#icalia

Alright, let’s say a few words on the core cast.

Anedia would likely take traits after her spellbugs upon compleation. Sleep doesn't transfer well through a species that doesn't do that, but I would imagine she'd be a spy or informant of some sort, skittering at speeds on walls and ceilings, maybe even equipped with wings if needed.

Arnoss would be a tank of some sort, or a living armor. Simple, assigned to more important phyrexians so that they can wear him or keep him near them from protection when they don’t want to bother with getting their limbs dirty. Bigger than he currently is, scales replaced by metal, and mostly hollow.

Dancing-Hands would have an engine installed to harness the power of his telekinesis inside him to generate a lot of energy and fuel his body and all the weapons and shields that would be integrated into it. He would be a weapon, sent alone to a settlement or a battlefield when whoever controls him wants it razed or depopulated.

Dolores wouldn’t change that much compared to the others. She’d be an ambitious phyrexians and try to climb the ranks wherever she’d be. Her augmentations would mostly be integrating her tools and improving her body’s performances overall, but Azras like her were already engineered to be efficient soldiers.

Farell wouldn’t be changed at all. Compleated, them? Noooo. They don’t look like it. Although they’re a shapeshifter... But they’re one of the good ones, they’d tell us, right? Unless...

Compleated Icalia is the one I have alternate for her. She’d have accentuated bird of prey features, but would still be about balance... And it tipping one way or another. She’d lead a Phyrexian Arena, handling judments by oil and by weapon as well as providing spectacle and entertainment to those that earn it.

Ivegard does not feature flesh nor metal and burns any oil that’d touch her. She cannot be compleated.

Lhur would be compleated towards something not so important for him right now, but would be much more valuable for Phyrexia, and that’s amplifying ideas and desires. As powerful and efficient as Phyrexia is, they tend to have an issue innovating and testing new concepts, which he’d help bring up. In New Phyrexia, he’d probably be plated in the Orthodoxy’s porcelain.

Nyrhen’s magic allows him to resist compleation and possibly even cure phyresis, and his beliefs are completely incompatible with voluntary compleation, he’d not be the same character at all if he was compleated. However, if it somehow happened, he’d be very oriented towards survival of the fittest. Survive until the day of your compleation and you may have earned it. And survive his hand as well.

"Today’s story started long ago, so I’ll take you with me as we move back through the years, the Aether, and the Planes. It starts nearly four hundred years ago, on the continent of Otaria, near the Balshan Bay. Around there, at that time, a child was born.”

“Well, of course, more than one child was born four centuries ago near that bay, but the baby we’re talking about will be the focus of our story. But first, let’s talk about the parents of that particular child. They were aven, two eagles loving each other amongst their own. What they did not know was that their respective ancestors were used by foreigners in an experiment. Ancient sorcerers wanted to create strong warriors for a great war by breeding people. They were doing the same thing where they were from, but this particular group came to Otaria, and, amongst other things, tried their breeding with races they had never encountered before, like aven. They didn’t like the results, so they returned to their lands some decades later, but thanks to time and coincidences, their tests would have lasting results in one person or another. So, when these two parents loved each other, the child that was born was something close to what the foreigners wanted to create. Some others like her, humans and other races, would appear later, but maybe you already know the story of Kamahl and his sister Jeska.”

“Our young aven had particular talents, and was soon sent to Balshan’s school. Eagles tended to become warriors, but the gift the young girl showed in magic was undeniable. The school she went to was one of knowledge and magic. The mages that were trained there had a fairly good standing on Dominaria. But even if she wasn’t the only one, she was one of the rare eagles amongst omnipresent owls. That difference was quickly set aside by her friends and her, but became apparent once again when she started rejecting the magic that was taught in that illustrious school. She was capable of casting the spells she was taught, but she didn’t feel drawn in any way to them, or really understood how they worked. So she started to seek other types of magic, and finally found some books on silence magic. This magic quickly became her own, and she mastered it better than any other student of that particular school—not a very high bar. Acting before the spell was even cast, and not reacting to it, the magic of acting beforehand. Stopping somebody from forming the words of powers, of shaping their spell. Countermagic set aside, silence spells are also very useful to read a book alone. I’ll not speak too much on the subject, but as soon as she graduated, she went to say goodbye to her parents, and started to seek out people and places with more informations on this kind of magic. Her journey took her out of Otaria, through Jamuraa, Shiv, Terisiare. She even stayed on Tolaria for a while. Travelling alone was dangerous, but the young aven, flying on her wings, armed with her magic and talons, avoided most problems and took care of the others.”

“Is it on Dominaria?”

“Did she meet dragons?”

The narrator had stopped talking temporarily to drink in the cup the family patriarch gave her, using a small tube. The children in front of her that were listening to her story took advantage of that pause to ask their questions, these and more.

“Did she fly between the continents? Like migratory birds?

“Can you use silence magic to avoid being chided?”

After that last question, the mother of the family, who was writing behind the children, frowned a little, but her smile was playful. The storyteller answered the questions, looking to the asking children in turn, before resuming her story.

"Yes, it is on Dominaria, she saw some dragons from afar in Shiv and in other places, but she didn’t really want to open a conversation with them. She would meet more dragons in another time and place, but that story I’ll keep for another time. No, aven are too heavy for flights between continents, especially alone. Loneliness being the worst enemy during travels, she crossed seas and oceans in boats. And I don’t think your mother chides you often without a reason. Am I wrong?" A look confirmed her assumption, and after a few laughs, the subject was closed.

"During her travels, she was the object of curiosity. On Dominaria, outside of Otaria, there were few aven. But Dominaria is a big world, and if she was sometimes rejected by ignorance, most places accepted her as a traveller. In these places, she deepened her knowledge of magic and its nature. Of the differences between casting and spellshaping, and of the differences between the mana types. She learned with individuals, communities and even some schools, teaching a little of what she had picked up. She became capable of stopping any magic around her, current or future, she became one of the mages who mastered the Interdiction.”

“While she was visiting the world, she also discovered other things. She saw wonders and horrors both on these foreign continents. Remains and ruins from wars of past millenias, some dangerous even then. Battlefields now covered in great forests. She read the old stories of the Brothers’ War, accounts of spells cast on the whole world. Otaria had seen its share of death and disasters, but apparently nothing on the scale of the things that scoured the rest of Dominaria at irregular intervals. After one too many discoveries, she ended herr travels by returning home, to Otaria."

“First, she returned to the Balshan Bay that saw her birth and tried to teach her magic there for a time. But teaching never really interested her and she soon flown back to the skies of Otaria. She soon found a way to employ her talents while sating her hunger for travel. She became a messenger and a diplomat, for no single Cabal or tribe in particular. Her magic and wings allowed her to deliver messages and avoid most troubles. The magic of silence has a sister, the magic of sound, and she could even carry voices and speeches as they were entrusted to her. After some time, she was sometimes even invited to the meetings where treaties were negotiated and signed, to ensure that no magic would trouble the decision of the parties. She became the Silent Messenger.”

“Soon enough, she was trusted enough to suggest some modification of a treaty, or to highlight an issue that wouldn’t have been considered by those who asked for her help, while trying to be fair to all.”

“She stayed in that role for years, until somebody came that changed her life. During a meeting—more heated than usual—between emissaries from the Cabal and the Cephalid Empire, a human appeared. She had the feeling she had already seen his face somewhere, but his first words told her immediately. He announced himself as Urza Planeswalker.”

The name had the expected effect. The listeners knew that name, the name of the hero or monster of half of the stories the child heard. That name, and the fact that she stopped talking sparked new questions, but one was repeated multiple times: "Why was Urza on Otaria?”

“Urza came to do what the Messenger had been doing for years: deliver a message. Except he came with his own message. A warning and a call to unity. The warning was about an invasion, one that would consume the entire world. Carried out by monsters he had been preparing to fight for centuries, millennia even. Monsters so horrible that Dominaria as a whole would have to unite to have even a hope of defeating them. Friends and foes, together with a staggering number of strangers. Urza showed through illusions and artifice the first wave of the invaders’ war machines he had fought. Metallic machines invading the skies, delivering troops, or destroying cities. He left quickly after that, asking for an answer as soon as possible, saying that, for once, Otaria wouldn’t be able to stand on the side, that this war would set the entire world aflame.”

“Our hero, like you, had heard stories and read accounts on Urza’s past. On the wars that this man waged. On the horrors that would probably engulf Otaria if he brought his war to it with him. Over the next week, she flew tirelessly and contacted in her own name all the factions she had ever helped, delivered a message for, or negotiated with. A plan had started to crystallize in the young aven’s mind. Flying machines and invaders from another world would use magic for their movements and in their weapons. With enough other mages, she could theoretically isolate Otaria of this magic, preventing the invaders from accessing the whole continent.”

“But, of course, the factions, even the rare ones that agreed with her idea, didn’t want to part with a good number of their mages without any insurance that others would do the same. As a good portion rejected her offer as soon as she explained herself, her plan got next to no support. The leaders didn’t know anything about the horrors that happened outside Otaria, and that would probably come soon. Most of them had limited contacts with the rest of the world, if any, and they were strictly commercial. Even those that believed Urza’s warning thought about it as another war like those they were used to.”

“The aven was desperate. Without any kind of protection, Otaria would probably be conquered by the invaders or destroyed in the fighting. The Invasion was near. Eagles having a good eyesight, she had seen machines like the ones Urza showed, small and slim, flying higher than she would ever go, probably scouts. More and more desperate, an Interdiction on a scale several orders of magnitude higher than she had ever casted started to form in her mind, while she was heading to the Daru plains, gathering all the mana she could on her flight. When she arrived at the heart of the plains, she started to prepare to cast the spell.”

After she said these words, the storyteller changed subjects

"Did you know that, at the time, Dominaria had two moons?"

The children’s curiosity had been piqued, and, with a movement of their head, showed their ignorance. The mother, having finished a scroll, was unrolling a bigger one, and had a knowing smile.

"One of them shined every night with the power of the mana that was stored in it. It was the Glimmer Moon, and contained the same kind of mana the Silent Messenger used for her magic. Most people didn’t know about that, but she learned it during her travels. It had another name, a more fitting one in that case, the Null Moon. At night, at the Null Moon’s zenith, she cast her spell, the Greater Interdiction, and linked it to the moon, becoming the spell’s Nexus herself.”

“Her enchantment was horrible. Alone, she wouldn’t have been able to create a barrier around Otaria to stop the invaders. Alone, she couldn’t afford to be picky. Her spell absorbed all magic in its area of effect, sending back to the leylines the magic it couldn’t use and growing with the one it could. Each time magic was absorbed, it was filtered through the aven at the heart of the spell. She felt more and more mana coursing through her as her spell extended through inhabited areas. More mana than should ever go through the body of a living being. Pain was the Nexus’ whole world, and the knowledge of what she was doing was adding to her anguish. Each spell she felt being silenced could have been a healing spell saving someone’s life, or a simple fire spell to cook. Soon, the sheer range of the spell became unbearable for the one that would be called the Sorcerers’ End, but her spell barely covered the Daru Plains, far from all of Otaria. The concentration of the mana of order around her was so intense that nothing moved anymore. In a circle of fifteen feet around her, entropy ceased, and all the blades of grass stood motionless in parallel. The spell was autonomous now: even if the Nexus’ body died, she wouldn’t realize it. She would feel pain until the spell finally dissipated, some centuries or millenia later. Every night, the spell balanced itself with the Null Moon, sending it its excess white mana, and, if necessary, draining some from it.”

“Such a spell isn’t a natural thing, and beings capable of creating and casting this spell without dying, even only on a city, are rare. She survived that long only thanks to the ‘breeding’ of her ancestors, that found fertile ground in her body and her mind. At this point, the Interdiction Nexus felt an unique and indescribable flow of mana being absorbed by her spell and transmitted to her. Her Interdiction moved forward for miles. Without her knowledge or will, her spell had just absorbed a Planeswalker Spark’s Ignition, transferred it to her, and then absorbed the mana of her first walk behind the air.”

“A Planeswalker, like Mom?" asked one of the children, taking advantage of the narrator’s drinking pause to ask another question, on a subject that was a secret kept from some of the most powerful beings of most worlds.

The person telling that story from another time smiled before answering.

"No, a Planeswalker of Old, like Urza was. Your aunt and me are of a new kind of Planeswalker, the kind of Planeswalkers that are born today. There are common points: both can ‘walk behind the air’ as you say, but the Planeswalkers of Old weren’t beings of flesh and blood, and lived for thousands of years. They were so powerful and had so little in common with most people that those people’s lives didn’t even matter to them.”

“What happened to these Planeswalkers?”

“They were so powerful and ruthless that the world punished them and made them disappear decades ago." She resumed her tale.

"With that transformation into a Planeswalker, her mind expanded and the pain disappeared. She didn’t know what happened to her yet, and she would discover it with time, but the spell’s range grew and grew until it engulfed all of Otaria, both the continent and the underwater Cephalid empire around the land. All magic disappeared from Otaria that night, and should not come back before centuries, no magic being able to stop the Interdiction, that itself protected its Nexus by a field of Order, strengthening each night by the influence of the Glimmer Moon. Many Otarians died from the disappearance of magic, but also from those that rioted because of it, or even worse, from those who profited from it. The frozen aven in the middle of the plains was blamed and cursed by most, revered and adored by some. She gained new names: the Silent Sorceress, the Silent Goddess, the Sorcerer’s End, the One Law, the Plains’ Statue, the Magic Sunderer. The Cabal and its fights, the druids, the elves, the barbarians, the dwarves, the cephalids, the dragons, and all others had to live without magic. Deigned a monster, few among the people linked the Sorcerers’ End to the Silent Messenger, especially because most of the common people had never known her.”

“The invading army came and crashed one hundred meters inside the Interdiction’s border, in the ocean, drained of all magic. So much mana came to the Sorceress that day that she was unable to send all of it back to the leylines, and a part of it stayed with her since then. The only ones that saw anything were the cephalids who salvaged some of the ships and killed the few survivors.”

“Later, the Invaders tried something else, to fuse the continent with a continent from their world. The Interdiction wasn’t able to absorb a continent coming from an impossible direction. Without knowing exactly how, using the mana generated by the clash of the worlds, the Magic Sunderer moved the continent in another impossible direction. Once again, this had consequences, but her actions were mostly invisible, the rare effect on the world being considered a natural disaster.”

“Life went on, without magic. The schools started to teach new things and some knowledge was lost. Most references to the Sorceress or her magic were destroyed. Publicly, she was blamed for most of ill and new taxes that appeared on Otaria at this period.”

“There was another attack or two on the border of the spell, but things were mostly calm now. Then, someday, after months or years—time didn’t really have a meaning for the Interdiction’s Nexus—the Null Moon was destroyed, and all its mana vanished. As nobody really tried to cast spells on Otaria anymore, the Interdiction lost its nocturnal charge, and shrank over a few days until it only covered the plains, then only the Sorceress, and finally dissipated. Despite what the Nexus felt like, The Interdiction had in truth only lasted for some months. When its last remains returned to her, the aven’s new nature was thrust upon her. What her spell had delayed for so long finally took place, and she walked behind the air for the first time. For her worshippers, in the plain, the Statue awoke, fell to the ground before disappearing in clouds of white light. Time passing, she was forgotten, the year of the Interdiction nothing more than a legend told by parents, then grandparents, to children. Finally, the only thing left was a statue of an unnamed aven that took her place in the plains, carved by those who revered that still form. Otaria escaped death and invasion, and the Sorceress arrived in a world where she was able to shake off the names she was given on Otaria, being oblivious to most of them, and took back the name her parents had given her. Icalia.”

“But, that’s you!" burst out a child, proud of his deduction.

"Yes it was me, long ago.”

“But this story isn’t true, is it?" asked another.

"All stories are true while they’re being told.”

“What happened to you after that?" blurted the first one.

"That’s all you’ll get tonight, but maybe someday you’ll be able to convince me to continue this story."

Some asks and answers flied around for a bit before calm was restored by the father, who took the children away while the mother was washing her writing tools. Icalia watched through the window, admiring the clouds above and under her, reminding her of the freedom of flying, without having to take off, the very last remaining lights of the day giving a truly breathtaking view between the clouds. Tamiyo rolled up the scroll and stood up, ostensibly watching the iron-bound scrolls that never left the room she was in. Icalia answered the silent question.

"No need, I’ll not add to your charge. Besides, in today’s worlds it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful. Be careful, if you use it one day, to not become its prisoner as I did.”

“Very well." They started to walk in the hallway to their respective rooms. "I should inform you that there is a new group of Planeswalkers going around.

“There is?" The question was asked with a manifest interest. Groups often generated important events, and good customers too.

"They call themselves the Gatewatch, and say they want to protect the Multiverse from extraplanar threats. They took care of the Eldrazi fairly… crudely. I don’t know if you know what they are or of their freeing on Zendikar?"

The aven, if she could still be called that, nodded. Obviously.

"The last of the titans manipulated me and forced me to use this," Tamiyo continued in a cold, analytic voice, touching one of the three iron-bound scrolls. Icalia frowned at that while Tamiyo resumed: "but not without having modified it to help seal herself in Innistrad’s moon”

“Modified? Emrakul wanted to be imprisoned? Is Innistrad still in good shape?

“’Good shape’ is vague for Innistrad, but globally yes, it’s still inhabited. And yes to the other questions as well.”

“Interesting. This is well worth the story I gave you tonight. The children are a good audience, and these old stories need to be told." Arriving before the door of the guest room Tamiyo prepared for her, she put her hand on the door.

"Good night to you, Tamiyo.”

“And good night to you, Icalia."

Moloni is a plane where magic isn't as readily available as most. Between the plane's core and leylines and the surface, there's a layer of nullstone that stops magic from reaching except through specific spots and cracks.

Those create Sources on the surface, powerful (or more minor) fonts of magic that allow magic to be used within its range (by default). Most are associated with a single color but some can have more.

From each Source tends to emerge a Guardian, an Iconic of matching color that is tied to that Source, lives from it and controls its access. They'll be an Angel for a white Source, a Sphinx for blue, a Demon for black, a Dragon for red and an Elemental for green (not a hydra because harder to make sapient, though most elemental guardians take a hydra-like shape by default). All sources but one have a single Guardian, even if they have more than one color, it might be either of the iconics but embodying both.

A Guardian controls the magic of their Source, and how it can be used. They can allow or refuse the use of magic within its range to anyone they wish. How that is used vary from Guardian to Guardian, but most countries have a default way to do things their Guardians agree to.

A very common thing is for Guardians to choose a mortal to grant a particular tie to their Source, sharing and delegating some of their power to them, and making them ruler within the range of their Source.

Due to access to magic being able to be allowed to one side (there's some work arounds, but they're nowhere as practical), defense on the plane is much easier than offense, which led to a lot of independent city-states managing to survive, but there's still a few larger countries or alliances that managed to form.

Due to its limited access to magic, the plane is hard to pinpoint and planeswalk to if you don't know what you're looking for. Planeswalkers have the huge advantage of being able to draw mana from off-plane though, so it's a good thing they are even more unlikely to be found there.

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.

Let's go with the ones of the main cast that are currently in a committed relationship, or were in one for a long time.

Icalia: She often told her husband she loved him directly or indirectly in private, more tamely in public, holding hands, whispering, flying together or otherwise being close. She treated him as an equal in general, and took time to listen to him and be attentive to his needs, very conscious of the power imbalance between them. She spoiled him a bit, all the way to his old age.

Dolores: She can have a hard time admitting her love, she still sees it as a potential weakness, but she's often made to do so, and even otherwise, her acts speak a lot. With Inza, she's caring and understanding, much more than with almost anyone else, and trust her. She'll actually put up with a lot of stuff and try to help her. Their love is rough and usually shown a bit roughly, they're both very self-centered individuals, the other just happens to be something that makes them much happier.

A few know about Arcavios and Strixhaven, and a smaller number actually interacted with them.

The one most involved with them recently is likely Vaalin. He's not part of any colleges properly, but he's glad to have found a place where his Tolarian diploma is recognized. He sometimes gives lectures as a guest to Strixhaven to interested students across colleges. He has started a correspondance program (with approval from both campuses) where a select few students from Tolaria and Strixhaven were assigned to each other to discuss anything they'd like via bi-monthly letters Vaalin transports back and forth.

Icalia is not involved in Strixhaven, but she's been trying for at least a century to get them to destroy the copy they have of the Interdiction spell she used when she sparked. So far, even her negotiation skills didn't get them to destroy it, but she did get them to heavily restrict access to it and secure it, which she's mostly fine with as a compromise.

I expect tumblr to not keep the image in a readable quality, but the last few years’ worth of cards I made for my fanwalkers. Some are good designs, some are bad, some are too complex, some are repetitive. One double-faced old one got cut for space.

Well, technically only a bit more than one of this week's roster is a planeswalker, but the name stands.