Sycophant

Alert

Combat

Support

Type

Power of Flattery

Gains Might through Adulation

As a sponsor, after arrival, use this power to “flatter” your leader. Give your leader a compliment in the voice channel and gift them your mark as “ego”, displaying it in their nexus. If you are the only sponsor, flatter your leader an additional time.

Aliens add 2 might to their fleet for each point of ego in their nexus. If you are on the opposing side, aliens subtract 1 might for each point instead. You may sponsor alien(s) with the most ego in their nexus without being commissioned.

Legacy: If an alien has more bases than other aliens and gains a foreign base, every other alien may compliment that alien in the text channel to establish a base in that alien’s system.

The needle-nosed Sycophants have mastered the art of brownnosing, allowing them to rub elbows with many of the most powerful alien species in the Cosmos. Some are convinced they only wish to bask in the glow of the mighty, while others are certain they secretly plot rebellion.

Sponsor: Arrival

Mandatory

Wild Flare

As a bystander, after payoff, if only one fleet wins the encounter, you may congratulate their victory and revive one ship for each alien in that fleet.

Bystander: Payoff

Super Flare

As an actor, during combat, you may discharge this flare. Aliens that gain might from your power gain one additional might. Aliens that lose might from your power lose one additional might.

Actor: Combat

Modifications

Originally the power of flattery. Changed to praise so the description flows a little cleaner.
Original Sycophant is an alt-win alien, necessitating a change. It is similar in design to Prophet or Braggart, without the ability to lose progress. It starts with 10 of its marks in its nexus (8 in a tiny match). When not acting as a leader, after arrival, Sycophant can compliment one of the two leaders. If that alien wins, Sycophant removes one of its marks. If it removes all of them, it wins the match. It creates a similar issue as Tick-Tock, where it removes agency from other aliens and forces the same “one mark left” situation, where aliens have to lose to prevent Sycophant from winning alone.
Original power is optional. Made mandatory to capture the compulsory nature of a sycophant to praise its superiors.
Original Super Sycophant can remove tokens from its sheet until it has five, or remove one for free if it has five or fewer, followed by invoking a burnout effect. My version removes the burnout effect and better matches my version of the power.
Sycophant’s legacy allows other aliens to catch up by submitting to the current winner. It doesn’t incorporate the main power, but it matches the theme rather well. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Sycophant’s power is a double-edged sword to every other alien. By joining forces with Sycophant, aliens can build up power as quickly as Warrior, but that power will be turned against you if Sycophant betrays you later.
Sycophant can only get a foothold if other aliens commission it. If Sycophant never takes the role of sponsor, it has no power to leverage.
Inviting Sycophant alone can grant you more power faster, but it will also put you more at risk if Sycophant betrays you.
Sycophant is at its most powerful if it exclusively sponsors one alien, in order to stack up the most power in one area. However, it can also benefit from spreading out the flattery evenly. If everyone has five of its marks, it will be 10 extra might for everyone. But on Sycophant’s side, it will be +10 for its own fleet and -5 for the enemy.
Aliens gain the might bonus from Sycophant’s flattery even if Sycophant is not involved. This allows leaders to potentially betray Sycophant by not commissioning them for the final invasion, but this can easily backfire if Sycophant sponsors the other fleet instead.
Even if Sycophant doesn’t betray an alien, it can still be risky to cozy up to them too strongly. If destiny puts you against them, you will suffer the combat penalty.

Development Notes

My aim with Sycophant was to take the idea of a right-hand man that dutifully serves its leader but may be hiding a secret. Depending on how the alien is played, the loyalty to one alien could be genuine, or it could all be a ploy to set up an easy victory at the very end.
The power isn’t necessarily pointlessly optional, since there might be cases when Sycophant wants to join a leader without giving them additional power. However, I wanted to make sure the prospect of inviting Sycophant was sufficiently enticing. If Sycophant isn’t guaranteed to give you extra power, it might not feel worth the risk of going in with them.
Mechanically, Sycophant is similar to Warrior and Scholar, two other aliens that build up power over time. Since it is sponsor-based, it is naturally more comparable to Scholar. Comparatively, Scholar builds might faster since all of it goes to itself no matter who it sponsors. It also lacks the same downside of opening oneself up to betrayal, though powering it up can still be a double-edged sword. Sycophant is more specialized at sponsoring one specific alien, gravitating toward the strongest one. It can join that alien as both invader and defender to give it the best chance to always win. Sycophant can also benefit from its power as a leader, while Scholar cannot.
One aspect I like about this power is how it makes other aliens glass cannons. Sycophant doesn’t really gain that much power from its own effect. It can give another alien 12 might, but it will only get 6 when going up against that alien. It is fitting for such a power to be based around flattery and undeserved confidence. A “yes-man” sets up its leader to fail by giving them too much false confidence.
If Sycophant is the only sponsor, it can pass the human test with its first sponsorship. Sponsoring back-to-back invasions in this way will give a passive 8 might to an alien. However, as always, destiny can throw a huge wrench into a potential long-term alliance between two aliens.
Thematically, I imagine Sycophant acting like a cheerleader. Its flattery gives its leader a confidence boost that increases their proficiency in combat. When it joins the other side, the leader’s confidence takes a hit, and Sycophant can use the “inside info” it learned from the leader against it. I opted to have the power persist so long as Sycophant has its power, since that confidence boost would persist even if Sycophant isn’t actively there.
I like the theme of Sycophant being unable to turn away once you invite them in. Similar to Squee, it puts a lot of weight at the initial decision to engage with them, in a way that is potentially irreversible.
Sycophant is similar to Warrior in that it only adds might. This factor gives Sycophant an interesting relationship with Loser and Anti-Matter, who don’t want Sycophant’s power but do want others gaining it.
To maximize theme, I wanted to make sure the Sycophant has to literally give its leader a compliment to activate the power. Similar to Butler has to speak courteously if tipped.