Aethermark — One Run. Never Reprinted. Built to Remember.

AETHERMARK

One run. Never reprinted. Built to remember.

The First Flame Ember set — real, printed cards, laid out on the Aethermark playmat. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

Aethermark is a hybrid tabletop game — a fast card duel and a campaign roleplaying game sharing one collection of cards. It is designed, playable, and tested. This campaign is how we bring it fully to life with you: manufacturing it to a high standard in a single audited run that will never be reprinted, and building the feature that makes it unlike anything else — cards designed to remember every battle they survive.

Straight with you from the first line: the card game is real and playable today. The single audited print run is a promise we can keep with total certainty. The technology that will let your cards remember their history is what we're building with your support. We believe in being honest about what's finished and what's ahead — and both are worth backing.

Two promises run through everything below. One: what we make, we make once. Two: what you play, your cards are built to remember.

Your cards will remember.

Imagine picking up a card ten years from now and asking it where it's been.

Every serialized Aethermark card is designed to carry a secure NFC chip — the same banknote-grade technology that makes currency almost impossible to counterfeit. Tap it with your phone, and the card will answer:

• The battles it fought.
• The campaigns it survived.
• The Wardens who carried it into war.
• Every hand that owned it before yours.

The chip proves the card is real. A registry we're building holds its story. Together they will do something no trading card has ever done: two copies of the same card stop being the same card. One of them was there — and it can prove it. A card that fought through a championship, survived a three-year Saga campaign, and passed through four collectors' hands becomes worth more than a mint one that never left the binder. Not because it's rarer. Because it remembers.

This is the feature that makes Aethermark unlike anything else on a game table — and it's the one your backing builds.

Our validated chip and antenna, visible in a transparent test card. The same technology that will be embedded in the final cards

Here's exactly where it stands, in plain terms. The card game is real and playable today. The memory system is our development goal — the thing this campaign funds. The chip and the app rely on proven, existing technology; our work is bringing them together into Aethermark's cards and putting the system into production. We'll build it in the open, show you our progress at every step, and roll the provenance features out to you as they come online. You're not buying a finished feature — you're funding the first cards in history that were built to remember. The game, you can play now. The memory, we build together.

Proof it's real — the game in your hands

The printed rulebook and the full card set — everything you need to sit down and play. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

This isn't a concept. It's a finished, playable game we've been testing across full matches. The cards are printed and cut. The rulebook is written. The playmat, the dice, the deck sigils — it all exists. What you're backing is the campaign to manufacture it to a professional standard, in one audited run, and to build the memory system that makes these cards unlike any others.

A hand of Ember cards mid-duel. Fifteen-minute games, no bad-luck losses — any card can be channelled as energy. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

One audited run. Closed forever. This is the heart of it.

Every card carries the First Flame mark. When this run closes, it closes forever. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

This is the promise at the centre of Aethermark, and we can make it with total certainty, because it is entirely in our hands.

Aethermark is produced in a single, fixed print run. We manufacture the cards, have the quantities independently audited by a third-party accounting firm, named at launch, and published to the exact number, and then the run is closed permanently — no card is ever reprinted. What exists, exists. There will never be a "second edition" that floods the market and quietly erases the value of what you own.

Most trading card games print forever — reprinting popular cards, releasing "improved" versions that make last year's collection obsolete. We are doing the opposite. The number is fixed, verified, and final.

And scarcity never means power. Every card's abilities exist at common rarity — a budget deck can beat any collection at the table. Rare and premium versions differ only in finish and serial number, never in strength. You never pay for an advantage; you choose how you want to own the game.

The rarity tiers — a fixed, honest ladder

Because the run is closed, every scarcity number below is final and verifiable:

• Standard cards — the workhorses of the game, uncapped within the run, the same cards anyone can play and win with.
• Forged Rare — a fixed, limited number of each, serialized.
• Mythic — far scarcer still, each a numbered collector edition.
• Singularities — 30 true one-of-a-kind cards. Not "rare." Singular. Thirty cards in the entire run of which exactly one of each will ever exist, seeded through the collection. When one is found, there is no other.

No tier is stronger than another in play. The ladder is about how rare a card is and the story it can carry — never about winning. Scarcity you can trust, because the run is audited and then it is closed.

Saga Mode: a Warden, a d20, and the rulebook. The same cards you duel with are the cards you adventure with. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

Two games, one collection

Saga Mode is the campaign game: create a Warden, bond elemental creatures, and adventure through a story for 2-5 players, led by a Forgemaster (game master). Clash Mode is the duel: 40-card decks, roughly 15-minute games, no game master needed. The same physical cards are used in both modes, with no conversion.

Raise a creature through a Saga campaign, then bring it to a Clash duel. One collection, two ways to play — and one continuous history, because the cards are built to remember both.

Nerion, Keeper of Depths — a Tide Warden. Wardens lead your deck in Clash and your character in Saga. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

How Clash plays

Any card in your hand can become energy, so you're never stuck with a dead draw. Summon creatures (Aetherkin), evolve them by "Awakening" a larger form onto a smaller one — which lets it act again the same turn — and attack the enemy Warden until their Vitality reaches zero.

Six elements, each with its own playstyle: aggressive Ember, controlling Tide, and four more, each winning a different way. Simple to learn, deep to master. We've built and playtested the first elements, and our print-and-play cards are available so you can try the real game yourself before you back (see the FAQ).
 

Print and Play — a full set of the print and play Ember deck and Rule book, the same files used by our Playtesters.

Pyrelord — a Stage III Ember Aetherkin. Cost, element, art, keywords, ATK and HP, all on one clean frame. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

The printed rulebook. Our commitments aren't marketing lines — they're written into the game. (place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

The Constitution — how Aethermark is governed

Aethermark is built on a short set of promises we hold ourselves to. We call it the Constitution, and it is the same in spirit as the audited run: commitments fully within our control that we make without qualification.

• Rarity never confers power. Every ability exists at common rarity. No card wins because it cost more.
• The run is closed and audited. What we make, we make once, and we publish the exact number.
• The game is developed in the open, with its players. Backers have a real voice in how it grows.
• The story and the world belong to the community as much as to us — future chapters will be shaped, designed, and illustrated with the people who play.

These aren't marketing lines. They're the rules we're binding ourselves to, and we'd rather be held to them publicly than quietly break them later.

The Veil — a mystery woven through the cards

There is more to Aethermark than the duel and the campaign. Hidden across the cards, the art, and the world of Vharn is a mystery — a puzzle for those who look closely, a story that reaches beyond the table for the players who want to chase it. We won't say more here. That's rather the point.

Somewhere in the lore of Vharn stands the Hidden Forge, where the first cards were said to be made. The myth of it runs through the whole game. What it means, and what waits for those who follow the trail, is something we'll reveal to our community over time — not on this page.

If you like your games with a secret at the bottom of them, Aethermark has one.

(place holder art shown - final illustrations by human artists)

Made with real artists

The final card art will be created by human illustrators — some drawn from our own community through open art competitions, credited by name on the cards. We believe the people who play Aethermark should help make it. No AI-generated art in the finished game.

Built with our players

We're developing Aethermark in the open. Backers get access to our community, early rules, playtesting, and a real say in how the game grows — including designing cards and artwork for future chapters. This isn't a finished game we're selling you; it's a game we're building with you — made once, built to remember, and shaped together.

Risks and challenges

Aethermark is ambitious, and we want to be honest about where we are.

The card game is designed and playable now — that part is real. The work ahead is manufacturing the cards to a high standard, and developing and integrating the NFC provenance system and companion app. These rely on proven, existing technologies, but bringing them together in our own product is real engineering that takes time. Manufacturing, chip integration, app development, and fulfillment all carry timelines that can shift.

We'd rather under-promise and over-deliver than the reverse. We'll keep backers updated honestly at every step — including when things are harder or slower than hoped. The single audited print run, the no-reprint promise, the Constitution, and the human-made art are commitments fully within our control, and we stand behind them without qualification. The provenance system is our build goal, and we'll show our work as we go.

The Forge lights once. Back the First Flame.