-There are 5 colleges which are enemy colored founded by elder dragons.
WB Silverquil
Silverquills wield the magic of words, from inspiring battle poetry to biting arcane insults. Stylish, intimidating, and tirelessly competitive, these mages are born leaders with a razor-sharp wit and natural charisma that can be used for good or for ill. Their motto is "Sharp style. Sharper wit."
RW Lorehold
Loreholds are diligent researchers and daring adventurers. Passionate scholars obsessed with history, they explore the past by pouring over archaeological artifacts and summoning long-dead spirits. For some students, the past is a rich tapestry worthy of disciplined study. While others wear that tapestry like a cape as they jump down into a forgotten tomb. Their motto is "Leave no stone unturned."
UR Prismari
Prismari are the theatre kids of Strixhaven, and magic is how they express themselves. Their spells can be spectacles of raw creativity or meticulous artistic expressions. All the world's a stage, and whether their art is informed by mind or emotion, Prismari always leave a lasting impression. Their motto is "Express yourself with the elements."
BG Witherbloom
Witherblooms are goth bio majors. They draw power from the essence of living beings, whether that means enhancing nature or exploiting it. Witherbloom mages are most at home riding zombie crocs, picking herbs for potions, and hanging out in their swamp making grim jokes. Their motto is "Get your hands dirty."
GU Quazdrix
Quandrix mages are ingenious math magicians. They study patterns, fractals, and symmetries to command power over the fundamental forces of nature. They'll solve a Rubik's Cube while contemplating the metaphysical properties of the universe and can recite every number of Pi backwards. Their motto is "Math is magic."
-From the packaging Will and Rowan Kenrith are in the set.
-Its on a new plane called Arcavios.
-Story will be through web fiction.
-"Fantasy Races" and creatures on plane;
Humans
Loxodon-Elephants
Spirits
Aven- Birds (Owl looking and six limbed kind)
Elementals
Elves
Orc/Ogre/Troll?
Merfolk
Bearfolk
“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"
-Right off everything looks really pretty? Like the art and such for all of it is so cool and flashy.
-Quazdrix is so fun since, while I hated math, I do remember learning how nature will have math in how it grows and forms in it.
-WILL AND ROWAN YES YES YES (fingers crossed for more Kate Elliot thought I'm open to see how a new author might write them.
-Scroll machine gun is something I never knew I needed.
-I don't think we will see Garruk, I think the Kenrith twins being here is them wanting to do a MDFC planeswalker on each side and the twin are perfect for that as well as being "enemy colored" which fit right in the set. So more a game play reason than a story one.
“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"
which phyrexian praetor will be here and which college will he/she be hiding in and what are they
after? (Ofcoarse logically it should be Jin-Gitaxas and probably the math building)
And if Rowan and will find the phyrexian does that mean they will have to meet and help karn for the battle?
Really liking the Quandrix, combining maths and biology into one "magic school" is kinda brilliant. The rest of the schools are kinda meh. Worst is Witherbloom which is just Golgari. The only good motto is the Lorehold one.
Also I feel an important information was missing in the OP: The colleges were founded by elder dragons, which apparently named the colleges after themselves. (This would mean the red-white dragon is called Lorehold? )
Really liking the Quandrix, combining maths and biology into one "magic school" is kinda brilliant.
Its already kinda real world thing with Fibonacci numbers and other mathematical patterns that appear in nature.
Also I feel an important information was missing in the OP: The colleges were founded by elder dragons, which apparently named the colleges after themselves. (This would mean the red-white dragon is called Lorehold? )
Ahhh thank you, I missed that in being excited for art and the twins. This set then is really looking to be Dragons of Tarkir but enemy colored (which so far I'm digging).
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
Yeah, concept-wise Quandrix is easily the best faction. It's an interesting creative space for the GU color pair that nicely blends blue's meta magic with green's connection to nature (without overextending into environmental and biologic aspects) - "understanding and researching the very fundamentals of the world". The name and the logo are cool as well. Math has always been my #01 weak point though so I probably wouldn't fit there, haha. I guess I'm more of a Lorehold.
Lorehold, Silverquill and Witherbloom do seem weird as names for dragons ... especially Lorehold. Maybe some of them are going to be named something like "XYZ, the Silver-Quilled?"
I'm pretty happy with my WB Silverquill faction, and I'd even go so far as to argue that 2021-early 2022 is shaping up to be the best WByear in quite some time.
Kaldheim: WB Kaya
Strixhaven: WB Silverquill
Innistrad: WB Sorin (one of the two sets)
Kinda wish that my work-life situation was a little less hectic these days for me to enjoy it.
Edit: Not that he'd be a perfect fit, but I could definitely see Davriel being a lazy, last-minute/temporary faculty hire much like Slughorn was in the HP novels. Not that it would be wise for WotC to associate itself with HP these days.
Davriel has a sharp wit, an even sharper tongue, as well as a great deal of experience in writing demonic contracts. He's a perfect candidate to manage Silverquill for a bit, even if he leans UB rather than WB.
I too am excited to see the Kenriths and Kasmina again.
Really liking the Quandrix, combining maths and biology into one "magic school" is kinda brilliant.
Its already kinda real world thing with Fibonacci numbers and other mathematical patterns that appear in nature.
Yes, that's what I was referencing. Maths is a huge part of biology.
Also, the more I think about the colleges, the weirder it gets and the more they fall apart conceptually. Granted we only have short snippets to go from, but I expect these snippets to be representative as they our introduction into the colleges. Half of silverquill's characterization is that they have style. What. How is that a thing? Isn't that entirely subjective and contextbased? Are they filling the coolkids trope? Can a group of people just declare they are stylish and cool or wouldn't other people have to consider them as such for the trope to work? I'm just really confused what wizards is trying to go for here.
Speaking of tropes, I'm unironically missing some basic school/university tropes. Why is there no "sports" focused college with frat bros and stuff. Give them a unique spin by adding greek olympics style training to it (so they're not just a bunch of dumb jocks but can also read). Missed opportunity and yes I am being serious.
I will reserve final judgement until we get the planeswalker guides, but I don't know. From what I've read so far about Strixhaven I fear another Ikoria. :[
Sports teams are kinda moot unless they had each faction to be another separate school instead of different majors/departments.
I do like its mundane school subjects with a magical twist vs going to school to learn just how to do magic.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
I do like its mundane school subjects with a magical twist vs going to school to learn just how to do magic.
I mean, personally I'd disagree with that, because it kind of ignores an important bit of Magic's setting, which is: Magic exists. Studying at a school is arguably a lot of time spent not doing anything immediately productive, so people generally do it to acquire skills that will be helpful later in life. In Magic the most consistently powerful entities are great wielders of magic. It stands to reason that teaching magic is an important part of a "magic school". Subverting expectations shouldn't go in the way of telling a good story or building a functioning world.
Which brings me to my next point. I know, I know, we know next to nothing about Strixhaven, but from what we've been told so far it just doesn't work well as a setting. Ravnica did the "mundane things but magical" MUCH better. Izzet are engineers, but make use of elemental magic. Boros are police/army but fantasy and Azorius are lawmakers, but have sphinxes and law magic. The core elements of the guilds are relatively mundane. Most are things you find in the real world (Golgari are a tad of a stretch, but they're basically farmers I suppose) but with a magical twist, but you can clearly imagine the daily life of a Boros soldier or a Dimir operative.
But for the Strixhaven factions it starts to get really muddy. The colleges ae kinda subjects, but not really? Witherbloom seems to have a medicine focus but not really, like what are zombie crocodiles for? Prismari focuses on performance art, but also elemental magic? If you want to study elemental magic, do you need to also do performance art? Can you do performance art without studying elemental magic?
Maybe it's the (admittedly rather short) presentation making them much more flat than they are on the cards and in the story, which is why I'll hold my final judgement for now, but to be honest, the "sneak peak" we got is rather disappointing.
I think it would have been a better idea to make the factions be "self found" like frats and affiliations the people decide on themselves, rather than the five pre-determined colleges that people can just join. Each "frat" could still have its own focus of course, but it would make the thing flow a bit better in my opinion.
Sports teams are kinda moot unless they had each faction to be another separate school instead of different majors/departments.
Why can't different sport teams exist inside one school?
Cause this isn't Hogwarts. For real thought I don't know any colleges with multiple sports teams (of the same sport) that only play each other. What more likely is strixhaven has a sport teams but its open to any students similar how really sports teams will have a mix of students with different degrees.
I do like its mundane school subjects with a magical twist vs going to school to learn just how to do magic.
I mean, personally I'd disagree with that, because it kind of ignores an important bit of Magic's setting, which is: Magic exists. Studying at a school is arguably a lot of time spent not doing anything immediately productive, so people generally do it to acquire skills that will be helpful later in life. In Magic the most consistently powerful entities are great wielders of magic. It stands to reason that teaching magic is an important part of a "magic school". Subverting expectations shouldn't go in the way of telling a good story or building a functioning world.
As this is a college, most of the students likely already know how to do magic and are going to Strixhaven to specialize, just instead of "necromancy" its "biology magic".
Which brings me to my next point. I know, I know, we know next to nothing about Strixhaven, but from what we've been told so far it just doesn't work well as a setting. Ravnica did the "mundane things but magical" MUCH better. Izzet are engineers, but make use of elemental magic. Boros are police/army but fantasy and Azorius are lawmakers, but have sphinxes and law magic. The core elements of the guilds are relatively mundane. Most are things you find in the real world (Golgari are a tad of a stretch, but they're basically farmers I suppose) but with a magical twist, but you can clearly imagine the daily life of a Boros soldier or a Dimir operative.
I mean I see Strixhaven doing the same thing, its core is typically school with a magical twist.
But for the Strixhaven factions it starts to get really muddy. The colleges ae kinda subjects, but not really? Witherbloom seems to have a medicine focus but not really, like what are zombie crocodiles for? Prismari focuses on performance art, but also elemental magic? If you want to study elemental magic, do you need to also do performance art? Can you do performance art without studying elemental magic?
They are the different department in a college, having the factions called schools is kinda weird since they are all suppose to be Strixhaven but could be the elder dragons started the schools separately and they came together after a while. And "department" isn't as "cool" sounding as "schools" are.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
Also I feel an important information was missing in the OP: The colleges were founded by elder dragons, which apparently named the colleges after themselves. (This would mean the red-white dragon is called Lorehold? )
Which likely means we'll get and enemy color cycle to balance the 5 Tarkir elder dragons.
Also I feel an important information was missing in the OP: The colleges were founded by elder dragons, which apparently named the colleges after themselves. (This would mean the red-white dragon is called Lorehold? )
Which likely means we'll get and enemy color cycle to balance the 5 Tarkir elder dragons.
yep they are secretly completing the 2-color elder dragon cycle
oh on further inspection
you Might notice In the blog
It looks like the whole entire campus especially the dragons know the existence of the multiverse
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/first-lesson-introduction-strixhaven-2021-02-18 (first look)
-There are 5 colleges which are enemy colored founded by elder dragons.
WB Silverquil
RW Lorehold
UR Prismari
BG Witherbloom
GU Quazdrix
-From the packaging Will and Rowan Kenrith are in the set.
-Its on a new plane called Arcavios.
-Story will be through web fiction.
-"Fantasy Races" and creatures on plane;
Humans
Loxodon-Elephants
Spirits
Aven- Birds (Owl looking and six limbed kind)
Elementals
Elves
Orc/Ogre/Troll?
Merfolk
Bearfolk
Maybe?
Dwarfs
Azras
Will update as we know more.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
-Right off everything looks really pretty? Like the art and such for all of it is so cool and flashy.
-Quazdrix is so fun since, while I hated math, I do remember learning how nature will have math in how it grows and forms in it.
-WILL AND ROWAN YES YES YES (fingers crossed for more Kate Elliot thought I'm open to see how a new author might write them.
-Scroll machine gun is something I never knew I needed.
-I don't think we will see Garruk, I think the Kenrith twins being here is them wanting to do a MDFC planeswalker on each side and the twin are perfect for that as well as being "enemy colored" which fit right in the set. So more a game play reason than a story one.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
which phyrexian praetor will be here and which college will he/she be hiding in and what are they
after? (Ofcoarse logically it should be Jin-Gitaxas and probably the math building)
And if Rowan and will find the phyrexian does that mean they will have to meet and help karn for the battle?
Also I feel an important information was missing in the OP: The colleges were founded by elder dragons, which apparently named the colleges after themselves. (This would mean the red-white dragon is called Lorehold?
Its already kinda real world thing with Fibonacci numbers and other mathematical patterns that appear in nature.
Ahhh thank you, I missed that in being excited for art and the twins. This set then is really looking to be Dragons of Tarkir but enemy colored (which so far I'm digging).
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Been on this forum for about 10 years
Playing since '94
Lorehold, Silverquill and Witherbloom do seem weird as names for dragons ... especially Lorehold. Maybe some of them are going to be named something like "XYZ, the Silver-Quilled?"
Kaldheim: WB Kaya
Strixhaven: WB Silverquill
Innistrad: WB Sorin (one of the two sets)
Kinda wish that my work-life situation was a little less hectic these days for me to enjoy it.
Edit: Not that he'd be a perfect fit, but I could definitely see Davriel being a lazy, last-minute/temporary faculty hire much like Slughorn was in the HP novels. Not that it would be wise for WotC to associate itself with HP these days.
Davriel has a sharp wit, an even sharper tongue, as well as a great deal of experience in writing demonic contracts. He's a perfect candidate to manage Silverquill for a bit, even if he leans UB rather than WB.
I too am excited to see the Kenriths and Kasmina again.
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
Lorehold
Prismari
Quandrix
Goth houses:
Witherbloom
Poser houses:
Silverquill
Yes, that's what I was referencing. Maths is a huge part of biology.
Also, the more I think about the colleges, the weirder it gets and the more they fall apart conceptually. Granted we only have short snippets to go from, but I expect these snippets to be representative as they our introduction into the colleges. Half of silverquill's characterization is that they have style. What. How is that a thing? Isn't that entirely subjective and contextbased? Are they filling the coolkids trope? Can a group of people just declare they are stylish and cool or wouldn't other people have to consider them as such for the trope to work? I'm just really confused what wizards is trying to go for here.
Speaking of tropes, I'm unironically missing some basic school/university tropes. Why is there no "sports" focused college with frat bros and stuff. Give them a unique spin by adding greek olympics style training to it (so they're not just a bunch of dumb jocks but can also read). Missed opportunity and yes I am being serious.
I will reserve final judgement until we get the planeswalker guides, but I don't know. From what I've read so far about Strixhaven I fear another Ikoria. :[
I do like its mundane school subjects with a magical twist vs going to school to learn just how to do magic.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Why can't different sport teams exist inside one school?
I mean, personally I'd disagree with that, because it kind of ignores an important bit of Magic's setting, which is: Magic exists. Studying at a school is arguably a lot of time spent not doing anything immediately productive, so people generally do it to acquire skills that will be helpful later in life. In Magic the most consistently powerful entities are great wielders of magic. It stands to reason that teaching magic is an important part of a "magic school". Subverting expectations shouldn't go in the way of telling a good story or building a functioning world.
Which brings me to my next point. I know, I know, we know next to nothing about Strixhaven, but from what we've been told so far it just doesn't work well as a setting. Ravnica did the "mundane things but magical" MUCH better. Izzet are engineers, but make use of elemental magic. Boros are police/army but fantasy and Azorius are lawmakers, but have sphinxes and law magic. The core elements of the guilds are relatively mundane. Most are things you find in the real world (Golgari are a tad of a stretch, but they're basically farmers I suppose) but with a magical twist, but you can clearly imagine the daily life of a Boros soldier or a Dimir operative.
But for the Strixhaven factions it starts to get really muddy. The colleges ae kinda subjects, but not really? Witherbloom seems to have a medicine focus but not really, like what are zombie crocodiles for? Prismari focuses on performance art, but also elemental magic? If you want to study elemental magic, do you need to also do performance art? Can you do performance art without studying elemental magic?
Maybe it's the (admittedly rather short) presentation making them much more flat than they are on the cards and in the story, which is why I'll hold my final judgement for now, but to be honest, the "sneak peak" we got is rather disappointing.
I think it would have been a better idea to make the factions be "self found" like frats and affiliations the people decide on themselves, rather than the five pre-determined colleges that people can just join. Each "frat" could still have its own focus of course, but it would make the thing flow a bit better in my opinion.
Cause this isn't Hogwarts. For real thought I don't know any colleges with multiple sports teams (of the same sport) that only play each other. What more likely is strixhaven has a sport teams but its open to any students similar how really sports teams will have a mix of students with different degrees.
As this is a college, most of the students likely already know how to do magic and are going to Strixhaven to specialize, just instead of "necromancy" its "biology magic".
I mean I see Strixhaven doing the same thing, its core is typically school with a magical twist.
They are the different department in a college, having the factions called schools is kinda weird since they are all suppose to be Strixhaven but could be the elder dragons started the schools separately and they came together after a while. And "department" isn't as "cool" sounding as "schools" are.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Which likely means we'll get and enemy color cycle to balance the 5 Tarkir elder dragons.
yep they are secretly completing the 2-color elder dragon cycle
oh on further inspection
you Might notice In the blog
It looks like the whole entire campus especially the dragons know the existence of the multiverse