Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #587: Sets by Plane

Episode Date: November 9, 2018

In this podcast, I walk through each set and talk about what plane it takes place on.

I'm pulling in the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today I'm going to go through the history of magic and talk about the planes that each set takes place on. So you can be knowledgeable so you'll know each set, where exactly does it take place. We're going to talk about that today and talk a little bit about sort of the nature of how and where we make planes. Okay, so we're going to go all the way back. So, limited edition Alpha, the original set, Richard didn't really particularly make, you know, it wasn't set necessarily in any particular place. Dominaria was kind of the default sort of world, but it wasn't really until we get to Arabian Nights that there's a defined place it takes place.

And even Arabian Nights, which is funny, Arabian Nights kind of was given its own plane after the fact. The whole concept of, oh, there's a multiverse and there's different planes, that kind of took a little while to get cemented. The term planeswalker, I don't even think the term planeswalker was in the Alpha rulebook.

I think that came out shortly after. But anyway, Arabian Nights, the first expansion, takes place on the plain of Rabiah. R-A-B-I-A-H. Rabiah was a fancy way of, well, the things on the Rabiah plain are Rabian, or Arabian. was a fancy way of well, the things on the Rebiah plane are Rebayan or Arabian.

That is a place we've never really visited again. It's the one world that we did that kind of really isn't our own world. I mean, Arabian Nights really is kind of just Richard capturing 1001 Arabian Nights and doing the characters and stuff from that. So, it has a

name. It has an official plane. It's Rebiah. It's not something... In fact, there's a scale on my blog. I have a lot of scales, like the Storm Scale. The Rebiah Scale is how likely we are to return to a world. And it's called the Rebiah Scale because I don't think we're going back to Rebiah. Not that we wouldn't do a new inspired by Persian type stuff, Arabian Nights

stuff, but I think we'd make our own world and not sort of do Rebiah, which is really just somebody else's world. I mean, a real world reference to 1001 Arabian Nights. Okay, the second set, Antiquities, is the first set to officially take place on Dominaria.

There are definitely things, I mean, there are plenty of things in Alpha, like Llanowar Elves and Herlun Minotaur. There's things that mention places, and most of the places mentioned in Alpha end up on Dominaria, almost all of them. So there are a bunch of Dominarian references, but it's more after the fact. We're like, oh yeah, these places, those are Dominaria. So Antiquities tells the tale of the Brothers' War.

That takes place in Dominaria. And it is, we learn a little bit about the history of the plane. The Thran was a former civilization that fell. And so we also meet the Phyrexians for the first time. But anyway, that's our first introduction to Dominaria, which is Magic's main home, as you'll see, for quite a while. Okay, then we get Legends. Legends is quirky.

Legends kind of takes place in a bunch of different places. It's not really set to one world. quirky. Legends kind of takes place in a bunch of different places. It's not really set to one world. The idea of a set being built around a world is something we kind of get to, especially when we get to the block model.

But Legends is kind of like, there's a bunch of characters, and some of them end up like, after the fact, a lot of the characters ended up getting placed in places, and some of them end up in Dominaria. They don't all end up in Dominaria. They don't all end up in Dominaria. They don't all actually coexist in the same plane necessarily.

After Legends is the Dark. I think the Dark just takes place in Dominaria. The Dark's whole shtick was sort of looking at the darker side of things, but I'm pretty sure it's all Dominaria or after the fact was made Dominaria. After the Dark is Fallen Empires.

That is Sarpedia, but that is Fallen Empires. I'm upset. That is Dominaria. Fallen Empires is Dominaria. And then after Fallen Empires is Ice Age. Ice Age, also Dominaria. That's Terrasier. One of the things about Dominaria, because we kept

staying on Dominaria, is we jump around to different parts of Dominaria. So for example, Terseire is where the Ice Age happens. It's the place where everything freezes over. But nonetheless, Ice Age takes place on Dominaria. Then we get to Homelands. So Homelands is the first set that specifically, I mean, Arabian Nights retroactively wasn't on Dominaria,

but it wasn't really defined at the time, where Homelands, it's on Ogrotha. And Ogrotha is 100% from the telling of the story, another plane. It's a plane where Sarah and Faraz, they're lovers, that's where they live. It's where the Sengur vampire lineage is from. Mostly what happened is

the people who made Homelands were taking a lot of popular elements of Alpha, Sarah Angel, Herlun Minotaur, Sangre Vampire, and sort of built a lot of mythology around it,

but they built their own world to do it. I think originally they had talked about maybe it just being on Dominaria, but eventually decided the story they wanted to tell involved its own world.

So that ends up being a different world. That's the first, like I said, Rubai is technically the first, but that was kind of retroactively made its own plane.

Ogrotha and Homelands is the first to do it on purpose. Okay, after Homelands is Alliances. We're back to Terrasier. It's an Ice Age expansion, so it's set in the same place as Ice Age. Then we get to Mirage. So Mirage is still on Dominaria. It's on a plane called Jamora, which is a more hotter plane, sort of a jungle plane. But anyway, it's still on the same world.

It's just a different part of the world. And Mirage and Visions are solely on Jamora. Weatherlight starts the Weatherlight saga. And while it all takes place on Dominaria, there's a lot more traveling around. They go to Urborg, they go to Llanowar, they go to Teleria, you know, it's a lot of kind of visiting. A lot of what we did is that the story is Gerard has a destiny but he's turned his back on it. But then Cisse, who is the captain of the Weatherlight,

and sort of his mentor gets kidnapped, and they go to get Gerard because they need Gerard's help. Gerard decides that in order to help her, he needs to collect some people, and so they ended up going to get Mirri, and they go to Telerin and getting Ertai, and they go to Urborg, and they end up getting Crovax.

But anyway, they do a bunch of traveling around in Weatherlight. All Dominaria, but they do a bunch of traveling around. Got a flying ship now. Okay, then we get to Tempest. So Tempest and Stronghold and Exodus all take place on Wrath. So

this is the first block set on another world. So Wrath is an artificial world made by the Phyrexians as a staging. The Phyrexians want to invade Dominaria. And so basically what they end up happening is they sort of stage everything on Wrath and then they overlay Wrath onto Dominaria. So Wrath is no longer its own plane. It's been fused with Dominaria. So Wrath onto Dominaria. So Wrath is no longer its own plane. It's been fused with Dominaria. So Wrath and Dominaria are now together. And things that used to be on Wrath are now on Dominaria.

But anyway, Wrath... So the Wedlight Saga was one of the things I was involved in. I really disliked that we were always on... The cool thing about having a multiverse is you go see the multiverse. So the second the story was in my control, we were like, and we're going to leave Dominaria. We were planning to come back, but we were going to leave. So Wrath takes place there. Then we get to Urza's Saga. Urza's Saga

mostly takes place on Dominaria. Some of it takes place on in Sera's realm. I think some takes place in Phy Dominaria. Some of it takes place on in Sera's Realm. I think some takes place in Phyrexia. It's telling a larger story. Mostly it's telling the backstory of the Weatherlight Saga. Sort of the prequel to what's going on. Urza gets involved.

So between Urza's Saga and Urza's Legacy, a bunch is on Dominaria, but we go to a bunch of other planes like Ceres Rome and Phyrexia. So there is some visiting of other places. Then Urza's Destiny, I think, is completely

on Dominaria. A lot of Urza's Destiny is us learning about things that would lead up to the Wedlight Saga. So once again, we're jumping around the world of Dominaria, but it's still all on Dominaria. Okay, so after we have Urza's destiny, we then go to Mercadian Masks. So Mercadian Masks takes place on Mercadia.

That is a world that is kind of a merchant world. It's got a city. merchant world. It's got a city. There's some quirky elements, but the physics act weirdly there. But there's an upside-down mountain for some reason. But anyway, it's a mercantile plane where

they have a lot of people selling things. Spell shapers, if you will. And it's where the rebels live. And there's all sorts of stuff going on there. But that is... We are in Mercadia for just Mercadian masks. When we get to Nemesis, we go back to Wrath, and we continue the story in Wrath, and we learn about how Crovax ends up taking over. Vorath had left on the Weatherlight to go to Mercadia,

but he goes back, and then he gets, I think, murdered by Crovax, and Ertai ends up getting twisted and becoming a servant to Crovax, and some bad stuff happened. Then, Prophecy, I believe Prophecies were back on, mostly on Dominaria. So, Mercadia Mask is on Mercadia, most of Nemesis is on Mercadia, most of Nemesis is on Wrath, and I think

most of Prophecy is back on Dominaria. So you can tell some of these sets, we're jumping around a little bit more. We're still kind of finding our feet about how to tell stories exactly. Okay, so after Mercadian Mask is Invasion, so Invasion

obviously on Dominaria, it's the story of the invasion of Dominar. So Invasion, obviously on Dominaria, it's the story of the invasion of Dominaria. So clearly it's on Dominaria. And so all Invasion, Planeshift, and Apocalypse are all on Dominaria. And it tells the tale of the final battle. I think there are a few small pieces that take place other places,

but the big crux is the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria, what's called an invasion. And this is the wrap-up, the ending of the Wedlight Saga, which took place over four years. Okay, after invasion is Odyssey. So, Odyssey goes to a

new continent, but stays at Dominaria. Goes to Oteria. So, both Odyssey and Onslaught block are on Oteria, although different parts of Oteria. The reason for that is Odyssey decided to not use the basic creature types, and then Onslaught decided to do a tribal theme that needed them. So we kind of, like, shifted. We stayed on the continent of Oteria, but we moved around.

kind of like shifted. We stayed on the continent of Artaria, but we moved around. So Odyssey and Torment and Judgment are all on Artaria, on Dominaria. And then Onflot and Legions and Scourge also all on Artaria, which is on Dominaria. Okay, after that we get to Mirrodin. So finally, this is the point in the magic story

where we're, like after a few attempts to sort of go, this is the point in the magic story where we were, like, after a few attempts to sort of go to other planes, and we keep getting back to Dominaria, we're like, okay, seriously, we need to start going to other planes. And so Mirrodin was, Mirrodin and Darksteel and Fyfton all take place on the plane of Mirrodin. Mirrodin is an artificial plane, a metal plane. And the way they built it is, Karn actually made it using the Mirari.

And it was an artificial plane. That's why it's made of metal. It's artificial. And then the people were sucked into the plane from other places. The Kor, for example, were taken from Zendikar. That's the only one we really talked about where they came from.

Most of the others were kind of human, but the core were kind of unique, so eventually we said, oh, this is where the core came from. They came from Zendikar. And Mirrodin, as we'll see, we'll come back to Mirrodin,

but Mirrodin is an artificial plane. The people, over time, the effects of Mirrodin. But Mirrodin is an artificial plane. The people over time, the effects of Mirrodin slowly warp the people and start adding elements of metal to them. That's why there's a lot of metallic stuff to the people who live on Mirrodin. It's part of the nature of the world as you live in the world.

Okay, after Mirrodin was Champions of Kamigawa. So Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Saviors of Kamigawa all take place on Kamigawa. So Kamigawa is arayers of Kamigawa, and Saviors of Kamigawa all take place on Kamigawa. So, Kamigawa is a Japanese-inspired plane. I believe the story takes place in the past, like, thousand-plus years in the past. And the story is all about, there's an emperor named Kanda,

and he steals something from the spirits, from the spirit world and there's a giant war between the spirits and the humans. But that is our Japanese-inspired world. One of the things that happens all the time

by the very enfranchised, a lot of enfranchised players retroactively have grown to love Kamigawa even though in its day it was not particularly well loved. And so there's a lot of, if you read my blog, a lot of people go, let's go back to Kamigawa.

We'll see. After Kamigawa was Ravnica. So Ravnica and Guild Pact and Dissension all take place on the plain of Ravnica. Ravnica is a city plain built around ten guilds.

The guilds were created to keep peace in the city and as the story begins, it's a 10,000 year old, the guild pact is 10,000 years old. But anyway, we had done the city once before, or a city-ish place with Mercadia,

but this is even more city, even more, you know, even more city, even more, you know, it's really, I mean, it is our city plain. I mean, it has the guilds as a strong component of it, but also it just, it's a place in which there's not, I mean, there's parks and things, but there's not a lot of wild nature. And so it is definitely one of the more built up

of all the plains we visited. So after Ravnica is Time Spiral. So Time Spiral and Planar Chaos in Future Sight, that's us going back to Dominaria. The universe is breaking. The multiverse is breaking. And they need to mend it. It's an event known as The Mending. And also what it does is most of

the Planeswalkers have to give up their spark. All the Planeswalkers have to give up their spark to mend the multiverse to keep it from being destroyed. And then kind of how Planeswalkers kind of get rebooted. And we have a new group of Planeswalkers, some of which are the same as the old Planeswalkers,

but depowered. Part of the reason we did the story was Planeswalkers had gotten god-like creatures and it was kind of hard to tell stories. So we sort of brought them down a few pegs to characters in which they were powerful, but not, you know, omnipotent or anything.

That part of Dominaria is sort of a post-apocalyptic Dominaria. We see a lot of bad things have happened, and you see Dominaria in the worst it's ever been at. And it's in a pretty sorry state. We do jump around lots of parts of Dominaria. Part of us revisiting the past,

which is what the set has a nostalgia theme, is we're all over Dominaria. And we're not even just in present day. The past, the future, things are bleeding through bleeding through there's temporal problems and things are popping in and out of existence so there's just things coming from all over the place all out through time okay after invasion we come to Lorwyn and not invasion sorry after Ravnica we come to Lorwyn after time spiral we come to Lorwyn so Lorwyn is a brand new plane Lorwyn slash Shadowmoor.

It's a plane that goes through a transformation called the Aurora. And it changes between Lorwyn, which is a more happy, sunny, more festive plane, and it becomes Shadowmoor, which is a dark, creepy plane. And all the things on the plane, as the world changes, the creatures change. And so it was something that was us playing around. I mean, we were playing around with having two small sets, or sorry, small blocks, mini blocks, one large, one small set. It's the first time we've ever done that. Anyway, and we were playing with duality of, here's a world that kind of changes, and there's two states of the world.

Okay, after Lorwyn, we go to Shards of Alara, which goes to the plane of Alara. So Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn. All two flicks on Alara. Alara is a world that, due to circumstances, has broken apart into five shards.

And each shard only has three colors of magic. It has a color and its two allies. So you get to see what the world would be like without a color not having its enemies around. And so we end up making... I think I just dropped my head. Bant is the white-centered one. Esper is the blue-centered one.

Grixis is the black-centered one. Jund is the red-centered one. And Naya is the green-centered one. And then the story is how something's changing and for the first time the shards are starting to come back together. And what all that means for the world. Okay.

After Shards of Alara, we go to Zendikar. So Zendikar is a brand new world. It's an adventure world. And it's a world in which planeswalkers are drawn there because there's a lot of valuable treasure and the man is really good. But it's a wild world. We don't quite know why, but it's a world that kind of has a mind of its own. And it's very much, we say adventure

world, it has a sort of person versus environment sort of feel to it in that you're constantly kind of fighting the land. But there's adventure to be held around the corner, and there's treasures and all sorts of stuff. And so that was Zendikar. So Zendikar and Worldwake were kind of Zendikar adventure worlds. And then Rise of the Odrazi, you learn that there are these creatures,

these ancient creatures called the Odrazi, that have been trapped inside Zendikar. And due to various things, they get out. And Rise of the Odrazi is still set on Zendikar, but now the Odrazi are out and they're wreaking havoc because they kind of consume planes and such. And so they're just wreaking havoc. Okay, after Zendikar is Scars of Mirrodin.

So Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged, and New Phyrexia take place on the planet Mirrodin. And we learn that due to something Karn did, the Phyrexians have gotten a hold on the plane of Mirrodin. And little by little they're corrupting it. There's a giant war between the Mirrodins and the Phyrexians in battle in Mirrodin and Besiege. And then

Mirrodin becomes new Phyrexia. The Phyrexians win. And while the plane gets a new name because the Phyrexians have won and they have corrupted the plane. Okay, so after Scars of Mirrodin with Innistrad. So Innistrad introduces the plane of Innistrad. So Innistrad and Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored all take place on Innistrad.

It's a dark, gothic horror world where the monsters are running rampant and the humans are on the brink of extinction. And then in the third set, Avacyn Restored, through the act of Liliana and Thalia and a bunch of different people, the angel Avacyn who had disappeared and comes back, and with it, a brand new day, and she drives away some of the monsters, and the humans are saved

and not on the Brinkham section anymore. But anyway, that was Innistrad. So Innistrad is then followed by Return to Ravnica. So Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash and Dragon's Maze were back on Ravnica. This Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and Dragon's Maze. We're back on Ravnica. This is us visiting the city world again. Nothing major really happens this time.

I mean, there is a thing called... What's the name of it? The Implicit Maze, I think. There's a contest to see who becomes the living guild pack, which kind of is the person who oversees the guild pack and oversees Ravnica. Jace ends up becoming the

living guild pack through various means. Okay, so then after Return to Ravnica is Theros. So Theros, Born of the Gods, and Journey to Nyx all take place on the world of Theros. So Theros is a Greek mythology world.

It is a world of minotaurs and gorgons and hydras and gods. It's a world where the gods have actual presence, and they take realm in the world. And the story talks all about Elspeth who visits, and she is instructed uh, instructed by Heliod to go on a quest, and she ends up having to kill Xenagos, who was a satyr, then became a god, he's a planeswalker, then became a god. Uh, and then, uh, I don't know, spoilers here, but it's been a while, uh, Elspeth gets killed

by Heliod, um, and relegated to the underworld. I guess, luckily for Elisabeth, there's an underworld because it's Greek mythology world, so she gets relegated to the underworld. Okay. Theros is followed by Khans of Tarkir. So Khans of Tarkir takes place

on the world of Khan. I'm not saying Khans. Of Tarkir. Of Tarkir. It's the world where Sarkhan is from. Oh, I didn't really mention on the previous worlds. Every world that we visit, there are different planeswalkers that are from that world. So, for example, we've learned that Liliana and Nicol Bolas are from Dominaria. And then Teferi's from Dominaria.

And Giant Bower's from Dominaria. We learned that Tamiya we know is from Kamigawa. I guess Slowbad technically is a Planeswalker from Mirrodin. We learn that Sorin is from Innistrad. We learn that Kiora and Nissa are from Zendikar. We learn that Gideon is from Pharos. Anyway, a lot of different worlds. Anyway, we're in Tarkir.

Tarkir is the home of Sarkhan. We thought it was the home world of Ugin. Turns out that's not his home world. We'll later learn. Sarkhan. We thought it was the home world of Ugin. Turns out that's not his home world. We'll later learn. But anyway, it's a world in which there are warlords and at the time we visit

it used to be a world of dragons but the dragons have been killed off and then Sarkhan goes back in time to save the dragons and Tarkir reverts to an alternate timeline where the dragons were never killed and now the dragons are the warlords. That's Tarkir. So Khan of Tarkir

is followed by Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. That's us returning to Zendikar. Last time we were there the Eldrazi had gotten out so now we watch the fight

against the Eldrazi. In the end the Gatewatch is formed and they help drive out at least two of the three Eldrazi, the third one is not there Emrakul, where is he? So then we have Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon that's us going back to Innistrad

we learn that Nahiri, oh Nahiri is also from Zendikar Nahiri who got trapped in the Hell Vault by Sorin is really mad at Sorin and ends up luring Emrakul away from Zendikar to Innistrad, uh, that causes all sorts of madness to happen, and, um, we see Innistrad going through a whole new type of, of horror, um, on, on Innistrad. Okay, Innistrad is followed by Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, uh, that takes place in the

home of Kaladesh, that is the home world of Chandra. It is an adventure world. Not adventure world, sorry. It's an inventor world. It's a world built around this energy source ether and because of that it's a world, it has

kind of an Indian influence but it is kind of a bright steampunk sort of feel. But anyway, it's a world filled with inventors, but the government that runs it is, you know, not the greatest, and Chandra returns home, discovers her mom's still alive,

and, oh, also from, Dovin Ban is also from Kaladesh, as an addition to Chandra. Then we go to Amonkhet. Amonkhet is an Egypt-inspired plane. It has been remade by Nicol Bolas. And on it, he is a god. And there are other gods that are subservient to him, apparently. And anyway, the Gatewatch visit trying to stop Nicol Bolas.

That doesn't go particularly well. But we meet this plane, and the plane ends with the city, great catastrophe coming to the city, and the city seemingly destroyed. So, if we go back to Amaket, we'll have to find out what's going on there. But Amaket was our Egypt-inspired desert world.

But it was much like playing into the Fertile Crescent. It's kind of like living Egypt. Okay, Amonkhet is followed by Ixalan. So Ixalan is a world with a Mesoamerican flavor. There's a world of conquistador vampires and pirates and soldiers riding dinosaurs

and these merfolk magic users. And anyway, it has a little bit of a sort of an El Dorado type feel that is definitely sort of playing into some Mesoamerican tropes and has a lot of a little bit of a lost world feel to it. Okay, then Amiket is followed by, or not, I'm sorry, Ixalan is followed by Dominaria. So we're back on Dominaria. Ixalan and Rivals Ixalan were on Ixalan.

Then we get to Dominaria. Ah, we've returned to Dominaria. So Dominaria, we hadn't been there since Time Spiral. Luckily, in the 13 years, whatever years since last we've been there, there's been healing going on. Dominaria is having a rebirth, and things are finally looking good to the world that seems to be in constant turmoil.

There is... Bells and Lock is an evil demon that's trying to do horrible things, but the Gatewatch plus a bunch of adventurers from Dominaria and the new Weatherlight managed to stop Belzen Lock. Which brings us to the Guilds of Ravnica, which comes out this fall. So we're returning to Ravnica for the third time. And I don't want to get too into it,

but it plays a lot into our story and a lot of stuff is going to happen. You'll have to hold off on that. But anyway, that is all the different planes we've... Oh, a few planes we have visited, but not specifically in

a set that I mentioned. Conspiracy and Conspiracy 2 take the crown. Both went to Fiora, which is kind of a Renaissance Italy-inspired plane. It first showed up in the comic books. We met with Dak Faden and had gone there. We used that for Conspiracy.

We in Magic Origins, which was sort of a core set where we showed the origin story of the Planeswalkers. We met Vryn, which was the home world of Jace. We went to Ragatha, which is kind of a volcanic world,

which is the first place that Chandra sparked to and where Jaya had ended up. We met Kaladesh for the first time, and later, obviously, we'd make the Kaladesh set. And I think mostly of the worlds we'd already seen. Origins also goes to Dominaria, goes to Lorwyn, goes to Innistrad, goes to Ravnica, goes to Theros, goes to Zendikar. Anyway, it's definitely jumping around. Dominaria's there. Other planes.

There's a plane called Shandalar that has shown up in a bunch of core sets. Shandalar was originally in the original Microprose game. We also made a product called Planeshift. In fact, we made two products called Planeshift. That you basically visited different planes and had your duel. You jumped around different planes having your magical duel. And there's a bunch of other planes that we met kind of in passing. Like Segovia is a plane where everything's tiny.

There's a bunch of planes that that plane showed off. There's also Bablovia, which is the plane of Unstable, where Mad Inventor World where all sorts of crazy things are going on I think that is it I think that's most of the planes that we have visited I might forget one or two that we've like peeked our head in for a second

but anyway I hope you guys enjoyed that a little sort of, so just a little bit of knowledge of hey where exactly did all the sets take place on what plane were they all on I hope you guys enjoyed that. A little history for you today. I'm sure I missed one or two things,

so I apologize for that, but I did the best I can. I did this all from memory today, so hopefully I wasn't too far off. Anyway, I'm now at work, so we all know what that means. This is the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic,

it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys all next time. Bye-bye.