ToC6 discussion room

Jonteman93

"Hmm? Does anyone else feel that - that scent, carried by the wind?

It smells like... burning incense, sun dried fruits, spices and exotic perfumes.

And there is sounds, music perhaps... yes, there are drums, string instruments and flutes.

There is something more far away in the distance. Sun-scorched sands resting in the cold night under a half moon.

The horizon is burning with soft and warm lights of a city. The lights of the city illuminates the blood stains in the sand. And in the sky the jewels are burning bright.

Perhaps it's a night to remember, a night of calm before a storm.

A storm that approaches slowly but surely."

Disclaimer!

This thread is for discussions regarding cards, events, stories and everything else about Tournament of champions 6.
This so the main thread is not cluttered with small chats which should be directed here or to the Discord channel.

I will also use this thread to connect what I have written in the Discord channel to this forum for those that are not part of the Discord.

 
Tournament of Champions begins the 9th of June

Jonteman93

(Prologue)

Long long ago - during a night as calm and silent as any other night, a bright light appeared from the sky illuminating the desert sands for miles and miles away. A star from the night sky had departed from its place and now fell towards the world. As it fell it left a trail of blue fire behind its cyan tail and blue body.

Then as it entered the atmosphere, purple azure flames burst out from newly formed cracks in its core. Then moments later it exploded in a violent storm that pushed away all the clouds from the surrounding sky. Behind was an image of a newly bloomed flower of white and purple flame that slowly diminished as its flame died.

 Then small glowing sparks began to rain down from where the star bloom just had died out. Some of the sparks died themselves but others survived all the way onto the surface. Sparks of all imaginable colors, like seeds falling from a fertile tree they covered the worlds. They were gems - gems of the stars, and they would one day prove to be more than simple beautiful stones.

(1)

In an ancient tomb stands a huge throne of bones. Sitting upon it is a dead king with a gemstone decorating the front of his crown. The king rests in peace but through the gemstone, the armor he wears is commanded by the spirits that inhabits the tomb. Unwilling or unable they do not pass on to the tree of life. Instead they spend their eternity in death protecting the ruins of this ancient kingdom against any trespasser foolish enough to enter.

(2)

The vast desert is a deadly yet calm and peaceful place. It is not violence which makes her such an effective killer. It is the scorching days and the freezing nights that end the life of those that dare to disturb her peaceful ways. But those that can travel through her domain understands that she is no killer at all. She is merely a cradle. There is comfort in her domain, and those that see that also call this place "home".

Sometimes the desert plays with her visitors through illusions, a mirage of an oasis. Sometimes she actually gifts them a real oasis where they can restore their strength. And sometimes an oasis appears which is both a mirage and real at the same time. But it is not her work. In the depth of the water something is shining like the stars of the night sky. A gemstone lies deep beneath the surface. A trap for anyone thirsty enough to drink the water to quench their thirst. A trap for anyone greedy enough to dive in and and claim the stone.

Jonteman93

(3)

The white Mountains of these lands are old. Made millions of years ago thousands of feet beneath the ground where the sand meets the bedrock. Slowly through the years the stone made from molten sand rise up above ground where it is yet again turned to sand and dust as the mountains are polished by wind and weather. But among the mountains, one stands out. Like bleeding wound, the white sandstone is disrupted by slivers of red crystalized stone formed like huge scars.

At the bottom of one of the scars is an opening into the mountain with rails leading down a path into a camp in the valley. From inside the mine the sound of steel clashing against stone and crystal breaks the silence. cling! Clang! cling! clang! The sounds echoes through the tunnels that follow the crystal scar deeper and deeper. The light of burning torches touches the crystal walls and spread a light that almost seem like it flows like blood through the red crystal. Two men pushing a wagon filled with red crystal appears from the deep and soon disappears out into the open as they head down the valley.

Deep inside the mine is the frontier where men are challenging the stone with pickaxe and hammer for bombs is too risky. One man keeping a torch by his side strikes at the crystal before him and after each strike he investigates the wall which behaviors stranger that the crystal of the rest of the mine.
He continues to strike at the crystal with his hammer. kling! kding crack! Then suddenly, the crystal breaks and falls down revealing a stone of dense dark red.
The man grabs the gemstone and hurries back as he cheers "I have found it! I have found it!".

(4)

Once upon a time, before the birth of any relative to any of the elders of today had been born. There was a magnificent kingdom at the crown of a great river. In that kingdom lived a beautiful and devoted young princess who was much loved by all her subjects. Then one day, the kingdom was attacked by a ferocious monster. A beast so terrifying that it struck fear into all in its presence. The monster brought ruin and destruction to city after city as it approached the great capital.

The priestesses of the capital decided that, in order to protect the princess and to keep the warriors from losing heart, the princess would be turned into a bird so she could fly away and seek refuge at the divine peak of the tallest mountain. The priestesses gave the princess a necklace with a white crystal stone inside a medallion. Then as they began chanting a spell, the gemstone began to glow and slowly the princess turned into a white shrike. She flew away to the mountain as the monster came closer.

The battle was hard and costly but after days and nights of battle, the beast had been slayed. The city had been destroyed but the citizens where full of heart for they knew their princess was still alive.
Days passed but the princess would not return. The priestesses decided, with the help of some noble warriors, to climb to the peak where the princess had been sent a week before. At the peak they would find the princess sitting on a branch of an old lonely tree. No matter how much they tried, the priestesses could not undo the transformation.

Slowly over the passing days and weeks, the priestesses and warriors would lose spirit, give up and descend the mountain. After a long time there were only two left - the most noble of the warriors and the elder priestess herself. The priestess saw no end where the princess could be turned back, nothing but to give their hope to destiny itself. The warrior however remained stoic, he would not leave the princess. He made a deal with the priestess. She turned the warrior into a hawk, destined to protect the princess until time comes. Then she left them and descended the mountain.

Two hundred years would pass, and the kingdom and its princess would turn into legend. But stories from those who travel to the valley now claimed by birds tell of a white shrike guarded by a large brown hawk. Perhaps the legend is true.

Jonteman93

(5)

Beyond the eastern coast there is a lonely island which have never been correctly painted onto a map. The island seemingly never stays in the same place for longer than a single day. The island is not difficult to find as it floats in the dense mist. It is known that whenever mist falls dense over the sea the island is near. Most sailors know to avoid the island for if they land on it, when they return for the ship empty handed the ship the island will have traveled hundreds of miles into unknown sea.

Those that actually managed to make it back from the island tell stories of forests and paths that change and twist. They tell of animals that watch the sailors day and night from beyond the fog and voices that haunt their minds. But to those that listen to the stories, it is often of the crystalized lights that appear from deep inside the fog, which catch their interest the most. But after decades no one have yet managed to claim the gemstones from the island of fog.

(6)

War

War is like a hungry beast. It hungers for land, gold and faith. It hungers as it devours the lives of man, those of guilt, those of duty and those of innocence. It hungers as it devours the livelihood of man and animal alike as it burns crop and house to useless ash. It hungers as it devours iron, wood and black powder as the tools of war are shattered in combat and left in the blood covered mud and sand. It hungers as it devours the written and unwritten words of knowledge, -history, science, culture and pleasure, as it leaves only scavenging birds to break the dead silence.
It was hunger for pride and honor that started this war and it won't end until the beast hungers no more.

That time is far away. Some believe they will not survive to taste the winds of peace. Some believe it will never arrive at all. Some believe they don't want peace anymore. Some believe the beast can only be satisfied by eating itself to death. And for such goal the correct tools are needed.

In a distant city far from the heat of war, black thick smoke rises to the sky. It pours from the chimney of a large building of industry that have fed this war for a long time. But this one is different as blue light shines through the windows. Men are stacking weapons into crates, arquebuses and bombs. But these are not of ordinary steel and iron, they are black with a tone of crystal blue.

Deeper inside the forge a valve opens up and intense hot liquid steel pours down into a mold to form the barrels of weapons. As the molten steel cools solid a shattered blue light reflects through it like as if it was made of crystal. Large blue flames bursts up as iron bars and scrap metal are poured into a large foundry. Deep inside the burning coal beneath the foundry a sharp blue light shine through the yellow flame. The light of the heart of the forge - a gemstone to feed the beast of war.

Jonteman93

(7)

From village to village he travels. He carry nothing but his white cloak decorated in symbols of the white and the black cobras, and on his finger a ring with a green stone. He is not executioner yet he take lives.
Not lives of the guilty, though not always of the innocent either. He does not take at all. He gives an honorable and peaceful death to those that can no longer live, those that above all else desire death and peace. He does not take what he desires, he is given what he needs be it food, water, a warm bed for the night, a woman. It is not uncommon that he lay with the women of the men whose lives he just had ended. It is not uncommon that he eats and drinks from the very plates and cups who's owner he had given death minutes earlier.

He is a holy man exiled from the very temples who's holy symbol he carry on his ring. He is a man of oaths and piety yet he gives to those that have the most instead of those in greatest need. He is not a warrior yet those that seek to mug him always end up empty handed. He is a man who travels from village to village carrying death with him. And so he have done for six hundred years.

(8)

Music has Always been an important part of life in this land - in the entire world even. Music has been just to connect with the gods and the spirits of the dead but also the world and the will of the mother goddess herself. Music is also just for people to celebrate or encourage them during tough times or to raise their spirit before a battle.

Many dedicate their entire lives to the art of music and song. Some go even further.

There is a city that used to be famous for its many singers and its soothing music and its great opera house. That was many years ago and today musical performances are kept far from the old opera house in the outskirts of the city. Not much activity at all is kept close to the opera house anymore whose doors and windows have been barricaded and signs warning any trespasser decorate the walls. But if one is to be near the house they will hear song echoing from deep inside the building.

The house might be barricaded but it is still fully crowded. Not a single seat unoccupied. Everyone of the audience sit in silence, almost in trance. They are all pale and clearly malnourished as if they have barely been eating for months and not seen the sun for years. All they do is listen to the song of the singer who stands on the stage.

Dressed in a beautiful golden dress decorated in green and purple, her singing voice echoes against the wooden walls. Her song is perfect, not a single flaw, not a single mistake. Her skin, unlike that of her audience, is of olive-colored and full of life and her hair is long and dark brown with jewels of silver and gold. Around her neck hangs a necklace with a yellow gemstone. Her brown eyes are filled with nothing but madness.

Jonteman93

Eight gemstones has been presented. Eight obstacles, eight challenges.

These eight stones are not the most powerful stones, no, there are far more powerful stones out there. There are far bigger obstacles to retrieve them, far more dangerous challenges in wait. But those are for those can overcome the challenges of today. Perhaps one day someone will overcome all these obstacles and take up the stone of the sun?

But that is not today.

Which stone will you pursue?

AddGG

Eats all of the delicious multicolored candies

Tonysparks

So awesome. Revive the forum! : D

AddGG

Update: The candies did not taste good

AddGG

AddGG

It's That Time Again!

To make sure people have a chance to use them, I've created the ToC 6 Set Symbols in advance. Included below are links to each rarity (for MTGCS), the MSE Symbol file, and a .zip with all of the images (for card makers that need them, or for those that want to download the image files for Cajun Mainframe).



Common: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/1115070059354800288/ToC6_Common.png
Uncommon: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/1115070059681947730/ToC6_Uncommon.png
Rare: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/1115070059988144178/ToC6_Rare.png
Mythic: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/1115070060252381284/ToC6_Mythic.png

MSE Symbol: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/1115070060525015151/ToC6_MSE.mse-symbol
ZIP: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/1115070060885721149/ToC6_Symbol_Download.zip


If any of you are concerned about readability, don't be! If you've used my ToC4 symbol, you've practically already used this one!

AddGG

Teaser for my character, for those that don't peruse Discord

AddGG

Gemsyomke

DrakeGladis

Snacc

Tonysparks

Man I am getting story hungry. I like reading all your cool backstories T_T. Also @kaoz42 you forgot to select a stone.

Tonysparks

We even got another speedster yet I don't know their backstory. What if they are way cooler than may triple A punchy guy?

Tonysparks

I just wanna be upfront. The base structure of the story is me, but I enhance it using AI. I can't take credit for the magestic writting structure in my stories, just the story itself. In that essense, most of my stories will share credit with Chat GPT, unless I say otherwise because it would be a big lie to say the quality writing you see on this tournament will all be me.

Tonysparks

also goes without say but, that was not an advertisment for Chat GPT. I just think it would be unfair for someone to read something so beautiful under the assumption that I did it on my own.

theirintheattic

While I don't have an issue with that, I would encourage you to develop and practice your own writing skills. They will serve you well in the future, and honestly AI just isn't very good at writing stories. Most AI generated text I read comes off as a little clunky or very simply written. It's hard to beat human creativity, intelligence, and heart.

Tonysparks

Oh no, I write the stories on my own. The Ai just enhances the language. The content of the story is 100% mine. I just some times struggle to transition between settings, it also helps cut repetition. I submit my draft and just have it enhanced.

My reason for mentioning it is because I feel like it wouldn't be right for me to fully claim the stories as my own since they genuinely almost put me to tears with their beauty when enhanced. I consider myself an adept written as a whole, Ai is more of a tool to push my stories to a more expert level.

AxNoodle

For this challenge, are we supposed to submit a full description of how the character acquires the stone? The way I assumed it was is that the story would be about the journey to learn of and pursue the stone with a short sentence or two on the plan to claim it.

Jonteman93

@AxNoodle
That was the initial plan. However since there are not enough players, stage 1 is skipped as a battle stage and instead replaced by story and thus gives the players an opportunity to put their heroes in a conflict that is directly linked to the tournament. This also gives you an opportunity to describe your heroes' abilities and skills in action before I use them in direct combat with each other. 

AddGG

I might be delayed in submitting my story bit. I havent been able to make any progress since the day after the round began.

kaoz42

@Tonysparks
That's okay, I would've chosen lava stone, but I didn't know about the stones before hand. I got gemstone of illusions instead. Not my top pick, but okay.

Tonysparks

True to my words I am going to be dropping out the tournament. This just feels like it will be a repetition of TO4 and TO5 where the stories only progress ever 4 months.

Jonteman93

Tonysparks I am sorry to hear that.

This tournament did not get a good start so i understand that people are dropping interest in it.

dcw03000

Hello! I just discovered this tournament and I am very interested in the concept. Is there still time to register? Also, what is the link to the Discord server?

Tonysparks

One happens each year

kaoz42

@dcw03000
The Tournament is almost into semifinals already, so that should answer your question. You'll probably need to wait until at least this June. (So do I, I lost first round.)

dcw03000

@kaoz42 Aw, alright then. Well I hope to be there for the next tournament! Is there a community I can join for this to get notifications and such if not the Discord server mentioned?