The Tentacular Theocracy

Introducing Tentacular Theocracy!

After thinking for a while about the theme of this year's jam, the cults that exist in Lovecraftian myths came to mind, where cultists perform sacrifices to an underwater deity, inspired by them, this faction gains actions and abilities by sacrificing warriors on altars along the rivers of the forest.

These friendly cephalopods come to the forest to satisfy the appetite of a terrible creature that inhabits the depths!

The theocracy of the tentacle will do whatever it takes to keep satisfied the one who is half his deity and half his predator. Initially, they will be the ones who have to be consumed, but as they make sacrifices, their patreon will give them blessings that they can use to go into the woods and abduct other creatures to use them in their dark rituals.

At the beginning of the game you will choose a herald from among two that you draw from a deck of eight (of course eight). As long as you do not have pieces in the "Power" box he will be like another warrior with the only difference that he cannot be removed outside of combat, but if you sacrifice the pieces to increase its power, it will gain abilities that you can use by discarding cards.

The only time you change heralds is when they are removed in battle. I know this can lead to games where the herald changes only once or twice or even none at all in some peaceful games, this is intentional, I thought having a semi-stable herald could improve replayability and make these guys feel a little different every time they're in the table.

As for the heralds themselves, they are quite a varied group, some help in things that every faction finds useful such as aids in combat or better recruitment, others try to mitigate problems that the theocracy could have such as the dependence on water or difficulty in crafting, and there are others with wacky effects such as locking up enemy warriors or making your warriors flee taking altars with them.