The Astral Tribunal: The Astrals are a small group who, along with their followers in the Tribunal, have focused their abilities on photokinesis--that is, light manipulation. Long ago, Mentalis's sun burned out, and the plane was shrouded in darkness. Only the Astrals had the power to channel their psychic energy--with the help of the Astral Spire--to bring light to Mentalis once more. Because they are, in essence, the life-givers of the entire plane, they have the power to keep order.

The Mesmerics: The Mesmerics are a group of mages who have focused their abilities on mental manipulation. That is, they excel at creating illusions and hallucinations, and often use deceptive tactics to meet their ends. They are highly skilled at manipulating others through these illusions, and they do so often enough to stay behind the scenes in most of their work, even though they're quite infamous. They are playing a long game to take control of Mentalis from the Astrals--the have yet to figure out how to keep the Astral Spire running without the Astrals, and the Astrals have built a resistance against the Mesmerics' manipulations. They keep looking for new ways in, though, and they will persist until they are in control.

The Foundry of Damnation: Often just called the Foundry, this cult is filled with mediums--that is, creatures who commune with the dead and their spirits. In the Days of Light, the Foundry were once ruled by a great and powerful demonic master (who...we have yet to name, and have simply been calling Joe ). Some say the Foundry were responsible for the plane's darkness, an attempt to take control in the night. When the Astrals restored light to Mentalis, they banished Joe, and now the Foundry continually sacrifices victims left and right, guiding their souls to try and return Joe back to Mentalis and take their rightful place as rulers of the eternal night. (Potentially, the only souls powerful enough to bring Joe back are the souls of all the highest Astrals...which is a problem since the Foundry has so far been weaker than the Astrals). They have a turf war going on with the Soulburners (see below).

The Soulburners: (Name also subject to change--potentially soon to be the Flamehearts) The Soulburners are the brutes, rapists, thugs, and generally untouchable creatures in Mentalis. They have channeled their psychic abilities toward pyrokinesis, or fire manipulation. Like the element they control, their tempers are extremely hot. They are quick to lash out at and seek revenge for the tiniest of offenses--and almost everything offends them. Other citizens generally try to avoid them, but they're also often hired as bodyguards, assassins, and other jobs requiring a dearth of morality and a surplus of rage. The Foundry often consider the Soulburners ideal victims for their sacrifices, as no one cares enough to investigate a Soulburner's death. Meanwhile, Soulburners are constantly seeking revenge on the Foundry for these murders, leading to an ongoing turf war between the two factions.

The Silent Shepherds: The Silent Shepherds (or simply the Shepherds) live outside the boundaries of society. They prefer to live in harmony with nature, embracing life over ambition. They have developed their psychic abilities into an almost symbiotic relationship with nature and with each other, a psychic thread tying all life together. They have a disliking for each other faction for various reasons: they hate the Foundry because of their blatant disregard for life; they hate the Astral Tribunal because of their unnatural governmental restrictions; they hate the Mesmerics because of their conformance to minds rather than to nature; and they hate the Soulburners because of their chaotic and inharmonious nature. Although they're known for their nonviolence, preferring to simply live outside society rather than interrupt it, power struggles within the city have disrupted the Astrals' light source. This has caused the deaths of many plants, and through the food chain, ultimately many other forms of life as well. The Shepherds will be silent no more--they have decided to enter the city and destroy the creatures responsible for destroying the light. What they find is that every other faction plays a role in the disruption...and so it becomes them against all others, a true free-for-all.

Seance (When this enters the battlefield, you may return target creature card with converted mana cost less than it from your graveyard to the battlefield. If you do, sacrifice this at the beginning of the next end step.)
-- Has been considered OP, and described as "always a clone of your biggest baddie in your graveyard."

Sacrificial (Sacrifice this permanent: cast a creature card from your graveyard as though it had flash.)
-- Apparently, same problem as Seance, except worse because flash.


Portent N (Reveal the top N cards of target player’s library. Then you may have that player shuffle his or her library.)
-- Shot down for inducing too much shuffling.

Wisp [COST] ([COST]: Return this permanent to its owner’s hand.)
-- Shot down for being both boring and OP. Described as creating "an unkillable blocker and an uncounterable strategy."


Vengefire (Whenever a source deals noncombat damage to you or a permanent you control, this deals 1 damage to that source’s controller.)
-- Shot down because it "feels more white than red, and is too narrow, as it would only really affect red decks."
-- A modified version that removed the noncombat requirement was deemed too powerful...and still too white.


Blind [COST] ([COST]: Tap target creature and remove it from combat. Activate this ability only during combat before blockers are declared.)
-- Considered boring as it "encourages people to hold back and block, and is deterministic as you'd always remove their biggest threat."


Harmonic [MANA] (Whenever this creature is dealt combat damage, add [MANA] to your mana pool. This mana doesn’t empty from your mana pool until end of turn.)
-- Considered hard to build around.
-- Originally shot down because the "doesn't empty" clause wasn't there (so it didn't work), and after added, no comments were made, so I don't even know what the judgment on this is anymore.

scout N (To scout N, reveal the top N cards of your library. You may put up to one basic land card revealed this way into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.)
-- Considered "good enough for a one-shot, but shouldn't be common enough to keyword."

Harmonize — [COST]: Another target creature gets/gains [SOMETHING] until end of turn. Activate this ability targeting the same creature only once each turn.
-- Based off the Rootwalla ability, but changed to affect other creatures to emphasize the harmonic connection the Shepherds have with each other and with nature.
-- Was told it would "lead to very complex board states" because of remembering which creatures have harmonized with which others...

Fire elementals all used to be Flamehearts, but as their control of fire grew, so did their temper, until the very flames they controlled engulfed them, and all that was left was a blaze-filled shell in the shape of their old bodies.

Spirits normally pass on through the Darkveil into the afterlife, but because of the Foundry's messing with them to feed them to Joe (we need a better name for him), the Darkveil is unstable. Sometimes the Darkveil will spit out the souls of dead who have already passed over, leading to Spirits; other times, the dead can't even cross it, leading to Ghouls/Zombies.

Earth elementals are similar to golems in that they're created from the earth itself by the Shepherds, and imbued with intelligence as part of the Shepherds' usual harmonic psychic link.

Obviously, Illusions come from the Mesmerics. Also, the Djinn are not natural species on Mentalis. Djinn are Mesmerics who have become so powerful, honed their illusory skills so much, that they seem to bend reality to their will. Of course, it's all still just an illusion, so even though the Djinn provide wish-granting, it's almost always temporary. Usually, they grant the wish until you complete a favor for them, and then they take it away when you're done.