Post by suitjackal on Apr 12, 2022 21:42:00 GMT
Don't have a better/longer set name currently, but the idea behind the set and setting is both kind of a callback to the shards of Alara, a reintroduction of the Eldrazi as a threat, and some love for 4 color commanders. It's mostly commander focused, but would love if the cards within didn't totally break other formats too lol.
The pseudo-planes and their "main" commanders are based on a 4 color identity, but more precisely on one "major" color pair and one "minor" color pair. For example, the redless Vestige has a "major" identity of and a "minor" identity of and the commander is Mwasaa, Sickening Seer.
Each Vestige also has a major real-world cultural and naming-convention inspiration, like Mwasaa's Vestige is called Kaburi, which is Swahili for "grave", and as much of the art, naming, setting, etc. as possible is going to be inspired by Central/East Africa.
The other Vestiges are as follows:
- Shosuo, , Chinese inspiration and Mandarin naming
- Abdruk, , Germanic inspiration and German naming
- Yashad, , Arabian inspiration and Hebrew naming
- Neshny, , Slavic inspiration and Russian naming
Neshny is the first Vestige to have fallen to the Eldrazi, in part because they don't have the unity and order of mana and identity, and in part because the most powerful warlord among them, Liyev, Fervent Fighter, accepted Conscription as a way to increase his own power, not having a full awareness of the control over him it would allow the Eldrazi.
I'm hoping to use this to tie back together some weird plot-holes in the Eldrazi storytelling - the fact that Emrakul was imprisoned in the moon seemingly of her own volition, the fact that Kozilek and Ulamog were "destroyed" even though that shouldn't really be possible as Titans. The thought is that Emrakul sees the defeat of the Eldrazi hordes and the lack of success on the part of her Titans, imprisons herself to come up with a better plan, and advises Kozilek and Ulamog to use a false destruction as an excuse to regroup.
Kozilek and Ulamog then work within the blind eternities with the will of Emrakul and pinpoint the plane which would come to be the Vestiges as a place ripe with mana and a perfect staging ground for their next act.
Kozilek and Ulamog, inferior to Emrakul, seek to become more perfect partners to and partners for her, and merge into Vyvoddaket, Final Iteration to lead the Eldrazi "Endbrood" to process and consume all of the mana of the Vestiges, broken apart to make conquering them easier, then use that power to free Emrakul and defeat the other planes and planeswalkers of the Multiverse.
The breaking of the Vestigial plane takes place several hundred years before the story of the set, long out of the memories of almost all of the residents therein, though the basic knowledge of the event/of other Vestiges is known. The actual full-scale invasion of the Endbrood began very recently, however.
I've made about 70 cards so far, many of them commanders, lands, and Vestige-specific artifacts like mana-rocks. If you have any ideas, critiques, or if the worldbuilding or lore extension doesn't make any sense, please let me know. I'm looking for any and all input!