Reward tier shipped: The Catalog So Far
4 months ago
– Mon, Feb 02, 2026 at 09:26:31 AM
Venerators!
We're in the groove now: arrivals confirming, workflow accelerating, packages leaving the house.
Behold the entirety of the Catalog So Far reward tier, loaded into my late grandfather's beer cooler and delivered en masse to the post office. Imagine standing behind me in line while I insist that the clerk scan every package, even though they're all prepaid, so I can leave with a wizard-scroll receipt that would make CVS talk shit. I assume that Balto will deliver some of these, given their destinations and this winter's average temp (I hope you're all staying warm).
Anyway, blessed be my wife for her help and all of you, as always, for your patience. Soon this will be done, and I will give myself permission to work on anything else.
Discord link again for anyone interested.
In touch again soon,
James
Fulfilling rewards while selling my house
4 months ago
– Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 07:32:34 AM
Venerators,
Quick update because I loathe the idea of anyone worrying or wondering about their delivery:
- The first wave of rewards (Physical Edition only) are out and should have reached their backers by now
- I'm currently selling my house and juggling contractors, and this work stomped into my life like a kaiju
- I hope to get another wave of deliveries out within the next week
Thank you a thousand times for your patience, and in touch as always,
James
First wave of physical rewards are in the mail
5 months ago
– Fri, Jan 02, 2026 at 01:36:10 PM
Venerators, most patient of backers,
If you ordered the physical, base edition of Shrines and nothing else—in other words, the Physical Edition reward tier with no add-ons—your package is in the mail. You should receive an email from PirateShip on or around your package's postmarked date of next Tuesday, 1/6.
I want you to know that I shunned the "Trust me, bro" mail slots and handed these directly to a post office employee like a nervous parent, or a Rebel Alliance soldier passing the Death Star plans through a Corellian corvette door, and that everything went perfectly.
This is my first time fulfilling more than a handful of orders at once, so the whole workflow is new. I thank you all again for more patience than I'm sure you expected to need. I have many harsh words for myself about how long this took and will do many things differently next time (more on that in the inevitable retrospective).
For everyone whose order includes SANCTUM, the Hallowed Edition of Shrines, and/or a shirt, you're up next! I'll be moving wave by wave through the remaining orders from least to most-complex, updating you each time here.
In touch again soon,
James
Addresses locked, cards charged, packing underway
6 months ago
– Sat, Nov 29, 2025 at 12:25:18 PM
Short update this time, venerators.
Physical Fulfillment
Assuming you've completed your BackerKit survey, we're assembling your package, we know where it's going, and we've collected your payment for the journey.
We're packaging all rewards in post-consumer recycled and compostable envelopes, as promised. Soon these will depart, and when that happens I'll notify everyone via BackerKit with tracking info.
If you have NOT completed your BackerKit survey, as appears true for 16% of you, please follow this survey recovery link. We'll circle back for you after this first push.
Discord Link
Also as requested, here's a fresh link to the EM|NCD Discord server. See you there!
Printing complete. Physical fulfillment begins.
7 months ago
– Sun, Oct 26, 2025 at 11:02:12 AM
Venerators,
This week, the printer sent me a magical email, and shortly thereafter I handed them a very large check.
Printing Complete
Behold two of the many, many boxes that I received and which I've stacked like temple blocks beside my desk.
Behold what they contain.
Shrines: Sites of Reverence & Power
How odd to see, in physical space, a project that resisted its own birth for so long. What an obstinant book. What a specific and altogether finished piece of art.
SANCTUM
In the end, Shrines took so long that I had time to revise SANCTUM ahead of its reprinting.
The copies you'll all receive feature covers that actually tell you something (it turns out pretentious secrecy sucks for retail), a new Prologue section (optional like the Epilogue) for high-level worldbuilding context, a new piece of art for the Epilogue, and refined layout in general.
These feel pretty definitive, and I'm glad you all get them first.
Pilgrimage (system card)
You may recall from a previous update that I distilled Shrines' Pilgrimage system, which occupies 5 pages of the Gameplay Mechanics section, into a little A6 worksheet card that players can mark up alongside their character sheets.
I plan to sell these separately when booth-vending at cons, local art markets, and so on, but I'm including one with every copy of the book for all of you.
I think they look pretty cool! May your characters undergo interesting changes on their journeys.
Physical Fulfillment
There's only one thing to say here: it's time to put these in the mail.
My wife and I have a few afternoons of work ahead of us, and we both just started survival jobs (the video game industry and public education both imploded in the US), so please extend your patience just a little while longer. I expect this to take multiple waves.
In the meantime, it looks like 19% of you haven't confirmed your shipping details yet on BackerKit, so please do bang that out. If you've lost the email, here's a link to recover the survey.
Thank you, thank you, and in touch again soon,
James
