When the Kickstarter campaign reached the $1M milestone, we received the initial reveal and teaser of the Curio Card concept. Described as "very rare Mystery cards showcasing the history of Sorcery's creation", the image included a full-size early development image of Francesca Baerald's "Erik's Curiosa" card.
"Erik's Curiosa" is the corporation name that was established for the Sorcery: Contested Realm project. Notably apparent in the higher resolution full art scan of the illustration, and the card image, is the inclusion of an "Exalted Orb".
Exalted Orb comes from the game Path of Exile (PoE), which was created by Grinding Gear Games (GGG).
Sorcery: Contested Realm Creator, Erik Oloffson, was one of the three founding members of Grinding Gear Games, and served as the Art Director for many years before retiring from the company to pursue Sorcery full-time.
In PoE, the Exalted Orb is a currency item that can be used to enhance a piece of rare equipment in the game.
The image seen here is the Curio sketch card that has been discovered in the Alpha set. Note the Exalted Orb does not appear in the sketch!
This appears to lend credence to the notion that this was a requested 'add' by Erik in the illustration development process. It also seems to validate my theory that the teaser image was intentionally obscured during the Kickstarter campaign.
I reached out to artist Francesca Baerald in May 2022 to ask about the development history of this beautiful illustration. Here is the story in Francesca's own words...
First of all, I was looking through my old email exchanges with Erik regarding this piece and it's from 2019! Wow, 5 years ago!
I immediately understood from the name of the card that this was a special one, but I didn't imagine it would be so unique.
Also, Erik asked me to work on a painting double the size of my usual card illustrations, so I guessed there was something going on with this piece.
Erik gave me a few indications on this piece. He wanted a table with various medieval curios elements laid on it, like an old-fashioned globe and a few maps, and maybe some spell books.
All the items you see in the painting are inspired from objects that I own and each one has a special story behind it. For example, the keys and lock come from a shop in an English castle.
As you can see from the two images attached, the famous Exalted Orb was not on the first drawing. It really wasn't planned even after I started coloring the painting. Erik probably thought of it and mentioned it only later, so I added the Exalted Orb during the painting phase and that is quite unique, it usually never happens to me.