# Bene Gesserit Nexus: stance conversion and borrowed Voice

Primary-source audit, 10 September 2026. This document separates printed rules, their implementation composition and unresolved interactions. It does not certify a complete Nexus module. The [common contract](NEXUS_CARD_RULES.md) governs physical custody and alliance disposal; the existing [Atreides audit](NEXUS_ATREIDES_RULES.md) records the still-pending private response policy.

## Authority and acquisition

- [Original printed Nexus cards](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7767032/dune-ecaz-and-moritani), visually reinspected in the local photograph `/tmp/dune-nexus-cards.jpg`: all three Bene Gesserit panels.
- [GF9 E3 rulebook, pp.10–11 and 16](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/EcazMoritani-Rulebook-LOWRES.pdf#page=10): Homeworld restrictions, mode definitions and borrowed-Voice timing. The previously acquired publisher-authored [PDF mirror](https://gamers-hq.de/media/pdf/0f/7a/86/Dune_EcazMoritani_Rulebook_EN.pdf) was read alongside fresh publisher-indexed text.
- [GF9 base rulebook, pp.18 and 23](https://www.gf9games.com/dunegame/wp-content/uploads/Dune-Rulebook.pdf#page=18): advisors, Voice and inspection order.
- [GF9 November 2020 FAQ, pp.4–5 and 7](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dune-FAQ-Nov-2020.pdf#page=4): stance, storm, Voice categories and cancellation. Fresh official-domain indexed passages were retrieved. Direct requests returned 403; older purported local base/FAQ PDFs were HTML and were not accepted as evidence. The superseded April FAQ, tournament rules and fan compilations are not adopted.

## Printed scope

| Mode | Condition | Effect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cunning | Native Bene Gesserit holder | During that player's Shipment and Movement turn, select any or all advisor groups and convert them to fighters. All its forces in each territory must finish in one stance. |
| Secret Ally | Bene Gesserit absent | In the holder's battle, use the Bene Gesserit Voice advantage against the opponent's Treachery Card choice. |
| Betrayal | Another player is Bene Gesserit | Prevent that faction's attempted Voice. |

The card specifically calls Secret Ally permission to “use the Bene Gesserit Voice advantage.” This differs from the Atreides card's standalone instruction to reveal a plan element; neither wording establishes blanket Nexus immunity. [Printed components](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7767032/dune-ecaz-and-moritani)

E3 describes Cunning as enhancing a native advantage. Cards are discarded after use and cannot remain held by allied players. Secret Ally requires the named faction to be absent; it creates no seated ally. Its FAQ explicitly requires borrowed Voice before Prescience. Homeworlds are not territories; advisors cannot be sent there, and invading BG fighters cannot become advisors there. [E3, pp.10–11,16](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/EcazMoritani-Rulebook-LOWRES.pdf#page=11)

## Existing restrictions

Advisors are an Advanced feature. Ordinary free accompanying advisors cannot become fighters that turn while other forces remain. Ordinary Battle flips occur before any shipment. Voice can require or prohibit a weapon, defense, Worthless card or Cheap Hero; an opponent unable to comply is free of that requirement. Voice precedes Prescience; unaffected plan elements remain changeable. [Base, pp.18,23](https://www.gf9games.com/dunegame/wp-content/uploads/Dune-Rulebook.pdf#page=18)

November's FAQ requires one stance per territory, forbids flipping alongside an ally and forbids the ordinary pre-shipment flip in a storm-locked stronghold. It allows generic projectile/poison and shield/snooper commands, but special cards require their specific name. Weirding Way and Chemistry use their default classification for Voice rather than every legal slot. Karama stops one use, including alliance abilities, native Voice and native token flipping. [November FAQ, pp.4–5,7](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dune-FAQ-Nov-2020.pdf#page=4)

## Executable composition

These are implementation consequences, not additional publisher quotations:

- Cunning chooses a set of territories, not individual counters or sectors. Convert every BG counter in each selected territory, preserving locations and quantities. Selecting a territory containing several sectors cannot leave mixed stances. A nonempty selection supplies an actual use; no zero-effect disposal is inferred.
- The opportunity belongs to the owner's current Shipment and Movement action, including after shipment and before ending that action. It is not an anytime effect throughout everybody else's turns. Selection need not be restricted to the group being moved. Basic supplies no eligible advisors.
- Conversion is a stance change in place. It consumes no shipment, movement, reserves or spice and creates no arrival for Guild income, accompaniment, Terror or Ambassadors. Recompute fighter presence and subsequent movement/battle eligibility. Homeworld native reserves are not a selectable advisor group.
- Cunning enhances the native stance advantage. Treat its one announced territory set as one use for Karama: cancel that entire pending conversion, preserving every original advisor group. The card provides one selection, not independent successive plays. This follows the one-use cancellation rule; there is no separately retrieved worked batch example.
- Preserve stronghold capacity and allied-territory constraints; the card specifies no exemption. Use public faction presence, including public No-Field presence, without reading its denomination. Recheck the complete selection at settlement; reject atomically if it has become illegal.
- Secret Ally supplies one Voice in one owned battle and spends the card. It does not grant Voice in another faction's battle or future battles. Reuse native command classification, compliance, compulsory-card logic and existing promise validation; do not expose whether the opponent privately holds a matching card.
- Bind Voice to its original battle, owner, target and command. Close the opportunity before either Prescience or sealed plans make the command late. Native and Nexus inspections must share that boundary; this is consistent timing composition for Atreides Secret Ally, not a separately printed FAQ answer.

## Bounded Betrayal Voice reaction

The implemented native-Voice reaction opens the existing `voice` response to
every seat whenever Nexus cards are enabled, even when nobody has Karama or
the Bene Gesserit card. This fixed public timing does not identify a secret
holder. An unallied non-BG holder may spend that one physical card against a
current BG Voice before plans are sealed. The native combat response quote
removes only the Voice; any already selected Prescience preparation and
unchanged plan promises continue. The spent-card battle receipt, private
holder offer and exact response survive JSON and room recovery; other seats
see the public response but not who holds the card. Bot profiles play or pass
their own reaction. An active Truthtrance suspends the private offer. An
unfinished Harkonnen Nexus Traitor return suspends both the offer and Voice
response actions, including the hand-card Karama cancellation, until the
private card return finishes.

This native Betrayal reaction remains separate from the absent-BG Secret Ally
prototype below and does not broaden Cunning's advisor conversion.
Optional Nexus still cannot start as a complete public mode.

## Recommended borrowed Voice prototype — 14 October 2026

The choose-recommended-option instruction selects one **Karama-cancellable
Voice advantage**. The printed face names that advantage and the general
one-use rule supports cancellation; no retrieved publisher clarification
specifically settles this absent-owner combination. The interpretation is
visible and provisional, not a new publisher answer.

Every fresh Nexus-enabled battle with BG absent opens the same attacker-then-
defender continuation before native Prescience, Nexus inspection or sealed
plans, regardless of the hidden card. Only the current unallied combatant
actually holding BG Nexus may declare one canonical require/forbid command.
Pass preserves the card; all-pass resumes native preparation. Existing
in-flight preparations are not retrofitted or reset.

Use discards the physical Nexus once and opens the original Voice Karama
response with the borrower as owner. Cancellation removes only `battle.voice`,
keeps the spent card and command receipt, and preserves native Prescience.
Allow retains the command. Neither outcome reopens the queue. Native command
classification, target Homeworld restrictions, special-card mode/compulsion
checks, impossible compliance and existing plan promises are reused.
Truthtrance and unfinished Traitor exchanges retain priority.

Actual Basic/Advanced setup, paid auction Karama, worm/alliance/closing Nexus
draw, reserve shipments and original battle chooser feed the focused runtime
cases. The phone smoke uses the real GameTable: neutral Continue, holder
projectile requirement, actual Karama cancellation, native Prescience decline
and enabled Seal battle plan. Nexus remains discarded, source is canceled,
width/document390 and browser errors empty after QA host configuration repair.
The four minimal legal policies answer both opportunities. These checks do
not certify all named-special/module combinations, historical recovery or
complete rules/deployment.


## Recommended Cunning card exceptions — 14 October 2026

Choose-recommended-option priority now adopts the printed any/all permission
as an **in-place card exception** for freshly accompanied and storm-bound or
storm-separated advisor territories, during BG's own Advanced action.
No retrieved specific publisher clarification settled those combinations;
this interpretation is visible and provisional, not a new publisher ruling.

Reuse the existing whole-territory quote, physical Nexus spend, exact original
stance/force receipt and single Karama response. Allow changes only stance;
cancel keeps every original advisor/lock and leaves the card spent. Ordinary
flip timing, ally/capacity, storm casualties, movement and battle geometry
stay unchanged. Basic supplies no advisors. Pending quotes still bind exact
original groups and cannot become partial conversions.

Native proofs use real setup, closing BG card draws, paid reserve shipments,
free accompaniment and the existing Advanced card-distance producer. Fresh
Shield Wall2 is current-turn locked; sheltered Arrakeen2 is under storm10;
rock False Wall East groups at5/9 are separated by storm7. Only original
undealt order/producer entropy is staged. Original Karama, all four minimal
legal policies and original movement continuation are exercised.

The live390px tables declare/allow the fresh group, move one fighter from
Shield Wall9 to Imperial Basin9, allow the storm-bound group in place, and
cancel the two-sector rock batch. Costs, pools and native counters stay
unchanged by conversion. A live existing Move button mismatch was reproduced:
it offered an impossible storm-origin route that the engine rejected.
Controls now reuse projected route geometry/range and disable that source
and the cross-storm route, with an accessible reason. Engine legality was
not weakened. Related10-file union65/65; wider module and final acceptance
remain open.

## Material source boundaries and provisional interpretations

No retrieved primary clarification resolves these specific combinations. Do not silently broaden permission or describe a conservative block as the printed rule.

1. **Newly accompanied groups:** no specific publisher answer was retrieved. The recommended card-exception prototype above allows the in-place Cunning conversion but retains ordinary same-turn flipping/arrival restrictions.
2. **Storm:** the FAQ's ordinary-flip prohibition is not silently broadened to this later card. The recommended prototype permits in-place Cunning only; native storm movement, casualties and disconnected battle geometry remain unchanged.
3. **Borrowed Voice and Karama:** no retrieved Nexus FAQ selects an interpretation. The recommended prototype above explicitly chooses cancellation for this named advantage; Atreides' differently worded effect is not authority for it.

The remaining private-reaction policy question applies to other hidden effects; the bounded Voice Betrayal path uses a uniform native response. This audit likewise does not settle historical Homeworld occupation ownership. Ordinary unoccupied, older, storm-free advisor groups are a clear selection subset, but broader claims retain the boundaries above.

## Suggested state and verification contract

Keep stance choices public and event-bound: owner, turn, own-action identity, selected territory IDs, original counts/stances and settled/canceled result. A retry must not flip twice or consume a second card. Borrowed Voice keeps its original occurrence, ordered passes, source owner, command and settled/canceled receipt separate from native ability ownership.

Exercise multi-territory and multi-sector stance selections, current-owner timing, conserved counters, Basic absence, occupied strongholds, No-Field getter traps, stale selection and saved continuations. Borrowed Voice's native chronology now exercises generic compliance, impossible compliance, stale/foreign/late rejection, original Karama and all-pass continuation; broader named-special combinations and comprehensive assurance remain due.