Cecil, Cyrus, Ezekiel (still favorite for some reason), Reginald, Eldon, Desmond, Isaac, etc.
All these are real world names so we probably shouldn't use them, but this will hopefully give you guys a sense of the direction i'm thinking. Victorian or possibly more Medieval with a slight biblical touch. Like the name of the plane itself, I think it's important that the name is something we all agree on before we lock it in.
Also, is this guy going to have a last name?
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"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Let's put it this way, if you were to count every grain of sand (the grains being the planes) on every beach on earth You'd still have a ways to go. The infinite Multiverse is infinite.
Then what are the odds that all these Planewalkers keep ending up in the same few planes? Or are there a few million different Planewalkers? That would seem to defeat their coolness (even if they are relatively rare at a few million).
Then what are the odds that all these Planewalkers keep ending up in the same few planes? Or are there a few million different Planewalkers? That would seem to defeat their coolness (even if they are relatively rare at a few million).
There are millions of planes, but think of it like a galaxy. Sure, there are millions of stars, but probably only a few of them have sentient life. While you could visit any number of them, you'd probably stick to visiting worlds that had already been discovered. We honestly don't know too much about the blind eternities because WotC keeps that kind of thing vague
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"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
EDIT: LnGrrrR: remember that the whole time slow thing is just a framing device. The story of archester isn't about it's place in the multiverse, it's mostly about the conflicts of it's people. The wilderness versus society thing is a huge theme. other themes include the downsides of a "pure democracy", the morality of criminal actions, and the preservation of land versus industrial expansion. The whole time debocle probably won't have much to do with the main plot at all, the only reason I bring it up is so that we have better context as to who the prophet is and why he does the things he does.
Understood Moon-E, but I think we could come up with a better explanation for a trapped Planeswalker than a world going too fast. The idea of Archester using up too much mana is decent, and works with the Steam mechanic. (Having to produce alternate energy sources other than mana.)
But instead of going with fast time, why not just go with an idea that melds the "Move West" themes with mana?
For instance, instead of a "gold rush", maybe there's a "mana rush". Certain pockets of the world have been discovered to contain huge amounts of mana, and people are fighting tooth and nail over them. Of course, all this attacking and defending uses up mana at a rapid rate. Even everyday casters are finding it harder to use mana, hence people relying on alternate energy.
The Planeswalker realizes this more keenly than anyone else, being a prodigal wizard. So, he creates a way to call other planeswalkers for help (the Spire). Will his call be answered?
Again, just my two cents. I don't think we should hold too strongly to any idea until we hear a bunch of them, but then again, I'm coming late to the party.
There are millions of planes, but think of it like a galaxy. Sure, there are millions of stars, but probably only a few of them have sentient life. While you could visit any number of them, you'd probably stick to visiting worlds that had already been discovered. We honestly don't know too much about the blind eternities because WotC keeps that kind of thing vague
I get that we don't know, but we should come up with our own "logic" about how many planes there are, how many planeswalkers there are, how many planes are actually visited, etc etc. If we figure there's only 10 planes worth visiting, then it makes sense our Pwalker will have visited a few planes known already.
I say we just leave it as a conflict between Freedom (the frontier) and Democracy (the cities) and simply ignore the origin of the planes mana and why it is the way it is.
This would be my preference as well, but we could hint at the origins of a culture that relies on steam.
And yes, I know we're getting sidetracked, but I think that it's ok for Design to get sidetracked. You never know when some offtopic tangent can spark a really great idea.
That said, for a Planeswalker name, you could try mashing Biblical names/endings together... Ezekiah, Pendleton, Mathias?
@LnGrrrR: Well a few things i guess. While a gold rush might work, it does take away a lot of the tension. In general the midlands are not supposed to be a prosperous place to live. If they were, people wouldn't be so upset about living there. If you make want to move west, you take away the conflict between those in the east that have kicked them out.
Now, the west does contain mana rich lands, but these are defended by native elves and clockwork wildlife. Not to mention that even reaching the west coast means traveling through inhospitable terrain that's home to the many outlaw gangs, prone to attacking traveling caravans. As situations get worse, however, I could totally see some midlanders giving in, packing up, and moving to the west as a last resort. Seen as a promise land after the east deserted them, these travelers risk everything for the chance at a new life (very similar to the gold rush, but it happens during the plot not before it)
The reason I like the time idea is not so much that i like time stuff as it is convenient. The time problem solves a lot of plot issues. Why is archester running out of mana? (Remember Ravnica was covered in an entire city, and they didn't have any problems.) Why can the prophet live so long? These are things we want in our plot, and the time slip solves these. I'm ok with giving up the time idea so long as we can still have the plot make sense (The Prophet not aging is the main thing here.)
Also, remember that the prophet was looking specifically for new technology. It's likely he would have stopped on a plane made of all metal (Mirrodin) or an eitre city plane (Ravnica). In all the multiverse my guess is that these two planes are relatively unique.
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"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
@LnGrrrR: Well a few things i guess. While a gold rush might work, it does take away a lot of the tension. In general the midlands are not supposed to be a prosperous place to live. If they were, people wouldn't be so upset about living there. If you make want to move west, you take away the conflict between those in the east that have kicked them out.
Fair enough, but I believe the gold rush was very "boom or bust". It was prosperous, but only for the lucky. That said, even with the chance of riches, I think many people would be willing to take the safety and security of the Brass City over the risk of the frontier.
Now, the west does contain mana rich lands, but these are defended by native elves and clockwork wildlife. Not to mention that even reaching the west coast means traveling through inhospitable terrain that's home to the many outlaw gangs, prone to attacking traveling caravans. As situations get worse, however, I could totally see some midlanders giving in, packing up, and moving to the west as a last resort. Seen as a promise land after the east deserted them, these travelers risk everything for the chance at a new life (very similar to the gold rush, but it happens during the plot not before it)
That actually plays into what I was saying. The mana-rich lands are defended... but what if you could take them over? What if you could find a hidden mana-rich land? People have taken crazier chances for less reward. And I'm fine with it being during the plot.
The reason I like the time idea is not so much that i like time stuff as it is convenient. The time problem solves a lot of plot issues. Why is archester running out of mana? (Remember Ravnica was covered in an entire city, and they didn't have any problems.) Why can the prophet live so long? These are things we want in our plot, and the time slip solves these. I'm ok with giving up the time idea so long as we can still have the plot make sense (The Prophet not aging is the main thing here.)
I don't think each plane has to contain the same amount of mana. If we're worried about the prophet not aging... well, the prophet sounds pretty blue, right? And isn't blue mana the kind of mana that has... Time Walk? As I said above, perhaps the Prophet determined that Archester was losing mana too quickly, and so created the Spire as a way to focus his mana and contact other Pwalkers. (The best analogy I can think of is Professor X making Cerebro.)
Also, remember that the prophet was looking specifically for new technology. It's likely he would have stopped on a plane made of all metal (Mirrodin) or an eitre city plane (Ravnica). In all the multiverse my guess is that these two planes are relatively unique.
I'm cool with that. I just want to make sure his travels make sense internally. It's not something that the people playing our cards need to know necessarily, but I think we should have a slight grasp of how the underlying mechanics of planes work in our minds.
The only two planes he's visited specifically are Ravnica (where he learned basically what a city was) and Mirrodin (which we know only because he brought back "the 6th sword")
I think a sort of last-ditch-gold-rush would work pretty well to represent the desperation of the midlanders in the second or third set.
Well the thing is, without anything like the slip to keep him on the plane, why wouldn't he just leave and go to other planes himself rather than contact them through the spire? If you're saying he's basically casting a permanent time walk by staying in his spire buying time for his plane (so he can't leave) i could get behind that, though it still wouldn't explain all too well why archester is losing mana so fast. (Then again, it is never explained why zendikar has an abundance of mana, so maybe it doesn't matter)
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"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Well the thing is, without anything like the slip to keep him on the plane, why wouldn't he just leave and go to other planes himself rather than contact them through the spire? If you're saying he's basically casting a permanent time walk by staying in his spire buying time for his plane (so he can't leave) i could get behind that, though it still wouldn't explain all too well why archester is losing mana so fast. (Then again, it is never explained why zendikar has an abundance of mana, so maybe it doesn't matter)
Yes, I was intimating something like that. (The Cerebro aspect I was referring to was that maybe this guy can sense where mana is... and planeswalkers tend to be HEAVY mana users, so probably have a lot of mana "aura" for lack of a better word. He can use the Spire to keep himself young, but also as a means for seeing mana not just in the plane of Archester, but in other planes as well. So he's using the Spire to track down other planeswalkers, travelling faster as a projection than he could physically. *shrug*)
As far as the reasons why Archester is losing mana? Instead of one single reason, why not give people a multitude and let them pick which they think is the right answer? I'm reminded of the graphic novel series, "Y: The Last Man". They present many ideas through the story on why all males (except for two) die off instantly, but they never say which is the "right" answer. Maybe it's the black mana guys polluting the land. Maybe it's the greedy wizards using up massive amounts of mana defending their hoards. Maybe it's whoever's making the mysterious clockwork creatures. Maybe it's the Brass City officials.
The problem is that the mana problems on archester are abnormal. yes, all of those things you're talking about are part of the issue, but on a normal plane this kind of thing just doesn't happen. On a normal plane the land can produce mana much faster than any man or machine could hope to consume it. Why is archester different?
One theory could be that all planes start out with mana in a solid state. During the infancy of a plane, the solid mana slowly beings to meld with the land, creating the normal mana-bond system we're used to. Perhaps the fact that Archester's civilization was jumpstarted resulted in them discovering the solid mana before it had a chance to soak in, so these mana reserves are being mined before they ever got connected with the land. Could be one way of doing it.
I guess i'm just a bit confused by your ideas on the spire. I'm with you on the keeping himself young part, but i doubt the prophet would take away resources from archester to do it, as this seems extremely counter productive and against his morals.
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"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
The problem is that the mana problems on archester are abnormal. yes, all of those things you're talking about are part of the issue, but on a normal plane this kind of thing just doesn't happen. On a normal plane the land can produce mana much faster than any man or machine could hope to consume it. Why is archester different?
This kinda ties into my "who knows" thing? The prophet sure doesn't... an who would know more about mana than other Planeswalkers?
One theory could be that all planes start out with mana in a solid state. During the infancy of a plane, the solid mana slowly beings to meld with the land, creating the normal mana-bond system we're used to. Perhaps the fact that Archester's civilization was jumpstarted resulted in them discovering the solid mana before it had a chance to soak in, so these mana reserves are being mined before they ever got connected with the land. Could be one way of doing it.
Sure, that's a good answer. As I said upthread, I think if we give the people a few answers, but don't tell them which is the "right" one (although we could decide on one ourselves, just leave it ambiguous in the official storyline), it might be more interesting. Ambiguous endings, done well, can hook the reader/viewer/player.
I guess i'm just a bit confused by your ideas on the spire. I'm with you on the keeping himself young part, but i doubt the prophet would take away resources from archester to do it, as this seems extremely counter productive and against his morals.
Think of it this way. If he doesn't use ANY mana, then things will keep going as they have been, and then everybody is screwed. So he takes a chance at using X amt of mana himself to risk getting an answer.
For a more recognizable analogy, just because you believe in peace doesn't mean that you don't have the right to defend yourself. You do what you have to.
Sure, he could create the Spire on another Plane... but then he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on his home plane as well. Perhaps he has a few agents on Archester that he sends out to take care of certain mana disturbances. Perhaps he needs to tether himself to the Plane in order to draw other Planeswalkers to help. I don't have a single answer, but it's something we could flesh out if we decide to go that route.
If he wants outside help (because he knows he's unable to do it by himself, no matter how long he has), he's trapped between those two time streams, doomed to see his plane start to shrivel and all people he know die as he stays young. There is much more drama in the character.
How is fixing a plane's mana easy, but fixing a time slip isn't? Also, how does he plan on fixing a universe that's faster than the rest of the universe?
For me, the tension in the first one is more of a time-based one. If the mana on Archester is limited, then each day he doesn't find an answer means there's less mana to go around. (And we can assume that there comes a critical point when a lack of mana = really bad stuff.)
Of course, I'm cool with Moon-E or an "original" person having final say. I'm just throwing out ideas.
If an executive decision ever has to be made, I think Raptor BLC and I should make that decision together. Hopefully we'll never have to do that though.
My stance is pretty open on this. I think the time slip is a cool way of explaining why archester is strange and why the prophet doesn't want to leave. On the other hand, I can see how it could appear a bit contrived and add unnecessary "ultimatum-ness" to the plot. The "never ending time walk" theory also somewhat explains these things in a simpler, but less dramatic fashion. I think both have merit.
Daerien seems like a decent name. I'm not sure if it's my favorite, but I like it.
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"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
That's probably because I didn't explain it right. Things are just as easy and hard as we want them to be. But if there is no time slip issue, and he's been spending centuries on it, I think it makes either for poor tension (duh, the plane's not dying for another three centuries...) or feels too contrived (hey, look, he found the solution just in the nick of time after spending a millenium on it!).
I'm not quite sure I agree with you on the "contrived" part. Why would we visit the plane of Archester during a time when he didn't find the answer? It's all about storytelling, after all. No one looks at a book like, "The Stand", for instance, and say, "How weird is it that the author only covers the time when the plague starts? Why aren't we reading about the 20 normal years before that?"
As for tension, personally, I think there's enough. Let's use the real world analogy of fossil fuels. We won't run out of them for what, another few centuries? But way before we actually "run out", the supply will be so limited that it would fundamentally change our way of life.
I see Archester in the same terms. We're used to people using mana to throw fireballs and summon demons, but there are most likely members of society that use it for simple
On the other hand, the time slip problem has built-in tension because even though it's not that hard (remember, we decide how hard something is), finding help takes a lot of real-world time. He can see the world deteriorate between each time he contacts an ally outside of Archester.
Doesn't that defeat the whole point of astrally projecting then? I thought he projects to save time?
To put it another way, if the world's ending, that can be good tension, but if the world's been ending for 1000 years, I don't care that much about it. Things need to happen fast (think decades at most) in stories to involve the public.
I still think that it should be a subtheme, and not the main theme of Archester. (I like the idea of Freedom vs Security personally.) I think the whole "world is ending in a week" storyline is more cliche than the idea of resources being depleted, and what life would be like without those resources.
Freedom vs. Security?
I always liked the old gilded age 'expose the corruption' feel. what if security is just a veneer, and the Iron City folks are poisoning the people to make them buy medicine, bribing laws into place that force people to buy more product, assassinating dissidents and muscling under the puppet politicians.
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Modern WSoul SistersW
Commander WIsperia the InscrutableU WGaddock TeegG UTomorrow, Azami's FamiliarU
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Ok. so it's going to be UB vs red, probably green backing up and white pretty divided.
Steam should have an army of outlaws ripping through the mines with druid backup, going Ewok on some massive steam monsters.
No, it's not just a two-on-two fight. Instead It's more like this...
vs. (The outlaws of the frontier are fed up with the Brass Council's interference in they're affairs and they begin to rally under Allester Marshall's banner. In effect, creating a secessionist movement in the Frontier.)
vs. (The former tenets and farmers of the Flats have finally figured out how to retaliate against the Manufactory owners who stole their lands. They're going to blow up the Manufactories. Effectively they've become Eco-terrorists.)
vs. (For some reason the Grimlin population has exploded (mostly because of the influnce of a certain Grimlin-toting Fiery Redhead PW). With their customary efficiency they are wreaking havoc with the mechines in the Brass city.)
vs. (With all the afore mentioned problems going on the Brass Council has decided to expand their privateering policies. These newly christened privateers, now freed from their lawful imprisonment, have become effectively out right Pirates, raiding frontier settlements for loot and booty. In other words they're only exacerbating an already bad situation.)
vs. everyone and vs. everyone (These two groups (:symgw: and :symb:) have virtual no contact with each other (due in part to the fact that they're on the opposite sides of the continent from one another) and are only linked by two things. 1) They both used similar methods to achieve they're goals (Clockwork Creatures and Artifice) and 2) No one really likes either of them. In the :symwg:'s case it's because of the fact that they are an unknown quanity and they represent a different path, a path Archester and the Brass council could have gone down and instead chose not to. They are a reminder of what could have been. Also, they're sitting on some of the most resource rich land on the plane. For the Necrotechs' case no one likes them because they represent what Archester could become and therefore are seen as a warning, one which makes everyone they come in contact with nervous.)
Ocean -- Porcelain City -- Brass City -- Iron City --- Midland Settlements ----- Desert ----- Jungle -- Spire -- Jungle -- Ocean
Edit: These are obviously just approximate locations. Archester isn't made of vertical stripes, but this is how everything is laid out in relation to each other. (For instance, there are many cities in the east, only the three most notable ones are mentioned)
Edit 2: This is obvioulsy based on the landscape of America (funny how i always pictured the Archestrian east on the left even tough most maps show it on the right...). This is mostly to do with the fact that a large portion of the set's flavor (that of cowboys and out laws etc.) has to do with a genere that is literally defined as a "western". Having this aspect of the set take place anywhere that wasn't west just seemed wrong...
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
what if the necrotechs are made legal to bolster the WU armies, but quickly become feared by everyone?
And I don't see how the Brass City and Iron City would not try to work together. I also don't see how the RB (colors of outside the box thinking and self preservation) would not try to get backup from the druids.
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Moon-e, you forgot Mountains between the Desert and the Jungle. Please correct your map.
Edit: Also, add an ocean between the Porcelain City and the Brass City. It should be difficult to get to.
New Map...
< East ----- West >
Ocean -- Porcelain City -- Ocean -- Coast -- Lots of Small/Medium Cities -- Brass City -- Lots of Small/Medium Cities -- Iron City -- Desert -- Midland Settlements ----- Desert/Badlands ---- Mountains ----- Jungle -- Spire -- Jungle -- Coast -- Massive Reefs that stop anyone trying to go around the mountains -- Ocean
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
I'm fine with some Necrotechs being exiled. The only reason I said they probably wouldn't meet is because of their disparate locations and I couldn't come up with a good reason for them to run into each other. The exile idea works quite well, I wish I had thought of it.
It moves, can probably go higher, hide behind clouds, everything...
It's (presumably) a natural phenomena so it shouldn't be controllable. Besides my point about it being discovered late stands, if it were over land at any time it would have been known much earlier. It's not like a floating island would be hard to miss.
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All these are real world names so we probably shouldn't use them, but this will hopefully give you guys a sense of the direction i'm thinking. Victorian or possibly more Medieval with a slight biblical touch. Like the name of the plane itself, I think it's important that the name is something we all agree on before we lock it in.
Also, is this guy going to have a last name?
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Then what are the odds that all these Planewalkers keep ending up in the same few planes? Or are there a few million different Planewalkers? That would seem to defeat their coolness (even if they are relatively rare at a few million).
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!
There are millions of planes, but think of it like a galaxy. Sure, there are millions of stars, but probably only a few of them have sentient life. While you could visit any number of them, you'd probably stick to visiting worlds that had already been discovered. We honestly don't know too much about the blind eternities because WotC keeps that kind of thing vague
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Understood Moon-E, but I think we could come up with a better explanation for a trapped Planeswalker than a world going too fast. The idea of Archester using up too much mana is decent, and works with the Steam mechanic. (Having to produce alternate energy sources other than mana.)
But instead of going with fast time, why not just go with an idea that melds the "Move West" themes with mana?
For instance, instead of a "gold rush", maybe there's a "mana rush". Certain pockets of the world have been discovered to contain huge amounts of mana, and people are fighting tooth and nail over them. Of course, all this attacking and defending uses up mana at a rapid rate. Even everyday casters are finding it harder to use mana, hence people relying on alternate energy.
The Planeswalker realizes this more keenly than anyone else, being a prodigal wizard. So, he creates a way to call other planeswalkers for help (the Spire). Will his call be answered?
Again, just my two cents. I don't think we should hold too strongly to any idea until we hear a bunch of them, but then again, I'm coming late to the party.
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!
I get that we don't know, but we should come up with our own "logic" about how many planes there are, how many planeswalkers there are, how many planes are actually visited, etc etc. If we figure there's only 10 planes worth visiting, then it makes sense our Pwalker will have visited a few planes known already.
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!
This would be my preference as well, but we could hint at the origins of a culture that relies on steam.
And yes, I know we're getting sidetracked, but I think that it's ok for Design to get sidetracked. You never know when some offtopic tangent can spark a really great idea.
That said, for a Planeswalker name, you could try mashing Biblical names/endings together... Ezekiah, Pendleton, Mathias?
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!
Now, the west does contain mana rich lands, but these are defended by native elves and clockwork wildlife. Not to mention that even reaching the west coast means traveling through inhospitable terrain that's home to the many outlaw gangs, prone to attacking traveling caravans. As situations get worse, however, I could totally see some midlanders giving in, packing up, and moving to the west as a last resort. Seen as a promise land after the east deserted them, these travelers risk everything for the chance at a new life (very similar to the gold rush, but it happens during the plot not before it)
The reason I like the time idea is not so much that i like time stuff as it is convenient. The time problem solves a lot of plot issues. Why is archester running out of mana? (Remember Ravnica was covered in an entire city, and they didn't have any problems.) Why can the prophet live so long? These are things we want in our plot, and the time slip solves these. I'm ok with giving up the time idea so long as we can still have the plot make sense (The Prophet not aging is the main thing here.)
Also, remember that the prophet was looking specifically for new technology. It's likely he would have stopped on a plane made of all metal (Mirrodin) or an eitre city plane (Ravnica). In all the multiverse my guess is that these two planes are relatively unique.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Fair enough, but I believe the gold rush was very "boom or bust". It was prosperous, but only for the lucky. That said, even with the chance of riches, I think many people would be willing to take the safety and security of the Brass City over the risk of the frontier.
That actually plays into what I was saying. The mana-rich lands are defended... but what if you could take them over? What if you could find a hidden mana-rich land? People have taken crazier chances for less reward. And I'm fine with it being during the plot.
I don't think each plane has to contain the same amount of mana. If we're worried about the prophet not aging... well, the prophet sounds pretty blue, right? And isn't blue mana the kind of mana that has... Time Walk? As I said above, perhaps the Prophet determined that Archester was losing mana too quickly, and so created the Spire as a way to focus his mana and contact other Pwalkers. (The best analogy I can think of is Professor X making Cerebro.)
I'm cool with that. I just want to make sure his travels make sense internally. It's not something that the people playing our cards need to know necessarily, but I think we should have a slight grasp of how the underlying mechanics of planes work in our minds.
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!
I think a sort of last-ditch-gold-rush would work pretty well to represent the desperation of the midlanders in the second or third set.
Well the thing is, without anything like the slip to keep him on the plane, why wouldn't he just leave and go to other planes himself rather than contact them through the spire? If you're saying he's basically casting a permanent time walk by staying in his spire buying time for his plane (so he can't leave) i could get behind that, though it still wouldn't explain all too well why archester is losing mana so fast. (Then again, it is never explained why zendikar has an abundance of mana, so maybe it doesn't matter)
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Yes, I was intimating something like that. (The Cerebro aspect I was referring to was that maybe this guy can sense where mana is... and planeswalkers tend to be HEAVY mana users, so probably have a lot of mana "aura" for lack of a better word. He can use the Spire to keep himself young, but also as a means for seeing mana not just in the plane of Archester, but in other planes as well. So he's using the Spire to track down other planeswalkers, travelling faster as a projection than he could physically. *shrug*)
As far as the reasons why Archester is losing mana? Instead of one single reason, why not give people a multitude and let them pick which they think is the right answer? I'm reminded of the graphic novel series, "Y: The Last Man". They present many ideas through the story on why all males (except for two) die off instantly, but they never say which is the "right" answer. Maybe it's the black mana guys polluting the land. Maybe it's the greedy wizards using up massive amounts of mana defending their hoards. Maybe it's whoever's making the mysterious clockwork creatures. Maybe it's the Brass City officials.
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One theory could be that all planes start out with mana in a solid state. During the infancy of a plane, the solid mana slowly beings to meld with the land, creating the normal mana-bond system we're used to. Perhaps the fact that Archester's civilization was jumpstarted resulted in them discovering the solid mana before it had a chance to soak in, so these mana reserves are being mined before they ever got connected with the land. Could be one way of doing it.
I guess i'm just a bit confused by your ideas on the spire. I'm with you on the keeping himself young part, but i doubt the prophet would take away resources from archester to do it, as this seems extremely counter productive and against his morals.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
This kinda ties into my "who knows" thing? The prophet sure doesn't... an who would know more about mana than other Planeswalkers?
Sure, that's a good answer. As I said upthread, I think if we give the people a few answers, but don't tell them which is the "right" one (although we could decide on one ourselves, just leave it ambiguous in the official storyline), it might be more interesting. Ambiguous endings, done well, can hook the reader/viewer/player.
Think of it this way. If he doesn't use ANY mana, then things will keep going as they have been, and then everybody is screwed. So he takes a chance at using X amt of mana himself to risk getting an answer.
For a more recognizable analogy, just because you believe in peace doesn't mean that you don't have the right to defend yourself. You do what you have to.
Sure, he could create the Spire on another Plane... but then he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on his home plane as well. Perhaps he has a few agents on Archester that he sends out to take care of certain mana disturbances. Perhaps he needs to tether himself to the Plane in order to draw other Planeswalkers to help. I don't have a single answer, but it's something we could flesh out if we decide to go that route.
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How is fixing a plane's mana easy, but fixing a time slip isn't? Also, how does he plan on fixing a universe that's faster than the rest of the universe?
For me, the tension in the first one is more of a time-based one. If the mana on Archester is limited, then each day he doesn't find an answer means there's less mana to go around. (And we can assume that there comes a critical point when a lack of mana = really bad stuff.)
Of course, I'm cool with Moon-E or an "original" person having final say. I'm just throwing out ideas.
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My stance is pretty open on this. I think the time slip is a cool way of explaining why archester is strange and why the prophet doesn't want to leave. On the other hand, I can see how it could appear a bit contrived and add unnecessary "ultimatum-ness" to the plot. The "never ending time walk" theory also somewhat explains these things in a simpler, but less dramatic fashion. I think both have merit.
Daerien seems like a decent name. I'm not sure if it's my favorite, but I like it.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
I'm not quite sure I agree with you on the "contrived" part. Why would we visit the plane of Archester during a time when he didn't find the answer? It's all about storytelling, after all. No one looks at a book like, "The Stand", for instance, and say, "How weird is it that the author only covers the time when the plague starts? Why aren't we reading about the 20 normal years before that?"
As for tension, personally, I think there's enough. Let's use the real world analogy of fossil fuels. We won't run out of them for what, another few centuries? But way before we actually "run out", the supply will be so limited that it would fundamentally change our way of life.
I see Archester in the same terms. We're used to people using mana to throw fireballs and summon demons, but there are most likely members of society that use it for simple
Doesn't that defeat the whole point of astrally projecting then? I thought he projects to save time?
I still think that it should be a subtheme, and not the main theme of Archester. (I like the idea of Freedom vs Security personally.) I think the whole "world is ending in a week" storyline is more cliche than the idea of resources being depleted, and what life would be like without those resources.
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I always liked the old gilded age 'expose the corruption' feel. what if security is just a veneer, and the Iron City folks are poisoning the people to make them buy medicine, bribing laws into place that force people to buy more product, assassinating dissidents and muscling under the puppet politicians.
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This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Steam should have an army of outlaws ripping through the mines with druid backup, going Ewok on some massive steam monsters.
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No, it's not just a two-on-two fight. Instead It's more like this...
vs. (The outlaws of the frontier are fed up with the Brass Council's interference in they're affairs and they begin to rally under Allester Marshall's banner. In effect, creating a secessionist movement in the Frontier.)
vs. (The former tenets and farmers of the Flats have finally figured out how to retaliate against the Manufactory owners who stole their lands. They're going to blow up the Manufactories. Effectively they've become Eco-terrorists.)
vs. (For some reason the Grimlin population has exploded (mostly because of the influnce of a certain Grimlin-toting Fiery Redhead PW). With their customary efficiency they are wreaking havoc with the mechines in the Brass city.)
vs. (With all the afore mentioned problems going on the Brass Council has decided to expand their privateering policies. These newly christened privateers, now freed from their lawful imprisonment, have become effectively out right Pirates, raiding frontier settlements for loot and booty. In other words they're only exacerbating an already bad situation.)
vs. everyone and vs. everyone (These two groups (:symgw: and :symb:) have virtual no contact with each other (due in part to the fact that they're on the opposite sides of the continent from one another) and are only linked by two things. 1) They both used similar methods to achieve they're goals (Clockwork Creatures and Artifice) and 2) No one really likes either of them. In the :symwg:'s case it's because of the fact that they are an unknown quanity and they represent a different path, a path Archester and the Brass council could have gone down and instead chose not to. They are a reminder of what could have been. Also, they're sitting on some of the most resource rich land on the plane. For the Necrotechs' case no one likes them because they represent what Archester could become and therefore are seen as a warning, one which makes everyone they come in contact with nervous.)
[Steam] is basically a 6-way fight.
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< East ----- West >
Ocean -- Porcelain City -- Brass City -- Iron City --- Midland Settlements ----- Desert ----- Jungle -- Spire -- Jungle -- Ocean
Edit: These are obviously just approximate locations. Archester isn't made of vertical stripes, but this is how everything is laid out in relation to each other. (For instance, there are many cities in the east, only the three most notable ones are mentioned)
Edit 2: This is obvioulsy based on the landscape of America (funny how i always pictured the Archestrian east on the left even tough most maps show it on the right...). This is mostly to do with the fact that a large portion of the set's flavor (that of cowboys and out laws etc.) has to do with a genere that is literally defined as a "western". Having this aspect of the set take place anywhere that wasn't west just seemed wrong...
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
And I don't see how the Brass City and Iron City would not try to work together. I also don't see how the RB (colors of outside the box thinking and self preservation) would not try to get backup from the druids.
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Edit: Also, add an ocean between the Porcelain City and the Brass City. It should be difficult to get to.
New Map...
< East ----- West >
Ocean -- Porcelain City -- Ocean -- Coast -- Lots of Small/Medium Cities -- Brass City -- Lots of Small/Medium Cities -- Iron City -- Desert -- Midland Settlements ----- Desert/Badlands ---- Mountains ----- Jungle -- Spire -- Jungle -- Coast -- Massive Reefs that stop anyone trying to go around the mountains -- Ocean
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Cube. The best way to play Magic. PERIOD. Come over and check it out. Also, check out my Peasant Split Card Cube.
The World of Pokemon RPG has been rebooted. Come over and check it out.
Set Creation Projects: Archester: Frontier of Steam Come over and check out our AWESOME Steampunk set.
(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)
The porcelain city is hard to get to, because it's in the sky.
But in all honestly, that's how i imagined it. The Porcelain city is high amongst the clouds, so much so that it floats directly above other cities.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
I always thought of it out over the sea. if it was over land it would have been known forever.
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Cube. The best way to play Magic. PERIOD. Come over and check it out. Also, check out my Peasant Split Card Cube.
The World of Pokemon RPG has been rebooted. Come over and check it out.
Set Creation Projects: Archester: Frontier of Steam Come over and check out our AWESOME Steampunk set.
(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)
It's (presumably) a natural phenomena so it shouldn't be controllable. Besides my point about it being discovered late stands, if it were over land at any time it would have been known much earlier. It's not like a floating island would be hard to miss.
Sig by Rivenor
Cube. The best way to play Magic. PERIOD. Come over and check it out. Also, check out my Peasant Split Card Cube.
The World of Pokemon RPG has been rebooted. Come over and check it out.
Set Creation Projects: Archester: Frontier of Steam Come over and check out our AWESOME Steampunk set.
(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)(U/R)(R/W)(W/U)