#alara

Singe-Mind Ogre --- {2}{B}{R}

Creature — Ogre Mutant

When this creature enters, target player reveals a card at random from their hand, then loses life equal to that card’s mana value.

Even the balmgivers of Bant couldn’t heal the incurables, but sharing their torment helped.

3/2

Illustrated by Daarken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

is there some correct kind of woman to be ? alara's main example in coven mother was beautiful , manipulative , protective of only those who show sufficient loyalty .

alara spend first few years of life as boy , but mother's displays both impress and shake something in core . what parts of mother did alara want to emulate ? which parts would be wrong , and was there any part that could be right ?

despite outwardly seem to show love , mother would highlight failures , and even success could never earn simple praise , always bite back with some inadequacy . was this disapproval of alara's attempts to be human , or to be girl ?

did alara even want this ? maybe , alara sometimes think , should just try to shake off womanhood , and then would never have to deal with these questions again .

Nickname: /

Birth Year: 2006

Nationality: German

Position: Midfielder

Number: 14

Bundesliga Debut: October 2023

With Bayern Since: July 2023

Also Played For: /

Fun Fact: Her favorite food is her moms lasagna

Social Media: Instagram

so ... yeah , things this year did not work out so well to get near as much in gala as last year . that would be pretty hard show to follow for anyone ! but more than that , just get really busy this year - good kind of busy , but still busy enough that draw have to fall by wayside .

still , look at these lovely ladies ! alara did not exist as character for gala last year , while safya was support character to dhajan's mini story . this year hope to put highlight on these two as couple , but again , time did just not work out very well .

alara is ex-brotherhood assassin , with so many unfortunate pieces of history that just stack onto each other - just so happen to fall under sign of serpent , so maybe not much surprise there . escape from brotherhood leave alara with brain injury , not to mention conflicted feelings about trauma . since injury , alara can be meek and hesitant , and really try not to think too much about things like stars , gods , and destinies .

safya is passionate mycologist and apothecary who live in anvil with brother ex-crusader dhajan , and mother baomi . though act part of optimist , safya know dangers that lurk , and work - sometimes by malicious compliance or false incompetence - to protect loved ones . safya is follower of dibella , and believe that curiosity is one of greatest virtues - there is beautiful side to everything in this world , and curiosity is means to discover .

Puppet Conjurer (Shards of Alara No. 82, Illus. Steven Belledin)

I've been thinking a lot about Alara lately. After Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Lorwyn Eclipsed, it's the only new plane from Magic's 2000s era that we haven't returned to yet. The Conflux presented a radical change for the plane. Similarly to Kamigawa, it offers strong pre-existing concepts and visuals, but also a lot of room to play around with them. This makes it a very exciting candidate for a return (more so than planes like Lorwyn, which did change, but in a less drastic kind of way).

One interesting thing for a "side story" set on a merged Alara could be the fate of its homunculi. On pre-Conflux Esper, they basically were cyborg slaves and considered a lesser form of life (despite being capable of independent, conscious thought). Puppet Conjurer makes this very clear - it refers to the homunculi as "puppets" and the flavour text talks about the wizard "crushing his imperfect creation and starting anew", which is represented visually by his hand hovering over one of the homunculi like the claws of some bird of prey.

Knight of the Skyward Eye (Shards of Alara No. 15, Illus. Matt Stewart)

Out of all the Shards of Alara, Bant is my favourite concept-wise (closely followed ... or maybe tied with? Esper). The combination of Arthurian legend with a Mediterranean / Northern African-inspired setting feels very unique. I love how this illustrations nails the monk/knight hybrid look. In the original Alara block, the Order of the Skyward Eye was a faction manipulated by Nicol Bolas to spread fear across Bant, so they don't really get portrayed in a positive light. Knight of the Skyward Eye makes me want to read some pre-Shards of Alara short story or novella focused on the Order that explores all of their aspects. Obviously, knightly orders in the real world come with a lot of baggage from today's perspective (mostly the Crusades, both in the "Holy Land" / Middle East and in places like the present-day Baltic Countries). Bant with its "what if medieval chivalry was more like its romanticised / idealised version" balances this out a bit while still allowing for interesting conflicts.

Much like in the real world, it seems like the Order of the Skyward Eye would be very conservative (probably even more so considering the plane has an actual caste system added on top of the medieval-inspired chivalric society stuff). There are examples of female knights on Old Alara before the Conflux (Jhessian Outrider, the knight on the art for Akrasan Squire, Knight of the Reliquary, and of course, Elspeth), so on its face, it doesn't seem like gender plays a big role. It'd be interesting to dive into the other exclusions and repression the Bantian religion comes with (any religion is bound to have some of those). It could also be interesting to see how the merging of the Shards impacted Bant's religion and caste system in the middle and long term.