Soulbound

Alert

Resource

Destroy

Type

Power to Ensoul

Possesses Pods After Death

Whenever your ship(s) are destroyed, use this power to draft a pod for each destroyed ship.

Whenever your ship(s) are revived, use this power to scrap a pod for each revived ship.

Legacy: Whenever an alien’s ship(s) are destroyed, that alien may draft one pod.

The Soulbound consist of all those who have bound their eternal souls to artificial bodies using a powerful magic. After spending eons in such a state, many of them have forgotten who they were before the binding ritual. With nihilism as their greatest foe, they have decided to pursue Cosmic conquest in order to maintain a sense of purpose.

Any: Any
Any: Any

Mandatory

Wild Flare

During any warpfall, if the invader retrieves a ship from the warp, you may discharge this flare to draft a pod.

Any: Warpfall

Super Flare

During any warpfall, you may discharge this flare to scrap pods from your cache and revive the same number of ships. (You may not use your power in response to this effect).

Any: Warpfall

Modifications

Original alien is named Reborn.
Original alien has the power of rebirth. Changed to capture the idea of a soul bound to a body that can temporarily possess something else after death.
Original alien power is optional, as both are meant to be seen as benefits.
Soulbound’s legacy is a tempered form of half the base power. When any alien loses any number of ships, that alien may draft a pod. This legacy is favored by aliens that can intentionally lose many ships in small doses, such as Kamikaze or Masochist. It also benefits aliens like Zombie that can lose ships without consequence. Contrarily, it punishes aliens like Assassin whose powers revolve around destroying enemy ships, as well as Healer who won’t gain as much advantage from reviving enemy ships. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Soulbound is capable of throwing any encounter in exchange for new pods, similar to Ethic. Similarly, Soulbound has no simple means of gaining its ships back, and reviving ships will cost it pods, so it has to be careful in how it leverages its ability.
Soulbound can gain double pods via compensation, making it understatedly one of the best compensation powers in Cosmic. Since it gains half of the pods via drafting, it can typically gain eight pods without requiring the opponent to have all eight on-hand.
Soulbound can have a difficult time emptying its cache of cards due to how many pods it can obtain from compensation and loss. It can easily go an entire match without a resupply without concern, which also makes it a target for compensation.
Warp Keys can potentially wipe out Soulbound’s entire cache, which could be used advantageously by Soulbound in order to gain a free resupply.

Development Notes

One key issue I have always had with Reborn’s theming is its thematic similarities with Converter. Reborn as a term is more abstract, and I wanted to make it something more concrete. In addition, Cosmic often operates under a thematic structure of ships representing living things and pods representing weapons. It makes less sense to me that a ship becomes a weapon as a result of the cycle of rebirth when a pod isn’t meant to be living. Originally, I wanted to capture the idea of a spirit of the deceased coming back to possess a weapon, like a haunted blade. When the body comes back to life, the soul returns to it. Due to the prevalence of ghost aliens with Ghoul and Phantom, I opted for a creature from Dungeons and Dragons called a “soulbound”. It is a creature whose soul has been bound to an artificial body by magic. They sacrifice much of their ability to feel in exchange for a form of immortality.
My original idea with this alien was called “Specter” or “Spirit”. It helped to distinguish it from Alchemist, but I wasn’t satisfied with the theme.
Even though scrapped pods don’t have to be the same ones gained via the power, I can imagine it making enough sense that the Soulbound are able to channel the power from one pod to another. If the energy in a Soulbound is enough to charge a pod, then the energy should be transferrable. It also raises the question of whether a Soulbound is destroyed if it is possessing a pod that is discharged, since the pod has to be scrapped after its use regardless. Since the total number of ships remain constant outside of effects like Void, the total number of Soulbound should remain constant as well. If ships are revived while Soulbound has no pods in the cache, it would suggest the Soulbound are just floating around without a body before getting revived.
Thematically, I like the distinction between Soulbound and Zombie. Both powers provide some form of immortality. The Soulbound have immortal souls that cannot be killed, even if their body is destroyed, while the Zombies are merely living bodies without souls. I imagine that even after the Soulbound lose their power, their soul continues to linger, while Zombies will cease to reanimate. If their power is restored, both will return to normal, regardless of how much times passes.
It makes sense to me that the Soulbound are able to intangibly float through the security of the forge and possess a pod as a new body, then bring it to the main cache. Since the Soulbound can only possess one body, it makes sense that they would be limited to one per destroyed ship with this method. Though if the Soulbound’s souls aren’t destroyed after their pod is consumed, it does raise the question of why they don’t retrieve another pod. My theory would be that getting discharged in a pod disrupts their ability to possess a new host. The temporary possession they can perform may be limited to one pod, since they are still bonded to their original body.
Originally I made the mistake that the second half of this power revives ships for scrapped pods instead of scrapping pods from reviving ships. It completely changed my perception of the power and made me thinking of the power of a Soulbound, to recycle their resources in an effort to prevent waste.
The design of original Reborn is optional, with both the gaining and scrapping of pods being seen as potential upsides or downsides. While keeping it optional would still fit with the pod gaining aspect of my idea, the pod scrapping aspect doesn’t make as much sense. Also, I find it more mechanically interesting that the high potential for pod gain carries the risk of losing those pods. Since the pod loss isn’t random, it still allows player agency in choosing which pods get scrapped, which I find more interesting than simply allowing the player to avoid engaging with the power. I also like that it can potentially be a benefit to scrap pods.
Soulbound’s base ability to gain pods in exchange for ship loss is similar to that of Ethic and original Kamikaze. Kamikaze intentionally throws its ships away for more pod gain than Soulbound, while Ethic specifically gains compensation for losses that can take the form of pod drafting. However, when reviving its own ships, Soulbound must scrap its own pods, a potential penalty that Ethic and Kamikaze don’t have to pay.
Vaporized ships don’t provide any pods to Soulbound. This suggests to me that vaporization through powers like Void is the only means of truly killing a Soulbound, since the body and soul are both lost. It’s one reason I didn’t want to give Soulbound (or Zombie) the power of “immortality”, as it would be false advertising.
Soulbound vs. Healer is an interesting matchup, since their powers activate off the same condition, giving them the same timing. If Soulbound loses 4 ships, it would draft 4 pods and then Healer would revive all of its ships for one pod. Then Soulbound would need to scrap 4 of its pods. Even though Soulbound breaks even, it’s still an advantage for Soulbound to be healed since it gets to prune its cache of weak pods.