Thread by @EthanFleischer

DOMINARIA UNITED LEGENDS MEGATHREAD

I'm not going to cover every legendary card from #MTGDominaria here, just the ones that I have something to say about. 1/X

These characters were mostly decided upon during Vision Design, when @anniecurruts and I worked together on a list of characters. During set design, many characters were added, changed, or swapped around, but I don't have as much insight into that, so not as much to say. 2/X

At first, I wanted DMU to have very few repeated legendary characters from the 2018 Dominaria set. Once the rubber hit the road, however, we ended up including quite a few returning characters due to story needs and mechanical best-fits. 3/X

The details of the story were still pretty undefined during Vision Design. We knew the major beats, and what the next few sets would be about, but a lot of the details had still to be worked out. 4/X

We wanted to provide a good selection of thematically resonant characters that the writers could use if they had need of them. 5/X

There were a couple of categories of characters that were high priority because they were particularly thematic to the current storyline, and wouldn't likely be relevant in a future Dominaria set. These were: callbacks to Invasion, and callbacks to Antiquities. 6/X

ASTOR, BEARER OF BLADES and GOLDEN ARGOSY
In the first category, we have Astor, the most important Keldon hero of the Invasion (and incidentally, Radha's grandfather). The Time Spiral novel made it clear that he wasn't dead. 7/X

We'd seen the concept art of the compleated Weatherlight. We figured some characters might need another way to travel around Dominaria quickly, so it made sense for the Golden Argosy to return with her passenger, who had passed the centuries in a dreamlike state. 8/X

ERTAI RESURRECTED
@maro254 went into detail about the impetus for bringing this character back to life: he appears in a story that takes place in the future! magic.wizards.com/en/articles/ar… Ertai was one of the villains of the Invasion. 9/X

Of course, someone with Sheoldred's second ability would have no trouble bringing Ertai back from the dead. 10/X

JHOIRA, AGELESS INNOVATOR, KARN, LIVING LEGACY and SQUEE, DUBIOUS MONARCH
These friends were both heavily involved in the fight against the Phyrexians before and during the Invasion. 11/X

RITH, LIBERATED PRIMEVAL and NEMATA, PRIMEVAL WARDEN
The whole kerfuffle with the Primeval Dragons was a bit of a sideshow during the original Invasion. They almost caused a big problem, but then they didn't. 12/X

Still, having reincarnated Darigaaz four years ago, it seemed like a fun throw-forward to break Rith out of dragon jail and have Nemata chase her down to try to arrest her again. Maybe the other Primevals will return in the future? 13/X

SOUL OF WINDGRACE
Lord WIndgrace was one of the Nine Titans, a team of Planeswalkers who bombed Phyrexia during the Invasion. He survived until the Great Mending, when in invested his spirit into the land of Urborg, to return in its time of greatest need. 14/X

Windgrace HATED the Phyrexians, so it was hard to imagine a more propitious time for his avatar to rise up and start stomping around the terra again. 15/X

THE MANA RIG
This ancient Thran artifact was vital to the Coalition war effort during the Invasion, producing powerstones and Thran metal to make artifacts. 16/X

GERRARD'S HOURGLASS PENDANT
This one was definitely an obscure deep cut. This was a piece of the Legacy that Gerrard Capashen gave to his friend Pol Cordel for safekeeping. We never heard from it again, so presumably it's in a museum in Benalia now. magic.wizards.com/en/articles/ar… 17/X

For a change of pace, let's set aside the horrors of the Invasion and focus now on the horrors of the Brothers' War! Most of the Brothers' War references were more on the societal level than on the level of individual characters, but there are a few here and there. 18/X

JODAH, THE UNIFIER
Jodah is the only known descendant of Urza (or was it Mishra?), so even though he had a card in the 2018 Dominaria set, we thought it was important for him to appear against in DMU. Here we see Jodah in his role as diplomat. 19/X

KARN'S SYLEX
I'm not gonna lie: the backstory on this thing is a bit convoluted and contradictory. This thing is definitely the original Golgothian Sylex that Urza used to blow up Argoth. Or it's Ashnod's counterfeit Sylex. Or it was one that Urza made later. 20/X

One thing I'm sure of: it probably isn't the one that Ravidel used to threaten the Sages of Minorad, because Jared Carthalion cast Rust on that one. 21/X

And speaking of JARED CARTHALION (and his descendant, JENSON CARTHALION, DRUID EXILE), technically he goes in this section, because his ancestor fought for Mishra during the Brothers' War, though that's a pretty obscure fact. More about the Carthalions later. 22/X

GREENSLEEVES, MARO-SORCERER
Back in the earliest Magic novels, Greensleeves was a druid who acquired an ancient artifact, the Stone Brain, a helmet which could take away wizards' and Planeswalkers' powers. 23/X

The Stone Brain was made by the Sages of Lat-Nam to bring Urza and Mishra to heel, but the Sages weren't able to use it before they were defeated. Fortunately, they launched it into orbit(!) to keep it out of the Brothers' Hands. 24/X

It eventually fell to the surface of Dominaria and into Greensleeves' hands. She put it to good use controlling evil wizards who kept summoning people away from their families and involving them in magical duels. 25/X

Oh, she also became a maro, as detailed here: 26/X

MERIA, SCHOLAR ON AINTIQUITY
Meris is a modern day Yavimayan elf. During my brief cartographical career, I discovered that the ruins of Kroog were on present-day Yavimaya. magic.wizards.com/en/articles/ar… This elf is unusual in that she's fascinated by these ancient artifacts. 27/X

Whew! That's enough for now. More later! 28/X

The next category, after Invasion and Antiquities connection, is lineages. These are characters descended from, or following in the footsteps of, characters from a bygone era. 29/X

Now, I know this concept has been overused in places (ahemStarWars!), but it feels important to Dominaria, a plane that is all about its own history. 30/X

ZAR OJANEN, SCION OF EFRAVA
In ancient times, the first Ojanen rebelled against Terent Amese, the (planeswalker? god?) who created the cat warriors. Since that time, the Ojanens have never really fit in... 31/X

We've got Jaeger Ojanen, who had some serious wanderlust, leaving his home in Efrava and joining up with Hazezon Tamar in the novel Johan. 32/X

And his more famous son, Jedit Ojanen, who also left Efrava, in this case in search of his father Jaeger. He joined up with the Robaran Mercenaries and threw down the tyrannical wizard Johan, in the novels Jedit and Hazezon. 33/X

We learned at the very end of the novel Hazezon that Jedit had a dynasty of children and grandchildren, and the Efravans founded a great empire. 34/X

Of course, the Rift Crisis was hard on many people, the Efravans included. 35/X

The present day Ojanens may not have a homeland, but their people are still going strong! 36/X

KING DARIEN XLVIII
Next in our series of characters with famous ancestors is Darien, 48th of his name! Why have there been so many Dariens in the history of New Argive? 37/X

It all started with this passage at the beginning of The Eternal Ice. Clearly there were a lot of Dariens in Dominarian history! 38/X

The "Good King Darien" and "Darien the Great" mentioned above is this fellow, who was the last king of Kjeldor, or the first king of New Argive, however you want to define things. 39/X

However, Darien the Great was not Darien the First! There were at least two more King Dariens of Kjeldor before the reign of Darien the Great, and possibly quite a few more. 40/X

A historical event involving "Darien the First" is mentioned in the short story "For Want of Ink" in The Secrets of Magic. This story takes place 100 years before Darien the Great's reign. So there were at least a couple Dariens in the first 400 years of Kjeldor's history. 41/X

All that was required was to choose an absurdly-large-and-yet-not-totally-implausible Roman numeral for New Argive's current monarch. XLVIII seemed like the funniest option, so that's what we went for! 42/X

The Capashens: ARON, DANITHA, and RAFF. While these folks are not descended directly from Gerrard Capashen, they belong to the same family. Danitha and Raff are Aron's children. 43/X

QUEEN ALLENAL OF RUADACH
We saw this character (daughter of the elven Queen Terena and granddaughter of King Aedhan) conceived(!) in "Gathering the Taradomnu" in Tapestries. Her father was a human named Grenfher. 44/X

Allenal is a symbolic representation of the cooperation between peoples we wanted to depict in #MTGDominaria. 45/X

Radha, as a descendant of Astor, a Keldon hero of the Invasion, belongs in this category. Radha has far exceeded her grandfather in prominence and story significance by this point. 46/X

RIVAZ OF THE CLAW
This viashino lives in the Great Desert of Jamuraa, and carries on the tradition of Zirilan of the Claw. 47/X

ROSNAKHT, HEIR OF ROHGAHH
We don't know exactly how many generations separate Rosnakht from her ancestors Rohgahh and Rograkh, but she's clearly a mighty leader, by kobold standards! 48/X

RULIC MONS, WARREN CHIEF
Leading the Rundveldt goblins as the descendant of Pashalik Mons himself. 49/X

TURA KENNERÜD, SKYKNIGHT
She simply MUST be descended from the Ice Age era character Arna Kennerüd, one of Jaya Ballard's pals from her pre-Planeswalker days. 50/X

UURG, SPAWN OF TURG
We haven't made a card for Turg yet. He was Ambassador Laquatus's original champion. We did reference him in Excavating Anurid's puntastic flavor text, which inspired the Uurg card. 51/X

VERRAK, WARPED SENGIR
Baron Sengir was a major power in Dominaria before he was summoned to Ulgrotha. Verrak is a late-generation member of his "lineage," quite bat-like in appearance. 52/X

To be continued... 53/X