FYI: The Amonkhet plane page is up on the website. Most notable are the small legendary creature bios which give us a little more info on these characters. I find it interesting that Samut discovered the truth about Amonkhet's past while studying dance. :/
So I've wracked my brain and can't figure out who Liliana is talking about here. "We only kill ugly things, then? Because the short one, he would've still qualified." Who is the short one? Am I missing something?
I feel like it might be quite too early to be judging Baral as a character. We haven't seen enough of him or learned his motivations and I expect that we will get much more characterization for him.
Oh man this story just keeps getting better and better! I mean, yes, we all knew that Pia would end up being alive, but I didn't expect for them to reveal it so soon. And Tezzeret! Tezzeret has always been one of my absolute favorite characters and I am so excited that he's back. I really wanted Tezzeret to show up in last week's story but I figured that that was just me dreaming, but here he is, so soon. I highly doubt he'll have a card in this set but most likely will in Aether Revolt. Looks like our antagonist has been revealed already. I can't wait to find out more about this rivalry between Pia (who seems to be the leader of the renegade movement) and Tezz (who somehow is the head judge at the fair?) Also, the fact that Liliana is there and can wrap up some unfinished business with Tezzeret is awesome. Can't wait for Wednesday! (hoping we still get a second story this week)
Yawgmoth is a god given brilliant researcher and probably one of the smartest characters ever to grace mtg story. He isn't some random on a random plane which had accidentally stumbled upon the technology that can allow you to travel from plane to plane.
Yawgmoth is absolutely a random person on a random plane. Everybody is.
Also this wasn't "stumbled across" by any stretch of the imagination, nor, as has been mentioned is it a planar portal.
You can't honestly believe that a random had discovered but other genius characters like Niv Mizzet or Jin-Gitaxias haven't. That's just stupid.
Niv Mizzet and Jin-Gitaxis don't have access to aether or to centuries of Kaladeshish research and development in magictech. Not to mention that brilliant insights can totally come from apparently random people, like say a patent clerk or a dirt poor kid from the slums of Madras.
Niv Mizzet already knows that planeswalkers exist and, thus, that other planes exist as well. As 5colors had mentioned, Boros had tried to make a planar traveling ship and failed. Niv might not be interested in researching other planes but that would be extremely uncharacteristic of him considering the fact that he has taken interested in planeswalkers. Niv is already portrayed as one of the smartest beings alive. The idea that he can't create a planar portal but some random can is silly. Niv doesn't have access to centuries of research and development? Niv is 15,000 years old. Imagine the things that he had already discovered and the research that he had already done. Also, according to our own wikia, Niv Mizzet is apparently omniscient (somehow).
Based upon the story Project Lightning Bug, Niv does not know of the existence of Planeswalkers, though he may be close to finding out.
Ok so I really loved and enjoyed this story. Kreines has really grown as a writer and I was genuinely interested and engaged throughout the whole thing. I think this is partly because I already love the bright and optimistic world of Kaladesh. In this story, there was no big bad or villainous force to overcome...it was simply about two inventors trying to finish their invention in order to get it submitted into the Inventor's fair.
I loved the relationship between Rashmi and Mitul. Their friendship and interactions were really sweet and they were very enjoyable characters. I also loved the introduction of Saheeli, who I already knew I would enjoy as a character. Once again, I appreciate that we still have not met any villains and are not aware of who the antagonist will be. This lighter tone, for now, is quite refreshing after a year of some pretty dark stories. Though there was some pretty ominous foreshadowing with Saheeli's reservations regarding Rashmi's matter transporter.
Agree entirely. I hope that Rashmi and Mitul get a card, I really like them as characters. And they seem to be important to a major plot point. Also love the difference in tone, so tired of the heavy drama. I really hope Kaladesh is a bit more light.
I think at least Rashmi will get a card, seeing as she had a wallpaper on the site on Wednesday. A Rashmi and Mitul duo card would be fun, but we already have solo art for Rashmi.
My guess re: Dovin not knowing what happened to the Nalaars is that, twelve years ago, there was a cover-up by the old regime in regards to what happened. Because in a perfect intricate cogwork country like Kaladesh, the idea that a 10 year old girl could:
- Be sentenced to death.
- Escape her execution.
- And do so by lighting the entire arena on fire in a giant blaze of glory.
Would not go over well with civilians. Rewriting the immediate history to say that she, and her parents, died in the countryside, would just be a cleaner story on paper. Since Dovin mentioned a regime change, and that the Consul investigator on the case had gone rogue, he might not be aware of how such things could happen. Because no part of what Chandra did would look good in the records, and Kaladesh is exactly the sort of place to erase such records.
My expectation is that neither the Consul nor the renegades will be painted strictly as good or evil. Just guided by different ideals of importance.
With the renegades doing dubious things like 'robot pokemon battles' which is such an unsightly use of artificer might, that obviously the Consul is fun police, but some of the renegades might be taking it further than just acting out for themselves.
This is what I was thinking too. Sounds like a cover up to me. I really think that Dovin is going to end up being a good character which again makes me wonder who the antagonist will be. I was REALLY hoping for Tezzeret to appear out of the shadows in this last story, observing Rashmi display her matter transportation device, with a villainous smirk on his face.
So this was my first time ever reading a Magic story. I enjoyed it for the most part. But I'm hearing a lot of backlash (on here but mostly other forums) about the quality of the writing and the "sitcom" vibe. Is the writing style of this one drastically different from that of previous stories? Was this a bad place to jump in?
I think this is great place to jump in, actually. The quality of the stories, IMO, has greatly improved. I don't think anyone is knocking the quality of this story, per se, just the inconsistency of characterization. Still, I loved "Homesick" and if you're looking to jump in, Homesick was actually the perfect story to pop in on as it shows off all 5 Gatewatch members and introduces us to the next big story arch.
Ok so I really loved and enjoyed this story. Kreines has really grown as a writer and I was genuinely interested and engaged throughout the whole thing. I think this is partly because I already love the bright and optimistic world of Kaladesh. In this story, there was no big bad or villainous force to overcome...it was simply about two inventors trying to finish their invention in order to get it submitted into the Inventor's fair.
I loved the relationship between Rashmi and Mitul. Their friendship and interactions were really sweet and they were very enjoyable characters. I also loved the introduction of Saheeli, who I already knew I would enjoy as a character. Once again, I appreciate that we still have not met any villains and are not aware of who the antagonist will be. This lighter tone, for now, is quite refreshing after a year of some pretty dark stories. Though there was some pretty ominous foreshadowing with Saheeli's reservations regarding Rashmi's matter transporter.
It's both interesting and amusing that the two most frequent comments I've seen regarding Chandra's inner monologue are:
1) This is ridiculous, nobody actually talks or acts like this.
2) This is a perfectly accurate depiction of myself.
The problem, for me, is not that no one acts like that. It's that Chandra has never been written that way in the 8 years that she has existed as a character. She felt like a caricature of herself. They all kinda did. You know how Marvel has done Teen Avenger spin-off comics that are lighter and more domestic? It felt like that.
So it turns out that Chris L'Etoile is not a Wizards staffer, but a writer who wrote much of the story for the Mass Effect games. Is this evidence that Wizards may be starting to look to outsource some of their stories to more experienced writers?
I for one, mostly, really enjoyed L'Etoile's style, although it took me a few minutes to get used to. He is great with dialogue and at making the characters all feel distinct, while giving you insight into their thought processes through first person POV narrative.
However I felt that he was quite over the top with some of his characterizations. Jace and Gideon seemed mostly on par with their past representations, though Gideon may have been portrayed as slightly goofier than normal. I did love the continuation of the Shoulder Clap story-arch, though. I can see how spending three months with people can cause you to care about them, but last we saw Liliana she was all "manipulation and deceit", but now she seems to care for the Gatewatch, especially Chandra whom she treats like a little sister.
My biggest gripe, though, is with his portrayal of Chandra and Nissa. Chandra has always been hot-tempered and shot off at the mouth, but in this story she comes off as an immature 13 year old. Her inner-processing was actually quite cute and charming, but a lot of her dialogue was downright childish. Consulate butt...really? And Nissa was completely strange and her thought process was almost alien-like. Now, maybe this is how she should have been all along. Maybe that's the problem. Nissa's portrayal has never been met with high acclaim, so maybe this is the Nissa we all don't know that we want.
All that said, I thought the story was mostly great. It was long and it is always nice to see our characters react to each other in non-emergency situations. This almost felt like Gatewatch: The Sitcom, but in the best way. The scene with Chandra showing up to the table with a cinnamon bun in her mouth was hilarious.
Dovin is a fascinating new character, with an equally interesting skill set. It will remain to be seen how this may be explored and exploited in the future. It'll be interesting to see how Saheeli fits in the mix. It was also cool to have Vraska and her machinations brought back into the fold. I wonder if this will be a plot point for the near future or if this was just a way to keep Gideon and Jace from going to Kaladesh.
So it seems that our Planeswalker lineup for Kaladesh so far is: Chandra, Dovin, Liliana, Nissa, and Saheeli. I wonder if they will all be getting cards and what other PW's might show up...
Man, Innistrad has to be the worst place in the Multiverse to be right now. It was already almost as bad as New Phyrexia and Grixis… but with Emrakul there now? Pushes it over the edge as absolute worst.
I think you're 100% right about how bad Innistrad is right now; Emrakul Rises made the state of the plane seem downright apocalyptic. But I think people tend to greatly overestimate how bad a place Innistrad probably is to live under normal circumstances.
I assume that the stories of terror and death are relatively exceptional events, like the farmer down the road never came back from a trip through Kessig last year, your cousin says he knows a guy who fell prey to a mad scientist's demented experiment, and you saw a ghost one time when you were a kid, but the leading cause of death is still old age. I think that has to be the case for a few reasons:
- People seem to live relatively normal lives. Maybe they're fastidious about superstitions and careful not to go into the woods at night and committed to decking their homes out with Avacynian wards, but the denizens of Innistrad clearly aren't living like the characters on The Walking Dead. They keep tidy homes and wear fancy hats and are sometimes taken unawares by things that go bump in the night, which implies that most people don't live in a constant state of mortal fear.
- The civilization has a complex social structure, with noble titles and an aristocracy, and at least some well-established trade networks and urban centers. That kind of social complexity suggests a level of stability and security that indicates day-to-day life isn't a nightmarish struggle for survival for most people, at least in long-settled cities, townships, and farmsteads. Even the lower social classes can't be too badly off, except maybe in the hinterlands, or they couldn't be productive enough to support the wealth of the upper classes.
- The level of technological development suggests that struggling for survival is not a typical lifestyle. To have sailing ships, precision clockwork, sophisticated architecture, and fine glasswork for quality lenses, you need whole castes of artisans and scholars to create those things, as well as consumers for those creations, none of which can really be subsistence farmers fending off constant werewolf attacks.
- Finally, it just wouldn't be genre-appropriate for Innistrad to be all horror all the time. Places like New Phyrexia or Grixis aren't really horror settings, they're post-apocalyptic settings. To be an appropriate setting for a variety of horror stories, Innistrad needs to be able to provide most people with a baseline of "normal life" to be interrupted by horrific happenings.
That's the impression I get as well. I actually think normal Innistrad would be quite a pleasant place to live, so long as you had the proper precautions. Judging by the original basic lands, it certainly is a beautiful place. The only people who I think actually have to live in perpetual mortal fear are the residents of Stesnia, who are the cattle for vampires. That being said, even the larger settlements in that region are probably relatively secure. Bad things happen, but both times we've visited the plane, the Dark Ascension and Eldritch Moon, have been levels way above the baseline average.
I agree, but I think "pleasant" might be pushing it. All in all, though, I think it would be kinda cool to live on Innistrad. Normal Innistrad.
Really digging the new name. So juicy and flavorful. Thanks. I appreciate it.
As for what I want to see? Let me think about that.
Thanks! Yeah I figured that Tamiyo is the most Vorthosy of all the Planeswalkers...she literally keeps archives of stories in her back pocket...so it made sense to name the blog after her.
I do think Tezzeret will be present on the plane, and maybe having a bigger role in the revolt. The antagonist that he is, maybe influencing the council to strike down the peasants? And Chandra as revolt champion for the small people?
I really like to think that the revolt is tied to the killing of the Eldrazi titans on Zendikar though, to already prove Ugin right, but maybe that will happen later with a different impact anyway.
Considering they already wasted Emerakul on Innistrad I would hope they wait a year or two before tugging that plot thread.
They've said that they're consciously trying to tie the blocks together in a consistent narrative, so I imagine Eldritch Moon will in some lead into Kaladesh, similarly to how OGW led to SOI. Although I can't imagine how at the moment.
Just out of curiosity, is there any chance you could change the name to something other than "charting"? I ask because it sounds a little like something related to map-making, which is kinda my thing. It would be fine if you were doing maps or stuff as well, but since your more focused on lore, I wouldn't want readers to get confused and such.
Ah ha, touché. I created and named the blog months ago when the official stories were still called Uncharted Realms, hence the name. I have no problem changing the name. Let me ponder what it could be.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/story/planes/amonkhet
Based upon the story Project Lightning Bug, Niv does not know of the existence of Planeswalkers, though he may be close to finding out.
I think at least Rashmi will get a card, seeing as she had a wallpaper on the site on Wednesday. A Rashmi and Mitul duo card would be fun, but we already have solo art for Rashmi.
This is what I was thinking too. Sounds like a cover up to me. I really think that Dovin is going to end up being a good character which again makes me wonder who the antagonist will be. I was REALLY hoping for Tezzeret to appear out of the shadows in this last story, observing Rashmi display her matter transportation device, with a villainous smirk on his face.
I think this is great place to jump in, actually. The quality of the stories, IMO, has greatly improved. I don't think anyone is knocking the quality of this story, per se, just the inconsistency of characterization. Still, I loved "Homesick" and if you're looking to jump in, Homesick was actually the perfect story to pop in on as it shows off all 5 Gatewatch members and introduces us to the next big story arch.
I loved the relationship between Rashmi and Mitul. Their friendship and interactions were really sweet and they were very enjoyable characters. I also loved the introduction of Saheeli, who I already knew I would enjoy as a character. Once again, I appreciate that we still have not met any villains and are not aware of who the antagonist will be. This lighter tone, for now, is quite refreshing after a year of some pretty dark stories. Though there was some pretty ominous foreshadowing with Saheeli's reservations regarding Rashmi's matter transporter.
The problem, for me, is not that no one acts like that. It's that Chandra has never been written that way in the 8 years that she has existed as a character. She felt like a caricature of herself. They all kinda did. You know how Marvel has done Teen Avenger spin-off comics that are lighter and more domestic? It felt like that.
I for one, mostly, really enjoyed L'Etoile's style, although it took me a few minutes to get used to. He is great with dialogue and at making the characters all feel distinct, while giving you insight into their thought processes through first person POV narrative.
However I felt that he was quite over the top with some of his characterizations. Jace and Gideon seemed mostly on par with their past representations, though Gideon may have been portrayed as slightly goofier than normal. I did love the continuation of the Shoulder Clap story-arch, though.
My biggest gripe, though, is with his portrayal of Chandra and Nissa. Chandra has always been hot-tempered and shot off at the mouth, but in this story she comes off as an immature 13 year old. Her inner-processing was actually quite cute and charming, but a lot of her dialogue was downright childish. Consulate butt...really? And Nissa was completely strange and her thought process was almost alien-like. Now, maybe this is how she should have been all along. Maybe that's the problem. Nissa's portrayal has never been met with high acclaim, so maybe this is the Nissa we all don't know that we want.
All that said, I thought the story was mostly great. It was long and it is always nice to see our characters react to each other in non-emergency situations. This almost felt like Gatewatch: The Sitcom, but in the best way. The scene with Chandra showing up to the table with a cinnamon bun in her mouth was hilarious.
Dovin is a fascinating new character, with an equally interesting skill set. It will remain to be seen how this may be explored and exploited in the future. It'll be interesting to see how Saheeli fits in the mix. It was also cool to have Vraska and her machinations brought back into the fold. I wonder if this will be a plot point for the near future or if this was just a way to keep Gideon and Jace from going to Kaladesh.
So it seems that our Planeswalker lineup for Kaladesh so far is: Chandra, Dovin, Liliana, Nissa, and Saheeli. I wonder if they will all be getting cards and what other PW's might show up...
I agree, but I think "pleasant" might be pushing it. All in all, though, I think it would be kinda cool to live on Innistrad. Normal Innistrad.
Thanks! Yeah I figured that Tamiyo is the most Vorthosy of all the Planeswalkers...she literally keeps archives of stories in her back pocket...so it made sense to name the blog after her.
They've said that they're consciously trying to tie the blocks together in a consistent narrative, so I imagine Eldritch Moon will in some lead into Kaladesh, similarly to how OGW led to SOI. Although I can't imagine how at the moment.
Would love feedback!
PS. I was re-blogged by the official Wizards Tumblr today, which was pretty sweet!
Ah ha, touché. I created and named the blog months ago when the official stories were still called Uncharted Realms, hence the name. I have no problem changing the name. Let me ponder what it could be.
Thanks! If you have ideas for what I can do, please let me know.