We at Nine Heavens Press hope all of you have a wonderful start to 2026. To help kick things off, we've got some previews we'd love to show you.
Post-Crowdfunding Stretch Goal: New Ancestry, the Yaoqi
Yaoqi by ZONE_MAN
Thanks to your continuing generosity funding our project, we're pleased to reveal the Yaoqi, a new ancestry/species based on the mythological qilin. They've hidden away from the world in floating islands, but handfuls of them have migrated back to ground-level. The Yaoqi are the children of Golden IMA, the Primordial Qilin, upon whose corpse the entirety of the Iseung region lies. They consider themselves children of the earth as opposed to the children of the gods. Believing their time has passed, they've sequestered themselves to chronicle the history of the world, promising to return only when they feel peace between them and the children of the gods are possible.
They're a sagacious people with innate mastery over light and air said to possess the secrets to immortality. In bleaker, more superstitious times, rulers have attempted to use them as trophies to justify the virtue of their rule. They have a monastic civilization where they serve as scholars or cultivators to divine the will of the earth, but others that drifted apart from such quiet lifestyles have left deep scars in history.
Stretch Goal Preview: the Gu Huo Niao
Gu Huo Niao by MAETERS
A preview from our bestiary: the gu huo niao is a variant harpy we were able to design thanks to your generosity! A Chinese monster that has also inspired the Japanese yokai, ubume, the gu huo niao are said to originally be human women whose grief over losing their children transformed them into this monstrous shape. They're infamous for snatching children they find to raise as their own. It's said that children they raise also become gu huo niao.
Their voice, like the harpy's, is capable of enchanting and luring people, but those affected by their song are also compelled to protect them at any costs.
Project Update
So going over where we're currently at, we've received our shipment of enamel pins finally. All that's left really are the books, miniatures, and soundtrack.
I went back and revised the Fighter subclass since I wasn't terribly satisfied with it. I felt it could've tied a bit better into the book's overarching themes of immortality. That's why I'm pleased to present the Saint of the Arsenal archetype, based on a number of inspirations (largely from Japan, most prominently the story of Benkei). A master of many weapons, you're encouraged to stow away and draw from multiple weapons that deal different damage types, gaining different benefits for switching them out.
Your path to divinity lies in advancing your fighting technique to the point of being able to cleave the heavens. Overall, I feel very confident with this one.
Arc 3 of the Korean translation of Undying Corruption is also finished. Once it's committed to layout, we're eager to send that over to everyone that backed it.
The closest deadline we've got up coming up is for the playtest documents for late-Q1. Now that the holidays are over, we can resume editing in earnest. The 5e material is further along than the PF2e material in terms of editing, but we'd prefer to release them both at the same time.
The higher tier commissions are also underway. Work will resume in earnest now that the holidays have concluded.
Future Plans
Now that the production phase is largely winding down on Black Market Guide, we've been toying with a couple plans. Our highest priority is, of course, delivering on Black Market Guide, but we do have some wiggle room to act on small projects in the meantime.
The first, I'm thinking about reopening the Patreon as a means of sharing progress with the NPC Guide and creating new subclasses and ancestries. It's unlikely we'll act on that immediately as I'd prefer to at least have a draft of the NPC Guide ready. This is just me sharing my thoughts aloud as a way to continue our creative output.
The second, I've been talking with my friends at Mithral Canvas and we're discussing another crowdfunding campaign that focuses on physical merchandise. Ways to facilitate online and offline play that's a bit more hands-on, interactive. Dice, for example, we have a better grasp on how to make.
As plans become concrete, we'll make further announcements, but I wanted to tease them first, stressing once again that completing this project is my highest priority.
That's it for now! Once again, a happy new year to everyone and if you have any comments or questions, feel free to post them here, send us an email at [email protected], or join our Discord server by clicking the banner below:
