When the old gods shattered, falling to earth as crystalline godtears, a new crop of champions emerged. By claiming enough godtears, those champions could grow in strength and power to become gods themselves!
Now, we play out those godlike battles in a head-to-head miniature skirmish game, as our aspiring champions fight to claim godtears, making and breaking alliances as it suits them. The latest champion to flit onto that godtear-studded battlefield is Lily, Thornsinger of the Azure Forest!
But is Lily really “new” in the way we humans understand it? And what do her fairy powers bring to the Godtear mix?
Godtear’s lead developer, Steve Margetson, is here to tell us more, and give us the first look at Lily’s cards!
So, who is Lily? What’s her story?
Good question! So, the thing about Godtear is the whole champion-to-god cycle has actually happened before. That’s why the game is set in the eleventh age. Essentially, when the old gods reach their end and shatter, you get new champions who rise and start claiming those shattered pieces, the godtears, to become gods themselves. And then they ascend, and eventually meet their inevitable end in one way or another, and the cycle begins again.
The thing about Lily is that she might have actually managed to survive the last cycle, the fall or the previous age, and her gradual ascent to godhood now is as much a game as it is an actual route to power. That’s the thing about fairies. They don’t play by mortal rules!
Her followers, the Thornlings, are basically physical manifestations of forest overgrowth who’ll use their roots to slow down enemies and defend Lily by sinking them deep into the ground.
What was the inspiration for Lily? She’s the first Godtear fairy, right?
She is the first Godtear fairy, yes. Essentially we wanted to create the first ever champion who could actually seed boons and blights on the ground around her, leaving them behind for her friends and enemies to find. That’s definitely a Shaper ability, because it involves manipulating the actual battlefield.
Then we started thinking about what kind of creature or being might be able to do that. A fairy made sense, because that kind of nature-based, manipulative trickery is right out of the fae playbook. Sometimes helping friends, sometimes hindering enemies, depending on what mood they’re in. It’s not a directly offensive ability, and it needs someone who can move fast to really spread those boons and blights around. Plus, she can actually move enemies around, to mess with their plans. So, we knew then that Lily must be a fairy.
Thematically, she’s trailing fairy dust behind her as she moves around, which is affecting the ground and causing boons and blights to pop up.
Sounds interesting! So, how else does Lily shake up Godtear gameplay?
A few ways, actually! There’s the one we’ve talked about already, which is her being the first champion able to spread boons and blights around the field. Essentially, when Lily activates, she can drop one of those two tokens in one of the hexes around her.
What’s interesting about that is that any model, friend or foe, can actually pick up those boons or blights just by stepping on them. So you’ll want to think about when and where you’re leaving them. That’s again where the amoral fae angle comes in — even with Lily’s allies, she’s offering them a helping hand, but if they miss it, or accidentally end up stepping on a blight she’s left behind, well, sucks to be them.
Lily’s also got an ultimate skill we haven’t seen in Godtear before, which is the ability to actually block godtears using her Thornling followers, so that other champions can’t step on or plant banners on them.
Speaking of the Thornlings, they’ve also got an attack with a critical damage effect we haven’t seen in Godtear. Essentially, if your hit roll equals the target, you’ll get bonus damage.
Godtear is all about the warbands. Which champions should Lily be teaming up with, if she wants to reach godhood?
Good question! Because Lily’s whole thing is dishing out boons and blights, she’s a bit of a generalist. Buffing your friends and de-buffing your enemies is always a good ability to have in your warband, so she can pretty much fit into any line up.
That said, if you really wanted to maximise Lily’s impact, champions that would be pushed over the top by certain boons would really value Lily’s help. Rangosh isn’t the most accurate, so accuracy boons from Lily could make a significant difference for him. You could also make an already powerful stat even more powerful — giving Rhodri even more protection, for example.
There is one champion who would definitely benefit from Lily’s help, though, and that’s Morrigan, who’s one of the champions in the Eternal Glade Starter Set. With Lily, Morrigan makes immense gains because she’s finally got someone to feed her the boons she needs.
Then, of course, you’ve got Titus, Skullbreaker, Halftusk, and again Rangosh and Rhodri, who lack the ability to control their enemies and have limited or linear movement. Lily can help with both of those.
Thanks, Steve!
If you like the sound of Lily, she’s available to pre-order now for September 9 release. Want to hang out and talk Godtear with other players? Join the Discord or Facebook fan group
