When is the last time a UW Legend get some good heroic treatment? Dovin is Evil, you could say he was ambiguous in Kaladesh but now its confirmed and he is best buds with Tezz. Azor was dismissed by Jace and incompetent who ruined Ixalan, was told to sit down on a worthless island like a kid sent to his room so Jace could get a new gf. Teferi was a sad sack who couldn't do anything without Jhoira and seemed to forget most of his spellbook. Raff? Not especially relevant comic relief. Isperia, an incompetent idiot who let Dovin takeover in record time and who walked into an obvious trap and jobbed out to Vraska worse then Azor did to Jace.
I am not see this fair and balanced color portrayals. WOTC has had it out for UW Legends in my book since Kaladesh.
I agree with you when it comes to Dovin's characterization: on Kaladesh, he was perfectly neutral and conpletely focused on doing what, in his point of view, was the right thing. And that made him a fantastic foil for Tez and created and interesting dynamic with the Gatewatch in general, and with Chandra in particular. Making him a full-on bad guy who's best buds with Tez is a major mistake, as it takes away his most interesting characteristic.
Dovin wants to change Ravnica for the better, or at least what he considers better. He was attracted to the plane because of its law magic, he saw it as a unique opportunity to create a perfect system. He doesn't know that Bolas and Tezzeret are planning to bring in an undead army and kill everyone; it's clear that Bolas has all of his guildmasters working at cross purposes, so I'd imagine that none of them know his full plan (I can't imagine Dovin approving of Domri's actions, and we know that he ends up in a conflict with Ral).
All five of the Bolas-controlled guildmasters seem to be well-intentioned puppets who are being manipulated. Dovin wants to optimize everything, Kaya wants to living to be free from the control of the dead, Vraska wants to help end the oppression of her people, Domri is justifiably pissed off because the Gruul lands kept getting taken until they had no place left to go, and Ral is apparently working with Niv on some kind of secret project. All of them have understandable and sympathetic motives.
Also, I'm not sure where you got the idea that he's "best buds" with Tezzeret. They didn't seem to like each other in Kaladesh, and the art book states that he sought out Bolas after Tezzeret's defeat, since he'd somehow figured out that there was a higher power involved. At most he and Tezzeret are reluctant allies since they're both working for Bolas.
That's the crucial point. Neither Dovin, nor Domri, nor Kaya, nor Vraska know what we know about Bolas. To them, he's just a super-powerful Planeswalking Dragon with Multiverse-wide connections and an uncanny ability to both help you realize your potential and grant you whatever you desire in return for being his agent. Who wouldn't want a boss like that? It's not as if the ghosts of Amonkhet, Skalla, and millions dead on Alara trail Bolas like an evil halo and give his true nature away to whoever sees him.
I mean Dovin worked with Tezz plus Baral so he sures knows how to pick them. Kaya has no problem helping Evil Overlords conquer Planes. And Vraska pre Ixalan is an Assassin. None of these people care about their boss being evil.
Cool.story today posted about the Rakdos. Definitely shows the, uh, warmer side of red and black.
Also nice foreshadowing of what the Azorius is up to in the background.
Enjoyed this story. Easily visualized in my mind and kind of cute but still with the reality of the depravity and mayhem that is the rakdos (they are so very proud of it actually)
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
Yeah definitely a weird one with such descriptions of the Rakdos cult.
I liked the callback to the Minotaur from the first story. helps make things seem connected, and speaking of which I hope we find out who the dangerous person who escaped is.
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Lol this was the funnest stoey in a while. It was positive and funny and happy ending.
Lol they met at an orgy
Jacquard print not doing its job very well
Devil dressed as a baby
Best part was the devil lol
Demon: I think she's my soulmate
Devil: You have no soul
LOL
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If all the walkers have sided (whether directly or indirectly with Bolas), how come the Azorius are trying to hold back the Gruul? Shouldn't they be more worried about the Simic and Rakdos? Also, it would make more sense for the Boros to be stopping the Gruul instead since the Boros are also similar in function to the police of Ravnica.
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If all the walkers have sided (whether directly or indirectly with Bolas), how come the Azorius are trying to hold back the Gruul? Shouldn't they be more worried about the Simic and Rakdos? Also, it would make more sense for the Boros to be stopping the Gruul instead since the Boros are also similar in function to the police of Ravnica.
I'm guessing that Bolas' plan requires the guilds to be at odds with each other, and it's easier to set up conflict between two groups that are under your control. Bolas' planeswalkers don't necessarily know that all of the other planeswalkers on the plane are working for Bolas too.
Plus the Azorius and the Gruul are just the most philosophically opposed to each other out of all the guilds, especially with Dovin kicking the Azorius' "law and order by any means necessary" policies into overdrive. As the last story showed, they've been buying up property in the other guilds' territory in an attempt to bring civilization to the more lawless parts of the plane, and I'd imagine that the Gruul would object to that even more than the Golgari or the Rakdos.
While I totally dig a lot of the art style of the rakdos, which is very unique to them - I did not like this story or the direction storytelling is going for the rakdos.
I'm all for showing that B or BR can be the good guys.l (or less bad guys). The aether born were a great example of this. I never felt like Gonti was evil, just less trustworthy and shady, maybe dangerous. If you're routinely enjoying entertainment at the expense of someone else's life - you're evil. I don't care how "bad" you make dovin and the azorious, the rakdos are still evil. Sure you can equate them to gladiatorial combat on some levels, but those weren't public displays of torture. They were fights and feats of strength, expertise, and slaves (who the populace didn't even consider people with rights). Getting off work to go watch someone get drilled in the head is over the top graphic and doesn't even make sense as a form of entertainment that the general populace would even be remotely interested in.
The demon was way too much of a jack of all trades. He tells poetry, does stand up, and an acrobatic routine multiple times all in one short story. It's hard to relate when your main character is good-great at so many different things. If you want the circus vibe, then don't have your strong man doing the tight rope routine - let him be a unique attraction.
I find it shocking that a guild like the azorious hasn't outright declared war on the rakdos guild ages ago. Everything about the city, what they do, and how they do it flies in the face of the law. You don't go into an area this corrupt and not do a full occupation.
Just so hard to get a feeling of society and interconnected guild system when one of the guilds is so jarringly wrong with what the establishment of civilization even stands for.
It doesn't even sound like the guild members that share a race with rakdos like him. Are they cult fanatics, circus performers, everyday people trying to make a living in the entertainment industry, black market dealers? Wtf would I even care to have this guild around on my planet if I were the boros, azorious, simic, izzet, selesyna, orzohv? Sure I can see the gruul getting in on the show aspect and brutality. I could see the dimir being into the seedy nature of what the guild traffics in. The rest? Even with overlapping colors? No, not buying it. The guild does nothing but offer a place for people to go and devolve into savages.
I find it shocking that a guild like the azorious hasn't outright declared war on the rakdos guild ages ago. Everything about the city, what they do, and how they do it flies in the face of the law. You don't go into an area this corrupt and not do a full occupation.
Just so hard to get a feeling of society and interconnected guild system when one of the guilds is so jarringly wrong with what the establishment of civilization even stands for.
Until quite recently, the other guilds couldn't do all that much to each other due to the binding nature of the guildpact. It enforced a balance of power between the guilds (even the Gruul remain strong as their duties were diminished) and outright prevented the guilds from disrupting one another. This was done so as to get the less order-inclined guilds (of which the cult of Rakdos was one) to sign on to the guildpact and end the plane-wide war.
By the time any other guild could do anything to the Rakdos as a whole, the cult had been a regular part of Ravnican society for ten thousand years. Like it or not, it has been as deeply engrained in their culture as any other guild.
Do/Have you participated in any kind of contact or combat sport?
Yeah I have. While I haven't done anything at a high level, I do enjoy watching some of the more contact heavy sports like MMA fighting. I just can't equate the rakdos to that though. There is no sportsmanship in how they're depicted imo.
Do/Have you participated in any kind of contact or combat sport?
Yeah I have. While I haven't done anything at a high level, I do enjoy watching some of the more contact heavy sports like MMA fighting. I just can't equate the rakdos to that though. There is no sportsmanship in how they're depicted imo.
No, but go back a bit, to the early stuff in Brazil, dog/**** fights, bare knuckle even today. There are shows of masochistic stuff, and it goes on and on. It's not unheard of.
Only tidbit I see in the fat pack booklet is that Kaya was specifically hired by Bolas himself to kill the Obzedat with the promise he would help her family.
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
Do/Have you participated in any kind of contact or combat sport?
Yeah I have. While I haven't done anything at a high level, I do enjoy watching some of the more contact heavy sports like MMA fighting. I just can't equate the rakdos to that though. There is no sportsmanship in how they're depicted imo.
No, but go back a bit, to the early stuff in Brazil, dog/**** fights, bare knuckle even today. There are shows of masochistic stuff, and it goes on and on. It's not unheard of.
I can understand the necessity of a healthy kink and fetish community, and as someone who loves to safely and consensually display dominance, as well as combative and aggressive behavior, I think I can safely say that the Cult of Rakdos does not represent well, normalize nor remove the false stereotypes associated with BDSM, extreme sports or combat sports.
There's not much consent hinted at in much of the Rakdos artwork or flavour text in reference to their audience and crowd 'participants', and even for the cult members, I'm not convinced one can consent to some of the things they do, or have done to themselves or others.
Safe, Sane, and Consensual are not bywords that seem to matter to the Rakdos, so while I accept that this is a fantasy world and that the Cult likely grew out from the enculturation of the Guilds and protection of the guildpact.
Risk Aware and Consensual might fit at least the membership participants themselves better but I question one's ability to really accept such terms, then again I'm the guy who thinks an afterlife spent repaying your debt through gaurd-duty and guild-service is appropriate so there could exist arguments that the membership's paticipation somehow could be ok though it still makes me sick.
People ought not get killed prematurely for pleasure, not thier own or for the pleasure of others. -Also a public health hazaard
I'm not saying its a reflection of things that are part of our normal. I'm saying that in a fantasy setting, in which we have Demons part of 'normal' society, well considering our own history, I just dont have much difficulty making that leap?
In the latest story, the Azorius were doing everything in their power to arrest Rakdos cultists for even the most trivial crimes, like graffiti. And they were very quick to crack down on more serious crimes like the production, sale, and usage of blight paper (as much as the protagonists view it as a harmless prank, it is a form of torture). Yet they don't do anything to shut down the actual shows or arrest the performers, despite the fact that those shows feature things you'd expect would be illegal (people being burned, flayed, impaled, and so forth). So the performances themselves must be legal, which seems strange but it was probably one of the conditions of the original Guildpact. Presumably there must be some kind of consent on behalf of the victims, even if it's as broad and specious as "anyone entering the performance zone automatically consents to anything the performers may do to them."
Also in the booklet : Nikyea of the Old ways is a staunch Supporter of Domri and welcomes and is hopeful he is bringing about the End-Raze. That seems to make the Gruul the only guild where both the Mythic and the Rare Legend are on the same page and not in conflict of some sort?
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Dovin wants to change Ravnica for the better, or at least what he considers better. He was attracted to the plane because of its law magic, he saw it as a unique opportunity to create a perfect system. He doesn't know that Bolas and Tezzeret are planning to bring in an undead army and kill everyone; it's clear that Bolas has all of his guildmasters working at cross purposes, so I'd imagine that none of them know his full plan (I can't imagine Dovin approving of Domri's actions, and we know that he ends up in a conflict with Ral).
All five of the Bolas-controlled guildmasters seem to be well-intentioned puppets who are being manipulated. Dovin wants to optimize everything, Kaya wants to living to be free from the control of the dead, Vraska wants to help end the oppression of her people, Domri is justifiably pissed off because the Gruul lands kept getting taken until they had no place left to go, and Ral is apparently working with Niv on some kind of secret project. All of them have understandable and sympathetic motives.
Also, I'm not sure where you got the idea that he's "best buds" with Tezzeret. They didn't seem to like each other in Kaladesh, and the art book states that he sought out Bolas after Tezzeret's defeat, since he'd somehow figured out that there was a higher power involved. At most he and Tezzeret are reluctant allies since they're both working for Bolas.
He doesn’t know that Bolas is a Villain. He just knows that Bolas is powerful, and to his supposition a force for order.
Also nice foreshadowing of what the Azorius is up to in the background.
Click the pic for more info.
I liked the callback to the Minotaur from the first story. helps make things seem connected, and speaking of which I hope we find out who the dangerous person who escaped is.
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Lol they met at an orgy
Jacquard print not doing its job very well
Devil dressed as a baby
Best part was the devil lol
Demon: I think she's my soulmate
Devil: You have no soul
LOL
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I'm guessing that Bolas' plan requires the guilds to be at odds with each other, and it's easier to set up conflict between two groups that are under your control. Bolas' planeswalkers don't necessarily know that all of the other planeswalkers on the plane are working for Bolas too.
Plus the Azorius and the Gruul are just the most philosophically opposed to each other out of all the guilds, especially with Dovin kicking the Azorius' "law and order by any means necessary" policies into overdrive. As the last story showed, they've been buying up property in the other guilds' territory in an attempt to bring civilization to the more lawless parts of the plane, and I'd imagine that the Gruul would object to that even more than the Golgari or the Rakdos.
JundBGR
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Pauper
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Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
We all have our weaknesses.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
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Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
I'm all for showing that B or BR can be the good guys.l (or less bad guys). The aether born were a great example of this. I never felt like Gonti was evil, just less trustworthy and shady, maybe dangerous. If you're routinely enjoying entertainment at the expense of someone else's life - you're evil. I don't care how "bad" you make dovin and the azorious, the rakdos are still evil. Sure you can equate them to gladiatorial combat on some levels, but those weren't public displays of torture. They were fights and feats of strength, expertise, and slaves (who the populace didn't even consider people with rights). Getting off work to go watch someone get drilled in the head is over the top graphic and doesn't even make sense as a form of entertainment that the general populace would even be remotely interested in.
The demon was way too much of a jack of all trades. He tells poetry, does stand up, and an acrobatic routine multiple times all in one short story. It's hard to relate when your main character is good-great at so many different things. If you want the circus vibe, then don't have your strong man doing the tight rope routine - let him be a unique attraction.
I find it shocking that a guild like the azorious hasn't outright declared war on the rakdos guild ages ago. Everything about the city, what they do, and how they do it flies in the face of the law. You don't go into an area this corrupt and not do a full occupation.
Just so hard to get a feeling of society and interconnected guild system when one of the guilds is so jarringly wrong with what the establishment of civilization even stands for.
It doesn't even sound like the guild members that share a race with rakdos like him. Are they cult fanatics, circus performers, everyday people trying to make a living in the entertainment industry, black market dealers? Wtf would I even care to have this guild around on my planet if I were the boros, azorious, simic, izzet, selesyna, orzohv? Sure I can see the gruul getting in on the show aspect and brutality. I could see the dimir being into the seedy nature of what the guild traffics in. The rest? Even with overlapping colors? No, not buying it. The guild does nothing but offer a place for people to go and devolve into savages.
Until quite recently, the other guilds couldn't do all that much to each other due to the binding nature of the guildpact. It enforced a balance of power between the guilds (even the Gruul remain strong as their duties were diminished) and outright prevented the guilds from disrupting one another. This was done so as to get the less order-inclined guilds (of which the cult of Rakdos was one) to sign on to the guildpact and end the plane-wide war.
By the time any other guild could do anything to the Rakdos as a whole, the cult had been a regular part of Ravnican society for ten thousand years. Like it or not, it has been as deeply engrained in their culture as any other guild.
Do/Have you participated in any kind of contact or combat sport?
Spirits
Yeah I have. While I haven't done anything at a high level, I do enjoy watching some of the more contact heavy sports like MMA fighting. I just can't equate the rakdos to that though. There is no sportsmanship in how they're depicted imo.
No, but go back a bit, to the early stuff in Brazil, dog/**** fights, bare knuckle even today. There are shows of masochistic stuff, and it goes on and on. It's not unheard of.
Spirits
Kaya, Champion of Tyrants
I can understand the necessity of a healthy kink and fetish community, and as someone who loves to safely and consensually display dominance, as well as combative and aggressive behavior, I think I can safely say that the Cult of Rakdos does not represent well, normalize nor remove the false stereotypes associated with BDSM, extreme sports or combat sports.
There's not much consent hinted at in much of the Rakdos artwork or flavour text in reference to their audience and crowd 'participants', and even for the cult members, I'm not convinced one can consent to some of the things they do, or have done to themselves or others.
Safe, Sane, and Consensual are not bywords that seem to matter to the Rakdos, so while I accept that this is a fantasy world and that the Cult likely grew out from the enculturation of the Guilds and protection of the guildpact.
Risk Aware and Consensual might fit at least the membership participants themselves better but I question one's ability to really accept such terms, then again I'm the guy who thinks an afterlife spent repaying your debt through gaurd-duty and guild-service is appropriate so there could exist arguments that the membership's paticipation somehow could be ok though it still makes me sick.
People ought not get killed prematurely for pleasure, not thier own or for the pleasure of others. -Also a public health hazaard
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Spirits