We're just a few days in and we're running out of stretch goals already. Your enthusiasm and excitement are such a great reminder of how beloved these books are for so many people!

A special greeting to the Valdemar fans who are just discovering our community -- we do so much more together than crowdfunding campaigns. If you use Discord, you're warmly invited to get involved with the Valdemar Official server [https://discord.gg/cgbW8QA5U] and the unofficial The Vales server [https://discord.gg/A9wZxuVrBq] which is where much of the fanfic community gathers.

As teased in the last update, the upgraded packaging for the Deluxe Heralds pledge levels is designed to hold Deluxe Heralds, Art of Heralds of Valdemar, and the Circuit Journal.

To help everyone visualize what we're planning, here are some mockup images:



The mailer is 9"x14". We get to design and print fancy art on it! Inside, Heralds and the journal sit on top of Art of Heralds, along with an interior box to keep it snug.



Any additional physical stretch goals will also fit inside the package, and it will all be assembled at the factory. This goal is unlocked at $275,000.

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!

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.

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.

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:

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:

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!