01-31-2008, 03:01 PM
Hinterlands
Hinterlands is the second set in a series that started with Rot Cycle. Rot Cycle makes up much of the mythological and situational background for Hinterlands; however, Rot Cycle did not have a strongly developed story line, itself.
Both sets experiment with three-color hybrid cards, which I'll develop the theory of more completely later, during the card-design segment of the contest. The three-color combinations are more unified in Hinterlands, in that they have common flavor and style, even though they still leave colored-deck-designing options wide open. Hinterlands will have more multicolor and fewer hybrid cards than Rot Cycle did, however.
The flavor of Hinterlands is based around the stories of ten planeswalkers, each of which has come to some amount of power in a different part of the plane Veraitia, a world saturated in magic. Each planeswalker represents a region of the world identified by a set of three colors. Their stories converge on a great war, which was initiated by the enterprising battle-mage of the northern mountains, Jorir Utland. The story will resolve in the next set of the series, which will present a sort of post-apocalyptic Veraitia. For now, I've simply provided the geography of Veraitia and the background of the planeswalkers and their factions, as I feel the set has more flavor in game play if the story is as of yet unresolved. Keep in mind that, if this seems long and complex, it's the background for a series of sets that will include over 1000 cards. Also keep in mind that many of the suggestive parts of the background stories will be developed or revealed in certain cards.
Geography of Veraitia:
Mefin (Blue/Black/Green)
Mefin is a territory on the western side of the great continent of Veraitia, covered in wooded marshlands. It is inhabited by lizard men who have, in a quite unlikely arrangement, integrated into their society corrupted elves and strong humans. Mefin is ruled by a Grand Council, which receives representatives from many small village councils. The magic of the lizard men is focused on manipulating their enemies, and causing distress and injury through unlikely, difficult to identify means.
Utland (Red/Black/White)
Utland is a large kingdom to the far north of Veraitia's continent, on a rocky plateau filled with caves and small mountains. Utland is inhabited by tribes of human and half-orc barbarians, who usually avoid contact with each other except for large religious and political ceremonies. Utland's strategy in conflict has always been aggressive, vanquishing their enemies by brute force and violence, and their magic is no different.
Cirli (Green/Red/White)
Cirli is a region to the south of the Ilwen sea, just east of Mefin and just north of Crake. At the heart of Cirli are the Cirlette mountains, and these are surrounded by rolling foothills covered in forest, tapering out to the great plains of the Hinterlands. The Cirlette Mountains are actually only a small part of a large mountain chain that extends along the western side of the Ilwen Sea from Crake all the way to the tip of Utland, the home of magical beasts including the legendary dragons.
Cirli is not traditionally a unified kingdom; rather, it is a confederation of groups of elves, human communities, and the stands of treefolk dwelling in the forest. It is only when war dons, and the inhabitants of Cirli are guided by their goddess Kawa, that they unify. When they are inspired, however, the creatures of Cirli march forth with ferocity and haste.
Crake (Red/Black/Green)
Crake is a volcanic shore on the South of Veraitia's continent that is thick with twisted scrub foliage on a ground of black rock. Crake has long been the domain of demons, half-demons, and the corrupted descendants of an ancient human tribe, the Growlers. Crake is regarded as a wasteland by most of the inhabitants of Veraitia, but the demons who rule there know how to draw incredible magical power from the ancient lava flows and arcane monoliths dotting the landscape.
Kelor (Green/Black/White)
Kelor is a flat, forested plain that juts out into the Gulf of Naddal, east of the kingdom of Fieldspire. Kelor is controlled by a family of vampires, that makes initiates of any explorers who lose their way in the dense forest. The vampires of Kelor, however, perceive themselves as protectors of the forest and its creatures, and so use their magic defensively, both to make themselves immortal and to ensnare invaders.
Fieldspire (Blue/Black/White)
Fieldspire is a plains kingdom to the east of the Ilwen Sea, ruled by a confederation of vampires, mostly descendants of exiles from Kelor, if not exiles themselves, and humans, the historical rulers of the kingdom. Fieldspire's magic borrows much from the naturalism of Kelor's mages, but blends this with an enterprising, dominating spirit owed to generations of imperialism by powerful kings. Fieldspire stands along with Mirnnem, politically, militarily, and geographically, at the center of Veraitian life.
Ustith (Blue/Red/White)
Ustith is a nation that wraps around the Ilwen Sea almost completely. It's climate varies from tropical (in the south) to mountainous and nearly arctic (in the northwest). It's government is generally benign, neutrality being important to a nation whose territory and wealth is sustained by its control of trading routes. Ustith is natively inhabited by humans, but accommodates any enterprising creature who can learn to sail.
Ustith's rulership has a history of being secretive, even reclusive. It is often said that they have, in their thousands of acres of walled, heavily guarded palace grounds, something precious to protect: the last herd of the unicorns who once roamed the shores of the Ilwen. Most intelligent folks, however, think nothing of these rumors, as unicorns have never been seen since the death of Jozephi, the ancient witch who had tended the herds before the land was settled.
Nidi (Green/White/Blue)
Nidi is a situated on a verdant plain, streaked by canals, rivers, and marshlands through which water runs from the White sea to the Ilwen sea. Nidi is home to an ancient, famous school of gnome druids, whose magical powers of healing, animation and growth are widely renowned. Nidi is home to the race of gnomes, and to many unlikely and often magical animals, and has resisted becoming a trading nation despite its central location in relation to Veraitia's bodies of water, preferring instead to focus on the maintenance of harmony within the country.
Gha-rak (Red/Black/Blue)
Gha-rak is a kingdom in the northeast of the Veraitia's continent, almost entirely covered in glacier-bearing mountains. One legend says that the ancient God of the mountains, Gnall, was jealous of the magic of the sea spirits, and so he trapped the in great icebergs and imprisoned them in Gha-rak; this is a folk explanation, at least, of the uncanny magical prowess shown by Gha-rak's few, rather isolated human settlements.
A powerful court of magicians called the Council of Din-sul purports to represent the varied people's of Gha-rak, but in reality exert very little real control over them. Mostly, life in Gha-rak is lonely and strenuous.
Mirnnem (Blue/Red/Green)
Few remember the natural landscape of Mirnnem, a great city just south of Fieldspire. It was developed over a few hundred years, from the pet project of the artificer Tutracht Mirnnem. It has since expanded into a sprawling metropolis, filled with multi-level building, underground dwellings, and tapering out to thickly settled residential areas before stopping abruptly at the sea or the northern or southern plains. Many magical traditions converge in Mirnnem, but most notable is its school of artificers, headed by Tutracht himself, which is said to import the finest magical minds from all over Veraitia as teachers.
The Hinterlands
The Hinterlands are the vast wildernesses that stretch between the established nations of Veraitia. They are not unpopulated, but they are certainly only sporadically settled. Mostly, they are filled with wild animals, sacred hidden magical shrines and monuments, and the great ancestral battlegrounds of the peoples of Veraitia.
Planeswalker background stories:
Jorir Utland
Jorir was a strong battle mage who was exiled from his homeland. As a young man, he spent much of his time alone perfecting his magic skills. His community, who were of mixed dwarven and human blood, looked down on this habit, and eventually declared that he was evil. Seeking an environment where he could develop himself fully, and eager to use his newly awoken abilities, Jorir fled the plane. Jorir was the first planeswalker from outside the realm to arrive in Veraitia for many generations.
Upon arriving in Veraitia, Jorir found that he was too conspicuous and unsociable to live peacefully in the populated areas of Veraitia, so he retreated to the Northern wilderness to hone his skills and live in peace. One year to the day after he had retreated into the wilderness he was attacked by a powerful sorceress, and in the ensuing struggle he killed her. That night, he was approached at his hut by what appeared to be a hunting party; they were actually a tribe of men and women who lived in the wilderness. They accused him of killing Dralin, the witch that protected them and brought them power and prosperity, and attacked him. He killed several of them before they scattered, and in the morning he followed their tracks to their village. He declared that he would protect them in Dralin's stead, if he was promised their allegiance. Upon taking power, he also took the name of the local tribe, Utland.
Jorir's power grew, and he hatched a plan to extend his dominion over all of Veraitia's varied landscape. He had, however, heard of several planeswalkers, some new arrivals to Veraitia and some legends within the realm. Not intimidated in the least, Jorir amassed his armies of mages, warriors, and beasts and began the march south: the march to control the plane.
Rez'b of Crake and Kawa of Cirli
Rez'b and Kawa came to Veraitia together, long ago. They were planeswalkers, fleeing from Mirrodin. They are both elves whose societies were transplanted by Karn into Mirrodin, but they both felt alienated by the social upheaval and unnatural landscape of Mirrodin. They collaborated to escape the plane, and arrived in Veraitia at a time before civilization had developed there. At this point, they each went their separate ways.
Kawa made her way to the wooded foothills of the Cirlette Mountains, a small mountain range far inland. Here she lived with the magical creatures of the woods: fairies, treefolk, and gnomes. She met a Satyr named Kraleb, who kept watch over the forest. He took her in, and showed her his magics. Over hundreds of years, long after Kraleb had left Cirli, her soul became connected to the forest, and she became an ethereal presence throughout Cirli, able to manifest herself physically in one place if necessary but equally able to be everywhere in her domain at once. When the gnomes migrated to the eastern sea, and the elves of the forested plains moved into her forest, stories grew of the spirit of the forest, who would only show herself in the dark of night, but whose whispers could be heard by a lone elf in any quiet place. Over time, she was deified, and became a fixture of elven religion in Cirli. Now, as word has reached Kawa of the newly forming armies of Utland and growing forces in the south, she appeared to court of the Elves of Cirli, offering to lead an elven army in defense of Jorir's assault.
The Cirlette court gave Kawa their full allegiance, following her as a goddess and proclaiming their great fortune at her presence. She directed the assembly of an army of elves, and began the march North towards Utland, while another army stayed in Cirli, ready to defend it from an assault.
Rez'b, on the other hand, found himself in a land called Crake, ruled by the demon lord Ran, called the Shadow of Fear. He was imprisoned by Ran, who feared Rez'b's magical skills, and after long negotiation and several weeks of intermittent torture, was released on the condition that he would serve Ran. He was Ran's personal advisor for many years, during which time he developed his magical skills under the instruction of demonic mages. Word came of the coming invasion of the world by Jorir Utland. Planning to take advantage of the chaos that would inevitably follow the war to gain territory and plunder wealth, Ran ordered Rez'b to muster the armies of Crake. Rez'b now sits with his bristling armies, camped between the volcanic mountains of Crake and the southern Sea, waiting for the opportune moment to capitalize on the instability of war.
Praest Kelor
Praest Kelor was a prince of the vampires of Kelor, along with his brother, Axon. They were to assume co-rule of the Kelor Forest, an ancient, sparsely populated forest north of Crake. His family of vampires had ruled over the vast dark wood (to the extent that anyone could rule such a place) for many years, relatively peacefully. Several members of the court had the planeswalker's spark, including Praest and Axon, but as custom prevented them from leaving the forest, so it prevented them from traveling outside of Veraitia.
Kelor was widely known as a forbidding wilderness, the realm of undead and bestial creatures. This was partly an accurate perception: when travelers were reckless enough to venture into the woods, they would be turned and made part of the Kelor court, as servants, slaves, or guards. For the most part, however, the court defended itself dutifully and avoided venturing into the world beyond the wood, and certainly had no ill intention towards Veraitia's other civilizations.
Praest's brother, Axon, however, was estranged from the family because he threatened to take sole guardianship of the woods by force. He and Praest fought a duel, and just before he was killed, Axon blinded Praest with a spell and fled the woods.
Praest's sight was restored by the legendary artificer Tutracht Mirnnem, founder of the great steel city of Mirnnem, who fitted him with two magical crystal eyeballs. This was the first time in his life that Praest had been outside of Kelor, and he heard much troubling news. He heard that airships had spotted massive armies assembled in Crake and Utland, and that the popular consensus was that a great war was coming. Rumor had it the Mirnnem had been constructing a fleet of great war machines to aid in the defense of the city, but when Praest asked him about this, he received no answer. Upon returning home, Praest organized two scouting parties: one to move south and report on activities in Crake, and one to travel to the far north and send word of the state of things in Utland.
Axon Fieldspire
Axon had grown upset with the way that Kelor's court was content to keep to themselves as the world outside grew and changed and at times imposed itself on the borders of Kelor. He attempted to seize control of the Kelor Court by force in order to steer it away from what he saw was certain doom if it continued its complacency in the face of an increasingly hostile and mobile world. After being exiled from Kelor for his unsuccessful uprising, Axon traveled to the coastal plain kingdom of Fieldspire, where he was taken in by the steward Ralil Fieldspire and allowed to form a school of magic, integrating his skills with regeneration and green magic with a warrior's ethic and the aggressive, manipulative magic of the human mages. Seeking to disassociate himself from his past, Axon took on the surname Fieldspire, the royal name of the Kingdom.
Axon was eventually promoted to the rank of General, and he trained an army of battle mages capable of the defense of the Kingdom. When he heard of the brewing army in Utland, word of which seemed to permeate the populations of Veraitia, he was at once anxious and fearful to mobilize his army. He was ready to move to the North towards Utland when he was approached by Tutracht Mirnnem. Tutracht offered to build a fortified city to the north of Fieldspire where Axon could keep his troops stationed. It would serve to protect both Fieldspire and the great city of Mirnnem. As this project was starting, Axon left the kingdom to travel to the realm of Mefin, a wooded marshland on the other side of the continent. Here, he would call upon Crakius Mefin, a powerful shaman, to aid in the defense against Utland.
Crakius of Mefin
Crakius was born in the hinterlands to human parents who had been exiled from Fieldspire due to their failure to pay enough taxes on their farm's crop. His parents settled in the forests north of Mefin, a marshy land inhabited by corrupted elves and lizard men, with a small community of humans. When he was Crakius was very young, his parents were killed by a Mefi patrol from the town of J'tala, who abducted him. Crakius was presented to the grand council of Mefin, where it was decided that he would be used as a blood sacrifice. One council member, however, saw something worth keeping in him. He was Den-enil, a powerful mage, and he could sense a powerful magical potential within the child. He offered to train the child, and gave him a name.
Over the years, Den-enil taught Crakius all the magic he knew, and he also taught him to be ruthless and relentless in pursuing mastery of himself. Gradually, Den-enil became aware of an immense power in Crakius, a power that both of them would only later realize was the planeswalker's spark.
Crakius became a sentry for the Mefi council, living alone in the northern hinterlands just to the west of Utland. His reports to the council became more and more foreboding, as he witnessed the felling of great forests to build war machines, and finally the mobilization of a vast army of soldiers, mages, and beasts, marching towards Ustith territory on the shores of the Ilwen sea. Upon hearing his reports, the Mefi council decided that they should raise an army, both in their defense and for the purpose of invading Ustith, whose fertile shores they had coveted for many generations. Sentries from the east told of great armies in Crake and Cirli; it seemed as if the entire world was preparing for a great war.
By the time Axon arrived in Mefin, Crakius had left. Crakius was charged to lead the Windwatchers, an elite contingent of Mefi Mages who had perfected their magic while living in the Hinterlands. He fortified his post in the northern hinterlands, to serve as Mefin's first line of defense against the invading armies of Utland. Axon was driven out of Mefin and forced to flee back to Fieldspire, losing most of his army in the process, barely keeping ahead of Mefin's troops as they began to creep through the hinterlands in all directions, to maintain a comfortable buffer from attack, and to be able to strike quickly when orders from the Council came.
Ral Yigesh
By the time Ral Yigesh had awoken her planeswalker's spark, she was widely famous as the strongest sorceress on the Ilwen trading routes. She had been a pirate for many years, following in her parent's footsteps, but was given an opportunity to clean up her act by the royal house of Ustith. She was commissioned to escort royal ships out of the port city of Orilia on the western shore of the Ilwen sea. She was already an adept sailor, and this job offered many benefits over a pirate's life: she was safe from arrest, she was paid regularly and well, and she was always in safe company.
Ral spent her shore leave in taverns and inns, drinking and gambling. When she heard people talk of the coming war, she at first thought it to be only rumor. Stories of massive armies, and most curiously, a great war machine being built by the artificer Tutracht in the city to the east circulated among the nightlife. She had heard crazier claims made by drunk sailors, after all. She was ready to dismiss the rumors until, as she was leaving a tavern one night, she overheard a group of mercenaries stationed at the port talking amongst themselves. They were leaving to ride towards Mefin in the morning, having been hired by the council there as part of a patrol group. It was clear that there was reason for concern, if the historically impenetrable borders of Mefin were being fortified even further.
Ral requested an audience with the king of Ustith, where she learned that the court had been well aware of the growing armies of Utland and Crake, and of their allies in Fieldspire and Mirnnem. They had decided, however, that Ustith could not compromise its neutrality as a trading nation, and so they would not mobilize an army. Knowing that a defenseless nation would fall when the war came, Ral rekindled some of her old connections among the Ilwen pirates and merchants, and set off for Mirnnem with a small group of warriors and mages, to hold council with Tutracht Mirnnem.
Torn-Nidi
Torn-Nidi was brought to the plane of Veraitia as a child. As an adult, she's never had any recollection of her parents. Most likely they were fleeing one of the many planar wars, which had decimated hundreds of worlds and showed little sign of stopping. Torn was raised by the gnome sorceress Viztlat, the oldest and wisest sorceress in Nidi, a small country sandwiched between the Ilwen Sea and the White Sea. As she aged, Torn became Viztlat's student as well as her child, and upon fully developing her powers was allowed to take on the surname Nidi, a symbol of her accomplishment as a sorceress and her growing wisdom.
Word came to Viztlat of the impending war through Ral Yigesh, whom she had formed a friendship with during Ral's years as a trading ship guard. Ral knew that Viztlat was powerful, but the old sorceress no longer had the strength to leave her homeland. In her stead, she sent Torn, with a small group of her other students, with Ral to Mirnnem.
Rakis Khurn
Rakis Khurn was the sister of Dralin, the ancient witch of Utland. She fought constantly with her sister, until their powers developed to the point that they could not stay together or they would risk destroying each other in a spat. Although Dralin never had the planeswalker's spark, Rakis did. When Rakis fled Utland to the mountains of Gha-rak, she took up residence among the Orcs of the mountains, frightening them with her magic and after hundreds of years, becoming something of a living Goddess to the Orcs.
Rakis was sent word when Dralin died. Although she had never gotten along with her sister, she felt a thirst for vengeance welling up inside of her. Jorir Utland sent an envoy to the Council of Din-sul, requesting its people's allegiance in his conquest in return for protection and power over new territories. Rakis received this message coolly, but inside her, she lusted for revenge. She sent the caravan back to Jorir, with several hundred Orc soldiers as a of allegiance, but this was only a show. In her palace, Rakis dreamed of the day, after Veraitia had been conquered, when she would finally slay Jorir and take her sisters place as the ruler of Utland.
Rakis ordered the training of Orc warriors and mages, and also sent word to the human barbarians that lived scattered among the glacial mountains of Gha-rak that they would be favored with new land after the war if they would join her troops. In this way, she gathered enough troops to ring the territory of Gha-rak with a bristling army, ready to move when the signal came from Utland.
Tutracht Mirnnem
Tutracht Mirnnem founded the city of Mirnnem many years ago, south of the then small kingdom of Fieldspire, with only a small band of soldiers and craftspeople. By the time of Utland's invasion, however, the city had grown to massive proportions - it covered the entire stretch of land between the White Sea and the Gulf of Naddal, a distance of hundreds of miles. While there were areas of Mirnnem that were less developed than others, Tutracht's settlement had grown so populous that over most of the city there were dwellings several stories deep.
Tutracht supervised his city from a great tower, where he ran a school for artificers. He was a renowned teacher and engineer, as well as a powerful mage. Through a network of advisors and local officials, as well as a huge monitoring system, he kept watch over his city.
When Tutracht was visited by Praest Kelor, with a request to fit him with a new pair of eyes, he mentioned a troubling report of impending war from his airship patrols to the north and south. He bid Praest to stay and aid him in planning a defense from the coming invasion, but Praest, unsure of himself in a new environment, was only interested in returning to Kelor.
Tutracht welcomed Ral Yigesh and Torn-Nidi into his tower, along with their posse of soldiers and mages. He knew that they had come to fight, but he had subtler plans. He offered them to be stationed in the city of Tiem, a fortress that he was building north of Fieldspire as a first defense against the armies of Utland. As they spoke, Ral became convinced that there was more to this plan than Tutracht was letting on, but she knew that the old artificer was their last hope for a unified defense of their lands, and so she dared not accuse him of anything.
Within a week, Tutracht had assembled every capable soldier and workman, and began to march them through Fieldspire to Tiem. When they arrived, the "city" was only a few temporary dwellings, but within days it had been build into an elaborate set of metal buildings, wrapped in a thickly plated outer wall. Most interesting to Ral, who had been monitoring the building closely, was a group of workmen who worked below ground. They were kept isolated from the rest of the workmen, and she recognized a few of Mirnnem's most able students in the group, whom she had met while staying in his tower. She knew that something was amiss, but was sure that when the right time came, Tutracht would reveal his plans.
![[Image: TiemtheWalkingCity.jpg]](http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b44/Emorgasm/TiemtheWalkingCity.jpg)
