Towering Roots of the Jungle

Frequently Asked Questions

Definitions

• When does destroying a Town or City cause Fear?
  Always, regardless of how it's destroyed: directly via a Power that says to destroy one, from damage done by a Power, from damage done by Dahan counterattacking, due to a Spirit's special rules, from a Fear or Event card, etc. [p. 18]

  Fear from destruction is independent of any explicit Fear the Power does – e.g., Lightning's "Shatter Homesteads" reads "1 Fear. Destroy 1 Town." usually generates 2 Fear: 1 explicitly, and 1 for destroying a Town.

  Note that when you remove or replace a Town or City, it does NOT cause any automatic Fear. Removing Invaders happens most frequently via Fear Cards, and usually represents the Invaders fleeing, which doesn't make them any more afraid. Replacing an Invader represents some sort of transformation or change; if it's a scary change, the effect will explicitly specify how much Fear to do.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Destroy, Fear, Dahan, Ravage, 51 more...
• When you "Remove 3 Health worth of Invaders," can you Remove 3 damaged Towns?
  No, the Health of an Invader doesn't change when it takes Damage. Damaged Towns still count for 2 Health each.

  A few effects (e.g., Kingdom of England Level 5, or some Event/Fear cards) modify Health, which does affect how many Invaders you can Remove. But Damage does not reduce Health. (Health is simply the total amount of Damage it takes to destroy something.)
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Damage, Health, Seek Safety, Belief Takes Root, 16 more...

Effect Rules

• If your Incarna and 1 of your Presence are in the same land, is that land a Sacred Site for you?
  Yes, if you choose to count your Incarna as Presence for that action.
  Tags: Sacred Sites, Counts As, Incarna, Ember-Eyed Behemoth, 4 more...
• If both a Beasts and something that counts as a Beasts (e.g., a sacred site of Many Minds Move as One) are in the same land and something destroys a Beasts there, can you choose which one is destroyed?
  Yes. Even if there are two ordinary Beasts tokens in a land, players get to choose which one gets destroyed – it just doesn't usually matter which one you pick.

  Similarly, if a Presence and an Incarna are both in a land and something would destroy Presence there, the Spirit can choose whether to destroy the Presence or the Incarna.
  Tags: Counts As, Incarna, Many Minds Move as One, A Joining of Swarms and Flocks (Many Minds Move as One), 8 more...
• If a "Spirits may prevent this on any/all boards" effect wouldn't do anything on a particular board it's affecting, can Spirits sacrifice Presence there anyway?
  Yes. The sacrifice is to prevent the rest of the Event Action from resolving on that board, not to prevent the actual results of that Event there.

  Choosing to sacrifice Presence this way isn't generally advantageous, but can be used to set up for a Power that uses destroyed Presence, like "Blazing Renewal." Some Spirits also get benefits when their Presence is destroyed or would be destroyed, like Volcano Looming High dealing Damage via its "Collapse in a Blast of Lava and Steam" special rule, making that sacrifice situationally useful even with no future plans for that Presence. And in particularly rare cases, Spirits can even use this to disable a normally-beneficial effect granted by their Presence.

  If the Event only applies to specific boards, you can't sacrifice Presence on other boards. For example, "The Center Crumbles" ("On Each Board with Invaders: Add 1 Blight to an Inland Land") doesn't even attempt to do anything on boards without Invaders, so Presence can't be destroyed to prevent the nonexistent Event Action there. On the other hand, Spirits can sacrifice Presence to prevent that Event on a board with Invaders but with no Inland lands (e.g., because "Weave Together the Fabric of Place" has merged all lands on that board into Coastal lands), since the Event still happens on that board despite it being unable to add Blight.
  Tags: On Each Board, Presence, Destroyed Presence, The Center Crumbles, 32 more...
• How does Vitality interact with effects that add two or more Blight at once (e.g., Kingdom of Sweden Level 1)?
  Each Vitality prevents 1 Blight. Depending on the number of Vitality relative to the number of Blight added, this may or may not prevent all of the Blight.

  If at least 1 Blight is added after accounting for Vitality, destroy Presence and cascade like normal.
  Tags: Blight, Vitality, Kingdom of Sweden, Towering Roots of the Jungle, 3 more...
• When Blight is added to a land with Vitality, does it destroy Presence?
  Not if there's enough Vitality to prevent all of the Blight from being added.

  Sufficient Vitality will also prevent extra effects of Blight being added, including those from Mining Rush (The Kingdom of Sweden Level 5), Irreparable Damage (The Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony) Additional Loss Condition), Runoff and Bilgewater (The Kingdom of Scotland Level 5), Fragile Sands (Varied Terrains), and All Things Weaken (Blight Card).
  Tags: Blight, Vitality, Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony), Kingdom of Sweden, 7 more...
• What does Vitality do in lands with Blight?
  Nothing, aside from existing for effects that check how many Vitality tokens are in a land, like Heart-Tree Guards the Land. If the Blight is later moved or removed, the Vitality can be used for its normal function.
  Tags: Blight, Vitality, Towering Roots of the Jungle, Enduring Vitality (Towering Roots of the Jungle), 2 more...
• What happens if a Power that references an Incarna is used by a Spirit that doesn't have that Incarna (e.g., if it's transferred via "Entwined Power")?
  Resolve the Power exactly as written. Though an Incarna is associated with a particular Spirit, it's still a piece that other Spirits can interact with — they just don't normally have a way to do so.
  

  Depending on the Power and Incarna in question, this may be weaker than when used by the original Spirit. For example, while "Frightful Keening" can still push the Incarna of Wandering Voice Keens Delirium, and still generates Fear if pushing into a land with Invaders, only Wandering Voice Keens Delirium can use that Power to add Strife via "Keening Spurs Grievances."
  Tags: Transferring Power Cards, Incarna, Entwined Power, Blazing Intimidation (Ember-Eyed Behemoth), 7 more...

General Play

• What happens if a piece winds up in a place or state it's not allowed to be?
  If the place still exists, then:

  • Pieces representing humans (Dahan / Invaders) are cleaned up to the closest legal land — this is not considered a move, is not an action, and does not trigger anything, it is simply a correction of the game state. This happens only once you are not in the middle of an action, and there are no pending triggered actions (i.e., after each action tree), just before checking for victory/defeat.
  • All other pieces remain where they are, but are considered out of play unless/until they're no longer in an illegal state.

  On the other hand, if the place was destroyed and pieces within it somehow survived the destruction, they all get cleaned up.

  This sort of thing can happen if pieces survive the sinking of a board (like Dahan via Infinite Vitality with threshold or Explorers via the Tsardom of Russia's A Sense for Impending Disaster), if an Ocean stops being a land (by Ocean's Hungry Grasp losing its Presence there) while other Spirits' Presence is there, or if Invaders/Dahan are left in the Ocean after an action but manage not to Drown in some way.

  If the nearest legal land is unclear, use your best judgment, based on physical distance if necessary. If there is literally no legal land to put the pieces in, return them to the supply; this is still considered cleaning up (not an action, not a move/remove/destroy, does not trigger anything).
  Tags: Pieces, Illegally placed pieces, Victory and Defeat, Action tree, 13 more...
• If a Spirit's Presence counts as Beasts (say, due to "Settle Into Hunting-Grounds"), and a "destroy Beasts" effect destroys their Presence, is it still considered destroyed Presence? More generally, if Piece A also counts as Piece B, and a "destroy/remove Piece B" effect destroys/removes it, does it go to the supply for A or B?
  It's considered destroyed Presence. When a piece is removed from the board, it goes to the supply (or other destination) for that physical type of piece.
  Tags: Presence, Pieces, Counts As, Beasts, 15 more...

Power Cards

• What happens if you give a Range boost to someone who's used Bargains of Power and Protection? Does it matter if they played Bargains on that turn or an earlier turn?
  In either case, for the turn the Range boost is active, it increases the "within Range 1 of your Presence" at which that Spirit affects Dahan. The boost wears off at the end of the turn, even though Bargains of Power and Protection doesn't.

  This includes range bonuses to "your Power Card" (e.g., Volcano Looming High), but not bonuses specifically for targeting.

  If a Range boost only increases the Range for a single Action (e.g., the Reach Aspect ignoring Range), then the farther-afield Dahan only grant Defend for one action of your choice (usually a single Ravage in one land).
  Tags: Range, Range Boosts, Bargains of Power and Protection, Reaching Grasp, 9 more...
• Does "Entwined Power" (you and target Spirit may use each others’ Presence to target Powers) also allow you to count the other Spirit's Presence for the text effects of Powers (e.g., getting 1 Fear and dealing 1 Damage with "Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth")? How about for determining which lands are "your lands" for the purpose of a Power?
  No. Those are effects of Powers; Entwined Power only helps targeting – i.e., meeting the requirements in the "Range" and "Target" boxes.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Targeting, Entwined Power, Locus Aspect (Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island), Gift of Living Energy, 48 more...

Presence and Sacred Sites

• What happens to Presence when it gets removed or replaced?
  If it is removed or replaced during play, it goes to the destroyed Presence pile in the supply unless the particular effect says to put it elsewhere. From there, it can be restored by any effect that returns destroyed Presence to the island.

  Anything removed or replaced during setup is out of the game.

  As of the release of Nature Incarnate, only four Presence-removing/replacing effects send the Presence somewhere special: "Transform to a Murderous Darkness," "Call Forth Predators" (Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves special rule), and both Bargains remove replaced Presence from the game. (Though Bargains put the Presence on reminder cards, this is just to help players track how many times they made the Bargain; Bargains scale with the number of times they are made, not the number of Presence on the reminder card.)
  Tags: Replace, Presence, Remove, Bargain, 13 more...

Setup

• When setting up a Spirit, what happens if the setup instructions are impossible (e.g., adding Presence to a land with Blight when that board has no Blight).
  Either don't start that Spirit on that board or follow the instructions as best as you can, choosing freely when no lands meet the criteria given. [Jagged Earth Rulebook p. 6]

  When choosing freely, use theme as your guide — if you're in this situation, you're likely playing on the thematic map, after all!
  Tags: Thematic map, Spirit setup, Vengeance as a Burning Plague, Starlight Seeks Its Form, 7 more...

Spirits and Innate Powers

• If the Incarna of Towering Roots of the Jungle is destroyed in the middle of an action, do Invaders/Dahan/Beasts become vulnerable immediately?
  Yes, those pieces are vulnerable to any Damage or Destroy effects after that point. Usually the Incarna is destroyed by choosing to count it as a Presence when Blight is added.

  To cover some of the common situations:

  • Ravage (without other effects): The Dahan are protected by the Incarna, since it was present when they were dealt Damage. But the Incarna is gone during the Dahan counterattack, so the Invaders take Damage normally.
  • "Draw Towards a Consuming Void," "Drought," "Poisoned Land," "Pyroclastic Flow," "Pillar of Living Flame," "Volcanic Eruption": The Incarna is destroyed at the end of the base effect, so only the threshold can successfully deal Damage or destroy anything.
  • "Insatiable Hunger of the Swarm": The Incarna is destroyed at the beginning of the power, so doesn't protect anything.
  • "Cast Down Into the Briny Deep" threshold: The Incarna protects the Invaders/Dahan/Beasts in its land before being destroyed. Those pieces are then cleaned up for being in an illegal location.
    Tags: Ravage, Incarna, Draw Towards a Consuming Void, Drought, 8 more...
• Can Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares use "To Dream a Thousand Deaths" to generate Fear/Push Invaders that are protected by the Heart-Tree Incarna?
  Yes. Since "To Dream a Thousand Deaths" ensures that Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares doesn't even attempt to deal Damage or destroy any Invaders/Dahan/Beasts with its Powers, there's no destruction for the Heart-Tree Incarna to prevent.

  (This could have been ruled either way – "To Dream a Thousand Deaths" is structured in a way that makes clean ruling difficult. The ruling is partly for thematic/story reasons and partly so that players who already played it this way won't feel like they cheated.)
  Tags: Damage, Destroy, To Dream a Thousand Deaths (Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares), Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares, 2 more...
• Can Towering Roots of the Jungle replace Presence with its Incarna even if its Incarna is already on the island?
  Yes. The Incarna leaves whichever land it was in and ends up where the Presence used to be.

  This doesn't count as adding or moving the Incarna.
  Tags: Replace, Incarna, Heart-Tree Guards the Land (Towering Roots of the Jungle), Towering Roots of the Jungle, 0 more...
• What happens if 1 or more Invaders/Dahan moved into the Ocean aren't successfully destroyed by the Ocean in Play special rule?
  Push them to non-Ocean lands (as part of the same action). If the Push also fails somehow (perhaps due to Isolate), the pieces will be left in an illegal state and cleaned up to the nearest land after all triggered actions complete – human pieces cannot remain in the Ocean between "action trees" (a primary action and all other actions following from it). Regardless, Ocean's Hungry Grasp does not get Energy for them.

  This isn't formally specified on Ocean's panel because it's virtually never relevant with just the core game, and spelling it out would both take up a lot of space and needlessly increase complexity / confusion-potential for players who only have the base game. However, it becomes very relevant when playing vs. The Habsburg Monarchy Lvl 4+ (Jagged Earth), which blunts "Destroy Town" effects; see this FAQ if you need details.

  The fact that the Push is part of the triggered action means that it can trigger further actions – e.g., "Melt Earth Into Quicksand" or "Call to Guard" in the land Pushed to – which cleaning up illegally placed pieces does not do.

  As a very specific edge-case, if the Ocean is also a normal land due to "Weave Together the Fabric of Place," humans can hang out there without trouble (until end of turn when the effect expires).
  Tags: Illegally placed pieces, Triggered Actions, Push, Durable, 13 more...