Dune/docs/ECAZ_REVIVAL_RULES.md

Ecaz revival and Duke Vidal

Bounded primary-source review, 2026-09-06. This document supplements DUKE_VIDAL_RULES.md and separates the ordinary arithmetic and eligibility rules from unresolved shared-disc custody and cycle questions. No runtime edits were made.

Selected product interpretation (28 September 2026)

The user chose set-aside custody: a successful ordinary Ecaz revival or Ecaz Ghola returns the same dead Duke disc alive to the shared area, with controller, source and acquiredTurn cleared. It is not automatically playable by Ecaz. This is an explicit product interpretation, not a publisher ruling; the Ambassador or another supported living-disc acquisition must subsequently claim him. Ordinary revival costs five spice (three with the existing Tleilaxu alliance discount), spends Ecaz's ordinary leader slot, and follows the normal stop, discount-cancellation and payment/income windows. Ghola spends the actual card instead of spice or that slot. Strength remains six; both paths preserve the physical death history.

The same selected destination also applies to Ecaz's free Tleilaxu Ambassador return; see its shared Duke route. That independent grant retains its own provisional allowance/income policy.

Ecaz's first ordinary cohort opens with five dead discs counting Duke, or when its entire native five-disc roster is unavailable under the existing captured-leader exception. The opened first cohort persists across returns. Further native returns once any of the six histories enters a repeated cycle remain explicitly gated; Duke's independent Ecaz-only permission remains available, without making a repeated six-disc algorithm up. Captured, Ghola or concealed shared-disc custody and Advanced Harkonnen combinations retain their existing uniform boundary.

Identity-tracked repeated cohorts — 14 October 2026

The blanket repeated-history gate is replaced by an explicit provisional product composition, chosen under the recommendation-first instruction:

• Five actual leaders in Tanks, including Duke, open ordinary Ecaz returns. The existing no-available-native-leader captured/foreign-custody exception remains distinct from counting a living captive as physically dead.
• Each opened cohort records completed native disc identities, not equality between every disc's death count and one global counter. Unreturned native deaths remain eligible after another native is revived and killed again. A late first death can join a later open cohort without being misclassified as a repeat. An already returned identity waits for the remaining native cohort and another legal opening.
• Duke remains outside the five ordinary discs. His actual presence in Tanks can open a cohort, but his independent death counter does not number or hold the native cohort. An independent Duke resurrection preserves an already satisfied opening before removing that fifth Tanked disc.
• Actual normal, Ghola, first-death Ambassador and foreign-ghola native returns record the identity only when the physical return commits. A first capture execution retains the original face-down first-cohort exclusion; it does not create a permanent native-disc ban.
• One ordinary leader allowance, printed native price, Duke5/discount3, prevention, payment/income and original return custody remain unchanged. Ghola and Nexus Cunning keep their own physical-card costs and allowances. The absent-Tleilaxu waiver explicitly quotes the unopened first cohort without opening ordinary permission or reusing a consumed identity.

The optional server-only Player.ecazRevivalCohort stores the current cohort and native returned IDs. Valid older first-cohort states seed their existing face-down/revived identities lazily; no disc is recreated, no death history is rewritten, and no database migration/reset is needed. Its new state is included conditionally in the related ordinary-discard signature; absence preserves the old grammar. This is not historical-save certification.

The original mixed-death rejection fails before and passes after. The affected nineteen-file union passes 230/230, with types/lint/build. Actual native setup and weapon battles produce two consumer boundaries: five native deaths plus a paid return/repeat, and four native returns (three paid, one real Ghola) followed by four real repeat deaths while the never-killed fifth native lives and the original dead Duke remains at deaths1. The second cohort is used inside the original ten-turn game. Funding is an actual private15/25-spice bribe held until Mentat, not assigned wallet credit.

Actual API paths pay11→8 for an unreturned first-cohort disc and12→10 for a second-cohort return. All four legal profiles in both positions perform original Cunning, ordinary forces and a paid native return, preserving cohort permission even when Cunning resurrects Duke. Actual canonical-styled390px GameTable selectors and revival buttons reach the same prices, one ordinary slot and retained death history; the repeat stays dead in the first path, and Whitmore remains alive at deaths0 in the second. No overflow/browser errors or saved/deployed room mutation. The native smoke chooses its next battlefield after the real Storm rather than silently skipping past turn ten. The final build retains existing module-deprecation, large-chunk and route classification warnings; no complete-mode or publication gate is opened.

See cohort rules, boundary regressions and original native runtime. This supersedes the repeated-cohort guard above and historical algorithm boundary below, not the binding Ecaz-only revival rule, broader profile guards or complete-mode/deployed acceptance.

No-Skills native Nexus scope extension — 15 October 2026

Original standalone, paired and mixed-family E3 Nexus predicates without Skills now admit Advanced Harkonnen, within their existing optional-module envelopes. This supersedes historical standalone-only Harkonnen scope below. Only Ecaz revives Duke: paid5 or real Ghola returns the same living set-aside disc under its own original costs/allowances. Moritani takeover never revives a privately executed or publicly dead disc. Foreign-Ghola Duke, shared training, Skills/Harkonnen and unrelated non-Nexus guards remain. Native identity-cohort policy above is unchanged. Current capture/takeover policy and actual bounded proof.

Captured return and legal Ghola composition — 14 October 2026

The original standalone Ecaz/classic no-Skills Nexus envelope now admits Advanced Harkonnen. A real executed captive Duke returns dead to Ecaz's Tanks with at least two deaths; only the exact validated returned-dead private capture snapshot is accepted, not arbitrary concealed live custody. Normal Ecaz-only revival and a separate actual Cunning can use that returned disc under their own original costs and allowances.

Actual Ecaz Ghola returns the same Duke alive and set aside, preserves deaths, clears prior use and spends no ordinary leader slot. A separate quiet Cunning can acquire it. Tleilaxu foreign-Ghola revival remains expressly forbidden; no foreign custody is staged to pretend that the printed exceptional source has a legal producer. Repeated six-disc cycles, shared training and broader roster/optional combinations remain separate. This supersedes only the historical blanket captured-return/Advanced-Harkonnen boundary in that scope. Actual native and 390px proof.

Explicit expansion rules

Ecaz may revive Duke for 5 spice regardless of how many leaders are dead. Its ordinary leaders become revivable with five leaders in the Tanks, including Duke. The clarification expressly permits this while Ecaz still holds one living leader, regardless of which leader that is. Only Ecaz may revive Duke, including through the Ghola Treachery Card. GF9 Ecaz & Moritani, printed pp. 8–9

Straightforward first-cycle examples are four dead ordinary Ecaz leaders plus dead Duke with the fifth ordinary leader alive, or five dead ordinary leaders with Duke alive. Duke’s strength remains 6; five is his special normal revival price, not a replacement battle value. These rules do not authorize Moritani or Tleilaxu foreign-ghola revival of the disc.

Who controls Duke after revival?

The same p. 9 clarification restricts Ecaz’s acquisition of Duke to its Ambassador, then separately makes Ecaz his exclusive reviver. It does not explicitly state whether revival grants active Ecaz control or puts the living disc aside for later acquisition. GF9 Ecaz & Moritani, printed p. 9

The ordinary base rule makes a revived leader playable. Applying that ordinary result to the special Ecaz-only revival strongly supports active Ecaz custody, treating the Ambassador sentence as acquisition of a living shared disc. The competing literal reading revives Duke to the shared set-aside area so that Ambassador-only acquisition remains universal. The retrieved expansion does not expressly choose between those readings. The Ghola FAQ permits a revived leader to fight in the same Battle phase, but does not specifically resolve Duke’s custody. GF9 base rules, printed pp. 9, 22

Earlier implementation guidance below records the pre-decision boundary. The selected set-aside interpretation and limited first-cohort runtime above now supersede that boundary; it remains a source caveat, not a live blocker.

Frequency, prices and Tleilaxu

Normal leader revival remains one per Revival phase per faction, including Tleilaxu’s early-revival service. The official FAQ expressly says that service changes when revival is available, not how many leaders another faction may revive. Tleilaxu cannot pay for its ally’s revival. GF9 November 2020 FAQ, printed p. 6

Ecaz’s special price and threshold state no additional normal-leader slot. Duke revival should consume that ordinary slot, alongside an ordinary Ecaz leader, absent a separate effect granting an extra revival. A Ghola card is a separate card effect; do not infer its accounting from the ordinary paid request.

Tleilaxu’s alliance discounts force and leader revival by half, rounded up. Applying that independent discount to Duke’s printed five-spice cost gives 3 spice. Canceling the discount restores 5, not 6. Normal paid revival payments go to Tleilaxu when that income advantage applies; otherwise to the bank. These are direct arithmetic compositions, not a retrieved Duke-specific pricing example. GF9 Ixians & Tleilaxu, printed p. 7

The Tleilaxu early-price service is normally for factions with fewer than five leaders in the Tanks; at normal eligibility, ordinary revival applies. Duke already has a special permission independent of the dead-leader threshold. Do not accidentally require Tleilaxu permission or classify every Duke request as Tleilaxu early revival merely because fewer than five ordinary Ecaz leaders are dead. The optional negotiated alternative and exotic face-down cases have no retrieved Duke-specific clarification.

Threshold versus revival cycles

Base revival begins once the prerequisite is met and continues one leader per turn until the eligible leaders have been revived. A revived leader killed again remains unavailable for another ordinary revival until the other revivable leaders complete their corresponding cycle. Thus Ecaz’s raw five-dead count is an opening threshold, not a condition to recheck after every first-cycle return and not permission to ignore face-down death sequencing. GF9 base rulebook, printed p. 9

Current normalRevivalCycle examines only the native roster; unchanged, it misses four native deaths plus Duke opening Ecaz’s cycle. Merely appending Duke to that roster introduces other errors: sixth-leader inventory, default control, and a requirement that all six become unavailable. A separate shared-disc eligibility input or cohort is required.

The expansion does not detail every subsequent cycle across six identities when Duke can be revived early, die repeatedly, remain aside, or be controlled elsewhere. Preserve individual death history and the opened normal cycle. Do not label an unverified minimum/maximum of death counters as a publisher ruling. Captured ordinary leaders also retain the base FAQ’s no-native-leader-available exception; that is distinct from counting an unavailable shared disc as actually dead. GF9 base rulebook, printed p. 22

A concrete algorithm hazard from the parallel review: the sixth survivor could remain alive through multiple five-disc cohorts and then die for the first time. Requiring its first death count to equal a globally advanced revivalCycle would incorrectly treat that face-up first-death disc like an already-revived, face-down disc. Duke’s independent repeated revivals can likewise skew a minimum-death calculation. This supports explicit cycle/cohort bookkeeping, but the exact transition policy still needs to be resolved rather than inferred from numerical convenience.

Karama boundary

The E3 Ecaz table lists Ambassador, Occupy, Loyalty and Collection; it contains no dedicated Ecaz Revival row. Omission is not an explicit immunity ruling. The Tleilaxu table specifies cancellation of discounts, early revival and income; its advanced special Karama can prevent a faction’s ordinary revivals for the turn. Keep those existing response scopes distinct from whether Ecaz’s own five-spice/threshold advantage is independently cancelable. No retrieved Ecaz-specific answer resolves that last issue. GF9 E3, p. 16, GF9 Ixians & Tleilaxu, pp. 5, 13

Verification boundary

Checked official indexed GF9 p. 8/9 passages, the base revival text, Ixian/Tleilaxu alliance and early-revival text, and the November 2020 FAQ p. 6 against existing publisher-authored local extracts. Targeted official GF9 and designer-site searches returned no written Duke-after-revival or six-disc repeated-cycle example. This records a retrieval limit, not proof that no clarification exists. Existing direct publisher download restrictions and crawler dates were not treated as evidence of a new edition. The selected set-aside product interpretation and bounded runtime above do not resolve the repeated six-disc, exceptional custody or complete-expansion boundaries.