#moloni

[niuttuc]

Now that the magic story has come out and we have gotten into spoiler season, I want to ask again how your Fan Plane would weather the Invasion of New Phyrexia?

Alright, in no particular order:

Ocaelum: Was deemed a worthless, dead plane by Gitaxian surveyors, since Realmbreaker emerged in the skies of various plane. As such, Ocaelum's inhabitants didn't even notice anything happen.

Moloni: The specifics of Moloni make defense of Sources orders of magnitude easier than attacking them, which worked out mostly good for the defense of the cities and castles... But not so great for the rest of the plane. Thankfully, the invasion was short enough that most of these bastions didn't run out of food or water or lose a siege, however, there might be upcoming issues from the logistic support of them taking such heavy hits. And maybe much worse if Realmbreaker dug deep enough into the ground to pierce the Nullstone layer and trigger another tectonic eruption.

Winrovah: Ah. Well, Winrovah didn't have much of a defense to put up in the first place, and Realmbreaker evolving in the Blind Eternities means it was protected from the effects of Aether and Void there. However, the same could not be said of Phyrexians it carried. Overall, a lot of death and devastation, and Winrovah didn't need that, particularly when things were looking not-as-grim for the first time in decades.

Geonne: Probably did the most averagely of all these, but it's mostly because I know the least about it. Probably more chimeras there than before, both compleated and not. The hybrids there leave room for a lot of peculiar compleations.

Ferely: Ferely had organized angels and really possessive archdemons that didn't want to lose their people to new masters. There were losses, but none of the archdemons fell or embraced compleation, so the worst was avoided. However, probably some compleated Saints and Apostates that created a bit of Havoc.

The Haven: Benefit of being aware of the threat well in advance, of having faced it before, and of having already prepared interplanar countermeasures in place. The actual structure of the Haven was mostly abandoned aside from one aisle before, but most of the population of the (small) plane was able to take refuge into it temporarily by occupying those parts of it. It held.

[klimbims]

Spanish painters | Испанские художники, 1857 by Olga Via Flickr: 1 Benito Murillo (Pintor) 2 Luis Madrazo (Pintor) 3 Carlos Haes (Pintor) 4 Raimundo Madrazo (Pintor) 5 Moloni (Pintor) 6 Manuel Castellano (Pintor) 7 El Conde de la Unión (Aficionado a pintor) 8 Federico Madrazo (Pintor) 9 Carlos Luis Ribera (Pintor)

[niuttuc]

Alright, I might be a bit late on the second week of fantober (by about one week), but I was busy, so let's see, which of my planes do people want to know more about?

[niuttuc]

I saw your fanwalker post mention a fan plane called Moloni, what is it all about? :). (This is @leafdrake-haven )

Moloni is a plane where magic isn't as readily available as most. Between the plane's core and leylines and the surface, there's a layer of nullstone that stops magic from reaching except through specific spots and cracks.

Those create Sources on the surface, powerful (or more minor) fonts of magic that allow magic to be used within its range (by default). Most are associated with a single color but some can have more.

From each Source tends to emerge a Guardian, an Iconic of matching color that is tied to that Source, lives from it and controls its access. They'll be an Angel for a white Source, a Sphinx for blue, a Demon for black, a Dragon for red and an Elemental for green (not a hydra because harder to make sapient, though most elemental guardians take a hydra-like shape by default). All sources but one have a single Guardian, even if they have more than one color, it might be either of the iconics but embodying both.

A Guardian controls the magic of their Source, and how it can be used. They can allow or refuse the use of magic within its range to anyone they wish. How that is used vary from Guardian to Guardian, but most countries have a default way to do things their Guardians agree to.

A very common thing is for Guardians to choose a mortal to grant a particular tie to their Source, sharing and delegating some of their power to them, and making them ruler within the range of their Source.

Due to access to magic being able to be allowed to one side (there's some work arounds, but they're nowhere as practical), defense on the plane is much easier than offense, which led to a lot of independent city-states managing to survive, but there's still a few larger countries or alliances that managed to form.

Due to its limited access to magic, the plane is hard to pinpoint and planeswalk to if you don't know what you're looking for. Planeswalkers have the huge advantage of being able to draw mana from off-plane though, so it's a good thing they are even more unlikely to be found there.

Of my characters, Hadissen is from there. It was Icalia's first planeswalk a few centuries ago. She temporarily became a Source's Guardian then as an oldwalker, but her Source has a new Guardian now, they're in good terms. Icalia is still connected to it.

[niuttuc]

I want to hear more about your fan-planes! Tell me about the creatures that can be found there, what are the staple creatures like? Most importantly what are the dragons like!

Let’s see, I’ll make non-comprehensive lists because that’s a lot of different species.

Winrovah: Humans, goblins, elves, leonins, nagas, gnomes, djinns, wurms, drakes, serpents, elementals, demon(s), angels, hydras, sphinges, dragons, aetherborn versions of most of those, and maybe a few more species that are extinct or even closer to extinction than the rest, since the end of the world isn’t being kind on ecological preservation.

Dragons on Winrovah were formerly a powerful force, and loosely organized too. Like most iconics, what happened to the plane wasn’t kind of them, and most were too proud to ask for any help. There aren’t really many large enough hunting grounds to sustain dragons anymore on the plane, so even the ones that didn’t die from the destruction or in fights mostly died from hunger, or raided settlements which further worsened conditions for people living there and only delayed the inevitable for the dragons. Like most iconics, there’s only a handful of Dragons left on the plane, exact numbers are incertain.

Moloni: Humans, elves, nagas, viashinos, dwarves, griffins, Guardians (Angel, Sphinges, Demons, Dragons and Elementals), probably others.

Dragons on Moloni are Guardians, born from, controlling and defending a Source of magic. Dragons tends to see their Source and magic as their treasure. While some do hoard it for themselves, most have understood that sharing it doesn’t remove it from their possessions, allows others to gaze upon their treasure, and can be negotiated for other kinds of things they might value... But not be able to obtain without leaving their source. Wild dragons can protect a Source fiercely, making sure nobody else lives in its surrounding, but most civilized ones have a more mercantile state of mind.

The Federation of Cyr’s capital, Ganara, has five Guardians, one for each color, leading it. The dragon is called Protacus, he’s in charge of Cyr’s diplomacy, and can temporarily possess his emissaries as long as they’re within range of a Source, allowing him to be one of the very few Guardian that can travel beyond their own source’s influence.

Geonne: Mostly undevelopped, but Geonne is mostly human... Kind of. Geonne’s magic allows humans to fuse with another creature in some situations (or rituals), which means the plane contains a lot of subspecies based on most types of animals and creatures.

Dragons on Geonne are more legends of the past than reality. If they exist still, they’re hiding well.

Ferely (not entirely mine): Ferely has humans, elves, minotaurs, azras, angels, (a handful of very powerful) demons, probably dragons but haven’t developed them yet... Probably more. Sapient species are way more intermixed on Ferely than on most planes, though, the demon blood that spawned the azras in the first place allows for reproduction between all sorts of species that would normally be incompatible, so belonging to a species is more a matter of choice than anything there.

Ocaelum (not entirely mine, but my version might be separate at this point): Humans, merfolks, elves, coralfolks, giant sentient Lifetrees, dwarves, dragons, and then the amphibious Family made up of many species, but the main two are Lutrives (otterfolks) and Axoltians (Axolotl-based species) with rarer ones like Ghavaleks like Arnoss. Add to that a thriving marine ecology ranging from plankton to giant sea monsters of all sorts.

Dragons on Ocaelum come in two kinds (well, three, but one is extinct and forgotten). The more bestial kind can be found swimming in the water, majestic but dangerous serpent-like beings. Other than those, there’s the Primordial dragons, born of the earth and residing within the air-filled tunnels and caves there, some legends claim they were the ones to dig them to emerge of the ground like one would from an egg. The primordial dragons are ancient beings of great power and wisdom, connected directly to the Sun at the center of the world, and generally benevolent. They created the Dwarves and see them as their children, and know more about the history of the world than most.

[niuttuc]

Do you have a fan plane? If so how would you describe it's soul and avatar?

I have a few! I also have a decent memory!

Do you have any fan-planes? A few! I also helped built a few others with other people that technically aren’t fully mine. I think the only f

Anyway, as far as the ones I consider "mine", let's see...

The Soul of Moloni is a brilliant thing trapped inside the plane. No known currently living being has seen it, and likely none ever will.

The Haven is a fragment of an artificial plane, but it does have a soul, that will sometimes emerge from the ground. Made of flowstone, she returns even settled one to its fluid state, and generally looks like a small moving hill that can extend appendages.

Geonne's soul is an ever-shifting chimera of the plane's many different species. It manifests very, very rarely.

Winrovah's soul, if it is still alive, would be as scarred and dying as the plane. An ever-crying strange child of the observer's species with a beautiful rose growing out of its shoulder or equivalent, its black roots planted into the child and visibly spreading under its skin. They're missing a limb or more.

Ocaelum is not mine, but I feel like my version and the main one have grown far enough apart that I can claim my own version of it anyway. Ocaelum's soul is sleeping, hidden within the core sun, protected by its children the primordial dragons. It currently looks like a cross between the smell of a breeze over a field that stretches across the horizon and the cold of snow.

[niuttuc]

Newest character is Hadissen, a Naga from a mining, coastal town on the fan-plane of Moloni. He used to be a rescuer, until he was presumed dead during an intervention where he couldn’t both get people out and himself out. Of course, we all know how those things end up for potential planeswalkers.

His signature magic is the ability to harmlessly transforming up to one “entity” and himself into another state of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma, mixes...) and somewhat guide them when they aren’t solid. An “entity” is roughly defined as “what’s convenient”, but basically consider a person and their clothes, or a single object, or a pool of fluid...

He’s generally a pretty upbeat person, and is currently looking throughout the Multiverse for a place to call his home, since he saw a few planeswalkers at peace after having found somewhere that fit them, and he never found that exploring Moloni.

[niuttuc]

I have a question for you my friend if your Fanplanes had Tarkir styled Siege cards what would they be like?

Let's see, most of them aren't really factional worlds that can easily have two factions pitted against one another like that.

The more fitting would likely be Ocaelum, I'd imagine in that world, Sieges would be a Ux cycle, four enchantments, each Blue with another color, representing the Merfolk of the plane's conflicts with other factions. Maybe the dimir enchantment of the cycle could even represent two factions of the Merfolk fighting each other. This would be a bit awkward though, neither faction would have proper access to them. Maybe instead each could represent conflicts within each large faction: between the nine monarchs of the Shiver for the Merfolk, between the Elder Smiths for the Dwarves, between the different networks for the Arcane Spires, and perhaps something between two Kindred within the World Family.

Winrovah's would likely represent more local conflicts, but honestly the main one I'd see would be between the Aether Enclave and the Guardians. Even nowadays where Aether left the plane and the Enclave isn't spreading anymore, the Guardian keep their vigil of it and try to stop Aetherborn from leaving it when they can.

Moloni doesn't lend itself to Sieges. If you set up a siege on a city, you've already lost, and in fact the practice (at least in an organized fashion) may be unknown on the plane because of how foolish it would be. In a defensive position, the besieged party has access to magic when the aggressor doesn't. A siege would be a colossal waste of lives and resources. If you somehow managed to neutralize their source, that won't last long so you don't have time for a lengthy siege.