Episde 5: The Battle for Kaldheim

Lore forum

Posted on Feb. 3, 2021, 6:49 p.m. by DemonDragonJ

The fifth and likely final installment of the saga of Kaldheim has been posted.

I supposed that it was only a matter of time before Kaya and Tyvar met Niko, and this is apparently Niko's first time vising a plane other than their home plane; I wonder when each of them shall next be seen?

The story apparently ended mostly positively, but Vorinclex killed Esika and took one of her potions; I wonder why Phyrexia needs that? I am glad that Phyrexia did not invade the entire plane, as that would have been poor storytelling, but having them slowly and inexorably build their forces is much more suspenseful and ominous. I do hope that WotC does a great job of telling that story.

This story seemed so jumbled to me.... I liked the Vorinclex part at the end, but that was almost completely removed from the rest of the story. I wish we could get something like Brandon Sanderson's Children of the Nameless for stories like this. I would love to see characters more fleshed out than what we've gotten over the past few weeks, but that is mostly because I crave lore and am excited when new canon is added to the things I like - Magic being high on that list.

February 3, 2021 10:13 p.m. Edited.

DuTogira says... #3

These aren’t really stories. They’re just narrative with a little fluff. They’re free so I’m not complaining, just calling it as it is.

Whether the writers meant to or not, they didn’t actually confirm esika’s death. She could be corrupted by the oil, and as the guardian of the world tree, that would make for a heck of a plot. Otherwise, phyrexians are always after immortality, and mortals can for some reason travel the realms of kaldheim intact. I’m sure the sap has something to do with that, so expect the phyrexians to become immortal, or just able to perform inter planar travel without losing the organic parts of their body.
February 5, 2021 8:13 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #4

TheRealSpecialK, I agree, as it would be nice to have a more talented author writing these stories, but at least WotC has brought back weekly stories on the website, since I missed those between Wat of the Spark and Zendikar Rising.

February 6, 2021 5:03 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #5

I meant to type "War of the Spark" in my previous post.

February 6, 2021 5:16 p.m.

Caerwyn says... #6

My biggest problem with this last story--every mini conflict seemed to resolve itself within the same paragraph as the conflict arose. They needed to either cut the number of encounters significantly to fully flesh out those that remained (the ideal solution) or split the battle into two parts.

Still, writing and pacing issues (and the god-awful Tibalt chapter) aside, I rather liked Kaldheim's story. It fleshed out Kaya and showed us more of her magic, which was interesting. It introduced some new characters that will be good additions to the cast. Finally, it set up some interesting implications for the greater story as a whole. My expectations for writing and pacing are already low--all I really want is a competent story that adds to the larger narrative, and Kaldheim checked those boxes.

February 7, 2021 1:49 a.m.

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