#custom magic plane

[toweringclam]

Paramount City: The Metropolitan Defenders

(click here for part 1)

"Truth, peace, and prosperity."

Summary: The big superhero team missing their Superman.

It's no exaggeration to say that when Paragon appeared, the world changed. She was a beacon of hope for a city suffering under crime, corruption, and the aftermath of the first Rift War. People called her the first superhero, and though scholars think supers had existed for a long time, they were never so public. So inspiring. Shortly after, many others followed her example, but Paragon stood alone.

However, the second Rift War saw the rise of supervillains. People of evil intent, who used their powers not for the greater good, but to prey on the weak and enslave people to their will. Paragon realized she could not fight them alone, and for the first time, teamed up with other like-minded individuals to fight the rising tide of darkness.

Thus, the Metropolitan Defenders were born.

The original and most storied team, to this day they remain the example for others to follow. The Defenders are what you think of when someone says "hero." Yet they've suffered many losses over the years. All the original founders have either passed or retired, honored with great golden statues in the Hall of Heroes.

Most recent and most devastating was the loss of Paragon herself. During the Phyrexian Invasion, she used the last of her strength to wrest control of the Rift from Lord Riven and cleanse the world of Elesh Norn's corruption at the cost of her own life. Now, for the first time since their founding, the Defenders are under new leadership. While an impressively heroic figure in his own right, Paragon II struggles to live up to his namesake's legacy.

The Metropolitan Defenders are centered on White as their ideals are focused on peace and justice. However, Blue mana pulls in the direction of institutional justice, while Green pulls towards social justice. In the civic unrest following the Phyrexian Invasion and Paragon I's death, these divides are deeper than ever.

The Peacekeepers are centered in Blue. They believe that law and order are paramount. A society need stable and trustworthy institutions, not just feel-good platitudes about community and togetherness. While they intervene in riots (often by subduing both sides), they also work to get better laws passed and restore infrastructure lost in the war.

The Gardeners are centered in Green. They believe that protecting people is more important than protecting institutions. While they're troubled by all the riots and protests, they believe the solution is found at the community level. People who are fed, housed, and secure don't commit crimes, they say, though the existence of Lord Riven and his ilk seems like a contradiction.

Most Defenders don't fall neatly into one of these camps, either trying to balance these opposing philosophies or ignoring them altogether in favor of their own moral compass.

Notable characters:

Queen Kevnor (WU, merfolk) hails from the undersea kingdom of Cantergellod. She is able to walk on land and breathe air unaided, a rare mutation that would have had her ostracized if the throne had had another heir. A thought leader among the Peacekeepers, she is sometimes criticized as a foreign interventionist, but she was actually born in Paramount City and sometimes feels more at home there than with her own kind.

Cyronia (WG) is heir to a long tradition of druids and healers, passed mother to daughter since ancient times, though she was cast out of the circle for "illegitimately" inheriting her power. She grew up on the streets, using her powers of healing and growth to build a following among the poor and destitute. As leader of the Gardeners, she helps establish clinics, community gardens, shelters, and other resources for people left behind by the rest of the city.

Intellectus (UG, Vedalken) is a strange visitor from another world who appeared in Paramount City just in time to warn of the impending Phyrexian invasion. Initially held in Omega custody, he was rescued by the Defenders and decided to lend his psychic powers to their cause. When moving about in public, he projects the illusion of private investigator Ken Badel to hide his alien features.

Paragon II (GWU), previously known as Gatewatch, is the Defenders' new leader. Tall and muscular, with a chiseled jaw and long, flowing hair, he certainly cuts the profile of a hero. However, he only appeared a few years ago, with no memory of who he was or how he got to Paramount City. Although he projects confidence, he's plagued by self-doubt, and regrets that he can't even remember. Yet Paragon appointed him as her successor, so he will do his best to fill a role that seems oddly familiar.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

BG Sultai Guide

Faction Name: No internal name. Outsiders have yet to agree on whether this faction should be considered a kingdom or a single growing, slithering being. It’s called variously “the Beast,” “Silumgar’s Hold,” “the Rotted Lands,” or simply “the Mire.”

Dragonlord: Silumgar, the Creeping Death, the Great Beast

Dragonlord’s Seat: The Palace Animate, sited in the oldest part of the Rotted Lands and the first region the dragonlord claimed, given the name “Weeping Heart” by the Sultai who watched in confusion at its transformation before it claimed them too. Silumgar’s body rests within the throne chamber on a great couch of jade, surrounded by heaps of treasure overgrown with vines and rot. His mind and will, however, are manifest everywhere within the Rotted Lands, and he is aware of everything that occurs within. Wherever an emissary of the Mire goes, Silumgar’s desires go also.

Brood Magic: Silumgar’s will creeps and corrupts, ensnaring the thoughts until his target realizes too late that their mind is no longer their own. Dragons of Silumgar’s brood have this power of mental contagion and dominance. Their breath weapon is a corrosive mist. They are masters of necromancy, curses, and poisons. The most powerful of the brood can shapeshift. Non-dragons are often imbued with temporary magic to perform various tasks, but their power is severely limited. The rakshasa groups that failed to leave in time are kept under Silumgar’s direct control and allowed to continue practicing their own demonic magic, so long as they do so in firm accordance with their dragonlord’s will.

Faction Species: Primarily human, orc, naga, vampire, and demon. Most rakshasa abandoned the Sultai before they could be subsumed, but Silumgar managed to seize a few weaker clans, Pockets of every species on Tarkir - even dragons of other broods - can be found among those ensnared by Silumgar’s will. Sibsig (zombies) are common. A number of elementals have also arisen within the Rotted Lands.

Faction Structure: The new BG Silumgar are bad news. Trust me, you don’t want to get involved. The corrupt, decadent hierarchy of the Sultai crossed with the swarm nature of the Golgari yields a bizarre half-hivemind half-dictatorship that no one enjoys except the few on top. It’s a bit like the Zerg in that individuals are subservient to a collective mind, but there are levels of control similar to a military hierarchy. Factions exist within the swarm that battle for resources and control; indeed, this competition is encouraged, as it improves the collective survival by culling the weak and forcing evolution. Imagine the ferment and constant decay/growth of a tropical rainforest, the eternal pressure of competing organisms with no concept of morality or restraint. The collective acts like The Thing from the John Carpenter movie: it has no awareness of a difference between living and dead biomass, no understanding or interest in the pre-existing organisms - it sees only resources to be utilized.

Individuals being mentally subsumed into the hive don’t appear changed at first, and even close companions may not notice the infection in their thoughts. Subtle alterations in vocal patterns, sleep habits, and eating habits are the first outward signs. Once the mental contamination has taken hold, the individual voluntarily submits to physical incorporation into the swarm, mediated by the implantation of tendrils similar to vines or roots that grow through the individual’s existing nervous system to allow direct physical control should the collective will deem it necessary to override local thought processes. When swarm individuals interact, these tendrils will emerge from their bodies and join together into a larger network for the swift exchange of nutrients, pheromone signaling, and sensory information. Later stages of incorporation, depending on the needs of the collective, may make it necessary to alter the individual, break it down entirely for parts or resources, or combine it with others to create a tool suitable for the given purpose.

Silumgar grants a select few individuals a degree of physical and mental autonomy in order to preserve useful skills. Those rakshasa who failed to leave the Sultai in time and fell under his influence are allowed physical autonomy and permitted to keep some control of their own minds so they can continue to practice the powerful demonic magic they shared with the Sultai. Wary of that power, Silumgar monitors them directly and does not hesitate to cull any who show the slightest rebellious tendency. The few subsumed dragons of the Mire also retain some level of their original thoughts and skills, but have been imbued with utter loyalty to their new dragonlord.

No member of the collective is permitted a truly individual identity; the only name ever spoken in the Rotted Lands is that of Silumgar.

Faction Goals: Live. Grow. Take. Change. Kill. Eat. Grow. Live.

Faction History: Nothing distinct remains of the Sultai’s culture, history, or most of the population. Palaces and wealthy estates have been abandoned except for the occasional expedition to extract a needed resources. Many of the original settlements remain as twisted echoes of their former selves, farms and fisheries still worked by the remnants of the inhabitants in great drone swarms. Any unnecessary items or information - scrolls or tapestries of history, for instance - were ignored by the collective and have long since crumbled back into the jungle.

Silumgar himself didn’t conquer the Sultai directly. He didn’t need to. He is called the “Creeping Death” for the nature of his own will, which spreads and corrupts those he seeks to control. Newly-born, Silumgar found the riot of growth and decay and violent symbiosis exemplified by the deep jungle greatly to his liking. He selected an area then uninhabited by the Sultai due to its unpleasant climate and tenacious jungle life, and settled himself in the heart of it, fixing his will on seizing it as his territory alone. This patch of rainforest soon began to exhibit unsettling changes: Sultai travelers and scouts reported previously-unseen beings that seemed part plant and part animal, creatures that should have been mortal enemies working together in eerie, silent harmony, and the rapid spread of unknown plant life out from the area. Sultai rulers dismissed these accounts, however, interpreting the odd behavior as some new elemental magic in the region and receiving reassurances from the rakshasa that it certainly posed no threat to them. Soon the travelers and scouts stopped reporting back at all. 

The corruption in the heart of the jungle grew, and whole estates began to disappear into its shadow as Silumgar consumed, killed, created, and grew more and more. Some Sultai, especially those farthest away from the corrupted zone now called Weeping Heart, tried to raise the alarm. But the usual indolence and callousness of the Sultai elite masked the transformation in their thoughts long enough for Silumgar to take hold. By the time anyone thought to take action, the dragonlord already controlled the bulk of Sultai territory and resources, including its combination labor force and army of undead sibsig, and any sparks of true resistance that could not be converted by thought were simply crushed by force. The entire population unlucky enough to be present in Sultai territory at that time ended up dead, subsumed into the collective, or both.

Upon realizing what was happening to him, Tasigur, khan of the Sultai at the time of the takeover, sought out the dragonlord within Weeping Heart and threw himself at Silumgar’s feet. He claimed he would order his people to submit to their new master in exchange for keeping his own mind - which Silumgar granted. Unfortunately, Tasigur forgot to ask for his own body, too. He survives - in a manner of speaking - to this day; he retains full possession of his thoughts and memories, unclouded by the dragonlord’s influence, but his body is quite firmly controlled by Silumgar’s magic and serves as his favorite emissary. For the first hundred years or so it amused the dragonlord to permit Tasigur to keep his own voice as well, and the khan’s screams and insane raving were a common sound in Weeping Heart; but Silumgar eventually grew bored and removed Tasigur’s vocal chords, leaving him mouthing silent nonsense and endless pleas for death even as his body goes about its dragonlord’s errands.

Faction Relations: The Rotted Lands might be the only thing on Tarkir the other factions can all agree on: they’d rather leave it alone. Silumgar’s influence expands as the Rotted Lands grow, and those who cross too close to his territory can’t let themselves linger long for fear that the dragonlord’s whispers will take root in their hearts and lead them to walk into the jungle of their own volition. The Undying Kingdoms chew at its edges with axes and blasts of dry, withering desert heat; the Ojutai slip in to steal threads of knowledge from the collective memory; Atarka’s clans purify what they can and try to save those seized by the tangle; the Glorious Horde swings its blades and calls down the lightning; but all these efforts never matter. The jungle only grows back stronger. The beast endures, and its territory creeps ever outward.

Other Changes: So why venture into the Rotted Lands? Because Silumgar’s territory contains the ruins of immensely wealthy Sultai palaces and pleasure gardens, and his Palace Animate holds the greatest horde of all. Despite only rarely awakening in his own body, the dragonlord seems to enjoy treasure and directs his minions to pile it around his slumbering form in great heaps. Rumors of staggering wealth left to the jungle’s hold entice those with bad judgement and nothing to lose. Most never return, but once in a very great while one of these explorers stumbles back with fistfuls of gold - and unspeakable terror in their eyes.

Faction Mechanic: For the BG Sultai I wanted a mechanic that involved possession and taking control of opponent’s creatures. I’m not sure that would ever work out right since it kinda relies on your opponent playing a certain way, but anyway. The best I came up with was “Possess,” which was an ability on creatures. You paid the Possess cost and sacrificed the creature in order to manifest a card from any graveyard. Manifesting the card instead of putting it into play meant you still had to pay the full CMC to flip the creature up; otherwise it’d be insanely broken.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

WR Mardu Guide

Faction Name: The Glorious Horde, Army of Kol, the Unceasing Wind

Dragonlord: Kolaghan, Storm’s Champion

Dragonlord’s Seat: At the head of her army.

Brood Magic: Kolaghan wields immensely powerful lightning capable of smiting foes at a great distance, and her brood considers mastery of storm magic, called kolayanga, a sacred calling. Their breath weapon is a torrent of lightning. Magically-boosted speed, agility, and strength are also common among Kolaghan’s brood. Non-dragon members of the Horde study such martial magic, some healing magic, and the simpler elements of kolayanga.

Faction Species: Human, aven, efreet, goblin. Ogres possessed of an animal level of intelligence are trained and used in battle.

Faction Structure: From the battle-scarred warkites of the vanguard to the smallest goblin child running to replenish an archer’s arrows, every member of the Horde knows their place in this single, immense army. Children are born on the march and raised into the holy war that is their world. The weak, wounded, or otherwise skilled are permitted to stay at the citadel of Stormthrone, the Horde’s only fixed settlement, built beneath the cliff where Kolaghan first raised the lightning banner and bound the Horde to their holy purpose. But all others ride with the dragons of the storm on their eternal, sacred quest to fulfill the will of Kol.

Though the Horde has a clear, hierarchical structure, those who prove themselves in combat or on the march can expect reward & advancement regardless of family or species. The only exception to this are the dragons themselves, who as holy children of Kol are of course held above all other races. Those who fight in direct melee combat, often with other dragons, are called “warkites.” Others fight magically, either directly with kolayanga or indirectly with spells that boost the others’ strength in battle. Still others serve as Kolaghan’s field commanders, generals, and messengers. The oldest or slowest dragons serve largely as transport, carrying the weight of the Horde’s supplies on the march - a distinctly un-glorious task, but one that even the Horde’s proud warriors recognize as necessary to their purpose. 

Faction Goals: Kolaghan and her army sing of the glory of the lightning and the shrieking wind, teaching the truth of Kol, lord of storms and creator of Tarkir. Kol formed the world from the chaos of the first storm, and from the god’s tempestuous breath the dragons are spawned - and the aberrations and misshapen beasts that pretend to the name. The true & perfect dragons are Kol’s children, the dragons of lightning, the four-winged kites of Kolaghan’s brood. All others are mistakes and corruptions of form. The broods of sand and snow and poison and flame are foul in Kol’s sight, and must be cleansed from Tarkir; until that day, those who have sworn themselves to Kol’s service will fight and die and be born again to carry on this holy war. The Glorious Horde rides forever beneath the wings of their leader, disciplined and well-trained and dedicated utterly to Kol’s purpose, the Unceasing Wind that will sweep Tarkir clean.

The Horde itself is constantly on the move, following whatever strategy Kolaghan and her generals have determined to be the most fruitful in terms of both resources and opportunity to ambush and/or kill the dragons of other factions. One of their most common tactics is to follow the nascent dragon-storms as they rise above Tarkir and, when it begins to spawn fledgling dragons into the world, to ambush and kill any members of other broods. Warriors of both the Undying Kingdoms and the Atarka clans often plan ambushes of their own beneath the dragon-storms, knowing the Horde’s tactics, and fight to preserve the other dragons from Kolaghan’s wrath.

Faction History: In the distant past the old Mardu clans raided others, delighting in looting and destroying, roaming lost and without purpose. But the coming of their swift-winged dragonlord put an end to their savage ways. Kolaghan told of the glory of Kol and the true purpose of her brood, to destroy the abominations of the false dragons, and raised her lightning banner atop the cliffs above Stormthrone. The clans heard these sacred truths and understood what they must do, casting aside their old standards and forging a single great army under Kolaghan’s command.

In reality the Mardu did, in fact, go more or less willingly. Kolaghan’s crusade hasn’t changed their core tenets of living on the move and prizing strength in battle. Most traditions and cultural rites of the Mardu are still there in the Glorious Horde, though usually bent in some way to accommodate the worship of Kol. Names must still be earned in battle, but individuals hold sacred the right to determine their own identity.

Faction Relationships: The Glorious Horde is quite xenophobic and isolates itself from the other factions, considering their dragonlords to be abominations and demons in dragon-form. Members of the Atarka clans, soldiers of the Undying Kingdoms, or emissaries from the Rotted Lands can expect to be killed on sight. Non-draconic Ojutai monks may be tolerated so long as they stick to singing excerpts from the Glorious Horde’s sacred histories and hymns; Ojutai mercenaries will find work with the Horde, but will never be fully trusted or promoted to positions of trust and power within the Horde itself.

Other Details: When Kolaghan raised her banner above Stormthrone, the first warrior to rally to it was the archer Sukhnum, whose name meant ”axe-bow.” They had earned this name for their fearsome prowess in battle, where their arrows mowed down enemies like a woodcutter felling trees. Kolaghan was pleased by Sukhnum’s loyalty and skill, and gave them two gifts in return: for their loyalty, Kolaghan rewarded them with the honor of riding at her side as her herald; and for their prowess as an archer, with the Iron Bow fashioned from Kolaghan’s own spines, light and indestructible and suffused with the power of the storm. Similar bows have been crafted from the spines of the Horde’s warkites, but the Iron Bow itself remains an unrivaled weapon.

When the first Sukhnum died a glorious death in battle, Kolaghan decreed that a great competition would be held that tested mastery of the twin holy arts of dakla, the way of the bow, and kolayanga, the way of the lightning, and that the name and the Iron Bow itself would be granted to the winner. The ritual tournament continues to this day. The competition for the Iron Bow is open to every member of the Horde, no matter their rank or species. Once the title is taken, the victor’s past - whether it be deeds of glory or crimes against the Horde - is erased, and they carry the name of Sukhnum and the honor of riding beneath the Champion’s wings for life (not that such a term lasts long, as Kolaghan’s herald is first into the fight). Sukhnum’s great iron arrows rain down on the Horde’s foes, spitting lightning and taking full-grown dragons from the sky, and the terrible thunder of their impact is the first sign of Kolaghan’s coming.

Faction Mechanic: I tossed around a few different options for the Horde’s mechanic and finally admitted that the best-fitting one already existed: the “Renown” mechanic from Origins. I always thought Renown had a lot of design space and was both fun and interesting in Origins. It fits with the theme of martial victory and recognition for valiant deeds, and allows some interesting interactions with faction cards that care about whether a creature is renowned.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

Hello there, I came across your enemy-colored Tarkir posts yesterday and I loved every bit of them! Would you allow my friends and me to use your ideas for a mtg roleplaying campaign? Our small group of planeswalkers has been to the canon version of Tarkir before (and my character comes from there) but I'm sure we could arrange a way to get there or change Tarkir according to your ideas if you allowed us to you use ithem. Also, I'd love to see more about it, this Tarkir seems much more dynamic.

Are you kidding?? YES, you can totally use it! I’d love to see enemy-color Tarkir fleshed out into a full world that can support a campaign!

I did start designing a custom set called Lords of Tarkir for this alternate timeline, but, well, life got in the way as usual. I’ve also had five story outlines kicking around for ages with the intent of writing them as short Uncharted Realms-style pieces, one for each of the new factions. IIRC, they were Anafenza’s ultimate revenge (Abzan), Narset’s spark igniting (Jeskai), an expedition into Weeping Heart (Sultai), a newly-initiated shaman’s first journey into the mountain peaks to speak with Atarka (Temur), and the competition for the new Sukhnum (Mardu). But, again, life got in the way. Ugh. 

BUT. When I got this ask I started collating extra information that wasn’t in the original posts for you to use and ended up starting a series of much more detailed guides to each faction, so now I’m writing that (thanks a lot). I figured I ought to go ahead and give you permission rather than keeping you waiting on me finishing up these guides. So you can expect those in the near future!

I’m super psyched to see what this would look like. You gotta keep me posted!

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

WB Abzan Guide

Faction Name: The Undying Kingdoms

Dragonlord: Dromoka, Who Reigns Eternal, the Undying Mother, the Unyielding Light, Master of Arashin, Ruler of the Wastes and the Salt Road

Dragonlord’s Seat: The Great Aerie within the Citadel of Arashin

Brood Magic: Dromoka herself is considered immortal and immune to all harm; thus far this seems to be true. Dragons of her brood can endure extreme conditions and have tremendously long lifespans, though they can be killed. Their breath weapon is a scorching beam of light. They excel in magic tied to the deserts, throwing blasts of sand, heat, and withering dryness. They are also expert necromancers and stoneshapers. Non-dragons learn desert magic, stoneshaping, healing, and simple necromancy.

Faction Species: Primarily human, ainok, and aven. Nearly all species can be found among conquered peoples taken as indentured servants.

Faction Structure: The Undying Kingdoms have survived for thousands of years and plan to flourish for thousands more. Once the Abzan sought to live in harmony with their desert surroundings; now they seek to master it, beating back the desert with roads and citadels and aqueducts that water the aeries girdling the wastes. Citadels rise and fall in prominence as trade routes burgeon and perish in turn. Clans and families maneuver in centuries-long political gambits, schemes passed down from parent to child to gain the slightest advantages over rival bloodlines; but an outsider seeking to breach their towering walls will quickly find every spear of every clan arrayed against them. Dromoka herself rules unchallenged and unanswerable from atop both the Kingdoms’ political and religious hierarchies.

Faction Goals: The eternal need for more water and farmland means the empire must constantly expand. Vast irrigation projects from outland conquests bring life to the scrublands, and trade roads are policed - and taxed - by the citadels and aeries that guard them. Those who live labor to build, to tame, to master the wastes for the sake of their children and their children’s children; those who die bind their spirits to their clan’s stone obelisk and the service of their long-lived scalelords. Though the fertile fringes support the Kingdoms’ people, the wastes are still considered the “real” Undying Kingdoms, and richer families live in the desert citadels. All recognize the primacy of Arashin, first city and home of the Undying Mother; Dromoka reigns there from the Great Aerie, built atop the vast petrified structure that was once the First Tree of the Abzan, her ultimate goal the creation of an eternal civilization worthy of her long immortality. 

Faction History: The Undying Kingdoms are considered to have been founded when Dromoka took the throne. The empire’s calendar uses her ascent as its zero date. The Abzan’s pre-Dromoka history is left deliberately muddled and vague, with the implication that their ancestors lived in primitive conditions and achieved little of note. In truth the Abzan fought Dromoka’s takeover to the bitter end, but the sheer resilience of her brood ground down even the desert-hardened clans in a war of attrition. Kin-trees were uprooted and many kin-records destroyed in order to hide the Abzan’s pre-Dromoka history; other kin-trees were petrified by stone magic, including the First Tree in Arashin.

Faction Relations: The Undying Kingdoms’ constant expansion puts them in conflict with other factions on a routine basis. Silumgar’s influence is always attempting to spread into Undying territory, and the Atarka clans continually work to sabotage their conquests. Ojutai monks are mostly welcomed in the Undying Kingdoms, as Dromoka’s people greatly enjoy hearing grand tales of their own history, and many are employed as mercenaries on the empire’s frontiers. Kolaghan’s Glorious Horde frequently engages the Undying Kingdoms in massive battles fought to the last soldier. Outside of the five major dragon-led factions, the many small kingdoms and states of Tarkir resist the empire whenever possible, and rebel with some regularity - think Roman provinces.

Other Details: The WB Abzan have abandoned the practice of krumar (adopting war orphans as their own) in favor of taking conquered peoples as indentured laborers. In theory these captives can work their way to freedom and social standing. In practice…yeah.

Amber is a precious material to the WB Abzan. Dromoka wears a headdress & chest piece of amber, and carries an amber orb as a symbol of her authority.

Head of a once-great family of Arashin, the clan leader Anafenza enacted the final stages of an elegant and brutal plan to destroy the clan that murdered her family’s scale-lord seven generations ago. Anafenza sits now at the head of a powerful and ambitious clan, and looks towards the Kingdoms’ outskirts with an eye towards conquest; for conquest brings water, and water brings survival, and survival brings power.

Faction Mechanic: I never managed to come up with a mechanic for the WB Abzan that both worked and felt flavorful. I want something that emphasizes the hierarchical nature of the empire - where weaker creatures have to defer to stronger ones, and the more powerful creatures get that way by using the creatures beneath them. But that didn’t work with the idea of the Undying Kingdoms as thinking very long-term and building things up, and I also couldn’t find a way to make it work mechanically, so. Suggestions are welcome.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

UR Jeskai Guide

Faction Name: None. Monks of this order are often called “Ojutai monks” or “Ojutai’s followers.”

Dragonlord: Ojutai, Wandering Soul, the First Trickster

Dragonlord’s Seat: No fixed residence. His campsite sometimes appears to unsuspecting travelers on the road at night.

Brood Magic: Dragons of Ojutai’s brood are born with innate abilities in telepathy and teleportation. Their breath weapon is a plume of blue fire. Ojutai magic focuses on control of the mind and control of physical change. An Ojutai mage seeks to manipulate transformative processes like fire or flows like wind, water, and among the most advanced, time itself.

Faction Species: Primarily human, djinn, and aven, but Ojutai’s followers include at least a few members of every species on Tarkir. Some of the rakshasa clans that fled the Sultai have joined the order and organized their own darker traditions.

Faction Structure: The Ojutai deliberately resist structure, seeing it as a hindrance to thought and expression. Monks will join up with others in temporary relationships as mentor & student, comrades on the road, etc., but there are no formal authorities. The largest divide in the order is between those monks who focus on the gathering, recording, and preservation of existing information, and those who focus on the creation of new stories, songs, histories, etc. This “divide” is not sharply defined - it’s more of a spectrum - and monks on one side bear no ill-will towards the other. 

Standing within the Ojutai order is reckoned by a kind of informal “kudos” - one’s reputation among the other monks. Stories and language are currency among them; returning with a story that hasn’t been heard or a language unknown to others is quite the achievement, and will greatly increase that monk’s kudos.

The closest thing to social structure within the order is the idea of “traditions,” collections of stories, lore, and philosophical meditations on a theme studied by a group of monks. There are no formal rules binding any monk to any tradition, nor requirements to become affiliated with or create an entirely new one, and many monks will drift between traditions or hold multiple ones simultaneously as suits their particular path to enlightenment. Some traditions are more pleasant to encounter than others. The darkest & most amoral traditions, whose adherents keep quite secret, are often centered around rakshasa clans that fled the Sultai before Silumgar’s takeover.

The most well-known of the less-than-savory groups, however, is one that has been with the Ojutai order nearly from the beginning: the Jesters of the Hidden Name. The core tale of their tradition holds that “Ojutai” is not their dragonlord’s true name. In a grand battle of wits, the dragonlord hoodwinked Fate itself and erased his original name from the web of the world, so that the karma of his deeds can never find him to bring him punishment. These monks believe that while everyone else in the world will eventually have to pay their debts, the truly clever trickster can - and should attempt to - escape their karma. Jesters of the Hidden Name find joy in transient lives, temporary selves that fold and disappear as soon as the mark discovers their con; they despise emotions like regret and guilt, which bind a soul to a past and an identity it must shed to reach true enlightenment. They do not make their affiliation known, and will take on different names and guises as they travel across Tarkir in order to dodge the consequences of their misdeeds. The crimes themselves are not always severe, but Jesters of the Hidden Name cheerfully ignore any rule, big or small, and consider it their duty not only to break them whenever possible, but to avoid any punishment for doing so. 

Faction Goals:  The new UR Ojutai philosophy is much closer to Zen Buddhism and emphasizes living in the moment, understanding one’s place in a larger picture, acting & reacting to events with wit and skill, and the power of knowledge to bring the mind closer to enlightenment. Monks on the more creative end of the spectrum emphasize impulsive creativity and a mindfulness of the creative process itself, seeking the moment when the mind makes something from nothing without disturbing that moment with forced thought. Monks on the more preserving end of the process emphasize understanding the many ways in which all manner of living beings interact with each other and the world around them, grasping the true scope of existence and the transient yet recurrent nature of events, mindfulness of one’s own temporary nature while still attempting to preserve knowledge for eternity.

Ojutai monks retain the Jeskai belief in reincarnation and karma that influences your next life, and dragons are generally considered to be farther along the path to enlightenment than non-dragons.

UR Ojutai still practice the martial arts of their predecessors, with a greater emphasis on bare-handed and improvisational combat; but many of their modern “martial” disciplines involve no violence at all. These disciplines are instead intended to teach the mastery of body & mind and achieve mindfulness through physical exertion. Physical brutality is the last resort of a trickster and a shameful admission that one wasn’t clever enough to dodge trouble properly. The dragon-hunting skills of the Jeskai are still preserved and practiced, however, and form the core of a few traditions that focus on teaching weaker beings to defeat overwhelming strength (as represented by the dragon) through adaptability, innovation, and strategy. Full-fledged Ojutai dragon-hunters have a reputation as a force to be reckoned with and can easily make their way across Tarkir as well-paid mercenaries.

Faction History: Through their gathering of tales the Ojutai monks know a decent amount about the pre-Khanfall factions and the original Jeskai, but in this timeline they followed Ojutai of their own free will and don’t regret it. They consider their new philosophy superior and the original Jeskai practice of confining oneself to isolated monasteries and formal ritual to be absurd.

Faction Relations: Both dragon and non-dragon monks of the Jeskai order are welcomed in most parts of Tarkir, as they bring news and stories from all over the world and are happy to share tales in return for lodging & sustenance. However, Ojutai monks are also often cast as mischievous thieves and troublemakers (a reputation not wholly undeserved) and should some strange incident occur while one is in town, they’re sure to be the first suspect.

A human or efreeti Ojutai monk can expect hospitality ranging from friendly (the UG Atarka, happy to swap stories), cautiously welcoming (the WB Abzan, who greatly enjoy hearing their own history, but don’t much care for anyone else’s), to downright frigid (the WR Mardu, amongst whom the monk had best keep to reciting the Glorious Horde’s scriptures). Ojutai brood dragons are decidedly unwelcome in the Glorious Horde’s camps; on the other hand, Ojutai dragon-hunters are some of the few outsiders tolerated long-term within the Horde’s ranks.

Many Ojutai become mercenaries as a cheap & simple way to travel widely, and Ojutai soldiers are known to be clever tacticians and good fighters - if, perhaps, not always as loyal or reliable as their commanders would like them to be.

Other Details: Ojutai, Wandering Soul, is your classic Trickster figure, and coming upon his camp on the road at night is a mixed blessing at best. Think dealing with the Fair Folk or Seelie Court. You might end up rich beyond your wildest dreams - or cursed beyond your darkest nightmares. It all depends on how you conduct yourself and what sort of mood Ojutai is in. 

Narset, greatest student and traveling companion of the Wandering Soul, left her home in a small city to follow Ojutai at a young age and has grown under the dragon’s tutelage into a formidable intellect and teacher in her own right. After spending decades accompanying Ojutai on his journeys through Tarkir, she recently left Ojutai’s side and struck out on her own. Of late she has not been seen often, and rumor has it that through her enlightenment she has found a way to pass beyond Tarkir entirely.

Faction Mechanic: For the UR Ojutai I wanted something that emphasized their tricky nature and reliance on strategy and cunning to win out over more powerful opponents. One mechanic I came up with was called “Deceive.” It worked a little like the old Ninjutsu mechanic. If you cast an instant or sorcery spell that turn, you could pay a creature’s Deceive cost and cast it as if it had flash. It gains haste. Then return it to your hand at the end of the turn. Deceive was a twist on Raid with the added spells condition to make it more squarely in the Jeskai wheelhouse. But the mechanic felt too clunky for me - too many moving parts, and maybe not worth it in the end.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

UG Temur Guide

Faction Name: Atarka clans

Dragonlord: Atarka World-Speaker

Dragonlord’s Seat: Wandering through the high mountains; often meditating in a series of glacial caverns called the Eye of the World.

Brood Magic: The breath weapon of Atarka’s brood is a freezing blast. Atarka herself has incredible powers of telepathic and elemental manipulation, as well as clairvoyance. Dragons of Atarka’s brood share these talents to a lesser degree, generally leaning towards either psychic or elemental magic. Ice and stone manipulation were already an ancient tradition of the Temur, and Atarka dragons learned and expanded on these traditions. Those who spend most of their time among the high forests and glaciers sometimes send simulacra of themselves formed of ice and stone to move among the clans and speak in their place. Other dragons raise elementals from the glaciers or forest to defend their clans or pursue Atarka’s goals. Most dragons and many humans learned in shamanic traditions can send their souls walking far away from their body, observing and influencing events at a great distance, and the more powerful are able to observe past events or even the many flickering, ever-changing pathways of the future. 

The most powerful members of Atarka’s and Ojutai’s broods sometimes collaborate secretly in studying the powerful, esoteric secrets of time magic. But the two broods disagree frequently over whether such powers should only be used to observe past, present, and future, or whether they should be used to alter time as well; Atarka’s brood, unsurprisingly, comes down firmly on the side of avoiding any further tampering with Tarkir’s timeline.

Faction Species: Human, ainok. Multiple clans of naga who fled Silumgar’s takeover of the Sultai. Some djinni of the high peaks also choose to ally with the Atarka clans, following the path of shamans & mystics. 

Faction Structure: The UG Temur may be the only faction you can argue are strictly better off in Lords of Tarkir vs. Dragons of Tarkir. Led by Atarka World-Speaker, the clans have largely abandoned their roaming ways, settled more fertile territory, and built a series of small villages spread amongst the forests. They still hunt, but also fish, gather, and farm, and can now support their clans with a small surplus rather than trending close to starvation every winter. They retain their clan structures, histories, and religion, and know of their former identity as the Temur; their ancestors elected to voluntarily shed that name and take up Atarka’s instead, binding themselves to the great vision she is enacting. Dragons of Atarka’s brood often serve as the clans’ chief shamans and clan leaders, but many non-dragons also follow the way of the shaman and the mystic. For their final rite of passage, an apprentice shaman must undertake a harrowing journey alone to find Atarka herself among the high peaks, where the dragonlord herself will complete their initiation.

Faction Goals: The Atarka clans are united in their allegiance to their dragonlord’s great and still mostly-hidden master plan, an intricate design for steering the future of Tarkir. Atarka herself never required the Temur to abandon their homes, their clans, or their histories, as she believes in the importance of the past and its necessity to the future. She asks only that their actions follow her vast vision. In pursuit of that vision, the clans often act as a guerilla fighting force curtailing the excesses of the other factions. The Undying Kingdoms, ever attempting to tap the rivers fed by glacial melt that flow through Atarka territory, find themselves infiltrated by Atarka-clan scouts and spies that sabotage their settlements. Atarka-clan warriors ambush elements of the Glorious Horde that make the mistake of wandering into their territory, protect fledgling dragons from the Horde’s zealots, and do their best to rescue anyone they can from the clutches of Silumgar’s brood. Their relationship to the Ojutai is even more subtle, and there are rumors of deep-cover Atarka agents working to alter histories and traditions kept by the monks - to what ends, only Atarka knows.

Faction History: Shortly after her birth Atarka World-Speaker entered into a deep spirit trance, meditating for thousands of years in the heart of a glacier. Within this trance she sought to understand the mysteries of past and future, of the nature of the world, of existence, and of its alteration. She communed with Ugin the Spirit-Dragon, source of all Tarkir’s broods, frozen and healing in his hedron cocoon; she became aware also of the journey of Sarkhan Vol and his changes to the timeline. At last, troubled by these understandings and convinced she could no longer remain an observer, Atarka emerged from the ice and descended from the mountain peaks with intent, her mind set on a vast and intricate plan for steering the future of Tarkir.

She first encountered a band of hunters of the Temur and spoke to them, imparting the deep understandings she had achieved. When they perceived the extent of her wisdom and the magnitude of her task, the hunters returned to their clans and told them what the World-Speaker had said; and in time the World-Speaker herself descended and lived among the clans, so that they would know she spoke true and did not intend them harm. The Temur clans, persuaded by her teachings, chose to shed their old names and purposes and undertake this great task alongside her.

After a time the World-Speaker felt again the call of realms of understanding beyond the human mind, and returned to the high peaks to her meditations. Before she did, though, she returned to the place where she had met that first faithful band of hunters, and raised a great circle of stone and ice. This is the gathering-place known as Horizon (more literally “Where-The-Sky-Meets-The-Earth”). Sacred events and rites of the clans are held there, and Atarka herself will sometimes descend to the circle to speak with her clans. More often she communicates her will through the Whisper, the shared shamanic trance, and the shaman chosen to relay her words to the clans themselves is given the title of “The One Who Listens To The Sky.”

Faction Relationships: The Atarka clans have wary relationships with the other four factions, as their members are often working to limit or frustrate their purposes. They’re friendliest with the Ojutai and love swapping stories and histories with monks of the order. The Undying Kingdoms and Glorious Horde both consider them perpetual pests, waging low-key guerilla warfare and fading away when pressed. Silumgar considers them a true adversary due to their ongoing rescue efforts aimed at extracting individuals from the Rotted Lands and restoring them, if possible, to their previous minds. The territory of the Atarka clans hasn’t expanded much beyond the high mountains ranges and deep pine forests, but it hasn’t contracted, either. Other factions have learned by now that serious incursion into Atarka territory ends in terrified soldiers surrounded by unseen attackers both physical and mental.

Other Changes: The Firelight Watch is a band of elite warriors and survival experts, honored among the clans. Their sacred task is to protect the bodies of shamans and mystics while their spirits range far away. A shaman undertaking a journey into the deep forests may close their eyes and send their spirit to walk the Path of Whispers without fear, knowing guardians of the Firelight Watch will protect their physical form from harm, hunt and gather to supply it with food, and find shelter to keep them warm. The greatest warrior of the Firelight Watch, the Dragonclaw, tends to the World-Speaker herself. Atarka’s current Dragonclaw is Surrak. (I couldn’t resist the juxtaposition - in the DTK timeline Surrak leads the eternal hunt to sate Atarka’s endless hunger; in the Lords of Tarkir timeline Surrak spends most of his time trying to get Atarka to wake up and eat something before her body wastes away from neglect.)

Faction Mechanic: The UG Temur mechanic, “Soulwalk,” is the only one I felt satisfied with when trying to build the LTK set. If a creature has Soulwalk, the player can pay the Soulwalk cost and exile that creature in order to create a token. When that token leaves the battlefield, the exiled creature is returned to play. This mimics a shaman astral-projecting themself or creating an avatar/elemental, then returning to the waking world when the avatar dissolves.

[magicofpentiva]

The Plane of Pentiva The Ferians Colors: Red, Black Races: Humans, Goblins, Orcs, Minotaurs, Demons Nearly every plane has its bandits and highwaymen. Some have even made it into an art form. But only on Pentiva is it a religion. The Ferians lurk among the mountain passes and roadsides waiting for unsuspecting victims to wander by. They descend on unsuspecting villages in the dead of night. The horror stories featuring these bloodthirsty bandits range far and wide. But these are no normal highwaymen. They have a reason for their slaughter: they believe it will lead them to eternal life. In the beginning Firen, the God of the Ferians created heaven and hell to create Angels and Demons. Demons and Angels were to be immortal warriors of heaven and hell respectively. Then Pentiva was created as were animals and plants to populate it. Finally Firen created humanoids to follow the system they created: be righteous and be sent to heaven, sin and be sent to hell. However humanoids are clever. They found a way to exploit the system. If one commuted enough sin and was sent to hell then eventually they would become a demon. Since a demon is immortal then you have therefore achieved eternal life. Ferian demons are much more powerful than the demons of other planes. They have no set form and thus can appear as nearly any form they wish. Additionally when their form is destroyed they are simply reborn a certain amount of time later. Powerful demons are less like demons and more like natural disasters.