@ Tevish's side story- there was something similar going on with the catfolk in one round of Raven's make a plane game.

I got a flash of an idea, seeing an Eskimo-like people (note: the term Eskimo encompasses basically all of the indigenous Arctic peoples, I just learned) who live almost exclusively on sea ice. I would imagine the cannibalism in that case would have started as a means to repurpose the useful resources that the dead body represented (fat for fire, bones for needles and other tools, etc.). If we kind of advance the clock, metaphorically speaking, we could assume that the practice stuck around even as the culture became less dependent on needing said resources, and it would then take on a kind of reverential, ritual quality.

Like, I could imagine from that that, say, a flute made from the bone of a great-great-grandmother would be a treasured family heirloom, or that the cannibalism was largely a family affair, unless they were a dominant public figure like a king or something. Something about "keeping the spirit within the family."

I think Aaarrrgh's mention of "undesirables" not being cannibalized would still stick here, since if the culture is "cannibalism = good," then to not be cannibalized would be like the ultimate banishment. "Your spirit cannot join your ancestors, it must wander the lost lands for eternity."

Personally, I would also go ahead and figure something out about death from diseases and how that would factor in. Like, maybe the race in question has a really good sense of smell that can tell what parts shouldn't be eaten? Or maybe, like the "no pork" rule in Judaism, there's a sort of cultural remnant of practices to not eat certain parts of a diseased person, because way back in ancient times that led to deaths? Organs like livers and kidneys are kind of bad to eat anyway since they naturally filter out wastes and poisons.

Humans are likely built with cannibalism in mind. As I'v heard, the brain and nerve tissue of the heart are the only real dangerous bits to eat.

I would object to your specific phrasing here, but I also can't help but notice how unfamiliar with the topic you are based on what you say here.

Consider:

• Chimpanzees organize hunting raids both on other chimp clans as well as on monkeys with the purpose of hunting down and eating them.
• Killing the cubs of rival males and eating them to get the female into season again is common among many mammalian predators (bears and lions especially come to mind).
• Rat and other rodent mothers (I want to say ground hogs, but I can't remember the exact burrowing rodent example) have been known to eat their own offspring when under stress.
• Live-born sharks, such as the sand tiger shark, eat their siblings while in-womb so that only the strongest shark comes out. If memory serves, there are species of snake who will attack and kill (though I don't recall whether they eat) each other after a brood hatches, again so that they're left with only the most fit sibling.
• Adult pigs will often attack and kill piglets to eat them, though I'm less clear on the relationship there (father, rival male, mother, whatever).
• Basically all invertebrates will feast on eggs of their own species, and eating a partner after mating (mantis, spider, etc.) is an extremely well-known phenomenon. This is before even considering the really unfeeling nature of insects up to and including self-cannibalization.
• Abutting corals will extrude their stomachs onto one another to eat each other in a sort of territorial claim.

Basically, cannibalism across nature is rather common; it has little to do with humans specifically being suited for cannibalism, and more a common factor across all of life. According to Wikipedia, 90% of creatures in aquatic ecosystems engage in cannibalism at some point in their life-cycles. I did have to look up the shark thing (because I didn't remember the species), and was reminded about pigs in the process, but the rest I already knew about.

As for specific organs and the risks of eating them, from what I can recall it's the brain and uncleaned gastro-intestinal tract that's dangerous. The brain is because of specific diseases seem to make the jump from stomach to nervous system really easy; the unclean intestinal tract should be obvious, but it is worth pointing out that if they're properly cleaned, intestines are safe to eat (hence why they were used for sausages for centuries). Livers can be eaten in small amounts, and is often attractive because of the fat & energy that the organ naturally stores, but it is a filtering organ, meaning that it also accumulates wastes and poisons from the blood. Kidneys have the same problem as livers, but are less appealing because they do not naturally have stores of fat or energy like the liver does. I do not recall anything relevant about hearts.

"You know that quote about hammer-wielders and seeing nails everywhere?" She sneered. "Well, he's a prick and everyone he meets is just a hole."

There's one idea I've had for a long time, but just haven't felt like further developing:
A vampiric planeswalker who goes around preying on the different strains of vampirism in the multiverse, intent on absorbing their traits and evolving into a super vampire.

I'm all for any creature that can be described as a "meta vampire".

I've been working on this.
Spent a lot of time in getting the history in order, so expect something in the next short time.

Always wanted to see an uber vamp that ate bone marrow instead of blood. Seems like a logical step up.

Apropos of nothing, I would love to see a giant who uses a ballista as a crossbow.

I had an idea a while ago about a green faction that stood opposed to the light/dark dichotomy of white and black, something more in line with Zen Buddhist philosophies of the whole and the necessity of both. The problem is green is a piece of garbage for applicable philosophy given how they've never fully capitalized on its depths and dumbed it into "er-hur nature" and brainless savagery.

Similarly, I'd like to see a setting where Red views its anarchy and chaos as an inherent rejection of order and predetermination that INCLUDES black's love of order, it's need to be as zealous and hierarchical as white. Almost like Otaria, but not actually total garbage.

I could see that take on green working. Green is the color of conservatism, and the conservative mindset seems many forms of hardship as part of the natural order, to be endured instead of fought. That or just have the world's health rely on a cycle of death and rebirth that means rejecting death means rejecting new life. Same deal with some sort of karmic system.
Red black tends toward libertarian thinking- zero restrictions mean the biggest and baddest are free to subjugate others in pursuit of their own freedom.
Red white and perhaps red blue would be liberalism - Equal freedom for all, perhaps enforced through a central power, to achieve maximum total freedom.
Pure red and red green would reject either form of control system so that everybody has the same rights but probably not the ability to achieve their goals.

I'm begging you, don't come to me now.

Because I wouldn't be able to do justice to my love for you, and it would kill me.

EDIT: I actually made a non-MtG piece starting with those lines, so here's another one:

"Only fools don't learn from the winter."

Had a thought exercise of a world that was literally a creature (which according to Karn is a thing and also a Discworld reference)
Except, instead of the world just being held aloft... it's literally been settled on bits that AREN'T comfortably globe like.
And it's the absurdity of the scale that kinda clicks with me.

Ever see Xenoblade Chronicles? Game takes place in a world that's literally two humanoid giants (The Bionis and the Mechonis, home to, logically, biological and mechanical life-forms respectively) standing in a lifeless(?) infinite ocean. All sites are located somewhere on or in one of the two, like the Bionis' Knee has a major settlement and there's another on its head, and a different one on the severed arm of the Mechonis... It's pretty far out.

I need to go back and finish.

I got both of these ideas from tumblr posts because I am currently listless as I try to avoid doing chores and such, but I think they're just too good writing ideas to not share so that someone with more talent/gumption than me can use them as a prompt:

1 - Fae, of the traditional mythological kind, act as lawyers for a world, being trickster-like entities obsessed with making magical contracts with people, physically incapable of lying but twist the truth to suit their needs all the time, and range from the mildly helpful to the outright malevolent in their dealings. I suppose Djinni fit this description rather closely as well, but the main point is to shift the focus away from the overdone "Demons are the lawyers of the world" trope.

2 - Again going on old lore, a faerie invites a vampire to their house/court. The entire point would be focusing on the political maneuvering between the two parties as they both try to use the faerie laws of hospitality to their advantage (i.e. the vampire trying to get the laws to extend to the faerie surrendering their live to them, while the faerie trying to trick the vampire into violating the laws so they can be punished). I'm sure the races might be allowed to change a little since as I understand it, modern fantasy Elves like we have in Magic are closer to the depictions of those old faerie myths than modern Faeries are, and Magic vampires are just all over the place. It might even be better to have some form of lesser Demon instead (or maybe Azra? All I know about that race is from glancing at a Salvation article).

Azra are essentially Tiefling. Which basically means Tryst is an Azra.

I've had an idea bouncing around my head for a while, mentioned something of it, but only by the broadest shape:

A planeswalker from a reverse-Segovia world has their spark ignite... and promptly dies devastating the world they land on, effectively REPLACING the plane with their corpse.

... I also had another idea, but sadly, I don't even remember the details of what it was.

Have there ever been clear rules established about where a planeswalker can go in the plane they walk to? The fact we never see anybody embedded in a wall* suggests that there must be some limitation. If there was physically no place you could fit on a plane, could you even walk there? Would there be some sort of resistance, or a premonition that it wouldn't work? And for that matter, why can't walkers use their powers to jump in and out of planes in a location of their choice, essentially teleporting?


*Well, not for that reason.

You are naturally attracted to a point that is resonant with your magic when you first visit a world. Once you're familiar, you can narrow downto a broad area you've visited before.
Regarding walking into lethal conditions.... yeah, it happens. They don't tell those stories because they tend to be short.
As to teleportation, oldwalkers could do that, but now it takes too much stamina to push yourself out of a world that I think a certain degree of metaphysical momentum keeps you from turning back around and dropping in.

Of course, when your spark ignites, you have zero control over your travel. There might be an instinctual component, but it's a die roll.