[OOC] Magic The Gathering: Planeswalker Adventure.

[mattmanganon]

So, currently, we don't have an exact story yet. I was hoping that everyone would help us come up with a story together. Pretty much, if you want to play on any given plane, just let me know. In the meantime, here's a character sheet. Anyone who wants to explore a specifically given plane, just let me know.

Character Sheet

Name: (Your characters name?)
Age: (How old are you?)
Gender: (Male? Female? Apache Helicoptor?)
Home Plane: (Which plane are you from? Dominaria? Kaladesh? Llorwyn? Alara?)
Species: (Magic has a vast plethora of species to play as from all across the multiverse. Please have your character come from a plane that their species exist on. I mean, if you come from Innistrad, then you can't really play an Elf or a Homarid, but at the same time, if you come from Vryn, then Vampire's aren't exactly available. Apart from that, feel free to play any sentient species within reason. Only things I will draw the line at are absolutely gigantic species such as Giants, Sphinx and Dragons or anything that is mentally incapable of working with others such as Innistrad Vampires and Eldrazi.)
Appearance: (What do you look like? Pic and/or description.)
Colour Identity: (Everyone will start with 1 or 2 colours of magic that they draw power from. Naturally, as the game goes on and your personality changes, your powers that you draw from may change. If you do, then your powers might change.)
Powers: (What funky powers and magics do you use?)
Skills: (Some abilities are just the result of you being just that damn good at what you do.)
History: (How did you Spark? What planes have you been to? What interesting people have you met? What are the most important parts of your life?)
Equipment: (What do you carry on your your person?)
Misc: (Anything i've missed?)

A note on Colours

So, you may be wonrdering "What the fuck do colours have to do with my character" Well, there are 5 colours of magic, each are associated with different abilities:

Red: Aggression (Fire and destruction magic)
Green: Nature (Growth, Beasts, Plants)
White: Protection (Healing and deflection)
Blue: Control (Psychic powers, flight)
Black: Death (Necromancy, Destruction magic paid with your own life force or the life force of others)

So, different combinations may yeild different results, such as Control and Death might create beings that drain the psychic essence from someone.

[Protoman]

Name: Lanestol
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Home Plane: Innistrad
Species: Human
Appearance:

Hider

Lanestol stands 6' 2", wears light leather armor beneath his black robes becoming of a member of most planes' clergymen. He has a bit of a trimmer stature, on the lighter side of athletic as he relies more on his magics than physical capabilities.
Colour Identity: Black/White
Powers: Manipulation of life energies (giving and taking), summoning of powerful life-leeching creatures
Skills: Staff combat, healing, defensive and evasive movement
History:

History

Lanestol was born on Innistrad, the realm of struggle between humanity and its predators, in the city of Ashmouth in the Stensia province. He started training in magic from his youth from one of the schools under the Church of Avacyn, initially training in healing and preventative magic. He began to work his way up to more advanced magics as a prodigy of the abbot in the church dedicated. Through plots and intrigue unknown to him at the time, his mentor, an elder, turned up dead one morning when he was 11. He continued his training through the succeeding elder, who taught him the darker sides of life magic, helping him channel his ability to take life, burn and corrupt from within. Though initially opposed, he gave in and trained in ways that undid his earlier lessons under the guise of "advancing his studies further and studying the countermeasures of life-giving magic."

Upon his graduation from the school, he began work as a cleric in the Church of Avacyn, entering the priesthood. He continued his work for his parish until he was 31. He had ascended to eldership for his parish one year earlier due to the high turnover rate (high turnover into food for vampires, werewolves and the undead). One day, he stumbled upon a secret meeting between his second mentor--now the Mayor--and a demon he had a contract with. The Mayor noticed Lanestol and threatened him, though his former student did not back down and challenged the Mayor to a duel, countering with the threat of revealing his dark pact to the town.

The duel ended after half an hour, with Lanestol narrowly besting his former mentor. Foregoing the opportunity to finish his fallen opponent, he instead questioned the Mayor about the death of his first mentor. He had begun to suspect a few things over the years, though without solid proof, he could not accuse him of anything. With his fate in his better's hands, the Mayor revealed he did, indeed, kill Lanestol's first mentor in an attempt to fast-track his way up the clergy ranks. His ultimate goal was to supplant the Lunarch himself. A burning in Lanestol's chest flared up like never before, anger and suppressed grief rising up and unleashing in the awakening of his Spark.

He planeswalked to Kamigawa, suddenly confused as to why he was not facing the fallen Mayor. Or why he did not even know where he was. It did not look like anything he had ever seen before. It was much more lush and the air much fresher than anywhere he had ever been on Innistrad. All he could do was walk and try to find someone. After two hours of wandering through the Jukai Forest, his injuries, drained power and hunger took the last of his energy. He awoke after a nearby kitsune village took him in when two of their sentries discovered him unconscious. An elder among them answered several questions he had about where he had wound up. In return, he used his skills to serve the village until he regained his bearings.

After he had figured out more about his planeswalking power, he finished repaying his dues and left to another plane, to Ravnica. Among the various guilds of the great city-state, he found his place best serving the Orzhov Syndicate, even after discovering their corruption. This time, though he serves a corrupt cause, he hopes to overturn the Syndicate's rot from within. For now, he begrudgingly serves the will of the Ghost Council, using a slow approach to chip away at their grip.

Equipment: A staff which used to bear the sigil of Avacyn and which he uses to channel his power, a necklace with the Orzhov sigil
Misc: Visits the Maw of the Obzedat periodically to leech a little life here and there from those who have resigned themselves to repaying their debts by feeding the insatiable beast.

[soren]

I'll get my cs up tonight or tomorrow

[mattmanganon]

@Protoman Seems like fun. Accepted.

@soren Take all the time you need. I have a few character idea's in mind, so i'm going to see what everyone else wants to play before I make mine.

And please remember to throw idea's for which planes you want to visit.

[Protoman]

I'd be fine wherever the plot will lead us.

If you need to narrow it down,

-Ravnica
-Innistrad
-Kamigawa
-Kaladesh
-Tarkir

[Lucian]

I like the idea you posted in the IC. Particularly interested in what Niv Mizzet would do in that situation. I also have an OC in mind that would work perfectly.

[chocomog333]

Ember

Name: Ember
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Home Plane: Lorwyn
Species: Elemental-Flamekin
Appearance:

Hider

Colour Identity: Primary: Red, Secondary: Green (Eventually blue as well)
Powers: Plain and simple, she used elemental magic. She can shoot blasts of fire, call forth lighting, or summon animate brambles to do her bidding.
Skills: Accessing leylines, communing with natural forces, lighting things on fire.

History: Ember was born in a small flamekin village. As soon as she was of age, she began training as a smokebraider. She quickly learned the flow of the leylines of Lorwyn. Around the age of 10, she had a vision of a large, powerful elemental, that seemed very far away. This set her on the Path of Flame.

At the beginning of her travels, she traveled too close to one of the elf villages. She nearly paid for that mistake with her life, as a scarblade quickly attacked from the top of a treefolk guard. Ember had to flare up to scare away her attackers. Ever since, she has had a deep distrust of elves.

One day, as her travels continued she got caught in a rainstorm. A kithkin farmer named Orla took her in and sheltered her from the storm. Her act of kindness sparked a response in Ember. She decided to join the Brighthearth, to help the other races of Lorwyn.

However, the biggest challenge to face Ember was the Great Aurora. As it began, the plane shifted and mutated. As the planed transformed, so did its inhabitants. Ember was also caught up and began to transform into one of the cinders. The trauma of the experience caused Ember’s spark to ignite, hurling her to Tarkir before the transformation was complete, blocking the experience from her conscious memory.
Shortly after arriving on Tarkir, she met Arak, a young Temur shaman. Arak took her under his wing and began to teach her about Whispering. In exchange, Ember shared her knowledge and experience with him. The two bonded over their shared desire for wisdom and oneness with the natural forces around them. They entered a romantic relationship and Ember promised to return with knowledge of other planes so that the two could unpack it together.
Equipment: Ember carries very little other than a pouch with basic traveling gear, such as a rope and some rations. She doesn't even have a pair of shoes.

Misc: In general, Ember is filled with youthful wonder and energy. She's very excited to be exploring the multiverse and believes that the journey is just as important as the destination. Like most red characters, whatever she feels, she feels it in the extreme, though as she is growing, she is learning to temper her emotions as needed. She often tries to find time to meditate and connect with the planes she visits.

Whenever she planeswalks to a darker plane (ex: Innistrad, Grixis of Alara, New Phyrexia, and of course Shadowmoor) she under goes the transformation that was cut off during her ignition during the Great Aurora. Whenever she leaves, she transforms back into Ember.

Umber

Name: Umber
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Home Plane: Shadowmoor
Species: Elemental-Cinder
Appearance:

Hider

Colour Identity: Black/Red
Powers: Fire Magic, Necrotic Magic
Skills: Capturing fire spirits, syphoning life from others, inflicting magical wounds and scars
History: See Ember’s profile
Equipment: A staff for capturing fire spirits
Misc: See Ember's profile; As Umber, she is much more aggressive and hostile, though she can be convinced to turn that aggression on specific targets. She also gains a weakness to sacred magic and objects, which can further be used to keep her under control. She prefers to torture her targets rather than outright kill them.

[soren]

Victor Amesly

Name: Victor Amesly

Age: Unknown

Gender: Male

Home Plane: Ravnica

Species: Weird/Human.

Appearance: mtg.gamepedia.com/File:Melek.jpg

Colour Identity: Red and Blue.

Powers: Blink travel- travel short distances with burst of aetheric energy,
Energymancy- can summon lightning and bolts of energy from his person. Can detect when storms are coming. Can control artifacts of his own design or ones that he has altered, can charge some dead artifacts when held,
Hydromancy- can control the shape of his form due to it mostly being made of water and energy. Can control water around him forming spheres of water no bigger than four feet in diameter to launch at foes. Can draw clean water from a dirty or poisoned soruce unless tainted by certain things such as phyerxian sludge. Can alter flow of small bodies of water.

Skills: Sience and engineering.

History: Victor Amesly was one if the for most guild members that worked on a project for Niz Mizzet to make the perfect weird. He and a group of others were in the labs working on what they thought was a subdued subspecies of elemental called weird that was created to be pets, familiars, and lab assistants to the wizards in the guild. During this particular day the weird broke free. The volatile nature of the weird it killed everyone in the lab except Victor Amsely. Backed against the wall Victor tried to control it with his magic. This destabilized it further. The weird came towards Victor and for the slightest moment everything was calm. The weird touched Victor's forehead and that's when it happened. The Spark. For a split second Victor felt the power of the universe and visions of the past and future followed through him, then horror crossed his face as his body dissolved and flowwed into the weird. The weird then took on a more humanoid form. The weird saw what Victor had seen and felt the power now flowing through him. "Victor I will take your name and remember you are you have given me life. These visions male no sense to me but the future have yet to come." Yells came from all around him then suddenly he felt the power again vanishing from the plane of ravnica. (Victor then travels to alara, kaladesh, mirrodin, and Theros. Each if these planes he spent two or more years developing the armor he currently wears which modulates his energies and to control his thopters that he found and took for himself in esper.

Equipment: Armor he wears of his person. And four thopters he controls and uses as scouts.

Misc: Due to the planes he has visited Victor is highly interested in artifacts and how they differ from each plane.

[soren]

Image won't display even if I do the thing for it

[mattmanganon]

@soren "Energy Manipulation" and "Water Manipulation" are not powers I particularly like. I remember an RP back on the old site where this guy pretty much used it to do whatever the fuck he wanted, casting it off as Element manipulation. If you can elaborate on the extent he can use it for, then that'll be fine, as well as the "Science and Engineering" part. Just elaborate a little on some of these powers, what are his main uses for them? What are their limits? What are their specific weaknesses? Also, Thopters aren't on Ravnica, if he got the designs from Esper or Kaladesh, do add that to his backstory.

@chocomog333 I did say start with just 2 colours, you will be able to gain/lose colours as the RP progresses. As for your PM, that should be fine.

@Lucian I think everyone else is here for the "Let's go on an Adventure!!!" type RP. But you are more than welcome to join us. I suspect that we will make our way to Ravnica in time for Bolas to plop his great big Dragon-boner in the middle of Ravnica and say to the plane "Bite the pillow, love, i'm going in dry!"

[soren]

@mattmanganonI'm working from a phone most of the time so I put alot things in short hand. I'll see what I can do but it's not like I'm going to try to be bolas powerful

[Lucian]

Orin

Name: Orin, The Pilferwind
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Home Plane: Ravnica
Species: Faerie

Appearance

Colour Identity: Primarily Red, symbolizing a strong need for personal freedom, regardless of natural or man-made law, with a hint of Blue representing a thoughtful subtlety that belies his mannerisms and lends itself well to his thievery.
Powers

• Magnimancy: Orin is able to pull mana from sources around him and use them to manipulate the size of his body. This is a relatively simple and primal magic, and as such requires about the amount of mana one would expect for any feat. For instance, if Orin wanted to increase his size to that of a giant, he would need vast reserves of mana, whereas increasing it to that of an ordinary human would not be terribly strenuous. Shrinking himself requires proportionate mana as well.
• Celerimancy: Orin's signature magic is the manipulation of the speed and velocity of items or objects, including his own body and the bodies of others. This can be used to paralyze foes, or increase his own speed (and that of allies.) However, the physical restrictions of the object effected by Celerimancy still apply, so it must be used with caution.

Skills: Larceny, Thievery, Stealth, Subterfuge, Flight
History:
Equipment:

[mattmanganon]

@Lucian I am afraid that Spirits cannot be Planeswalkers as Sparks are destroyed at death, even if their host goes on living in some way. This is why Elspeth is stuck in Nyx and why Karn lost his Spark when he was "compleated" by the Phyrexians as it is a form of undeath. I admire the character, he looks like fun, but it is in direct contradiction with what the canon has put forth.

If you can find a source in the canon that supports your character, then that's fine, but to my knowledge, it is fact that Sparks are destroyed at death/undeath.

[Protoman]

@Lucian I am afraid that Spirits cannot be Planeswalkers as Sparks are destroyed at death, even if their host goes on living in some way. This is why Elspeth is stuck in Nyx and why Karn lost his Spark when he was "compleated" by the Phyrexians as it is a form of undeath. I admire the character, he looks like fun, but it is in direct contradiction with what the canon has put forth.

If you can find a source in the canon that supports your character, then that's fine, but to my knowledge, it is fact that Sparks are destroyed at death/undeath.

@mattmanganon

Sorin Markov's spark activated upon his transformation into a vampire. Vampires are considered undead. I would consider that at least a canon counter to the claim undead can't hold a spark.

I've taken a shot at asking the question on Blogatog to get confirmation straight from the source about what happens when planeswalkers die. I'll link back if he answers.

[chocomog333]

<Snipped quote by mattmanganon>

Sorin Markov's spark activated upon his transformation into a vampire. Vampires are considered undead. I would consider that at least a canon counter to the claim undead can't hold a spark.

I've taken a shot at asking the question on Blogatog to get confirmation straight from the source about what happens when planeswalkers die. I'll link back if he answers.

@Protoman

I'm pretty sure mattmanganon is right here. If you look into the lore, Innistradi vampires aren't technically undead, just cursed. The following is from the official Planeswalker's Guide to Innistrad (linked below for reference):
"Innistrad vampires are not truly undead, although they have some undead traits (such as agelessness and skin that's cold to the touch)."

magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive…

Here's a relevant link to a discussion about the subject from Doug Beyer, a leading member of the MTG creative team:

dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/post/52923451…

Maro specifically answered about spirit planeswalkers, indicating that non-undead spirits (ex: Kami from Kamigawa) could, but the undead can't.

markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/1713183…

And to be fair, if the GM wants to allow, I'm cool with the idea, I just want the canon info in the thread for sake of clarity.

[soren]

@Lucian@chocomog333@Protoman@mattmanganon

Could Lucian's character be cursed? Like with both life and death? The rituals preformed to extend life and make thrulls could help explain his incorpoalness while still retaining a human body. @Lucian something like your spark is what gives you the deeper power to the after life there for you and become ghostly like taking on the form that is in the picture. Kind of like Danny phantom or ghost rider type transformation. The Spark happens during the ritual cutting the ritual short and throwing you into theros. It still explain them trying to put you in the underworld cause they still think you are dead but in truth are actually a spirit/human hybrid.

Would that work? @mattmanganon

[Lucian]

Ah. I didn't realize that Innistradi Vampires weren't technically undead. I was also thinking of Soren when I made this character. I'll think up another character then, my bad. Gimme some time, definitely wanna' get involved.

EDIT @mattmanganon I've edited the CS with a new character idea, no history or equipment yet as I want to be sure the general concept is acceptable before I go any further.

[chocomog333]

Yeah, I hate to be a downer. Personally, I don't like the rules myself and I definitely feel like Innistradi vampires should be undead and that sentient undead should be able to be planeswalkers, but sadly that's not the canon.

Also, @mattmanganon I updated my profile based on what we talked about in the PM. Let me know what you think.

[mattmanganon]

@soren Sorry about not posting a response earlier. Anyway, this is nothing personal about you or your character, I appreciate that posting from a phone can be harder than on a computer, but please can you put limits on your characters abilities? Because "Energy & Water Manipulation" Can be abused quite hard.

@chocomog333 Seems good so far, a few questions:

1) As a fire elemental, how can she move the tides?
2) What can her "Animate Brambles" do?

@Lucian A Faerie Planeswalker was one of the idea's that I had, now i'm glad I didn't settle on that. Orin seems fun, I look forward to him being finished.

I am going to be very busy this weekend, filling in for 2 of my co-workers by myself, so my next free day will be Thursday. I do hope to get the IC up by Monday, however.

[chocomog333]

The tides thing was blue magic, and perhaps a poor way to describe basic hydromancy. I edited it out for now, though I do plan to incorporate some of that later. Part of her character development is learning to accept and use elemental magic that is seemingly her opposite. The animating brambles thing was just a way to describe summoning various green elemental creatures. I was just trying to be a little poetic.