This month we’re going back to our roots with the Hikiga and Hanzaki, one of our original factions! The Hikiga have a very regimented Imperialist society, and have all the benefits (and drawbacks) of that system. The discipline of their army is reknowned, and their drive for military power allows for experimentation into some of the more controversial technologies. For example, the enormous Command Post Tsukumogami, an animated object powered by multiple will-o-wisp-like spirits called Onibi bound to physical objects. The creation of this massive magical construct took the lives of fifteen Spirit Binders, and remains the pinnacle of Hikiga ingenuity. Imperial Spirit Binders like Ginchiyo often employ much smaller and more manageable Onibi as assistants, such as the Guanghan Mask Onibi which she uses a bit like a bomb-defusing robot. The rogue Spirit Binder, Tozen, has thrown in his lot with the shady Ryujin Katsuhito, and his chaotic creations aren’t always well behaved. The Hanzaki have their own form of ancestral spirit possession, which Haranobu practices. While it may look like Hikiga-style Spirit Binding, it’s actually an older form that the salamanders had been using for centuries before the Hikiga Empire. 

This month’s bases and terrain were sculpted by Kittifizz and Calrais, using concept art by Paul Ferret as the basis 🙂 

We’re sooo close to being caught up with our Stats, lovingly crafted by Conflux Creatures and laid out by OddballOwlBear! There are only 5 months missing right now (not including May), so almost all of our collections now have stats that can be used in your tabletop games. Phew!

For all you new Lore Lovers, make sure you read the CobraCompendium to catch up with the background on the Hikiga and the Hanzaki, and check out the numbered listing of all our collections at the end: https://bit.ly/3om6snO 

See the Month Preview Post on Patreon.