One day, while cleaning out my closet I came across a dog-eared, badly creased and yellowing folder covered with rough pencil sketches of old D+D characters. I cracked it open and start to pour over the items inside. It was full of maps, old characters, scribbled combat notes and rough descriptive narrative for the old campaigns I used to run. In the middle of these items I came across the block of writing I had done as history for a world I called Sithas. It was an attempt at a rich and flavorful campaign idea that encompassed a world steeped in high fantasy. It started out as an experiment in D+D where I would control all of the players die rolls and character sheets. They were not aware in any way of what their AC, hit points, level, etc was. It was all to take place in a world that was magic poor. It would be based on the abilities of the characters classes (with some items of course, but ones that had a place in the story, not just some random +2 dagger on a goblin corpse).

The result was better than I could have imagined. After the first few odd sessions with us all trying to get used to the new way to play, the rules melted away. It became second nature to us and the story started to flow. The players made the campaign take on a life of its own and we all truly felt like we were taking part in a story as it was unfolding. We would go through an 8 hour session without a single die roll, all just roleplaying our characters in a rich world with developing characters and events. They were the easiest adventures I have ever DM'd. They practically told themselves with the characters as the central protagonists. When I looked up from that travel beaten folder it was 2 hours later. In the end, we never did completely finish that campaign, but it wasn't for lack of trying. It ran for 8 months before real life took away the regular sessions. I showed the characters their sheets and the reactions were priceless. This was in D+D 2nd addition, so I'm not sure how it translates over with the new editions, but if you ever get the chance, I suggest you try it.

I sat down after reading the notes and designed the first slew of cards. That was a few years ago now. I designed these cards with no other magic cards in mind, other than when attempting to balance them against existing effects and costs. These cards will likely never be, and were never intended to be, played with any existing, real, magic cards. I would love to hear feedback and have people point out wording errors and rules issues, but if a card I made creates some kind of a broken combo with a card that exists outside this set, I don't care. Inside the set however, I care a great deal.

This set was designed with flavor in mind, lots of top down design. Sometimes, because it is a Fantasy Set, flavor dictates function.

Sithas is a brutal and bloody world that is plagued by an event called “The Shroud”. The Shroud is a thick black "fog" that covers the entire known world about once a year for a day or so, and it brings with it horrific creatures bent on destroying all life. It lasts for anywhere between one and three days. The creatures that live in the Shroud can't stand the light of the day and all of them are destroyed in different ways when exposed to it. The races have all adapted to this over the years and have learned how to survive. The elves use magic and secrecy to protect themselves. The humans have built towers that rise out of the Shroud and trained an army to fight the Shroudwalkers. The dwarves lock themselves deep within their city of Rath Tarkun in the Dragonspine Mountains. The goblins live in massive tunnels underground. The militant hobgoblins have constructed their own city in the Dragonspine Mountains they call Barkus. All of them burn their dead into ashes. Over the generations the effects of the Shroud have become more manageable. In times past entire villages were destroyed by the demons and undead that came with the Shroud, but now it is rare to see one of these horrific creatures. The effects on culture and society are still strongly rooted in the lives of the denizens of this tortured land. This is a world that is just starting to reach out to the other races, encountering sometimes for the first time. The cities of each race are very ethnocentric, however it is becoming more common to see dwarves in human cities, and trade has started with the Rutheran clan of elves. The world is largely unexplored and it's call of adventure and riches have started to lure the braver citizens into its depths.

Not all forays into the world have been peaceful. Skirmishes have begun to break out between the races. Worst of all, after years of relative quiet, the Shroud has started to come more frequently, and each time it stays longer than before. Tensions are building as each race starts to feel it is only a matter of time before the Shroud claims them all and are starting to prepare for the confrontations that are to come.

Planeswalkers have sparked on Sithas, but they are not able to planeswalk away from Sithas. They are ancient and powerful beings locked in constant battle with each other. The Hag is a twisted and evil creature that has made a home for herself in Rootwood Forest that offers power to anyone that is willing to pay her price. Hearteater, God of the Goblins has been called to this world by the goblins themselves and smashed the Dwarves ancestral home of Athrad Angren in Eldar forest. Other planeswalkers have come to this plane only to discover that they are also unable to leave.

The main flavor of this set is defining the world, with exploration and travel and under tones of the rising tensions between the different races.

Humans

Dwarves

Goblins

Elves

Zombies and Demons
Dopplegangers

Vampires and Werewolves

Animosity for <whatever> (This spell costs colorless less for each <whatever> opponents control).

Sithas is a world gripped by ancient grudges and racism. This brutal world has been a constant fight for survival for all the races and they have clashed many times in the past. Animosity is a driving force for much of the conflict around this story. The goblins hate the dwarves, elves and humans. The elves dislike the dwarves and hate the goblins, the dwarves hate the goblins and distrust the elves, and the humans are leery of every one. The creatures of the Shroud despise all life and all living creatures hate the Shroud. I wanted to find a way to build tension and tie into game play. It’s a fixed Affinity that punishes an opponent for overcommitting.
It exists in all colors.

Berserk (If this creature would be destroyed, it is destroyed at the beginning of the next end step instead).

I dislike Indestructible because it is too good. There are many flavorful and fun keywords that could have been used, but indestructible invalidates them all, and because it is so strong it has very limited design space. I created Berserk because I wanted to open up this effect in a flavorful way that would make it accessible to many different cards and all rarity levels. I expect this mechanic to be the most maligned, but it fit the function I needed. After experimenting with lots of revisions, this one was the simplest and most playable. I tried all kinds of crazy stuff like "State based actions are not checked for this card until end of turn." and the such, but the rules headaches. If anyone has a better idea, I would love to hear it. It exists in all colors but Blue.

Resonance (You may cast cards in your graveyard that share a name with this card. If you do, exile them.)

Sithas has a life force that surrounds and binds life. Think of it as a pool. The more life there is, the smaller this pool is and the less power it has to draw from. The less life, the more there is to go around. Many good creatures have learned to accept this as proof that all life is sacred, and that once something returns to the pool it will one day return. Evil creatures have also learned this unfortunately, and it motivates them in different ways. It exists in all colors.

Stalwart (This creature may block any number of creatures).

Nothing to see here. Just keywording an old magic standby. I wanted it to show the desperate plight of the armies of Ravenblight fighting off the hordes of the undead with very little in the way of resources. White is the only color with this ability at this time.

Settle <cost>(<cost>: Attach to target land you control. Settle only as a sorcery.)

I wanted to show the nomadic nature of many of the races, as well as the fact that many of them have been forced to move. Plus I just thought it would be cool. The design space is limited, but I had fun with it.

CREATE: I got this one from the forums. It's been grandfathered in as far as I am concerned. It's easy to understand and an excellent addition to Magic. The keyword Create replaces “put a x/x blue bird token with flying onto the battlefield. For instance, the text “Put X 1/1 blue bird creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield becomes: “Create X 1/1 blue bird creature tokens with flying.”

GOBLIN TYPES: I homogenized Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins and Ogres all into the creature type – Goblin. For instance, a card named Ogre Berserker has the type Creature – Goblin Warrior. In Sithas they are all under the same sort of rule and live together in many circumstances.

LEGENDS: There are a lot of Legendary permanents in this set. This set originated from a D+D campaign we played for about 8 months. Many of the characters in this set were characters and npc's from that campaign.

The actual story of Sithas is a novel (50,000+ words so far) I have been working on and there is just too much to possibly list in one forum post. So I'm not going to try. I will add some text after a card if I think it needs special note.

Set Stats:

Each color has:
20 Commons
12 Uncommons
8 Rares
3 Mythics

I fiddled around with a few sub themes…keywords matter and "if this happened this game" templating, but I kept it to a minimum.