MORANA: The Open Grave | a Slavic-folklore card game

THE MORANA PROMISE

One box. Every card. No blind packs.

A small box with every card in it, and a duel that respects your head.

MORANA has no blind packs. Every box prints its full card list. You always know exactly what you are buying. No gambling mechanics exist anywhere in this game.

No blind packs, no gambling Nothing you open is a gamble. There are no odds to beat.
One complete box Every card of HYBRIS, all 206, in a single box.
Buy exactly what you want The full card list is printed and published, so you always know what is inside.
The Same-Card Guarantee Every copy of a card is the same card. Treatments change the finish, never the text, the stats, or your odds.

What fixed distribution means → A card game without booster packs →

Chernobog's Barrow: a lone raven on a standing stone above an open grave lit blood-red, ringed by menhirs beneath a blood moon — Chernobog's Barrow · The Open Grave

The Wheel Comes Full Circle

Sixty-two spirits file past.Nothing that dies stays dead.

Every face in the procession is a card you will hold, lose to the grave, and raise again stranger than it fell. One box holds them all. The grave is open.

62Spirits1Box0Boosters

Join the Founders' List

SET I · THE FLAGSHIP

HYBRIS: The Height and the Fall

The die that never rolls. It only climbs.

HYBRIS is the first set of MORANA, The Open Grave: 206 cards built on the oldest Greek warning, that to reach too high is to write your own fall. Gods, heroes, and monsters climb for the Heights while a single Die rises toward the reckoning waiting at its summit; and when they fall they are not gone, but pass into the Open Grave, where the dead can still rise again. Nothing here is left to chance, you always know how high you stand, and how far there is to drop.

Rarity and foil

Five rarities, one clean ladder: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, Legendary. Of the 206 cards, 52 are Rare or better, and every one of them prints as a true foil: fifty-two foils in the set, every Rare, every Super Rare, every Legendary. Commons and Uncommons build your decks; the foils are the ones that catch the light, and the ones you frame. The ladder runs one hundred Commons, fifty-four Uncommons, thirty Rares, fifteen Super Rares and seven Legendaries, and those seven are the four Wardens plus Achilles, Medusa and Zeus.

How the Hybris Die works

Every duel runs six runes, and across them a Die climbs, it never rolls. Win a fight and it climbs a face. Push into the Heights, faces four and five, and it pays you at the end of every rune you can hold there, the glory that wins the game. But one step past the Heights is the summit, and the summit is the Great Fall: your greatest Spirit goes down, and the Die drops back to nothing. It is all in the open: no dice are thrown, no odds are hidden, only one face-down play a turn. You are never gambling on the climb. You are choosing, with your eyes open, exactly how far to push.

What is in the box

And you always know what is in the box. HYBRIS is a fixed set: no blind packs, no gambling for the card you want. The full 206 is printed, named, and laid open, so what you buy is what you get, no more and no less. A duel is two players and three Sites, twenty cards plus one Warden each, over six runes. Every card in the set is legal in any deck, and nothing in it is sold by chance. The only thing you climb here is the Die.

THREE SETS · ONE CHASSIS · SWITCH AND EXPLORE

The Cards

Hover to catch the light, click any card to read it full size, tap the ✦ for its foil finish, and tap the ↻ to turn the card and see its back. Switch between the sets below: HYBRIS, the Greek-myth set, leads; The First Turning is the Slavic set, its Rare and Legendary shining in foil; and The Old Tales is an early look at how the world scales next. One card chassis across every set, only the palette shifts.

Every card wears the Crowned Stag

The branded back: a crowned stag skull wreathed in red rowan and ash beneath the turning wheel, gold on midnight, tournament-legal matte finish. One back across every set, every edition, forever.

See the card back up close →

Foil all 62 cards

THE FIVE RARITIESThe gem at the foot of every card grows richer as rarity climbs; the top three tiers (Rare, Super Rare, Legendary) print FOILED. A collector tier only, never power: every card is in every box.

CommonFolkmatte marble, flat

UncommonCharmedbronze, a faint sheen

Rare FOILBlessedsilver, a soft foil shimmer

Super Rare FOILHallowedgold, a strong holo shimmer

Legendary FOIL № NUMBEREDMythicprismatic rainbow foil, numbered and cert-ready · one per deck

Like what you see? Join the Founders' List →

THE BATTLE MATS · COLLECTIBLE ALT ART

Playmats

Battle mats from the world of MORANA: cinematic key art of the gods, the beasts and the Open Grave itself, each scene rendered in multiple alt-art variants. Play the rite on the world it came from.

THE TURNING

The Legend of Morana

Before the first winter, the wheel turned clean. Yav, the living world of breath and soil, rose and set inside Prav, the divine order that keeps every season in its rightful place. Beneath both lay Nav, the world of the dead, a still black water where the finished went to rest and did not stir.

Morana kept the seam. She is the goddess of winter and of death, and she is also their end. Each year they drown her effigy in the river, and each year she does not stay drowned. She rises with the thaw, green at the edges, and the world remembers how to begin again. She is not the frost. She is the turning that outlives it.

Then the wheel cracked. Through that crack the three worlds bled into one another, and Nav broke its banks. The dead, who had lain face-up and quiet, found the road back to the light open, and they walked it. Now the finished are not finished. A spirit felled in the light sinks into Nav in plain sight of all, and rises again wearing a colder, stranger power than the one it died with.

So the Wardens are called: folk-heroes who still carry a name worth dying under. They contest the sacred Sites where the wheel is thinnest, and turn it by hand toward the spring, or toward the long dark.

Nothing here is hidden but a single held breath. Everything already dead is watching.

YAV · NAV · PRAV

Three worlds, and you touch all of them in one game

Yav is the living, Nav is the dead, and Prav is the turning order that binds them. Your cards begin in the light, cross into the dark, and answer to the wheel above both.

The three worlds: Yav the sunlit living village, Prav the golden turning wheel among the stars, and Nav the underworld of drifting spirits

YavThe living world, where your Spirits enter play in the light and the game is won across three sacred Sites.

NavThe underworld, lying face-up for both players. The fallen wait here and return Reborn, stranger than they died. This is the Open Grave.

PravThe turning order above both. Each turn the wheel moves, Embers rise, and the year bends toward spring, or toward the long dark.

Eight of the sixty-two cards of the First Turning · one hand, one style, one world

Baba Yaga in furious flight through the midnight pines, riding her mortar, her hut sprinting behind her on chicken legs past a fence of skull lanterns — Baba Yaga

The Firebird waking in the tsar's midnight garden, a cascade of golden flame beneath the golden apples — The Firebird

Koschei the Deathless on his towering bone throne, raising the tiny needle that holds his death — Koschei the Deathless

Zmey Gorynych descending through the night sky, torrents of flame braiding down onto a burning steppe village — Zmey Gorynych

A Rusalka rising from black midnight water beneath a drowned willow, beckoning under the moon — The Rusalka

The Vodyanoy Deep King holding court beneath the river, crowned with river pearls among drowned church bells — The Deep King

Dedushka the Hearthkeeper cradling a single glowing ember in cupped hands before the stone hearth — Dedushka the Hearthkeeper

Matushka Zima, Mother Winter, in white furs and a frost crown, holding the sleeping seeds that will live to see the spring — Matushka Zima

SET I · HYBRIS · THE DEBUT

The height, and the fall

206 cards of Greek myth, fully illustrated and going to press first. Gods, heroes and monsters climb for the Heights while the Die rises toward the reckoning at its summit, and the fallen cross into the Open Grave to rise again. Fixed distribution, so the full card list is printed and published. No blind packs, no chase economy, no pay-to-win.

Back the print run Investor overview

The HYBRIS box: a winged figure falling across a gold sun on deep teal, marked SET I, with the words The Height and the Fall and 206 cards plus 6 tokens

411Cards revealed

12Signature Series

3Sets

~15Minutes

13Slava to win

THE CALLING · SIX RUNES · ONE FATE

Which spirit keeps your house?

Before you choose a hand, let the old world choose you. Answer six runes the way you would answer at midnight, honestly and a little afraid. The spirit that claims you will name your hand and your place in the rite.

THE BOXES · PRICING WHEN THE CAMPAIGN OPENS

The Treasury

Every tier is fixed distribution: you know exactly what is inside before you open it. Skill over wallet, always. Final pricing is set when the campaign opens, and the raise funds the first print.

◆

THE DEBUT · SET I · HYBRIS

This is what the campaign funds and prints first: HYBRIS, the 206-card Greek set. Three products, and there is deliberately no fourth. None of them is a booster, because there is no product here in which you do not know what you are getting.

Icarus falling, wings scattering, from the HYBRIS set

Ember

Price set at launch

PRINT & PLAYPLAY TONIGHT

The full rules and a print-at-home deck. Start playing tonight while the boxes go to press.

THE ANCHOR

Prometheus bound, from the HYBRIS set: the Warden who leads the Climb deck

The Duel Starter

Price set at launch

READY TO PLAY2 PLAYERS46 CARDS

The whole game in a box: The Climb and The Open Grave, two ready-to-play twenty-card decks, the Hybris Die, tokens and the rulebook. Nothing to build, nothing to buy first. Where most founders start.

The HYBRIS box: a winged figure falling across a gold sun on deep teal, with the Set I mark and the words The Height and the Fall

The Complete Set

Price set at launch

ALL 206 CARDS+6 TOKENSONE OF EACH

Every card in HYBRIS, one copy of each, plus the six tokens three cards need to be played as printed. The full list is published, so you can count what is in the box before you pay for it.

Hades enthroned in the underworld, one of the four HYBRIS Wardens

The Warden Singles

Price set at launch

SOLD BY NAMENO CHASE4 WARDENS

The Three Fates, Nemesis, Hades and Prometheus, sold one at a time by name. This is how you get the two Wardens the Duel Starter does not hold, without buying the whole set. The honest replacement for a chase card: the chase exists, and you simply buy the one you are chasing. Never numbered, never capped.

AFTER THE DEBUT · SET II · THE FIRST TURNING

The Slavic set, designed, balanced and fully illustrated, and playable free in your browser today. Its boxes follow HYBRIS to press.

The Koliada Gift Box

£35 planned

GIFT READYEXCLUSIVE FOIL PROMO10 SLEEVES

The whole game, wrapped as a gift. All 62 cards and two ready decks, a bundle-exclusive foil Morana, ten branded sleeves and a magnetic deck box, in a ribboned presentation box. A promo you cannot get any other way, and you know exactly what is inside before you give it. Cosmetic only, never a stronger card.

The Reliquary

£75 planned

ALL 62 HOLO FOILOPEN EDITIONNO NUMBER, NO CHASE

Every card of the First Turning in holo foil, for the player who wants the whole set to shine. Open edition, printed to demand, never numbered and never capped. The foil is for everyone. Only the number is ever scarce, and that is the point.

The Turning Wheel

£100 planned

FULL HOLO FOIL12 SIGNED, NUMBEREDLIMITED FIRST EDITION

All 62 in holo foil, the 12 signature-series cards in gold-framed borderless art with a printed artist signature, and a numbered certificate. The signatures span every role, a Common Rusalka beside Legendary Koschei, because the honor is the art, never the power. Struck to order as a numbered, limited edition, and the first print is the only first edition.

The Ancestor

£250 planned

HEIRLOOM CHESTNUMBERED, LIMITEDNAME IN THE RULEBOOK

Everything in the Turning Wheel, with the playmat, the dice of the old gods, a serialized brass wheel medallion, a signed numbered certificate, and your name on the Ancestor Wall. A numbered, limited first edition.

The Sacred Grove

Trade for stores

WHOLESALERETAIL CASE

A launch case of Duel Starters and Complete Sets for game stores, with demo copies. Retailers, write to us.

A rolled MORANA neoprene playmat with a gold turning wheel and moonlit birch forest on midnight navy

Playmat of Three Worlds

£19 pledge add-on

STITCHED EDGETHE BOARD IS THE LORE

Yav, Nav and Prav in one battlefield. Add it to any pledge.

The Chronicle Album

£29 pledge add-on

NINE-POCKETHOLDS 180

Deep-teal and gold, nine-pocket pages to hold and show your set. Add it to any pledge.

FOR BACKERS & INVESTORS

One Raise. One Print Run.

The game is designed, balanced and fully illustrated. Your backing takes it to press.

$8-13Bglobal TCG market, by industry estimates

100%of the launch set designed, balanced and illustrated

1lean print run, funded in one focused campaign: fixed contents, no blind-pack inventory risk

0licensed franchises: built on public-domain folklore, so no license fees and no licensor veto

What we need

Printing & boxes57%

Freight & customs18%

Fulfilment & packing15%

Platform & fees10%

A single lean print run of HYBRIS, shown here as the share of the raise each part takes. Every unit is pre-claimed before it is printed: zero inventory risk. The funding goal is set when the campaign opens.

What backers get

Ember print and play, start tonight
The Duel Starter the full game, two ready decks, 46 cards
The Complete Set every card in HYBRIS, all 206, plus 6 tokens
£100 The Turning Wheel: full holo foil, 12 signature cards, a numbered limited edition
£250 The Ancestor: the heirloom chest, a numbered limited edition, your name in the rulebook

Fixed distribution: every tier is a complete, known product. No blind packs, no gambling.

What investors get

A finished, balanced, illustrated game: the risky creative work is already done
A ten-set, world-spanning roadmap across public-domain folklore: no license fees, no licensor veto
Fixed-distribution economics: print-to-demand, no unsold-inventory graveyard
First conversation on retail, wholesale and localization rights

The crowdfund proves demand; the follow-on conversation is about scale.

Back the print run Request the investor deck

THE FIRST TURNING · RADIANT HALF

The Bright Thaw

The same broken wheel, its light pouring back up. The Bright Thaw is the radiant half of the First Turning: twenty-four Slavic wonder-tale cards, the Firebird and the Sea-Tsar and the fern-flower, drawn in a lush painterly hand. A few of their faces, below.

The Firebird, Zhar-PtitsaWarden · Legendary

The Undersea PalaceSite · Uncommon

Sivka-Burka, the Sun-Maned HorseSpirit · Rare

The Fern-FlowerCharm · Uncommon

A first look at the Bright Thaw. See all 24 cards of the radiant half →

SET III · FIRST LOOK

The Old Tales

A glimpse further down the road: Set III, The Old Tales, is already designed and illustrated in its own painterly hand. A few of its faces, below.

The Wolf in Grandmother's GuiseSpirit · Legendary

Wolves of the Winter WoodSpirit · Rare

The NightingaleSpirit · Rare

The Three Bears, Come HomeSpirit · Rare

A first look at the Old Tales. See all 119 cards of Set III in the gallery →

SET I · HYBRIS206 cards · fully illustrated, going to print

SET II · THE FIRST TURNING+62 cards · designed, balanced & illustrated

THE BRIGHT THAW · RADIANT HALF+24 cards · fully illustrated companion to Set II

SET III · THE OLD TALES+119 cards · designed, in balance testing

SET IV · DER IRRWEG+120 cards · planned

411cards revealed, all fixed distribution

The great wheel of MORANA, world-folklore figures turning on its rim

TEN WORLDS, ONE WHEEL · EACH WORLD ITS OWN HAND

The wheel turns through every childhood on earth

MORANA begins in Slavic myth, but the wheel keeps turning. Every future set is another nation's beloved public-domain fables, the ones you grew up with, and each world is drawn in its own hand: the First Turning's dark folk plates belong to Set II alone, and every world to come gets an art style born from its own tradition. A player in Berlin meets the Grimm wolf; a player in Tokyo meets the nine-tailed fox. Ten worlds, one game, all built on stories that belong to everyone.

Early concept previews · sets II to X · final style locks when each world enters the forge

Concept card: the wolf in grandmother's guise, from the Brothers Grimm — Germany · GrimmThe Wolf in Grandmother's Guise

Concept card: Medusa of the stone gaze, from Greek myth — Greece · Classical MythMedusa of the Stone Gaze

Concept card: Fenrir the fettered wolf, from the Norse Eddas — Scandinavia · The EddasFenrir the Fettered

Concept card: the nine-tailed kitsune, from Japanese folklore — Japan · Yokai FolkloreThe Nine-Tailed Kitsune

Concept card: the djinn of the lamp, from One Thousand and One Nights — Arabia · 1001 NightsThe Djinn of the Lamp

Concept card: the Headless Horseman, from Sleepy Hollow — America · Sleepy HollowThe Headless Horseman

Concept card: the Tortoise and the Hare, from Aesop's fables — Greece · AesopThe Tortoise and the Hare

Concept card: Anansi the story-weaver, from West African folklore — West Africa · AkanAnansi the Story-Weaver

Concept card: the Master Cat, Puss in Boots, from Perrault — France · PerraultThe Master Cat

Concept card: the selkie of the northern isles, from Celtic folklore — British Isles · CelticThe Selkie's Lament

Concept card: Sun Wukong the Monkey King, from Journey to the West — China · Journey to the WestSun Wukong, the Monkey King

Concept card: the Simurgh, from the Persian Shahnameh — Persia · ShahnamehThe Simurgh

Concept card: the Blue Jackal, from the Panchatantra — India · PanchatantraThe Blue Jackal

Concept card: Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent, from Mesoamerican myth — Mesoamerica · Aztec MythQuetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent

Early concept art in the MORANA house style. Ten sets, one wheel: Slavic first, then the whole world's old stories, all fixed distribution, all yours.

The Ten Turnings, already mapped

I · The First TurningSlavic & Balkan · the launch set

II · The Old TalesThe world's fairy tales · first expansion

III · Der IrrwegGrimm & Germanic

IV · HybrisGreek myth & Aesop

V · FimbulvetrNorse Ragnarok

VI · The Glamour of AvalonCeltic & French

VII · Thousand LampsArabian & Persian

VIII · The Frame TaleIndian fable

IX · Akuma no MatsuriJapanese & Chinese

X · The Great Council FireAmericas & Africa, the finale

Claim your place in the founding →

ALREADY IN THE FORGE

The next Turnings are already being drawn

The ten-set saga is not a wish list. The sets after the Old Tales are designed, and their cards are being illustrated in the same hand. A first look at three of them.

III · Der IrrwegGrimm · the wayward path

The crack spreads into the dark German forest, where some things lost among the trees never come back the same.

IV · HybrisGreek myth · trials of Olympus

Olympus discovers the Turning too. Gods, monsters, and mortals who reach a little too high for the gods' patience.

V · FimbulvetrNorse · the Ragnarok cycle

The long winter before the end. The gods themselves prepare to fall, and to see what returns.

VI · The Glamour of AvalonCeltic · the mists of Avalon

Avalon's mist rises over Britain and France, where a bargain with a fair creature always carries a hidden price.

VII · Tales of the Thousand LampsArabian & Persian

Under a thousand desert stars, wishes are granted and a good story can save a life. Djinn, rocs, and the birds of paradise.

VIII · The Frame TaleIndian folklore

A story inside a story inside a story. The clever beasts of the Panchatantra and the jewelled creatures of the sacred rivers.

IX · Akuma no MatsuriJapanese & Chinese

The hundred-demon night parade. Yokai, oni, and the dragon-kings of the eastern seas walk between the worlds.

Ryujin the Dragon King — Ryujin, the Dragon King

X · The Great Council FireAmericas & Africa · the finale

Every world's council-fire turns out to be the same fire. The tricksters and feathered gods gather, and the wheel comes full circle.

Back the first Turning, and the wheel keeps turning →

THE SETTING

Three Worlds, One Wheel

Slavic cosmology has three realms, and in MORANA the board is those realms. The wheel of the year turns; when the rites lapse, the dead press against the veil.

YAV

The living world. Three sacred Sites stand between the Wardens: an old oak, a sunken church, a crossroads at midnight. Hold them, and the rites are yours.

NAV

The underworld. Not a graveyard: an open, waiting country. Every Spirit that falls crosses here face-up, and can be Reborn with a second, stranger life.

PRAV

The law of the heavens. The measure of Slava (glory). Complete the rites and climb Prav toward the turning of the wheel. First to thirteen holds the year.

The Hearth

The warm keepers: fire, home, the honored dead, the guardian at the door. Patient and unyielding, their fallen return stronger. Warden: Dedushka the Hearthkeeper.

The Wild

The cold powers: drowned rivers, black forests, the winter that is a person. They drag Spirits under and weaponize the underworld. Warden: the Deep King, who leads the Deep Devours deck.

FIFTEEN MINUTES, THIRTEEN SLAVA

Two Wardens. Three Sites. One wheel to turn.

You and a rival contest three sacred places, gaining more Embers every turn so you are never starved of power. Hold a Site to earn Slava, reach thirteen, and the wheel turns in your favor. One page of rules, a lifetime of decisions. No dice, no mana screw, no pay-to-win.

Secretly play cards to three places. Reveal together. More Power holds a place and scores a point. First to 13 wins.

That is the whole game, in about fifteen minutes. No dice, no mana screw, no pay-to-win.

Step 1

Commit

Both players place cards face-down at the three Sites, at the same moment.

Step 2

Reveal

Flip at once. More Power holds the Site and earns you +1 Slava (glory).

Step 3

The Turning

The loser does not die. It crosses to Nav, your underworld, and can return stronger.

How to read a card

2Cost: the Embers you pay to play it.
4Power: holds Sites, and is how hard it is to defeat.
!Omen: happens the moment the card is revealed.
↻Reborn: its second life, once it returns from Nav.
↻The little wheel means a second life is waiting below. A card's rarity gem is just for looks, never power.

1234567

On Turn 4 you have 4 Embers. Power just rises every turn. You are never starved and never flooded. Skill wins, not the shuffle.

The loop itself: commit together, flip together, and the fallen cross face up.

The Old Oak: a colossal sacred oak skirted with votive ribbons and offerings, dawn light behind the pines — The Old Oakwhere the living still leave offerings

The Sunken Church: a half-drowned wooden church with an onion-dome spire rising from a still grey lake — The Sunken Churchits bells still ring under the water

The Crossroads at Midnight: a leaning wooden marker at a moonlit forest fork, offerings left in the snow — The Crossroadswhere the worlds touch at midnight

NEW TO CARD GAMES?

Learn in 5 minutes. No rulebook.

Your first game is scripted move-by-move for both players. By turn three you have already felt the Turning: a spirit dies and comes back stronger. Then the training wheels come off. Easy to learn, built for 14+, less reading, more playing.

The browser duel is ranked: win to climb six ranks, from Wanderer to the Deathless. No account needed, the Grave just remembers you.

▶ Play it in your browser now Free print & play pack → The one-page rules →

MORE THAN A CARD LIST

A living game, free in your browser

No download, no account, no wallet. Open the tab and a whole game is already waiting: a foe for every mood, a solo gauntlet, a way to challenge a friend, and a ladder that remembers every win.

Three foes, one duel

Play the full duel free and choose your fight: A Timid Shade for your first wins, The Other Warden for a true match, or The Deathless when you want to be punished.

The Vigil

A solo gauntlet: a run of escalating foes on a single life. One defeat ends the vigil. See how far into the dark you can hold.

Duel a friend

Seal your four runes, send a link, and your friend plays your challenge back. No account, no server, just the two of you.

Climb the ladder

Every browser duel is ranked. Win to climb six ranks, Wanderer to the Deathless, across monthly seasons, with a live leaderboard.

Make it yours

Claim a name and a medallion avatar, and the Grave remembers you from one game to the next. Your name is enough, no email ever.

▶ Play the full game free

First to 13 Slava. About 15 minutes. Nothing hidden but one commit.

Press & investor demo: request a playtest →

TALES FROM THE TURNING · THREE FOR THE ROAD

Every card is a story someone survived

The old world does not explain itself. It tells you a story and lets you sleep on it. Three from the launch set, each one printed on a card you can read in the deck below.

TALE I · HEARTH

The Last Warm Window

There was a house that forgot to say thank you. Not once, which any spirit forgives, but every night for a year. So the Domovoi packed his beard, his bowl and the family's luck, all three fit in one bindle, and walked out into the snow. At the gate he looked back once, at the only window still lit. That is the rule with house spirits. They do not slam doors. They take the warmth with them, and you spend the rest of your life calling it winter.

Read his card: the Wandering Domovoi →

TALE II · THE WILD

The Price of a Candle

A pale hand and a clawed one met over a black candle, and the miller thought himself clever, because the bargain cost him nothing but one small yes. That is how they price it. Nothing down, and the rest when the wick is gone. He got his mill, his bride, his twenty good years, and the candle got shorter. When at last the flame sat down in the wax to rest, something knocked. Polite, patient, punctual as rent day.

Read the card: the Witch's Bargain →

TALE III · A SACRED SITE

The Bell Still Tolls

The village drowned in a spring flood, church and all, and the priest rang the bell the whole way down. Fishermen say you can hear it on quiet nights, muffled, patient, keeping a service for a congregation of the drowned. The dead rest cheaper there. It is the one place in the old world where crossing back costs less, because the bell has already paid half your fare. Bury nothing there you want to stay buried.

Read the card: the Sunken Church →

THE ROADMAP

From Founders' List to 300 Cards

One page, no fog: where the game stands, what your backing unlocks, and when it lands. The creative risk is already behind us; what remains is print and scale.

PHASE IFounders' ListOPEN NOWFree to join. We send word when the campaign opens, and now and then a note on how the game is being made. Leave at any time.

PHASE IIThe campaignA focused campaign to fund one print run of the complete set. The goal and length are set when it opens.

PHASE IIIPrint & FulfilmentOne offset print run, every unit pre-claimed. Numbered Collector's Wheels leave the press first; UK/EU ships first.

PHASE IVRetail & the Ten TurningsStore displays, organized play, and the mapped ten-set world saga begins to roll out, one country's folklore at a time. The wheel keeps turning.

DONEThe world, the rules, the deck

Set II designed, balanced and fully illustrated: 62 cards, two ready decks, a 15-minute game with real depth.

DONESet III designed, product line specced

119 Old Tales cards designed and in balance testing. Six products specced with planned RRPs, all fixed distribution.

NOWFounders' List open, playtests moving

The list below is live. Press and investor playtest kits are on request. Founders hear first when the campaign opens.

NEXTThe campaign horn sounds

A focused first-run campaign, fixed distribution. Every pound goes to the print run; the allocation is published in the Ledger above.

THENPrint, number, ship

One print run. Collector's Wheels numbered by pledge order. UK/EU fulfilment first, then worldwide.

BEYONDThe Old Tales and the Ten Turnings

Set III to print, the ten-set world saga mapped end to end (see The Atlas), organized play, and founder votes on which tales come next. A world-spanning universe, all fixed distribution.

Stretch Unlocks

GOALHYBRIS goes to press

STRETCHFoil upgrade slipped into every core box

STRETCHCloth playmat added to every Trove, Set III art sprint begins

STRETCHThe Old Tales print committed: Set III goes to press

Planned unlock ladder; final numbers lock when the campaign goes live.

THE MAKER

Who is behind MORANA

I am Delin, and I am building MORANA myself.

I grew up on Slavic folk tales: the domovoi behind the stove, the rusalka in the river, Baba Yaga in her house on chicken legs. I wanted a card game that honored those old stories and refused the thing I hated most about the hobby, paying rent money to a slot machine. So MORANA is fixed distribution. You buy the deck, you own every card, and skill decides the game.

I have designed, balanced and fully illustrated the launch set, self-funding the creative work myself. Your pledge does one thing: it funds the first print run. It is all-or-nothing, so if we do not hit the goal, nobody is charged a penny. And I answer every email personally.

But I do not want to light this fire alone. Right now, before MORANA exists in a single printed box, you have the rare chance to stand beside me and set the whole thing turning. Back it at the founding and you are not a customer, you are the reason it gets made. The earliest to join hear first when the campaign opens.

Delin

Stand beside me · join the founding Email me directly →

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BEFORE YOU BACK

Fair Questions

The things a careful backer or investor asks first, answered straight.

What is MORANA: The Open Grave?

MORANA: The Open Grave is an original two-player card game of Slavic folklore and public-domain fairy tales, in which nothing that dies stays dead: every fallen spirit crosses to the underworld and can return with a second, stranger life. It uses fixed distribution, so there are no booster packs and no random pulls, and skill decides every game. The complete 62-card First Turning is playable free in the browser.

What am I committing to by joining the Founders' List?

Nothing. It is a free list: you leave an email, we send word when the campaign opens, and now and then a note on how the game is being made. No payment, nothing binding, and you can leave at any time.

When do I actually pay?

Not here. This site takes no payment and stores no payment details, and joining the Founders' List never charges you anything. When the campaign opens, you can decide then whether to take part.

Is MORANA pay-to-win?

No, by design. Every product is fixed distribution: you know exactly which cards are in the box before you buy it. There are no blind packs and no chase economy. The Turning Wheel is the same 62 cards in foil, not stronger ones. Skill decides games, never spend.

What is a collector-exclusive card in MORANA?

There is no such thing, on purpose. Only a card's face can be exclusive to a product, never the card itself. The signature-series gold frame lives only in the Turning Wheel and the Ancestor, but the card behind it, Rusalka or Koschei or Morana, is in every Core Set, identical to play. Exclusive faces, inclusive cards.

Is the gift promo card stronger, or a chase?

Neither. The Koliada promo is a foil alternate-art face of a card that ships in every Core Set. It is not numbered and not limited, so it can never become a chase, and it plays identically. It is a nicer face of a card everyone already has.

What makes the gameplay unique?

MORANA is a game of open information with one blind move. Your defeated spirits sit face-up in Nav for both players to see, and their Reborn cost and effect are known, so you can calculate everything your opponent could bring back next turn, like reading a chessboard. The only hidden thing is the single simultaneous face-down commit at the three Sites each turn. Every game comes down to reading that one move and sequencing your own deaths, never luck of the draw. We call it the Open Grave.

Who owns the world and the characters?

MORANA is built on Slavic folklore and classic public-domain fairy tales: material with no license fees and no licensor veto. The game design, card text and art direction are original work created for MORANA.

How is the art made?

The illustrations are AI-assisted and art-directed in-house: a locked style guide, curated generation, and human selection and correction on every card. We say this openly here and will publish a full art-process disclosure with the campaign. Signature-foil treatments are printed, not hand-signed.

How do I know the game is actually good?

Read the full rules yourself: they fit one page. The launch set is designed, balanced and fully illustrated, and press and investor playtest kits are available on request. We are asking you to back a finished design going to print, not an idea.

Are the collector editions numbered and limited?

Yes. The Turning Wheel and the Ancestor are planned as numbered, limited first editions, the collector tiers where the number itself is the scarce thing, unlike the open-edition Reliquary, whose foil is for everyone. The exact print counts are set when the campaign opens, and first-edition numbers are never reprinted, so any later printing would say so on the box.

What happens after Set I?

Set II is The First Turning, 62 Slavic cards already designed, balanced and illustrated, with its radiant companion The Bright Thaw. Set III, The Old Tales, is designed too: 119 cards in balance testing, spoiled above. From there the roadmap runs to ten sets, each a world of public-domain folklore (see The Atlas above), with Founders' List members voting on which tales enter next. All fixed distribution, always.

Questions answered? Join the founding →

THE ORDER · A QUEUE, NEVER A CALENDAR

Three turns of the wheel

NOWThe Founders' List is open. Free and not binding: word when the campaign opens, and the occasional note on the making. Join the list →

THE RAISEThe campaign opens. All-or-nothing: if it does not fund, no one is charged.

AFTER THE RAISE · THE PRINTHYBRIS goes to press, and the First Turning collector editions follow it. The first print is the only first edition.

PHASE I · FOUNDERS' LIST · FREE TO JOIN

Join the Founding

No payment, and nothing binding. Leave your email and we will send word when the campaign opens, with the occasional note on how the game is being made.

Joining is free and not binding. We send word when the campaign opens, plus the occasional note on how the game is being made, and you can leave at any time. This site never takes payment.

Word when it opensNotes on the makingLeave any time

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