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Champions
Every fighter enters the arena as a champion — a named gladiator with their own fighting style, stamina, and crowd appeal. Champions are picked before deck-building: deal two, keep one.
Champion rules
- Each champion sets your starting water and your edge refill — how much water you regain when you visit an edge hex.
- Each champion has one special rule — a fighting style that shapes how you play.
- Bigger, harder-hitting champions start with more water but burn through it faster; lighter champions run lean and refill less at the edge.
Demo champions
Four champions for the print-and-play demo. Art: Kennon James (requested — placeholder sketches until then).
Rufus the Ox
- Style: Brute. Hits like a siege engine.
- Starting water: 14💧 · Edge refill: 6💧
- Special: +1 damage on all your attacks.
- "Rufus once headbutted a gate. The gate apologized."
- 🎨 Art: Kennon James (pending)
Vela the Eel
- Style: Swift. Never where the blade lands.
- Starting water: 10💧 · Edge refill: 3💧
- Special: Once per round, move 1 hex as a free action — it doesn't use your card play for that second.
- "You can't hit what already left."
- 🎨 Art: Kennon James (pending)
Cassius the Peacock
- Style: Showman. The crowd is his second weapon.
- Starting water: 12💧 · Edge refill: 4💧
- Special: Your flourish cards earn +1 extra prestige.
- "The crowd didn't come to see him win. They came to see him."
- 🎨 Art: Kennon James (pending)
Drusa the Wall
- Style: Veteran. Twenty bouts of bad decisions survived.
- Starting water: 12💧 · Edge refill: 5💧
- Special: Once per round, ignore 1 damage dealt to you.
- "Twenty bouts. Four scars. Zero apologies."
- 🎨 Art: Kennon James (pending)
Future champions (with arena bundles): each arena ships its own champions with themed styles and modifiers.