✦4th Reveal | Guest Artist - Paul Stavroulakis!✦
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Nov 06, 2023 at 10:16:13 AM
Hey, seekers of undeath!
There are only 9 days left before the campaign ends and we are excited to reveal all the extra awesome stuff we have planned to add to the project.
Today I would like to showcase our next reveal!
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(The amazing showcase is once again prepared by our fantastic art director, Dusky Cat!)
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You may remember Paul from our previous KS project where he made artworks for the humanoid form of the Astral Siblings, Ukko, Umi and Zas.
Paul is back to bless us with his eerie and awesome illustration style and we are super excited to show you what he has made! He worked on alternate artworks for all three of the Evenhope sisters!
We are of course making these into art prints so that you can all enjoy them in their full resolution on your favorite walls in your house!
Just like with the previous "Guest Artist Reveal" artwork, ALL backers who have added the ART PRINTS PACK add-on to their pledge will have all 3 of these extra art prints as a free bonus!
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But it would be remiss of me to leave you with no backstory for the Evenhope sisters. Shrouded in mystery up until now, we are ready to reveal to you their tragic tale and how they ended up becoming this terrible force of death.
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The Evenhope Sisters
The high-elven Evenhope family has existed since before the Astral Conflict. The Evenhope were close followers of the Church of the Stars as well as rich patrons of the faith. The noble family erected many monuments in honor of Ukko and Umi. They even acquired the moniker due to their sheer dedication to spreading hope through the teachings associated with the siblings. Tradition and names are meaningless though if the new generation looks towards their ambitions instead of following their ancestors' footsteps.
This is the tale of the latest of kin to don the Evenhope surname. A trio of cruel sisters who used their family's good graces to get whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. Spoiled from a young age, they grew to be arrogant adults who lived long lives seeking what they desired rather than what was needed. The one sister who wised up to this had a grim fate at the hands of the other two.
They arrive at the Soulfrost Reliquary seeking to obtain the Heart of Soulfrost, a bridge between their favored schools of magic and a fast lane for ultimate power. With the relic in their hands, Latakar is to be the playground of sycophants who see themselves as the rulers of reality itself.
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Nallia, the Bladedancer
Standing as a contrast to her sisters, Nallia wanted to uphold the Evenhope good name and so trained to become a paladin of the Church of Stars. Genuinely a good person, her biggest character flaw was the fact that she was a pleaser. She would go out of her way to help those around her, even when they could not help themselves by seeing that what they seek is dubious.
Aladria and Kalia made her use her connections and means to acquire as much knowledge relating to ice and necromancy, and for decades she acted as a champion to her sisters' whims.
Until one day, she snapped. Giving up on this servitude of her kin.
That was the last mistake she ever made, for her two sisters combined their powers to charm Nallia and use her as their thrall. Empowered by both cold and necrotic energies, her mind is now broken and all that is left is the love she once nurtured for her sisters and a killing instinct.
The rest of the sisters' backstories, you will have to discover for yourselves once you get your hands on the book! 😉
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Thank you so much to all of you amazing people who have pledged to bring this project to life. We cannot wait to share all of this frosty undeathliness with you once the PDF is ready!
We have a lot more updates and reveals to share with you before the campaign ends, so stay tuned as we unravel the secrets of the Reliquary every other day here on the Kickstarter updates feed!
Until then, help us by sharing the project with your friends and on social media! Every single share and shoutout helps a ton!
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Don't forget that you can always join us in our little community on Discord!
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Until the next update then!
May Starlight guide your way, my friends!
~Kelf
✦3rd Reveal | Tons of Player Options!✦
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Nov 02, 2023 at 08:42:39 AM
Hey, frostbitten adventurers!
We have something super special to share with you today! So let's get to it!
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Adding TONS of Player Options!
We are adding tons of awesome Player Options to the book!
x6 new Ancestry options!
We are adding:
- The Skeletal Jellyborn
- The Awakened
- The Frigid Constructed
- The In-Betweeners
- The Rime Elves
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x12 new Subclasses!
- Barbarian - Path of the Mammoth
- Bard - College of Requiem
- Cleric - Soul Domain
- Druid - Circle of the Mother
- Fighter - Fjar’s Finest
- Monk - Soul Fist
- Paladin - Oath of the Cold Savior
- Ranger - Stalker of the Soulless
- Rogue - Scavenger
- Sorcerer - Spirit of the Soulfrost
- Warlock - Kez’arul patron
- Wizard - Soulfrost school
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x6 new Backgrounds!
- Fjar Remnant
- Survivor of the Frigid North
- One of the Mother's Children
- Path of the Crimson Flame exile
- Student of the Soulfrost
- Rogue Inventor
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We will talk about all of these in detail in upcoming updates, so stay tuned!
Here are some awesome artwork sneak peeks once again! ;)
(Artwork by ALGOYO, showcases prepared by Dusky Cat)
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"But Kelf, won't that make the production of the book longer?!"
No, it won't! Because we already had this planned way in advance! That's the whole reason why we are doing reveals instead of stretch goals!
We did indeed make a mistake not revealing all of this from the very beginning since it seems like it was a bad marketing-wise move to not advertise all the awesome player options that we would be offering. The reason why we did it this way is because we wanted people to focus on the theme first and the extra stuff second. Clearly, we were wrong and, clearly, we are still learning.
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Remember that you can always join our little community and chat with others about TTRPGs and a whole bunch of other stuff (we really chat about pretty much anything and everything!)
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Thank you so much once again for all your support and we cannot wait to deliver this absolutely UNDEATHLY AND AWESOME book to you all!
The campaign continues onwards and we are actually raising more than our funding goal now which is absolutely awesome because that means that we will be able to put some more funds into the whole process and polish the final product even more!
Until next time...
May Starlight guide your way, my friends!
~Kelf
We are 100% FUNDED!!!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 11:22:58 AM
We did it! We are 100% Funded! Thank you so much!
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We started this journey of creating TTRPG adventures 2.5 years ago and we are still going strong today with yet another successful and awesome project which is going to get printed in just a few months!
Starlight Arcana was the beginning of a huge tale and we are planning to finish that over the years with more releases (Souls Arcana and two more after that). Our Core Books will always be the heart of what we do with huge stories, worlds, and a lot of other things to enrich the Starlight Chronicles setting.
The Grand Tales, starting with this project, were a passion project that we wanted to start soooooo badly for soooooo long and we are so happy to be able to have it successfully start with the funding of the 1st one here. It is our way of telling more condensed stories while still putting out tons of setting information and other awesome things that make them fully thematic and meaningful in their own way.
This would not have been possible without your help. So for that, we want to extend a huge thank you to all of the amazing backers! Yes, you! You are awesome.
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For this special announcement, we have prepared something unlike any of the other reveals. We are super excited to finally introduce you to...
KEZ'ARUL, archlich, soulfrost pioneer, master of the reliquary!
Artwork by the amazing ALGOYO.
Lore Information:
There was no noble lineage, nor favor trading for the young Kez’arul, who snuck into the Astral Academy at a young age. As a way to humor the homeless youth, the docent body of the faculty allowed him to attend classes and watch the lectures, but he was always denied the arcane implements needed to cast and practice spells. This made Kez’arul create his own, making his own breakthroughs in the schools of magic by trial and error. This dedication eventually earned the young man a scholarship and for a few years he lived his best life.
However, the habit of not following decorum and always looking for his own path in the study of the arcane arts was not something Kez’arul unlearned as he lived the life of a tower mage. If anything, the older he got, the more restricted he felt in his pursuits. Moving towards the cold North, Kez’arul began testing theories and certain truths the Academy held as sacrosanct. Soul magic tempered by ice manipulation was the key to unlocking a new type of power, or so he proposed.
He spent most of his days in his cold tower in the northern region of the Frozen Tundra. He continued his research and his experiments while even providing food and comfort for a local village, one that had sprung up around his tower.
It was not the breakthroughs that kept Kez’arul going. It was the limitations, the challenge, the dare. As a boy, he was denied education, and only through ingenuity was he able to progress. Fifty years had passed but the one truth he learned in the flower of his youth remained too real in his entire existence.
Not long after, he found other limitations. His age and mortality. It is then that he decided to shed his skin away, his flesh discarded like a pair of old trousers. He became a lich, undying and uncaring.
When King Fjagarvul came looking for aid, Kez’arul gave him and his people succor, only to butcher them in their sleep, their very souls to be used in experiments. By the end of it, not even his own existence could stop Kez’arul from learning more about Soulfrost magic. He cast one last spell that flickered his home, the Reliquary, in and out of existence. Reality to Kez’arul was a dare and so he sought to overcome that too.
Before dying he placed one fragment of his soul into the artifact of power known as the Heart of Soulfrost, an implement that could manipulate spirits and the cold climate of the North. He then placed his last soul fragment into a homunculi created by his magic. An Envoy that would be his pathway to rebirth. Even beyond the grave, Kez’arul is conducting experiments and trying to trespass where he was once prohibited.
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So there you have it! The full backstory of the terrible master of the undeathly Soulfrost Reliquary!
Kez'arul is honestly one of the most awesome villains we have created and by far one of my favorites. Aeriath is still the most nuanced one, but as far as spellcasters go, Kez'arul definitely tops the list!
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Signed Copies
We are looking into better solutions for shipping all the physical items to everyone at the moment. We already have something planned of course, but we want to try and get as many signed copies of the book out to you as we possibly can. That may change how we do shipping, but we will touch on that subject again in the future with another update.
The important thing you need to know is that the shipping costs are not changing and we are still aiming towards keeping the same affordable prices we've always had.
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I hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek into the deep truths behind the frost & death that awaits you in the Soulfrost Reliquary. Thank you once again, SO MUCH, for all the support and we cannot wait to show you the rest of the reveals in the coming days!
Until next time...
May Starlight guide your way, my friends!
~Kelf
