Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #429: Planes

Episode Date: April 21, 2017

This podcasts talks about all the different worlds we've visited over the years in various Magic expansions.

I'm pulling out my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today, the origin of today's topic is an interesting one. So I did a podcast that I just released in my time that was called Early Worlds, because I was talking about the first five world championships. But a bunch of people were sad because they thought I was talking about the early worlds of magic. And I thought, oh, the worlds of magic, all the different planes. That's actually a cool topic. So today I'm going to go through all of magic

and talk about all the planes we've ever visited, at least in major products. I'm not going to get to all of the... There's a bunch we've gotten to in smaller products. But in the major products, I'm going to walk through all of them so you will know where all the different planes of magic are. There's a bunch we've gotten to with smaller products. But in the major products, I'm going to walk through all of them, so you will know where all the different planes of magic are. So this is a little primer on the major planes of magic.

So we're going to start with the beginning of the game, back in Alpha, Alpha, Beta, Limited. So the game began on the plane of Dominaria. There wasn't a lot of story when Richard first made the game, but there were a lot of place names, you know, Vellanowar. There was Vellanowar Elves and the Benelish Hero. There was definitely the Keldon Warrior. There definitely was references to places and stuff.

Anyway, so we first met Dominaria. And Dominaria is, as you will see, a world that we will visit quite a bit in the early years. Okay, next we have Arabian Nights. Well, Arabian Nights introduced the world of Rabaya, the plain of Rabaya, which was us trying to be cutesy with Arabian Nights. Well, why is it Arabian? Well, it's Arabian because it's from Rabia. It's Arabian. I don't know. Anyway, Rabia, Richard, Arabian Nights is Richard taking the influence of Arabian Nights, the tales of Arabian Nights, and very literally doing that world.

It's not a world influenced by the Arabian Nights. It's a world that is the Arabian Nights, straight up. And so it's not a world we really plan to revisit because it's not our own world per se. I mean, it exists in the multiverse technically, but it is not really our world as much as it's us visiting somebody else's world. So that is Rebiah. If anyone ever heard of Rebiah, that is the set that Arabian Nights visited. Okay, after Arabian Nights was Antiquities. So Antiquities is Dominaria. Antiquities was the first set to really tell a story in Dominaria.

So Antiquities told the Brothers' War, in which Urza and Mishra, two artificers, fight against one another in the battle against, I don't know, each other. It introduces the Phyrexians for the first time. And a lot of, it takes place in, like, Benalia and Llanowar. A lot of those names you heard from Alpha start showing up in the story. The story is told through artifacts. It's kind of like you're digging up artifacts and learning of the story from long ago.

That's how the story was told in Antiquities. Oh, by the way, there are a whole bunch of planeswalkers that you might know that come from Dominaria. This is probably not an extensive list, but it's a decent list. So, Liliana is from Dominaria. Venser, who

died in the Time Spiral stories from Dominaria Frayles, Teferi, Karn, Jaya Bowerd Urza, Jessica, and we believe Nicole Bolas I think Nicole Bolas is from Dominaria I'm not 100% on that one because he's a mysterious dragon who lies all the time, but I think he's from Dominaria The first time we ever saw him was in Legends, which is in Dominaria. We'll get there in a second.

But anyway, so that was us. I mean, so Antiquities is the first kind of story set in Dominaria. Dominaria was definitely meant to be a more generic kind of plane. You know, it is... Richard wanted to hit a lot of the basic tropes of fantasy,

and so Dominaria let him do that. So after Antiquities was Legends. Legends, I think, primarily took place in Dominaria. We met a lot of heroes. Basically, Legends was based upon Steve Connard was the lead designer of the set, and he and his friends did a lot of role-playing. It was a lot of cards based on characters and stuff they had done through their role-playing. But anyway, I think the majority of Legends is in Dominaria.

Then we have The Dark, that's also on Dominaria. What started happening in the early days, though, is instead of visiting different worlds, they just kind of moved around on the continents of one world, which kind of... it is odd when you have like planeswalkers that can visit planes from a multiverse, how many times we just went to a different continent rather than went to a different plane. In modern-day technology a lot of the things here would have been their own plane. It wouldn't have been yet another continent. So after the Dark Post Fallen Empires, which took place in a new place called Sarpedia, I believe. And that was about warring

tribes fighting each other. So after Fallen Empires was Ice Age. So Ice Age, once again, we went to a new continent called Terciere, where we had a whole story there. And we met, oh, Tevish Svat is another planeswalker. I think it's from Dominaria. But anyway, we, and Fraley's is this part of the story. We sort of learn about just a different story and about the ice age that overtakes it.

Now, once again, in the early days, had we really sort of adopted what we currently do, the idea of, you know, we're going to different worlds, the icy world would have been its own plane, you know, and the jungle plane, we'll get to in a second, would have been its own plane. But instead, there are just lots of continents on the same world. Which, by the way, makes revisiting Dominaria tricky, because Dominaria, like most worlds now, have one, you know, cohesive theme to it.

And Dominaria, because instead of going to new worlds, we kept just finding new continents. It kind of like, it's a lot of planes in one, which makes it a little trickier for us to revisit. Anyway, after Ice Age is Homelands. So Homelands introduces us to a new plane, Ogrotha. So Homelands introduces us to a new plane, Ogrotha. And it is, I guess the closest thing to is kind of like a gothic horror plane. In fact, when we made Innistrad, we talked about, did we want to, instead of making a new plane, revisit Ogrotha and make that the gothic horror plane.

The problem was that Ogroththa has a lot of baggage like when it was made it was made by two guys who worked at Wizards Kyle Namvar and Scooter what was Scooter's last name? Scott Hungerford Scooter's his nickname and they at the time one of them, Kyle worked in customer service I think he might have run customer service.

And Scooter was in continuity, which is what we used to call the creative team. Although, back when they just did story. No, I guess they did art. They did art and story. So essentially what we would call the creative team used to be called continuity. Anyway, they really took elements

that were popular early in the game. Sarah Angel, Sanger Vampire, Herloon Minotaur, and really sort of made a world that made all those early popular cards make sense. So you find out this is where Sarah went to hide. Sarah and Faraz were lovers, planeswalker lovers, and they hid out here. I don't think either of them's from here, but maybe they were. I don't think they're from here, though. They hit out. And anyway, it's a wonky plane. There's some cool things about it, but it has a very Hodgepodge-y feel. Like, you know, aboriginal minotaurs

don't really make a lot of sense in gothic horror world, you know, so it's its own world. It's its own world. So after Homeland was Alliances. Alliances is back on Terrasier, so a continuation of Ice Age. So that is another set set on Dominaria. So after Ice Age, we come to Mirage. After Alliances, we come to Mirage, which was set on yet another continent called Jamora that was very African

influenced. The Mirage used African imagery as kind of the support. So it was a world, you know, I guess a continent as opposed to a world, but a continent influenced by African influences. So still in Dominaria, so Mirage and Visions and Weatherlight all take place on Mirage. Not on Mirage, on Jamora. And really, there's a story that ran through Mirage and Visions. And Weatherlight is the beginning of the Weatherlight saga, for those that know what that is. that, what that is. Basically, it's a story I and my co-worker of mine named Michael came up with about a flying ship, a crew on a flying ship that travels to the multiverse doing

good deeds and such. Anyway, so Weatherlight, so that story took us, once we get to Tempest, to the plane of Wrath. So Tempest, Block, so Tempest and Stronghold and Exodus all take place on Wrath. So Wrath is our first artificial plane. So Wrath was a plane, so back in the day when planeswalkers were uber powerful, they could make planes, and I don't know if we ever defined who made Wrath. Maybe the Phyrexians made Wrath? I'm not sure who made Wrath. The Phyrexians used it as an invasion, a way to invade Dominaria,

so I guess the Phyrexians built it, or somebody, a planeswalker. I'm not sure who built Wrath. But anyway, Wrath is made of something called flowstone. But anyway, it's kind of a rough world. It's where Volrath at the time lived. But anyway, it's kind of a rough world. It's where Volrath at the time lived.

Volrath was Gerard's adoptive brother named Vool. And so he went to Wrath and became Vool of Wrath. He was a shapeshifter. Anyway, so Wrath, as you will see, if you're wondering what happened to Wrath, I'll explain when we get there. So after Tempest was Urza's Saga. So Urza's Saga was a prequel. We went back in time.

So Urza's Saga was interesting. Each color had its own location. Three of them were locations on Dominaria, so there was more Dominaria. But two of them were not. So in Black, we visited Phyrexia, which is the home of the Phyrexians. So we'd heard of the Phyrexians in the Brothers' War in antiquities, but we had never been to their home plane.

And their home plane is influenced by Dante's Hell. There's nine circles inside each other. Each one, like, more horrible than the one before it. And this is where Yawgmoth, through the portal in the Cave of Koilos, found Phyrexia. It would later be discovered by Urza and Mishra. But anyway, Phyrexia is a pretty nasty place. I don't quite know.

I'm not sure whether the Phyrexians found it or whether they were there, always there. I don't know. But eventually the Phyrexians overtook Phyrexia and renamed it, I guess. I guess when the Phyrexians take over something, they call it Phyrexia. But it's the original Phyrexia. Obviously, we've met new Phyrexia, which we will get to momentarily. the original Phyrexia. Obviously, we've met new Phyrexia, which we will get to momentarily.

But anyway, so the other one, in white, we met Sarah's Realm. So I talked about how planeswalkers can make a plane. Sarah made Sarah's Realm. Sarah of Sarah Angel fame. She was the lover in the Homeland Story, and

that ended sadly. And anyway, she made her own plane where all the angels lived. She made angels. And it was kind of an unstable plane, and Urza needed energy to stop the Phyrexians, and ended up collapsing Sarah's

plane to get the energy out of it. He tried to get all the angels to leave, and a few of them wouldn't leave. And anyway, that Urza his finest moment but Sarah's Realm have you ever seen pictures of floating land

like a world in which all the land is just floating not Zandakar which has floating mountains but like where the patches of the land itself are just floating patches anyway that's Sarah's Realm okay next The patches of land itself are just floating patches. Anyway, that's Sarah's Realm. Okay, next.

Okay, so after Urza's Saga, we got to Urza's Legacy. Urza's Legacy and Urza's Destiny were back on Dominaria telling the early days of Urza and his plans to stop the Phyrexians. Okay, after Urza's Saga, we get to Mercadian Masks. So Mercadian Masks took place on a plane called a Mercadia, which was kind of a merchant plane. The idea being, I mean, it wasn't quite as city-ish as Ravnica was, but it had a city there. It definitely had some natural elements.

For some reason, it had an upside-down mountain that I never understood. But it is a world where things were bought and sold and sort of a mercantile world was the premise of it. Part of the Weatherlight saga ends up there. They end up stranded on Mercadia for a while. And that's where they figure out the Phyrexians are... Well, I guess they figure out the Phyrexians were going to invade while on Wrath, but it's where they further understand what's going on. I guess the Phyrexians were going to invade while on Wrath, but it's where they further understand what's going on. I guess the Phyrexians are beneath Mercadia, planning their invasion.

They end up going through the portal to Wrath, and then... We'll see in a second. Okay, then what happens is in Nemesis, which is the second set in Mercadia Black, we go back to Wrath, and we learn all about what's happened to Ertai and Krovacs, who both have kind of turned evil.

And then for Prophecy, we are back on Dominaria as we finish our story of the penultimate chapter of the Wet White Saga. Then we have Invasion block. So invasion, plane shift, and apocalypse all take place on Dominaria. It's the giant war. So what happens is, the way the war works is the Phyrexians overlay

wrath onto, so they take the plane of wrath, which is artificial, and they do something, I'm not sure what they do, but they overlay it so that wrath coexists with Dominaria. And that's where wrath is now. You can't go back to wrath. Wrath now hasexists with Dominaria. And that's where Wrath is now. You can't go back to Wrath. Wrath now has combined, essentially, with Dominaria. And so anything from Wrath

is now sitting on Dominaria. Anyway, the invasion is all about the invasion, and we watch Dominaria go through a major battle. It's the coalition, was the collection of all the forces of Dominaria fighting against the Phyrexians.

Who wins? Dominaria, but barely. Okay. So after invasion... One second. After invasion was... Onslaught. So it was Odyssey and then Onslaught. So Odyssey, Torment, and Judgment were all about

we went to the new continent of Otaria and we meet Kamal and Kamal and the Cabal I thought that was funny and anyway there's the story basically from Odyssey and Onslaught go together

so Onslaught's Onslaught, Legions and Scourge. So basically, you tell this big story that takes place over two years that's all in Autaria. You can tell by the set of the sets that the story and the sets aren't really playing nicely together yet

because Odyssey and Onslaught couldn't be more different from sets, but they take place in the same place, and Onslaught required a lot of tribal stuff that wasn't in Odyssey, and so Onslaught required a lot of tribal stuff that wasn't in Odyssey, and so Onslaught did this weird thing like, well, it's a different part of Autaria, but anyway. Still on Dominaria.

Okay, finally, finally, we get to Myrden, which begins the beginning of the end of us being on Dominaria. I mean, we'll revisit Dominaria one more time coming up here in a sec. But Mirrodin is a mechanical plane, also an artificial plane, made by Karn using the Mirari. And it later was run by Memnarch. So Mirrodin is a... We made an artifact set, but the flavor of Mirrodin is it's a mechanical plane.

The creatures living there all got brought originally from other planes. And then over time, the essence of the world suddenly sort of seeping into their biology. So most inhabitants of Mirrodin have metal as a component part of their biology. It's the nature of the world. And sort of living there over generations, you start to sort of imbue the metal of the world. So Mirrodin has a couple of planeswalkers we've met. The one that got a card is Koth. Koth is from Mirrodin.

And also Glissa and Slobad, who were both... Glissa was the main character in the original Mirrodin novel. Slobad was a character in that as well. And they both, at one point during the novel, became planeswalkers. Although both of them, I think, ended up being completed by the Ferexians. I know for sure Glissa did. I think Slowbad did. Okay, after Mirrodin was Champions of Kamigawa.

So Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Saviors of Kamigawa take place in Kamigawa. So Kamigawa was a Japanese-inspired plane. So I know we used a lot of Shinto. So in that, there's a war. Kanda, the Emperor Kanda, ends up taking an item that belongs to the kami, which are the spirits.

And the kami are all freaked out about it. And there's a major war that happens between the humans and the spirits. And that all takes place on Kamigawa. We know one planeswalker from Kamigawa that we've met in story, which is Tamiyo. So Tamiyo is from Kamigawa. She's a moonfolk, and the moonfolk originally are. That's where they're from.

They're from Kamigawa. Notice we're still in the story part before planeswalkers were cards. So this is one of the ones we went back and made a character from there sort of after the fact. She showed up in Innistrad block. Okay, so after Champs of Kamigawa is Ravnica. So we have Ravnica, Guildpact, and Dissension. So Ravnica introduces the world of Ravnica, which I assume most of you know.

It's a pretty popular world. So it's our city world. It's a plain covered completely with city. Every nuance. Now, there are some parks, there are some areas that are... There's a few areas that are not with city. Every nuance. Now, there are some parks, there are some areas that are there's a few areas that are not completely city, but they are parks and things. They are

I mean, the world is a giant city. And so it is, that's the essence of the world. The guilds live there. It's run by the guild pack, which there's ten guilds that all kind of have roughly agreed to get along. Obviously, during the course of the Guild Pack and Ascension, the Guild Pack gets broken,

but it ends up being, they bring it back later. But Mirrodin, not Mirrodin, sorry, Ravnica is one of the most popular planes we've ever made. I think a combination of people, I think people love the gills is probably what it's most popular for. But being city, it gives it a little sort of different feel. Also, Ravnica, I know Dominaria and Ravnica have both had the quality

of, they have a unique relationship with the multiverse. I think Ravnica is the, somehow centered of the, more planes go to Ravnica than go to other places. There's something about, I don't know, how blind mater... Not maternities. The blind maternities work that sort of make it,

when you're walking, you're more likely to be able to get to Ravnica for some reason. I don't know the metaphysics of it. Anyway, Ravnica has a couple of planeswalkers we know. Raul Zarek is from Ravnica. Domri Rad is from Ravnica. And Vraska is from Ravnica. So we've met a bunch of different Ravnican planeswalkers over the years. Okay, so after Ravnica was Time Spiral.

So Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight is the last time that we've been in Dominaria. That was our last trip in Dominaria. Basically, the invasion of the Phyrexians caused all sorts of problems, and Dominaria had become kind of post-apocalyptic. Not all sections had become quite so bad, obviously, because we had been in Otaria during the Odyssey and Enslade stories. But anyway, things had gotten pretty bad, and so Time Spiral talked about how there was an accident

that the events on Dominaria had to do probably with clearing the Academy, had caused a temporal problem, and there was a major thing that needed to get fixed that was threatening the entire multiverse. and there was a major thing that needed to get fixed that was threatening the entire multiverse. And in the act of fixing that, it sort of reworked how planeswalkers worked. It's what we call the mending.

And the mending... Planeswalkers pre-mending used to be essentially gods. Like I said, they could make planes and they could pretty much do whatever they wanted. And it was a little harder telling stories about gods, so we depowered them quite a bit and made the modern planeswalkers. Now, a bunch of the characters you know, you know, exist from pre-mending. Liliana, Sorin, Ugin, Nicol Bolas, Karn. So there's a bunch of planeswalkers that pre-exist the mending that you know. But anyway, that happens in Time Spiral block. And once again, that's all in Dominaria.

We actually jump around a bit so we could show a lot of different things because we're back. Time Spiral had the problem of being super complex because we were just trying to encompass so much of magic.

And it jumps all around. It's really not super cohesive. But if you had played magic at that point, it was kind of our tribute to Magic. So the fans of Magic that really knew all the things we were referencing had a lot of fun with it.

But it was really, really confusing to people that weren't aware of that. So after Time Spiral was Lorwyn. So Lorwyn was... It's a planet inspired by Celtic mythology. Or sorry, Celtic mythology. And it is...

So the world of Lorwyn and the world of Shadamore are related, which is Lorwyn is kind of a light, more happy version of the world. And it goes through a change when it takes on a darker version, which is known as Shadamore. So Lorwyn and Shadamore are one singular world. There's a Roraborealis or something,

some sort of thing that changes everything. And every so often, it doesn't happen all that often, it changes over, and the nature of the world when it's Lorwyn versus the nature of Shadowmoor is very different. Lorwyn is very bright and relatively happy. Shadowmoor is dark and a little more creepy. And so Lorwyn and Mordentai took place in the Lorwyn half. And then Shadowmoor and Evangtai took place on the Shadowmoor half.

As far as I can tell, there's no Planeswalkers yet we know from Lorwyn. Now, Lorwyn was the place we introduced what we call the Lorwyn Five, which was Johnny, Jace, Liliana, Chandra, and Garak were originally the very first Planeswalkers of the new, you know, once Planeswalkers were cards.

This was our introduction of them as cards, and it happened in Lorwyn. I don't think we even incorporated that in the story. I mean, I guess they've been to Lorwyn, but I don't know. There wasn't any story where these characters visited Lorwyn. We just introduced the Planeswalkers. We're later on, starting

when they come back. So they, after Lorwyn and Shadowmoor were shards of Alara, we see them again appear in shards of Alara, and then they're more involved in the story when we get there. I'll get to that in a second. So, Lorwyn, like I said, is the

Celtic influences. It was a tribal set, but let's see if I can remember the eight tribes. There were fairies and giants and Kithkin, and there's the elementals called the Flamekin. There were goblins andkin, and there's the elemental, it's called the Flamekin. There were goblins, and elves, and

merfolk. So, it definitely had, like I said, the Celtic mythology sort of dips its toes a little bit into fairy tale, but not really, because most of the fairy tales people know actually

aren't Celtic. But it's the first set that had a little bit of that sensibility. Okay, so after Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, we have Shards of Alara. So we went to the plane of Alara. So Alara, the unique quality of Alara is something happened to the plane and it was shattered into five pieces, or shards, if you will.

And each shard only had three of the five colors of mana. So it had each color and its two allies. And so what happened was, well, what would happen if you had a world in which a color didn't have any enemies around? So Bant was the white center, so green, white, blue. Bant ended up becoming very

high fantasy castles and kings and knights and things. A little bit of a Camelot-ish vibe. And it is the most traditional one of the more traditional fantasy settings we've done, especially the sort of high fantasy.

Then you get Esper, which is the blue centered one, so white, blue and black. And it was a world in which technology has sort of gone to the nth degree, where people are trying to improve themselves. And in fact, they started replacing parts of their body with something called Ethereum. And so Ethereum is kind of this metal, all the inhabitants of Esper are artifacts because they've replaced enough of themselves that they're considered artifacts. Then you get to, what's the next one? Grixis, which is the black-centered, which is blue, black, red.

Grixis is a world of death and decay, where things are just killing each other left and right. Then you get to Jund, which is the red-centered. Jund is black, red, green. It is a very sort of wild place. And it definitely, you know, it is sort of the place of survival of the fittest. And there's just a lot of like the strong survive sort of feel. Then we get to Naya. Naya is the green-centered one, so red, green, white. It is kind of a jungle-based plane. It has just sort of like nature left unchecked. It's kind of Naya. So we have two planeswalkers we know from Alara. Ajani is from Naya, and Tezzeret is

from Esper. So we have met. There were a few other planeswalkers that visited. Elspeth went to Bant. Crobat, not Crobat, Nicol Bolas, I think, went to Brixis, and who was the last one there? Sarkinval went to Jund.

There were five planeswalkers over the Crest of the Black that each had visited one of the different shund. So we... There were five Planeswalkers on the Crest of the Black that each had visited one of the different shards. So eventually in the story, due to Nicol Bolas, the shards start coming together. They reunite.

And there's lots of chaos as the world tries to adapt with all the different pieces of the world coming together. Okay, after Alara. So there was Alara, Conflux, Shards of Alara. After Shards of Alara

was Zendikar. So Zendikar, Conflux, Shards of Alara. After Shards of Alara was Zendikar. So Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi take place on Zendikar. So Zendikar is an adventure world. It's a world where it's kind of like filled with treasure, but nature's gone wild and sort of like planeswalkers coming here. The world's ripe for, you know, there's lots of value to be gotten here, but it's a wild and crazy world you have to fight. And it definitely takes on that sort of D&D, Raiders of the Lost Ark kind of vibe.

We later learn that one of the reasons that the world's gone so crazy is these ancient creatures have been trapped within it called the Odrazi. is these ancient creatures have been trapped within it called the Eldrazi. The Eldrazi, due to Nicole Bowles, tricks Jace and Chandra and Sarkin Voll into kind of unlocking the prison, and then Nyssa's the one that kind of opens the door, thinking that they would flee her plane, but they don't. So it causes all sorts of problems. So three planeswalkers, Ugin and Nahiri and Sorin had

trapped them many, many years earlier, thousands of years earlier. Anyway, so Zendikar has three planeswalkers that we know from it. It's got Nahiri, who goes way back. It's got Nissa, and it's got Kiora. So those are three Zendikarian

Zendikari inhabitants. But it definitely is a wild world, and the civilizations there are not, you know, they're struggling to get by. Obviously, they had to deal with the invasion of the Eldrazi, and as we'll see later, they deal with it, but not yet. Okay, after Zendikar was Scars of Mirrodin. Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged, and New Phyrexia. So we come back to Mirrodin. So Mirrodin, other than Dominaria, Mirrodin's the first plane we revisited.

And Mirrodin turns out that the Phyrexians are there. In fact, we had a hinted of that when we first went to Mirrodin. This was actually in our plans many, many years before. And so we slowly watch Mirrodin fall to the Phyrexians. And by the end of the block, Mirrodin becomes new Phyrexia. So the artifact plane now has the Phyrexians, who are artifact-loving creatures in the first place. And so Mirrodin, which originally started as the metal plane, turns into kind of the dark metal plane with new Phyrexia.

Okay, so after Phyrexia, after new Phyrexia, is Innistrad. So Innistrad, Dark Ascension, and Avacyn Restored all take place on Innistrad. Innistrad is our gothic horror plane. Avacyn Restored will take place on Innistrad. Innistrad is our gothic horror plane. It's got vampires and werewolves and zombies and spirits. All these monsters that are trying to attack the humans of the world. And things are getting pretty dire.

For a long time, there was an angel named Avacyn that, along with her cadre of angels, protected the humans. But she had disappeared. You learn that Avacyn was trying to get rid cadre of angels, protected the humans, but she had disappeared. You learn that Avacyn was trying to get rid of all the demons in the world, trapping them in this thing called the Hell Vault. But when she went to get Gristlebrand and put him in, he pulled her in with him. And then it turns out Liliana saves the day, ironically enough, because she wants to find Gristlebrand to kill him. And so she ends up using Thalia to break open the Hellvault to get to Gristlebrand. But that also frees Avacyn, who manages to save the day.

Doesn't last forever, as we'll see, but anyway. So that was Innistrad. So on Innistrad, we know a couple planeswalkers. Sorin Markov is from Innistrad. Tybalt is from Innistrad, and Arlen Kord is from Innistrad. So both our vampire and werewolf planeswalker are from Innistrad. So if you ever have a zombie planeswalker, maybe he'll be from here. After Innistrad, we visit Theros. So Theros, Born of the

Gods and Journey to Nyx, is on the plane of Theros. So Theros is our Greek mythology-inspired world. So it had a pantheon of gods, and it has a very Greek aesthetic. And there are hydras, and cerebrizes, and medusa, and pegasus. Anyway, all this stuff is derived. Now, a lot of magic derives from Greek mythology, so there's a lot of overlap between sort of normal magic and Theros. But Theros was us doing Greek mythology. So the two planeswalkers

that are from Theros, Xenagos, who we met in the Theros block, and we later learned that Gideon is from Theros. So after Theros, we visit Tarkir. So Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, and Dragons of Tarkir. So Tarkir is a war-torn world with a strong Asian influence. There's different parts of it taken from different elements of Asia and some of, I guess, a little bit of Europe. So anyway, Sarkhan returns home to find that his world has five distinct clans that are wedge clans, so a color and their two enemies. But Sarkhan

realizes, oh, so the dragons have been killed off in this world. There used to be lots of dragons. Sarkhan loves dragons, so he ends up finding a way to go back in time. And Ugin and Nicol Bolas are having a major battle, and Ugin is killed. But thanks to Sarkhan, he saves Ugin. And so Ugin's death had led to the stopping of dragon births. Because on Sarkhir, dragons are born through this thing called Dragon Tempest. Ugin has this special role that when he died, the Dragon Tempest went away. And then once the humans figured out there were no new dragons,

they were able to kill off the old dragons. The timeline has changed, and all of a sudden, now dragons rule. So instead of the clans, now there are dragon clans. And the dragon clans are two-color. But the five original clans, if you go back in time to Fate Reforged, the proto versions of it were there. So when we get back to Tarkir, we'll find out probably that the clans are not quite as dead as people think.

Although the dragons are very much alive. So right now it's this war-torn world run by dragons. From Tarkir, by the way, we know that Ugin is from Tarkir, we know that Sarkin Voll is from Tarkir, and we know that Narset is from Tarkir. So they're a bunch of Tarkir planeswalkers. Okay, after Tarkir was Magic Origins. So Magic Origins actually visited ten planes, a bunch of which we'd visited before, but a few we'd not. So the way it works is each of the five characters that would later go on to be the first Gatewatch members, you get

introduced to them, you learn their origin, you see them spark, and you see the first world they visit. So, you find out that Gideon's from Theros, and his first walk, he goes to Alara on his, when he sparks, and ends up in Bant. Jace, we learned, is from Vryn, which we had not known before.

And he ends up in Ravnica. Liliana is from Dominaria, which we did not know at the time either. In fact, we knew very little other than where Nissa was from. And she ends up going to Innistrad. In red, we meet Kaladesh. Chandra is from Kaladesh, which we knew we were going to, so we spent a little extra time in Origins introducing it. And then she ends up going to Ragatha, which is a volcanic world.

Both Rin and Ragatha, by the way, showed up in Plane Chase, which is a supplemental set. The way it works is you travel from plane to plane and different planes give you different abilities kind of based on the old Enchant World tournaments. Anyway, there are a bunch of planes that get introduced in that product.

In fact, most of the planes that exist in Magic, a good chunk, that's where they get introduced. The one other place that we introduced planes was in Future Sight during Time Spiral, the final set. The set was sort of this past, present, future feel. And in the future set, the future shifted sheet showed cards from alternate futures. And so the creative team had fun coming up with new worlds that we might want to visit.

And so a bunch of the worlds first show up there. Both Argos and Mungsang, which would later become Theros and Tarkir for short of there. The reason the name changes, by the way, is it's a lot easier to name a card something. There's a lot more hoops to name a game something. And so when we finally went to those places and then tried to use those names, it turned out they weren't, we didn't have what we needed to be able to use his names. Okay, so after Magic Origins, so Magic Origins introduces Vryn, Ragatha, and Kaladesh. So after Magic Origins,

we do Battle for Zendikar. So Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch is us returning to Zendikar. We find out that the Eldrazi are in charge and kind of rule the place, and the Zendikar are kind of rebels fighting to take back their homeworld. They manage to do it with the help of the Gatewatch, who forms during the story. And the Gatewatch manage to kill off

two of the three titans, the ones that are there. Ulamog and Kozilek who are there. Emrakul? Where's Emrakul? We don't know. But we'll get to that in a second. But anyway, the Eldrazi manage to destroy parts of it, but there's still plenty of old Zendikar left, even if chunks of it are destroyed.

So next time we go back there, I think we'll probably revisit sort of Adventure World. People do like Zendikar. Okay, then after Zendikar was Shadows over to Innistrad, so Shadows over to Innistrad and Eldritch Moon, that was us returning to Innistrad, so shadows over to Innistrad and Eldritch Moon, that was us returning to Innistrad. So we, Nahiri is mad about

what happened with the Eldrazi in her homeworld. So she drags Emrakul, she lures him, or her, to Innistrad to cause havoc on Innistrad. And, Innistrad kind of takes a little bit of a turn. It went from

sort of traditional gothic horror into a more I don't know what to call it. A different style of horror with more mutations and people going mad and crazy. Sort of just a different feel. So, I mean, it's still the gothic horror set, but one of the things we sort of tried to show with the Shadows of Innistrad

is that we could explore different styles of horror, if you will. That's the horror plane, but we can explore kind of different styles of horror there if you will. That's the horror plane, but we can explore kind of different styles of horror there. Okay, after we visited Shadows of Innistrad and Eldritch Moon, we went to Kaladesh. Kaladesh and Aether Revolt. So Kaladesh is on Kaladesh, obviously. So it is a sunny, bright, sort of steampunk world. In Origins, like I said, we met Vryn, which was the mage wheel world. We didn't talk a lot about it. Ragatha had a volcanic feel.

Kaladesh is steampunk. But instead of being kind of dark, grimy, Victorian steampunk, we sort of made our own thing, what we call Aetherpunk, and it's bright and optimistic, and instead of having a Victorian feel that a lot of steampunk stuff, we went for an Indian feel. It wasn't top-down Indian. It wasn't based on Indian mythology or anything.

But just like Ravnica used kind of a Slavic sort of feel to its look, we used an Indian to our look in Kaladesh. So Kaladesh has its share of inhabitants. So Chandra and Dovan Ban and Saheeli Rai are all from Kaladesh. Kaladesh is very sort of a home to inventors and it's a more optimistic sort of... It's another plane that has a lot of technology, a lot of artifacts to it,

but these are more technology here than Mirrodin, which I used to say is more biology, that the metal is there, but it's part of the world. And here, really what sets this world apart is the ether, that there's a natural ether sphere that they can tap into, and they use the ether to get energy, and they use the energy to make all these cool inventions. Obviously, I can't talk too much about it.

The next set we're going to visit, starting soon, very soon actually, you guys, previous might have started by the time this goes, but we're going to go to Amonkhet. Amonkhet is a Egypt-inspired world, one that Nicol Bolas built, or shaped, or had a heavy influence in making, and we'll learn more about that. But anyway, that's another cool world based on a real-world influence. I just want to mention a few worlds that we also know. Fiora was Conspiracy 1 and Conspiracy 2. So Fiora first showed up in the Dark Horse did comics

where the main character was Dax Faden. It took place, his... Dax Faden and a guy named Dreddy, our Goblin Planeswalker, are both from Fiora. Fiora, like I said, has only showed up in the comic book and in Conspiracy and Conspiracy Take the Crown, but it's pretty popular

and we definitely put some stories there. The one other world that we have visited in Core Sets is a place called Shandalar. So Shandalar first showed up in a computer game called Shandalar, nonetheless. And it's kind of a more generic world. We used it for Core Sets if we wanted to show generic things. I think Shandalar is where the more humanoid-looking slivers come from,

if you wonder where those came from. So neither Fiora nor Chandelar have ever had a major standard legal set set there. I mean, Chandelar showed up in Core Set and Fiora showed up in Conspiracy Sets. But those are all sets that maybe one day we get there. They're definitely... Fiora has a pretty strong... It's kind of a medieval-type city. There's a lot of intrigue, a lot of backstabbing,

and a sort of a place of political intrigue. Chandelier's a little more generic, so I think we're more likely to go to Fiora in an expert set than we are to go to Chandelure, but you never know. The one thing I wanted to point out before we finished up here is two things. One is there's a whole bunch of other planes. I didn't get to all the... I got to the planes

that have been major roles in Magic releases. Due to Future Sight and Plane Chase, especially Plane Chase, there's a whole list of planes that have names that we just haven't visited yet. Some of them, like for example Vryn and Ragatha, we at least got to visit them a little bit.

Argos and Monsang turned into Theros and Tarkir, so some of them we have essentially visited, even though the names may have changed. But there is an infinite number of worlds, and so I know that there's some fun worlds coming. Okay, just because I know that there are some fun worlds coming. Okay, just because I talked about where all the planeswalkers came from,

not every planeswalker we know where they're from. So here are some planeswalkers that we don't know what plane they're from. Garak, no idea where he's from. Elzbeth, we know the Phyrexians invaded it, but we don't know where he's from. Omnixilus, I don't think we know where he's from. Ashiok, we know so little about Ashiok, including all sorts of things about Ashiok, but we don't know where Ashiok is from. Kaya, Kaya

showed up in Spirits who take the crown. Don't know where Kaya is from. So, we have a bunch of planeswalkers that we still don't know where they're from. But anyway, to recap, Magic has a lot of planes. The major planes, at least planes that we've visited in a normal set, have been, once again, Dominaria, Rebaia, Ogrotha, Wrath, Sera's Realm, Phyrexia, Mercadia,

Myrden, that would later become New Phyrexia, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Alara, Zendikar, Innistrad, Theros, Tarkir, Vryn, Ragatha, Kaladesh, Fiora, Shandalar, and coming soon, Amonkhet. So in the early years, I think we really sort of stayed a little too long in the same place, and they're definitely continents of Dominaria. They should have just been their own plane. But as you can see we've quickly corrected that. So you are a planeswalker and you get to walk the multiverse. So one of the cool things about the game I think is our multiverse and like I said if you haven't had a chance go to our website for not all these, most of these planes, all the planes in which, at least the recent planes since the, I think since maybe Mirrodin

forward, all those planes that we've visited are, we have a page about planes on our website. It'll tell you all about the planes. It'll show you pictures of the planes. It'll give you background on planes. It'll show you what planeswalkers are from the planes. So if you want to learn more about the planes, there's lots and lots of data on our website. We've also written some guides to different planes. We don't have every plane, but we have some of them from some planes. So anyway, if you want to learn more about the multiverse of Dominaria,

it's a pretty cool aspect. One of the things that I want to do with this podcast is introduce you to all the different facets of magic. Well, the places of magic, the worlds of magic, the planes of magic, is one of the most identified things about us. And so, you know, I do know as we sort of talk with other people, like the movie people, we people, like the movie people, we've talked to the movie people and we showed off our worlds that are so impressive. Not just that we have cool worlds, but we have so many cool worlds.

And guess what? As somebody who's looking years ahead, we're making even more cool worlds. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed today's sort of glimpse at the planes of magic. But I'm here at Rachel's school, so we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time.