#vaalin

[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-characters]

A story of stories

The library at the ancestral academy of Minamo wasn’t exactly open to the public, but rarely refused to let in people that wished to consult its scrolls in good faith - and subject themselves to the library’s securities. Vaalin had heard from another planeswalker that the academy wasn’t only a place of Kamigawan knowledge, but that through exchanges with planeswalkers also unknowingly contained lore from other worlds, under the cover of fictional stories.

Such a concentration of research and otherworldly knowledge was rare throughout the Multiverse, and even if it had taken him longer than it might have seemed to find some of the texts he was the most interested in, he’d managed to do so, and was now sitting at one of the numerous dimly-lit desks, a scroll unrolled in front of him.

@thetalesofthereneverwood

[niuttuc]

I know I'm a bit late but I was really enjoying Thunder Junction as a drafting experience, even if I found it a bit muddled from a lore perspective. But I wanted to ask the question if Jaspar, Vaalin, Dolores, Dancing-Hands, Zarunpel and Ranek  had there own Mount what would it be?

Alrighty, let's start with the really easy ones, the ones I already made cards for before this ask...

For Zarunpel, her Mount would obviously be her mount, Velumbra. She's a magical panther from Urborg that lives within Zarunpel's shadow when she isn't stalking around in the real world, and was granted to her as a token of friendship by the Soul of Windgrace after she did him a service helping his people and him personally with an off-plane errand, during the Dominaria United period.

For Jaspar, something less specific but I do have this design for a mount for him. His magic allows him to call upon the echoes of life past imbued into parts of creatures for various magical effects. This is him using a discarded antler of some form of elk to summon a spirit version of it to carry him around. Since antlers are shed periodically and don't stay with an animal for their whole life, their echoes are fainter than what he may obtain from most bones or other parts. As a result, they stop working with his magic after some time or intense use like this. Thankfully, finding "fresh" antlers to restock is also pretty easy.

That's it for the cards I already have figured out (at least for the list given).

Dancing-Hands doesn't use a mount very often, but in the past he's been seen on the back of an origami horse animated by his magic when he first arrived on Amonkhet's desert, a few years back at this point.

Dolores and Ranek are less likely to have mounts these days; Dolores's wings mean flight is more often a faster option, and flying mounts that can keep up are a hassle. Ranek travels in his Stormplate, as much mech as it is armor, and even if he supplemented that with other forms of transport, it'd more likely be a vehicle of some sort than a mount.

Vaalin... I genuinely don't know. We don't see enough underwater content to have a wide range of options there, and given he evolves on land too, would have to be amphibious, but he's not exactly riding around a lot either. Vodalians have seahorse mounts, but I doubt Vaalin could get one of these with his status, and he's not Vodalian proper either. Could see him riding a drake through the air!

[niuttuc]

Happy Mother’s Day, what was Dancing-Hands, Arnoss, Nyrhen, Farell and Vaalin mothers like?

Mother's day isn't for another few weeks.

-Dancing-Hands's mother was, in her younger years, an imperial guard as they were investigating the Kami rifts during the Era of Enlightenment with the Jukai's help. After the creation of the Merge gates, she married a kitsune of the Jukai she had worked with, who later became Dancing-Hands' father. She was the one to initially introduce Dancing-Hands to origami, but their relationship didn't fare too well along the years. His parents had very little authority on Dancing-Hands come his forties, and she regrets what happened to him. They've met again since and she knows he's alive, but it's been tough to rebuild things.

-Arnoss didn't have a singular "mother", that's not how the Family's typically raises children, he was under the care of all the adult Beldruns. As far as biological parents, he's never met his mother (at least he doesn't think so), his egg was bought from another family that couldn't support any more Ghavaleks. This is also not uncommon in the Family between caravans that trust each other.

-Nyrhen's mother was incredibly proud of her boy, even if he didn't do anything particularly glamorous or important. He was always Perfect to her eyes. Also she was a Lorwyn elf, so, y'know, the baggage that comes with that. Weapon-carver, some of which were deemed worthy of being used by Perfects.

-Farell's mom is Lady Leana Javori, born Bassola. She's cunning, positive, and confident. She's well-versed in politics and etiquette. She uses them as she needs to, but isn't fond of what comes with it, so she sometimes ignores convention when she thinks they're wrong.

Her birth name is an old, powerful and respected one on Fiora, and she very much married under her station when she did a newly ennobled merchant and had to give up her name for his when she did. She further mudded her name by carrying to term a bastard child from a shapeshifter who tricked her, and giving him her birth name. Despite the events of that night, she loves Farell just as much as she does her human children. She encouraged Farell into finding his own way, to be proud and keep his head high. The aristocracy may see him as lesser, but it's their loss if they underestimate her eldest son.

-Vaalin's mother was killed during the current phyrexian invasion, so he's still processing that, especially considering he had to keep working after learning of her death, alone in his head for long periods of time. She was a Vodalian merfolk from the Volshe caste, a mathematician, who had briefly studied at Tolaria (of the Depths). She joined a diplomatic mission to the surface world and met Vaalin's father, a human, there. She laid Vaalin's egg not too long after coming back from that year-long expedition. Knowing the xenophobic caste system underlying Vodalian society would be very harsh on a half-human, she sought refuge for her and her child in Tolaria's waters, where minds were more progressive.

There, she raised her child by herself within the Academy's reach, trying her best to shield him from the disdain and hatred that inevitably filtered through even in the school. Most students at Tolaria of the Depths have vodalian origins and culture after all, be it recent or older. She had her concerns when he specialized in temporal studies and might have tried to push him towards more practical studies. His achievements of the past few years on Dominaria and other worlds had placated her doubts though.

[niuttuc]

Something I’ve found very fun to do with my fanwalkers is giving them “reprints” of fitting, existing cards flavored around them. Some are easier to find than others, but overall it works pretty well!

Here are some from my main crew.

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Vaalin joins the ranks of my characters with art, this striking piece commissioned to the skilled @reubenyeoart to be added, and giving a face to one of my main fanwalkers.

[niuttuc]

Is Mermay my friends! So I got to ask what would your ocs look like as a merperson?

Like this

[niuttuc]

What was your Dancing-Hands, Dolores Zarunpel and Vaalin like as a child? What was their childhood like? Do they think they had a good childhood?

Dancing-Hands' childhood only ended relatively recently, by Kitsune standards, though he's been independent for quite a few years in it. He was seen as gifted by the Kami and very intelligent, and his ego grew to match. He was pretty detached from his parents, and his siblings are so far apart in age from him he rarely saw them. "Child" Dancing-Hands was arrogant, confident and generally annoying.

His childhood was, all things considered, not terrible, though he has many regrets from it he wasn't actively mistreated. Maybe a bit neglected and left to his own devices.

Dolores grew up with many siblings in a relatively poor environment. She was a bit of a problematic kid at times, but nothing too major, she just didn't feel too comfortable in the system and path that was drawn for her. Nevertheless, she mostly kept to it... At least, until her late adolescence (quite young for Azras), and the sparking incident that'd mark her whole childhood as "terrible" as far as I'm concerned.

Zarunpel grew up the youngest of the seven Alernis sisters. Her parents were very loving but not very bright. Her sisters helped raise her quite a bit, and figuring out her "blessing". She did have pressure fitting the mold of who she was "meant" to be, which never sat too right with her. She was always a rowdy child, a bit spoiled, and her childhood was pretty good, all things considered.

Vaalin's childhood was pretty bad, all things considered. Even shielded from most of it within Tolaria's sovereignty, he still caught quite a bit of flak as a half-merfolk within the larger, caste-driven Vodalian Empire. He got a great education, but it was mostly lonely, him and his mother, with the tolarian professors having limited time to dedicate to the kid.