Custom religion themed block needs help!
Custom Cards forum
Posted on April 9, 2015, 1:49 p.m. by Jeyrrick
I am making a religion-themed custom Magic block... but I don't have any idea what the keywords will be, whether I want there to be one keyword for each religion, and what the second set's story will be. Here's the main ideas I have for the set:
*There are five mono-colored religions.
*Green is based on Norse mythology, Red is based on Egyptian mythology, Blue is based on Cthulhu, White is based on Christianity, and Black is a cult.
*There is going to be at the very least one set-wide keyword named devout. (Although I do not know what devout will do)
*The second set revolves around what happens after the Black religion is revealed as a plot for its leader to gain immense power. (I have no idea on how Black and the other colors are going to react...)
Does anyone have any ideas for this that could help me? Maybe more ideas for keywords? Any suggestions will help!
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #3
I'm going to start keeping count of the number of custom sets being done this month. I think it's four by now.
A) What the f*** is Cthulhu?
B) Want ideas for religion in MTG? Visit the entire Inninstrad Block.
B) Exalted sounds like it fits somewhere here too.
April 9, 2015 1:54 p.m.
He's an 'Old God', pretty sure he first came in due to H.P Lovecraft.
April 9, 2015 1:56 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON - Google H.P. Lovecraft and you'll get an idea of what Cthulhu is.
Also Cthulhu isn't so much a religion as it is a cult, so I don't think it fits into your theme of religions. Another point is that the whole point of the Cthulhu Mythos is that these elder gods are unknowable and beyond human comprehension, which is the exact OPPOSITE of blue. That's why the Eldrazi are colorless, which are Magic's take on Eldritch creatures. The word Eldrazi even looks like Eldritch!
April 9, 2015 1:58 p.m.
Well, the main idea was the primary deity would be Cthulhu-like. Perhaps it will be a scholarly religion based around knowledge and following in the footsteps of a god of knowledge, which will be a serpent/octopus/kraken/Cthulhu.
April 9, 2015 2:06 p.m.
Just a suggestion, maybe you could rearrange the colors a bit? Norse mythology seems more blue to me than green. What about Greek/Roman mythology for Green, Norse for Blue, Egyptian for Red still, Cthulhu Mythos for Black, and Christianity/Judaeism/Muslim/etc. for white. This way you could base your White group off of the Crusades, suicide-for-77-virgins, and "secret library" in the Vatican conspiracy. Also, making the Cthulhu cult your Black faction would easily play into your plans for them to be betrayed by a power-mad leader.
Otherwise, your set is actually mythology-based, with a single, actual religion in it. You may not care, but it is possible you could offend some people by treating Christanity as just another myth, when it is an actual, organized, worldwide religion.
CanadianShinobi: Unfortunately, Scientology is also a "real" religion, but wouldn't it be awesome to play 6 CMC Tom Cruise creature card? (When it enters the battlefield, the first person to jump up and yell, "I'm in love with Katie Holmes!" gains 10 life.)
April 9, 2015 2:13 p.m.
SpartanCEL says... #8
JWiley129 aren't the eldrazi also formless? Like the big three chose those forms to represent themselves.
For religions, there's
Christian/Judio/Muslim, probably white
Hinduism
Buddhism (sounds more like a blue thing with monks and all, or Hindu I'm not as familiar with either)
Satanism (there's 2 main types, one that worships Satan and one that worships yourself, so that could be important in designing) so black
Norse could possibly be red for lightning
I'm not quite sure for green
This is a cool idea, Angels and Demons will probably find their way in here
April 9, 2015 2:16 p.m.
SpartanCEL says... #9
I somehow skipped your paragraph on your colors chosen my b lol
April 9, 2015 2:17 p.m.
Well, here's the first idea I've had for the "devout" keyword:
I don't know how powerful the mechanic is, but I'm thinking that this could work for a noncreature heavy set.
Aside from this, I would like to point out that, in the past, the Egyptians actually believed their mythology, making what is mythology to us a religion. That is the main idea behind this. Also, I don't want to do Greek/Roman mythology since Theros already did it.
April 9, 2015 2:21 p.m.
And, to not offend anyone, the white religion will only be loosely based on Christianity -- I think the only real similarities between the two will be that they both are monotheistic.
April 9, 2015 2:26 p.m.
SpartanCEL - You are correct. Ugin referenced them being formless in the Blind Eternities and that their physical forms is the plane attempting to manifest something that isn't physical.
MisterMayhem - If you are trying to shoehorn in a Cthulhu-like entity, then you might want to consider a mechanic that would play on the sanity of the creatures. In Lovecraftian works, as people become more aware of the Mythos and the beings in the mythos they begin to lose their sanity. While they are seeing more of how the world really is, the structures that are put around them begin to crumble. This happens to a point where the person seems insane to regular people, despite them knowing the "unknowable."
April 9, 2015 2:28 p.m.
SpartanCEL says... #13
Reminds me of Marshmist Titan.
Do you plan on having tribal abilities or more general abilities ones? Like Elvish Archdruid vs Paragon of Eternal Wilds
April 9, 2015 2:32 p.m.
SpartanCEL says... #14
However I think it's different enough to be cool. Although watch out for possible storm-like shenanigans
JWiley129 aight cool man thanks! I'm not usually up on the lore but I remembered that one
April 9, 2015 2:36 p.m.
I don't want there to be a strict "oh, all dwarves are red" kind of thing, because anyone can follow any religion, so tribes are out. More of a general "all of a color get benefits" thing, sometimes theming with the color.
JWiley129 -- the idea of a sanity/loss of sanity fits perfectly for blue. I think that maybe there should be a keyword for each color. Here are the main ideas for those keywords:
*White: Exalted (ties in with a "one true god" idea)
*Blue: "Sanity" themed keyword
*Black: Keyword around sacrifice? followers? secrecy?
*Red and Green: Unknown for now. Perhaps themed around polytheism.
April 9, 2015 2:43 p.m.
Why not just use Devotion instead of Devout? They're quite similar. Or if they end up very different, I would change the name. Devout (especially worded as "devout to blue" etc.) seems confusingly similar. Hence no more plainswalk haha.
I think maybe taking aspects of each religion and using those with each color would work best. For example, G is reincarnation, W is redemption, B is Damnation, U is enlightenment, R is... Lightning Bolt? I dunno haha just an idea.
April 9, 2015 4:22 p.m.
themindxyz says... #17
I think the Cult of Cthulhu should be the black religion (based on the insanity and it being a cult), the green religion should be based around Celtic mythology (a love of nature), the blue should be structured loosely around Scientology (worshiping of knowledge), and the red should incorporate Satanism's "do it for yourself/fun" ideology. I like the idea of this set. +1.
I agree with the idea of each religion having its own keyword, and Exalted should absolutely see a reprint in white for this set.
CanadianShinobi says... #2
My only idea is that Black should represent Scientology.
April 9, 2015 1:53 p.m.