In a magically altered 17th century, the Italian lands that survived the Witchplague are now called Ausonia, and powerful houses of nobles rule over them.

Each player is the leader of one of these houses and with the help of supporters and magical gemstones tries to become the next ruler of the city-states.

Each player starts with the basic cards of their house, which they can add to throughout the game. In addition to acquiring newer, stronger cards, players will also need to gather gemstones to activate them.

These instructions give the basic rules for the game. If the text of a card conflicts with these rules, the card text overrides the basic rules.

Components

• Cardbox
• Power deck, 15 cards
• 4 Starter decks (12 cards / deck)
• Favor deck (45 cards)
• 3 Aspirant cards
• 4 x 2 Influence cards
• Rulebook

Object of the Game

Setup

Each player receives a Starter Deck that includes 12 cards. Each Starter Deck can be identified by the text on the bottom of the cards.

Start I, Start II, Start III, Start IV

Shuffle your Starter Deck and put it face down in front of you to serve as the Draw Pile. Leave space beside it for your Discard Pile.

Throughout the game you will place your played and discarded cards face up into your Discard Pile.

Create the Power Deck by shuffling the Power Cards and placing them in a face-up stack.

The visible top card is available to be purchased during the game.

Create the favor Deck by shuffling the favor Cards and placing them in a face-down stack.

These cards form the Offer Row and can be purchased during the game. When a card is purchased (or leaves the Offer Row for any reason), replace it immediately so there are always 4 face-up favor Cards.

At the start of the game, each player draws 6 cards from their Draw Pile. At the end of their turn, each player refills their hands back up to 6 cards.

Players can have more than 6 cards at any time during the game, or, due to certain effects, they can start their turn with less than 6 cards.

Game Play

1. Action Phase

During the Action Phase, the active player can play cards, purchase cards, activate abilities, and construct sources. These actions can be performed in any order.

Played cards are put face up on the table, which forms the Play Area.

Two types of cards can be played.

A. Gem Cards

These cards provide the players with gemstones as resources.

The game uses 3 types of gemstones: sapphire , emerald and bloodshard .

Rainbow-colored gemstones are wild and can be used as any other color. By spending gemstones, players can pay for the abilities on favor Cards or purchase new cards from the Offer Row or Power Deck.

If a Gem Card offers multiple resources, the player can split them and spend them on different actions.

Purchased cards are immediately put face down in the Play Area and cannot be used in the same round in which they are purchased. Do not get rid of your spent Gem Cards. They will be put in your Discard Pile during the End Turn Phase.

B. Favor Cards

The Gem Card resources can also be used for more than purchasing new cards.

Many favor Cards require resources in order to use their abilities. Gem resources spent on purchases cannot be used to activate abilities and vice versa.

Also, if the ability has a gem as cost, any unused played gem , , can be used to pay that cost.

You can use these active abilities of played favor Cards at any time during the Action Phase of your turn as long as you have the resources to activate them.

Each ability can be used only once per turn.

If the ability of a card does not include a resource as a cost but, instead, has a red background, that ability has a condition instead of a cost.

You used gems of this type and amount.

You used a keyword of this type.

You activated an ability on a card belonging to this guild.

If the condition ability with the red background is met during the turn (even if the card is still in hand), the ability is automatically unlocked and you can activate it at any time during your Action Phase. If a condition is met more than once, the ability can still only be activated once.

If your Draw Pile runs out of cards and you must draw, discard, or check cards from your Draw Pile, immediately shuffle your Discard Pile and place it face down to create a new Draw Pile.

From that point the Corruption keyword is counted as Influence, so you can increase your own influence with it, not decrease others. This rule already applies in the turn of the player reaching the 60 Influence Points.

The player with the most Influence Points wins. In case of a tie, the player earlier in turn order for the round wins.

Instead of short descriptions, the cards mostly have ability keywords, which have direct rules.

• Round

  A full round consists of all players playing one full turn (Action Phase and End Turn Phase).

• Influence X

  The player gets X number of Influence Points. These are collected to win the game.

• Corruption X

  The player chooses an opponent who loses X number of Influence Points.

• Discard X

  The player chooses an opponent, who must discard X number of cards, of their own choice, from their Hand.

• Draw X

  The player draws X number of cards from their Draw Pile.

  Manipulation X

  The player can choose X number of cards from their Discard Pile and put them on top of their Draw Pile in any order they choose.

• Foresight X

  The player can draw X number of cards from their Draw Pile and decides for each card to put it into their Discard Pile or back on top of their Draw Pile in any order they choose.

• Raise X

  The player can draw X number of cards from their Hand or Discard Pile to be put in the Raise Area face Down. These cards later can be used to construct Sources.

• Seal

  The player can move an other played favor Card from their Play Area into their Seal Area.

  On a later turn, the seal can be broken, and these Seal Cards can be put back into the Play Area as if they were played from your Hand. (The ability costs must be paid). These used cards cannot be sealed again in the same turn.

Purchasing

You can purchase cards from the Offer Row or from the Power Deck by paying the resource cost found in the upper left corner of the card.

You must pay the full cost by placing Gem Cards that match the cost. Costs that show rainbow-colored gems can be paid with any colored gems.

Constructing Sources

You can create Sources in your turn only. Check all face-down cards in the Raise Area.

You can use all star-marked Gem Cards to construct a Source by building it on top of a foundation. The foundation can be any every Source counts as a Gem Card in your Play Area. Sources can be used in the same turn they are constructed.

Cards in the Raise Area are not discarded at the end of the turn; they stay in the Play Area.

When you play a Gem or favor Card, you are not obligated to use it fully or immediately. You place it in your Play Area, where it does not count as held or discarded. You can use the abilities or resources on the card at any point until the end of your turn.

You can even use one ability from a card, perform other actions, and then use another ability from the same card.

It is recommended to turn fully used cards to their side so that they are not accidentally reused.

Cards can be played and purchased at the player's discretion. Then, the player Passes and starts the End Turn Phase.

2. End Turn Phase

The round continues clockwise to the next player.

End of the Game