There are (unless I missed one) two current possibilities:
Alex:
One way this could work is if there's an outlandish plane full of weird alien things, that's disintegrating or otherwise in trouble. This plane has the magical technology to travel between planes (like the Weatherlight and Old Phyrexia did). So they come and invade the other plane, home to humans etc, which is all adapted to multicolour. The invaders all have a common plane of origin, but they have different factions with their own ideas for how the invasion should work and who should end up on top.

Me:
The main plain has always been bordered by five alternate planes, each composed solely of one type of mana. This main plane is influenced by the five different types of mana, but the other five have never touched. In an attempt to gain power, a planeswalker draws on these five demi-planes, but things go wrong and she ends up pulling those five planes closer to the main plane. The five one-color planes begin converging with the one five-color plane, fusing with it chaotically, and their inhabitant turn violent, forcing the main plane to defend itself.

We've also entertained, and possibly decided on, having the main plane being a sort of "city in the clouds" type place. Given that, I'm going to start calling it Aer as a working title rather than typing Main Plane over and over again.
With Aer being up in the clouds and all/most of its creatures having flying, how does the invasion work? Well, personally I'm assuming that Aer has chunks of land floating around in the sky (funnily enough, this is the second time one of my own block ideas has been sucked into this block...). And, expanding on my story concept, I'm picturing actual chunks of alien terrain appearing on Aer. That, or some sort of rifts/portals that create areas of ambiguity that could be part of either plane.

It's not much of a stretch to go from "city in the clouds" to saying that the denizens of Aer have been portraying themselves as gods to the land-bound mono-color planes. Perhaps they've been over-extending their power and this is the fightback from the mono-color planes?

Story idea three. Completely changes a lot of concepts. Are they really separate planes, if they're all together like that? It's fine if they're not, but it raises questions as to why and how they've been so divided.

Also, that flips the "good/bad" around.

If we go with the actual chunks of land, we could have grappling hooks, harpoons, and wooden planks!

I love the "denizens of Aer have been portraying themselves as gods to the land-bound mono-color planes" idea. It doesn't even have to be good/bad, if they originally had some good reason for ruling other planes, that only now the other planes are objecting to.

It could either be all on one plane, but given the "different" flavour, it sounds to me like 2-4 planes which the Aer found some means of commerce between.

Or five, since that's one per color. I like the idea too, I just sort of need to flip my thought process around. I like the idea of them acting as "gods" and not equals participating in commerce, since I haven't been picturing the monocolored planes so much as societies as wild, untamed places. Green, in particular, is not a society in my mind.

And I only meant "good/bad" in reference to who the audience is supposed to be rooting for, as in "protagonist/antagonist." In Alex's concept and my concept, the protagonist is Aer; in cmeister2's, it's the five other planes.

If we want a complex story, we'd have this in 3 parts. Part one is the midst of the struggle - fightback of the mono-colored planes against the flying overlords.

The second part would be more sympathetic to the overlords - they're not evil for the sake of being evil, they were ruling for good reason (though their methods were lousy), and because the demi planes are fighting back, something bad will happen. For example: the Aer were preventing the use of magic because it destabilises something (like the Eldrazi's prison, or the stability of that universe) but the monocolor tribes did not realise this.

Part 3 might be monocolor and multicolor uniting for a common goal. If the plane is destabilizing, other horrific entities might be bleeding through from other multiverses, and the planeshifting technology that the Aer had (to visit the demi planes) must be increased to shift all of the Aer and tribes to another plane.

If we go with that, Part 3 would be the place to do all-hybrid.

"I only meant "good/bad" in reference to who the audience is supposed to be rooting for, as in "protagonist/antagonist."

Indeed, that makes sense, but I'm most attracted to the idea that honestly, both sides have heroes and villains from the start; that from the start you might root for one or the other. But I like ambiguity :)

Maybe the Aer were never really aware of the fact that other creatures existed on the mono planes. They've been drawing on those planes for power, not really knowing that they were inhabited, and (fusing cmeister's plot with mine) the planeswalker comes along and makes it possible for the unwittingly repressed creatures to get at the Aer for revenge. That way, both sides are legitimately viewing the other as an enemy due to a mistake. The Aer can still view themselves as better, the monocolored creatures have a reason to fight- is this a good solution?

I think we want to continue this along three sets. In which case, I like the idea of them unifying, and hybrid is a good way to represent this. Perhaps a colorless threat comes along. Maybe even the Eldrazi themselves in a different form, though I rather prefer some other evil. Weren't the Eldrazi released to roam the planes after Zendikar?

I like that one a lot. It gives the best of each suggestion.

Good stuff. I was afraid that I might end up saying too much on this, because... well... I'm long-winded and opinionated. But by the time I woke up there were three pages of updates! Hatchie Matchie!

It is possible that in our attempt to explain why the 5 'planes' are under subjugation of this flying realm full of pretend gods that we are trying too hard. The simple explanation is that they're all in the same plane, and they can't reach one another. Different Continents in a sense. If the denizens of the different lands could fly, they'd be able to go back and forth... but they don't. Only the Gods can do that. The Forest land just can't 'see' the Mountain land. It also keeps us on the same plane, and gives a sense of cohesion to flavor design.

But is that too boring to be the right explanation? I do think it has a lot of strength in that it supports the Jacob's Ladder story very well. I don't know if we need to make where the alien invaders come from more complicated than this...

Huh! Yeah, with flying that makes a lot of sense.

Brainstorming possible hooks:

• There's some planar-mechanical reason why the colours of mana are mostly separated, eg. the ocean/sky is some mana phenomenon that needs a special ability to cross it
• The civilisation originally came from the decadent-greek continent
• And was under threat from the infectious fungus, and fled in a harrowing journey across the ocean, some ending up embittered and black, others cracking the secret of flying
• And were seen as gods
• Blue / black / red may end up with demonic aspects, perhaps there's a common cause?
• Now something upsets the balance.

In fact, I agree with something Alex said, that it's somewhat tiring every story has to be about the end of the whole setting. It's possible the story is about some specific conflict within the plane.

Heh. Now I'm imagining an entire Ocean just hanging in the air...

I've been worrying about the feeling/impressions of how the current numbers are looking over on (((Skeleton breakdown))). Let's take the most generous numbers suggested so far: 25 gold commons, plus 5 gold/native-affiliated common lands, leaving 80 monocolour commons. That means that two-thirds of the commons in the booster are affiliated with the invaders.

It's going to feel like the invasion is already won! The plane will feel like it's overrun with these five different kinds of alien creatures; like the natives are utterly dwarfed in number by these otherworldly things.

I fear this is actually an effective argument against the idea I originally proposed, that the gold natives were just minding their own business when the five flavours of monocolour started to invade. On the other hand, if the flying gold humanoids are "masters" and the creepy monocolour oddities are "enslaved", then the numbers being that way round makes a lot more sense.

For whatever reason, that thought completely did not occur to me. I was too focused on each faction having equal numbers to realize the implications.
I don't see the different planes as being subjugated. In fact, in my most recent proposition, the conflict is almost entirely based on mistakes by both sides:
Aer has been drawing its mana from the lands/planes (it could be either, I suppose, though I still like individual planes so that we can involve a planeswalker in the plot) of the monocolor people without realizing they're doing so. The monocolors have never before realized who their oppressor was, but now that they have, they're mad and want revenge. Aer is just defending itself, not actively oppressing.
My reason for Aer drawing mana from other sources is its conceptual basis: As a "city in the clouds," is there really that much land to provide mana? Where do they get their mana from?
Sorry to diverge from your point into talking more about the plot than the numbers. Maybe you're right, and, like Scars of Mirrodin, the Aer (natives) should be a slightly higher percentage than the "invaders."

Well, they can draw mana from different continents, where the monocolor people (fungi) live. To preserve the idea of a planeswalker, maybe it was a mage that drew to much and make a mistake in the spell, allowing the monos to see him/her,and where she is. That could still ignite her spark.

I don't see a problem with this. It looks like the invaders have already won. That's because there are so many of them compared to the defenders... since this is a morality tale, that sounds about right.

If I was to imagine how the block would progress, I would assume something along the lines of:

Chapter 1: The gods have gotten too cocky, and their 'subjects' turn on them. No one realised how lop-sided this battle would be until it started. Things are looking very desperate for Aer.

Chapter 2: A Planeswalker, who sympathises with Aer goes on a journey to get allies for his beleaguered state.

Chapter 3: The Planeswalker returns. This time there's a fair fight. Resolution.

There's a lot of different stories to that could be told using the block format... that's just a simple example.

One of the big arguments about why we shouldn't balance the numbers between the two 'sides' is what happened in Scars of Mirrodin. In the latest State of Design article, Mark Rosewater pointed out (roughly) that Magic forced people's hands to play certain colors throughout block. Mirran cards were good with Mirran cards, and Phyrexian cards were good with Phyrexian cards. Since Phyrexia was most associated with Black and Green, players drafted Black and Green, or some other deck that had no black or green in it in Scars/Scars/Scars draft. And that is boring/boring/boring. Personally, I think they hurt themselves by having flavor fight fun.

I don't mind us messing with the numbers, and I assume we will. I also don't think there would be a major problem if Aer took over the flavor of the lands and (non-signet) artifacts, as well as sneak 5 cards into the mono slot (perhaps with loyal subjects. After all, there are bound to be some true believers who are trying to stop their kind from such blasphemy.) But I say: Bring on the unfair fight.

Oh, also, it is possible that we are trying too hard with these common lands, and common signets. Only Alara had color fixing on that level, and CDE is much harder to do that CCC and the occasional CD. Shall I suggest we move the signets to uncommon? That would help with the numbers a bit, and we could even make all artifacts and lands at common be sided with Aer.

Ravnica also had common lands and signets: Boros Garrison and Boros Signet; in fact, it was the set that gave mana stones the nickname "signets". I thought that the common colourfixing in Ravnica was excellent, and made limited and casual far more playable and fun. So if this set has a multicolour theme, we definitely want at least one common cycle of two-colour manafixers, possibly two.

And yes, I'd say it's worth embracing the fact we're going to have uneven sides, and just taking it into account when choosing flavour and story.

So, we're definitely going with the purposeful gods idea, and not "accidental" overlords?

I was imagining something like the British empire: they didn't set out to exploit everyone per se, they just looked out for themselves (perhaps trying to survive some great disaster), and didn't stop the god thing when it started to happen. And after a 1000 of living fairly comfortably, and thanking themslves for occasional positive interventions in the colored tribes, they don't want to admit that maybe exploiting and slaughtering people was bad, since if they stop they'll all run out of mana, fall into the sea, and drown. So... wilful blindness :)

Jack - I like it. It's a desperate situation for their city - it's powered by mana which is being drained from the 5 other monocolored places. So, they're basically dependent on this influx of mana for their survival. The fact that the influx of mana is dependent on the mono-colored tribes giving it to them / letting them take it means that, when they stop, they will have to attack in order to protect their way of life.

This brings things in as jmgariepy said - these are desperate times for the fliers because their civilization will perish. This can be the motivation for the planeswalker to come and help.

Set 2 could go in a number of directions, but I propose this set of themes for Set 1: ­

­
• The fliers' city is powered by mana drawn from the 5 monocolor continents/planes ­
­
• The monocolor continents are now uprising against the use of this mana, which puts the fliers' city in jeopardy (as it's powered by mana) ­
­
• A planeswalker comes to help rescue the fliers city - in the immediate, they are the underdogs. ­
­

Ooh. A thought has come to mind. We don't need to mention why the subplanes are attacking the fliers' plane at all in the first set... we could develop the story in set 2 to say why they're attacking, as the planeswalker gets to the bottom of the conflict (because really, they're planar police).

If we add the planeswalker, we may want a multicolor planeswalker to represent the fact that there is no good guys or bad guys in this fight. Perhaps the Planeswalker is the only opposite color card in the set (as per SFlethcer's idea that Planeswalkers aren't supposed to feel like they belong in this world... they were just walking through)? May be the most sympathetic to Aer, but I'm quite sure other people will have their own ideas.

Well, there's ALWAYS a planeswalker in modern Magic design. I thought were drifting toward , but maybe that's for the second or third set.

I'm rather hesitant about the idea of a WUBRG planeswalker. I think it'd be fine to have a gold planeswalker not necessarily affiliated with Aer, or a monocolour planeswalker not necessarily affiliated with the invaders. Planeswalkers are usually interlopers. But I'd equally be happy for us to have one or two mono that are on the invaders' side, and one or two multi that are on the side of Aer.

Chandra seems like someone who would side with the invaders.

I would be wary about using Chandra considering there are already 3 incarnations of her. Incidentally, here's the current subtype weights:

­

Ajani: 2
Chandra: 3
Elspeth: 2
Garruk: 2 (3 INN)
Gideon: 1
Jace: 3
Karn: 1
Koth: 1
Liliana: 1 (2 INN)
Bolas: 1
Nissa: 1
Sarkhan: 2
Sorin: 1 (2 INN?)
Tezzeret: 2
Venser: 1
­

I would push for our own planeswalkers as much as possible - maybe using an existing one if we really need to.

CM: Interesting opinion. I think Wizards are trying to include one of their existing 'walkers in every story, to tie the stories together and try to build fandom for the specific characters. So I think it'd be natural to do the same.

Yep, fair enough (and I understand what they're going for). But I'd prefer it if it was someone like Elspeth or Nissa, for example - though I'm not sure where everybody is in LoreLand. For example, I don't think it's likely we'll be seeing another Venser planeswalker..

I'm so sad about Venser. He was my favorite...

I also like Gideon here. He seems like the Planeswalker that would be the most torn by this conflict. It would be great to see an evolution of character by him, where he sides with Aer at first, because his natural dispensation for order, but eventually comes to grip that Aer's worldview is wrong, and has a paradigm shift.

I do quite like Gideon. I would be totally fine with that.

Reading this story over again, I like it a lot more, I'm not sure I agree with my earlier comments. My current summary would go something like this (all up for being changed):

• Ages ago, the Aer aspired (with planeswalker help? See ~Planeswalker~ ) to create a perfect society in the sky.
• To power this, they scattered manastones around the strongest sources of coloured mana in five continents/subcontinents/demiplanes
• At this time, there were early precursors to the monocoloured tribes (some maybe even presentient, eg. the plants), but they were just randoms with no effect on the Aer.
• At first the Aer cities were a triumph of civilisation
• The manastones began to concentrate the mana in the subcontinents, the red mountains became even more red, etc.
• The Aer traded somewhat with some of the tribes. Communication with the black tribe was more extended, and the gorgons tried to imitate the Aer civilisation on land, with limited success.
• The Aer became aloof, and lost interest in the land.
• Over a very long period of time, the monocoloured tribes all built some sort of civilisation. Occasional visits by the Aer cemented the idea of Aer as gods, but the visits stopped coming.
• Eventually the massive mana drain from the levitating the Aer cities, and the increased demands for mana from the new civilisations, began to slowly exhaust the mana.
• Over the same long time, this disrupted the climate, producing dense dark cloud cover, providing a physical manifestation of the moral and magical corruption. This made things even worse for the monocoloured tribes, and made the Aer civilisation more scared -- the cities were still beautiful, but they hovered above dark clouds.
• Eventually the levitation magic started to fail, the Aer panicked, and tried to investigate.
• The Aer ventured into the dark below the clouds, the conversation went like this.
  Monocoloured tribe: Oh yay, our gods came back! Have you come to help our shortage of magic!
  Aer: Yes. By which we mean "we've come to steal the rest of it, to shore up our endangered civilisation as long as possible."
  Monocoloured tribe: ATTACK!
• This is the setting for set 1: basically the status quo as discussed in community set.
• Set 2 might be (wild suggestion): Aer has been laid to ruins, cloud cover begins to part as mana drain is reduced, Aer and monocoloured invaders begin to mingle and fight for scraps in the ruins. Maybe plansewalker/other planeswalker arrives and makes things worse
• Set 3. With planeswalker help, Aer and monocoloured tribe find compromise and rebuild.

I've concentrated on the setting which will be seen on most cards (multi vs mono, ruin, rebuild) rather than events and characters, as I think that helps most for a set. But there can certainly be Aer heroes and villains and monocolour heroes and villains featured on legendary cards.

I like everything you've got there, Jack V, except for your proposed set arc. To me, your proposition for Set 3 sounds like Block 2. I feel like the block should end with the destruction of Aer, if only because Magic blocks tend to have a world-shifting third set.

That sounds great to me!

Mostly, I like this. The only things I would add are tidbits of detail that don't really conflict with the main story. Like, for example, I like how the dark clouds are below Aer... As Aer sinks, those clouds would start to envelop the ground level, causing citizens to leave for higher ground, and forcing an overpopulation problem further up the spires.

Lower levels of Aer sinking into the gloaming sounds very good to me. Any more suggestions?

Hmm... I almost want a 'solution' to be hidden somewhere in the Gorgon revisioning of the plane of Aer. Like they were working on a solution, then buried it because it turned out to be not exploitable, so what's the point? The Gorgon demi-plane seems like an obvious place to send a story off the old "We need to sneak in and grab this thing, oh no when I switched the idol with the sandbag it didn't work" plot. Don't know if we really need that, though.