MTG Salvation

Vorin was an elf who lived in a tribe somewhere deep within the Gilt-Leaf woods of Lorwyn. He grew up living in the elvish style. He followed the way of his tribe and did as he was told without questioning. He learned that his people were perfect, and that everyone else was not. He never truly understood why the elves were so clearly superior, but he never let these questions arise. Sometimes, he couldn't help but wonder if he was the only one with any doubts, but elvish youth was like a brainwash, and usually he would forget such trivial ideas. But somewhere deep inside himself, he was hoping for answers.

One day, while he was hunting with his tribe, he fell behind and stumbled upon an injured flamekin, which was unconcious on the floor of the forest. It was an unwelcome invader in their own lands, and like every other elf would, Vorin moved in to finish the job that some other elf failed to do. Vorin snuck down and approached the creature. In hindsight, his reasoning is all a blur. Perhaps he intended to help it, or kill it, or rob it, or simply observe it, but regardless, he hesitated, and in that moment, he was ambushed. A crowd of powerful flamekin revealed themselves and brutally started attacking him. They left him for dead, charred and burned. He never saw his tribe again, but that didn't matter, as they wouldn't have accepted his new appearance.

No matter how the elves would have then treated Vorin, the forest never abandoned him. The spirit of the forest and the treefolk kept Vorin alive long enough for him to return to consciousness, and then he fled. While the flaming barrage had not taken his life, it had taken his mana somehow. Whenever he tried to draw upon elvish spells, all that he could feel was a burning energy. He was too weak to fight and too weak to cast spells. He was worthless, he could no longer do anything that he had trained to do. All he had left was his elvish instinct, which he couldn't act upon without dying, and his ideals, which were meaningless now. He couldn't question a society that he was no longer a part of. He was ready to give up on life.

Fortunately, someone had greater plans for Vorin. Some invisible elemental spirit (not a flamekin) found Vorin unconscious in the middle of a field and understood his plight. It could not restore the green mana Vorin had been using throughout his life to him, but the elemental empowered a new type of mana that had somehow entered Vorin's body from the attack. It taught him to call upon this burning mana flowing through his body to cast a new type of spell: red mana spells. However, an unknown horde of elevs eventually discovered him. Upon seeing Vorin, the elves went to attack without hesitation. He tried to use his newfound magic to defend himself, but it was to no avail. He was was easily overpowered by brutal elves. Suddenly, time seemed to slow. He saw a large glowing portal next to him. He assumed that this was the work of the elemental. He closed his eyes, went through, and after walking for about thirty minutes in this new land, he stumbled upon Estark.

He has no understanding of planes, so, as of now, he does not realize he is no longer on Lorwyn

Vorin arrived in Estark. He began searching for someone to help him learn to use his red mana. He found a large concentration of red mana in the House of the Hammerheim Sorcerers, and became a member of the house, but the members there refused to train him until he was stronger.

He then found a travel emporium, and entered the store in an attempt to discover where he was in relation to the Gilt-Leaf woods. He scanned the maps with great detail, but could not seem to find any familiar locations. However, he did notice some areas that interested him. While in the travel emporium, he overheard someone named Kassim mentioning a trip into the desert. Kassim (a "human") was looking for a companion, and Vorin decided to join him. Vorin had no real interest in the desert, but hearing about the brutal desert made him eager to accept a challenge. He wanted to prove himself and test his new abilities.

As Vorin fought in the desert, using the red mana caused his body to ache. His body clearly was not accustomed to using it. He would wince and scream with pain throughout battles and become exhuasted after them. He managed to fight off some bandits, and then, after a terribly long trek through the desert, they found themselves in a city. The city was attacked by bandits. Vorin wanted to ignore their plight, following his elven ways, but eventually and reluctantly decided to help Kassim fight them off. They were thanked by the leader of the town militia, a man named Felix. The town members pointed them to a totem, where the mana of the desert was concentrated, allowing them to finish their quest. At the totem, they had a bizarre encounter with ghastly forms of Felix and his crew. Vorin refused to give into the mages, but once Kassim accepted their demands, they vanished. After connecting with the desert totem, Kassim returned to Estark.

Vorin stayed behind to ask Felix, a powerful red mage, for help adjusting to the red mana in his body. After Vorin described his situation, Felix explained what might be happening to him and taught him to act more impulsively with his red mana. Vorin challenged Felix to a match to see how a powerful red mage would act. However, Felix held back and Vorin easily won by unleashing all his spells at once. He quickly lost faith in Felix as a teacher and returned to Estark to receive his reward from the travel emporium.

This is how Vorin currently understands how he attained red mana:

"I have a few theories. The first is that your connection to green mana is simply dormant. It is still there, but is being overwhelmed by the red mana. If you were to strengthen yourself and learn to control the red mana more effectively, the green would return in time."

"The second is that you lost your green mana and it was replaced with red. If that's the case, your body may need some time to adjust to the differences between them. Again, strengthening your body and your magical skills is the answer. Think of it like a muscle you haven't used in years. It will ache when you first exercise it, but eventually it gets stronger."

"The third is the most troubling... If your bond to green mana was simply shattered, your body might have grasped for any connection to mana it could find. The fire from the elementals' magic might have been the only thing nearby, and it latched on to it. If this is the case, your access to red mana wouldn't be your own. Some elementals use red mana differently than other beings due to the unique physical traits of the elementals. If you're using elemental red mana, it could eventually burn you to ash. I wouldn't know of any way to reverse this process. The stronger you become, the stronger the mana would get and the faster you would burn from the inside out. Pray this isn't what's happening in your case."