Lore of the Ghettash block

Since I don't currently have premium available (yet) and I'm trying to make a dramatic return to the community, I figured I should host my first challenge! The challenge is for you to help me develop a new plane Ghettash. The entire plane itself is a large city ruled by 3 criminal factions.

The Alterra, founded by a group of mages with the intent of creating a city to observe and experiment on in order to obtain as much knowledge as possible. Primarily mages and artificers, though enforcers exist within their ranks.

The Glatorians, known for there utter ruthlessness, are a group of thugs with no other intent but to rule the city and obliterate the opposing factions. They almost exclusively think short term and don't have a definite end goal.

The Hultaria, a faction operating similarly to the mafia, are intelligent, organized criminals. They also happen to be the biggest of all the factions. Not one person on the plane truly doesn't fear them.

There are, of course, those who would rather not choose a side. Just simple shopkeepers, tailors, and smiths who would just like to live normal lives. These deserve praise too. Today I would like to form a name for the plane. I'm simply drawing blanks. Lore too. I would like this to be a community made set/plane. Feel free to ask questions and leave suggestions. I advise you to remain active on all discussions. This allows for you to stay informed and for me to not repeat myself
Card discussion here: http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2758/let-s-develop-cards-for-my-set
Mechanic discussion here: http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2760/the-three-factions#latest
Voting poll here: http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2765/voting-poll-set-name#latest

Comments

  • Hmm, maybe Solyra might work (combination of "Sol" which means sun and "Yra" which is a bastardized version of Ira or hate/wrath)

    As for the lore, if you truly intend to make more than one set around this plane, it'll need to follow the 'block' set up. This means the first part is exploratory and focuses heavily on presenting the base mechanics that'll be introduced in the block without too much complex and/or unique combinations and variants. (see both the old and latest mirrodin block, the old zendikar block and the old and new innistrad block for reference)

    With this in mind, this first set should focus heavily on the factions, their base players, soldiers, employees, etc and the regular people that slip between them.

    Lore-wise this also means that this should be seen as the intro for the story this block is telling, bring in a few characters and preferably the main protagonist(s) and a few first secondary antagonists. (the big villains only appear at set 2 or 3, with 3 being the climax.)

    As for how the story would go, that's actually up to you, you're in charge of creating the characters and explaining who their are, their background etc, yet if you really want... I've always wanted for my set's main antagonist to be more of a Nicol Bolas and less of a Yawgmoth if you know what I mean?
  • For a plane name, I went looking for something gritty and shady. Made these really quickly, but do any of these work?

    • Haldan
    • Duskan
    • Torremor
    • Ghettash
    • Ment

  • Overall, I think Ghettash is the best choice in terms of current incarnation. But something derived from one of the others could be cool.

    Haldan: Not too fond of this one. But it's okay.
    Duskan: Has been used in other games fairly often. But always sounds cool.
    Torremor: Something derived from this could be right for the plane. It just needs to flow better pronunciation wise.
    Ghettash: I Like this one as it sounds trashy. (Not bad!) Which may describe the morals of many on the plane.
    Ment: You'd have to add a prefix to this to make it feel complete and roll off the tongue so as to speak.

    But it's up to yall as you seem to be doing well. I'm mainly wondering if multi-color cards should stretch into the lower rarities or if this will be less focused on pressuring color pairings.
  • edited April 2017
    So I read the setting as somewhere between imperial rome as a the great home city, but with the fractious criminal elements more like the warring citystates of renaissance italy.

    The Alterra seems blue primarily, Glatorians are red, and Hultaria is black. Though being an urban setting it is hard not to think of them in Ravnica terms. Alterra is primarily the Azorius Senate in structure with House Dmir methods, and maybe some Simic and Izzet? The Glatorians feel like Rakdos with some Gruul. The Hultaria would be pure Orzhov Syndicate.

    Plane names might be Novadoma, Eminence, or Vicedora.

    Novadoma is the New Home. The old empire fell, its capital lost to barbarians and catastrophe. Civilization endures in the sister city, ruled by its criminal guilds as the defacto order.

    Eminence for the majesty and greatness of the plane. Also it has the same suffix as Florence, so your coins could be Emintines like Florentines. You could name things like the Eminent guard, the Emintina Palace, etc.

    Vicedora (Veechaydorra) seems like an artistic plane to me, a place with a lot of marble everywhere. Also Vice city? Hell of a game.
  • i created this new plane in this challenge and want to develop it further.

    http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2664/masterpeice-challenge-final-round#latest

    I'll post a refined lore soonish
  • Guar'nel was always a name I figured could be good in the right circumstance.
  • I have two planes: an Unnamed Viking world and Krampan.
  • I appreciate all of the advice! I think we'll do this by process of elimination. Voting, if you will.
    These are the suggestions that have been entered so far (that passed my judgement) with how I think they're pronounced
    Solyra [so-leer-uh]
    Haldan [hall-dann]
    Ghettash [get-ash]
    Duskan [dusk-an]
    Novadoma [nove-uh-dome-uh]
    Eminence [that's already English]
    Guar'nell [gwar-nell]
    Maybe the pronunciations were unnecessary.
  • edited April 2017
    {Null Value}
  • excuse me people, don't come up with your own lore 'n stuff for planes you made, this is a discussion revolving around @Thecardartist7 's plane. Keep it that wa please and open your own discussions if you want your own plane to be featured
  • edited April 2017
    Halik is a random one I made up.

    Sashiokra and Torvania are two that has been floating in my head a lot recently.

  • @Thatcardartist7
    Ghettash sounds best to me.
  • I like Duskan. Dusk fits with a shady plane run by shady people. It also contrasts nicely with faction names which are longer. Duskan's Glatorians, ect. It's short and easy to remember. Also when making cards it will take up less space for names.
  • edited April 2017
    My favorites are Ghettash and Solyra.
  • While we wait for more votes, let's discuss the overall structure of the city. It would be divided into districts I want to say about ten, of course as long as nobody objects. I've already created one district. The stone district, more commonly referred to as bandit's rock, is the first district you would encounter walking through the city's gates. It is the only district not owned by faction. This is due to the absurd number of citizens whom refuse to join a side. It is marked by (as the name implies) a large rock. This rock is pointed at the top and roughly 15 feet tall. Nothing to scoff at. In spite of the lack of faction dominance, the factions do have property within the district. The Glatorians have an arena located to the East. The Alterra a library the the North that also serves as a laboratory in the basement and an observatory in the attic. The Hultaria own a bank in the West. This bank is also commonly used as a smuggling ring for both the Hultaria, and the city's many denizens.
  • edited April 2017
    I like the idea of having some generic (both in design and cost) creatures
    to represent those that choose no sides in the Stone District.

    Here's an example card:
    image
  • edited April 2017
    This makes me think its something kind of like the seven hills of rome. Would the districts perhaps have a geological reason for being separate, hills or maybe canals? The Ten Hills of Ghettash could make a neat card cycle. We might also consider rivers, a delta making the core district an island? Perhaps there is a central road from the gates leading through the districts to the city center, and all the main trade focused is there, so it's fighting over districts but also traffic between districts.

    One of the districts should be the lowest point of the city, where all the sewage and garbage ends up, and the tanners and leather workers hang out there. It could be the 'swamp' of the city, with wild trolls and bog monsters mixed with scavengers and the very poorest of the poor.

    I think the Stone District might have some sort of neighborhood watch/district militia/community policing that would enforce their desired neutrality, and keep the gangs on their toes.
  • I like it. Be sure to state the creatures actual race (elf, dwarf, human, wolf, etc.) Otherwise it fits perfectly. Please also post your cards in the card discussion. Much appreciated!
  • edited April 2017
    @Thatcardartist7
    There's at least two races (probably three) depicted. I didn't (and don't) know what to do.
  • I suppose that's fair, though if I am to include it I would appreciate finalization.
  • We should have no more than five main humanoid races to keep the set focused. Maybe introduce a new race or a exotic version of a previous card type? (Like the elves in Lorwyn having hooves and horns)

    Here is an example, and potential offer:

    Humans
    Orcs (The subtle ones as well as the violent ones)
    Goblins
    Elves
    Scriptfolk (They are creatures composed of paper and runes. Scriptfolk are created by wizards with the intent of delivering messages or other means of communication. Once delivered, the Scriptfolk disintegrate. Scriptfolk can be manifestos of independance, death threats, or vassals of discovery. But they must convey knowledge in a way.)
  • Another question: To balance out all of the factions, why not have two more criminal factions embodying two other color combinations? That way all the colors will be balanced and the set will be symmetrical. Here are some examples:

    White/Blue-centered: Alterra. They want control, and mages and artificers tend to be WU.

    Blue/Black-centered: Hultaria. They are secretive yet widely feared, and are incredibly intellegent. Will work nicely for UB

    Black/Red-centered: Glatorians. Bloodshed and mindless carnage? BR says sign me up!

    Green/Red-centered: [name here]. What about a faction that wishes to restore a malignant nature spirit to power and to destroy order?

    White/Green centered: [name here]. What about a faction that is bound by a complex religion that justifies crime for the common good and seeks to spread its influence to all the nonbelievers? Best crime-like thing I could come up for WG.

    Any objections? Or will Red/Green and White/Green be focused on the common folk?

  • @Gelectrode I had already thought upon this. I wouldn't like to add new factions in the first set. I'm thinking that two more factions could arise in the second set. I already have the basis for one. It would be sort of a nature cult. They look down upon the petty squabbles of the other factions, and worship some drastically overgrown tree. This tree to them would symbolize how they will grow. Even though they just became noticeable, they will one day grow to a simply gargantuan size and take the city over, allowing the tree to grow it's spores across all districts. That's their dream at least. I love the idea of the crime-justifying complex religion. Very well thought out.

    Might I note, the factions are three color. Each with a primary, secondary, and tertiary. Similar to Tarkir's clans. Here they are, listed in order from primary to tertiary.

    Glatorians-Red Green Black
    Alterra-Blue White Red
    Hultaria-Black White Red
    Nature cult-Green White Blue?

    In both the Alterra and Hultaria the third color is used to represent the combat capabilities they posses, however small. The Glatorians actually have almost an exact balance of green and black, though I went with green being second as the Gruul color combo isn't seen often. I went with three color for two reasons. 1- diversity for the cardsmiths. 2- honestly to avoid comparisons with Ravnica. I didn't want to copy a plane.
  • edited April 2017
    @Odogom I love this idea. I want to avoid the idea of hills to avoid inspiration that is too direct. That is the same reason Kamigawa got so much hate. I like the delta idea, and how all districts are divided by rivers. This would also allow merfolk to exist. I'm leaning towards exactly 11 districts to make a certain structure I've pictured.
  • We could do maybe District Halls with a better name to have a cycle around each district. Or just do landmarks, the 11 landmarks/wonders of the city. Bridges will be important too in a river city, the Greater and Lesser bridges. They could be artifacts or something, bridges bring two things together, or let things change between them, could find cool ways to represent it in cards.

    Will the 11 be tied to color? Stone quarter is colorless, the other 11 could be color combos? If we want to avoid duplicating ravnica we could do 5 pure color districts, with 5 mixed color districts. If so, we can add sub-districts and outskirts to represent missing colors in the next set.

    Does this delta come from one big river at the top and split into many, or do we have many join to create one big river? Does this delta empty into the ocean or a lake, in which case we have a waterfront district? Waterfronts are great for smuggling and criminal elements.

    I would say we stick with three core races that make up the majority of each gang, and then you can have the secondary races with less frequency. I would almost say make the Hultaria the exotic merfolk, make them shark featured so the mafia is run by actual sharks. Otherwise intelligent zombies, vampires have been done too recently.
  • Allow me to address each idea...

    District halls: as I plan to have lands that alternate between players (representing faction takeover), I would say that district halls sound like a great idea. The bridges could do the same.

    11 districts: I actually meant 12. I apologize. The twelve would be primarily, a 5 color central hub, colorless stone district, 1 district for each color, and then I'd leave it up to the community to create the rest. I avoided going 5 basic, 10 nonbasic, 1 colorless and a five color was simply because 17 districts is too many. There are outskirts to the city. This is the edge of civilization. It is viewed by most citizens as a dead end, as no explorer has lived to map it out.

    Delta: I'd imagine structure-wise I like the delta that splits into many. Flavor wise I love the idea of all the colored districts meeting to one hub of 5 colors. The waterfront would be Dimir colored and be a super popular area for the Hultaria.

    Races: I LOVE the sharkfolk. Three core races technically sorts to 9, but with three automatically being human, it's more like 6 which is very do-able. I would like each race to be very exotic compared to it's normality. Or at least relatively.
  • ANNOUNCEMENT

    I'm making a huge change. The Hultaria are going to be aligned with blue rather than red. This is to avoid color imbalance a little more, as well as add a more intelligence based statute on the Hultaria.
  • I'm in the process of writing the first story for the plane and would like suggestion on where I should post it. Any ideas?
  • Also, notify me if you would like to be a writer or editor for the official Ghettash stories. Just PM me for details
This discussion has been closed.