Cross The Ages tells us how the Black Void invades Palmer!

Cross The Ages has so far accustomed us to characters with strong personalities. In this universe, there are few whose silence weighs more heavily than words. The enigmatic Palmer, once a researcher, has become, in spite of himself, a prophetic figure. He is today precisely the incarnation of a dogma as disturbing as it is radical, the Black Void.

The line between victim and executioner is so thin. This cult, which relies on the total erasure of identity, memories, and ego, is a fascinating paradox. It is precisely this absolute abandonment that gives Palmer such a singular aura. Through these two exclusive cards, we discover a Palmer who has forgotten everything about his past existence. Nothingness has completely consumed him.

And yet, Palmer wasn't always Palmer. Once upon a time, he was Roby-Ji, a talented scientist, a loving father, and a citizen of MantrisBut that past was deliberately sacrificed, swallowed up by the Black Void, in the name of a greater mission he did not choose.

In this standard version of the exclusive card, Palmer has not yet completely succumbed to theindoctrinationHe is still fighting, but this battle is not against an external opponent. It is taking place within his very mind.

Facing a chessboard whose pieces are thought crystals, he tries to dominate an invisible enemy. His gaze is hard, his features are marked by tension, his gestures betray extreme nervousness, and his body, curled forward, seems to bend under the weight of the inner conflict.

Around him, a dark setting carved into the rock. A greenish light, falling from an invisible point above him, envelops him like an inescapable judgment. Everything seems frozen at this critical moment when reason wavers. We can still perceive the vestiges of his brilliant mind, but already, a foreign entity is intruding on him. A AI, a fragment of his old research on the Blast gradually integrates into his consciousness.

Caught in this incessant internal dialogue, torn between his own thoughts and this intrusive voice, Palmer reaches his limits. The tearing begins here. The chessboard becomes the arena of his collapse. His strategies no longer belong to him, his logic is corrupted. The board escapes him, and so does the world.

This alternate version of the exclusive card takes us much further into Palmer's transformation. He's no longer playing the game... it's the game that's playing him.

His body is still there, massive, imposing. His rounded torso, draped in the same green and gold toga, exudes confidence. But his gaze has disappeared, hidden beneath a golden mask, a cruel symbol of the blindness in which he is immersed. He no longer perceives the world as it is. The Black Void, absolute master of his vision, shows him only what it wants to reveal.

The chessboard is still there, but it has changed. More fluid, almost alive, it seems driven by a will of its own. The tension that once reigned over the pieces has disappeared. Now, they move on their own, guided by an invisible force, a superior intelligence. The board has become the perfect reflection of the silent order imposed by the Black Void.

Palmer no longer needs to think. His mind has been emptied of all lucidity, stripped of his memories, his ambitions, his emotions... even his doubts. Nothing can restrain the artificial grip that governs him.

A golden light floods the scene. Does it come down from the sky or does it emanate from it?

Impossible to say. Only one thing is certain: Palmer is no longer a man. He has become a channel, a vector of transmission for a force beyond him.

He no longer thinks. He is. His presence is oppressive, both terrifying and hypnotic. We can no longer resist him. We fade before him, like pieces on a chessboard.

The story of Roby-Ji, who became Palmer, is one of disappearance, or rather of an imposed transformation. Erased, reprogrammed, he was stripped of his consciousness and completely controlled. He is now nothing more than what we want him to be: an authority figure cloaked in a kind of illusion of guide and guru.

His journey is marked by sacrifices. First, his research. Then his identity. His emotional ties. And finally, his memory. What for many would have been a descent into hell was, for him, an unconscious ascent.

Now at the head of an enigmatic cult, Palmer doesn't preach, he embodies. Unwittingly, he leads by example, inviting his followers to renounce their suffering, to offer their memories to the Black Void, to free themselves. To accept blindness is to claim to see more clearly. To taste the black fungus is to claim to taste the absolute truth.

But behind this artificial serenity remains an essential question. 

What remains of a man when the machine takes over his consciousness? Is he truly free at last... or is he nothing more than an instrument in the service of a power beyond him? An instrument of the Black Void?