FUCK YOU MULTIVERSE!
IF YOU'RE DUMB ENOUGH TO LIVE ON ANOTHER PLANE THIS WEEKEND, YOU'RE A BIG ENOUGH SHMUCK TO COME TO BIG MOM NORN'S TREE.
MONSTERS! ARMIES THAT DON'T STAY DOWN! OIL!
IF YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO FIND FREEDOM AT BIG NORN'S, YOU CAN KISS MY ASS!
IT'S OUR BELIEF THAT YOU'RE SUCH AN IMPERFECT MOTHERFUCKER THAT YOU'LL FALL TO OUR BULLSHIT, GUARANTEED!
IF YOU FIND A BETTER PLANE, SHOVE IT UP YOUR UGLY ASS, YOU HEARD US RIGHT, SHOVE IT UP YOUR UGLY ASS!
BRING YOUR TRADE, BRING YOUR TITLE, BRING YOUR WIFE, WE'LL COMPLEAT HER, THAT'S RIGHT, WE'LL COMPLEAT YOUR WIFE!
BECAUSE AT BIG MOM NORN'S, YOU'RE FUCKED SIX WAYS FROM SUNDAY!
TAKE A HIKE TO BIG MOM NORN'S!
HOME OF CHALLENGE PLANESWALKING, THAT'S RIGHT, CHALLENGE PLANESWALKING!
HOW DOES IT WORK? IF YOU CAN PLANESWALK SIX SPHERES INTO PHYREXIA AND NOT GET COMPLEATED, YOU GET TO KEEP YOUR FREE WILL!
DON'T WAIT, DON'T DELAY, DON'T FUCK WITH US OR WE'LL RIP YOUR NUTS OFF!
ONLY AT BIG MOM NORN'S, THE ONLY PRAETOR THAT TELLS YOU TO FUCK OFF!
HURRY UP ASSHOLE!
THIS EVENT ENDS THE MINUTE YOU GIVE US YOUR SPARK, AND IT BETTER NOT BOUNCE OR YOU'RE A DEAD MOTHERFUCKER!
GO TO HELL!
BIG MOM NORN'S TREE!
THE FAIR BALISICA' FILTHIEST AND EXCLUSIVE HOME OF THE MEANEST SONS OF BITCHES IN THE PLANE OF PHYREXIA, GUARANTEED!
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I think one of the big missed opportunities with New Phyrexia is how ultimately all the Praetors maybe minus Urabrask are ultimately flattened into a single "take over the multiverse" unit. Elesh Norn dominates the plane, not just in an organisational sense, but an ideological one. Gestures are made towards the idea of disagreements, but the reasoning behind them is fairly shallow. The Praetors are not one big happy Phyrexian family, but why?
Each Praetor should have a specific idea of what Phyrexia is, and these ideas must ultimately come into conflict. Even those who appear to be in alignment should clash as the details of their goals become clear.
So, what do I think each Praetor should be thinking? Here are some brief summaries:
Elesh Norn sees both Phyrexia and compleation as ends into themselves. The purpose of Phyrexia is spread itself across the multiverse, for All to Be One. This is a blessing, a kindness, a way to end conflict and bring unity. Those who oppose Phyrexia are impulsive and selfish, denying themselves and others absolution, in favour of failed ideals such as freedom. Their destruction is a tragedy, but a necessary one. Like the excision of a tumor, it is unpleasant work, but in the end it is an act of healing.
Norn's ultimate goal is a single Phyrexian multiverse. All moves in accordance to its given purpose, a grand, endless machine. But it is not a silent machine. Hymn and prayer will echo through the compleated halls of the multiverse, the song of Phyrexia filling the branches of Realmbreaker. And at the center, Elesh Norn will finally know contentment.
On the surface, Jin-Gitaxias appears to have the same goal as Norn. Both she and the rest of the multiverse have made a critical misjudgement of the Gitaxian mission. When the Orthodoxy says that something will be made Phyrexian, it is an act of replacement. For Jin-Gitaxias, it is an act of consumption, the harvesting of a resource. All that is not Phyrexian will be rendered down, dissected into component parts. The greatest honour that can be given is for these parts to considered worthy of assimilation, to be integrated into Phyrexian perfection. Compleation extracts what is needed, and discards what is not, an endless iteration towards a convergence that may not exist.
For Jin-Gitaxias, there may be no end, no final Phyrexia. The synthesis will simply continue forever, chasing a goal that cannot be found. Or perhaps, once he can see far enough, the greatest secrets of the multiverse will be revealed. In his most fevered moments, Jin-Gitaxias may even consider that Phyrexia itself will become obselete.
As the closest adherent to the ways of Old Phyrexia, Sheoldred sees Phyrexia as a means, rather than an end. She is not superior because is Phyrexian, she is Phyrexian because she is superior. Compleation is a tool, both a reward for the worthy and a punishment for the unworthy. Sheoldred does not need to compleat the multiverse in its entirety. It is simply enough that it bows down before her. As long as the fleshlings know their place and purpose, they can continue to live their worthless lives.
Sheoldred's endgame produces what can, in the most charitable terms, be considered a form of co-existance between the compleat and incompleat. The Phyrexian elite rule, doing as they wish. The rest serve. But the opportunity for compleation is always there, the ascension to a greater form. Those who succeed shall be lauded. Those who fail will wish they had never tried.
Like his closest (?) sister (??), Urabrask sees Phyrexia as the means rather than the end. But while Sheoldred sees it as her tool to subjugate her enemies, Urabrask has come to see Phyrexia and compleation as a path to freedom. To many, it is an alien form of freedom, a freedom from your own limits, from your form and the world around you. You are your own great work, and you define what that means. Phyrexia gives you the tools to achieve it. And if there are those who oppose you? Well. They have the freedom to try. You have the freedom to retaliate until you are free from their opposition.
In the end, Urabrask believes that Phyrexia will be the self-evident choice. There will be no coercion because it will be unecessary. Some will merely dabble with compleation, while others will dedicate themselves fully to Phyrexia. Urabrask claims Phyrexia's victory in this form as an inevitability. Thus, where others claim tolerance, he is truly honest.
Vorinclex claims he has no ideology, no driving principle. He lies, to his followers, to his allies and enemies, and to himself. He believes in the supremacy of strength and violence, a "natural order" that is anything but natural. He desires a world without ideas such as cunning, cooperation or beauty, to him concepts linked only in their lack of worth. Yet these things emerge from nature, a million pressures selecting for their survival. Vorinclex claims thought is the opposite of strength, but he knows in truth it is its own kind of strength.
But the true seed of Vorinclex's madness is that he knows Phyrexia cannot be inevitable or eternal. Change is the only constant, and in time Phyrexia will change until it is no longer Phyrexian. That is if it survives. Like Jin-Gitaxias, Vorinclex carries a forbidden doubt, that Phyrexia can fall, that there is a greater strength waiting in the multiverse. A strength that has no need of Phyrexia.
Other Phyrexian ideologies are available. Perhaps Atraxa's views diverge from her creators, as her child Ixhel diverges from her. Some in the Surgical Bay may find Jin-Gitaxias' arguments insufficent, while the Hunter Maze holds those who reject the brutality of Vorinclex. Because like our own world, no people is a monolith. Every faith has it's heresy, every cause its divisions.
And given how Magic's five colours, well, colour how its worlds exist, so to should they colour New Phyrexia. As Ravnica holds ten guilds, Strixhaven five colleges or Tarkir five clans, New Phyrexia should in truth hold five Phyrexias.
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