Favorite Lore (Just because!)
Lore forum
Posted on Feb. 24, 2022, 3:32 p.m. by Niko9
Hey everyone, Hope you all are having a great day and enjoying some mtg games or epic deck pondering : )
So, just as a quick thought for today, I wondered what everyone's favorite set as far as lore was/is? Do you enjoy the big dramatic monsters vs heroes, the cunning Bolas and Niv make a master plan, Urza flipping his good/badness, or just whatever.
Not a biggie, but I thought it might be a fun talk-about today : )
Ixalan was really great. It was a fun and imaginative world that also gave us a lot of character to go with it. A lot of the time I feel like they get one or the other right, but it's rare for both.
One of my favs is still the weatherlight saga. Can't help it, I just get into rag-tag groups of comrades, and Stronghold was right around when I got into magic and I remember the starter decks with the tiny story book that came with them. It was really engaging when I was a kid, for sure.
February 24, 2022 5:28 p.m.
There's a lot of fun chunks of lore I enjoy, but a favorite moment is actually fairly recent from War of the Spark. The moment when, as Bolas attempts the plan he's been planning for years, that will cause countless amounts of destruction and unheard of loss of life, in the midst of battle across a city the size of a plane...
...Nahiri and Sorin try their best to murder each other.
February 24, 2022 6:13 p.m.
I have a whole bunch of favorite moments but if I had to narrow it down to just a few... I'd say that the moment Liliana turned on Bolas in War of the Spark, when Phyrexians attacked Tolaria College and killed Jhoira (amongst others) forcing Urza to send Karn back in time in the Timestreams novel and the arrival and departure of The Wanderer in Neon Dynasty as some of the best ones.
Magic lore is so great. I really dislike reading it on the website, though. I wish they'd go back to printing novels. :(
February 24, 2022 6:48 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #6
I enjoy how Sarkhan and Narset are technically ageless, because they reset the timeline on Tarkir. They existed as mortals, and then when the timeline was reset they consequently existed outside of it. Now they existed "before time", thereby making them ageless.
There is then the implication that Tarkir has had their timeline reset previously, so that may be a reoccuring theme with no telling just how often it has been done.
As for snippets of lore, I think it's kind of cool that the established way that any Planeswalker, well, planeswalks is a pale yellow light envelops them and they vanish. Then, at the same time, a pale yellow light erupts elsewhere as they emerge... except for Angrath. Angrath is enveloped in the middle of a fiery explosion that sunders his immediate surroundings, both upon leaving and traversing into the next world.
I also love how Ob Nixilis' spark didn't ignite because of any tragedy that befell him, but because of the realization that he had literally murdered every last living thing on his home world and therefore had no longer a purpose. He killed so much, that he ran out of things to kill, and that's what ignited his spark.
As for the stories, I generally do not have the time anymore to sit down and read them, so unfortunately I can't really speak on any of those newer ones. Overall though, I feel as if I am not missing much. Many seem to be quite short, and poorly written with multiple authors per work. Unless that changed recently, but that was seriously off-putting to me.
February 25, 2022 3:45 a.m.
TypicalTimmy That Ob Nixilis story sounds like a lot of fun in an evil kinda way : ) I hadn't heard of that before and it's a pretty interesting twist.
As for newer stories, I do like that they've made more of an effort in Kami than they have been, really glad, but the finished writing was a mixed bag at best. After reading the Neon Dynasty story, I was definitely left feeling like, there were so many cool ideas here, but it was presented in a way that was just serviceable. I don't mean to say that it was bad, it wasn't, for sure. And it might totally just be me, but I'd honestly rather have a story that was structurally worse but felt more alive. Give me a really good fanfic any day : ) The prose was done well in Kami Neon, and I don't think anyone can complain about the points-plots, but I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the stories to come out, and then I read it. There wasn't one time that I smiled or laughed or teared up a little, or anything really, and in a story about ninjas, foxes, spirits, childhood love, origami technology, and everything, that's kind of rough. Honestly, I was ready to love it from the get go, but it read like a really whacky history text book.
February 25, 2022 8:31 a.m.
Lore wise I always loved the story about Feldon of the Third Path.
February 25, 2022 11:18 a.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #9
Niko9, Nixilis obtained The Chain Veil through a pact with one or more Demons, wanting everlasting war and power. It was gifted to him and, much like how the super soldier serum amplifies not just the physical characteristics, but the mental and emotional as well, so too does TCV. It drove him absolutely mad, and his new passion for death caused an endless rampage across his world where he lead armies of demons as their General. This was Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath. After this, he had fulfilled his end of the bargain, and as the sole survivor of his world he found no purpose. TCV had corrupted him fully, and the stress of having nothing left to murder ignited his spark.
When on Zendikar, the magics of that world corrupted his form and destroyed his spark, turning him into Ob Nixilis, Unshackled. He vowed to murder every last thing on Zendikar until his spark reignited, which to date appears to have been the only Planeswalker to successfully ignite, lose and reignite their own spark.
Karn doesn't count in this context because he was gifted I think a total of three? Urza's, Venser and the Goblin Planeswalker for a day - Slobad.
February 25, 2022 11:51 a.m.
I'm going to add another little lore bit. The Love Song of Night and Day, as featured on several Mirage cards, is actually very well-written.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/love-song-night-and-day-2003-04-14
February 25, 2022 4:20 p.m.
Not sure, they haven't had much depth of lore that I've enjoyed. I thought they may do a whole new Weatherlight arc here.. which I would have enjoyed. I always like weird micro-views at the BIG picture... Which are not the types of stories they tend to write. A good illustration of this would be if you've ever read "Marvels" where the story is told from the point-of-view of some little-guy joe-schmoe cameraman & the novel is illustrated that way as well - it is so awesome. I would love to see a series written from the point-of-view of the hapless fellow in Curse of Opulence. I feel that most MtG villains are too mustache-twirly for my liking.
February 25, 2022 11:05 p.m.
Also, could we get a mercenary planeswalker that thrives on upsetting the balance of power on planes, literally establishing new orders for underdogs. This could be helping some baddies on a angel dominated plane one week; then, helping clerics on a demon-dominated plane the next week. Just influencing the history of planes & giving some proper footing to underdogs with morality aside.
February 25, 2022 11:11 p.m.
Gleeock That kind of RW planeswalker would be great. It reminds me of the old DnD stories where chaotic good characters were sometimes the worst villains. If you have no idea what they are going to do and if they decide what is good and bad, they're the worst : ) At least chaotic neutral characters have the good manners to not care about anything.
And I do agree that the villains in general are a little too stereotyped. I did always really enjoy Oona as a baddie though. Her motivation was so weird that it was always intersting.
February 26, 2022 8:41 a.m.
Anyone else read the side story for Arni Brokenbrow from Kaldheim? That was definitely one of my favorite ones recently.
February 26, 2022 9:17 a.m.
Arni Brokenbrow was pretty good. I like those stories with the viewpoint from a local, everything a character is doing isn't always so big & momentous. I liked Slimefoot, the Stowaway's mini-story on Dominaria, it was great to follow the fungi as he gained sentience on the Weatherlight.
February 26, 2022 10:02 a.m.
Niko9 I think it would lead to fun stories to have that type of RW walker. He/she could be very martial, with some of that Gideon ability to make mortals into efficient fighters & make them able to fight for themselves. At the same time he/she could be like the ultimate deadbeat parent (though Sorin has a share in that market). He/she could care for whatever cause of the moment, but the nature means that cause would suffer 'flavor of the week' syndrome & the walker would start all these upsetting event's but never stick around to see them through. You could have fun lore snippets, like this walker's insignia being stamped on some old military equipment on a plane & this could cause some fun social reactions from new-guard planeswalkers. In some ways Tibalt does this stuff to a certain extent, but for very different reasons as Tibalt upsets the balance on planes for the purpose of evil & chaos. Tibalt also has a lore I am starting to like. To me it makes sense that a good amount of walkers would have major issues with being "flighty". Just think about how much power to influence planes, agelessness, & ability to travel to greener pastures without consequence they possess. I would think a majority of them could empathize with the vampire conundrum. They would have a hard time changing & keeping up with the changes in mortals. This is why I was hoping for the story of Karn & the Phyrexians to be different. I was hoping that over a long span of time cultural changes would occur with the Phyrexians, but the unchanging Karn would come to them with a bomb & Karn would actually be the big baddie.
February 26, 2022 10:22 a.m.
That kind of flip with Karn and the Phyrexians would be really neat to see. I really like changes like that that keep you guessing when you read a new story.
One thing that I'd enjoy with planeswalker stories is if they expanded it to include different characters. Specifically, not too-cool characters. I mean, do they all need cool powers and tragic backstories and everything? Can't we just have a planeswalking phelddagrif who is searching for their true hippo love. Or maybe Obeka shows up and everyone has to distract her until she leaves, all to preserve their timeline. I don't know, just something that's fun for the sake of fun. I'd love to see that.
February 26, 2022 12:41 p.m.
Niko9 Exactly. Or at least organic character evolution? Not everything has to be momentous, or at least start that way. I like the idea of my guy or gal starting off a court-jester for a chunk of story for example.
I really like the idea of following a Chef throughout the planes on culinary adventures, like this dude is looking for a mystical pepper & maybe you intersect with & affect some big momentous story but it is all told from the point of view of the pepper-seeker.
Also, Angrath should hook up with a crew of Eternals (now with free-will intact) and plunder the cosmos with the new Predator Flagship :) Dread-pirate Angrath & his skeleton crew (who we've already established are capable of interplanar travel).
February 26, 2022 1:14 p.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #19
The problem with me and lore is I look at a set's story and, being an armchair storyteller, would pick it apart. Even War of the Spark, My favorite set, doesn't escape it.
With that said there are two stories that really stood out for me over the years. "Sacrifice" is the story with the Gitrog Monster. The other, whose name escapes me, is about a young Akroan prince who enters a wrestling tournament and faces off against his brother.
February 26, 2022 7:07 p.m.
Gleeock a planeswalking pirate ship would be absolutely amazing. If they don't write this, we might just have to do it : )
Seriously though, it would be really fun to have the weatherlight and the predator as planeswalking ships. Such an awesome idea!
legendofa says... #2
Useless Island was my favorite but of lore recently, so I guess Ixalan. It's the last storyline that really drew me in, and watching Jace trying to move forward with life without just psychic-ing everything until it does what he wants was refreshing. Good development, although I'm not sure it lasted.
For a set/block as a whole, I'm not going to turn down a chance to plug Alara.
February 24, 2022 3:41 p.m.