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You've got an outdated Brewhaus link in the OP. Should go to the RTR/THS season thread.
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Feb 7, 2014 09:48
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 Normally I'm a flavour guy but this made itself my pet anyway.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:32
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Korak posted:BBD first person that gets to ultimate Kiora on camera. Sorry, where's this?
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Feb 8, 2014 20:30
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Kiora may be the real deal. Kiora +1 followed with Jace +1 is deceptively powerful, even if your opponent tries to go after your planeswalkers you're putting up big pseudo-fogs that allow you to keep yourself in the game.
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BizarroAzrael posted:SCG Open in Nashville, don't know when the replay goes up - http://www.twitch.tv/scglive They appear pretty quickly. Just caught up and that was loving hilarious. Parson's Lifebane sees Sphinx's Rev, BBD ults Kiora, drops Archangel of Thune and the camera catches him in full 
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Feb 8, 2014 23:33
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Froghammer posted:Punisher chat from a few pages back got me wondering: have any punisher cards ever seen non-trivial constructed play? Depends on your definition. Some of the more powerful spells in Magic have had your opponent make some choices about how the spell works. It's just that FoF or Intuition or whatever let you shape that choice way more than 'pure' punishers. Going through "opponent chooses" and "any player may" searches on Gatherer doesn't find me any of those full on punisher spells which I recognise as having been played nontrivially.
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Feb 9, 2014 17:02
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Extended isn't largely dead. It is dead. They retired it when M14 came out or maybe THS.
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Feb 12, 2014 19:11
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There are a billion myths of it, choose whichever you want. Homer and Hesiod are probably the 'best' sources because they had some extra time on their side and widely accepted by the Greeks as having some religious authority. Both of them show Zeus off as by far the most powerful god.
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Feb 13, 2014 06:26
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"Hades is harsh and unyielding, so he is the most hated by mortals of all the gods." Iliad 9. Hades submits his claim to being dick #1. How do I put this? The stories absorbed by casually interested modern people about the Greek pantheon and the interpretations put on them and the judgements made of them do not reflect the actual mythology of Greece. At absolute best it involved reading in translation with half decent notes. Far more likely it involved thirdhand transmission if they were lucky, editing and translating severely shaped by the writer's own point of view, abridgements, lumping together different versions of stories from different sources, omitting yet more versions, and a hugely doubtful provision of depth, width and context. gently caress, I used to laugh at people on my course when I caught them trying to deal with the usual perception of Greek religion and gods. Now I'm doing it myself.
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Feb 13, 2014 07:32
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Remember that Conspiracy is a Limited product not a Constructed one. Less of your answer me or die happening. I really don't think it matters though. If Conspiracy was meant to be like a normal set and be played in both formats, Force is still clearly a rare by modern standards. If the set really needed a good counterspell at uncommon then they'd create/use a good counterspell at uncommon. It wouldn't be Force.
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Feb 13, 2014 16:50
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Bugsy posted:It does, but having the FS frame made things a lot easier. FS frame + MM art would be great. Did the best I could but the FS frame seems to be perfectly designed to cut off all the interesting parts of the MMA art, now matter how I gently caress around with it. Plus MSE's export does truly horrid things to image quality.  
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Feb 14, 2014 02:35
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AnacondaHL posted:Tournament rules were changed last year(IIRC?) to allow either player to look up Oracle text on their phone, and to let the opponent see what they are looking up. I was wondering if taking pictures came under note taking but the 2.11 section only refers to written notes so that seems to be out. My cunning plan to draw an opponent's card art instead of writing down the names is apparently a failure too then. 
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Feb 14, 2014 19:41
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I really like Hagon as a presenter for all their nonmatch stuff and he works really well with BDM. I'm neutral towards him actually commentating on matches: he does his part as the guy drawing out the others into proper explanations but I don't think he brings much to the table other than being basically capable at that role. Some energy that his co commentators sometimes lack, I guess. Sheldon is the one who just needs to stop. People debate over Hagon or Sutcliffe or other presenters but it's drat hard to make a case for Menery. He's inarticulate and has the charisma of a dead cow.
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Feb 15, 2014 16:45
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mcmagic posted:Next match against MonoB I draw a NUT hand but accidently draw 8 cards (brainfart 2) Have go to 6 and have no land. My 5 card hand: Island Master Thassa Thassa Thassa. I lose.
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Feb 16, 2014 04:46
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Boxman posted:Fluff question about Nissa, since I wasn't around for RoE. Is she just supposed to be really stupid? The MTGsalvation wiki says that instead of reinforcing the hedrons, and broke them and released the Eldrazi because she thought they would run away for some reason. Was that better explained ever? Because a one sentence description makes it sound like maybe the dumbest thing any hero in MTG history has done. Anyway, it's pretty loving dumb but it has a bit of an explanation. She and other characters in the book work out that the Eldrazi weren't native to Zendikar and just ended up imprisoned here. The assumption that the Eldrazi don't have any reason to stay isn't especially sound from there but there's a little sense to it. Anowon, the vampire archaeologist who's along for the ride also asserts that they'll bugger off (in what seems to be just wishful thinking but Nissa doesn't know that.) Nissa's seen far more of the broods trying to free the other Eldrazi than of the proper plane devouring so she doesn't really seem to get how uncaring or voracious they are. Sorin tells her eventually but I think it doesn't have a proper emotional impact and she's locked into her decision by then. There's also the assumption that the wildness of Zendikar's mana and terrain is caused by the Eldrazi's imprisonment. Sorin admits that it's a bit of a factor but says it's not too much. Nissa and Anowon ignore that and just assume their plane will be better if they're freed. There's some FOR ZENDIKAR  when Nissa smashes the titan imprisoning hedron. Needless to say, the vastly older, wiser and more powerful creator of the Eldrazi prison is right and Zendikar's Roil is still quite intact when the titans go free.They also have a crazy kor who thinks she can speak to the Eldrazi and help convince them on their way. Believing her shouldn't be a factor because a) she's batshit, b) she's thinks she can do this and that the Eldrazi can be freed because she's been influenced by a remnant of the Eldrazi who are not a loving unbiased source, c) Sorin toasts her for being a nutjob slave of the Eldrazi before Nissa gets around to smashing the prison seal. I sort of think Nissa as portrayed in the book hasn't actually got around to considering any/all of these factors as she goes to free the Eldrazi. A bit of blind trust, wishful thinking and momentum where her worldview hasn't quite yet adapted to the fact that Sorin smoked crazy lady a few seconds ago. I guess it's sort of that Nissa's shortsighted, tends to take a lot on faith and doesn't adapt well to change more than an attempt to portray someone with an IQ of 20. Though she still comes off as really goddamn thick.
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Feb 17, 2014 19:50
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Stinky Pit posted:some new set based on norweigan folk music
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Feb 18, 2014 04:39
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We know about the new frame I guess.
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Feb 19, 2014 03:24
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Bugsy posted:I thought he gave up his spark during/right after timespiral which wasn't thousands of years ago in the mtg timeline. gently caress knows. Jace is apparently thousands of years old and I'm pretty sure he's never been anything other than a babywalker. On the other hand, characters from the original Ravnica trilogy, which was preMending, are still alive in RTR. (Yo Borb, Teysa.)
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Feb 19, 2014 19:53
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The Wonder Weapon posted:Mirage had possibly the best world-building of any block in Magic. Definitely of any older set. There was an large poem written for it.
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Feb 20, 2014 07:33
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Boxman posted:EDIT: Also that Top is hilarious. The original art is just this boring old top sitting on a table and the alter is like FIRE LIGHTNING WHIZ BAAAAAANG It's because of Counterbalance.
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Feb 25, 2014 02:12
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These are seriously the first reprintings of Future Sight and Consume Strength? I could have sworn they'd already reappeared.
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Feb 25, 2014 23:48
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A big flaming stink posted:I also like the Kiora's follower since it looks like someone actually drew it rather than being a low effort photoshop CGI render Deschamps' art is sweet: take that back. Look at that detail on the tridents and his skin, and the use of colour. 
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Mar 3, 2014 02:09
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Dungeon Ecology posted:Flickering your permanent is just taking it for a quick dip in the aether, washing off all that battlefield clutter. Note to self: counterfeiting no longer most profitable option to raise money from Magic. Card collection can be turned foil and near mint by judicious use of Flicker.
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Mar 5, 2014 07:05
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BaronVonVaderham posted:I go with NIK-thos. I say that it wouldn't be appropriate because the Beyer et al. have given a go at Hellenicising stuff but clearly weren't ready to send someone through a proper high level course or anything for obvious reasons. Instead they've flipped through an English to Greek dictionary and had someone read a few translations of myths. They're not owning the variance from the real world as clearly as they have done in other sets where history or myth has inspired them, which is perhaps to their discredit when they are approaching it in quite so amateur a way, but it's very very obviously there and therefore I can give them a little leeway on matters of pronunciation going differently. Though naming Anax as they did is still loving dumb. Meanwhile, the Wizards site says they've settled on Poh-LOO-krahn-ohs as their Polukranos standard. Alaan posted:I have never seen either jitte or pithing outside of magic, and I read a lot of random rear end stuff. I read a lot of random rear end stuff and I've seen them both.  Yay, anecdotes.
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Mar 8, 2014 22:42
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bhsman posted:I feel even more confused. Condensing that mess of run on sentences: Wizards are bad at Greek. This is sort of OK because they're not quite writing Greek. On account of them somewhat understanding that they're bad at it. They should still be clearer about them not quite writing Greek, because they are really bad at it and not owning up encourages people to try to apply rules which they don't want applying. If you'd like to pronounce the 'Nyk' of Nykthos roughly Ancient Greekly, the y is a bit further back in the throat than you'd naturally pronounce 'Nyk' in English. (Explaining the 'thos' part would make this post long and confusing again so I won't.) The Wizards pronunciation for Polukranos is the one that upsets BaronVonVaderham.
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Mar 8, 2014 23:33
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As one of the dumb fuckers who's bothered to read some of the Magic books while an adult, eh. Agents of Artifice, the first of the 'really godawful planeswalker' novels wasn't a masterpiece even of genre literature but was genuinely readable and entertaining. The worst issue was probably the author trying to be feminist and tapping into what men thought feminist sympathisers should be like thirty years ago. The book makes me sympathetic to that thing Beyer said about people who hate Jace not having the fuller picture. Marketing pushed him too hard and that got people sick of him but there's a character with some potential under it when you go looking. Even the Secretist trilogy had its ups. Everyone knows about Jace becoming the Guildpact, but there also this hilarious old viashino who pops up just to give Jace poo poo a couple of times. They're pushing him because it's good for their brand and all the snotnosed nerds like the guy who can control things with his MIND, but they're not throwing everything aside to make him a god who can't do anything wrong.
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Mar 12, 2014 17:10
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The Lord of Hats posted:Fable of Wolf and Owl Kabanaw posted:Theros was never an enchantment block, it's a greek mythology block. They're using enchantments to portray the gods, which means enchantments are a stronger focus of the block but the design was never about enchantments matter. Yeah, this was noted several times over in the build up to Theros but it's faded from the collective Magic consciousness.
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Mar 14, 2014 09:56
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NofrikinfuN posted:The best part of this is that the most effective devotion creatures are the ones that were created with the exact opposite design philosophy. Where devotion is about sticking to a color, hybrid mana is about making two colors interchangeable. Hybrid = monocolour time isn't new/weird/an unknown factor for Wizards or Magic play generally. It was a notable trait of Shadowmoor/Eventide draft for example.
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Mar 14, 2014 19:52
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ungulateman posted:Nearly died to a Madcap Skills + Enlarged Regathan Firecat but I squeezed out on 1 life and beat her to death the next turn. Does it not count as stabilising if you kill them next turn for some reason?
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Mar 15, 2014 12:27
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L0cke17 posted:The problem with modern is that its boring. You don't get to play with any of the fun powerful cards, and it is entirely too fair. In Legacy everything is unfair to some extent which leads to much more interaction and entertainment value per game than modern has. In modern you often don't even have to interact with your opponent until turn three to win. In Legacy if your deck doesn't interact meaningfully on turn one or two, you likely have lost or are losing the game already. Or: The good thing about Modern is that it's controlled. You don't have to deal with the ridiculously broken cards which were often either mistakes or a remnant of old and badly considered design practice. It's fair so you get more interaction and entertainment value per game than Legacy has. In Legacy you have to interact on turn one or two or else you've likely lost or are losing the game already: in Modern you don't have to be so fast, which lets people play other types of decks. The mana in Modern sits about right, where competitive decks can range from one to four colours. You won't get locked out of too many archetypes that seem fun just because of the rather unsatisfying/mechanical reason that the mana's too bad. Nevertheless, pain/slowness/unreliability mostly keep the higher number of colours in check so that competitive modern archetypes range from one to four colours. The gameplay balance is actually fine enough that the meta is allowed to have an impact: tools like Blood Moon will rear their heads (as they are currently) in decks if bases are too greedy. Also Wizards carefully considers combo decks and likes to keep a particular eye on ones that just want to combo, for the sane reason that most people who haven't been inured to it hate watching an opponent playing Solitaire with themselves and don't want to warp their decks/the meta just to keep a check on that. I want Magic to work with a balance of spells and creatures, in accordance with the fact that the game is built around both. This also adds a cool, distinctive Magic stamp to the game, with very few other depictions of wizards being as focused on the support they bring to battle. (This is about 20% advocacy for the devil based on your first post, 80% what I really believe.)
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Mar 20, 2014 18:25
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 Must be a troll. Must be must be must be. Please.
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Mar 21, 2014 19:37
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Entropic posted:There are some minor differences in how priority and stuff works in DotP, right? But yeah, there's no reason they couldn't take that engine and interface and slap it on top of the existing MTGO backend and have a product a million times better than either of the current clients.
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Mar 26, 2014 15:53
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If you click a checkbox, DotP is DotP without the animations. 
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Mar 26, 2014 16:18
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TheKingofSprings posted:Couldn't it just run 4 Dragons Claw sideboard (I am dead serious) and shore up the poo poo out of that matchup? Serperoth posted:I've heard of Dragon's Claw being sideboard deck in mono-red aggro for the mirror, but that was a while ago. I can see it happening to be honest, lots of red gets cast, and repeated lifegain does mitigate that sort of aggro. Meanwhile 8 copies of Staff of the Death Magus in the Top 8 of GP Beijing yesterday, including 4 in Watanabe's winning deck. Hell of a metagame call. The text coverage makes me wish this had been properly broadcast. Watanabe keeps a one land, triple Thoughtseize hand. Watanabe plays three Staff of the Death Magus in a single game against burn. Next game of the match, Watanabe plays Staff of the Death Magus turns 3, 4 and 5. Shimizu Domesticates his own Tidebinder to get Thassa devotion.
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Mar 30, 2014 18:19
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Chorocojo posted:It is. Bolas harvested the mana that was coalescing in the center of the shards reconverging. His end game was just recharging his batteries, basically. It worked. Last we saw Alara it was in an all-out global war as Grixis's undead hordes run rampant. You can't tell much about the war's end or if it did at all. The prime movers and power centres, ie the planeswalkers, on each side disappeared. Naya looks like it's getting back together right at the finish, and Bant still has Rafiq and enough breathing space to make a fuss of him. Grixis' big nonplaneswalker general is dead too. So it's basically inconclusive.
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Mar 31, 2014 17:59
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Chorocojo posted:I expect tengu and other youkai and the stories about them. I expect things like the Dragon Palace and Kintaro and Susano-o. Kamigawa did not have this. Instead it had lawful kitsune samurai, snake people with six limbs and extinct Kappa. Eh on the specifics like Susano-o but I see your point about some more generic stuff. Unfortunately, the general tengu tricker temperament meant they were competing with a goblin variant in the red creature spot. There was some inspiration from tengu masks for the eventual visual design of the akki, but the prevalence of crow forms among tengu depictions meant they lost out. A red tribe who ought to have consistent flying, and would therefore demand it several times in the low rarities, wasn't going to pass. White kitsune got in based on the fox servants of Inari. Between serving someone and Inari's association with rice fields, the foxfolk shrank from their initial places in several colours to taking up a more prominent place just in white.
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Apr 1, 2014 00:42
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Notes From A Magic e-book Part 1: Prologue The prose has no flow to it. Overlong sentences welded together by commas and repetitious conjunctions, but the joins are so constant that everything is also abrupt and shortened. It's something of an achievement to make your writing both stutter and ramble simultaneously. Daxos is a natural oracle as a kid, which means he understands and sees the languages and world of the gods. When he's very young, he can't sort it all out and his senses get overwhelmed. Somehow this also makes him frail and the size of a four year old when he's seven? Very different from the muscled and competent adult soldier on the card, which I guess will happen later. This also extends to vaguely defined poo poo like 'because he perceived the world in a multitude of complexity, he saw her grief like a prism'. What the crap does seeing grief like a prism mean? He escapes an attempt at possession by Erebos and Athreos and happens on Elspeth as she arrives on Theros. Meanwhile, the gods are already locked in unusual and brutal battle in the sky, and Purphoros has divested himself of his hammer to use a sword for some reason. He knocks away Heliod's spear too - something where all the gods are going to lose their weapons? Fetch quest for later? The fight dislodges Polukranos from the heavens and drops him to earth. Heliod calls on Kruphix, named as the eldest of the gods, to help him. He does, but warns that if any god again upsets the balance of Nyx in this way again, he will declare a Silence that binds them all to Nyx. Which is what we've been hearing leak out in mothership flavour articles about the problems happening during BNG. Elspeth steals Purphoros' sword, which fell to earth when he was defeated. Scared by Heliod's appearance, she 'walks away while Daxos dedicates himself to the King of the Gods. This runs contra the flavour on Swordwise Centaur. Does she return later then, while still young? Sleep of Bronze fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Apr 2, 2014 |
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Apr 2, 2014 07:34
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Jenx posted:Please continue to do these, this is a great way to get familiar with the lovely Magic books without having to read lovely Magic books! Sure, I might as well save people the time and a bob or two. It makes me think a bit more deeply about the book while I'm reading it and organises those thoughts more as well. Notes From A Magic e-book Part 2: Chapter One This is up for free on the mothership, so go check that out if you want. Ten years later ... Xenagos is an arrogant poo poo. Like, gently caress this antihero revolutionary thing from speculation, what an absolute tit. He’d always known there was something special about him, but his burden was truly unique. There must be some grand design because most mortals couldn’t have handled seeing the infinite planes— they would have gone mad with the knowledge. Only a mind like his could truly profit from the experience. But still, he had never asked for this ability. It was thrust on him in a moment of great weakness. And now he shouldered the responsibility of leading these bleating sheep . For he alone among mortals— and gods— knew what was best for them, what was best for this tiny speck of existence known as Theros. He uses mind control to make the satyrs laugh at his bad jokes. Not even because he finds it funny to screw them, just because they don't really think his mockery of the gods is that hilarious (it isn't.) How is this guy R/G again? Xenagos behaves in a vaguely predatory way towards a young human visitor. When he gets tired of the formal recital, he has the satyrs stone him to death while holding the poor guy under an ecstasy spell. Wonderful person. Xenagos does learn from him that Polukranos might have slipped free from the emergency bindings Heliod and Nylea put on it ten years ago. Xenagos is holding an oracle of Kruphix captive. Keranos breaches the magic dome Xenagos had put up to keep out the gods' eyes. Kruphix confirms through his oracle that Polukranos is free and that the sword of Purphoros is linked to the World Eater's destiny. Mention of a lost city - perhaps the giant polis Polukranos had destroyed before it was taken up into Nyx? - being important too. Kind of revealing for the god of secrets, but it's at least phrased semi cryptically. "He didn’t want to test his strength against a female" Because he's afraid after his divine encounter? Because he's "chivalrous" in the Reddit vein?
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Apr 2, 2014 08:16
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Notes from a Magic e-book Part 3: Chapter Two In which Elspeth has yet again decided to become an underappreciated fighter ignoring the other planes. This is at least the third time her story has hit this particular beat (a knight on Bant, gladiator in Urborg, mercenary on Theros) and there better be a new twist on it. Suspicious activity from both leonin and minotaurs outside Akros which the mercenary group Elspeth is part of has been hired to investigate/guard against. They come under attack from frenzied satyrs, chanting Xenagos' 'title' of King Stranger (Kruphix's oracle also called him this). Which I guess you could very loosely derive from its Greek parts but that combination really means a guide *of* strangers so eh. Elspeth is casting spells through Purphoros' sword and is fiercely protective of it, which I don't think was actually a thing in her previous appearances? Maybe the Mirrodin book but that was meant to be poo poo beyond even the normal Magic book standard so I haven't read it. Basically just extra emphasis on the themes of now without much regard for what went before. Whatever, sure, no need to sperg out over continuity. Elspeth and her mercenary companion Xiro fight off the satyr attack, using the fact that they're blood maddened and will even cannibalise each other to their advantage. The satyrs are also distracted by smashing up emblems of the gods. The chapter finishes with them both bewildered by the sudden ferocity of the hippy satyrs and wondering what happened to the rest of their troop who were out on patrol.
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Apr 2, 2014 09:15
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AlternateNu posted:Wait. So, the oracle and deity shown in the BNG print of Divination is Kruphix talking to Prophet of Kruphix? I always though it was Keranos speaking with Stormcaller of Keranos through Epiphany Storm. Divination has very specific art in this block. The woman is Cymede of Anax and Cymede, and she is indeed getting visions from Keranos. Location: A temple dedicated to Keranos. Action: Show Cymede, the queen of Akros. She is a devotee of the god Keranos. Show her in an open air temple and has cast a spell of prophecy. Cymede is looking into the night sky and in the sky is a scene of Mogis about to destroy a tiny city. All the gods have oracles to convey the god language to their mortal followers - in fact, Xenagos gets pissed off that he's killed all his other captive oracles who served different gods because it means he has to talk to Kruphix's. Notes From A Magic e-book Part 4: Chapter 3 We get our first close up look at the gods here. Heliod tries to summon up Thassa from the sea and chases off an eavesdropping Keranos. The gods are continually shifting forms and causing massive waves, storms and shudders carelessly. It could be more powerful and more vivid but it's probably the best part of the books so far. Heliod is schizophrenic as gently caress, which is particularly odd for the White ruler god. He likes Thassa, but then he insults her; he flatters her to make her sympathetic and then is abrupt, direct and angry. The narrative shows that he's afraid and furious so the reader can attribute most of his moodiness to that, but Thassa who can only hear his words should be staring at him like he's a nutter. The conversation turns up the impossibility of passing from Nyx to the fundament or back unless you're a god. HEY GUYS WE HAVE A SET CALLED JOURNEY INTO NYX OK. Purphoros' sword was an exception, possibly because it has some association with 'chaos' (this could be the Greek meaning of primordium and void or the more usual havoc and disorder meaning, it's not made clear.) The reminder of this sets Heliod's paranoia going. It's more than that, though. Fragments of the night sky are falling, which I suppose leads to the Nyxborn/Born of the Gods. Kruphix sent a dove messenger to Heliod to tell him about his worries. Heliod is even dreaming, which he shouldn't be able to do, and the dreams are of void which limits his reach. Thassa taunts Heliod until he gets fed up. He kidnaps her and drags her off toward the entrance to the underworld, where Daxos was during the attempt at possession. Giant pieces of Nyx really have fallen to earth there, and there's only void where they once were. Thassa makes some vague intimations about Polukranos stirring and how the waves will drown everything for her. Heliod is angry and in denial about the hydra, but also sad at how opposed Thassa has become to him and the fact that she won't see how hosed the world is getting. She attacks him and actually manages to hurt him outside Nyx - another supposed impossibility. He hits back with his spear while she's shifting forms and absolutely wrecks her. He leaves her bleeding on the earth among the Nyx fragments. Sleep of Bronze fucked around with this message at 13:25 on Apr 2, 2014 |
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Apr 2, 2014 13:20
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Notes From A Magic e-book Part 5: Chapter Four Elspeth angsts in front of a mirror and reminisces about Ajani. Mentions her time in Urborg and calls out Elesh Norn's minions specifically when thinking about New Phyrexia. Wizards do seem to be pushing the idea that White won the NPH war. It may have taken a bloody battle, but Elspeth is now going to do something about the planes she ends up on always going to poo poo. She decides she'll try to seek out the dark side of Theros and prepare for it. She hopes the gods can keep it pure but will still move on her own initiative. I like this this: Elspeth's character has always been steadfastly reactive and you'd hope she'd get a clue after a while that her planes aren't just going to be cheerfulness and light just because she wants them to. Akros' approach to its metics is interesting for a Greekish city. It confines them to their own quarter and takes a punitive toll for going in and out. Mercenary work pays well enough though, so Elspeth goes off into the city proper. Later we'll discover that Anax is getting even more restrictive on foreign citizens' rights. Sparta, the analogous state from our time, got it over with and just banned metics. Foreigners weren't allowed to permanently or semipermanently live in the city. Xiro gives Elspeth directions for her investigation and she ends up in a secret den full of stoned dudes. King Stranger, Xenagos' tag, is scrawled across the walls alongside 'lewd pictures in graphic detail'. Elspeth has left her sword behind, which seems out of character both because she's been so careful about it in the book so far and because it seems really unprepared. Turns out this place is the Temple of Deception, Phenax's shrine. Or the Temple proper is further in and the Xenagos worshippers were in a kind of antechamber? The gods already don't like Xenagos much, why Phenax would let this happen in his Temple I don't know. Deception though, so maybe there is a purpose. She meets the temple's priest. Apparently Xiro was cast out by noble, victorious Iroas and has some links to Phenax now. He still overtly worships Iroas and named the mercenaries after him, so whether that's a relic of his past or something that's ongoing isn't clear. There's lots of circumlocution and not getting to the topic - again, appropriate for Phenax - but it's pretty clear that the Priest is an assassin who does dirty work for worshippers that want people dead. Elspeth has come here for the unvarnished truth about the gods, not tainted by visions of glory. Though really, the god of deception's temple is where you've gone to find the truth? Priest is called Sarpedon. This is the name of one of the more noble heroes of the Iliad and not exactly fitting for an assassin. He reveals that he's an oracle and talks a bit about what that means. Oracles give the gods a smaller view in the world than they natively get - which seems pointless, except that it allows the gods to notice human details they otherwise would dismiss. A god can't kill another god's oracle, but an oracle can do whatever they like. Sarpedon thinks it's still a poo poo life despite the honour because 'being an oracle means devastation. An oracle is consumed by the god who chose him.' Elspeth wants to know how to gain the gods' favour. Sarpedon tells her to request an ordeal (oh unsubtle game references.) He gets seriously close in her face, hand on her hip, and uses magic to probe her mind. She permits him, but lets him know that she knows. He discovers the knowledge of other planes in her head and basically cacks himself. Beings higher than the gods? Uh, poo poo, that's crazy and one hell of a theological problem. Through him, Phenax now knows of planeswalkers and that Elspeth is one. But Sarpedon is seriously into worshipping her and despite the knowledge that his god will punish him, tells her to seek out Heliod to achieve what she wants. Phenax briefly meets Thassa and is pissed off at her deception, because she supposedly told the other gods that the sea had taken Purphoros' sword and Elspeth proves that handily wrong. Thassa blows him off and prepares for a war between the gods that she has dreaded. We're now at about the halfway mark.
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Apr 2, 2014 14:41
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