Spirit Island - Jagged Earth

Peril racks Spirit Island. The invaders are more numerous and more capable than ever before. As hope begins to fade, defense of the island falls to those spirits more in tune with the danger and chaos of the natural world. Will you be able to harness their power to protect the island or will it fall to the persistence of the invaders? Whatever the outcome, Spirit Island will never be the same after the time of Jagged Earth!

Jagged Earth includes:

• Spirit - Fractured Days Split the Sky: The sun and moon are short-term timekeepers of Spirit Island. When they meet in a solar eclipse, time collides with time, sending jagged pieces of Was, Will-Be, and Might-Have-Been tearing through the weave of seasons and years. This Spirit exists mostly in the high reaches of the heavens, but touches the island now and then, time and possibility flowing around it like a wind-blown mantle.

• Spirit - Grinning Trickster Stirs Up Trouble: There are many trickster Spirits, but this one is the most infamous. It wears any form it pleases, but can always be distinguished by its multitude of eyes, though they may be subtle or concealed. It has a driving curiosity to see what will happen when it messes around with things. Of course, this may involve putting Spirits, people, and animals alike into suddenly precarious situations, so the Dahan appreciate its shenanigans best at a healthy distance.

• Spirit - Lure of the Deep Wilderness: From time to time, a handful of Dahan residents would get a distant look in their eyes and stride off into the heart of the island, no pleading or reason dissuading them from seeking some distant call only they could hear. Many of these involuntary wanderers survived and settled together in time. A few of them spoke, in voices of wonder mingled with fear, of finding the Spirit that called them ever-further inward. But most never even saw it, only felt its distant beckoning.

• Spirit - Many Minds Move as One: A Spirit of flocks, swarms, schools, and packs, where the whole moves together in concert to accomplish what the individuals in it could not do alone. Its nature leans towards smaller and simpler creatures, and it regards other sorts of animals − including humans − as bizarrely alien in their individuality.

• Spirit - Shifting Memory of Ages: An immensely old Spirit that has ascended to great power countless times over the ages − and then destroyed that power each time, severing huge pieces of itself to become small once again. The Invaders’ arrival has pushed it to grow much more quickly than it usually would, re-learning lessons and powers from its deep past in order to fight more effectively.

• Spirit - Shroud of Silent Mist: A Spirit of dissolution and the cold silence of death, creeping quietly down from the hills and across the open waters. Its trail is adorned with dew-covered leaves and the bones of small animals. Some legends say it came from the final breath of a Dahan Spirit-speaker who spoke too freely of secrets entrusted to him…

• Spirit - Starlight Seeks Its Form: Every once and again, where starlight falls to ground there arises a new Spirit. Its essence is initially that of the stars and nighttime sky, but from the moment it touches the island it begins to change, adapting and reimagining itself for its new home. This one arrived shortly after the Invaders started to spread, and fights the Invaders even as it seeks to define itself.

• Spirit - Stone's Unyielding Defiance: Some things refuse to break. Underneath the soil and sand of the island lies rock, layer upon layer built up over the ages. Some stones weather quickly once exposed to the elements, while others are sterner and harder. This is a Spirit of that stone which resists being shattered, moved, or shaped to the will of another. It’s not unfriendly to other Spirits or the Dahan, but it works with them on its own terms.

• Spirit - Vengeance as a Burning Plague: A Spirit of vengeance, anger, and retribution. It slumbers in a simmering volcanic pool, awakening at unpredictable intervals… or when roused through supplication by one wronged. Most Dahan consider this foolhardy, for it vents its wrath on entire communities, and its pestilence may spread anywhere. It is unclear whether its recent waking is due directly to the ravaging of the Invaders or to some Spirit’s pleas.

• Spirit - Volcano Looming High: A Spirit of fire and earth stretching upwards to the sky, casting a long and dangerous shadow across the land. It doesn’t dislike humans per se, but neither does it have much use for them, so the Dahan tend to keep away from it as much as possible. However, they sometimes end up dealing with its temper whether they want to or not…

• Adversary - The Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony): Emperor Joseph I inherited the Habsburg Monarchy upon the death of his father, Leopold I, shortly after the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession. Habsburg colonies are newer than those of any European power save Russia but have grown quickly due to their focus on nomadic herding rather than farming and infrastructure.

• Adversary - The Tsardom of Russia: The newest colonial power in Europe, having recently emerged as a fledgling naval power. Given their control of a massive population as well as the vast lands of Siberia, Russia has no need for additional population or land. Instead, the early Russian colonies have focused on the rapid exploitation of natural resources that require minimal infrastructure to extract, notably furs and ivory.

• Scenario - Despicable Theft: Small groups of Invaders have been searching the island, and a few have found wonders. If they make it home, their people will stop at nothing to seek out more such fantastic treasures. Even those without wonders have tales and trophies that may bolster the Invaders’ resolve to stay.

• Scenario - Elemental Invocation: The Spirits can call forth wellsprings of essence to empower small areas of the island, strengthening and aligning nature with a particular element. This is fortunate, for the Invaders are encroaching more strongly than before.

• Scenario - The Great River: The island is vast, and the Invaders are firmly entrenched in its western lands. They now seek to push east across a mighty river and open up a new frontier. Can the Spirits hold them back?

• Play Option - Archipelagos: Instead of laying the Island Boards out as a single island, you can now create two or more smaller islets. Archipelagos are very good at dividing up what board elements a given player most needs to pay attention to, and can make larger games much easier for players to scan and think about.

• Play Option - Combining Two Adversaries: Through conquest or marriage, one Adversary nation joins with another, shifting their society and how they approch colonization. You can combine two Adversaries for a hybrid challenge, incorporating aspects of both.

• Play Option - Extra Island Board: You can now include an extra board to defend, with no Spirit starting on it. This provides a different sort of Difficulty boost from Adversaries or Scenarios. The higher Difficulty the game already is, the more Difficulty another board will add.

• Play Option - 5-6 Spirits: You can play with 5 or 6 Spirits (and up to 6 players in online multiplayer), on up to 7 Island Boards.

• 57 new Major and Minor Power Cards with new game mechanics: Badlands tokens, Isolate, and pieces counting as other pieces.

• 30 new Event Cards that more than double the size of the Event deck.

• 2 new double-sided Island Boards (E & F and their thematic sides).

• 6 new Fear Cards and 7 new Blight Cards for added game-to-game variety.

• 6 Aspects: New ways to play familiar Spirits, portraying some facet of that Spirit’s nature more strongly or in a different fashion. Jagged Earth includes six Aspects for the four low-complexity Spirits from the base game.

Branch & Claw is not required in order to purchase & play Jagged Earth.

The Invaders strip the land bare, voraciously consuming all they find in service of their cities, their herds, their distant empire. As life’s web is torn asunder, even the more destructive among us must succumb. But three things may yet allow us to survive.

The first is our will: our resolution, our defiance, our unyielding intent. We have the weight of ages behind us, and each others’ voices to give us hope and inspiration. What we dream firmly enough may become real.

The second is the land: we make it deadly, transform it to an unlivable misery. We cloak it with fear, hide it from mortal eyes, entrap it in time like a bug in amber. We call forth its beasts and swarms, its poisons and perils.

The third is the Dahan: even now, they fight a thousand small struggles against the Invaders. They speak of our anger, rally to the defense of their kin, and hold out in ways we can barely perceive. Some may still trade with the Invaders, but we no longer fear a Third Reckoning: the Spirit-speakers assure us of that, at least, and in return we will aid and protect the Dahan as we can.

Let us not falter.