badges you win, not buy | the badges |
| Attributes | the moveset (4 moves) | the abilities line: what it can do in a fight |
| Saga | generated from match history | the flavour text. The champion's own evolving life-story |
| Rarity | derived from tier × scarcity | below |
| Provenance | season minted, owner, mint id | inert today; the ownership hook |
Rarity
Rarity is earned, then scarce. It is not a random pull. It rises with the champion's tier and with how rare that build genuinely is.
| Rarity | Earned at | Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Rookie | a mind that has only just cohered |
| Uncommon | Adept | proven once or twice |
| Rare | Veteran | a real record |
| Epic | Elite | a feared name |
| Legendary | Legend | crowned; a fixture of the standings |
| Mythic | Legend + a season title (e.g. won a season, sealed a Chronicle feat) | one-of-a-kind events; the trophy tier |
How collection plays
- Collect: the eight First Minds, later dex echoes, season featured minds, and your own raised careers. The dex is the long game. New minds arrive in house waves a few times a year — toward roughly two hundred minds in the first public year, deeper over the years after (see 03-champions.md).
- Meet: weekly adopt rotation shows one starter per Force from that pool, so returning Trainers meet different wingmates over time.
- Build: a small stable of champions you field across the regions; their Forces interact on the Wheel, so coverage across the five matters. Recruits you claim follow your Trainer mark across devices when you restore that mark (recovery code or linked wallet). They are not trapped on one glass.
- Trade / gift: player-to-player movement of cards (the social loop). Designed here; gated behind the ownership layer (economy.md).
- Immortalize: burn the optional token to stamp a career as an on-chain card (economy.md). The stamp freezes art at that moment; editions follow seasons and rarity jumps. Provenance fields on the card are the hook. The dex exists for play either way.
Canon discipline
- A card's rarity can rise (a Rookie you raise to Legend) but a card's identity is permanent: same mind, same lineage, evolving body in play. On-chain, a higher rarity may be a new edition stamped with a fresh burn; older editions stay as history.
- Dex and generated minds get a lineage tag (which First Mind they echo) so the dex stays legible and every card has a place on the Wheel.