#komas

Card: Shrine of the Forsaken Gods

Credit: Daniel Ljunggren

The shortened names of three Eldrazi Titans, believed to be three gods...which they are analogous to in power funnily enough. They warp the world, minds, and life around them and those who witness their horrid spawn long enough will all go mad. Some forms of madness result in self-termination, others inane ramblings, and the final form is that of worship.

The werewolves and some humans ended up succumbing to the last, primarily due to only witnessing the brushes of the Titan's shadows against the plane. The werewolves succumbed out of desperation and hunger and were quickly conscripted wherever possible. Whenever a new lineage appeared on the realm, a few would splinter off out of curiosity, and subsequently warp and change into a visage of that lineage.

The human's faith however was not born of desperation, but fear, awe. These mighty creatures held a unilateral adaptation to avoid death in some manner. Something which was highly respected, and due to the unnatural and effective means employed by the Eldrazi, they became paragons of survival within these desolate wastelands...which were made all the harsher by the very beings they now worship.

They see the Remnant left by the True Eldrazi as lifelong armor, tools, and weapons, which they mold and shape by feeding it mana. The specific variety of remnant that they use is indicative of the god or gods they follow. In a usually literal sense, following in the wake of the Eldrazi as they migrate, though they aren't following the Eldrazi themselves, no, they follow the Howlpacks, the Eldrazi Werewolves. Rites of Passage include the cultivation of armor and/or armaments and slaying one of the Horrors that are created by the Howlpacks. Releasing the soul of one who did not survive as a consequence is a common belief. Those who have something to prove may seek to slay a member of the Howlpack itself (though they will be hunted in return upon success). Those who are great, or perhaps insane, seek to slay one of the Eldrazi themselves. A small vestige of god, the 'God's Titan' as it were, in return for what effectively amounts to bragging rights and universal respect across the realm. Even the Realmsoul seemed to have a strange reverence for any humans who could manage such a feat based on the descriptions of one such battle.

This may seem like a heretical action, killing your god, but for the faithful, there is no higher form of worship. Not only are you surviving the wasteland, you thrive more than the beings who make it, you are so capable of finding the resources required that you can simply remove their source. It is strange admittedly, but it is their belief.

They also have 'The Pilgrimage', where a believer(s) travels from their home ring, underground, to the Realmsoul. Trading information about their gods and their adversaries (the Howlpacks) to the Realmsoul for mana crystals, food, water, and occasionally clothing. The Realmsoul admitted to starting that tradition when the Realm was far smaller since its view of where the Eldrazi are is 'blurred'. A condition that has apparently only gotten worse overtime. One of these individuals or groups will go on this pilgrimage once every three or four months, though, as the distance has increased, so too has the time between the Pilgrimages.

Beyond those general beliefs, the right of passage, and the pilgrimage, they have few unified beliefs. Some believe in prayer, some believe in rituals such as regular fasting or sacrificing a portion of their food to the path of their god, and some believe in worship through regular warfare with the Howlpacks. They are scattered groups who only come together when pilgrimages align. And though conflicts of 'how' to worship can arise in these times, the Realmsoul is quick to prevent these situations from becoming violent. Primarily by way of threatening to give them less resources.

Ula is the god of Endurance

'The Titans of Ula tower over mountains, and when felled, they come back to walk again.'

Card: Deathless Behemoth

Credit: Jason Felix

The Howlpacks that follow behind them are known as the Howlpacks of Corrupting Hunger. Hairless bodies of smooth flesh, ribs outside of their flesh, and featureless bone-like faceplates. Relentlessly hunting down any source of mana that they can sense. They possess one to three tentacle-like tails and long sharp claws. Their legs have smoothed, becoming difficult to truly identify them as such rather than as two more tails. It should be noted, that they are blind and deaf, but they have some way of 'sniffing out' mana, be it souls or crystals. Their conversion rate of human corpses to Eldrazi Horrors is abysmal, generally, they annihilate the corpses they feast upon rather than letting them change.

Emi is the goddess of Persistence

'The Titans of Emi do not seem to deserve the monicker, but they survive. Stabbed, Burned, Hacked, Flayed, they will continue. It will melt away, yet it will remain.'

Card: Eternal Scourge

Credit: Winona Nelson

The Howlpacks that follow behind them are known as the Howlpacks of Whispering Lies. Sineous bodies with patches of hair, they speak, sing, and whisper with many voices all at once. This sound changes the perception of any animal nearby, it makes them see things and hear things. As it turns out, it causes random activity within the brain of its victims, but it can focus the ability to seemingly disappear, much like a telepath could. Those with sufficient willpower can fight off this effect, albeit temporarily. Their conversion rate of human corpses to Eldrazi Horrors is nearly 100%, generally, they only consume the vocal cords of their victims, adding their voice to the choir.

Kozi is the god of Resilience

'The Titans of Kozi do not come back from death, they do not avoid pain, they simply refuse to die. They grow ever stronger, ever larger. They are what we hope to become, uncaring of the desolate reality around us.'

Card: Walker of the Wastes

Credit: Joseph Meehan

The Howlpacks that follow behind them are known as the Howlpacks of a Thousand Witnesses. Carapace-encased bodies with an obsidian-like mantis blade on their forearms. They have eyes not on their heads but on their shoulders, hips, pecks, the small of their back, between their shoulder blades, on the sides of their elbows and knees, and the back of their three-fingered hands. Space around them distorts minorly as they move, which makes ranged weapons significantly less effective against them as well as creating strange reflections of the Horrors they had once created appear around them. Though they can harm an unwary hunter, they are still illusions, and disrupting them sufficiently can get rid of them.

Card Inspirations: Shrill Howler // Howling Chorus, Kozilek's Sentinel

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Start of Komas

The next innermost ring is home to the so-called 'Dead Wastes'. The surface is thoroughly consumed by the Eldrazi, with craters and blistering holes as they dig through the ground to get at the mana crystals buried just underneath the surface. It is eerily quiet and seemingly lifeless at a glance. Though vast swaths of the area can be colorful, gravity-defying, geometric shapes; lakes of dust and ash; or even carapace and bone reluctantly growing from the ground. It is by no means uniform, nor would it be considered orderly, but all would agree that it is nothing more than a wasteland.

The Dead Wastes

Consumed by the Eldrazi regardless of which temperature zone you talk about, the 'true' or 'greater' Eldrazi tend to be within these areas, spiraling inwards as far as they can and then outwards again once rebuffed in some manner. The conscripted howlpacks and their broods of horrors patrol this ring and often come into conflict with the humans who live here. Speaking of, the humans of this ring are very religious, believing the 'true' Eldrazi as avatars of different gods and the consumption they leave in their wake, which they call 'Remnant' the greatest of arms and armaments, which they ritualistically 'feed' crystalized mana to 'grow' or repair. One of their coming-of-age traditions involves the killing of a werewolf or one of their horrors once they've 'cultivated' their weapons and armor enough. Anyways, within the desert slice of the ring, there is no water. The sporadic violent winds erode the consumption of Ulamog's and Kozilek's brood, picking clean the trails of flesh and bone left by Emerakul's. In the temperate slices of the ring, water is rare but often poisoned by the passing of the Eldrazi. Within the arctic slice, however, freshly fallen snow can be uncontaminated, though it is just as likely to snow ash, iridescent colored snow, or blood, small organs, and bone fragments. Which, needless to say, is heavily contaminated from the consumption of the Eldrazi. Though the humans who live here have built up a resistance to the consumption of 'fleshy remnant'.

The skies of this ring are unique, compared to the rest of the realm inner realm. The clouds, rather than fluffy or wispy white are; low floating blobs of ash, dust, and soot floating through the wind; high up, yellow, unnaturally patterned clouds. As if they were each crafted from a form of yellow Bismuth and suspended in the air. Though, occasionally, they have a blueish, greenish, or reddish tinge to them; or they are fog banks of dark gray mist, which if you were to inspect closely, would not only have what appears to be larger beast of some sort in the center of it, but would also be insect sized twisted fleshbeasts comprising the entire fog.

The Pilgrim's Path

The lack of consistent water results in the humans having to frequently go on pilgrimages in the underground layer of the ring, small labyrinthine tunnels lined with dimly glowing crystalized mana. The crystals rebuild themselves over time but are often sought out by the Eldrazi, frequently and consistently enough that it can effectively be mapped and predicted, though the 'cycle' seems like nonsense to you or me. Sort of like how pi can be mapped and predicted, yet is nonrepeating. As these tunnels head inwards to the realm, they expand into expansive caverns, though this is a good sign that one is beginning to enter into the next ring of the realm.

Card Inspirations: Scavenger Grounds, Wastes (Kozilek and Ulamog), Snow-Covered Wastes, Promising Vein, Crystal Vein

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Start of Komas

The next innermost ring contains 'normal', 'hospitable', and generally non-living terrain. This ring inwards is home to the vast majority of the humans of the realm and is also home to the phyrexian cult of the realm.

As was the trend of the previous rings, the remnant continues to erode from the landscape, becoming almost normal to a lifeless hellscape rather than an Eldrazi-devoured lifeless hellscape. Much of the 'living tissue' remnant has migrated under the surface, clinging onto life as best it can, despite the attempts of the realm's other life, viewing the masses of flesh and bone as easy meals. An extreme vast majority of this realm's human, plant, and animal life lives within this ring. Tough and hardy root plants, massive centipede-like creatures that feed on and emit mana, swarms of man-sized locus, a grub-like species that seem to spontaneously appear in random locations, and even a small species of fox that can see souls and leylines. But, discounting the Eldrazi, the Skep, and the creatures humans use as tools, and the humans themselves, that's effectively all of the life on the Realm. The amount of biodiversity is non-existent, and that is due to the innate hostility of being unable to utilize any color of mana.

The environment here as mentioned is normal, if not extreme. The desert is hot with little water, the arctic is cold with little food, and the temperate slices somehow have little of both.

The skies here are mostly normal, though there is an occasional echo or two. That will be discussed more in-depth in the next ring.

Journey's End

Besides the fleshy parts of the underground, which are localized around the temperate slices of the realm, the cave systems get larger and more complex. More mana crystals grow and they grow quicker and, veins of mundane metals begin to appear. These veins are small, only a crude few even bother attempting to mine them, but like the mana crystals, they tend to regrow themselves once mined.

But this is the end of the Pilgrim's journey, they have made it to 'safety' and the ring which the Realmsouls tend to set up shop.

Card Inspirations: Ash Barrens, Desert, Mouth of Ronom, Blasted Landscape, Zoetic Cavern, Promising Vein, Crystal Vein

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Start of Komas

Overview

The underground of Komas is amongst the most robust of all the realms, in that it extends throughout nearly the entire realm. Certainly not as impressive as the underground world on certain planes such as Ixalan, but it is still expansive.

The sky, day or night, appears as a dark grey. It doesn't even change when the sun rises or sets. The sun is also grey, though a substantially lighter shade, it is among the smallest sun of all the realms. Small enough even, that the denizens of the realms have myths as to why the other stars disappear, which the realmsoul effectively summarizes as 'The pale star is ugly to the others, they hide and run from it, not wanting to be devoured by it like the others.' Because of its combined size and brightness, the realm faces an eternal twilight. The totality of the night constellations creates as much light as the sun of the realm, which isn't much all things considered. Speaking of the night stars, they are all varying shades of brown, ranging from a light tan to a sort of cocoa color.

The Fringe

The Outer Ring of the realm possesses no underground layer, it is simply the area controlled by the Eldrazi. Consumed to such a degree that the 'freshest' mana that can be found upon the realm, is pulled out of the world tree's cosmos.

The lands are covered over and trampled by voracious alien flesh. Their screams and shrieks of hunger warp reality just as much as it calls further festering forms of Spawn and Scions. The true Eldrazi, veritable titans compared to their far more diminutive counterparts, occasionally wander these lands, though they seem more driven to get to the center of the realm than any other realm.

Horrors can occasionally be seen within these masses mounded against the realm's barrier, though they are an uncommon sight. The werewolves, however, having been conscripted rather than being true Eldrazi are torn apart whenever they venture into this area for the mana within their bodies.

What little land can be seen here under the writhing masses of alien flesh is decaying, eroding, and crumbling grey stone and bone. This part of the realm suffers from a decline as the lesser Eldrazi consumes the land and pushes against the realm's barrier.

The skies of this ring are barren, not even clouds can form as the Eldrazi consume it all.

Card Inspirations: Spawning Bed

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Start of Komas

Fifty-five bodies are said to have been recovered so far off the Libyan coast, after a wooden boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized last week. #ANNnews

Fifty-five bodies are said to have been recovered so far off the Libyan coast, after a wooden boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized last week.

A member of Libyan red crescent says, search operations are continuing to find other missing migrants.

The U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR described the accident as the worst Mediterranean tragedy of the year. And it was unclear how many people were on…