For those of you who have been here before you now how this goes. For those who don't:
Each round I will post a challenge. The challenge could be a race, a class, or a concept. ANyone who want may submit a planes walker that fits the challenge. The following round, while the next challenge is ongoing, we will vote for the previous challenge. The winner for each challenge will be added to the Hall of Fame.
The deadline starts at a week from the begining of the challenge. As interest wanes the deadline can be moved up, but always with 24 hours notice at least. This is to keep momentum and interest.
There can be only one entry per person per week. If you change your mind later, remove your old walker and add your new one (or just edit the post so that the new walker is there).
You are free, for now, to build off of M:EM work. However this privilage can be revoked if material is winning votes simply because of the M:EM. Nothing here is added into M:EM, unless you meet the requirements for entry over there and make the submission. This includes anything based off of M:EM material. If you don't know about the M:EM, check the link!
And so we begin a new.
Round 1: Out of the Mouths of Babes- Children Round 2: Take the Bull by the Horns- Minotaurs Round 3: Feme Fatales- Female Villans Round 4: What Measure is a Monster- Non-Humanoids Round 5: We Were Gods Once- Old Walkers Round 6: Double Trouble- Teams Round 7: By your Powers Combined- Elementalists Round 8: Big Damn Heroes- Non White Heroes Round 9: instant Classic- Traditional Fantasy Races
Yeeees, so glad this is back again. We usually get a handful of really solid characters/planes/whatever when we run these contests, so I'm excited to see what people do...
Maybe work (and my latest hideous illness) will ease up and I can participate in this round. Fingers crossed.
A girl on her way to womanhood, Lourima is not what most people would expect from an experienced Planeswalker and decently powerful mage aside. She's of average height, and if she continues to grow will be a somewhat tall woman. Customarily her skin is tanned and weathered, her lips pale and chapped, red-orange hair in gritty disarray, grey eyes heavy with pain and rage that should not burden one so young -- She might be pretty if she took care of herself and smiled more, but she's more than likely to look the part of a haggared urchin Lourima has one other notable feature, though it is unlikely to be seen: Her back is marked by several long scars that must have been from deep wounds -- children, after all, do not scar easily. What little remains after the interveening years looks bad enough to make one shudder. How many more scars have faded away, and how many wounds didn't scar?
Lourima grew up, until her spark flared, on a backwater plane: a place of no great importance, whose name she cannot remember (or at least will not admit to remembering). It's clear she had an unhappy childhood in some rural place, though she is quite tight-lipped about the exact details before her ascension.
"When I left home for the last time, It was the sound of screams and shouts I put to my back. My mother begged me to come back, while my father roared that if I didn't that instant, I had better not ever. What can I say? I ran. I ran so far, blindly, not looking ahead of myself because I did not care, not looking back because I was too scared to see what might be there. I ran blindly until I tripped and fell, fell into what I've heard called the Blind Eternities. I screamed and I cried, but no one and nothing could hear me, until finally I reached a far away place.
I was eight years old."
Lourima is now 14. For the last six years she has traveled the planes, never stopping in any place for long, keeping to the roads and the byways, or else the blind eternities that ever beckon.
"Humans are disgusting creatures. If this is not so, then tell me why a father may bring pain and sorrow to his children. Tell me why priests steal from those who praise their gods and make the flock feel hope even as all they really do is take it away. Tell me why men would murder the helpless for the coins in their pockets. Tell me why leaders would war with one another and sacrifice lives for their own vanity and arrogance. Men speak of honor, but on the whole they have none at all.
And it is not just humans. Do you think elves are less corrupt, hiding in their forests? They are more arrogant yet, by in large. Not goblins, not vedalken, not even angels can you trust. Every world is cruel and wicked, and the only way to live in such a world is to be as cold and as cruel as it is. You must take what you need, take what you want, and hang on to it so no one else can take it from you. Power is the only law of the Multiverse."
Lourima believes two basic precepts. First is that humans (and other sapients) are, in a general sense, beyond any hope of redemption. She trusts no one, nor does she want to. People are guilty until proven innocent in Lourima's mind, and it is an extraordinary claim that requres, then, extraordinary evidence. It would take quite an act (or series of acts) from anyone to make Lourima believe a person above humanity's 'inherant evil'.
Second is that might makes right, even if it is wrong for it to do so. In essence a warped concept of meritocracy, only power and the willingness to sieze it matter to Lourima. With power comes no responsibility, and in fact nearly an imperitave to abuse that power for all that it's worth. Like many young people, Lourima has yet to learn that just because you can doesn't mean you should, and given her personal power and her take on life, it's something she may never learn.
As a result of this, Lourima is utterly ruthless. She sees nothing wrong about hurting or killing to get what she wants, and will often take the violent approach as her first resort if she thinks it will get her what she wants.
Lourima is a weilder of black magic, first and foremost. She has a lot of raw strength, but despite getting an early start on magecraft, the self-taught planeswalker has absolutley no finesse or technique. Simply throwing mana at the problem is usually enough to get her through whatever she needs to use magic on, and her obsession with grasping for further power leaves her blind to more efficent applications of force. She is many things, but particularly cunning is not one of them. Additionally, Lourima often fails to think ahead, and is liable to burn herself out if she underestimates her foe (In game terms, she'd use a lot of fast mana and 'X' Spells). Lourima is capable of summoning -- whether the creatures she manifests are really her defeated and enslaved foes past, or simply her dreams thereof, it's unnerving to see broken hopelessness in the eyes of a vampire as a child commands it.
Building a deck to represent Lourima would start with a backbone of Dark Ritual and a smattering of black X-spells like Drain Life and Death Wind for various purposes. She should probably also include Culling the Weak , Enslave , and Heartless Summoning . Lourima is about brute force and domination, and would play to classic black tactics of paying long term resources for short term gains.
Lourima Viiran Planeswalker - Lourima As an additional cost to cast Lourima, sacrifice X creatures and pay X life. [+2]: Destroy target nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated. You lose life equal to that creature's toughness. [-7]: Gain control of all permanents (This effect lasts indefinatley) [X]
EDIT: Some small edits have been made to Lourima's voice in "Philosophy & Psychology" EDIT 5/11: Another edit made
"Enjoy your screams, Sarpadia - they will soon be muffled beneath snow and ice." THE COALITION WAR GAME -Phyrexian Praetor Round 1: (4-1-2, 1 kill) Round 2: (16-8-2, 4 kills) Round 3: (18-9-2, 1 kill) Round 4: (22-10-0, 2 kills) Round 5: (56-16-3, 9 kills) Round 6: (8-7-1) [current round]
Jedi, not that I don't support this and all, but you think maybe you should have shot a message my way before you set this up?
I mean come on, I'm the one that started this back in the day, I would have liked to have known it was coming. Particularly given the M:EM is probably going to be bound up in this in at least parts.
Concidering I'm reletively new to these forums, what do you want to see out of these contest? Do you want backstory? Abilities? Both? I'm just asking because this seems like something I'll be a part of very often. Hopefully one day I'll get my lovely werewolves/wolfir or avens in. >.>
You can go as in depth or not as you want. Usual entries have an ascension story and/or a blurb like from the website. Many will also include cards.
Jedi, not that I don't support this and all, but you think maybe you should have shot a message my way before you set this up?
I mean come on, I'm the one that started this back in the day, I would have liked to have known it was coming. Particularly given the M:EM is probably going to be bound up in this in at least parts.
Honestly I was inspired by Yanmoto's post in the planeswalker you want thread and just did it. Spur of the moment no thinking. One of my red moments. Sorry. But honestly given your reaction to the last 2 attempts I wouldn't think you would want to run it again.
M:EM has no obligation at this point. Especially given the decree of stories needed for characters to join. Moving anything to the M:EM still requires the normal means. Unless we want to open something up, but I am not going to obligate the M:EM. Them being added or used will be a per entry case.
Also this is an attempt to get me focused on Magic again (been looking at DnD and league of Legends recently) and finally fulfilling some of my story obligations now that I have time.
I am sorry if I offended you barinellos, it was me being reckless.
Honestly I was inspired by Yanmoto's post in the planeswalker you want thread and just did it. Spur of the moment no thinking. One of my red moments. Sorry. But honestly given your reaction to the last 2 attempts I wouldn't think you would want to run it again.
M:EM has no obligation at this point. Especially given the decree of stories needed for characters to join. Moving anything to the M:EM still requires the normal means. Unless we want to open something up, but I am not going to obligate the M:EM. Them being added or used will be a per entry case.
Also this is an attempt to get me focused on Magic again (been looking at DnD and league of Legends recently) and finally fulfilling some of my story obligations now that I have time.
I am sorry if I offended you barinellos, it was me being reckless.
See, that's part of it though, some people might try to build off of M:EM material and I want to make sure that the flow of ideas doesn't get muddled. Like I said, I'm not discouraging this, I just... want to make sure things are clear all around. If anybody uses M:EM materials, it will be strictly a one way thing. Of course, that doesn't prevent anybody from trying to get their stuff plugged into the group either.
See, that's part of it though, some people might try to build off of M:EM material and I want to make sure that the flow of ideas doesn't get muddled. Like I said, I'm not discouraging this, I just... want to make sure things are clear all around. If anybody uses M:EM materials, it will be strictly a one way thing. Of course, that doesn't prevent anybody from trying to get their stuff plugged into the group either.
I think we are in aggreeance. We can build from the M:EM (adding a link here shortly. But nothing here is cannon until added later. Although i may disallow M:EM if we have the old plane creation crossover problem.
After the twin aspects of Lorwyn merged after so many centuries under Oona's machinations, the initial changes were jarring for every race, but the kithkin were almost entirely unscathed next to what the other races were made to face. Even though the two kithkin societies were very different in some ways, the thoughtweft connected them in a way that let them understand one another as old friends in a world suddenly filled with unusual strangers. Their societies became almost totally homogenous within years.
This only helped to make young Reana feel even more an outcast than she would have otherwise.
Reana was born with the Spark, and even as it lay totally dormant it made its mark on her soul. She was tethered to the Blind Eternities, however subtly, and couldn't connect to the world around her deeply enough to feel the thoughtweft; since the day of her birth, Reana felt no connection to the thoughtweft whatsoever. Even kith infants can instinctively tap into the more basic emotional currents of their families, but Reana was as silent to her parents as a stone, and they to her. Their cenn assured them her mind would open up within the first two years of her life, but it never did. As she grew up, her village treated her as a stranger, some openly distrusting her, and until she was twelve years old she had no idea why. No one dared to reveal the thoughtweft to her, for fear of harming her.
Feeling disconnected from her own people, Reana spent more and more time in the forests of Wren's Run as she got older, wandering alone through the trees. She would often speak to the trees around her for company, and on occasion, they would whisper back. From the treefolk and lesser elementals of the woods she learned several simple spells, and eventually graduated to more and more complex magic. For the most part she taught herself with only subtle guidance from the forest. She was naturally gifted as a nature mage and by her eleventh birthday she was an accomplished floromancer, though she wouldn't have known how impressive her skills were, not having shared her hobbies with any of her friends or family.
The fact that she was almost never in town didn't help her peers feel less distant frm her. But the rest of her village, even her own parents, didn't mind that she was absent for so long at a time; it made their own deception easier. They had needed to go to more and more outlandish lengths to hide the truth from her as she got older, but by keeping her far from the village they were able to avoid any unpleasant questions. It would take an irritated and cruel-hearted child as young as herself to show her what had been kept from her for so long.
For most kithkin, romance is a much less elaborate, yet more subtle ritual than for for humans. The thoughtweft makes feelings of affection almost impossible to hide, and because of this it's generally the responsibility of the object of the suitor's affections to approach the suitor themselves. Reana may have known this rule, but without understanding the meaning behind it it seemed absurd. So when she approached her friend and schoolmate Teysa with her feelings, she did not expect the reaction she recieved.
For Teysa, an ordinary kithkin connected to the thoughtweft, Reana was already disconcerting. She was unpredictable and often did strange or suprising things, and even being around her was disquieting. She walked and talked like a kithkin but her mind was eerily silent, and Teysa wasn't the only one who couldn't get used to it. So when this strange mindmute girl approached her without warning or preamble spouting confessions of infatiation, it wasn't just a breach of social mores. She was more than startled, and she reacted strongly. She was naturally a cold girl, and her frustration manifested itself as cold, hard malice. She berated Reana for her foolishness, calling her stupid and unlovable, and went on to call her a freak, not for falling in love with another girl but for her total deafness to something "even babies know how to hear."
The moment Reana's expression of hurt and distress gave way to sudden confusion, Teysa recognized what she had done. Before she could take it back, Reana was already pelting her with questions. As sharp as her tongue was, Teysa wasn't quick-witted, and she confessed everything, albeit with vagueries and unsatisfying words Reana didn't understand.
She burst through the door of her family's hut, tears in her eyes, demanding to know what a "thoughtweft" was, and her parent's hearts broke. The game was up. They spent the next hour explaining everything to their daughter. When she finally had no more questions, she squirmed out of her parents' grasp and left, headed back toward the woods and ingnoring their calls. They didn't notice the grass and flowers that wilted and died in her wake.
For hours she communed with the forest, desperate for some familiar source of comfort. The forest was more than happy to offer it, and for the first time the trees around her reached out on their own, lifting her into their boughs and cradling her while she wept. Eventually night came and rather than returning home, she slept in the trees.
In her dreams they spoke to her. They reminded her that she was an outsider among her people. She was different. And they had lied to her for her entire life. Her parents didn't care about her enough to tell her the truth. Teysa obviously hated her. There was no one in the village that was there for her. But the forest was there for her. It always had been. The forest taught listened to her and cared for her and taught her amazing magic. The forest loved her even when her own kind never would.
It will never be clear why the treefolk from Shadowmoor continued to feel such malice toward everything around them, let alone why this particular group of treefolk had devoted so much energy toward playing with poor Reana's mind. But they did so remarkably well. By morning the entire village had been engulfed by the forest, in vengeance for taking away Reana's childhood.
She left Lorwyn altogether shortly thereafter.
Now Reana wanders the multiverse looking for other planes where kithkin dwell, on a genocidal quest conceived by her adoptive family. It's likely she has no idea the thoughtweft is unique to Lorwyn, that the kithkin she already slaughtered on Dominaria, Moag, and Oupora were really just like her. It's possible she doesn't care. But what those who cross her often don't realize is that for all her destructive power and all the passion in her hatred, she's just a little girl. She's the emotional puppet of the treefolk in Wren's Run. When she's older, she may realize what she's done, and what's been done to her. Or she may die on her bloody crusade. Ultimately it will likely depend on whether anyone can get close to her, whether anyone can show her love.
Reana, the Crushing Ivy +2: Untap target forest. +1: Put a 0/1 green saproling creature token onto the battlefield. -7: Choose any number of target noncreature nonland permanents and destroy them all. -7: Choose any number of target tapped creatures and destroy them all. Loyalty: 2
"The truth resists simplicity." Some memorable quotesShow
I know, as a good liberal scholar, that I'm supposed to respect every other belief and culture and what have you that comes along but... at the end of the day, when all is said and done, some things are just plain wrong.
Venser "Ah, Hello Myr. This is the King. Long Time no see. We thought today would be a good day for rolling. The Myr Battlesphere. The Myr. Where the first rolls and the second follows. Roll, roll, roll. For that purpose we went to the bother, the bother of fixing up Mirrodin. The King of the Multiverse going to the bother just for rolling a Myr Battlephere, just for that, we went to the bother."
Heard a joke once: Mare goes to doctor. Says she's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says she feels all alone in a threatening world where even ponies you thought were your friends can't be trusted. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Go to one of Pinkie Pie's great parties tonight. Party hard. That should pick you up." Mare bursts into tears. Says "But, doctor...I am Pinkie Pie." Good joke. Everypony laughs. Roll on snare drum. Curtains. Fade to black.
Sure, "the average person" might go see Transformers 3 if s/he wants a good story, but that doesn't stop people from making decent movies. Hell, they even managed to make Batman into a respectable movie. "The average" person might like American Idol or Jersey Shore, but people still made The Wire.
I think the people who would sit down and listen to a minstrel reciting Homer, or thought that novels were art, or read poetry were always a minority. It's a common viewpoint that art was better in the past because everyone's forgotten the bad stuff, while we haven't had time to forget the awful stuff that is current.
For almost all Magic fans, the "story" of Ravnica, for example, is that it's a city world with ten guilds -- yes, for most, that's a "story." All but a tiny fraction of the fan base are entirely unaware of an elaborate plot perpetrated by Augustin IV to trick Agrus Kos and Szadek into breaking the Guildpact, thereby enabling the Azorius to take control. Likewise, the vast majority of Magic players don't know who Harbin is, or Nivea, or Al-Hayat, or Feather, or Jared Carthalion, or Rebbec, or Zagorka ... the list goes on and on.
I'm pulling this out of nowhere and it has nothing like fact attached to it, but it cannot be disproven without breaking the fourth wall, and this is going to be my headcanon because it makes perfect sense.
I posit [Tamiyo, the Moon Sage] writes the Planeswalker's Guides to planes.
Barinellos, chill, man, don't worry about it. We've always figured things out in the past in our haphazard way, we'll always figure it out in the future. I mean, I know this is sort of your thing and all, but look! New characters!
