I am putting this up now, although it would naturally fall under next week's voting.

Title: Pariah
Author: RavenoftheBlack
Status: Public

Link: Pariah

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Man, I remember reading this back on the motherboard.

Yea from me.

This story is like America, in that the correct response to it is "**** yeah!"

Per my comments on the original thread, I think this is just wonderful. I feels like a "found" piece of literature, like it has been around for centuries, because it just has that kind of fundamental truth to it.

Typo?

I think that should be "believe", but I could be wrong.

Typo:

Should be "on his friend".

Typo:

Should be "villagers".

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So, unsurprisingly, I really like this piece. It may not be one I'd be shouting at people to go and read, but it's got a quiet sense of quality, like Lukrin's sad smile, that makes the story as a whole really, extremely good.

At first I questioned your use of Kobolds, since I know the creature more from the D&D side of things, but a quick query to Salvation tells me that Kobolds are an uncommon creature type in Magic, as well.

But really, I love how it all fits together so well in terms of Magic without being quite so high-fantasy as our average story is. I love the way you work in the and cultures without them feeling overly-forced and giving them such a human feel. Working in the card's mechanics in more ways than one was almost a master stroke.

I almost had that same feeling as I did with OL's first Beryl story (Small Magic), in that on the surface this doesn't really have the typical feel of a Magic story; but when I took a second look at the card, I realized how perfectly it fit into Magic's domain that I never really should have questioned it.

Yea from I.

EDIT: I should probably add how I'd kind of half-forgotten that expanded canon like this is totally under the M:EM's scope.

@Luna: Thanks for the read, as always! I went ahead and fixed those typos (and yes, "belief" should have been "believe"). I'm glad you liked it. As I said, this is a personal favorite of mine.

I wouldn't call it your best work, if for no other reason than (as I believe it was OL said) I haven't read all your work yet, but it was damn beautiful. It was exactly the kind of expanded canon that got me into Magic in the first place, and drew me to the community (since Matt Cavotta didn't write nearly enough for my want of them at the time).