Loved Dissension.
Just to make sure, Ravnica is flat, right? It makes reference to the northwest poll and such, so I figured that it would probably be flat. If so, what does the edge look like?
There probablly will be no edge... just land and sea stretching infinitely.
@DZ: There are ghosts from all guilds there, so most likely, there will be guilds for the ghosts
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There probablly will be no edge... just land and sea stretching infinitely.
Then how could there be poles? Or were the edges just "folded up" when the guildpact was signed to make the plane small enough to entirely be controlled by the Guildpact.
I understand that Szadek becomes a spirit but is it normal for a vampire to become a ghost? Don't vampires(and similar creatures) essentialy trade afterlife for undeath? Is it because of Ravnica's special conditions, or is Szadek a different kind of vampire anyway?
This is tied to the special conditions on Ravnica that create a "closed system," if you will. Even vampires leave ghosts behind when they "die."
Quote from dragon »
Why were all of the blue guilds evil? Dimir, the ultimate evil. Izzet and their Zomaj Hauj or however you spell it. Simic and Vig's dastardly plans, and then the ultimate Azorius evil...what's with blue being so evil?
It's all a matter of perspective.
In my mind, blue is the color of control. People who must control things are as corruptible as the next people, but when you throw magic into the mix, it naturally corrupts even faster (again, as I see it).
But is that necessarily *evil*? I look at the guilds of Ravnica and can see where they're all guilty of some things that we would think of as somewhat nasty, even if they see them as justified. The very existence and use of the Quietmen, to name one example, or the readiness of many Wojeks to carry out sentences on guildless lawbreakers right there on the street. Even the Rakdos have what they think are well-founded reasons to do what they do.
Quote from turnip_song »
Who, or what, was the Simic Parun? It seems like we have at least an idea of who all the others were, but of Simic no clue of their race, let alone name and ambition for their guild.
I left this intentionally vague, because I figure the way the Simic work, it's entirely possible that bits of the Simic parun live on to this day.
The Magic creative team might contradict me (that goes for everything I say outside the novels, of course) but I pictured a powerful vedalken biomancer—named Simic—as the Simic parun. Not terribly original, I know, but it worked for the Azorius.
Quote from nils311 »
2 things
1. are the Hazda (volunteer police force) in The Ravnica book the same as Haazda Exonerator?
<snip>
2. Several times in the first few chapters Kos thinks about how it had been 57 years since he killed but it is also referred to as 8 decades since he died, what is the deal with that?
thanks for the all the help
ps
how far in advance do you write the books before they go to editing before the set comes out, is it written along the same timeline as a set is developed?
1. Yep. Ravnica's a big place, and spelling conventions change from area to area. It may not be fair to the Haazda cards, but "my" Haazda are pretty much rent-a-cops, and not very good ones at that.
2. That's an unfortunate error (though I suppose it could be chalked up to Kos developing some kind of senility). Originally I'd written the Ravnica flashback to take place 80 years earlier, but tightened it up to 57.
PS—The novels and sets are developed at the same time, usually. I handed in the final draft of Dissension in November 2005. I started working on the trilogy about a year before that. It was a whirlwind year, let me tell you.
Quote from Tetsumoto »
My ?: Can you tell us (or at least provide a hint or a clue) where Niv-Mizzet ran off to? I got the feeling he Planeswalked away from what Feather said at the end of the book.
Thanks for you time and a great several hours of my time...(Just started reading about 5 hours ago and finished already
Man, I have *got* to figure out how to write books that take people longer to read. Glad you enjoyed it, though.
I want to leave Niv-Mizzet's final disposition a little vague for now. Why? Because someday I really want to return to Ravnica, and this and other dangling threads left at the end of Dissension reflect that. Note that I'm not saying that there will definitely ever be a return to Ravnica, or that I would be writing it if there was, but that's the idea there.
I'll tell you a secret, though—in the first draft, Niv-Mizzet did not exactly disappear so much as die horribly. But coming on the heels of the big dragon battle at the end of Guildpact *and* the brain syringe in the first chapter of Dissension, I decided it would be better to leave him kicking around...somewhere.
Quote from Yggdrasill »
hope you are still there. i just finished the book and i have a question as well: Why was the witch Izolda instead of Lyzolda?
Here's the no-prize answer you can give your friends to show how much you know about Ravnica: "Zolda" is a suffix taken by the current "acting guildmaster" of the Rakdos (remember, the Rakdos GM is actually Rakdos himself, but the big guy tends to spend a lot of time in lockdown).
Here's the real-world answer: the name on the card was changed after the book went to press. D'oh!
Quote from Draconeus »
y did rav have such a stange plotline, here it is
KOs' partner died------new partner----------ghost appears--wildgoose chase ensues-------------conclaves problem with savra and szadek----------everyone dies or gets arrested
Having said that, i like the character development of Teysa in the guildpact book
Thank you. I <heart> Teysa.
As for your question, I'll need a little help...what was so strange about it?
Quote from Yamaneko »
Just to make sure, Ravnica is flat, right? It makes reference to the northwest poll and such, so I figured that it would probably be flat. If so, what does the edge look like?
Honestly, I pictured it as a globe, but one with a funny tilt to its axis.
Also, I live in Seattle, and that's where Earth's "northwest pole" is located (somewhere in Fremont, I think).
Quote from DevouringZombie »
A few questions: Spoilers for those still working on it.
What exactly is Lupul?
He seems to be very Dimir, and seems alot like the card Dimir Doppleganger. How exactly is Augustin in control of him/her/it?
Was The Hussar's Last Mission from MTG.com somehow related to Dissension?
Where did Niv-Mizzet exactly go? Another region of Ravnica? Couldn't Crixizix be able to connect to him via the Firemind? Does it suggest he left Ravnica or he just shut her out of his mind?
Since Arygem has a Boros Leaguehall, is it safe to assume that the rest of the guilds have one as well?
In order:
What exactly is Lupul?
He seems to be very Dimir, and seems alot like the card Dimir Doppleganger. How exactly is Augustin in control of him/her/it?
-Lupul is ancient. Predates other sentient life on Ravnica by thousands if not millions of years. He (it?) is very susceptible to blue magic, and so when Szadek fell under Augustin's thrall, so did Lupul...sort of. See, Lupul had recently experienced contact with Jarad that made Lupul begin to think independently for the first time in a long, long while. So in a way, Lupul is working for Augustin willingly, while the relationship with Szadek was much more master/servant.
Did that make sense?
Was The Hussar's Last Mission from MTG.com somehow related to Dissension?
-I'm not sure, I haven't read it.
Where did Niv-Mizzet exactly go? Another region of Ravnica? Couldn't Crixizix be able to connect to him via the Firemind? Does it suggest he left Ravnica or he just shut her out of his mind?
-See above.
Since Arygem has a Boros Leaguehall, is it safe to assume that the rest of the guilds have one as well?
-Agyrem gets a Wojek leaguehall because it's sort of an "11th district" in the City of Ravnica at the end of the book, the "ghost quarter" if you will. Feather offers Kos the job of running it because it takes a ghost to police a ghost (or so Feather's logic dictates). Remember, the leaguehalls were linked to location, not to guilds, and the CoR is one of those places where the guilds all mix freely.
There, that ought to catch me up for a while. Thanks for the questions, everybody, by all means keep 'em comin'.
The question which authors usually seem to hate answering:
Which was your favourite of the three books, in terms of how they eventually turned out? I know they're all part of one big picture, but which part of the triptych did you see as prettiest [/end shoddy art analogy]?
Now that the writing is done, I have fun reading each one for different reasons. I also get a knot in my gut when I suddenly think of different ways I might have done scene X or how different the book would be if I cut scene Y. So in terms of favoritism they're all of a piece to me because in some ways I'm still writing it in my head, even if that version of the story won't ever see print. And don't ask what those different things would be, I haven't been jotting 'em down.
I think the one that works best as a stand-alone is book 1. I almost picture Guildpact and Dissension as a two-part sequel to the first book, due to the chronology and the closer interconnectedness of the stories. But yeah, I love them all in their own way and different elements of the second two books were just a blast to write. I really, really wanted to do a giant monster smash-up and got the chance in Dissension. I really wanted to do a mafia western, and got the chance in Guildpact.
At the moment, though, if I had to send only one book to, say, a potential agent, it would be Ravnica.
That seems to be just a little harsh on the continuity fetish, Master. Seriously, i liked the card names better than the book names anyways, and it doesn't seem like Isperia or Lyzolda are planeswalkers, so i don't think they'll be affecting the storyline in the near future so much that it warrants complaint.
Oh hello everyone, my introductory post didn't count so this is technically my first official post.
Herndon- I just wanted to say from someone who owns all the Magic novels and the Harperprisms, that Dissension was devilishly good. I definately enjoyed the multiple-villian chaos towards the end of the book, and while the connection to Dominaria isn't obvious, i see it.
My question is- When Feather is describing exactly how she believed the Parhelion was able to traverse into Agyrem, she mentioned the ships core. Much like the Weatherlight, it seems the Parhelion (golden castle ship of the Boros Angels) had a similar power core. The point of interest was that she said something along the lines of "it's here...but it's somewhere else as well." Can you elaborate on where she was insinuating the power core was (another plane-- a pocket plane--etc.) and if you cant...
PLEASE TELL US ANYWAYS!
Also, could you timestamp for us (in Ravnican years, as it seems your a "time works differently" writer) when exactly the creatures "that never knew they were gone" returned and when the Planeswalkers stopped coming back?
It's imperative, as i believed that the creatures in the Soul Traps of MIrrodin were the ones returned to Ravnica. Am i close and does this have anything to do with the "time disturbance" coming up in Time Spiral?
Also (and i apologize for the length of my questions), any word on the next MTG novel you're writing, and who is set to write the 2nd and 3rd books of Time Spiral Block?
Thanks much
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I just joined the mtgsalvation comminity today, most of all because I love the Mtg books and I wanted to talk with the authors. I have some questions about the Ravnica Cycle you wrote. Some may have already been asked since I haven't read this entire forum.
1) I've read the Ravnica and Guildpact books, and I've also read the summary for Dissension on this sight. I'm still going to buy the book, though, to read it for myself.
I was wondering, who is the villain of the cycle? In the Mirrodin cycle it was Memnarch, in Kamigawa it was Konda. What about Ravnica? I'm guessing that it's Szadek... or does every book in the cycle have it's own different villain?
2) I thought it would be neat if Razia fought Rakdos in the climax of Dissension. You know, the Angel versus the Demon. Did you ever think about writing something like this but never actually decided to?
3) I've read the summary for Dissension, as I said before. So I'm dying to find out what happens to Szadek after the book closes. Dose he just get away? Please, please, please, if you get the chance, write another Ravnica novel within the next five years. I gotta know what happens!!!
Quick question, it might have been mentioned before, but what did Feather do? I know that when she was thinking to herself, she thought/said that Kos probably had a guess and that it was most likely right, but I can't find where Kos would make that guess. She thought that it was something that most humans couldn't understand. I'm very curious.
Quick question, it might have been mentioned before, but what did Feather do? I know that when she was thinking to herself, she thought/said that Kos probably had a guess and that it was most likely right, but I can't find where Kos would make that guess. She thought that it was something that most humans couldn't understand. I'm very curious.
Well, Alex, I am not sure about that, but when Feather arrives to Parhelion for he first time, I think that there is a brief mention in the text that her original crime was defying a direct order from a guildmaster.
Quote from Simurdiak »
I was wondering, who is the villain of the cycle? In the Mirrodin cycle it was Memnarch, in Kamigawa in was Lord Konda. What about Ravnica? I'm guessing that it's Szadek... or does every book in the cycle have it's own different villain? (I'm a huge fan of Szadek).
Technically, both statements are right. I'd say that Szadek is the ever-villain in book 1 and 3 (in 1 is seconded by Savra and Svogthir), in 2 it is Zomaj Hauc, the Izzet magelord, seconded by the Obzedat and Melisk and in 3...well..there is a crowd of them...Augustin, Momir Vig, Szadek, Svogthir, Rakdos, Lyzolda...
I was surprised to see Air Marshal Shokol Wenslauv (btw..Shokol...sokol is falcon in Czech...) here. I presumed that she died in the Centerfort battle in the first book. You know...there has been said "she signaled to her wingmen and descended into the fray"...and then there has been the Ludmilla part, when the gorgon noticed a female skyjek attacking her, looked up, the skyjek shielded her eyes but her roc was petrified and both fell to the floor of Rokirric Pavillion and shattered beyond recognition. Due the fact that it was a female skyjek, I presumed it to be Wenslauv, dunno why. So my question is...was it originally supposed to be Wenslauv, and because you needed a character familiar to Kos in the third book, you bring her back, or was it a general hapless skyjek from the very beginning?
Thanks
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Well, Alec, I am not sure about that, but when Feather arrives to Parhelion for he first time, I think that there is a brief mention in the text that her original crime was defying a direct order from a guildmaster.
I thought it might be that, but I think that's a pretty easy crime to understand. But I see how it could merit such punishment, her being an angel and created to be obidient and all.
Cory, just want to say you did a great job with Dissension. I think the main thing that I get out of the series in general is the character development, though the plot is solid. One of the things that I disliked about the last few block series is that the plot tends to get out of control, especially at the end there is way too much stuff going on, everyone wants to top each other in terms of action. However you manage to make your climaxes exciting, cool, and believable...
and yet you take the time to keep even the minor plot threads tight and interesting.
So nice work, I enjoyed it muchly.
Those complaining about the book being short, it's a pretty quick read, but it is over 300 pages.
So we have hanging plot threads, I'm not going to ask what's going on, but is this a hint that we'll be returning to Ravnica in the future?
Last question.. I look at the back page and it says you worked on the Star Wars RPG. Do you have access to the Lucas Holocron or do you work from the Star Wars database? And this leads to the crux question.. does Magic have a "holocron"? (Vorthos's want to know!)
And in case you have no idea what I'm talking about.. the Holocron is the master database that Liscensing uses to check plot and characters against. The SW database is the public one available online (and my favorite friend.)
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Has anyone ever heard of a game called Warhammer 40k? It's a scifi minatures game takes place in a distant dystopian future.
Alot the highly developed worlds in the 40k universe are alot like Ravnica: covered entirely in cities, with layers built upon layers and alot of forgotten stuff buried beneath newer parts. It also shares a similiar power-hungry monotonously beauracratic low-morality populace. Humans with longer than normal lifespans. Of course, technology is much more a factor in 40k, but it has a sort of backward form where it works without people knowing why. The pilot of the Pyraquin in the Guildpact book making an "offering" to the machine was also very 40kish, where people think machines had to be properly blessed and prayed to before being used.
Just curious to see if this inspired Cory at all, or any other readers were also struck by the similiarities...
Cory-
Regarding the character Izolda in Dissension-- I read your post saying that "Zolda" was a suffix for a Rakdos leader's name. So, is Izolda the same person as Lyzolda the Blood Witch? It would be awesome if they were. It's okay if Wotc changed the name of the character after the book was written. You don't have to change the character just because there is a name difference.
Also, what happened to Rakdos at the end of Dissension? I didn't really understand
Thanks for your time, and thanks even more for the books!
If you don't want to answer the pay wage question, I understand, but would you say it is a reasonable means to support yourself and a family? My cousin is an excellent fantasy writer/artist and I constantly recommend him to apply to the Magic Creative team.
Let me answer this question for Cory with a common joke told on the SF convention circuit. (I think I may have told this earlier in the thread)
Question: What the difference between an SF (or fantasy) writer and a pepperoni pizza?
Answer: The pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four.
It't not just Magic authors who can't support themselves and their families on their writing income. It's the majority of SF authors in the field. Probably only 5 percent of all professionally published authors, in fact, can actually make a living at writing fiction.
Also, what happened to Rakdos at the end of Dissension? I didn't really understand...
That's a question I'd like to ask as well. From what I have understood, after Kraj immobilized Rakdos by engulfing him in his goo-body, Lyzolda collapsed because of the weight of Rakdos's grievous injuries. The cultists gathered above her and ate her alive. You have said that "Since that time, the saying "there is a demon in each one of us, screaming to get out" become pretty literal among the Rakdos". From this I understood that Rakdos's soul, tied to Lyzolda's, was shattered into many tiny pieces when the cultists consumed her body and distributed among them - and that Rakdos is now quite unable to think with part of his mind scattered, and therefore he remains in a comatose state. Still, parts of his mind are screaming in a vain desire to reassemble...
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Because Will visited us again (:cool2: ) I'll try to ask again.
Maybe you Will know who created Ur-Golems...
(open link for more details of question and my poit of view)
Thanks in advance.
Sorry. I don't know the answer. The Ur-Golems didn't figure into the storyline, so had no occassion to discuss them with the Continuity folk. My guess would be that Karn created them. I believe I remember something about Bosh having been created by Karn and then re-programmed by Memnarch. But I don't recall where that memory comes from.
I noticed in Dessension that there are a lot of card related instances peppered thouhout the book. More so then I have seen since Gathering Dark. Is this due to new strengthened relationship between creative and design? Or is this sort of a one time thing because the guild model required so much lead up? In other words, have any of you who written for previous blocks and then written following the new implementation noticed a more cohesive organization? Or is it a desire by Brand to make closer connections? Is this an organic development from having more access to design, or is it being forced by WotC to make the cards and novels feel more cohesive?
Scott, I greatly look forward to reading Time Spiral.
Cory, I read Guildpact and Dissension before reading Ravnica, so I look forward to reading it soon.
If you loved a certain plane (Ravnica, lets say) and you wished to write a book about it without a commission, just getting income from the sales of the book, would Wizards let you, or do they keep a fairly tight leash on when they want to expand the canon, and who does it?
Since all the novels that WotC publishes for Magic are related to the sets, we pretty much write in the setting they tell us to. Back when they were doing some non-set-related novels, I suppose it could have been possible to submit a proposal for a story set in one of the older settings, but with only three books per year tied to the releases, that's just not going to happen.
I think it was always the hope (of both WotC and the authors) that the Magic book line would take off like some of the D&D lines. That players would be hungry for more and more stories set in their favorite Magic planes. That just never happened. The readers of the Magic storyline are avid, but unfortunately too small a population to warrant more books per year.
I think it was always the hope (of both WotC and the authors) that the Magic book line would take off like some of the D&D lines. That players would be hungry for more and more stories set in their favorite Magic planes. That just never happened. The readers of the Magic storyline are avid, but unfortunately too small a population to warrant more books per year.
I think this may also be a result of the poor quality of most of the MTG books. Ravnica has been nice, Kamigawa was awesome, and I've heard good things about Invasion block. But the Odyssey, Onslaught, and Mirridion cycle books don't seem to be too well regarded from what I've see (and I read most of the Odyssey book without liking it much). And the pre-Invasion stuff (other than maybe Nemesis) doesn't seem too well regarded either for the most part.
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For Herndon (unless I somehow missed these...Well, the first is the most likely to have been missed by me...):
1. Well, we know what happened to four of the five nephilim. Witch-Maw and Dune-Brood got incinerated by Niv-Mizzet, Glint-Eye was spitted on Vitu-Ghazi by Rakdos, and Yore-Tiller got a fatal case of heartburn, courtesy of Fonn & Co. So, one nephil left.
In other words, what happened to Ink-Treader? Did it just run for cover after seeing its remaining two relatives get blown out of the water? Or, get eaten by Kraj? Pounded into paste by the quietmen? (etc.)
2. Regarding a couple of the rules of the Guildpact--that is, the one about Dimir's purpose, and the one about never revealing the existence of Szadek or Dimir...Was it, by any chance, Szadek himself who penned those in? It's just that I can see these two as being a kind of self-destruct sequence that he sneaked in. After all, you don't suppose the other Paruns...never anticipated that he'd reveal HIMSELF to Ravnica?
After all, with these two laws, the Guildpact's failsafes will suddenly turn on each other. The revealer of Szadek must be punished...Szadek must never be punished...Szadek revealed himself, so he must be punished, but at the same time must never be punished...
Despite what Augustin thought, the Guildpact had probably already collapsed in a cloud of logic before Kos actually put Szadek under arrest (by about five minutes, anyway). And you thought Windows's fatal errors were bad...
(I hope you didn't just forget about the don't-expose-Szadek law...)
3. Before Szadek did his impression of a Trojan horse virus, would the Guildpact's failsafes ever have allowed someone to belong to two guilds at once, like Myczil said he wanted to do with Golgari and Selesnya? I'm curious as to whether the programming would have interpreted that as making the two guilds breach each others' sovereign roles, and thus unacceptable.
4. You mentioned that each of the guilds managed to turn into something spectacularly Not Nice over the 10,000 years of the Guildpact (well, we knew that already, but since you mentioned that specifically...). I'm curious if the Guildpact's failsafes might be to blame. I know that the failsafes make sure that each guild performs certain roles, and only those roles, within Ravnica (e.g. no law-writing for a Boros, no matter what she thinks of the Azorius's idea of proper code). But...do the failsafes also decree that for IN-GUILD behavior? For example, would they interpret a Golgari attempt to lay down laws for its own fellows' behavior as a breach of Azorius purpose?
(Whose bright idea were the failsafes, anyway? Talk about a lack of trust in sentience...)
There was a time when there were 6 books published a year.
Does that mean that there were more Magic readers then, or it was precisely planned to print so many books in one year without looking on selling stats?
I can't speak with any certainty as I was not a part of the decision-making process, but my guess is that the line was expanded to six books in the hopes that the audience from the main set books would translate to the non main-set books. When that didn't happen, the non main-set books were cancelled.
It takes time to evaluate whether or not a book line is successful. You can't just go by immediate sales. For one thing, a new book line needs time to develop an audience. I would assume that the secondary Magic line was given a few years to develop to a certain level of readership. When that didn't happen, they were pulled.
I think this may also be a result of the poor quality of most of the MTG books. Ravnica has been nice, Kamigawa was awesome, and I've heard good things about Invasion block. But the Odyssey, Onslaught, and Mirridion cycle books don't seem to be too well regarded from what I've see (and I read most of the Odyssey book without liking it much). And the pre-Invasion stuff (other than maybe Nemesis) doesn't seem too well regarded either for the most part.
Well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. Although I think it would carry more weight if you had actually read all the books you claim to be of poor quality.
However, I think the real reason lies elsewhere. For one thing, the main set books (which were the ones you mentioned in your post) actually sell quite well. Marketing from the sets plus the availability of fat packs insures excellent sales for these books.
It was the off-set books that failed to garner a large enough readership. And by and large, these books were quite popular with the avid fans of Magic novels. The Ice Age trilogy and McGough's Legends trilogy are thought by many fans on these boards to be among the best Magic books out there.
My belief is that it is simply the nature of the game that ended up hurting the Magic line. D&D is all about creating a world in your head and playing in that world. This draws a certain type of people who are not only avid gamers, but avid readers as well. Magic, even though it started out that way, turned into a different kind of game with a different kind of player. Magic is about the rules on the cards and making combos. A lot of players don't really care about the flavor of the game. The Pro Tour, especially, brought many players into the game who fall into this category.
So, the main set novels sell well because they are linked directly to the cards that are being marketed, but the idea -- the concept -- of reading more about these worlds that we are playing in, just doesn't translate to the majority of Magic players like it did with D&D books.
This is just my opinion, and obviously, everyone on this board and thread are avid readers of books and Magic books, as well as the game. It's just unfortunate that there aren't more of us out there.
Well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. Although I think it would carry more weight if you had actually read all the books you claim to be of poor quality.
I was less trying to suggest that I thought they were bad and more trying to suggest that the general opinion of the books is bad. Or at least thats the impression I have gotten on the internet, for what its worth. It may just be an overly negative net opinion.
However, Will, you also put forth a very good theory about the nature of MTG players not being condusive to successful series.
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There probablly will be no edge... just land and sea stretching infinitely.
@DZ: There are ghosts from all guilds there, so most likely, there will be guilds for the ghosts
Then how could there be poles? Or were the edges just "folded up" when the guildpact was signed to make the plane small enough to entirely be controlled by the Guildpact.
This is tied to the special conditions on Ravnica that create a "closed system," if you will. Even vampires leave ghosts behind when they "die."
It's all a matter of perspective.
In my mind, blue is the color of control. People who must control things are as corruptible as the next people, but when you throw magic into the mix, it naturally corrupts even faster (again, as I see it).
But is that necessarily *evil*? I look at the guilds of Ravnica and can see where they're all guilty of some things that we would think of as somewhat nasty, even if they see them as justified. The very existence and use of the Quietmen, to name one example, or the readiness of many Wojeks to carry out sentences on guildless lawbreakers right there on the street. Even the Rakdos have what they think are well-founded reasons to do what they do.
I left this intentionally vague, because I figure the way the Simic work, it's entirely possible that bits of the Simic parun live on to this day.
The Magic creative team might contradict me (that goes for everything I say outside the novels, of course) but I pictured a powerful vedalken biomancer—named Simic—as the Simic parun. Not terribly original, I know, but it worked for the Azorius.
1. Yep. Ravnica's a big place, and spelling conventions change from area to area. It may not be fair to the Haazda cards, but "my" Haazda are pretty much rent-a-cops, and not very good ones at that.
2. That's an unfortunate error (though I suppose it could be chalked up to Kos developing some kind of senility). Originally I'd written the Ravnica flashback to take place 80 years earlier, but tightened it up to 57.
PS—The novels and sets are developed at the same time, usually. I handed in the final draft of Dissension in November 2005. I started working on the trilogy about a year before that. It was a whirlwind year, let me tell you.
Man, I have *got* to figure out how to write books that take people longer to read. Glad you enjoyed it, though.
I want to leave Niv-Mizzet's final disposition a little vague for now. Why? Because someday I really want to return to Ravnica, and this and other dangling threads left at the end of Dissension reflect that. Note that I'm not saying that there will definitely ever be a return to Ravnica, or that I would be writing it if there was, but that's the idea there.
I'll tell you a secret, though—in the first draft, Niv-Mizzet did not exactly disappear so much as die horribly. But coming on the heels of the big dragon battle at the end of Guildpact *and* the brain syringe in the first chapter of Dissension, I decided it would be better to leave him kicking around...somewhere.
Here's the no-prize answer you can give your friends to show how much you know about Ravnica: "Zolda" is a suffix taken by the current "acting guildmaster" of the Rakdos (remember, the Rakdos GM is actually Rakdos himself, but the big guy tends to spend a lot of time in lockdown).
Here's the real-world answer: the name on the card was changed after the book went to press. D'oh!
Thank you. I <heart> Teysa.
As for your question, I'll need a little help...what was so strange about it?
Honestly, I pictured it as a globe, but one with a funny tilt to its axis.
Also, I live in Seattle, and that's where Earth's "northwest pole" is located (somewhere in Fremont, I think).
In order:
What exactly is Lupul?
He seems to be very Dimir, and seems alot like the card Dimir Doppleganger. How exactly is Augustin in control of him/her/it?
-Lupul is ancient. Predates other sentient life on Ravnica by thousands if not millions of years. He (it?) is very susceptible to blue magic, and so when Szadek fell under Augustin's thrall, so did Lupul...sort of. See, Lupul had recently experienced contact with Jarad that made Lupul begin to think independently for the first time in a long, long while. So in a way, Lupul is working for Augustin willingly, while the relationship with Szadek was much more master/servant.
Did that make sense?
Was The Hussar's Last Mission from MTG.com somehow related to Dissension?
-I'm not sure, I haven't read it.
Where did Niv-Mizzet exactly go? Another region of Ravnica? Couldn't Crixizix be able to connect to him via the Firemind? Does it suggest he left Ravnica or he just shut her out of his mind?
-See above.
Since Arygem has a Boros Leaguehall, is it safe to assume that the rest of the guilds have one as well?
-Agyrem gets a Wojek leaguehall because it's sort of an "11th district" in the City of Ravnica at the end of the book, the "ghost quarter" if you will. Feather offers Kos the job of running it because it takes a ghost to police a ghost (or so Feather's logic dictates). Remember, the leaguehalls were linked to location, not to guilds, and the CoR is one of those places where the guilds all mix freely.
There, that ought to catch me up for a while. Thanks for the questions, everybody, by all means keep 'em comin'.
CJH
Now that the writing is done, I have fun reading each one for different reasons. I also get a knot in my gut when I suddenly think of different ways I might have done scene X or how different the book would be if I cut scene Y. So in terms of favoritism they're all of a piece to me because in some ways I'm still writing it in my head, even if that version of the story won't ever see print. And don't ask what those different things would be, I haven't been jotting 'em down.
I think the one that works best as a stand-alone is book 1. I almost picture Guildpact and Dissension as a two-part sequel to the first book, due to the chronology and the closer interconnectedness of the stories. But yeah, I love them all in their own way and different elements of the second two books were just a blast to write. I really, really wanted to do a giant monster smash-up and got the chance in Dissension. I really wanted to do a mafia western, and got the chance in Guildpact.
At the moment, though, if I had to send only one book to, say, a potential agent, it would be Ravnica.
CJH
Oh hello everyone, my introductory post didn't count so this is technically my first official post.
Herndon- I just wanted to say from someone who owns all the Magic novels and the Harperprisms, that Dissension was devilishly good. I definately enjoyed the multiple-villian chaos towards the end of the book, and while the connection to Dominaria isn't obvious, i see it.
My question is- When Feather is describing exactly how she believed the Parhelion was able to traverse into Agyrem, she mentioned the ships core. Much like the Weatherlight, it seems the Parhelion (golden castle ship of the Boros Angels) had a similar power core. The point of interest was that she said something along the lines of "it's here...but it's somewhere else as well." Can you elaborate on where she was insinuating the power core was (another plane-- a pocket plane--etc.) and if you cant...
PLEASE TELL US ANYWAYS!
Also, could you timestamp for us (in Ravnican years, as it seems your a "time works differently" writer) when exactly the creatures "that never knew they were gone" returned and when the Planeswalkers stopped coming back?
It's imperative, as i believed that the creatures in the Soul Traps of MIrrodin were the ones returned to Ravnica. Am i close and does this have anything to do with the "time disturbance" coming up in Time Spiral?
Also (and i apologize for the length of my questions), any word on the next MTG novel you're writing, and who is set to write the 2nd and 3rd books of Time Spiral Block?
Thanks much
I just joined the mtgsalvation comminity today, most of all because I love the Mtg books and I wanted to talk with the authors. I have some questions about the Ravnica Cycle you wrote. Some may have already been asked since I haven't read this entire forum.
1) I've read the Ravnica and Guildpact books, and I've also read the summary for Dissension on this sight. I'm still going to buy the book, though, to read it for myself.
I was wondering, who is the villain of the cycle? In the Mirrodin cycle it was Memnarch, in Kamigawa it was Konda. What about Ravnica? I'm guessing that it's Szadek... or does every book in the cycle have it's own different villain?
2) I thought it would be neat if Razia fought Rakdos in the climax of Dissension. You know, the Angel versus the Demon. Did you ever think about writing something like this but never actually decided to?
3) I've read the summary for Dissension, as I said before. So I'm dying to find out what happens to Szadek after the book closes. Dose he just get away? Please, please, please, if you get the chance, write another Ravnica novel within the next five years. I gotta know what happens!!!
Thanks!
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Well, Alex, I am not sure about that, but when Feather arrives to Parhelion for he first time, I think that there is a brief mention in the text that her original crime was defying a direct order from a guildmaster.
Technically, both statements are right. I'd say that Szadek is the ever-villain in book 1 and 3 (in 1 is seconded by Savra and Svogthir), in 2 it is Zomaj Hauc, the Izzet magelord, seconded by the Obzedat and Melisk and in 3...well..there is a crowd of them...Augustin, Momir Vig, Szadek, Svogthir, Rakdos, Lyzolda...
I was surprised to see Air Marshal Shokol Wenslauv (btw..Shokol...sokol is falcon in Czech...) here. I presumed that she died in the Centerfort battle in the first book. You know...there has been said "she signaled to her wingmen and descended into the fray"...and then there has been the Ludmilla part, when the gorgon noticed a female skyjek attacking her, looked up, the skyjek shielded her eyes but her roc was petrified and both fell to the floor of Rokirric Pavillion and shattered beyond recognition. Due the fact that it was a female skyjek, I presumed it to be Wenslauv, dunno why. So my question is...was it originally supposed to be Wenslauv, and because you needed a character familiar to Kos in the third book, you bring her back, or was it a general hapless skyjek from the very beginning?
Thanks
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
I thought it might be that, but I think that's a pretty easy crime to understand. But I see how it could merit such punishment, her being an angel and created to be obidient and all.
and yet you take the time to keep even the minor plot threads tight and interesting.
So nice work, I enjoyed it muchly.
Those complaining about the book being short, it's a pretty quick read, but it is over 300 pages.
So we have hanging plot threads, I'm not going to ask what's going on, but is this a hint that we'll be returning to Ravnica in the future?
Last question.. I look at the back page and it says you worked on the Star Wars RPG. Do you have access to the Lucas Holocron or do you work from the Star Wars database? And this leads to the crux question.. does Magic have a "holocron"? (Vorthos's want to know!)
And in case you have no idea what I'm talking about.. the Holocron is the master database that Liscensing uses to check plot and characters against. The SW database is the public one available online (and my favorite friend.)
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1. What inspired you to make Kos?
2. Compared with our current world, how would you grade Ravnice on how advanced its technology is?
3. What happens to Autistic people and people with the like in Ravnica? Do they get shunned or something?
Alot the highly developed worlds in the 40k universe are alot like Ravnica: covered entirely in cities, with layers built upon layers and alot of forgotten stuff buried beneath newer parts. It also shares a similiar power-hungry monotonously beauracratic low-morality populace. Humans with longer than normal lifespans. Of course, technology is much more a factor in 40k, but it has a sort of backward form where it works without people knowing why. The pilot of the Pyraquin in the Guildpact book making an "offering" to the machine was also very 40kish, where people think machines had to be properly blessed and prayed to before being used.
Just curious to see if this inspired Cory at all, or any other readers were also struck by the similiarities...
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Regarding the character Izolda in Dissension-- I read your post saying that "Zolda" was a suffix for a Rakdos leader's name. So, is Izolda the same person as Lyzolda the Blood Witch? It would be awesome if they were. It's okay if Wotc changed the name of the character after the book was written. You don't have to change the character just because there is a name difference.
Also, what happened to Rakdos at the end of Dissension? I didn't really understand
Thanks for your time, and thanks even more for the books!
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Let me answer this question for Cory with a common joke told on the SF convention circuit. (I think I may have told this earlier in the thread)
Question: What the difference between an SF (or fantasy) writer and a pepperoni pizza?
Answer: The pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four.
It't not just Magic authors who can't support themselves and their families on their writing income. It's the majority of SF authors in the field. Probably only 5 percent of all professionally published authors, in fact, can actually make a living at writing fiction.
Will
That's a question I'd like to ask as well. From what I have understood, after Kraj immobilized Rakdos by engulfing him in his goo-body, Lyzolda collapsed because of the weight of Rakdos's grievous injuries. The cultists gathered above her and ate her alive. You have said that "Since that time, the saying "there is a demon in each one of us, screaming to get out" become pretty literal among the Rakdos". From this I understood that Rakdos's soul, tied to Lyzolda's, was shattered into many tiny pieces when the cultists consumed her body and distributed among them - and that Rakdos is now quite unable to think with part of his mind scattered, and therefore he remains in a comatose state. Still, parts of his mind are screaming in a vain desire to reassemble...
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Sorry. I don't know the answer. The Ur-Golems didn't figure into the storyline, so had no occassion to discuss them with the Continuity folk. My guess would be that Karn created them. I believe I remember something about Bosh having been created by Karn and then re-programmed by Memnarch. But I don't recall where that memory comes from.
Sorry I can't be more help.
Will
Scott, I greatly look forward to reading Time Spiral.
Cory, I read Guildpact and Dissension before reading Ravnica, so I look forward to reading it soon.
Since all the novels that WotC publishes for Magic are related to the sets, we pretty much write in the setting they tell us to. Back when they were doing some non-set-related novels, I suppose it could have been possible to submit a proposal for a story set in one of the older settings, but with only three books per year tied to the releases, that's just not going to happen.
I think it was always the hope (of both WotC and the authors) that the Magic book line would take off like some of the D&D lines. That players would be hungry for more and more stories set in their favorite Magic planes. That just never happened. The readers of the Magic storyline are avid, but unfortunately too small a population to warrant more books per year.
Will
I think this may also be a result of the poor quality of most of the MTG books. Ravnica has been nice, Kamigawa was awesome, and I've heard good things about Invasion block. But the Odyssey, Onslaught, and Mirridion cycle books don't seem to be too well regarded from what I've see (and I read most of the Odyssey book without liking it much). And the pre-Invasion stuff (other than maybe Nemesis) doesn't seem too well regarded either for the most part.
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1. Well, we know what happened to four of the five nephilim. Witch-Maw and Dune-Brood got incinerated by Niv-Mizzet, Glint-Eye was spitted on Vitu-Ghazi by Rakdos, and Yore-Tiller got a fatal case of heartburn, courtesy of Fonn & Co. So, one nephil left.
In other words, what happened to Ink-Treader? Did it just run for cover after seeing its remaining two relatives get blown out of the water? Or, get eaten by Kraj? Pounded into paste by the quietmen? (etc.)
2. Regarding a couple of the rules of the Guildpact--that is, the one about Dimir's purpose, and the one about never revealing the existence of Szadek or Dimir...Was it, by any chance, Szadek himself who penned those in? It's just that I can see these two as being a kind of self-destruct sequence that he sneaked in. After all, you don't suppose the other Paruns...never anticipated that he'd reveal HIMSELF to Ravnica?
After all, with these two laws, the Guildpact's failsafes will suddenly turn on each other. The revealer of Szadek must be punished...Szadek must never be punished...Szadek revealed himself, so he must be punished, but at the same time must never be punished...
Despite what Augustin thought, the Guildpact had probably already collapsed in a cloud of logic before Kos actually put Szadek under arrest (by about five minutes, anyway). And you thought Windows's fatal errors were bad...
(I hope you didn't just forget about the don't-expose-Szadek law...)
3. Before Szadek did his impression of a Trojan horse virus, would the Guildpact's failsafes ever have allowed someone to belong to two guilds at once, like Myczil said he wanted to do with Golgari and Selesnya? I'm curious as to whether the programming would have interpreted that as making the two guilds breach each others' sovereign roles, and thus unacceptable.
4. You mentioned that each of the guilds managed to turn into something spectacularly Not Nice over the 10,000 years of the Guildpact (well, we knew that already, but since you mentioned that specifically...). I'm curious if the Guildpact's failsafes might be to blame. I know that the failsafes make sure that each guild performs certain roles, and only those roles, within Ravnica (e.g. no law-writing for a Boros, no matter what she thinks of the Azorius's idea of proper code). But...do the failsafes also decree that for IN-GUILD behavior? For example, would they interpret a Golgari attempt to lay down laws for its own fellows' behavior as a breach of Azorius purpose?
(Whose bright idea were the failsafes, anyway? Talk about a lack of trust in sentience...)
I can't speak with any certainty as I was not a part of the decision-making process, but my guess is that the line was expanded to six books in the hopes that the audience from the main set books would translate to the non main-set books. When that didn't happen, the non main-set books were cancelled.
It takes time to evaluate whether or not a book line is successful. You can't just go by immediate sales. For one thing, a new book line needs time to develop an audience. I would assume that the secondary Magic line was given a few years to develop to a certain level of readership. When that didn't happen, they were pulled.
Will
Well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. Although I think it would carry more weight if you had actually read all the books you claim to be of poor quality.
However, I think the real reason lies elsewhere. For one thing, the main set books (which were the ones you mentioned in your post) actually sell quite well. Marketing from the sets plus the availability of fat packs insures excellent sales for these books.
It was the off-set books that failed to garner a large enough readership. And by and large, these books were quite popular with the avid fans of Magic novels. The Ice Age trilogy and McGough's Legends trilogy are thought by many fans on these boards to be among the best Magic books out there.
My belief is that it is simply the nature of the game that ended up hurting the Magic line. D&D is all about creating a world in your head and playing in that world. This draws a certain type of people who are not only avid gamers, but avid readers as well. Magic, even though it started out that way, turned into a different kind of game with a different kind of player. Magic is about the rules on the cards and making combos. A lot of players don't really care about the flavor of the game. The Pro Tour, especially, brought many players into the game who fall into this category.
So, the main set novels sell well because they are linked directly to the cards that are being marketed, but the idea -- the concept -- of reading more about these worlds that we are playing in, just doesn't translate to the majority of Magic players like it did with D&D books.
This is just my opinion, and obviously, everyone on this board and thread are avid readers of books and Magic books, as well as the game. It's just unfortunate that there aren't more of us out there.
Will
I was less trying to suggest that I thought they were bad and more trying to suggest that the general opinion of the books is bad. Or at least thats the impression I have gotten on the internet, for what its worth. It may just be an overly negative net opinion.
However, Will, you also put forth a very good theory about the nature of MTG players not being condusive to successful series.
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