@Arcades:

Nice creature type list.

I really dig the merfolk idea. I wonder if that could be separated from Cansiz and made into its own thing--it might be interesting enough to stand on its own two legs. Fins. Hrm.

@Cansiz:

I like him! An interesting character that plays with some of what Lord Dralnu was getting at but like... less stupidly!

I love not stupid! We really have to rename that guy though. Something more Inca, less Kansas.

Also, since people seem onboard with th Inca background, but the patchwork culture seems like a hit too, perhaps we could have each different faction modeled off of a different Mezo American empire? That way everything seems related but has its own flavour too. I imagine the Elorians would be Aztec somehow...

Thanks, Keeper.

Quechua (including Inca) are Andean, not Mesoamerican.

Huh, guess I never really knew what Mesoamerican referred to. I should look into the Inca some more to get a picture of what this plane should look like. Right now all I've got is mountainous, zigguruts, little metal an llamas. We have to find somewhere to squeeze in a llama.

Lord Bahraz - This is ll subject to CKY's approval, but I thought I'd float my ideas here. Also if one of the M:EMbers could help me figure out how much time has passed since the mending, that could help.
Bahraz was an oldwalker who ruled over the plane for centuries. With the powers of a godwalker he was able to subdue the dragons Galcinorak and Anjomeddon and force them into his service. Bahraz ruled with an iron fist and his reach extended from pole to pole. Bahraz used his sorcery to set himself up as a godking and used his armies to control his empire.
When the mending happened Bahraz lost most of his power. He could no longer bully lesser elder dragons. Of course, by this point he'd already had them under his thumb for centuries and didn't have to intimidate them directly. But dragons are proud creatures and sooner or later they would rise up and refuse to be put down by mere threats. Bahraz started searching the multiverse for something, anything that would let him keep his grip on power.*
Alright, this is where I go out on a limb. Starstill's moon, like Dominaria's second moon is pretty much the deathstar. It soaks up sunlight to a fire a giant manabeam** at whatever you want to make dead. Don't really know if it's better as a retrofitted existing moon or a totally new construction. Bahraz ordered its construction/militarization as an ace in the hole against the dragons. Perhaps it wasn't meant just for the dragons, and his whole empire was falling apart by this point.
This period, as Bahraz loosened his tyrannical grip*** but before the dragons took over, was the plane's golden age. A few centuries of prosperity and advancement.The Renaissance was short-lived.
The dragons caught on to Bahraz's weakness and struck before work on the moon could be completed****. The Starstill happened. Things got worse than ever. Tyrant that he was Bahraz, is the only one who knows how to beat the dragons. There are still remnants of his power, half-finished and ill-repaired engines of destruction scattered about the plane. Know if only he could find a nice young lady with the technical aptitude to get his equipment working again...

*Perhaps whatever Aloise came to the plane to investigate is one of the things Bahraz sought out to save his godwalker powers? That could explain why only she knows enough about it to be of use to Bahraz when the plane has a whole gaggle of gearheads.
**I'm thinking that putting it on a lower setting just turns it into a giant lamp to light up the dark. laser -> lightbulb.
***Probably told the dragons he was off planeswalking and they better not leave a mess when he gets back. Mostly just left the place in the charge of his lieutenants. Maybe Elori was one? Or at least Elorian teachings have their basis in Bahraz's god-worship.
****And if Aloise fixes it up they won't be able to take it down because it's ridiculously deadly. That solves the "won't the dragons just tear the moon down" problem.

I am ok with everything.

Yay!

The trick with that is timing. We've been working under the assumption that the Mending happened roughly a century ago, because that's what the most reliable (i.e. non-Mirrodin, non-random information about Elspeth that makes no sense) information we have indicates. That's not a lot of time for things to be starstilled.

Dang. I thought it was longer than that. Less than a century of Starstilledness seems way too short.

If the mending doesn't work we do have other options though. His empire could have fallen for any number of reasons. I want to keep the bit with him maintaining power through bluffing if I can. Since he'd probably need some extra help to control lesser elders anyways, maybe he had a shiny magic trinket was destroyed?

So instead of the Mending, some other planeswalker with a grudge against him took him down. Or he took a trip to other planes and... never came back! (dun dun DUN!) Some other planeswalker who hated or feared him imprisoned him somewhere. Now he's escaped, but ohnoez the Mending has made him all weak and when he returns to the plane ohnoez the Starstill has crumpled his beautiful empire and these dragons are now way scarier, in comparison to him, than they used to be. He wants to thrash these usurpers, but to do so now he has to gather allies and work with them instead of just dominating them and ordering them around like the tyrant he is at heart. He must pretend to be nice and make alliances, while secretly scheming how he's going to get all his new "friends" under his thumb and crush their pitiful dreams!

I like that idea...

Thoughts on Starstill artifice:
Avoid metal and wheels where possible.
Wheels are kind of useless in the Andes so the machines all walk. Maybe work in some ski/sled bits for variety.
Metalwokng wasn't very important to the Incans. Stone constructs look cool anyways.
As a combination of both points pulleys replace gears in most applications.

You can have Inca-inspired aesthetics and still use the technology that's most believable for the world. People create whatever technology they need to, within their resources, to survive their environment.

The academy folks probably do have metal, and forges underground, provided they can get fuel. Even without fuel to forge new metal, they'll have scrap and the ability to cold-work soft metals. Plant material for fuel is likely to be scarce (and precious in Frostwynd), but so is wood for making wheels or sled runners. Metal and bone (for sled runners) and fossil fuels (for forges) seem like better bets. Assuming anyone can find fossil fuels. Ironworking takes a lot of fuel but copper and bronzework take far less. Bronze does tend to require large trade routes but those seem to exist in at least some places. Stone for tools may be readily available in the desert but hard to pry out of the ground in Frostwynd. Besides Maraka, what other sources of wood are there, and how perilous is it to anger the forest?

Wheels are unlikely except on hard, even surfaces. If the deserts are all sandy (and keep in mind most real deserts aren't) then wheels will be less than useful. In the tundra and especially more icy places, sledges will work better than wheels.

Metal and wood won't necessarily be wasted on containers or buildings, though. Stone, glass, leather, bone, ceramic, ice, woven plant fibers, even basketry can all be used for tool, container, and building material when metal and wood are too precious to use. Nomadic people will want to use lightweight materials (cloth, leather, bone, fiber, glass) for everything, including water bags. Parasols, tents, and for humans probably full-body burkas will likely be a must in Illpyre.

Edit: I didn't even think of whale oil, but yes that's another fuel. The dung of desert herbivores would also be valuable in places with little vegetation (though desert animals living in a place with little vegetation might have more efficient digestion, and less burnable dung, than the average Earth cow.)

I like that. Copper and bronze could give the plane's artifice it's own distinct look. The impracticality of iron-working could also help drives home the impact of the Starstill. Older artifice would be a lot more heavily built than the current stuff.
I was thinking that whale oil would be the main fuel for lamps. Coal for industrial applications. Dried grass for most things in-between. Of course if you're a pyromancer, you probably focus your efforts on making fires last on little fuel rather than starting them or stoking them.

Woah, since when did this thread get 115,500+ views? I guess this is the only thread the M:EM looks at? Makes me feel proud of my project! :3

Alright, here's a task for everybody: A lot of cards are missing flavor text.

I've listed the number of total lines used by the card's rules text next to each card in the list. Cards with 6 or more lines of rules text have not been included. (The line break between abilities counts as half a line.) The bigger the number of lines taken up by the rules text, the shorter your flavor text has to be, and the less need the card has of flavor text in the first place. 5 or more means the flavor text should be very short, I.E. no more than one line on the card. 3 to 4.5 means the flavor text can be of a moderately extended length. 2.5 or less means you can go crazy.


Consortium Customs (4)
Illpyre Inquisitor (5)
Indomitable Will (3)
Radiant Messenger (5.5)
Soulsteel Sculptor (5)
Sun Spirit (5)
Sunbringer Falcon (3.5)
Wanderer of Illpyre (1)
World Queller (4)


Consortium Engineer (5.5)
Ethereal Form (4.5)
Gale of Denial (3)
Humata Sphinx (5.5)
Mist Weaver (3)
Numbing Cold (2)
Out Cold (2.5)
Steel Sabotage (3)


Brains and Bodies (5.5)
Brittle Bones (3.5)
Cremate (2.5)
Dig a Grave (2)
Endless Night (2)
Grave Peril (3)
Instruments of Torture (5.5)
Mind Shivers (5)
Snowstorm Shadow (2)
Stealer of Strength (3.5)
Winterplague Wendigo (3.5)


Blazing Haint (2.5)
Ignite the Ashes (5)
Living Bonfire (2)
Storm Entity (4.5)
Viashino Warchief (2.5)


Breath of Maraka (4.5)
Moss Giant (4)
Relic Crusher (4.5)
Scavenger's Feast (5)
Track to the Lair (5)
Tyrant Wurm (4)
Viashino Suncaller (5.5)


Antique Guardian (3)
Coldmetal Coat (4.5)
Shatterspear Insignia (4.5)
Sunchaser Golem (4.5)
Thermal Navigator (3)

∅
Barren Manifest (4.5)
Darkwood Grove (4.5)
Deadlands (4.5)
Maraka Lagoon (4.5)
Metalscape (4.5)
Quiet Factory (4.5)
Sorcerer's Den (4.5)
Sunscoured Dune (4.5)

Looks like my tomorrow just filled up. You know, after the banking and other important, nonMTG stuff.

Oh, nevermind about Cremate; the Invasion flavor text fits perfectly.

Thermal Navigator's original flavor text could also work, except I'm not sure if pterons are unique to Mirrodin or not? I don't see how you could startle a building, but pteron is just the Greek word for wing, so it's still unclear to me whether the word refers to an avian creature, or some kind of structure. And World Queller's flavor text would be perfect if it weren't a Nissa quote.

...Unless you guys want to rewrite all of Wizards' flavor texts, in which case Auramancer, Archaeomancer, Young Pyromancer, Borderland Ranger, Tarmogoyf, and Cloud Key need new flavor texts, too.

Pterons are unique to Mirrodin, yes.

I'd vote for rewriting old flavor text.

I say rewrite as a default. We can keep the flavour text if we're in love with it.
Also Borderland Ranger's flavour mentions locations in Innistrad.

I was going with the tenth edition flavor text.

Anyway, here's what I've came up with for Living Bonfire:

"The sandscouts see the sun as a war deity, and the wandering flame as its emissary. Witnessing one, they gather around it, throwing in all their tools to make it brighter. Throwing the bodies of their slain into the inferno is the most disturbing sight I ever saw in all my travels—and let me tell you, I'm lucky I made it out alive!"
—Lale Bilik, Compendium of Natural Life

ALright, new Quecha language source: http://incas.homestead.com/inca_language_quechua.html

I'm getting a runtime error from the Starstill site, and I'm working off of an old visual spoiler, but here's some flavour text:

Antique Guardian - An infuriating reminder of his fall, Bahraz left the construct scorched and mangled, but in his mind no less a relic than before.
Consortium Customs - Steelbridge's sentries go unpaid by the city. Volunteering does however, opens up a world of opportunities for extortion.
or
"Pay the toll or pay the price"
Dehydration - Few cultures in Illpyre practice execution. Banishment is easier on the conscience and just as effective.
Shatterspear Isignia - Heed the call to war.
Sunbringer Falcon - Even in the shade of the valley the bird gave of its own light. "Almost like it took the sun's light for itself" thought Aloise, the gears in her head beginning to turn.

Tank Golem should probably be a wind-up golem or something. I just have trouble imagining a tank-type-thing in MTG, especially in a mountainous region.