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Episode 273: Lorwyn is being Eclipsed and We're Here for It
0 Playsin 18 hours
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome back to another episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast!
We have a lot going on here, including a short message from Hobbes... followed by a short message from Alex... followed by an episode on the first chapter of the new Lorwyn Story!
We love Seanan and you should always check out her DVD Extras!
https://seananmcguire.com/blog/2025/12/08/out-of-this-wood-the-dvd-extras/
We also finally have a Linktree with all of our discounts/resources including how to join our Discord
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As promised, we keep Mental Health Links available every episode. But For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.
If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
- Veteran's can Press 1 at anytime to be taken to the Veteran's Line
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741-741
- International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
- IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
- TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText (LGBTQ+ crisis support): 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200
- Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860
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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Plans
00:00:28
Speaker
Hey everybody, Hobbs Q here for the Goblin Lore Podcast. I'm just jumping on real quick because we have a couple of things that are you're going to be hearing. So first all, we have a message from Alex talking about kind of where we're at for the rest of the year.
00:00:41
Speaker
um So that kind of he makes some references to last week's episode. We didn't have one last week. And so I just want to clarify that before his message. And then we are going to have an episode that covers the beginning of the Lorwyn story. So only the first, I believe, two chapters of it. And we're going to be having more soon, but it will not be after the new year. Just wanted to let everybody know.
00:01:01
Speaker
Hello, Podwalkers, and unfortunately, I can't welcome you to a new episode of the Goblin Lore podcast because this is a just a quick little of message just to to let y'all know we are going to take a break for the rest of the year.
00:01:14
Speaker
As I'm recording this, it is middle of December, so we are going to take a break for a couple of weeks. Our intention is come back and record the first full week of January. probably post an episode that week. We'll we'll see how that goes. Just it's things have been busy. We've been trying to to get some episodes out here and there is as every year kind of happens as we get toward the holidays, get toward the end of the year. There's a lot going on.
00:01:42
Speaker
So we warned that there may be some ah some interruption and that's kind of what's happening here. We were just decided rather than hustling and bustling and trying to squeeze things in, let's just...
Lorwyn Story Recap and Future Episodes
00:01:54
Speaker
Take some time.
00:01:55
Speaker
And and an end so that is our plan. I suppose I could introduce myself. No, there's no other folks here. I'm Alex. I'm not found on any social media, but I am in the Goblin Lord Discord, which is is free to everyone who wants to come join our little goblin community on Discord.
00:02:14
Speaker
um And my pronouns are he, him. And yeah, just want to let everybody know we're taking the we're taking the holidays off. i Hope everybody listened to this. Everyone out there is is enjoying whatever holidays that they celebrate this December, this year end.
Magic Stories Format and Support
00:02:31
Speaker
um And we'll hopefully we'll see everybody in the new year. i guess just a quick give some shout outs to Things that I think are cool that we talked about a little last week, you we have our, our Lorwyn, new Lorwyn set story started. Taya and I did an episode about that, the first episode of that.
00:02:52
Speaker
Last week, we we covered just the first story because that was all that was out when we were recording. But that was really fun to see. It was it was a lot of fun. Very glad to, you know, we have, I believe the Lorewind Eclipse story will be finishing the week I am recording this, though it is not all out.
00:03:11
Speaker
i so I suspect that is what we will be talking about when we come back. We have yeah six stories right now. I know the the main storyline was supposed to be seven chapters, seven episodes um written by Sean McGuire. And then an additional three, it sounded like side stories written by other authors. And so a nice good amount of story that's pretty normal for for these magic sets to get 10 stories, though I'm glad to see. Normally it's five and five, and I'm i'm glad.
Seasonal Reflections and Hobbies
00:03:39
Speaker
I wonder if this Lorewind storyline just required a little more so they're being a little flexible about the configuration there. You know, and we got a ton of story with Edge of Eternities recently. that was That was all a ton. I think that was another seven main stories, but we also got five five sides. Oh, no, it was more than that. It was 11 main stories. That's right. 11 main stories and an additional five sides. So we got 16 stories for that one, and some of them were quite long.
00:04:07
Speaker
So happy, happy to see that we've got a couple sets coming up next year too. So glad to always glad to have magic story. And if this is something you like, I'd say, so please support it. Obviously their website on the the wizard's website, there's a little story section if you want to read it. But they also have audio versions on YouTube and audio versions in podcast feeds. Both of those are embedded on the links on the pages on the wizard's website. But you can also go to there, the Wizards of the Coast Magic YouTube channel to find that one. Or there's some various podcast feeds. If you search like Magic Story, you should be able to find it.
00:04:48
Speaker
um And that's that's a cool thing. If it's something you'll like you like, you should support that. um Story like this, especially for a game like Magic, the story comes out of the marketing budget. they kind of Obviously, it's not a central piece of the game itself.
00:05:03
Speaker
And so as as a community like ours, that that is important. it's It's nice to see when we do, it does show up when they decide that it's important to support that and give that to the fans to help us engage with the game and and get more out of it, even when maybe we're not always able to sit and
Strixhaven Schools Discussion
00:05:20
Speaker
play. Sometimes we want to talk about the story or read about these characters can be a lot of fun.
00:05:25
Speaker
um But that aside, I just hope everybody has good year-end, good holidays, good whatever festivities and gatherings that you participate in. um It's you know in the northern hemisphere here where it's cold, it's dark, where some of the shortest days of the year are coming up. It can be hard to just remember. Some days can just feel a little dreary. it's Just just ah you know find find things you enjoy, spend time with friends and family and and even if you don't have uh particular festivities maybe just find some good time to sit down with some friends or some family and do do something that you enjoy i built some lego personally myself recently and it was fun to just sit down and and kind of just do that hobby again it's a thing i haven't had haven't done for a while but hope everybody has a good end of the year and uh we'll be back the first week of january probably well uh we'll have some updates then thanks
00:06:23
Speaker
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome to another episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast. So we are back to talk story, but unlike the last couple months when we're talking story, we got new story.
00:06:37
Speaker
yay finally new story. yeah there's ah the the first episode of the Lorwyn Eclipsed story dropped the day we are recording this. So we are going to talk Lorwyn story.
00:06:52
Speaker
ah The new Lorwyn, which is releasing in January. So it'll it'll release next year, but just in the the based on the dates, I think they're but we're getting the stories kind of running it up now.
00:07:07
Speaker
I had the date and then I scrolled away from the date. But so that's, it's exciting that we, we have some new story to talk about here. It's, it's, ah it's been a little while and it's, it's also, and we'll, we'll kind of dig into it some more um when we get to the actual story part, but I'm also, it's a night. I really, ultimately I, I really did enjoy um um the story in our, oh my God, why can't I think of the the the sci-fi set, the last set that just came out.
00:07:37
Speaker
um Edge of Eternity. Edge of Eternity. all Had a lot of cool story, but it is, it's nice to come back to something that feels more magic tone.
00:07:48
Speaker
o Personally, but um yeah, it's, we're, I'm already rambling and haven't done any introductions of of any of us. So I introduced myself, we can introduce ourselves and then we have an opening question and we can kind of then dig in a little bit more. So I'm Alex found on Twitter.
00:08:05
Speaker
Nope, not Twitter. It's been a long time since I've found nowhere but the Goblin Lord Discord occasionally um on the internet currently. I left that hell site behind and have not really picked up another social media habit since then. My pronouns are he, him. And you want to introduce yourself and we can do the question?
00:08:27
Speaker
Hi, yeah, ah this is Taya. Taya transcends on Blue Sky, or you can find me on the Discord or guesting on any number of streams. I was on Chase's stream on Sunday and had a great time, and somehow K&T won on turn six, which was really all Chase's fault because Chase had just gone off completely and had a huge board, and then I just took it and killed everybody with it. Yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
Insurrection wins games. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes it does. All right. And Hobbs still taking some time off.
Seanan McGuire's Return and Magic Novels
00:09:05
Speaker
so he's He's still around. He's still on the Discord, but still taking some time off from recording. Hobbs has had a very rough couple months.
00:09:15
Speaker
Man, yes, it it has been very rough him. Yeah, you can if you want to find out more, you can look at his Blue Sky post, but he's he's had it rough.
00:09:27
Speaker
And you know we've we've got a lot of holidays and things going on here. So we're we're talking ourselves. we We may be taking a break. I surely think we're going to try to cover the rest of the Lorewind story this month and then probably come back with the new year in January with with some new episodes. but we'll ah We will follow up with more details on that next week. But then ah opening question. So the question I came up with that I don't have as a succinct question, but ah the the setup for this story here is is a a group of Strixhaven students end up on Lorwyn. And so sort of riffing off of that, the the opening question is something we figured we could talk about, like what school from Strixhaven we would fit in and maybe what plane we might end up on on an adventure.
00:10:21
Speaker
And so for for folks who actually Strixhaven has been a number of years, hasn't it? Four five? Yeah, it came out in 2021, I think. Okay, so it's been a few years. If you're not familiar, you should go check it out. I really, thought Strixhaven was a lot of fun, but it is Magic's, the property Magic the Gathering. It's sort of their magic school or wizard school on the plane of Archavios, Archavios, Archavios.
00:10:48
Speaker
arc can I don't know. so It was 2021. Yes. okay a Thank you for for confirming that. But yeah, just kind of ah a play off the word archive. And there was a whole thing there. But they have five magic schools that are the enemy color pairs, which which is a lot of fun to have more representation of the color pairs. Obviously, Ravnica is the big one that everyone knows. And those are fun. We all love the guilds and visiting Ravnica. But it's nice to get different versions, different representations. Yeah, most of most of the schools are very different from their Ravnica counterparts. I think the closest one is Witherbloom Golgari. They're both kind of into the
00:11:33
Speaker
Witherbloom isn't so much undead, but it is still, I mean, they like drain life essence from creatures to power their magic, so it's still a lot about death. i think They just don't do necromancy.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, my my impression of of the two is kind of the – they both do similar things, but – so the life and and death cycle, where the Golgari are a little more on the death side. and um you just said their name and I keep blanking. The Witherbloom. Thank you. The Witherbloom are a little more on the life side. I think they're a little more plant-focused than like creatures too. Yeah, they they are pretty
Publishing Realities and Author Support
00:12:10
Speaker
plant-focused. So there's definitely some good overlap in the middle of the Venn diagram, but there's also some distinct differences between the the two. Yeah, they all have they all have overlap and distinction because can only do so much with the color pair, but I think most of them are just more different than...
00:12:29
Speaker
Witherbloom and Golgari. Yeah, and and including the the one I'll talk about mine, I think Lorehold might be one of the bigger differences um um with them, where the you you have the Boros are somehow both the cops and the army, which is a weird thing. Lorehold are like archaeologists.
00:12:52
Speaker
So, you know, it's I that for me, like I I have kind of talked about for myself. I think my color identity is probably in, in red, white. i think There's probably a splash more blue than other things, but I don't know if it's enough to, to really get like a soul tie. The other thing about those specifically, they're archeologists that talk to spirits.
00:13:15
Speaker
That's, that's a good, they, they call for spirits from the items they find. And, uh, um basically use them to interrogate what it was actually like in the past. ah
Strixhaven Characters Introduction
00:13:27
Speaker
Yes. and And I think that that fits a lot more.
00:13:33
Speaker
There's there is a lot of appeal in that in that sort of thing, that the history of the archaeology, the talking to the spirits of the past. That's for for me. like That really really fits. And so I think the the random adventure that is Lorehold adjacent, maybe not perfectly in their wheelhouse, but Lorehold adjacent that I thought of on the way home was um winding up on Zendikar.
00:13:57
Speaker
And trying to do something like um Ed's father in Cowboy Bebop, where he's on Earth, where the terrain is constantly shifting, but he's decided he's going to try to make a map of a place that's constantly shifting.
00:14:12
Speaker
i I don't know that I, as I am now, would end up doing that, but I could see a version of myself falling into, I need to map Zendikar. And just...
00:14:23
Speaker
kind of the never-ending quest of getting an accurate map of Zendikar. All right. Well, I was going to take Lorehold, because um red and white are definitely my identity, and I think they're the most unique. ah Well, red, blue, splash white is my identity, so I'm going to go with my other guild choice, which would be Prismari.
00:14:51
Speaker
ah which are the elemental artists. So rather than build machines and stuff like the Izzet do, they are all about art and making unique art using elemental magic.
00:15:05
Speaker
ah They they do do these huge displays that involve fire and water magic. They like talked about briefly in this episode The story we're going to talk about today is like they do elemental flower arrangements, which are like ah completely unique between each creation, which I thought was pretty cool, where they actually shape like they they shape and color the flowers using their elemental magic.
00:15:32
Speaker
ah Yeah, ah so I think they're pretty different from the Izzet approach. ah And if I was going to end up, or if I was one of them that fell through an Omen path, I'd probably end up on Bablovia, which is the unstable plane, ah because of the amount of chaos that I caused with my elemental abilities. Mm-hmm.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah. That feels good. Appropriate. All right. Well, I guess right before we dig into the actual story, too, want to just a little more table-setting for it, too. I want to shout out that Seanan McGuire is back writing magic story, which is always exciting.
00:16:22
Speaker
um So she's writing the Lorwyn, the seven episodes of the main story, and then there's different writers doing the three side stories, if I remember correctly. Yeah. Yeah. Is that accurate?
00:16:38
Speaker
So that's always fun. um And then just as a reminder for folks who are interested in magic story, um there is the Strix Raven novel coming out next year that Seanan wrote that was moved from February to April. if i remember Yeah. ah So kind of ah based on Seanan's long thread on blue sky,
00:17:05
Speaker
The reason they pushed it back is because pre-orders blew all their expectations out of the water. So they had to print more. ah And then they also reclassified it from young adult to adult. So they increased the price if you hadn't already pre-ordered, ah which a lot of people were complaining about. And Sean is just like, I have no control over this whatsoever. you know, uh,
00:17:30
Speaker
It doesn't affect how much I make and just talking about kind of the realities of the publishing industry and how little control the author has. ah But yeah, so these are, but yeah, the main reason for the delay was just that Wizards and the publisher both expected it to be another failed magic novel and everybody went and pre-ordered it like I said they should.
00:17:57
Speaker
ah And ah yeah, it just blew their expectations out of the water. ah so Which is super exciting. um The price increase part is less. I didn't know that. I just learned that right now. That is a little more disappointing from the corporate side, of course. um the The two corporations involved, both Magic and the publisher themselves, decision was somewhere up there.
00:18:23
Speaker
um But that's it's really exciting that the... um the pre-order numbers were so high that they had to push it back to make sure they had time to produce enough copies of the book, which is exciting. But also if you, again, if you have not pre-ordered and you want to spend money to support Magic Story, i would encourage you to pre-order now. or try to pick up a copy of the book at some point. Cause it, I'm excited. I'm i'm hoping that this is successful and this is a good first sign at least. And that we get further magic story. Yeah.
00:19:00
Speaker
And um Sean has talked about this on, I've heard Blue Sky before too, but like pre-orders are the biggest indicator to publishers that people are interested in the product. So if you want this book, pre-order it just to help Seanan get future writing gigs.
00:19:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be great. and get get more Get more magic novels, get Shauna to write more, and just in general have more magic story out there.
00:19:29
Speaker
um And i'm I'm also excited, you know, and in... the The story balance here is is interesting, too. I'm glad that they're kind of so it used to be five mains and five sides. And this one we're we're getting, you know, we're back to 10, which is which is fine. But they're they're being more flexible here where it's like, OK, this story is maybe a little bigger. Let's give it seven episodes for the main story. So just any little tiny thing where it's like they're definitely paying attention to the story to some degree. to try to make the stories more successful, to give them the space to be more successful, including and especially bringing in authors like Seanan who are really good at writing stories and can help tell these stories.
00:20:14
Speaker
i'm I'm excited about, but... All right. I think um that's probably been enough, not actually talking about the thing. want to get into the story now. Oh, sorry. I do have one more thing before we get into the thing. Just also for folks who are interested in the story and maybe don't want to sit in and read it. We've mentioned this before when the story there is both an audio and a like a YouTube link that is, I suspect. mostly audio. I listen to it on the podcast feed, but that's on their on the actual story page on Wizards website has an embedded YouTube video, embedded podcast feed that you can just listen to.
00:20:51
Speaker
Or they have a ah an official Magic Story podcast feed in most podcast apps. I assume I'm using not even like a main podcast app and they have it in there. I also noticed that there's a few non-story things in that podcast feed. So if you are interested in story, um that might be worth checking out. Some like introduction to Lore Wynn and sort of things that have been posted in the last couple of weeks.
00:21:19
Speaker
Yeah. ah Looking forward to that. There's just, there's so much of it coming out. Yep. And now we're going to get all this, like the actual story this, you know, with the next week or two, which is very exciting.
00:21:36
Speaker
But all right. So this story starts, we said, ah starts on Archavios with some Strixhaven, a class of Strixhaven students with the the teacher, teaching assistant Dina.
00:21:51
Speaker
a returning character from the yeah the last time we saw Strixhaven, at least the when we first saw it in the main Strixhaven set, um out in the woods.
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah, and Dina is a uh, Dryad, uh, who is a Witherbloom, um, now senior student because she's working as a TA and, uh, was in the first story was in the story for, um, Phyrexia. Uh, she was one of the main characters in that story as well.
00:22:26
Speaker
Uh, and she is known for making tea. Uh, so, uh, she has a pretty cool commander card. If you've ever seen it, it's a pretty neat one. Um,
00:22:37
Speaker
But yeah, she is. ah So it was cool to see her back. ah Now she's she's teaching. as said It said it's her second year of being a TA a ah for that class. She's been doing this a little while now. ah So, of course, she's probably getting paid peanuts and doing all the actual work while the professors collect their tenured salary. Mm hmm.
00:23:01
Speaker
ah ten year salary
00:23:06
Speaker
Yep. That, that seems likely. Yeah. This, the, yeah, this is a, I enjoy this scene. So like, she kind of starts and explains like we're in this forest. We're in the Harrier's wood. And this is, this is a cool, we can kind of get into into details too, but I think this is a really cool, like zooming in on what is like a day in the life of a Strixhaven student. And they kind of talk about, but we're in this wood to collect these flowers. Yeah.
00:23:37
Speaker
And, you know, she's explaining it's a flower that's all over the campus. and um But they they're they're here. The snarl flower. Like, you know, there's it seems like there's nothing special about this. They're all over the campus from all these different places. And then she starts to explain this whole thing about, well, these are magically sensitive and the different flowers on the different campuses of the different schools have different things already, you know, built into them and and having these pure you know flowers that haven't been impacted by magic. is useful in all of these different ways for these different, um different the different classes in the different schools.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah. ah And we. ah So ah we get to slowly get introduced to our new characters that we're going to be following through this story and the book.
00:24:37
Speaker
And. and thankfully we have a uh we have a goblin among them hey yes absolutely which is lot of fun yes senar the goblin yep uh likes hugs uh
00:25:02
Speaker
And also does goblin things, as we'll get to later in the story. Yes, is is much a goblin. yeah We also get introduced to Abigail, who is a owl folk who just happens to be deaf. so um So we get to, she has a magical hearing aid, which ah broadcasts her words telepathically.
Lorwyn Adventure Begins
00:25:34
Speaker
which I thought was really cool. Yeah, that is really cool. And then Elsa talks about like she moves carefully through the woods because her hearing aid, because of how the magic works, only picks up like intentional sounds. And so she wouldn't hear if she's like stepping on.
00:25:54
Speaker
she She wouldn't hear like the the extra sounds around. So she's trying to be take extra effort to be quiet because she's not sure how loud she's being stepping through the woods.
00:26:05
Speaker
Uh, and then we're introduced to Kirill, uh, who is kind of the class clown of the group. Uh, the first, uh, the first, her first line or their first line of text, their, uh,
00:26:20
Speaker
They are non-binary. um was ah um Dina asked, can anyone guess why they went to where they went? and ah And by foot. And ah Carol's reply is, you were trying to exhaust us so we wouldn't wander off in the woods?
00:26:36
Speaker
Yes.
00:26:40
Speaker
Actually, no, that was another student. That wasn't Carol. Okay, so I was just re-reading. That was actually Sannar's statement. Yeah. He was our goblin friend. Yeah, I do love Dina's response like that is not correct, but I wish I'd thought of it.
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah. ah So, yeah, I had misread those two paragraphs, but it was Xanar. Yes, that's right, because it was Carol who was the one who was complaining. and Yeah, they couldn't they couldn't use carts or or at least a few totals to wear hiking shoes. Yeah.
00:27:19
Speaker
ah The one thing I'm not sure about Kirill, though, is what ah what species they are. They give some descriptions of her um like swinging through the trees and then quietly dropping to the ground.
00:27:36
Speaker
on that She has large teeth. yeah so they yeah Like an ape person, I'm not sure. ah not sure it spells it out here.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, ah i think there was some key art released for the four characters for the Strixhaven book, but I was just searching and can't find it right this minute.
00:28:03
Speaker
ah i I found the cover easily enough, but I could have swore there was a a picture of the four students. Oh, is that them? Gorgon...
00:28:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's them. Okay. So Kiro is
00:28:26
Speaker
super buff, it looks like. Uh, but I'm not really sure. Some kind of humanoid, though, that, like, can swing through trees based on their actions.
00:28:41
Speaker
Uh, I'm going to send you the art that I'm looking at. um Yeah, we'll see. Is this story? oh yeah, look at that. Yeah, and I'm guessing the elf is someone they meet on Shadowmoor or Lorwyn because they're not part of the story yet.
00:29:01
Speaker
Yeah, that that makes sense. Yeah, the other, those four are all identifiable as the four students we've seen. But yeah, and maybe i'd be more apparent as as we get more story entries. Yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
ah The last ah student gets in him or is introduced as Tamira, ah who is the honor student of the group. And Tamira is a Gorgon. So we get a Gorgon in a positive position, which is nice to see ah
00:29:38
Speaker
She seems to be super respected by all of her classmates.
00:29:44
Speaker
And very helpful. she was she was They were out there to collect non-magically modified flowers. ah And everybody, most of the group was having trouble finding them. And of course, Sanar just fumbled his bundle and ruined all of his flowers. ah But of course, the honor student, Tamira, had already collected more than she needed. So she was handing out some to her classmates.
00:30:12
Speaker
know ah So yeah, so that's our four characters we've met so far. ah And we know that they're going to continue through these the upcoming Strixhaven book as the main character. So it'll be interesting to see them developed in this story.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's interesting. well Oh, that's right. And the set is coming out in January. So the book would have been after either way. yeah Yeah, but it's actually, yeah when it's being released now is when Strixhaven is coming out, so it's ah it's a bit closer to the release, so that is a bit of a positive about the change. Yeah, and that'll probably help it too. with this The set is coming out, you know the book comes out next to the set that we can so the people who aren't as plugged into the story can go, oh, there's a book featuring this world.
00:31:12
Speaker
that probably makes more sense than it coming out two months previous, which if the story, you know, keys off of the Lorwyn story, that isn't a bad place for it to show. No, especially if it takes place like between the two sets, you know, that would make some sense, but you know, that's all up to the publishers. ah The authors get no say, so don't complain at Seanan. Nope. Absolutely. or any of this.
00:31:41
Speaker
Yeah, that that is that is absolutely over there. it that Those folks. Well, the publisher and like they the actual rights holder too. Yeah, right. Wizards and yeah.
00:31:54
Speaker
But in any event. So so yeah, they're they're gathering flowers, like you say. um At some point, Senar lost or damaged all of the flowers he had managed to collect.
00:32:05
Speaker
Yeah, and the reason they came this far out from the school, even though it's a common flower, is because all the ones near the school are tainted by the magic of the part of the school they're in. So they needed to find magically neutral flowers.
00:32:21
Speaker
Yep. And even there, they needed to find magically neutral flowers that were like undamaged samples too, which was part of the challenge. Yeah, so couldn't ones that had like insect holes through them or anything. They had to be perfect.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, or or ones that maybe got crumpled or trampled by a of an exuberant goblin, perhaps, as an example. So ah what triggers... ah everything to kind of start going awry is ah they spot a Lorwyn fairy, which is, you know, they are very insectile ah and none of them recognize what it is. And Sanar just thinks, I'm going to chase that. Yep. So, so, so, so,
00:33:18
Speaker
taking tam's sample basket with you yeah so you have you know a cur old tries to tries to grab him and their hand comes back on empty air and then at the next sign i just love is my flowers gil tam my grade like that as you say yeah the honor student is that's the first concern you and So then the whole group winds up chasing after, uh, chasing after Sanar, who's chasing after this fairy.
00:33:48
Speaker
Yeah. Um,
00:33:53
Speaker
and we do have a little bit in there before that happens that I wanted to mention is, uh, Kuro and, uh, uh,
00:34:06
Speaker
Abigail are having an exchange and Kiro tries to sign the word whatever. ah And Abigail just gives them a look. and And so they're like, what did I actually say? And ah just ah did and aga has just don't repeat it where Professor Vest can see you or you're likely to get a lecture about watching your language. And Kiro are like, she's never cared about swearing.
00:34:32
Speaker
And yeah, she cared that you didn't know what you were saying and bet she'd call you sloppy again.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Of course, Liliana wouldn't care about swearing. Yeah. She would care that someone was swearing unintentionally. That's like, no, no, you're going to do this. You have to be you do it on purpose.
00:34:55
Speaker
Yeah. But ah also that's a fun little, it just nice little world building. We know professor Vess is still on strict safe. Yep.
00:35:07
Speaker
She seems to be enjoying her new job as far as we can tell. ah
00:35:13
Speaker
See this set there is, takes place on Lorwyn. It is for the Lorwyn sets. We're unlikely to see much more about professor Vess in these stories, But in a book this year, we we may have a higher chance. also yeah well I think we'll definitely see her in the book. But we might get more references to her from the students because it seems like no matter what school they're in, they all have ah Professor Vest as an instructor. Yeah, she's some sort of general general class teacher or something. So they most of the students have her as a professor at some point.
00:35:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But, uh, so, they chase the fairy and then they all end up falling through a hole. Mm-hmm.
00:36:03
Speaker
Uh, that the fairy just stood over laughing as they fell. Uh, and then there's this really, um...
00:36:15
Speaker
interesting description of kind of what they, what they were seeing as they transported through the Omen path.
00:36:28
Speaker
ah Uh, So there's a little description. they give We get some cool description of some Lorwyn landscape with a really neat graphic of that landscape and the four students ah standing on an overlook. Alana Danner, or Alana Danner, art, fantastic as always. ah She does amazing landscapes. All of her work is great, but she's really good at landscapes.
00:36:58
Speaker
Yeah, and you have the silhouette of the four these four characters too right in the front.
00:37:04
Speaker
ah So, yeah so they appear on the Lorwyn side ah stuck in a hole. ah ah they um and like the first thing, Sannar notices one of the sons is missing.
00:37:22
Speaker
hip And Tam's reply is, the sun's not missing. It's back on Archivos where it belongs. Yeah, there was a moment of silence as everyone considered the statement.
00:37:34
Speaker
Finally, Epigal signed, if the sun is on Arcevos, we're not on Arcevos, says Stan. Yeah. yeah kind of a Kind of the quick realization, really. because and They can even see like in the sky there is a like tear.
00:37:51
Speaker
um or as a hear About 15 feet above them, there's a triangular gap cut out of the air, seemingly made of the same flimsy substance as a soap bubble. So it's like they can see the omen path where three of them absolutely cannot reach it for sure.
00:38:08
Speaker
h ah and then, but, but, uh,
00:38:15
Speaker
ah Kirill suggests that Abigail go fly up and get them help since Abigail's the only one who can get out of the pit. And Abigail's just like, ah no, I'm not ah leaving you here by yourself. It might be dangerous.
00:38:30
Speaker
And then Sennar's like, ah everybody, i think it might be dangerous. Yes. Yeah. yeah Abigail says, that we don't know where we are or whether this place is dangerous. And then Sennar's immediately like, yeah, it's dangerous. Yeah, everybody turned, and then they saw a massive gateway formed of two tall stones with a third laid atop of them.
00:38:51
Speaker
Which someone actually identifies, too. Yeah, it's a dolmen gate. Tam, of course, the honor student. Yes, naturally. And so, yeah, that's... ah
00:39:04
Speaker
yeah like this definitely like they they are looking at the proof that they are not at at home and then this is
00:39:16
Speaker
and it is very dark on the other side and all they can see is some uh glowing lichen and not much else because is described as like, uh, infinitely dark, I think is
Encounter with the Moonbeast
00:39:30
Speaker
the description. Yes. Let's see. Um, yeah, it seemed to mark a barrier between the bright, beautiful day around them and the very dead of night. Darkness stood on the other side of the gate.
00:39:41
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, this is line is, uh, um, so Tam starts walking towards it. Uh, and, uh, Sure, go through the creepy dayton gate into the impossible darkness. That's going to help, said Kirill.
00:39:55
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and and one of... Tan, like you said, is the the honor student who identified It says, it's a Dolman Gate. They're usually the entrance to a gravesite or someone's home.
00:40:07
Speaker
And so the... oh yeah If Santa is like someone really, really tall. Yeah. and it's like, well, if someone, someone tall is through that gate, they might be able to help us reach this portal in the sky. Yeah. Yeah. And and then we get some just great a sarcasm from Carol.
00:40:29
Speaker
Yeah. ah general is entertain I like this whole group so far. They seem like they're going to be good you know viewpoint characters. They have very and entertaining dynamics together.
00:40:42
Speaker
ah um So they end up, once they're through the gate, instead of being kind of out in the open and in a hole like they were on the Lorwyn side, they are in a dark, dark cave.
00:40:58
Speaker
and it it is too dark to really see anything, but Sanar has a useful light spell and manages to ah generate light to everyone's surprise and Tam's approval.
00:41:15
Speaker
Yeah, and then when the with the light spell illuminating the the walls, they can see that there is bunch of paintings on these walls. showing a couple um giant beasts.
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah. ah Very clearly representing the night and the day at the point where they actually have the sun and the moon as heads. yeah as it's As the students continued walking, the paintings of the beast evolved, showing them moving under skies that matched the emblems.
00:41:49
Speaker
Yeah. Sun-headed walked during the day, the moon-headed creature walked at night. Yeah. They would come together, the day creature laying down to sleep, while the night creature stand would watch. And then they would trade places.
00:42:03
Speaker
Yeah. And Kirill's talking about these paintings and then suddenly realizes everyone else is wandered off and left them behind. And they're all standing dumpstruck about 10 feet away.
00:42:17
Speaker
And Kirill walks up and sees what they're all seeing, which is the moonbeast.
00:42:25
Speaker
But i I do love they started with ah they said something like incarnations of the sun moon turning places. It's like they were trying to find a way to paint the distinction between night and day. Then fascinatingly abstract way to present represented, though, anthropomorphizing the two states as living entities. And then that's when they realized that everybody was staring at something.
00:42:46
Speaker
and And it's like, oh, well, maybe this wasn't ah an abstract such an abstract thing. Yeah, but but as well you know it was Kiro who is the Lorehold student. So, of course, they were interested in the art.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah, the the the past, the art, the archaeology of it. it's Yeah. Yeah, which we didn't go over what schools these characters belong to. that's true.
00:43:11
Speaker
So, um yeah like I said, Kirill is Lorehold. Sanar, our goblin friend, is Prismari, perfect little chaos place for a goblin. Yeah.
00:43:26
Speaker
Abigail ah looks like Silverquill based on ah the color of her armor, but I don't think it's actually said ah what her affiliation is.
00:43:40
Speaker
And Sanar is and a Quandrix mage. So the honor student is a um math genius, apparently, too. Yeah.
00:43:53
Speaker
But ah that covers everybody. Assuming that, yes, Abigail is Silver Quirrell, that covers everybody but Witherbloom. And judging by this art piece, it looks like the elf that ah is going to be joining them is probably Black Green.
00:44:12
Speaker
Yeah, which ah makes a lot of sense for Lorwyn. That's the... um That fits their colors. the The Shadowmore version of Lorwyn, but... elves there in those colors.
00:44:25
Speaker
h So ah they're all they're all kind of dumbstruck. ah But Sanar being a goblin had to go up and pet the giant monster. Yeah, I do. I do love the moment, too, is like center starts to go up and this they stop him.
00:44:46
Speaker
And then everybody agrees. No, you shouldn't do this. So they say, OK, let him go. And then he be lines before anyone can stop him a second time. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:58
Speaker
Yeah, and he crossed the boundary into the circle before anyone could grab him. Yeah, approach the creature. And I love just the this line too. unable With slow reverence, unable to resist the call of long autumn nights bathed in moonlight, silence waiting to be broken by stories around a fire, sweet cider on the tongue, and all the good gifts of the harvest season welcoming him home.
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah, so he's kind of mesmerized.
00:45:29
Speaker
And then he pets the creature and it wakes up and starts to scream or roar rather. Yeah. And the whole environment starts to change.
00:45:42
Speaker
Uh, uh, and then it describes at one point, uh, You know, the fury of the sound it was making, sound ah went on and on, filling filled with all the terrors of the nights, the fear, the confusion, and the endless howling of the storm.
00:46:04
Speaker
so yeah, this thing kind of puts off a chaos aura or a menacing aura around it. I'm sure whatever this thing is has menace. Yes.
00:46:16
Speaker
Probably. Probably see that on a card soon. um Because we do have art of it. It is pretty weird. The creature is really weird looking. It's got four legs, two arms. It's described as having its wings fused into its back.
00:46:38
Speaker
And it has no face, but the moon glows ah or hangs above its head and surrounded by perpetual clouds that shift. This looks very commie to me.
00:46:52
Speaker
it does commie. That was the first thing i I thought when I saw this art. Yeah. So, yeah, that, yeah. yeah Yeah, so the students, the students, uh,
00:47:07
Speaker
theyve they run. They go, Kirill grabs Senar, who was frozen in fear, and and they run. ah But then as they go, you say they see this this wave go out and start to change the the environment.
00:47:24
Speaker
As the darkness flowed across the meadow, it swallowed the sunlight and created brief auroras of color to fade and die in the dark. Grasses withered and died. The flowers largely following even as some spring to greater glowing life. And so we're we're kind of seeing a transition.
00:47:44
Speaker
Like this was one of the things with the world of Lorwyn back when it first came out. Like there was Lorwyn. but then it there was the the the scapeshift like the great aurora the great aurora that's right scapeshift was just a card that i love in my land decks but the great aurora was this force that then would shift it from day to night and then would flip things and it was on like 200 year life 200 year cycle Yeah.
00:48:13
Speaker
And so don't really know how things have been going since then, but it seems like this might have um unintentionally started the cycle early.
00:48:24
Speaker
Yeah. It mentions, though, that as that that that they're basically taking off, they noticed the little blue fairy that had lured them there. uh kind wings and arms out spread like it's welcoming the approaching darkness and then they talk about as the last rays of sun leaving the darkness washed over that it transformed and became the super creepy shadow more fairy style yeah uh and that there was a line or the fairy looked down on itself and giggled apparently pleased with what it saw
00:48:57
Speaker
flapped its tattered wings and launched itself into the air. So it seems like this may have been an intentional thing. Yeah. And then the last line was all that remained was the dark flowing out of the Dolman gate and the distant sound of screams.
00:49:12
Speaker
Classic shaman. Yeah. Very classic shaman. That's a great line does to send us off to the next episode that we have to wait for now.
00:49:24
Speaker
Yep. ah So I thought this was a great introduction. We got to learn about our character your point of view characters a bit. ah You know, they they walk into Lorwyn and almost immediately end up in Shadowmoor, where I am sure Shonan has all sorts of horrible things waiting for them.
00:49:44
Speaker
absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, and and it's fun. we get We get nice little world building in Archavios to sort of give us a little more of a grounded fantasy place for readers and and folks who aren't as familiar with the various weird magic places like Lorwyn. Archavios feels a little more grounded in sort of a general fantasy setting.
00:50:09
Speaker
And so that's a fun place to start. in a sort of magical version of something that most people can relate to just like a class where we and so it it has a really good like grounding nature to then fish out of water the characters and pull the readers along with them yeah
00:50:34
Speaker
But I'm excited to see this story continue. I i like i posted ah in a Discord um for my friend's group that ah ah I was like, ah halfway through the story, I was like, I already love Abigail. Yeah.
00:50:55
Speaker
But, ah you know, Senar is going to be a lot of fun. And ah Tamira is ah really cool as the competent one of the group. And i just like that they're there. They have a Gorgon in this very positive position for once.
00:51:14
Speaker
and And, you know, still sort of centered green, but but in a green-blue school as opposed to, like, the green-black. There was even a green-black school present, but, the like, this Gorgon is in the math school with the green and the blue mages.
00:51:31
Speaker
And so that's that's kind of fun, too, to just, like, stretch things out a little bit. Yeah, she also has really cool... ah a really cool skin tones that it describes in the the book. And then you can see a bit of in the picture, ah which, um, maybe we can get Hobbs to link that picture that we've been talking about in the, uh, show description. Let me look at it real quick, how they describe, uh, her. Um,
00:52:05
Speaker
A slender female student whose yellow-green skin was patterned with darker green stripes. So... Yeah, and if you have been following the story relatively recently, Duskmorn, the character Zimone, is from the Quandrick school as well, was from Strixhaven, is in the same school as as our our new Gorkin character.
00:52:32
Speaker
Yeah, Yeah, I really like Simone too, but like for this story, rather than using the Strixhaven 5, they decided to go with a whole new set of students, which is pretty cool.
00:52:44
Speaker
Which is fun. and and And one of the advantages of this post-Omen Path story too, where they yeah it just they don't have to be stuck with a handful of characters who can move between worlds. like i mean I'm glad we got a little bit of Dina. I would have liked to hear what's up with everybody else. Yeah.
00:53:03
Speaker
We know last we saw Quintorius, he was on Ixalan. So he's, um, he's out exploring the multiverse. Uh, but I would really like to catch up with the other students that were part of the group too. Have, have we seen him since the de-sparking? Did he lose his spark? No, he was, uh, Ixalan was after and he still had his spark. Okay.
00:53:27
Speaker
So he, I'm pretty sure. Let me double check that. Um, And Ixalan's already been like two years away. the The sets being in Standard for three years now throws me off so much.
00:53:43
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I forgot. Yep, yep. No, he's just Loremaster. No, that's a different... that was said it that No, that's March of the Machine. So, yeah, I guess even in March of the Machine, he wasn't a planeswalker, which is weird because he doesn't have the broken...
00:54:03
Speaker
the broken planeswalking symbol. Am i just wrong? Was he never a planeswalker? He was. okay it's got thought Oh, no, his Ixalan card is the Ixalan card his planeswalker card. Okay. yeah so okay Yep. So yeah, so he is still a planeswalker.
00:54:23
Speaker
Cool. Very nice. Yep. So we'll probably see Quint show up at some point in the story. We don't know where he is since Ixalan. Yeah, we we love our um elephant cleric archaeologist planeswalker.
Encouragement to Engage with Magic Stories
00:54:38
Speaker
Yeah, he is such a nerd. He is so much fun. yeah he's he was, when when they did Strixhaven the first time, Quintorius was kind of the lower hold sort of story character.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah. Where Dino was the Witherbloom one. Yeah, and Quintorius ah got kicked out of military school for being too much of a soft eater. That's right.
00:55:03
Speaker
Which is, again, really nice in that we are going to differentiate the Boros and the Lorehold. Yeah.
00:55:13
Speaker
But, ah yeah, so that's where we are in Lorewind's story. After one episode, it took us a whole hour to cover the first episode. So I don't think we're getting through the whole story in the next episode before we go on break.
00:55:29
Speaker
Uh, I hope you all read it or listen to it. however you want to consume it, you have options, uh, uh, show the story and Sean and some love. Uh, it's, uh, it was really good. Yeah. And, and if you want to really like to dig into story and behind the scenes stuff, I have not listened to them, but there is in the podcast feed. There is some, some stuff that didn't look like there was article versions of it. Just, uh,
00:55:57
Speaker
There is the making of Lorwyn Eclipsed and what is Lorwyn Shadowmore just from, from some story folks and narrative designer and art directors. So some folks who kind of behind the scenes stuff, if if that's something you're interested in.
00:56:12
Speaker
Yeah. ah
00:56:15
Speaker
And yeah, the ah let's see here. What was I looking for? What was today? Was the eighth, right?
00:56:29
Speaker
I think this is it. Yep. ah So there is already posted on Seanan's blog, which is just SeananMcGuire.com. ah what What she calls her DVD extras for the story. This is something she does every time she writes a magic story where she goes through the story ah and ah basically gives you background information on each bit of the story, which is really cool. I love this, that she's done this for all of her stories.
00:56:59
Speaker
Yes, that is super cool. Yeah. Can you throw that link to Hobbs? who we'll We'll try to get that in the shout outs too if folks are interested.
00:57:10
Speaker
Cool. Well, that is this episode. we'll ah We'll come back with some more Lorwyn story and and then be back in January. So everybody you enjoy the story.
00:57:22
Speaker
Say check it out and we'll see guys next week. Hello Podwalkers, you have been listening to the Goblin Lore Podcast. Goblin Lore can be found on Blue Sky at GoblinLorePod or by going to our link tree for all of our links, especially to our Discord and our discounts.
00:57:41
Speaker
We welcome all feedback through social media or by joining our Discord which is very active. And now goblins, I just want to remind you that goblins, like snowflakes, are only dangerous in numbers.