To celebrate the launch of the Gamefound campaign, we wanted to unveil a bit more about each faction with a three-part article series called Faction Focus. These articles are an opportunity for our creative teams—Lore, Art, and Game Design—to speak directly to you and give you a glimpse of the work done behind the scenes to ensure each faction stands out within Seeds of Unity.

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 Almaric - 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.

Just as the Naos stands above the Reka city, so too do the gardeners and farmers seem to stand at the top of their society. And rightly so — the world-tree is the heart of their civilization. Sap is harvested with far more restraint than in the City of Scholars, and it’s mainly the fruits that are put to use.

Yet behind this appearance of mindful cultivation, the Reka’s hunger for progress seems as fierce as ever. By sharing the Musubi with the Reka, the Asgarthi expeditions hope they’ll come to understand the need to slow down. Perhaps the perception of the Skein might even allow them to find common ground with Halua!

A large number of scenes for the Muna faction revolve around the exploitation and sharing of the Naos's fruits. It is in the vast hanging gardens that gardeners, merchants, and creatures born from the Naos itself exchange or compete for this miraculous fruit.

To refresh the Muna's visual identity, the artistic team allowed for a more contemporary aesthetic inspired by solarpunk. In this subgenre of science-fiction, humans use technology respectfully, coexisting with life in all its forms. This approach allowed us to develop an unexpected facet of this highly traditional faction: alongside the Reka, the Muna use advanced technologies like the harvester drones of Ploutos, the Hexarch or the analysis laboratory of the Reka Agronomist!

In this new Altered expansion, you will discover a new Muna Heroine, Turuun, and her Companion Benih, whose ability was heavily influenced by the set's theme. In Seeds of Unity, the focus is placed on sharing, encountering the other, and interaction—values that are at the heart of the Muna faction's identity.

This new Hero will ask you to share and offer resources to your opponent, while, of course, seeking to gain the maximum advantage for yourself. The introduction of the new keyword Gift perfectly illustrates the spirit of the set and allows you to take full advantage of these mechanics.

To execute this strategy, you can allow your opponent to draw cards or replenish their resources, but also generate and offer Manaseeds, a new Permanent that lets you ready already-used mana. These gifts will grant you access to Characters with powerful stats or reinforced effects thanks to your Hero. For example, the Rare Charitable Reka allows you to benefit from two Manaseeds in addition to powerful stats with Turuun, but in return, it asks you to offer one to your opponent. Some well-known cards from Beyond the Gates might also prove useful, such as Daughter of Yggdrasil or Kitsune, to name a few!

In the Limited format, Muna pairs particularly well with Bravos, which offers several gifting tools, and also with Ordis, since Matz & Hive, the new Ordis Hero, directly benefits from the Manaseeds.

When two civilizations meet, a clash of cultures is inevitable. Through diplomacy and dialogue, the Ordis aim to find common ground with the Reka so that both peoples can continue to move forward hand in hand.

But the interests of one are not always those of the other. Misunderstandings and differing perspectives have created a clear divide between Asgarthans and Reka — one that must be bridged. This is the first human enclave discovered by the Rediscovery Endeavor. The Reka must, at all costs, become allies — not enemies.

Social, cultural, and political scenes, as well as demonstrations and celebrations, allow us to discover the life of the Reka people, between both wonder and adversity.

Developing the Ordis faction within this city allowed the art team to explore what the faction would look like under an oligarchic regime. With their white and blue outfits, adorned with golden accessories, the Reka nobles compete in elegance and ostentation in matters of fashion. To be noticed, one must display the latest trends and show that they possess the financial power to shine. What better inspiration, then, than ancient Egyptian or Greek deities to designate the Reka elite? From Hexarch Astrape's most refined gown to the flashy costume of the Reka Investor, or Sunisa, who is forced to wear a ceremonial armor, the Ordis style, as reimagined for this occasion, serves as a reminder to the city's other castes of who holds the keys to the city.

The new Hero, Matz, and his companion Hive, are the first to introduce a change in the number of Permanent slots allowed during the game: Matz can keep up to three. As such, he inaugurates a brand-new archetype for Ordis, supported by one of the set's flagship mechanics, Manaseed tokens. These tokens allow the player to fill their Permanent zone faster to activate Matz's effect sooner and thus benefit from increasingly powerful Permanents!

This new "Permanent" focus for Ordis provides an opportunity to discover the set's new Permanents like The Reunion, the massive sculpture celebrating the Asgarthan and Reka alliance. It also allows us to rediscover older cards that will find a place of choice in Matz decks. Among previous sets, high-cost cards like The Monolith, Ordis Bastion, or single-use cards like OOF Brassbug Dropship, as well as the Aeroliths introduced in Skybound Odyssey, seem to be particularly well-suited tools for this new archetype. In Seeds of Unity, cards like Reka Investor will also effectively strengthen this Hero's strategy.

In multiplayer, Ordis could particularly shine with the help of a Muna ally, who will assist them in filling their Permanent zone by gifting them Manaseeds!

This concludes our first Faction Focus, where you had the chance to discover Muna and Ordis in a new light and see how Manaseeds find various different uses within each faction. Join us tomorrow for the next Faction Focus article to learn more about Axiom and Bravos and see you in just under an hour at 7:PM (UTC+1) for the start of the Gamefound campaign!