Zendikar Rising Lore and Story

Couver
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Post by Couver » 3 years ago

Wasn't Iona another angel that didn't wear the halo around her head? Although she was one of the greater archangels of Zendikar so perhaps that is why?

Speaking of Iona what is the consensus on her being alive or dead? I expected her to get an updated card but with no card and the flavor text on Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave I feel like she didn't survive the Eldraiz onslaught. Although there is Archpriest of Iona so at least she still has believers.

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5colorsrainbow
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Post by 5colorsrainbow » 3 years ago

Last story for Zendikar 3:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-09-30

-Jace sealing was a bit of a coup out, though to repeat thing if we gotten more stories would have been a decent way to end a story on a cliff hanger while Nahiri and Nissa fought and freed once Nissa freed the core.

-I do wanna see a proper finish to Sorin vs Nahiri.

-Hey Nahiri how do you like not being able to move as a magic tech orb is taken from you? Not fun is it?

-So it final Nissa is out of the gatewatch fully. While she might rejoin it seems Amonkhet, War of the Spark, the Chandra break up and Gideons death has killed the "blue" side of Nissa who was willing and wanting to learn more about other people and place.

-Oh wait no Jace trying to take over her mind in the final straw.

-The kor core (lol) being powered by a spark of Zendikars soul is very symbolic and I like. Might also explain how it was working, by sucking up more of the world soul which was what was leading to the blight and resulting "tame-ness".

-I do like the black-side of Nissa being her believing in her self more. While I'm annoyed she keeps being used to fill in color balances Im for more positive black aspects shown.

-So they do have a story reason why Zendikar is recovering so fast, as it looks like Nissa returning the piece of world soul renewed the whole plane to the point Bala Ged is regrowing.

-Not sure I like the "lesson" here. While all this could have been solved by everyone listening to each other, no one made any effort to do so besides Nissa listening to the core.

-That said I do like the themed of guilt we saw with the walkers and it ending with how broken people can still be redeemed.

Overall: My biggest critique is I think we could have had another 3-5 stories to flesh thing out more. A lot of moments felt rushed and fasted paced when I think they could have been slown down. The writing itself was decent, not the best we seen, but I didn't dislike it and wouldn't mind if they had the author return. I do give a nod to Greenblatt able to not only novelize the trailer but make it work with her own themes and characters, something that you only can see in this kind of multimedia franchise.

Character: Fine for the most part with Nahiri being the best written. I do like they push all into Nahiri being an old walker like of villain and I think the adding in of the Kor empire helped flesh her out and gives her a bit more to her past actions as being an old walker and a for from that time period instilling in her a "actions justify the means for (my version) of the greater good".


Future (semi-boarderline) speculation
Its been brought up but we might be getting a anti-gatewatch, each of the last few sets has left us with a walker with a grudge to a main character:

Eldraine had Oko with a life debt to Rowan and on Garruks %$#% list

Theros had bot Calix hunting down Elspeth (and Ashiok going off to phyrexia but that feels more for that storyline)

Ikoria had Vivien going to hunt Lukka to make sure he not up to anything bad and the unknow walker*

and now Zendikar 3 with both Nahiri and Nissa not trusting Jace and Nahiri has a long tentacle-sized history of not handling grudges well.

To me Nissa breaking away hasn't been too much of a shock. Ive been noticing she has been slowly phased out of the marketing and replaced with Vivien and Garruk taking up the green slot of stuff. From what we know of the gatewatch history Gideon, Jace, Chandra and Liliana where the most popular walkers in in mono color (who was alive) with Nissa being picked as at the time she was the only green walker and was related to the eldrazi storyline. And since then I don't think she had reached the popularity they liked for a face of the game outside of her and Chandra possibly getting together and now thats all a mess. Just like I'm guessing they picked to bring back Elspeth around Gideon dying to replace him as a face, I got the feeling Ikoria and Eldraine did a similar thing to Vivien (who now is acting more inline with the gatewatch by using her planeswalker-ness to help) and Garruk (now cured, has the twins ground his humanity and Liliana believed dead, no major conflict wit the gatewatch). I don't think thy gonna write off Issa but I think she gonna go back to being a supporting character who we see on Zendikar and/or if we get to another plane with a land theme. I also guessing Oko is the one who was messing around on Ikoira and I think he was on Ravnica for War of the Spark so that might end with a conflict with the gatewach and/or plus Vivien and Garruk.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"

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JWK
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Post by JWK » 3 years ago

I found the story... well, not exactly bad, but kind of underwhelming. Jace should be smart enough by now, especially after learning how much his own mind was messed with, to realize that using his mental powers on a supposed friend/ally is a) a really crappy thing to do and b) damaging to any sense of trust or connection with that person.

Did we ever get an explanation for the rising of the Skyclaves?
I have 68 active EDH decks, with more in progress. I don't consider this a problem. Do you?
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5colorsrainbow
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Post by 5colorsrainbow » 3 years ago

JWK wrote:
3 years ago
Did we ever get an explanation for the rising of the Skyclaves?
There was a mini-article on Zendikar is doing now I forgot to post :c sorry!

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-09-01
When Iona descended from Emeria to battle the Eldrazi, she left the Sky Ruin (Emeria) unguarded. In the wake of the Eldrazi's fall, an expedition of adventurers ascended through the ruins and discovered the remnants of the Skyclave, which the merfolk had once claimed was the castle of their goddess. In the course of their exploration, they triggered the magical defenses of the ancient Skyclave—and awakened the other six.

Whatever their state of ruin and disrepair, all seven Skyclaves rose back up into the air and opened. Above every continent, people looked to the sky and saw shattered fragments of cyclopean ruins drifting slowly among the clouds.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"

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JWK
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Post by JWK » 3 years ago

Ah, right. I now remember reading that. Thank you!

So, the big, dramatic event was the result of an "oops" by a bunch of adventurers. Can't get much more DnD than that. I guess Zendikar should be happy they didn't release some long-imprisoned demon lord intent on laying waste to all the realms or some such hoary DnD trope.
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onering
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Post by onering » 3 years ago

Krishnath wrote:
3 years ago
Mapccu wrote:
3 years ago
It could be a simple as distributing a list for each plane, race/Subrace, geographic locations on the plane, etc to carry this stuff forward. I would be shocked if they have a master angel file that describes what they are, and how they differ from plane to plane. Even a word file would suffice.
Well, we do know a little when it comes to angels, most of the Angels in Dominaria for example are associated with the Church of Serra, and pop into existence by unknown means, but we do know they are mana constructs, living beings comprised of pure mana.

On Innistrad, the Angels are similar, but were originally created by Sorin Markov to act as shepherds for the humans so they weren't rendered extinct from predation by Vampires and other high level predators on the plane. Only one of the archangels are left now however.

It is likely the same for other planes, Angels (and Demons) are manifestations of the local mana, condensing into living creatures. It is possible, however, that the angels of Zendikar were either created by, or enslaved by, the Kor Empire.
Sorin didn't create Innistrad's angels, only Avacyn. Edgar Markov created vampires with a spell that used angel's blood, they predate vampires.

onering
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Post by onering » 3 years ago

So, I liked this set of stories. A bit short, not quite fleshed out enough, but about where magic stories should be. I feel like this could have made for a really solid magic novel, but alas.

Characters were well developed, especially Nissa who had been poorly written almost every time she's shown up to this point finally getting a decent treatment. The action was competently written and occasionally creative, the singing city was cool if underexplored, though a lot of Zendikar is hinged on the mystery of why these horrible ruins exist and its nice to see some of that still exists post Eldrazi. I also like that this story didn't have any villains, Nissa and Nahiri were both fighting to save Zendikar, just different versions of Zendikar, and both visions required massive sacrifice to achieve.

Where I felt the story was weak was that it went out of its way to show how Nahiri's actions would require sacrifice and to make her look unreasonable, while not exploring how Nissa and Zareth's vision for Zendikar ALSO required sacrifice and suffering for its inhabitants. Nahiri ending the Roil would probably kill off the elementals and do some short term damage, but would return the plane to its natural state and allow civilization to flourish again, which is good for the vast majority of humanoids. Life on Zendikar today is hard and short. A few people, the elite adventurers, like it and can become rich delving into ancient ruins, but being a regular joe on Zendikar has to SUCK. It doesn't matter how much treasure can be delved, people need to eat, and most people are going to be farming, fishing, and hunting, which is all made much harder and much more dangerous when the Roil can turn your wheat field into lava and the animals you hunt for food are super deadly. That's the world that Nissa and Zareth are trying to preserve, a world that they thrive in but which generally sucks for regular people. Its beautiful and amazing but dangerous and terrible in equal measure. Jace sees it, because he sees the average life expectancy on Zendikar being about equal to that of a Rakdos Cultist on Ravnica, and those are demon worshipping suicide cultists.

And Zareth was a total dick from start to finish. He was against Nahiri's plan before he saw the potential negative side effects because he liked being at the top of society as an elite adventurer and understood that his lifestyle would be in jeopardy if Zendikar became a peaceful and civilized world. He died because he was an asshole, the elemental was about to kill him and Akiri when Nahiri called its attention to herself to save them, and she was about to use the core to kill the elemental and save everyone when Zareth stupidly rushed her to try to kill her and take the core, getting caught in the blast. Had he succeeded, he and Akiri would have been killed by the elemental. Had Nahiri held off on the blast, the elemental would have killed all three of them. Zareth was entirely responsible for his own death, and deserving of it for being a backstabbing ass who tried to kill someone who was in the process of saving his life by risking her own. Akiri I can forgive a bit for being blinded by emotion from Zareth's death, but her actions afterwards sent Nahiri the clear signal that she was in on the betrayal and needed to be dealt with. From Nahiri's perspective, she trusted these two and was saving their lives when they tried to murder her and steal the core. What is she supposed to do in that situation? I think Akiri is a decent woman but Zareth was trash, and he put her in a bad situation.

As for the final showdown, like I said both Nissa and Nahiri were fighting for noble causes yet both were readily ignoring and dismissing the sacrifices they needed to make to achieve those causes. Nahiri's sacrifices are more apparent because she's willing to sacrifice what exists now for what once was and would be again if she succeeded, but Nissa's are just as severe and writing off a more peaceful and safe existence for Zendikar's humanoids is every bit as cold as Nahiri writing off elementals and Zendikar's wild nature as worthwhile. And Nahiri isn't trying to bring back the Kor empire, it had already long fallen when she teamed up with Sorin and Ugin to set the trap on Zendikar, it was the arrival of the Eldrazi that felled the last derelict skyclave. She had all the opportunity to restore the empire as a god empress had she wanted to as an oldwalker prior to the eldrazi and didn't take it. She was just trying to give civilization a chance. Nissa on the other hand sees something in the elementals that others don't, and while they are an alien kind of intelligence they shouldn't be blindly written off. Jace was the most reasonable here, but he screwed up because DBag Jace showed up and resorted to mind raping a friend. I used to hate Jace, but the character has come a long way. Even with the backsliding he's a decent flawed hero who at least understands that he's a screw up.

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