UR/MS: Breakthrough
Lore forum
Posted on Dec. 14, 2016, 12:14 p.m. by RicketyEng
In which Rashmi makes a breakthrough in her research and realizes just how complicated things really are.
RazortoothMtg says... #3
Just read it. One of my favorite stories since when Avacyn died.
So is Rashmi's matter transporter gonna be like Vensers teleporter back in future sight block? I remember reading those books, and theres a lot of similarities. Both just want to teleport things across a room, but then they learn about the multiverse and learn about planeswalkers. If it is, does that mean Rashmi's gonna be a "planeswalker" but not really, like venser?
December 14, 2016 12:32 p.m.
RicketyEng says... #4
Maybe Rashmi could start travelling if she ever gets to use her technology herself.
I thought Venser had a spark though, didn't he? He sacrificed himself by giving up his spark to save Karn.
December 14, 2016 12:56 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #5
Awesome story
Now Rashimi knows all about the multiverse and that both Saheeli and Tezz knew about it, she's too intelligent to not be able to put all the pieces together, that there are beings that can traverse the multiverse and that she is just one person in a multiverse of infinite populations
December 14, 2016 2:02 p.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #6
Really didn't like the use of Tezzeret in this story. I mean, he's being the actual worst, setting unreasonable demands, and kicking inventors out, but they're still just happily working for him anyway? I felt he should have appeared to be more subtly evil - putting pressure on them to succeed, but playing on their egos more than just threatening and stomping around.
Makes him feel clumsy, and not nearly as smart as he's supposed to be. Also makes Rashmi and the other inventors look pretty stupid to not figure out he doesn't have their best interests at heart.
December 14, 2016 4:08 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
This was definitely the best story that I have read in some time.
I really could feel Rashmi's desire to succeed, her terror at Tezzeret's behavior, and her sense of relief when she escaped.
I found it difficult to take Tezzeret seriously in this story, since he was so short-tempered that he seemed liked a child who did not get what they wanted. How did he attain a position of such great authority with a personality like that? Given that he is blue in the cards, I found it to be odd that he is not demonstrating the calm and calculating demeanor that most blue characters display; he seemed to be much more red than blue in this story.
I see that Rashmi has learned about other planes; I wonder how she shall react when she learns that there are people who have traveled to those planes? She now is part of the resistance, which I like, so I am certain that she shall play a major role in their fight against the Consulate.
Which planes did Rashmi glimpse? The city was likely Ravnica, and she also obviously saw Zendikar, but the others were less obvious; I shall presume that the starry sky was Theros and the marketplace was Mercadia.
December 14, 2016 5:05 p.m.
Dredge4life says... #8
Tick tick goes the clock,
Rashmi turned and ran.
And now, it's only, a matter of time,
Till Phyrexia rises again.
December 14, 2016 6:07 p.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #9
RicketyEng: In the Future Sight books, he didn't have a spark, but could travel to the blind eternities with a teleporter and then back to dominaria or something along those lines. I do remember that he gave up his spark, so maybe his spark ignited in the last book (I could never find a copy of the last one). Any Vorthos people here who know?
December 14, 2016 6:13 p.m.
iBleedPunk says... #10
First off, it was a good story that ended up with Rashmi finally understanding the magnitude of what her device could do as well as Rashmi coming to a faint realization that others may have come from and have seen these worlds.
Secondly, as many have previously pointed out Tezzeret is very out of character in this story. He is supposed to be a calm and collected character but we see him exhibiting the characteristics of through his childish fits of rage. Instead of slyly manipulating the inventors he outright boots them for not meeting his high expectations, even going so far as to threaten them in front of others if I recall correctly. Maybe we will see his Aether Revolt incarnation as a card but that's just baseless speculation.
On a side note does anyone know if Tezzy is still working for Nicol Bolas? If so then I wonder if he is impatient and angry due to pressure from Nicol Bolas to find technology that would allow non-Planeswalkers to travel planes. I think that Tezzeret openly tried to kill Nicol somewhere in the lore so I don't know for a fact if they are still connected
December 14, 2016 8:26 p.m.
RazortoothMtg No idea about Future Sight Venser, but in Scars block (and in the accompanying book, which I read), Venser is a true planeswalker who sacrifices himself to save Karn.
December 14, 2016 8:47 p.m.
Faceless_Being I see what you're saying with Tezzeret being kinda in the story, but the fact that the Planeswalker Deck Tezzeret, Master of Metal is / probably means that the one in AER is also going to be /. Dark Intimations definitely seems to show that he still has at least some connection to Bolas, though.
December 14, 2016 8:50 p.m.
Damn. Tezzeret's such a jerk. He almost made it into my vendetta list, if it weren't for the fact that, as 5,000,000 other people mentioned, he was out of character. He sounds a lot like me when I throw a knee-jerk tantrum (It's safe to say that is a crucial part of my color identity. That said, I'm just hot-tempered. Nothing childish about that).
I wonder that, if Heart of Kiran is Skyship Weatherlight 2.0 and be a planeswalking airship, there will be non-planeswalker characters on board. Yahenni and Rashmi seem like candidates for this possibility.
December 14, 2016 9:20 p.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #14
Phaetion: I hope so. I love the character of both Yahenni and Rashmi. I hope we seem them again soon.
December 14, 2016 9:32 p.m.
Tezzeret betrayed Nicol Bolas and took the control of the Infinite Consortium out from under him, which is what prompted Bolas to employ Liliana and, indirectly, Jace, to eventually face Tezzeret, in a planechase which ended on Kamigawa. Jace obliterated his mind, and severed his etherium arm.
This was not implied to have killed him at the time, however, while Ajani was on Kamigawa, he heard rumor that following Tezzeret's death, a dragon came and bargained for his (quote) "corpse" with the villagers who witnessed the battle.
Obviously, the dragon is Nicol Bolas. Thus, he has either reanimated Tezzeret, if he did indeed die, or reconstructed his mind as he wanted it. Either way, Tezzeret is likely magically bound to Bolas' whims. Thus, he is not in his right mind, not thinking as methodically as he might have, focused only on achieving his master's goal, with the stress of magic, either black or blue, warping him. He's a shadow of his former self, and the Gatewatch will likely make use of this to learn of Amonkhet.
Thus, I find it unlikely Tezzeret's planeswalker card will be red; he's not actually angry, he's under stress, superficially and/or magically. Regardless of which case it is, either black or blue magic is the cause, not red.
And to answer how Tezzeret got into such a position of power with this temper, the answer is bribes. He has massive amount of financing, as he is backed by an unknown benefactor (Who realistically is Bolas).
December 14, 2016 9:41 p.m.
RicketyEng says... #16
Kanokarob is making a lot of sense to me. For more clarification, did Agents of Artifice happen before or after Scars of Mirrodin?
December 15, 2016 2:13 p.m.
Before Scars.
Also, if you look at Tezzeret's art Scars onwards, he looks significantly older than he should be. Look at, say, Tezzeret's Ambition. His hair is all gray, and he's got markings on his face. It is scientifically known that people get gray-haired if they have a significant amount of stress. Since Tezzy's under a lot of stress from Bolas in some way, his hair grayed since his "resurrection."
December 15, 2016 3:18 p.m.
Tezzeret was always prone to fits of rage when things don't go his way. Even back in Agents of Artifice when he was just a mono-blue character.
Having emotions is not just a trait.
He tortured Jace with a mana-blade (a blade that saps mana out of mages) for hours just because Jace admitted Bolas (a fucking ancient dragon) was able to distract him telepathically.
He did used to be more calculating and deceptive, but since then he's had his mind rebuilt by an evil Gixis aligned Dragon, so his temperament might have changed a bit. He also seems to be under an enormous amount of pressure, likely coming from Bolas.
It's also worth noting that previously we've seen him interacting with people he views as equals (other Planeswalkers) while in this story it's clear that he views non-planeslwakers as inferior and not worth any subtlety.
RicketyEng, Agents was before Scars, yes.
December 15, 2016 3:25 p.m.
RicketyEng says... #19
On that note of interacting with other planeswalkers, Tezzeret definitely showed us his manipulative side is still there when he appeased Dovin with the prospect of working with all the other inventions. I still think it's amusing and ironic that Dovin can see the weakness in anything, yet failed to see his hubris as his own weakness as Tezzeret was able to manipulate Dovin way too easily.
December 15, 2016 3:42 p.m.
Dovin's hubris is that since he can see all the imperfections in any system and longs to fix them, he assumes that everyone else longs to fix the imperfections of the world as well, and they don't simply because they don't have his ability to do so. He doesn't recognize that others might not share his views even if they had his abilities, or that people might have wholly evil motives.
It's the classic mistake of smart people who believe they have good intentions. "If everyone saw things the way I do they're be no problems in the world, because problems are only being caused by people's incompetence and mistakes." Not recognizing that people's identities are separate from their capabilities, and that some people are terrible individuals just because they're evil, and not because they're not as smart as you.
In this way he assumes that Tezzeret has the interests of the Consulate at heart to some degree, just because he himself does, and can't imagine that Tezz's motivation could be purely selfish, because he can't comprehend something so far out of his worldview.
I'm surprised more people haven't picked up on this, actually. Maybe it's just that it's something I do myself sometimes.
RicketyEng says... #2
I got the sense that Rashmi's fear for the safety of all the other planes could be suggesting that the transporter could be used to damage them if it is routed through them and overloaded in the wrong way. I might just be looking too deep into it though because it is perfectly reasonable to fear Tezzeret sending armies of automatons to any other plane.
I liked how well Rashmi was able to figure out Tezzeret and use that knowledge to save Mitul and herself. I also like how she is now putting 3 and 4 together and realizing there are other people who already know all about the Multiverse. Whether she takes it with enthusiasm or lets herself feel betrayed will likely depend on the writers' desire to use her to create drama or not.
December 14, 2016 12:29 p.m.