Thanks to over 1900 supporters, you all unlocked our sixth stretch goal in a mere forty-eight hours.
Misty and Larry were so impressed that they spent an hour brainstorming with us yesterday evening on how to make the Heralds Circuit Journal even more impressive. We're reaching out to the manufacturer today to inquire about a few more upgrades for this third book (along with Art of Heralds of Valdemar), since Misty very appropriately asked:
So we're doing that! It's now now a journal with in-world annotations, like what a Herald would reference while on circuit. While we still want you to fill each journal up with your own drawings, fanfic notes, and so on, now we're ALSO going to use it to fill in some of the fiddly world-building bits that haven't made it onto the page yet!
$250,000 STRETCH GOAL
Those of you who backed Grandmaster probably remember the epic map that we made for the book, spending months consulting with Misty and Larry to fill in missing villages, trace journeys, and represent the locations and travels of every short story in that volume. At $250,000 we'll do the same for the Arrows trilogy.
With only $13,000 to go at the time of writing, there's an excellent chance that this map will unlock soon!
$275,000 STRETCH GOAL
It may not be glamorous, but the packaging used for shipping your rewards can be the difference between receiving items in pristine condition and ones with slight wrinkles or tears.
This stretch goal lets us order a custom shipping box from the manufacturer that perfectly holds Deluxe Heralds, Art of Grandmaster, Herald's Circuit Journal, and any other physical items unlocked down the road. In fact, we designed all three books to fit together like a (childishly simple) puzzle, with the perfect dimensions to support each other while in transit.
If we reach this goal, we'll pre-package everything at the factory, so that it's ready to ship when it reaches our fulfillment center. We're grateful that this stretch goal is in sight -- it's exactly what we wanted for this campaign, it's what we designed for, and at this rate you all will probably have it unlocked by Monday or Tuesday.
It's the second day of the campaign and we're trying to catch our breath. More than 1700 backers doubled our initial goal in the first twenty-four hours, which puts us well on track to unlock all of the stretch goals that we have planned for our campaign.
First of all, congrats on unlocking the 9"x12" Art of Heralds of Valdemar book, which will be included with the three Deluxe Heralds pledge levels. We're thrilled to add this to your pledges at no extra cost to you! (And yes, the page count will go up as we continue to add more art.)
Secondly, you've unlocked another full-color art plate in both books. The original piece, originally a digital download bonus for pre-launch followers, is now also added to the physical rewards! The Arrow Code is under development in close consultation with Misty, based on its use in the Arrows trilogy. And yes, you'll be able to use it to decode the endpapers!
Art of Heralds of Valdemar Cover
Arrow Code Sample Image
Next up, at $225,000, is the second stretch goal book in our campaign, the Heralds Circuit Journal. Designed to feel like an in-world artifact (although perhaps with better mass-manufacturing than you would find in in Velgarth), this notebook can be used to record your own circuit journeys, as a roleplaying campaign journal, a daily planner, a walking or bicycling log, or a place to develop your own stories. Depending on how the campaign progresses, we may be able to add additional stretch goals to upgrade this volume as well!
The circuit journal design is still in progress, but we'll 1) have more to share soon, and 2) would love to hear your ideas for the interior in the comments.
You'll learn more about how this book came about and why it's included when we discuss the New Packaging stretch goal, which brings the entire vision together.
BOOK MATERIALS
Since we've had a few questions about the materials used in our books, we thought it would be fun to share the exact specs from the manufacturer. It's the same materials that we used for Grandmaster, which turned out beautifully.
Worth especial note is that yes, we are using sewn binding with traditional 16pp signatures for the pages of Deluxe Heralds. These leatherbound books are designed to last for decades and a simple glued binding wouldn't meet our quality expectations.
The other design choice we made early on, after much research and discussion with the manufacturer, was to proceed with woodfree paper. Used for fine art and archival books, this paper is more resistant to yellowing and aging. While all paper comes with deforestation risks, the company providing ours has a sustainability track record and promises sourcing from legal and managed sources.
Deluxe Heralds (Arrows) specs
Art Book Specs
Circuit Journal Specs
Updated Stretch Goals Graphic
As of this writing, the backer train for Deluxe Heralds has been running continously since we launched this morning, with more than 1265 backers already pledged.
And thanks to you, we've blown through two stretch goals already, unlocking three more full-color art pieces for Deluxe Heralds:
Heroic Rescue, by Care Halverson
Talia's Wedding, by Emily Pritchett
Talia Reading, by Jabari Weathers
In-progress sketches from all three are featured below!
This almost means that we're approaching the first major physical unlock for the campaign: a brand new book that we'll add to every Deluxe Heralds pledge level if we raise at least $175,000. (Spoilers -- We're definitely going to raise that much at this rate, probably later today.)
Following its success in the Grandmaster campaign, we're thrilled to bring you The Art of the Heralds of Valdemar. This large format book measures 9x12 inches, with perforated edges to make the removal of art for framing easy. Color art is printed on deluxe, thick paper that we selected specifically for its gorgeous color reproduction, with the black-and-white pages are printed on a thick matte paper that's suitable for coloring.
The cover will be foiled with the title and Misty's name, and the book will contain every piece of art from Deluxe Heralds, including any new art unlocks. Furthermore, we'll use any extra black-and-white pages to print full-sized sheet music for as many of the songs from the album as we can fit!
This unlock will add $25 of value to your pledge and we're including it in the Deluxe Heralds reward levels at no extra cost if the campaign reaches at least $175,000!
While you'll need to stay tuned for the cover if we reach our goal, we're very excited to reveal the three in-progress art pieces that you all have unlocked already. We can't wait for the full color versions and after seeing these, we're guessing that you'll feel the same.
What a wild <checks watch> 3 hours and 24 minutes it's been!
You all blasted through our $100,000 goal in record time. We're all immensely thankful for your support.
Welcome back to returning backers, hello to first-timers, thank you to everyone who reserved their spot ahead of time, and a special acknowledgement to the scholarship applicants. With 45 scholarships funded already, we're hopeful that everyone who is currently experiencing need will be able to receive this fan-funded gift.
Those of you who joined us for Grandmaster probably remember the large-format art book that we included with the campaign. It's coming for Deluxe Heralds as well, but with so many extra bits that we had to turn it into the stretch goal to fund everything!
So here's the vision for stretch goals:
Fund six more pieces of color art (and yes, the art is already in progress!)
Fund Art of Deluxe Heralds, a 9"x12" companion volume that includes all of the color art, additional black & white pages designed for coloring, sheet music from "The Music of Valdemar", and a foil cover
Fund a second mystery book. More about that later.
Solve the biggest problem we had on Grandmaster fulfillment with... a custom-designed shipping box that contains all three books and maybe a few more goodies.
We'll share more information about each stretch goal as we approach it (unless you're all too fast for us).
In the meantime, here's your guide to what's coming up!
In the lead-up to the Deluxe Heralds campaign launch, we wanted to do something that celebrates this community... not just talk at you, but make something with you.
Introducing the Companion Coloring Contest
Rolan - Spring
Rolan - Fall
Rolan - Winter
Three pieces of original Heralds of Valdemar artwork, based on paintings created by Care Halverson for the upcoming book, are yours to color, share, and make your own. When you're done, upload your colored versions, and we'll feature* your submissions in a gallery update during the campaign.
*We reserve the right to exclude submissions that violate other people's copyright or include offensive content.
This is for bragging rights only. Every submission gets featured. After the gallery goes up, we'll run a few low stakes BackerKit polls to celebrate different things people brought to their pieces, including Most Creative Palette, Best Background Addition, Wildest Interpretation, and so on.
How to participate
Download the line art here: [Image 01][Image 02][Image 03] You'll get high-res JPGs that should work with any program.
Color them: print and color by hand, paint them, color digitally on your computer or mobile device, use mixed media, collage, basically whatever speaks to you. Pencils, markers, watercolor, pixels, all methods are welcome.
Submit your finished piece here: [DROPBOX UPLOAD LINK] No account required. Just upload the file, making sure to include your credited name in the file name. Example file name:rolan_fall_donald_duck.jpg
Optional but encouraged: post your work-in-progress or finished pieces on social media or in our Discord with #DeluxeHeraldsColoring so we can all cheer each other on as the gallery comes together.
A few things to know
Your images won't be featured in the book. The coloring pages are a pre-campaign celebration to enjoy with the community right now. We'll save the official painted versions as a reveal for later!
About rights. The lineart is copyright Care Halverson and is shared with you for personal, non-commercial coloring and sharing. By submitting your colored version, you keep ownership of your coloring work, and you grant us permission to share it (with credit as you specify) in campaign updates, social media, and other non-commercial promotional contexts related to Deluxe Heralds. Neither of us can sell the other's contribution.
(We're repeating this because some of us like to skim walls of text, so just in case, here are the key instructions again.)
Credit. When you submit, include the name you want us to use for your public credit in your filename.
Example file name:rolan_fall_donald_duck.jpg
Deadline:June 01, 2026, at 11:59 PM Pacific. We'll share the gallery during the campaign.
