April 7, 2024

Vox Maxima Story Spotlight 3 — The Million Eyes

What follows here is a discussion of what, if I had the means and writer tools to make my Custom Magic set have proper story spotlight material, it’d look like this, it’d be built out of this. This is basically about story mechanics underlying a game system, and I want to present it to you so you can have a handle on what it looks like when I’m trying to explain game narratives for the presentation of conventional narratives.

This third section indicates the midpoint of the story and the collapse of a lot of hopeful ideas; this is where the party meets with the Jatku Outcasts in their jungle fortress, and learns the horrible truths about the Necrocalypse, the Emperor, and the truth of the dead woman Jatku, mother to one of the Princesses.

Vox Maxima is a custom magic set created by Talen Lee. It’s composed of 187 cards, with 71 commons, 60 uncommons, 41 rares, and 15 mythic rares. Vox Decima is a custom Magic: The Gathering set, with at least one card spoiled a day, on Cohost, Kind.Social, and the r/custommagic subreddit.

WOTC Employees: This post in full presents unsolicited custom Magic: The Gathering card designs, which I understand current employee practices forbid you from looking at unsolicited. You shouldn’t be here!

Goals

  • This should represent the first major space for revelations about the assumptions of the setting. The characters are far from the Imperial heart and are never going to get back to it – the rest of the story is an arc around and away from this central hub of control.
  • Express the Jatku character:
    • Show the resilient nature of the Swarm. Characters can be killed and restored reasonably easily – perhaps show a major character dying and then them returning to life later in a new body grown from a cocoon.
    • Show the interconnectedness of the Swarm. Jatku characters are always communicating – where the hum of the swarm is, these characters are basically ‘online’ and able to readily transmit information to one another. This means they often seem to be arguing with people who aren’t there, muttering or talking to themselves.
    • Establish key terms; the Million Eyes as a term for themselves, the Process and Being Processed to refer to the transformation from non-insectile Jatku creatures to the insectile type of creatures they are now.
    • Show that Jatku are fundamentally not anchored to single bodies: Single insects are vessels for souls that flow from source to source – it’s hard to kill a Jatku wholly because you need to kill everything that they can attach their souls to, and it assumes that a Jatku’s soul is isolated in the one spot to start with.
    • Show the attitudes of the Jatku towards the Empire: some want to be entirely isolated from it, some want to actively consume the Empire, some want to share their Process with the Empire.
  • Show another example of a Planeswalker character that also, cannot Planeswalk in Elise, and how she is drawn to something about Primrose.
  • Present the first major threat to the characters; small threats like rogues and bandits and people who don’t recognise their importance is one thing. The Jatku recognise these characters as being emissaries from the Empire and they are angry at them. The Jatku characters who have interests in exploiting the protagonists are all competing with one another and at war with someone shepherding them through the space.
  • Explain who Jatku was, as a person.
    • Present her as a thoughtful, dedicated researcher whose willingness to focus on her research and refusal to give up on the importance of nature.
    • Present her relationship to the Emperor as being initially a respectful peer but somehow turning extremely negative. The Jatku as a faction hate the Emperor even if they’re not sure why. It is a ‘shared instinct,’ which they do not realise is Jatku’s influence in the Million Eyes.
    • This should be also used to resonate with Ksen, her biological daughter, and Jatku II, who is Jatku’s original body reanimated by the emperor.
  • Present a conflict between Cazas and Cura. Cura is going to remain behind and become a Jatku, and she shares the story of seeing the Emperor’s mass graves as part of her inevitable break. While this is also a chance for Jatku II to leave the group, we don’t want the group to fracture wholly at this point. Cazas II’ eventual allegiance is ambiguous – write to what you think works best. Cazas II may wind up working well as a villain at the final arc or she may be the redeemable replacement for the emperor based on the love she has for her sisters.
  • Reveal that the Necrocalypse happened, and there was a period of rebuilding after it. This is an obvious problem with the ten year time period.
  • End with the characters escaping the Jatku. There’s a conflict here, a real source of potential harm that Cura winds up holding back as her friends escape.
  • Mention and direct the characters to the Research Bubble that Jatku left in the ocean, which puts them in the path of the Aszyt.
  • Represent that Niamh can truly understand people who differ so much from her and her holistic view of empathy has a purpose and a place, even with the alien minds of the Jatku.
Ksen, Jatku Heir 4U Legendary Creature — Human Insect This spell costs 2 less to cast for each poisoned opponent you have. Ksen can’t be blocked. 2: You lose a poison counter. Ksen’s owner draws a card. Only your opponents may activate this ability. 3/2 ---Other Side--- The Necrocalypse 4BG Enchantment — Saga I - Destroy all creatures and planeswalkers II - Destroy all artifacts and other enchantments III - At the beginning of each player's next end step, they get three poison counters.
"Elise, Cunning Infiltrator 1B Legendary Planeswalker — Annelise Starting Loyalty: 1 As long as it’s your turn or Elise is in any zone other than your hand or library, she’s a 1/1 Human creature that’s is still a planeswalker. 0: Elise gets +X/+0, where X is the number of loyalty counters on her until end of turn and can’t be blocked this turn. +1: Each opponent who was attacked this turn discards a card."
"Belisari, Jatku Messenger BGU Legendary Creature — Human Insect Horror Protection from players Belisari, Jatku Messenger is attacking. Whenever Belisari attacks, for each opponent it’s not attacking, create two 1/1 black and green Insect creature tokens that are tapped and attacking that opponent. “A Million Eyes! One hatred!” 2/3"
"Coronat the Approachable BGU Legendary Creature — Human Insect Horror Deathtouch At the beginning of each opponent’s end step, you may have Coronat fight up to one target creature they control that didn’t attack or enter the battlefield this turn. When this ability resolves, if a creature died this turn, create a Food token. “Impatience? Tediously human.” 1/7"
"Bolbo Sera, Endless Voice BGU Legendary Creature — Insect Shaman At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a counter from a permanent you control. Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a +1/+1 counter on it.) The Million Eyes’ calmest voice. 3/3"
"Jatku’s Immortal Truth 1BGU Legendary Enchantment As long as Jatku’s Immortal Truth isn’t on the battlefield, it’s a 1/1 Insect creature in addition to its other types. At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, create a 1/1 black and green Insect creature token. Insect creatures you control have flying. The Million Eyes is a horrifying underestimation."

Characters

The Jatku swarm is spread out over a huge area with their own territory, reaching from the edges of a desert on one border of the empire into a vast sprawling jungle with stone structures and hives throughout. Homes are seen as places to put bodies, not places that need to necessarily be lived in. Jatku can be extremely mobile and stay in the same spot at the same time, thanks to The Process.

  • Elise is a human thief running from the Cremains traders in the desert that are on the edges of the society. She is found first in the ruins of a Jatku raid where a city is flattened and grown over with insects and plants. Elise feels strangely unaffected by the Jatku, and does not understand why she feels no empathy or care for the horrors of war she discovers. This is to reflect the way that part of Elise’s soul is trapped in another world thanks to her Spark.
  • Coronat the Approachable is the first Jatku ‘boss monster’ seen. She is very patient and keeps her distance from the group. She does not seem to stalk them but she is always ahead of the group as they progress. They’re passing different bodies she’s left around. When they do approach her, she’s cordial and polite but she also is very clear about how the further they move into Jatku territory, the more they will need to become Jatku.
  • Belisari is a direct daughter of Jatku, just like Ksen, but where Ksen is a wanderer curious about secrets for their own sense, Belisari wants to attack the Empire on principle. She is explicitly enraged by the idea of the intruders in her space, and pursues the group. The fact there are so many of her and how hard she is to track when she’s hunting people comes up here.
  • B’aktu is a vast, moving swarm, a huge cloud of insects that seems completely apathetic to the presence of others. B’aktu moves like a kaiju and should be encountered like a weather event. The story of B’aktu can be explained by Primrose communing with the insects in the swarm and be one of the demonstrations to Elise that Primrose is special somehow.
  • Ksen is a ‘seeker,’ someone interested in finding something mysterious and true that is ‘waiting to be known.’ This is how she learned a long time ago about the Necrocalypse. She is free to volunteer this tale when it is asked of her and even offers it to the heroes when she is hunting them – she may even offer to tell it to them before they die as a sort of ritual, and that may be the chance to open negotiations with Ksen. Ksen does not want to kill or hurt Jatku II.
  • Bolbo is a seer and priestly type, and happy to explain to the party what they do not know. He is diplomatic and kind, and even gets up when killed – Ksen or Elise might kill him in surprise at some point visiting his temple, and he will get up in another body and try to reassure them that everything is okay. Bolbo was a human whose Process was absolute and complete – he is now completely disconnected from humanity and considers negotiating with them an act of care.
  • Jatku, the original, is a presence throughout – whispering information to Primrose in a confusing cacophany of voices whenever she tries to commune with a bug in the space, and then directly ordering Jatku pursuing the heroes, interrupting them at opportune moments for escape. Jatku is alive but disordered – she is too wide, spread too far, and it makes it hard for her to consider slower, more immediate concerns. The Process will help everyone, eventually.

Scene

  • The crew travel across the desert with Ravite towards the Jungle. Along the way they see Kraivh settlements that make a living by testing the desert dust and sifting Cremains from the sandstorms.
  • Ravite returns to the college but warns them about the dangers presented by the jungle, and the insects there.
  • The group continue on their journey and find a destroyed settlement in a crater, a ruin that had been turned from a town into a hive, with no people visibly alive in it except the lone thief Elise, who is struggling with how she feels about what she saw. Elise begs to travel with the group, and they take her.
  • The group begins a cat and mouse game with the Jatku responsible for the destruction of the settlement, Coronat the Approachable. Coronat is always a step ahead of the group, and when they approach her is the only time she doesn’t harrass them. They eventually realise there are multiples of her and they are set up so the party can always approach her and speak to her, if they are unafraid.
  • The group progress into Jatku territory, where they encounter Jatku factions in no particular order. Some of these encounters are terrifying and some are mysterious, but they all leave the group with the feeling that they are under siege and helpless in the face of implacable and unnatural forces.
  • The group finally follow clues until they come to a research station owned by Jatku herself. In this, Jatku II sees what she thinks is a polished mirror in which she can see herself but Kraivh IV shows her is a diagram of Jatku the original. They talk about how it matters to be your mother’s child, and how they both wish they could remember their mothers.
  • The research station responds to Jatku II’s body, strangely, and reveals to them a lot of research, explaining the process and finally presenting them with part of Jatku’s diary. In this diary she explains a lot of things about the emperor’s degeneration over time, the timeline of the Necrocalypse and about the idea that ‘the memory is in the brain, meaning that if you can reanimate a brain, you can choose what memories to bring back.’ The diary is written in Jatku II’s specific voice and cadence and uses her idioms and metaphors.
  • The research station is attacked and the group are brought to Bolbo for negotiation, where he refuses to be protected by guards. The group kill him a few times. He eventually negotiates with them some information, gets Ksen to settle down in her hunt of them.
  • Belisari shows up to the negotiations and says that Jatku II is a zombie of her mother. She’s not totally wrong. She demands to fight. Cura steps in to defend Jatku II, and gives the others a chance to escape.
  • Belisari, Ksen and Cura fight to a standstill. Cura finally admits now that the others are far away, why she was willing to stay here to fight and her horror at the emperor. She asks to understand the Process, and next time is seen as a cool wasp lady.
  • The remaining princesses head to the time bubble revealed in the diary and by Bolbo – out to the ocean, knowing this puts them in the path of the Aszyt.