How to play

The goal

Be the first player to collect 7 Shards (3 in the tutorial). You earn Shards by having the most Might at a realm when it is claimed.

Each player has a deck of 30 cards for their faction. Three realms sit in the middle of the table. Every realm shows how many Shards it’s worth and how much total Might it takes to claim it.

Your turn

Each turn has three parts. The game handles the first and last for you.

Dawn

Your exhausted champions get ready again. Your Aether limit rises by 1 (up to 10) and your Aether refills to that limit. Champions with Bloom grow, Forge relics gain a counter, and you draw a card. The first player skips their draw on the very first turn.

Deeds

Spend Aether and act, in any order, as much as you can afford:

• Deploy a champion: select it in your hand, then select a realm.
• Cast a spell: select it, then select its target (a champion or a realm).
• Raise a relic: select it, then select Raise relic. Relics stay in front of you and keep working.
• Move a champion: select one of your ready champions, then another realm. Moving costs 1 Aether and exhausts the champion.
• Clash: select one of your ready champions, then an enemy champion at the same realm.

Select End turn when you’re done. Aether you didn’t spend is lost.

Dusk

Realm effects that happen at Dusk take place, then every realm is checked for a Claim. If you have more than 7 cards in hand, you discard down to 7. All damage on champions heals.

Clashing

When your champion Clashes, it and the enemy deal damage equal to their Might to each other at the same time. A champion is destroyed when its damage reaches its Vigor. Clashing exhausts your champion until your next turn.

A champion can’t Clash on the turn it arrives unless it has Swift. If an enemy champion at the realm has Guard, you must Clash with a Guard champion first.

Example: a 3 Might, 4 Vigor Stag-Rider Clashes a 2 Might, 2 Vigor Oarsman. The Oarsman takes 3 damage and is destroyed. The Stag-Rider takes 2 and survives.

Claiming realms

At the end of every player’s turn, the game adds up the Might of all champions at each realm, from every player. If the total reaches the realm’s Claim number, the realm is claimed:

• The player with the most Might there earns the realm’s Shards.
• For realms worth 2 or more, second place earns 1 Shard.
• Ties go to the player with more champions there. If it’s still tied, everyone tied gets the full reward.
• All champions there return to their owners’ hands, and a new realm takes its place.

Because everyone’s Might counts toward the total, a rival can trigger a Claim before you’re ready, and you can do the same to them. Watch the bar under each realm.

If the realms run out, the player with the most Shards wins.

Keywords

Realms

Each game uses 12 realms in a random order. Each one changes the rules a little for champions there.

Card guide

Every faction deck has 20 faction cards plus 10 neutral cards that every faction shares. The number after each name is how many copies are in the deck.