I certainly hope it's Tibalt, since I think it would be wonderful (and likely hilarious) to bring him back, but I'm not prepared yet to say that it's "almost certainly" him.
You've convinced me, Jay! That's some excellent sleuthing.
EDIT TO ADD: Does it also strike anyone that Ixalan seems to some extent to be reviving some of the flavor of pre-Eldrazi Zendikar? It's bringing back the themes of exploration and archaeology that came up in the original Zendikar set and got so abruptly cut off by the Eldrazi sets. I like that, as I've always wished that Zendikar could have remained primarily Adventuring Party World rather than turning into Kaiju Apocalypse World.
Hm, the Ugin theory intrigues me. In narrative structural terms, it's probably about due time for him to get brought back into the story. I think it comports with some more general, less controversial clues we have about Ixalan's Binding:
Because it takes the form of a specific symbol, it seems to be a deliberately engineered/created magical effect, rather than simply being a natural phenomenon.
The similarities between the symbol and the Sun Empire and Dusk Legion symbols indicates that it is likely the symbol of the Immortal Sun artifact, as Jay and SEV cleverly illustrate. That makes perfect sense for narrative economy, as the discovery and use/destruction/whatever of the Immortal Sun can serve as the resolution to both the inter-factional conflict and the planeswalker binding conflict at the same time.
It seems very likely that the creator of the barrier would have had to know about planeswalkers and been powerful enough to control their powers, which implies that it was created by a planeswalker. Both the timeline and the level of power involved indicate a pre-Mending Oldwalker.
I find the relationship between the shape of the sigil and Ugin's Eldrazi binding symbol persuasive, but not definitively so. It's true that they are both visually similar and related to similar phenomena, i.e. binding interplanar entities to a particular plane.
However, I could see the similarity possibly arising merely from similar art design principles rather than by intentional choice. It's possible that WotC art direction simply thinks of triangle/circle combinations as the image of binding magic. It is a fairly generic geometric configuration with some real-world analogues (think of triangular warning signs on American roads, for example). I think this explains the Azorius sigil similarities, as the triangle/circle shapes were originally chosen for that guild to abstractly express their sense of order and constraint. I'll bet we could find some other examples in Magic art with that associated flavor and art design (a quick Gatherer search on "bind" turns up Custodi Soulbinders with their symbol staves, or a bit more subtly on Spatial Binding and Thoughtbind).
It will be interesting if they eventually reveal an Ugin connection. I hope they do, as it could be a fun way to tie Ixalan more into the larger multiverse's narrative structure.
Creative is struggling as it is. Like yes I want more of these planes but lets let creative have a few hours to sleep, yeah?
Lol, for real. With the recent push into all media, they're definitely understaffed. They lost Mel Li and Michael Yichao within a few months of each other, and Chris L'Etoile's contract ran out in that timeframe, too. Amonkhet was basically the Alison Luhrs show (which was not a bad thing at all).
From what she said during the Ixalan podcast episode last week, it sounds like the Ixalan storyline is pretty much all her, too. I think she's pretty good that that job, but there are limits to what anybody can do based on time and energy. I'd be worried about burnout if I were responsible for that office.
So while I do think it would be more fun to see more expansive takes on planes, it would have to be done in a manner that doesn't add workload on top of the existing burden on Creative. Personally, I think the most reasonable technique would be to simply design more varied card sets, but that runs into potential gameplay issues that Wizards might not want to deal with. My impression is that Wizards is pretty happy with the set design principles that they're following right now, and probably would be hesitant to change that just to make worldbuilding a little more interesting.
Hope this isn't still considered off-topic, but I'm happy to have a variety of different "sizes" of worlds with different scopes. I don't mind Amonkhet being small, or Dominaria being huge, or Tarkir being medium-sized, or whatever, if those differences highlight important things about the plane and lead to interesting set design. "Size" should be an important quality of every plane, and it ought to vary as much as the planes themselves do.
Which brings me back to what I've been saying about Dominaria: its most wonderful distinguishing quality is that it *is* larger, more varied, and more deeply-developed than any other plane. That's what makes it stand out. Of all the planes, Dominaria is the most "kitchen sink" fantasy setting, not limited by any one particular focus. That's something I love about it. And that's why I hope that diversity and scope are a major theme of the Return set.
I agree with Flisch that the setting comes off as too mish-mashy. It's all right with me, though, since I wasn't really so pumped about any one element that I'm disappointed about the lack of focus.
Are we coming at the vampires/Black Legend thing from the wrong angle? Am I the only one who thinks that the Dusk Legion is actually pretty sympathetic? They try to control their natural bloodlust, channel it into positive directions, and are hoping to find a way to spread the gift of immortality to everybody without the curse of vampirism. I mean, this isn't the Voldarens or the Sengir; these guys are pretty okay by vampire standards.
So, since the development name for Mathas, Fiend Seeker was apparently "Van Sengirsing, Bounty Hunter," what do we think the chances are that Mathas is from Ulgrotha, and the vampires he's branding are Sengir Vampires? His appearance, clothing and background don't seem to preclude this possibility.
With some super sexy pre-Guildpact Ravnican dragon babe, obvs.
Well, she was super sexy, as noted above. And heck, maybe Bolas figured it could be nice to actually have a competent minion for a change sometime in the future.
But what about -- and just hear me out here, don't rush to judgment -- what if, actually, Yes?
I really don't like to be negative, I appreciate getting podcasts instead of getting nothing, but I'm afraid I have to agree with a lot of the criticisms of these podcasts. I want to be constructive, though.
I feel like just taking a few more minutes to prep for them would have sorted out a lot of the problems. The incomplete Hellkite list was a perfect example. Like, how does that even happen? It takes a 10-second Gatherer search. Same thing for Wasitora. If you're gonna just read something, read the dang MTG Wiki page, it's way more interesting than just the basic blurb from the product. And it's more likely to be stuff that new players haven't heard before, and therefore interesting. Or at least you'll know what plane Madara is on.
Whoever is producing these podcasts needs to learn a simple principle of management: know your team's strengths and weaknesses, and design your production to address them. I don't blame Alison for not having an encyclopedic knowledge of Magic lore from before she started working there, but I do think it's fair to blame Wizards for putting her in a position where that lack of knowledge impedes her from making a good podcast. Let's not leave Blake out of this, either. Maybe if you had two hosts on the podcast who had different areas of lore knowledge, it could be fun to hear them explain things to each other. But it seems like Blake and Alison have pretty similar interests and focuses. So when neither Blake nor Alison have anything to say about something besides "We don't know," or reading a little blurb that we could go read ourselves -- that's not good podcasting.
Maybe we can help Wizards out by reimagining what a good podcast would be like, given the strengths and weaknesses of the talent they have. Let's assume that Blake and Alison are the only ones with the time to expend significant effort on the podcasts, so they'll still be the hosts. What's been working so far? Well, I thought their conversation about Kamigawa was entertaining. I enjoy their enthusiasm and sense of joy whenever they're discussing things that are actually in their wheelhouse, and in adding new bits and details to their knowledge. That energy and inquisitiveness is their big strength.
But on the weakness side, there's a lot of stuff that they don't know. How do we design around that fact? Well, maybe that's actually an opportunity. What if they could ask a question that neither knows the answer to, then cut away to a five-second interview of somebody else at Wizards who *does* know the answer, and can help them out? We can learn along with Blake and Alison. That might be really fun. They could also prep a few "obscure facts" for each topic, that they research beforehand. And maybe invite audience feedback to expand on those facts. I think that would be a better podcast, more engaging for both old lore fans and new baby Vorthoses.
Right, so in summary: flying laser battleships yes, electrical super scientists yes, genetic engineering yes, basically the Borg from Star Trek yes, guns no.
In fairness, I can understand that aesthetic choice, even if I don't really agree with it.
Definitely a Serran vibe here, and the New Order of Serra is a good guess. After all, Serran populace used to live in Benalia. But given the time that has passed, and that Serra's Realm collapsed so long ago, it is interesting to find out that there is someone who remembered how it looked like, and in addition, undertook the effort actually to recreate it. On the other hands, angels are effectivaly immortal, so why not...
And I would be mildly disappointed if there is a "hey, there were Serrans in Benalia, so they just built a piece of old home" "explanation", for reasons stated above.
This, however, begs a question: Are we therefore doing a Dominarian nostalgia set again? And would it work this time, with lessons learned from Time Spiral? Shall we expect the most known visual motifs (for example the typical Llanowar attire, etc.) to return as well?
Well, isn't 11 years a long enough gap between nostalgia sets?
And seeing as the Time Spiral block is my all-time favorite Magic block, I hope the biggest lesson they learn from it is, "More of that."
I think that the similarities could all be chalked up to them both being Blue, Red and Dragons, with no need of direct relation. On the other hand, Bolas not having any offspring throughout the Multiverse would be weird.
Yeah, like I mentioned, that's probably true -- but wouldn't it make for an amazing reveal in the third Ravnica block?
And one treat from the crazy bag: The whole plane is overrun by Homarids, and the Gatewatch has to deal with a Homarid planeswalker to save the whole plane from being turned into one giant lobster colony.
Need a new Planeswalker? Why not Zoidberg?
This would make my day. They do need more planeswalkers that are from less anthropomorphic species.
I actually very much hope it's mostly a fanservice/low-stakes plot set. Much as I enjoyed Amonkhet, I'm a bit worn out on epic world-threatening apocalypses, and god knows the residents of Dominaria are, too.
Great write-up. I've been an advocate of the Lim-Dul theory for a long time, but this is far more evidence than I've ever seen before for it. I'm really hoping that the Dominaria set gives us the big reveal. It would be a fabulous payoff for all of us old-time Vorthoses.
I'm especially intrigued by the possible connection between Lim-Dul and Nicol Bolas's army of Eternals. I could certainly see Bolas making a deal with Lim-Dul to open the way for him to dominate his host in exchange for the promise of service as a general. And Bolas was brokering those demonic pacts fairly soon after he first set up his plan for Amonkhet, too...
Do we know the time period for Liliana's initial meeting with the Raven Man and planeswalker ascension? Could it have been during or immediately after the last time Lim-Dul was known to be active on Dominaria?
EDIT TO ADD: Does it also strike anyone that Ixalan seems to some extent to be reviving some of the flavor of pre-Eldrazi Zendikar? It's bringing back the themes of exploration and archaeology that came up in the original Zendikar set and got so abruptly cut off by the Eldrazi sets. I like that, as I've always wished that Zendikar could have remained primarily Adventuring Party World rather than turning into Kaiju Apocalypse World.
- Because it takes the form of a specific symbol, it seems to be a deliberately engineered/created magical effect, rather than simply being a natural phenomenon.
- The similarities between the symbol and the Sun Empire and Dusk Legion symbols indicates that it is likely the symbol of the Immortal Sun artifact, as Jay and SEV cleverly illustrate. That makes perfect sense for narrative economy, as the discovery and use/destruction/whatever of the Immortal Sun can serve as the resolution to both the inter-factional conflict and the planeswalker binding conflict at the same time.
- It seems very likely that the creator of the barrier would have had to know about planeswalkers and been powerful enough to control their powers, which implies that it was created by a planeswalker. Both the timeline and the level of power involved indicate a pre-Mending Oldwalker.
I find the relationship between the shape of the sigil and Ugin's Eldrazi binding symbol persuasive, but not definitively so. It's true that they are both visually similar and related to similar phenomena, i.e. binding interplanar entities to a particular plane.However, I could see the similarity possibly arising merely from similar art design principles rather than by intentional choice. It's possible that WotC art direction simply thinks of triangle/circle combinations as the image of binding magic. It is a fairly generic geometric configuration with some real-world analogues (think of triangular warning signs on American roads, for example). I think this explains the Azorius sigil similarities, as the triangle/circle shapes were originally chosen for that guild to abstractly express their sense of order and constraint. I'll bet we could find some other examples in Magic art with that associated flavor and art design (a quick Gatherer search on "bind" turns up Custodi Soulbinders with their symbol staves, or a bit more subtly on Spatial Binding and Thoughtbind).
It will be interesting if they eventually reveal an Ugin connection. I hope they do, as it could be a fun way to tie Ixalan more into the larger multiverse's narrative structure.
From what she said during the Ixalan podcast episode last week, it sounds like the Ixalan storyline is pretty much all her, too. I think she's pretty good that that job, but there are limits to what anybody can do based on time and energy. I'd be worried about burnout if I were responsible for that office.
So while I do think it would be more fun to see more expansive takes on planes, it would have to be done in a manner that doesn't add workload on top of the existing burden on Creative. Personally, I think the most reasonable technique would be to simply design more varied card sets, but that runs into potential gameplay issues that Wizards might not want to deal with. My impression is that Wizards is pretty happy with the set design principles that they're following right now, and probably would be hesitant to change that just to make worldbuilding a little more interesting.
Which brings me back to what I've been saying about Dominaria: its most wonderful distinguishing quality is that it *is* larger, more varied, and more deeply-developed than any other plane. That's what makes it stand out. Of all the planes, Dominaria is the most "kitchen sink" fantasy setting, not limited by any one particular focus. That's something I love about it. And that's why I hope that diversity and scope are a major theme of the Return set.
Are we coming at the vampires/Black Legend thing from the wrong angle? Am I the only one who thinks that the Dusk Legion is actually pretty sympathetic? They try to control their natural bloodlust, channel it into positive directions, and are hoping to find a way to spread the gift of immortality to everybody without the curse of vampirism. I mean, this isn't the Voldarens or the Sengir; these guys are pretty okay by vampire standards.
I feel like just taking a few more minutes to prep for them would have sorted out a lot of the problems. The incomplete Hellkite list was a perfect example. Like, how does that even happen? It takes a 10-second Gatherer search. Same thing for Wasitora. If you're gonna just read something, read the dang MTG Wiki page, it's way more interesting than just the basic blurb from the product. And it's more likely to be stuff that new players haven't heard before, and therefore interesting. Or at least you'll know what plane Madara is on.
Whoever is producing these podcasts needs to learn a simple principle of management: know your team's strengths and weaknesses, and design your production to address them. I don't blame Alison for not having an encyclopedic knowledge of Magic lore from before she started working there, but I do think it's fair to blame Wizards for putting her in a position where that lack of knowledge impedes her from making a good podcast. Let's not leave Blake out of this, either. Maybe if you had two hosts on the podcast who had different areas of lore knowledge, it could be fun to hear them explain things to each other. But it seems like Blake and Alison have pretty similar interests and focuses. So when neither Blake nor Alison have anything to say about something besides "We don't know," or reading a little blurb that we could go read ourselves -- that's not good podcasting.
Maybe we can help Wizards out by reimagining what a good podcast would be like, given the strengths and weaknesses of the talent they have. Let's assume that Blake and Alison are the only ones with the time to expend significant effort on the podcasts, so they'll still be the hosts. What's been working so far? Well, I thought their conversation about Kamigawa was entertaining. I enjoy their enthusiasm and sense of joy whenever they're discussing things that are actually in their wheelhouse, and in adding new bits and details to their knowledge. That energy and inquisitiveness is their big strength.
But on the weakness side, there's a lot of stuff that they don't know. How do we design around that fact? Well, maybe that's actually an opportunity. What if they could ask a question that neither knows the answer to, then cut away to a five-second interview of somebody else at Wizards who *does* know the answer, and can help them out? We can learn along with Blake and Alison. That might be really fun. They could also prep a few "obscure facts" for each topic, that they research beforehand. And maybe invite audience feedback to expand on those facts. I think that would be a better podcast, more engaging for both old lore fans and new baby Vorthoses.
In fairness, I can understand that aesthetic choice, even if I don't really agree with it.
Well, isn't 11 years a long enough gap between nostalgia sets?
And seeing as the Time Spiral block is my all-time favorite Magic block, I hope the biggest lesson they learn from it is, "More of that."
Yeah, like I mentioned, that's probably true -- but wouldn't it make for an amazing reveal in the third Ravnica block?
This would make my day. They do need more planeswalkers that are from less anthropomorphic species.
I actually very much hope it's mostly a fanservice/low-stakes plot set. Much as I enjoyed Amonkhet, I'm a bit worn out on epic world-threatening apocalypses, and god knows the residents of Dominaria are, too.