#oldwalkers

[soylent-crocodile]

Negator (Monster)

(Phyrexian Negator by John Zeleznik)

CR16 NE Medium Aberration (Phyrexian)

(The negator is another iconic creature, although one whose card is simply not up to snuff nowadays- the balance of power has tipped so that its astronomical drawback is not worth the creature you get. Still, the obliterator is clearly a riff on it- and got its own, incredibly aesthetically boring riff later- and even then it's simply too fabulous a design not to use. Can you say "xenomorph"?

Lorewise, these explicitly saw most usage in the leadup to full invasion- perhaps, in a hypothetical Phyrexia campaign, this could be the final boss of the second act, before the REAL invasion force finally arrives.)

CR16 NE Medium Aberration (Phyrexian)

Negators are perfected assassins of Phyrexia, designed to eliminate key targets with compleat efficiency. They are singleminded in this pursuit- one infamous document stated simply "It exists to cease." Indeed, a negator's heart is terribly stilled- they are not known to experience any emotion but the satisfaction of a job well done and the desire to achieve so.

Negators, being stealth operatives and assassins, are rarely used once a full-scale invasion begins, although they are often deployed just in the leadup to it. Each negator is given all Phyrexia knows of its target, and is simply placed as close as Phyrexia can get it without garnering attention and sent to kill. Negators are surprisingly skilled at stealth and disguise, able to walk as a hunched figure through whatever streets it may need to to reach its target, and are surprisingly eloquent and skilled actors when they need to lie. Once it makes its kill, however, a negator rarely makes time for stealth. Such negators will begin a return to Phyrexia (such that they might possibly be reset, reprogrammed, and reused), but generally lack the precautions of one who has yet to make a kill. These assassinations are its purpose; it seems some higher part of it shuts off once it is done.

This wicked creature stands humanoid, with razor sharp claws and a smooth nubby head lined with tiny triangular teeth. Its body is dotted with glasslike hemispheres and wires arcing between body parts.

Misc- CR16 NE Medium Aberration (Phyrexian) HD24 Init:+11 Senses: Blindsight 120ft Perception: +26, Detect Magic, Detect Good Stats- Str:27(+8) Dex:33(+11) Con:20(+5) Int:30(+10) Wis:8(-1) Cha:24(+6) BAB:+18/+13/+8/+3 Space:5ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:228(24d8+120) AC:30(+11 Dex, +4 Armor, +5 Natural) Fort:+14 Ref:+19 Will:+15 (+4 Racial bonus vs Emotion) CMD:47 Resist: Cold 20, Fire 20, Electricity 20 Immunity: Acid, Fear, Curse, Polymorph, Petrification, Death effects, Disease, Poison Weakness: Special Defenses: Evasion, Negative Energy Affinity, DR10/Adamantine, SR27, Uncanny Dodge, Mycosynth Flesh Offense- Bite +24(1d6+8), 2 Claw +25(2d6+8/19-20x2) or Negation +29(90ft ranged, 10d8 plus Negation) CMB:+26 Speed:40ft Special Attacks: Coronous Ambush, Sneak Attack +5d6 Feats- Iron Will, Multiattack, Power Attack (-5/+10), Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Wind Stance, Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, Improved Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Bestow Curse), Weapon Focus (Claw) Skills- Acrobatics +38, Bluff +31, Climb +29, Disable Device +35, Disguise +31, Escape Artist +38, Knowledge (Arcana, Planes, Religion) +34, Knowledge (Dungeoneering)* +37, Linguistics +15, Perception +26, Sense Motive +23, Spellcraft +17, Stealth +38, Survival +26, Swim +29, Use Magic Device +31 Spell-like Abilities-  Detect Magic, Detect Good, Mage Armor, Deathwatch /constant Bestow Curse (DC19), Fog Cloud, Silence (DC18) /at-will Quickened Bestow Curse (DC19) 3/day Special Qualities- Compression Ecology- Environment- Any Languages- Necril, Draconic, Elven, Aklo, Abyssal, Infernal Organization- Solitary Treasure- Incidental Special Abilities- Coronous Ambush (Ex)- A negator’s erratic, jerky movements and mastery of anatomy give it the opening to strike at its enemies weakest points. A negator may make a sneak attack against any creature vulnerable to precision damage as long as it has moved at least 10ft since the end of its last turn. Negation (Su)- As a standard action, a negator can fire a beam of oblivion energy. This is a 90ft ranged attack that deals 10d8 untyped damage. Additionally, a negator may immediately make a dispel check as with the spell Greater Dispel Magic at +18 against all magical effects the target is under.

[incorrect-mtg]

One very self-indulgent fanfic concept that I've been a BIG fan of since I was like 14 is "the big war arc of the story lasted a decade instead of a week, and somehow the main character travels back in time to prevent that." You know, the ones where the main character is extremely overpowered for the standards of canon, but they're in the bad timeline so it doesn't matter? The ones where every moment they spend in the past is fuel for the angst?

Anyways I think that a fic like that but for the Phyrexian War would fix me.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Commodore Guff by Matthew Stewart

[markrosewater]

Do you know if it was accidental or intentional that Loot is actually the second character in Magic with that name? The first was the main character in two short stories written by Michael A Stackpole, a planeswalker with amnesia (this was a loooong while ago, so he was an Oldwalker, technically).

My gut was it wasn't intentional, but I had nothing to do with it, so I don't definitively know.

[lootthekey]

Duskmourn- The Living Horror Plane Theory

Art by Antonio José Manzanedo

Hello, this is me making another big post, but this time related to an upcoming set we know almost nothing about other than its loose themes. Duskmourn, a set themed around modern horror, or more accurately horror from the 70’s and 80’s, is extremely unique in that it takes place on the plane of Duskmourn. Why is that unique? You see, Duskmourn, the plane, is not like other planes at all. Even the most corrupted of Magic’s natural worlds, like Innistrad and Amonkhet, have a natural appearance to them. They have wildlife, a difference between civilization and nature, and overall are just standard worlds with differing cultures and ecosystems.

Duskmourn is extremely different from that.

Duskmourn is just one, absolutely gigantic, haunted mansion. As far as we know, this plane has very little in terms of an actual “world” and is just this massive house of horrors, hence the name of the set “Duskmourn: House of Horrors”. What is so interesting about this is the potential implications of this. As said, Magic’s planes almost universally follow the basic blueprint of being an actual world not unlike our own aside from the magical aspects of them, like Kamigawa’s Spirit Realm and similar.

The only plane that comes close to not being an actual “world” is Mirrodin, now better known as New Phyrexia. Even New Phyrexia, a world molded to its core by Elesh Norn and the other praetors of New Phyrexia, loosely imitates a natural world with its various spheres each having their own… ecosystem if they can be called that.

Duskmourn, until it is shown further and they say otherwise, has none of this to our understanding. It’s ONLY this big mansion. This leads me to my main theory I have today:

Duskmourn is an unnatural world.

And I don’t just mean this by how different it is. I mean to imply either this plane was created, similar to Mirrodin, by an extremely powerful entity, OR has been so heavily corrupted/modified/etc by a similar entity that it can no longer be called a “natural plane”.

The first possibility is interesting, but there isn’t much to further analyze with that possibility. We don’t know of any characters currently that can CREATE planes that aren’t just some random oldwalker we probably haven’t met yet or some all powerful demon potentially.

The second possibility, that the plane was corrupted and shaped into its current form by an extremely powerful entity, does have more interesting implications, as there are hilariously several beings in Magic’s modern lore capable of doing so. This is mainly because it seems to take much less effort to corrupt an individual plane, especially if you have a lot of help, than it is to create a full plane. Not that it still isn’t world breaking power at play, but its possible. We saw the New Phyrexians do it to Mirrodin, and they probably could have done it to other worlds if they weren’t met with heavy pushback.

Let’s revisit the image that I posted above and has basically been WotC’s chosen image to showcase the plane in its little time slot on their release timeline.

This is an extremely large, very eldritch and/or demonic looking entity that dwells on Duskmourn… or perhaps more. If you study this art, its “body” naturally flows into what can be called doors, staircases, pillars, and windows. The sheer size of this thing is awe inspiring, and it is extremely eldritch in appearance. Its really only a little different in appearance to another cast of very eldritch entities in Magic’s lore that I also made big posts about.

Art by Eli Minaya

The Eldrazi Titans. Very similar bone-like appearance to Ulamog, very similar ���multiple limb” design of Kozilek, and a similar “glowing eldritch hole(s)” design to Emrakul. You might see where I am going with this, which is:

Duskmourn is a giant, living plane, who’s World Soul has been supplanted by an Eldrazi Titan.

Now, you might say, “But Colin, Eldrazi’s do not do that. They eat worlds.” But how do we know that? Emrakul, in Eldritch Moon, was fully capable of taking over Innistrad. She had the entire plane in her grasp and there were no signs of her losing. She was delayed by the Gatewatch, but by the end all of them had been mentally overwhelmed by her powers. Emrakul sealed herself into Innistrad’s moon at the end of it all, clearly with a larger, more complex goal in mind that has haunted us to this day.

Duskmourn, I believe, is a world that has been completely corrupted by an Eldrazi not unlike Emrakul.

The inhabitants, who I don’t even know how they survive in such a world, are constantly bombarded by mental attacks from the world itself. This is not unlike what happened when Emrakul fought the Gatewatch. Every inhabitant of Duskmourn is a captive in Duskmourn’s corrupting grasp, and that will be central to the plane I believe. This is an unnatural world run by an eldritch entity, and the nature of it could be the key to learning more about the Eldrazi and/or how the World Souls of planes function.

I am very excited to see what Duskmourn has in store, and I hope it does not disappoint.

[vorthosjay]

The planeswalker guide mentioned that no one knows the origin of the big enchantment that transforms extraplanar visitors. Hypothetically, would such an enchantment have been within the abilities of an oldwalker to create? Basically, as we speculate, I'm wondering if oldwalkers are a legit option. Second, if the Phyrexians came to Bloomburrow, what kind of animals would they be? I really really really need the cutest Phyrexians in the multiverse to be a thing.

Oldwalker power sets were basically whatever the story required, so yes, it's possible.

Karn is a ironroot tree, so I suspect that IF the Phyrexians had come to Bloomburrow, that's what they'd be too.

[mtgpocketrealm]

Plane Summary

This plane consists of a world tree and a cosmos, similar to Kaldheim, the tree holding a realm for every possible color combination (excluding the un colors of pink and gold).

This plane is believed to be artificial, the tree planted into the blind eternities and cultivated into this shape, growing the plane and realms which were then seeded with life from some other location. A genetically viable population of Humans, grasses, trees, fungi, a basic food web which could then rapidly diversify, and finally, in each, a single Thrum (an unspeciallized Sliver) at the heart of the realms.

This plane, which does not possess a true name, was then left, abandoned by the Oldwalker who made it. Perhaps it was left to be observed, perhaps it was forgotten, perhaps deemed a failure of some experiment, perhaps left to thrive on its own, perhaps the Oldwalker perished during the great mending or was desparked during the great pruning. The purpose of the plane is likewise unknown, an experiment some rumor, the saving of a plane's populace another, some sort of scheme or cultivation not unlike Memnarch's or Nicol Bolas' planes, perhaps even a natural fluke of the multiverse. Though few planeswalkers who have investigated the plane believe that last one.

This plane moves around the blind eternities not unlike Shandalar, occasionally 'orbiting' another plane momentarily before being all but repelled by the plane in a random direction.

The plane seems adverse to outside influences, planeswalkers and omenpaths are quite rare throughout the history of the plane. The difficulty of planeswalking into and out of the plane itself, let alone the realms, is immense. As such, very few, possibly even none at all, who have ignited on the plane have ever left their home realm. The recent great pruning had little to no effect on this plane. However, Omenpaths are an easier form of access to this plane, but there seems to only ever be one or two open at any given time and each Omenpath can be classified as 'Instanced', as they all remain open for minutes at best and rarely ever open again. The most common Omenpaths are within the plane, realm to realm connections, usually going up or down the tree, to a realm that has a broader or stricter mana identity. Very rarely, a plane this one is orbitting can receive an instanced omenpath to the tree's cosmos, but very little ever comes from that so far.

Races

There are three sentient races of the plane, Humans, Werewolves, Slivers*, and Realmkin.

Humans are quite similar to what they are like on most planes. They are responsible for the greater sized civilizations and nations which appear on the realms despite their shortcomings, purely by force of sheer numbers and cooperation. Even in the realms where cooperation is not in the mana's nature, they still stick together into clans, tribes, and/or nations. All of which are far larger than the packs of the Werewolves, though generally smaller than the local Hives of Slivers.

Werewolves are similar to Humans while in their 'weakened form', with the exception of their glowing eyes, more pronounced pointed fangs, and their pointed ears. Well, that and the magic, you see the Humans of this plane are utterly incapable of magic in any form. Werewolves however are capable of magic in both of their forms, forming many packs around the styles of magic they use. Their magic heightening along with their physical abilities as night falls. There is a single pack on every realm which lacks magical abilities, these werewolves tend to be isolationist from the rest of their kind and more minorly from Humans, but have the added benefit of appearing more Human when untransformed than other werewolves. In a general sense, they lose their 'Higher Human Intelligence' when transformed, becoming violent beasts rather than people who can be negotiated with. There is at least one pack who's magic is to retain their intelligence even while transformed.

Realmkin are elementals born from the sudden surges of mana via the periodic crashes. Realmkin are characterized by their humanoid forms, stone-looking skin, and mask-like faces. They are all immortal and possess the ability to generate or manipulate their namesake elements, generally, they are friendly with Humans and Werewolves, none but the oldest seem to understand them however. The concept of mortality, physical needs, being constrained by physical bounds. Not every realm manifests a Realmkin, but once manifested, a few of that variety appears each crash.

*Slivers are generally not sentient, at least not in the manner that we would consider. They are more a hive intelligence that responds like a massive living organism similar to ant colonies. But, rarely, there are slivers who evolve an ego, these take control of the local hive and impose their will upon it, occasionally splitting off and creating new hives.

General Realms

Each of the thirty-two realms correspond to an alignment of mana, everything within the realm conforming to that alignment. The tree holds each realm in place, preventing them from coming into contact with one another.

Each realm can be described as a half-circle of earth, metal, water, and/or magma and atmosphere. These half-circles slowly rotate in their bubbles. These bubbles are what is known as 'the tree's fruit'.

The 'cosmos' of the plane is thin, fairly insubstantial, comprised solely of excess mana from the realms which becomes attracted to and accumulates in the core of the world tree. While within the cosmos of this world tree (the great aetheric void), you would appear to be within an iridescent outer space, the stars being the light of living planes, occasional shadows being planes devoid of life, or the forms of Eldrazi Titans as they move through the multiverse. Within this void, there is 'subjective gravity'.

The center of the plane, the core, is perceived as a star, not dissimilar to a sun, to all of the realms. The stars that can be seen in the great aetheric void as seen above are other planes of the multiverse, their brightness a general indication of how much mana they have and their size a general indication of proximity. These can be seen when facing away from the 'sun' like night sky constellations on many other planes. Every realm (except for WUBRG) as a day and night cycle which subjectively lasts for exactly 16 hours each.

When the tree is ready to grow larger, to receive the energy for the fruit to each grow larger with little to no issue, it sends a signal via leylines to each of the fruit. Thirty-two days later, it receives a massive influx of mana which causes the tree and each of it's fruits to grow in size. This, as it turns out, is a feedback loop caused by the hives of Slivers that reside on the realms, as new egos are attempted to be adapted by each of the realms simultaneously, a greater unifying ego, the tree receives that as a signal that the hives have begun to outgrow their space and uses that to expand.

Komas - This place is utterly hostile to the concept of life. The fact that any Human or Werewolf, though emaciated and sickly, survive here is incredible.

Elania, Ubrosos, Ebegoth, Atenara, Ipola - These realms are massive, large enough that animals, Humans, and Werewolves are capable of comfortably staying far away from the central Sliver hives, assuming the hives allow that...

Sechetora, Oyathae, Phedasos, Plexinit, Uphidolan, Sliatteros, Eoxucia, Accethis, Nacladu, Iglirial - These realms are quite sizeable still, but civilization borders the territories of the hives, which sooner rather than later, becomes subsumed into their control.

Phedasos, Honniomund, Sessarune, Icremir, Oklaran, Secaven, Oweroth, Ephaxath, Lerrezin, Rekixus - These realms are quite hostile outside of the domains of the local hive's terraforming magics, but the hives lack the numbers and 'manpower' to properly expel the Humans and Werewolves from their domain.

Plobbiovar, Chakitara, Kioggithis, Iaxiotopia, Kokudu - These realms are entirely alien and anathema to life, the hives have yet to terraform the primordial chaos into something usable. Life here persists seemingly out of spite rather than because it properly survives.

Hodatis - This realm is a bubble of chaotic mana which would've torn apart anything which dared to try and survive here, if the mana didn't occasionally form into smaller bubbles of stable and habitable physical matter. This realm has spawned many independent hives that each spontaneously come about in their own bubbles which floats chaotically around this maelstrom. The inhabitants of several bubbles have invented a method of traversing the chaos.

(Names randomly generated via fantasy name generator)

Something that should be noted is that this plane superficially seems like Segovia, being small with the world tree about the size of an actual tree. Each realm appears similar to multicolored marbles with a to scale representation of the realm within, if you squint, you can even see some movement within. Be not deceived however, these are appropriately sized on the inside, these marbles are about an inch in diameter for every ten kilometers of radius it truly is. Every crash expands the cosmos around the tree by five meters, but the tree grows less strictly each crash.

Slivers and their Purpose

The Slivers on this plane play an integral part of the growth and maturity of the plane tree's 'fruits'. They live on the nexus of the realm's leylines, feeding off of it and causing the mana to crystalize. The hive growing, learning new adaptations, and passively terraforming their territory all the while. They grow within a set territory until something triggers an apotheosis. This apotheosis involves a 'reset' to the hive, culling practically all of their members and consuming all of the powerstones they have that they generated. This surge through the leylines causes the fruit to expand drastically. This expands not only the hive's territory, but also the space outside of it (depending on the category of realm).

This causes each hive to go into a 'tide-like' state, where they grow in numbers and adaptations and territory and then they fall back into practically no specialized forms. Each 'crash' seems to take longer to arrive than the last, but is reliable enough that the denizens of the realms have rough methods to predict when they will occur.

Decks and What they mean

Some of you may have noticed that the links are to decks. The ones with tags are my mental map of the hives themselves and how they grow each crash. They have tags that you can't see, labeling everything as 'each crash' and 'ego crash'. Every legendary also has a number (based on when the base creature was released in order for the identity prioritizing non-playtest cards, for example, Hodatis sliver queen is labeled as 1 and gravemother is 6, in Sliatteros Sliv-mizzet is labelled with 1). Each crash, the cards labelled 'each crash' get added to the 'hive's holdings'.

For Hodatis, I add a new hive with a single card with the next number (so one queen crashes into one overlord), cycling back after running out of numbers. Repeating the process so long as I don't repeat the same card, skipping numbers with no more applicable cards. When we finish off a Hodatis number, that is known as an 'ego crash', and the tagged cards are added to the 'hive's holdings'.

'Each crash' cards includes every sliver and all lands that are not 'sliver hive' and 'hall of tagsin'.

'Ego crash' cards is everything else.

The lands have different numbers. These numbers correspond to the distance * ~10 km from the exact center of the realm that reaches. So 5 is ~50 km and a 6 would mean that there is ~50 km radius of the first card and a ~10 km band around it for the second card. The other cards are for the purposes of mentally acknowledging their capacities at the peak of each crash. (exceptions to the size of a land is Sliver Hive and Hall of Tagsin)

The mono colored realms have an additional non-hive controlled territory of 9 (basic land), the guild colored realms have an additional non-hive controlled territory of 7 (the painland cycle), the shard/wedge colored realms have an additional non-hive controlled territory of 4 (the landscape cycle), Komas has an additional non-hive controlled territory of 10 (spawning bed), and Hodatis has an additional non-hive controlled territory of 10 (mana confluence), 6 (1 of each basic (they can go to separate bubbles)), and 3 (unstable frontiers).

For Hodatis, a new hive is created each time a new number is called (thus spawning a new hive and hall), though they drift out of the center by the time of the next crash, the non-hive mana confluence is centered, the other two non-hives are not and can be added to existing 'bubbles'.

For the purposes of explaining the size of the realms, we are on the 14th crash.

The Titans and Myr are simply a nice patterned inspiration for additional werewolf ideas that I like.

[xantchaslegacy]

It's no secret that MtG has a fair number of characters with BCGE (Big Catholic Girl Energy); Liliana, Thalia, Teysa, etc. For Easter, I'd like to spotlight one of MtG's earliest and lesser-known big catholic-energy girls: Helana, from the short story Dual Loyalties by Glen Vasey.

Helana is the adopted daughter of preacher who oversees a rural sun-worshiping church. She is an intelligent, well-read and devout (albeit sheltered) young woman who is steadfast in her dedication to the sun-goddess, her father, and the well-being (both spiritual and physical, via healing magic) of the small community they serve.

The tl;dr of her story is that her father is suddenly (though not unexpectedly) summoned by a planeswalker to aid in a fight against a rival 'walker, and during the battle ends up getting cast into hell (this is in keeping with a running theme of the short stories in Distant Planes, a book that could have been fairly re-titled as Oldwalkers are Sociopaths and Here's a Dozen Case Studies Showing Why). Helana, left in charge of the church, immediately takes off to find her father, armed only with gumption, faith, a few pearls of white mana (which the sun god and her nighttime counterpart, Gohrah periodically leave for the devout to find), and a celestial prism (which will turn out to be critical later on, since her knowledge of spellcasting is *extremely basic*, and limited to healing spells used to treat the church's small congregation).

(She's also accompanied in her journey by a flying miniature dog named Rorsa; he's not plot-critical, but a very fun element in the story)

At the battlefield where the 'walkers dueled, she meets Illith, a demon who was summoned for the same fight her father was taken away to participate in. Illith, needing a hostage to return safely to his home in hell (demonic bureaucracy, don't ask), but also fascinated and sympathetic to Helana despite himself, agrees to guide her to the castle of the archduke of hell who has her father prisoner. The exchanges between Illith and Helana are all quite interesting, and I've included a sliver below b/c I really like how their dialogue is done:

(Illith is, though never explicitly stated as such, clearly meant to be the demon depicted on the original art for Demonic Tutor, based on the descriptions of how he assists the wizards/ planeswalkers who summon his aid.)

What Helana does once in hell is nothing short of stunning. Starting with a group of dark dwarves, who she tranquilizes with a surgery-prep spell, she proceeds to take on several squads of black-aligned creatures using nothing but her instincts and a selection of white-aligned healing spells that do absolutely twisted things to the minions of hell. She uses a proliferation/virility spell to make a group of skeleton warriors copulate each other to pieces, a healing spell on zombies so their flesh grows back and causes them immense pain. A spell of charity to make a rag man give her its kneecap. A spell of compassion and self-reflection to cause (implied lethal) psychic damage to an archduke of hell.

The story ends happily, with Helana and her new demon frenemy having gotten what they wanted out of the foray into hell (she her father and he his previous scholarly position). Helana is left at the story's end to confront a new duality of loyalties that has blossomed over the course of the story - to the Sun, but also to Gohrah, Daughter of Night.

It's a very interesting short that touches on the complexity of B and W characters, as well as gives some fun illustrations on how different card mechanics would work in the in-universe fantasy setting.

Happy Easter ;)

[littjara-mirrorlake]

Crackpot theory/headcanon time!

What if the oldwalker who created the plane of Phyrexia hailed from the plane of Iquatana? It's a seemingly-dead plane whose long-lost inhabitants created narcomoebas to store memories, which were lost in an unknown way.

Notably the plane of Phyrexia, long before Yawgmoth's settlement of it, already contained a potent form of memory storage: glistening oil. It would later be corrupted into Yawgmoth's tool of conquest, but it was not always so.

What if the oil was initially created as an experimental method to store Iquati memory, with the plane built around it? It's possible that at this point - roughly 9000 years pre-current canon - the Iquati were still living, but struggling through some unknown crisis.

What recollections could lay deep within the Phyrexian oil, deeper even than Yawgmoth's whispers, waiting to be unearthed?

[berrywinkle]

I think that one video about Sorin never getting a «win» has changed people’s perception of Sorin for the worse.

Like I won’t deny he can be a failure sometimes, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he is one of the most powerful planeswalkers out there.

In fact, I think it’s good writing that he’s made so many mistakes, because he is over 7000 years old and an oldwalker, so he is naturally going to be stuck in his old ways and his biases and sense of superiority is what makes him fail. That’s why he is able to get a victory in Crimson vow, because he is going through character development where he learns to trust and depend on others, and to extend help to others in return.

[dude1818]

Namekkos: The Clockwork Plane

On the plane of Namekkos, everything is mechanical. The beasts and birds whir and click across the land, the people wind themselves up each day, and even the vegetation consists of simple machines. Whether the plane was artificially created as a mad experiment by an oldwalker, or was once truly alive before technology ran unchecked, no one knows. To the inhabitants, this is what Namekkos has always been.

In the northern reaches of the continent of Terle, the Kosmengeve Empire plots dominion. Led by Kosmen, the self-titled World Mind, Kosmengeve is a singular hive mind that aims to enfold all sentient organisms into itself. The proliferation of telegraph technology in recent years has allowed Kosmen to rapidly extend its reach. The lack of wireless technology limits how fast Kosmengeve can expand; however, long enough exposure to Kosmen can break down an organism's individuality enough that, even disconnected from the World Mind briefly, it still thinks of itself as an extension of Kosmen. Having expanded to the northern border of Terle, the Empire now feels its way southward, where the people are less than pleased to be absorbed.

South of Kosmengeve and somewhat protected by the Gensto mountain range lies the Association of Artina. Led by the Council of Vyst, Artina is a scientifically-focused society. Home to artificers, bioengineers, and naturalists, Artinans believe that nature is the greatest inventor. That's no excuse for stagnation though: it is every person's right, and even imperative, to continuously improve the mechanisms of nature. The Association doesn't have an end goal in mind, but posits that the process itself is the point. The leading minds of Artina are known as clockmakers, and their latest discovery is a mysterious energy called anima, which may be the motive force powering all life on the plane.

To the south of Terle, on the smaller continent of Tersol, the Morex Syndicate is in control. Less a political structure and more a response to Kosmen's growing reach, the Syndicate is an anarchistic collection of individuals who simply want what's best for themselves. Inhabitants of Tersol disdain the Terlian notions of societal evolution; rather, they desire merely to be allowed to modify themselves however they want, and don't care how that impacts those around them.

Venser has come to Namekkos while in search of another metal world. Intrigued by the artifice he finds, he decides to spend just a little time looking around, and discovers something shocking. He meets a promising young naturalist named Temmar; to Venser's surprise, he can tell that Temmar has a planeswalker spark, throwing into question what it means to be alive. As the Kosmengeve Empire presses into Artinan territory, Temmar gets thrown into the labyrinth of Association higher political and academic circles, while also trying to study this stranger who seems to be studying him in return.

[dimestoretajic]

MAGIC PLANESWALKER ULTIMATE BRACKET, ROUND TWO OF FOUR!

So first up, we got the dreaded 3Feri versus an old oldwalker! Let's see if the bad student beats the anger of the forest!

Make your choice!

[incorrect-mtg]

Shout-out to the coolest oldwalker in mtg

[interplanaranathema]

Three Main Brywnfr Planeswalkers

Got these three done! Post MoM thoughts and designs.

Eriame Mel- an elven planeswalker centered in Blue and secondary in W/B. She is known as the Dreamer due to her dream magic . Being one of the few brywnfr planeswalkers who stil has access to the plane, shes made a name for herself their. Eriame is a cult leader who uses the motto "To grow and to improve ourselves, we must shatter our nightmares." She is also just... Angel sexual due to the nature of the Brwynfr Arch Angels.

Archangel Avalon- The Brywnfr archangel of Blue mana, a great artificer and powerful illusionist. He's the reason why the plane is so elusive to get to and he wants to protect his home. Being an old walker of ancient proportions, he doesn't care about trivial matters unless it's with planeswalkers. During March of Machines, Avalon was returning back to brywnfr to rest and reconnect so he doesn't lose his ability to go back. He was followed by a Phyrexian Aven planeswalker who aimed to pierce brywnfr and take down the pesty angel. These two fought and as Avalon went for the uppercut, the planeswalker casted a spell which broke some wings and sent Avalon spiralling down hundreds of feet down whilst the planeswalker was apprehended and killed by the Archangel of Red, who had responded to Avalon's leyline warnings. Avalon crashed, shattering and twisting his wings and his spine nearly broke. He was rushed to the healers and was promptly comatose for a few months. The permanent damage he sustains is lost of some oral tendrils, amputation of a few of his wings (only one major pair), a permanent gash into his empty torso and has to use a cane to walk.

Nym Kylem- one of the "lost children of Brywnfr," or brywnfr planeswalkers who are unable to return back to Brywnfr due to Avalon's planar restrictions. He is an extremely potent biomancer and formerly an oldwalker. Not much is known about him other than he's seems to be making a name for himself on the plane called "The Materium." He is an oc who shows up a lot in my Warhammer 40k x MTG au. He is aligned with the Tyranids becoming what is known as the "False Tyrant" , His Reds, yellows and plates are his Fleet's colorations. Bitch serves some pretty colors.

[niuttuc]

What's your opinion on Kamigawa?

I appreciate the effort that went into both modernizing it for Neon Dynasty and keeping it firmly rooted in its history and story. I wish the marketing hadn't leaned as heavily on the Neon and a bit more on the Dynasty, since the point of the setting was that it was in balance between the two, and a LOT of effort in worldbuilding went towards that.

I do wish we had more. On how technology works a bit more in detail, and kami channeling, and the Gates, and the merging and... The Neon Dynasty story was good in being its own self-contained thing but it didn't allow exploring much of the world, it was mostly very narrowly focused on Tezzeret and Phyrexians.

The set was great in almost every respect, even if a bit strong in places.

As far as old Kamigawa, these novels were pretty entertaining. Scott McGough, their author, was really good at writing compelling narratives around overpowered characters (a good skill to have in the oldwalker era), and Toshiro Umezawa definitively qualifies here. The card sets certainly had issues though. It is funny to see the stark difference in power between Kyodai/Michiko back in the old days and them being basically powerless against Tezzeret and the Phyrexian invasion in March of the Machine.

[allhailklisz]

prediction for how bolas will return, once it’s been long enough:

*emrakul leaves the moon* some protagonist: hey ugin emrakul's being relevant again we need your help ugin: okay well nahiri's dead and/or evil, sorin's too busy being depressed about avacyn, and they hate each other enough that even if I could get one of them to help me I couldn't get both. and it took all three of us last time -- and that was when we were oldwalkers, with the mending messing things up it'll be even harder for me to do it by myself. I'll need help from someone with a lot of power. someone who's had thousands of years to master various different arcane arts. someone with lots of innate magical power too, like the sort of advantages that I have from being an elder dragon. but where could we find another elder dragon planeswalker bolas: hi ugin: bolas: ugin: yeah ok fine you're probably the lesser threat at this point here's your spark back