NATURE INCARNATE Expansion!

!!!

Okay, so what does everyone speculate will be in this expansion, and what do you hope will be in it?

I definitely want Aspects for non-Low Complexity Spirits. Also, more than one , , and -focused Spirits would be nice, as well as a primarily -focused one. (Volcano, Unyielding Defiance, and Lure all use , but not as their primary shtick.)

And perhaps we’ll finally get the long-wanted -removing Spirit.

FWIW, I at least think of Unyielding Defiance as the spirit. There are also a few spirits that could fit the bill of -removing, like Wildfire; but of course none of them do that primarily because they’d have nothing to do for large swaths of the game.

Maybe they will take another crack at the support spirit: one that doesn’t take much direct action itself, but enables and empowers the other spirits.

Honestly, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the last (huge!) expansion, and there’s plenty of stuff from the base game I haven’t played. There are So. Many. Combinations. in my box right now that I am planning to wait and see what this one brings, and maybe just sit it out.

Me too. Of all the currently existing Spirits, Defiance is definitely the -iest. But still, (in my opinion) its main gimmick is retaliation, not .

I know; I only mentioned a -removing Spirit because I remember a forumite (@ras906) expressing interest in one.

Aren’t Serpent and Fractured Days already fulfilling that role?

Yeah, me too. I don’t think I’ve played any of the JE Spirits more than twice. And I am yet to try Starlight, Finder, Downpour, or most of the Aspects yet at all. : )

I think most of us are pretty content with what we’ve got thus far, but GTG thinks we need more stuff, and, honestly, if they make Nature Incarnate cool enough, well, I know I’ll get it eventually.

Since I’ve last checked the expansion’s Backerkit page, it appears that they have added an image to it:

Ember-Eyed Behemoth by David Markiwsky1024×663 248 KB

And the image’s caption reads, “Ember-Eyed Behemoth by David Markiwsky.” So, I think that it’s safe to conclude that this “Ember-Eyed Behemoth” will be one of the Spirits to come in Nature Incarnate.

I think that it would be really cool if this Spirit could Push its , but when it did, it could take , , and even (!) with it, because it is literally carrying them on its back.

Also, didn’t Eric say in a Kickstarter update that he thought about making a Spirit that could only act in the Slow Phase, but ultimately scrapped that idea? This lumbering giant might be that Spirit . . .

The afore-linked Backerkit page also says, “There are things yet unseen among the deepest roots of the land, and they now rise to meet the coming white sails.” That, to me, definitely brings to mind Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island. And the Backerkit page also mentioned “new aspects,” so maybe there’ll be an Aspect or two for ol’ sleepyhead, and/or some of the other land-based Spirits (i.e, Unyielding Defiance, Volcano, Forgotten Memories, Keeper, Lure). But, then again, an Aspect for a High Complexity Spirit does seem fairly unlikely.

Additionally, with this expansion’s obvious focus on nature, I’d wager that there will not be any or -focused Spirits in it, due to humans generally being considered not part of nature.

Any thoughts on if Spreading Rot gets made official here?

Hmm, Spreading Rot Renews the Earth? I dunno. Based on what Eric has said, there doesn’t seem to be any indication one way or another. However, Nature Incarnate does seem like the most likely expansion that we currently know about for Spreading Rot to be in. The Dahan expansion and Horizons both seem fairly unlikely (for obvious reasons). Plus the fact that, well, the Spirit does seem to thematically resonate with Nature Incarnate.

After thinking about it for a bit, I wager that, if Spreading Rot does make it into an expansion, it’s Rot mechanic will almost certainly be heavily modified.

As it currently is, it’s just an extra resource to track, that — in my opinion — does not really add anything to the Spirit. Personally, I would remove the Rot mechanic entirely, and replace it with either Energy, Elements, or / in the Spirit’s lands. Spirit Island already has plenty of resources to work with. For example, Bodies Feed the Earth could read,

After invaders// are destroyed in one of your lands, add 1 / to that land.

Next thing to ponder: Will we finally see the use of that twisted vine icon from the thematic board?

It’s certainly a possibility. On the one hand, I recall Eric expressing the desire for Nature Incarnate to not include any new rules, so that would preclude that token. He could have changed his mind since, of course. On the other hand, Nature Incarnate does seem to be a perfect thematic fit for such a token.

What would this new token actually do? From what little rumors I’ve heard, they are called Vitality tokens, and have something to do with strengthening the vitality of the land. Mechanically, I’d guess that they would do something similar to one of the following:

• Whenever would be added to a land with Vitality, instead leave that on the Blight Card (or in the box), and remove 1 Vitality. This mirrors the effects of other tokens, namely and , in that it essentially cancels an Invade Action. However, this effect would greatly overshadow , with ’s only advantage being that it protects as well as the land.
• Whenever would be added from the Blight Card to a land with Vitality, instead take the from the box, and remove 1 Vitality. This still protects the land, but doesn’t overshadow quite as much.
• Once per Action, reduce damage dealt to a land with Vitality by 1. This effect is kind of like the reverse of .
• A land with Vitality requires 2 additional damage to add . If this prevents from being added, remove 1 Vitality. This is similar to the preceding effect, the difference being that, under the above rule, Vitality stays on the board permanently unless removed (just like ), whereas this rule makes it so that they remove themselves after use (like , , and ).

I like the idea of a reverse Badlands. Or perhaps it could do something like stopping Blight cascades in that land?

Backerkit says that this expansion will contain “new aspects.” But the question remains, new Aspects for whom?

It seems very unlikely to me that it will have Aspects for the existing Low Complexity Spirits, as they already have 2-4 each while everyone else has none.

However, my attention is brought to another query: will Spirit Island have Aspects in a box for Spirits in a different box? Or will a Spirit only get Aspects in the box that they come in? (With the Core Game Spirits being the exception, of course.) The latter method would mimic what Sentinels Definitive Edition is doing with Hero Variants.

For example, would it be possible for Nature Incarnate to have Aspects for Spirits from, say, Jagged Earth? If so, then someone who just buys NI without buying JE would have useless Aspects for Spirits they don’t own. Thus my speculation that non-Core Game Spirits will only have Aspects in their own boxes.

Of course, if that’s true, that means that the Spirits from both Promo Packs, Branch & Claw, and Jagged Earth will all never get any Aspects. I could, though, be overestimating the number of Aspects that Eric intends to produce, so maybe it will be not unusual for those Spirits to lack them.

Then again, Horizons might throw a spanner into all this. With Horizons, there will now be two “base games,” so GTG can’t be assured that any given Spirit Island player owns any product. So the designers can’t assume that players will have even the Core Game Spirits.

I personally am hoping for Aspects for Horizons in Nature Incarnate.

That would be cool, @Godai. Especially since the Horizons Spirits are likely to lack some of the more advanced rules — namely those introduced in B&C and JE (the tokens and come to mind) — and Aspects could allow them to use said rules. (Similar to how Shadows Flicker Like Flame and Lightning’s Swift Strike got Aspects in Jagged Earth that let them use .)

Specifically, I predict/hope that . . .

• Wind Kitty will get .
• Ground Teeth will get and maybe /.
• Mud Otter will get .
• Desert Lizard will get and maybe / (representing sunstroke/heat exhaustion, which I think would be neat).
• I can’t think of anything that would really go with Tree Eyes, though. It seems to be pretty focused on the /Invaders, not the land.

Eric said in the Kindred Spirit Podcast (briefly) that the intent is that JE will be required for all main SI products going forward.

Huh, really? That seems . . . unusual. I take it that he didn’t happen to say why or how?

So, Jagged Earth basically adds , , , , , , Events, and Aspects. (Did I miss anything?) All of those except , , and Aspects were also present in Branch & Claw, though.

So, I suppose that what Eric meant was that all future Spirit Island products (likely including Nature Incarnate and excluding Horizons) will use tokens/ but not include them or rules for them, or come with Events/Aspects and not have rules for them.

I suppose that I can see the logic behind this: he doesn’t want folks who buy all of the expansions to have an inordinate amount of extra tokens.

But on the other hand, I can also see that this might seem annoying to people who just want to pick up one of the (hypothetical) post-JE expansions and be unable to play some of the Spirits because they didn’t buy this mega-expansion.

Also, this has speculative ramifications. This seems to imply that the Core Game + Jagged Earth will basically contain all the rules that the game will ever have. So this implies that Vitality Tokens (if they end up existing), and whatever weirdness we might get in the Dahan Expansion are going to stay in their respective boxes.

Also, I suppose that this does mean that there is the possibility of JE Spirits getting Aspects in future products. The Branch & Claw and Promo Spirits still don’t seem likely, though.

That is definitely not true. I think we can expect that most “special rules” will stay in their own box, but, for instance, the Dahan Expansion will have a whole new suite of rules. And I would expect there to be Dahan Expansion expansions that require the core box, JE, and the Dahan expansion.

Yeah, I agree. That is essentially what I meant by . . .

I’ve noticed that the Wiki page for this expansion states that it will contain eight spirits. Where was this revealed?

Might have been the State of GTG panel at Gen Con? They talked about some of the details there, but I don’t remember specifics.

There’s a spirit island podcast too called the Kindred Spirit podcast that has had Eric on it so it’s possible it could’ve been said there too.

It appears that you are correct, Rabit, according to a poster on BGG:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2916353/some-contents-announced-gencon

To quote that poster:

What was announced:
8 new spirits!!! (4 with a brand new mechanic)
1 new adversary (beefy)
A lot of new aspects (some utilizing the new mechanic)
Only a couple major and minor powers (utilizing the new mechanic)
Some new fear, event (and I think blight) cards.

All in all they said it is between the size of B&C and JE.

8 new Spirits is a lot more than I anticipated. We just got Jagged Earth (and Promo Pack 2) which gave us a total of 12 new Spirits. I would’ve imagined Eric would slow done a bit. (Not to mention the five new Horizons Spirits, for a total of 13 new ones this year.) (Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about this. : ))

So, it is confirmed that there will be a single “brand new mechanic” in Nature Incarnate. I feel like it is very obvious that it will be some form of the Vitality token (first seen on the 6-player play-mat).

But could 4 Spirits really use a single token in meaningfully different ways? None of the existing tokens are even used by that many Spirits. Wait, no, that’s not true; are all used by Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves, Many Minds Move as One, Lure of the Deep Wilderness, and Grinning Trickster Stirs up Trouble. (And and both come close, with 3 Spirits each.)

Anyhow, of those four who will use the new mechanic, I’d wager that two of them will heavily use it, but in two very different ways, akin to how Sharp Fangs and Many Minds both use differently. And one will use it in a secondary capacity, similar to Trickster’s usage of . And the fourth will really just have it as a little incidental thing on one of its Unique Powers, like how Volcano Looming High can add and with Lava Flows.

I’m very glad that there will be “a lot of new Aspects.” I think that they’re a great mechanic, and it will be fun to see how Eric has changed up familiar Spirits.

And some of the Aspects will feature the new mechanic. Operating on the assumption that Vitality tokens (or something similar) is the new mechanic, I suspect that Vital Strength of the Earth, Keeper of Forbidden Wilds, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, and Stone’s Unyielding Defiance are all likely candidates to receive it via an Aspect.

Of course, there is the possibility that the new mechanic won’t be Vitality-esque, or any kind of token at all. But then, I’m not sure what it would be.

One of the reasons I don’t play Sharp Fangs much is because I think of it as “Thunderspeaker but for , which is not as good because there are much fewer than .” (Many Minds is a much more interesting spirit.) So, the trap here I’d like to see them avoid is to make a Thunderspeaker-but-Vitality, a Forbidden-Wilds-but-Vitality, an Unyielding-Defiance-but-Vitality, etc. A good example of having spirits parallel each other but have unique feels is Lure of the Deep Wilderness, which feels a little like “Ocean but for the interior land,” but comes with a lot of its own play style.

True, but Sharp Fangs can create , whereas Thunderspeaker can’t create , and can’t get damaged by Invaders like can.

Unrelatedly, I was thinking about what Nature Incarnate will do with , if anything. Well, we know that it will focus on nature, so I thought there might be some Spirit/Aspect/Event/Power that did something like “Replace with ///Vitality,” representing transforming Dahan into parts of the natural world to better defend the island.

I’m not sure that makes sense. Do the Dahan not live in harmony with, and as part of, nature?

The way I see it, yes, the Dahan are in harmony with nature (of course), but I disagree with them being a part of it. I see humans — including the Dahan and (of course) the Invaders — as being set apart from the natural world, notably by our use of tools.

Of course, this is entirely my own subjective view of how I see the Dahan’s relationship with nature. Which is an admittedly metaphysical relationship to begin with.

I just had an idea for an Aspect that I really want to be in this box: an Aspect for A Shroud of Silent Mists that lets it add . Something like this:

Innate Power
Mist-Borne Plagues
Range: 0|Target Land: Any
[Elements] If target land has both your and damaged Invaders, add 1 .

And the higher thresholds could do , damage, adding to adjacent lands, or repeating it on them.

Anyway, I think that this would be a great reference to Spirit Island’s design history.

GTG have once again updated the Backerkit page.

(Also, there’s only about three weeks until the launch. EXCITEMENT.)

For one thing, the page now says this:

Nature Incarnate features 8 Spirits, 20 Aspects, new Major Powers, and brand-new mechanics for players to challenge the Invaders head-on.

We already knew the number of Spirits, but I think that the Aspect count is new information? Regardless, there are currently 29 published Spirits — the Base Game’s 8, B&C’s 2, JE’s 10, F&F’s 4, and Horizons’ 5. I find it unlikely, though, that Vital Strength, Shadows, River, or Lightning will be getting more Aspects, which brings the total down to 25. I also think that the B&C and F&F Spirits probably won’t make it, so 19. And Fractured Days and Starlight also seem unlikely, so that leaves us with 17 Spirits that I think will get Aspects. I image the 20 Aspects will get fairly evenly distributed between them.

I also find it very interesting that they only mention Major Powers. This is in contradiction to the info I shared above, but I suppose that this is the more reliable source. This seems to imply that whatever the New Mystery Mechanic is, it will be powerful.

And what does it mean by “brand-new mechanics for players to challenge the Invaders head-on?” Aren’t we already challenging them head on? This is very intriguing. Unless . . . they’re talking about playing as the Dahan? Which would mean that this is The Dahan Expansion.

The Backerkit page also now says this:

Shadows gather, and keening echoes drift through the forests, as bloodied pick and steel break the ground and force what once-was to fight at the forefront of the fray.

This implies only one thing to me: zombies. See Vengeance of the Dead.

Also, the page shows an art that is titled “Wrack with Pain and Grief” (by Nolan Nasser). Now, I’m not sure if this is a Spirit or a Power Card. I’m leaning towards the latter. However, that seems thematically similar to Weep for What is Lost.

They also mention “a brutal side to a familiar Adversary.” So, there’s going to be some sort of variant for an existing Adversary? That’s certainly interesting.

Personally, I don’t think they would be introducing Aspects for the Horizons spirits, given the different markets and the coincident development timelines. And are we even sure that part of their spirit panels are the same dimensions?

Yes, those are good points. You could very likely be right. However, Eric has said that designing Aspects for Low-Complexity Spirits is significantly easier than designing them for higher complexity Spirits.

They look like they are:

Wind Kitty700×464 146 KB

Things that have been officially announced:

• One of the Aspects is for Shadows.
• None of the Aspects are for Horizons of Spirit Island spirits.
• This is not the Dahan expansion.

Really? Shadows Flicker Like Flame already has the most existing Aspects. That seems a touch unfair.

Yes, that certainly makes sense, given the points raised by @Trajector. Although I do still consider it a missed opportunity. (Perhaps in a future expansion.)

Yeah, that seems logical, but thanks for the confirmation anyway, @MindWanderer. If it were the Dahan expansion, GTG would have certainly advertised it as such. It was just the “challenging Invaders head-on” line that gave me the slightest reason to believe otherwise.

Only two more days until the campaign launches! Get your last predictions in now!
: D

Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate is now LIVE on Backerkit!

Looking forward to the details on that premium token pack, though.

I still find it funny the backer kit site was down on launch because of too much traffic.

I’m not actually going to get this in physical, but I’m still very excited to see what’s in it. A Spirit that starts out dying? Sounds incredible.

I’m looking forward to seeing the updates about game content.

Me too, @Trajector. I can hardly wait!

All in all, this expansion looks really nifty! : D

About Incarna, the funny thing is, I had an idea for a practically identical mechanic. Great minds think alike! (That, or GTG is stealing my ideas!)

Seriously, though, it looks really cool, having a single token on the island that you can move around and do stuff with. And it is obviously what was meant before by “facing the Invaders head-on.”

Okay, here is what I was able to glean from the campaign page and video:

Spirits:

• Incarna Spirits:
  • Ember-Eyed Behemoth, “a massive titan that destroys everything in its path.”
  • Towering Roots of the Jungle, “a mighty tree that defends the land and quiets all conflict around it.” Vitality confirmed! (It’s mentioned on the Spirit’s panel in the video.)
  • Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine, “a shadowy figure that slinks through the darkness and sends lone Invaders to the Void.” Could this Void a reference to Sentinel Comics’ Void in the same way that Sentinels of the Multiverse’s Nexus of the Void environment is a reference to Spirit Island‽
  • 1 Other Spirit, that looks like some sort of floating sun-head.
• Non-Incarna Spirits:
  • Hearth Vigil. The short name makes sense for a Spirit that is close to the Dahan, as Thunderspeaker is. Also, the name sounds strangely familiar; has it been mentioned in lore before?
  • Roiling Waters. It looks like this Spirit gets some special cards that aren’t Powers‽ It’s possible that “Roiling Waters” is just the name of those cards and not the Spirit. And it appears that this Spirit will get its own tokens.
  • 1 Other Spirit, one that “carv[es] swathes of overwhelming destruction.”
  • 1 Other Spirit, “a Spirit who starts the game dying and must find their way to a new form.” That description reminds me of Voice of the Deepest Gorge, who was mentioned in the lore section of the core game’s rulebook. Could this be that?

It looks like there are three types of new special tokens, but they don’t look like the same type of tokens as etc. Towering Roots of the Jungle uses the green ones (Vitality), and I think Roiling Waters uses the blue ones. However, it’s unclear wether these tokens will each be exclusive to a single Spirit, or (like the B&C and JE tokens) be used by several Spirits, Power Cards, and Aspects.

It also looks like we’ll be getting at least one Aspect for Heart of the Wildfire and a Scenario entitled “Destiny Unfolds.”

If Vitality ends up not being exclusive to Towering Roots, I think it would make a good fit for the Wildfire Aspect.

There’s only four Incarna Spirits, yet there are six Incarna tokens. However, taking into account the info I found above, I speculate that there will be one Major Power and one Aspect that can each grant just any old Spirit an Incarna.

And it appears that, in addition to counting as , one of the Incarna will count as and two as .

The new BackerKit campaign is being run incredibly poorly.

Not providing any of the rules up front, having each (fully complete) Spirit being paywalled behind artificial target goals, it is the antithesis of what makes me confident in a preorder scheme.

I suggest that GTG carefully rethink their approach to this.

Just check the discussions on the /r/boardgames subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/y79v3m/spirit_island_nature_incarnate_crowdfunding_is/

https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/y7ce3o/the_pricing_of_the_new_spirit_island_campaign_is/

Or Boardgamegeek:

It looks like they are burning a lot of goodwill from people who absolutely love the game, and that’s pretty sad.

Tying updates (not stretch goals, updates), to arbitrary “achievements” is bonkers. I understand GtG wanting to support BackerKit by implementing a major test run for their achievements system, but the campaign has been funded 15 times the target goal already. There is nothing left to achieve. One update a day or two, sure, whatever, build excitement. But tying it to (currently) number of backers is ludicrous. Again, 15 times the target goal has already been met.

BGG and Reddit are not what I would really take into big consideration for whether a Crowdfunded project is a “disaster” or not. However, I agree I’m not a fan of tying updates to achievements as the number of backers is going to be a trickle until we near the last day or two at which point it’s not helpful for keeping excitement. Now maybe it’s too much for those behind the Spirit Island updates but I liked the RCR campaign where Christopher posted an update every weekday while the campaign was active. It had the added bonus of letting Christopher daily address questions.

As Powerhound alluded, /r/BoardGames and BGG are both “Toxic Fanpeople: the Forum”, and for every one valid complaint they have about ten wrongfully entitled and shortsighted ones. I wouldn’t take either especially seriously.

This is a case where I think it’s important for us to hold multiple ideas in our heads simultaneously.

Is this campaign successful? For sure, as @Godai pointed out, the funding goals were wildly exceeded almost immediately.

Is this going to negatively affect the perception of Spirit Island as a game, and therefore sales? Prrrrrobably not, but I say that as a not very deep amateur observer. Likewise, I doubt GtG is going to lose many of their fans over this

Is tying the frequency of substantive updates to the number of backers annoying from the perspective of someone trying to decide whether to back? Definitely! I was on the fence before the campaign started, for the reason that I already felt I had more Spirit Island content in hand than I could possibly play. If the new mechanics, new spirits, and new components seem cool enough, I’m more likely to back. If they look like slight variations on existing stuff, I’m less likely. So I’m disappointed that the structure of the campaign did not have much of that information available from the beginning. I’ll be waiting to back…and hoping they switch updates to a straightforward schedule by time.

Two new Spirits revealed!

Does Ember-Eyed Behemoth remind anyone else of the Dragon-Turtle from Avatar or Great A’Tuin from Discworld?

Unusually for a Moderate Complexity Spirit, Behemoth has only a single Innate Power. However, I suppose that that’s somewhat countered by the fact that it gets to repeat said power when its Incarna is Empowered.

That “Max 1/Game” Growth option is also something new. I can tell that I would definitely have a tough time deciding when to use it in most games. I think that having enough Energy and Card Plays to reliable hit the second level of Behemoth’s Innate might be a good rule of thumb for me, but of course the decision will often be much more complex than that.

All in all, Behemoth looks real nifty. It seems like the perfect proof of concept for Incarna. It is elegant in its simplicity. And seeing how Behemoth uses its Incarna just makes me all the more excited to see what ways the other Incarna Spirits use theirs.

Who are the Servant Cults‽ They’ve been mention extremely briefly on Thunderspeaker’s panel, but nowhere else. Until now, when they’re being mentioned in reference to Hearth-Vigil. All we know is that they were really violent and attacked and poisoned other Dahan? Judging by their name, I wonder if they’re some kind of faction that wants to (or does) worship the Spirits (or maybe just one specific Spirit).

Hearth-Vigil looks like some sort of weird amalgamation of dog, lion, and cow, and I think there might also be some scales or feathers in there? I suppose that the canine features do make sense, what with their connexion to humans.

I, too, think that it’s really cool to have a Spirit that adds during Setup. It seems so obvious in hindsight.

Wait, I have a question: are the extra added in all three of Hearth-Vigil’s lands, or just the last two? The first time I read it, I read it as the latter, but now I’m thinking that it’s the former.

Also, Hearth-Vigil starts the game with 1 ENERGY! What‽ This is UNPRECEDENTED. Okay, well, actually, I suppose that there actually is precedent for weird setup instructions, such as one of Sharp Fangs’s being able to start the game in a land anywhere on the island with , and one of Vengeance’s starting the game destroyed. Very well then. Those who write the unspoken rules are free to break them.

Also, Hearth-Vigil is a Moderate Complexity Spirit with THREE SPECIAL RULES! This too is UNPRECEDENTED! Well, but I suppose that there is precedent for this too, actually. High Complexity Spirits used to also be limited to two Special Rules, but then came along Shroud of Silent Mist and Vengeance as a Burning Plague, so nevermind.

Anyways, now that my mistaken outrage is over with, I want to say that Fortify Heart and Health, Warn of Impending Conflict, and the Presence Track -Gather all seem so obvious in hindsight (not that this takes away from how great and fun they look).

Rooted in the Community and Loyal Guardian are both nice parallels to and twists on Thunderspeaker’s Special Rules.

Overall, whereas Thunderspeaker is focused on guiding the Dahan and telling them when and where to attack, Hearth-Vigil is all about protecting, defending, and empowering them. I think that Eric and the Dev Team have succeeded in making a second Spirit.

Also, here’s just a random bit of speculation: I wonder if any of the Incarna Spirits will have its Incarna switch back and forth between its Unempowered and Empowered sides.

The biggest takeaway for me is that Hearth-Vigil is a Bull Dog.

Hearth-Vigil only starts in two lands, and gets an extra Dahan in each of them.

I am also very about the Servant Cults.

Supposition just occurred to me about the Servant Cults.

1. The Servant Cults were Long Ago™️
2. They wanted to serve the spirits
3. We know there is a spirit who starts the game dying
4. The dying spirit was once worshiped by the Servant Cults, and is now struggling to stay alive without their support

Just trying to make a guess based on the clues we have.

I’m puzzling a little bit over the incarna mechanic.

In some ways, what it grants in terms of gameplay is already the way I think of several of the spirits. Thunderspeaker tends to accumulate masses of and that move about and act together. Volcano Looming High makes silly high stacks of in a very small number of lands. Ocean’s Hungry Grasp and, to a lesser extent, Lure of the Forbidden Wilds (edit: er, I think I got that name wrong…I mean the anglerfish-frog one), also tend to be extremely localized in where their is and therefore where they can act. This got me wondering, could you just write special rules and unique/innate powers governing where goes and how it moves, and achieve basically the same thing as the incarna mechanic? It strikes me that Volcano is nearly almost there, with checks on “X ” for certain effects. It wouldn’t take too much to write powers like, “Gather 3 or more . If you do, blah blah.”

I think the incarna mechanic adds a few things.

• Thematically, the idea that a spirit can have in several places but a single localized manifestation. I’m not sure this feels really different to me than, say, Thunderspeaker, though, because Thunderspeaker is almost always depicted in art as having a clear manifestation and that achieves the thematic effect pretty well.
• A spirit with an incarna can have the incarna available from the start and still start with fully covered tracks, like the Behemoth.
• The particular rules about incarna counting as or not, and not losing the game if the incarna is still on the board. What this means for gameplay is probably highly dependent on specific situations.

I’m hoping that the next few incarna spirits add some effects that really distinguish the mechanic.

I’m having trouble placing the breed, but I think Great Dane looks closer to me than Bulldog?

That can’t be right, I could’ve sworn that—

Checks Spirit Panel

I stand corrected. Thanks, MindWanderer. I don’t know how, but I read “[Put] 2 [] in the lowest-numbered land with at least 2 ” as “[Put] 1 [] each in the 2 lowest-numbered lands with at least 2 ,” which, in hindsight, does not make a whole lot of sense, as there are only two lands with 2 on each board at game start.

True, but the main difference is that those are tendencies. Thunderspeaker can have several smaller groupings of and , and the Volcano can have multiple shorter pyres.

Another thing is that (in most cases) there is no qualitative difference between 1 and a whole mess of (beyond ). Sure, there’s a quantitative difference that matters in a few cases, such as Thunderspeaker’s Manifestation of Power and Glory Unique Power Card and Volcano’s Explosive Eruption Innate Power.

That would be Lure of the Deep Wilderness, not Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds.

And yes, the Ocean and the Lure both have limited -placement options, but they can still have in plenty of different lands, whereas an Incarna can only be in one.

Yeah, you only see one Thunderspeaker on all of her cards, but that’s because each card basically represents one action that he’s taking. But Thunderspeaker can play several of those cards at once, and I am sure she can manifest in several different locations more or less simultaneously in order to lead his Dahan allies. Compared to the Behemoth, for instance, who can only have one of its big stompy forms at a time.

Yes, I agree that that is a considerable difference. Most Spirits that like to have many in a single land get something out of adding more of them there.

I am fairly confident that they will. Behemoth was intentional designed as a lower Complexity Incarna Spirit.

No no, the space is important. Bull. Dog.

Ah, I see what you did there. ; )

I thought it was a terrier, myself. Maybe it appears as a different breed depending on who the observer is? ;D

Does anyone else find it unusual that the definition of not participating in Ravage is spelt out on Terrifying Rampage? It’s clearly defined elsewhere.

Also, Bargain of Coursing Paths looks real neat. It sets up two permanent lands that can teleport pieces anywhere on the island. It would allow you to easily add anywhere.

Question: If Bargains of Coursing Paths is played by Finder of Paths Unseen, and the Finder then Pushes an Invader into one of the Marked Lands, which then Moves that Invader into an Ocean that’s in play (because of Ocean’s Hungry Grasp), so the Invader then Drowns, is Finder’s Responsibilities to the Dead triggered? What if a different Spirit Pushed the Invader into the Marked Land? What if a different Spirit played Bargains, but Finder Pushed the Invader?

Also, will “Bargains” be defined in the NI rulebook?

Speculation on the Remaining Unrevealed Spirits

Towering Roots of the Jungle is likely to be very defence-focused, judging by its use of Vitality and the description of what its Incarna will do.

I’m still guessing that Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine will be tied to The Void. And just like Many Minds Move as One was partly inspired by the Major Power Card Insatiable Hunger of the Swarm, I wager that Breath of Darkness was partly inspired by and/or hinted at by the Major Draw Towards a Consuming Void. If this hypothesis proves correct, I think it would be cool if Darkness somehow utilised that Power Card’s “reverse elemental thresholds” thing.

I bet that the Darkness will be heavy on (I mean, just look at that thing!), but I’m not sure what to mechanically make of “a shadowy figure that slinks through the darkness and sends lone Invaders to the Void.” I suppose by “lone Invaders” they could mean , but then this description is starting to sound like Shadows Flicker Like Flame. Speaking of the Shadows, it has an Aspect that grants a Special Rule called “Glimpse of the Shadow Void.” Connexion or coincidence?

The Destroyer is what I’m calling the Spirit that is described as “carving swathes of overwhelming destruction” and seems to look like some sort of headless horse-thing with way too many arms. It honestly looks like a pretty freakish and unnatural abomination, so I’m intrigued to learn about its lore, as well as how its destruction will be different from other Spirits’.

I suspect that the red tokens will be used by this Spirit (by virtue of nothing but colour). The video shows three of them being added to a land, and then a and a being destroy (or removed). So, perhaps the Destroyer’s gimmick is adding tokens and then somehow triggering them to cause destruction. 3 tokens doing 5 damage seems quite powerful, though, so I imagine they will be somewhat difficult to add.

I believe that The Dying Spirit is the watery-lookin’ one. But what is that red stuff in it? I think it’s either fish . . . or blood. Which would fit with the whole “dying” thing, I suppose. Either way, it looks somewhat similar to River Surges in Sunlight, but they’re both Spirits, so that’s to be expected.

I also believe that this Spirit will make use of the blue tokens, which (judging from the video) appear to be double-sided. Said video shows three in a land, a getting destroyed (or removed), two of the tokens flipping, and one getting Pushed to a Wetland. I really don’t know what to make of all that, but it may be a somewhat similar deal to The Destroyer’s tokens.

And lastly, there are two other Spirits — one Incarna and one not — that both look -aligned. Beyond that, though, I got nuthin’.

I’m surprised you’re not all over this tidbit, @fjur :

In Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate Updates - BackerKit /c, we got first-letter and character number hints for spirit names. Care to play Spiridle?

• October 21st — Spirit Reveal: Hearth-Vigil
• October 26th — Spirit Reveal: Breath Of Darkness Down Your Spine
• October 31st — Spirit Reveal: R_________ G___ O_ T__ S__
• November 4th — Spirit Reveal: Towering Roots Of The Jungle
• November 7th — Spirit Reveal: Da____ U_ E__________
• November 11th — Spirit Reveal: W________ V____ K____ D_______
• November 16th — Spirit Reveal: W______ W_____ B_______

Edit: I think the video reveals that the second letter of the spirit name beginning with “D” is “A”

• October 31st — Spirit Reveal: Refreshing Glow Of The Sun

Heh. Yeah, I’ve noticed it. Sure, here’s what I got thus far.

Agreed, and it looks like that Spirit is the one that I’ve dubbed the Destroyer in my previous post. Anyways, I’m almost certain that the second word is Up. The first word could be Daemon or Dark__ (-en or -er) or Dreams and the third might be Earthquakes. But no combination of those really make much sense.

Also in the video, it appears that the Dying Spirit begins with a W, which means it’s either “W________ V____ K____ D_______” or “W______ W_____ B_______”. Given the obvious visual nature of the Spirit, it would be logical to assume that starting word is Water, but that’s only 5 letters, whereas both the starting words of those Spirit names are 8 and 7 letters, respectively (which also knocks out watery). However, the second word of that second name is 6 letters long, so it could be Watery. The third word of that name couldn’t be Blood, but it could be Bloodied. The first W-word could be Wailing, though. However, Wailing Watery Bloodied doesn’t make a whole lot of grammatical sense.

“W________ V____ K____ D_______” might be Wracking Voice Kills [Something]. Or perhaps the V-word is Vines or Vibes?

At first blush, I guessed that it was Righteous God of the Sun, but the letter counts don’t work. Glow of the Sun looks promising; I’m not so sure about Refreshing, but I can’t think of anything better.

Unrelatedly, while I was re-watching the video, I decided to see what I could make out on the Dying Spirit’s panel.

Lore:

In years gone . . . a Spirit of . . . the Invaders, too, . . . they built slaughter . . . through the pool . . . the Spirit which . . . longer a Spirit . . . nature and . . .

So, extrapolating from that, there used to be a Spirit of a pool, but then the Invaders built slaughterhouses nearby, which tainted it and damaged/changed the Spirit, thus why it’s dying.

I can also see a “(from the box)” in its Setup, implying its Setup involves adding .

“Dreams Up Earthquakes” sounds quite plausible to me!

The dying spirit could start with “Withering Vines,” but I’m having a hard time coming up with the following ‘K.’ it also doesn’t have much to do with pools.

Wracked Waters Bleeding

“Up” is most likely, but also consider “Us” and “Un”

Reading the lore of Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine reminded me of the Vashta Nerada from Doctor Who.

I called it! (I guess a connexion betwixt Shadows and Darkness isn’t that hard to guess, but still.)

The back of Breath’s panel lists that it uses , which adds to its thematic connexion with Shadow’s Madness Aspect.

Besides that, of course, Darkness and Shadows seem really similar. Mechanically, they both focus heavily on and , and thematically, they’re both spooky shadow monsters. The only main difference seems to be Breath’s Incarna. Then again, that is a big difference, both thematically and mechanically. Of course, we haven’t seen BoD’s Uniques yet, so it could very well be quite different.

On further reflexion, if Darkness is indeed some sort of alternate version of Shadows Flicker Like Flame, I see their relationship as this. Shadows is the rounded, default Spirit. It can do a variety of effects related to darkness. Darkness, meanwhile, is a specialised form of Shadows. Instead of a Spirit of general darkness, it is a Spirit of being a shadow-monster that can tend and tear and swallow and abduct.

I had an idea for a Spirit which used a similar mechanic as Darky’s Endless Dark, except instead of a shadow-realm it used an alternate timeline, and a spare island board instead of a single card. (It was never more than a rough concept.) (Also, I realise it’s a pretty obvious concept, so I’m not trying to gloat or anything; parallel inspiration happens.)

Despite that, The Endless Dark is very intriguing. It lists itself as a Location Card, which implies there will be other Location Cards? But the Endless Dark seems pretty unique, so I dunno.

I like the rule about how if Invaders would be removed because of Fear Cards, is instead generated. Thematically that says to me that the Invaders try to flee the Island, but can’t, because they’re trapped, and so are all the more terrified.

Also, I like how Invaders there don’t take Actions (because they have no idea what is going on), but (presumably) still act from Token events. I.e., bears and tigers don’t really care about all the craziness going on. : )

Wait, so a turn in Spirit Island is supposed be around one or two years, right? So, Invaders trapped in The Dark aren’t just stuck for a little bit, they are in there for a while, maybe even decades. , indeed.

It seems a touch confusing having the rules for the Endless Dark, Abducting, and Escaping being spread out between the Endless Dark’s card and Breath of Darkness’s two special rules, but I guess there’s no other way to do it.

I find it very egregious that Terror Stalks the Land says “When pieces Escape [The Endless Dark], they Move to non-Ocean lands with your /[Incarna].” Incarna count as , so why would it not just say “non-Ocean lands with your ?”

(Wait, what is the plural of “Incarna?” Is it “Incarnas” or “Incarna?” The latter sounds more right to me.)

So, Ember-Eyed Behemoth’s Incarna is Empowered by a Growth option, and Breath of Darkness’s is Empowered by its Presence Track. I wonder if each Incarna Spirit will have a unique mechanical way to Empower its Incarna. The remaining options are Special Rules, Innate Powers, and Unique Powers.

The last level of Lost in the Endless Dark adds 1 to the Endless Dark, which to me implies that Breath of Darkness is spawning its own shadow-beasts, which is cool.

So, Terror Stalks the Land says “When your Powers would Damage or directly Destroy the only Invader in a land, instead Abduct it. (Check if it is alone at the start of the Damage/Destroy instruction. [The Endless Dark] is not a land.)” So, say Darkness uses the first two levels of Leave a Trail of Deathly Silence while its Incarna is in a land with 2 (and it opts to not use the Push). So Darkness destroys 1 of the , and then destroys the other one. Would Terror Stalks the Land check before or after the first was destroyed? Since it refers to “Damage/Destroy instruction” rather than Action, I assume it would check after, thus letting it Abduct the second .

Breath of Darkness’s Reach from the Infinite Darkness Power Card looks like a cool idea. With just Darkness’s basic rules, Invaders are really the only pieces you want in the Dark, so it’s cool to have a Power that incentivises putting there too. I hope at least one of Breath’s other Uniques does something similar, like Abducting or for some positive benefit.

Eric’s postscript about the Abduct terminology quite surprised me. I don’t think I know anyone like that.

Without the lore, Breath gave a lot of people UFO vibes. It only abducts people when they’re off by themselves with no witnesses. Then it deposits them somewhere else some time later as if no time has passed.

Fright of the Navigator

That’s kind of funny, because I think the big mechanical innovation for Breath of Darkness is everything about the Endless Dark! The incarna almost seems superfluous to me…you could totally put together a version of Breath of Darkness that just works as advertised with “move 1 ” in a couple places on its presence tracks.

I never really gravitated toward the -focused spirits in the core game. Shadows Flicker seemed like a basic damage spirit that caused a little extra . Bringer of Dreams felt to me like it almost didn’t care about the board state at all, and instead played its own separate game with tokens and milling Fear Cards. But I think they are really nailing the spirits now! Shroud of Silent Mist really feels fantastic in how it manipulates Invaders on the board to extract from them. And I like the look of Breath of Darkness, and how it pulls things into its private little fear-dimension. The reclaim effect is a fascinating cost to be thinking about, too.

The aspect reveal yesterday was interesting, too. I am not sure how much adding the incarna to Thunderspeaker will really change its play, but oh wow that Hungry Ocean aspect! That looks amazing.

I 100% agree. I have zero memory of why I wrote that.

There was a time when I was playing a lot of solo Bringer games, and I soon realised that ignoring the board quickly resulted in loss by . I found the balancing act of earning enough and not letting the board get too crazy quite fun. Granted, these games were all single-Spirit, so I imagine that multi-Spirit games would be quite different, as the other Spirits could handle the board, letting Bringer focus solely on fear.

Agreed. It seems like the way to go is definitely having be dependent on the game-state.

Me neither. I think it’s something that I’d have to play to get a hang of. Although I think the game of optimising how much extra damage one could get out of it might be interesting. The Presence Track-esque bonuses are certainly a first for Aspects. I wonder if the unrevealed bit of the Aspect will give a way to Enpower the Incarna?

Yes, it certainly looks fun! Slowly eating away the Coast and shrinking the Island, although I think Lure of the Deep Wilderness might not appreciate the shrinking Inland:Coastal ratio in smaller games. Question: What happens to pieces other than Invaders/ when a land is Drowned, such as //////Vitality? Do they remain? Or are they destroyed/removed, or pushed?

Regarding River Surges in Sunlight’s Haven Aspect, it seems like a simple enough way of shifting River’s focus to defence instead of offence.

Oh. Man, was I wrong.

I was not expecting The Years of the Relentless Sun to be explained in this Expansion!

It seems like there might still be bad blood betwixt Relentless Gaze of the Sun and Shadows Flicker Like Flame. Also, I just really like the personality of this spirit. It reminds me of . . . Wait. Did they just make Ra as a Spirit?

Also, I really like the way that they’ve weaved a story into this Spirit’s mechanics! It’s cool how there’s the built-in choice of wether to remain a jerk, or soften up a little.

All in all, Gaze looks like a pretty cool Spirit.

The Blight Card also featured in Gaze’s update also looks neat. I really like the idea that the Spirits are basically losing their sentience, simply degrading into inanimate aspects of the land, yet they remain dangerous, represented by the //.

I took it as a “hey, we know that Shadow seems underpowered, here is some lore to explain why. He took on the Sun, man, cut him some slack for being tired…”

Honestly, quite clever.

The one thing that struck me while reading that update is that Gaze’s “everything must burn because it is good” attitude reminded me a lot of Rising Heat from Horizons? I think it’s got the same mindset, more or less, just a different angle of approach.

I know that Shadows being underpowered is a semi-common opinion, but frankly I don’t see it. Yes, I know Concealing Shadows protects only and not the land, and Crops Wither and Fade usually only reduces a problem instead of eliminating it entirely, but Mantle of Dread and Darkness Swallows the Unwary can both completely stop a standard Invader cycle in a land (even at the latter’s first level), and Favors Called Due is one of the best Gathering + effects in the game.

The only real complaint I have with Shadows is that I never seem to use Shadows of the Dahan much, but that’s easily fixed by all those Aspects, like Amorphous, Foreboding, and Reach.

Granted, all my experiences with this Spirit (and, well, all the other Spirits too) are from relatively low-difficulty games; my games average around 1-3 difficulty, and I’ve never played higher than 4, so my experiences and data may very well be quite skewed, and Shadows very well may be underpowered in higher difficulty games.

Despite my rantings above, I agree. This new information definitely adds to Shadow’s Spirit street cred’. : )

Really? I’m not seeing that. The most about Heat’s mindset that I can find is this bit from its panel lore:

Even after centuries, the Spirit remains a bit unclear on why living things get so unhappy about fatal desiccation, but the Dahan make such pleasant patterns across its sands that it’s happy to forbear.

Whereas Gazey’s mindset is described as this:

Relentless Gaze of the Sun is an imperious Spirit, brimming with wrathful power that scorches the land barren beneath its focused regard. For long centuries, it viewed all others as beneath it, unworthy of consideration.

So, how I see it is that Gaze is a self-important jerk who shines and smites stuff to show everyone how powerful and awesome it is, whereas Heat just does its thing because that’s its intrinsic nature, and it simply doesn’t know any better.

Called it! (I know, this was admittedly a very easy thing to guess, but still.)

The fact that the effect of Vitality is spelt out on Roots’s panel implies that it won’t be in the rulebook, and thus that TRotJ will be the only Spirit that will use them. I feel like this is making them a touch underutilized, but it’s their game, so they likely know best.

So, does this mean that, from now on, the Minor Power deck is basically never going to get new additions? If so, I completely understand why. There can only be so many ideas. And just look at how tall that thing is! Plus, 100 is a nice number to stay at.

The combination of Heart-Tree Guards the Land and Roots’ second Growth choice adding Vitality at its Incarna means that that land will be insanely protected. Then again, it’s probably wise not to pile too many Invaders there, because they’ll become a problem again if you ever move the Incarna.

Shroud of Silent Mist would likely enjoy damaging / and then moving them to Roots’ Incarna to get from them while they can’t do much harm, and it would make an ideal land for Invaders to Escape to from Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine’s Endless Dark. And, of course, Spirits that add or damage — like Heart of the Wildfire, Vengeance as a Burning Plague, or Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds — would likely make good teammates for Roots.

Both of this Spirit’s Innate Powers seem really cool, thematically speaking. At first blush, I couldn’t really figure out have a big tree that just stands there could Gather or Remove anything. But then I read this bit:

it is a Spirit of and with authority, capable of casting Invaders out of its sanctuary. When it does so, those Invaders generally leave the island altogether, as it has been made viscerally clear to them - in a way they cannot rationally explain, they just know - that they are no longer safe here .

I assuming that Roots’ Gathering is a similar effects — Dahan, Invaders, and Beasts just somehow know that they will be safe under the tree’s branches. I find both of these things really neat.

It does seem unusual to me that both of Roots’ Innates require targeting from , and that (according to the images on the campaign’s main page) its Incarna does not count as . This means that they can’t be targeted from a land with Incarna alone, there must be Incarna + there (or just a normal , of course).

I can’t pull out my thematic map at the moment, but is there a board/land with pre-printed Vitality that could be used as Roots starting jungle? i.e. is there a start where Roots gets a head start on Empowering her Arcana?

They say there are a few icons on the Northwest island board.

Oh, whew! I was starting to get worried about this, too.

We were only one word off!

Dances Up Earthquakes looks super thematic to me. The interplay between Impending cards, Quake tokens, and the two Innate Powers seems just great. Kudos to all the designers and developers. I can definitely tell that playing this Spirit will be a very different experience, what with managing the tempo and all.

It is interesting that the Quake tokens have no intrinsic rules; their effect is entirely dependent upon Dances’ Power(s).

A game with Dances Up Earthquakes, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, and Volcano Looming High would likely be interesting.

It feels like a Very High spirit that I’m actually going to enjoy playing.

Of course, I feel like it’s also safe to accuse it of being a spirit made complicated for complexity’s sake, not that I am complaining. ;D

It’s definitely not that. In fact, complexity was trimmed from it at many points in development. It’s more safe to say that it’s as simple as they could possibly make it and still have the core concept actually work.

That said… yeah, it’s complex. I don’t consider Fractured Days all that bad, and I find Finder hard more because of its constrained resources. Quakes breaks my brain in all the best ways. I’ve played it a bunch and I feel like I still need a bunch more to really get a handle on it.

I love it so much. I normally play most spirits’ bottom tracks, because I prefer to deal with lots of minor problems and then lean on my innates to close games out, so this is easily my favorite major powers spirit—and I’m equally happy to get there on top or bottom track!

Fractured Days I’m just not a fan of, but Finder is the one spirit I will not play. It breaks my brain in ways that are not fun. D:

My hope is that Dances will do so in the fun way.

Fractured is fun for me because it feels like you’re operating outside of the purview of the Invaders.

This one seems a lot more “get your hands dirty” and I think I’ll like it

It does seem like we’re reading a lot of team notes that say “Eric gave us this spirit that was way too complicated and we sent him back.” It just seems to be where he likes to operate!

They have one guy whose job is to dream big, and four more people to drag him back down to earth!

Lure of the Deep Wilderness’s Lair Aspect saying “(You can reposition [Incarna] by adding it with your second Growth option instead of adding .)” made me realise that any Incarna Spirit can do that (hence it being reminder text, not rule text) because the core game’s rules state that, when adding via Growth, instead of adding it from your Spirit panel, you can move already on the Island. And Incarna count as on the Island.

I completely forgot about this rule, likely because it is pretty much never a good thing to use, except when one’s tracks are entirely empty. (I think) I’ve never even used this rule, as I’ve never been in that situation.

This rule is definitely more relevant for Incarna Spirits, and it gives each of them a smidge more mobility than I initially thought.

I wonder if any of the three Spirits who severed the voice of Calls All Living Things to Die — thus creating Wandering Voice Keens Delirium — are ones we already know, or if any of them will be released in future expansions.

All in all, Wandering Voice seems pretty nifty, in both theme and mechanics. As a second Spirit, I think it goes without saying that it and Grinning Trickster Stirs Up Trouble would make a good team.

I’m honestly low-key hyped about Voice. I want to know what this strife-and-push game feels like in action.

Does it go without saying that Incarna count as ? I didn’t see that anywhere in the rules first explaining Incarna or on Keen’s panel, but the update mentions the effect

Take a look at the video that shows the different Incarna tokens. The icons they count as are shown on the tokens, themselves.

image1920×1020 150 KB

To elaborate on @Rabit’s excellent answer:

• The Incarna of Behemoth, Towering Roots, and Thunderspeaker’s Warrior Aspect count only as .
• Breath of Darkness’s Incarna counts as /.
• The Incarna of Wandering Voice and Lure’s Lair Aspect count as /.

How many would Voice’s and Lure’s Incarna count as, though? (For effects like Manifest Incarnation, which seems like an appropriate power for an Incarna Spirit.) 1, 2, or 3?

Also, since we haven’t seen the Empowered sides of any of the Incarna, I wonder if they might have different icons?

It makes sense that no Incarna count as //, as those tokens have to remove themselves for their effects to activate. Thunderspeaker’s Incarna could’ve counted as , but there were probably mechanical issues with that.

Yeah, I really like Wandering Voice - particularly the idea that, to get the most out of preventing a Ravage, you would have to dart in to spread strife, then dart away to ensure the Dahan will actually fight back! Sounds really tough and I’m not sure I’m good enough at the game to pull it off, but I would love to try.

Thanks @Rabit and @fjur! The “how many ” question is interesting – I could see things coming up like an Event that calls for some amount of destruction, and choosing the Incarna to get 2 if you already have something lined up on the slow phase or the next Growth to get it back.

If I recall correctly, all of the icons printed on Incarna tokens must be optional, right? That is, for any given decision it is player’s choice whether the icon counts or not? Otherwise Breath of Darkness will be really susceptible to those Events that move and destroy .

They count as 1 , same as River’s in Wetlands. If they count as , they must also count as . Otherwise, they can count as some, all, or none of the icons on them (but they can’t change what they count as in the middle of an action).

Now they’re just teasing us! : D

It looks like the Enticing and Violence Aspects will emphasize the two different halves of Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares’ nature. Or, alternatively, Violence just might replace To Dream a Thousand Deaths, but that’d be pretty radical and seems unlikely. I recall Bringer’s lore mentioning that it’s a lot more terrifying these days than it usually is, so it’ll be nice to see its softer side with Enticing.

I look forward to seeing how A Spread of Rampant Green will use with Tangles. Heart of the Wildfire’s Transforming also looks intriguing. It’ll be neat to see an Aspect that shifts Wildfire’s focus from destruction to change.

It appears that — in addition to the Horizons Spirits — there are only nine Spirits that will still not have Aspects, and they’re all from Jagged Earth or Promo Pack 2:

• Moderate Complexity: Unyielding Defience, Grinning Trickster, Many Minds, Volcano
• High Complexity: Vengeance, Downpour
• Very High Complexity: Starlight, Fractured Days, Finder

So I never got answered my one question… what’s up with the dinosaur?

image1239×724 113 KB

I mean, that’s a dinosaur on the right, right?

It’s Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot. It’s not in this expansion, it just happens to have art on a card in this expansion. Kind of unfortunate to have it be so visible in the ad.

Now there needs to be a dinosaur Spirit. : D

Unrelatedly, Eric and Ted and the rest of the Team have really outdone themselves with Wounded Waters Bleeding. I love it when they manage to weave a Spirit’s story into its panel, like how they did with Starlight Seeks Its Form and Relentless Gaze of the Sun, and Waters is an excellent specimen of doing so. Its Healing Cards look like they’re essentially Aspects that get added mid-game. The Spirit’s mechanics look like they perfectly emulate desperately trying to survive, especially the Presence Track. Plus, the idea that its name is tied to its Healing Cards like that is genius. And the fact that it starts with more than most, as well as its non-renewable starting energy both contribute to the feeling that this Spirit is currently much weaker than usual.

@TakeWalker, you were real close!

Wow, no one else came up with “Bleeding”? I thought someone had! Yay me.

I thought of “Bloodied,” but I don’t think anyone else got “Bleeding.” (On this forum, at least. I don’t know about elsewhere.)

Which Aspect do y’all think that that newly-revealed seventh Incarna will be used by?

People in the thread were thinking it might be Lure. I certainly can’t come up with a better idea myself, unless it’s one of the Fangs Aspects.

Serpent, Rampant Green, and Vital Strength also seem to be candidates suggested by folks in the update’s comments.

oh yeah, Serpent was actually what I was thinking too many Aspects to remember

Okay, all eight Nature Incarnate Spirits have now officially been revealed! Now it’s time to categorise them!

By Complexity

• Moderate:
  • Ember-Eyed Behemoth*
  • Hearth-Vigil
  • Towering Roots of the Jungle*
• High:
  • Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine*
  • Relentless Gaze of the Sun
  • Wandering Voice Keens Delirium*
  • Wounded Waters Bleeding
• Very High:
  • Dances Up Earthquakes

By Focus
I’ve sorted the Spirits into categories based on which of the five focus areas is highest for that Spirit. Two of the areas are tied for highest in regards to Hearth-Vigil, hence it being in two categories.

• Offense:
  • Ember-Eyed Behemoth*
  • Relentless Gaze of the Sun
  • Dances Up Earthquakes
• Control:
  • Wander Voice Keens Delirium*
  • Wounded Waters Bleeding†
• Fear:
  • Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine*
• Defense:
  • Hearth-Vigil
  • Towering Roots of the Jungle*
• Utility:
  • Hearth-Vigil

By Tokens

• Wilds:
  • Ember-Eyed Behemoth*
  • Towering Roots of the Jungle*
• Disease:
  • Wounded Waters Bleeding
• Strife:
  • Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine*
  • Wandering Voice Keens Delirium*‡
• Beasts:
  • Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine*
  • Wounded Waters Bleeding‡
• Badlands:
  • Ember-Eyed Behemoth*
  • Relentless Gaze of the Sun

*Incarna Spirit
†Can change radically over the course of the game
‡Primary user of the token. (Who counts as a “primary user” of a token is, of course, largely subjective. Basically, I mean a Spirit whose schtick somehow revolves around a token. For example, Keeper of Forbidden Wilds is a primary user of . It has several effects that add or care about . Meanwhile, Volcano Looming High is merely an incidental user of . Volcano only has a single Unique Power that can add . [Volcano is also an incidental user of — in my opinion — for the same reasons as for .] I think a good metric for determining this kind of thing is wether the Spirit has the token on its panel or not. Of course, again, this is quite subjective.)