There’s a spirit island podcast too called the Kindred Spirit podcast that has had Eric on it so it’s possible it could’ve been said there too.
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It appears that you are correct, Rabit, according to a poster on BGG:
To quote that poster:
What was announced:
8 new spirits!!! (4 with a brand new mechanic)
1 new adversary (beefy)
A lot of new aspects (some utilizing the new mechanic)
Only a couple major and minor powers (utilizing the new mechanic)
Some new fear, event (and I think blight) cards.All in all they said it is between the size of B&C and JE.
8 new Spirits is a lot more than I anticipated. We just got Jagged Earth (and Promo Pack 2) which gave us a total of 12 new Spirits. I would’ve imagined Eric would slow done a bit. (Not to mention the five new Horizons Spirits, for a total of 13 new ones this year.) (Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about this. : ))
So, it is confirmed that there will be a single “brand new mechanic” in Nature Incarnate. I feel like it is very obvious that it will be some form of the Vitality token (first seen on the 6-player play-mat).
But could 4 Spirits really use a single token in meaningfully different ways? None of the existing tokens are even used by that many Spirits. Wait, no, that’s not true; 
are all used by Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves, Many Minds Move as One, Lure of the Deep Wilderness, and Grinning Trickster Stirs up Trouble. (And 
and 
both come close, with 3 Spirits each.)
Anyhow, of those four who will use the new mechanic, I’d wager that two of them will heavily use it, but in two very different ways, akin to how Sharp Fangs and Many Minds both use differently. And one will use it in a secondary capacity, similar to Trickster’s usage of . And the fourth will really just have it as a little incidental thing on one of its Unique Powers, like how Volcano Looming High can add and with Lava Flows.
I’m very glad that there will be “a lot of new Aspects.” I think that they’re a great mechanic, and it will be fun to see how Eric has changed up familiar Spirits.
And some of the Aspects will feature the new mechanic. Operating on the assumption that Vitality tokens (or something similar) is the new mechanic, I suspect that Vital Strength of the Earth, Keeper of Forbidden Wilds, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, and Stone’s Unyielding Defiance are all likely candidates to receive it via an Aspect.
Of course, there is the possibility that the new mechanic won’t be Vitality-esque, or any kind of token at all. But then, I’m not sure what it would be.
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One of the reasons I don’t play Sharp Fangs much is because I think of it as “Thunderspeaker but for , which is not as good because there are much fewer than 
.” (Many Minds is a much more interesting spirit.) So, the trap here I’d like to see them avoid is to make a Thunderspeaker-but-Vitality, a Forbidden-Wilds-but-Vitality, an Unyielding-Defiance-but-Vitality, etc. A good example of having spirits parallel each other but have unique feels is Lure of the Deep Wilderness, which feels a little like “Ocean but for the interior land,” but comes with a lot of its own play style.
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True, but Sharp Fangs can create , whereas Thunderspeaker can’t create , and can’t get damaged by Invaders like can.
Unrelatedly, I was thinking about what Nature Incarnate will do with , if anything. Well, we know that it will focus on nature, so I thought there might be some Spirit/Aspect/Event/Power that did something like “Replace [X] with ///Vitality,” representing transforming Dahan into parts of the natural world to better defend the island.
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I’m not sure that makes sense. Do the Dahan not live in harmony with, and as part of, nature?
The way I see it, yes, the Dahan are in harmony with nature (of course), but I disagree with them being a part of it. I see humans — including the Dahan and (of course) the Invaders — as being set apart from the natural world, notably by our use of tools.
Of course, this is entirely my own subjective view of how I see the Dahan’s relationship with nature. Which is an admittedly metaphysical relationship to begin with.
I just had an idea for an Aspect that I really want to be in this box: an Aspect for A Shroud of Silent Mists that lets it add 
. Something like this:
Innate Power
Mist-Borne Plagues
Range: 0|Target Land: Any
[Elements] If target land has both yourand damaged Invaders, add 1
And the higher thresholds could do 
, damage, adding to adjacent lands, or repeating it on them.
Anyway, I think that this would be a great reference to Spirit Island’s design history.
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GTG have once again updated the Backerkit page.
(Also, there’s only about three weeks until the launch. EXCITEMENT.)
For one thing, the page now says this:
Nature Incarnate features 8 Spirits, 20 Aspects, new Major Powers, and brand-new mechanics for players to challenge the Invaders head-on.
We already knew the number of Spirits, but I think that the Aspect count is new information? Regardless, there are currently 29 published Spirits — the Base Game’s 8, B&C’s 2, JE’s 10, F&F’s 4, and Horizons’ 5. I find it unlikely, though, that Vital Strength, Shadows, River, or Lightning will be getting more Aspects, which brings the total down to 25. I also think that the B&C and F&F Spirits probably won’t make it, so 19. And Fractured Days and Starlight also seem unlikely, so that leaves us with 17 Spirits that I think will get Aspects. I image the 20 Aspects will get fairly evenly distributed between them.
I also find it very interesting that they only mention Major Powers. This is in contradiction to the info I shared above, but I suppose that this is the more reliable source. This seems to imply that whatever the New Mystery Mechanic is, it will be powerful.
And what does it mean by “brand-new mechanics for players to challenge the Invaders head-on?” Aren’t we already challenging them head on? This is very intriguing. Unless . . . they’re talking about playing as the Dahan? Which would mean that this is The Dahan Expansion.
The Backerkit page also now says this:
Shadows gather, and keening echoes drift through the forests, as bloodied pick and steel break the ground and force what once-was to fight at the forefront of the fray.
This implies only one thing to me: zombies. See Vengeance of the Dead.
Also, the page shows an art that is titled “Wrack with Pain and Grief” (by Nolan Nasser). Now, I’m not sure if this is a Spirit or a Power Card. I’m leaning towards the latter. However, that seems thematically similar to Weep for What is Lost.
They also mention “a brutal side to a familiar Adversary.” So, there’s going to be some sort of variant for an existing Adversary? That’s certainly interesting.
Personally, I don’t think they would be introducing Aspects for the Horizons spirits, given the different markets and the coincident development timelines. And are we even sure that part of their spirit panels are the same dimensions?
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Yes, those are good points. You could very likely be right. However, Eric has said that designing Aspects for Low-Complexity Spirits is significantly easier than designing them for higher complexity Spirits.
They look like they are:
Things that have been officially announced:
- One of the Aspects is for Shadows.
- None of the Aspects are for Horizons of Spirit Island spirits.
- This is not the Dahan expansion.
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Really? Shadows Flicker Like Flame already has the most existing Aspects. That seems a touch unfair.
Yes, that certainly makes sense, given the points raised by @Trajector. Although I do still consider it a missed opportunity. (Perhaps in a future expansion.)
Yeah, that seems logical, but thanks for the confirmation anyway, @MindWanderer. If it were the Dahan expansion, GTG would have certainly advertised it as such. It was just the “challenging Invaders head-on” line that gave me the slightest reason to believe otherwise.
Only two more days until the campaign launches! Get your last predictions in now!
: D
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Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate is now LIVE on Backerkit! 
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Looking forward to the details on that premium token pack, though. 
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I still find it funny the backer kit site was down on launch because of too much traffic.
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I’m not actually going to get this in physical, but I’m still very excited to see what’s in it. 
A Spirit that starts out dying? Sounds incredible.
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I’m looking forward to seeing the updates about game content.
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Me too, @Trajector. I can hardly wait!
All in all, this expansion looks really nifty! : D
About Incarna, the funny thing is, I had an idea for a practically identical mechanic. Great minds think alike! (That, or GTG is stealing my ideas!)
Seriously, though, it looks really cool, having a single token on the island that you can move around and do stuff with. And it is obviously what was meant before by “facing the Invaders head-on.”
Okay, here is what I was able to glean from the campaign page and video:
Spirits:
-
Incarna Spirits:
- Ember-Eyed Behemoth, “a massive titan that destroys everything in its path.”
- Towering Roots of the Jungle, “a mighty tree that defends the land and quiets all conflict around it.” Vitality confirmed! (It’s mentioned on the Spirit’s panel in the video.)
- Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine, “a shadowy figure that slinks through the darkness and sends lone Invaders to the Void.” Could this Void a reference to Sentinel Comics’ Void in the same way that Sentinels of the Multiverse’s Nexus of the Void environment is a reference to Spirit Island‽
- 1 Other Spirit, that looks like some sort of floating sun-head.
-
Non-Incarna Spirits:
- Hearth Vigil. The short name makes sense for a Spirit that is close to the Dahan, as Thunderspeaker is. Also, the name sounds strangely familiar; has it been mentioned in lore before?
- Roiling Waters. It looks like this Spirit gets some special cards that aren’t Powers‽ It’s possible that “Roiling Waters” is just the name of those cards and not the Spirit. And it appears that this Spirit will get its own tokens.
- 1 Other Spirit, one that “carv[es] swathes of overwhelming destruction.”
- 1 Other Spirit, “a Spirit who starts the game dying and must find their way to a new form.” That description reminds me of Voice of the Deepest Gorge, who was mentioned in the lore section of the core game’s rulebook. Could this be that?
It looks like there are three types of new special tokens, but they don’t look like the same type of tokens as etc. Towering Roots of the Jungle uses the green ones (Vitality), and I think Roiling Waters uses the blue ones. However, it’s unclear wether these tokens will each be exclusive to a single Spirit, or (like the B&C and JE tokens) be used by several Spirits, Power Cards, and Aspects.
It also looks like we’ll be getting at least one Aspect for Heart of the Wildfire and a Scenario entitled “Destiny Unfolds.”
If Vitality ends up not being exclusive to Towering Roots, I think it would make a good fit for the Wildfire Aspect.
There’s only four Incarna Spirits, yet there are six Incarna tokens. However, taking into account the info I found above, I speculate that there will be one Major Power and one Aspect that can each grant just any old Spirit an Incarna.
And it appears that, in addition to counting as , one of the Incarna will count as and two as .
The new BackerKit campaign is being run incredibly poorly.
Not providing any of the rules up front, having each (fully complete) Spirit being paywalled behind artificial target goals, it is the antithesis of what makes me confident in a preorder scheme.
I suggest that GTG carefully rethink their approach to this.
Just check the discussions on the /r/boardgames subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/y79v3m/spirit_island_nature_incarnate_crowdfunding_is/
Or Boardgamegeek:
It looks like they are burning a lot of goodwill from people who absolutely love the game, and that’s pretty sad.
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