Status: Working production-facing art and miniature direction for the v0.6 faction leader roster
Purpose: Define the visual identity, tabletop miniature silhouette, and player-facing character direction for all twelve v0.6 faction leaders.
This document records the current character design direction for the twelve v0.6 faction Leaders. The official rulebook and definitive faction guides govern rules text and Leader abilities.
Each faction leader should work as:
The leaders should feel like they belong to the same early-modern / Colonial-adjacent world while remaining visually distinct at tabletop scale.
Powder, parchment, frontier, court, occult science, commerce, and covert operations.
The world should feel roughly early-modern to Colonial-era, but not locked to a literal historical nation. Avoid pure fantasy medieval styling, modern industrial styling, or steampunk excess.
Use:
Avoid:
Each miniature must have:
The miniature should be more detailed than a chess piece, but still readable like a chess piece.
These are not strict faction colors, but production tendencies.
| Faction | Visual Materials / Mood |
|---|---|
| Military | Blue, brass, leather, smoke, field earth, polished weapons |
| Diplomats | Navy, ivory, parchment, wax seals, laurel, polished wood |
| Inquisition | Black, charcoal, brown leather, smoke, ash, iron, candlelight |
| Mystics | Bone, charcoal, dark red, green glass, brass, smoke, ritual marks |
| Financiers | Dark green, burgundy, navy, brass, parchment, ledgers, wax |
| Intelligence | Muted green, ink black, parchment, walnut wood, brass, coded papers |
Faction: Military
Mechanical anchor: Attack, forward pressure, tempo. Orders: Onward, Rally, Rout.
Core identity: Battlefield momentum, aggressive command, visible leadership.
The General is the visible point of battlefield momentum. He leads from the front, inspires movement, and turns victory into further advance.
Core phrase: Forward. Again.
Mounted commander on a white horse.
The General should be a Colonial-era battlefield commander with elevated, heroic presence. He should lean more Washington than Napoleon, but may borrow some Napoleonic drama in the pose.
Use:
Avoid:
The General is the only mounted leader.
Pose:
Base:
The General is motion and inspiration. The Commandant is structure and enforcement.
Faction: Military
Mechanical anchor: Defense, counterattack, holding captured ground. Orders: Entrench, Repel, Fortify.
Core identity: Discipline, garrison control, defensive command.
The Commandant is the iron center of the line. He turns ground into position, position into discipline, and discipline into victory.
Core phrase: We hold. They break.
Rigid fortress officer standing on fortified ground.
The Commandant should feel institutional, severe, and military. He should not feel heroic in the same way as the General.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The General advances. The Commandant holds.
Faction: Diplomats
Mechanical anchor: Successful negotiation and soft value. Current ability name: Good Offices.
Core identity: Persuasion, soft influence, accepted Terms.
The Ambassador turns trust, concession, and personal diplomacy into strategic advantage. He opens doors others keep closed.
Core phrase: Words first. War last.
Open-handed diplomat offering Terms.
The Ambassador should feel warm, refined, persuasive, and approachable. He wins through relationships, tact, and accepted arrangements.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Ambassador creates agreement through personal contact. The Senator preserves power through institutions and procedure.
Good Offices is a functional placeholder but is not considered a strong final ability name.
Faction: Diplomats
Mechanical anchor: Political resilience and Influence preservation. Ability: Political Capital.
Core identity: Legitimacy, procedural power, institutional resilience.
The Senator protects legitimacy by spending resources, reputation, and procedure. He makes influence endure.
Core phrase: Hold the line. Build it stronger.
Formal orator with legal papers.
The Senator should feel institutional, legalistic, and stern. He is less charming than the Ambassador and more procedural.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Ambassador negotiates. The Senator legislates, preserves, and legitimizes.
Faction: Inquisition
Mechanical anchor: Institutional judgment, suppression, and Purge after victory. Ability: Final Judgment.
Core identity: Condemnation, suppression, Purification.
The Grand Inquisitor is the tribunal made flesh. He does not hunt. He condemns.
Core phrase: We judge. We purge.
Tall, thin, unsettling black-robed figure with thurible.
The Grand Inquisitor should feel creepy and severe without becoming supernatural or inhuman.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Grand Inquisitor judges from institutional authority. The Witch Hunter hunts in the field.
Faction: Inquisition
Mechanical anchor: Pursuit, retaliation, and punishing failed attacks. Ability: Relentless Pursuit.
Core identity: Pursuit, retaliation, exposure.
The Witch Hunter is the mobile arm of the Inquisition. He finds what hides and punishes what overreaches.
Core phrase: You ran. I followed.
Worn leather hunter with lantern.
The Witch Hunter should look rugged, suspicious, and field-worn. He shares a broad-hat language with the Grand Inquisitor, but his materials and posture are completely different.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Grand Inquisitor condemns. The Witch Hunter pursues.
Faction: Mystics
Mechanical anchor: Sacrifice, Transmutation, and turning cards sent from hand to Graveyard into fuel. Materia Prima.
Core identity: Experiment, transmutation, disciplined occult science.
The Alchemist is a practical occult scientist. He studies, experiments, and transforms.
Core phrase: Nothing is fixed. Everything can be transformed.
Lab-coated early-modern experimental scholar with loupe and flask.
The Alchemist should feel like a working laboratory figure, not a wizard, noble, butcher, or Inquisition figure.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Alchemist experiments with matter. The Spirit Walker invokes unseen forces.
Faction: Mystics
Mechanical anchor: Ritual protection, Graveyard contact, and preserving a begun Rite through sacrifice. Guardians of the Circle.
Core identity: Ritual endurance, unseen communion, protective invocation.
The Spirit Walker stands between seen and unseen worlds, preserving sacred work through sacrifice and endurance.
Core phrase: The spirits remember what the living abandon.
Antlered ritual figure with chalky white and dark red paint.
The Spirit Walker should feel ritual, primal, and otherworldly, while remaining part of Gauntlet’s early-modern world. The look is inspired by ritual performance aesthetics rather than a direct copy of any specific culture.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Alchemist transforms through experiment. The Spirit Walker preserves through invocation.
Faction: Financiers
Mechanical anchor: Collateral, leverage, and financing Deed purchases. Ability: Line of Credit.
Core identity: Leverage, collateral, paper power, abstract finance.
The Banker turns promises into power. His strength is not wealth itself, but the ability to make paper, credit, and obligation move the world.
Core phrase: Credit is command before command is visible.
Refined colonial financier with spectacles and ledger.
The Banker should look intelligent, restrained, and financially powerful — not cartoonishly greedy.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Banker controls abstract value. The Executive controls physical systems and assets.
Faction: Financiers
Mechanical anchor: Acquisition, hostile expansion, and immediate control after battlefield occupation. Ability: Hostile Takeover.
Core identity: Acquisition, monopoly, logistics, direct control.
The Executive is the Company made flesh. He does not merely finance power; he seizes, owns, and administers it.
Core phrase: The Company owns what it governs.
Large, heavyset, mean chartered-company director.
The Executive must be visually distinct from the Banker. He should feel heavier, harsher, more domineering, and more operational.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Banker lends and leverages. The Executive acquires and controls.
Faction: Intelligence
Mechanical anchor: Fieldcraft, terrain expertise, hostile-ground operation. Ability: Fieldcraft.
Core identity: Terrain mastery, reconnaissance, hostile-ground operation.
The Ranger is a frontier reconnaissance leader: Robert Rogers mixed with Lewis and Clark. He reads terrain, maps routes, and turns hostile ground into advantage.
Core phrase: Know the land before the battle begins.
Colonial expedition scout with long rifle and survey gear.
The Ranger should not look like a fantasy ranger or Witch Hunter. He is a grounded frontier scout, rifleman, and expedition surveyor.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Ranger operates through terrain and field movement. The Spymaster operates through agents and networks.
Faction: Intelligence
Mechanical anchor: Mission tempo, network coordination, and starting new Missions after completing one. Ability: Mission Control.
Core identity: Mission tempo, network command, covert coordination.
The Spymaster is the architect of covert operations. He does not scout the land; he coordinates the people who do.
Core phrase: Information never rests. Momentum is the weapon.
Composed intelligence chief with black gloves, dispatch, and hidden dagger.
The Spymaster should feel calm, civilized, and dangerous. He is not an assassin as his main identity, but the hidden dagger makes clear that his network has teeth.
Use:
Avoid:
Pose:
Base:
The Ranger sees the field. The Spymaster moves the network.
| Leader | Primary Read |
|---|---|
| General | White horse + raised saber |
| Commandant | Rigid officer + baton |
| Ambassador | Open hand + treaty |
| Senator | Raised hand + law paper |
| Grand Inquisitor | Black buckle hat + robes + thurible |
| Witch Hunter | Brown leather hat + lantern |
| Alchemist | Lab coat + flask + loupe |
| Spirit Walker | Antlers + staff + ritual paint |
| Banker | Spectacles + ledger + strongbox |
| Executive | Heavy frame + charter + cane |
| Ranger | Expedition cap + long rifle + field tools |
| Spymaster | Black gloves + dispatch + hidden dagger |
| Faction | Leader A | Leader B | Contrast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Military | General | Commandant | Attack vs defense |
| Diplomats | Ambassador | Senator | Personal diplomacy vs institutional legitimacy |
| Inquisition | Grand Inquisitor | Witch Hunter | Judgment vs pursuit |
| Mystics | Alchemist | Spirit Walker | Experiment vs invocation |
| Financiers | Banker | Executive | Leverage vs control |
| Intelligence | Ranger | Spymaster | Fieldcraft vs network command |
Bases should reinforce role, not overwhelm the character.
| Faction | Base Direction |
|---|---|
| Military | Battlefield / fortification |
| Diplomats | Papers / seals / chamber or diplomatic table |
| Inquisition | Ash / writs / smoke / tribunal or trail |
| Mystics | Lab apparatus / ritual circle |
| Financiers | Ledgers / strongboxes / crates / trade goods |
| Intelligence | Terrain markers / maps / cipher tools |
The written descriptions should be short, evocative, and functional. Avoid lore overload. Each should make the player understand how the leader wins.
Good structure:
Example style:
The Ranger reads the land before armies know they are lost. Where others see forest, river, and stone, he sees routes, risks, and advantage.
The following directions are considered locked unless later gameplay or art testing exposes a problem:
Ambassador and Senator are solid, but Good Offices should probably be renamed later.