The Simic were pretty much completely destroyed in the events of Dissension. The new version of the Simic had just recently been established in Return to Ravnica, meaning that there was no Simic guild at all for decades.[...]
Wait what? How much time passed between Dissension and Return to Ravnica?
60-100 or so years. Its been ~60 years since the mending and the current story and Dissension was pre-mending. In the text they mention its been a generation since the guilds fell and rose. Ravnicans are very long living which why most of the characters are still alive and a generation to them is longer then we'd think it is a well.
EDIT:
Closer to 60-80 years, I forgot Tesya mentions her age in "Family Values" as 112 and I don't think she was much younger then her 20's in the original books.
Correction: Humans in Ravnica have a similiar lifespan to IRL humans, Teysa was able to live that long because of her bloodline, her ancestors like many in the Orzhov guild have tried to achieve immortality, because of that their offspring usually are born "mutated" for instance teysa is an 112 years old woman who looks like she is in her early thirty's, but was also born with an deficiency on her right leg, side effect such as Teysa's legs are normal within the more powerful Orzhov families.
Your somewhat right, Orzhov families are longer living then the average Ravnican but Ravnicans compared to us have have a much longer lifespan as well as why Tesya is looking Liliana good at 112.
To expand on this a bit, Agrus Kos, who was Boros not Orzhov, was 122 when he died which was about "retirement age." So Teysa still being fairly youngish looking at 112 (just 10 years younger than Kos' "I'm-too-old-for-this-ness") is the difference. Teysa being Orzhov extends her lifespan (or at least her youthfulness) beyond that of the typical Ravnican, but indications seem that Ravnican humans as a whole are longer lived than other humans across the multiverse.
No changes in place;
Dinosaurs/ Sun Empire in 1st place and have 51 points (up 19 points)
Merfolk/ River Herald in 2nd place and have 46 points (up 18 points)
Vampires/ Legion of Dusk in 3rd place and have 32 points (up 12 points)
Pirates/ Brazen Coalition in 4th place and have 29 points (up 11 points)
On the 5th the geocatch thing is added in;
1st will get 12 Points
2nd will get 10 Points
3rd will get 8 Points
4th will get 6 Points
Wasn't that looking to be fixed with vampires losing miles every other day?
I was the one who brought that up, but honestly I haven't bothered to check it since (I've already accepted that the Sun Empire will win). I dunno if I'd call it fixed exactly, I mean if they were rigging the race why draw attention to it by removing miles from factions instead of simply adding more miles to the "winner?" I would call it half-assed and inaccurate, though.
One thing that has always really, really bothered me about Ravnica is the impossible and simplistic notion that ten guilds could last largely unchanged, and in a constant balance of power, ten thousand years. (Tarkir has a similar problem)
Ten competing guilds, established with specific names, identities, cultures, and goals, remain more or less intact for ten thousand years. Not one of them splintered, not one of them fell apart, not one of them was replaced or subsumed or conquered, not one of them struck off to forge a new identity for itself or underwent significant revolution. Either Azor is an unparalleled genius, or the plane was designed with little appreciation for how history or societies really work. This is fantasy, I know. But it's a trope that still bugs the hell out of me. For comparison:
- The Mongol Empire lasted three generations, then splintered apart and collapsed.
- The Roman Empire lasted intact from 27 BC to 395 AD, just over 400 years. The Western Empire fell a century later.
- The British Empire lasted just over 400 years.
- Writing has only existed for about 5,000 years.
- The wheel was invented between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago.
- The agricultural revolution occurred about 12,000 years ago.
Honestly this is a problem for a lot of fictional universes, whether Fantastical or High Tech. *cough*Star Wars*cough*
Writers use big numbers because it sounds badass, but never stop to really consider the implications of said numbers.
Maybe it's just my political beliefs but I found Azor's preaching, while interesting from a characterization standpoint, to be unbearable and I found little sympathy for him outside of his apparent mental health issues from being in isolation for a thousand years.
Another self righteous person preening over the virtues of forced order and how authoritarianism has cleaned up these "savage" lands. Ugh. How many of those have I seen online? And how many has the world dealt with?
Seeing Jace make him squirm made me like Jace more.
Personally, it did the opposite for me, which is a shame cause I was really starting to like him.
Hipocracy is a surefire way to get me to hate a character and Jace's justifications absolutely felt hipocritical to me.
As an aside; can people please stop calling the guildpact a failed government. It really cheapens it when you consider that even with its flaws and the forces working against it it still lasted for Ten Thousand Years. Even the most successful civilization in all of recorded human history don't even comes close to that.
I've got to agree with the posters who're upset/displeased about Azor's handling and treatment in this story.
Honestly, this story made me mad. Like, literally mad.
I also agree that MTG's constant (in recent history) casting of the "government" (whatever form that body happens to take) as the enemy is really tiresome.
Dinosaurs/ Sun Empire are still in 1st place and have 32 Points (up 17 points)
Merfolk/ River Herald are still in 2nd place and have 28 points (up 17 points)
Vampires/ Legion of Dusk jumped up to 3rd place and have 20 points (up 13 point)
Pirates/ Brazen Coalition dropped to 4th place and have 18 point point (up 9 point)
There will also be a global poll on the mothership on 2/7
Honestly, from a logic point of view I'm fine with the Sun Empire getting Orazca. They're honestly the only faction that it would make sense to occupy it. Pirates have no use for a landlocked city, if anything they would just loot it then leave. The Legion of Dusk wasn't after the city in the first place, and its inland location would cut it off from reinforcement and make it indefensible for them anyhow. The River Heralds have no real use for the city, and ultimately when the Immortal Sun is removed they really have no reason to waste their effort hiding it any longer. Orazca really ceases to be relevant to them.
Only the Sun Empire has any reason to actually WANT Orazca.
From a more subjective, emotional point of view though I just don't want them to get it for no other reason than that I don't like them.
He's done that before with the werewolves on Innistrad
IIRC it didn't work on the werewolves cause they were too "feral"
Yeah. IIRC, the only werewolf he was able to directly affect was the newly turned one. The others were too far from human for him to be able to manipulate. He mostly just threw illusions at them (that they largely saw through cause they lacked scent) and ran (rode his horse) to safety.
I just learned the existance of a Weatherlight crewmember called Tahngarth who happened to be a minotaur. Could Angrath be related? This would make him native to Dominaria.
Alison Luhrs has already stated that he's from a plane we haven't been to before. Clicky
So, going off another tangent, what's Elenda going to do to make the Legion "remember" what they're supposed to be about?
Is she going to go on a murder spree, or is she going to target specific individuals? Is she even going to off anyone? Is she going to do something about Queen Miralda (who I wish we got a card for, but I guess that's for Return to Ixalan or Commander products)?
My theory is that she will just punish some specific individuals (most likely Vona and Mavren), and then ominously state that she needs to clean up her own mess in Torrezon. Then, everything about the power struggle among vampires, including a Queen Miralda card, will be left to next time a block comes back to Ixalan: in other words, this particular plot thread will NOT be resolved in this block. Or at least, I believe so.
This is the sense that I got from her part in the story. I fully expect any return to Ixalan to feature a schism, or possibly even all out civil war, within the Legion of Dusk (The Queen and current church VS Elenda and some sort of Reformationist sect (possibly including Mavren Fein, since he seemed to be a big time Elenda fanboy)).
If the Sun Empire claims Orazca (as it look like they will from the geocache), and they go on an expansionist push like I've speculated before, and the LoD in Torrezon is fractured, that could be used as a reason for the pirates to try and reclaim the Free Cities... then we'd only need a reason for the River Heralds to be on Torrezon...
Great story. I hated Jace, now I'm looking forward to his parts in the stories. The Ugin link is a very sweet touch. Good job wotc.
Random question, what would Huatli do on other planes if her power is to control dinos?
A good question. I think she would either have to broaden her dinosaur magics to include other animal types (more general "Beast/animal magic"), or focus more on her martial training and combat magics (which would end up making her even more generic, imo [yay r/w does... combat magic.. woo]).
So, what happens if the Dino's win? Orazca becomes Jurassic Park ?
The Sun Empire gets a massive morale boost, the king/emperor guy uses that to fuel his expansionist ways and they force the River Heralds, Brazen Coalition and Legion of Dusk out. Mad with power and not content with ruling all of Ixalan (the continent) they sail for Torrezzon to wage war against the Legion of Dusk in Ixalan 2: Vampiric Bugaloo with the belief that it is their right/destiny to rule all of Ixalan (the plane).
The only problem is that The Sun Empire and the Dino's are not the same faction.
For the purpose of the geocaching event, they really are. Dinosaurs are not a unique faction unto their own, they're a part of the Sun Empire. "Dinosaurs" is just shorthand in the same vein that "Merfolk" means "River Heralds," "Vampires" is "The Legion of Dusk," and "Pirates" is "The Brazen Coalition." Semantics.
Guys, I'm sorry if this has already been asked, but how did Kumena manage to find Orazca? Wasn't it magically hidden? I find it odd that if any merfolk could just find it at will, it remained a secret even from themselves for ao long.
Merfolk have always know the "general area" of Orazca, it's just societal doctrine among them to NOT find it and to make sure no one else can either. If they didn't have at least a rough idea of where it was located, they could have ended up accidentally directing a search party TO the city, instead of away from it.
Merfolk also have a far more direct connection with the land/plane of Ixalan than the other groups, so once Kumena took it upon himself to find Orazca it would have been relatively simple for him to locate it.
If anything it's more of a stretch that the others were able to find it so soon after he arrived. EDIT: Admittedly a giant Golden City rising up out of the jungle is about as unsubtle a clue as you get...
So, what happens if the Dino's win? Orazca becomes Jurassic Park ?
The Sun Empire gets a massive morale boost, the king/emperor guy uses that to fuel his expansionist ways and they force the River Heralds, Brazen Coalition and Legion of Dusk out. Mad with power and not content with ruling all of Ixalan (the continent) they sail for Torrezzon to wage war against the Legion of Dusk in Ixalan 2: Vampiric Bugaloo with the belief that it is their right/destiny to rule all of Ixalan (the plane).
So, I went for my daily check into the Geocashing... and I'm just not even going to bother anymore. All four factions have gained 100,000+ miles since I last checked (Maybe 16hours ago).
I just. I can't even reconcile the numbers I see currently with the numbers I've been seeing over the last couple days.
Merfolk have jumped from ~19k up to 137.2k (After having LOST 6,000 miles previously)
Vampires have jumped from ~47k up to 137.5k (After having LOST 2,000 and 3,000 miles on previous checks)
Pirates have jumped from ~37k up to 161.5k
and Dinosaurs have jumped from ~7k up to 171.3k
My mind went Azor but I don't think so. Maybe the bat god and/or Elenda?
Well, looking at the art of Azor, the Lawbringer and Sanctum of the Sphinx, the Immortal Sun is clearly on the ceiling, but Kumena describes it as being on the floor. That means that Azor's Sanctum is directly underneath the upper temple that Kumena was operating from. So it would make a lot of sense for Azor to be the voice. He could actually be just shouting at Kumena, no telepathic magic required.
Could be but it seems more of sinister presence. I think Azor is quite happy trying to protect the sun from what we know of him.
Interesting how Azor symbolically could stand in for both Jace and Vraska trauma, as a sphinx and founder of the Azorius.
Just in relation to the location of Azor's Sanctum; the story describes that there are two doors in the tower, a large one with a complicated lock, and the small one that Kumena used, which lead to a set of stairs up to the Immortal Sun platform. It's pretty obvious that the large door with a lock on it is then Azor's, which when combined with the Voice's insistence that Kumena "free [it]" plus Kumena's musings as to if Orazca is less of a Stronghold and more of a Prison inclines me to ask.... is Azor actually a prisoner in Orazca? And if so, who trapped him? Bolas? Is that how Bolas even knew about Ixalan?
To expand on this a bit, Agrus Kos, who was Boros not Orzhov, was 122 when he died which was about "retirement age." So Teysa still being fairly youngish looking at 112 (just 10 years younger than Kos' "I'm-too-old-for-this-ness") is the difference. Teysa being Orzhov extends her lifespan (or at least her youthfulness) beyond that of the typical Ravnican, but indications seem that Ravnican humans as a whole are longer lived than other humans across the multiverse.
I was the one who brought that up, but honestly I haven't bothered to check it since (I've already accepted that the Sun Empire will win). I dunno if I'd call it fixed exactly, I mean if they were rigging the race why draw attention to it by removing miles from factions instead of simply adding more miles to the "winner?" I would call it half-assed and inaccurate, though.
Honestly this is a problem for a lot of fictional universes, whether Fantastical or High Tech. *cough*Star Wars*cough*
Writers use big numbers because it sounds badass, but never stop to really consider the implications of said numbers.
Personally, it did the opposite for me, which is a shame cause I was really starting to like him.
Hipocracy is a surefire way to get me to hate a character and Jace's justifications absolutely felt hipocritical to me.
As an aside; can people please stop calling the guildpact a failed government. It really cheapens it when you consider that even with its flaws and the forces working against it it still lasted for Ten Thousand Years. Even the most successful civilization in all of recorded human history don't even comes close to that.
Honestly, this story made me mad. Like, literally mad.
I also agree that MTG's constant (in recent history) casting of the "government" (whatever form that body happens to take) as the enemy is really tiresome.
Honestly, from a logic point of view I'm fine with the Sun Empire getting Orazca. They're honestly the only faction that it would make sense to occupy it. Pirates have no use for a landlocked city, if anything they would just loot it then leave. The Legion of Dusk wasn't after the city in the first place, and its inland location would cut it off from reinforcement and make it indefensible for them anyhow. The River Heralds have no real use for the city, and ultimately when the Immortal Sun is removed they really have no reason to waste their effort hiding it any longer. Orazca really ceases to be relevant to them.
Only the Sun Empire has any reason to actually WANT Orazca.
From a more subjective, emotional point of view though I just don't want them to get it for no other reason than that I don't like them.
Yeah. IIRC, the only werewolf he was able to directly affect was the newly turned one. The others were too far from human for him to be able to manipulate. He mostly just threw illusions at them (that they largely saw through cause they lacked scent) and ran (rode his horse) to safety.
Alison Luhrs has already stated that he's from a plane we haven't been to before. Clicky
This is the sense that I got from her part in the story. I fully expect any return to Ixalan to feature a schism, or possibly even all out civil war, within the Legion of Dusk (The Queen and current church VS Elenda and some sort of Reformationist sect (possibly including Mavren Fein, since he seemed to be a big time Elenda fanboy)).
If the Sun Empire claims Orazca (as it look like they will from the geocache), and they go on an expansionist push like I've speculated before, and the LoD in Torrezon is fractured, that could be used as a reason for the pirates to try and reclaim the Free Cities... then we'd only need a reason for the River Heralds to be on Torrezon...
A good question. I think she would either have to broaden her dinosaur magics to include other animal types (more general "Beast/animal magic"), or focus more on her martial training and combat magics (which would end up making her even more generic, imo [yay r/w does... combat magic.. woo]).
For the purpose of the geocaching event, they really are. Dinosaurs are not a unique faction unto their own, they're a part of the Sun Empire. "Dinosaurs" is just shorthand in the same vein that "Merfolk" means "River Heralds," "Vampires" is "The Legion of Dusk," and "Pirates" is "The Brazen Coalition." Semantics.
Merfolk have always know the "general area" of Orazca, it's just societal doctrine among them to NOT find it and to make sure no one else can either. If they didn't have at least a rough idea of where it was located, they could have ended up accidentally directing a search party TO the city, instead of away from it.
Merfolk also have a far more direct connection with the land/plane of Ixalan than the other groups, so once Kumena took it upon himself to find Orazca it would have been relatively simple for him to locate it.
If anything it's more of a stretch that the others were able to find it so soon after he arrived. EDIT: Admittedly a giant Golden City rising up out of the jungle is about as unsubtle a clue as you get...
The Sun Empire gets a massive morale boost, the king/emperor guy uses that to fuel his expansionist ways and they force the River Heralds, Brazen Coalition and Legion of Dusk out. Mad with power and not content with ruling all of Ixalan (the continent) they sail for Torrezzon to wage war against the Legion of Dusk in Ixalan 2: Vampiric Bugaloo with the belief that it is their right/destiny to rule all of Ixalan (the plane).
I just. I can't even reconcile the numbers I see currently with the numbers I've been seeing over the last couple days.
Merfolk have jumped from ~19k up to 137.2k (After having LOST 6,000 miles previously)
Vampires have jumped from ~47k up to 137.5k (After having LOST 2,000 and 3,000 miles on previous checks)
Pirates have jumped from ~37k up to 161.5k
and Dinosaurs have jumped from ~7k up to 171.3k
Just in relation to the location of Azor's Sanctum; the story describes that there are two doors in the tower, a large one with a complicated lock, and the small one that Kumena used, which lead to a set of stairs up to the Immortal Sun platform. It's pretty obvious that the large door with a lock on it is then Azor's, which when combined with the Voice's insistence that Kumena "free [it]" plus Kumena's musings as to if Orazca is less of a Stronghold and more of a Prison inclines me to ask.... is Azor actually a prisoner in Orazca? And if so, who trapped him? Bolas? Is that how Bolas even knew about Ixalan?