While the dialogue was confusing at times, I felt this story was much better than the one previous and it's clear to me that the author has some knowledge of rock climbing, line casting etc. Too bad these two characters are all gonna die...
I don't know if I could live in Zendikar. While I do like planes with a lot of natural landscapes like it has, civilization on Zendikar always seems just a few steps away from annihilation. Much like Ikoria.
I mean, who does the books or sows the grain?
Farming on Zendikar sounds like precarious occupation.
Yeah, I found this story to be more enjoyable than the previous one, although not a whole lot happened. We know both Akiri and Zareth are going to die, but maybe the story that leads to their demise will be interesting enough.
Post-Eldrazi Zendikar is still lacking mystery though.
Not a lot happened, but it was a nice introduction to two characters we are going to see for a large part of the Zendikar Rising arc, so it's good. I liked it.
The short flashbacks to the battle at seagate highlight for me the fact that Magic story telling at its core works best as vignettes, rather than continous storylines following the same five planeswalkers. The descriptions of Zareth's and Akiri's experiences at seagate had more atmosphere and feeling than any of Gideon's "I whip my hair back and forth" and Nissa's "Zendikar is crying!" segments, like by a magnitude. The multiverse is a setting of countless worlds, and as a result of countless stories. They need to be told from the perspective of its countless peoples, not someone who's just passing through.
For the same reason my absolute favourite story (installment) from Amonkhet was the one with the multiple vignettes showing how the Amonkheti survive (or not survive) the onslaught of the eternals. That is where magic storytelling shines the most. The other chapters focusing on the gatewatch were largely not memorable.
I don't know if I could live in Zendikar. While I do like planes with a lot of natural landscapes like it has, civilization on Zendikar always seems just a few steps away from annihilation. Much like Ikoria.
I mean, who does the books or sows the grain?
Farming on Zendikar sounds like precarious occupation.
Zendikar's main problem as a setting is that if you start looking too closely, the worldbuilding falls apart a bit. So best not look too closely.
The short flashbacks to the battle at seagate highlight for me the fact that Magic story telling at its core works best as vignettes, rather than continous storylines following the same five planeswalkers. The descriptions of Zareth's and Akiri's experiences at seagate had more atmosphere and feeling than any of Gideon's "I whip my hair back and forth" and Nissa's "Zendikar is crying!" segments, like by a magnitude. The multiverse is a setting of countless worlds, and as a result of countless stories. They need to be told from the perspective of its countless peoples, not someone who's just passing through.
I completely agree - I understand WotC's idea of wanting players to experiencing new worlds from the perspective of an outsider (i.e. a planeswalker) but (to me) the execution has been severely lacking in recent years - we've been getting a tourist's superficial view of a world, not the detailed and diverse perspectives a new setting deserves. If you want people to enjoy a setting, because players are extremely diverse with different desires and perspectives, having diverse perspectives on the setting increases the chances people will enjoy that setting. (WotC usually understands this Planeswalkers - why is it such a difficult lesson for them re: planes?)
And to be clear, this isn't just a problem with focusing on planeswalkers as POV characters. Even in cases where the inhabitants were the focal characters, because the focus was only on small number of characters, we were only getting a very limited view of what the worldbuilding set up to be a far more interesting world - see Ikoria.
Zendikar's main problem as a setting is that if you start looking too closely, the worldbuilding falls apart a bit. So best not look too closely.
True, although I feel this applies on some level to most settings. (Admittedly, Zendikar requires a much higher suspension of disbelief than many worlds.) Zendikar feels to me like a world that would have worked better pre-Mending, where food and other supplies could have been brought in via portals from other worlds, and settlements on Zendikar could have existed solely as a series of frontier outposts for cross-planar travelers looking for adventure and loot.
Not a lot happened, but it was a nice introduction to two characters we are going to see for a large part of the Zendikar Rising arc, so it's good. I liked it.
The short flashbacks to the battle at seagate highlight for me the fact that Magic story telling at its core works best as vignettes, rather than continous storylines following the same five planeswalkers. The descriptions of Zareth's and Akiri's experiences at seagate had more atmosphere and feeling than any of Gideon's "I whip my hair back and forth" and Nissa's "Zendikar is crying!" segments, like by a magnitude. The multiverse is a setting of countless worlds, and as a result of countless stories. They need to be told from the perspective of its countless peoples, not someone who's just passing through.
For the same reason my absolute favourite story (installment) from Amonkhet was the one with the multiple vignettes showing how the Amonkheti survive (or not survive) the onslaught of the eternals. That is where magic storytelling shines the most. The other chapters focusing on the gatewatch were largely not memorable.
Not a lot happened, but it was a nice introduction to two characters we are going to see for a large part of the Zendikar Rising arc, so it's good. I liked it.
The short flashbacks to the battle at seagate highlight for me the fact that Magic story telling at its core works best as vignettes, rather than continous storylines following the same five planeswalkers. The descriptions of Zareth's and Akiri's experiences at seagate had more atmosphere and feeling than any of Gideon's "I whip my hair back and forth" and Nissa's "Zendikar is crying!" segments, like by a magnitude. The multiverse is a setting of countless worlds, and as a result of countless stories. They need to be told from the perspective of its countless peoples, not someone who's just passing through.
For the same reason my absolute favourite story (installment) from Amonkhet was the one with the multiple vignettes showing how the Amonkheti survive (or not survive) the onslaught of the eternals. That is where magic storytelling shines the most. The other chapters focusing on the gatewatch were largely not memorable.
Don't be too sure about this. We haven't seen Akiri die on-screen. And she is a master line-slinger.
Moreover, not everything from the trailers really happened in the story, right?
For example, garruk never went on his hungry rampage on Eldraine, and the Gingerbread Man still lives. Possibly.
They have said the trailers lean to non-canon as they want it to show off the themes and feel of the set, with all the trailers having different degrees of matching what happens;
War of the Spark is looser but all the events happen in some way.
Eldraine is totally non-canon.
Theros BD Trailer is hard to tell since we don't have any prose but you can see it as a nightmare Ashiok is giving Elspeth.
Ikoria is iffy since it could have happened off screen but nothing backs up it did.
My guess is similar event will happen in Zendikar but might 1 for 1, (heck the first story could be seen as a version of the trailer with Nissa and the elemental swapped in).
As for Akiri unless we "see" a body I'm not convinced anyone is dead in mtg.
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I'm probably crazy, but, peeople have probably noticed that Legion Angel is carrying what looks like a bismuth lance, like made of the bismuth created by Kozilek and his spawn. Given how hard it must be for a society with the infrastructure of Zendikar to get hold of ores and metals, it makes sense that the Zendikari just decided to forge new weapons out of the bismuth which is probably found in abundance.
There's also Skyclave Pick-Axe, which has a similar texture. Its name being tied to skyclaves is probably coincidence.
Unless...
In the artwork of Skyclave Shadowcat (better seen here, fifth image) there's a strange patterning on the ruins around it, which are clearly from the skyclave. Similar patterning can be seen in other skyclave ruins, though not as detailed and clear. While it's possible that it's merely coincidence, the patterning on the skyclave ruins just trying to evoke "old stoneworking" aesthetic, it seems very very thoughtless to do something that so closely resembles Kozilek's bismuth, especially given that the colouration on some weapons matches the bismuth as well, while also matching the texture on the skyclaves.
So, what if the skyclaves and the eldrazi are related? Narratively it makes no real sense, given the skyclaves supposedly predate the Eldrazi's arrival on Zendikar. So I don't know what to think anymore. Did I spend too much time in the singing city? *starts rocking back and forth*
...
Unrelated to that, do you guys think we're gonna see the Surrakar again or did they go extinct?
At this point the Skyclaves don't feel like they're connected to anything. They're randomly generated video game dungeons where the characters can go to find the new story's MacGuffins. I'd be nice if there was more to them, but my expectations are low. Similarly, the bismuth patterns on some of the weapons seem to be nothing more than a superficial aestethic.
At this point the Skyclaves don't feel like they're connected to anything. They're randomly generated video game dungeons where the characters can go to find the new story's MacGuffins. I'd be nice if there was more to them, but my expectations are low. Similarly, the bismuth patterns on some of the weapons seem to be nothing more than a superficial aestethic.
Is that new though? Zendikar was never a particularly deep setting. "Just" a rich one with lots of variety and content. All the places, ruins and so forth were just named dungeons with about a sentence describing their mysteriousness. Which isn't particularly bad for Magic's standards, mind you, but yeah.
I think part of why they feel so disconnected is not so much the lack of connect, but the fact that we know that they were made up for this set. Like, that's how Magic operates, which is fine, but it's become a bit of a sore point in the last years due to the constant retcons and inconsistencies. It killed speculation, and it kills excitement about new content, because the glamer that new content is just something that's always been there, but only just now discovered, has been dispelled. The good-will is gone.
At this point the Skyclaves don't feel like they're connected to anything. They're randomly generated video game dungeons where the characters can go to find the new story's MacGuffins. I'd be nice if there was more to them, but my expectations are low. Similarly, the bismuth patterns on some of the weapons seem to be nothing more than a superficial aestethic.
Is that new though? Zendikar was never a particularly deep setting. "Just" a rich one with lots of variety and content. All the places, ruins and so forth were just named dungeons with about a sentence describing their mysteriousness. Which isn't particularly bad for Magic's standards, mind you, but yeah.
I think part of why they feel so disconnected is not so much the lack of connect, but the fact that we know that they were made up for this set. Like, that's how Magic operates, which is fine, but it's become a bit of a sore point in the last years due to the constant retcons and inconsistencies. It killed speculation, and it kills excitement about new content, because the glamer that new content is just something that's always been there, but only just now discovered, has been dispelled. The good-will is gone.
At least, that's how I feel about it.
Not quite. All of the original dungeon diving for Zendikar was based around this mysterious "thing" known as the Eldrazi. It was unclear if they were a civilization, a group of Gods, or something. Just that they left powerful Artifacts and Zendikar wasn't happy about it. So there was this underlying feel of interconnectivity based around "What are/were the Eldrazi" and they can't get that back
Jace has an extremely strange moral view on mind-reading people. Random strangers "no problem", person you actually want to know what they're thinking "only a little but feel bad about it", person who definitely knows exactly what you want to know "No because you already feel bad reading their mind to find out they know what you want to know"
Nissa sounding more and more like a kicked puppy with the occasional mama bear vibe.
Is that new though? Zendikar was never a particularly deep setting. "Just" a rich one with lots of variety and content. All the places, ruins and so forth were just named dungeons with about a sentence describing their mysteriousness. Which isn't particularly bad for Magic's standards, mind you, but yeah.
I think part of why they feel so disconnected is not so much the lack of connect, but the fact that we know that they were made up for this set. Like, that's how Magic operates, which is fine, but it's become a bit of a sore point in the last years due to the constant retcons and inconsistencies. It killed speculation, and it kills excitement about new content, because the glamer that new content is just something that's always been there, but only just now discovered, has been dispelled. The good-will is gone.
At least, that's how I feel about it.
Not quite. All of the original dungeon diving for Zendikar was based around this mysterious "thing" known as the Eldrazi. It was unclear if they were a civilization, a group of Gods, or something. Just that they left powerful Artifacts and Zendikar wasn't happy about it. So there was this underlying feel of interconnectivity based around "What are/were the Eldrazi" and they can't get that back
Exactly, that's what I meant when I said that the new Zendikar is lacking mystery. In the original Zendikar block, although concrete information on what all those adventurers searched for was quite sparse (as far as I'm aware) you could always assume that they were searching for relics related to the hedrons and the ancient civilization/gods/people/being associated with them. But because they chose to only flesh out that one mystery and solved it all, Wizards ended up in a place where there was nothing left for the adventurers on the adventure plane to adventure for ... unless they quickly put some Bloodborne Chalice Dungeons here and there ... which is why the Skyclaves feel so tacked on.
One question that's still left is "what is the Roil?", because until now, the assumption was that it was the plane's immune response to the Eldrazi. It should be gone, so why is it still there? This arguably qualifies as an element of mystery, at least for the readers and the planeswalkers in the story. From the perspective of the average Zendikari adventurer it doesn't really work though because for them, the Roil has always been there. Also it's not something you go on an adventure for, but just a hazard/obstacle that you run into along the way.
They could've solved this by introducing Zendikar as a home to multiple lost civilizations and not have absolutely everything hinge on the Eldrazi for the first two blocks ... but well, the game comes first and they can only plan ahead so much, so I understand that my complaints here are very nitpicky. I guess in the best case scenario, they would've already teased the Skyclaves in BFZ by having them be partly uncovered as a result of the war.
Anyway, this week's story...
The most interesting thing so far is definitely what the Lithoform Core/Nahiri will end up doing to Zendikar. Nahiri talks about bringing peace to the plane, but it doesn't look like that will be a very pleasant thing. It's kind of weird that we don't get more hints/insights into Nahiris thoughts (for example, info on what kind of world Zendikar was before the Eldrazi) even though she's a POV character, but oh well. As of right now we don't know whether she knows of the effects of her actions and just doesn't care or is legitimately unaware. My guess is that it's a mix of both - she wants to revert Zendikar to the old state she knows, but doesn't understand/want to admit that brute-forcing a reversal is not possible at this point without causing major damage.
Edit: Looking through the full spoiler, there's Lithoform Blight, the flavor text of which implies that whatever Nahiri will be doing in the story has been done before in the past. Maybe "Zendikar w/ Roil" is the plane's natural state, which was suppressed by the ancient Kor through lithomancy to build their empire, which in turn ... attracted the Eldrazi? idk
The Eldrazi came at the tail end of the kor empire, already devastated by many things. It can be presumed that the lithoform blight had long ceased by then, which allowed Zendikar to have abundant mana and in turn be used as a lure.
@sormaro They mentioned a few times the roil was always apart of Zendikar but the eldrazi presence made go into the out of control and chaotic state it is in now and it might be stuck like this or take while for it to calm down. As Zendikar is a more "alive" than other planes makes sense it always have the, to use thier comparison, an immune system that would act when something was messing with it.
And to be fair they did say Emeria, The Sky Ruin was skyclave so while they being ancient Kor fortresses is new is was an aspect of the world that was kinda there already, just very underplayed as I think all we knew is that the merfolk named after Emeria.
Thought for this week
-@Mullerornis I think your dead on with the theme of this story being guilt between the main 3 walkers.
-The foreshadowing of the cleric and wizard aren't in the trailer.
-Interesting to see how planeswalkers are being more common knowledge due to the results of the eldrazi and Bolas. Zendikar, Kaladesh, Amonkhet and Ravnica all have major leader knowing about walkers.
-Playing a game based on story and adventures against any planeswalker with a month of being sparking is a losing game, against a old walker? He gonna lose.
-Hmm was Nahiri talking about Innistrad or War of the Spark when she talked about Sorin.
-Timeline-wise I think tis safe to guess Nahiri was born into the Ancient Kor so I'm guesses thats where a lot of her "what I think it best is best".
-Hmm so Jace wanted to find Chandra and bring her but couldn't find her. !)Where is she and 2/3) he is not helping or working with Teferi/Ajani and Karn or bother looking for Kaya?
-Ah never mind he did send out ping to the rest and couldn't find them.
-haha Jace said the tagline
Well the story is feeling like its moving at a fast rate (each part could be fleshed out) but I don't think its a bad think to say I want more and we are only getting 5 chapters to tell the main story.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
@sormaro They mentioned a few times the roil was always apart of Zendikar but the eldrazi presence made go into the out of control and chaotic state it is in now and it might be stuck like this or take while for it to calm down. As Zendikar is a more "alive" than other planes makes sense it always have the, to use thier comparison, an immune system that would act when something was messing with it.
As with far too many things they were annoyingly inconsistent about the Roil when Zendikar first came out. The books specifically say that there was a time in Zendikar's history where there was no Roil and it was the coming of the Eldrazi that started it. While another source from the same time says what you said. The Roil was always there but the Eldrazi made it worse.
One of the key reasons Nissa sets the Eldrazi free is because Anowan tells her it would end the Roil. Sorin says that it wouldn't and they should all stop being stupid children and listen to the only adult around, himself.
The story of Nahiri, the ancient Kor, and her plans to restore peace is really reminiscent of the main antagonist of the Dragon Age series as of Inquisition. It's pretty much the same story.
Ancient powerful character from an empire that fell (leading to its people struggling) regrets not using their power to save their people, decides to address their regret by taking steps to bring peace through restoring their old empire (or parts of it), even if that'll hurt everyone else. Certainly there's nuances between the stories, but at their core (heh), they're quite similar.
@sormaro They mentioned a few times the roil was always apart of Zendikar but the eldrazi presence made go into the out of control and chaotic state it is in now and it might be stuck like this or take while for it to calm down. As Zendikar is a more "alive" than other planes makes sense it always have the, to use thier comparison, an immune system that would act when something was messing with it.
As with far too many things they were annoyingly inconsistent about the Roil when Zendikar first came out. The books specifically say that there was a time in Zendikar's history where there was no Roil and it was the coming of the Eldrazi that started it. While another source from the same time says what you said. The Roil was always there but the Eldrazi made it worse.
One of the key reasons Nissa sets the Eldrazi free is because Anowan tells her it would end the Roil. Sorin says that it wouldn't and they should all stop being stupid children and listen to the only adult around, himself.
If you mean "In the Teeth of Aksum" they said its not canon (along with Quest for Karn and Test of Metal).
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
New story was good, but I'm having some major cognitive dissonance about Zareth. On the one hand he's written as likeable and witty and actually right about the whole Nahiri thing, clearly a sympathetic character.
On the other hand he steals from people who don't seem to be particularly rich and actually literally sacrifices people to save his best buddy.
Not quite. All of the original dungeon diving for Zendikar was based around this mysterious "thing" known as the Eldrazi. It was unclear if they were a civilization, a group of Gods, or something. Just that they left powerful Artifacts and Zendikar wasn't happy about it. So there was this underlying feel of interconnectivity based around "What are/were the Eldrazi" and they can't get that back
I dunno, maybe it's my cynism, but I never really had this "oh wow so mysterious" feel about Zendikar. All the places on Zendikar were obviously just "lets throw as many unexplained things at the wall as we can to paint a colourful picture". Tal Terig the puzzle tower has no relation to the singing city, has no relation to glasspool, has no relation to the crypt of agadeem, has no relation to the blue strand of jwar isle. (To be fair, the singing city being ringed by giant multi-armed statues was okay foreshadowing, but literally never explained/shown on the cards, so probably missed by 99.9% of the players.)
There is nothing tying these secrets together, something that when connected creating something else or suddenly making something make sense. There is no payoff after the Eldrazi were freed, which confirmed that these mysteries were done the same way they did the mysteries in Lost: There literally was no answer baked into the design. They were open questions that even the creators didn't know how to solve.
And your mileage may vary, but that is not deep worldbuilding. That's just placing props on a stage to make it pretty. Which, again, isn't particularly bad, given that MtG is a game first and foremost and not an epic saga where a single world has years to be developed. But it's a thing. And it has been a thing during Zendikar I.
One question that's still left is "what is the Roil?", because until now, the assumption was that it was the plane's immune response to the Eldrazi. It should be gone, so why is it still there? This arguably qualifies as an element of mystery, at least for the readers and the planeswalkers in the story. From the perspective of the average Zendikari adventurer it doesn't really work though because for them, the Roil has always been there. Also it's not something you go on an adventure for, but just a hazard/obstacle that you run into along the way.
I mean the (current) in-universe explanation is that the roil is like a scab. It doesn't just stop from one day to the enxt just because the Eldrazi are gone. It may take centuries to heal. To spin the "physical harm" analogy further, Zendikar may never fully recover from it and remain "crippled".
The out of universe answer of course is that (planar) change in Magic is bad, or has been phased out sicne they started returning to planes. Obviously when you return to planes, you want to show what people fell in love with.
Personally, I am of the opinion that planes are the "real" characters in Magic (or should be, rather) and as such should undergo the same changes that characters do in other stories, including their destruction or, well, irreversible change, but that's just me and unfortunately theres a lot of players/fans who don't want things to change at all. Because for them it's about the franchise and not the stories.
I don't get why Nissa is acting awkwardly with Jace at the end. Can someone fill me in?
Because they want to make the planeswalkers relatable and social awkwardness is very relatable to a lot of Magic players.
Of course extracting real world modern society social awkwardness into a fantasy world where people literally fight for their survival on a regular basis and are involved in interplanar threats kinda doesn't work, but shh, don't tell Wizards that.
Also, I'm sorry for Nissa. Her character has been through so many retcons and shifts in tone, I feel like not even she knows what kind of character she is supposed to be.
This week's side story was another nice one. I prefer this Lopez dude's style to Greenblatt's, although it feels a bit too extravagant here and there.
The one thing I found annoying was that the description of the serpent in the story didn't match up with its card art (which is in the article!). On the card it has a two-mouths-on-the-same-head situation going on, but in the story it's just a regular two-headed monster.
I'm having some major cognitive dissonance about Zareth. On the one hand he's written as likeable and witty and actually right about the whole Nahiri thing, clearly a sympathetic character.
On the other hand he steals from people who don't seem to be particularly rich and actually literally sacrifices people to save his best buddy.
Like, I dunno...
Does it have to be one or the other? To me, it makes the character more realistic. People with *****ty general behaviour that are likeable under certain circumstances are a thing in the real world...
I wouldn't really count the "sacrifices people" thing as a bad character trait though (in this specific case). Not everyone is a selfless hero, and the author clearly described what kind of life-of-death situation they were in. I think in a situation like this, most people would've done what Zareth did instead of heroically, but pointlessly trying to save everyone.
I dunno, maybe it's my cynism, but I never really had this "oh wow so mysterious" feel about Zendikar. All the places on Zendikar were obviously just "lets throw as many unexplained things at the wall as we can to paint a colourful picture". Tal Terig the puzzle tower has no relation to the singing city, has no relation to glasspool, has no relation to the crypt of agadeem, has no relation to the blue strand of jwar isle.
I mean, it is fantasy, so you can't get around making things up. I agree with you that most original Zendikar locations were nothing more than cool-sounding names. But once you're finished with the initial setup, it's all about how you use the things you placed on your world, and this is where I wish Wizards had put more focus on. Why not work with the stuff you have more? They're clearly fine with lampshading the damage done by the Eldrazi invasion, so from there it's not a big leap to say that most of those places are still worth exploring ("most of them weren't destroyed, Zendikar is just too big!"). Instead they hastily made up even more window dressing, and now the route the characters in the main story take is "Skyclave A -> Skyclave B -> (probably) Skyclave C"...
I mean the (current) in-universe explanation is that the roil is like a scab. It doesn't just stop from one day to the enxt just because the Eldrazi are gone. It may take centuries to heal. To spin the "physical harm" analogy further, Zendikar may never fully recover from it and remain "crippled".
The out of universe answer of course is that (planar) change in Magic is bad, or has been phased out sicne they started returning to planes. Obviously when you return to planes, you want to show what people fell in love with.
Personally, I am of the opinion that planes are the "real" characters in Magic (or should be, rather) and as such should undergo the same changes that characters do in other stories, including their destruction or, well, irreversible change, but that's just me and unfortunately theres a lot of players/fans who don't want things to change at all. Because for them it's about the franchise and not the stories.
As for the in-universe explanation: I think the Roil was a thing before the Eldrazi? It's pretty hard to speculate when core characteristics of a world are changed around constantly or not made clear... However, it does make things easier for marketing in case they want to return to a state of the world that was more liked by players I guess.
I agree with you that planes should be allowed to change and evolve organically, but yeah maybe that's too much to ask when their first priority is selling a card game.
Does it have to be one or the other? To me, it makes the character more realistic. People with *****ty general behaviour that are likeable under certain circumstances are a thing in the real world...
My gripe isn't that he isn't realistic, but that it appears to me that the author wants him to be likeable/semi-heroic/sympathetic etc without doing anything to earn that sympathy.
Like, Akiri thinks that despite his thieving activities, "his heart is in the right place". He was right about Nahiri's intentions etc. There's a point where it stops being just the characters' opinions, and starts becoming the author's intent.
The issue is all positive traits about him are either told to us (rather than shown) or aren't earned. Akiri says that he is a good person and we have to take her word for it. Zareth opposes Nahiri and believes the artifact to be harmful, despite no reason for the latter. His only reason is that he doesn't see a place for himself (an adventurer) in a healed Zendikar, which is A) somewhat selfish B) somewhat dumbass and C) not even related to any sort of information. It's just an emotional response. Zareth isn't against using the artifact because he has seen its effects. He just opposes Nahiri because he doesn't want her to succeed, even if the artifact did exactly the thing everyone hopes it does, no strings attached.
I wouldn't really count the "sacrifices people" thing as a bad character trait though (in this specific case). Not everyone is a selfless hero, and the author clearly described what kind of life-of-death situation they were in. I think in a situation like this, most people would've done what Zareth did instead of heroically, but pointlessly trying to save everyone.
To me there is a sharp distinction between abandoning people you care less about than your friend and actually calling them over and using them as bait with no intention to secure their survival, to save your friend.
I don't know if I could live in Zendikar. While I do like planes with a lot of natural landscapes like it has, civilization on Zendikar always seems just a few steps away from annihilation. Much like Ikoria.
I mean, who does the books or sows the grain?
Farming on Zendikar sounds like precarious occupation.
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
Post-Eldrazi Zendikar is still lacking mystery though.
The short flashbacks to the battle at seagate highlight for me the fact that Magic story telling at its core works best as vignettes, rather than continous storylines following the same five planeswalkers. The descriptions of Zareth's and Akiri's experiences at seagate had more atmosphere and feeling than any of Gideon's "I whip my hair back and forth" and Nissa's "Zendikar is crying!" segments, like by a magnitude. The multiverse is a setting of countless worlds, and as a result of countless stories. They need to be told from the perspective of its countless peoples, not someone who's just passing through.
For the same reason my absolute favourite story (installment) from Amonkhet was the one with the multiple vignettes showing how the Amonkheti survive (or not survive) the onslaught of the eternals. That is where magic storytelling shines the most. The other chapters focusing on the gatewatch were largely not memorable.
Don't be too sure about this. We haven't seen Akiri die on-screen. And she is a master line-slinger.
Zendikar's main problem as a setting is that if you start looking too closely, the worldbuilding falls apart a bit. So best not look too closely.
I completely agree - I understand WotC's idea of wanting players to experiencing new worlds from the perspective of an outsider (i.e. a planeswalker) but (to me) the execution has been severely lacking in recent years - we've been getting a tourist's superficial view of a world, not the detailed and diverse perspectives a new setting deserves. If you want people to enjoy a setting, because players are extremely diverse with different desires and perspectives, having diverse perspectives on the setting increases the chances people will enjoy that setting. (WotC usually understands this Planeswalkers - why is it such a difficult lesson for them re: planes?)
And to be clear, this isn't just a problem with focusing on planeswalkers as POV characters. Even in cases where the inhabitants were the focal characters, because the focus was only on small number of characters, we were only getting a very limited view of what the worldbuilding set up to be a far more interesting world - see Ikoria.
True, although I feel this applies on some level to most settings. (Admittedly, Zendikar requires a much higher suspension of disbelief than many worlds.) Zendikar feels to me like a world that would have worked better pre-Mending, where food and other supplies could have been brought in via portals from other worlds, and settlements on Zendikar could have existed solely as a series of frontier outposts for cross-planar travelers looking for adventure and loot.
Moreover, not everything from the trailers really happened in the story, right?
For example, garruk never went on his hungry rampage on Eldraine, and the Gingerbread Man still lives. Possibly.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
They have said the trailers lean to non-canon as they want it to show off the themes and feel of the set, with all the trailers having different degrees of matching what happens;
War of the Spark is looser but all the events happen in some way.
Eldraine is totally non-canon.
Theros BD Trailer is hard to tell since we don't have any prose but you can see it as a nightmare Ashiok is giving Elspeth.
Ikoria is iffy since it could have happened off screen but nothing backs up it did.
My guess is similar event will happen in Zendikar but might 1 for 1, (heck the first story could be seen as a version of the trailer with Nissa and the elemental swapped in).
As for Akiri unless we "see" a body I'm not convinced anyone is dead in mtg.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
There's also Skyclave Pick-Axe, which has a similar texture. Its name being tied to skyclaves is probably coincidence.
Unless...
In the artwork of Skyclave Shadowcat (better seen here, fifth image) there's a strange patterning on the ruins around it, which are clearly from the skyclave. Similar patterning can be seen in other skyclave ruins, though not as detailed and clear. While it's possible that it's merely coincidence, the patterning on the skyclave ruins just trying to evoke "old stoneworking" aesthetic, it seems very very thoughtless to do something that so closely resembles Kozilek's bismuth, especially given that the colouration on some weapons matches the bismuth as well, while also matching the texture on the skyclaves.
So, what if the skyclaves and the eldrazi are related? Narratively it makes no real sense, given the skyclaves supposedly predate the Eldrazi's arrival on Zendikar. So I don't know what to think anymore. Did I spend too much time in the singing city? *starts rocking back and forth*
...
Unrelated to that, do you guys think we're gonna see the Surrakar again or did they go extinct?
Is that new though? Zendikar was never a particularly deep setting. "Just" a rich one with lots of variety and content. All the places, ruins and so forth were just named dungeons with about a sentence describing their mysteriousness. Which isn't particularly bad for Magic's standards, mind you, but yeah.
I think part of why they feel so disconnected is not so much the lack of connect, but the fact that we know that they were made up for this set. Like, that's how Magic operates, which is fine, but it's become a bit of a sore point in the last years due to the constant retcons and inconsistencies. It killed speculation, and it kills excitement about new content, because the glamer that new content is just something that's always been there, but only just now discovered, has been dispelled. The good-will is gone.
At least, that's how I feel about it.
Next story is up
More of what we already know about Nahiri
Jace has an extremely strange moral view on mind-reading people. Random strangers "no problem", person you actually want to know what they're thinking "only a little but feel bad about it", person who definitely knows exactly what you want to know "No because you already feel bad reading their mind to find out they know what you want to know"
Nissa sounding more and more like a kicked puppy with the occasional mama bear vibe.
- Truth and tell card game.
One question that's still left is "what is the Roil?", because until now, the assumption was that it was the plane's immune response to the Eldrazi. It should be gone, so why is it still there? This arguably qualifies as an element of mystery, at least for the readers and the planeswalkers in the story. From the perspective of the average Zendikari adventurer it doesn't really work though because for them, the Roil has always been there. Also it's not something you go on an adventure for, but just a hazard/obstacle that you run into along the way.
They could've solved this by introducing Zendikar as a home to multiple lost civilizations and not have absolutely everything hinge on the Eldrazi for the first two blocks ... but well, the game comes first and they can only plan ahead so much, so I understand that my complaints here are very nitpicky. I guess in the best case scenario, they would've already teased the Skyclaves in BFZ by having them be partly uncovered as a result of the war.
Anyway, this week's story...
The most interesting thing so far is definitely what the Lithoform Core/Nahiri will end up doing to Zendikar. Nahiri talks about bringing peace to the plane, but it doesn't look like that will be a very pleasant thing. It's kind of weird that we don't get more hints/insights into Nahiris thoughts (for example, info on what kind of world Zendikar was before the Eldrazi) even though she's a POV character, but oh well. As of right now we don't know whether she knows of the effects of her actions and just doesn't care or is legitimately unaware. My guess is that it's a mix of both - she wants to revert Zendikar to the old state she knows, but doesn't understand/want to admit that brute-forcing a reversal is not possible at this point without causing major damage.
Edit: Looking through the full spoiler, there's Lithoform Blight, the flavor text of which implies that whatever Nahiri will be doing in the story has been done before in the past. Maybe "Zendikar w/ Roil" is the plane's natural state, which was suppressed by the ancient Kor through lithomancy to build their empire, which in turn ... attracted the Eldrazi? idk
And to be fair they did say Emeria, The Sky Ruin was skyclave so while they being ancient Kor fortresses is new is was an aspect of the world that was kinda there already, just very underplayed as I think all we knew is that the merfolk named after Emeria.
Thought for this week
-@Mullerornis I think your dead on with the theme of this story being guilt between the main 3 walkers.
-The foreshadowing of the cleric and wizard aren't in the trailer.
-Interesting to see how planeswalkers are being more common knowledge due to the results of the eldrazi and Bolas. Zendikar, Kaladesh, Amonkhet and Ravnica all have major leader knowing about walkers.
-Playing a game based on story and adventures against any planeswalker with a month of being sparking is a losing game, against a old walker? He gonna lose.
-Hmm was Nahiri talking about Innistrad or War of the Spark when she talked about Sorin.
-Timeline-wise I think tis safe to guess Nahiri was born into the Ancient Kor so I'm guesses thats where a lot of her "what I think it best is best".
-Hmm so Jace wanted to find Chandra and bring her but couldn't find her. !)Where is she and 2/3) he is not helping or working with Teferi/Ajani and Karn or bother looking for Kaya?
-Ah never mind he did send out ping to the rest and couldn't find them.
-haha Jace said the tagline
Well the story is feeling like its moving at a fast rate (each part could be fleshed out) but I don't think its a bad think to say I want more and we are only getting 5 chapters to tell the main story.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
One of the key reasons Nissa sets the Eldrazi free is because Anowan tells her it would end the Roil. Sorin says that it wouldn't and they should all stop being stupid children and listen to the only adult around, himself.
Ancient powerful character from an empire that fell (leading to its people struggling) regrets not using their power to save their people, decides to address their regret by taking steps to bring peace through restoring their old empire (or parts of it), even if that'll hurt everyone else. Certainly there's nuances between the stories, but at their core (heh), they're quite similar.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
If you mean "In the Teeth of Aksum" they said its not canon (along with Quest for Karn and Test of Metal).
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
On the other hand he steals from people who don't seem to be particularly rich and actually literally sacrifices people to save his best buddy.
Like, I dunno...
I dunno, maybe it's my cynism, but I never really had this "oh wow so mysterious" feel about Zendikar. All the places on Zendikar were obviously just "lets throw as many unexplained things at the wall as we can to paint a colourful picture". Tal Terig the puzzle tower has no relation to the singing city, has no relation to glasspool, has no relation to the crypt of agadeem, has no relation to the blue strand of jwar isle. (To be fair, the singing city being ringed by giant multi-armed statues was okay foreshadowing, but literally never explained/shown on the cards, so probably missed by 99.9% of the players.)
There is nothing tying these secrets together, something that when connected creating something else or suddenly making something make sense. There is no payoff after the Eldrazi were freed, which confirmed that these mysteries were done the same way they did the mysteries in Lost: There literally was no answer baked into the design. They were open questions that even the creators didn't know how to solve.
And your mileage may vary, but that is not deep worldbuilding. That's just placing props on a stage to make it pretty. Which, again, isn't particularly bad, given that MtG is a game first and foremost and not an epic saga where a single world has years to be developed. But it's a thing. And it has been a thing during Zendikar I.
I mean the (current) in-universe explanation is that the roil is like a scab. It doesn't just stop from one day to the enxt just because the Eldrazi are gone. It may take centuries to heal. To spin the "physical harm" analogy further, Zendikar may never fully recover from it and remain "crippled".
The out of universe answer of course is that (planar) change in Magic is bad, or has been phased out sicne they started returning to planes. Obviously when you return to planes, you want to show what people fell in love with.
Personally, I am of the opinion that planes are the "real" characters in Magic (or should be, rather) and as such should undergo the same changes that characters do in other stories, including their destruction or, well, irreversible change, but that's just me and unfortunately theres a lot of players/fans who don't want things to change at all. Because for them it's about the franchise and not the stories.
Because they want to make the planeswalkers relatable and social awkwardness is very relatable to a lot of Magic players.
Of course extracting real world modern society social awkwardness into a fantasy world where people literally fight for their survival on a regular basis and are involved in interplanar threats kinda doesn't work, but shh, don't tell Wizards that.
Also, I'm sorry for Nissa. Her character has been through so many retcons and shifts in tone, I feel like not even she knows what kind of character she is supposed to be.
How else can we know he's black aligned?
The one thing I found annoying was that the description of the serpent in the story didn't match up with its card art (which is in the article!). On the card it has a two-mouths-on-the-same-head situation going on, but in the story it's just a regular two-headed monster.
Does it have to be one or the other? To me, it makes the character more realistic. People with *****ty general behaviour that are likeable under certain circumstances are a thing in the real world...
I wouldn't really count the "sacrifices people" thing as a bad character trait though (in this specific case). Not everyone is a selfless hero, and the author clearly described what kind of life-of-death situation they were in. I think in a situation like this, most people would've done what Zareth did instead of heroically, but pointlessly trying to save everyone.
I mean, it is fantasy, so you can't get around making things up. I agree with you that most original Zendikar locations were nothing more than cool-sounding names. But once you're finished with the initial setup, it's all about how you use the things you placed on your world, and this is where I wish Wizards had put more focus on. Why not work with the stuff you have more? They're clearly fine with lampshading the damage done by the Eldrazi invasion, so from there it's not a big leap to say that most of those places are still worth exploring ("most of them weren't destroyed, Zendikar is just too big!"). Instead they hastily made up even more window dressing, and now the route the characters in the main story take is "Skyclave A -> Skyclave B -> (probably) Skyclave C"...
As for the in-universe explanation: I think the Roil was a thing before the Eldrazi? It's pretty hard to speculate when core characteristics of a world are changed around constantly or not made clear... However, it does make things easier for marketing in case they want to return to a state of the world that was more liked by players I guess.
I agree with you that planes should be allowed to change and evolve organically, but yeah maybe that's too much to ask when their first priority is selling a card game.
My gripe isn't that he isn't realistic, but that it appears to me that the author wants him to be likeable/semi-heroic/sympathetic etc without doing anything to earn that sympathy.
Like, Akiri thinks that despite his thieving activities, "his heart is in the right place". He was right about Nahiri's intentions etc. There's a point where it stops being just the characters' opinions, and starts becoming the author's intent.
The issue is all positive traits about him are either told to us (rather than shown) or aren't earned. Akiri says that he is a good person and we have to take her word for it. Zareth opposes Nahiri and believes the artifact to be harmful, despite no reason for the latter. His only reason is that he doesn't see a place for himself (an adventurer) in a healed Zendikar, which is A) somewhat selfish B) somewhat dumbass and C) not even related to any sort of information. It's just an emotional response. Zareth isn't against using the artifact because he has seen its effects. He just opposes Nahiri because he doesn't want her to succeed, even if the artifact did exactly the thing everyone hopes it does, no strings attached.
To me there is a sharp distinction between abandoning people you care less about than your friend and actually calling them over and using them as bait with no intention to secure their survival, to save your friend.