Leadership

In a colony of Sporebound, there are three positions of leadership across the entire Colony:

• Primorhypha, or “First Hypha”: In nature a Hypha is a single strand of the mycelium network, seeking out new areas to grow. The Primorhypha is the leader of the Sporebound Colony, setting the direction that the Sporebound are working towards, how they allocate their resources in their work to reclaim the city from The Blight. They are still one strand among many, but they are setting which direction the many grow.
  • System: At the beginning of each game, the Primorhypha is given extra cards that they can disperse to Sporebound as they see fit. The Sporebound who receives a card keeps it for the night, and if they refresh their hand, this dispersed card is also refreshed. The Primorhypha may not use these extra cards themselves.
• Sporophore: the mushroom cap is the most visible part of the mushroom – the part that rises out of the ground and acts. The Sporophore is the part of the mushroom cap that disperses the spores into the world. The Sporophore is the mission coordinator, the war leader, the one who assembles the Troops and gets them to work.
  • System: The Sporophore is capable of providing a limited number of card refreshes to Sporebound over the course of a game session.
• Pharmakon: In Greek, Pharmakon means both “remedy” and “poison” simultaneously. Similarly, the Pharmakon of a Sporebound Colony is healer, judge, and executioner. They are able to heal Sporebound who are in need after a mission; they are the ones who pass judgement on Sporebound who have erred; they are the ones who enact the punishment when it is sentenced. Punishments can range in severity, with usually the most severe for screwups being “suspension”, where the punished is killed and not revived for several months. The truly most severe punishment is “Abscission”, where the sentenced is removed from the Colony, and the Sporebound entirely, becoming a mortal again. If death is sentenced after Abscission, the death is final, not temporary.
  • System: The Pharmakon is able to provide a limited amount of healing over the course of the game session. Additionally, they are capable of removing a Sporebound’s connection to the Mycos, making them mortal again, and therefore permanently killable. In turn, the Primorhypha and Sporophore acting together can remove the Pharmakon.

Sporebound Colonies can collectively decide how to pick these positions, or make new positions. Here are some examples:

• The most traditional would be for each Clade to have a “Hypha” leader, and the Clade’s Hypha becomes the Primorhypha during their season. Dumpster Divers in Fall, Shroomheads in Winter, Tree Huggers in Spring. In Summer, the Colony picks the leader all together. The Primorhypha picks the Sporophore and Pharmakon. In some versions they nominate 2-3 of each, and the Colony chooses between the candidates. Or the other way around. In many places, unless there’s a good reason, the Sporophore and Pharmakon end up being the same Sporebound between seasons.
• Some Colonies might elect Primorhypha, Sporophore, and Pharmakon, and do not do a seasonal rotation.

Colonies can choose their leadership system as they wish. No matter what they pick, the powers of those three positions will be given to someone. If the Sporebound don’t pick them all, the Mycos will. No Sporebound can possess more than one of these powers.