MS: In the Heart of the Skyclave
Lore forum
Posted on Sept. 2, 2020, 11:08 a.m. by RicketyEng
Across Zendikar, millenia-old ruins have risen into the air. Called skyclaves, they contain powerful artifacts created by the ancient kor. It's time for the planeswalker Nahiri to make her move...
In which Nahiri seeks Nissa's help in healing Zendikar. However, it becomes apparent that while they both have a similar stated goal, their means and their visions do not quite align. Nissa decides that she will do whatever it takes to make sure Zendikar is safe.
RicketyEng says... #3
I like being able to have these discussions one chapter at a time.
I can appreciate how the conflict is being set up here. Nahiri and Nissa are being set up as antagonists to each other. They each have a similar goal of helping Zendikar to heal from the wounds the Eldrazi inflicted upon it. Unfortunately Nahiri wants to restore things to a pre-imprisonment state using a means which appears to be harmful to the living plane.
I think some of Nahiri's hubris is coming from how little time she has spent in the post-mending multiverse. She spent 5000 years with the power of a pre-mending 'walker then 1000 years in the helvault. Now she has spent a little over a year (as opposed to the 60 years that other pre-mending walkers have spent) at a new reduced power level. Zendikar has changed and she sometimes underestimates the plane and overestimates her own power. She wants to restore ancient order to a wild world and is not considering the cost to the world as it is in the present. Her white-red is showing quite well.
Nissa's green is shining brightly in her vision of how to help Zendikar. She wants to help the plane heal itself and become whatever it will now that it is free of the Eldrazi threat. When she realizes that Nahiri's plan is harmful to that natural healing she decides Nahiri cannot be allowed to continue. I try to avoid leaks, but unfortunately I have heard rumours that Nissa might be splashing black. If that turns out to be true I guess I can see some of it getting set up when she declares that she will do whatever it takes to save Zendikar whether she has help or not.
Then there's good ol' puzzle-solver Jace. I like how he tries to be better at listening, but he gets distracted by wanting to jump into research for a solution. Nissa doesn't feel like she can count on him, but he'll try to help by figuring out what the lithoform core does.
September 2, 2020 2:45 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #4
It is so nice that the weekly stories have returned; I missed them, so much!
I am glad that Nissa and Nahiri have met, and my prediction about how they each would regard the other (Nahiri seeing Nissa as foolish and naïve; Nissa regarding Nahiri as dangerously zealous) was mostly correct.
Will Nahiri redeem herself, or become a full villain? This story seems to hint that she shall eventually redeem herself, but, if that happens, I hope that it happens over and extended arc and does not happen too quickly or easily.
Where is Kiora during this? As another native of Zendikar, surely, she would be interested in helping the plane to heal, as well.
I do hope that Bolas does not return at any time, soon, since this game just had an epic story arc with him as the villain, but the fact that he was mentioned by name means that WotC has not forgotten about him, and he shall eventually be important, again, at some point.
I do hope that WotC realizes how much players enjoyed weekly stories, and keeps them, permanently, this time around.
TheRealSpecialK says... #2
I am so happy that they are returning to weekly story snippets. I am less happy with the quality of the writing, but I won't let my grievances with the writing outshine my relief that we've returned to the weekly story model of MTG storytelling and lore-building.
September 2, 2020 12:24 p.m.