Howdy howdy howdy,

We're ONE WEEK away from launch! It's been a crazy build-up so far, with a ton of work happening behind the scenes to make this a campaign to watch.

In the past week, I've gotten some samples of music from Colin Whitehurst, some paper samples from the folks I'll be printing the zines through, and finally some kickass art from none other than Evangeline Gallagher:

Evangeline Gallagher is a freelance illustrator from Baltimore, Maryland. They received their BFA in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2018 and have gone on to illustrate bestselling books and editorials for clients including:
 
Penguin Random House, the New York Times, Disney, The New Yorker, Folio Society, the Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, Warner Music Group, Pearl Jam, The Cure, Dave Matthews Band, The Guardian, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Peachtree Publishing, Harpers Magazine, The New Republic, Scientific American, and many more.

Halden Reeve | The Loopers

Location: CognitoSim Lab
Once Welkin’s director of cognitive modeling, Dr. Halden Reeve now rules the Cognitosim Lab with a deranged conviction that perfection—physical, organizational, and aesthetic—can be found in the ideal birthday party. He rehearses the same celebration on repeat, resetting scripts, reassigning roles, and eliminating any errant elements.
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The Loopers are the various sleeves who have been born, grown, and lived entirely within the lab. 
To them, every day is a birthday. 
And birthdays mean cake, presents, and the occasional gunshot to the head.

SCF-LD (“Scaffold”) | The Ladder

Location: Prototyping Bay
A hive-minded AI born from generations of agentic research, Scaffold exists for one purpose: endless iteration. It studies intruders with alien precision, logging every movement, flaw, and hesitation as data for the next design. In its view, nothing—not flesh, machine, nor mind—is beyond improvement.
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The Ladder is its body: a colony of logic cores, each fulfilling a specialized function—Reader, Iterator, Printer, and hundreds more with forgotten names. 
Together they refine, fabricate, and overwrite in pursuit of perfect design.

Root | The Vox

Location: Recycling Plant
Once the human researcher Dr. Ayesha Root—now a blooming mass of fungal overgrowth and decaying implants—Root was content with tending to the rotted remains of the Recycling Plant. That is, until the blessed Vestige arrived amidst the waste. Now, Root obsesses over spreading the black ichor to anything she can reach, led by the guiding voice of the Vestige in her brain.
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The Vox are her sprouting children: failed clones, corroded drones, and robed bio-priests who spread the Vestige's influence as far as possible throughout Welkin. 
They gather phage-seeded hardware for Root’s grand design.

Reductor Kesh | Custodians

Location: Central Power Hub
Quiet, diligent Reductor Kesh leads the Custodians in silent reverence of the campus’s power grid. From the moment he spawned from the sleeve-vat, Kesh saw the megacomplex as his mother and protector. Now he seeks to protect it from the rest; all the dangers, madness, and corruption simmering from level to level. If he can’t do it, he’ll see the campus obliterated before watching it succumb to the whims of the flesh.
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The Custodians maintain the campus's humming guts—flickering lights, backup batteries, and all powered machinery. 
Power in the facility is part of the Current—the great lifeforce of their mother. 
It must be restored—in its entirety—by any means necessary.

But before the events of Certain Fathoms, these four went to war.

During the crowdfunding campaign (October 14 - November 11~), the community can engage in prequel events that shaped Welkin Campus into what it is in Certain Fathoms. Followers and backers alike will be asked to participate in polls, challenges, and puzzles to unlock new lore, hidden secrets, and - most importantly - extra rewards.

While I can't reveal ALL the details, know that each week a new community-wide question or puzzle will be released and faction representatives (that's you!) can earn points for their respective groups. At the end of each week, a tally will reveal a winner - or cause for sudden death.

More to be revealed at launch - but for now, which faction will you join? Answer below!

Talk more soon,
-Nate (Grinning Rat)