Just theorising here: Angrath is an agent of Bolas, and here are some points explaining why:
We just finished a set recasting Nicol Bolas as the main villain and setting up a possible future big battle between his forces and whichever plane he chooses to invade.
Nicol Bolas already has 2 planeswalkers working for him: BU Tezzaret and UR Ral Zarek. Having a RB planeswalker would complete the BUR triangle.
The golden city could be either too elusive or too effort-intensive for Bolas to search for himself (or just beneath his effort when he can have someone else find it for him).
It think it's much more likely that Angrath is independent. It would be a weird duplication of roles if Bolas already had somebody on Ixalan before sending Vraska, and even if he did, you'd expect him to tell her about it as part of her mission (either to team up with him, or else to take him out if he's gone rogue).
Now, Angrath could very well get recruited by Bolas as a result of this storyline, especially if he's present when the showdown over the Immortal Sun happens. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he ends up tipping the balance in favor of Vraska in the big final scene. Or, if Vraska decides to betray Bolas in the end, Angrath could end up grabbing the Immortal Sun and completing her mission for her to curry favor with NB (or simply to finally get off Ixalan).
So far it has been assumed the compass will only point to the Immortal Sun.
We have also made the possible leaps that the Immortal Sun is something not native to this world.
What if, rather than the compass being tuned solely to the Immortal Sun, it is simply attuned to ANYTHING that is not native to the world Ixalan inhabits?
Well, that would make it pretty awkward for Vraska to use, wouldn't it? "Why does this piece-of-junk compass always point directly at me?"
I think people are making this more complicated than it has to be. The compass is a piece of magic in a story with very limited space. It's not going to have any super-convoluted means to operate. It'll either be a compass that points to "what vraska needs" (to fulfill her quest) or "what she wants" (the compass knowing what she desires).
The Pirates of the Caribbean forum is athataway ->
And the "Plot devices stolen directly from Pirates of the Caribbean" forum is right here.
Flisch is right. The compass points at wherever the next plot point is that Vraska needs to get though to eventually find Orazca.
I really don't think there's any hope for "redemption" for Tezzeret. After all of the innocent people he hurt during his brief tyrannical stint on Kaladesh, he isn't being written to deserve any sympathy. That said, there is some tension in his relationship with Nicol Bolas, and I could see Tez possibly trying to betray Bolas at some point down the line. But I don't think it's likely to have anything to do with Ixalan or the planeswalker-trapping power of the Immortal Sun. For one thing, Bolas clearly already knows about the anti-planeswalk thing, and in fact that may be why he sent Vraska to get the Immortal Sun for him.
In addition, formally speaking, the arc of the Ixalan block is not directly about Bolas or Tezzeret. To the extent that it is related to the main narrative stream of the Magic multiverse, it's just an interstitial story about one small element of Bolas's master plan. It's mostly a character-developing side-story about Jace and Vraska (and maybe Huatli and Angrath, if they end up staying relevant to the story after the block is over). Right now Bolas is the overarching super-villain of the entire Magic story. They wouldn't put such a massive plot twist in a minor story, nor would they do it so soon after Hour of Devastation clearly positioned Bolas as the big bad antagonist of the whole saga.
They're going to spend a long time building up to the next major conflict with Bolas. The next few blocks are going to lay the groundwork for that, showing various elements of Bolas's big scheme coming together (the planar bridge, the Immortals, the Immortal Sun, something from Dominaria, etc.) and then revealing the true purpose that he's going for. At that point, the Gatewatch will probably get another crack at thwarting him, and only then might there be some new drama about Tezzeret. Until then, I think we can expect to see Tez just sticking to his role as Bolas's gofer.
I think this indicates a tonal shift from Amonkhet. there was so much wanton death and destruction in that plane, perhaps a plane where the casualties are minimal is a way to cleanse the pallette. kinda like hoe kaldesh itself was an tonal shift from Innistrad. I just hope we don't get into a dark set/light set pattern.
Yes, I understand the need for a "palate cleanser" set if they don't want the overall tone of the game to get too grim (I'm glad they learned from the old criticisms of that long run of Time Spiral/Lorwyn/Alara/Zendikar/Scars/Innistrad, when every block was about some apocalyptic disaster). I just thought that Kaladesh was a bit too artificial in the way that it dialed back the violence and danger. So far, Ixalan seems to be to be doing a better job of balancing things out without feeling fake (for the most part). The first time a dinosaur actually eats somebody, I'll be perfectly happy.
Have you considered that the Immortal Sun itself might not be native to Ixalan, but was instead planted there by a walker?
Planeswalkers have shaped the histories of many planes, and Ixalan is probably no different.
Yes, Jay has got me on board with the theory that Ugin is responsible for the Immortal Sun's anti-planeswalking power. The question I'm more curious about now is what else can the Immortal Sun do? I wouldn't think it would have such a strong mythical reputation if the shield thing were all there was to it. And was it created/brought there by Ugin, or did Ugin alter something that was already on the plane? Could he have considered it to be so dangerous to the multiverse that he enchanted it to prevent planeswalkers from easily stealing it?
Cool story today, good cliffhanger ending. Kumena is the best kind of villain in that he's one with understandable motivations. I wonder if every faction is going to have a "good" representative and a "bad" representative. Vraska is our protagonist while Angrath seems like a walking disaster. Huatli seems like a chill chick while the Sun emperor comes off a little shady, and even though the shapers overall seem fairly benevolent Kumena is clearly ruthless. Maybe in the legion we'll see Arguel as a more moderate force while Vona is butchering away? It would be kind of cool if WOTC showed that there were heroes and villains in every part of this conflict. Even if they don't though I'm really enjoying Ixalan so far.
Yes, I hope this is the direction they go with it. At this point, it seems like the Legion of Dusk is the only faction we haven't had a viewpoint story for yet. I hope they have a protagonist/antagonist pair as compelling as the other ones we've seen so far.
Interesting story! I really like the take on the River Wardens' shamanic magic. The connection of merfolk to rivers is something we really haven't seen since Lorwyn. This is a really cool take on the tribal shaman trope. I'd love to see how Kiora might interact with their culture, since she's so fixated on the ocean and its gigantic denizens.
Quote from Pollaski »
4. As anyone else noticed that there's a distinct chivalrous aspect to the world, where it almost seems unneeded death is frowned upon by pretty much everyone? The Sun Empire has gone out of their way to not kill enemies. Vraska's pirates were more focused on subduing, and while she did kill the captain, it seemed more to get the rest of the vampires to stop fighting out of awe. Kumena's drowning of the SE warrior offended all the other merfolk, and Tishana subsumed Kumena's spell to stop him from unnecessarily imperiling more lives. Even the vampires seem to have a very rigid code on what they do and don't do.
I hope it's more of a feature of the plane as a whole rather than any one faction. I was put off by it when it seemed like the Sun Empire was unrealistically non-violent, since I suspected it was just a move to ensure that they were definitely the good guys.
That said, even if low violence is the norm for all the factions, it might end up bothering me the same way that Kaladesh did, making the whole plane seem a bit more like a kids' cartoon than a story about real conflict.
Then I guess this is the right place to say that "The Talented Captain Vraska" really needed some proofreading. I liked the story content, but boy were there some jarring errors.
Anyone else notice the times phrases were literally repeated within the story? Stuff like Jace proving to be "absurdly useful" twice or Vraska thinking about how nobody had ever hired her to do something besides kill twice with almost exactly the same phrasing both times.
This is sloppy stuff, and makes me wonder if these articles get a proofreader.
Yeah, this one really seemed like it had some serious proofreading problems. I've noticed a few issues with that in previous stories, but there were some major errors in this one.
I predict that the planar bridge will be used to move the Immortal Sun off of Ixalan, which will remove the anti-planeswalking shield from the plane. I suspect that Bolas is planning to use it to lock in a different plane, so that no one can leave it without using his bridge. What plane could that be, though?
In other words, you think he'll use the wombo combo of the Sun and the Planar Bridge to hold planeswalkers on a plane of his choosing at ransom?
Considering it's a popular hub for planeswalkers, Ravnica perhaps?
I don't know about "ransom," but yeah, maybe. Or if he was trying to assassinate a planeswalker, locking them up with the Immortal Sun would be a useful move. Maybe he wants to lock up someone (Ugin?) in order to prey upon them and try to restore his pre-Mending power level. I really think he's got to have a better use for the Sun than simply as a power source.
But the Immortals point more to a planar conquest plan, and I'm not sure how locking planeswalkers *into* a plane would help with that, except maybe locking them on another plane to keep them away from his conquest target?
I like the cleverness of the idea that he might be going after New Phyrexia, though I'm dubious that that's the real story they're planning.
I predict that the planar bridge will be used to move the Immortal Sun off of Ixalan, which will remove the anti-planeswalking shield from the plane. I suspect that Bolas is planning to use it to lock in a different plane, so that no one can leave it without using his bridge. What plane could that be, though?
To me, Bolas's ability to grant knowledge mechanically would be like Stroke of Genius targeting the opponent. I'm pretty certain, based on the physical effects on Vraska, that Bolas can straight up make someone catatonic if he crams enough knowledge into their cranium.
Exactly what I was thinking. Now we know what getting Stroked for X=50 feels like.
With his fiery throat, hands, and so on, I'm guessing he might be from Regatha. No real evidence to support this, but I don't think he's from a plane we've visited (Origins notwithstanding), as he just doesn't look like other minotaurs from already-released cards.
He really does look a bit like Minotaur Explorer, though, which is why my money is still on Dominaria. And I do think it's significant that the Dominaria block is next. It would make sense for them to have a character connected to it from the immediately-preceding story, to help new players connect with it.
Ah, I hadn't noticed the double-horns. Thanks. I don't have any insights from that, though.
What about the symbols on his armor? Anything we can make out from those?
There are Boros minotaurs that also use fire magic (Blaze Commando and Boros Reckoner most obviously), and there are Ravnican minotaurs that aren't affiliated with the Boros Guild (Minotaur Aggressor is guildless, and Ordruun Veteran's father was Gruul), so a black-aligned pirate minotaur from Ravnica wouldn't seem to be out of the question. At this point, my money would be on either Ravnica or Dominaria. I kinda hope for Dominaria, as a little appetizer for the next set.
My personal take on the Sun Empire is that the Emperor has an understanding for logistics.
(In my personal interpretation) He's looking at outside interlopers who come from an ocean and saying "If I make it cost too much to come to my land, you'll likely leave." His predecessor/mother was of a conservative governing nature. "Protect civilians (your labor/tax force) and your city centers. (your centralized areas of production) The Emperor says himself that he doesn't like what his mother would say, and knows exactly what she would. She would have trained him in her line of thinking for when he was in charge.
He may decide "I want to expand," and that doesn't mean he has to also think "and I'm just gonna go slaughter everyone who's standing in my way!!" I for one would love a Naya-aligned character who demonstrates they understand that wars on large scale require seeing whole systems. Naya in many ways is great at seeing whole systems.
I suppose, except that burning supplies isn't how you make it expensive. Killing personnel is, and burning ships. If you have no intention of collaborating or trading with the invaders, and if they show no particular mercy toward your people (Raiders' Wake), then the best strategy is to kill them. So I suspect that the story beats here aren't to show that the Sun Empire is being realistically tactical, but that they're being (unrealistically) "good" by minimizing casualties.
Yep, the Tibalt Theory is busted. So, on to the next one! Where is he from?
Angrath sure sounds similar to Dominarian Talruum minotaur names, like Tahngarth. On the other hand, he doesn't look much like the Talruum Minotaurs that have appeared on cards -- maybe a little bit more like a Hurloon Minotaur, with somewhat light skin and red hair like Minotaur Explorer. He has some facial markings, but those look more like scars than tattoos.
Welp, I guess the Angrath=Tibalt theory is busted.
I loved the bit about mistaking Girapur for Orazca, that was very clever. And the way Angrath reacted to the revelation of another planeswalker was also a good twist.
Does it feel like this story has the Sun Empire pulling its punches a little bit, to make sure that Huatli is an unambiguous goodguy? Odd that they'd only try to destroy the pirates' supplies and not try to kill or capture them all with their dinosaurs. Goes double for the fight with the Legion of Dusk before the story starts, with no casualties on either side. Nice I guess, but that ain't how you win a war. Is this going to be another sort of 80's-cartoon-show-violence block, like Kaladesh was?
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?
It think it's much more likely that Angrath is independent. It would be a weird duplication of roles if Bolas already had somebody on Ixalan before sending Vraska, and even if he did, you'd expect him to tell her about it as part of her mission (either to team up with him, or else to take him out if he's gone rogue).
Now, Angrath could very well get recruited by Bolas as a result of this storyline, especially if he's present when the showdown over the Immortal Sun happens. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he ends up tipping the balance in favor of Vraska in the big final scene. Or, if Vraska decides to betray Bolas in the end, Angrath could end up grabbing the Immortal Sun and completing her mission for her to curry favor with NB (or simply to finally get off Ixalan).
Well, that would make it pretty awkward for Vraska to use, wouldn't it? "Why does this piece-of-junk compass always point directly at me?"
And the "Plot devices stolen directly from Pirates of the Caribbean" forum is right here.
Flisch is right. The compass points at wherever the next plot point is that Vraska needs to get though to eventually find Orazca.
In addition, formally speaking, the arc of the Ixalan block is not directly about Bolas or Tezzeret. To the extent that it is related to the main narrative stream of the Magic multiverse, it's just an interstitial story about one small element of Bolas's master plan. It's mostly a character-developing side-story about Jace and Vraska (and maybe Huatli and Angrath, if they end up staying relevant to the story after the block is over). Right now Bolas is the overarching super-villain of the entire Magic story. They wouldn't put such a massive plot twist in a minor story, nor would they do it so soon after Hour of Devastation clearly positioned Bolas as the big bad antagonist of the whole saga.
They're going to spend a long time building up to the next major conflict with Bolas. The next few blocks are going to lay the groundwork for that, showing various elements of Bolas's big scheme coming together (the planar bridge, the Immortals, the Immortal Sun, something from Dominaria, etc.) and then revealing the true purpose that he's going for. At that point, the Gatewatch will probably get another crack at thwarting him, and only then might there be some new drama about Tezzeret. Until then, I think we can expect to see Tez just sticking to his role as Bolas's gofer.
Yes, I understand the need for a "palate cleanser" set if they don't want the overall tone of the game to get too grim (I'm glad they learned from the old criticisms of that long run of Time Spiral/Lorwyn/Alara/Zendikar/Scars/Innistrad, when every block was about some apocalyptic disaster). I just thought that Kaladesh was a bit too artificial in the way that it dialed back the violence and danger. So far, Ixalan seems to be to be doing a better job of balancing things out without feeling fake (for the most part). The first time a dinosaur actually eats somebody, I'll be perfectly happy.
Yes, Jay has got me on board with the theory that Ugin is responsible for the Immortal Sun's anti-planeswalking power. The question I'm more curious about now is what else can the Immortal Sun do? I wouldn't think it would have such a strong mythical reputation if the shield thing were all there was to it. And was it created/brought there by Ugin, or did Ugin alter something that was already on the plane? Could he have considered it to be so dangerous to the multiverse that he enchanted it to prevent planeswalkers from easily stealing it?
Yes, I hope this is the direction they go with it. At this point, it seems like the Legion of Dusk is the only faction we haven't had a viewpoint story for yet. I hope they have a protagonist/antagonist pair as compelling as the other ones we've seen so far.
I hope it's more of a feature of the plane as a whole rather than any one faction. I was put off by it when it seemed like the Sun Empire was unrealistically non-violent, since I suspected it was just a move to ensure that they were definitely the good guys.
That said, even if low violence is the norm for all the factions, it might end up bothering me the same way that Kaladesh did, making the whole plane seem a bit more like a kids' cartoon than a story about real conflict.
Yeah, this one really seemed like it had some serious proofreading problems. I've noticed a few issues with that in previous stories, but there were some major errors in this one.
I don't know about "ransom," but yeah, maybe. Or if he was trying to assassinate a planeswalker, locking them up with the Immortal Sun would be a useful move. Maybe he wants to lock up someone (Ugin?) in order to prey upon them and try to restore his pre-Mending power level. I really think he's got to have a better use for the Sun than simply as a power source.
But the Immortals point more to a planar conquest plan, and I'm not sure how locking planeswalkers *into* a plane would help with that, except maybe locking them on another plane to keep them away from his conquest target?
I like the cleverness of the idea that he might be going after New Phyrexia, though I'm dubious that that's the real story they're planning.
Exactly what I was thinking. Now we know what getting Stroked for X=50 feels like.
He really does look a bit like Minotaur Explorer, though, which is why my money is still on Dominaria. And I do think it's significant that the Dominaria block is next. It would make sense for them to have a character connected to it from the immediately-preceding story, to help new players connect with it.
What about the symbols on his armor? Anything we can make out from those?
There are Boros minotaurs that also use fire magic (Blaze Commando and Boros Reckoner most obviously), and there are Ravnican minotaurs that aren't affiliated with the Boros Guild (Minotaur Aggressor is guildless, and Ordruun Veteran's father was Gruul), so a black-aligned pirate minotaur from Ravnica wouldn't seem to be out of the question. At this point, my money would be on either Ravnica or Dominaria. I kinda hope for Dominaria, as a little appetizer for the next set.
I suppose, except that burning supplies isn't how you make it expensive. Killing personnel is, and burning ships. If you have no intention of collaborating or trading with the invaders, and if they show no particular mercy toward your people (Raiders' Wake), then the best strategy is to kill them. So I suspect that the story beats here aren't to show that the Sun Empire is being realistically tactical, but that they're being (unrealistically) "good" by minimizing casualties.
Angrath sure sounds similar to Dominarian Talruum minotaur names, like Tahngarth. On the other hand, he doesn't look much like the Talruum Minotaurs that have appeared on cards -- maybe a little bit more like a Hurloon Minotaur, with somewhat light skin and red hair like Minotaur Explorer. He has some facial markings, but those look more like scars than tattoos.
I loved the bit about mistaking Girapur for Orazca, that was very clever. And the way Angrath reacted to the revelation of another planeswalker was also a good twist.
Does it feel like this story has the Sun Empire pulling its punches a little bit, to make sure that Huatli is an unambiguous goodguy? Odd that they'd only try to destroy the pirates' supplies and not try to kill or capture them all with their dinosaurs. Goes double for the fight with the Legion of Dusk before the story starts, with no casualties on either side. Nice I guess, but that ain't how you win a war. Is this going to be another sort of 80's-cartoon-show-violence block, like Kaladesh was?