Planar Chaos
Planar Profiles: Acornum
Acornum is a world steeped in magic divided into several major regions, each inhabited by a particular race tied to a different form of magic. The plane's name comes from the special place Unicorns hold among the beasts of Acornum, but their numbers plummeted generations ago. Today only five of the original herd remain and they are revered as near deities by the other races of Acornum. The event that caused the other unicorns to disappear became known as the Sealing of Acornum, although its details are uncertain.
Atalanta the Dreamer (UR) resides on a volcanic island that she never physically leaves, according to stories. This mysterious unicorn supposedly spends her days at a divination pool and her nights blessing the dreams of those who appear in her prophecies. She survived the sealing by hiding herself on her island, but now it is theorized that she is trapped there. The dwarves, whose territory she resides near, consider her their greatest treasure and fiercely defend the island from intruders.
Jewel the Valorous (RW) lives on the edges of multiple civilizations in a desert. He sports scars down his side and a crack in his horn from fighting off the war hounds who rounded up the unicorns to be sealed away in some far off place. Many seek his blessing for their endeavors, but he will only give it if one's intentions are noble and their hearts are true. Jewel does not hesitate to kill those who would use his blessings for evil.
Shalkan the Seeker (UG) makes his home near the lively tropical mangroves on a rocky beach covered in wave-smoothed stones that sparkle like a rainbow of gems. He managed to escape the sealing by binding himself to an elven Druid as a familiar, something the other unicorns look down on as beneath their station. Shalkan is an amiable sort who freely approaches travelers to teach them the ways of the land and sea. He can often be found staring out at the seafolk infested ocean as though he is looking for something.
Arabella Resurrected (GB) perished during the sealing, choosing to end her life in the deep bog where faeries buried their dead. She has been born anew in the never ending cycle of death and rebirth and has made it her duty to protect that cycle from abuse. She is far more secretive than her peers, choosing to remain in the bog or deep woods and limit her interactions with all but the faerie queen. Sometimes she leaves the bog and enters the thick woods inhabited by the faeries. Aside from their natural inhabitants, she is the only creature able to navigate the tangle of trees to find clearing and meadows inhabited by her worshippers.
Amalthea the Regretful (BW) roams wherever she feels she is needed, but can often be found in the lands of the elves. She survived the sealing by being transformed into an elven girl by a wizard. Before she was transformed back, however, she fell in love with an elven prince. Torn by her love for the prince and the torture she endured in a mortal body, Amalthea finally made her choice to return to her true form. The prince was stripped of his memories, but Amalthea continued to carry the burden of her past and a longing to return. Those who encounter her are asked whether they wished to return to their past at the expense of their future.
The five main races who inhabit Acornum are the elves, dwarves, faeries, dryads/treefolk, and the seafolk, an amalgamated kingdom of sirens, merfolk, and harpies. This plane does not have human inhabitants, an occurrence theorized by Kyari Alexiona to be related to the plane's large amounts of magic transforming what would be protohumans into the seafolk races.
The elves (UW) have long since abandoned the forests for their high-walled cities. These bastions of civilization dot the central plain as small city-states, and most are built near rivers or other bodies of water for agricultural purposes. Life inside these cities is well-regimented, with things being kept on track by the Enchanters, and elite class of wizards who rule the Elfstone Confederation of city-states. The head of the Enchanters is Aelwe Patris, a gifted wizard with an unruly daughter named Lanara. Small rebel groups of elves who wish a return to the race's roots in nature have abandoned the city-states and taken to the forests to live as their ancestors once did. The Enchanters are wary of these rebels, and suspect an attack on one of their city-states any day now. Scouts mounted upon rocs soar overhead keeping tabs on known rebel camps and the dryads. Birds play an important role in many aspects of everyday life and can often be seen accompanying wizards in their studies. Owls are particularly popular amongst the Enchanters and other officials.
The dwarves (RB) were once great artificers who rapidly used up all the resources in their mountainous home. Many of their greatest treasures were lost in misguided wars with dragons or hastily melted into weapons that were broken and reforged multiple times. While most of the dragon clans have been wiped out, a few still live in the mountains among the bones of their kin. The greed of the dwarves knows no bounds, and it is exemplified in their king, Turann the Dragonsick. Dwarven legend states it was the ancestor of their king who hid away the unicorns by rounding them up with his mighty hounds and sealing them away somewhere only he knew how to reach. The true knowledge died with this ancestor, and now the dwarves jealously guard their last unicorn, Atalanta. Seeking the Unicorn's Vault, as the mythical place of sealing is known, has claimed many a dwarven life but it hasn't stopped King Turann's son from striking out on his own to try. Very little lives in the ruined mountains anymore aside from lizards and scavengers that can eke out a living. The dwarves have been eyeing other regions for their rich farmland and other treasures as their own home is drained more and more.
The fairies (GW) are unique among faerie types on planes. These are not mischievous bugs, but kind-hearted nature lovers in a spiritual alliance with the dryads. Their queen, Glynta, works closely with the unicorn Arabella to maintain the cycle of death and rebirth in the forest. Faeries are stronger together than they are apart, although the help of a faerie-hound (a small creature Kyari Alexiona describes as "a fat sausage of a dog with short legs, perky ears, stubby tail, and a cute snout" but readers should recognize as a Welsh Corgi) as a mount never hurts their abilities. As the years have worn on, Queen Glynta has begun to include her daughter, Feyrun, in the relevant ceremonies. Their thick forest home exists apart from the primary forest inhabited by the dryads.
The dryads and treefolk (GR) are an entirely female, warlike race of nature spirits. Years ago they fought a large-scale war with the elves defending their territories from encroachment and have been living in an uneasy peace. Many elven rebels have found a home with the dryads, who merge with their trees and become treefolk as they age. Their current warrior queen, Daphne, is quite young by their standards, only beginning to merge with her home-tree in the last decade or so. The location of the queen's home-tree is a closely guarded secret, for if a dryad's tree is cut down then she will die. The position of queen is not hereditary since dryads and treefolk technically do not have children in the traditional sense. A single tree can mother dozens of children and father dozens more just based on plant biology. Each of those trees must survive a minimum amount of time before a dryad emerges fully grown. The current heir apparent is Yldan, a fiery sapling of a girl. Many beasts inhabit these forests, but all know which trees to avoid.
The seafolk (UB) live beyond the edges of the mangroves on the rocky barrier islands and reefs shielding this stretch of coast from the open sea. Merfolk, Sirens, and Harpies make up their numbers but their ruler is the harpy Celaeno. They rarely allow ships to venture near their homes, calling storms, entrancing sailors, or making the seas roil to bring vessels to their doom. Little is known about their culture(s) or physiology since they are highly secretive, but the general consensus is that the seafolk are hiding something. Explorers have found little beyond the barrier islands except for large monsters that seem to come at the beck and call of the merfolk.
Kyari Alexiona has taken an interest in this plane due to its unique set of circumstances and lack of humans. She visits periodically to conduct surveys of life and chronicle how the plane is progressing. Of particular note to this planeswalker naturalist is how the mana flow of the plane seems to be out of place, like something is siphoning it into the sea between the mangroves and barrier islands.
Odom has struck up a friendship with the amiable Shalkan, who considers the eccentric biomancer to be the latest in a line of magically-inclined mortals to work with. Perhaps this one's strange magic will help the unicorn finally find what he's been looking for.
AN: I'm so excited to finally bring this to you all. I've been working on Acornum for years at this point, pulling different color identity influences from different sets/blocks/planes to build out a unique High Fantasy world with plenty of (obvious) literary, mythological, and even video game influences. I've got a great, super involved story coming up with even more original characters for the Chaos Crew to interact with, and we might even see them interacting with each other for a bit without a major PC character as part of it. Think of this as my foray into the world of MTG novels. :P