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Recent updates to Community Set: Story / Universe: (Generated at 2025-08-31 04:15:08)
Page 1 - Older activity
Page 1 - Older activity
Nope. Sirens were half-bird in the Odyssey. But Harpies were also half-bird. I get the impression that 1970s Monster Manuals for Dungeons and Dragons had something to do with the now fishy nature of Sirens. TSR probably needed to make the two monsters distinct from each other. Harpies were bird ladies, but Sirens were creatures that drew you to a drowning death by singing to you... they didn't need to be bird ladies, so they stopped overlapping.
Harpies already exist in the Gloaming. Siren is a creature type I've thought about, but I'm not sure if it makes sense for Aer or not. I suppose they'd have a fun time singing at the Aeran opera. The only Siren previous to Theros, Alluring Siren, didn't fly, by the way. Weren't the Sirens in the myth not creatures that flew, either?
there's harpy and their new cousins, siren
Ah yes, I didn't even mention Aven. I kind of took them as a given, I suppose.
I don't think you need Goblins to sell a set. In my mind, it would make more sense if the residents of Aer could all get along in some fashion or another, within tight quarters... and goblins don't really fit that role as well as Viashino do (or possibly dwarves?)
Flying merfolk are fine by me... but it does presume that there's a body of water somewhere for the mer to dip in. Maybe that just encourages odd architecture? I don't know. But you'd think Aven would just make more sense. Especially since they're the go to White/Blue tribe.
As for races I think belong in Aer:
Pretty much any creature type you see me putting on a card is something I think would be a good fit for Aer.
I have no idea where it's written, but we have discussed this somewhere before. Part of the concept of Aer is to use all of the "normal" creature types for each race so that, even though it's gold, it seems "normal" in comparison to the Gloaming. That means we should probably use the characteristic races for the majority of the colors: White is Humans, Blue is Merfolk, Black is Vampires and sometimes Zombies, Red is Goblins, and Green is Elves.
Personally, I'm not a fan of Zombies and Vampires in my Aer, but I could be persuaded to be okay with Vampries.
Aeran Elves have wings. Winged elves are common enough that I think we can pull that off fine, and Magic plays with the design of its Elves enough (Lorwyn!) that it's probably fine.
Aeran Viashino also have wings. Perhaps the merfolk do as well, if we include them (they're a bit weird to think of in a sky city, but hey, weirder things happen.)
The races that can't fly use golden Flight Halos to get around, which would be represented in the art.
We've had a lot of ideas for Aer creature types. Have we gone far enough to ask if there's any we want to focus on?
I think my favourites are Viashino and Vedalken, but I'm not sure if those actually make sense, or if I just like them.
I feel like having 2-3 races would be right, but maybe 1 or more would be better?
Are they all winged humanoids (or do some ride griffins, etc instead?)
Is there any place for angels, demons, etc? I'm assuming we should stick to normal humanoid creatures, but I'm not sure.
Are there humans? I like the idea of excluding humans, but does everyone agree?
Good point. Fixed.
This set should be editable by everyone working on the community set, assuming cmeister2 is OK with that?
I think you could have both plots running simultaneously, now that I think of it. Aerans who are waking up to what they've been doing could start revolting against their government. At the same time, a full scale invasion from the demi-planes could begin. Truth is, most revolutions are messy affairs... it's never one side against another, like we'd like to imagine it. I'm sure a number of Syrians and Egyptians can back that up.
Jmgariepy, with a bit of reflection, I actually like that suggestion more than I thought I did upon first reading it. I just have two issues with it, I think:
That's because Chandra is a pyromancer, Koth is a geomancer, and Tibalt is a sadist who delights in suffering. Their cards might do the same thing mechanically but they'd have a different flavor while doing it.
I actually like the planeswalker-affiliated cards, they seem like one of the things that does build an identity for the planeswalker. Not precise enough to distinguish between two planeswalkers whose primary characteristic is "likes fire" but I think you could tell the difference between a Chandra instant, a Koth instant and a Tibalt instant.
It just occurs to me, the obvious answer would be "Aer sinks low enough people can reach it". That accentuates the disaster of Aer sinking, and fits with our suggestion of the first set being set with Aer seeking the mana stones, and the second set with Aer being overrun.
I do like the idea of the Aerans being sympathetic, rather than cruel deliberate oppressors. If they're the group with humans and elves etc, it'd be nice to be able to be put ourselves in their shoes. (It also helps distinguish them from the black faction.)
well, she is pretty much the reincarnation of Jaya. even their quotes have similar styles.
as for actually walking the planes. that asks for a separate discussion. but simply, World Enchantments do give you that feel of jumping to different locations. What if we could unofficially make Plane a real card type. Then make some rules about Planes jumping--I mean walking. And maybe additional keywords and mechanics to tie in with Planeswalkers. (e.g. remove N counters from PWs you control or something.)
You know, the Planeswalker's do appear on commons, like on Chandra's Fury. It's a shame that the flavor of those cards are often "let's make the Walker look really cool!" instead of "Let's give some insight into how this Walker is different than Jaya Ballard."
As for the "How do the non-flyers attack Aer" problem, I think the easiest explanation is probably "They don't." It makes more sense, in my head, if the five demi-planes, as a group, found out a way to cut the power back. Aer now feels that it must fight to maintain it's way of life.
If, instead, you wish to maintain a real sense of ignorance for how the world works, you could instead say that the residents of each demi-plane have no idea how they're powering Aer, but the power source has diminished. In this scenario, Aer is sending expeditions into each demi-plane to solve the problem, but the planes are, by their very nature, primordial and violent. The interesting thing about this approach is that we can get very personal with the Aerans, and tell the story from their point of view. The plot itself can feel like it's supposed to be a 'There and back again' sort of plot on 5 different worlds. Unfortunately, as the adventurers explore, they're bound to come to the realization that Aer isn't protecting these demi-planes... it's oppressing them.
That's a lot more subtle a plot than what we were originally suggesting. Instead of massive wars and global shifts in Set II, we'd probably see the explorers of each realm return to Aer, unsatisfied with the status quo. They'd get together and start to do something about it. Probably go public. Then get attacked/arrested.
Anybody like the set title, "The Secret of Aer"?
I only mention Set II because it helps us give a bit of context to something which otherwise has none. I'm not saying I'm confident that we'll ever get around to designing it, even if that would be nice.
I would like the see the first set as the very start of the potential conflict, where the people of Aer just begin to realize where their mana is coming from.
Re: pre war set. I wasn't convinced at first. But maybe at the stage when the Aer have rediscovered the monocoloured tribes, and are frantically exploring their territory in an effort to shore up the mana stones? Then we can portray conflict, and show some "brave Aer explorer" cards and "Aer trying to pretend to be gods" cards but also "overconfident Aer torn down by attacking hordes" cards. The monocoloured tribes could stay approximately as-is, as could the Aer, including "sink into the gloaming" cards, with the exception of not showing any "defending Aer itself" cards.
If we did it right, we could make it shocking in set 2 when monocoloured tribes find a way to Aer and lay waste to it. (And we don't have to figure out how yet -- a helpful planeswalker?)
How do you feel? What did you hope to gain by postponing the war to set ii?
I'm reluctant to plan too much about set ii, because I'm not sure we'll finish set i, so I want to make sure as many good ideas as possible are free to use in the first set.
Yeah. I think we've found it hard to make clear decisions when there's not been a unanimous consensus.
FWIW, I agree with you on all four bullets. Other regular contributors, what do you think?