One of the unexpected developments in writing this book was seeing how all these works began to reveal something larger than any individual creature. That's what happened in a very explicit way with Nathan Reidt's art.

Reidt's pieces are distinctly fleshy, alien, and biological in a way that felt connected—like they all belonged to the same ecosystem. So rather than treat each illustration as a standalone monster, I looked at the full body of his work for the book and asked: what if these are all species within a single alien civilization? From there I discovered the Xivvians—interdimensional organisms with their own biology, ecology, caste hierarchy, reproductive cycles, and cosmic agenda. Every one of Reidt's creatures lives among them, from the massive qhor'ox at the throbbing heart of each hive to the lowly xiks who attend their ohlaex masters. There are death cults, there are lamplighters—undead proto-humans sent back across the void to prepare our world for annihilation—and there is an alien world of peristaltic tunnels, membranous chambers, and noxious clouds that you can explore or simply let haunt the edges of your campaign.

For me, this is the ekphrastic method at its most expansive—where the art didn't illustrate the lore, but rather the art led me to an entire world.

If you've played Mörk Borg you already know one of the things that makes it great: it gives you just enough to ignite your imagination and trusts you to build the connective tissue yourself. That's the same philosophy behind the lore in Mörktastic Beasts. We give you the creatures, a taste of the mythology, and the stats—you decide where they live, how your players encounter them, and where they die. The xivvians could be lurking beneath a dying city, seeping through a rift at the edge of your map, or manipulating the machinations of the wretched royalty. Are the Xivvian Lamplighters a kind of Proto-Wickhead? Your game, your players, your encounters will yield the truth.!

That's already happening, by the way. I've gotten emails from backers who are homebrewing Mörk Borg campaigns around creatures from the book—and one person is building an entire adventure around the Xivvian mythology. That's exactly what this book is for.

~Janaka

Backers: the full spread draft for one of these Xivvians is below. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Happy Saturday, all!

Today we thought we'd share a backer preview of content—and plan on sharing a few more before the campaign is through...

Ekphrasis is one of the oldest forms of writing—it's the craft of describing visual art in language so vivid it becomes an experience of its own. Homer did it with the Shield of Achilles. Keats did it standing in front of a Grecian urn. It's writing that not only references an image—it enters it, inhabits it, and comes back with something new.

This is the engine behind Mörktastic Beasts. We took the ekphrastic method and pointed it at the tabletop. Each of our illustrators creates original artwork with no brief, no creature name, no lore—just whatever crawled out of their subconscious. Then I reverse-engineer everything from the image: the creature's name, its history, its abilities, its place in the world. 

For this today's preview, Jeremy Hush painted a ghostly figure in a bronze mask sitting in what looks like a tomb and handed it off to me—without name or additional comment. I sat with it for a while, then went for a walk in the nearby woods. Over the next hour or so I let my mind wander, and when I got back to my desk I wrote out a secret order of necromancers who pledge their lives and their deaths to a serpent lord, undergo a 29-day living entombment, and rise as spirit-possessed masks bound to bring about the end of time... 

Then Max takes it from there, using his extensive experience playing and designing games for MÖRK BORG to translate these wyrd visions into game mechanics, making sure the lore doesn't just read well—it plays well.

This is one spread in a book that's now over 220 pages, and every creature in Mörktastic Beasts was made this way.

~Janaka

Backer-only content: the full spread is below. Take a look at the Disciple of the Morningstar in all its necromantic glory!

For those of you just getting to know her work—Justine is an illustrator whose pieces move between incredibly detailed, obsessive line work and wild psychedelic color. She's illustrated for Old School Essentials, Magic: The Gathering, and Kobold Press—self-published her own horror comics, and draws wizards and monsters like she's channeling something from somewhere she probably shouldn't be looking. She's a perfect fit for this book and I cannot wait to see what she makes for it.

That's seven stretch goals unlocked. We've got two more, and they're both about making the physical book even more special...

$35K — Physical Upgrades #2: We're adding a black trim stain to the book to make those pink headbands really pop. And keeping in spirit with the Mörk Borg rulebook, we'll be adding metallic foil stamping to interior pages. Assured destruction, but make it shiny!

$40K — Physical Upgrades #3: For our final stretch goal we've got something truly special. Joe Keinberger will paint an original apocalyptic panoramic battle scene to print on the front and back endpapers of the book. Picture "Night on Bald Mountain" meets the End of Days. This is the kind of extra flair we love to see when opening the cover of a book, immediately signaling something special. It will be epic.

These are the last two. Help us get there—share the campaign, tell your people, let's make this book everything it can possibly be.

And if you're not already on it, join us over at the Flaming Hand Discord, where the conversation continues about monsters, miniatures, gaming, music, the occult, and other weird endeavors...

~Janaka

Thank you to everyone who has backed this so far! We have already been able to expand this so much because of your support and hitting our stretch goals. Keep spreading the word about these horrors!

We have had some questions come in about the stats and about how beholden we are to the original 5e stats in the first book...the answer to which is, "not at all."

When I write stats for multiple systems or do "conversions," I generally disregard consistency across systems. Instead, I design for the system in which it will be played.  I don't see any need to let the 5e stats influence the Mörk Borg stats. This isn't to say I don't reference them. I do. But my general rule is that I create all stats/mechanics from scratch and design explicitly for Mörk Borg.

I have written stats for about 50 of these creatures so far. My process has been to read the lore, stare at the art, and envision the creature murdering characters. Then, I get to writing. I try to capture the essence of what makes the creature stand out. Then I reflect that back mechanically, doing what I can to express that essence in a way that will provide an interesting gameplay experience.

Many of you may know some of my previous work already, such as Abyss of Hallucinations, my Mörk Borg setting. I have been creating Mörk Borg content for at least 5 years now, and I am so damn excited to get back to writing more creature stats for all the additional artwork coming in via the stretch goals!!

I put together a sampler PDF so you can take a look at a few of the creatures. Please keep in mind that this is a draft and hasn't been edited yet! That also means you are welcome to leave any feedback. If there is something you see that you love, hate, or think I should consider, then please feel free to drop us a comment! Better yet, join our Discord server and chat about it!

That's all from me today. I hope you find some time to stare at the moon.

By Night,

Max Moon