In our previous article, we discovered the Muna and Ordis factions and their respective interactions with Manaseeds, the new Permanent tokens in Seeds of Unity. Today, it's the turn of Axiom and Bravos to take center stage.

Below, you will discover the narrative objectives for each faction, how our art teams brought the new Reka civilization and its people to life, and the game design challenges that led to the cards as you know them. To present these elements, we have called upon the following members of the team:

Yoshiaki Mimura - Narrative Designer

As the Narrative Designer on Altered and a roleplayer for more than 35 years, Yoshi brings the world of Altered to life, inspired by stories from all over the world. His conviction is that a world’s true richness comes from its inhabitants, and as such, he makes sure every character and player decisions matter equally.

Gabriel Amalric - Art Director

As one of the Artistic Director working with our team of illustrators, Gabriel ensures every illustration is at once vibrant, emotionally impactful and legible. For Seeds of Unity, his focus was on translating the wondrous discovery of a new civilization by making characters feel like true, lively inhabitants of the city.

Léa Roulée - Game Designer

As a Game Designer, Léa focuses on making the most of the game’s innovating features (like the Reserve, the Adventure cards or the Heroes) to create a gaming experience that’s unique to Altered. For Seeds of Unity, she made sure to infuse the core themes of sharing and meeting directly into the gameplay, so the mechanics could reflect the set’s story of cultural exchange.

Axiom and Reka are jointly organizing a scientific exposition within the Consortium, the industrial center that houses the Reka factories and laboratories. There, the two people share and celebrate their respective technological marvels. The Reka industries are light-years ahead of the Axiom's, and the latter intend to catch up quickly so they don't have to blush over their own creations.

Despite the obvious technological gap that separates them, Reka and Axiom hope that cooperation and the sharing of knowledge will inject new momentum into their research, ushering them together into a new era of progress.

The Axiom aesthetic evolves with each new Altered set depending on the technology used. By meeting the Reka, Axiom will benefit from an enormous technological leap, thanks to the abundance of Sap provided by the Naos! The scenes illustrated in Seeds of Unity show the excitement of this technological encounter: its successes (like Technological Encounter) and its failures (like Failed Demo). To represent the faction's evolution, we have toned down its initial steampunk aesthetic, replacing visible gears and copper components with modern, more elegant, and aerodynamic designs. The Shell, which features technological elements from both peoples, is the best example!

The story of the Axiom and the Reka in Seeds of Unity directly inspired the mechanics of the new Axiom Heroine, Della, and her companion Bolt. With a theme centered on progress and scientific sharing, it seemed natural to us to explore mechanics linked to Permanents and card manipulation—something that allows you to exhaust and untap them, as if you were building an actual machine during the game.

Della's effect is precisely about creating this machine: she gives you the possibility of reusing your Permanents multiple times in a turn, or even playing exhausted characters directly from your Reserve! This approach echoes the exhaust and exhausted resupply mechanics introduced in Trial by Frost, with iconic cards like The Machine in the Ice, but also the Support abilities from Whispers from the Maze, where cards such as Drillmole or Designer Drone already had similar synergies.

In Seeds of Unity, cards like Axiom Exhibit or Nikola Tesla offer powerful effects but, in return, ask that your resources be exhausted. With Della, however, these constraints become genuine opportunities: the challenge is to execute the correct sequence of actions to advance toward victory!

In the Limited format, Della can fully utilize Ordis's Permanents while also benefiting from Bravos's Reserve effects.

The Reka live in constant contact with the Tumult — that ever-churning force rising from beneath the clouds, sometimes spilling up into the lower decks of their floating city. They live every day with the fear of the Tumult, lingering just a few fathoms beneath their feet.

But the Sea of Clouds isn’t only a source of danger — those bold enough to dive into it — the Marauders — can uncover wonders beyond imagination. That’s why the Bravos join the Reka trawlers, fishing for treasures. And who knows — maybe dive deep enough to see what lies beneath?

In the lowest section of the floating city, the Bravos are invited by the Reka Marauders to fish on the Sea of Tumult. This iridescent, cloud-filled expanse is brimming with dreamlike treasures that are later sold in the floating port markets, as illustrated in Market Encounter. We follow these fishermen and extreme divers like the Deep-Cloud Instructor in their exploration of the depths, while on the surface, Isabel Letham and other boardsports enthusiasts surf at high speeds! In this new set, the faction's aesthetic is further modernized thanks to Reka technology: the Bravos, masters of extremes, now ride aerodynamic vehicles powered by Sap.

We already met Sol and her companion Halua in Skybound Odyssey, who introduced a new strategy centered on the Rush keyword and the challenge of passing to get your companion as quickly as possible. Seeds of Unity extends this dynamic by offering new tools to this strategy: cards like Helpful Diver, who grants Rush, or Nephele, who allows you to pass immediately, further reinforce the aggressive game plan unique to Bravos. This new set also brings interesting tools for Bravos, such as Manaseeds, which now allow the faction to store mana between turns. It is thus possible to prepare your key turns before playing powerful, high-cost characters.

We also find numerous Characters whose effects trigger from the Reserve, which reinforces the existing synergies for Bravos from previous sets.

Finally, as discussed in our article dedicated to the Muna faction, certain Bravos cards participate in the Gift strategy in the Limited formats. Catch of the Day, for example, is an interesting new removal card whose effect is accompanied by a counterpart in the form of a Manaseed Gift.

Both Bravos and Axiom deepen existing archetypes with new cards and invite you to introduce even more interaction into your strategies. The next Faction Focus will tell you more about Lyra and Yzmir starting tomorrow! Until then, you can find Seeds of Unity directly on Gamefound!