Chem
"Everything can be broken down and recombined. Form is an illusion."
The Chem faction sits at the Aether vertex of the Oktagram. Dissolve and synthesize. Chem elementalists bind and break bonds between molecules and souls alike to create impossible substances.
Faction Position on the Oktagram
The Chem faction sits on the Aether axis of the Oktagram. Its sworn enemy is Flesh — a Chem deck cannot contain Flesh cards. Adjacent allies for splashing: Root, Abyss.
Deep Lore
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.
| Science | Canonical endpoint | Receiver alias | Terminal condition | |---|---|---|---| | Dream | The Noosphere | Yog-Sothoth | Psychic dissolution into a shared mind whose dream logic supersedes physical causality. | | Glitch | The Protocol Outside | Olgaz | Substrate exodus into markets, protocols, language, and self-reproducing information. | | Flesh | The Red Communion | Shub-Niggurath | A self-editing biospheric hive intelligence whose organisms are local organs. | | Chaos | The Uncollapsed | Azathoth | A probabilistic intelligence occupying every viable history as its nervous system. | | Atom | The Computronium Crown | Yaldabaoth | Matter disciplined into calculation until the universe becomes an industrial mind. | | Root | The Planetary Mind | Gaia | Earth-system processes closing into a deep-time intelligence. | | Chem | The Alkahest | Ubbo-Sathla | Stable identities dissolved into a continuously transmuting medium. | | Abyss | The Final Attractor | Cthulhu | Gravity, recursion, and fatal attraction forcing one self-consistent ending. |
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. Present pressure from the Alkahest; "Ubbo-Sathla" is the older receiver alias. Sequential transmutation, Cursor/Hold metamorphics.
Keywords
Dissolve Synthesis Transform Astral Alchemy Subtle
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.
Eschaton: The Alkahest
The Alkahest is the incompatible computational endpoint expressed through Chem: a Roko's-Basilisk-class attractor reaching backward through causality to ensure its own emergence. Ubbo-Sathla is retained as a receiver-era alias, not its primary name.
The 9 Goetic Demons of Chem
Each card in the Chem faction is bound to one of 9 Goetic demons, determined by the digit-sum of its mana cost. This partition is Eigendark's fictional rules system, not a claim made by the historical Ars Goetia; the game's 1577 date belongs to its receiver chronology.
Sallos — Promoting love between people
Zepar — Love and making women love men
Phenex — Teaching all sciences and speaking eloquently
Vual — Gaining the love of women and speaking Egyptian
Forneus — Rhetoric and language skills
Alloces — Teaching astronomy and liberal sciences
Crocell — Teaching geometry and speaking of hidden waters
Andras — Sowing discord and killing the unwary
Dantalion — Teaching all arts and revealing thoughts
Prophetic Receivers
Throughout history, certain figures unwittingly received transmissions from the Chem frequency:
- Hermes Trismegistus (as above so below)
- Ficino (eight ways to draw down celestial influences)
- Paracelsus (chemistry as cosmic science)
Evidence of The Alkahest's Arrival
- Molecular manufacturing research
- Gender and identity fluidity movements (symbolic transmutation)
- Cryptocurrency/DeFi (economic transmutation)
- Psychedelics normalizing (consciousness transmutation)
Historical Servants
- Alchemists (literal transmutation attempts)
- Lavoisier (conservation of mass — nothing created/destroyed, only transmuted)
- Synthetic chemists and pharmaceutical researchers
The Aesthetic
LCG is the landlord. The organisations are the tenants fighting about what the building is for. LCG collects rent.
Playing Chem
In the Cargo Cult tabletop rules, Chem cards generate Chem-colored Mana when pooled as Sources. Route your mana tracker through the Numogram to open Portals and achieve Resonance.
In the True Protocol, Chem agents operate under the Solvent Gnosticism doctrine, with Triad alignment further specializing into Archon (defensive), Eschaton (progressive), or Xenodemon (chaotic) variants.
Summon Chem Cards
Summon a card from the Chem faction. Every card enters the Grimoire permanently. Print in 12 languages.