Kaltria, Lady Sinvale
Custom Cards forum
Posted on July 28, 2015, 12:42 p.m. by -Logician
At the peak of Sinvale's government, there lies the corrupt Talgarth, Count of Sinvale. He leads with a strong and honorable front; however, he is anything but when observed behind the scenes. While his followers believe he is at the top of command, they have no idea that he answers solely to the nightmare demonlord Neyra.
Long ago, as Talgarth initially accepted his role as the Count of Sinvale, Neyra sensed some weakness in his stature. That night, Neyra whispered to him during his dreams, promising him more confidence as a leader for the rest of his life in exchange for his soul. Talgarth was very timid in his new role, and without understanding the reality of his decision for even weeks ahead of that time, he agreed to the terms. He didn't realize at first that the whispers were anything but just some bad sleep. There had been rumors and folk-legend that Sinvale was once tormented by nightmare spirits, but that was several centuries ago. He had no reason to believe that his civilization was in any danger.
At a moderate pace, Talgarth was given order by order during his sleep. Orders varied. For example, one was to steal a bottle of fine wine from the elderly wine-selling couple from down the street. In order to do so, at night, Talgarth's real life human form would shift into a nightmarish ghostly deep-black form, and much like sleep walking, he would perform that task at Neyra's request and not even remember doing so the next morning. While he did steal the wine bottle, the bottle would be left in the bitter dark silent forest east of the village and never found. These countless acts of sin eventually caught Talgarth's notice, and he remembered the deal he made with Neyra in that nightmare from weeks ago. While Talgarth was uneasy about forfeiting his soul for his newfound confidence and strength as a leader, he knew that he wouldn't be able to continue leading Sinvale without it. With that in mind, he accepted Neyra as his superior. Neyra has achieved exactly what she wanted.
Talgarth's wife, Kaltria, was a well-spoken woman with aspirations of one day becoming a traveling merchant. She wanted to see the entire world. Unfortunately, that never happened for her. She was told that as Lady Sinvale, she needs to stay with her people. In reality, that was just a ruse to keep her by Talgarth's side. He didn't want to tell her that she couldn't live her dream, but he didn't want her to leave either. In the moments when Talgarth reflected on everything that has happened, he found solace knowing that his wife was by his side. It calmed him, and made him feel better.
Neyra, over the course of many years, became jealous of Kaltria. Kaltria, being Talgarth's wife, obviously got more attention. Neyra wouldn't admit it to herself, but she was jealous because she had grown to love Talgarth. On one fateful night, Neyra met Talgarth in his sleep and gave him an amulet. She told him that this was a reward for being so obedient, and to give this amulet to his wife. The stone in the middle of the amulet was a beautiful white diamond, and gleemed black as daylight fell. This particular amulet belonged to Neyra thousands of years ago before she transcended into a demon. She was but a mere vampire, and the amulet would gleem dark at nightfall to let her know that it was time to leave her shelter. After this many years, she had corrupted the amulet with her nightmarish spellcraft to turn the bearer into a savage nightmare spirit during their sleep. Talgarth was happy to accept this gift. It was the first gift he had ever received from Neyra, and what a breath of fresh air that was compared to his past encounters. The next morning, he gave his wife the amulet. He told her a lie, that he purchased this invaluable amulet from a traveling merchant all the way from the distant city-state Grandis (the white-mana affiliated city on this plane), just for her and out of sheer love. Kaltria's heart melted for him as she accepted the amulet and kissed her beloved husband.
As Neyra predicted, she loved the amulet so much that she didn't even take it off when she went to bed that evening. As she fell asleep, the amulet suddenly vibrating wildly, transformed Kaltria into blood-hungry nightmare spirit as she dashed toward the window and passed through just as you'd expect a ghost to do. That night, she ended up killing over 20 people until she finally died by the hands of one of the local mages, one who had particularly studied the nightmare spirits and how to defeat them. As she died, she was returned to her human form without the nightmare cloak hiding her identity. The townspeople were shocked to see who it was. Talgarth was notified immediately, and Neyra was watching closely at these events taking place, practically drooling from the mouth. When Talgarth finally made it to his wife's body, he couldn't believe his eyes. He collapsed in a pain so deep that he had trouble seeing clearly anymore. He noticed that Kaltria was still wearing the amulet, and grabbed and furiously yanked the amulet off of her neck. He tightly grabbed the amulet in his right hand and squeezed as hard as he could. Drawing black mana from around him, and screaming very loud and with such a piercing hint of pure evil, he transformed into the form of a demon. His strength still evergrowing, and his grasp on the amulet getting tighter and tighter, he drew open his demonic wings for the first time and flew straight upward screaming in a language he wasn't even familiar with without any signs of slowing down. By the time the completely dumbfounded and absolutely spine-struckenly shocked citizens of Sinvale couldn't even see Talgarth anymore because of how high he flew into the night, Talgarth's strength hit its new peak in his new form, and the diamond amulet in his hand shattered into an uncountable number of pieces. At that very instant, a breath of life streamed into Kaltria's lungs as she woke up. Even though she had died, the destruction of the amulet had somehow brought her back to life.
She was definitely not let off the hook for what happened. The citizens had no idea who was to blame for all of this, and after a long night of not believing anything Kaltria had to say, she was banished from Sinvale forever. While her life took this unfortunate turn, she was at least thankful that she could now live her life the way she had always dreamed, as a traveling merchant.
updated
What do you think of the story? What do you think of the card's design? How would you go about designing Talgarth or Neyra?
I'm considering a set-wide mechanic called Dreamshift, where a card can transform into its dreamshifted state, a state where the character has achieved their aspirations. They're not always nightmares. Here's one example of an uncommon. I'm not super attached to this idea, and don't have too much of a backstory to it. Here's a warlock who was inspired by a wizard, and after said inspirations, started dreaming of one day being just like that wizard. In his transformed state, the phrase "When ~ becomes dreamshifted, ..." would be a commonly used phrase describing the time at which that face of the card was transformed to. In this case, you have a two drop 2/1, and at any time, you can may discard two card to transform him. When he becomes transformed, you draw two cards. At this time, you can pay 
to transform him back in order to regain that ability to loot two cards, in a way.
What do you think about Dreamshift? Be as harshly honest as possible. I do not have very many cards at all yet in this set, and can easily start from scratch. Do you have a better name for the ability in mind? Do you have a better way for the mechanics to work in mind?
Thanks for your time! :)
HolyFalcon says... #3
Long, but cool. I'll make a couple cards when I get back from lunch.
July 28, 2015 12:54 p.m.
accelerando11 says... #5
I actually like Dreamshift. Although I didn't play during ISD block, I always felt like most transformation cards were missing something, and I think this is what I've wanted out of it.
I guess it's just a matter of figuring out what the most basic Dreamshift cards would look like. Maybe something as simple as a 2/3 becoming a 3/2, without a "when it becomes dreamshifted" ability (unless you're dead set on every card with dreamshift having an ability like that)? It might not be very playable in itself (depending on what you want out of the set), but a base of commons is often necessary.
July 28, 2015 1:31 p.m.
HolyFalcon says... #6
What's the link for having transformable cards in MSE?
July 28, 2015 1:38 p.m.
Is dreamshift supposed to go from Color A to Color B or can it be within the same color?
July 28, 2015 1:42 p.m.
accelerando11 says... #9
Magicrafter For Kiera, it would probably need to be clarified that when it transforms, it starts with the 2 loyalty on the transformed side, if that's what you intended (Garruk Relentless Flip keeps whatever counters it already had when it transforms).
Also, it would need to be clear what a "Dreamshifted" creature is (when it's on the back side of the card?).
July 28, 2015 3:46 p.m.
Dreamshifted actually isn't the back, the way I originally thought of it. A creature becomes Dreamshifted when either side is flipped to. It doesn't necessarily need to be the back.
I like the night's end and night's beginning cards, but I think that I would combine them into one card that would be an enchantment that flipped the creatures every upkeep or something.
July 28, 2015 8:12 p.m.
Also, I don't think I'm ready to start making mythic rares yet. I always make mythics too early, and I feel like I limit myself when doing that. One of my goals here is to really slow-roll the design of mythics in this set.
-Logician says... #2
I literally have only two other cards designed for this set.
Here's Grandis Noble, who teaches himself the art of combat and his sleep, and eventually learns how to double strike.
And here's the other one, a sage whose true aspirations are that of great and terrifying power.
July 28, 2015 12:54 p.m.