#even if all the newer members that want to do lore got together and wrote lore together

[nell-pointer]

my take on the discourse: servers dead af. i dont think theres really anything to be done to fix it at this point.... i also dont really care that much. This isnt my first time in a fandom with a “dead” media. its not the end of the world if they dont make content on the dsmp anymore, the fans can still do cool stuff so...... idk i just dont think its anything worth getting upset over.

Now, for my slightly more controversial opinion: The reason the server is dead is a mix of 

a) the streamers all got a lot busier

b) (this is the controversial one) The fans are so fucking annoying that it just isnt worth it to even try to revive anything. Every time someone tries to log on and do absolutely ANYTHING a huge subsection of fans start shitting on them for being ooc, or ruining the server, or being aBuSe aPoLoGiStS. 

The fans hold the ccs to these ridiculous standards that i honestly dont think a actual professionally written tv show could meet, let alone a minecraft rp written by a bunch of young adults, none of whom are writers.

If the fans would just let the ccs do whatever they wanted on the sever then i think things would maybe be able to pick up again, at least for some ccs, but theres not way thats going to happen yall are too batshit. 

Obviously, i have no way of knowing if this is actually the reason. i dont claim to know whats going on behind the scenes. This is just what i personally think is the cause. 

[lightshielded]

today i would like to talk a little about the late queen catherine lightshield, the late - king jarvan lightshield iii and the little riot shone for a brief moment in the slight development of their characters and how this light needed to be smothered to continue the story they wished. this is not a post to condemn riot for this decision, for the reason for doing so is understandable and they are not champions so less important, but a post to talk more about what i personally theorise why these decisions came about during maybe character development and what would have happened in lore had riot not made these decisions ( in short, lore would be nice but more boring as the champions would be doing nothing ) and my reasoning behind this. -- also i know it is entirely possible that they did this purely for drama and i know that jarv is my muse and thats basically all he is used for by this point but look this was fun and interesting and i just like the two characters a lot -- so this is just a little brain storming “what if” if you will, so i hope you enjoy if you continue to read along. part one is my rambling explanation, part two is a what if at the end.

MY RAMBLING

in previous lore ( meaning lore with new lore demacia but prior to recent changes with new champions ), the crown royals of demacia were never quite developed, there was ultimately no need. their ambitious and scarce mentions in their son’s lore gave way to reasonable assumptions of their character and we can assume they were very generic demacias. would could also imagine them both as characters which actually opposed their son in ideology based on the state of this demacia ( the laws were closer to the ones instated by most recent lore jarv with the hardest line mage suppression ).

however, with the newer lores for demacia, riot ultimately wanted to provide xin.zhao with a backstory to fit into the new lore and this is the first large change. now while this lore was not released first, we can assume they were worked on in development together due to the closeness of their update times and this proves a crux to my point. prior, jarv ii was the one who had rescued him from noxus but with the new lore this is jarv iii. now we can assume this is for age reasons as well as making more things relevant in lore ( tho jarv ii does get a nod to in the story and i do like this fact ) by having all active characters closely tied to each other. now we know OLDEST lore demacia raided noxus to free some of their slaves, this is not possible with new lore demacia as they don’t raid nor are they close enough that they can just grab their army and take it to the heart of noxus casually. so noxus had to be the aggressor for it to work, hence xin.zhao’s position as a slave soldier in this story.

but, this inspires a first change in the character of jarv iii - to accept a stranger, a noxian soldier, into demacia he had to be significantly compassionate. so by establishing the king as someone kind enough to release noxian slaves, prisoners of war, and entrust himself to one, to call one friend. BUT this essentially sets up a very kind man who is enforcing harsh, prejudice based laws on a population of his people. obviously, this is a paradox and riot also noticed it and changed it. and with the newer bits of lore we find out multiple new things: 

one) this newer lore jarv iii didn’t teach his son to be suspicious of magical beings. this was mentioned before in his old lore that jarv iv was like most demacians on this and this part was removed on revision, even then enforced that this was not true by his uncle remarking on that is was very unlike him to be so during aftermath. so we can assume he was at least not vocal about his opinions or was genuinely trying not to be prejudiced. two) the laws of stone were introduced and presented us with a not much better but step in the right direction set of laws for demacia which is implied to be done by jarv iii. through they were subsequently slowly undone by the council of nobles as seen in a couple mentions in lore of how the laws were tightening in ways the lightshields disliked and how the king had been giving the council more power. three) the king welcomes shyv when it was open that she was a dragon and the nobles questioned his wisdom in it which meant he openly supported the idea of his son having a dragon guard. (old lore had her hiding it and people just thought she looked weird and were super sus of her). four) all the extra lore we got with the royal family publicly helping mage exiles and meeting with them on conference and other things and all.

essentially made him a king trying to be good for mages. in addition to these changes they wanted to make him a likeable person as well. they worked this into jarv iv’s lore by him being genuinely happy for his sons return rather than emotionless, mentioning how his father genuinely cared for him for one and basically having him present. but in the development of his father they also wished to develop his mother. previously it had be a loveless arranged marriage which tied them together but i guess they figured that wasn’t the route they wanted to go now with this new kinder and more emotional jarv iii so they had them romantically inclined with court whispers, gossip and all. so given this opportunity they went to develop her a little bit, giving catherine strong leadership traits and they likely decided they wanted to show these as plainly and briefly as possible, which apparently in demacian lore is how quickly you can shut down a arms race. which she did instantaneously essentially. she basically kisses the king and said stop and the entire nation was like oh shit we need to stop. no arms race civil war for a good spot near the king’s ear. so, yeah, a queen who can shut down civil war and convince nobles to her side every easily that is much beloved by the nation.

in short, they fixed the paradox of a nice king being cruel to a nice king trying to be good. and then added a powerful queen ruler who stands at his side who is greatly loved and just as influential. HOW LOVELY! however, this causes the issue of why could the good of a now markedly feudal kingdom ( they were constitution monarchy in old lore and still kinda are cause the council and they elect the king but we aren’t here to talk about that ) not just make the decisions they wish? i believe this was their point of realisation of their mistake. the realisation that these two would just do what they want, and that the entire lore of demacia for the 26 years prior would be altered. you have an idealistic king and a queen whom the entire nation adores and bends knee to? they SHOULD be able to do everything they want. and likely did some as it is mentioned the king wants his son to finish what they started and achieve his dreams. have to start something to finish it.

alas, by wanting to develop these characters for the sake of champions like jarv and xin, the essentially wrote themselves into a space of, if they continue to exist we can’t have the story we want. so they basically stopped them existing. first they killed of catherine, in all previous lores as far as we know she was alive just wasn’t romantically interested in her husband. but they did royal stuff together, watched her son get almost killed with a poison crossbow once. good ol days. i imagine they were like good business partners. but for the first time in all lores they had her killed, removed her ( they also removed jarv’s capture by noxus too which has existed just as long but thats a discussion for another day ). now this one move is easy since they put fault on the time period, its olden days in terms of technology in demacia, and unfortunately deaths in childbirth were common. so a very easy disposal which not only removed the civil war ending queen but also injures the motivation of the king by making him emotionally worn out ( in an already emotionally taxing job )

essentially, in one fell swoop they pushed back the pro mage changes to be completed by jarv iv based on his lore as had been written. which is then removed from him and he is given the role of the villain with the comic. funny that if they had just left them both ambiguous they could have just easily had the king the villain cause there wouldn’t have been paradoxes. though i’m not sure how xin.zhao would have gotten in... maybe he escapes and they find him fighting noxians. seems alright? oh well at least we get the cute uncle/nephew relationship in this version of lore. this gives me strength. but ye, so it gets interesting from here because you can sit and just think, what would have happened if she didn’t die?

WHAT IF?

for one, the power couple would have been able to do so much more. i like to think they would have been slowly working down the laws for the betterment of their people and since jarv is not emotionally weakened and lady catherine has the entire council at her beck and call, there would be little resistance amongst the nobility. slowly the laws would lower from mageseekers having to register all emergent mages and ensuring they don’t slip up or they’re out to all emergent mages having to attend classes with members of the lightbringers to learn how to have basic control of their magic -- something they are all too happy to do for they have been doing their best without aid until now -- this would then evolve to allowing more experienced mages to take these classes as an assistant and then a teacher, the lightbringers allowing their secret inner circle to take these places and serve in the open for the first time in so long.

 slowly mages are given voices in positions of leadership and exiles from “slip ups” are lowered as mages are not repressed and know how to control their magic. this would change to not fearing slip ups as use of magic is less restricted for people are less likely to fear what they understand, magic usage becomes legal on school grounds then ever growing territories, eventually towns would have mage quarters where all manor of magic is permitted. although greater usage of magic would likely not be permitted in older parts of cities as it is known to discolour walls and there is only so much you can replace in instance of greying and flaking. got to keep it simple around the grander structures. but maybe over time the mortar can be replaced to not contain petricite, or maybe the bold amongst them might design builds intended to be saturated so their ceilings flake free and reveal the magic like opals within.

slowly magic is phased into the way of life, a smithy apprentice might be permitted to light his own flame without a flint or builder help ease the load of stone. and then ( as jarv seems to have been doing with shyv prior to the comics ) mages might be permitted to don the blue if they so wished, integrating magic into what demacia sees as their pride and joy. their heroes. the mageseekers would become more a force for protecting against mages in war rather than at home, a battalion rather than a power hungry force governed by a few. or maybe they would remain a police force, part of the city guard like any other just they possess protection from magic so are called for a mage criminal while the non magic protected are called for a person swinging a sword. right armour against the right weapon. also as likely, they will lose their name, and their tools simply be another weapon to the people that wear the blue. the tainted history of the name remembered but not allowed to continue on.

slowly, it becomes a nation that embraces magic rather than shuns it out of century old fears. together it is a country that could have healed its wounds both given and inflicted on each other. and our beloved champions could have grown up in a much brighter demacia. frankly, i imagine that within the 20 years from finding xin to the “now” of this universe, much of this could have been accomplished given what we know of them. i do hope, once all the pain and suffering if through in our version of the lore that maybe these steps could be walked by the true of our champions.

[vorthosjay]

Magic Story 2016 in Review

I don’t usually do reviews, as most of you know. At most, I tend to recommend or not recommend certain novels and stories as worth someone’s time versus reading a summary. I try to avoid them because Magic’s story is inextricably tied to the process of developing the card game itself. It’s a rather unique situation even for properties with established lore (like D&D or Warhammer) which also tell stories about the universe (more like a video game than a table top game’s story). I’m also just generally not a fan of literary reviews, as I find Tolkien unreadable but unabashedly love trashy Sci-Fi novels.

So instead, I’m going to tackle 2016 as a SWOT Analysis for the state of Magic’s Story overall, not really for individual stories or writing quality. Don’t know what a SWOT Analysis is? Basically, it’s just a method of dividing feedback into four areas: Strengths (things that are being done well), Weaknesses (thing that could be improved), Opportunities (things that could enhance the overall experience), and threats (things that could hurt the overall experience).

Keep in mind that I don’t know anything about the inner working of creative, and there may be perfectly good reasons for the weaknesses I describe, and plans in place to address the threats I identify. This is just, like, my opinion.

Side Note: I realize that I teased this piece after the 2016 story summary. Sorry, I forgot about it and it sat in my draft folder for the last couple weeks.

Unholy Strength by Terese Nielsen

Strengths

Expanding the Roster While the core writing team has largely remained the same, bringing in Alison Luhrs, Mel Li, and Michael Yichao for more stories has been a welcome addition to the rotation. Alison and Michael both previously wrote Commander 2015 stories, Mel previously wrote the BFZ story summary and one of the Checking In articles. Whether they’re members of creative moved into a slightly different role or members of other teams brought in for their skills, it’s been a good thing.

Hiring Veteran Talent Bringing on Chris L’Etoile, an industry veteran who was not previous involved with Wizards of the Coast in another capacity (as much of the creative team was), signals a pretty strong commitment to continuing to improve the story with the new paradigm. Chris hit the ground running with Homesick, which along with another story I’ll mention in a moment was one of my two favorites this year. I believe we’ve started to see his influence with Kaladesh, and I hope we continue to see plenty of it going forward - word counts be damned.

Hiring Consultants It means a lot when we see outside consultants for expertise in areas the creative team lacks. Reading between the lines of some comments that have been made after Conspiracy: Take the Crown and Kaladesh were revealed to have used consultants, I think we’re likely to see more of this going forward. While it’s not always going to be perfect (Kaladesh had some major flavor misses), it’s a huge step in the right direction, and for that deserves real credit.

Ken Troop’s Blackmail I don’t know what he has on the rest of the team that they let him get the good stuff, but Ken consistently steals the show. He’s only got three stories in 2016, but they’re all fantastic and big story tentpoles. The Promised End is my second favorite story from last year, and The Blight We Were Born For is a close third.

This piece goes on a bit yet, so I’m putting the rest behind a keep reading line.

Hunt the Weak by Raoul Vitale

Weaknesses

Characterization The biggest part of the story that suffered in the new two block paradigm is characterization. Now, to be fair, character complexity is something hard to get across when you’ve only got about 5,000 words a week and a very broad focus. Stories like Homesick helped establish the characters better, but going forward I think it’ll be important to show more sides to the different characters. For instance, if someone hadn’t read Agents of Artifice, they might think Tezzeret is a rather one dimensional character because of his portrayal in Kaladesh. Chandra has seemed to regress as a character, feeling more like an ADHD caricature than the young woman we’d gotten to see grow through The Purifying Fire and her various other appearances. I don’t know entirely how to fix it, but I think taking more moments for the characters to breath and interact will be helpful.

Pacing Given the new serialized structure, it’s harder to get a sense of the timing of events. In Shadows Over Innistrad, was Jace on Innistrad for days? Weeks? Months? It’s not clear, but the story did a whole lot of hopping around with him to different locations all over the plane. Finding a balance between how Magic Story used to be (a series of relatively unconnected vignettes with the occasional important story piece) and the new serialized structure is going to be a major hurdle in 2017. We also got a number of stories unconnected to the main stories this year (or no stories at all), which can be jarring to the pace of events. Now that the team has a few blocks behind them, I think they’re starting to find the right pace.

Community Outreach Last year was weakest in terms of the accessibility of the creative team that I can remember. There was a big call on Tumblr for question for the creative team that have never been answered (at least, not in any venue that I’ve seen). Doug Beyer’s blog has been mostly abandoned, and interaction with the team has largely been limited to official events and Twitter (where 140 characters isn’t a whole lot of room for lore talk - but shout-out to Kelly Digges and others for trying). This was the first year I can remember where a well-known member of the creative team wasn’t hugely visible in responding to the community, as before we’d had Ask Brady or A Voice for Vorthos. These outlets were immensely popular, and I’m hoping the new podcast idea that Blake Rasmussen mentioned on twitter turns out to be a good new successor to that legacy. This criticism comes with the caveat that I’m not sure the creative team’s workload has ever been higher, and I’m sure they’re still trying to find a groove in the new paradigm.

Opportunity by Patrick Faricy

Opportunities

Reconnecting to Older Lore Kaladesh has major story ties to older story lines, and with the Gatewatch established it’s probably time to return to more of the plot threads left dangling over the years. For perspective, it’s been eight real-world years since Liliana, Jace, and Tezzeret were all in Agents of Artifice together. It’s been almost as long since Chandra and Gideon’s story began back in The Purifying Fire. Continuing to connect back to older lore in a meaningful way will help keep older vorthos interested and invested.

New Mediums for Outreach I mentioned earlier that Blake (of Daily MTG fame) dropped the potential for a new story team podcast. This is an exciting opportunity and will go a long way to fixing that big gap I mentioned in weaknesses. Podcasts are the format of choice for many people online these days, and don’t require the same equipment and software intensive set-up as video formats do. Given the success of Maro’s Drive to Work, I don’t think this podcast would be lacking an audience. In this same vein, the recently announced initiative to move the Magic IP in different directions could be great for us Vorthos. I loved being able to experience the story through different media, and Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 was a fun was to share the plot developments of Magic 2015 - and to get players interested in the story.

Official History With the plot moved to free serialized web stories, there’s a rather huge demand from new vorthos interested in what came before Magic Origins. The success of my own articles and those of my fellow vorthos out there is a testament to that demand, and while I’m certainly not going to complain, even the most popular among us don’t have the same reach among the community that the mothership does. In 2014 and 2015, we got “Checking In With the Planeswalkers” articles, which served as a sort of update and history for the uninitiated and invested vorthos alike. Prior to Scars of Mirrodin and Return to Ravnica we got brief histories to catch people up. Now I think we need those kind of background pieces more regularly, because as neat as it is to see Agents of Artifice and The Purifying Fire references in Kaladesh, most newer readers were scratching their heads about the various references.

Threaten by Pete Venters

Threats

Accessibility of Older Lore This runs parallel to some of my other comments. How well can a new reader inference what they need to know about Magic’s past for a story? The experience of Kaladesh is fairly different for someone who has read Agents of Artifice or The Purifying Fire. Chandra monastery at Keral Keep is heavily influenced by Jaya Ballard - an ice age character whose lore is entirely locked into two out-of-print novels... one of which goes for about $40! Making sure that new readers can access the older stories they want is going to be critical going forward, especially if you want to keep older fans invested, too. Granted, these novels are likely locked behind contracts with publishers, but as the story continues to expand and older lore continues to be referenced, there’s a risk of alienating new readers. In some cases, it’s as simple as continuing to post story summaries once a block concludes - we got them for BFZ but not for SOI. As the two-blocks a year structure continues to pile up, we’re going to find newer readers significantly less interested in reading every article between Magic Origins and the latest block.

Mismanagement of Expectations This happened a couple times last year, and I think it’s important to address because fans need to know what to expect. When things are going to deviate from the norm or when we have gaps between the different set stories, that should be made extremely clear to the audience. November 2016 is a good example, as we got no Commander 2016 stories and no catching-up article - both of which we’d gotten in that same slot in previous years. I don’t think these breaks are a problem - but fan expectations based on previous years resulted in disappointment and resentment.

The Expanding Multiverse While I mentioned that the newly announced IP initiative is a great opportunity, it’s also a threat if not managed properly. Non-canon lore from early Duels of the Planeswalker games are still problems to this day - especially the ‘racist Nissa’ misconception. Keeping up with an expanding universe is going to be a lot of work, and it also has the potential for alienating fans both new and old. The creative team will need to stay on top of everything to avoid problems that will haunt them for years to come.

That’s about it for today. I hope you enjoyed my perspective on what worked and didn’t work in 2016, and how I hope 2017 can improve on that. Overall I’m optimistic for the future!