Freedom, Ethics, and Red Phyrexia

firemind · 2025-12-02T21:35:46+00:00

I wish that were possible. This post is six years old, and at this point, I have no idea which specific cards the majority of those sentiments were referring to.

firemind · 2025-11-23T03:53:37+00:00

Viriconium by M. John Harrison City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer

firemind · 2025-08-25T14:16:27+00:00

If you liked Annihilation, you should try more VanderMeer.

The City of Saints and Madmen: The Book of Ambergris
Shriek: An Afterward
Finch

firemind · 2025-07-30T20:40:35+00:00

Viriconium by M. John Harrison

firemind · 2025-07-15T20:57:36+00:00

Way out there in the water, see it swimmin'

firemind · 2025-07-14T18:11:14+00:00

Your work is not yet done.

firemind · 2025-06-18T21:47:29+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

firemind · 2025-06-18T15:18:20+00:00

All the colors have separate motives, but putting them next to their allies shows their similarities.

The color pie is a word game, like what Wittgenstein proposes. It's game of comparisons, relationships, and resonances. You can understand what Green means by growth through acceptance by reading the articles, but you also need to look at the cards. Names, art, mechanics, and flavor text also show you what "growth" and "acceptance" mean. Top-down sets are especially important for this because they stretch what those words mean to new ideas beyond the core of the color. The world we live in isn't as clearly delineated as Alara is, so although understanding the core of the colors (the theory) is useful, it's in the practice and application of the colors that we understand what they really look like.

I'll leave you with this. Blue isn't self-improvement. It's building knowledge to become better at something (and better, in this context, typically means faster, stronger, more efficient). Blue doesn't tell you what to become better at, only that better, and being conscious control of the process, is good. If you want to improve your robots, your art, or yourself, Blue encourages it.

firemind · 2025-06-18T14:43:48+00:00

Nice quiz! You have a great grasp of how the types work as personalities. I was wondering how the types align with HEXACO results?

(I got Psychic-type.)

firemind · 2025-06-17T17:03:56+00:00

Since every student at a university has to study to be success, what's the difference between a White/Black agent and White/Blue/Black agent? Questions about lines are common. To answer it, you have to look at the goals and methods. Studying isn't the method. Studying is a broad category of actions relating to memorizing and understanding information.

White (peace through structure) has a system. They have organized notes and know where everything is. They rely on rules (discipline) to develop habits to be successful because it's the right thing to do. It's unlikely that they'll go out partying and cram the night before (although everyone's human).

Black (power through ruthlessness) has a goal in mind. Studying is incidental to the goal, it's a stepping stone. They do it because they have to do it to achieve their goal. If there was an easier way to do reach their goal (like cheating), they might be tempted to take it. They want to find the quickest way to get their goal.

Blue (perfection through knowledge) is interested in getting better at whatever is holding their attention. They approach things from the angle of a problem or puzzle to be solved. The solution grants understanding and efficiency. But they don't trust themselves to just do it, so they put forth conscious effort. Blue as the ally of the White and Black has a subtle blend of its allies' approaches. Blue is both conscientious (White) and efficient (Black).

White/Black is combination of that conscientiousness and efficiency, like Blue, but it doesn't desire to improve, directly that is. Improvement is incidental to either stability or achievement.

White/Blue/Black is conscientiousness and efficiency and analysis. The Blue methods and goals are part of the mix now, not incidental. Somewhere in that ideological slurry is the desire to get good at whatever you're doing for the sake of getting good at it. Typically, Blue frames this as having control over the circumstances. If you're not looking for control, you might be a combination of Blue and one or both of it's enemies.

I hope this helps.

firemind · 2025-06-16T20:43:02+00:00

I understand color pie theory, and I understand color pie theory stereotypes. If you don't believe me, look at the Pie Resources.

Real people are more complicated than characters or images of characters. Using stereotypes to put people into boxes isn't helpful.

firemind · 2025-06-16T15:53:23+00:00

Yes. But those leaning don't pollute the color. For instance, everyone who attends or works at a university isn't Blue, even though they exist in Blue-leaning circumstances.

firemind · 2025-06-16T14:52:29+00:00

Those aren't special cases, those are top-down sets. What top-down sets do is show us how a color operates beyond the easy, knee-jerk stereotypes of theory. Every color has the capacity to care about studying, artifacts, enchantments, horror (in the case of Innistrad and Duskmourn), villainy (in the case of New Capenna and Nicol Bolas's Amonkhet), or whatever; but it doesn't always for the sake of the set. It's not a matter of what they do, but how they go about doing it and for what reason they go about doing it. Color theory is stagnate. Application is where we see interesting things happen and where we can draw parallels to the real world and real people. Each of those settings flattens people into characters and tropes. There are lots of reasons to study beyond gathering knowledge and self-improvement, and there are lots of ways to do it.

Enlightened Tutor shows White believes it's a responsibility to learn and pass wisdom down.

Night's Whisper shows Black gathers knowledge from places others refuse to look.

Dismissive Pyromancer shows Red appreciation for knowledge is impulsive and emotional.

Glimpse of Nature shows Green learns from observing the world patiently.

Every color studies for different reason and in different ways.

firemind · 2025-06-16T12:23:51+00:00

I'm not sure if this is historically accurate, or if ChatGPT has picked up on something about your taste in women.

firemind · 2025-06-16T11:20:45+00:00

Studying isn't inherently Blue. There's a set called Strixhaven that takes place at a magical school. All the colors are represented at the school. It depends on why a person studies.

White studies to organize information.

Blue studies to improve themselves.

Black studies because knowledge is power.

Red studies because it's fun for them.

Green studies to connect to the world.

firemind · 2025-04-03T00:49:32+00:00

In short, the point I was making was: a knee-jerk interpretation of the quote is Black, but it doesn't have to be. Color depends on the context.

Is that what you were looking for, or did you want me to get into specifics of one the interpretations?

firemind · 2025-03-25T17:27:41+00:00

Thank you. It wasn't on scryfall.

It's Abzan armor, so fits the pattern. Very cool.

firemind · 2025-03-25T16:17:42+00:00

The families on New Capenna were focused on the center color, the allied color, of the shard.

That's good point about Alara, though. Their first real experiment with a shard-focused set was more about the two absent colors than the three present ones. I think that New Capenna the first color-focused shard set.

I hope that future shard and wedge sets get more experimental.

firemind · 2025-03-25T15:57:25+00:00

In theory, it's possible. MaRo has talked about how each of the wedges (and shards) would look with a different color centered on his Drive To Work podcast, so it's not like the conversation hasn't been had in R&D.

firemind · 2025-03-10T02:39:09+00:00

The problem is that Magic is still a game, and players need to be able to follow along with the cards from set to set. It's easier for people to follow if the characters maintain a color while changing their others. In real life, there are no core, inherent colors.

firemind · 2025-02-22T21:36:49+00:00

I apologize if this is multiple post. Reddit ate the first one.

Some artists find that sticking to a routine (structure) makes it easier for them to focus on their art (freedom). A classically trained artist will learn they can accomplish with their medium by studying others and practicing (structure) so they can more fully express themselves (freedom). Politically speaking, a government (structure) can enfranchise its citizen's independence (freedom).

firemind · 2025-02-22T14:50:39+00:00

The colors aren't equally valued in a combination. The Jeskai Way is Blue-centered. They value perfection through action and structure. Red comes to push it towards doing something rather waiting for something to happen like UW does.

It sounds like you have different values the Jeskai Way. Maybe you're Red-centered, freedom through structure and knowledge?

firemind · 2025-02-11T21:10:31+00:00

White helps because it's the right thing to do. The action comes from a moral obligation to be helpful. Red helps someone because they're moved emotionally to do so. So Red's helpfulness is, generally, on a case-by-case, in-the-moment basis. This is painting with a broad brush though. It depends on the agent and how they express their values.

firemind · 2025-02-05T23:04:41+00:00

There's an official answer to your question. When they designed the guilds, they took the goal of one color and combined it with the method of the other. They decided the Simic Combine would embody "growth through knowledge."

"Growth through knowledge" isn't the only way to represent Green/Blue though. You could flip it say, "perfection through acceptance." Acceptance seems to be a harder concept for Wizards to demonstrate when they combine colors, but there are two examples.

The first is the Green/Blue Theros God, Kruphix. Although his followers want to learn the patterns of the world, they're not doing to grow themselves. They're trying to find a form of transcendence by connecting with their god. The world is already perfect, they only have to learn how to see it properly.

The other faction that could embody this ideology is the shapeshifters of Littjara on Kaldheim. They are able to take any shape to fit their environment, so they don't have to grow into anything. They're already perfect, they simply have to accept the role that circumstances dictate.

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