Myth taken
March 30th 2008 06:15
Wizards of the Coast releases new art from Shadowmoor every day (the cards themselves hit the shelves at the end of April), and every day the set keeps looking better. Take a look at this little guy. Isn't he cute?
Well, I would hope not, seeing as he's a redcap. Redcaps are a particularly cruel breed of goblins said to lurk in abandoned castles on the border between England and Scotland, and who emerge in the night to abduct and murder travellers. You certainly wouldn't want to meet this little man on a dark night; unfortunately, the setting for Shadowmoor is a sort of alternate-reality Celtic Britain where the sun never quite rises. And since I'm not sure the Bible and its verses, which hold the power to banish redcaps back to the underworld, even exist in the Magic: the Gathering universe, you'd be hoping you have some cold iron handy.
Real-world folklore and mythology are no stranger to the Magic setting. In fact, the very first expansion set was named Arabian Nights, and took elements of its flavor and even its game function from Shahrazad and her one thousand and one stories. The cards include depictions of such timeless characters and places as the djinns, Sinbad, Aladdin, and the City of Brass. A few short years later, the Ice Age set drew heavily on Norse mythology, with its snow-bound mountains, ice giants, fur-clad berserkers, underground spirits, and visions of the dark, cold end of all things.
For several years after that, Magic tried to avoided drawing obviously from cultural references, both mythological and modern. In hindsight, it seems futile; every idea is connected to every other idea by invisible lines that cannot be severed, even by a card designer who is consciously trying to. Tempest, for example, depicts the crew of the magical skyship Weatherlight, a machine whose conceptual ancestors sprang from the forward-looking imagination of Jules Verne. Their adventures take them to the hellish world of Rath, populated by several warring races with supernatural powers reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy.
Later, we bore witness to the Apocalypse, where the Weatherlight's home world was very nearly destroyed by a brutal interplanar war. The invaders were a race of mechanical horrors who bore more than a passing resemblance to the immortal outsiders of H.P. Lovecraft's genre-defining and genre-straddling works. It was followed by the Odyssey set, which provided a snapshot of life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that would have been familiar to fans of everything from Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz to Mel Gibson's Mad Max. In Ravnica, Wizards of the Coast finally tackled the sub-genre of urban fantasy that Megan Lindholm, Neil Gaiman, and China Mieville had previously opened in such a tantalizing manner.
Whether the fans and players realize it or not (and a dismayingly high number of them don't), our folklore and culture are part of Magic - and Magic is part of our folklore and culture. I'm glad that Wizards has decided to start using mythological references openly again, as it suggests they are attempting to increase the sophistication and intelligence of Magic as a brand. What does the future hold for Magic's crossover with Earth's cultural memories? Appropriately, a possible hint came in the recent set Future Sight, which purported to contain cards "timeshifted" from sets as yet unprinted (distinguished by their unique card frames, different from those used in all other sets).
Here's hoping Wizards of the Coast doesn't take too long to re-release the Courser, and all his friends from the Heroes of Olympus expansion (or whatever they end up calling it).
From southern Scotland to a booster pack near you
Well, I would hope not, seeing as he's a redcap. Redcaps are a particularly cruel breed of goblins said to lurk in abandoned castles on the border between England and Scotland, and who emerge in the night to abduct and murder travellers. You certainly wouldn't want to meet this little man on a dark night; unfortunately, the setting for Shadowmoor is a sort of alternate-reality Celtic Britain where the sun never quite rises. And since I'm not sure the Bible and its verses, which hold the power to banish redcaps back to the underworld, even exist in the Magic: the Gathering universe, you'd be hoping you have some cold iron handy.
Real-world folklore and mythology are no stranger to the Magic setting. In fact, the very first expansion set was named Arabian Nights, and took elements of its flavor and even its game function from Shahrazad and her one thousand and one stories. The cards include depictions of such timeless characters and places as the djinns, Sinbad, Aladdin, and the City of Brass. A few short years later, the Ice Age set drew heavily on Norse mythology, with its snow-bound mountains, ice giants, fur-clad berserkers, underground spirits, and visions of the dark, cold end of all things.
For several years after that, Magic tried to avoided drawing obviously from cultural references, both mythological and modern. In hindsight, it seems futile; every idea is connected to every other idea by invisible lines that cannot be severed, even by a card designer who is consciously trying to. Tempest, for example, depicts the crew of the magical skyship Weatherlight, a machine whose conceptual ancestors sprang from the forward-looking imagination of Jules Verne. Their adventures take them to the hellish world of Rath, populated by several warring races with supernatural powers reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy.
Later, we bore witness to the Apocalypse, where the Weatherlight's home world was very nearly destroyed by a brutal interplanar war. The invaders were a race of mechanical horrors who bore more than a passing resemblance to the immortal outsiders of H.P. Lovecraft's genre-defining and genre-straddling works. It was followed by the Odyssey set, which provided a snapshot of life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that would have been familiar to fans of everything from Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz to Mel Gibson's Mad Max. In Ravnica, Wizards of the Coast finally tackled the sub-genre of urban fantasy that Megan Lindholm, Neil Gaiman, and China Mieville had previously opened in such a tantalizing manner.
Whether the fans and players realize it or not (and a dismayingly high number of them don't), our folklore and culture are part of Magic - and Magic is part of our folklore and culture. I'm glad that Wizards has decided to start using mythological references openly again, as it suggests they are attempting to increase the sophistication and intelligence of Magic as a brand. What does the future hold for Magic's crossover with Earth's cultural memories? Appropriately, a possible hint came in the recent set Future Sight, which purported to contain cards "timeshifted" from sets as yet unprinted (distinguished by their unique card frames, different from those used in all other sets).
How many mythological references can you spot in this card?
Here's hoping Wizards of the Coast doesn't take too long to re-release the Courser, and all his friends from the Heroes of Olympus expansion (or whatever they end up calling it).
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