Pugnacious Pack: Sam's Bear Mob

We just wanted to take a moment out of your week to share another lovely piece of work from American darling Sam Stoddard, one of our artists here at Legion. Eternum is brimming with beasts from the disparate realities ready to be mustered to your forces. Among the most fearsome... and occasionally apathetic... is the mighty bear. We want to thank Sam for illustrating this lovely Bear Mob: watch for the card, which will enlist three bears to YOUR legion. No guarantees that one of them won't be going through an existential crisis. Thanks again Sam. We love what you do!

Stick with us for information as to how YOU can help Legion get off the ground, and check out more of Sam's work at http://www.samstoddardart.com/

Sanguine Sovereign: Lo'Nial, Lunar Witch

Queen of Madness

Lo'Nial is the infernal witch - the quintessence of madness, sacrifice and darkness. From her bleak throne she rules over the realm of Kurthia, a nightmarish hellscape that remains from the infernal reality.

Air of Apathy

To those unaware of her intentions, Lo'Nial's very existence seems like a hellish plague. The Lunar Witch sows chaos wherever she goes. The blood perpetually seeping from her hands soaks the ground everywhere she treads; and wherever the blood fertilizes the earth, a devil is born to wreak havoc on everything around it. Lo'Nial pays no mind to her twisted progeny. She seems completely ambivalent to the fact that they exist. So what dark purposes occupy the mind of this eldritch being? 

Warden of Kurthia

There are angels, and then there is God- good exists in gradations; and so does evil. Beings who know less see a nightmare in Lo'Nial and her devils, but Lo'Nial is fixed on greater nightmares. Kurthia is a prison, and in the mind of the Lunar Witch, her devils are inconsequential compared to the evils she is holding at bay...

Lo'Nial in Design

The Lunar Witch was actually the first character I designed when I started working on Legion, and she has to be one of my absolute favorites. The elements of sacrifice and madness (both definitive of infernal gameplay) came to head in her grisly design. I wanted her to have a sort of horrifying beauty - enchanting and ethereal, but inspiring insanity- just like the moon. There's a grotesque beauty in her Giger-esque headdress and entrail jewelry that's entirely her own.

Support Legion this Semptember on Kickstarter and bring the full might of the Lunar Witch to bare on your enemies forces.

From Concept to Card: Rachel's Catlan University

Worlds Apart

I've had the privilege of knowing Rachel Everett for about six years now, and I've watched her art evolve a lot in that time frame - but she's always been a prodigious story teller. Nothing that Rachel illustrates is ever just an image - her pieces are windows into unexplored worlds, saturated with details that imply character and culture. However aesthetically pleasing her work might be, a bulk of its value lies in the stories she tells with every brush stroke. 

Catlan Academy: Hub of Mysticism

 Catlan Academy is one of Eternum's most important locales, and we're going to be seeing a lot going on there in the events of Genesis, Legion's first set. We've already talked about the six domains that make up Legion as a game. Those same domains also represent six pre-existent realities that collided to create the world of Eternum. Throughout Eternum, certain regions bear more resemblance to certain realities than others, and some, like Catlan Academy, are direct holdovers. Catlan Academy is a remnant of the mystic reality, and the seat of Anahita's power.

(Anahita Concept by Taylor Jones)

An expansive and esoteric maze of monolithic buildings, Catlan Academy is a library, a place of learning, and a city unto itself. Its denizens hold fast to the pillar of mysticism: that nothing is more sacred than the attainment of knowledge and the growth of intellect. And who better to lead this city-academy than the quintessence of knowledge herself? Anahita, the Mystic Witch, presides over Catlan as a ruler and teacher, imparting portions of her omniscience to her ambitious pupils. 

Rachel gives beautiful life to Catlan in a range of teals and blues reflective of the strange, alien world the mystic reality once was. The peaceful unity of the mystic domain is plain in the marriage of nature and structure. Keep up with us here for more on Catlan's mysticism including an alternate-art promo version of Anahita done by Rachel herself! Rachel's promo, as well as other alternate witches, will be available as special rewards to backers of our upcoming kickstarter campaign. For more of Rachel's fantastically narrative work follow her at MissRacheleverett.tumblr.com on Tumblr, Miss Rachel Everett on Facebook, and @missracheleverett on Instagram.

LEGION DEMO ANNOUNCEMENT

Sorry about the radio silence lately; we've been very busy getting some important work done. That said, lets discuss what that work has been. The past week Rachel, and Taylor have been working tirelessly to get the card frames done, symbols, and graphics of the game done. On tuesday we gave you your first look at the Domain symbols. Now we have an even cooler announcement:

Friday, July 29th, at 7:30 we will be hosting a demo event for Legion at Dragon's Keep in Provo, UT (260 N University Avenue, Provo, UT, 84601). What is a demo event? Well the gist of it is that we will be providing you with all the materials you need to actually get a first hand look at Legion. The reason for holding an event like this is that we want to begin raising awareness for the product, and what better way to do that than by letting people get actual hands-on experience with it?

We'll be filling you in on the details this coming week, but for now here's a brief rundown of what the Demo event will look like. First and foremost, we will have 18 decks available for you to try out. These decks are actually six unique ones that we have printed 3 times, and each one is tied to a specific domain. We will have team members present to walk you through the game as well as answer any questions. In addition to the decks we will be handing out free swag (in limited quantities so be sure to show up quickly or else be left empty handed).

Thanks so much for the continued support of the project, I hope to see a good turnout for the event!

From Concept to Card: Domain Symbols

Hello Legionnaires! Taylor again, talking about symbols. One fascination that Legion's Daddy and our Head of Development Matt Barker has always had with card games is the way they function as a communicative format. It's an acute design challenge to tell an informative story and create a complex game with nothing but a series of 2.5 by 3.5 inch rectangles. And across the board, card game developers have relied heavily on one of humanity's oldest design tricks to do it: symbology. By efficiently conveying complicated information, symbols save space and make cards more visually engaging, creating a visual shorthand that describes how we can play games and operate in the world. In card games like Magic, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and our little Legion, they describe cost, actions, strategies, and ideals. So let's talk about the symbols for Legions' six domains designed by Rachel Everett and Yours Truly.

INFERNAL

As discussed in Matt's earlier post about them, each of Legion's six domains shares a dichotomous relationship with another. In many ways, these domains are both opposites and parallels of each other, and this pattern can be seen both in their gameplay and in many of Legion's design elements. The moon is arguably the most important motif of the infernal faction; representing madness and sharing a dichotomous relationship with the symbol of the Divine domain, the sun. The importance of this symbol is emphasized by Lo'Nial's epithet: Lunar Witch. Likewise, the Infernal domain is represented by dusk in opposition to the Divine Dawn. The infernal symbol, an upturned purple crescent, conveys the ideas of both of these motifs, while also looking like a threatening pair of blades or demon's horns. It was one of the first symbols we designed for the game.

DIVINE

Designed to parallel and contrast the Infernal symbol, the Divine symbol is a rising sun. The body of the sun is a crescent similar in shape to that of the Infernal moon, but it is inverted to communicate the idea of dawn as opposed to the dusk of the Infernal domain. Bright rays emanate from the rising sun, symbolic of the radiant leadership of the domain's witch, Kolos. The Dawnlight Witch lights the center of her domain with hope and with her legions of angels.

ATOMIC

There aren't a lot of symbols for the relatively new concept of atomic energy. One noteworthy symbol is the ringed atom, but we didn't feel this appropriately conveyed what the Atomic domain was about. Instead, we deferred our attention to the internationally recognized bio-hazard symbol. The bio-hazard symbol has immediate associations with mutation, decay, and fallout, and is frequently depicted in popular culture marking irradiated or toxic sites. Its unique design communicated the weirdness and danger we wanted to imbue the Atomic faction with. However, we didn't want to use that exact symbol, as we felt it was too Earth-specific to be a symbol for Eternum. Our final design, in brilliant pink, essentially represents the negative space of a bio-hazard symbol. The result is unique but immediately recognizable.

MYSTIC

A collaborative effort between Rachel and I and one of the last to be finished, the Mystic symbol is an eye in the palm of a hand. Not only does this bizarre symbol evoke the appropriate esoteric response to this mysterious domain, but also represents the value that the domain places on held knowledge. The hand and eye are also the symbol of Catlan University, a hold-out from the Mystic reality presided over by Anahita, the Arcane Witch.

TECH

The Tech Symbol is considerably more abstract than any of the other domain symbols. My early designs included gears and abstract metal shapes; Rachel's included trees made of circuits. We eventually came together on something that married the best of our ideas, an abstract triptych of circuitry and metal. The center of the symbol also represents an eye. But unlike the Mystic domain's, this eye is inorganic and set into a machine. It represents Helia's cold accumulation of knowledge. The 'blooming' circuits also reflect an unnatural growth that parallel's the Tech domain's Natural counterpart.

NATURE

The first domain symbol designed and finalized for Legion, the Nature symbol is entirely Rachel's creation. The three green leaves immediately denote a natural connection to flora and the earth. The circular vortex and varying size of the leaves communicate natural growth and the cycle of birth, life, and death essential to the Nature domain. Made entirely of curved lines, it's in strong contrast with the sharp angles of the Tech domain.

Pick and choose your domains to build your personal legion and defend your hub. Keep up with us here for more news and anticipate our Kickstarter in September, 2016.

Hope On Wings: Sam's Golden Eagle

Introducing Sam Stoddard

Art Director Taylor Jones here with another Wednesday highlight. As an Art Director, I have the privilege of working with a team of illustrators probably much more talented than myself, and it's thrilling to see the work they do. One such artist is Sam Stoddard, who lends his soft and beautifully whimsical style to the Legion Team. Like the books about fairy tales your mother might have read to you when you were a kid, Sam's style inspires a certain innocent wonder; hinting at a world full of vast, beckoning adventure. His work recalls a time when it was okay that the world was hard to understand, because it meant you'd see something strange and new every day.

We're debuting Sam here with his first piece for Legion, Golden Eagle. Golden Eagle's ability will allow you to revive perished Grunts, resurrecting warriors from your graveyard. Sam's artwork tells Golden Eagle's story and gives us one of our first looks at the Holy City of Jericho, an important hub for the Divine Domain. Let Golden Eagle spread its shielding wings over your fallen comrades in Legion this September, and keep up with Sam at www.samstoddardart.com

Team Feature: Landen Blume

 Landen Blume, Director of Marketing, Resident Motorcycle Badass

So. . . Will I be using first-person or third-person to write an article about myself? Good question. I guess we'll find out.

Ever since I was younger, I have been fascinated with business and the in's and out's of life. My older brother instilled an instinct to take things apart in me since I was a little kid, and I haven't outgrown that instinct. I love seeing how things work. I love knowing what makes things tick. That's led me to a profound appreciation for gaming, and particularly the business side of it.

But business and gaming aren't the only things I am passionate about. Don't make the mistake of asking me about cars, or motorcycles, or Formula One teams, or classic jazz musicians, or rock bands. You'll get your ear talked off. I love working with cars and motorcycles, playing my drumset or the saxophone, and jamming out to some Def Leppard. 

When I'm not cruising on my bullet bike, or working on Legion, I'm working for a big Las Vegas/Arizona law firm, working around lawyers all day long. It's awesome. Really helps satisfy my desire to learn about the way everything works.

I spent two years serving people in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I learned Spanish, and I'm completely enamored with the culture of Latin America. 

With Legion, I've been friends with Matt, Taylor, Rachel and the gang since we were in high school. It's been a friendship that I cherish, and when they asked me to come work on Legion with them, I couldn't say no. I've loved trading card games ever since my first Yugioh booster pack when I got a Blue-Eyes White Dragon(aww yiss).

I manage the social media, marketing plans, and give the group an endless supply of stupid puns and tidbits of useless knowledge. I've been a writer and lover of fantasy, science fiction, and many other genres, and often If you care to follow what's going on in my life, follow me on Instagram @landenblume.