Spirit Island and Nexus of the Void

This is a thread split from the Gen Con 2017 thread. Context: Report on the Letters Page Live podcast.

Go back and review the episode… I've forgotten the details, but the Nexus seems to have been brought to the surface by the early Virtuosos. The first one was from ancient Sumer, so it was brought to the surface in time for the colonial period.

(I know I was listening carefully for that, since the question was in my mind based on the language A&C were using, with "spirits" and "blight" and the like.)

Another tidbit: they declined to answer whether Akash'Bhuta might appear in a future expansion to Spirit Island. (They were going to say something sly like, "Maybe you already have!", but then backed off and confirmed that we have not seen Akash'Bhuta in Spirit Island.)

Yeah, when I was listening to that part of the Akash'Bhuta episode, I was wondering if there wasn't a connection between the two.

Maybe Spirit Island is just a Nexus in the Spirit Island-verse? :B

Man, I sure hope they're not related.

I'm sorry, Bunston. It was explicitly confirmed during the live podcast that they are the same place.

I'm fine with the Nexus of the Void gaining influence in the deck because of Spirit Island but being tied together still seems odd.   The Nexus of the Void would have been an idea they had in mind when they started SotM and especially by the Infernal Relics expansion which would have happened before they knew of Spirit Island.  So this seems like an unnecessary retcon though maybe their explanation will have me feel better about it.  

Nobody asked how it came about that Spirit Island was in the world of Sentinel Comics. I know that Spirit Island, the game, was developed quite independently before Greater than Games started publishing it. I'm presuming that it was something like the situation with Kismet as described in her episode: the independently-created Spirit Island, that they wanted to publish anyway, meshed well with something they had already been thinking about.

Yeah, it's comics, folks. 

Lots of retconning. 

Again an unnecessary one. Which can be said of various retcons and doesn't always mean the changes are good.

ISLAND OF SPIRITS

[ SHENANIGAN ]

At the end of the environment turn, play a game of Spirit Island.

If the spirits win, each hero target regains 2 HP. If the invaders win, each hero target deals itself 2 irreducible psychic damage.

At the start of the environment turn, destroy this card.

I am now replacing every card from every environment with this.

That is going to be the longest SotM game ever.  

Hoo boy. My games of Sentinels just became all-day affairs.

Also, when are we going to see that card in the video game? :)

Sentinels of the Multiverse but every time you play a card, you play a game of Spirit Island instead.

Event:

Play a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse against Deadline in the Nexus of the Void.

If you win:

• Add Strife to every land with Invaders.

If you lose:

• Explore from another card this turn.  Every spirit adds one Blight to a land with its presence.

Oh jeez. And then the "Island of Spirits" environment card comes up when you're resolving that Event card.

That's why you need to own at least two copies of Spirit Island.

[quote="Arcanist Lupus"]

I don't see it as a retcon so much as simply filling in the gaps.  The Virtuosos raised the Nexus to the surface a long time back, and then it basically drops out of Sentinels history until the Akash, Nat, and AA visit it during OblivAeon.  Presumably other stuff happened in between those events, so why not Spirit Island?

[/quote]

Sentinels assumes a shared history that we have with these characters inserted.  Spirit Island notes that it is alternate history from colonial times.  

Maybe Sentinels Comics exists in a world where the history matches the alternate history of Spirit Island?

Maybe it’s the same island just different timelines. So Nexus of the Void is Spirit Island in that they are geographically the same. But in one timeline it’s 2017 and there are superheroes and such while in the other in the Colonial Age but European history is a bit different.

I suspect that is going to be a nightmare when you have to code it in

I can’t wait for the card that searches a deck for a SHENANIGAN.

[quote="Powerhound_2000"]

Sentinels assumes a shared history that we have with these characters inserted.  Spirit Island notes that it is alternate history from colonial times.  

[/quote]

[quote="Arcanist Lupus"]

Maybe Sentinels Comics exists in a world where the history matches the alternate history of Spirit Island?

[/quote]

I don't see much of a conflict with Spirit Island being the Nexus of the Void.  We have very little / no(?) information about the colonial period within the world of Sentinels Comics, other than the fact that there were likely Virtuosos at that time (when was Vogel?).  As a result, there's plenty of creative space for both Spirit Island and the primary reality to exist within the same timeline.   I don't see a particular reason that "the alternate history from colonial times" can't also be the history of the primary reality.

That said, withhout having heard C&A's specific comments, I also quite like the idea that Spirit Island existed within the universe that published Sentinel Comics.  The writers, looking back in history at stories of an exchanted island protected by angry spirits seeking to scare aware the colonists, and used that as inspiration when creating Akash'Bhuta and the Nexus of the Void.

I already asked whether this was the case. For instance, this puts new light on Paige Huntley being Scottish.

I would be very suprised: in response to a different question, Christopher and Adam confirmed that there are no super powers in the world that published Sentinel Comics, and I would assume that extends to there not being supernatural phenomena like a place like Spirit Island.

Technically, Spirit Island could exist within the universe that published Sentinel Comics without being real…   Various European colonizers could have attempted to settle a seemingly strange new land, but unpredictable weather patterns, a hostile local population, and stories of angry spirits combined to drive the settlers off the island.  They then go home with stories of a scary land inhabited by powerful spirits, the legend of which grows over time to become "Spirit Island".

Would this be all that different from the real-world ancient Romans fearing the haunted forests of Germany?  Or the Vikings being driven from their North American settlements by attacks from the Natives?  Or the "Protestant wind" blown by God that wrecked the Spanish Armada?

I feel like there's a big thematic shift in tone between the two games. Spirit Island seems to cast certain nationalities as the enemy, while Sentinels bases being a good or bad guy solely on the individual and there's no thematic issues presented regards stuff like Legacy being proud of his national heritage.

And in Sentinels the Nexus is used as a source of power by humanity to protect humanity from Bad Things, while in Spirit Island it seems like you're mostly protecting the "Nexus" from humanity.

I was happy with them being sperate. No need to shoe horn Spirit Island into Sentinels Comic. I love the Spirit island Lore as it is. But I am happy we might get Akash of some kind.

We have some info on the colonial period.

Legacy's back story implies a similar history of colonial America and the Revolutionary war to our own. Specifically mentioning the British (implying a Great Britain which according the Spirit Island Europe map, doesn't exist). I'm not a history buff to be able to say how different that history would have played out if it was just the English.

It makes the most sense to me that the Nexus of the Void is the Spirit Island of the Sentinels reality, the Spirit Island we play on in that game is from a seperate but very similar reality (where its possible/likely that they are void spirits who guard the Nexus of the Void in that reality. Explaining such a large consentration of Spirits on such a small island and part of why they defend it so aggressively)

Also I know they mentioned that Akash'Bhuta has not had a spirit in the game but Serpent Slumbering seems to mechanically function similar to her history, absorbing other spirits to become the most powerful spirit. Though I can't see the spirit of the island itself wanting to leave and never come back

You can always just see the Nexus of the Void as a shout out to Spirit Island in the same way that pretty much the entirety of Sentinels is a shout out to existing superhero comics ;).

Apologies for the thread necro! I just saw this and wanted to toss in my two cents.

Without further confirmation, my headcanon is that Spirit Island is what the world would have looked like if Akash'Bhuta had not devoured the other protectors of the Nexus of the Void in order to protect it, thereby dramatically changing history. That's why there are still many spirit defenders present, and there isn't a deadly Mother of Chaos trying to murder everything. 

Ooh, I like that a lot!

Eric confirmed on BGG a while ago (when a parallel discussion popped up there) that SOTM and Spirit Island exist in separate realities.

Given that Spirit Island and Nexus of the Void are the same place, but exist in different realities, and given that C&A specified in the Akash’Bhuta episode that she doesn’t exist in every reality, your headcannon that SI is what the world would have looked like had Akashy not eaten all the other void spirits is EXACTLY the explanation that I’ve put together / been working off of after reading Eric’s comment.

Hah, cool. Good to know.