MKM- Murders at Karlov Manor Story and Worldbuilding

[5colorsrainbow]

Murders at Karlov Manor is a top down Murder Mystery Set and a backdrop set on Ravnnica focusing on the murder mysteries tropes vs being a guild set. We open up after the Phyrexian war with the Golgari nearly wipped out from Vraska compleating many of them as well as the many of the Izzet and Simic having willingly joined. The streets above the undercity also where ripped open exposing much of it to the "surface".

Some Murders and attempted murders are happening at Karlov Manor during a gala held by Teysa and the Ravnican Agency of Magicological Investigations is here to help solve the cases. Our lead detective is Alquist Proft (WU) who is joined by Kaya, still a planeswalker, and Kellan.

Our high profile character and suspects are; Teysa, Massacre Girl, Etrata, Krenko, Izoni, Judith, Kylox (the izzet Viashino), Tolsimir, Rakdos (BR) and Aurelia (RW).

Remaining Story Episodes: January 8–18

[5colorsrainbow]

First story (of Ten) by Seanan McGuire
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic ... f-our-past

[duducrash]

@5colorsrainbow How did you like the story?

I think WOTC has been getting better at this teasers. last year we got the teaser that 5 walkers would get compleated and now we get this story. It is pretty cool. this set seems cool

[void_nothing]

I'm interested in Anzrag. The Gruul seem to have a lot of gods who are more like forces of nature, with animal intelligence and less power than the gods of Theros or Kaldheim.

[Mookie]

I'm planning to follow along with the story mostly to see whether or not Teysa Karlov makes it out alive. I guess even if she died, she could come as a ghost like Obzedat, Ghost Council.... but my EDH deck has enough human tribal synergies to prefer she stays a human instead of becoming a spirit. >_>

[void_nothing]

Well it looks like we're getting a new Teysa card while she's in the land of the living in the set, and I think she makes it out alive, but ghost Teysa taking the Orzhov Syndicate into a new era would be thematically fitting.

As of now, for the new characters, Alquist is just some beardy guy to me so I'll need to read the later chapters to see what his deal is. I'm automatically enamored with Kylox for being a viashino from the Izzet. Plus, Etrata and Tolsimir my loves are involved - they are the characters I'm focused on right now.

[5colorsrainbow]

@5colorsrainbow How did you like the story?

It was a good intro and McGuire is a talented author but I'm waiting to see how things go. ATM I think Ravnica works great for a murder mystery as we have a bunch of mostly well known characters (many of whom are part of guildes which are well known) which means the story doesn't need to set up them up as much and most guilds have clear reaons to try and kill each other so the murders will be harder to figure out.

[void_nothing]

Another funny point: This is at least the second time the Simic have pretty much disappeared. For game design reasons none of the guilds is going to be permanently ended, but it's still kind of funny. I really liked the new direction their flavor took in Return to Ravnica block with the clades, zonots, and connection to the underground oceans, so maybe we'll see another revamp of the guild that represents evolution.

EDIT: I guess I kind of misinterpreted what happened to the Izzet and Simic after the invasion? In the backstory, a lot of those guild members willingly joined the Phyrexians, but it sounds like they're still perfectly fine as organizations? Huh.

[void_nothing]

Episode 2 is out and our first murder at Karlov Manor has actually happened.

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I'm going to miss Zegana. Looks like the killer (or one of the killers, if there are in fact multiple) has a black iris as their calling card.

Etrata is the first suspect.

Also, Verity Circle use! Continuity!

[5colorsrainbow]

Episode 2; (please click the link even if you don't plan on reading the story it helps creative show there is interest in magics original IP.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic ... -we-became

DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS SET LETS STILL USE SPOILER TAGS FOR THE MURDERS/EVENTS UNTIL THE FULL SET HAS BEEN SHOWN

The plot thickens.

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Zegana is dead, a good choice as she was a well known character (having been a guild master in RtR and a Champion in Ravnica 3) but somewhat expendable with Vannifar around and Vorel still being a high ranking members. Etrata is a red herring as we see she becomes more friendly later so interesting to see what she was up too and if the dimir had fallen.

EDIT: I guess I kind of misinterpreted what happened to the Izzet and Simic after the invasion? In the backstory, a lot of those guild members willingly joined the Phyrexians, but it sounds like they're still perfectly fine as organizations? Huh.

I believe what happened is many of them willing joined but the guilds as whole didn't topple as much as the Golgari. A preview card talks on how the Simic reputation has been trashed hard after the war.

[void_nothing]

I do particularly appreciate one detail from episode 2.

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Etrata's not using any kind of Dimir magic to go unnoticed. She just has a decent disguise.

[void_nothing]

Episode 3 is out.

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In a huge shock, Teysa is the next victim, stabbed with her own cane. Kaya figures out that at some point, Teysa had something to do with the Phyrexians. I'm certain she's going to come back as a spirit later in the story. Meanwhile, Alquist Proft has broken Etrata out of jail.

[CommanderMaster999]

Time traveling back to episode 1 a little

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In the teasers for the set was a "Legendary Creature — Mole God" and with this I bet this is Anzrag that the gruul are trying to bring back.

[void_nothing]

Time traveling back to episode 1 a little

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In the teasers for the set was a "Legendary Creature — Mole God" and with this I bet this is Anzrag that the gruul are trying to bring back.

I'm 90% certain this is right.

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The remaining 10% is thinking there might be more than one Gruul god in the set.

[Mookie]

Episode 3 is out.

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In a huge shock, Teysa is the next victim, stabbed with her own cane. Kaya figures out that at some point, Teysa had something to do with the Phyrexians. I'm certain she's going to come back as a spirit later in the story. Meanwhile, Alquist Proft has broken Etrata out of jail.

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(insert Fry is shocked meme here)

This is what I was sort of dreading ever since MKM was announced, but at least ghost Teysa could be sweet. Etrata being innocent doesn't particularly surprise me after the last episode ('if you're innocent, why did you run?' 'because you were chasing me!'). Teysa working with Phyrexians does surprise me, but I suspect the real reason is a bit more complicated than that. Plus they now need a new person that speaks Phyrexian to translate this clue.

...I guess the other question I now have is 'do you really need a detective for this case, if you can just ask the victim's ghost?' Plenty of ways to negate that simple solution though.

[void_nothing]

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...I guess the other question I now have is 'do you really need a detective for this case, if you can just ask the victim's ghost?' Plenty of ways to negate that simple solution though.

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First off, condolences about your commander, although I hope her inevitable ghostly version card is cool.

Second, I don't know if we quite know how Ravnica's afterlife works - otherwise, how would any murder in general remain unsolved on Ravnica? There might be some delay between loss of consciousness at death and waking up in Agyrem, or a ghost's recollection of their final moments might be blurry due to their transfer to a phenomenon that is essentially a sub-plane? It looks like there was some background material in the Ravnica art book saying that the Ghost Quarter was at least reduced in size greatly, but I'm assuming it still exists to some degree.

I actually also can't say for sure whether the ghost of an Orzhov leader would even have to take that step upon death. With the combination of their particular magic and their high level of willpower, ghost Teysa might just manifest herself in Karlov Manor later in the story with no ill effects other than losing her body and emotional pain.

[void_nothing]

Episode 4

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Agrus Kos joins the team! Obviously a welcome returning character. Teysa's ghost has yet to appear, but Kaya seems unsure whether that means she's choosing to remain out of sight (she definitely can't be summoned due to wards on her soul) or she's been captured. Finally, Judith seems to know more about why someone would be killing current and former guild leaders than she lets on and hints it might have something to do with the first Guildpact.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

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I'm going to be very angry if Szadek shows up and is the villain.

[void_nothing]

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That would be contrived at best and a "Somehow Palpatine returned" level plot twist at worst, but I don't think it's all that likely. Yes Judith's comment about the Guildpact hints that a parun is involved somehow and yes Agrus's fateful decision to arrest Szadek broke the original Guildpact in the first place, but as I referred to earlier, it sounds like most of Ravnica's spirits disappeared into thin aether when Agyrem was mostly removed due to the Mending. Szadek was a ghost at that point. While retcons are hardly impossible, Agrus was essentially Szadek's jailer in Agyrem at least for a time. He would know if the Dimir parun were still around and had escaped.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

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I hope you're right, because we do have precedent in another Dimir legend *looks at Ertai*

Hmm, Svogthir might be a bit more likely, given that Argus is back too. And Svogthir is one of the original Paruns as well.

[void_nothing]

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Svogthir would actually be one of my top choices for the main villain. This would tie into the semi-disappearance of the Golgari, leading him to finally reconstitute himself and return to lead the Swarm to their original glory, making a statement and getting revenge by trying to cripple every other guild.

[CommanderMaster999]

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So to ask since this is what Judith is hinting at.

What was the orginal guildpact since that's looking like the connection?

And how does this tie to parun and szadek (for szadek besides being the creator of the guildpact)

[Ink-Treader]

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I don't know much about the original Guildpact, but Dimir's purpose was to destroy it, wasn't it? So Lazav could be at hand too. Feels kind of obvious, though.

[void_nothing]

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So just to hopefully clear things up at the start: People who are into the lore sometimes use the word "Paruns" in a loose way that's not technically correct. It's not really a synonym for guildmasters. The Paruns were the founders of the guilds and the signatories of the (original) Guildpact. All of them were very powerful individuals/groups (Mat'Selesnya and the first roster of the Obzedat obviously are not really individuals), a majority of them were long-lived or almost immortal, and by the time of the original Ravnica block four-five of them were still in charge of their guilds, depending on how you want to count the Ghost Council.

You know that the Guildpact governs relations between the guilds, and for a long time it was the reason Ravnica never broke out into war. However, there's been more than one, the first of which was created by the Paruns around the time of the Thran, 10,080 years before the present. Because their own magic was used to craft the first Guildpact, the Paruns were tied to it in multiple magical ways. This is why, when Agrus Kos arrested Szadek for terrorist attacks on the Decamillennial festival and conspiring to take over all of Ravnica, the spell was broken. House Dimir's role as defined by the Guildpact was to try to subvert it, so charging the Dimir parun for crimes against the Guildpact created a paradox that ended the spell.

Of the paruns, only Rakdos is still alive and controlling his guild. Now that Niv-Mizzet is the current Living Guildpact, the first document is no longer in force, but it seems like it's still in existence as an extremely important historical document, the one that founded Ravnican society and created the concept of ten guilds living in uneasy balance. I have to mention that the actual author of the Guildpact's text was Azor. I would not be surprised if he appeared in the MKM story.

[CommanderMaster999]

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So just to hopefully clear things up at the start: People who are into the lore sometimes use the word "Paruns" in a loose way that's not technically correct. It's not really a synonym for guildmasters. The Paruns were the founders of the guilds and the signatories of the (original) Guildpact. All of them were very powerful individuals/groups (Mat'Selesnya and the first roster of the Obzedat obviously are not really individuals), a majority of them were long-lived or almost immortal, and by the time of the original Ravnica block four-five of them were still in charge of their guilds, depending on how you want to count the Ghost Council.

You know that the Guildpact governs relations between the guilds, and for a long time it was the reason Ravnica never broke out into war. However, there's been more than one, the first of which was created by the Paruns around the time of the Thran, 10,080 years before the present. Because their own magic was used to craft the first Guildpact, the Paruns were tied to it in multiple magical ways. This is why, when Agrus Kos arrested Szadek for terrorist attacks on the Decamillennial festival and conspiring to take over all of Ravnica, the spell was broken. House Dimir's role as defined by the Guildpact was to try to subvert it, so charging the Dimir parun for crimes against the Guildpact created a paradox that ended the spell.

Of the paruns, only Rakdos is still alive and controlling his guild. Now that Niv-Mizzet is the current Living Guildpact, the first document is no longer in force, but it seems like it's still in existence as an extremely important historical document, the one that founded Ravnican society and created the concept of ten guilds living in uneasy balance. I have to mention that the actual author of the Guildpact's text was Azor. I would not be surprised if he appeared in the MKM story.

I appreciate this

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yea this has to be involved somehow

but now that you say Rakdos is the only one Alive of the Paruns... that makes my very servely suspicious he's mega involved of the murders. after all...



he's ran threw a Omenpath to Thunder junction (Cowboy set) after this story (this is the set after Murder's at Karlov manor)