Risen Empires: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Risen Empires: (Generated at 2026-07-29 20:05:32)
| Risen Empires: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
Recent updates to Risen Empires: (Generated at 2026-07-29 20:05:32)
Oh, one more aside. Much of the events of Fallen Empires had to do with 'Global Cooling'. This is the period right before the Ice Age, after all. Each of these kingdoms were falling to more brutal means due to a shortage of food and supplies, and were conquered by barbarians that were better adapted to living in the new environment.
I always thought this was an interesting takeaway, but also an overlooked part of the story. It's ultimately a story about climate change. But it's really hard to glean any of that by just looking at the cards.
Mmm. More can be found on Oliver Farrel and the Farrelite Cult by clicking here.
Also, white citizens tokens sure could destroy non-token white creatures. Though it requires access to the deity that the cultists paid tribute to, the Hand of Justice.
Unfortunately, due to the way that Magic's creature types evolved, Townsfolk and Citizen creature types didn't really catch on. Maybe this would be a good time to invoke "Mono-creature type" versus "Multi-creature type"? Since anyone who follows Farrel is "Creature - Human" and anyone who follows Leitbur is something aking to "Creature - Human Soldier" or "Human Cleric". You could print cards with lines like this:
"Creatures with exactly one creature type get +1/+2 until end of turn."
~or~
"Prevent the next 2 damage to target creature this turn for every creature type it has."
The gimmick of FE were the counters and tokens. Which they supplied on whole sheets of pop outs via magazines. Hence each color has a creature token type represented by these markers.
Every color except white has the token types destroy the nontoken types of the same color as the major conflicts.
You could go with classes. Icatians are really mostly Human Soldiers. All Clerics were Farrelites or members of the Order of Leitbur which was mostly swayed towards that side. But there are generic Human (Townsfolk) which are kinda split (though looking at Farrelite Zealot, you could argue that's some convert and reimagine it as a Cleric).
I'd have to look at the rest of the set to make better suggestions, but you'd end up with more than ten tribes anyway, right? Both Orcs and Fungi come with little cousins.
Btw:
> * Black has humans (the thrull keepers) and Phyrexians
I always thought the conflict was Order of the Ebon Hand (which apparently worships Gix, accepts Humans and non-Humans) vs. Thrulls (created by Endrek Sahr - a member of the Order) - like in green undone by creations of their own making.
I don't recall any Humans of the Order cooperating with the Thrulls against any Phyrexian leadership.
That doens't really work mechanically for tribal effects, though.
White is Human vs. Human. Icatia falls partly due to the inner struggle with the Farrelite radicals.
So; I noticed that FE has an oddity in it. Most colours have two empires:
* Red has Dwarves and Orks
* Green has Elves and their Thallid slaves who rebelled
* Blue have Vodalians and Homarids
* Black has humans (the thrull keepers) and Phyrexians
But...
* White has humans and, um. I guess Draconian since there's that Cylix, maybe?
There's precedent for
getting 2/2s with upside. Originally it was Dimir Guildmage and friends - well, OK, originally it was Lord of Atlantis :) They've been followed by Grimoire Thief and Harbinger of the Tides.
The jump is certainly fine. Without prowess this would be fine for an uncommon. With it, I'm sure this is within the bounds of what could get printed at rare.
Now that every colour has an 'order of the' I'm also going to give each an 'initiates of the'? That does give every colour access to mana washing; which is unusual.
But maybe not a terirble thing? We're pretty heavy on NCC mana costs in set, this could be a sneaky nod towards "Yup, it really is safe to play 2 or even 3 colours, even if it doens't look like it is"
Might have to consider whether that warps the environment though. And, well, it's a bit of a stretch. But let's try it.
This could usefully be a thrull. Since we already have a 'sacrifice thrulls' theme.
Note - this is pushed for a blue creature. There are prowess creatures for
, but they tend to be 2/1 with an upside. This has a weak upside (jump) but is being 2/2 fair for going from 
to 
? If anything, going rare and being bluer should make it tricksier, not meatier. Ah well.
unblockable instead of prowess. Two words so can stay common.
ack! Until end of turn! Not infinite prowess forever!
rename to fit cycle
Rename "Order of something" to fit the cycle's naming convention. Looking up some lore; Vodalia was a military state anyway. So sure, they can have an order named after their empire.
See Thelon Naturaliser for discussion of Thelon lore. A militant order based on "Oh crap, the Thallids are revolting" seems like a fine fit, and lets me start to fix up the naming convention horror.
See Necrite. Placeholder.
Lore-wise, Thelon was a druid who cultivated mushrooms. A saviour figure (because the elves were starving) not a god. But he got an order founded on him anyway.
Card wise, he has "Make forests" "Animate forests" "Swamps hurt you" and "Blue creatures are paralysed"
The first two go together; the latter two are just colour-hate and are going to get changed anyway. So sure. The order of Thelon get crazed worshippers who explode your unnaturalness. Why not?
... what was I thinking? The original has them destroy a CREATURE. Which is MUCH more useful and also something black is very much allowed to do.
Suggestion - put this back to being 'they sac a creature' and give green a mirroring creature which does naturalise.
If I did that, should I have a cycle? I may be doing too many cycles in this set, it might be more useful to build up some colour identity (things like the thelon monk+druid combo)
counter, not token
So, yeah. This is a modern no-no. "Tap all your white creatures, or lose all your white lands", after red sacrifices a creature.
And hey, it has prot-white too. Just... yeah, but why, but no?
So. Luckily, I already have a need that needs to slot; which is Dwarven Lieutenant where I accidentally all of the functionality, when I turned it into part of the knight cycle instead.
So this can be mass firebreathing. I wonder, could/should this be "Target creature gains prowess UEOT"? Stick with the simplest implementation first. This is... kinda strong. I think we'd better keep the 'cost 2 to pump' thing. I'm very tempted to make this 'as a sorcery' instead. Actually, yes; do that. It fits the flavour much better. You can pump up for an attack; but not for a defence. It also makes it a bit less devastating, so go back to pure fire-breathing.
Now, does this still need to cost 3? Make it 2 so you can start using it a bit sooner.
And reminds me that the set lacks disenchant. Need to slot that in somewhere.
they broke my image link. Replace with kitty.
Orgg
This is, irritatingly, the one single card from this set that I do not own.
Anyway; it's got the cowards ability, but is a huge stompy trampler. There's basically nothing wrong with it - except the people who get excited by "It's huge!" (and so don't mind the cost) don't usually want something quite so stupid looking. And other people look at the downside and the cost, and well, sure, if you can stop your opponent having good creatures it's a decent finisher? But it's a bit tricksy and why bother? # And the answer to THAT is - have you SEEN this set? There's, what, three creatures with power 3+ in it? Deep Spawn, Derelor, Ebon Praetor, Feral Thallid... huh. Interesting. It's one in each colour. I hadn't actually noticed that cycle. There's basically NOTHING in the mid-range is my point though; so this is actually not as big a downside as it at-first appears.
It has a hilarious interaction with Brassclaw Orcs though :)
So... do I need to change it? I think all I really need to do is go all-in and make it EVEN BIGGER. I mean, it's already 6/6 for 5 which is a mismatch. So sure. Be 7/7.
Regenerate->Invulnerable, and drop to uncommon.
You know what? This effect doesn't need sacrifice. Also, need to mark the forestness with a token; there's an obvious token type to use for that.
Ooooh crap. I somehow failed to notice that the original is "My tribe breathes fire" rather than just that one card. Need to preserve that ability somewhere.
Shouln't really be here, not just because it breaks the cycle.
Edit: Done on Raiding Party
Also, this should be renamed "Order of..." to fit the cycle naming convention. What do FE dwarves worship? Oh joy, the official lore is "We dont' even know the name of the dwarven empire" Name them after the place? Sure.
Artifacts do get grizzly bears, bizarrely: Lore Seeker, a few others. It's just
that doesn't.
Ok; given the Vodalian Knights change to be, you know, a knight and thus cost
Order of Vodalia, I should probably have this take up the missing 
spot in the curve. It's very tempting to give this some form of conditional evasion then - maybe unblockable if you cast a spell; along with prowess?
That ends up kinda simlar to the knights, though.
The set does need groundstall breakers. So maybe just "2/1 unblockable" (losing the prowess)? The flavour being... huh. I could write "Landwalk" but I'm trying to be new-style not too silly. Anyway, flavour being they sneak onto your land via the rivers. Which actually, amusingly, would be even better flavoured as "Non-Island Walk" :)
But no. Arguments against 2/1 unblockable? Unblcokable is REALLY STRONG. Especially if you have auras, equipment, and so forth. Which, well, we do nowadays. (Back in ye day, best you could do was slap firebreathing on. Though this set introduced Armor Thrull which actually works pretty well.) But, well, really strong just means you need to pay for it. And it's not even that expensive nowdays. Neurok Invisimancer suggests for this cost, you get a small upside on top. Or Phantom Warrior makes it a bit harder to ping. (But I don't really want another 2/2, because knight cycle and necrite semi-cycle)
So what small upside? Howsabout flash? Being able to surprise fits with the flavour too; and it's not too strong because you're using an unblockable as a chump :) The tension makes this somewhat skilltesting I guess (you're almost always better off just casting it and attacking, but the temptation is to hold it for the surprise)
I think that's where we'll go for now. But I'm not strongly attached to it, and may have a better plan in future.
Thrull Wizard
What is this crap? Ok; I GET that it's a mirror to the Vodalian Mage but it can only counter spells in its own colour and.. bleh.
Now, it DOES have the advantage that you want to sacrifice a lot of thrulls, so one that's maybe sideboard relevant but hey at least you can sacrifice it isn't a terible thing. But, well, a vanilla would be better.
And whaddya know; I bumped the mage to uncommon so I can bump this back to common and we have a vanilla. And we don't even have to change the flaovur text much. First gen thrull wizards were even worse at their jobs :)
I always liked Vodalian Mage
Force Spike on a stick. Rarely truly devastating; always a little annoying. And hey, who doesn't like merfolk-tribal? No one who played fallen-empires, that's for sure.
Sadly, this bust NWO like nothing else. Repeatable "Did you remember I exist? No? No spell for you!" is just ridiculously annoying for the new player, while being, well, nothing for a more advanced one.
Which is FINE. But not COMMON.
So is anything needed other than upping the rarity? Well... maybe? I mean, it's kinda nifty that you keep your mana up, meaning the opponents have a little less mana, but then you need something to do at the end of their turn with that mana.
Which isn't really a problem for blue decks of that era. But if this set is to stand alone; where would that mana go?
I think, then, this would be more fun as a high-tide variation. You can still use it as mana denial. Or you can use it to make stuff cheaper. My intention is that if opponents aren't playing blue, they still get
reduction. Does that work?
And I guess it's a build hint - go with a deck that builds up to something really big.
So shockingly this ended up closer to the original than my first attempt. Is it reasonable this way?