Here with your monthly update!

Graphics are very nearly done. The bones are finalized, we're just adjusting colors until we're happy with them. These should be finalized by the end of the month.

The Letterer I had selected for this book has had some medical issues arise and requested to step back from the project. I'm currently in talks with two candidates, and plan to have work begin by month's end. 

Unfortunately, we had eight (8) pledges fail and never be fixed. This put us short of the stretch goal to unlock the oversized pin. This will not be included in the all-in tier.

In the pledge manager, it will be available as an unlockable add-on. If enough folks add the pin to their pledge, it'll be unlocked. If not, well, it was a funny lil thought experiment. Haha. 

I'm finishing the reward survey next week. This may be a couple days late and be released early February. But it's coming soon, and we're still on track for a summer release!

As always - 

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out.
See y'all at the next update!

I've been holding off on an update until funds clear, so I have a solid idea of what our finances look like for this project. But there was a request for an update. So. This is going to be a little messy because there's an element of "I really don't know yet." haha. Anyway. Here's a quick update and a tentative timeline for fulfillment. 

Right now there's just over $200 in unprocessed pledges. This can be due to declined payments or expired cards. If your payment has yet to be processed for your pledge, please see to that soon! If that ~$200 remains unresolved, that puts us short of our unlocked stretch goal, and the 3" enamel pin reward will have to be re-locked.

On BackerKit, funds are resolved in two weeks from the end of the project. Two weeks to try and collect payment then remit to me. So things are going to be a little murky until next week. 

Once I know what's unlocked and what isn't, I can finish the pledge manager. Considering this small waiting game, the time it takes to set up the pledge manager and get it approved, and the holidays coming up: You should anticipate seeing your reward survey early January.

If the jumbo pin needs to be re-locked, it can be unlocked again in the pledge manager. Unfortunately, it cannot be automatically added to the all-in tier, though. (Which is why it's important to fix your payments!)

You should expect an update each month. This may vary from three to six weeks depending on what there is to report, but there will be at least one update each calendar month. I will reply to comments as I am able. The notification system is a little wonky at times. If you have a time sensitive question, please reach out to our team by email: admin/@/arledgecomics.com. Please also reach out via email with fulfillment questions, as we try not to post your sensitive information in comments. ;)

And that's your update! I'll be back in January with more. 

Hey there, backers!

We funded so quickly, you had me in a scramble trying to come up with something really cool, haha!!

First, though, a little preview of our process~

We're currently hard at work putting the finishing touches on the book. Lettering will be post campaign, but there's lots of little bits and bobs that go into making a book ready for publication. Right now, we're working on the title logo!

These are some rough drafts our graphic designer has been working on! Choosing a font - or making one - can prove so difficult! Because you want something that looks just right and then BAM! You've been staring at the word 'legacy' so long, you're all but certain you've spelled it wrong. Haha.

This is the final that we've just settled on! Colors aren't final, of course, and there's some other minor edits that will be made before the logo is finalized and ready to be slapped on the cover of the book. But I'm stoked with how it's come together!

Oh, I did note stretch goal in the title, didn't I? :D

A funny story first.

I was putting the final touches on this campaign when the creator of Nezbrael's Legacy emails me and says he likes the cover we commissioned for the book, but wants to know what's wrong with the one he commissioned. Excuse me, sir! (we said) You didn't provide a cover. (The poor thing was hiding out in his drafts folder and never made it to us.) 

This weird accident resulted in exclusive art for the hardcover edition! But the cover art is really, really good and I felt it needed to be celebrated a little bit more.

This heckin' chonk of a pin is 3" tall, hard enamel with screen printing.

The cover art pin will be unlocked and available as an add-on if we hit $1,555 in funding.

Need a reason to switch to the all-in tier? Because it'll be added to that tier for free once it's unlocked!

You step into the glowing pool

You stand at the edge of the glowing pool, the light reflecting off of sand-dusted stone. Even this far beneath the arid landscape above, the air feels dry, heavy with heat and history. The water shimmers like liquid glass, its glow soft but steady. Beckoning. Every instinct - every fiber of your being - warns you to stop, but the ruins hum with quiet expectation. After coming this far, you can't bring yourself to turn away.

You breathe deep and take a step.

The water accepts you without resistance. It's warm - warmer than it should be - and carries the scene of dust after rain. As you wade deeper, the light climbs around your body in slow waves of gold and white until the air itself seems to bend and breathe. Your muscles ache from the long journey, but that ache soon fades and is replaced with a weightless calm.

The hum in the air blossoms into a chorus of voices - layered and distant.

"The Keeper returns not to the world, but to the memory beneath it."

Images form in the light. You see the desert as it was ages ago: not barren but rife with life and song. Towers of stone rise from the sand as great pillars - marble gleaming in the sun. You see The Guardians standing around the very pool you now occupy. Their now-faceless forms shine radiantly, guarding the pool. In the center, in the pool, kneels a mortal figure cradling a familiar sphere of light.

You recognize the figure!

Like looking in a mirror, you recognize yourself in this memory. If not yourself, then someone you once were. In another life perhaps.

"You were the last Keeper," the voices whisper. "The one who sealed away what could not be destroyed. Each offering was a memory once yours, forgotten in the long silence. Now, all returns."

Warmth floods your chest, bright and endless. You see flashes of memories - the desert before it turned to wasteland, the fall of the city founded there, the creation of The Guardians, their promise to watch until the sands forgot their names. You realize now: the ruin was never built to hold treasure. It was built to house memory itself.

The pool brightens, light spilling up the walls like dawn breaking across the dunes. The hum deepens, then it fades into something quieter - an exhale. A release. You close your eyes as the light washes over you, and you sink below the surface. There is no fear, no sound. Only stillness. And the deep, slow rhythm of the earth remembering itself. 

When the light fades, the chamber lies silent. The pool is calm again, glowing softly beneath layers of ancient stone. The obelisk hums once, like a heartbeat, and goes still. 

Above, the desert is quiet. Wind whispers across the dunes, smoothing away the last traces of your treasure hunting expedition. A single beam of sunlight breaks through the clouds, striking the sand where the ruins sleep. 

Deep below, in the heart of the oasis-that-wasn't, you rest within the glowing water. You're no longer lost. No longer searching. You have become the memory, watching over what was buried and what will someday be found again. 

Fin.

You approach the narrow stream where it trickles past the dais, the water gleaming faintly in the last of the runes' light. It winds into a crack in the wall, the gap just wide enough for a person to slip through. The air that drifts from it is cool and damp, carrying the scent of rain and stone long buried.

You duck low and crawl into the crack, the tunnel twisting downward. The sound of running water grows louder - steadier - until it becomes a constant whisper in the dark. Soon, the rough passage widens into a natural corridor - part cavern, part carved stone. Strange moss glows along the walls, pale green and trembling with movement, lighting the way forward.

As you walk, the silence of the ruin above fades entirely. Here, there's a pulse - a rhythm that matches the beating of your own heart. The water flows beside you in a shallow channel, perfectly smooth. Perfectly clear. You glance down into it and catch brief glimpses of faces - flickering and translucent. Familiar yet... not.

The Guardians. Watching. And perhaps guiding.

The passage slopes deeper. The glow grows stronger. Eventually, the tunnel opens into a vase underground basin. The ceiling disappears into shadow, supported by immense stone pillars carved with spiraling runes. In the center of the cavern lies a pool of luminous water, its surface perfectly still. The stream feeds into it with a quiet sigh, sending ripples across the light.

You step closer. All of your senses feel sharpened. The pool radiates warmth. Not physical heat. Something deeper, like standing at the edge of a dream. The runes carved into the floor circle it in intricate loops. Each loop pulsing in a slow rhythm.

At the edge of the water, stands an obelisk - a shard of the same dark metal as the hatch above. Its surface bears the same inscription: "Open, and remember."

You stand beside it, tracing the carved letters. The moment your fingertips graze the metal, the pool responds. Light surges upward, wrapping around your body in ribbons of gold. The water begins to move with an unknown purpose, spiraling inward toward the obelisk.

A voice fills the cavern - not the one from before. Instead you hear hundreds of voices layered together, echoing in harmony:  "Memory restored. Passage renewed. The Keeper may choose their path."

The ground beneath your feet shifts. Across the far wall, a second tunnel opens, framed in glowing runes that pulse like a heartbeat. Beyond it, you glimpse daylight - real daylight - filtering down through cracks in the stone.

The water continues to flow beside you, now glowing like molten silver, pouring into the open passage. The air smells of the world above, but also of something new, as if the ruin itself is breathing again after centuries of stillness.

You look down into the glowing pool one more time. Your reflection stares back, but it's not quite what you remember.

Your eyes shimmer faintly with the same light as the Guardians'.

- - -

BONUS CONTENT

Cover reveal!