Shadows Flicker Like Flame

Spirit Board Info

Lore

Unique Power Cards

Suggested Power Progression

Strategy

Design and Extras

Aspects

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SETUP

Put 3 on your starting board: 2 in the highest-numbered Jungle and 1 in land #5

PLAY STYLE

Good at causing Fear and picking off lone Explorers and Towns, containing the Invaders. Not so good at massive damage - may need to rely on allies to handle thoroughly colonized lands.
The ability to boost Range gives more flexibility to Range 0 Powers, and can be important in larger games.

COMPLEXITY

LOW

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Shadows Flicker Like Flame Official FAQ Entries

Part of the Base Game.

GROWTH (PICK ONE)

Reclaim Cards Gain Power Card

Gain Power Card + 1 Add a Presence

+ 3 Add a Presence Gain 3 Energy

PRESENCE

Energy/Turn 1 3 4 5 6
Card Plays 2 3 3 4 5

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SPECIAL RULES

SHADOWS OF THE DAHAN
Whenever you use a Power, you may pay 1 Energy to target a land with regardless of the Power's Range. (Power Cards or your Innate Powers.)

DARKNESS SWALLOWS THE UNWARY

SPEED	RANGE	TARGET LAND
	1	ANY

2 1 Gather 1 .

3 2 Destroy up to 2 . 1 per destroyed.

4 3 2 3 Damage. 1 per Invaders destroyed by this Damage.

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SUMMARY OF POWERS

Offense	Control	Fear	Defense	Utility

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From the Spirit Panel

The Dahan say, "If the long shadows of sunset stretching beside you begin to shift and flicker like tongues of hungry fire, do not run. That will only feed your fear, and whet the shadows' appetite."

This spirit invokes an instinctive fear in humans, perhaps because it doesn't think at all like humans do - it's more alien-minded than most. Until a few generations ago, the Dahan carefully propitiated it only at a distance, steering as clear as they could. But during the Years of The Relentless Sun, it shaded large swaths of the Island, averting catastrophe; since then, many Dahan have been willing to carefully - and cautiously - heed its words, feeling they have a debt they ought to try to repay.

Design Lore

A spirit of darkness and fire, of the alien and unnatural just out of vision around the corner. Its mindset is even more non-human than most Spirits', and it's somewhat dangerous just to be around; the only reason the Dahan have anything to do with it is out of a sense of reciprocity for a great favor it did them some generations ago. Its darkness works in ways not intuitive to humans; it may engulf a single person or an entire city, and it can act at great distance by reaching through the shadows of the Dahan. While not a spirit of fear, all of its Powers cause some amount of Fear due to their unnerving effects.

Spirits corresponding directly to natural features make instinctive sense to human minds: "the spirit of this river here", or "a spirit of stormy wind" are straightforward and easy to grasp. Some spirits are more inscrutable, such as the Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds, or harder to perceive, such as the Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island. And then there are others still whose nature simply does not mesh well with humanity's view of the universe, such as Shadows Flicker Like Flame. It is the shadow of a candleflame; a fire that withers what it touches rather than igniting it; the dark silhouette of a tree cast across the ground which, when you step on it, turns out to be a pit of ink-black otherspace. Its form is as fluid as smoke, rising up from any shadow lying on the ground. Shadows Flicker Like Flame does not seem to represent any natural phenomenon known outside of itself, but is associated with shade, transformation, shadows given life, unnatural spaces, and engulfing dark. While it is not a spirit of terror per se, it evokes a primal fear in humans, both due to its associations and the alienness of its nature. It seems to honor its bargains, but it thinks along strange lines... and when it's near, you're never entirely sure that you won't just vanish.

Other Spirits do not seem to find Shadows Flicker Like Flame the least bit unnatural, however; perhaps humanity's view of nature is not perfectly complete.

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Important note: If playing as Shadows Flicker Like Flame, you start the game with these Unique Power Cards in your hand.

0

Concealing Shadows

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

0

ANY

1 .
take no Damage from Ravaging Invaders this turn.

Nolan Nasser

1

Crops Wither and Fade

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

0

ANY

2 .

Replace 1 with 1 .
or
Replace 1 with 1 .

Nolan Nasser

1

Favors Called Due

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

Gather up to 4 .

If Invaders are present and now outnumber them, 3 .

Nolan Nasser

1

Mantle of Dread

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET

ANY

2 .
Target Spirit may Push 1 and 1 from a land where it has .

Nolan Nasser

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#1.

1

Dark and Tangled Woods

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

2 .

If target land is , Defend 3.

Nolan Nasser

#2.

0

Shadows of the Burning Forest

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

0

INVADERS

2 .

If target land is , Push 1 and 1 .

Nolan Nasser

#3.

3

The Jungle Hungers

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

Destroy all and all .
Destroy all .

IF YOU HAVE

2 3:

Destroy 1 .
Do not Destroy any .

Joshua Wright

#4.

0

Land of Haunts and Embers

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

2

ANY

2 . Push up to 2 / .

If target land has , +2 . Push up to 2 more / .

Add 1 .

Jorge Ramos

#5.

4

Terrifying Nightmares

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

2

ANY

2 .
Push up to 4 / .

IF YOU HAVE

4:

+4 .

Loic Belliau

#6.

1

Call of the Dahan Ways

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

Replace 1 with 1 .

IF YOU HAVE

2:

You may instead replace 1 with 1 .

Loic Belliau

#7.

1

Visions of Fiery Doom

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

0

ANY

1 .
Push 1 / .

IF YOU HAVE

2:

+1 .

Lucas Durham

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General Strategy

• Growth: It can only play 1 Presence/turn, and can't put down any when it Reclaims Power Cards, so it's not going to get as much Presence out as many Spirits. However, it can reach up to 3 lands away to place Presence, which is further than most. And every turn it'll be either gaining a new Power Card or gaining +3 Energy, which gives it a strong foundation for either heavy-hitting Major Powers or a lots-of-small-Powers approach.
• 'Presence: Both tracks ramp up quickly, though with not placing Presence every turn progression along them is going to be slow. Like Growth, these look good for a variety of approaches.
• Special Rules: Shadows Flicker Like Flame doesn't see space in quite the same way as most beings, and with a bit of aid from the Dahan can act at an immense distance. This costs Energy, so isn't to be used trivially, but its Energy income is pretty good. This ability will be at its most useful in 3-4p games (where the island is large and spirits have more trouble reaching each other to work in concert), but it can also make Powers with Range 0 or Range measured from a Sacred Site much more versatile.
• Innate Power - Darkness Swallows the Unwary: Only targets near a Sacred Site, but Shadows of the Dahan can help with that. The baseline effect of moving an Explorer at Fast speed - before the Invaders go - is fantastically useful; it can short-circuit the Explore-Build-Ravage cycle in a land right at the start, before a Town gets built. Higher levels allow destroying Invaders and doing extra Fear in the process - seems good, but how hard will it be to trigger?

Overall:

• It has 4 Moon, 3 Air, 2 Fire, and a smattering of other elements. Hitting the base level of Darkness Swallows the Unwary won't be hard; there's only one combination of 2 cards that fails to trigger it.
• There's Fear all over the place, averaging 2 Fear per Power Card. Fighting against Shadows Flicker Like Flame is going to inexorably break the Invaders' will to resist. The exact benefits of any given Fear Card are uncertain, but they always add up over time, and reliable Fear both unlocks easier Victory conditions and enables more potent Fear effects earlier in the game.
• Nothing costs more than 1. It won't need scads of Energy just to make good use of its starting Powers - unlike, say, Vital Strength of the Earth. This gives it good flexibility.
• Only one is Fast. Shadows' main means of pre-empting the Invaders is going to be its Innate Power, unless it's fighting alongside Lightning's Swift Strike; otherwise it'll have to plan ahead and be patient.

Specific cards:

• Concealing Shadows: This hides the Dahan in one land, keeping them alive (and allowing them to counterattack!) no matter many Invaders are Ravaging. It does nothing to protect the land, and has a Range of 0, so for most Spirits using this Power Card would be a sacrifice play: they'd need Presence in a land the Invaders were about to thoroughly Ravage. While the Dahan would survive to counterattack, the Ravage would still Blight the land and destroy the Spirit's Presence! But Shadows' special rule (Shadows of the Dahan) lets it pay 1 Energy to reach out and use this anywhere there's Dahan - which the card needs anyway - making it substantially more valuable. And it's cheap. The only real downside is that it requires getting a fair number of Dahan to be where there's a fair number of Invaders.
• Crops Wither and Fade: Colonists are used to crops dying, but not to them fading out of existence entirely! This Power is terrible for clearing lands of Invaders - it's a downgrade on a single Invader, and can't touch Explorers - but is one of the cheapest ways in the game to get rid of a City. This combines very nicely with an emphasis on Fear, since once you hit Terror Level 3, you can win by eliminating all Cities. It has a Range of 0, restricting its use pretty heavily - but Shadows of The Dahan allows a workaround.
• Favors Called Due: Shadows Flicker Like Flame did a great service to all Dahan some generations back, and most Dahan - with their traditions of reciprocity - feel that they still owe it for that aid. This is represented both by the Shadows of the Dahan special rule and this Power Card, which incites more Dahan to move than most other Spirits can manage. It also sends dark shadows with them, and the resulting gathering can strike fear into the hearts of the Invaders. In concert with Shadows of the Dahan, this Power allows for moving Dahan anywhere on the island.
• Mantle of Dread: Lets a Spirit guard one of their lands by frightening some Invaders out of it. It's Slow, so may or may not be useful in moving Explorers to prevent Builds, but it can reliably kick out the (Explorer + Town) that you'll get from Invaders Exploring then Building into a new land. The more players are in a game, the more versatile this becomes.

Overall: Shadows has several abilities which shine in a larger game, reaching through others (Spirit or Dahan) to affect the fight all the way across the island. In a smaller game, those will be less important - but the consistent Fear it generates will be more significant. (Earning a Fear Card requires 4 Fear/player, so in smaller games each Spirit's Fear has a higher proportional impact.)

Links to Guides

Shadows Flicker Like Flame/Antistone's Opening[1]

Shadows Flicker Like Flame/Phantaskippy's Guide[2]

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Spirit Spotlight

Gallery

Island Avatar

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Amorphous

Replaces Special Rule: Shadows of the Dahan

SHADOWS PARTAKE OF AMORPHOUS SPACE
During each Phase, you may move 1 of your to an adjacent land, or to a land with anywhere on the island.

During each Phase, you may move 1 of your to an adjacent land, or to a land with anywhere on the island.

Foreboding

Replaces Special Rule: Shadows of the Dahan

STRETCH OUT COILS OF FOREBODING DREAD

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

2

ANY

2 Your other Powers may ignore Range when targeting the target land.
1 After an Action generates in target land, including from Destroying /: Push up to 1 per / 1 per 2 . (You may mix-and-match.)
2 1 .
24 2 .

Madness

Replaces Special Rule: Shadows of the Dahan

SHADOWS CAST A SUBTLE MADNESS
When you add during Growth, you may also add 1 in that land.

GLIMPSE OF THE SHADOWED VOID
When your is Destroyed, if Invaders are present, 1 per Destroyed there.

Reach

Replaces Special Rule: Shadows of the Dahan

REACH THROUGH EPHEMERAL SPACE
Once per turn, you may ignore Range.
(This can be during Growth or for a Power - anything for which there's a Range arrow or the word "Range" is used. It affects a single Action of yours.)

Rulings for Shadows Flicker Like Flame

There are no rulings at this time.