Plot twist: Bolas did mindread them both and knew they had made it up, but also realized that it was an actual possibility. Afterall, Bolas only knew from Ugin that they planned to trap him on Ixalan, not that they could do so remotely and that the plan was, indeed, to do it while on Tarkir.
Adding these pieces to the puzzle, which Baishya actually knew and Bolas could have easily extracted from her mind could mean that even if he knew that the humans were full of lies, that doesn't mean what they said wasn't actually true.
So instead of taking any chances he left.
I like it. Although Bolas couldn't have been reading their minds until after he tried to make Naiva kill Yasova, since he seemed genuinely surprised that she 'resisted' his influence. But as I already explained in detail, I don't have a problem with Bolas being temporarily unable to read the minds of Yasova and her granddaughters. People keep forgetting that Yasova herself is an extremely powerful mind mage! And the story makes it clear her own mental counter-magic was being amplified by the hedrons. Still, I can easily believe that he figured out the truth as soon as Baishya refused his command and broke through their mental defenses immediately after that.
At any rate, once the idea of the hedron trap was introduced, Bolas really had no option but to leave immediately. From his point of view, there are a few possibilities here:
Yasova's statements were correct and the hedrons were a trap meant to send him to Ixalan, where he'd be imprisoned forever. (As you said, even knowing that Yasova was lying doesn't mean that she wasn't right. She could've stumbled unto the truth by accident, or Ugin could've planted the idea for the 'lie' in her head as a double-bluff to make Bolas think the trap wasn't real until it was too late.)
Yasova's thoughts were correct and the hedrons were a cocoon that would protect and heal Ugin until he could be resurrected. If Bolas did manage to read Yasova's mind, he'd be aware of this possibility; if he didn't, he might still have figured it out by virtue of being superhumanly intelligent and having at least a basic knowledge of what hedrons are and what they can do. As the audience, we know that this option is the correct answer because we have the benefit of an omniscient perspective, but Bolas has no such certainty. This is the only option that leaves Bolas with any real reason to stay on Tarkir, since he has an interest in making sure that Ugin doesn't come back. However, it's worth noting that A and B could've both been true, since there's no reason the hedrons couldn't be used to serve multiple purposes at once, so Bolas would still be strongly incentivized not to take the risk.*
Maybe he could send someone else to Tarkir to disable the trap so he could go back and finish off Ugin, but given the complexity of the magic involved, that's a lot easier said than done. Bolas would have to figure out the precise mechanics of the trap himself without observing or interacting with it in any way, and then send a less intelligent and less capable planeswalker to carry out his exact instructions perfectly. He'd be risking the life of a valuable servant (remember, planeswalkers are rare!), and even in a best case scenario, he'd still have no guarantee that the servant actually succeeded at disabling the trap, meaning it would still be a risk for him to go back. Sending a patsy to deliberately trigger the trap wouldn't necessarily work either, since there's no guarantee that it only works once, which means he'd be down a planeswalker with nothing to show for it (and that's assuming that it would even trigger for anyone but Bolas, which might not be the case).
The hedrons served some other purpose unrelated to Bolas and Ugin. Maybe they were meant to trap another entity within them, in which case Bolas would want to avoid accidentally springing the trap by messing around with them. Maybe they already contained another entity that had been trapped inside them, in which case Bolas would want to avoid accidentally releasing something that could be powerful enough to threaten even him. Or maybe they were just meant to keep the worldsoul of Tarkir alive after Ugin's death, in which case they were completely irrelevant to Bolas' purposes. And once again, this option is not incompatible with A, which means that Bolas risks being trapped on Ixalan in addition to all the other risks presented here if he sticks around.
The hedrons serve no purpose at all, and were simply meant as a bluff to keep Bolas from destroying Tarkir after Ugin's death. From Bolas' point of view, this would seem like a distinct possibility, but not a particularly likely one. After all, Ugin is a super-intelligent 25,000 year old dragon used to making plans within plans, chances are he wouldn't leave a complex network of magical artifacts lying around just to scare off Bolas when they could be used for any number of other purposes. But even if this option was true, it doesn't leave Bolas with much reason to stick around.
In other words, there's only one option in which Bolas would have a good reason to stay on Tarkir and try to disable the hedron network, along with one option in which doing so would be immediately fatal, and a bunch of other options in which he doesn't have anything to gain by sticking around. As much as the end of the story is a victory for Ugin and Yasova, it's hard to see how Bolas didn't make the best possible choice given the information available to him.
*In fact, as I was writing this post, I realized: How do we know that Bolas wouldn't have been teleported to Ixalan if he'd stuck around for a few seconds longer? We know for a certainty that B is true, but we don't actually know for a certainty that A is false. If both options were correct, then Bolas really did make the optimal move by leaving.
The great dragon sucked in an expectant breath. His pleasure in watching love turn to hate, loyalty into betrayal, spread like a devouring heat over the scene.
Baishya's voice slapped her like a chilling wind. "Maybe I don't want to hunt. Maybe nothing you offer tempts me, because from everything I've heard, you're stuck in the past, circling around and around your rivalry with Ugin—"
"I'm not stuck!"
"You're about to be," Grandmother interrupted curtly. "You're standing right where the hedrons concentrate magical force into a nexus of great power," Grandmother went on. "The Immortal Sun is pointed here, at this very spot on Tarkir. It will drag you to another plane and, there, trap you for all eternity. Why do you think we've kept you talking all this time? So it can be activated, and you'll never planeswalk again."
Grandmother inhaled audibly, as if in anticipation and suspense. "Ah! Listen! Do you hear the artifact's hum, Naiva?"
"I hear it!" cried Baishya in the falsest tone Naiva had ever heard, but how was the dragon to know that when he couldn't even tell the twins apart? "Just as Ugin said it would happen! Look up above! Do you see the light? A second sun in the heavens!"
A roar of fury rattled the hedrons.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK TO FOOL ME?" Bolas screamed with a roar that could shake mountains. He was Nicol Bolas, the first and only, the Forever Serpent, Great Horned One, the Mind-Ripper, the Death-Bringer, the Winged Dark under whose shadow all things fell. A second sun in the heavens? He was the only true Second Sun! He swiped his claw downward to grab the old lady and her whelp of a granddaughter, to slowly rend the life out of them-
-and a thousandth of a second before he touched them, a great beam of light shone down from the heavens, carrying Bolas up into the sky at a speed which even Kolaghan couldn't match. Bolas struggled, with a strength and ferocity that rivaled Atarka's, but all his immense might was useless against a magical force of this magnitude. The elder dragon's body seemed to fold in on itself as it was dragged through the Blind Eternities, compressing into a single point and disappearing from sight.
"I thought you were bluffing," Baishya said.
"So did I," Grandmother replied. "Truly, the wisdom and foresight of the Spirit Dragon transcends all else."
1,260 YEARS LATER
Bolas roared in anger, breathing fire onto the barren ground from above. He had burned the jungles of Ixalan, sundered the plains, shattered the mountains, boiled the oceans, scoured all life from its surface, yet it was all for naught. He had given that damnable sphinx a slow and painful death, delved into the deepest depths of his mind for some clue on how to escape this world, yet there were no answers to be found. He had shattered the Immortal Sun into a thousand pieces, yet whatever hieromancy kept him bound to this prison still remained, somehow bound within the fabric of the plane itself. Here he remained.
In hindsight, he wished he had left a few of the humans alive to rule over, or even just a few of the great lizards to hunt. Yet in his desperation to escape, he had ensured that his prison would forever be a barren one.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way, Nicol," rang a voice in his head. "But you left me no other choice."
Ugin? His twin lived! He had been right all those centuries ago, the hedrons were a cocoon - and yet that hadn't kept them from serving another purpose still.
"I hope that, in time, you may yet find some measure of peace within yourself," the voice rang out. "Goodbye, brother."
Nicol Bolas, the last and the least of the elder dragons, shouted back curses and threats and bargains and pleas, but it was all for naught. Ugin couldn't hear him across the planes. And even if he could, Bolas had nothing left to say.
"I'm stuck," he announced to no one, with a realization of absolute crushing despair.
Overall, this was an excellent addition to the Magic canon. I think the "Chronicle of Bolas" title was misplaced--it was more about Ugin. Indeed, as many have opined, we did not see the leviathan battle (which I do not think the story truly discounted) or Bolas's obtainment of the Gem of Becoming. I would not have minded these details in a story about Bolas.
That said, I loved the frame story with the Temur twins (to contrast with the Elder dragon twins). The human/mortal relationships were well-wrought, and the frame worked very well.
The question of what Bolas could or should have done did not bother me. Urza and the other oldwalkers were impressive, but they made plenty of mistakes. They walked when they did not have to, spoke aloud when they did not need to, and so on.
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I'm curious about the scene where Bolas reaches for the sleeping girl in the meditation plane. First of all, is the sleeping girl the soul of that plane? And is that scene implying he is twisting that realm to suit his desires and needs? That he basically took over the plane? Seems like a precursor to what we know he'll do on Amonkhet.
You mean?
The hunter knows when she's caught her prey. A dark shape cuts across the shadow of the sleeping girl. A five-fingered hand bent in the shape of a claw reaches into the shadow of the girl and yanks her out of the vision.
I took this as symbolism more than literal, with the Temur symbol being a claw. It appears to be Naiva pulling Baishya out of the vision. If it isn't, it would be Ugin rather than Bolas, as it would be Ugin giving them the clue for how to trick Bolas.
I'm curious about the scene where Bolas reaches for the sleeping girl in the meditation plane. First of all, is the sleeping girl the soul of that plane? And is that scene implying he is twisting that realm to suit his desires and needs? That he basically took over the plane? Seems like a precursor to what we know he'll do on Amonkhet.
You mean?
The hunter knows when she's caught her prey. A dark shape cuts across the shadow of the sleeping girl. A five-fingered hand bent in the shape of a claw reaches into the shadow of the girl and yanks her out of the vision.
I took this as symbolism more than literal, with the Temur symbol being a claw. It appears to be Naiva pulling Baishya out of the vision. If it isn't, it would be Ugin rather than Bolas, as it would be Ugin giving them the clue for how to trick Bolas.
Ohh, I see now. The sleeping girl is Baishya, and the popping bubbles are memories Ugin is communicating to her. For some reason while reading, I thought the bubbles were a feature of the meditation realm itself, like the old sea cliffs or the silvery waters.
Could someone provide me with satisfactory explanations for the following points? (KarnTerrier and Flische, your previous posts make some sense and I thank you for taking the time to put forth your thoughts, but I'm still left unsatisfied and will address your posts further below).
What I'm still struggling with is:
1.) Why did Baishya and Yasova not just confirm to Bolas that Ugin was dead, instead of taunting Bolas with the possibility that Ugin might indeed be alive after all? Why couldn't both Ugin could be dead and his Immortal Sun "trap" still in be motion? Bolas may have fled, but now he has even better reason than before to suspect Ugin is alive, and the Termur Trio didn't deny it.
2.) Bolas knew Naiva was a twin. Why wouldn't he at least consider they might have pulled a switcheroo, especially after Baishya started talking back and mocking him? The entire possibility seems to have just escaped him. Why was he fooled by twins when he knew they were twins? On the off chance he didn't know they were identical, ought not the Great and Mighty Bolas, who himself has orchestrated countless deceptions against countless opponents over the millennia - and indeed, whose entire shtick is outmaneuvering and outwitting people - at least have considered something so basic?
3.) The main issue at hand: Why was Bolas not reading their minds all along--both in the previous story and in this one? It's not like it takes any special time or effort for him: way back in the Ixalan story, when Vraska first comes to visit Bolas in the Meditation Realm, he demonstrates several times that he is casually and effortlessly reading her mind. I've heard it suggested that the hedrons might have provided some protection, but even in the previous chapter of the current story, he reads Naiva's mind as she thinks that "In one gulp, he could eat her" and replies out loud to her thoughts. So the hedrons apparently aren't hindering his mind-reading powers that much. Why was Bolas reading Naiva's mind then, but not Yasova's and Baishya's when it actually counted?
4.) From a narrative standpoint: how is the story served by having a trio of mortals dupe Bolas in the end and get away scot-free? Especially in this story, on the cusp of the great final showdown on Ravnica? This is Bolas's story, here to further set up his character and the threat he poses right before we move into the grand climax. Having him so easily played like a fool both diminishes his threat and makes the stakes seem that much lower. We didn't necessarily need another Hour of Devastation-like display of power (though it wouldn't have hurt to show full-power Bolas as a terrifying force of destruction), but couldn't he have killed Yasova and at least one of the twins so that tricking him wouldn't feel so utterly painless and lacking in consequence? He's the one we're here to see, the one being showcased in Core 2019.
Now, I don't believe for a moment that the Wizards Creative Team who commissioned this story just simply forgot that Bolas was a mind-reader. So there must be a satisfactory explanation out there somewhere, but I'm struggling to find it. In any event, I shouldn't have to reread a story three times, dissect the lines, and formulate my own rationalizations in order for it all to finally make sense.
1. The story specifies that Yasova was using her counter-magic to prevent Bolas from reading her and Baishya and Naiva's minds.
Could you please provide the exact quote? It seems to be evading me. It seems to me that Baishya was the one who was mentioned as using counter magic, not Yasova.
2. The story also specifies that the hedrons were also providing their minds with extra protection, like a "whisperer's headdress" (which is presumably some kind of artifact that Temur shamans use to shield their minds from telepathy) but extended to cover multiple people.
As I mentioned above, the hedrons didn't seem to protect Naiva all that well when Bolas invaded her mind in the previous chapter. He read her mind for an instant when she was thinking nothing of consequence, but then repeatedly neglected to do so when it counted.
Plot twist: Bolas did mindread them both and knew they had made it up, but also realized that it was an actual possibility. Afterall, Bolas only knew from Ugin that they planned to trap him on Ixalan, not that they could do so remotely and that the plan was, indeed, to do it while on Tarkir.
Adding these pieces to the puzzle, which Baishya actually knew and Bolas could have easily extracted from her mind could mean that even if he knew that the humans were full of lies, that doesn't mean what they said wasn't actually true.
So instead of taking any chances he left.
Of course such a convoluted twist would have required more setting up and resolving, but that's my headcanon.
I would like this and it makes a lot of sense, but as you mentioned, this isn't what was set up, and indeed, it wasn't the explanation we were given. I wish it were; but the author gave us only one explanation, and it was Yasova's: He couldn't take the chance it was a bluff, so he fled.
I like your headcanon, but I'm looking for a way to make this story satisfactory and consistent on the author's own terms, without bringing my own private headcanon to the rescue. Elliot has been an absolutely fantastic writer up until these last two chapters, but this ending has thrown me for a loop, and not in a good way. Here's another line that irked me:
Baishya went on in the same goading tone. "You can't admit you came back to make sure he was really dead this time, after he tricked you last time."
Bolas did admit that. He admitted that to Naiva in the previous two chapters. Granted, it wasn't to Baishya, but the line is still jarring and carelessly written, and further gives the impression that this ending wasn't particularly well-thought out.
Could someone provide me with satisfactory explanations for the following points? (KarnTerrier and Flische, your previous posts make some sense and I thank you for taking the time to put forth your thoughts, but I'm still left unsatisfied and will address your posts further below).
1. Bolas has already been in one of their minds, was told Ugin was dead and yet he doesn't believe her despite the fact that she believes Ugin is dead. Saying Ugin is dead wouldn't really help them as he wants proof or to just rekill what ever is left here.
2. This is indeed a little off putting, its only said that he would probably largely ignore them as he already had his claws in the twins mind and wouldn't' really pay attention to their physical being. Should he have noticed the person whose mind he had invaded was different from the person in front of him? Maybe, the rules of mind control are weird.
3. Naiva has no resistance for the Hedrons to help with, she isn't a mage and has had no training resisting mind control. They specifically mention that Bashiya can resist with the help of Hedrons. While there is nothing as specific with Yasova, she does say she will be prepared to face him and is a known powerful mage.
4. Narratively, Bolas being bested here sets up him being bested on Ravnica. His last appearance set him up as a completely unbeatable badass, so this little look at him shows he can be defeated even if you have no chance of matching his power. This is done to prevent a hard landing which is when you rapidly switch between extremes. This story wasn't Bolas being beaten at his game, simply tricked by some mortals. Now bolas being beaten at his game is more believable.
As to why Bolas actually fell for it, how about the much more simpler explanation: these non-planeswalker humans had knowledge of a specific other plane, in this case Ixalan. They could only know about it if another planeswalker - in this case Ugin - told them about it. I mean, what are the odds that someone who doesn't know other planes exist comes up not only with that fact but also the name of specific one that does indeed exist? The chance they knew what they knew because their story is true is much greater than it all being a bluff.
What I'm more curious about is what exactly Ugin is now. Apparently, the existence of his nexus preserves his spiritual presence, and we know from the BFZ storyline that he is able to manifest not only on Tarkir but also interplanar. What I wonder though, in the stories that chronologically followed since, was he able to interact with physical objects? Can he manifest not only his presence like a ghost/spirit but also in a corporeal state? And does that make the Nexus effectively his phylactery? Or did he bind his essence to Tarkir and thus as long as Tarkir exists, he will? (which in turn might explain his interest in containing the Eldrazi and Bolas: they are the only two forces we know of in the multiverse that would be able to destroy the plane and thus Ugin).
Also just to doublecheck: the story part where Ugin sealed away the Eldrazi for the first time with Sorin and Nahiri was before he was killed by Bolas right? During the off time where Bolas was fighting the Elder Dragon Wars?
And I also remember Sorin visiting Ugin's grave during the Tarkir storyline but now what he did there. Did Sorin do nothing to help Ugin? Or just found out he was dead?
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If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
What I'm more curious about is what exactly Ugin is now. Apparently, the existence of his nexus preserves his spiritual presence, and we know from the BFZ storyline that he is able to manifest not only on Tarkir but also interplanar. What I wonder though, in the stories that chronologically followed since, was he able to interact with physical objects? Can he manifest not only his presence like a ghost/spirit but also in a corporeal state? And does that make the Nexus effectively his phylactery? Or did he bind his essence to Tarkir and thus as long as Tarkir exists, he will? (which in turn might explain his interest in containing the Eldrazi and Bolas: they are the only two forces we know of in the multiverse that would be able to destroy the plane and thus Ugin).
He seem to have a body of sort since he was killed and left bones in the Khans timeline. Also seems more of a feature of the mediation plane since Bolas was able to hold onto life after being killed there.
Also just to doublecheck: the story part where Ugin sealed away the Eldrazi for the first time with Sorin and Nahiri was before he was killed by Bolas right? During the off time where Bolas was fighting the Elder Dragon Wars?
No he's long been the spirt dragon by that point. That was ~6000 years before the present, these stories are before Urza being born.
And I also remember Sorin visiting Ugin's grave during the Tarkir storyline but now what he did there. Did Sorin do nothing to help Ugin? Or just found out he was dead?
Khans Timeline- Sorin went to Ugins graveyard and had a Bitter Revelation.
Dragons Timeline- Sorin found the hedron cocoon, sensed Ugin was inside and cracked it open and freed Ugin and informed him on the eldrazi.
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So in the Dragons timeline, which is now the current one, Ugin is alive and corporeal? A full resurrection so to speak?
Yeah, thats why he was in BtZ.
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"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
1.) Why did Baishya and Yasova not just confirm to Bolas that Ugin was dead, instead of taunting Bolas with the possibility that Ugin might indeed be alive after all? Why couldn't both Ugin could be dead and his Immortal Sun "trap" still in be motion? Bolas may have fled, but now he has even better reason than before to suspect Ugin is alive, and the Termur Trio didn't deny it.
Naiva explicitly said that Bolas was dead, and he didn't believe her. Why would he believe Baishya or Yasova? At any rate, they did help to persuade Bolas that Ugin might've really been dead by providing an alternate explanation for why the hedrons were there (it was a trap). Their taunt about Bolas being paranoid that Ugin was still alive was mostly to set up their bluff. They were basically saying "you thought these hedrons were another way for Ugin to cheat death, but that's exactly what he wanted you think so you'd come here, their real purpose is to trap you."
2.) Bolas knew Naiva was a twin. Why wouldn't he at least consider they might have pulled a switcheroo, especially after Baishya started talking back and mocking him? The entire possibility seems to have just escaped him. Why was he fooled by twins when he knew they were twins? On the off chance he didn't know they were identical, ought not the Great and Mighty Bolas, who himself has orchestrated countless deceptions against countless opponents over the millennia - and indeed, whose entire shtick is outmaneuvering and outwitting people - at least have considered something so basic?
Bolas was somehow still connected to Naiva's mind, even though she wasn't the one actually standing there in front of him. The exact mechanics of mind magic haven't been explained in detail, so maybe that's just how mind control works, or maybe Baishya was somehow using her counter-magic to redirect Bolas' telepathic signal to her sister. In any case, Bolas had no reason to suspect that Naiva had disobeyed his mental command to kill Baishya; the only reason she was able to resist the urge to kill her sister was because of Ugin's magic temporarily restoring her sanity.
3.) The main issue at hand: Why was Bolas not reading their minds all along--both in the previous story and in this one? It's not like it takes any special time or effort for him: way back in the Ixalan story, when Vraska first comes to visit Bolas in the Meditation Realm, he demonstrates several times that he is casually and effortlessly reading her mind. I've heard it suggested that the hedrons might have provided some protection, but even in the previous chapter of the current story, he reads Naiva's mind as she thinks that "In one gulp, he could eat her" and replies out loud to her thoughts. So the hedrons apparently aren't hindering his mind-reading powers that much. Why was Bolas reading Naiva's mind then, but not Yasova's and Baishya's when it actually counted?
Presumably, the hedrons alone weren't enough to protect Naiva's mind, since she wasn't a mage and had no magical defenses of her own. It was the combination of the hedrons with Yasova and Baishya's own counter-magic that prevented Bolas from effortlessly reading their minds at will. If you give a shield to a trained knight who knows how to use it and has a lot of experience dodging and parrying, he'll be able to defend himself against even a skilled attacker quite effectively. If you give a shield to a peasant who has no training and is barely strong enough to lift it, it would be trivially easy for even a halfway competent attacker to get around his defenses.
4.) From a narrative standpoint: how is the story served by having a trio of mortals dupe Bolas in the end and get away scot-free? Especially in this story, on the cusp of the great final showdown on Ravnica? This is Bolas's story, here to further set up his character and the threat he poses right before we move into the grand climax. Having him so easily played like a fool both diminishes his threat and makes the stakes seem that much lower. We didn't necessarily need another Hour of Devastation-like display of power (though it wouldn't have hurt to show full-power Bolas as a terrifying force of destruction), but couldn't he have killed Yasova and at least one of the twins so that tricking him wouldn't feel so utterly painless and lacking in consequence? He's the one we're here to see, the one being showcased in Core 2019.
We got to see how Ugin could outmaneuver Bolas even from beyond the grave with the help of a few powerful, strong-willed, quick-witted human mages. This will likely foreshadow the events of the upcoming Ravnica block, where Bolas will most likely end up being defeated by a few powerful, strong-willed, quick-witted human mages as a result of Ugin's subtle machinations. (Remember, it was Ugin who made sure that Jace teleported to Ixalan after his defeat at Amonkhet.)
Now, I don't believe for a moment that the Wizards Creative Team who commissioned this story just simply forgot that Bolas was a mind-reader. So there must be a satisfactory explanation out there somewhere, but I'm struggling to find it. In any event, I shouldn't have to reread a story three times, dissect the lines, and formulate my own rationalizations in order for it all to finally make sense.
They obviously didn't forget that Bolas was a mind reader, since they addressed it directly in this very chapter.
"But he already manipulated you once."
"Yes, so I am prepared this time. I won't be as vulnerable."
"What difference will that make? If he invades her mind or your mind, he'll see it's not me."
"I can do it, Nai," said Baishya. "The second thing a whisperer learns is how to deflect magic."
"She need only deflect his touch long enough to sow a seed of doubt, just as her wearing your mantle will ease his suspicion," said Grandmother.
"And the hedron shield will offer a little protection, like an extension of a whisperer's headdress," added Baishya.
I like your headcanon, but I'm looking for a way to make this story satisfactory and consistent on the author's own terms, without bringing my own private headcanon to the rescue. Elliot has been an absolutely fantastic writer up until these last two chapters, but this ending has thrown me for a loop, and not in a good way.
That's your opinion. Perfectly, I thought the conclusion was extremely clever, and did a great job of showing how a few mere mortals could credibly defend themselves against a being of superhuman intelligence and power.
The situation had been set up in a way that left Bolas unsure of what exactly he was dealing with.
The heroes had access to a Black Box that Bolas couldn't see into, allowing them to formulate plans without his knowledge.
The heroes were being given help by Ugin's spirit, which granted them magical protection as well as information they wouldn't have otherwise had access to, neither of which Bolas would've expected.
One of the heroes was an extremely powerful mind mage in her own right, and another was a competent mage who knew how to use counter-magic.
The bluff worked because it relied on Bolas realizing that the heroes were trying to trick him in some way, and also because it didn't require Bolas to actually be sure that their lie was true, just for him to think that it was a real possibility (and really, there's no reason why it wouldn't be).
As to why Bolas actually fell for it, how about the much more simpler explanation: these non-planeswalker humans had knowledge of a specific other plane, in this case Ixalan. They could only know about it if another planeswalker - in this case Ugin - told them about it. I mean, what are the odds that someone who doesn't know other planes exist comes up not only with that fact but also the name of specific one that does indeed exist? The chance they knew what they knew because their story is true is much greater than it all being a bluff.
Also a very good point, and one that I overlooked!
What I'm more curious about is what exactly Ugin is now. Apparently, the existence of his nexus preserves his spiritual presence, and we know from the BFZ storyline that he is able to manifest not only on Tarkir but also interplanar. What I wonder though, in the stories that chronologically followed since, was he able to interact with physical objects? Can he manifest not only his presence like a ghost/spirit but also in a corporeal state? And does that make the Nexus effectively his phylactery? Or did he bind his essence to Tarkir and thus as long as Tarkir exists, he will? (which in turn might explain his interest in containing the Eldrazi and Bolas: they are the only two forces we know of in the multiverse that would be able to destroy the plane and thus Ugin).
Also just to doublecheck: the story part where Ugin sealed away the Eldrazi for the first time with Sorin and Nahiri was before he was killed by Bolas right? During the off time where Bolas was fighting the Elder Dragon Wars?
And I also remember Sorin visiting Ugin's grave during the Tarkir storyline but now what he did there. Did Sorin do nothing to help Ugin? Or just found out he was dead?
There seems to be a lot of confusion here.
1. The nexus is not Ugin's phylactery, nor does it contain his spiritual essence, nor does it even exist in the current timeline. The nexus was a time portal that existed in the original timeline, at the site of Ugin's death. It was some kind of magical contingency that Ugin set up before he died. It allowed Ugin to psychically communicate with Sarkhan from beyond the grave, and allowed Sarkhan to travel back in time to prevent Ugin's death and create the new timeline.
2. In the new timeline, rather than a nexus forming around Ugin's bones, Ugin's still-living but hibernating body lay recovering in a hedron cocoon. Sorin was able to resuscitate Ugin, which is why Ugin was alive and well again during Battle for Zendikar. (In the original timeline, Sorin merely found Ugin's corpse with no trace of life remaining.)
3. Ugin was already a spirit dragon when he helped Sorin and Nahiri seal the Eldrazi on Zendikar, which means it must've happened after his battle with Bolas in the Meditation Realm. It was Ugin's first death in the Meditation Realm that caused him to become a spirit dragon, not his defeat on Tarkir (which actually killed him for good in the original timeline, and merely rendered him catatonic in the new timeline).
4. Ugin's precise nature as a spirit dragon isn't entirely clear, but from what I can tell, he created a new body for himself from the fabric of the Meditation Realm. It's a fully corporeal and fully organic body, made of flesh and blood and bone and sinew, but it was originally formed from whatever ethereal substance the Meditation Realm is composed of. This makes him a hybrid being of sorts, but he's definitely not incorporeal, since we see him interacting with the physical world on numerous occasions. He has a physical body that continued to exist while he was unconscious for 1,280 years in the new timeline, and he even left behind a corpse when he died in the old timeline, so he's clearly not just a ghost.
He seem to have a body of sort since he was killed and left bones in the Khans timeline. Also seems more of a feature of the mediation plane since Bolas was able to hold onto life after being killed there.
Seems likely. The Meditation Realm doesn't seem to be a conventional plane, and it's not clear if it's even truly a physical place in the same sense that Dominaria or Tarkir are. It was originally described as a place where thoughts become reality, and it seems to have some special connection to the Blind Eternities themselves. It might be something akin to a multiversal version of Nyx.
Also, the original description of Ugin noted that his unique brand of colorless magic involved transmuting energy into matter. Perhaps that's why he was able to create a new physical body for himself out of the immaterial fabric of the Meditation Realm after he was killed there, whereas Bolas could only exist as an incorporeal wraith until he tricked Venser into retrieving his original body from an earlier point in time.
KarnTerrier and User_938036, thank you for those responses. After mulling these over and reviewing the story again, I do feel a bit better about how things played out at the end. I still think the mechanics of it all could have been explained a better, but I am satisfied enough. I appreciate it.
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"I'd rather die speaking the truth than live a lie." --Gix, to Yawgmoth (pre-Phyrexia)
The last story concluded Core 2019. Though they were supposed to have Commander storylines.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
The last story concluded Core 2019. Though they were supposed to have Commander storylines.
No commander stories but we are suppose to get a 3-parter on Vivien which kinda falls under Core 2019, though they haven't bothered to say when they would start.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I really miss the Commander stories. Some of them were pretty good. One that leaps to mind is the one that went along with Karlov being released, and which dealt with what's been going on among the Orzhov. Great stuff.
-Seems like this story is in present day since Vivien is on Ixalan and so far nothing suggests she's trapped so I'm guessing the Sun had been taken at this point. Which puts the question of when did Bolas burn down Skalla, since we where told this story has Vivien still recovering from that.
- Luneau seems to be the "french" part of Torrezon.
-The Legion of Dusk think they can capture the elder dinosaurs. Cute. Also places this story after Orazca was re-found.
-Looks like they have kings and queens who rule under Miralda.
-Very much reminded of "animal" shows the nobility of European would have. I'm guessing this why they had Vivien go to Ixalan.
-Overall I thought this was a great way to show a conflict between G and WB. Reminded me of why the Gruul and Orzhov fight.
-From Vivien's POV it looks like Skalla had some interesting fauna. Hydras, horse sized wasps (which might be whats in the Skalla forest card), Pelakka wurms (a little laugh over the reprinting of that card) and armored stags.
-Vivien bow looks powerful, it can beasts that can't be hurt but can hurt others and no limited to how many are out at once. The weakness seems to be Vivien can't keep them around for long periods of time.
Overall I think its a good way to introduce Vivien character though I do wonder what she would think of places like Kaladesh that are built to work along with the natural world, instead of what clearly is a case of animals abuse. Cassandra Khaw wiring is nice, but after this one poetry major in my writing classes, I dislike the romantic descriptions she gives, but thats my personal bias.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
So far I like her character, she is no Nissa and not a female Garruk, which is refreshing to see.
I would say the story was good, but the problem is that it was hard to read for me. English is not my native language, but so far all stories were readable to me, this one was a bit strange, many words and structures of sentences I don't normally see.
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.
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
It had many words and structures regular English speakers don't use either
I was getting irritated with the continued over-explanation of the city which I guess helped me feel the same thing as Vivien. Glad she caused some destruction.
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I liked the rather florid vocabulary, as it seemed to fit the tone of Luneau, though perhaps a little contrast in style between the descriptions of the city and aristrocrats and Vivien's internal monologue might have heightened the effect. It's a little showy, but that's a minor complaint compared to the original Ixalan story's inability to keep its tenses and numbers consistent.
That being said -- Vivien sure seems to be a chump, huh? Waiting all through a long torture party before doing anything? Then going down against a single vampire baron and a bunch of mook guards? Nissa she ain't.
Maybe this is the original neo-walker power level they always intended, before they let the Gatewatch get over-leveled. But it's not very impressive.
While the writing was fair and Vivian’s rage is easy to empathize with in this story-
-I find myself critical of environmental justice heroes whose main goal is to obliterate society. All things in balance. Would such a character maim farmers, tanners and such as well?
It is however likely true that animal menageries in the Age of Discovery were unlikely to have been humane and Black and White are sometimes negligent of Green values such as humble living, acceptance, etc.
I wonder how she’d view the Dromoka and their Abzan ancestors?
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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
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I like it. Although Bolas couldn't have been reading their minds until after he tried to make Naiva kill Yasova, since he seemed genuinely surprised that she 'resisted' his influence. But as I already explained in detail, I don't have a problem with Bolas being temporarily unable to read the minds of Yasova and her granddaughters. People keep forgetting that Yasova herself is an extremely powerful mind mage! And the story makes it clear her own mental counter-magic was being amplified by the hedrons. Still, I can easily believe that he figured out the truth as soon as Baishya refused his command and broke through their mental defenses immediately after that.
At any rate, once the idea of the hedron trap was introduced, Bolas really had no option but to leave immediately. From his point of view, there are a few possibilities here:
*In fact, as I was writing this post, I realized: How do we know that Bolas wouldn't have been teleported to Ixalan if he'd stuck around for a few seconds longer? We know for a certainty that B is true, but we don't actually know for a certainty that A is false. If both options were correct, then Bolas really did make the optimal move by leaving.
Baishya's voice slapped her like a chilling wind. "Maybe I don't want to hunt. Maybe nothing you offer tempts me, because from everything I've heard, you're stuck in the past, circling around and around your rivalry with Ugin—"
"I'm not stuck!"
"You're about to be," Grandmother interrupted curtly. "You're standing right where the hedrons concentrate magical force into a nexus of great power," Grandmother went on. "The Immortal Sun is pointed here, at this very spot on Tarkir. It will drag you to another plane and, there, trap you for all eternity. Why do you think we've kept you talking all this time? So it can be activated, and you'll never planeswalk again."
Grandmother inhaled audibly, as if in anticipation and suspense. "Ah! Listen! Do you hear the artifact's hum, Naiva?"
"I hear it!" cried Baishya in the falsest tone Naiva had ever heard, but how was the dragon to know that when he couldn't even tell the twins apart? "Just as Ugin said it would happen! Look up above! Do you see the light? A second sun in the heavens!"
A roar of fury rattled the hedrons.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK TO FOOL ME?" Bolas screamed with a roar that could shake mountains. He was Nicol Bolas, the first and only, the Forever Serpent, Great Horned One, the Mind-Ripper, the Death-Bringer, the Winged Dark under whose shadow all things fell. A second sun in the heavens? He was the only true Second Sun! He swiped his claw downward to grab the old lady and her whelp of a granddaughter, to slowly rend the life out of them-
-and a thousandth of a second before he touched them, a great beam of light shone down from the heavens, carrying Bolas up into the sky at a speed which even Kolaghan couldn't match. Bolas struggled, with a strength and ferocity that rivaled Atarka's, but all his immense might was useless against a magical force of this magnitude. The elder dragon's body seemed to fold in on itself as it was dragged through the Blind Eternities, compressing into a single point and disappearing from sight.
"I thought you were bluffing," Baishya said.
"So did I," Grandmother replied. "Truly, the wisdom and foresight of the Spirit Dragon transcends all else."
1,260 YEARS LATER
Bolas roared in anger, breathing fire onto the barren ground from above. He had burned the jungles of Ixalan, sundered the plains, shattered the mountains, boiled the oceans, scoured all life from its surface, yet it was all for naught. He had given that damnable sphinx a slow and painful death, delved into the deepest depths of his mind for some clue on how to escape this world, yet there were no answers to be found. He had shattered the Immortal Sun into a thousand pieces, yet whatever hieromancy kept him bound to this prison still remained, somehow bound within the fabric of the plane itself. Here he remained.
In hindsight, he wished he had left a few of the humans alive to rule over, or even just a few of the great lizards to hunt. Yet in his desperation to escape, he had ensured that his prison would forever be a barren one.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way, Nicol," rang a voice in his head. "But you left me no other choice."
Ugin? His twin lived! He had been right all those centuries ago, the hedrons were a cocoon - and yet that hadn't kept them from serving another purpose still.
"I hope that, in time, you may yet find some measure of peace within yourself," the voice rang out. "Goodbye, brother."
Nicol Bolas, the last and the least of the elder dragons, shouted back curses and threats and bargains and pleas, but it was all for naught. Ugin couldn't hear him across the planes. And even if he could, Bolas had nothing left to say.
"I'm stuck," he announced to no one, with a realization of absolute crushing despair.
That said, I loved the frame story with the Temur twins (to contrast with the Elder dragon twins). The human/mortal relationships were well-wrought, and the frame worked very well.
The question of what Bolas could or should have done did not bother me. Urza and the other oldwalkers were impressive, but they made plenty of mistakes. They walked when they did not have to, spoke aloud when they did not need to, and so on.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
What I'm still struggling with is:
1.) Why did Baishya and Yasova not just confirm to Bolas that Ugin was dead, instead of taunting Bolas with the possibility that Ugin might indeed be alive after all? Why couldn't both Ugin could be dead and his Immortal Sun "trap" still in be motion? Bolas may have fled, but now he has even better reason than before to suspect Ugin is alive, and the Termur Trio didn't deny it.
2.) Bolas knew Naiva was a twin. Why wouldn't he at least consider they might have pulled a switcheroo, especially after Baishya started talking back and mocking him? The entire possibility seems to have just escaped him. Why was he fooled by twins when he knew they were twins? On the off chance he didn't know they were identical, ought not the Great and Mighty Bolas, who himself has orchestrated countless deceptions against countless opponents over the millennia - and indeed, whose entire shtick is outmaneuvering and outwitting people - at least have considered something so basic?
3.) The main issue at hand: Why was Bolas not reading their minds all along--both in the previous story and in this one? It's not like it takes any special time or effort for him: way back in the Ixalan story, when Vraska first comes to visit Bolas in the Meditation Realm, he demonstrates several times that he is casually and effortlessly reading her mind. I've heard it suggested that the hedrons might have provided some protection, but even in the previous chapter of the current story, he reads Naiva's mind as she thinks that "In one gulp, he could eat her" and replies out loud to her thoughts. So the hedrons apparently aren't hindering his mind-reading powers that much. Why was Bolas reading Naiva's mind then, but not Yasova's and Baishya's when it actually counted?
4.) From a narrative standpoint: how is the story served by having a trio of mortals dupe Bolas in the end and get away scot-free? Especially in this story, on the cusp of the great final showdown on Ravnica? This is Bolas's story, here to further set up his character and the threat he poses right before we move into the grand climax. Having him so easily played like a fool both diminishes his threat and makes the stakes seem that much lower. We didn't necessarily need another Hour of Devastation-like display of power (though it wouldn't have hurt to show full-power Bolas as a terrifying force of destruction), but couldn't he have killed Yasova and at least one of the twins so that tricking him wouldn't feel so utterly painless and lacking in consequence? He's the one we're here to see, the one being showcased in Core 2019.
Now, I don't believe for a moment that the Wizards Creative Team who commissioned this story just simply forgot that Bolas was a mind-reader. So there must be a satisfactory explanation out there somewhere, but I'm struggling to find it. In any event, I shouldn't have to reread a story three times, dissect the lines, and formulate my own rationalizations in order for it all to finally make sense.
Could you please provide the exact quote? It seems to be evading me. It seems to me that Baishya was the one who was mentioned as using counter magic, not Yasova.
As I mentioned above, the hedrons didn't seem to protect Naiva all that well when Bolas invaded her mind in the previous chapter. He read her mind for an instant when she was thinking nothing of consequence, but then repeatedly neglected to do so when it counted.
I would like this and it makes a lot of sense, but as you mentioned, this isn't what was set up, and indeed, it wasn't the explanation we were given. I wish it were; but the author gave us only one explanation, and it was Yasova's: He couldn't take the chance it was a bluff, so he fled.
I like your headcanon, but I'm looking for a way to make this story satisfactory and consistent on the author's own terms, without bringing my own private headcanon to the rescue. Elliot has been an absolutely fantastic writer up until these last two chapters, but this ending has thrown me for a loop, and not in a good way. Here's another line that irked me:
Bolas did admit that. He admitted that to Naiva in the previous two chapters. Granted, it wasn't to Baishya, but the line is still jarring and carelessly written, and further gives the impression that this ending wasn't particularly well-thought out.
1. Bolas has already been in one of their minds, was told Ugin was dead and yet he doesn't believe her despite the fact that she believes Ugin is dead. Saying Ugin is dead wouldn't really help them as he wants proof or to just rekill what ever is left here.
2. This is indeed a little off putting, its only said that he would probably largely ignore them as he already had his claws in the twins mind and wouldn't' really pay attention to their physical being. Should he have noticed the person whose mind he had invaded was different from the person in front of him? Maybe, the rules of mind control are weird.
3. Naiva has no resistance for the Hedrons to help with, she isn't a mage and has had no training resisting mind control. They specifically mention that Bashiya can resist with the help of Hedrons. While there is nothing as specific with Yasova, she does say she will be prepared to face him and is a known powerful mage.
4. Narratively, Bolas being bested here sets up him being bested on Ravnica. His last appearance set him up as a completely unbeatable badass, so this little look at him shows he can be defeated even if you have no chance of matching his power. This is done to prevent a hard landing which is when you rapidly switch between extremes. This story wasn't Bolas being beaten at his game, simply tricked by some mortals. Now bolas being beaten at his game is more believable.
What I'm more curious about is what exactly Ugin is now. Apparently, the existence of his nexus preserves his spiritual presence, and we know from the BFZ storyline that he is able to manifest not only on Tarkir but also interplanar. What I wonder though, in the stories that chronologically followed since, was he able to interact with physical objects? Can he manifest not only his presence like a ghost/spirit but also in a corporeal state? And does that make the Nexus effectively his phylactery? Or did he bind his essence to Tarkir and thus as long as Tarkir exists, he will? (which in turn might explain his interest in containing the Eldrazi and Bolas: they are the only two forces we know of in the multiverse that would be able to destroy the plane and thus Ugin).
Also just to doublecheck: the story part where Ugin sealed away the Eldrazi for the first time with Sorin and Nahiri was before he was killed by Bolas right? During the off time where Bolas was fighting the Elder Dragon Wars?
And I also remember Sorin visiting Ugin's grave during the Tarkir storyline but now what he did there. Did Sorin do nothing to help Ugin? Or just found out he was dead?
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
He seem to have a body of sort since he was killed and left bones in the Khans timeline. Also seems more of a feature of the mediation plane since Bolas was able to hold onto life after being killed there.
No he's long been the spirt dragon by that point. That was ~6000 years before the present, these stories are before Urza being born.
Khans Timeline- Sorin went to Ugins graveyard and had a Bitter Revelation.
Dragons Timeline- Sorin found the hedron cocoon, sensed Ugin was inside and cracked it open and freed Ugin and informed him on the eldrazi.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Yeah, thats why he was in BtZ.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Naiva explicitly said that Bolas was dead, and he didn't believe her. Why would he believe Baishya or Yasova? At any rate, they did help to persuade Bolas that Ugin might've really been dead by providing an alternate explanation for why the hedrons were there (it was a trap). Their taunt about Bolas being paranoid that Ugin was still alive was mostly to set up their bluff. They were basically saying "you thought these hedrons were another way for Ugin to cheat death, but that's exactly what he wanted you think so you'd come here, their real purpose is to trap you."
Bolas was somehow still connected to Naiva's mind, even though she wasn't the one actually standing there in front of him. The exact mechanics of mind magic haven't been explained in detail, so maybe that's just how mind control works, or maybe Baishya was somehow using her counter-magic to redirect Bolas' telepathic signal to her sister. In any case, Bolas had no reason to suspect that Naiva had disobeyed his mental command to kill Baishya; the only reason she was able to resist the urge to kill her sister was because of Ugin's magic temporarily restoring her sanity.
Presumably, the hedrons alone weren't enough to protect Naiva's mind, since she wasn't a mage and had no magical defenses of her own. It was the combination of the hedrons with Yasova and Baishya's own counter-magic that prevented Bolas from effortlessly reading their minds at will. If you give a shield to a trained knight who knows how to use it and has a lot of experience dodging and parrying, he'll be able to defend himself against even a skilled attacker quite effectively. If you give a shield to a peasant who has no training and is barely strong enough to lift it, it would be trivially easy for even a halfway competent attacker to get around his defenses.
We got to see how Ugin could outmaneuver Bolas even from beyond the grave with the help of a few powerful, strong-willed, quick-witted human mages. This will likely foreshadow the events of the upcoming Ravnica block, where Bolas will most likely end up being defeated by a few powerful, strong-willed, quick-witted human mages as a result of Ugin's subtle machinations. (Remember, it was Ugin who made sure that Jace teleported to Ixalan after his defeat at Amonkhet.)
They obviously didn't forget that Bolas was a mind reader, since they addressed it directly in this very chapter.
"But he already manipulated you once."
"Yes, so I am prepared this time. I won't be as vulnerable."
"What difference will that make? If he invades her mind or your mind, he'll see it's not me."
"I can do it, Nai," said Baishya. "The second thing a whisperer learns is how to deflect magic."
"She need only deflect his touch long enough to sow a seed of doubt, just as her wearing your mantle will ease his suspicion," said Grandmother.
"And the hedron shield will offer a little protection, like an extension of a whisperer's headdress," added Baishya.
That's your opinion. Perfectly, I thought the conclusion was extremely clever, and did a great job of showing how a few mere mortals could credibly defend themselves against a being of superhuman intelligence and power.
Also a very good point, and one that I overlooked!
There seems to be a lot of confusion here.
1. The nexus is not Ugin's phylactery, nor does it contain his spiritual essence, nor does it even exist in the current timeline. The nexus was a time portal that existed in the original timeline, at the site of Ugin's death. It was some kind of magical contingency that Ugin set up before he died. It allowed Ugin to psychically communicate with Sarkhan from beyond the grave, and allowed Sarkhan to travel back in time to prevent Ugin's death and create the new timeline.
2. In the new timeline, rather than a nexus forming around Ugin's bones, Ugin's still-living but hibernating body lay recovering in a hedron cocoon. Sorin was able to resuscitate Ugin, which is why Ugin was alive and well again during Battle for Zendikar. (In the original timeline, Sorin merely found Ugin's corpse with no trace of life remaining.)
3. Ugin was already a spirit dragon when he helped Sorin and Nahiri seal the Eldrazi on Zendikar, which means it must've happened after his battle with Bolas in the Meditation Realm. It was Ugin's first death in the Meditation Realm that caused him to become a spirit dragon, not his defeat on Tarkir (which actually killed him for good in the original timeline, and merely rendered him catatonic in the new timeline).
4. Ugin's precise nature as a spirit dragon isn't entirely clear, but from what I can tell, he created a new body for himself from the fabric of the Meditation Realm. It's a fully corporeal and fully organic body, made of flesh and blood and bone and sinew, but it was originally formed from whatever ethereal substance the Meditation Realm is composed of. This makes him a hybrid being of sorts, but he's definitely not incorporeal, since we see him interacting with the physical world on numerous occasions. He has a physical body that continued to exist while he was unconscious for 1,280 years in the new timeline, and he even left behind a corpse when he died in the old timeline, so he's clearly not just a ghost.
Seems likely. The Meditation Realm doesn't seem to be a conventional plane, and it's not clear if it's even truly a physical place in the same sense that Dominaria or Tarkir are. It was originally described as a place where thoughts become reality, and it seems to have some special connection to the Blind Eternities themselves. It might be something akin to a multiversal version of Nyx.
Also, the original description of Ugin noted that his unique brand of colorless magic involved transmuting energy into matter. Perhaps that's why he was able to create a new physical body for himself out of the immaterial fabric of the Meditation Realm after he was killed there, whereas Bolas could only exist as an incorporeal wraith until he tricked Venser into retrieving his original body from an earlier point in time.
The last story concluded Core 2019. Though they were supposed to have Commander storylines.
On phasing:
No commander stories but we are suppose to get a 3-parter on Vivien which kinda falls under Core 2019, though they haven't bothered to say when they would start.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The quality of the writing was three degrees better than anything I've read from Wizards in a while.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/unbowed-part-1-2018-08-29
-Seems like this story is in present day since Vivien is on Ixalan and so far nothing suggests she's trapped so I'm guessing the Sun had been taken at this point. Which puts the question of when did Bolas burn down Skalla, since we where told this story has Vivien still recovering from that.
- Luneau seems to be the "french" part of Torrezon.
-The Legion of Dusk think they can capture the elder dinosaurs. Cute. Also places this story after Orazca was re-found.
-Looks like they have kings and queens who rule under Miralda.
-Very much reminded of "animal" shows the nobility of European would have. I'm guessing this why they had Vivien go to Ixalan.
-Overall I thought this was a great way to show a conflict between G and WB. Reminded me of why the Gruul and Orzhov fight.
-From Vivien's POV it looks like Skalla had some interesting fauna. Hydras, horse sized wasps (which might be whats in the Skalla forest card), Pelakka wurms (a little laugh over the reprinting of that card) and armored stags.
-Vivien bow looks powerful, it can beasts that can't be hurt but can hurt others and no limited to how many are out at once. The weakness seems to be Vivien can't keep them around for long periods of time.
Overall I think its a good way to introduce Vivien character though I do wonder what she would think of places like Kaladesh that are built to work along with the natural world, instead of what clearly is a case of animals abuse. Cassandra Khaw wiring is nice, but after this one poetry major in my writing classes, I dislike the romantic descriptions she gives, but thats my personal bias.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I would say the story was good, but the problem is that it was hard to read for me. English is not my native language, but so far all stories were readable to me, this one was a bit strange, many words and structures of sentences I don't normally see.
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
I was getting irritated with the continued over-explanation of the city which I guess helped me feel the same thing as Vivien. Glad she caused some destruction.
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That being said -- Vivien sure seems to be a chump, huh? Waiting all through a long torture party before doing anything? Then going down against a single vampire baron and a bunch of mook guards? Nissa she ain't.
Maybe this is the original neo-walker power level they always intended, before they let the Gatewatch get over-leveled. But it's not very impressive.
-I find myself critical of environmental justice heroes whose main goal is to obliterate society. All things in balance. Would such a character maim farmers, tanners and such as well?
It is however likely true that animal menageries in the Age of Discovery were unlikely to have been humane and Black and White are sometimes negligent of Green values such as humble living, acceptance, etc.
I wonder how she’d view the Dromoka and their Abzan ancestors?
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