I have no idea if anyone else has suggested this, but in my last hour at work today, I couldn't help but ponder the concept of a story (or anthology) based on the Space: the Convergence what-if. I already can see the possibilities to be found in a Space equivalent of the Alara block (or Alara Anthology) where Alaria (or an entirely new name) was a planet (or huge space colony) that was split apart but the pieces still were able to support *some* form of life as they were. Esper's equivalent would only contain lux, gelidine, and necroleum, and thus has access to Crystal, Cryo, and Shadow Psi. It would mostly be populated by survivors and stowaways who had undergone cybernetic enhancement. Grixis' equivalent would have gelidine, necroleum and carbos; thus Cryo, Shadow, and Pyre Psi and mostly clones, androids, infected or mutated people, and perhaps something equivalent to a necromorph. Bant's equivalent would possess lux, gelidine, and biolute; and thus Crystal, Cryo, or Xeno Psi, with mostly space marines and automated digital ranking system. Is anyone interested in world building Alara, in Space?

Funny you should mention that
I've spent the last week or so trying to adapt Fuel for the Fire into Space: the Convergence, and part of that was reworking the Lorwyn 5's origin stories.

Specifically for Alara, was the plot that Bolas was trying to reactivate the ancient Obelisk Network that harvested power from the star Alara for each world, but the plot is more sinister since the approaching planetary alignment would compound the effect and drain the star to death, with Bolas right there ready to capitalize on it.

As the alignment approaches, agents of Bolas distract the inhabitants with an increasingly violent war to keep them from realizing the danger until it is too late.

One of the major things that I've discovered though, is the fact that you end up having to take some liberties with the original set up of the Space: the Convergence setting, because it didn't really take planeswalkers as characters into consideration, only planeswalkers as the players.
I think I came up with a pretty good work around there, but you'll have to wait to see how Fuel for the Fire turns out for the rest of that story.

Oh, sweet. Well, it would seem that Planeswalkers merely translate into "Warlords" that have harnessed Psi for the purpose of space travel. I was about to ask a dumb question then came to the conclusion myself: for Chandra, does pyromancy translate to pyrokinesis? Lol I like the concept there. (Though I have to wonder how one draws on Psi necessarily, for example: Chandra and Pyrokinesis, does she administer carbos into herself or something?) Idk, if the pieces fit, see if you can spread the Alara suggestion around, sounds like a neato project.

That reminds me, the other alternative was that Alara (Alaria, or w/e more sci-fi-esque name you can think of) would instead be a star system, while each "shard" was a particular planet equal distance away from the other 4 planets. Idk, while I can see it becoming complicated, that basically provides each planeswalker with his/her own personal ship and stuff, the naming of which would be kind of cool.

Probably one star-system rather than one planet

Bainos: Standard earthlike body, colonized by human forces before contact was lost. Rich in Gelidine, Biolute, and Lux, the colonies were placed under martial law which has turned into a strong martial tradition. The Space Marines of Bainos are a religious and martial order. Combat between their own factions is largely done by proxy and champions

Esten Plates: Orbiting plates over an ice world, the Esten Plates are the most advanced of the surviving colonies.. The plates are able to process Necrolium and Lux and extract Gelidine from the surface below. Food and in fact biota in general, however, are very hard to come by. Most plate-dwellers have resorted to cybernetic enhancements in order to extend, preserve, and ease their lives, many being more machine than man.

Grixos: A necrolium-rich world in the Alaria system (between Bainos and the body the Esten plates orbit), Grixos used to be a live world before biowarfare resulted in the constant, rotting morass that results in no yield of Lux or Biolute. The surviving colonists are horrifically mutated, their Necrolium-fueled bioligies e en refusing to die at times.

Junthar: A volcanic world, an the nearest of the five bodies to Alaria prime. Junthar is dominated by titanic Xenos known as Dracons. The surviving human and abhuman colonists worship the Dracons for their ability to consume anything they choose, and themselves aggressively reprocess the similarly aggressive native biota. Junthar provides no Lux thanks to the sulfuric clouds of its volcanoes nor Gelidine thanks to its proximity to its primary star.

Nayin: Between Junthar and Bainos sits Nayin. After human colonization, Nayin was overrun with powerful Xenos. Though not as destructive as the Dracons of Junthar, the Gargantuan Xenos grow constanty, spreading life endlessly across the world. Most of the surviving abhumans are now innate super-humans due to extreme exposure to Xeno Psi, and all revere the strength of the Xenos. Nayin has lost most technology, but doesn't need it. Nayin has neither Necrolium (the xeno life grows long before Necrolium can form) nor Gelidine (The planet is far too hot, though not as hot as Junthar)

Love everything, except, why did you refer to the Space beasts as Xenos when Xeno is one of the 5 alignments of Psi?

Lol If I didn't know any better I'd say the term Drakhans could be used in place of Dracons on a certain distant planet lol

It's taking every bone in my body not to suggest a space (and time) traveler known as "The Medic" with a rectangular cobalt space craft lol Too bad he kamikaze's himself, craft and all to save an android on the planet Mirro.

The biggest problem is that spacefolding becomes common as a piece of technology, and so "warlords" have no real call to being special. They can be anyone, and that diffuses a lot of what works.
I went with the idea that "Rifters" were beings genetically altered by the exposure to the aether between space. Hence, rifters became more powerful warlords than those who were forced to rely on tech. Then came the mending, which made it harder to open rifts in the first place and the tech just stopped working altogether, causing a new dark age as once sprawling empires fell apart into warring planets. Communications still work at great distances, but everyone else is forced to travel the slow way.

I kept the tech angle for chandra. Jace is a psion, but that's because it still works seamlessly with a sci-fi setting. Pyromancy just being heat rays still works and being a mental discipline doesn't add a lot to it. But enough about that, quite frankly, because I don't want to give too much away.


Obviously, I went with a star system.
Jund was closest to the star, followed by Naya, then Bant and Esper, with Grixis being further from the star.

Needless to say, I don't think we really have to rethink the names. There's nothing wrong with them as scifi names already.

Yeah, those should be "Alien" instead.

Kinda funny that Barinellos and I had the same planet order except for switching Esper and Grixis (since I had Esper as orbiting platforms above a pluto-like world)

Well, once we work out what needs to be closest, it's easy to adapt the concept to follow them cyclically.
In this case, start in Jund and work clockwise.

Perhaps there's a super recessive gene or naturally occurring anamoly that allows a spacefolder to breathe in space? (or use Psi to bubble themselves) Oh. I could see Chandra go this way or that, as far as "High-tech flame throwers" vs "Pyrokinesis" goes.

"Rifter" because they can spacefold. It's a better option than Spacefolder.
And no... I think it's a situation where it is best to try to minimize how much divergence we get. There's no real reason that they need to be IN space when they can open between worlds.
Back when Rifters were near godlike beings like the Navigators from Dune, it was different, but we're inherently working on a different scale now. Neowalkers have a lot less need to treat the battlefield like an actual commander of an army than the oldwalkers did.

It all just comes down to scale.

Garruk, btw, would have been from a Heavy G world, hence why he is so freaking ginormous. His entire schtick is similar to the Yuatja. (Predators)
Liliana had nanite injections and subdermal cybernetic implants to keep her alive, but.... well, I'll be honest, I never got far enough to work out what demons were other than aliens, but it feels like they needed some more oomph.

The Nayan civilization is one that had at one time been highly advanced, but following the fall of the Cloud Nacatl empire (literally), they've lost a LOT of technology and knowledge. Sort of post apocalyptic on a lush jungle world instead of a wasteland. Also it was really hard to keep Ajani from looking like Rengar in my mind, complete with cybernetic eye.

If we go a little bit WH40k, Demon-equivalents might be powerful manifestations of (negative) psychic energy -- the hatred felt by a whole colony, given a shape and a mind of it's own.

Mmmm yeah, I could see it. Though it then presents how they interface in terms of science fiction with things like nanites and cybernetics, because obviously, they-

You know, the more I think of what you mentioned, the more I kind of like the idea of them being purely psychic entities which fuse with people and their presence alters them. That way they can gain access to really powerful tech. Choose the right host, and you end up with lots of potential for wealth and access.

It also gives us a good angle or why the demons shilled for Liliana, because they could be prepping her to be the new host. Sort of an inversion that instead of her soul, she sold her body.

Demons could be Energy Lifeforms (in this case, the energy is Shadow Psi) atm I can't put my finger on a sci-fi explanation that the psi has gained consciousness and mobile form, but pretty much.

If space-travel technology is out, then what's off about Rifters just swimming through space? If not, where does the navigating the Blind Eternities come in? I suppose while the ship thing sounded cool, I suppose Rifters would need the option to leave the world at a moment's notice, but getting to the next shouldn't be that simple.

Because... what story can you tell about people drifting around in space? It's just a little silly honestly.
The Blind Eternities are already integrated as the space between space. What they actually rift THROUGH, like the Warp for Warhammer 40k. Which, coincidentally, would have the added effect of making the Eldrazi comparable to the chaos gods.


As an aside, going back to the idea of Esper, instead of plates, what about if they had taken and cultivated the ring of the planet? It seems more elegant than just plates, and we all know how Esper has to be elegant.

Okay, but then it still feels like there should be some sort of wormhole or intermediate pocket dimension they swiftly travel through to reach the other side, a strange experience for any who travel through them.

My thought process for Grixos is just that since Grixus doesn't have "new life" per se (as in nothing is born or grown on its own) that Cryo Psi could facilitate cloning, androids (artificial humans) and while the term 'necromorph' might be a bit too clear where it came from, Shadow Psi could be used to spread nanites and/or certain alien species that could congregate inside of the deceased (perhaps a back story could clarify that the planets of the Alaria System were formed from the remains of a larger celestial body, and there USED to be many lifeforms on it before, and the conception-birth rate has been declining for quite some time, at this point most everyone is some artificially 'alive' being) Bainos seems straight forward, I could see the sigils being holographically projected by a trooper's armor automatically via an automatated digital system. Angels would likely be an energy lifeform as well. (Perhaps Psion can be a catch-all term for beings made directly from Psi, such as angels and demons) I don't think Ajani has to look that much like Rengar, if his eye is more like Enzo's from Reboot. What would Ajani's psionics be like?

Cloning and Androids just AREN'T good for Grixis. They lean to closely to what you would want from Esper. ESPECIALLY Androids. The thing that works best on Grixis is mutation and genetic experimentation.
That would facilitate the fleshdolls and things like banewasps. Important though to take the unique elements of Grixis like Vis into account.
dude, you're overcomplicating things again. They don't have to be that complex, and the more complex you make them, the less effective they are. Simplicity is beauty.
As a contrast, I like the concept of the angels being actual beings as opposed to psychic entities. It wouldn't be the first Science Fiction setting to do it.
Not everything is psionic. He'd have tech, just like Chandra.
Jace, for that matter, should be the only one with psionics.

I was only throwing ideas to see what would stick. I could very well see androids overlapping, in that Esper has people augmented with machines and people that ARE machines, and Grixus would have unnatural denizen, and androids happen to fall into that category. As for the psionics, I do disagree there, the reasoning behind treating mana as psi between Magic and Space is the idea that Space's equivalent of mages and planeswalkers would be able to use similar powers instead of their magic. While someone like Garruk would be more of a weaponized Predator or bounty hunter, he would still use psi to teleport alien species to his location to do his bidding and use xeno psi to alter said alien's DNA to accelerate its growth so while I see adding weaponry and hi-tech equipment to illustrate the concept better, while Jace's mind magic best resembles popular perception of psionics, other characters that are able should have science-based equivalents to their magic as well, and reasonable application of psi. Oh, in your opinion, would angels still be angels as expected but just alien-species that share most all physical traits with angels or something? What would their relationship with lux and Crystal Psi be then?

The thing is though, that while you could probably argue for cybernetics in Grixis, full androids and constructs... weren't present in the source material. Esper solidly cornered the market on artifact creatures.
Spacefolding should really be the only thing that most of these walkers use their power for though because...
The thing is that instants and sorceries don't exist. They are strategy and tactics, which change the implications of their applications.
Giant Growth, for example, is shown to be an injection of "hyperadrenaline", not a modification of its size.

Probably be baseline less humanoid and I dig the glow that the Star Wars Angels have. For Crystal Psi, dunno, maybe just what makes them glow. Maybe it's a byproduct of their life energies or something.

Hmm, I suppose so, though it seems like it would be case by case, as with certain walkers, the Whatevermancy sometimes really does translate well to Whateverkinetics, regardless of the notion of some of it being weaponized. For example, Chandra's gauntlets, they do seem like they would just get a futuristic redesign, and personally I think a conceptual compromise is already available (where applicable of course) but it would seem to redefine pyromancy (in this example) as pyrokinesis, that could mean that her psionic ability is limited as the mutant Pyro's is in X-Men: she could use her power to manipulate fire, once she produces flames with her gauntlets or other pyrotechnic equipment, she would be free to control its 'behavior' per se. While I agree with you, not every character is compatible with the mana:_____mancy;psi:_____kinesis analogy, but it works for a good handful. Gideon I think would be a perfect example of someone who I don't think would work well as a person with special Order powers, but might have access to advanced technologies that can assist with enforcing his authority, and through it, the law of that world.

Partly its because there are further implications to consider because if we apply the idea globally, and there are some elements which might be better served by divorcing them from the idea of psionic abilities and refocusing them on tech. It is, basically, an aesthetic difference, but it partly just boils down to the idea of not redesigning the wheel. A big part of how that applies here is... well, Chandra doesn't control fire even in Magic. She conjures it, but there's virtually no control there.
If her abilities can be directly translated to tech, then there's no reason to introduce a further layer of complication to her character. Simplicity is a good mantra to have.