#loxodon name generator

[biscuits-of-bagend]

DnDoc #3 - Tales in the TARDIS

Part #1 Part #2

"I was sort of pessimistic at first? But at the same time determined. It was like, this is hopeless - but also I have to get back to some sort of civilisation or at least somewhere with running water or I will die. I followed the forest trying to figure out if the trees were lined up in any sort of shape, anything that might indicate where I could find a pond. If I could find a pond I could find a stream, a river, a city, if there was one to be found."

   Rogue stopped as Ruby came in with an enormous jug of water. Maybe she'd been outside listening this whole time and knew he really needed it now that he had started this.

   "Stay if you want, Ruby," said Rogue. "It's good to see you too."

   Ruby was no longer dressed like a Regency duchess and instead wore a tartan pattern pinafore over a white t-shirt. She seemed even younger than Rogue remembered and he was glad all over again that his trap hadn't got her killed.

   The Doctor nodded to Ruby and patted the space next to him on his futon. "Come sit,  so far it sounds like it's not going to be a super sexy story."

   "Well," said Rogue.

   "Oh?" The Doctor's eyebrows shot up in what Rogue assumed at first was jealousy but that may actually have been deep intrigue, the Doctor's curiosity perhaps turning a little Chuldur-like.

   "There was a queen who really needed an heir," said Rogue.

   Ruby's eyes bugged out of her head and the Doctor put his hand to his breast and said, "You didn't."

   Rogue grinned and took a drink of water. Then he said, "No, I didn't. But it turns out I am a master match-maker. I am the Emma Woodhouse of my generation."

   "So you did eventually find a civilisation then?" said the Doctor, still shaking his head.

   "Yeah, took a long time, and I sort of turned up on their doorstep just like I did yours," said Rogue. "But they were in the middle of their own problems, away up on this hill above the wasteland. They nearly dispatched me on sight until I could convince them I was not infected with some sort of bacteria they were scared of. I mean, I was scared of it too for a moment there, until their doctor was convinced I was fine. But then they said they'd give me food and water and somewhere to sleep as long as I could complete a quest for them."

   "Aw," said the Doctor, "Just a Rogue all by himself, no tank, no face."

   "Yeah," agreed Rogue. "A face would not have gone amiss. Because what they wanted me to do was go to the one other oasis of green grass and flowering trees in the known world, see if anyone was alive there - which they couldn't tell on their telescopes - and if there was, I was to bring any eligible young males back."

   "That is a lot less romantic than Emma Woodhouse," said Ruby.

   "You're not wrong. There were three eligible young males as it turned out, and they all shared your view. I had to beg one of them and tell him all about how beautiful the queen was and how delicious the fruit away off there at the palace was - I hadn't tasted a bit of it, and wouldn't unless I could get the guy to agree to come back with me. But I'm no slouch on the deception check. So I got this one guy to come with me, eventually, after a truly horrible journey that was like the opposite of a bonding experience and he definitely hates me now."

   Rogue took another breath, wondering how he was coming across. The Doctor and Ruby would understand needs-must kinds of situations, right? He paused for a moment to focus on the burnt orange of the Doctor's jacket, his striped v-neck t-shirt underneath. Once he had his bearings back, he continued.

   "Turned out they were basically long-lost soulmates, or at least, they were willing to see each other that way in the name of speeding things along. But they wouldn't let me go until the baby was born and that took… Oh damn, I forgot to mention. Have you ever heard of Loxodons?"

   "The elephant folk?" said the Doctor.

   "Yeah, all these people were Loxodons. I should have said that at the start." Rogue waved his hand as if to brush away the confusion. He was pleased to note that this caused pain in zero muscles.

   "Wait, but elephants are pregnant for like, almost two years," said Ruby. "I swear on QI Sandi Toksvig said something like twenty-two months! Was it the same for the Loxodon people?"

   Rogue nodded, mouth closed as he watched the Doctor take this in.

   "Yeah," said Rogue. "They wouldn't help me until after the birth in case there was a problem and they needed me to go fetch another male."

   The Doctor took his hand and held it loosely, carefully. "Rogue, that is horrible. I am so sorry you had to go through all this."

   Rogue shook his head, which did cause a slight twinge in his neck but it was fading. He said, "I made my choice. No regrets. We keep moving forward, right?"

   The Doctor relaxed slightly and nodded. "Always on to the next thing."

   "Anyway," said Rogue. "Their library was amazing."

---

Part #4

@off-traveling-in-the-stars @casavanse @monster-donut (let me know at any point if you no longer wish to be tagged in each post)

[92kronus]

Random D&D Character Generator on R

I have been doing a lot of work on R for my research and decided to give it a go and write the script for a random D&D character generator.

It is a very simplified version and there is definitely room for improvement and expansion, but I wanted to share it with everyone for those who want to tinker with it:

#Install Packages#

install.packages("randomNames") library("randomNames")

#Function to generate a random character sheet#

generate_random_character <- function() {

# Sample races, classes, and backgrounds# races <- c( "Dwarf", "Elf", "Halfling", "Human", "Dragonborn", "Gnome", "Half-Elf", "Half-Orc", "Tiefling", "Aasimar", "Firbolg", "Genasi", "Goliath", "Hobgoblin", "Kenku", "Kobold", "Lizardfolk", "Tabaxi", "Triton", "Bugbear", "Goblin", "Hobgoblin", "Orc", "Fairy", "Satyr", "Yuan-ti Pureblood", "Aarakocra", "Aasimar", "Changeling", "Kalashtar", "Shifter", "Warforged", "Centaur", "Loxodon", "Minotaur", "Simic Hybrid", "Vedalken", "Gith (Githyanki, Githzerai)" ) classes <- c( "Barbarian", "Bard", "Cleric", "Druid", "Fighter", "Monk", "Paladin", "Ranger", "Rogue", "Sorcerer", "Warlock", "Wizard", "Artificer", "Blood Hunter" ) subclass_Barbarian <- c( "Path of the Berserker", "Path of the Totem Warrior", "Path of the Ancestral Guardian", "Path of the Storm Herald", "Path of the Zealot" ) subclass_Bard <- c( "College of Lore", "College of Valor", "College of Glamour", "College of Swords", "College of Whispers", "College of Eloquence" ) subclass_Cleric <- c( "Knowledge Domain", "Life Domain", "Light Domain", "Nature Domain", "Tempest Domain", "Trickery Domain", "War Domain", "Forge Domain", "Grave Domain", "Order Domain", "Peace Domain", "Twilight Domain" ) subclass_Druid <- c( "Circle of the Land", "Circle of the Moon", "Circle of Dreams", "Circle of the Shepherd", "Circle of Twilight" ) subclass_Fighter <- c( "Champion", "Battle Master", "Eldritch Knight", "Arcane Archer", "Cavalier", "Samurai" ) subclass_Monk <- c( "Way of the Open Hand", "Way of Shadow", "Way of the Four Elements", "Way of the Drunken Master", "Way of the Kensei", "Way of the Sun Soul" ) subclass_Paladin <- c( "Oath of Devotion", "Oath of the Ancients", "Oath of Vengeance", "Oath of the Crown", "Oath of Conquest", "Oath of Redemption", "Oath of the Watchers" ) subclass_Ranger <- c( "Hunter", "Beast Master", "Gloom Stalker", "Horizon Walker", "Monster Slayer" ) subclass_Rogue <- c( "Thief", "Assassin", "Arcane Trickster", "Mastermind", "Swashbuckler", "Inquisitive", "Scout" ) subclass_Sorcerer <- c( "Draconic Bloodline", "Wild Magic", "Divine Soul", "Shadow Magic", "Storm Sorcery", "Aberrant Mind" ) subclass_Warlock <- c( "The Archfey", "The Fiend", "The Great Old One", "The Undying", "The Celestial", "The Hexblade", "The Raven Queen" ) subclass_Wizard <- c( "School of Abjuration", "School of Conjuration", "School of Divination", "School of Enchantment", "School of Evocation", "School of Illusion", "School of Necromancy", "School of Transmutation", "War Magic", "Bladesinging" ) subclass_Artificer <- c( "Alchemist", "Artillerist", "Battle Smith", "Armorer" ) subclass_BloodHunter <- c( "Order of the Ghostslayer", "Order of the Lycan", "Order of the Profane Soul" ) backgrounds <- c( "Acolyte", "Charlatan", "Criminal", "Entertainer", "Folk Hero", "Guild Artisan", "Hermit", "Noble", "Outlander", "Sage", "Sailor", "Soldier", "Urchin", "City Watch", "Clan Crafter", "Cloistered Scholar", "Courtier", "Far Traveler", "Inheritor", "Knight", "Knight of the Order", "Mercenary Veteran", "Urban Bounty Hunter", "Uthgardt Tribe Member", "Waterdhavian Noble", "Haunted One", "Anthropologist", "Archaeologist", "Azorius Functionary", "Boros Legionnaire", "Dimir Operative", "Izzet Engineer", "Rakdos Cultist", "Selesnya Initiate", "Simic Scientist", "Criminal (Spy)", "Gladiator", "Knight (Free Agent)" ) gender <- c("Male", "Female")

# Randomly select a race, class, subclass, gender, name and background# race <- sample(races, 1) character_class <- sample(classes, 1) # Select subclass based on the character class subclass <- character_class switch(character_class, "Barbarian" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Barbarian, 1), "Bard" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Bard, 1), "Cleric" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Cleric, 1), "Druid" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Druid,1), "Fighter" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Fighter,1), "Monk" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Monk, 1), "Paladin" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Paladin, 1), "Ranger" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Ranger,1), "Rogue" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Rogue,1), "Sorcerer" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Sorcerer,1), "Warlock" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Warlock,1), "Wizard" = subclass <- sample(subclass_Wizard,1), "Blood Hunter" = subclass <- sample(subclass_BloodHunter,1) ) background <- sample(backgrounds, 1) gender <- sample(gender, 1) name <- gender switch(gender, "Male" = name <- randomNames(gender = 0,ethnicity = 5,name.order = "first.last", name.sep = " "), "Female" = name <- randomNames(gender = 1,ethnicity = 5,name.order = "first.last", name.sep = " ") ) # Generate random ability scores# ability_scores <- sample(6:18, 6, replace = TRUE)

# Create a character sheet data frame# character_sheet <- data.frame( Name = name, Race = race, Class = character_class, Subclass = subclass, Background = background, Gender = gender, Strength = ability_scores[1], Dexterity = ability_scores[2], Constitution = ability_scores[3], Intelligence = ability_scores[4], Wisdom = ability_scores[5], Charisma = ability_scores[6] )

return(character_sheet) }

#Generate a random character sheet#

random_character_sheet <- generate_random_character()

#Print the character sheet#

print(random_character_sheet)

[pikagatogirltits]

Remember folks, the Magic the Gathering formula for typing anthro animal people goes like this:

-if it's an existing animal person from mythology, use the mythological name: Minotaur for bull people, Naga for snake people, Merfolk for fish people

-if it's not, use the relevant animal species: Cat for leonin, Elephant for loxodon, Rhino for rhox

-Viashino for lizard people, Cephalid for octopus people, and Homarid for crab people are exceptions to the general rule because they were created before this system was formalized and got grandfathered in

-the Orochi from Kamigawa are Snake instead of Naga because they predate the use of Naga and are grandfathered in for that plane specifically. There's some debate about this (understatement)

-some planes like to reimagine classic mythology beings with different animal features, mostly (off the top of my head) in the form of a few planes with creatures typed Minotaur that are animals other than bulls.

-bird people come in Aven, which are typed as Bird and resemble bird-headed winged humanoids (with different planes using different types of birds as the base), and Sirens or Harpies, which are winged humanoids with varying levels of bird features and typed as Siren or Harpy respectively. There's also at least three Sirens that are aquatic instead of bird like, but that's fairly mythologically accurate because sirens could be either in myth. The rule of thumb seems to be blue Sirens, black Harpies.

If you introduce a new humanoid animal race – such as whale (a mammal), penguin (a bird), or nautilus (a cephalopod) – what kind of creature type will be used?

We tend to use the animal as the creature type.

[malaismere]

Campaign 3 Predictions - Compiled

So, as a fan of compiling statistics, I've been keeping track of race/class predictions for campaign 3 for the past...at least a year, from tumblr, reddit, and twitter. with EXU over, and my spreadsheet hitting 400 (?!), I figured I'd share the fandom's current predictions

Travis

Human (30), Dwarf (29), Elf, Shifter (11), Half-Elf (10)

Cleric (103), Bloodhunter (63), Wizard (50), Fighter (49), Druid (46)

Lycan bloodhunter (41), Forge cleric (26), War cleric (16), Eldritch Knight fighter, Bladesinger wizard (14)

Marisha

Elf (16), Genasi, Tiefling (14), Dwarf (13), Dragonborn (11)

Paladin (112), Rogue (53), Fighter (43), Cleric (40), Warlock (37)

Eldritch Knight fighter, Glory paladin (14), Artillerist and Armorer artificer, Battlemaster Fighter (8)

Liam

Dwarf (25), Halfling (18), Tiefling (13), Elf (12), Warforged (11)

Druid (77), Cleric (72), Bard (71), Fighter (59)

Stars druid (16), Dreams druid (10), Eloquence bard (8), Alchemist artificer, Whispers bard, Twilight cleric (7)

Sam

Dwarf (34), Kobold (24), Goliath (17), Warforged (15), Kenku (13)

Sorcerer (106), Cleric (98), Druid (63), Wizard (47)

Wild Magic sorcerer (61), Wild Soul barbarian (14), Twilight cleric (8), Life and Forge cleric, Wildfire druid, Divination wizard (7)

Laura

Elf (21), Human, Tabaxi (19), Genasi (15), Gnome, Aasimar (10)

Barbarian (75), Sorcerer (74), Bard (64), Warlock (60)

Wild Soul barbarian (14), Wild Magic sorcerer (12), Glamour bard (10), Shadow monk (9)

Taliesin

Warforged (16), Elf, Changeling (14), Gnome, Genasi, Tabaxi (8)

Sorcerer (68), Rogue (65), Warlock (55), Bard (45), Wizard (43)

Aberrant Mind sorcerer (18), Whispers bard, Phantom rogue, Soulknife rogue (11), Mastermind rogue, Clockwork sorcerer (9)

Ashley

Elf (26), Human (18), Tiefling (17), Half-Elf (12), Dwarf (11)

Rogue (95), Bard (91), Monk (43), Ranger (41), Warlock (38)

Swashbuckler rogue (21), Glamour bard (13), Mercy monk (9), Drunken monk, Wild Magic sorcerer (8)

I also (although less consistently) collected continent/setting predictions. Marquet was the top (49), then Issylra (29) and the Shattered Teeth (22). For non-continent settings, some form of Spelljammer was the top (19), followed by the Age of Arcanum (17), and Planescape/Planehopping (15). Underdark, Ravenloft, Blightshore, and a return to Tal'Dorei were also suggested multiple times.

Much longer and rambly discussion (and my own predictions) under the break.

Top predicted races were Dwarf, Elf, and Human (~100). Dwarf and Elf haven't been played before, so that tracks, and I don't think it's out there to assume we'll get at least one human again. Also, post the whole thing with Essek and long rests, people really started jumping on Elves (which, fair). Warforged, Dragonborn, Tabaxi, Genasi, Tieflings, and Changelings all are pretty prominent (~50).

Of the races not yet established as existing in Exandria, Warforged and Changeling were the most popular (Warforged now dubiously canon post-Aeor, and Changelings dubiously canon with the LoVM bartender), followed by Shifters, Leonin, Kalashtar, Fairies, Grung, Ravnica races (Loxodon, Simic Hybrid, Vedalken), Van Richten's Races (Dhampir, Reborn, Hexblood). Locathah and the other Feywild/Strixhaven races are the only officially published races at 0 suggestions. The lowest previously seen race is Gobins at 2, one of which was for Sam again, and the lowest PHB race was Half-Orc at 17.

Class wise, Sorcerer was actually the most predicted class (which kind of tracks, as it's the one that hasn't shown up even as multiclass), followed by Cleric (generally assumed as compulsory), Paladin (only as a multiclass), and Rogue (also assumed as compulsory, but way less so. Not surprisingly, Bloodhunter, Ranger, and Artificer were the lowest.

Wild Magic Sorcerer was far and away the most suggested subclass, the only one to break 50, although it hasn't hit 100 quite yet (I think it will by the time the final characters are announced though). EK Fighter, Lycan Blooodhunter, Forge Cleric, Swashbuckler Rogue, Wild Soul Barbarian, Stars Druid, Glamour Bard, Bladesinger Wizard, Eloquence Bard, and Echo Knight Fighter are the other top subclasses.

Every official subclass has been suggested except for Berserker Barbarian, Grave Cleric, and Transmutation Wizard (previously played), Battlerager Barbarian and Banneret/Purple Dragon Knight (SCAG subclasses, which are widely unpopular), and the dubiously-official Planeshift subclasses. Open Seas Paladin is the only Matt homebrew to not be suggested at least once. For dead UA, Satire Bard, Brute Fighter, Giant Soul and Stone Sorcerer, and Raven Queen Warlock have all been suggested, usually only once, although many of the suggestions were collected while classes were in UA for Tasha's, Van Richten's, and Fizban's which is technically still UA but announced so...

With Travis, the predictions bounce between two main ideas - a melee spellcaster (Forge/War/Tempest cleric, Bladesinger/War wizard), or going back to a melee class (Bloodhunter, Fighter) but with a bit more mechanical interest (Lycan, EK/Echo/Rune/Battlemaster). I think those are both solid predictions, and while I really, really doubt we'll see a Lycan bloodhunter or a Forge cleric, I think the general vibe is probably spot on.

My own prediction is one of the more out there, but still in line with the general thinking - Artillerist Artificer. Travis is definitely a very tactical player, and it would be cool to see him get a turret for the battlefield, plus all the general utility/versatility of the artificer. Alternatively, I really could see a rogue, although more like what Mastermind or Inquisitive is trying for as opposed to how they actually turned out, if that makes sense.

Race wise, the top guesses are fairly plain, outside of shifter (which is mostly tied into the "werewolf" vibe). None of them would shock me, but I don't have any predictions.

I think that everyone's right on the money with Marisha as a paladin. Her next character being high charisma seems spot on, and I think moving to a half-caster also tracks. EK/Echo/Rune/Psi fighters would also fit, although they don't lean towards high charisma, or a warlock, maybe a more melee one.

Rogue seems unlikely purely due to the fact she's played one before, kind of. Matt and Marisha have both talked some, but her first game wasn't Vox Machina, but a previous game Matt had run where she'd played an assassin. You can do non-assassiny rogues, but still.

(Other fun facts about this game because it's wild: apparently the session she sat in on before playing involved half the party getting eaten by ghouls. the party joined up with another half-tpk'd party (marisha and the replacement characters) to get the raven queen to bring their dead friends back, and a fate-touched rogue swore service to the Raven Queen in order to bring the last party member back.)

My prediction for Marisha is also paladin, although I don't have any thoughts on the subclass, with genie warlock as a second because they are fun. No real thoughts on race other than I too would love to see tiefling Marisha.

Most people are going with a support caster for Liam, which I totally buy. Caleb definitely leaned towards support caster, even if he usually did end up played as DPS. Druid has taken the top given the polymorph->wildshape vibe, although it's still very yclose with Bard and Cleric. Suggestions for fighter dropped after EXU, and while Liam does play a lot of fighters, I doubt we'll see it for C3.

Honestly, Liam is the one I have no predictions for outside of 'support caster'. I'd lean away from Cleric and towards Druid or Bard, but it's hard to say. I also think Artificer deserves to be in the running, as it seems like something Liam would really enjoy, but also...might not want to go Int-caster to Int-caster. My only real thought on race is that I want to see whether Marisha and Liam choose the same again.

Top guesses for Sam is, far and away, Wild Magic Sorcerer. This was also the top guess for C2. I do not think Sam will play a Wild Magic Sorcerer. In general, though, the vibe is going back to fullcaster - Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, Wizard. I think full caster is probably right.

Sam is so hard to predict because it isn't what he'd choose, but what Liam chose for him. I think it's either something really standard or something really out there, and since I can't guess the really out there, I'll go for the standard - Elf Wizard or Dwarf Cleric, leaning towards Dwarf Cleric, due to the support class and the fact that Sam's mentioned never playing a religious character.

The main vibe for Laura is definitely "DPS" which is understandable. I don't know if I agree with it, but I understand it. Aside from Barbarian, the rest of the vibe is spellcaster - and I don't think we'll see a completely no magic character from her either.

Prediction wise...I understand barbarian, but I'd actually go with Ancestor or Beast over Wild Soul. I could actually see a Bloodhunter from her too, although leaning away from Vex vibes. I think I'd want to go with Wizard, though I'm not certain on that. I would bet Tabaxi but idk, I could see her avoiding that for Travis' sake.

Everyone always names Taliesin as the hardest to predict (he had the lowest count at 354, under even Ashley at 365, to everyone else's ~380/400) but I don't think he's harder to predict than Sam. The thing that makes him hard to predict is that he likes to build characters to fit the party, which he (probably) won't be doing, same as with Molly. The other main thing he tends towards is mechanical complexity in a way that suits his characters.

The main driving influence in the top suggestions is Eldritch Weirdness. Aberrant Sorc, Whispers Bard, Phantom Rogue, Warlock in general. I don't disagree with any of the subclasses, but I really don't think he'd go eldritch for eldritch sake, if for at the very least being...he has always been this weird and it's yet to be a driving force behind any of his characters before. Like the Taliesin-is-an-elder-god thing, I think this is mostly people who don't hang out around occultists. Look, I've had multiple people sell me their actual souls, and you don't see all my characters being warlocks.

That being said, I don't think I disagree with the top classes, just the subclasses. I definitely agree with Sorcerer as a good choice for him, although I'd actually go Clockwork, as I think it has a fuck-with-the-DM vibe. Taliesin is the most heavily suggested for dunamancy subclasses, which wouldn't surprise me, but I think he might avoid on the sole point of not wanting something too tied with the last campaign. A lot of people also name the psionic subclasses, which I'd be more likely to second if they had kept the weird mechanic from the UA, but don't disagree with, excepting my issue with Aberrant Mind.

My out there guess is that he's going to choose a multiclass build. He definitely enjoys playing around with weird builds (Owlbear, he did a non-CR oneshot as a monk/stars druid). On the one hand, a lot of these builds work best for oneshots or starting at higher levels, as they can take a bit of time to come online, but with such a large party, I think it will still function.

(my actual prediction for Taliesin is that his character is weirdly reminiscent of either the aasimar echo knight or the elf blood cleric from the exandria game I'm running.)

Ashley is being predicted as a Dex/Cha build, and I'm totally here for it. Pre-Fearne, I was leaning Ranger, especially Fey Wanderer for a fey build, but post-Fearne, I'm going Rogue, especially Swashbuckler. I agree that seeing a high Cha Ashley would be great, especially to let her be more center-focused than Yasha had been, and swashbucklers are just...really fun. Also, the whole Aeor arc really left me wanting to see Ashley as the go-ahead-and-scout character, just to watch her push buttons.

For continents...I understand why people are guessing Marquet, since it's currently the most explored. I think that if they're going to do Marquet, then Matt will sit down with a cultural consultant. I say will over should, because I won't make any value judgements, but I think it's in line with what Matt and CR would do in that situation.

I can't really tell whether this is a prediction or what I'd like to see (the two are distinct but often difficult to untangle) but I'd actually go with Issylra, and specifically playing up the (at least initial) set up of explorers and adventurers heading out into the wilds. I will also place my bets on them having some sort of more steady home base, and my hopes on that they get an airship. My wildest out there guess is that the plot will move towards either planescape/spelljammer in the upper levels, tying into some of the seeds from the end of C2.

I have seen a handful of people predicting table seating order, which is both very minor and also the thing that I may be most interested in. A while back, someone made a post pointing out that the main romantic relationships were all cross-table, while the strongest platonic relationships were same-table or side by side. Because I am the sort of person that I am, I did statistical analysis on ao3 fics....and it's statistically significant. So I am trying to see whether or not, based purely on C3E1, I'll be able to predict what the top ships for the campaign will be.

This rambling has mostly gotten out of hand because I don't have much opportunity to talk about this, but, you know. If you send me predictions I will give you the current odds gambling style, so that you'd know how much you'd win if you'd place a bet, because I did the tables up as a joke for something else and now I kind of want them to be used for something.

[inventors-fair]

Intervening Claws

To the chagrin of my students, my LGS friends, and a few hundred people on the internet, I’ve proudly volunteered now and in the past that my biggest MTG crush of all time is Ajani. Underneath the fur and gruffness and tendency to murder bad things (i.e. me) he’s a swell guy. And he’s like a zillion feet tall. With teeth. Look, the point IS—I’m sure I’m also in a slightly more populated camp of “big cat warriors look cool.” And look above us, too! Jade Avenger, the samurai frog, is a hip-hopping cool guy. But some of the novelty is that he’s a warrior type who’s also a frog, and animal characters are silly, and endearing, and that’s a fact of life.

What makes Jade Avenger a frog? Well, the fact that he’s a frog. The card is much more on the Samurai side of things, so whatever, we’ll deal with that. We’ve had a few races of animals in the past, though:

Leonin! From Alara and Mirrodin and more, these cat-guys are close to my heart, but you knew that already.

Loxodon! Ravnican loxodon are clerics and peacekeepers, and they’re lovely stoic beasts, but they’re also warriors and soldiers on places like Tarkir and Mirrodin, see above.

Ainok! Tarkir’s seen its fair share of survivalist creatures and the Ainok thrive in their states of ruggedness.

Orochi! Kamigawa’s snakefolks are about to get a cyber upgrade, no doubt about it.

Aven! Birds are there and people like them. I think they’re kinda everywhere, aren’t they?

There are tons more, but you get the picture. And I think we can go somewhere with this...

Design a creature card that depicts a race of sapient animal-folk, either brand-new or underrepresented in Magic, based on real-world animals.

A strong card will have a resonant flavor and strong mechanical identity tied to the chosen species. A strong card will show the role of the race in the greater world around it in some way, using recognizable aspects of that animal’s character.

M.E.O.W. is approproate this week, innit.

Mandatory: The race you choose should be a recognizable “race” of animals that would make sense to have on your world. Fantasy animals are not allowed, such as wurms, gryphons, or dragons. The race must be anthropomorphized. -

Encouraged: The card you represent should depict the animal of your choice as part of the world in which is lives. You can do this through flavor text or through mechanics. I think a blend is good, and as usual with these things, your own art helps significantly. Stick figures, even! A general sense does wonders.  -

Optional: Like the Orochi from Kamigawa, you can dip into some aspects of real-world cultures to respectfully draw off of those ideas. Making your own plane here might work out, honestly, if you need a specific setting. But I don’t want a glossary here—remember, tropes help. A little context goes a long way, and basically only the card will be presented and judged, so keep that in mind. Additionally, one approach may be to tie into the animal’s behavior as a mechanical aspect—jumping frogs, hidden snakes, etc. How do an animal’s natural abilities tie into how it plays on the battlefield? -

Warning: Seriously, don’t push the limits of what constitutes animals or sapient races here. It’s not feasible to have a race of, like, warrior amoebas, funny as it may seem at the time. Plants and fungi are excluded. Remember that you must be designing a creature card. I’d look to the best examples of printed races, and pick something that you’d really be excited to see realized. Additionally, you can’t take an established race and put them on another world, like showing a Leonin on Innistrad. Has to be new or noticeably infrequent. It can be more specific, like a race of, say, snow leopards somewhere that have their own name and culture and standards.

The expansion is also an option. See above, the avenger? There are only two (as far as I can tell) truly sapient true frogs in MTG, that buddy and the Burrog Befuddler from Strixhaven. If you can land a solid card expanding upon a race like that, give it a shot. It is more encouraged that you make your own race from an animal that hasn’t been depicted.

I think that’s simple enough, right? I hope that’s simple enough.

Until nyext time! @abelzumi​

>> SUBMOUSIONS >> DISCORGI

[grandbutterflycurator]

Strixhaven students revealed

As for Quint, he spends most of his time inside the grand Biblioplex, digging through old books for the purpose of his research. "His mind is piled high with facts and knowledge that might become useful. Being a Lorehold student, his magic usually comes from scrolls or a tome; blasting out like bladed sharp paper golden energy."

"He views the accuracy of historical accounts as extremely important—the truth is also a priority to him as it enables the preservation of facts rather than myths. He is at Strixhaven University on a scholarship but supplements his remaining tuition fees through working on a dig site with a team of researchers. Quint wishes to learn about the history and past of the loxodon race through uncovering great unknowns. He studies hard with the aim to make a name for himself and his family. While being a committed student, he suffers from wanderlust, always feeling the need and desire to travel and explore. He wants to find out who he really is and believes he can do so through his expeditions of significant historical places."

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/magic-the-gathering-strixhaven-reveal-quintorius-of-lorehold-college/

"Zimone Wola is a female mage-student of Quandrix College, she is a brilliant and bright prodigy who entered Strixhaven at a younger age than most. Due to her high level of intellect, she flew through her studies in school, passing endless tests of magical study that were way beyond her years. She has recently chosen her college, now becoming a second year Quandrix mage-student much to the delight of her professors, who are keen for the talented whizz to attend their classes. While part of Quandrix, she remains friends with two girls she met in first year; one who has chosen Prismari and the other who will be attending Silverquill.

"Zimone wears patterned uniforms like the rest of Quandrix; it is layered and complex, reflecting what she loves. Her goal is to crack the Vorzani Conjecture; a famous and unsolved magical theorem that students and professors at Quandrix have been trying to figure out for decades. Zimone can often be found inside the great Biblioplex – finding books to help solve the theorem.

"Her mind is her most powerful weapon which enables her intellectual expansion. Her physical magic is shown as fractals and mathematical interpretations of natures. Intellect runs in her family – her grandmother was once a Quandrix professor but due to unclear circumstances, she has not been seen at Strixhaven University for many years. Even though Zimone is smart, sometimes she can feel uncertain. She struggles to deal with unknown mysteries, particularly ones relating to her own family. Her time at Strixhaven will help her figure out who she is, but it will be the challenges she faces that will allow her to decide who she wants to be."

https://mashable.com/article/magic-the-gathering-strixhaven-zimone-reveal/

"Dina is a Witherbloom mage-student, a female dryad with a wicked sense of humor that more than often edges on the darker side. She doesn’t worry or watch what she says and speaks the thoughts in her mind as they come, never giving a moment to consider whether she might be out of place with her words. Even though she is quick-witted and confident, she is attentive, making her an excellent tutor to other students. However, her teaching methods can sometimes be a little out there, like her."

She spends her time at Sedgemoor, the swampy marshlands on the college campus. She wears clothing mainly colored black, green, and brown. This is all fitting for a dryad, mind you. She relies on her professors for guidance, as Dina has no family. She carries a salamander-like creature with her and uses its essence to channel her magic.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/magic-the-gathering-strixhaven-reveal-dina-of-witherbloom-college/1100-6489226/

The preeminent Silverquill is competitive and strong-willed, with the courage to lead and the mental acuity to reckon with the cost.

All of those features can be found in Killian Lu, a human mage-student in his second year at the Silverquill College of Eloquence. Handsome features, a sharp jaw and his immaculate midnight black hair might immediately draw the eye - not to mention the always-dashing monotone suit - but his implacable determination and work ethic have engendered him to both his peers and Strixhaven’s faculty.

Some might say that pressure is a direct result of having the Silverquill dean as a father - the master poet is reportedly a stern man who drives his son to graduate at the top of his class. Rigid discipline and an ever-watchful eye catches any of Killian’s mistakes, and his father is quick to remind him of the lineage of inkmasters that comprise the Lu ancestry. Killian’s failures are his father’s failures - and that of the family, by extension. Weakness in any pursuit is simply not an option.

Killian trains in secret to address his shortcomings and only ever displays a detached professionalism for his fellow students and teachers. Whether due to his father’s constant vigil or his own desire to master both the light and dark elements of Silverquill’s trademark magic, Killian vows to only ever make a mistake once. If only he didn’t find the light so difficult to embrace.

https://www.dicebreaker.com/games/magic-the-gathering-strixhaven/news/mtg-strixhaven-killian-lu-reveal

"Rootha Squallheart is a female orc and mage student of Prismari. She is a unique and distinct individual with long vibrant coloured hair and skin tinted with red and blue hues. Her clothes are expressive and dramatic, often consisting of scarlet fire and aqua-blue water elements. The clothes mix as though she were a painted ocean of lava. Rootha is unsurprisingly artistic, but can sometimes be hot-tempered, matching the flames she wears.

 Rootha has trouble completing her work and handing it in on time for critique, most of her professors have little choice but to chase her down on campus to warrant a glimpse. She claims that her work is never ready – forever conscious that it isn’t quite right. In true self-critic style, Rootha commonly becomes infatuated with a great visionary idea which she spends weeks working on…only to decide she hates it causing her to destroy her creation in mere moments.

With her mother, Samara Squallheart, being a famous, talented caster, Rootha is under pressure to live up to the achievements of the rest of her family line – Rootha being the fifth generation of Prismari student in her family. She carries a heavy weight on her artistic shoulders and the constant link and expectations caused by her family can be frustrating, sometimes anger inducing. She wishes to break free from her family association and follow her own style. Her mother could wave intricate sculptures made from ice and water, but Rootha has wild magic; she is able to flash freeze water in one magnificent burst. She is learning to embrace her wild magic to push herself beyond her limits to seek recognition and fame for her own creations rather than those of her ancestors."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joeparlock/2021/03/24/meet-rootha-squallheart-in-the-latest-magic-the-gathering-set-strixhaven-school-of-mages/?sh=4004b92764d6

[thestalkerbunny]

What do you think of..... The Elephant people race whoose name i can't remember?

AH!. Loxodon.

I....

Don't think about them a whole lot in general.

[hexiva]

Generating some more random D&D parties and then creating stories around them.

Garas Berelii - An orphan found alone in the woods, Garas was raised by humans and was treated as both miracle and pariah due to xir clearly otherworldly ancestry. Xe grew up with an inflated sense of their own importance and also a fixed image of themselves as inherently evil or cursed in some way. Xe doesn’t even have a word for what xe is, and is more inclined to think “Tiefling” than “Shadar-Kai.” As an adult, xe works as a hired killer, which suits both xir ego and xir self-hatred. But xir last contract turned out to be on a respected Imperial official, and now xe’s on the run from the Empire and has fallen in with a group of rebels.

Zaran the Pale - Zaran struggled his whole life with rage issues. Although they made him a formidable warrior, they also wrecked his relationships and made him a loner and wanderer. He came south into the Empire to seek solace with The Order of the Scale, a monastery founded by a fellow half-orc named Darezhian, which teaches perfect balance. Now he is a committed member of the Order, and uses both his rage and his balance in the fight against the Empire.

Bara Paalo - Born into the Order of the Scale, Bara has always had difficulty fitting in with the strict code and orderly ways of the Order. When he was a young man, he was unable to reconcile himself to the slow and particular way in which the Order chooses to oppose the empire. He left the safety of the monastery to seek adventure on the high seas, and trained under an cannon expert. Now he’s back, and strikes an uneasy balance with his former life by serving as the Order’s technological expert. He and Zaran are total opposites, and they clash heads at every turn - but there’s a slow friendship developing between them . . . or more than a friendship?

Tasilos Ashsinger - Born impoverished and oppressed under the boot of the Empire, Tasilos had to learn to steal and lie to survive. Xe worked in the grey market, selling sketchy “artifacts” to rich customers. One of those artifacts, though, turned out to be all too real, and when xe touched it, xe was knocked unconscious. The artifact was the skull of Order founder Darezhian, who appeared to xem in a dream and offered them a deal: power in exchange for service. Tasilos took it, and now their pact compels xem to end the tyrannical reign of the Empire, or die trying.

Kanna Shanolo - The Empire has tried to stamp out the druids in favor of its own gods, but the Loxodon population has clung stubbornly to druidism and resisted the Empire. A neighboring kingdom saw an opportunity in this, and made an offer to them: any druid who wishes could come across the border and be given special training in espionage, the better to take down the Empire from the inside and foment unrest. Kanna was one of the druids who took them up on it - but he is an anarchist with no fondness either for the Empire or its squabbling neighbors. His only loyalty is to Nature.

[itsbenedict]

Two-Faced Jewel: Session 10

Connections

A half-elf conwoman (and the moth tasked with keeping her out of trouble) travel the Jewel in search of, uh, whatever a fashionable accessory is pointing them at. [Campaign log]

Last time, the party arrived in Cauterdale, the heavily-fortified port city at war with nature. They arrived in search of members of the Deathseekers' Guild- the organization of professional adventurers and monster-hunters that likes to be very up-front about its mortality rate- to handle a dragon problem that they're personally a little underleveled for.

While Looseleaf had a fateful encounter with the Plot at the Temple of Andra, Saelhen and Oyobi were headed to the barracks of the city guard, to speak to "Mags", the guard on duty when the local Deathseekers were last seen leaving town. And there...

You remember Medd Cutter, right? Highly-memorable Medd Cutter, the NPC who got oneshot by a T-rex and whose life the party saved? Well, to spite Rex... whatever his last name was, the pro-patria-mori asshole guard captain guy, Saelhen has decided that she's going to start spreading the word of Medd's heroism.

Oyobi, unfortunately, is bent on spreading the word of her own extremely ill-advised heroism, and so the two are having some sort of hype-off as they make their way into the barracks and effortlessly charm their way past the guards to where their quarry is posted.

These two are manning some sort of huge brass contraption, bristling with lenses and dials. One of them is a yuan-ti pureblood- which there are an unusual number of in the city guard, compared to the general population. Weird. Saelhen politely introduces herself, and Verity Truescale refers them to Magnaranth aka Mags, the loxodon who last saw the Deathseekers leave town.

Mags doesn't have a huge amount to tell them- the Deathseekers, evidently, were going hunting, out east somewhere. They brought a lot of torches, so apparently they were headed somewhere dark? Underground, maybe? They were pretty cagey about what exactly they were going out to do. Still, Mags can provide the names and addresses of the Deathseekers in question.

...And Verity, checking the instruments, notices that something is wrong with the tides- apparently something large is disturbing the waters, but they can't quite pinpoint what- it's not any of the usual suspects, which include things by the name of "Darkie" or "Unnessie". Ominous!

After that, the party meets up at the local Temple of Iska, their designated rendezvous point. They catch each other up on their gains, and decide... well, the Deathseekers are going to be back within a couple days, so they'll just wait for them in town and get going with them, to make sure things in Barley and Wheat go smoothly.

Of course, the question then is "where do we stay?"

Options aren't great- Cauterdale is crowded, and the B&B market is incredibly shitty. The best lodging is on Eman's Knee, the island just off the coast of Cauterdale, but getting the ferry over there is expensive, and resort lodging on a tropical island is also expensive.

That- you can't just- I mean, just because- I'm- I'm allowed to be predictable, okay???

(And anyway, it's Corolos where I ended up doing a murder mystery.)

So, Looseleaf gets a 24 investigating the town's B&B market, and finds a pretty good place! It's a weapons shop Saelhen noticed earlier, which is renting out rooms. The place has a huge fence topped with spikes, so they probably won't even get robbed!

Aria of War, as it happens, is run by an elderly yet ripped-as-hell tabaxi man, who Saelhen... vaguely recognizes.

Benedict I. (GM): So, this shopkeeper's coat is familiar to you. It's definitely not the same person, but you once knew a girl in Timber Towers named Toothbrush, with almost the exact same coat. Could be a relative! Saelhen du Fishercrown: Yeah, tabaxi have a lot of coat variation; it's not a safe bet that they're related, but Saelhen is willing to go out on a limb with him. "Good evening, sir, and I'm sorry to bother you, but I felt I had to ask..." Fish Especially: "No discounts." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Do you have any relation to a..." Was Toothbrush her real name? Benedict I. (GM): As far as you know! Tabaxi have weird names. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Toothbrush?" Fish Especially: He looks surprised. "Hold on, you know Toothbrush?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "...I knew I knew that speckle pattern." Saelhen smiles widely and without guile. "I met her in Timber Towers a while back. She played the violin." "More specifically, she couldn't play the violin, but she always failed very effectively." Fish Especially: "I'll be! Her theatre troupe doing all right for itself, then?" "Even with the noise of that awful thing?" "I never know what to think when she writes those letters..." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Last I saw of them, they were doing pretty well for themselves! To be honest, I did a stint with them for a bit, they wanted advice on a traditional elven piece..." Saelhen leans in on her elbows. "Oh, she mangled it, but she compensated with charm and that one face. Her confident face, you know the one, where you think she's so confident that maybe it's supposed to sound like that?" Fish Especially: He laughs. "You do know my girl!" "She hasn't written in- I think a year, now. How's she been?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Oh, it's been so long, I'm barely an authority by now -- but I remember she was talking about taking classes in -- what was it..." "...oh, where are my manners -- I'm Saelhen du Fishercrown, it's a pleasure." Saelhen reaches out for a very unelven handshake.

That she says this is notable for one big reason: this is the first time she's used her real name, and not "Lady Noeru de la Surplus". Nobody else in the party has heard this before!

It's also notable because according to Fish Especially, Toothbrush thought Saelhen was dead- and he's going to let her know otherwise.

Anyway, the deal for rooms goes through without incident, and the night also goes without incident! As is entirely normal, they hear Vayen in the halls making some sort of attempt to sneak into Saelhen's room in the night... and this time, sighing and going "never mind" without even attempting to pick the lock for some reason.

In the morning... Looseleaf grills Saelhen on the name thing, and she confesses the truth of the matter to the whole party- who take it fairly well.

After team bonding, the party heads to the Temple of Andra to check in and see if the Deathseekers have showed up. And by the stablehand's account, they have- or at least, a bunch of weird old people showed up to meet with Gabbro.

Gabbro seems surprised to see them- he was under the impression that they'd leave the matter to them. The further involvement of the party should be unnecessary, right...?

Looseleaf: "Oh, yeah, I was going to let you know we were staying in town and ask for you to let us know when the deathseekers showed up, but, uh, judging by that meeting we interrupted, they're already back and right here." Gabbro: "That is correct," he says, as the stablehand leaves. "I was just briefing them on the mission, you see." "The situation is well in hand, so you needn't concern yourselves with it any longer." "That pesky dragon shouldn't be an issue." Looseleaf: "W-well, uh. I was, uh, we were, kiiiinda hoping to travel with you back to the dragon's tower." "I mean, it's our quest, so, it'd be nice to, for us to see it happening so we can be sure of it, y'know?" Gabbro: He looks somewhat taken aback. "That... seems... risky, don't you think?" "To bring along... certain... people?" Looseleaf: "We're going to stay very very far away from the action! We're not that dumb!" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "...I assure you that we have no intention of fighting the dragon ourselves, sir." Gabbro: "Ah, yes, of course not..." "However..." He gives Looseleaf a pleading look. Saelhen du Fishercrown: "And there are... certain persons in the nearby town, whose safety I would like to check up on. Personally." Looseleaf: He doesn't seem to want people witnessing the fight? It could be explicable through just, him being worried we'll get hurt. But it could also be, 'their deathseekers fight with methods that Orluthe in particular should not be allowed to witness.' Gabbro: "Ah, well, if that's the case... if you don't mean to get involved with the Deathseekers and their work..." Looseleaf: "We're not going to- we don't want any claim to the loot in the tower either, if that's a problem! Everything in the tower is you and your group's prerogative to deal with however we like."

Gabbro seems... put slightly more at ease, and decides to introduce the group to the ones who'll be their traveling companions shortly- the Cauterdale Deathseekers.

In order:

Doon Softbreeze, half-halfling rogue and all-around Grunkle Stan-type, friendliest with the party.

Kevin Softbreeze, Doon's soft-spoken herbalist husband and that's it, probably, just a gardener.

John Human, an extremely decrepit extremely human man who seems to make weird buzzing sounds when he speaks, as if with mouthparts instead of human lips.

Ryuusatsu Takuma, totally silent elf (not present at this meeting with Gabbro) who probably just doesn't like talking, is all.

Lady Fidelia Greatholder, heavily-armored and heavily-everything human noblewoman (also not present at this meeting), who- well, she shows up next session.

Gabbro makes a point of making clear to those present that Orluthe, who they'll be traveling with, is a cleric of Diamode- apparently they need to know this for some reason!

Doon's pretty friendly with the party, and offers to take on their job pro-bono- on the basis that, c'mon, if they could actually afford them, they wouldn't be knocking on their door for help. So it looks like they've enlisted some highly-capable dragonslayers with no ulterior motives! Fantastic.

Next time: The road back to Barley, and the tying up of a few loose ends in town. Saelhen needs to get her kimono back!

[wingedweasel]

Long post is long...about D&D

tl;dr: DM forces a race change on everyone and takes complaining about it too far

I’m legitimately curious to see what people think about all this. 

In one of the campaigns I’m in - a homebrew run by my friend - she has us traveling to a tech based country - think final fantasy settings and such - when suddenly during the night while on an airship, all but Larry the tortle are woken up in debilitating pain and find ourselves forcibly shapechanged(?) into a different race. 

Now, hold on, before anyone gets all up in arms about this, let me explain. 

In this world, Dragons are the be all end all most uber powerful things in existence. They either killed or subdued all other deities or highly powerful beings. There are a few left, but they all literally cower in fear of the Dragons. We can’t even say the word dragon or else we’ll pull the attention on us (think the taboo that Voldemort put on his name). 

Shapechanging has already kind of been established both from something a player has done as well as NPCs. We’ve a warlock (but if the gods are all...shush nobody knows how Eon’s patron works, just deal with it like we do) who’s hair randomly changes and he has a cursed boa that changes anyone who wears it into a flamingo. We use that a lot for both spying and the lols. My character is a homebrew Arachi (race) Prism (class) who can doff his false form as a rather pretty half-elf and go into his true form of ugly scary spider head...thing. There have also been a few NPCs who have either changed their looks via a potion or other magic item so it’s not something that was randomly pulled out of the DM’s ass. 

As I said, we were traveling to Final Fantasy land when we were suddenly changed against our will. All that is except Larry. Larry is a tortle as stated, and is the only animal based race in the group. Later, the DM said that she was debating changing my character as technically he is kinda a spider, but not all the time - Quidam stays in pretty mode because Spider mode is scary. 

So now our awakened slime Glissant is a leonin - still green, but no longer slimy,

The human warlock Eon is a yellow lizardfolk - yellow because of his current hair color,

The arachi prism Quidam is now a tabaxi - i’m a cute kitty cat, yay!

The goliath cleric Albados is a minotaur - he’s in awe that he has hair and doesn’t know what to do with it,

and the tiefling sorcerer Aria is a red loxodon - red as her original skin and her tusks are quite large.

We were asked to roll a d100 a few sessions ago and were told all would be revealed later. That later was our last session. 

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, obviously we are all shocked, confused, and tiny bit mad that our race has changed without our consent. That last part is a given, but the tiefling/loxodon just kept saying “No! I don’t like this. It’s ugly. I want to be pretty. Change it back.” 

I personally think she’s over-reacting a bit, but I do understand. I abruptly left a game many years ago when the DM tried to mess with my back story without my permission, so I know how Aria feels. You have your character how you like it and if anything changes without at the very least prior warning, you get upset. If the DM talks to you before hand and tries to work something out, then that’s one thing, but to suddenly without any warning that this was coming be forced to play a race you don’t want is...frustrating to say the least. 

However, as the DM has stated multiple times, it’s not permanent, nothing really changes about our original character’s abilities except some obvious things like no longer being a slime or having wings. This is just a plot hook kind of thing to get us invested in the new land. Since nobody in the party is from this land, we don’t know what is going on, if this is a curse, some tech mumbo jumbo gone wrong, a Thing(tm) that is just part of the land or what. It’s a mystery that we have to solve because the airship captain who was also shapechanged (but we don’t know what yet since the session ended after we woke up in new bodies) and didn’t say anything about this before hand. This is something that has recently happened to this country. 

Above board, the DM has said that this is a recent development, it’s a curse place on the land by the country’s dragon ruler for ‘reasons’ and that there are multiple ways in which we can change back. She has repeatedly told us that it’s not something that we will be stuck as (unless we want to because again ‘reasons’ she hasn’t said yet). We will go back to normal after we solve the mystery. 

But nooooooooooo, Aria is having a hissy fit about not being pretty anymore. We haven’t had another session yet since we play every other week, but since the last one, the DM - remember who is my friend irl - is feeling like shit because of Aria’s reaction. The DM is getting questioned by the other players and being lowkey (and not so lowkey) insulted for this obstacle, and it may be getting to the point where Aria but also potentially her husband Eon may leave the party. I’m not sure if Eon will leave if Aria does since he doesn’t seem too mad at what happened, but if his wife leaves, he may due to not wanting to upset her....even though he basically plays her character for her, but that’s a different can of worms entirely. 

Am I upset that my character has been changed? Kinda, but not really. Part of it is that I know what’s coming - at least a little since the DM likes to use me as a sounding board for some of her ideas - as well as the DM’s my friend and I know she isn’t going to do something like this just to be a dick. She has a reason, and she’s said it’s not going to be a forever kind of thing. Another part of it is that I got ‘lucky’ and got changed into a tabaxi. I know how to play this race, it was a race I considered playing for this campaign, and I just generally like tabaxi. I mean, they’re basically khajiit, and khajiit like to sneak. The thing about this for me, though, is that I was thinking about either having Quidam be killed off or going full multiclass as something else because the homebrew books on both arachi and prisms have been changed/updated/whatever and I can no longer find the original ones I was using. Therefore, being changed into something else was actually a good thing for me. 

However, Aria is not taking this well at all. She’s - in my opinion - being a bit over dramatic and being super vain about all of this, but I do understand where she is coming from. I get when something happens to your character that you don’t like, you can get super mad about it. But what if this campaign has werecreatures? I don’t know if that’s something that will come up, but if it did and Aria was infected with lycanthropy, would she have reacted the same way? With how she is acting, probably, but I don’t think anyone would have any real sympathy for her since potentially being infected is something that goes hand in hand with werecreatures. Or, and this is something that she has seen happen, what if she drinks an experimental potion gets turned into a different color or loses her hair or grows an extra arm or something? 

On one hand, there is only a small chance that she would get infected or she would have had to knowingly take a suspicious potion, so it would have either been done willingly or the dice may just not be in her favor. 

On the other, Aria seems to be taking this personally all because her character is no longer cute. Seriously? Your fictional character where literally anything can happen to it is temporarily not cute, so you act all butt hurt about it? 

As you can see, I am obviously siding with one person over the other, but mainly I really don’t like how Aria is acting like a spoiled brat and I am the DMs friend, so both of those are tainting my view of this. 

Objectively, or as objectively as possible, who is in the wrong? Is anyone in the wrong? Should the DM have either hinted/outright stated that changing races is/can/will happen and given us a choice to go through with it? Should Aria just ‘suck it up’ since it’s not permanent and she can go back to being a cute tiefling as soon as we break the curse (or whatever it is)? 

[hypexion]

A Pile of Fanwalkers (Part 1)

The setting of Magic: The Gathering is one where you can create as many fun fan characters as you want and it’s feasible that they’d never interact with canon characters. So here’s a bunch of them, escaping from my imagination into this post. There is probably a better way to deliver this information, but efficacy is overrated. But there’s no better time, because it’s “Fan Character February“.

The basic format for each planeswalker will be a Name/Colour Identity/Pre-Ignition Typeline/Homeplane blob of information, a quickish description of them and some ���fun“ facts, and then some hits and misses for extra flavour. Also, I’m going to split this into three posts - “Heroic“, “Okay“ and “Villians“, for I believe I have the moral authority to judge my creations.

Also some of these are going to be from fanplanes, which will go undescribed beyond whatever tidbits come out the character flavour. Others will just have a ?, representing a lack of knowledge and/or sufficent worldbuilding. With that out of the way, let’s go!

Heroic

Using a somewhat loose definition of heroic, these are the planeswalkers that when presented with an injustice, will at least attempt to help. Even if it’s against their better judgement.

Alagard - UR, Human Artificer, Orpheri - As a self styled “Mirror Magus“, Alagard has turned his skill for magical analysis into a method of acquiring knowledge that others would consider out of reach. From simple cantrips, to complex feats of sorcery, there’s no spell Alagard won’t try to copy or take apart at least once. When he’s not commiting “theft of intellectual property“, as the Azorius call it, he might actually be doing his job as an Artificer, constructing various tools used to navigate between the realms of Orpheri. Or he might have found himself in a situation that requires some kind of outside intervention and impulsively intervened. It keeps happening, and once you’ve committed, you’ve got to see the problem through, right?

Alagard has white skin and short blonde hair. When working, he wears the traditional artifacer get-up - protective robes, gloves and safety accessories. Otherwise, he prefers a slightly more elaborate outfit, including a fancy blue long coat with a few too many silver frills. He also carries a Mirrorblade, an enchanted weapon capable of shifting into a multitude of other weapons. It’s pretty handy. When Alagard planeswalks, he seems to shimmer away, flaking off small, short-lived pieces of reflective material.

Hits: Finding new magic, solving problems, fancy coats. Misses: The Queen of Fate interfering with his life, mortal peril.

Heru - URW, Bird Warrior, Amonkhet - As you might guess from his homeplane, pre-ignition life for Heru could have been better. This falcon-aven always had a keen eye for detail, a talent for seeing through deception, and a tad more curiosity than was perhaps safe on Amonkhet. However, even with his growing doubt, he followed the path laid out for him by the gods. When the time came, he passed the Trials of Solidarity, Knowledge and Strength. Many from his crop did not. He might even have passed Zeal, if not for Bontu, the worse of the gods. The pointless brutality of the Trial of Ambition brought Heru’s crisis of faith to it’s peak, a thousand quiet doubts awoken by the senseless slaughter. For many, such a crisis had lead to a quick death. But Heru had a Spark, and it carried him far from Amonkhet. Now, inspired by some owl-aven he met after his first planeswalk, he seeks wisdom from across the multiverse, and wishes to create a better tomorrow.

Heru has light brown skin and brown feathers. Despite leaving his home in a less than pleasant way, he still wears the warrior’s clothing of those who take the trials. However, as he visits more planes and encounters new cultures, he has started to replace the gilded symbology of the God-Pharaoh with simpler patterns he finds appealing. Heru weilds a spear as his weapon of choice, and has recently discovered a talent for pyromancy, although he is hesitant to use it. Heru’s planeswalking effect is burst of golden flame, which occasionally leaves behind a few feathers.

Hits: Philosophy, a target from up to 100 meters, Nicol Bolas’ death, the absolute certainty that Bolas is dead, the lack of possibility that Bolas could return in any way, shape, or form. Misses: Bontu, the false God-Pharaoh knows as Nicol Bolas, large bodies of water, his own attempts at self-delusion regarding what he saw on Ravnica.

Locke - WU, Human Advisor, Noyir - Crime is a problem on many planes, and Noyir is no exception. In fact, it’s starting to get a little dire. Demons run the mob, the proliferation of magical weapons is out of control, and the serial killers seem to be especially nasty. Enter one Sebastian Locke, who has the tremendously useful ability of post-cognition, which allows him to view the recent past of places and objects. Armed with this, and a grab-bag of forensics magic, Locke is ready to take on any case, and won’t rest until the truth is discovered. He’s tangled with the Infinite Consortium, the Ozhov Syndicate, and many other sinisterly name organisations, along with a number of the multiverse’s most dangerous killers. He’s also convinced that Dack Fayden isn’t dead, but I suppose you can’t be always right all the time. (Or he knows something the rest of us don’t. Dack was in deep with the Ozhov, after all...)

Locke has black skin and black hair. He has the look of the classic detective, including the whole trench coat and fedora outfit. Since Locke is actually a detective, and visits a tailor, he looks pretty good in the whole get-up. While he keeps to the traditional drab colours on his homeplane, Locke has a rainbow’s worth of alternate outfits, for when he needs to fit in on another plane. Locke also carries a weapon that is certainly not a handgun, because it uses magic. (He’s from the gritty crime drama plane. It’s a gun.) When planewalking, Locke disappears into a swirl of grey fog, which quickly dissippates. Notably, this action takes him less than a second, making it an effective escape tactic.

Hits: Outwitting criminals, unravelling conspiracies, coffee, due process, elaborate crime boards. Misses: Serial killers, assassins, murderers and blackmailers, police corruption (of both the “taking bribes” and “magically becoming a demon” kinds).

Loxy - RW, Elephant Warrior, ? - Needless to say, Loxy’s name isn’t actually Loxy. It’s short for something. But when she points out that humans can be called Hugh, are you going to argue with the Loxodon who’s likely bigger than you, and carrying a war mace? Probably not. Of course, Loxy probably won’t smack your head clean off, provided you’re not some sort of evil-doer. She’s actually pretty nice, if a little over-enthusiastic some of the time, once you get to know her. Loxy is on a crusade against injustice, to right the wrongs of the multiverse and ensure worlds where the peaceful can live in peace. Many cruel and vile beings have met their end at Loxy’s hand, and I won’t mince words: all of them deserved it. Others have decided that reform is the greater part of not getting crushed by a Loxodon, and gone on to be nicer people.

Loxy has grey skin, because she’s a Loxodon, and whatever kind of hair Loxodon have. Loxy can generally be found wearing her armor, which she keeps polished and clean, in order to make a good first impression. As mentioned before, her primary weapon is a mace, but when you’re an almost eight foot tall elephant-person with foot long tusks, you never need to rely on a primary weapon. When not dressed up for battle, Loxy prefers to wear simple robes, just in case a fight breaks out. Somewhat surprisingly, Loxy’s planewalking aura is fairly subtle. She glows for a moment, before disappearing, leaving behind small balls of light.

Hits: Justice, stopping evil, can-do attitudes, the general concept of the Gatewatch. Misses: Injustice, the unrepentant, those who accept an unjust world as “natural“ and so refuse to seek improvement.

Velos - GU, Elf Shapeshifter Wizard, Ravnica - Have you ever head the story of Velos the wise? No? I thought not. It’s not a story the Conclave would tell you - he’s a Simic Legend. Velos has the power to manipulate biomancy to take on any form he wishes, even ones that are “decidedly male”. His ultimate goal was to be able to mantain a form indefinitely, which eventually, he achieved. Now Velos mentors promising biomancers in the ways of shapeshifting. He’s also taken up cataloguing some of the multiverse’s most adaptive species, which rather worryingly includes Slivers. Additionally, he has also pioneered several shapeshifting based treatments, to help those who need their bodies reworked. Velos is, at heart, a healer, and will offer help to anyone he encounters who may need it. He believes that everyone should be able to live their lives in good health, in the form that they find best fits them. On occation, this has brought him into conflict with some Simic factions, especially those who ignore the rather important factor of “informed consent.“

Velos’ prefered form is that of an elf, with pale skin and equally pale blonde hair. Many have noted that this gives him a strong resemblance to the elves of the Selesnya Conclave, although few really care. Those attempting to investigate his background do not get far, as the Combine wishes to focus on the future, and the Conclave would never admit that someone may have left them. Velos does not carry weapons, preferring to save carrying capacity for a portable laboratory, since he can’t take samples back to Ravnica from other planes. He also doesn’t really need any, since he’s long since mastered the art of transforming himself claws, spines, chitinous plating and other offensive and defensive body parts. While he hasn’t reached the fluidity of a naturally born shapeshifter yet, Velos is still capable of rearranging himself to multitude of forms, with very little delay. When planeswalking, he disappears into double-helix of blue-green light.

Hits: Discovering new species, the endless convience of your hand being a multi-tool, trans rights, a kind of tea that only grows on Kamigawa. Misses: Not being able to grow that tea on Ravnica, the concept of a “true form“, walking into things because he shapeshifted in a weird way.

Look at all these nice people. All of them would probably be into Gatewatching except maybe Velos. He’s more into providing medical care, as opposed to the Gatewatch’s more active form of heroism. Next up will be people who are still ‘nice‘, but in a generally more passive or distracted way.

[mothmanismyuncle]

LETS BE LOVELY AND POSITIVE

everybody who feels like it!! tell me your favourite moments in a dnd campaign or your favourite character or a funny line somebody said in a session!!

i’ll tell you mine:

we’re playing curse of strahd right now with a group of people one of my friends is friends with from their college. we’ll refer to all of them by their player names/pronouns to keep it simple and to not expose my friends on my blog

we have bixby, a mousefolk grave cleric

nikoom, a loxodon bloodhunter/barbarian

raisa, a human fighter

tanis, a half-elf druid

and me, fenrir, a human beastmaster ranger

((strahd spoilers below))

we find baba lysaga’s hut, right? fenrir, throughout everything, has demonstrated that he’s horribly terrified of the General World At Large due to the fact that he was actually raised by wolves and he’s not left his pack beyond simple things into the nearest town. he’s suspicious of everything and would sooner never interact with anything ever, but due to getting kidnapped and plopped in barovia, he doesn’t have a choice.

our party is sneaking in. fenrir had just cast pass without a trace and the party fuckin ROCKED their stealth rolls, with fenrir and his wolf, tyr, topping out at a 31. even the loxodon rolled stupid high, and the plus ten from pass without a trace pushed him clear into the twenties.

this witch had no bloody idea we were there.

we’re surveying the scene. fenrir is waiting on bixby and raisa to check the area for traps, tanis was looking at the local wildlife to see if anything was amiss, and nikoom was readying his attacks in case anything came a-knockin’.

that’s when the most curious sensation washed over fenrir.

dm had just described the goat pen, and fenrir himself knew that he did not want to fuck with that. dm said that there were skulls atop all the fence posts, and that they looked human. fenrir was aghast and really hoping that he could go home very, very soon, but suddenly, there was a disturbance.

“i shoot it.” fenrir felt his mouth moving, but he didn’t want to shoot it? why was he doing this?

the dm had spluttered. the entire table had gone silent in utter terror as the sound of a d20 hitting a tray echoed in the kitchen.

“that’s a 26 to hit?”

fenrir had been possessed by a wrathful, idiot spirit named oliver, and this spirit was not lettin go until that skull had an arrow shaft sticking out of its eyeball.

“yeah, you... you really hit.” dm said. “the second you do, they all open their mouths and begin to scream. roll initiative.”

a chill had shot down fenrir’s spine at the words.

somewhere, in a different reality, oliver was being menaced by the rest of the party. i had never seen such anger in a group of people’s eyes, and it was only in retrospect that i saw that it was clearly a trap.

“FENRIR IS SCARED OF EVERYTHING, AND HE GOES AND SHOOTS A FUCKIN SKULL AT A WITCH HUT?!” nikoom’s player had hollered. i couldn’t help but agree,,, but,,,, arrow stickin out of eye socket, man? GOTTA COMMIT TO THE RANGER AESTHETIC.

as it turned out, messing with the goat pen was the only way to make all of the scarecrows, the witch, and the living hut become active at once.

bixby saved the day when she cast banishment on the hut, and tanis saved the rest of the day when he cast blight on the witch, and nikoom saved the day when he used his flame rite on all of the scarecrows to keep them away from the party, and raisa saved the day by doing almost 100 points of damage a round at level 7 to the hut until that fucker was brought down.

wanna know what fenrir did?

he tried to climb a nearby ruin. rolled well on the athletics check to get onto the roof. then rolled a natural one on the acrobatics check to stay on the roof while shooting. HE FELL FACE FIRST INTO THAT BLOODY GOAT PEN.

i still haven’t lived that down and it was almost a year ago now. god bless fenrir, my idiot son who i have done so dirty.

[totally-not-an-al1en]

My D&D group is growing apart as everyone’s schedule starts conflicting more and more, with the exception of myself, my friend, and the DM. With so few people that still want to goof off with the luck of the dice, my DM went ahead and decided to make a campaign focusing on a magic school for high school to college-level classes called Deepspire Academy. The rules were as follows:

-Starting level 3

-only Wizards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, & Bards allowed, with the exception of magical subclasses like Eldritch Knight

-must have a schedule for our characters put together

-no Unearthed Arcana this time around

Along with that, we have a rule about the instructors: if you want one suggest one, just remember that this is like Xhorhas from Critical Role- lots of monstrous characters, make it weird. That said, I have a list of teachers we have so far:

-Romereus Delmirev, green dragonborn wizard, Abjuration teacher, very proper yet laid back, knows most of his students by name

-Loxodon Lore Mastery teacher (unnamed so far), very calm and never raises voice but believes in learning on the job, is a choice mentor but will put you through the wringer

-Alberich Steelheart, Mountain Dwarf Artificer, engineering & item enchantment teacher, very lively but is a bit of a hardass, the students that pay attention for more than 5 minutes tend to excel, willing to help tutor those that ask

-Althaea Starsoul, High Elf Wizard (enchantment is her specialty), history & theatre teacher, runs the drama club on the side, very passionate about what she does but gives homework at least twice a week, loves to hear gossip around school (if you want the hot tea you go to her cuz she usually knows)

-Kordyn Wrun, Goliath Divination teacher. Generally laid back, but will stop you from doing something as you think about it. Basically constantly sees 6 seconds into the future. Always cathces anything thrown at him.

-Cervanti Laverius, Barn owl Aaracokra (bird person), alchemy teacher, quite eccentric and always half asleep, has a potion for every situation, it’s rumored that he actually does sleep in his office (he does have a cot back there but only occasionally uses it)

If anyone’s got any ideas, dm me and I’ll make an update post telling you guys when we’re done making staff.

Surprise me, folks, I’m ready for it!

[magus-of-the-color-pizza]

(Not Quite a) Quick Post: To Kamigawa or not to Kamigawa?

Alright, I’m going to jot down a few of my thoughts here. There is an ongoing discussion, both from the fanbase and, I believe, at WotC, about what to do about the Kamigawa situation. By this, I mean the following: Kamigawa, the Japan-inspired block, was very unpopular. Yet, people sometimes clamor for its return. So the question we need to answer is: do we go back to Kamigawa, or instead try to make a new Japanese-inspired plane so we can be easily rid of the plane’s negative baggage?

Anecdotally speaking, Kamigawa is the plane that Mark Rosewater gets asked if we can/will return to the most. Just a couple days ago, a comment he made in one of his answers spurred a new flurry of asks on the subject, pondering various elements regarding such a return, like whether or not we should reuse the same mechanics, what exactly went wrong, and whether or not the player base would respond positively.

Let’s start with a wider approach. What went wrong? According to Mark Rosewater, the issue was manifold: “The names scored poorly because they were hard to parse and remember. The art scored poorly because too much of it was thought to be not what the audience expected. The world scored poorly because it didn’t resonate with the audience.” In the past, Maro has also said that the block suffered from the over-abundance of Legendaries (every single Rare creature was a legendary (or flipped into one), which is insane) and the fact that we had parasitic mechanics (a mechanic which requires you to have very specific cards at your disposal to be useful) in play (Soulshift, Splice, and Offering). Can we circumnavigate these things and would that be worth it?

Let’s start by addressing the loxodon in the room: the kami.

Kamigawa block has 336 creature cards. Of these, 169 (read: slightly more than half, though the math is not exact due to some flip cards that are counted as both) are Spirits, which in this context means that they are kami. A lot of people may think of Kamigawa as “the Japanese plane”, but the truth is that this block focused on spirits just as much as it focused on Japanese or Japanese-inspired elements. While some Kami are inspired by Japanese folklore (for example, Yuki-Onna and the Kirins), in most cases, people who are not waist-deep in Japanese folklore will have absolutely no idea what they’re looking at (and I believe most people who are folklore junkies will still have a difficult time.)

“A dreamcatcher that looks like a nightmare? Yeah, I preferred the human ones”- My Japanese friend, upon viewing some of the Kamigawan spirits (paraphrased)

I asked people for their opinions regarding the kami, both here on tumblr and in person in a few groupchats (plus, my friends’ opinions). I don’t have enough evidence to present convincing market research, but so far no one has argued for maintaining this high a number of Spirit cards, and a majority of people explicitly said they think the number would have to be reduced drastically, in a return.

Reducing the number of Kami cards (and the number of Legendaries, because dear lord), would help address all of Maro’s concerns. Less weird art, less difficult names (both proper, like Mannichi, Oyobi...Tomorrow???, and non, like Zubera, Akuba, Shinen etc), more space to focus on elements that can resonate with different audiences, and less parasitic mechanics (though to be fair, this last problem can be eliminated even without scaling back the kami, just by not re-using the problematic mechanics).

Alright, seems like the idea of lowering the amount of kami is positive so far, but is it realistic? What would we fill the void with? And, again, should we instead start from scratch?

Luckily for us, from a Lore perspective, we’re right where we want to be for such an operation. O-Kagachi, the supreme kami that controlled the barrier between the spirit world and the human world (and who removed in order to start the war to retrieve its child. That’s why there were so many kami in the physical world!), is dead, replaced by The Sisters of Flesh and Spirit (the union of Michiko and Kyodai, aka the offspring of Lord Konda and O-Kagachi respectively), who have restored the barrier. This means that less Spirits would be able to manifest in the physical world. So, what do we focus on instead?

Kamigawa has already given us plenty of humanoid tribes to work with: Akki (goblins), Ogres/Demons, Soratami (moonfolk), Orochi (snakefolk), Nezumi (ratfolk), and Kitsune (foxfolk), plus humans of course. We have a solid foundation of tribes and culture, not to mention that the events of the first block took place almost a millennia ago! Because of that time span, the Creative Design team should feel like they have the ability to introduce the necessary changes to partially reshape the plane’s culture/society as they see fit. 

Of course, we should also remember that there is plenty of good in the plane, that the players would like to see again. Ninjas were very well received, Samurai (not Bushido) are usually liked, Moonfolk are also well-liked, and we have the species of Nezumi and Orochi which add to the uniqueness of the plane. And we don’t have to abandon Kami all-together! They can still be felt throughout the set, perhaps as patrons/guides of different tribes/communities (for example, the Orochi would follow some nature-minded kami, the Moonfolk would probably opt for spirits more devoted to knowledge and air).

Also, Feudal Japan is a pretty popular source of inspiration for media and is generally well-liked by fans. Scrapping Kamigawa entirely would mean abandoning a feudal-Japanese plane, and since, at least in the mainstream, that is the generally-known Japanese historical era, it might mean fully abandoning our chance at another block set in a Japanese-inspired era. Sure we can always have other Asian-inspired planes, and we should (props to Tarkir for giving us a taste of that!), but for obvious reasons, that’s not the same thing. Remember, we can’t use guns in Mtg, so the Feudal era of Japan is pretty much all we have from that country, due to its historical isolation and slow-changing society (up until it opened up to the rest of the world).

And finally, before I wrap up this post, allow me to advance one final reason why I believe we will eventually go back to Kamigawa. Not only do we sometimes get new cards/characters from the plane in supplemental sets (ex: Kaseto, Yuriko), but we actually have a Planeswalker from this plane. Remember her?

Of course you do! Tamiyo may not be officially part of the “main cast”, but she has seen quite a decent amount of screen time and is a fundamental supporting character, due to her knowledge and her connections to other planeswalkers. 

She is the perfect opportunity to revisit Kamigawa, and I, for one, cannot wait to go back.

Thank you for reading, and remember: hope is the last to die.

“Our bodies are weak compared to those of the kami, our knowledge limited, and our magic poor. Yet we draw breath. That alone is reason to hope.” -Order of the Sacred Bell

[parodoxthestrange]

Fanwalkers (part 1)

It’s still Fanwalker Friday where I am so here’s some biographies on my fanwalkers, only one of which readers have met so far.

Fomos Oper

Fomos grew up in a Neurok settlement near the Quicksilver sea as the only child of a single mother, Fi Oper. As the corruption of the oil began spreading to their home, the village began preparing to depart for a renegade stronghold. Unfortunately, they were attacked much sooner than expected by a seemingly teleporting member of the Machine Orthodoxy. Fomos managed to escape with many others, but he was separated from his mother in the chaos. 

When she wasn’t seen with the other survivors at the settlement, Fomos feared the worst. One night, hearing his mother’s voice come from the entrance to the fortress, he opened the doors only to find....

The shock and horror of seeing his mother corrupted by the oil caused his spark to awaken, sending him tumbling to the plane of Muraganda.

He still wears the cloths and headgear of the Neurok, despite his new home, for the sake of his sanity. In addition, since birth, Fomos has suffered from extremely heightened sensations of sight, hearing, smell, and pain. The heavy padding of his clothes lessen the pain caused by this, but his frequent headaches can cause him to lose focus easily. In addition, he still suffers heavy mental trauma from his sparking event (and something else?).

His powers are empathic in nature. He is able to sense the emotional states of creatures around him, and lessen or intensify them. If he isn’t careful though, he can let his emotions bleed into others or passively absorb the emotional state of those close to him. In addition, he has very limited lightning generation that gets stronger and more uncontrollable the more heightened his mental state and pain is. (He is unaware of this, but the clearing was of his own creation in an accidental explosion of raw lightning.) For now, he lives on Muraganda, training his abilities, but infrequently visits other planes.

Gorr-Sheha

Gorr of the small Sheha tribe, is a member of the intelligent race of gorillas of Dominaria. Raised by the silverback chief, Bonchak, she stayed true to the traditions of honoring her elders and receiving their blessings in return. On her first day of border patrol, Gorr and Bonchak came across a glowing length of chain stuck inside a tree. Though she stayed back, Bonchak easily removed the offending metal. 

In the days following, the chief became oddly reserved and frequently had others go on patrols in his place. One day, Bonchak sent Gorr to retrieve a collection of fruits for harvest. But when she returned, the chief had irreversibly changed.

In the center of a sea of carnage, her chief’s bloodstained teeth and mindless eyes shattered her worldview and sent her tumbling from reality. Touching down on a world of metal and horrors, her only thoughts were revenge. Immediately returning to her ravaged home, Gorr-Sheha confronted Bonchak with the full power of her spiritual family and slew him in single combat.

Though she oftentimes seems inscrutable due to her firm face and stern personality, she cares deeply for the well-being of anyone she meets. The tragedy of her past has taught her to value life while it lasts and to never disrespect the names of the dead. She would never admit it, but she has gained a slightly inflated sense of pride and secretly enjoys knocking down and surprising those who underestimate the “savage animal.” Those who manage to gain her favor, or by chance, help her in accomplishing something she cannot, will forever have a friend they can call for aid.

While frequently relying on her natural strength, Gorr-Sheha can call upon the spirits of her tribe for a variety of magical effects: bolstering her strength even further, knitting bone and flesh back together, or communing with the land. Her personal favorite, however, is to wreathe herself in the ephemeral nature of her ancestors to become nearly impossible to harm via conventional means or magic. When not maintaining the home of her tribe, Gorr frequently travels to other planes, testing her skills against monsters and laying ancient spirits to rest.

Agal Har

In the later stages of the phyrexian invasion, there were some Mirran who feared of the possibility of Melira, the woman who could cure phyresis, dying before they could be saved. In desperation, many of them began experiments in the hopes of creating a soldier who’s body was completely immune to the oil. Backing them and eventually joining the experiments himself was a Loxodon metalshaper named Agal Har. 

Despite frequent relocations, the Mirrans felt they were nearing the completion of the experiments as Agal Har became the first subject for the final test. Unfortunately, a massive surge of magic of no known origin tripped Phyrexian sensors, and in a panic the Mirrans fled, leaving Agal in the tanks. By the time the Phyrexians arrived, a miracle had occurred. Despite capturing the soldier and subjecting him to the oil, his body would not yield. That is when the Machine Orthodoxy stepped in personally

Enduring weeks of torture had left Agal Har’s mind with small, exploitable cracks that the priest gladly tore open. In a matter of days, the Loxodon was nearing his limits. In one last desperate ploy, Nova subjected him with every mental and physical torture technique possible and the sheer agony forced Agal into the Blind Eternities. Faced with the unknowable and impossible expanse, Agal Har broke completely.

Despite no physical evidence of corruption, Agal belongs mind and soul to Elesh Norn, the Mother of Machines and despises every moment he must spend away from the plane on which she resides. He adores the praise he receives from utilizing his planeswalking abilities to travel past Mirran defenses and corrupt entire villages at a time. While frequently presenting a mask of calm and pious civility in imitation of his queen, it is a facade. Any hint of malice towards New Phyrexia causes him to erupt in homicidal rage and, paradoxically, the smallest hint of envy.

Agal Har is highly skilled at metalshaping and boasts an impressive control over the liquid metal he uses offensively and defensively. In addition, the experiments greatly increased his muscle mass, granting superhuman resilience and stamina. By his own admission, he is no elite warrior capable of taking down any foe, but the phyrexian oil does much fighting for him. Recently, he has been assigned a mission to find and capture other planeswalkers so that New Phyrexia can continue its conquest throughout the multiverse.

[inventors-fair]

Runners-up: Exercises in elegance ~

Four runners-up? Well, with this many entries, there are gonna be quite a few cards that have some good qualities. Let’s take a look at what’s good, what’s alright, and dissect a little.

@corporalotherbear — Scatterbright Field

Giving instants and sorceries lifelink was initially white/Jeskai, then merged into RW with Firesong and Sunspeaker, and this feels like a natural progression. I’m hesitant with this contest about a balance, having an unbalanced mana cost, but it makes sense here, and honestly, the flavor really sells what your spells are doing. You cast a Lightning Bolt, and the bolt refracts through the field and gains you life. It’s a transformative card that honestly feels a lot more enchantment-like than a lot of printed enchantments have been. Kudos for making that much happen at the very least.

@grornt — Loxodon Fluviomancer

Did you know that this is the first instance of “Fluviomancer” and that search engines can’t find anything even close? Weird, but I did look up the prefix and this is a really cool card. “Loxodon” feels a touch out of place but, like, that’s the race Magic has so that’s what we got, I suppose. I love the little world you’ve got going on here with the river-based city and all. In terms of the card, it’s a great pushed uncommon that could make for some awesome limited play, possibly an infinite combo if you have the right pieces but it would be very very hard. Either way, while the “noncreature spell” feels weird in the green areas, the rest of the card works just fine, and feels flavorfully like a life-giving river wizard.

@kavinika — Skyknight of Azimuth

“Azimuth” being a real English word kinda threw me off for a second. But, that aside, the Skyknight feels like a perfectly awesome Mardu limited finisher once you get some ground aggro going. It could be argued just to be RW, but you know what? The ‘knight’ presence, the feeling of attacking, and the flavor text all create kind of an imposing feel that I quite like. It does feel black without having a super-explicit black mechanical part of it (with the vampyric tropes maybe taken into consideration). It’s not the most exciting card, and I do applaud you for being moderately cautious; the risk meant you made merely a good card. Maybe even great!

@nicolbolas96​ — Aethermage’s Mastery

Lemme get the nitpicks out of the way: “those spells,” not “that spell” because it’ll be plural no matter what. See Dead Man’s Chest. There are a couple places where it could be streamlined, perhaps. “Exile...an opponent controls, then exile the top five cards of that opponent’s library...” etc. See Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. So why is this card a runner-up? Because I just plain like it. It’s an expensive and powerful and theivy card with a lot of potential. The white part started to be a little weird, but “exile target nonland permanent” by itself is super white so there’s that I suppose. Make the name more local/less generic fantasy, change it to rare probably, and you got a great card

Commentary coming up!