Essence: Explore, Battle, Trade - A Hero-Building Board Game

One week down! - Deep Dive into Lady Chasmatus
8 months ago – Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 03:25:54 PM

Hey everyone! Hope you've had a great week. 

It's been solid for Cosmic Stew! 9 days in, we're sitting at a cool 73% funded. And we were just awarded the "Project we Love" badge by Kickstarter! Great progress so far, steadily climbing towards our goal. Thank you again!

Let's talk about Lady Chasmatus...

Where winning (or losing) happens

In ESSENCE, Lady Chasmatus is the hex at the center of the board that's tied to the competitive victory and defeat conditions. Players with enough Daedetic Cores (victory points) can win the game if they move onto Lady Chasmatus. Conversely, if the Aspect of Yoordai arrives at Lady Chasmatus before it is defeated, all players lose...

The creation of Daedetic Cores

In our universe, Lady Chasmatus is an active volcano in the center of Chasmadia. But prior to the time that ESSENCE takes place, Lady Chasmatus lied dormant and powered the capital city of Chasmadia as the most advanced metropolis in the known world. Within its depths, the Stonesoles coveted an ancient power source, unknown to the outside world and misunderstood by even the most attuned scholars.

The dauntless ingenuity of the Stonesoles led to the creation of Daedetic Cores: singularities of pure Daedetic energy contained in physical stasis. Daedetic Cores brought about a technological revolution the likes of which the world had never seen. 

At its peak, the city within Lady Chasmatus was burrowed deep into the mountain, and it consisted of hundreds of levels of sophisticated dwellings, lavish marketplaces, and robust industries outfitted with intricate electrical and water networks. The city flowed with unprecedented ease due to its preeminent infrastructure.

A century of war, ended in a day

When war broke out against Myrrh to the north, Lady Chasmatus closed its gates to all outsiders for a century...

Generations of ceaseless war reached a cataclysmic climax when the spontaneous eruption of Lady Chasmatus brought a sudden and absolute end to the War of Silver Brittle, shattering the Chasmadian Empire in the process. It is assumed that the entire mountain's population (roughly 500,000) died instantly. Many of the Stonesole lords from across the Empire had retreated to the capital for safety during the War, and most—if not all—of the highest nobility were among the casualties. 

                    - Download 'Gates of Chasmatus' battlemap for free on our Patreon page!

Now, in the time of ESSENCE, Chasmadia is a scattered assortment of bickering city states with no true ruler. But a great and secret power still lies dormant in the depths of Lady Chasmatus, and only one wielding great power may enter and redeem this smoldering ruin...

Have a great weekend everyone! More to come soon!

:) CSRPG

Welcome & thank you for an incredible start!
8 months ago – Sun, Oct 19, 2025 at 10:28:04 AM

Hello, dear backers! 

Thank you so much for a fantastic start to the campaign! Sitting at 60% funded, we're well on our way to being able to fully produce Essence Board Game - just as we've dreamed. Thank you for your support and for sharing with your friends. It is incredibly humbling to have so many people invested in this project's success and we can't wait to play Essence with everyone!

This is our first Kickstarter project and it's been jam packed with new experiences. Now that the dust has settled a bit, we want to provide project updates throughout the rest of the campaign and bring you more into the fantasy world where Essence is set.

First an overview: Below is the original world map. You can see little Moltania perched above the Jeronian Sea, and Lady Chasmatus standing resolute. The initial idea was for Essence to span this entire map, with Moltania filling only a small section. We quickly decided that was too ambitious and that we wouldn't be able to do justice to the stories we wanted to tell in each corner of the world.

So we zoomed in on Moltania and began to manipulate the regional map to work for the game, changing names and optimizing the geography. 

The races in Moltania are known as the "Isyl," hailing from the lush forests of Myrrh, and the "Stonesoles," hailing from volcanic and mountainous Chasmadia. Although these races are inspired by elves and dwarves, we did not want them to be elves and dwarves, because these labels come with too many preconceived notions... more on that later! 

We are thinking about integrating one of these maps into one of our stretch goals as a poster. Speaking of STRETCH GOALS, stay tuned. We'll be releasing a list of stretch goals later this week in the case that we exceed our funding goal! 

That's all for now! Please reach out with any questions about the project or to connect with us further. You can find us on Facebook or Instagram @cosmicstewrpg for more informal updates and to connect with our community. Thank you for being here!! :)

Landon & Cosmic Stew RPG