Aftermath Discussion Spoilers
Lore forum
Posted on May 2, 2023, 4:08 p.m. by Tsukimi
Hey y'all, none of my friends read MTG story so I was curious if anyone here read Nahiri and Nissa's MoM Aftermath stories, or Rosewater article today?
Spoilers Below!
Sooo..... Apparently the Realmbreaker tearing all these holes in the multiverse, alongside the Sylex going off in the Blind Eternities, had some bigger repercussions than we expected. Nissa lost her spark, but it looks like a lot of (as far as we know) non Phyrexianized planeswalkers lost their sparks as well. They will now be legendary creatures instead of planeswalkers. They can no longer planeswalk, but them and every other being without a spark can now take these omenpaths to other planes. The omenpaths are rare and very random, they move and change size and disappear entirely, though not all.
Looks like Nissa, Teferi, Karn, Nahiri, Kiora, Ob Nixilis, and probably many more have lost their spark. (I tried to ensure all of these are official, most I know from reading the story- please tell me if anyone is not and I will remove their name)
(Huge bummer to see so many planeswalkers like Kiora, who we haven't seen for a while and just wasn't mentioned during MoM, now suddenly are no longer plaeswalkers, and in some of these cases like Kiora and Calix we have no idea what plane they're stuck on now)
But it does seem Nahiri had a physical version of her spark, so maybe people can find their sparks again somehow? I'm guessing it'll be a big draw for the plot going forward, and I am all for way less planeswalkers in standard sets, but it's a bummer to some of these. Kiora's features/development in the story were pretty poorly done, and we never got to see much of her as a character beyond her childhood on Zendikar. I think more legendary creatures and less planeswalkers is what people have been asking for for a while however, so I am glad they're moving in that direction.
What do you all think of these big changes to the story? Any planeswalkers you're bummed to see now as legendary creatures? Theories?
Caerwyn Thank you! I went back and deleted quite a few names, because I saw official spoilers today that I thought were legitimate but now I am not sure? So I deleted all the names of planeswalkers I wasn't sure of, thanks for looking out!
May 2, 2023 4:36 p.m.
I feel like this is going to dilute the stories of the individual planes even more, forcing their stories even further into the background in favor of the spotlight characters. I personally think the period from 2005-2012, when the focus was on the planes and their individual stories instead of being a character-driven plot, was some of the best world building this game has seen. Ravnica, Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, Alara (still my all-time favorite, and I really hope it can maintain its unique identity), Zendikar, and Innistrad all come from this time, and these are some of the most popular planes ever made. I got into this game to explore planes, and that's still my favorite part. In the last couple years, though, the planar settings have felt rushed, underdeveloped, and generic, pushed aside in favor of the planeswalkers' plots. If this development becomes overused, then the setting almost doesn't matter, because almost anyone can do almost anything almost anywhere. It's not going to drive me away from the game completely, but it's another step away from what I personally consider the peak of Magic design. The settings have stories, too, and I'm still struggling to figure out why I should care about New Capenna and Kaldheim.
I don't want planes to become gimmicky, one-dimensional backdrops. I feel like they were heading in this direction before, and I'm concerned this trend will continue. I'm concerned that everywhere will now just have a "recovering from the Realmbreaker Invasion" story with minor variations.
I need to harp on Alara some more. I was excited for a return, to see what a plane that reassembled itself from wildly different subplanes would look like geographically, culturally, socially, and everything else-ally after it had settled. Now, though, I'm afraid it's going to be treated as just another plane that got invaded. It had one of the biggest events a single plane has ever had, and then nothing else was heard until the Phyrexians showed up. I want to know how it had developed, how it would have continued to develop, and all I got was going straight from this and this and this to this Flip, with a very brief stop in Magic Origins and M19. The entire story of New Alara is "The shards were exploring each other, making alliances and enemies, and then it got invaded by Phyrexians." What alliances? What enemies? How did it develop? Does any of that matter anymore?
May 2, 2023 5:04 p.m.
legendofa I feel this big time! How many planes that we've been begging to see are not just going to be more "Phyrexia the Aftermath". I am hoping against hope that they are better than that, and that instead of a generic "No don't ask us what happened before the invasion, only after matters" I am hoping the story goes more in a "Look at how Alara specifically responded to this threat and how their culture has changed, and how the years beforehand played apart in what happened."
Ixalan is going to be our first take on this, and I am very interested to see what they do with the story. Honestly I think a huge upside here is we can move away from the constant back to back THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE IS IN DANGER plotlines that are feeling more and more like Marvel movies and less and less like mtg stories. I read all of the old books and I really like how many of the stories were really just people trying to do their best. It wasn't always 1000% high stakes all the time everything is gonna explode, and those were the better stories. Gisa and Geralf's letters are a wonderful example - Hopefully with the stakes lower we can return to stories like that that really focus on the people and the plane itself, instead of a big intergalactic villain hunt.
I also want some concrete details on so many losing their sparks, it seems like they just took the spark of a lot of characters who were only shown a handful of times if any. Calix literally never got a story. Kiora hasn't been around since ZENDIKAR. It's pretty disappointing, and then they're still making new PW like Quintorious, so why despark so many? Also what's the point of you showing me someone like Kiora as a legendary creature with no spark if I have no idea where she is or what she's been doing? You're not really showing the aftermath, youre giving a vague gesture of it that leaves us with even more questions. Although, I think leaving us with more questions was the goal here haha
May 4, 2023 11:50 a.m.
Yeah, bringing the storyline back down to a more individual level would be a great step. Thing is, once you have your villain invade literally everywhere, there's not much more higher-stakes you can get without actually conquering everywhere. Stepping back and focusing on the lower-level plots for a while is an excellent reset, and I'm also interested in Ixalan and seeing what happens.
For the Omenpaths, my reaction's going to depend on how they treat them. I'm worried that they're just going to be a plot train, moving Important Characters to where they need to be, when they need to be there, so they can do Important Plot Stuff. I'm hoping they spend some actually exploring the idea of people being in the wrong place at the wrong time, ending up somewhere they have no business being with no way to communicate or get back, or someone who ends up exactly where they want to be and get to live the life they always wanted to. One fairly dark story, one light story, no planeswalkers or world-ending threats. Just ordinary people who hid from the Phyrexians instead of fighting them, who don't understand what's going on.
For the planeswalkers, yeah, there's a lot of catching up to do. But Calix's story actually doesn't bother me that much, since this basically is his story. He was created for one purpose, to hunt down Elspeth, and even he doesn't know what will happen if he ever finds her. I think he would make a good viewpoint character for what happens to a planeswalker who loses their spark. Kiora, we definitely need more on. Karn was artificially given a spark, and now he lost it again, so he's just kind of returning to default. Everyone else, yeah, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be asking questions, and we'll be slowly getting answers.
May 4, 2023 12:51 p.m.
I like the eternal wanderor's broken planeswalking, and imperfect planeswalking in general. Not being able to basically travel at whim seems like a good direction. Seems like classic team ups and Avengers Assemble situations should not so easily occur.
May 4, 2023 1:45 p.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #8
Even though im certain Jace, Vraska and Quintorius are likely to end up in Caves of Ixalan, it wasn't right to leave them out of Aftermath.
As for the tie-in stories, themselves, I felt they could have done more with it. Like making a whole multi-chapter story similar to the TV series Sliders. Chandra and Nissa using Omenpaths to go to Tarkir where we briefly catch up on Sarkhan and Narset, then to Amonkhet to see how Samut is actually okay with losing her spark, to Kaldheim to see Tyvar where he's happy to see Nissa is cured and even tries to flirt with her, then to Rabiah where we catch up with The Wanderer and resolve unfinished story threads, then to Capenna where the still-vengeful Ob Nixilis follows Chandra and Nissa through the last Omenpath to finally Zendikar.
And on Zendikar is where we have a three way fight between Kiora, Nahiri and Ob Nixilis for Nahiri's spark. Though briefly tempted to take it for herself, Nissa tries and fails to help Nahiri. At least that is how I'd have done it.
But anyway, my theory is we're going to be reduced to 1 planeswalker type to each color scheme. I'd been tracking all the color schemes all the planeswalker types have had and as of Aftermath the only Planeswalker that was and hasn't died or been desparked that we know of is Arlinn Kord Flip. So if Arlinn is desparked I'd expect a new within the next few oncoming sets. Personally I think Wilds of Eldraine would be a perfect set for her to show up.
Caerwyn says... #2
Just as a note, per the thread “Leaks = Ban” TappedOut has a strict policy against discussing leaked cards.
At the time of posting, that means discussion of the official story, which began releasing today, is a-okay.
Discussing planeswalkers who the leak revealed are now legendary creatures is NOT permitted, until that creature is officially spoiled or the story makes it clear that character is no longer a planeswalker.
May 2, 2023 4:29 p.m.