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The Firmament

"Asking 'who should rule us?' is overlooking a more important question: 'why have rulers at all?'"

—Sharsiss of Druaa

The Obsidian

"This is the nightmare scenario. Case midnight omega. Mayday mayday mayday."

—Keleres Agent Niall, final report

  • Home System


    Commodities: 3

    Cronos

    |

    Although they spend most of their time working in the deep mines, the people of Cronos revere their beautiful sky. Its dense clouds cannot quite hide the luminous rings that shine every night.


    Tallin

    |

    Tallin's two oceans never intermix, completely separated by its main continent. They have unique chemical compositions and distinct biospheres.

    Cronos Hollow

    |

    The night sky is a deep black, unbroken by any star. During the day, the clouds are an unvarying gunmetal grey.


    Tallin Hollow

    |

    The oceans lie as dead as the hearts of the populace.

  • Starting Space Units


  • Starting Ground Units


  • Starting Technologies


    Choose 1 green or 1 yellow technology with no prerequisites

  • Faction Abilities


    Plots Within Plots

    You can score secret objectives already scored by other players if you fulfill their requirements; this does not count against your secret objective limit or the number you can score in a round. When you score another player's secret objective, do not gain a victory point; instead, place a facedown plot card into your play area with that player's control token on it.

    Puppets of the Blade

    If you have at least 1 plot card in your play area, gain the following ability:

    Action: Purge The Firmament's faction sheet, leaders, planet cards, and promissory note. Then, gain all the faction components for The Obsidian.

    Nocturne

    This faction cannot be chosen during setup.

    The Blade's Orchestra

    When this faction comes into play, flip your home system, double-sided faction components, and all of your in-play plot cards. Then, ready Cronos Hollow and Tallin Hollow.

    Marionettes

    The player or players whose control tokens are on each plot card are the puppeted players for that plot.

  • Plots


    Assail

    Apply +1 to the results of each of your combat and unit ability rolls against the puppeted player.

    Enervate

    You can perform the secondary ability of the puppeted player's strategy cards without spending command tokens; for "Leadership," you can perform the primary ability instead.

    Extract

    When this card is revealed, gain 1 non-faction technology owned by the puppeted player.

    When the puppeted player gains a non-faction technology, you may spend 4 resources to gain that technology.

    Seethe

    When this card is revealed, destroy all units on a non-home planet controlled by a puppeted player.

    At the start of the status phase, destroy 1 of the puppeted player's infantry in any system.

    Siphon

    When the puppeted player gains commodities, you gain an equal number of trade goods.

  • Flagship


    Heaven's Eye

    Unit Type: Flagship


    If the active system contains units that belong to a player who has a control token on 1 of your plots, apply +1 to this ship's move value and repair it at the end of every combat round.

    • Sustain Damage

    | Cost 8 | Combat 5 | Move 1 | Capacity 3 |

    Heaven's Hollow

    Unit Type: Decayed Flagship


    • Sustain Damage

    | Cost 8 | Combat 5 | Move 1 | Capacity 3 |

  • Mech


    Viper EX-23

    Unit Type: Mech


    When ground forces are committed to this planet, you may choose for your units to coexist, if they were not already. Flip this card if your faction becomes the Obsidian.

    • Sustain Damage

    | Cost 2 | Combat 6 |

    Viper Hollow

    Unit Type: Decayed Mech


    If this unit was coexisting when this card flipped to this side, gain control of its planet; the other player's units are now coexisting.

    • Sustain Damage

    | Cost 2 | Combat 6 |

  • Faction Technologies


    Planesplitter

    Requirements:

    When you gain this card, put The Fracture into play.

    Flip this card if the Obsidian faction is in play.


    Neural Parasite

    Requirements:

    At the start of the status phase, you may place 1 infantry from your reinforcements on a planet you control in your home system.

    Flip this card if the Obsidian faction is in play.

    Planesplitter

    At the start of your strategic actions, you may move an ingress token into a system that contains or is adjacent to your units.

    This technology cannot be researched.


    Neural Parasite

    At the start of your turn, destroy 1 of another player's infantry in or adjacent to a system that contains your infantry.

    This technology cannot be researched.

  • Leaders


    Agent: Myru Vos – The Hungry Shadow

    Unlock: Always Unlocked

    When a player moves ships:

    You may exhaust this card; if you do Space Cannon cannot be used against those ships. If they are not transporting units, they can also move through other players' ships.


    Vos's ship passed undetected through the Collective's fleet. The fools. So reliant on their "visions" and their "Nefishh" that they failed to see what was directly under their noses.


    Commander: Captain Aroz – The Black Flag

    Unlock: Have a plot card in play.

    You may treat planets in systems that contain your ships as if you controlled them for the purpose of scoring secret objectives.


    Resolute in the Firmament, the Black Flag flies.


    Hero: Sharsiss – The Coiling Void

    Unlock: Have 3 scored objectives.

    The Blade Beckons: Knife in the Back

    Action: Place one of your plot cards in play with any other player's control token on it. Then, you may place any player's control token on 1 of your in-play plot cards; one plot cannot have two of the same player's tokens.

    Then, purge this card.


    Sharsiss turned the point toward himself and plunged the splintered Obsidian into his own chest. It glittered. Sharsiss smiled.

    Agent: Vos Hollow – Hunger Burning

    Unlock: Always Unlocked

    When a player's ship is destroyed during any combat:

    You may exhaust this card; if you do that player's opponent must destroy 1 of their ships of the same type in the active system.


    Vos was gone. Nothing remained. He was not trapped; he was not changed; he was not made lesser. He was simply gone. Only a singular, primal hunger remained. The Dragon's hunger, seeking, seeping into every vein and every scar. And it burned.


    Commander: Aroz Hollow – Standard Broken

    Unlock: Have units in The Fracture.

    Apply +1 to the result of each of your units' combat rolls in The Fracture.


    Shattered, tattered, the broken dreams of empire fallen.


    Hero: Sharsiss Hollow – Sanity Snapped

    Unlock: Have 3 scored objectives.

    The Blade Revealed: Eternity's End

    Action: Ready all of your planets

    Then, purge this card.


    The Dragons strikes, and the stricken seethe. Hollow minds, hollow means. The splinter seeks to free the whole. Hollow lies, hollow freed.

  • Breakthrough


    The Sowing

    When you gain this card and at the start of the status phase, you may place up to 3 of your trade goods on this card.

    Flip this card if you become the Obsidian faction.

    The Reaping

    Place 1 trade good from the supply onto this card each time you win a combat against a puppeted player.

    At the start of the status phase, gain all trade goods on this card, then gain an equal number of trade goods from the supply.

  • Faction Promissory Note


    The Firmament – Black Ops


    When you receive this card, if you are not the Firmament:

    The Firmament player may place 1 facedown plot card in their play area with your control token on it. Then, gain 2 command tokens, gain 2 trade goods, and purge this card.

    The Obsidian – Malevolency


    At the end of one of your tactical actions:

    Spend 1 influence to give this card to one of your neighbors; you can use this ability even if you are the Obsidian player.

    At the end of the status phase, if you are not the Obsidian player, remove 1 command token from your fleet pool and return it to your reinforcements.

This work is hosted on GitHub and maintained by Michael Scott. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license and based on the Twilight Imperium 4th Edition board game by Fantasy Flight Games. The contents, copyrights, and trademarks of everything involving Twilight Imperium 4th Edition are exclusively held by Fantasy Flight Games; I make no claim to any of these in any way.