Monday, September 11, 2023

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Magic The Gathering Setting Pubs

The following is my attempt at building a list of MTG planes, a short description of each, a list of related D&D material (either official or homebrew), and a list of source fiction (not yet added). It will be a work in progress for the foreseeable future.

Official D&D MTG Adventures set in Forgotten Realms
Official MTG D&D Monsters that are plane agnostic
MTG Planes with D&D publications
  1. Amonkhet. The overall aesthetic and design behind Amonkhet is very clearly based on ancient Egypt. Most of the world is covered in desert and ruins except for a single city. 
    1. Setting Guide (official): Plane Shift: Amonkhet
    2. Setting Guide (homebrew): Amonkhet Revisited (by grzart)
  2. Arcavios. Arcavios is the result of two completely separate planes colliding with each other. This led to the creation of a new world, but the conduits of mana merged in weird ways, causing a strong flow of combined opposing magics. Five powerful elder dragons founded Strixhaven University, an institution where the mages from the plane can hone their abilities.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
    2. Addons (homebrew): Various (DMSGuild Community Content)
  3. Capenna. Capenna is the homeplane of Elspeth. It was invaded and ravaged by the Phyrexians at some point during its history. This led the plane’s archangels to create the guarded city of New Capenna, a final bastion for the inhabitants of this world to resist the invaders. They enlisted their eternal enemies, the archdemons, to create and protect the city, who eventually betrayed the archangels. Both the demons and angels went into a slumber, and the city was left in the hands of five crime families that were granted power by the demons. The city eventually grew upwards into a massive metropolis, reminiscent of early 20th century big cities.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to Streets of New Capenna (by grzart)
  4. Dominaria. The most known plane in all of Magic, it’s home to a plethora of important characters, events, and storylines. The two most important events in Dominaria are probably the Phyrexian invasion that concluded in Yawgmoth’s defeat and the Mending of Dominaria. The Mending was a way to fix the consequences of the several cataclysmic events that took place in the plane. A series of temporal rifts opened all over Dominaria and threatened the whole Multiverse. Several planeswalkers worked to fix them, some of them even sacrificing their lives. This led to the Mending, which changed how planeswalker sparks worked, turning them from near-god-like beings to stronger-than-average spellcasters who can travel through planes.
         The plane of Dominaria is at the center of the Multiverse and has been the setting of most major Magic storylines to date, including the "Brothers' War" between Urza and Mishra, the story of the skyship Weatherlight and its crew, and the story of the warrior Kamahl. Dominaria is a huge world with many large continents and vast oceans—a world more than twice the size of Earth. Among these land masses are the locations known by most Magic players: Llanowar, Shiv, Benalia, Urborg, Tolaria, and dozens of others.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Plane Shift: Dominaria
    2. Monster (official): Sol’kanar the Swamp King
  5. Eldraine. Eldraine is a fantastic land heavily inspired by European tales like those of King Arthur. The plane is divided into the Wilds, where untamed magic and magical beings roam freely, and the Realm, which is further split into five courts that came to be after the humans freed themselves from the elves’ enslavement. Despite each court having its own ruler there’s a High King who rules over the entire Realm.
    1. Setting Guide (official): A Planewalker's Guide to Eldraine
    2. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to the Throne of Eldraine (by grzart)
    3. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to the Wilds of Eldraine (by grzart)
  6. Ikoria. Ikoria is a world full of monsters and beasts of varying sizes and levels of intelligence. Humans are the only non-beast race on the plane, and they live secluded in sanctuaries to keep themselves protected from the monsters.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths (by grzart)
    2. Monster (official): Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt 
  7. Innistrad. Innistrad is a dark and gloomy plane inspired by gothic horror fiction. Its main inhabitants are humans who live in fear of monsters like zombies, werewolves, vampires, and other horrors. The plane has seen countless tragedies, with its guardian angel Avacyn being corrupted by the Eldrazi titan Emrakul and then killed by her own maker, Emrakul being trapped in the plane’s moon, and now the entire world being plunged into an eternal night that allows vampires to rule freely.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Plane Shift: Innistrad
    2. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to Innistrad (by grzart)
  8. Ixalan. A plane from which, until recently, planeswalkers could not leave, Ixalan has two main continents. One of them, named Torrezon, is ruled by vampires in a coalition between a monarchy and a powerful church. The other continent, sharing the plane’s name, is ruled by an empire inspired by Mesoamerican cultures and is home to dinosaurs. Off the coast of this continent lives a coalition of pirates. The plane used to house an artifact called The Immortal Sun designed to trap Nicol Bolas, but it was stolen by one of the dragon’s henchmen.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Plane Shift: Ixalan
    2. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to the Lost Caverns of Ixalan (by grazart)
    3. Adventure (official, level 4): X Marks the Spot
  9. Kaladesh. Kaladesh, visually inspired by India and steampunk, is characterized by the fact that it has larger access to aether than other planes. Natural mages are rarer than they are on other planes, but this high supply of aether allows for the creation of inventions and wonders of engineering that make magic more accessible to the plane’s inhabitants.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Plane Shift: Kaladesh
  10. Kaldheim. It’s a Norse mythology inspired plane divided into 10 realms all connected to The World Tree. These worlds are:
    1. Istfell, home to the spirits of those who died outside of battle.
    2. Karfell, realm of the Viking zombies named Draugr.
    3. Immersturm, a hellish landscape that houses demons.
    4. Gnottvold, where the trolls live amidst the mountains.
    5. Bretagard, home of the humans.
    6. Starnheim, where Valkyries live alongside fallen heroes.
    7. Surtland, a land in constant turmoil inhabited by giants.
    8. Skemfar, the dark forest where the elves live.
    9. Axgard, a rugged mountain peak home to the dwarves.
    10. Littjara, a mysterious land of lakes and pines where the shapeshifters roam.
      1. Setting Guide (homebrew): Planeshifted Guide to Kaldheim (by grzart)
  11. Kamigawa. Kamigawa takes heavy inspiration from Japanese culture and mythology. The first time we visited this plane it had a feudal-Japan design and style, but it’s since evolved into a futuristic cyberpunk world. This plane is divided into two worlds, a spirit and a material one, which are in the process of merging.
         The plane of Kamigawa resembles sengoku-era Japan and actually consists of two "symbiotic" subplanes. One is the utsushiyo, the material realm of mortals, and the other is the kakuriyo, the realm of the kami. In the events of the Kamigawa story, a treacherous kami and its moonfolk conspirators convinced a powerful feudal lord to steal a kami from the kakuriyo to secure immortality for himself and peace and dominion for his subjects. This began the Kami War, in which the denizens of Kamigawa battled against their own 'gods.' It was the damage dealt to Dominaria at the hands of planeswalkers that enabled the daimyō Konda, Lord of Eiganjo to kidnap a kami from the spirit realm. The planar-temporal rifts on Dominaria weakened the veil between Kamigawa's two halves, making Konda, Lord of Eiganjo's crime possible.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to Kamigawa (by grzart)
    2. Setting Guide (homebrew): Plane Shift: Kamigawa (by Hyperionsol)
    3. Setting Guide (homebrew): Plane Shift: Kamigawa  (by Horror)
    4. Setting Guide (homebrew): Handbook to Kamigawa (by KingYamez)
  12. Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. This plane was divided into two different aspects, which represented day (Lorwyn) and night (Shadowmoor), switching from one to the other every 300 years. Both the plane and the beings in it were affected by this change, becoming distorted reflections of themselves during the night time. These two aspects have now been merged, but we don’t know how the world looks now.
         Lorwyn is a small, temperate plane of perpetual midsummer, where the sun never dips far below the horizon. Lorwyn is also notable for its lack of humans. The plane is dominated by its elves, who consider themselves arbiters and enforcers of natural beauty. Shadowmoor, on the other hand, is a plane of perpetual dusk, where the sun is never directly visible, and where light seems to come from unseen sources. Shadowmoor is also devoid of humans, but on this plane, elves are the sole source of hope in the world—guardians of the precious few beautiful things and places left on the plane. Clearly there is a relationship between these two planes, but its exact nature is unknown. A mysterious planar event called the Aurora is involved somehow, as is the powerful and elusive queen of the fae, Oona. Further details of the planes' connection have not been revealed.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to Lorwyn: Shadowmoor (by grzart)
  13. Mirrodin. The artificial, metal plane of Mirrodin was created by the planeswalker Karn. It was originally called Argentum. Karn also created an artifact warden to watch over the plane while he explored the multiverse. Karn brought the planeswalker Jeska, Warrior Adept to visit his "mathematically perfect" plane, but while there the two of them unwittingly introduced a mysterious contagion to the plane—a contagion that in time could transmute metal to flesh and flesh to metal. The contagion infected the warden, who in time began to call himself Memnarch and obsessed over the absence of his creator. The contagion also infected the plane, destabilizing its interior core of pure mana and giving rise to strange metal growths called mycosynth.
        The deluded Memnarch devised complex artifacts that would ensnare beings from nearby planes and transport them to Mirrodin. He transformed Mirrodin into an artificial ecosystem that could support organic life. His hope was to find a being with the planeswalker spark and seize it for himself somehow. Only then could he leave the plane and seek out Karn. Memnarch 's schizophrenic mindset functioned as a kind of arcane proxy, keeping other planeswalkers—even Karn—from entering Mirrodin. In other words, Memnarch 's delusions partially supplanted reality.
         The elf Glissa Sunseeker had the planeswalker spark and was therefore Memnarch 's target. Through her own guile and power and well as the help of her allies, Glissa defeated and destroyed Memnarch . Karn could then reenter his plane and restore order. Many denizens of Mirrodin were returned to their home planes, and Karn transformed the remains of Memnarch into the metal sphere they had once been: the Mirari.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): Plane Shift: Mirrodin (by hyperionsol)
  14. New Phyrexia. Previously known as Argentum and Mirrodin, this metal plane was created by Karn. It was Karn himself who inadvertently carried the Phyrexian oil into the plane. After several years the infection spread and started taking over New Phyrexia, which has now been overrun by the mechanical monsters.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): Planeshifted Guide to Phyrexia (by grzart)
    2. Setting Guide (homebrew): Plane Shift: New Phyrexia (by Horror)
  15. Ravnica. A massive city covers the entirety of Ravnica. 10 guilds rule over the city, each of them representing a combination of two colors of mana and taking care of specific jobs within society. It was the place where the War of the Spark was fought and Nicol Bolas’s army was defeated.
         The overdeveloped, overpopulated plane of Ravnica has been completely covered with cityscape for millennia—its denizens simply squeezed out all wilderness. Now the plane is an endless maze of streets and stonework. Ravnica's past was a cyclical drama of chaos and order until the creation of the Guildpact. This magically reinforced social contract codified ten guilds, each with a different societal role and function, and each corresponding to a pair of the five colors of mana. The Guildpact kept the peace for ten millennia before it was dissolved by the machinations and power-mongering of the Azorius, Simic, and Dimir guilds. During the last decades of the Guildpact, the spirits of the dead lingered on Ravnica, creating an ever larger "ghost quarter" called Agyrem. Although only the Izzet suspected this, the phenomenon was caused by temporal-planar damage to the nexus plane of Dominaria. Rips in the planar fabric there caused Ravnica to be temporarily separated from the rest of the Multiverse, thereby trapping the spirits of the dead on the plane.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica
    2. Addons (homebrew): Various (DMSGuild Community Content)
    3. Adventure (official, level 1): Krenko's Way 
    4. Adventure (official, level 2): A Zib For Your Thoughts
  16. Tarkir. Deeply inspired by eastern-Asian cultures, Tarkir heavily featured various five factions called clans. After the time-traveling meddling of Sorin and Sarkhan, the clans were replaced by the armies under the tyrannical dragons.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): Player's Guide to Tarkir (by Drenghbar)
  17. Theros. Taking heavy inspiration from Hellenic Greece and its literary and mythological characters, Theros is a plane of heroes and monsters. It was the first plane to introduce a pantheon of gods, who rule the world from Nyx. If things are believed in or dreamed of enough in this plane, they can become real after several centuries. The planeswalker Elspeth was murdered by Theros’s sun god but eventually managed to escape the plane’s underworld.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Mythic Odysseys of Theros
    2. Addons (homebrew): Various (DMSGuild Community Content)
  18. Unfinity: This is not a plane, but a 'world' that travels the planes.
    1. Setting Guide (homebrew): A Planeshifted Guide to Unfinity (by grzart)
  19. Zendikar. Home to massive sources of mana and huge riches, Zendikar is known by planeswalkers across the multiverse as a place worth exploring. This huge amount of mana is also what led the Eldrazi titans to it, where they remained sealed for centuries. They threatened to destroy the entire plane once released but were defeated by the Gatewatch. The plane is now healing from the devastation and corruption left by the Titans.
    1. Setting Guide (official): Plane Shift: Zendikar

Other MTG Planes Without D&D Publications
  1. The Abyss. There’s not much information on the Abyss. It’s thought to be a void between planes and could even be the same as the Nether Void, the Aether, or the Blind Eternities. But it’s been implied by designers that the Abyss is actually a plane. It’s also considered synonymous to Hell.
  2. Alara. Alara was originally a normal and relatively peaceful plane until a cataclysm called the Sundering tore it up into five shards. These shards each had an abundance of magic.
  3. Alkabah. This is only the first in a long list of planes we know basically nothing about except for its name and some very basic info. All we know about Alkabah is that it’s the plane where Dack Fayden got the red scar on his right hand after he had it scalded for stealing an artifact.
  4. Antausia. Antausia is a plane that was created for the Duelist magazine. It was used as a sort of prototype game variant similar to Planechase.
  5. Aranzhur. The only thing we know about Aranzhur is that it was mentioned by Jace Beleren at some point during Agents of Artifice.
  6. Arkhos. Arkhos is a Greece-inspired plane trapped in perpetual twilight, where dream and reality are hard to tell apart. This plane was the first look of what would eventually become Theros, but they couldn’t clear the name Arkhos for the plane. Both planes currently coexist, but it’s unlikely we’ll ever hear about Arkhos again.
  7. Azgol.  There’s an ash-spewing volcano known as the Lair of the Ashen Idol. Either the volcano or something in it is worshiped, and zombies seem to be relatively prominent.
  8. Azoria. Azoria was one of the 12 planes enveloped in the Shard of the Twelve Worlds, a sort of pocket dimension in the Multiverse that separated 12 planes from the rest after Urza caused the Sylex Blast. 
         Azoria appears in the comic book Ice Age On the World of Magic: The Gathering, vol. 3 of 4. During a duel between the planeswalkers Freyalise and Tevesh Szat, Freyalise learns that "Azoria, a desert island plane caught in the Shard," is home to the blue mana sources on which Tevesh Szat depends. Freyalise obliterates the plane's islands to deny Tevesh Szat blue mana. Despite the similarity in name, there is no known link to the Azorius Senate of Ravnica.
  9. Belenon. Belenon showed up on two Planechase cards, both of which are very different from each other but seem to have aesthetics that can easily be related to artifacts. Windriddle Palaces could fit right into the Esper shard in Alara or Kaladesh, and Edge of Malacol is pretty reminiscent of New Phyrexia.
  10. Cabralin. "Roreca's Tale" is a story written by Richard Garfield for the 1994 Magic: The Gathering Pocket Players' Guide. In that story, the planeswalker Worzel remembers Cabralin, "a peaceful plane with lots of rolling hills and fields."
  11. Cridhe. Cridhe is an old plane composed of a single isolated island. It was home to humans and elves and was accidentally thrown into a dark age by the planeswalker Tempé.
         This plane is the setting of The Cursed Land, by Teri McLaren. Much of the plane's mana is bound up in the Clan Tree of Cridhe, which is destroyed by a power-mad wizard called Nohr, but later reborn through its last acorn.
  12. Diraden. Diraden is a dark plane that seems to be stuck in twilight and only has access to black mana thanks to its ruler’s malevolent influence. Covered by ruins, rotting vegetation, and a perpetual fog, the human and goblin inhabitants of the plane thought this to be the normal state of their world.
  13. Echoir. Echoir is a plane visited by Dack Fayden during his adventures. We only know there’s a giant titan’s castle where he keeps creatures from other planes imprisoned as parts of his collection. 
  14. Equilor. Equilor was described by Urza during one of his travels as one of the Multiverse’s oldest and most distant planes. It’s inhabited by incredibly ancient and powerful beings who seem to have tons of knowledge of several subjects, even other planes. It was these beings who warned Urza of Phyrexia’s imminent invasion of Dominaria.
  15.       In the book Planeswalker by Lynn Abbey, Urza visits Equilor, one of the oldest and most far-flung planes of the Multiverse, hoping to learn the origins of Phyrexia. Urza says Equilor exists "on the edge of time." The plane is unimaginably ancient and worn, and its mages have immense, subtle power. "Even the mountains are smoothed down, like they've been standing too long," says Urza's companion Xantcha.
  16. Ergamon. Ergamon is a small plane with exotic fauna and huge peaks that was featured on the Planechase card Truga Jungle.
         Ergamon is a "small, hidden plane" with "colossal peaks and exotic fauna." It is the setting of "Roreca's Tale," a short story by Richard Garfield found in the 1994 Magic: The Gathering Pocket Players' Guide.
  17. Fabacin. Fabacin is a huge humid forest full of weird pods. Grove of the Dreampods is the only representation we have of this world.
  18. Fiora. The massive, renaissance-style city of Paliano sits as the capital of Fiora with unexplored wilderness around it. Home to several intrigues and conspiracies, the city is now ruled by Queen Marchesa.
  19. Gargantikar. Gargantikar is a plane where everything is absolutely gigantic, and it exists as an opposite to Segovia.
  20. Gastal. Gastal is a wasteland plane where Urza met with other planeswalkers in hopes of finding the way to Phyrexia.
         Urza and his companion Xantcha rendezvous with the planeswalker Manatarqua in this "abandoned world" in the novel Planeswalker by Lynn Abbey. Urza hopes that Manatarqua knows something about the origin of Phyrexia, but instead she attacks and nearly kills Xantcha. Urza then slays her.
  21. Gobakhan. Gobakhan is a massive desert with two suns. Two massive sandstorms with diamond micrograins surround civilization. These settlements are protected by an order of shield mages who keep the storms at bay.
  22. Hell. It’s uncertain if Hell is the same plane as The Pit and The Abyss. This is a black-aligned world full of demons and devils, and it has connections to other planes of the Multiverse. The known connections are in Dominaria, Ravnica, and Innistrad. 
  23. Ilcae. In Teri McLaren's novel, The Cursed Land, the planeswalker Malvos is stranded on Cridhe and hopes to gather enough mana to escape the plane. Malvos makes mention of a plane called Ilcae, where he hopes to meet up with other planeswalkers.
  24. Iquatana. Iquatana’s surface is covered in chimneys that vent out aether, which makes up most of the atmosphere. The Iquati, the plane’s inhabitants, created Narcomoebas to store information which makes them a valuable source of knowledge.
  25. Ir. Turri Island and its giant inhabitants, called Fomori, are all we know of Ir. Turri island is supposed to be a mana haven and is often attacked by planeswalkers.
  26. Huatli
  27. Karsus. Karsus has only been depicted in Mirrored Depths, which shows a place covered in giant crystal.
  28. Kephalai. Visited by Chandra during The Purifying Fire, Kephalai is a plane with huge cities and gothic architecture. There’s also a well-known bazaar where items from various planes can be found. Little is known about the plane of Kephalai beyond the totalitarian and bureaucratic character of its government. The plane features cities with gothic architecture that are surrounded by large bodies of water.
  29. Kinshala. Only featured in Tember City, Kinshala seems to be inspired by North African cultures.
  30. Kodisha. The only thing we know about Kodisha is that it’s home to the “Endless Bazaar.”
  31. Kolbahan. The only representation of Kolbahan, Astral Arena, depicts floating buildings with what we could easily assume is an arena in the center.
  32. Kylem. Sports and competitions are central to Kylem’s culture. Two-vs-two combats take place in the Valor’s Reach arena, where combatants try to defeat their opponents while also putting up a spectacle for the crowd.
  33. Kyneth. Kyneth was only ever featured in Planechase’s The Zephyr Maze card. The place depicted in the card has weird stone shapes with waterfalls and trees.
  34. Luvion. Seemingly an aquatic word with a few islands, Luvion is only depicted on Celestine Reef.
  35. Meditation Plane. An everchanging and uncanny world, Meditation Plane was first discovered by Nicol Bolas and Ugin. It was used by Ugin during War of the Spark to trap his brother and stop his evil schemes.
         Scott McGough's Magic Legends Cycle Two consists of three books: Assassin's Blade, Emperor's Fist, and Champion's Trial. The trilogy features an enigmatic plane known only as the "meditation plane." It is a shifting, surreal place accessible only by the powerful, and only from Dominaria, and its appearance often echoes the thoughts and possible futures of those within its boundaries. Here the emperor of Madara would meet his closest advisors.
  36. Mercadia. Close to Dominaria, Mercadia was visited by the Weatherlight crew during their journeys. It’s one of the only planes in the Multiverse where goblins are highly intelligent and respected members of society.
         This plane is riddled with improbabilities and inversions: Its largest city sits atop a huge inverted mountain, and goblins are at the top of the social order. Commerce is the lifeblood of Mercadia, and the elaborate diplomacy and trade agreements between the goblins and humans of Mercadia City and the merfolk of Saprazzo define the plane. Gerrard and the crew of the Weatherlight ended up in this plane after blindly flinging themselves from Rath. They crash-landed on Mercadia, and the Weatherlight was seized by a group of pious human rebels called the Cho-Arrim. Gerrard and his allies had to make delicate deals with multiple Mercadian factions to get the ship back, secure parts for its repair, and secure safe passage out of the plane. The heroes then discovered that the inverted mountain on which Mercadia City sits was in fact hollow, and that it housed a huge fleet of Phyrexian warships that were being built to invade Dominaria. The Kyren goblins that controlled Mercadia were in the employ of Phyrexia. After a preemptive strike against the staging ground, the Weatherlight left the plane to defend Dominaria.
  37. Metal Island. Metal Island is a pocket plane that can be accessed from the Esper shard in Alara. Tezzeret planned to defeat Nicol Bolas here, but the dragon was (unsurprisingly) ahead of him and fooled his plans.
  38. Mirrankkar. The graphic novel Mezlok’s Challenge is the only representation we’ve had of Mirrankkar. We know powerful mages live there and cities hold competitions to choose duelists.
  39. Moag. Urza and his friend Xantcha lived on Moag while locked out of Dominaria. It was a very hospitable plane, but Urza and Xantcha fled when the Phyrexians invaded it.
         In Lynn Abbey's novel Planeswalker, Urza and his companion Xantcha settle for 30 years on the plane of Moag, "a truly hospitable world with abundant, rich soil, a broad swath of temperate climates and a wealth of vigorous cultures." After decades of peaceful life, Xantcha discovers Phyrexian agents in a fire-god cult. Urza and Xantcha flee, hoping the Phyrexians will follow and leave Moag in peace.
  40. Mongseng. Mongseng was depicted in Planechase 2012’s Kharasha Foothills. It’s been mentioned as the inspiration for Tarkir, which means we probably won’t be seeing any more of it.
  41. Muraganda. Imperiosaur and Muraganda Petroglyphs were the first looks we got into Muraganda. Even though Ixalan also features dinosaurs, it’s not a replacement for this plane since it’s been described as a prehistoric world.
  42. Nether Void. A planar void where a group of powerful planeswalkers fought long ago, it’s not entirely certain if Nether Void could technically be called a plane. There’s also a chance that it’s the same as the Abyss. 
  43. Obsidias. Obsidias was briefly mentioned during Mezlok’s Challenge.
  44. Phyrexia. Phyrexia is an artificial plane divided into nine layers. It’s the hellish landscape of intertwined metal and flesh where Yawgmoth built his monstrous army. The sight of this demonic world was so magnificent that it made Urza betray his own plan of destroying it.
         Phyrexia is an artificial plane of quasi-living machines created by an unnamed human planeswalker whose favored form was that of a dragon. The plane consists of nine nested spheres, each more hellish and vicious than the last, which together formed a vast and intricate artificial ecosystem. During the decline of the Thran Empire on Dominaria, the planeswalker Dyfed took Yawgmoth to Phyrexia shortly after its creator and master had died. Dyfed also created a planar portal between Dominaria and Phyrexia. Yawgmoth saw Phyrexia as a means of saving the Thran, who were dying of a degenerative sickness caused by the powerstones that fueled their civilization. He intended to use Phyrexia's necrotic artifact-magic to "cure" the phthisis that had claimed countless Thran lives. He became Phyrexia's new master.
         Fueled by Phyrexia's twisted ecology, Yawgmoth's megalomania and power grew. He came to believe that Phyrexia was the pinnacle of evolved life—that it was superior to life. The Thran became increasingly horrified by Yawgmoth's actions and their effects. War erupted between the weakened Thran and Yawgmoth's Phyrexian legions. The Thran were defeated, but not before the portal was closed, trapping Yawgmoth and the Phyrexians in their plane.
         For millennia Yawgmoth sought a way to conquer Dominaria. The eventual instrument of his invasion was the artificial plane of Rath, which was designed to lay over Dominaria, bridging the gap between it and Phyrexia. The invasion was narrowly thwarted by a coalition of planeswalkers and other heroes. A group of planeswalkers decimated Phyrexia itself using eldritch 'soul bombs,' and on Dominaria, the crew of the Weatherlight used the artifacts of the Legacy to destroy Yawgmoth himself.
  45. Plane of Mountains and Seas. Plane of Mountains and Seas is inspired by the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas and is characterized by its rich flora and fauna.
  46. Pyrulea. Pyrulea is the plane where Dyfed took Yawgmoth to while showing her planeswalkers abilities. 
         In J. Robert King's novel The Thran, the planeswalker Dyfed takes a guest to the plane of Pyrulea: "In every direction, a vast rain forest spread. Millennial trees trailed nets of vine and moss hundreds of feet downward to wet undergrowth. [...] North, south, east, and west, the landscape curved up and away into walls. They, in turn, joined to form a ceiling of sky. This was not merely a bowl of land but the inside of an enormous sphere." The guest was a middle-aged Thran doctor named Yawgmoth.
  47. Rabiah the Infinite. Rabiah is actually 1,001 planes refracted off the original plane. It’s a massive desert world that can have its environment affect the places in other planes where they come into contact. Jamuraa is an example of this.
         Once a single plane, the desert realm of Rabiah was subject to a planar event of unknown origin: one thousand nearly identical mirrors of the plane sprang into being, creating 1,001 different Rabiahs. These iterations evolved over the centuries, some independent and others interdependent. Many elements of Rabiah are taken from the One Thousand and One Nights, but the main story depicted in Magic comics is an original story of five separate "copies" of the planeswalker Taysir, each one connected to a different color of magic, and their combined struggle against the dark sorcerer Nailah.
  48. Rath. Created by Yawgmoth himself and ruled by overlords named Evincars, Rath was used as a staging point by the Phyrexians in their invasion of Dominaria.
         Rath was an artificial plane created as an invasion device by Phyrexia. Its planar matter was comprised of stolen pieces of other planes, including Dominaria, held together by an artificial Phyrexian substrate called flowstone. Phyrexia appointed an "evincar" to ensure that Rath's development progressed on schedule; at various times Davvol, Volrath, and the vampire Crovax were all evincars of Rath. The main feature of Rath was the evincar's stronghold at its center, which functioned both as a fortress and a flowstone factory. The stronghold and the mountain in which it was situated held numerous perils, including a hive of slivers and their queen, the necromantic Death Pits, and Volrath's carnivorous gardens. The skyship Weatherlight and its crew traveled to Rath to rescue the ship's captain Sisay. Later, when the Phyrexian aggression began in earnest, Rath's purpose was fulfilled as it was laid over Dominaria like a sickly skin. The planar juxtaposition allowed a huge number of Phyrexians to enter Dominaria nearly instantaneously, beginning the Phyrexian invasion.
  49. Regatha. Regatha is a highly volcanic plane where the Order of Heliud was created that served as a home for Chandra and Jaya for some time.
  50. Segovia. In opposition to Gargantikar, Segovia is a plane where everything exists in a miniature scale. 
         How many thousands of players have been bewildered by Segovian Leviathan ? Leviathan s are titanic creatures of the deep, so why is Segovian Leviathan no bigger than an elephant! Because Segovia is a miniature plane about 1/100 the size of Dominaria. In The Duelist magazine issue 25, Pete Venters writes, "Your average army of Segovian humans could be crushed under a single goblin's foot and the biggest Segovian dragon isn't any bigger than a Dominarian dragonfly."
  51. Serra’s Realm. Made up of pure white mana, this artificial plane was created by Serra as a heavenly ideal. It was eventually tainted by the Phyrexians’ pure black mana, leading its protector to start killing her own people in a paranoia-fueled attempt to get rid of the evil influence. It was eventually collapsed by Urza.
         This artificial plane was created by the planeswalker Serra to exemplify her love of peace and law. It was a white-mana meditation made manifest. Its denizens included countless angels of Serra's creation as well as a smattering of beings from other planes brought there by the planeswalker herself. When Urza fled here to escape Phyrexian pursuers, Serra and her angels nursed him back to health. But the Phyrexians found the realm and attacked, tainting it with black mana. Serra abandoned the plane, heartbroken by its corruption. One of her archangels, Radiant, assumed control of the plane in Serra's absence. But in her zeal to rid the plane of Phyrexian taint, Radiant became draconian and paranoid. Without its creator, Serra's Realm was slowly collapsing. Urza, seeking a mana source intense enough to power the skyship Weatherlight, hastened its demise by forcibly collapsing the plane's energies into a powerstone that would fuel the Weatherlight's planeswalking engine.
  52. Seven Planes of Parnash. The Seven Planes of Parnash is a collection of seven planes mentioned in The Cursed Land where Tempé jailed Malvos.
  53. Shandalar. Shandalar is a relatively small plane that’s rich in mana, and magic is incredibly widespread here. It was first created for the 1997 Magic PC game. Shandalar replaced it as a more generic fantasy-type setting after Dominaria turned into a post-apocalyptic world.
         Shandalar is a mana-rich plane without a fixed location in the Multiverse. Instead it wanders an irregular course through the Blind Eternities. For a time after the Brothers' War, Dominaria and eleven other planes were separated from the rest of the Multiverse. These twelve planes were known collectively as the Shard. But Shandalar's planar path could pass into and out of the Shard, and was thereby a kind of planeswalkers' escape route from the Shard. Shandalar was the setting for the 1997 Magic: The Gathering computer game by Microprose.
  54. Skalla. Skalla was a world with a deep division between the forest dwellers and an advanced civilization that slowly crept upon the woodlands. The entire plane was eventually destroyed by Nicol Bolas after he plundered it for its secrets.
  55. Tavelia. Characterized by death cults, despots and corruption, Tavelia was visited by Garruk while he pursued Liliana.
  56. Tolvada. Tolvada’s sky has been covered in cracks for years and they seem to have something to do with its inhabitants going insane. Kaya suspects this is Nicol Bolas’ fault, which wouldn’t surprise anyone.
  57. Ulgrotha. Ulgrotha is a small plane that’s also known as the Homelands. It used to be a relatively normal plane, but a long history of conflict and wars between planeswalkers made it a hostile place plagued with wars and ruled by despotic beings.
         Sometimes called "The Homelands" by its denizens, long ago Ulgrotha was a remote plane ravaged by wars of sorcery between planeswalkers. The plane's mana had been diminished and damaged when the planeswalker Ravi, who later became Grandmother Sengir , rang the Apocalypse Chime at the end of those ancient wars. Later the planeswalkers Feroz and Serra decided to become Ulgrotha's caretakers, and Feroz created Feroz's Ban to protect the plane from interlopers. Some time after Feroz's death, however, the ban faded. Ulgrotha is home to Baron Sengir , a powerful vampire who controls a large swath of the plane through fear and black-aligned magic. Deep within Sengir's castle is a portal that leads to an unknown plane—before he died Feroz speculated that a large portion of the mana available on Ulgrotha was in fact mana funneled through that portal.
  58. Valla. Originally incorporating Immersturm and part of Kaldheim’s realms, Valla was eventually split off from its original plane.
  59. Vatraquaz. We know nothing of Vatraquaz save for the fact that it was visited by Urza and Xantcha in their travels.
         This plane is mentioned in passing as a place Urza and Xantcha visit in Lynn Abbey's novel Planeswalker. Nothing further is known about it.
  60. Vryn. Giant mana conduits called mage-rings cover Vryn’s landscape and serve as the home for its inhabitants. Their origin is unknown, and society is organized around their power.
  61. Wildfire. Wildfire is completely covered in flame and lava and is home to beings like the Djinni and Efreeti. It has several plane portals that allow for trade with planes like Dominaria and several of the Rabiahs. 
         This plane of fire, djinni, and efreeti has connections to both Rabiah the Infinite and to Dominaria. Emissaries or viziers from Wildfire have appeared in Bogardan and Suq'Ata as well as in Rabiah. The Emberwilde Order is a ruling force on Wildfire and is referenced on a few different cards, including Emberwilde Augur , Emberwilde Caliph , and Emberwilde Djinn.
  62. Xerex. Possibly one of the weirdest planes, Xerex is a world with gigantic passages that bend the laws of reality and physics.
Description Sources:
https://draftsim.com/mtg-plane/   
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/known-mutliverse-2008-03-19 

Changelog

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Deck of Decks

Here it is...finally:   https://www.drivethrucards.com/product/417459/Deck-of-Decks 











 

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Non-D&D D&D table props

As far as D&D items that can be used for things other than D&D, I particularly enjoy this one. You can use it as a soul coin or as a standard poker chip....pretty fun. https://www.ebay.com/itm/285007556033 




Thursday, September 1, 2022

Track Changes: Deck of Many Things - Deck of Several Things (and some ideas for a Deck of Some Things.

Here's a comparison of the deck of many things (Dungeon Master's Guide) to the deck of several things (Lost Laboratory of Kwalish). The deck of several things basically just softens the consequences of the deck, removing some of the career-ending permanence of a lot of the cards. Those changes tailor it to the specific Kwalish module, but some additional minor tweaking can make it setting agnostic (recommended additional edits noted in orange italic font), creating what I'm calling the deck of some things.


Deck of SeveralMany Things

Balance. Your mind suffers a wrenching alteration, causing your alignment to change for the duration of the adventure. Lawful becomes chaotic, good becomes evil, and vice versa. If you are true neutral or unaligned, this card has no effect on you. {This change can be removed by a remove curse or similar spell}

Comet. If you single-handedly defeat the next hostile monster or group of monsters you encounter, you have advantage on ability checks made using one skill of your choice for the duration of the adventuregain experience points enough to gain one level. Otherwise, this card has no effect. {No changes from original language}

Donjon. You are instantly teleported to and confined within the prison of the Monastery of the Distressed Body (area M6)disappear and become entombed in a state of suspended animation in an extradimensional sphere. Everything you were wearing and carrying stays behind in the space you occupied when you disappeared. You remain imprisoned until you are found and removed from the sphere. You can't be located by any divination magic, but a wish spell can reveal the location of your prison. You draw no more cards. {Deck of Some Things: change prison location to the nearest settlement large enough to support a prison}

Euryale. The card’s medusa-like visage curses you. You take a −12 penalty on saving throws for the duration of the adventurewhile cursed in this way. Only a god or the magic of The Fates card can end this curse.

The Fates. Reality's fabric unravels and spins anew, allowing you to avoid or erase one event as if it never happened. You can use the card’'s magic as soon as you draw the card or at any other point during the adventuretime before you die.

Flames. The Grand Master of the Monastery of the Distressed BodyA powerful devil becomes your enemy. The bone devil seeks your ruin and plagues your life, savoring your suffering before attempting to slay you. If the Grand Master has already been defeated, you gain the enmity of Garret Levistusson’s patron—a similarly powerful devil.This enmity lasts until either you or the devil dies. {Deck of Some Things: change to any devil of appropriate level for the adventurers}

Fool. For the duration of the adventure, you lose proficiency with one skill or gain disadvantage on all checks made with one skill (with the skill and the penalty determined by the DM). Discard this card and draw from the deck again, counting both draws as one of your declared draws.You lose 10,000 XP, discard this card, and draw from the deck again, counting both draws as one of your declared draws. If losing that much XP would cause you to lose a level, you instead lose an amount that leaves you with just enough XP to keep your level.

Gem. The 1,000 gp hoard of the leprechaun from the Wilderness Encounters table (see appendix A) appears at your feet. If that treasure has already been claimed, you gain an equivalent hoard.Twenty-five pieces of jewelry worth 2,000 gp each or fifty gems worth 1,000 gp each appear at your feet.

Idiot. Reduce Permanently reduce your Intelligence by 1d4 + 1 (to a minimum score of 1) for the duration of the adventure. You can draw one additional card beyond your declared draws.

Jester. You gain proficiency in a skill of your choice for the duration of the adventure10,000 XP, or you can draw two additional cards beyond your declared draws.

Key. A common or uncommonrare or rarer magic weapon with which you are proficient, or a spell scroll featuring a spell of a level you can cast, appears in your hands. The DMGM chooses the weapon or spell, which you possess for the duration of this adventure.

Knight. You gain the service of any of the NPCs in the “Hirelings” section not currently with the party, a 4th-level fighter who appears in a space you choose within 30 feet of you. The NPC serves you loyally for the duration of the adventurefighter is of the same race as you and serves you loyally until death, believing that the fates have drawn themhim or her to you. You control this character.

Moon. You are granted the ability to cast any spell of 5th level or lower, and can use that ability 1d3 times for the duration of the adventurethe wish spell 1d3 times.

Rogue. An NPC A nonplayer character of the DM’GM's choice becomes secretly hostile toward you. The identity of your new enemy isn’'t known until the NPC or someone else reveals it. Any enchantment spell cast on the NPC at 6th level or higher Nothing less than a wish spell or divine intervention can end the NPC’'s hostility toward you.

Ruin. All forms of wealth that you carry or own, other than magic items, are lost to you. This wealth can be recovered either in the treasury of the Monastery of the Distressed Body (area M10) or Kwalish’s lab in Daoine Gloine (area O7), whichever comes later in the adventurePortable property vanishes. Businesses, buildings, and land you own are lost in a way that alters reality the least. Any documentation that proves you should own something lost to this card also disappears. {Deck of Some Things: change to a nearby location, discernable with a locate object spell}

Skull. You summon an avatar of death—a mechanical skeleton (use bone naga statistics) ghostly humanoid skeleton clad in a tattered black robe and carrying a spectral scythe. It appears in a space of the DM’GM's choice within 10 feet of you and attacks you, warning all others that you must win the battle alone. The avatar fights until you die or it drops to 0 hit points, whereupon it disappears. If anyone tries to help you, the helper summons its own avatar of death. A creature slain by an avatar of death can’'t be restored to life.

Star. Increase one of your ability scores by 1 for the duration of the adventure2. The score can exceed 20 but can’'t exceed 24.

Sun. You gain proficiency in the skill of your choice for the duration of the adventure. In addition, a common or uncommon wondrous item appears in your hands. The DM chooses the item, which you possess for the duration of this adventure50,000 XP, and a wondrous item (which the GM determines randomly) appears in your hands.

Talons. Every magic item you wear or carry is lost to you. These items can be recovered either in the treasury of the Monastery of the Distressed Body (area M10) or Kwalish’s lab in Daoine Gloine (area O7), whichever comes later in the adventuredisintegrates. Artifacts in your possession aren't destroyed but do vanish.{Deck of Some Things: change to a nearby location, discernable with a locate object spell}

Throne. You gain proficiency in the Persuasion skill, and you double your proficiency bonus on checks made with that skill for the duration of the adventure. In addition, the Monastery of the Distressed Body’s brains in jars regard you thereafter as the monastery’s rightful master. You must defeat or otherwise you gain rightful ownership of a small keep somewhere in the world. However, the keep is currently in the hands of monsters, which you must clear out the Grand Master and its servants before you can claim the monasterykeep as yours. {Deck of Some Things: change to a keep located nearby, or other location of the GM's choise.}

Vizier. At any one time you choose within the duration of the adventureone year of drawing this card, you can ask a question in meditation and mentally receive a truthful answer to that question. Besides information, the answer helps you solve a puzzling problem or other dilemma. In other words, the knowledge comes with wisdom on how to apply it.

The Void. This black card spells disaster. Your soul is drawn from your body and held within machinery in either the control room of the Monastery contained in an object in a place of the Distressed Body (area M8) or Kwalish’s lab in Daoine Gloine (area O7), whichever comes later in the adventureGM's choice. One or more powerful beings guard the place. While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is incapacitated. Divination, contact other plane, or a similar spell of 4th level or higher A wish spell can't restore your soul, but the spell reveals the location of the machineryobject that holds your soulit. You draw no more cards. {Deck of Some Things: change the object to an object nearby that the party can locate and easily transport}

Monday, July 18, 2022

Standard Exchange Rates, Expanded

 Here's some additional exchange rates designed to replace the chart in chapter 5 of the PHB, and the sources used.

These three sources establish the value of gold per pound and that the value of coin quantity to pure metal quantity is flat (there's no 'value added' by making the coin).
  • Player Handbook, Chapter 5: "A standard coin weighs about a third of an ounce, so fifty coins weigh a pound."
  • Player's Handbook, Chapter 5: "50 gp = 1 lb. of gold"

  • Player's Handbook, Chapter 5: "... Rather, the gold piece is a standard measure of value, and the actual exchange is in gold bars..."

These sources establish the exchange rates for the metals not included in the original PHB chart (iron, mithral, and adamantine).
  • Iron: Player's Handbook, Chapter 5: "1 sp = 1 lb. of iron". Dungeon Master's Guide, Chapter 1: "...iron is normally valued elsewhere (1 sp per pound)." Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Level 21: "Sixty iron bars are stacked on the floor. Each bar is worth 1 gp and weighs 10 pounds."

  • Adamantine: Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Chapter 4: "The characters can purchase a 10-pound adamantine bar for 1,000 gp." (this sets the price of 1 pound of adamantine equal to 2 pounds of gold)

  • Mithral: Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Chapter 6: "One character can strip 1 pound of mithral in 15 minutes. Each pound of the metal is worth 50 gp." (this sets the price of 1 pound of mithral equal to 1 pound of gold)

The mithral and adamantine prices are also confirmed on this tweet, which unfortunately doesn't make it clear that he's talking about pounds.

Having said all that, Tomb of Annihilation, Chapter 2 has a very different price for adamantine. "Each adamantine ingot is worth 10 gp and weighs 1 pound." So here, 1 gp = 5 adamantine pieces (adamantine is significantly cheaper than gold in this section). It does say the ingots are "refined adamantine". I think its easy to explain this off as local market dynamics (a 'nonstandard' exchange rate) or the fact that these specific ingots aren't fully refined. Also note that Tomb of Annihilation doesn't have this regional pricing adjustment for iron as the exchange rate is that listed in the chart above "each iron ingot is worth 1 gp and weights 10 pounds).