The thing about planeswalkers keeping themselves a secret, though, is that it assumes that all planeswalkers have a similar motivation. Sure, Jace had the need to keep a low profile on Innistrad, but Liliana and Sorin didn't. Same goes for Ravnica: I can certainly see Jace and Ral trying to conceal their nature, but I would expect Gideon to feel duty-bound to tell his Boros comrades why he drops off the face of the planet all the time, if they ask (which they would). And an unsubtle PW like Ob Nixilis or Domri Rade would pretty much blow the lid off the secret everywhere they go.
For Kaladesh, like I said, the issue is Dovin Baan. He really comes off as the type of guy who doesn't keep secrets. He would want the Consulate to know about planeswalkers.
I'm on the RM=LD hype train because it makes sense, and because I'm a sucker for callbacks to super old school lore.
Razaketh is getting some serious build-up here. It's nice to see that for a demon, I just hope the payoff matches it and he doesn't either (A) get a letdown card, or (B) get chump-killed in the storyline.
As critical as I am of the "idiot plotting" of the Gatewatch's non-plan approach to Amonkhet, I think the pacing of this build-up is going great. They're on track to set up the whole Hour of Devastation set as one huge climax. I'm wondering what sort of weekly stories we'll get this time between Amonkhet and HoD, though.
Cool, man! I realize that I just voted too late to affect your decisions, but it was a fun poll. Dominaria is my #1, for that old-school depth of setting and for my desire to see how they are recovering from the time rift apocalypse. I sure hope we get a Return to Dominaria set next year!
Something that's come up in the Amonkhet thread related to Nissa walking around on an elf-less plane (and also Ajani on leonin-less Kaladesh), but I've been thinking about it more generally for a while now.
I think it's getting less and less believable for the existence of planeswalkers to be mostly unknown. There are a lot of planes on which the activity of planeswalkers has been public and dramatic enough that the general populace reasonably ought to know about them.
Ravnica is an especially big case, as somebody really should be wondering where Jace and Gideon go when they're not at work. And I know they did an entire story article about it, but it's still hard for me to buy that Niv Mizzet hasn't worked it out. The same goes perhaps even more so for House Dimir.
I would think that Kaladesh ought to know about them, not so much because of Chandra but because of Dovin Baan, who seems like he would have the motivation to reveal his capabilities to his superiors at the Consulate, and who seemed to think it was no big deal to hire planeswalker help from off-world.
I would think that while Nicol Bolas would probably want to keep Amonkhet ignorant about the existence of other planes, I've been surprised that he apparently didn't leave behind some specific anti-planeswalker indoctrination to deal with interference. As of this week though, it looks like maybe he did after all.
For Theros, belief in other planes wouldn't really be too much of a stretch. Nyx is already basically another universe next door. Plus Theros just doesn't seem like that big of a place. Outsiders would be much more apparent. Then again, Kiora's claim that she was an avatar of Thassa was a pretty plausible cover story.
On Zendikar in the wake of the Eldrazi crisis, I think it's safe to say that pretty much all the remaining survivors have to know about planeswalkers.
Same thing goes for Alara. If Ajani and Elspeth didn't explain to their people what was going on with the Conflux, that would just be a straight-up violation of their duty.
Some other planes are more edge cases, like Kamigawa (Tamiyo's household seems pretty open about it, I don't see why they would feel the need to keep it secret from others), or Innistrad (Sorin very likely wouldn't tell anybody, Tibalt is Tibalt, and any rumor about mysterious travelers from other world would just be another of the many crazy things that some people believe -- but surely somebody really wants to know what that Emrakul business was about). Tarkir probably doesn't know (Narset and Sarkhan have reasons not to tell, and the business between Ugin and Bolas way-back-when probably didn't look much different than any other big ol' dragon fight to everybody on the ground).
New Phyrexia and Dominaria obviously know all about them.
I guess my point is, Wizards doesn't really need to keep up the pretense that most people in most places in the Multiverse don't know about planeswalkers and other planes. It would be more interesting if they saved this story conceit for newly visited planes that specifically don't have any past experience with them. If they quietly retired this trope from most of the current planes, I think it would remove a potential source of broken suspension of disbelief.
I don't think Razaketh is a god per se, although Demon God would be a fun creature type to see.
My money is still on the Raven Man being Lim-Dul, who has been known to act as a mind-parasite/possessing force in the past, and also has connections to both Dominaria and Shandalar where the Raven Man first began interacting with Liliana. I'm really happy that they're keeping the secret of his real identity a long-term mystery, though.
As to the Gatewatch -- looks like their cover is blown for real now, as flimsy as it was in the first place. I'm glad it didn't take too long, because I was starting to seriously wonder why Bolas wouldn't have left behind some specific anti-planeswalker countermeasures when he set up his little factory operation. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much of a reason why he couldn't have simply mind-programmed the gods to preemptively kill any strangers who show up in the city without some kind of password.
Great write-up. I've been an advocate of the Lim-Dul theory for a long time, but this is far more evidence than I've ever seen before for it. I'm really hoping that the Dominaria set gives us the big reveal. It would be a fabulous payoff for all of us old-time Vorthoses.
I'm especially intrigued by the possible connection between Lim-Dul and Nicol Bolas's army of Eternals. I could certainly see Bolas making a deal with Lim-Dul to open the way for him to dominate his host in exchange for the promise of service as a general. And Bolas was brokering those demonic pacts fairly soon after he first set up his plan for Amonkhet, too...
Do we know the time period for Liliana's initial meeting with the Raven Man and planeswalker ascension? Could it have been during or immediately after the last time Lim-Dul was known to be active on Dominaria?
For Kaladesh, like I said, the issue is Dovin Baan. He really comes off as the type of guy who doesn't keep secrets. He would want the Consulate to know about planeswalkers.
Razaketh is getting some serious build-up here. It's nice to see that for a demon, I just hope the payoff matches it and he doesn't either (A) get a letdown card, or (B) get chump-killed in the storyline.
As critical as I am of the "idiot plotting" of the Gatewatch's non-plan approach to Amonkhet, I think the pacing of this build-up is going great. They're on track to set up the whole Hour of Devastation set as one huge climax. I'm wondering what sort of weekly stories we'll get this time between Amonkhet and HoD, though.
I think it's getting less and less believable for the existence of planeswalkers to be mostly unknown. There are a lot of planes on which the activity of planeswalkers has been public and dramatic enough that the general populace reasonably ought to know about them.
Ravnica is an especially big case, as somebody really should be wondering where Jace and Gideon go when they're not at work. And I know they did an entire story article about it, but it's still hard for me to buy that Niv Mizzet hasn't worked it out. The same goes perhaps even more so for House Dimir.
I would think that Kaladesh ought to know about them, not so much because of Chandra but because of Dovin Baan, who seems like he would have the motivation to reveal his capabilities to his superiors at the Consulate, and who seemed to think it was no big deal to hire planeswalker help from off-world.
I would think that while Nicol Bolas would probably want to keep Amonkhet ignorant about the existence of other planes, I've been surprised that he apparently didn't leave behind some specific anti-planeswalker indoctrination to deal with interference. As of this week though, it looks like maybe he did after all.
For Theros, belief in other planes wouldn't really be too much of a stretch. Nyx is already basically another universe next door. Plus Theros just doesn't seem like that big of a place. Outsiders would be much more apparent. Then again, Kiora's claim that she was an avatar of Thassa was a pretty plausible cover story.
On Zendikar in the wake of the Eldrazi crisis, I think it's safe to say that pretty much all the remaining survivors have to know about planeswalkers.
Same thing goes for Alara. If Ajani and Elspeth didn't explain to their people what was going on with the Conflux, that would just be a straight-up violation of their duty.
Some other planes are more edge cases, like Kamigawa (Tamiyo's household seems pretty open about it, I don't see why they would feel the need to keep it secret from others), or Innistrad (Sorin very likely wouldn't tell anybody, Tibalt is Tibalt, and any rumor about mysterious travelers from other world would just be another of the many crazy things that some people believe -- but surely somebody really wants to know what that Emrakul business was about). Tarkir probably doesn't know (Narset and Sarkhan have reasons not to tell, and the business between Ugin and Bolas way-back-when probably didn't look much different than any other big ol' dragon fight to everybody on the ground).
New Phyrexia and Dominaria obviously know all about them.
I guess my point is, Wizards doesn't really need to keep up the pretense that most people in most places in the Multiverse don't know about planeswalkers and other planes. It would be more interesting if they saved this story conceit for newly visited planes that specifically don't have any past experience with them. If they quietly retired this trope from most of the current planes, I think it would remove a potential source of broken suspension of disbelief.
My money is still on the Raven Man being Lim-Dul, who has been known to act as a mind-parasite/possessing force in the past, and also has connections to both Dominaria and Shandalar where the Raven Man first began interacting with Liliana. I'm really happy that they're keeping the secret of his real identity a long-term mystery, though.
As to the Gatewatch -- looks like their cover is blown for real now, as flimsy as it was in the first place. I'm glad it didn't take too long, because I was starting to seriously wonder why Bolas wouldn't have left behind some specific anti-planeswalker countermeasures when he set up his little factory operation. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much of a reason why he couldn't have simply mind-programmed the gods to preemptively kill any strangers who show up in the city without some kind of password.