#sezashi

[reubenyeoart]

Commission - Sezashi

An illustration commission for @niuttuc of their Orochi Planeswalker, Sezashi! Since they are an explorer of the planes, we agreed to have different knick-knacks from various planes arrayed in the scene, although one was switched out in the final piece (to make it more believable to the character). While you can't see it on the final design, Sezashi has a patch of Phyrexian tissue on their side, which can be seen on the character design slides.

[niuttuc]

You know what, it's been a while since I talked about my various planeswalking guys and gals from the focus group, time to see if a portion of the spreadsheet can get people to ask some questions about them. Even basic questions if you don't know them, it's good for me to to restate the facts every so often and I don't expect anyone to know them in advance.

[niuttuc]

So, Sezashi has official art of him now, by @reubenyeoart! You can find the full art on their blog. There's been relatively little of him on this blog, though you can find his sheet if you dig a bit you can find his quick sheet.

In short, a Kamigawan Orochi and former merge-keeper, who's magic revolves around duality, allowing him to double or halve objects and beings, and some aspects of them (within limits). The art demonstrates one possibility of it here, with him having two bodies at that moment.

He's a proponent of harmony, of the coexistence of both of Kamigawa's world, of its progress and of its traditions. With the world slowly merging, he's worried where that might lead, and is interested in other worlds that thusly have met, merged or coexist with others to see what he can learn from them and how it might apply to his own.

And then March of the Machine happened, and now a large number of planes have had experience of others, and a poor one at that. He himself was wounded fighting during the events, though he eventually woke up from cryptic dreams having been healed and tended to.

He's not sure what he should do now, probably travel and see the consequences of the invasions for himself, but there's also plenty left to resolve back home.

[niuttuc]

So before Bloomburrow comes out soon I want to get a MH3 ask in so if you want could we hear about Sezashi, Arnoss, Dancing-Hands, Zarunpel and Ranek Origins cards?

Origin cards take a while to design because they have a lot of moving parts and need a flip trigger that's flavorful, original but also happens just the right amount and at the right timing for it to not be awkward.

With that said, I do have some of those already made!

Sezashi's represent on the front his time with Adima, a Merge-Gate Keeper trying to balance traditional magic and new technology. He flips when the gate gets destroyed, and keeps going in the same way, honoring Adima after their disparition.

Arnoss has a mistake of a back side, but something I felt like experimenting with. A Planeswalker Creature interacts funkily with plenty of parts of the game, which his passives try to somewhat remedy. Other than that, the card is very simple, he flips as he did in his story, after his close family got massacred and he was the last survivor of it.

I've started on a Dancing-Hands origin card several times, but have scrapped all my attempts so far, they weren't satisfying enough. Instead, have a pair of creature/background for him, since I did experiment with those too.

Zarunpel's origin card was made as a part of a cycle along with all six of her sisters, all Legendary Creatures, so she matches them and has a legendary subtheme that's not present on most of her cards.

Ranek doesn't have an origin card either yet... But he does have a Saga recounting his origin, when he first put on the Stormplate that would become his name. It's fairly simple and lackluster by 2024 standards, probably only worth an uncommon slot these days, but I still like it.

[niuttuc]

So I saw a post about this concept and thought it would make for a interesting ask. Magical damage, like a necromancers fingers slowly turning black and losing sensation or a wizard with lighting bolt scares across their arms. What dose it look like when Arnoss, Zarunpel, Sezashi and Dancing-Hands push their magic beyond what their bodies can handle?

I find this question funny because of all my characters you could have picked, those are probably the ones that can strain their magic the least! So instead, let's talk about why they don't really do that, and we'll touch on the question! But I do appreciate the effort of narrowing down your questions to some characters for the copy-paste when it comes to my inbox, it hasn't gone unnoticed.

Most of the magic for Arnoss and Zarunpel is passive.

Zarunpel's "blessing" from the Wilds might not even function under the same rules as traditional magic, it follows more narrative rules. It affects her body and hair in many ways, but when it comes to the limits of it, it often is more about what would make a better story. She's stronger than someone that looks like her should be, but depending on what she has to do, the exact degree to which this is true varies. As long as it's somewhat reasonable, in important situations she's often just strong enough or almost but not there, depending which tells a "better" story. Of course, she has no idea how that works.

As far as her spellcasting, it's mostly temporary protection spells, they're more likely to be cast too late or not last long enough than to hurt her when she overuses them. Which means she or whatever she's protecting gets hurt the way it otherwise would have been. When the Urborg panther living in her shadow gets "killed" or banished in some ways, Zarunpel can also be left without a shadow for a time while Vel reconstitutes.

Similarly, Arnoss's magic is mostly passive buffing and reinforcing his scales, when it is overstrained, he gets hurt the normal way. However, it also depends on how many people need and want his help nearby, and in some cases that can be overwhelming to feel during major disasters in populated areas. So many people needing help and he can't help all of them. And he's found that when he tries to help all of them in a city when it's not a disaster, he exhausts himself going from one to the other for hours and days, there's always something in large population centers.

Sezashi has a hard cap on the number of spells he can maintain at once, at four, represented by the floaty objects that orbit him. While some are harder to maintain than others (maintaining multiple charges of the same nature on someone else requires concentration and effort), the failure point is usually just that one or multiple of the spells slip and come back to him, and he probably isn't in a state to reuse them just yet. With that said, premature failure of magic that can manipulate sizes and create duplicates is generally not a good idea, plenty of unfortunate timings possible. Also duplicates that are ended in this way don't fuse back as cleanly to the original, which certainly causes headache and can cause the loss of memories the duplicate had.

Dancing-Hands's innate telekinesis can be overpowered or overwhelmed, but it's very difficult, and it generally doesn't strain the kitsune much to use. Using it on non-physical things is more relevant here. It only works on nonliving elements. Using it on eldrazis, even scions and briefly, made him feel sick and gave him headaches, and he couldn't sustain it for more than a few seconds. He rediscovered how to use it on magical effects not too long ago, and that has taken a lot more out of him, and could potentially replicate or redirect harmful effects to him if he's not careful. The telekinesis itself is invisible if not for its effects.

As far as his Kanji magic, well, he typically only uses ink, and on paper, but much more powerful and dangerous opportunities are possible when this type of magic is used with blood (or other living material) and on living tissue. Be it using his paper blade on himself or drawing with his own blood on paper, the result would be white paper and fur marred in reds. It's not something he'd ever want to do, but in theory, it's possible.

[niuttuc]

Now that March of the Machine story has been fully released I can ask, how did your ocs weather the Phyrexia invasion of the multiverse?

Arnoss: Was on Ocaelum prepared to defend it from an invasion that never came. Now feels bad he did "nothing to help" during it.

Zarunpel: Worked alongside her sisters to keep her home and land safe even after the courts fell. The Alernis territory has the advantage of being closer to the Wilds and their influence, which the Phyrexians had a very hard time dealing with. It doesn't always make sense to Phyrexians which tend to be very scientific about things. Also, with the help of a couple of her sisters and borrowing her mother's sword, she fought @socialpoison's Traenor in his compleated arm and armor, and subsequently cut.

Ysara: She defended the Kaladesh village her home was nearby from. She died in the process, and left to her apprentice/assistant to clean up her skull and bring it to where she was from.

Farell: Heard about the troubles in Paliano, and couldn't resist coming to help Celin, the woman he loves. She was fine, though there was a lot destroyed. Also them being in contact again has led to exchanges about Farell's brother's death that makes everybody involved very sad, because they're living a tragedy.

Dolores: Thankfully her home on New Capenna was in the Mezzio, not on Park Heights. Her partner, @astrisjanus's Inza, stayed back on Capenna to fight the Phyrexians while Dolores herself took advantage of the chaos to go back to her home plane of Ferely. She was aiming to enact a vengeance there unnoticed. She was noticed.

Lhur: Recently consolidated his position on power and prepared his troops when he heard of what may be coming. When it happened, he saw no choice but to climb on his father's throne of shadows to coordinate actions and defense all across his country while channeling his own magic to limit the appearance of branches and portals over it. He emerged from the invasion exhausted, and then came the weeks more of exhausting work to manage the aftermath.

Jaspar: He was on Ikoria, in Indatha, trying to both survive and learn what he could of Nethroi and the Whispers. He fought how he could during the invasion and capped it off by using his magic through his Elderfang and spread over Indatha by Nethroi's whispers to call upon the echoes of Indath and essentially end Phyrexian (and some non Phyrexian) life in the area. He came back to Kaldheim to news of the death of his deity, Koma, and of the very foundation of Kaldheim. He doesn't yet fully accept the truth of that.

Alamir and Nksdv: They had been on New Phyrexia for intel and action for months by the time of the Invasion. Their last contribution to hinder the phyrexians was to remove their anti-planeswalker defense that scattered the assault team, before the Invasion even begun. It turned out to be a compleated planeswalker linked to Realmbreaker, @socialpoison's Ellidus. Alamir removed them and carried them away from the Tree, trying to reason with them and break through Norn's programming. Alamir knew what it was to be made and treated as a weapon and empathized with them. Seeing the planar instability before the end of the planar swap, Nksdv took them back to the Haven, and left Alamir to choose for themselves if they wanted to see the end of their world.

Sezashi: The orochi was fighting on Kamigawa, grown to oppose a compleated mech, and got stabbed by a branch of Realmbreaker in the back. He survived, and Norn's death rendered the oil inert before he could be compleated, though he might have a more metallic scar in his back now. While he was out, he received visions and ideas from the Myojin of Cryptic Dreams, but the Myojin is aptly-named, and he hasn't fully understood them yet.

Nyrhen: Fighting on another plane, then as soon as he got wind of the fact the attack was on every plane, went back to Eldraine to defend his Sanctuary in the Wilds. He killed a lot of Phyrexians that "happened" to find their way towards it.

The Cursetamer: She lost a lot of her collection of Apostates from Ferely on Innistrad and most of her planeswalking agents to compleation, and even she and her wife had trouble getting things under control after that. Her people actually helped her for once instead of the other way around, even if their home gave to Realmbreaker. Her latest Mana Core prototype was also lost, but that one self-destroyed before it could be compleated. Due to its nature, it had more safety features and contingencies than actual functions.

Kinahel: She was on Winrovah, fighting in a corner more desolate than average, in case she needed to use the Worldslayer or lose it into Void and hope for the best. Anything better than letting Phyrexians get their hands on it, even if she had no idea of the potential consequences. She burned herself out fighting and died as soon as she stopped (this is fine, she's a phoenix).

There's more but that's already plenty and I don't want to pollute people's timelines any more than that. If people want to know more about any of those or other characters, either for this arc or in general, you can ask!

[niuttuc]

Do any of your characters have autumn as their favorite season? If you do, what is their favorite part about fall? (Or if too many of them love it, you can pick the top ones that love it the most :D )

Oh, mmmh.

I don't typically think about favorite seasons because I don't have one, but let's see...

Anedia prefers falls, you get to wear stylish coats and NOT freeze yourself to death when you have to wait outside at night for a job for hours on end, if you're properly clothed.

For Ranek, fall is the frantic activity and last chances to do things outside before winter blows and Axgard's dwarves hole themselves cozily underground. Of course, it's been centuries since that's been true for him, but memories and tradition are strong.

Sezashi loves autumn. If you ask him why, he'll tell you it's because it illustrates that even something that seems like an end may just be the normal course of setting up a new, living world. And even that is beautiful. It's something Adima often said, and the seasons of change are his favorite, both spring and autumn.

[niuttuc]

Sezashi Quick Sheet

Name: Sezashi

Pronouns: He/Him

Species: Orochi/Snake

Age: 46

Plane of Origin: Kamigawa

First Planeswalk: Lorwyn/Shadowmoor

Colors: Green/Blue

Appearance: Sezashi is an Orochi, a horned snake with four arms, in his forties. Mostly green, with black patterning on his scales. He's probably about 24ft long from the tip of his tail to his snout, and generally stands a bit over 6ft off the ground, though it varies a bit depending on his positioning. He has two matching ornaments of different colors wrapped around the base of his horns. Four floating objects typically float around him, representing his bond to a Kami. Two of them are seeds of some kind, from full fruits to emerging sprouts. The two others are two-dimensional moving symbols, one with movement reminiscent of waves, and the other of winds and clouds. The last two always appear to be facing those that observe them, no matter how many people do or where they are.

Backstory: Sezashi has served for over a decade as a Merge-Keeper on Kamigawa, guarding one of the passages between Kamigawa's spirit realm and mortal world, and welcoming the Kami entering the world through it. Bonded and working with Adima, a Kami of Twin Worlds, they shared a vision of a future of the two worlds being reborn as one, better than the sum of its parts.

Sezashi, similarly to some in the more activist Order of Jukai, had visions about the end of the Kakuriyo brought on by technology, but his interpretation is very different. He sees it as bringing forward this new world, and the end of the Spirit realm only being the beginning of something new, and something wonderful, his and Adima's dream.

As such, when an Imperially-backed Futurist approached them to test an upgrade and prototype of a new Merge gate, aiming at better controlling the flow between the Realms and being able to regulate them, Adima and Sezashi accepted the one they guarded to be used for the test.

The Order of Jukai didn't take kindly to this new technology they didn't work along, messing with the path to the spirit realm. They organized an attack on the gate to destroy the prototype while Adima and Sezashi were distracted by a newly arrived Kami. Detonating a bomb filled with spiritual energy near a hole in the world to the spirit realm stabilized by untested technology might not have been the best idea.

The resulting rift spit out confused and angry kami, threatened to destroy part of the forest, and of spreading dangerously, damaging both worlds. After hours of running around trying to fix the consequences for both of them, Adima resolved to patch the rift, and incidentally close the Merge, something that isn't typically thought to be possible. But to do so, Adima had Sezashi channel them into the merge, which consumed them, severing their bond with Sezashi, and they've not been seen again since.

The loss of his closest friend, mentor and purpose in a already harrowing day was enough to ignite Sezashi's spark, sending them to another world, one that resulted of the fusion of two linked parts.

That was a couple years ago. Since then, he's traveled the worlds in search of worlds like his own, and of a way to bring back Adima. Despite their bond being broken, Sezashi still has access to the magic they granted him, unchanged, which he takes to indicate there's some part of Adima still existing somewhere, perhaps inside Sezashi himself, perhaps lost in the Spirit Realm, which could be used to bring them back.

Magic, gear and/or abilities: Their main magic is one of duality, one focused on two. The four elements floating around Sezashi are "charges" he can use to cast a variety of spells, doubling or halving physical characteristics of himself or other people and objects. The simplest may be size, but those spells can affects things in many different ways, from doubling something in its entirety, creating a clone of them or himself (or halving, he often halves the number of arms he has to be less conspicuous on planes without four-armed nagas), to halving or doubling something's weight or even thoughts (though less physical properties such as thoughts are harder to affect).

On himself, he can strengthen those spells by expending more "charges" on it, spending two, three or four charges on the same thing to multiply or divide the chosen property by 4, 8 or 16 instead of two. He cannot stack like this quite as well on others or objects (sorta, his clothes and gears count as "him" as far as his magic is concerned, for obvious reasons.)

His magic lasts as long as he wishes (and is relatively near), but he loses that charge until he ends the effect it is associated with. The element floating around him have to physically travel to whatever they'll affect, so it isn't always the fastest process either. They disappear while sustaining a spell. He can't in any circumstances maintain more than four spells that way (he could with direct help from Adima, but that's not really on the table anymore.)

As far as gear, he carries for a main weapon a metallic staff of sorts that can split off into two batons (he prefers keeping two arms free but occasionally can double that into four). The deployment and separation is entirely mechanical, so it works off Kamigawa. In truth, its tips can produce energy blades to turn it into spears/daggers, but that doesn't work on most planes and a solid metal staff is enough of a weapon for him anyway.