I will also not that Drana's narration mentions on several occasions the fact that the Eldrazi corrupt everything *including stone*. Gideon, your plan to retake Sea Gate is stupid and you should know it.
I am glad you brought this up. i was too lazy to write this before today, but you gave me a half-decent excuse to, so thanks!
Retaking Sea Gate isn't going to get the survivors much; food, mana, and likely even tools are going to be nonexistant there. I don't even buy it being the most strategically important place on Zendikar; sure, maybe it could withstand the Roil, but there has got to be a better place to make a stand somewhere on the plane.
However, despite all the things Sea Gate doesn't have, there is one thing it does: it's where the other survivors are going (if the new refugees claims have any merit). Having control of Sea Gate means that any more refugees that make it there will actually find other survivors instead of a giant mass of Eldrazi.
Does anyone remember what the old origin of the Zendikar vampires was? I always thought it was that Sorin had created them as a way to somehow lure the Eldrazi there. It's entirely possible that I just made it all up and convinced myself it was the canon explanation.
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Does anyone remember what the old origin of the Zendikar vampires was? I always thought it was that Sorin had created them as a way to somehow lure the Eldrazi there. It's entirely possible that I just made it all up and convinced myself it was the canon explanation.
I don't think it has been definitively said. I believe there was a semi-recent UR that focused on Nahiri, who woke up after a deep stasis/sleep (like hundreds/thousands? of years) to find that the hedron lock was weakening, and she called for Ugin's/Sorin's help but didn't get it. She ended up repairing it herself, but while awake noticed that (1) the people of Zendikar had taken to thinking the Eldrazi were gods (or perhaps this was when she inadvertently started them on this thinking?) and (2) that there were now vampires on Zendikar, and there had not been any before.
I think it is possible that Sorin somehow created them, like he did on Innistrad, but now I think it is far more likely that they were created by the Eldrazi. Either intentionally or perhaps even accidentally, as a bi-product of the Eldrazi being imprisoned on zendikar. The titans, imprisoned there, either willfully created the vampires as a sort of physical pseudo-scions, or the vampires manifested as expressions of the titans' hunger taking physical form.
As much as I hate the Zendikari winning this early into the story, I kinda liked this UR. I guess partly because it wasn't filler. The most interesting part to me was how the story both answered and raised new questions at the same time.
Also the "cleansing the broken" part sounds a bit to me like the Eldrazi are indeed feeding on damaged and/or dying planes. Though I also find the idea of trying to bring the multiverse back to a state where everything is part of an urplane interesting as well. Maybe the Eldrazi actively fight the natural detoriation process of the multiverse? Similar to how black holes concentrate matter and in a way 'fight' the heat death of the universe of having all the matter spread out too much, maybe the Eldrazi are fighting the process of the multiverse splitting and splintering into more and more planes (cough Alara cough) to keep it coherent. I don't know, but damn do I love speculating and musing about stuff like this.
Boy did this story raise questions. I seriously want to know the deal with the Zendikari vampires. Maybe Sorin created them to learn about the Eldrazi or maybe as a way to get Eldrazi power for himself in a way related to how Drana did? Maybe he feels shame for those ambitions? There's so much hinted at. I just wonder how much of it we're going to learn and how soon.
I am also curious as this story was really the first peak of whatever their new plan for Zendikar vampires is. It has to be significant enough that they felt they needed to retcon old material and we can suspect it may tie into whatever happened between Nahiri and Sorin. Unless Drana is Nahiri LOL! Ok, I don't really believe that but this story brings more questions than it has answers
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Here is a theory that flies in the face of the next set: Zendikar dies and Drana sparks. Which leads to a whopping four Zendikari planeswalkers, all representatives of significant Zendikari cultures, allowing the plane to live on through them and giving us a host of different characters with reasons to battle the Eldrazi.
I don't think it will happen, but I kind of want it to.
Jury's still out here on whether they were trying to presage Drana becoming a planeswalker. But I'm not convinced that Zendikar will be destroyed in the meantime. I suppose "Oath of the Gatewatch" is neutral-sounding enough that it doesn't auto-imply Zendikar's survival OR death (I'd still be on the lookout for if Doomsday and/or Planar Collapse get reprinted, though).
My personal suspicion is that Ulamog becomes contained, but unless and until Kozilek and Emrakul get dragged back to Zendikar and properly sealed as well, it's going to be a very precarious warding system. Knowing how stories usually flow, I imagine the other two titans will be resealed just before Ulamog breaches its containment.
here's my theory on what was referred to as "broken" based on the bits of information we got today.
first, we have been told that the Eldrazi predate colored mana. if they predate colored mana, i asked myself, what have they been feeding on before?
i was suddenly reminded of one of current theories of physicists today on the origin of our universe. it's thought that the four forces of the universe we see today - strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravity - were once one super force. something happened that broke that bond.
i was also reminded of the theory that before, there were a lot of anti-matter in our universe, but because it annihilated (i just realized "annihilator" is a mechanic in Magic too) with regular matter, eventually it ran out and today we see far more regular matter than antimatter.
now, the sequence of events is the same as with the origins of our universe, but this is what i think happened:
many millions or perhaps billions of years ago, there was only two colors of mana - colorless and a unified colored mana. there was only the Blind Eternities and the Eldrazi were the only denizens. the Eldrazi fed upon this rich, primordial mana and expelled digested, broken colored mana as waste. in time, the primordial mana source dwindled and the Eldrazi thought of ways to recycle the waste mana. this resulted in planes that we have today. but because of diminishing returns, this recycled mana cannot satisfy the Eldrazi's monstrous appetite, so the Eldrazi died off until we have only three known specimen today.
or perhaps - a chilling thought - recycling mana takes eons to do, so the Eldrazi sort of hibernated somewhere, and Emrakul, Kozilek and Ulamog were the first ones to awaken.
Sensing an affinity for the blood-draining vampires of the plane, the Eldrazi took the plane's proud vampires as a race of servants, adapting their very anatomy for servitude. Hooklike horns grew from the vampires' shoulders, convenient handles for the Eldrazi to dominate their slave race and, for millennia afterward, carnal symbols of the vampires' heritage of persecution. The vampires, forced to conspire in the campaign of destruction against their own homeworld, had their identity and tribal memory scarred forever.
That happens some time after the Eldrazi are initially sealed and first try to escape.
My ideas on the Vampire/Eldrazi connection: After the Titans were sealed the 2nd time, the last time the Three who sealed them where together, there magic still lingered in some form. This lingering magic was strongest in the swamps of Guul Draz, where a band of humans were living. The magic twisted them into vampires.
On a side note; the wiki says that Zendikari vamps live about 200 years old. Today's article implies that Drana is thousands of years old. Is that becasue she's a bloodchief or is it a retcon?
Here is a theory that flies in the face of the next set: Zendikar dies and Drana sparks. Which leads to a whopping four Zendikari planeswalkers, all representatives of significant Zendikari cultures, allowing the plane to live on through them and giving us a host of different characters with reasons to battle the Eldrazi.
I don't think it will happen, but I kind of want it to.
Geez, that would make me so happy. 2 of my 3 characters as walkers in Drana and Nahiri? Would love that. Would also set up a nice dynamic between the demonic curse-created Innistradian vampires and the Eldrazi spawn-divergent Zendikarian ones. God, I'd pay money to read a story of Sorin and Drana as walkers debating the creation of Vampirism. For that matter, is there any vampire in the Multiverse who doesn't have some convoluted origin? I mean even Crovax was cursed.
On the whole, LOVED this ur. I love the vibe Drana gives off. She shows, at different points, all aspects of black; the negative selfishness and willingness to sacrifice others to survive, and the positive pragmatism, as well as the single thing that I feel gets overlooked in black most: free will. For black, that usually means lone-wolf, me against the world type characters, but more often, I think black represents a desire to not subsume one's will underneath others. I love that about black. Drana is even more sweet now that she has flavor. Who would have ever thought that a black character would be written as maternal to the weak (or young, for better phrasing)? It's a totally different perspective on the color, and I loved it.
The whole Eldrazi origin thing raises a ton of questions, as others have said, but I love that in this story. It makes me want to read and learn more. That's been missing for a while in the Uncharted Realms, probably since Ugin's revival meeting with Sorin. This wasn't filler or exposition alone; this was a teaser, and I'm excited! Drana is likely the oldest (or one of the oldest) vampires on Zendikar, so she may have encountered or know of Sorin. Is he involved? Is Nahiri? She knows of the Blind Eternities and her origin. Does she share the information with her people or Gideon? She obviously had the option to spark up there. Will she later? Will she try that maneuver again? If so, could she use it to defeat or banish/release Ulamog? Will she (God I hope not but what a great story that would make) turn into amother Titan herself, as she feared while inside the Eldrazi?
So many questions, so much interest! Im so glad my favorite card now has a story behind her, and shes amazing!
Vorthos-player with way too much time on his hands and a love of thematic decks.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
My ideas on the Vampire/Eldrazi connection: After the Titans were sealed the 2nd time, the last time the Three who sealed them where together, there magic still lingered in some form. This lingering magic was strongest in the swamps of Guul Draz, where a band of humans were living. The magic twisted them into vampires.
On a side note; the wiki says that Zendikari vamps live about 200 years old. Today's article implies that Drana is thousands of years old. Is that becasue she's a bloodchief or is it a retcon?
I remember reading somewhere that only Bloodchiefs could spawn new vampires, and that normal vampires feeding only created nulls. Perhaps that implies that normal vampires only live some 200 years, unless the Bloodchief intervenes?
Then again, Zendikar vampires have been getting retconned left and right this past year. As much as I love creative sometimes, this inconsistency is becoming a bit annoying. They probably, truth be told, just forgot.
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Vorthos-player with way too much time on his hands and a love of thematic decks.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
My ideas on the Vampire/Eldrazi connection: After the Titans were sealed the 2nd time, the last time the Three who sealed them where together, there magic still lingered in some form. This lingering magic was strongest in the swamps of Guul Draz, where a band of humans were living. The magic twisted them into vampires.
On a side note; the wiki says that Zendikari vamps live about 200 years old. Today's article implies that Drana is thousands of years old. Is that becasue she's a bloodchief or is it a retcon?
I don't recall specifics, but I seem to remember that bloodchiefs have special properties versus other, normal vampires, and I believe that they are "immortal" in the ageless sense, whereas normal vampires are "merely" long living.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
The Zendikar race guide (first thing I could find on short notice) mentions only that the Bloodchief are ancient, and they heavily influence what the vampires in their family act like.
Zendikar Vampires have been retconned left and right? By that of course you must mean once. One time. That's it. They were taken out of who Nahiri warned about the coming of the Eldrazi. That's it. People really overreact to that.
So, if the Eldrazi are somehow fixing the multiverse, maybe Nicol Bolas is the good guy and Ugin is really the ignorant bad guy.
It could present an interesting philosophical question for an extremely green-aligned character; if the Eldrazi are repairing and cleaning reality, restoring it to its natural state, that's something Green considers inherently good. But if life as we know it lives on the impurities in reality, that means the restoration of a real natural state requires the utter annihilation of everything that character has always thought of as natural. Kind of a quandary.
Anyone else would, at most, go "Huh, interesting perspective," before getting on with fighting to survive, to hell with the "natural" state of the multiverse. Because that's what people do.
- I didn't like very much to see the thoughts of the eldrazi with that much clarity. Well, before that, it was not very clear if Drana was remembering that she, in the beggining, was an eldrazi as well that got separated from Ulamog or she was merely mind-reading the sire that somehow got separated from Ulamog himself and was mixing his thoughts with hers. In any case, I think that the eldrazi should remain unfathomable, and for that we should not be allowed to peer into their thoughts, let alone understand them. I would be fine if Drana grasped that they need was to consume and to transform, but that part of cleansing the broken was waaaay too much, and if felt forced, not even sure if they will bother explaining it in the future.
I rolled my eyes a bit at that too, but the more I think about it, the more it seems like the correct move. The idea that they were completely unfathomable was a losing battle; they're harvesting Zendikar and eating it, we get it. They're based on Galactus, who's in the same boat; he's supposed to be a bizarre life form and yet when you get down to it, he's a big monster who wants to eat Earth because Earth is his diet, it's not actually complicated. By tipping the Eldrazi's hand a bit and showing us an internal memo, they're conceding the idea that the Eldrazi don't have minds like the standard humanoid (yeah, there's the lip service about needing to interpret, and they could still drive for it by mumbling something about the zendikar vampires' connection to blah blah blah, but the connection is made for the audience now, and that's not going away), but they get to drop a single teasing word, "broken", and now we've got a whole world of question marks we didn't previously know was there. It's a net gain in mystery.
IMO how Drana absorbed Eldrazi energy and actually empowered non-Eldrazis with it was strange. Isn't the stuff of Eldrazi meant to corrupt/cleanse and turn things into chalk? IIRC Commander Vorik was dying because of Eldrazi-related injuries. Why isn't their inside essence corrosive to normal creatures? Never mind about transforming her into an Eldrazi, shouldn't she just have physically disintegrated? Are Eldrazi just squishy colourless-mana beings with a corrosive exterior?
That said, enjoyed this story. It's nice to once again see from a 'good' black perspective since IMO Kamigawa. (Granted there's Sorin, but IMO it seems they're emphasising that his mentality is WB). Only other gripe is we're constantly reminded that she "doesn't feel guilty" about this and that. Understandably needed to emphasise her black character, but figure the writing'd flow better if she just did those black-ish things naturally.
- I didn't like very much to see the thoughts of the eldrazi with that much clarity. Well, before that, it was not very clear if Drana was remembering that she, in the beggining, was an eldrazi as well that got separated from Ulamog or she was merely mind-reading the sire that somehow got separated from Ulamog himself and was mixing his thoughts with hers. In any case, I think that the eldrazi should remain unfathomable, and for that we should not be allowed to peer into their thoughts, let alone understand them. I would be fine if Drana grasped that they need was to consume and to transform, but that part of cleansing the broken was waaaay too much, and if felt forced, not even sure if they will bother explaining it in the future.
I rolled my eyes a bit at that too, but the more I think about it, the more it seems like the correct move. The idea that they were completely unfathomable was a losing battle; they're harvesting Zendikar and eating it, we get it. They're based on Galactus, who's in the same boat; he's supposed to be a bizarre life form and yet when you get down to it, he's a big monster who wants to eat Earth because Earth is his diet, it's not actually complicated. By tipping the Eldrazi's hand a bit and showing us an internal memo, they're conceding the idea that the Eldrazi don't have minds like the standard humanoid (yeah, there's the lip service about needing to interpret, and they could still drive for it by mumbling something about the zendikar vampires' connection to blah blah blah, but the connection is made for the audience now, and that's not going away), but they get to drop a single teasing word, "broken", and now we've got a whole world of question marks we didn't previously know was there. It's a net gain in mystery.
Yeah, I'm not sure they will bother explaining what is cleansing the broken. Take this UR for example: the way Drana had access to the Eldrazi mentality was very unique and I'm not even sure if it is ever going to repeat itself. Given that, how do you expect clarification about what it would mean "cleanse the broken"? The only ones that can explain that are the eldrazi themselves, even Ugin doesn't seem to know what they are all about, and unless Nicol Bolas gives us some explanation in the future, I can't see how this just does not turn into a loose end to entice some "mistery". In any case, even with an explanation, I'd rather stay without the mistery, specially if it means that we don't have an eldrazi translator.
I know these stories are different from Lovecraft's, but in Lovecraft's stories you would NEVER see the Terror from Beyond talking to you and explaning his evil plan or motivations, you had minions that adored it (much like the pilgrims that Jace encountered) and you had characters such as Nyarlathotep or Abdul Alhazred to interpret their intentions or name their motivations. That being said, these characters could have been wrong or could have been sending us just a poor impression of what the fathomless entities that they adore or represent are really up to. In any case, I don't want to see a story where Ulamog is the main character, where we see his way of thinking, etc. That would take away what makes them so alien to us, and that is why once you seek explanations for that, you are ruining the whole concept of the stuff.
This sort of story can not and should not give us explanations for the eldrazi true nature. It is fine for us to speculate, but they will just keep being the alien imcomprehensible monsters that they are if we don't know what they represent. Once we understand them, once we know their origin and reason to be, we ruined the whole thing. That is my opinion at least.
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Yeah, I'm not sure they will bother explaining what is cleansing the broken. Take this UR for example: the way Drana had access to the Eldrazi mentality was very unique and I'm not even sure if it is ever going to repeat itself. Given that, how do you expect clarification about what it would mean "cleanse the broken"? The only ones that can explain that are the eldrazi themselves, even Ugin doesn't seem to know what they are all about, and unless Nicol Bolas gives us some explanation in the future, I can't see how this just does not turn into a loose end to entice some "mistery". In any case, even with an explanation, I'd rather stay without the mistery, specially if it means that we don't have an eldrazi translator.
I know these stories are different from Lovecraft's, but in Lovecraft's stories you would NEVER see the Terror from Beyond talking to you and explaning his evil plan or motivations, you had minions that adored it (much like the pilgrims that Jace encountered) and you had characters such as Nyarlathotep or Abdul Alhazred to interpret their intentions or name their motivations. That being said, these characters could have been wrong or could have been sending us just a poor impression of what the fathomless entities that they adore or represent are really up to. In any case, I don't want to see a story where Ulamog is the main character, where we see his way of thinking, etc. That would take away what makes them so alien to us, and that is why once you seek explanations for that, you are ruining the whole concept of the stuff.
This sort of story can not and should not give us explanations for the eldrazi true nature. It is fine for us to speculate, but they will just keep being the alien imcomprehensible monsters that they are if we don't know what they represent. Once we understand them, once we know their origin and reason to be, we ruined the whole thing. That is my opinion at least.
Agreed. This is why we need Bolas. Whether his interpretation of the Eldrazi is correct or not doesn't matter, because none of us are meant to know the true purposes of the Eldrazi Titans. It's possible Bolas released the Eldrazi for fun, but considering he went all the way to Tarkir 1,200 years back to get information about the Eldrazi (or more precisely, the seal) from Ugin (on top of besting another Dragon-Planeswalker-Potential-Threat), I'm pretty sure there was actually a reason for releasing the Eldrazi.
We don't have to make the Eldrazi understandable, we need a villain to have his own interpretation of the Eldrazi and manipulate around the Eldrazi to create the "evil" scenario. Ob Nixilis is a great B character overall and evil, but with regards to knowledge and guesses about the Eldrazi, he's only like "DESTROY PLANE IS GOOD", which makes him about as useful as Garruk is as a character here (actually, Garruk might be a better insane double-edged sword in this case).
All we have now is a incomprehensible force of nature in the place of the villain, which in story-writing probably means nothing will go well at all (even a Eldrazi Victory would just means a lot of weeks of stories of futile resistance...).
"A Story where Ulamog is the main character" suddenly has me imagining them making FUNKO figures of the Eldrazi Titans... how would it even work?
Well, here's to hoping we see more about Eldrazi consciousness and potential "purpose". I'm definitely of the belief that Ugin understands more about this than he let Sorin and Nahiri know.
Yeah, the whole broken thing is interesting. Maybe as someone theorized, they are the multiversal clean-up crew.
That was a very interesting story. Can't wait to hear more about the Eldrazi.
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UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
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I am glad you brought this up. i was too lazy to write this before today, but you gave me a half-decent excuse to, so thanks!
Retaking Sea Gate isn't going to get the survivors much; food, mana, and likely even tools are going to be nonexistant there. I don't even buy it being the most strategically important place on Zendikar; sure, maybe it could withstand the Roil, but there has got to be a better place to make a stand somewhere on the plane.
However, despite all the things Sea Gate doesn't have, there is one thing it does: it's where the other survivors are going (if the new refugees claims have any merit). Having control of Sea Gate means that any more refugees that make it there will actually find other survivors instead of a giant mass of Eldrazi.
That's not something I remember. Was it something Ugin said?
Admittedly, it still works better than my old hypothesis, that the Eldrazi titans were what was left of an undead plane trying to revitalize itself...
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I don't think it has been definitively said. I believe there was a semi-recent UR that focused on Nahiri, who woke up after a deep stasis/sleep (like hundreds/thousands? of years) to find that the hedron lock was weakening, and she called for Ugin's/Sorin's help but didn't get it. She ended up repairing it herself, but while awake noticed that (1) the people of Zendikar had taken to thinking the Eldrazi were gods (or perhaps this was when she inadvertently started them on this thinking?) and (2) that there were now vampires on Zendikar, and there had not been any before.
I think it is possible that Sorin somehow created them, like he did on Innistrad, but now I think it is far more likely that they were created by the Eldrazi. Either intentionally or perhaps even accidentally, as a bi-product of the Eldrazi being imprisoned on zendikar. The titans, imprisoned there, either willfully created the vampires as a sort of physical pseudo-scions, or the vampires manifested as expressions of the titans' hunger taking physical form.
I am also curious as this story was really the first peak of whatever their new plan for Zendikar vampires is. It has to be significant enough that they felt they needed to retcon old material and we can suspect it may tie into whatever happened between Nahiri and Sorin. Unless Drana is Nahiri LOL! Ok, I don't really believe that but this story brings more questions than it has answers
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
I don't think it will happen, but I kind of want it to.
My personal suspicion is that Ulamog becomes contained, but unless and until Kozilek and Emrakul get dragged back to Zendikar and properly sealed as well, it's going to be a very precarious warding system. Knowing how stories usually flow, I imagine the other two titans will be resealed just before Ulamog breaches its containment.
here's my theory on what was referred to as "broken" based on the bits of information we got today.
first, we have been told that the Eldrazi predate colored mana. if they predate colored mana, i asked myself, what have they been feeding on before?
i was suddenly reminded of one of current theories of physicists today on the origin of our universe. it's thought that the four forces of the universe we see today - strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravity - were once one super force. something happened that broke that bond.
i was also reminded of the theory that before, there were a lot of anti-matter in our universe, but because it annihilated (i just realized "annihilator" is a mechanic in Magic too) with regular matter, eventually it ran out and today we see far more regular matter than antimatter.
now, the sequence of events is the same as with the origins of our universe, but this is what i think happened:
many millions or perhaps billions of years ago, there was only two colors of mana - colorless and a unified colored mana. there was only the Blind Eternities and the Eldrazi were the only denizens. the Eldrazi fed upon this rich, primordial mana and expelled digested, broken colored mana as waste. in time, the primordial mana source dwindled and the Eldrazi thought of ways to recycle the waste mana. this resulted in planes that we have today. but because of diminishing returns, this recycled mana cannot satisfy the Eldrazi's monstrous appetite, so the Eldrazi died off until we have only three known specimen today.
or perhaps - a chilling thought - recycling mana takes eons to do, so the Eldrazi sort of hibernated somewhere, and Emrakul, Kozilek and Ulamog were the first ones to awaken.
Found it:
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/84
That happens some time after the Eldrazi are initially sealed and first try to escape.
On a side note; the wiki says that Zendikari vamps live about 200 years old. Today's article implies that Drana is thousands of years old. Is that becasue she's a bloodchief or is it a retcon?
On the whole, LOVED this ur. I love the vibe Drana gives off. She shows, at different points, all aspects of black; the negative selfishness and willingness to sacrifice others to survive, and the positive pragmatism, as well as the single thing that I feel gets overlooked in black most: free will. For black, that usually means lone-wolf, me against the world type characters, but more often, I think black represents a desire to not subsume one's will underneath others. I love that about black. Drana is even more sweet now that she has flavor. Who would have ever thought that a black character would be written as maternal to the weak (or young, for better phrasing)? It's a totally different perspective on the color, and I loved it.
The whole Eldrazi origin thing raises a ton of questions, as others have said, but I love that in this story. It makes me want to read and learn more. That's been missing for a while in the Uncharted Realms, probably since Ugin's revival meeting with Sorin. This wasn't filler or exposition alone; this was a teaser, and I'm excited! Drana is likely the oldest (or one of the oldest) vampires on Zendikar, so she may have encountered or know of Sorin. Is he involved? Is Nahiri? She knows of the Blind Eternities and her origin. Does she share the information with her people or Gideon? She obviously had the option to spark up there. Will she later? Will she try that maneuver again? If so, could she use it to defeat or banish/release Ulamog? Will she (God I hope not but what a great story that would make) turn into amother Titan herself, as she feared while inside the Eldrazi?
So many questions, so much interest! Im so glad my favorite card now has a story behind her, and shes amazing!
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B Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief B - Fear of the Dark
WG Sigarda, Heron's Grace WG - Strength in Numbers
RG Xenagos, God of Revels RG - Fullmoon (It's werewolves)
RW Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier RW - The End is Nigh
60 Card Kitchen Table Decks
WUB Avacyn, Spirit Ferrier
RG Arlinn Kord's Howlpack
I remember reading somewhere that only Bloodchiefs could spawn new vampires, and that normal vampires feeding only created nulls. Perhaps that implies that normal vampires only live some 200 years, unless the Bloodchief intervenes?
Then again, Zendikar vampires have been getting retconned left and right this past year. As much as I love creative sometimes, this inconsistency is becoming a bit annoying. They probably, truth be told, just forgot.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
B Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief B - Fear of the Dark
WG Sigarda, Heron's Grace WG - Strength in Numbers
RG Xenagos, God of Revels RG - Fullmoon (It's werewolves)
RW Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier RW - The End is Nigh
60 Card Kitchen Table Decks
WUB Avacyn, Spirit Ferrier
RG Arlinn Kord's Howlpack
I don't recall specifics, but I seem to remember that bloodchiefs have special properties versus other, normal vampires, and I believe that they are "immortal" in the ageless sense, whereas normal vampires are "merely" long living.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
No because most living beings care about life. Eldrazi work on Orange/Blue morality so what they "want" isn't considered.
Anyone else would, at most, go "Huh, interesting perspective," before getting on with fighting to survive, to hell with the "natural" state of the multiverse. Because that's what people do.
I rolled my eyes a bit at that too, but the more I think about it, the more it seems like the correct move. The idea that they were completely unfathomable was a losing battle; they're harvesting Zendikar and eating it, we get it. They're based on Galactus, who's in the same boat; he's supposed to be a bizarre life form and yet when you get down to it, he's a big monster who wants to eat Earth because Earth is his diet, it's not actually complicated. By tipping the Eldrazi's hand a bit and showing us an internal memo, they're conceding the idea that the Eldrazi don't have minds like the standard humanoid (yeah, there's the lip service about needing to interpret, and they could still drive for it by mumbling something about the zendikar vampires' connection to blah blah blah, but the connection is made for the audience now, and that's not going away), but they get to drop a single teasing word, "broken", and now we've got a whole world of question marks we didn't previously know was there. It's a net gain in mystery.
That said, enjoyed this story. It's nice to once again see from a 'good' black perspective since IMO Kamigawa. (Granted there's Sorin, but IMO it seems they're emphasising that his mentality is WB). Only other gripe is we're constantly reminded that she "doesn't feel guilty" about this and that. Understandably needed to emphasise her black character, but figure the writing'd flow better if she just did those black-ish things naturally.
Yeah, I'm not sure they will bother explaining what is cleansing the broken. Take this UR for example: the way Drana had access to the Eldrazi mentality was very unique and I'm not even sure if it is ever going to repeat itself. Given that, how do you expect clarification about what it would mean "cleanse the broken"? The only ones that can explain that are the eldrazi themselves, even Ugin doesn't seem to know what they are all about, and unless Nicol Bolas gives us some explanation in the future, I can't see how this just does not turn into a loose end to entice some "mistery". In any case, even with an explanation, I'd rather stay without the mistery, specially if it means that we don't have an eldrazi translator.
I know these stories are different from Lovecraft's, but in Lovecraft's stories you would NEVER see the Terror from Beyond talking to you and explaning his evil plan or motivations, you had minions that adored it (much like the pilgrims that Jace encountered) and you had characters such as Nyarlathotep or Abdul Alhazred to interpret their intentions or name their motivations. That being said, these characters could have been wrong or could have been sending us just a poor impression of what the fathomless entities that they adore or represent are really up to. In any case, I don't want to see a story where Ulamog is the main character, where we see his way of thinking, etc. That would take away what makes them so alien to us, and that is why once you seek explanations for that, you are ruining the whole concept of the stuff.
This sort of story can not and should not give us explanations for the eldrazi true nature. It is fine for us to speculate, but they will just keep being the alien imcomprehensible monsters that they are if we don't know what they represent. Once we understand them, once we know their origin and reason to be, we ruined the whole thing. That is my opinion at least.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
Agreed. This is why we need Bolas. Whether his interpretation of the Eldrazi is correct or not doesn't matter, because none of us are meant to know the true purposes of the Eldrazi Titans. It's possible Bolas released the Eldrazi for fun, but considering he went all the way to Tarkir 1,200 years back to get information about the Eldrazi (or more precisely, the seal) from Ugin (on top of besting another Dragon-Planeswalker-Potential-Threat), I'm pretty sure there was actually a reason for releasing the Eldrazi.
We don't have to make the Eldrazi understandable, we need a villain to have his own interpretation of the Eldrazi and manipulate around the Eldrazi to create the "evil" scenario. Ob Nixilis is a great B character overall and evil, but with regards to knowledge and guesses about the Eldrazi, he's only like "DESTROY PLANE IS GOOD", which makes him about as useful as Garruk is as a character here (actually, Garruk might be a better insane double-edged sword in this case).
All we have now is a incomprehensible force of nature in the place of the villain, which in story-writing probably means nothing will go well at all (even a Eldrazi Victory would just means a lot of weeks of stories of futile resistance...).
"A Story where Ulamog is the main character" suddenly has me imagining them making FUNKO figures of the Eldrazi Titans... how would it even work?
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[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas