Universe Foundation

ETAPE 1 of 5 — Universe Foundation

This document is the canonical source-of-truth for what voidexa IS, how the universe works, and what every term means. All future AI prompts, art generation, marketing copy, and game development MUST align with this manual.

Version: 1.0 Status: Locked — all subsequent etaper build on this foundation Source: Synthesized from alpha_set_master.md, VOIDEXA_GAMING_COMBINED_V3.md, 14_BASELINE_AUDIT_MAP.md, 02_PRODUCTS.md, SLUT 9 strategy log, GROUND_TRUTH.md raw log

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1. WHAT VOIDEXA IS

voidexa is a sci-fi space-combat trading card game set in a deep-space universe where the player is a starship pilot fighting in turn-based ship-to-ship battles. The player builds a deck of 60 cards representing the systems, weapons, and equipment installed on their warship — and uses those cards in combat against AI bosses, PvP opponents, and mission encounters.

The game is the gaming layer of a larger multi-product platform (voidexa.com — gaming + AI tools + business services), but for the purposes of this manual, only the gaming universe matters.

The core fantasy

You are not a person on a planet. You are not a soldier with a rifle. You are not a wizard with a wand.

You are a starship pilot in deep space. Your ship is your character. Your cards are the things bolted to your hull, mounted in your hangar bays, loaded into your reactor, programmed into your AI cores, generated by your shield emitters, and burned through your engine thrusters.

When you "play a card," it is not a magic spell. It is your ship firing its arc cannon, launching a drone from its hangar, deploying a shield bubble, executing an evasive maneuver, or activating a tactical AI subroutine.

This is the single most important rule of the universe. Every visualization, every prompt, every art asset MUST reflect this fantasy. There are no humans visible. There are no handheld weapons. There is no melee combat. There is no boarding action. Everything happens at ship-to-ship scale in deep space.

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2. WHAT VOIDEXA IS NOT

To prevent confusion in art generation and design — voidexa is explicitly NOT:

When generating any visual asset, ask: "Could this image equally well belong in a fantasy game, a soldier shooter, or a melee action game?" If yes, it is WRONG. The image must be unambiguously starship combat in deep space.

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3. SETTING

Where it takes place

The voidexa universe is split into 4 explorable regions, ordered by danger and progression:

Movement between regions happens via warp routes — graph edges connecting nodes (planets, stations, anomalies). Some routes are gated by quest completion, pilot level, or specific card collections.

When it takes place

Far future. Humanity (or descendants thereof) has spread across thousands of star systems. There is no central government — the universe is a post-empire frontier of independent factions, scavenger crews, AI collectives, and rogue corporations. Travel is dangerous. Combat is constant.

Visual aesthetic

• Color palette: Deep void black, cold graphite metal, desaturated navy, cyan-white energy, muted violet nebula haze, accents of warning amber and reactor red
• Lighting: Cinematic deep-space — strong directional starlight, warm reactor glow contrasting cold hull metal, occasional nebula color cast
• Materials: Premium hull plating, exposed mechanical detail, weathered armor with battle scars, glowing energy conduits, holographic interfaces
• Scale: Always BIG. Ships are massive. Hardpoints are mounted on multi-meter armored sections. Engines burn with kilometer-long thruster plumes.
• Composition rule: One dominant subject per frame. Empty space is a feature, not a bug. Bottom 20-30% of card art is kept darker for text overlay.

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4. CORE TERMINOLOGY (LOCKED)

These terms have specific meanings in voidexa. Use them consistently.

Ships and pilots

• Starship / ship / vessel — the player's combat vehicle. Always large enough to mount turrets, hangar drones, and warp drives.
• Hull — the outer armored shell of the ship. Damage reduces hull integrity.
• Hardpoint — a mounting location on the hull where weapons, sensors, or modules are installed.
• Subsystem — an internal ship component (Hull, Shield, Reactor, Weapons, Engines, Life Support).
• Pilot — the player. Always inside their ship. Never visible in card art. Has a class (Ace, Engineer, Strategist, Commander, Infiltrator).
• Faction — a political/military group operating ships in the universe. Examples: Core Patrol (law enforcement), scavenger crews, AI collectives.

Combat terms

• Turn — one round of combat where the player draws, plays cards, and ends turn. Enemy then takes their turn.
• Energy — the resource consumed to play cards. Generated by the Reactor subsystem. Default 5/turn.
• Heat — accumulated penalty for over-using systems. Scales 0-10. High heat increases card costs and causes self-damage.
• Damage — reduction to enemy hull or subsystem.
• Shield — temporary HP that absorbs damage before hull. Regenerates each turn.

Universe locations

• System — a single star with planets and stations. The basic exploration unit.
• Warp route — graph edge connecting two systems. Used to travel.
• Node — anything you can warp to (planet, station, anomaly, derelict).
• Anomaly — special encounter location. Random events, rare loot.
• Derelict — abandoned ship or station. Salvage opportunity.

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5. THE 6-SUBSYSTEM HEALTH MODEL (UNIQUE TO VOIDEXA)

This is the mechanical core of the game. Most card games have one HP pool. voidexa has six. Each represents a different ship system, and each can be targeted or affected independently.

Strategic implication: A player can lose a battle even with 50 hull if their Reactor hits 0, or by being slowly suffocated if Life Support is destroyed. Smart opponents target subsystems, not just hull. This creates deep tactical decisions about which systems to defend and which to sacrifice.

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6. THE HEAT SYSTEM

Cards that overload your ship — particularly high-energy weapons — generate Heat. Heat builds up across turns and creates penalties.

Heat reduction:

• Automatic: -1 heat at end of each turn
• Some cards explicitly vent heat
• Some cards add heat as a cost (high-damage weapons)

Strategic implication: Heat forces pacing. You cannot just spam your strongest weapons every turn — you must alternate or cool down. This is a core resource management mechanic alongside energy.

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7. PILOT CLASSES

When a player creates an account, they choose 1 of 5 pilot classes. The class provides a passive bonus that lasts the entire match, shaping playstyle.

Visual representation: Pilot avatar shown in top-left of battle UI. Avatar is a portrait of a person in a flight suit / helmet — but this is the ONLY place humans appear in the game. Cards never show the pilot. Card art never shows the pilot. The pilot exists only as the abstract decision-maker.

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8. SHIP CORE (NEW MECHANIC IN ALPHA SET)

Borrowed conceptually from Magic the Gathering's Commander format and Hearthstone's Hero — the Ship Core is a permanent card that defines the deck's identity.

• One Ship Core per deck (player chooses at deck-build time)
• Always in play — does not need to be drawn
• Provides ongoing effects — passive abilities, special rules, conditional triggers
• 50 Ship Cores total in the 1000-card Alpha Set

The Ship Core represents the literal warship the pilot is flying. Different Ship Cores enable different deck strategies (a Reactor-focused Core vs a Drone-swarm Core vs a Stealth Core).

Visual representation: Ship Core card art shows the player's actual ship as a hero asset — full hull view, dramatic angle, signature color scheme. This is the only card type where the focal subject is the player's own ship.

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9. RARITY TIERS

All 1000 cards in the Alpha Set fall into one of six rarity tiers. Rarity affects card power level, frame color, and pack drop rates.

Rarity affects ONLY the frame color in card art generation — the underlying art motif is the same per card-type within a rarity tier (per SLUT 9 strategy lock).

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10. ARCHETYPES

Cards are also tagged with one or more archetypes — these define the deck strategies they support.

A card may belong to multiple archetypes (e.g. a card that draws AND deals damage = Utility + Aggro). Archetypes guide deck-building UI filters and matchmaking.

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11. WIN AND LOSS CONDITIONS

You WIN when any of the following happens to your opponent:

1. Hull = 0 (primary loss condition)
2. Reactor = 0 (alt loss — total power failure)
3. Life Support = 0 for 3 turns (slow-bleed loss)
4. Deck-out — opponent cannot draw a card when required (rare)
5. Concession — opponent gives up

You LOSE when any of the above happens to you.

There is no draw condition in standard play. Tournament rules may specify tiebreakers.

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12. WHAT EVERY CARD ART MUST SHOW

This is the visual rule that all 1000 cards must follow:

A card depicts ONE specific ship system or action, visualized at ship-scale, in deep space.

Concrete checklist for every card image:

✅ Subject: The specific hardware/effect the card represents (a turret, a drone, a shield, a maneuver, an AI hologram, etc.)

✅ Scale: Ship-scale only. Hardpoints bolted to multi-meter armor plating. Drones the size of fighter craft. Shield bubbles enveloping entire warships.

✅ Setting: Deep space. Stars, nebula, distant planets visible. NEVER planet surface. NEVER indoor scenes (unless a hangar bay opening, briefly).

✅ Lighting: Cinematic, dramatic. Strong contrasts. Reactor warm glow vs cold space.

✅ Mood: Premium hard sci-fi. Weight. Mass. Power.

❌ Never show: Humans, humanoids, pilots, soldiers, hands, handheld weapons, personal gear, boarding actions, fantasy weapons, magic, characters in spacesuits, melee combat.

❌ Never include: Text, letters, numbers, logos, watermarks, UI overlays, card borders, frames (those are added in post by the composition pipeline).

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13. SUMMARY — THE ONE-SENTENCE TEST

If you can describe a card's art in one sentence as:

"A [specific ship system/effect] in [deep space], at [ship-scale], with [premium sci-fi visual language]."

— then the art is on-brand.

If your sentence requires the words "person," "soldier," "wizard," "warrior," "fantasy," "indoor," "ground," "magic," or "character" — the art is OFF-BRAND.

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END ETAPE 1

Next etape (ETAPE 2) covers: Turn structure, energy curve, drawing cards, playing cards, end-of-turn resolution, damage application, the full anatomy of a battle from start to end.

Then ETAPE 3 covers: each of the 9 card types in detail (Weapon, Drone, Defense, Maneuver, AI Routine, Module, Equipment, Field, Ship Core) with mechanical definition + visual grammar + example prompts.

Then ETAPE 4: pilots, ship cores deep-dive, archetypes deep-dive, draft logic.

Then ETAPE 5: keyword glossary (Reactive, Overcharge, Pierce, Pin, Stagger, etc.) — every game term used on card text.

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End of Etape 1.