#fanwalker asks

Origin cards take a while to design because they have a lot of moving parts and need a flip trigger that's flavorful, original but also happens just the right amount and at the right timing for it to not be awkward.

With that said, I do have some of those already made!

Sezashi's represent on the front his time with Adima, a Merge-Gate Keeper trying to balance traditional magic and new technology. He flips when the gate gets destroyed, and keeps going in the same way, honoring Adima after their disparition.

Arnoss has a mistake of a back side, but something I felt like experimenting with. A Planeswalker Creature interacts funkily with plenty of parts of the game, which his passives try to somewhat remedy. Other than that, the card is very simple, he flips as he did in his story, after his close family got massacred and he was the last survivor of it.

I've started on a Dancing-Hands origin card several times, but have scrapped all my attempts so far, they weren't satisfying enough. Instead, have a pair of creature/background for him, since I did experiment with those too.

Zarunpel's origin card was made as a part of a cycle along with all six of her sisters, all Legendary Creatures, so she matches them and has a legendary subtheme that's not present on most of her cards.

Rhynn disappears in a flurry of warm, golden sand (probably gives off a slight glow as she goes).

Helis I imagine would disappear within a bright, green and orange flame.

Breeze can only planeswalk if she’s flying or swimming so I think it just kind of looks like she parts through the air (or water) and just sorta slips through.

Elrick can’t currently planeswalk (depending on what I do with him post WoTS) but when he did he just kind of disappeared into shadow, maybe leaving behind a planty/earthy scent.

Hmmm I’m thinking Tali fades into mist and wisps away.

I’m not sure about how they would perceive the Blind Eternities! I don’t think we’ve got a lot of canon info for it other than being vaguely uncomfortable. I think I mentioned in Breeze’s story that she always feels a little stretched out after traveling between worlds. I think the rest are kind of just “I don’t love this but I guess it’s not too terrible.” Tali would be the most likely of all of them to want to unravel the mysteries of the Blind Eternities though.

I find this question funny because of all my characters you could have picked, those are probably the ones that can strain their magic the least! So instead, let's talk about why they don't really do that, and we'll touch on the question! But I do appreciate the effort of narrowing down your questions to some characters for the copy-paste when it comes to my inbox, it hasn't gone unnoticed.

Most of the magic for Arnoss and Zarunpel is passive.

Zarunpel's "blessing" from the Wilds might not even function under the same rules as traditional magic, it follows more narrative rules. It affects her body and hair in many ways, but when it comes to the limits of it, it often is more about what would make a better story. She's stronger than someone that looks like her should be, but depending on what she has to do, the exact degree to which this is true varies. As long as it's somewhat reasonable, in important situations she's often just strong enough or almost but not there, depending which tells a "better" story. Of course, she has no idea how that works.

As far as her spellcasting, it's mostly temporary protection spells, they're more likely to be cast too late or not last long enough than to hurt her when she overuses them. Which means she or whatever she's protecting gets hurt the way it otherwise would have been. When the Urborg panther living in her shadow gets "killed" or banished in some ways, Zarunpel can also be left without a shadow for a time while Vel reconstitutes.

Similarly, Arnoss's magic is mostly passive buffing and reinforcing his scales, when it is overstrained, he gets hurt the normal way. However, it also depends on how many people need and want his help nearby, and in some cases that can be overwhelming to feel during major disasters in populated areas. So many people needing help and he can't help all of them. And he's found that when he tries to help all of them in a city when it's not a disaster, he exhausts himself going from one to the other for hours and days, there's always something in large population centers.

Sezashi has a hard cap on the number of spells he can maintain at once, at four, represented by the floaty objects that orbit him. While some are harder to maintain than others (maintaining multiple charges of the same nature on someone else requires concentration and effort), the failure point is usually just that one or multiple of the spells slip and come back to him, and he probably isn't in a state to reuse them just yet. With that said, premature failure of magic that can manipulate sizes and create duplicates is generally not a good idea, plenty of unfortunate timings possible. Also duplicates that are ended in this way don't fuse back as cleanly to the original, which certainly causes headache and can cause the loss of memories the duplicate had.

Dancing-Hands's innate telekinesis can be overpowered or overwhelmed, but it's very difficult, and it generally doesn't strain the kitsune much to use. Using it on non-physical things is more relevant here. It only works on nonliving elements. Using it on eldrazis, even scions and briefly, made him feel sick and gave him headaches, and he couldn't sustain it for more than a few seconds. He rediscovered how to use it on magical effects not too long ago, and that has taken a lot more out of him, and could potentially replicate or redirect harmful effects to him if he's not careful. The telekinesis itself is invisible if not for its effects.

Mother's day isn't for another few weeks.

-Dancing-Hands's mother was, in her younger years, an imperial guard as they were investigating the Kami rifts during the Era of Enlightenment with the Jukai's help. After the creation of the Merge gates, she married a kitsune of the Jukai she had worked with, who later became Dancing-Hands' father. She was the one to initially introduce Dancing-Hands to origami, but their relationship didn't fare too well along the years. His parents had very little authority on Dancing-Hands come his forties, and she regrets what happened to him. They've met again since and she knows he's alive, but it's been tough to rebuild things.

-Arnoss didn't have a singular "mother", that's not how the Family's typically raises children, he was under the care of all the adult Beldruns. As far as biological parents, he's never met his mother (at least he doesn't think so), his egg was bought from another family that couldn't support any more Ghavaleks. This is also not uncommon in the Family between caravans that trust each other.

-Nyrhen's mother was incredibly proud of her boy, even if he didn't do anything particularly glamorous or important. He was always Perfect to her eyes. Also she was a Lorwyn elf, so, y'know, the baggage that comes with that. Weapon-carver, some of which were deemed worthy of being used by Perfects.

-Farell's mom is Lady Leana Javori, born Bassola. She's cunning, positive, and confident. She's well-versed in politics and etiquette. She uses them as she needs to, but isn't fond of what comes with it, so she sometimes ignores convention when she thinks they're wrong.

Her birth name is an old, powerful and respected one on Fiora, and she very much married under her station when she did a newly ennobled merchant and had to give up her name for his when she did. She further mudded her name by carrying to term a bastard child from a shapeshifter who tricked her, and giving him her birth name. Despite the events of that night, she loves Farell just as much as she does her human children. She encouraged Farell into finding his own way, to be proud and keep his head high. The aristocracy may see him as lesser, but it's their loss if they underestimate her eldest son.

-Vaalin's mother was killed during the current phyrexian invasion, so he's still processing that, especially considering he had to keep working after learning of her death, alone in his head for long periods of time. She was a Vodalian merfolk from the Volshe caste, a mathematician, who had briefly studied at Tolaria (of the Depths). She joined a diplomatic mission to the surface world and met Vaalin's father, a human, there. She laid Vaalin's egg not too long after coming back from that year-long expedition. Knowing the xenophobic caste system underlying Vodalian society would be very harsh on a half-human, she sought refuge for her and her child in Tolaria's waters, where minds were more progressive.

Arnoss: Was on Ocaelum prepared to defend it from an invasion that never came. Now feels bad he did "nothing to help" during it.

Zarunpel: Worked alongside her sisters to keep her home and land safe even after the courts fell. The Alernis territory has the advantage of being closer to the Wilds and their influence, which the Phyrexians had a very hard time dealing with. It doesn't always make sense to Phyrexians which tend to be very scientific about things. Also, with the help of a couple of her sisters and borrowing her mother's sword, she fought @socialpoison's Traenor in his compleated arm and armor, and subsequently cut.

Ysara: She defended the Kaladesh village her home was nearby from. She died in the process, and left to her apprentice/assistant to clean up her skull and bring it to where she was from.

Farell: Heard about the troubles in Paliano, and couldn't resist coming to help Celin, the woman he loves. She was fine, though there was a lot destroyed. Also them being in contact again has led to exchanges about Farell's brother's death that makes everybody involved very sad, because they're living a tragedy.

Dolores: Thankfully her home on New Capenna was in the Mezzio, not on Park Heights. Her partner, @astrisjanus's Inza, stayed back on Capenna to fight the Phyrexians while Dolores herself took advantage of the chaos to go back to her home plane of Ferely. She was aiming to enact a vengeance there unnoticed. She was noticed.

Lhur: Recently consolidated his position on power and prepared his troops when he heard of what may be coming. When it happened, he saw no choice but to climb on his father's throne of shadows to coordinate actions and defense all across his country while channeling his own magic to limit the appearance of branches and portals over it. He emerged from the invasion exhausted, and then came the weeks more of exhausting work to manage the aftermath.

Jaspar: He was on Ikoria, in Indatha, trying to both survive and learn what he could of Nethroi and the Whispers. He fought how he could during the invasion and capped it off by using his magic through his Elderfang and spread over Indatha by Nethroi's whispers to call upon the echoes of Indath and essentially end Phyrexian (and some non Phyrexian) life in the area. He came back to Kaldheim to news of the death of his deity, Koma, and of the very foundation of Kaldheim. He doesn't yet fully accept the truth of that.

Alamir and Nksdv: They had been on New Phyrexia for intel and action for months by the time of the Invasion. Their last contribution to hinder the phyrexians was to remove their anti-planeswalker defense that scattered the assault team, before the Invasion even begun. It turned out to be a compleated planeswalker linked to Realmbreaker, @socialpoison's Ellidus. Alamir removed them and carried them away from the Tree, trying to reason with them and break through Norn's programming. Alamir knew what it was to be made and treated as a weapon and empathized with them. Seeing the planar instability before the end of the planar swap, Nksdv took them back to the Haven, and left Alamir to choose for themselves if they wanted to see the end of their world.

Sezashi: The orochi was fighting on Kamigawa, grown to oppose a compleated mech, and got stabbed by a branch of Realmbreaker in the back. He survived, and Norn's death rendered the oil inert before he could be compleated, though he might have a more metallic scar in his back now. While he was out, he received visions and ideas from the Myojin of Cryptic Dreams, but the Myojin is aptly-named, and he hasn't fully understood them yet.

Nyrhen: Fighting on another plane, then as soon as he got wind of the fact the attack was on every plane, went back to Eldraine to defend his Sanctuary in the Wilds. He killed a lot of Phyrexians that "happened" to find their way towards it.

The Cursetamer: She lost a lot of her collection of Apostates from Ferely on Innistrad and most of her planeswalking agents to compleation, and even she and her wife had trouble getting things under control after that. Her people actually helped her for once instead of the other way around, even if their home gave to Realmbreaker. Her latest Mana Core prototype was also lost, but that one self-destroyed before it could be compleated. Due to its nature, it had more safety features and contingencies than actual functions.

Kinahel: She was on Winrovah, fighting in a corner more desolate than average, in case she needed to use the Worldslayer or lose it into Void and hope for the best. Anything better than letting Phyrexians get their hands on it, even if she had no idea of the potential consequences. She burned herself out fighting and died as soon as she stopped (this is fine, she's a phoenix).

Let’s start with the easy one...

Ivegard doesn’t really care about the temperature. Her own temperature is several hundred degrees (centigrade) above ambient temperatures, so a difference of a few dozens doesn’t really change a ton. She can feel it and she eats a bit more, and “colors” change a bit, but overall not much. She’s pretty great to cozy up with though, fireside comfort that can travel with you.

Alright, now, to the rest.

Dancing-Hands: After a few years up on the Ojutai mountains and his fur, he can handle some pretty cold temperatures, but he’s also great to cozy up with as his desert-born partners have learned. Those tails of his can be very warm. If he’s by himself, he’d probably be reading cuddled into his own tails not too far nor too close from a fire.

When things get cold, Anedia gets to pull out the thicker coats, and she likes those! She doesn’t really cozy up much, but sometimes she spends a bit longer in bed in the morning than she needs to, warm and comfy.

Like this

Oh, I already have a few of those... We'll see for the main cast, but let me start with Szyra, since she's already an alternate Planar Chaos version of someone from our timeline. With that out of the way...

Dancing-Hands: This Black-Red version of Dancing-Hands studied fighting from an earlier age instead of his focus on Origami and kanji magic, but he was no less talented at it. He doubled down on his pride. He ended up with Kolaghans instead of Ojutais, but didn't stick long with them anyway. He's sometimes a mercenary, sometimes a bounty hunter, sometimes just someone who wants a thrill. He uses his innate telekinesis as a powerful blunt weapon, wearing special gauntlets and boots through which he can apply it to even the living things he can't directly touch with it. He's been known to tear through armors and people alike should he want to.

Arnoss: Either during a raid as an egg or the same that happened in our versions of things, this Blue-Black Arnoss was taken to be a slave to Ocaelum's merfolks. The resulting indoctrination produced the Devourer, a cold-blooded (in all senses of the word) murderer and assassin ready to carry out the will of the Shiver of Kings. His weak magic was exploited to fuel an enchantment that became part of him, making him able to move indetectable by all mundane means and most magical ones, not even displacing water or air as the fluids pass through him. His preferred way of killing is by separating head from body by biting his victims' neck, but he has other means if it isn't practical.

Icalia: Alternate Icalia was fully corrupted by Phyrexians, and became one of them as they conquered Dominaria and turned it into new Phyrexia. She's Esper-aligned, and handles an arena on what once was Otaria, where creatures from other worlds are brought through portals to fight and study the techniques of.

Ivegard: In her alternate version, her Cinder self is the dominant personality, though recently it has come to value the warmth her other half can provide. Red-Black as a base.

Nyrhen: He's still as sure of himself in other timelines, but instead of doubling down on Lorwyn elves' sense of worth based on elvish perfection, he accepted that perfection can come in as many different ways as there is people or worlds in the multiverse. He encourages and helps other grow to the best version of themselves. He's Bant-aligned.

Lhur: In this version, Lhur's father failed in his conquering endeavor, and passed his anger and hunger to his son. Lhur is a Jund-aligned Warlord, who let nothing stop him to seize what he wants, and establish himself as a ruler of his own country.

Farell: Alternate Farell was abandoned by his parents for what he was, and had to grow up and survive from a very young age by himself, having no scruple to use his shapeshifting to steal and trump. As years went by, he became a Blue-Black con-man, his acts garnering some attention but the authorities unable to determine if it was the acts of a singular person, or more.

Dolores: This version of her embraced the healing magic she learned, and flourished as a nurse first, then a doctor. She's white-red, and might not have even sparked yet.