https://vorthosjay.tumblr.com/post/6961 ... tions-look

This got me thinking:

- The faction is honestly the hardest for me to picture since the and phyrexian factions want radically different things. I would say they probably resemble the most the Progress Engine in terms of desiring perfection and experimenting for it, but having a more dogmatic bent (Jin already has his "Gitaxian standards" and Silver Etchings, imagine that but to an irrational extreme).

- The faction is pretty much classical Phyrexia: sleeper agents everywhere, careful about compleation, internal backstabbing, personal perfection with an means to an end.

- The faction would be individualistic and probably internally tormented like the canon Quiet Furnace. They could be a rebellion... or a bunch of sadists (and masochists) that make Slaanesh blush, like Tsabo Tavoc.

- The faction would be as Vorinclex desires: no thinking, just the stronger devouring the weak all the time. In a way also classical Phyrexia, given the first layer jungles and all.

- The faction would be the most interested in assimilation for multiversal peace, suturing everyone and everything together into a single organism. Some influence from mana could also give them a ferocious bent, as Ajani's lines on Arena do voice some mild social darwinism.

- The faction could be like the old phyrexian inner circles, maintaining order and structure through feudalism. They could remain genuinely loyal to the Parent of Machines... but not to each other, whom they continuously saboutage.

- Predictably, gets to be the "liberal" factions, uninterested in compleating non-voluntaries and instead focused on their own little projects. The most rational and reasonable of the Barney bunch.

- is a Phyrexia content to take things slowly, like Kraynox. It builds infection over time and reutilises the dead, but it is patient in its goals. Slowly but surely, the contagion outnumbers the uncompleat, and no a single drop of blood may be needed to perform the Great Work.

- is kinda fascinating because it can go into two radically different directions: either full on rebellion against the system or the most fanatically ardent to the Phyrexian dogma. For the sake of creativity I imagine them as a legion of knights and clerics focused on pain as a concept: pain because phyresis demmeands pain, and to correct "mistakes" like empathy. Don't worry, being flayed is for your own good.

- is hard to reinvent in a genuinely creative way, since Phyrexia is basically like the Simic already. Maybe they could be the rare phyrexian faction with a hint of true spiritual essence, seeing a holistic path to compleation.

Building on the former:

- I think the White/Blue faction would be the research and development. Is an interesting departure since this combination is mostly associated with law and governance.

- Intel and invasion preparations for Blue/Black obviously.

- Probably shock troupes for Black/Red and furnace work, otherwise too independent from the system.

- Developing war beasts as typical for Red/Green and divining the nature of strength. May be in opposition to the White/Blue faction in a more extreme version of what Jin-Gitaxias and Vorinclex have.

- Religious commune for the Green/White. May pull a Norn and get in charge, in which case all of Phyrexia is eventually sutured together.

- Otherwise White/Black retains the powerful position, serving right under the Parent of Machines.

- Blue/Red is technically responsible for furnace work and research and development, but probably isolate themselves from the rest for their own safety

- Green/Black is responsible for bioweapons and recycling.

- Red/White under the flaggelating knights interpretation serve as the armada and work closely with other factions so pain is appropriately dispensed during compleation.

- Green/Blue are probably take a page of Benzir's book and believe in concepts like nature spirits or whatever. They technically feel a research and development role but do so in a less intrusive manner, making them at odds with the Red/White faction.

Like in canon, I invision the White factions dominating due to being better organised and working in tandem. The White/Black faction is the closest thing to a government as they are right underneath the Parent of Machines, the Green/White faction focuses on converting/infecting while the White/Blue faction fouses on perfecting the victims, and the fanatical Red/White form blazing legions to anhilate the unworthy and monitor all compleations closely so they are painful.

Some quick jottings on my thoughts, stream-of-consciousness style.

- Orderers of Thought
Perhaps the theoretical side of Phyrexia? R&D?
Or perhaps the secret police, monitoring the plane for unorthodox thought, reporting it to bureaucrats then having those bureaucrats philosophize on the reported individual or intiative's Phyrexian-ness... whilst they're locked up to prevent theological contamination? That's sort of a twisted version of Azorius, which is neat, but not super original.

Foreign Operative Analytics
Spying on the enemy, undermining logistics. Big on self as opposed to group modification? Obsessed with 1)Remaining flexible (perhaps uncommitted) enough to adapt any approach, 2)Gaining enough information to make the right call, 3)Gathering more information because they wouldn't commit before the opportunity passed.
Great at supplying info that other factions make better use of. Better at infiltrating than pulling off offensive action.


A political class grabbing power for their own sake? Maybe too individualistic for Phyrexia. Honestly a pretty good take on a political or mercantile class in most contexts.


Raw strength? Power not in use is valueless. If you put resuorces into something and it's not paying out a greater amount of resources then it's time to pull the plug. Have problems seeing the value in the hard to quantify, ex. morale, contingency plans
These guys see Phyrexia as a process in motion more than a thing or a state. Life is a journey, sharks must swim to breathe, and all that.
In pratical terms these guys set production quotas, harvest, raw materials, stoke the furnaces and run the smelters. In charge of literal power production, which gets so much focus that they need to invent new uses for it. Love costs.
Kind of reminds me for the Soviet love of making more tools to make more tools to... well they didn't have a final step to the plan.

Cleanup Crew
Maintaining the social hierarchy? Sounds like my pitch.
The guys that do maintenance? Resupply/logistics crew? The hierarchy bit could be folded into them playing favorites- those they agree with philosophically get the most frequent maintenance and the newest upgrades. Usually, the strongest get the most support, stay the strongest and so get the most support... A sort of conservative hierarchy system supported by the analytical skew they introduce into the system, which causes them to lean into their habits, skewing the data which...

Petty Barons
Really don't want to just make this a religion thing. We see a lot of that and socially religion is as likely to play a (enflame passions) or (social cohesion/ support network) role in society anyway.
The market perhaps? Would Phyrexia have something like a free-ish market? I could maybe see a semi-controlled economy which seems .
A lot of my ideas depend on having a fair number of sentient, somewhat independent Phyrexians. Not sure how that pans out. MAybe, if say 10% of the "population" fit the bill as opposed to real life's 100% we could have a society composed entirely of petty barons. Maybe WB is all the bottom-rung Phyrexians that sorta, kinda look out for each other as a social class, while hoping to advance personally?

The Rot
Destruction-focused? They focus more on destroying outsiders than on internal matters?
Recycle the resources from everybody else's screw ups? Disdain other factions, but have no plan themselves beyond fixing mistakes.
Combine the two and call them Republicans?

The Fire In The Machine
I already wrote my faction, but it could be made into something .
Disdain the physical entirely? Want to be energy beings/elementals? Maybe hop their consciousnesses into temporary vessels suited to the task at hand?
Tone that down and just make them disdain flesh? Not sure if that's as , but it would make them the faction of artifacts.

- Pure Engineers
"Yeah, I know it can't breathe in a regular atmosphere, but if you understood anything about protein denaturation you'd see how amazing this specimen's digestive tract really is. God, can no one else here comprehend the essential perfection of my coral/slug hybrid?"
Obsessed with the least practical aspects of engineering. They are always trying to maximize some aspect of a design, coming up with a design that has a perfect aspect but fails in practice. These guys test and quantify their creations obsessively, and proclaim them all successes for being so good at a particular thing. Eventually the useful aspect of a design will be put to real use elsewhere. In the mean time, the Pure Engineers go all Bitcoin Bro and and insist that this particular thing is the next big next, the solution to every single problem.
The least holistic subfaction in all of MTG. Which seems like a neat "dark reflection" sort of twist.

Edit- I forgot .
Eh, it's bed time. This is too intelectually stimulating.
Just listened to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4CI2vk3ugk @7:42 and realized RW could basically be green through a "war as a means to determine hierarchy" kind of thing.

Like those takes. Would preffer as R&D and as the policing ones.