Moonlight Shamans v2
If you wanna skip what's essentially a developer diary, go down to the bold section to get an overview of the faction.
Two years ago I had in mind an idea for a custom Root faction that played around the idea of manipulating prophecy. It was by no means coincidental that I had just finished reading Dune, and the thought of religious cults began to spring up in my mind in all corners, including for my favorite game.
Yes, the Lizard Cult existed, but to me it represented an antisocial and countercultural movement in the Woodland. It sought to ostracize one particular species of denizen and play upon the prejudices of the others. A great concept, but not necessarily the only religious faction that could be made.
And so, with these two guiding thoughts in mind, the Moonlight Shamans were born. Originally the Circle of Moonlight, the idea from the get go was to have wolf druids/monks/shamans that were expert fighters, leading their flock of loyal followers in guiding the Woodland back to its one true faith. For them, victory meant the return of the old ways, with a priestly caste of wolves guiding a much more decentralized Woodland.
In terms of story, I thought about aspects of Root's design that made the Woodland feel truly ancient. The ruins, the relics, and the barely hewed paths all told a story of a Woodland so old that there was no possible way of deciphering its entire story. So, to extend that timeline even further, I put my wolves at the point right before the ascent of the Eyrie Dynasties. In this early Woodland, the concepts of state structures had not yet existed (or were perhaps forgotten), the ruins were still incredibly old, and the Moonlight Shamans were the only force that kept the tribal structures in contact with one another. Though the Eyrie would decry this period as a time of oppression by the Shamans, with all the wealth going to greedy wolf priests who had lost their moral authority, the truth is that there has long since been no one left alive who can prove how crafted the Eyrie propaganda maybe was.
With the venerable Dynasties finally having their power shaken and newcomers sweeping in, the Shamans have done what so many other factions have chosen to do: risk it all to stake their place in what they consider an ancient birthright. Whether victory for them actually means an establishment of a brutal caste system is something I'll leave you to decide.
With that in mind, the mechanic I was trying to go for was to create a faction that scored by predicting certain aspects of how the board state would be a few turns in advance and then allowing fate to determine if that would come to pass (along with maaaaaybe a-little-to-a-lot-actually-probably-a-lot of manipulation and violence to ensure it be that way). Like the waxing and waning of the moon the Shamans would follow general phases of setting up their prophecies and then - slowly at first, violently later - fulfilling them, with a cost in the momentum of their movement if a major prophecy did not come to pass. And unlike the Lizard Cult, they would do so with an elite force of warrior monks, not converts, to make it happen. Importantly this meant that they would not be recruiting by spending cards or having buildings that generate recruits from clearings, instead using general Fervor to train a new wolf. In general, their card draw would be low unless they applied some of the religious Fervor of their followers, as there is absolutely a reawakened stigma caused by deep seated Eyrie propaganda. Also, I wanted this faction to have reasonably high Reach but, similarly to the Keepers, maintain that Reach with hard-to-kill warriors that were few in number. Fighting the Shamans should feel scary, especially when they have plenty of religious Fervor to draw upon to fuel their attacks.
However, like any good Root faction they should also interact with the rest of the players at the table to make Root's ecosystem and politics come alive. That's where the Omens and Prophecies come in. Everyone can see what the Shamans have prophesied/augured since their decrees are made publicly across the Woodland, and so they can do everything in their power to help or hinder the wolves in manipulating fate. The different auguries had to interact with the other players in interesting ways regardless of player count or faction selection, and could sometimes reward certain actions that would be mutually beneficial for both wolf and enemy.
With all that in mind:
The Overview
The Way of Moonlight was once the Woodland’s oldest faith. Long after being exiled by the Eyrie, the surviving shamans of this order now emerge from their Grove in this time of crisis to regain the devotion of their former followers. To recover their lost flock, the Shamans will need to Augur and Fulfill their Prophecies and Omens in accordance with lunar Cycles, thereby increasing the Fervor of the Woodland’s denizens for their religion.
- If an ability or rule states that you gain or lose Fervor, you may choose the suit of Fervor gained or lost unless otherwise stated. Your minimum Fervor for each suit is zero.
- The Fervor track has 5 slots for each suit, to a total of 15 Fervor slots.
- Your faction pieces include 15 warriors, 4 augury tokens, cards for lunar Cycles, 1 Grove token, 12 augury cards, and 3 Fervor tokens to go on the track.
The central mechanic for the Shamans' scoring is by Fulfilling their various auguries, with Prophecies being more risky than simple Omens. You start the game by setting up your Grove in a forest and placing 5 warriors in any clearings adjacent to that forest and in any number. The general flow of play from there is to place down your auguries and play out the next 3 turns, including this one, to ensure the maximum point flow from those auguries. If your plans are beginning to fall apart, you can activate the Nocturnal ability to
And here are those auguries in question:
And all these auguries rely on the lunar Cycles, which advance from New to Half to Full.
Let me know what you think! I'd like to clean up the art and some values, play test it, and release a final version along with token art eventually.