Magic Story: Born of Aether
Lore forum
Posted on Sept. 21, 2016, 12:17 p.m. by GoldGhost012
We get a good look at how the aetherborn live, party, and die. There's also some renegade and Consulate action.
AgentGreen says... #3
Quick question to the masses; is Nissa that strong? To be able to fireman's carry that soldier away? She doesn't look very strong.
Maybe that's magic at work
September 21, 2016 1:07 p.m.
RicketyEng not sure if you were aware, but the use of "they" was a choice by the creative team, not just this author. the aetherborn don't have male/female gender distinction, so they (plural) are always referred to as "they," not he/she/him/her.
pronouns do get used a lot in writing, but it is more noticeable here since most people are used to using binary pronouns.
September 21, 2016 2:58 p.m.
The language doesn't really have a good way to deal with a third gender, but I think that 'they' is definitely better than 'it' with regards to the AEtherborn, as 'they' can be used for single entities and 'it' implies an object.
September 21, 2016 4:02 p.m.
the pronouns take some getting used to, but it doesn't bother me too much.
i forgot to mention, i thought this story was just awesome. i love the main character, and the aetherborn (race? species?) as a whole. it's a really creative way to do black characters. they're very selfish, but for obvious reasons. it reminds me of the movie "in time."
September 21, 2016 4:52 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #7
Their admiration for Nissa is somewhat contagious. You can really feel their admiration for her.
September 21, 2016 7:47 p.m.
I'm wondering if the scene between the two Aetherborn at the end is alluding to some plot line we could expect in Aether Revolt? While it seems the primary focus of the story for that set appears to be on the Consulate vs the Renegades, I think it would be interesting if it was actually an Aetherborn revolution so it would literally be a revolt by Aether. I'm sure they'll factor into the renegade faction some how. This also makes me curious about the collaboration alluded to between Gonti and Kambal.
September 22, 2016 12:51 a.m.
I wonder if we'll be seeing Yaheeni again. Perhaps she'll assist in the Aether Revolt, maybe this "essence draining" kills the things they drain from, and she could be a legendary creature on the renegades' side, resulting in her living for an exceptionally longer amount of time.
A Yaheeni card could actually be really cool.
"Yaheeni, Essence Drainer enters the battlefield with 2 doom counters.
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a doom counter from Yaheeni, then if there are no more doom counters on Yaheeni, sacrifice it.
(Some cost): Destroy target creature. Put X doom counters on Yaheeni, where X is that creature's power."
Or something like that.
September 22, 2016 1:05 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
This story was mostly a side story, but it did provide great insight into the aetherborn, which was nice world-building.
I noticed that Yaheeni did not ask what a baloth was when Nissa one gnawing off her leg, so does thar mean that there are baloths on Kaladesh, or did Yaheeni merely presume that a baloth is an animal of some form?
kanokarob, I, also, wonder if Yaheeni will appear again, later, because it would be very unfortunate if she shall be merely a one-shot character. I also very much like your idea of her as a card, as it fits perfectly with how she was portrayed in this story.
September 22, 2016 2:01 a.m.
asasinater13 says... #11
AgentGreen I would assume nissa is just that strong. Elves generally have more power, and she's a pretty strong elf. Her strong connection to green mana probably influences that but I doubt it's like a spell she's using to make herself strong.
Third person pronouns are difficult in English and I more enjoy the use of they than the use of it. I would have been interested to see wizards start using an alternative more recently created pronoun, but I think using they/them/their is good and adds depth to the race as a whole.
I'm also really hopeful about seeing Yaheeni again, and even more hopeful about seeing them get a card. (though they may end up being a character created after card design was done. I doubt wizards would have introduced a new race specific to a block and not expected a want for a legendary card to match the race, so I would be like. Shocked if we only had the one legendary aetherborn in the set)
September 22, 2016 1:45 p.m.
I realized that if Yaheeni got a card similar to what I said, she'd just use Energy counters, not doom counters on herself. Same concept, of course. I like that better anyway.
September 22, 2016 10:57 p.m.
kanokarob, rather than doom counters, how about Yaheeni having a P/T of 0/0 and come into play with a number of +1/+1 counters? She'd lose one during your upkeep, but you could destroy other creatures to put more on her.
RicketyEng says... #2
I love how Yahenni was able to help Nissa tune into the nature of the city and make her feel more comfortable.
I don't like the author's decision to use third-person plural pronouns. It bothered me and confused me whenever an aetherborn was referred to as "they." I know that using third-person plural is gradually becoming accepted more when used for third-person gender-neutral singular, but when it is used so much as it was in this story it reaffirms to me why this is actually grammatically incorrect.
September 21, 2016 12:43 p.m.