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COLONIZERS Arc 2 (S1) - Colonizers of Myria
Knowledge of Colonizers lore is not necessary for this bit, but if you're new, feel free to skip as it may cause confusion
After many long days spent with the Kala-Niza, the Hero of Capes was free at last. The demons had been entertained with the latest competition, an excellently well rounded display of, well, everything! However, by letting them go, they weren't done just yet... merely looking for someone to put their own spin on things. To open these demons to a whole new host of thrills they would hope they haven't seen before.
As the Hero was dismissed from their chamber, the demons summoned their scribes and their collectors... it was time to search for another which had been indebted to them. Another powerful being they could exploit... someone else who could manipulate the very planes themselves. Which is when they found a desperate soul on Stitia. A god that had made a deal with them in the past for vengeance. A little extra grit never hurt anyone, now did it? Besides... it's not like he had anything better to do!
As the chamber door opened, a somewhat cloaked, oriental figure stumbled into the door. A spirit of vengeance given tangible form. Another walking legend, though perhaps not as significant, that could give them what they were looking for. War. Chaos. Carnage... but in controlled doses. They didn't want the fun to be spoiled straightaway...
The spirit shook his head as he stood and wiped the dust and demonic muck from a recent revel from his garb, then stood to see the demons. He scoffed. "From bloody battle and horrid loss, a world most profane, you call me. Why?"
"We were looking through our debts when we noticed that you had amassed... a rather large sum," one of them replies. "Your debt is... oh dear... we can't even sell this to anyone! Altering the fate of several worlds, binding several entities comparable in power to yourself, and even creating-... why haven't we called this in already?!" The demon spoke to a few others in private before sighing, displeased. "Now, normally we would just kill you outright for this kind of outstanding debt, but we're willing to make you a new offer..."
Today, something that has never been done before is happening right before your eyes. From the shadows steps forth a new bearer of @HeroKP's Colonizers tradition. Otaimo, Interplanar God of Vengeance and Punishment, joined by @DrakeGladis
and @AxNoodle! With Otaimo's power to bind creatures, places, and even whole kingdoms to planes, both the worthy and the wicked have been brought upon Myria, and whether it's their test or their punishment, they have three goals; survive, grow, and prosper...
[Continued Below...]
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The Plane
Image Credits - In order: Four Seasons Forest by FelipeCagno; Winter's Tale by Ellysiumn; Basking Bonsai by Chromattix; Canyon Depths by Kyomu
[Locations in order: Aldym, the Harvest Grove (Fall); Ventr, the Mountains of Frost (Winter); Rayn, the Lively Valleys (Spring); Omir, the Flowering Canyons (Summer)]
Image Credit - Densebourgeon Forest by Asur-Misoa
The Saga
You goal is to lead your factions of brave settlers in an epic test to see who can survive until the end. While this plane may be beautiful and vibrant now, it will deteriorate over time, making the plane smaller and smaller and forcing colonies closer together. How will you respond to dwindling resources and shrinking real estate? Will you work with other factions to survive, or will you fight and claim their territory to keep your empire vast?What you'll need:
- A legendary card (preferably a creature, but The Grand Calculatron was a thing so go to town) to represent the leader or ruler of the faction, whom will oversee their colonization. Two cards, both with partner, also works.
- At least one creature card to represent a member or leader of the faction's army/fighting force. It could be anything from the most famous hardened veteran to a simple peasant plucked from the lowest ranks. Up to three creature cards are allowed for this slot.
- A card that shows how the faction handles magic, or how they make up for their magical shortcomings if they don't use magic.
- Unique to this Season, a card to represent the faction's view on nature. Do they go out of their way to replant every crop they harvest? Do they use the assistance of magic to bring vitality to the world around them? Or do they perhaps leech its vitality to fuel their magic, or bear a scorched earth policy? This will affect a faction's impact on the world as well as where they start.
- And if you so wish, you can add up to five bonus cards!
- Note: Each faction is limited to three colors, and must be serious factions (no silver border/unset factions). If your faction starts with less than three colors you can add colors later on, but no funny business! Lastly, no planeswalker cards are allowed for the entirety of the contest, except as lore cards when appropriate.
- Previous winners can now join!
Now, as a refresher of how Colonizers progresses; every now and then you'll be shot a challenge, whether it be the world or the people in it jeopardizing your faction's wellbeing or fame. You'll have to make a card or two, depending, to counter whatever problem emerges. Your solution could be simple or complex, and it could potentially impact the world around you. Depending on how good your cards are, your score will increase, and after every few challenges, the person with the lowest score will be eliminated. Your score is also impacted by the quality of your storywriting, the uniqueness of your faction, and how well you interact with others (what you do doesn't matter for score's; the quality of the interaction, however, does.)Once we get to 24 entrants, or the date reaches the 27th of Sepetember, we'll compile the contestants and choose 12 of them to compete. We'll also be able to start with 8 or 6, but that'd be awkward, wouldn't it? Show us your factions, and let the newest season of Colonizers... COMMENCE!
- @WarriorCatInAhat
- @Usaername
- @AboveAndAbout
- @Red_Tower
- @TheDukeOfPork
- @feralitator
- @KorandAngels
- @Yonkers11
- @jpastor
- @Omtegu
- @ChoyBoi
- @RegalGorgon13
Your hour has come
Oh! One last thing! Myria Set Symbols!
MSE Symbol: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/878919097381978162/MyriaSetSymbolV1.mse-symbol
Common: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/879141888282730536/MyriaCommon.png
Uncommon: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/879141886005215293/MyriaUncommon.png
Rare: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/879141885652905984/MyriaRare.png
Mythic: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/873586117008564225/879141881404076102/MyriaMythic.png
Introducing, the
Cult of the True Gods!
My idea for the faction was for a small group of incredibly powerful (More than pre-mending planeswalkers) figures instead of an actual civilisation. The Cult of the True Gods is a group of 12 semi-deific figures and 36 supporters. Although the members of the Twelve never claimed to be any of the True Gods they worship, some individuals from the 36 treat them as such anyway.
Sveech is the informal leader, the heretic who allegedly discovered the True Gods back on their home plane. Although he insists on the Council being equal in importance, they still treat him as an impromptu leader.
One of the council members.
(Bonus or nature)
(Bonus or nature)
These are the level of things this lot can do. For lore on the nature things, they are powerful enough to literally create new matter, including plants and small islands.
NAUPLAVIAN FEDERATION
Leader:
Magic:
Of course, telepathy!
Experiment journal, Experiment 042
When the subject is influenced by psionic force, at first only its memories and thoughts become obvious, but at some point, the force can dominate its will, and the effect grows expositional!
Army:
Most of our army are shapeshifters created in our labs, but the strategists are real Nauplavians.
Mindread X- Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player reveals X cards from his hand, which were not revealed this way before.
Experiment journal, Experiment 63
Increasing psionic energy to the maximum in our bio-capsules allowed us to decrease the personality of the subject to a minimum and make him more telepathicly gifted. And ideal
vehicle:
This is the only left skyship because all the others we used to come from beyond the stars have broken. It is the biggest, but the hardest to use too. To use it, a non-Nauplavian humanoid is needed.
The True Gods are theoretically heroes of power almost as much as the cult Council, who ascended to godhood. How powerful they would need to be as gods to be worshipped by creatures like the Council! The gods include Wukong, Ku Chullain, Gilgamech and Baowulf.
The Cult originated from a desertlike plane with a large quantity of suns, which orbit in almost random ways. Although the suns rarely line up enough to be incredibly hot, there is almost never a substantial night. Given how the Council members can move these suns in any position, they can basically organise it in any way possible. The plane is in a bad position, since the Council, although largely benevolent, are fickle, and have somewhat destroyed it, since they know all to well that they can repair almost any damage they do. This is why so few ordinary people actually live around them. The Colonisation is almost only for entertainment, as all needs of the Council and their people can be met.
Bonus card
It will be based on quality anyway, so go ahead, take your shot.
Leader:
Queen Matrel has been the ruler of Antaias for longer than anyone can remember. She's been successfully assassinated dozens if not hundreds of time over the past thousands of years. Sadly for every would be replacement ruler, she has returned from the dead thanks to having deals made with quite literally every power within her kingdom. Including death itself.
Every deal in the kingdom, of which there are uncountable, passes through her courts. Unlike many of the courtesans that surround her she has a fondness for nature and what the kingdom was before her immortal reign although at this point only she remembers that.
Army:
Hundreds upon hundreds of nobles, knights, and adventures band together to seek the Lost Region. A place that the queen claims was once the capital of the kingdom before she ruled. The legend as she tells it was that it fell into chaos after the a great war for the throne. Some claim the queen speaks only in metaphor for a time before the scheming and unnatural pacts flooded the kingdom with unnatural powers over life, death, and strength. Either way the Seekers search for such an incredible place in droves.
The kingdom has a long history of sending singular knights out into the world to solve problems. It is not unusual for those knights to get stuck on permanent guard duty when they cannot properly solve a problem.
Of the ancient beasts that live in the kingdom of Antaias, Halga is one of the more willing to haggle with mortals. Long ago they agreed to resurrect the castle servants endlessly for the queen. Now they serve as the ever dying captain of the most elite necromancer knights of the royal court.
Magic:
The powers that be in the kingdom are crafty and sly. The commerce in the courts is life, death, and strength most unnatural. It is not uncommon for an old debt to be called up and the price extract in a gruesome fashion. Demons, Angels, Horrors, Elementals (like Halga) have offered boons to the human courts for as long as the immortal queen has ruled. The power they grant can be incredible and costly.
(One of the bonus to help clarify the magic)
A simple boon can destroy an opponent before they can even act. Pulling on ancient pacts one can disrupt the natural order of even thought and past.
Nature:
For all the scheming and pacts with eldritch horrors that the courts get up to, they also respect nature. The queen often laments how much they've subverted what had been. Now and again she sends out her knights to find new lands to conquer so that for even a moment she has something natural to rule over.
Many remind her that civilization is the natural progression of nature but the smell of undeath on their robes commonly undercut their words.
The larger culture attempts to create clearly defined nature preserves and consume everything else. Ravenous for more yet desirous of what was is the natural state of the kingdom. Many knights even attempt to live in the nature preserves to keep themselves connected to some abstract feeling of harmony.
Note: The entire kingdom of Antaias is nobles, wizards, knights, soldiers, or advisors more or less. Peasants stopped being relevant or an actual class after a thousand years of pacts with various powers making food grow on its own and weapons forge themselves. As long as the pact keepers remain the ancient rites will deal with the mundane day to day.
- @WarriorCatInAhat
- @Usaername
- @AboveAndAbout
- @Red_Tower
- @TheDukeOfPork
- @feralitator
- @Yonkers11
- @jpastor
- @Omtegu
- @ChoyBoi
- @SpellPiper2213
- And anyone else who wants to join
Don't rush your entries! I've been made aware a lot of people are busy, plus some things came up on my end; I'll be pushing back the deadline for faction entry to Monday, September 27th. I hope this will give everyone interested ample time to enter.
My faction is Alum's Witch Hunters, a faction that was first started by Alum Zalgofar when his family was killed by a clan of mages after refusing to pay protection money to the group that had being harassing the locals, leaving Alum an orphan.
Angered by the injustices of this group, Alum galvanized a group of like minded individuals and drove all magic users good and bad, out of Zondria. He established a task force that hunted down the unnatural in Zondria, and established Zondria as a magic free state. All caught using magic for whatever reason, would be punished by death.
Alum's despises magic and will cleanse it if it is any part of the nature they reside in, they will use slash and burn tactics to cleanse the lands of magic foulness, and use the magic resistant properties of their surroundings to help build their anti magic settlements.
Currently they have plans to build a settlement in Myria as their current home of innistrad is not very ideal.
(Bonus cards since everyone has em)
In this case it I made my own take "provoke wizards" to reflect the magic hate. So you attack with Alum and say Alum's mage hunter, but since Alum has protection from wizards, when he provokes the wizard has to block someone but it can't be Alum, it has to be the mage hunters and if they have protection from the color of the mage the mage deals no damage.
In lore terms, Alum essentially forces wizards in hiding to reveal themselves using taunts, threats and extortion in order to send his hunting parties after them and their families.
If the wording sounds awkward, this site has a slightly different wording used in the comprehensive rules that I find provides more clarity: “Provoke” means “Whenever this creature attacks, you may choose to have target creature defending player controls block this creature this combat if able. If you do, untap that creature.”
Being forced to block specifically the creature with provoke is extremely important with regards to creatures like Swooping Talon (and thus why it has an ability to remove flying from itself). More importantly, note that there is no restriction on the provoked creature if it cannot block the provoking creature, it simply becomes untapped. This means that Alum can untap a Wizard defending player controls… but then nothing really happens with regards to blocking because the Wizard can't block Alum. Effectively, you give your opponent an additional potential blocker if Alum provokes a Wizard.
The Seven Leagues are a variety of non-human groups who banded together to form a political faction on their home plane. While originally lacking a connected vision, the Seven Leagues eventually became connected with their plane’s Great Hunt, a yearly hunt taken around the harvest moon. Thus, it’s become more associated with non-human elements of the plane, to the point that most of the Leagues don’t allow them to join.
Reni was originally a Root League member and reclamation agent, looking over old ruins in order to determine whether they were usable, salvageable, or neither. However, she turn to the League's internal structure after an attempt by another reclamation agent to "leave her among the ruins", as the saying went. As she applied what she'd learned in her time surveying ruins, people within the Root League and other leagues began to accept her as a leader. (Leader card)
Members of the Shield League are well-known for being loyal guards and tough warriors. This reputation has made them valuable if prideful bodyguards. Very little gets by them - or survives under their feet. (Soldier card)
The Iron League both creates and destroys things for the Seven Leagues. While the two points make them well-liked, it also gives them a reputation (not unjustly) as rather flighty, moving from one project to the next without much care for what came before. Still, many league members are employed specifically for their two approaches to objects. (Magic card)
During her time as a reclamation agent, Reni learned a spell that allowed her to turn a ruin into a place for nature to grow. She's shared it with some other members of the Leagues so that they can do it when Reni can't. (Nature card)
Bonus cards
More explicitly, the following cards were made for each prompt:
- Macoto, Thousand Tongues & Ruut, Myriad Colors
- Salvia Stalwart, Apprentice Apothecary, Reformation Druid
- Salvia Tutelage
- Diverse Unity
- Salvia Healer & Experimental Concoction
P.S.: I am working under the assumption that these 7 initial potions I created for their alchemize mechanic don't necessarily count toward any of the prompt slots. Please notify me if this is not the case; I will promptly make the appropriate changes.Edit – P.P.S: Brownie points if you can guess who Macoto & Ruut are a reference to.
Thus emerged a bustling society of treefolk. Initially, the whole forest was at peace, but inevitably, irreconcilable differences emerged. Thus, the treefolk agreed to split off into 14 clans. Some were friendlier with each other than others, but overall the system brought the forest some level of peace.
The natives of this unknown plane have no knowledge of this place, or the sentient trees that inhabit it. As such, they have no name for it. But to the treefolk, their wooded home is known as...
The Valenos Forest
It's a peaceful day in Valenos. But it will not stay that way for long. Just before noon, something changes about the forest. It's subtle, such that a human would never perceive it. However, the Valenians are deeply attuned to the forest, so the change is like night and day to them. Something powerful has awakened. Something sealed away, and long-forgotten, has returned.
The Leader:
Each of the 14 clans of Valenos is ruled over by an Elder, who is simply the oldest treefolk in the clan. However, there were originally 15 clans. The 15th clan, the Leaf-Clan, was mostly comprised of nature spirits who had taken the physical forms of animals covered in or comprised of non-tree plants. Splinter, the Leaf-Clan Elder, was far more ambitious than his peers. He believed that the clans of Valenos, working together, could rule over more than just one forest. When the other Elders did not share his views, he attempted a hostile takeover of the forest. After a hard-fought war, Splinter and the Leaf-Clan eventually succumbed to the forces of the other 14 clans. The whole clan, and all memory of their existence, were sealed away by the Elders. Nobody knows what triggered the Leaf-Clan to be freed, but Splinter was only growing in power and natural connection during his imprisonment. Without the power of all the original 14 Elders against him, he easily took control of the 14 clans and unified them under the title of The Valenos Forest. Now, he's looking to bring his glorious conquest to Myria.
The Army
The Briar-Clan are the violent outcasts of the Valenos Forest, kept at an arm's length by all but the bravest from the other 13 clans. That is, until Splinter's return. Splinter saw potential in their raw brute strength and aggression, and quickly made them into his elite fighting force.
The Magic
Much of the magic of the Valenos Forest is based around augmenting the wood of the treefolk, making it more durable, reshaping it, etc. There are other forms of magic that the Forest uses, of course, but this is one of the major ones.
The Nature
How do I deal with nature? I am the nature!
Valenos is deeply protective and respecting of nature, which makes sense considering that their populace is literally sentient trees. Not really too much to say here, this one's pretty self-explanitory.
Bonus
Vine-Draped Stag represents the non-tree plant-based creatures that came out of imprisonment along with Splinter. Sunlit Guidance represents another type of magic that the Forest regularly uses, which is harnessing the power of sunlight to provide beneficial effects.