Arena Vanguard Frontier Set: KING ERMINAZ TWINCLEAVER

2 months ago (Edited)

ARENA VANGUARD: REBIRTH OF THE FRONTIER

Sometimes, the best community projects begin with a very simple question:

What can we do to help?

What began as a fan-led community initiative has now reached its first major milestone. The Arena Vanguard's first collaborative card project is officially live inside @splinterlands, a new collection of characters has entered the Frontier, and, for me personally, King Erminaz Twincleaver has finally stepped onto the battlefield.

Today I want to tell you how we got here.

And I may have made a little movie to celebrate the occasion, so keep reading. 🎥

CHAPTER I

THE FOUNDING OF THE ARENA VANGUARD

The Arena Vanguard was founded on April 16th, 2026 by @iblast around a simple idea.

Splinterlands has an incredibly passionate community of players, creators, artists, streamers, tournament organizers, writers and collectors—many with years of experience and valuable skills to contribute.

At the same time, the official Splinterlands team already has plenty on its plate.

Rather than simply proposing more ideas that would ultimately create more work for them, the Arena Vanguard was conceived as a fan-led initiative capable of helping bring ideas to life ourselves.

The question became:
What can we, as members of the community, create ourselves?

@iblast organized the initiative and invited @ourfadedglory, @bunsbagsandcaps and myself, @king-arminius, to form the original Arena Vanguard committee. More recently, @silentwill has joined our ranks in a supporting role.

Different backgrounds. Different skills. Different perspectives.

But one shared objective:
Find creative ways to contribute something meaningful to Splinterlands and its community.

And it wasn't long before our first major undertaking began to take shape.

CHAPTER II

THE ARENA VANGUARD FRONTIER CARD SET

Our first major project became the:
Arena Vanguard Frontier Card Set

And as of Tuesday, July 21st, 2026, those cards are officially LIVE IN SPLINTERLANDS!
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/the-arena-vanguard-is-coming-to-splinterlands

That sentence is still pretty wild to write.

What started as a community project has crossed that wonderful invisible line between something we're working on and something players can actually encounter inside the game.

These aren't merely concepts floating around anymore.

They're here.

They're playable.

They're part of the Frontier.

And among them is a character that has become rather important to me over the course of this project:

King Erminaz Twincleaver.

Some of you have already met him.

But you haven't seen the whole story yet.

CHAPTER III

KING ERMINAZ TWINCLEAVER MOVIE

FINAL EXTENDED EDIT

When the time came to unveil my Arena Vanguard card, I didn't want to simply say:

"Here's King Erminaz."

I wanted to give him an entrance.

So ahead of the Frontier launch, I premiered a cinematic presentation short film for King Erminaz Twincleaver on my X—introducing the character, his world, and the unfortunate fate awaiting those across the battlefield.

But I wasn't finished.

There were ideas I wanted to take further, moments I wanted to expand, and new sequences I wanted to create.

So I went back to work.

The result:

King Erminaz Twincleaver — The Final Extended Edit.

If you saw the original premiere, you'll recognize where it begins.

You won't necessarily recognize where it goes.

One of my favorite parts of this entire project wasn’t simply creating my own character.

As a graphic designer and creative, it was getting the opportunity to work with the other creators — helping translate their ideas into finished artwork and lore.

And every character started somewhere different.

Each creator provided an initial reference: the visual starting point for how they imagined their character. From there, I developed my own interpretation — preserving what made the concept recognizable while expanding it into something that still felt unmistakably theirs.

Now that the cards are live, we can finally look at the entire creative evolution:

THE ORIGINAL CREATOR REFERENCE
Where the character began.

↓

MY FINAL ORIGINAL ARTWORK
My interpretation, developed from the creator’s concept and feedback.

↓

THE FINAL IN-GAME VERSION
The team’s final treatment of my artwork — and the version that officially entered Splinterlands.

So rather than simply showing you the finished cards, let’s pull back the curtain and look at how each one evolved.

Get ready for some serious eye-candygasms. 😂

Fire Card
Jolius Blast
Creator: @iblast aka Joe
X: https://x.com/iblast530
Twitch: iblastarcade

Initial Reference:
Jolius Blast.png

My Final Original Art:
Jolius Blast (transparent).png

Final In-Game Art:

Water Card
Ratbound Corsair
Creator: @mickvir
X: https://x.com/Mickvir2
Twitch: mickvir

Initial Reference:
Ratbound Corsair.jpeg

My Final Original Art:
Ratbound Corsair (transparent).png

Final In-Game Art:

Earth Card
Khan Feywest
Creator: @ehmaywuntee
X: https://x.com/EhmayWuntee
Twitch: EhmayWuntee

Initial Reference:

My Final Original Art:
Khan Feywest (transparent).png

Final In-Game Art:

Life Card
King Erminaz Twincleaver
Creator: @king-arminius
X: https://x.com/KING_ARMINIUS
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@king-arminius-productions?si=RYVXm5uDOv09uSFh

Initial Reference:
Since I didn't need to send myself a reference concept, I'll show you the evolution of Erminaz instead.

1st Iteration
Erminaz Twincleaver Art (plain background).png
2nd Iteration
King Erminaz Twincleaver old (transparent).png

My Final Original Art:
King Erminaz Twincleaver (transparent).png

Final In-Game Art:

Death Card
Gorm the Vengeful
Creator: @ourfadedglory
X: https://x.com/OurFaded
Twitch: ofgplays

Initial Reference:
OFG sent me this reference with the note, that he wants the shoulder armor to be Direbear skulls instead of Dragon heads

My Final Original Art:
Gorm (transparent).png

Final In-Game Art:

Neutral Card
Buns the Unseen
Creator: @bunsbagsandcaps
X: https://x.com/BagsBuns
Twitch: bunsbagsandcaps

Initial Reference:

My Original Art:
Buns (transparent).png

Final In-Game Art:

For both the Dragon Unit and Archon, the reference art I received came from @iblast, which I then developed in the same style I had done with the previous characters.

Dragon Unit Card
Vaelok
Honorable Community Member: @ank2020
X: https://x.com/ANK12C

Initial Reference (from @iblast):

My Original Art:
Vaelok (transparent bg).png

Final In-Game Art:

Dragon Archon Card
Aurendrak
Honorable Community Member: @goldmatters
X: https://x.com/Goldmatters_

Initial Reference (from @iblast):
Goldmatters gave me some requests that he wanted for his card, adding in personal symbolism. To honor his many years of dedication to Spinterlands, I was more than obliged to try and include as many as his requests as possible.
These included:

18 Roman numeral standing for 2018, the year GM started playing Spinterlands
The initials RT that hold a special meaning for GM
A showing off of GM's most prized cards, each holding a deep meaning for GM, but each also telling an amazing story.

My Original Art:
Aurendrak (transparent bg).png

Final In-Game Art:

Seeing all those stages of the process side-by-side is pretty damn satisfying.

A reference becomes an idea.

The idea becomes artwork.

And eventually...

you see the character inside the game.

Now we get to the fun part.

King Erminaz exists in Splinterlands—but I don't want acquiring him from me to simply amount to one conventional giveaway campaign.

There are going to be multiple ways to get your hands on copies of King Erminaz, and some of them will require a little more...direct confrontation.

I'll be giving away copies through both my X account (https://x.com/KING_ARMINIUS) and King Arminius Productions on YouTube (https://youtube.com/@king-arminius-productions?si=n7fUKvgptWJsn9dN).

Keep an eye on both, because giveaways can appear at different times and in different forms.

But if waiting around for a giveaway isn't quite your style...

There is another option.

Want a King Erminaz?

Come and take one from me.

From here forward, defeating my IGN @king-arminius in an eligible human-played ranked battle earns you:

1 BCX REGULAR FOIL KING ERMINAZ
(while supplies last)

Eligible ranked formats are:

Frontier
Modern
Survival

The important part is that it must be an eligible human-played ranked battle against me.

Tournament victories do not count toward the Battle Bounty.

If you defeat me, send me a link to the qualifying battle either by DM on Discord at:
king_arminius
or through my X account (https://x.com/KING_ARMINIUS).

Once I've verified the battle, I'll get your King Erminaz sent out as soon as possible.

So yes...

There is now officially a bounty on my head.

DEFEAT KING ERMINAZ.
CLAIM KING ERMINAZ.

I'll also be carrying copies into the wider Splinterlands streaming community.

Whenever I'm co-hosting a Twitch show — or sometimes simply hanging around in chat — you may see unannounced spontaneous King Erminaz giveaways appear.

No complicated schedule.

No guarantee of when they'll happen.

If you're there when one breaks out, you're there.

There will also be hosted special tournaments where prize tiers include copies of King Erminaz.

More information on those events will be announced separately as they're organized.

Periodically, I’ll issue THE KING’S CHALLENGE — a random challenge that could involve just about anything.

It might be a particular Splinterlands battle objective, a trivia question, a creative challenge, a community task, or something completely unexpected.

Complete the challenge, follow whatever rules are given, and you’ll have a chance to earn your own King Erminaz Twincleaver.

What will the King ask of you? You’ll just have to wait and see. 👑

I'll also be hosting WHERE'S ERMINAZ? scavenger hunts, where our elusive King will be hidden somewhere out in the wild.

He might turn up in a post, an image, somewhere across social media, or in another unexpected corner of the Splinterlands community.

Find him. Follow the clues. Be quick.

Some hunts may reward the first person to track him down. Others might require you to solve a clue, identify a location, or uncover whatever trouble Erminaz has gotten himself into this time.

Occasionally, I’ll simply reward someone I notice doing something genuinely useful, positive, or helpful for the Splinterlands community.

No application. No contest. No hoops to jump through.

Just the King recognizing an outstanding member of the community when he sees one.

These rewards won’t be announced beforehand — you’ll simply have to earn The King’s Favor without knowing you’re being watched. 👑

For full transparency, I’ll make all Erminaz transfers awarded this way public on X.

AND THAT WON'T BE ALL...

These are only the methods I'm ready to announce right now.

There will be other fun ways to acquire King Erminaz in the future.

So stay tuned.

THE FRONTIER HAS OPENED

When the Arena Vanguard began, none of us knew exactly where the experiment would lead.

A little over three months later, our first major project is officially inside the game.

For me, there’s something incredibly rewarding about seeing artwork that began on my screen ultimately become part of Splinterlands itself, a true dream from 2021 coming true for me.

But this isn’t the finish line.

It’s the first expedition.

To @iblast, @ourfadedglory, @bunsbagsandcaps, everyone who helped bring the Frontier Giveaway Card Set to life, the Splinterlands team who helped bring these creations into the game, and especially @davemccoy, without whom this project could never have become a reality:

Thank you!

And to everyone else...

I’ll see you on the battlefield. ⚔️