Reality Fracture Story, Worldbuilding and Lore

[5colorsrainbow]

A place spoiler free to talk on the Reality Fracture Story, Worldbuilding and Lore.

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Reality Fracture by Alison Lührs

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[5colorsrainbow]

Spoiler for the ending of the story, I'll remove them when the cards are fully shown but just wanted to express this.

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You where never my favorite character, but I wished you had more happiness then the hurt you got, and wished you had been smart enough to lean when to fold when you where ahead. So long sailor, may the wind and waves guide your ship to a peace until you can be returned with your family and friends for the last grand adventure. Sleep well Jace Beleren, and good bye from a vorthos who started with Alara and Lorwyn.

[Mookie]

Good stuff. I haven't really tuned in to the story of the last few sets, but I was happy to follow along with the audiobooks this time around.

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o7

Ending things are hard, and when you're dealing with a character as high-profile as Jace, it can be hard to have a worthy conclusion. Still, I think this was a satisfying end to Jace's story.

That said, I'm personally most excited that we finally have confirmation for an important bit of lore:

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Emrakul is Best Girl!

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

The Legends of Reality Fracture article has been updated, with new echoed pairs added. It will be updated as more legendaries are spoiled.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic ... ure?update

Do we really need spoiler tags? I assume anyone reading this will have already read the story.

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Absolutely fascinating what-if scenarios for Duskmourn and Innistrad:

Duskmourn is still the haunted house plane, but Marina Vendrell controls Valgavoth and presumably the entire plane and is the de facto villain.

Avacyn is still alive in Echo-Innistrad and has in fact imprisoned the other four archangels in the Helvault, an interesting nod to the fact her four "sisters" are natural angels of Innistrad, unlike Avacynn. Presumably in this timeline they disagreed with this unnatural "outsider" angel and were punished for their impertinence.

[5colorsrainbow]

I'm not a mod on here or Sally (where i still post vorthos stuff) but my general rule is if its public knowledge from a wotc employee or shown in non-leaked cards, fair game to post but with that big moment I want people to read it unspoiled if they want too for the moment. So um if you haven't read, beware!

I do like we got the fan theory confirmed that the Eldrazi are planar eaters recyclers.

@onering

I'm happy the echoverse isn't a permanent thing. Two multiverses permanently existing is kind of dumb tbh. Something that sets magic apart is that it's timeline is solid and messing with it has the potential to destroy everything. Branching realities don't really exist, the multiverse is unique because it's planes of existence represent different ways reality can exist from different starting points, rather than alternate realities that arise from branching events. A "what if" is fun every once in awhile, but I appreciate that Magic has kept it very restricted and ensures that every time something like that happens it's either an existential threat or a symptom of one. A more traditional multiverse is less unique and ends up becoming pretty repetitive. You either get stuck doing what ifs that recursively reference the main timeline, which quickly gets tiresome, or you get creative enough that you create worlds that could fit just as easily within the multiverse Magic already has, which makes a traditional multiverse superfluous. Add to that, we now have a "plane" that exists outside of the multiverse in just straight up outer space, which further confuses everything and presents yet another infinite canvas to explore, with different worlds being able to bet settings for different stories, characters, creature types, etc. The Echoverse works much better as a threat that hasn't become real yet, with its inhabitants being almost illusions propped up by Jace and acting out his will rather than their own, potential lives that can truly exist only at the cost of actual lives of the real multiverse.

I agree mostly with this and add on I dislike the multiverses that are based on timelines ect since it also opens up the "why should I care" issues you have with this stuff. For example spoilers for the tv show the magicians, but a character dies and they end up meeting a version of him from another timeline and basiclally just replace him with the other version and you see similar stuff here. The movie Everything Everywhere All At Once explores this really well too.

Meanwhile Magic, Oz and other "isekais" like multiverses avoid this since they act more like magical version of going to another country vs full new timelines.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

I agree mostly with this and add on I dislike the multiverses that are based on timelines ect since it also opens up the "why should I care" issues you have with this stuff.

I mean yes, going full multiverse and having 20 different variants of a character so that ultimately death is meaningless is absolutely dire. I'm not saying we pivot into full Marvel Multiverse of Madness.

I meant having something more restrained, like for example having the Echoverse in the background reserve, for occasional cameos and references. Something like an going Planar Chaos-style event we occasionally take a peek at, without having to resort a massive plotline to try and justify it.

Like some sort of Mystery Booster product, we now and then take a peek at what could've been.

But now it's all gone; Avacyn imprisoning the other archangels in the Helvault, Tamiyo usurping the Empress, Marina being in control of Duskmourn.

All gone.

Even our awesome cycle of Elder Sphinxes are no more.


However, there still might be an epilogue:

Maybe Emrakul eating and processing the Echoverse preserves/manifests it or some semblance into reality in some way, in her role of recycler of planes

[5colorsrainbow]

I agree mostly with this and add on I dislike the multiverses that are based on timelines ect since it also opens up the "why should I care" issues you have with this stuff.

I mean yes, going full multiverse and having 20 different variants of a character so that ultimately death is meaningless is absolutely dire. I'm not saying we pivot into full Marvel Multiverse of Madness.

I meant having something more restrained, like for example having the Echoverse in the background reserve, for occasional cameos and references. Something like an going Planar Chaos-style event we occasionally take a peek at, without having to resort a massive plotline to try and justify it.

Like some sort of Mystery Booster product, we now and then take a peek at what could've been.

But now it's all gone; Avacyn imprisoning the other archangels in the Helvault, Tamiyo usurping the Empress, Marina being in control of Duskmourn.

All gone.

Even our awesome cycle of Elder Sphinxes are no more.


However, there still might be an epilogue:

Maybe Emrakul eating and processing the Echoverse preserves/manifests it or some semblance into reality in some way, in her role of recycler of planes

I can somewhat agree that wishing some stuff had stayed.

But I feel like if things are popular its alway something they can explore more of in either more cards or in what if like stories. They have the new line of comics that had stuff like the unreleased Theros 2 and Innistrad 1 stories and the author of the strixhaven novel wants to make a extend magic lore novel series that could also look into some of this stuff.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Might as well put these here.

Voiced Japanese promo trailers for Reality Fracture, note that part 3 reveals the climax of the story. Jace is voiced by Yuki Kaiji, a rather popular male voice actor, whose most notable role is Eren Yeager, another infamous protagonist turned antagonist, from the anime Attack on Titan.

Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmK9MGcXEfI

Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFhA0AmgGs

Part 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj2lBS0XSrc

[CommanderMaster999]

This was absolutely a incredible story

Things i was happy about

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The Eldrazi part is the biggest so just do a seperate thing for it

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The biggest thing im happy about is out of the blue after all these they finally revealed the purpose of eldrazi in the multiverse

which was showing the biggest theory was correct that they are recyclers of the multiverse, so the best way to put it they are natural killer cells of the multiverse (a very special kind of white blood cell)

and we saw that in action in the last chapter with the echoverse being deemed to dangereous for the multiverse removing the artifical one and its fake lives except for one...tam because she was not a double of anything (i bet emrakul was happy finally the multiverse said "yes destroy it" instead of "no don't do it" (when they were on zendikar and innistrad it was rejected because neither were sick nor dying nor anything there harming the multiverse), a good guess might be emrakul harvest the good parts of the echoverse as seeds from the echoverse and use them as bandaids for planes (like maybe alara being made back the way it was)

and tam was the first to ever learn it (jace as well because his SOI fragment theorized eldrazi are recyclers in one chapter) who knows maybe tam will give this info to Ugin since he's being dying to know eldrazi purpose more than any multiverse

and ofcourse oh yea it was definitely a very bad move to kill ulamog and kozilek with all this new information, who knows maybe they will do lore to bring new heirs or resurrect them.

and to think if they were never locked up many very bad and evil things would have never happened, March of the machines as the most obvious (bolas had plans to destroy it all together if he got the god spark in WAR, but theres like a extremely high chance eldrazis already had that plan but they were trapped/killed when all that was going down.)

And i Do like Tam becoming a new character to be the heir of jaces spot and really became a good person and realizing what theorist fragment jace was doing was so wrong

And Garruk finally finding liliana again he was about to unleash fury but instantanious bonded with her the moment he learned liliana also considered the Kenrith twins as their parent just like garruk did

and ofcourse showing why a multiverse without eldrazi, bolas, and phyrexians was such a bad idea, unbeknownst to jace while a couple got better but a vast majority....its worse futures for characters. Characters pets dying or strays, character becoming very mean (via echoverse liliana), and becoming evil instead of good, som even become sad or killed

Not happy

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Really only one thing they really didn't do any teasers or fuses for the next arc, and yes aware Edge of a Eternity already likely teased that with a second fomori vs eldrazi war but the multiverse planes get involved in this one,

the only teasers for it reality fracture did is you seee that war in the background of how arcavios was formed after jadzi killed herself, and ofcourse emrakul finally out of the moon, Caverns of ixalan, Thunder junction, Edge of eterenity, and secrets of strixhavn did it alot more heavy lifting with that.

And... i definitely know helgas vision still didn't get fully fulfilled yet

"The kings in the dark will return, the mage in blue will bring about the end."

Well the mage in blue part did, because it wasn't exactly jace as the mage in blue since he was in white for this case....it was either jadzi or Tamira, Jadzi pulled a Dr strange on getting the scenario that would cause jace to lose and end this, or Reference Tamira bringing the end of the echoverse by releasing Emrakul to destroy it since shes also in blue in her art coming up (both of them have Wizard type which is a mage.)

Its the king of dark part that hasn't happened yet

1. Bolas and Ugin are out but i don't think they the kings of the dark base on current lore (they had nothing to do with reality fracture story)

2. Ulamog and Kozilek are still dead.........Possibly for now

3. and the Adult Fomori/coin empire still didn't pop out yet

Side notes for future stories/sets

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Im sure Nauctis, Titanbreach and Zhalfir will further forshadow the Fomori-eldrazi war 2 and hint who the kings of dark are

reasons why

Nauctis: very simple the apocalyptic horror mentiond in that, could quite simply be a never before seen eldrazi titan (not Ulamog, kozilek, and Emrakul)

TitanBreach: The Fomori or Eldrazi could be causing or a factor of the omenpaths from Ikoria to Kamigawa to go berserk/Get wider openings and causing ikoria's land to fall into kamigawa along with the kaiju monsters

Zhalfir: there a mysterious spirit of some sort another thing that could be Fomori or Eldrazi Related

[5colorsrainbow]

Alrighty so unless we get surprise stories (which I don't we are as they typically now have the stories tied to spoiler season) and since most of the legends and what-ifs are known til we get the achlemyy set, figured I'd give my thoughts on the story. Spoilers are so this isn't just a big block of text;

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-Overall I'm happy? lol this set is basically one giant swan song for Jace and its sad, a protagonist who had a very rough and tragic life ends up dying in his 30's after missing the happy ending he could have had with Vraska and Loot in pursuit of the perfection he could never reach. It feels the right amount of tragic and sadness for a character while also him not getting off for what he did as a villain.

and as Flisch noted Jace was such a fixture of the game and story, being one of the first planeswalker carded characters, being the most popular one for a good chunk of time (and when he lost that he was a very close second under Chandra) and thus was used as a face for the game until the Gatewatch era made him part of a group protagonist/group face, love or hate Jace he was a symbol for Magic as a whole and his death really does feel like we are in a new era of Magic.

-Alison was perfect for this story and I'm glad she was the one who got to write Jace off, similar to how it was right in lore for Vraska to be the one to send Jace off, Alison was the right one to do it meta wise. I do hope Wizards hires her as well as an outside author and that she has the time in intrest in doing so. She has a love for these characters that really comes thought and I hope this isn't the last we see of her.

-Gosh they really show how scary Jace as a villain can be and def feel like a few other villains didn't scary me as much as Jace with with no self limtis is.

-While this was Jace's story I like Vraska had a arc as well. She went from thinking she was a monster, to meeting Jace and finding out she wasn't just a monster or a tool of death and I like now in this story she accepts that is a tool of death and while thats not all she is or whom she is gonna be going forward, its a part of a her, like how all the parts of Jace and the Theorist were all Jace and she should learn to love/be kind that aspect of her since it is a part of her. She has been a monster, she has been a tool of death and she loves her self, the good and bad.

-Liliana also stood out a bit as well in both in the humor of her being prison and dealing with echo-Liliana, but also in the fact she let herself mourn and care for Jace within the respectful limits of him and Vraska. Liliana treated him badly and its clear she regretted and she did care for Jace more then a pet or a play thing. And her speak to him about how he needed to stop and no there was no Gideon was such a good parallel for her during War and how she and Jace where in similar places and really shows how far she has come as a character.

-It was nice to see Garruk and it does seem they are planning on using him more which is nice. First off he's still a planeswalker and the plan for the characters who kept their sparks was some to use them more so I can see Garruk returning to being the default monogreen walk depending on how Vivien turned out sparkwise. Second we got that he's been looking for something and wants someones help with sealing and ward magic which could be related to his chain veil arc or something new. Third (though maybe is related to point two) they did end the Liliana and Garruk feud over the them caring for the Kenrith twins and I feel like that with Rowan running off at the end of WOE is a plot thread they might pick up with the four characters. And I do like how it also shows how far Liliana came from the woman who cursed Garruk as well as Garruk who is willing to let his grudge go and make peace with Liliana which I do think show a change in his character from meeting the twins and kid-Jace.

-Related was nice to have a story with the lorwyn 5 before the first member of it was killed off and it felt organic enough for them to bring in Garruk as a way to fight Jace and Garruks character able to help kid-Jace help make him feel like he add something to the story that couldn't be easily done by another character.

-Hexhaven is neat as a "dark" version of Strixhaven and I do plan in having in my DnD strixhaven games as a rival school.

-Semi-hot take but I while I'd love to see more echo-characters and lore, I'm happy with this one set. While there are a number of really fun character echos, I feel like a good number are just "good characters is now bad" or vice verse without being too creative with the of lore (Samut is a example of it done well with her being a speedster and her echo slowing things down around her, compared to echo Saheeli who is the same as Saheeli but "evil" basically) and while thats fun for one set I feel like too much more would feel start wearing thin. Def something I feel like I'd like to see pop up now and then in the future but not as a full set.

-I did like how the character bios both are mini-side stories for the echo character as well as having the main bio having both check ins on the characters and/or sum had hints to maybe future stories.

-Getting into things I'm mixed to not the happiest about, I think one of the big one is how they handled the morality of the echoverse. While I don't dislike the echo-characters being basically really good illusions (even more so as they are meant to be all killed) I do think they could have had some emotional conflict about having character who are wanting to be real/trying to be whole but having to destroy/not let them be whole as for that to happen they would need to "kill" someone real. A bit more of this could have been done with Tam too with her maybe having some guilt about being a similar not-full person who just was lucky enough to be made a bit more "real" and become "real".

-Word count. Not to harp again but yet should have maybe been 5 more stories to cover some of the other things below I didn't like.

-I wish the rest of the new stixhaven students had been in the story a bit more. Having the last two stories having them as group protagonists only to not hugely see them in the last arc was a bit of a let down.

-For as much as they hyped the idea of the echos vs the real versions, I felt like we didn't get to see quiet enough of the fighting and most of all interactions with the echo characters and the real ones. Liliana and Vraska got some good moments but I feel like the other 4 didn't as much and even with the Liliana fight it was pretty fast and one sided. I think this was the rest stuff to cut for the emotional and character stuff to get enough spotlight but I feel we could had a full chapter only on the leads and their leads squaring off and getting some more interaction.

-The "Avengers" issue of where was Nissa? Kaya? Ral? I understand not fitting them all in the set but when you have a "superhero" type you do need to answer some why the characters aren't all just teaming up. MOM handled this well since it set up a number of the gatewatch/allies where setting up defenses on their homes and where fighting there during the invasion, but a throw away line of maybe Chandra saying Kaya went to go get back up but due to omenpaths and such help just didn't get there in time.

-While I'm glad some thing got touched on I wish we could have had a bit more time for stuff. Garruk and Lilian ending could have been giving more time for them to talk it more, I felt like we could have gotten an epilogue like chapter of Jace's funeral and how some of the characters reacted to it more, even comparing maybe how more tension there as over what he had done vs Gideon who died a hero no questions, having the new strixhaven student more involved, ect.

Might be more but thats all I can think of atm. Def more highs then lows for this story imo and I'm looking forward to see how things go. We might getr more stuff with the Alchemy set* but the main story and basically everything is know and the Alchemy sets don't typically show anything too groundbreaking. Sadly we won't likely get more story continent til Jan/Feb of next year but the Elspeth comic is fully out and in trade paperback soon, the Jace comic I believe is wrapping up soon (rip), a Liliana comic on the story of the first Innistrad block is coming out soon and they announced a Teferi comic after hers, and we got the strixhaven novel so hopefully this points to more stories told outside the web fiction. Will post thought the arc as a whole soon and more of my thoughts on whats coming up now we have things basically wrapped up later in the other threads but figured I'd start with the story.

*also for those who didn't see they are no longer doing Alchemy sets, among other changes (though area will still have them). For lore it does me mean of the legends who got cut/didn't have room in the main sets did get cards there so we will be losing a few lore bits after this last alchemy set for Reality Fracture.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Your post made me suddenly realize the Orzhov Ral was in the Real Multiverse and might have survived!

Some of these Echoverse versions might have found another way to make themselves real and escaped Emrakul's purge!