MORANA: The Open Grave / The Old Tales
The Old Tales is the second world of MORANA's saga: a folk-horror retelling of the fairy tales you grew up with, fully designed and illustrated as a 119-card preview. It is not the launch set. The launch game is Set II, the Slavic First Turning, which you can play free in your browser right now. The Old Tales is a finished look ahead at how the world scales, so you can see the whole shape of what MORANA becomes.
In MORANA's cosmology (see the Ten Worlds), the wheel of the year has cracked and the dead walk back. The first world is the Slavic origin of that break, home to the household spirits and drowned girls of the old faith. The second world, The Old Tales, turns to the fairy tales themselves and asks a darker question: what if the stories are not just stories. Here the folk-tales are the magic, fought over by those who would finish a tale their own way, because in this world completing a rite rewrites what is real. The same wheel turns; the myths change from the household spirits of the first world to the wolves and witches and enchanted swans of the second.
This is the country of the tales before they were made safe: the wolf in the grandmother's bed, the witch with the sugared house, the brothers turned to swans, the nightingale that sang death back out the window. The Old Tales takes the Grimm skazki and their European cousins and returns them to their teeth, drawn in its own painterly folk-horror hand. It is the same tone as the first world, grave and beautiful, pointed now at the stories everyone half-remembers from childhood.
The Old Tales' signature design idea is the Retell, the fairy-tale rule of three made mechanical: an effect that waits and then fires the third time something happens in plain view, the third spirit to a place, the third return from the Open Grave, the third step. It is pure counting on already-open information, the oldest rhythm in folklore turned into play. The 119-card preview showcases the world and its art on the same engine you already know from Set II, with a taste of the set's love of disguise and misdirection (the wolf who wears another face), while the Retell is the signature the full set is built around.
The Old Tales sorts its spirits into two houses and a handful of loners, and the split is the whole personality of the set.
The Court is power, beauty, and position: the ballroom, the palace, the tale where the right dress or the right song changes everything. The Fairy Godmother turns a lesser spirit into a giant for one evening; the Swan Brothers wear men by dark and gather strength by dawn; the Emperor's Nightingale sings a fallen friend back out of the Open Grave. The Court wins by lifting its own and holding the floor.
The Grove is deception and the wolf: the dark wood, the disguise, the trick that lands before you see it. The Wolf in Grandmother's Guise hides its face and strikes far harder when it is finally revealed; the Three Bears come home and throw the intruder out the window; the Wolves of the Winter Wood fall on two places at once; Rose-Red draws card after card from behind her warded door. The Grove wins by misdirection and sudden teeth.
The odd ones out are the neutral tales that belong to no house: the Ugly Duckling, laughed at until the turn he becomes a swan; the Nightingale, who once a game simply refuses to let a friend die, singing Death back out the window. They are the set's quiet reminder that the smallest tale often holds the sharpest turn.
The set is anchored by four storyteller Wardens and eight fairy-tale Sites (the Beanstalk you climb regardless of distance, the Troll Bridge that only lets you strike the biggest goat), all listed in the sections below.
| Omen | Fires once, when the card is revealed. |
| Vigil | An ongoing effect, on while the card is in play. |
| Reborn | The Spirit's second life: pay its Reborn cost to summon it back from Nav and fire this band. |
| Clash X | On reveal, send one enemy Spirit here with Power X or less to Nav. |
| Ward | Cannot be targeted or sent to Nav by the enemy. |
| Step | After reveal, may move to a neighboring Site. |
| Rooted | Cannot move, by you or the enemy. |
| Invocation | A Warden-only ability: pay the listed Embers to fire it, once per game. |
| Disguise N | A Set III preview keyword. The card can be committed face-down as a Guise of Power N and revealed later; its Omen fires on reveal, often stronger for having struck from hiding. |
Every Old Tale is told by a Warden who sits face-up all game and sets your school of play. Four storytellers, each with an always-on Vigil and an Invocation you buy with Embers at the turning point of the tale.
Vigil: your Spirits with Ward get +1 Power.
Invocation (4): The Belly Opened: defeat an enemy Spirit with Power 6 or less at one Site; then return 1 Spirit from your Nav to that Site for free (no Reborn trigger; counts toward your 2-Reborn cap).
Everything the wolf swallowed walked out again. The wolf did not.
Vigil: your face-down (Disguised) cards are Guises of Power 3 instead of 2.
Invocation (4): The Oven: defeat an enemy Spirit with Power 5 or less at each Site where you have a face-down card.
Come in, come in, the oven has been asking about you.
Vigil: temporary Power bonuses on your Spirits are 1 greater.
Invocation (4): The Pumpkin Coach: a friendly Spirit gets +6 Power and Ward until your next Dawn; at that Dawn, return it to your hand.
Every gift of hers is a loan, and the clock is her collector.
Vigil: at Dusk, an enemy Spirit of your choice gets -2 Power until end of turn.
Invocation (4): The White Sleigh: move an enemy Spirit with Power 7 or less to any Site; it is Rooted and its Power is set to 1 until your next turn.
Her first kiss numbs, her second makes you forget; she is saving the third.
The Old Tales are fought over three Sites drawn from these eight: the oven and the well, the tower and the thorn-hedge, every one a place where a story turns. Learn the ground and you know the tale before the first card falls.
Spirits may Step to or from this Site regardless of adjacency (just climb).
It goes up forever. What comes down is the problem.
Clash at this Site can only target the highest-Power Spirit here.
'Wait for my brother,' said the smallest goat. 'He is fatter.'
At Dusk, if exactly one player has Spirits here, that player gains +1 extra Slava.
Everyone rode up. The hill decided who stayed.
Control of this Site is decided by number of Spirits, not total Power.
Four tired animals. The robbers still describe a monster.
No card may be committed face-down here; a Disguised card moved here is turned face-up at once without cost; this is a reveal, not a flip (no Omen or flip bonus triggers).
Twenty mattresses down, one pea still wins.
At Dusk, the player controlling this Site gains 1 Ember next turn.
One egg a day. The knife gets you nothing twice.
The first Spirit each player commits here each turn costs 1 less Ember.
Finished by morning. Don't ask. Leave the little shirts.
Spirits defeated here cost 1 more to Reborn.
The rats followed the tune down. The river kept them.
Cinderella and her glass, the emperor and his swindlers, the sleeping keep behind its thorns. The Court plays the long game of gowns, godmothers and midnight bargains, scoring at Dusk and slipping free of every trap.
Omen: an enemy Spirit gets -2 Power until end of turn.
The Queen's scouts sting first and report never.
Vigil: you win Power ties at this Site.
Twenty mattresses down, one pea. She felt it. That settles that.
On Turn 4 and later, his Power is 5.
Thrown hard against the wall, he got up much improved.
Step. Omen: a friendly Spirit here with Power 7 or more gains Ward this turn.
She stays of her own free will. That is the entire enchantment.
Omen: she gets +4 Power until your next Dawn. At that Dawn, she gets -2 Power, permanently.
Cut off the toe; when you are queen, you will not need to walk.
Omen: gain 3 Embers this turn. At your next Dawn, the enemy gains 1 Slava.
First the ring, then the necklace. He will name the third price later.
Omen: an enemy Spirit gets -3 Power until end of turn.
In this glass every rose shows its worm and every heart its ledger.
Omen: a friendly Spirit gains Step this turn.
Take the reindeer. Steal something nice on the way.
Step. At each Dawn, you may Step her to any Site (back from the dance).
Twelve beds, twelve worn-through slippers, and no one saw a thing.
Omen: draw a card. Reborn: draw 2 cards.
If this thy mother knew, her heart would break in two.
Omen: gain 2 Embers this turn; the enemy draws a card.
Paid in gold, twice, for cloth that weighs exactly nothing.
Omen: return a friendly Spirit from your Nav to your hand.
Death himself handed back the crown to hear one more verse.
Omen: you take initiative next turn.
He carries the slipper on a velvet cushion, the way one carries a verdict.
Rooted. She may only arrive on Turn 1 or 2. Until Turn 5 she sleeps: she counts as Power 0 (this cannot be changed by any effect) and cannot be defeated.
A hundred years passed. The kettle had only just come to a boil.
Step. At your next Dawn, its Power becomes 1, permanently.
Ride it somewhere worth being before the clock gets opinions.
Omen: an enemy Spirit with Power 8 or more has Power 1 until end of turn.
'A mouse, surely, is beyond you,' said the cat, and dinner agreed.
Vigil: at Dusk, if you control another Spirit here, he gets +4 Power.
The fields, the mill, the river: all his, swears everyone the cat has met.
Step. Omen: a friendly Spirit's Power becomes its printed Power.
She walked barefoot to the top of the map and asked winter to give him back.
Vigil: at this Site, your cards are revealed last.
He drank nothing, saw everything, and said so at breakfast.
Rooted. Omen: Step a friendly Spirit from any Site to here.
The tower has no door. It has never once needed one.
Omen: swap her Power with another Spirit's at this Site until end of turn.
The maid wears the crown. The crown is not fooled.
Omen: remove all Power bonuses from an enemy Spirit.
Roo-coo, roo-coo, there's blood within the shoe.
Omen: she gets +5 Power and Ward until your next Dawn. At that Dawn the bonus ends; if she is still in play, gain 2 Slava (counts toward the Slava-per-turn cap).
Rags by day, royalty till the twelfth bell; the slipper knows which was true.
Omen: another friendly Spirit gets +5 Power until end of turn.
Pumpkins, rats, rags: everything is something better for one evening.
Omen: choose an enemy Spirit here with Power 7 or less; at your next Dawn, send it to its Nav (the curse lands).
Twelve golden plates were laid. She counted.
Omen: you may send another friendly Spirit here to Nav; if you do, draw 2 cards and gain 2 Embers this turn.
The rampion was excellent, to be fair. The bill was a child.
Vigil: at Dusk he counts as Power 10, unless an enemy Spirit with Power 3 or less is here.
'But he has nothing on at all,' said the child, and that ended the parade.
Step. At your next Dawn, they get +3 Power, permanently, and lose Step.
Swans by daylight, men by dark, and six nettle shirts to settle it.
Omen: choose one: a friendly Spirit gets +2 Power permanently, or an enemy Spirit gets -2 Power permanently.
Shake the featherbed till it snows. Diligence wears gold; sloth wears pitch.
Omen: at your next Dawn, defeat the lowest-Power enemy Spirit here.
Every wife receives every key and one small rule. He is always obeyed, eventually.
Omen: you may Step a friendly Spirit from another Site to here. Vigil: while another friendly Spirit is here, he gets +2 Power and Ward.
He sets the table for two every night. Hope is a kind of hunger.
Step. Omen: Clash 4.
Eyes like teacups, like mill-wheels, like the Round Tower, and all three on you.
Omen: choose an enemy Spirit at any Site; its Power becomes 2 for as long as she remains in play.
One kiss to numb the cold, one to make him forget. She never needs the third.
Draw 2 cards; the enemy draws 1.
Fetched from the well, good as new, plus one frog at dinner.
Gain 2 Embers this turn; the enemy gains 1 Ember next turn.
Straw goes in, gold comes out, and the price stays politely unstated.
Draw a card; you take initiative next turn.
Whoever moves first owns the evening.
Draw 2 cards; the enemy gains 1 Ember next turn.
Take the flower. Its owner will want a word.
Step up to 2 friendly Spirits to one Site.
Everyone who matters will be there. Everyone else will hear about it.
Choose a Site: enemy Spirits cannot Step to or from it this turn, and enemy Clash there gets -2.
A hundred princes tried. The roses keep them still.
Defeat an enemy Spirit whose Power is higher than its printed Power.
Guess the name and watch the seams.
A friendly Spirit gets +5 Power until end of turn.
You can see the cloth, can't you? Only fools can't.
Defeat an enemy Spirit with Power 7 or less at a Site where you have a Spirit.
One minute more and the sword would have fallen. They did not need the minute.
A friendly Spirit with printed Power 3 or less gets +4 Power, permanently.
Glass does not stretch, does not lie, and does not forgive.
All enemy Spirits get -2 Power until end of turn.
Coaches to pumpkins, silk to soot. The clock is fair and utterly merciless.
The gingerbread house, the wolf in the bonnet, the seven kids at the gate. The Grove is the dark wood of the Brothers Grimm: hunger and cunning, Clash and Reborn, and Spirits that walk back out of the oven stronger than they went in.
Omen: look at the top 2 cards of your deck; put any of them on the bottom.
Moonlight turns little stones into an honest map home.
Ward. Reborn: draw a card.
The wood was not wicked. It just never learned to feed anyone.
Step. Omen: a friendly Spirit here gains Ward this turn.
Too small to dig a grave, so it brings leaves and stays.
Omen: gain 1 Ember next turn.
They ate the way home and felt wonderful about it.
Disguise 1. Omen: draw a card.
He built by noon and napped by one. The nap went long.
Disguise 1. Omen: if this was flipped face-up, draw 2 cards.
The clock struck three. The kid, wisely, struck nothing.
Ward. Step. Omen: if another friendly Spirit is here, gain 1 Slava (the basket arrives).
Straight to grandmother's, no dawdling. Well, some dawdling.
Disguise 1. Omen: if this was flipped face-up, Clash 3.
The flock counted one extra. The shepherd, next morning, one fewer.
Disguise 1. Omen: look at every face-down card in play.
Locks are a suggestion. Porridge is a right.
Omen: a friendly Spirit gains Ward until your next turn. Reborn: draw a card.
Swallowed whole, and thoroughly unimpressed by the experience.
Rooted. Vigil: enemy Clash at this Site gets -1.
Sticks hold better than straw. So does almost everything.
Rooted. Vigil: you may look at enemy face-down cards at this Site.
It has never been asked a question it enjoyed answering.
Omen: Step another friendly Spirit from here to any Site.
No bridge, no toll. Kindness, with feathers.
Step. Reborn: returns with +2 Power, permanently (the spell breaks).
The third brook won. His sister never let go anyway.
Omen: defeat an enemy Spirit here with Power greater than Gretel's.
'Show me how to climb in,' she said, so sweetly.
Disguise 1. Omen: enemy Spirits here lose Ward and Rooted until end of turn.
He asks nicely once. The second request is weather.
Disguise 2.
Chalk for the voice, flour for the paws, nothing for the conscience.
Vigil: friendly Spirits gain Ward on the turn they arrive here.
Seven beds, seven lamps, one rule: knock first.
Rooted. Ward.
He built slow, slept sound, and kept a pot boiling, just in case.
Omen: draw a card. Reborn: Clash 4 (the millstone falls).
It sings what was done in the kitchen, then settles the bill.
Vigil: your Spirits enter with Ward when they Reborn.
Six shirts of starflowers, six years of saying nothing at all.
Omen: draw a card for each friendly Spirit with Ward (max 2).
Her door opens for bears. Her scissors open for beards.
Ward. Vigil: your other Spirits here get +1 Power while she has Ward. Reborn: returns with Ward.
Laces, combs, apples. Death keeps sending gifts; she keeps waking.
No ability. Sheer presence: let him in; he only wants the fire.
Under the fur, a prince. Under the manners, a bear. Mind both.
Disguise 2. Omen: Clash 3; if this was flipped face-up, Clash 5 instead.
The walls are cake, the windows sugar, the oven very much real.
Disguise 2. Omen: an enemy Spirit here has Power 1 until end of turn; if this was flipped face-up, send it to their Nav instead.
One half of the apple is perfectly safe. Guess.
Omen: return a friendly Spirit from your Nav to this Site for free (counts toward your Reborn cap).
She opens the wolf like a letter and takes back what is hers.
Omen: Clash 3; Clash 5 instead if you control a face-down card.
The wolf tipped his hat and kept walking. Axes improve manners.
Disguise 2. Omen: Clash 3; if this was flipped face-up, Clash 6 and +2 Power this turn instead.
All the better to be you, my dear.
Omen: return an enemy Spirit with Power 4 or less here to its owner's hand.
Someone ate, someone sat, someone slept. Everyone left through the window.
Omen: gain 1 Slava for each friendly Spirit with Ward (max 3).
Shake the featherbeds till it snows; gold falls on the diligent.
Omen: another friendly Spirit gets +3 Power until end of turn.
Call his name three times and the forest answers in person.
Omen: Clash 3 here and at one adjacent Site.
Every tale keeps one wolf. Winter keeps the rest.
Omen: Clash 5; the enemy may first flip one face-down card here for free.
He struck at the little gold crowns. He was terribly precise.
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck; draw 1, put the rest on the bottom.
A map the birds can eat is still a map, briefly.
Step a friendly Spirit to any Site; it gets +1 Power this turn.
Stolen from an ogre, sized for a thumb, faster than regret.
An enemy Spirit loses Ward until end of turn; draw a card.
The dwarf raged for an hour. The scissors never said a word.
Return a Spirit from your Nav to your hand.
The robins do what the parish would not.
Choose one: a friendly Spirit gets +4 Power this turn; or gains Ward until your next turn; or Steps to any Site.
Too hot, too cold, keep trying until something is just right, or broken.
Commit a Spirit with Cost 2 or more from your hand face-down as if it had Disguise 1 (flip cost: its Cost minus 1).
Anyone can be a grandmother, given the right bonnet and appetite.
Look at every enemy face-down card in play; draw a card.
What big eyes you have. What careless secrets they find.
Enemy Spirits at one Site lose Ward and Rooted until end of turn; then Clash 2 there.
Not every argument needs teeth. Some only need lungs.
Defeat an enemy Spirit with Power 7 or less at a Site where you control a face-down card.
The recipe calls for one witch, self-basting.
Reborn a Spirit from your Nav to a Site for free; it enters with Ward.
Death looked through the glass, felt watched, and lost its nerve.
Gain 1 Slava for each friendly Spirit with Ward (max 3).
Every lit window is a small victory over the wood.
The tortoise and the hare, the beanstalk and the giant, the little match that would not go out. Aesop and Andersen lend the Old Tales their plainest, loudest morals; the Neutral cards join either storyteller.
Step. At each Dawn, you may Step him again for free.
Run, run, fast as you can. Ah, the fox.
Rooted. Vigil: he cannot be moved or returned to hand by enemy effects.
One leg, no complaints, straight into the fire.
On Turn 5 and later, his Power is 7.
They laughed at the grey one. Swans remember.
Omen: look at all enemy face-down cards.
The third time the wolf was real, the shepherds stayed home.
Omen: gain 2 Embers this turn. When she is defeated, gain 1 Slava.
Every match a warm world; the last one opened the door.
Rooted. Vigil: at each Dusk, he gains +1 Power, permanently.
He crossed the line while the world was napping.
Vigil: +1 Power for each other friendly Spirit at this Site.
Donkey, dog, cat, rooster: one monster in the window.
Vigil: once per game, when a friendly Spirit at this Site would be defeated, it is not (she sings Death back out the window).
Even Death paused at the window to listen.
While any enemy Spirit with Cost 1 is at this Site, his Power is 1.
The whole parade saw it. One child said it.
Omen: you may pay 1 Slava (her voice); she permanently gains +4 Power and Step. When defeated, she does not cross to Nav: remove her from the game and gain 2 Slava.
She traded her voice for feet, and every step was knives.
Omen: move every enemy Spirit at this Site to one adjacent Site of your choice (they follow the tune).
Pay the piper, or count your children.
Omen: Clash 5 (fee, fi, fo, fum). If an enemy effect ever moves him from his Site, he is defeated (the fall).
He smelled the blood of a thief. The thief smelled breakfast.
An enemy Spirit gets -3 Power until end of turn.
He couldn't reach them, so they were sour. Everyone nodded.
Gain 3 Embers next turn; the enemy gains 1 Slava.
A whole cow for five beans. Wait for morning.
Your unspent Embers this turn carry over to next turn.
The grasshopper sang all summer. Winter has a short memory.
Remove all enemy effects from a friendly Spirit (Power-sets, Rooted, and the like) and give it Ward this turn.
Little teeth, great debts.
Each player draws 1 card; then you draw 2 more.
It only needs a stone. And whatever you happen to have.
Defeat an enemy Spirit with Power 7 or greater.
Seven, said the belt. Flies, said nobody important.
The Old Tales is fully designed and illustrated, but it is a preview, not the game you buy first. It is in testing, and MORANA publishes at walking pace: no set enters production before it passes its playtest gates, and none is sold before the one before it is delivered. The launch game is Set II, the Slavic First Turning, the complete box and the free browser duel. The Old Tales is here so you can see that the world already scales, a look ahead, never something the launch set is missing.
More of the world: The founding myth · The Ten Worlds · The Bright Thaw · The Slavic folklore · Play free