EVERYTHING You Need To Know About Innistrad: Midnight Hunt

[Music] innistrad midnight hunt our return to a dark world that's overcome so many dark days again darkness comes for innistrad shadows grow larger night lasts longer as werewolves howl in the distance we can find no better introduction for a discussion on innistrad midnight hunt than a simple letter penned by arlen cord to my dear friend vadrick i regret to write this but i must face the truth daylight is losing its battle against an invading knight this autumn in the provinces is crisper than usual the harvest harsher the night leaves a skin of frost on the pumpkin fields and on the last clinging leaves on the casting woods no tentacled horrors have been seen since the closing the travails and the keaney mother sleeps peacefully behind the face of the moon but i've heard farm folk whisper of wrongness since that time a misstep of the ticking hours a bend in the shape of darkness i fear not all was put right after the travails and on this world there are always those who will take advantage of the darkness of course i hear the howls in the night at first kissingers called it a blessing from sargarta that since the travails those howls always died out lonely plants to an uncaring moon but more and more the wolf sounds echoes and multiply full and strong and yearning a chorus of savage throats in their way the robots are celebrating they celebrate their hot breaths embracing air the smell of flesh in their nostrils the bending of their skeletons timed to an emergence of the moon they celebrate that night constricts the day to a few dwindling pale hours and they celebrate the belief that night will soon be theirs as i pen this i hear my own pack whimpering in the woods behind me i feel the urgent way they pawed the earth how their heart beats quicken as they look back into the dark and elven wall i know they feel the pool of the howl for i feel it too we must seek a way to put things right and soon ever your friends arlen [Music] through all the turmoil and disasters that have occurred on innistrad its most defining test was the invasion of the eldrazi titan emerical we've covered this event the story of shadows over innistrad and eldritch moon which you can find recapped in the video displayed now for the benefits of this video the lasting effects of this cataclysm seem to be more subtle than many originally believed no scions of emerical wander the forests none of the twisted abominations created under the eldrazi's influence remain on the surface of innistrad things appear business as usual while emerical's presence has apparently been scrubbed from the plane her power still remains locked within in astrid's moon and there the titans pressure can be felt today of course that's not to say the events of eldritch moon had no lasting effect at all on an estrad of course we understand the church and ranks of angels were decimated and while there seems to be no more shambling emerical minions there are other unintended consequences because of the gravity of the threat facing innistrad the gatewatch who defended the plane from emerald went to desperate lengths to save it namely the necromancer liliana vest who went far above her normal necromancy to defeat the eldrazi summoning the largest horde of undead innistrad had ever seen located in a single place true these zombies were under liliana's control and they helped segureth gatewatch's victory but what was to happen to them after the gatewatch left innistrad liliana isn't really known for her foresight into such problems to the planeswalker it's the plane's problem attacks if you would for her assistance she couldn't be bothered with simply unsummoning them so they remained in the fallen holy city of thraben shambling ensuring thraben could never be restored to its former glory a city of the dead while this is grave news for most mortals of innistrad it's quite the boon for at least one the famous necromancer gisa gisa took this golden opportunity and moved into thraben claiming control of the countless undead there she became the ruler of thraben making it her home and viciously defending it from other would-be necromancers and liberating cathars eventually though these attacks slowed as three men settled into the undead ruin people see it as today and with that settling gissa grew bored the last drop of excitement for her reign came with an unlikely suitor a handsome man named wilhelt wilheltz believed giza to be the most beautiful woman he had ever set his eyes on having never been rejected before the arrogant will held asked for gis's hand and was abruptly and unceremoniously denied shaken but never dismayed wilhelt tried again and again to get gis's attention but she was far more interested in her undead forces than him wilhelth in desperation used magic to turn himself into a far more conscious version of an undead keeping his wits and necromatic powers but still living in undeath hoping to become the man or the corpse of gisa's dreams but still gissa turned him away gizza only cared about her undead army not a single undead minion so if gisso wants an army wilhelt was gonna give her an army he scoured in a stride raising as many undead as he could hoping to present them to gissa as a wedding gift but as he finally marched to thraben with this force giza saw it as a challenge and she quickly met the zombies with her own in combat easily swatting away the betrayed wilhelt gissa grew tired of wilheld's advances and for the last time shunned him but she too grew tired of thraben declaring her intentions to move from the fallen city and visit her brother the famous stitcher giroff for what surely would be an argumentative reunion for now thraben is slowly being cleared of the undead maybe in time it can regain its status as the center of human society a place of safety not the undead landscape it has become in the wake of the battle with emerical but as big of a change as this was to the surface of innistrad the eldrazi's influence in the sky was far worse locking emerical in the moon at the time seemed to be the gatewatch's best choice at sparing innistrad from a terrible fate but no discussion was pursued about how the otherworldly ethereal titan would affect something as important as this astral body innistrad's moon isn't just a pretty object in the night sky nor does it simply control the tides the moon itself is magical moonsilver holds special properties which can contain magic thus why it makes such a suitable prison for emrakul it also was this moon rock that the hell volt was created again a containment for dark beings such as demons beyond that the moon has clear influence over the nocturnal denizens of innistrad beings such as werewolves and ghosts directly gain their power from the moon's light a magic triggered and based on the intensity of the lunar phases there's no question that innistrad's moon holds magical prominence over innistrad itself and what happens when that power suddenly is influenced by an eldrazi titan the moon of innistrad now hangs longer in the sky days have shortened the knight has taken clear control over the plane as humanity huddles anxiously for greater stretches of time a foreboding feeling extends over the populace innistrad is slowly edging towards eternal night this is not so much a foreign concept however innistrad does go through natural cycles of solstice summer and winter days and nights both ebb and flow in length but this this is different days have always been shorter during the winter farmers understand that better than most but daylight now is almost non-existent and they grow shorter with each passing day the moon hangs heavy in the sky rebuking the natural order perhaps compelled by the eldrazi within these long nights only began as the locking sigil placed on the moon by the gatewatch namely nissa vervain faded from the moon's surface perhaps signaling that emerical has finally settled within her constraints which doesn't bode well for innistrad the never faltering presence of the moon in innistrad's sky only spells doom for the humans of innistrad which is the only race that doesn't directly gain some kind of benefit from the astral body's magic the only people who can use this rather obscure power are the rarely found astral mages such as the archmage vodrick fajrik trained with the most prodigious astromancer of innistrad generic who spent his entire lifetime studying the power of innistrad's moon and harnessing it into knowledge and spells it was actually genrik's research that so intrigued the plane's walking moon folk tamio who also studied the effects of innistrad's moon generic sadly has passed on but his work continues with vodrick who uses astral magic to take back the knight for humanity sadly this order of mages is rather small while the evils of innistrad have already mastered the night beasts like werewolves vampires ghouls and geists all extract some magical benefit from night werewolves with their transformations vampires with their bloodlust they all crave the dark and with dark encompassing all of innistrad eternally powerful forces gather to seize their opportunity feasting in this midnight hunt fueled by the corruption of emerical [Music] whether due to its eldritch prisoners influence or a natural occurrence there's no doubt that the knights of innistrad are growing longer a cold wind creeps through every hamlet a dusting of frost acting as an unsettling omen for the harsh winter to come this is autumn and autumn on innistrad is merely the closing hours of a dying sun and the light it heralds of course with the growing darkness many supernatural creatures feel emboldened either comfortable skulking in the shadows or physically enhanced by the magic of the moon itself with werewolves clearly being categorized in the latter group werewolves or lycanthropes have always been key monsters in the ecosystem of innistrad werewolves are humans who have contracted lycanthropy typically through either a curse or contact with another werewolf while the sun shines above them a werewolf can live a relatively normal life showing no signs outwardly of their disease but in the glow of the moon the curse activates and the person painfully grows in size as their frame stretches and fills with muscle claws and teeth the higher the moon the more beastial the werewolf in this state the afflicted will hunt howl and be drawn to other werewolves forming packs no memory of their former lives can be recalled they would kill their own family if they could the only thing a werewolf concerns itself with is hunting and eating until the break of day shows the afflicted the terrible things they've done and this is the role werewolves played on innistrad for years outcasts who abandoned their homes their families their societies because they feared what they'd do in the moonlight humans too feared werewolves true many lycanthropes were indeed victims but that fact brings little comfort to a farmer whose family was massacred during a nightly hunt werewolves are considered untrustworthy who can say that the human they pretended to be doesn't in some way enjoy the wild hunt this only widened the gap between human society and the werewolves they shunned as the woods started to see entire settlements devoted to the sufferers of this curse deliverance appeared before them in avicen the powerful archangel took pity on the beasts who prayed for any form of salvation while avacyn was strong her holy magic capable of great miracles the angel feared lycanthropy was beyond her reach the cursed bound itself to the soul of the afflicted human if she were to purge the wild spirit from the sufferer the victim too would be killed there was no way to separate a human from the werewolf inside however there was a workaround avacyn could bring harmony to the warring spirits balance to the human and the wolf in a flash avacyn cast the curse mute which rippled throughout all of innistrad this strong spell affected all those who suffered with lycanthropy fusing the souls and creating the wolf ear the wolfier are those who are permanently stuck in their werewolf form but their soul is still decidedly human their memories thoughts feelings all remained human it was the best the angel could offer but still it was a blessing beyond comprehension as such the wolfier were bound by holy service powerful guardians for humanity a duty they proudly served as the wild protectors of innistrad until that is the day the cursed mute ended with the fall of avison during the eldritch moon crisis the angel could no longer uphold the curse mute and this temporary remedy for the werewolves came to an end as was the case for most of innistrad's history werewolves again reverted to their more natural state again shifting between human and beastial form hunting at night looking to satiate a blood hunger that was uncontrollable the guardians of humanity again became one of their biggest threats but with everything on innistrad it's not all black and white as the cursed mute did not quote unquote cure every werewolf with some not becoming wolfier but remaining in their standard cursed state so too did the spell's end not simply turn every wolfier back into mindless killers some became more in tune with their animalistic side cherishing it even taking it as their new identity leading them to abandon their humanity and believe themselves to be something more something above the humans they used to be the powerful entity that now resides in innistrad's moon has also led to the appearance of what are known as dire strain werewolves these are unusually large and strong werewolves surprising given how these monsters are already remarkably strong but still the dire strains stand taller than the rest there is no direct evidence that the latent eldrazi influence on the moon has caused these dire strains to appear but the coincidence can't be ignored as these hulking beasts now make up the majority of werewolves hunting at night because werewolves have been ostracized for most of their history it's only natural that when a werewolf is more clear of thought to want to distance themselves from the people who hate and vilifies them this new breed of werewolves are those cursed but not hollow intelligent but vying to taste the freedom offered to them in the wilds this was the beginning of the how packs deep in the woods from kessig across the dark corners of innistrad these groups of werewolves collected and formed new societies as they separated further and further from the society they were born to they grew more accustomed to their new families the pack they have a far more beastial understanding to the world than normal humans they even go so far as to bond with wolves and not just other werewolves wolves see werewolves as alphas and naturally gravitate towards them joining their packs sequestered away from human society also leads their humanity to atrophy and from that we get the rise of tovalar tovalar is a particularly powerful and influential werewolf who has quickly became the undisputed alpha of the largest health pack on innistrad through guile brutality and rearing tovalar has cultivated the mentality that the wild heart beating every werewolf's chest should beat proud and free the humans that wander into their woods at night are no more their allies than a deer that they are prey nothing more and nothing less a collar meant to be cast aside violently if need be it was this same philosophy tolvolar fed to a young arlen cord a girl affected with lycanthropy but brought up within the values of the church who still clung to her old religious teachings of togetherness and community tovalar tried and failed to teach this pop his new view of the world it never stuck but far many more were seduced by his convictions no longer would werewolves be pitiful sufferers of a disease no longer will they resort to exile no longer would they protect the people who despised them with the coming winter and the long nights tovalar and his how pack intend to take far more than just the woods back [Music] one mystery to come out of in a stride midnight hunt was our introduction to a concept simply referred to as the travails it was dropped in a few cards flavor text and seemed to be the given name of an event in innistrad's history but no further context was immediately available even now with midnight hunt laid bare people still seem confused about what the travails actually refers to to put it plainly the travails is the given name for the events that occurred during shadows over innistrad and eldritch moon surprisingly the denizens of innistrad focus much more on the memory of the maddened angels than the appearance of the eldrazi while a giant tentacle monster attacking their world and turning well everything into corrupted monstrosities seemed just too mundane for their history books angels attacking humans apparently was noteworthy as the years passed and those dark days faded to memory those who survived these events went on to refer to them as the travails if you're unfamiliar with the word travail means to go through a painful or laborious effort which given the context used here seems rather apt for the people of innistrad all in all this was just a quick include because the travails wasn't really presented all too well to the playerbase even now in a post-travails innistrad callbacks to the significance of avacyn and her church can be seen throughout innistrad midnight hunt represented in the various broken and reforged sigils of avacyn during the events of shadows over innistrad in the fall of avison her symbol that which the church of avacyn adopted two became twisted and corrupted bent unnaturally to match the madness of the angel herself rather than dispose of these fallen idols the people of inner strat instead reforged them crudely with whatever material they had on hand reforging them with hand-cut stone loose clay and twigs with twine these no longer represent the angel avacyn but rather humanity's perseverance and self-reliance though no angel can come to fix their world now the people of innistrad can and will heal from the travails [Music] as the travails destroyed the faith humanity placed in their once angelic protectors their greatest symbol of hope avacyn being the force responsible for their ultimate betrayal the church that was founded with her at their head too was destroyed the church of avison once stood as a beacon for the good on innistrad the greatest weapon the day had against night fueled by the powerful magic of the plane's walking vampire soarin but still all too corruptable while avacyn succumbed to the maddening voices of emiracle the church itself fell to a more domestic corrupting influence greed and demons high ranks of the church of edison were infiltrated by members of the skursdag cult a group of demon worshippers looking to resurrect their lost lord gristlebrand who avison imprisoned years ago and who was ultimately killed by liliana vess failing to revive their demonic leader the cults gutted their way through the already weakened church of avison hoping to find a new master to worship the lunar council the military branch the inquisition of the church quickly became a den of cultists now led by a former priest named jaron jaron pivoted from resurrecting gristlebrand who was utterly destroyed by the planeswalker liliana vs to the demon ormond hall who slumbered in the deep caverns beneath the cathedral hiding from addison's justice but as the angels and the church waned jaron finally put his colt's plan into motion and summoned orman hall as ormond hall whispered to jaron and the other skirts dag cultists the demon's influence grew though he was not a new force on innistrad ormond hull has been corrupting the innocence of the plane for years twisting minds and enslaving wills at one point even turning a young woman into a puppet having her commit horrendous murders in his name the demon was eventually stopped by the then mortal kathar traft but it took the holy warrior's life to do so now in current day innistrad ormond hall stirs once again beneath the west valley abbey as jaren completes the ritual to bring his master into the world just on the eve emerical appears on innistrad with the arrival of the eldrazi many mortal and immortal beings were corrupted it seems even the corrupters of innistrad too weren't spared from the otherworldly influence of emerical in the end the fall of ormond hall after the demon's short reign as leader of both the skirts dag cult and the corrupted lunar council didn't come at the hands of an angel or a planeswalker but the eldrazi the demons influence its power of persuasion was overridden by emerical's whispers its mental assault proving insurmountable jaron and the rest of the cultists were killed during the battle of thraben and their leader orman hall withered back to the twisty nether from once he came culminating in the dramatic end of both the church of avison and the skirtstag cult while a major demonic cult and the leading religious institution on ennistrad may have fallen with the travails that's not to say these two opposing forces are forever scrubbed from the plane so long as light and dark exists on innistrad demons and angels will forever clash for demons during the midnight hunt they continue to pry on the desperate humans who look for some shelter some sense of safety in a world hell bent on devouring them with most of the angels dead due to the travails hope is waning as people claw at whatever could bring them balance even if their savior would be a prince of darkness themselves as the sun sits lower in the sky and night becomes more prominent people begin to unearth ancient knowledge dark magic that promises them that hope that they so crave from dusty tomes and hidden runes legend of a being known as the buried one arise yes it is a demon but its domain is that of the dead and it is there he likes to keep the deceased the old tales tell of a noble demon one who is rational pragmatic and even reasonable unlike some of his more evil cousins it's even said that in years past the buried one parlayed with an archangel certainly if an angel trusted this buried one the people of innistrad could as well right the buried one claims dominion over those who have died and thus necromancers ghouls zombies stitchers guys and ghosts they're all an affront to his purpose the buried one wishes to bring back the silence of night so that the dead stay dead in another time this could be called the blessed sleep by the church of avison today on innistrad people call it a fantasy of course if the buried one could do this for humanity isn't it worth a shot humans are so desperate that even this sounds reasonable deal with a demon just to stop the haunting and hungry dead still opposite of the demons and other dark forces are those angels who survived the travails not only with their lives but with their minds still intact while the church of avison may have fallen one archangel stood against her sisters to restore and protect humanity in their darkest time sigarda now the symbol of the church is that of a heron her relatively small flight isn't enough to push back the coming night though it cannot protect everyone on innistrad but still it's one of the few things former priests can cling to from their old lives that angels regardless of how many still fly to their defense take kyler guardian emissary a man who had once praised avacyn before her fall he was one of the first of the former priests who saw cigarda as the last flicker of light on the side of humanity he carried with him the word of sagarda spreading the angel's deeds during the travails through cities and townships he brought word of sagarda's glory and mercy at a time when angels no longer represented either warrior cathars again picked up arms and holy spells to fight alongside their angelic partners with the collapse of the avison church in the lunar council a new order rose up the order of saint draft talented cathars who abandoned the corruption of the church including audrick and thalia formed a new organization that would actually uphold their high values together with the geist of saint draft the order of saint draft was forged in the fires of the travails and stand as the growing military arm of sigard's followers who do not fight for sagarta herself but for her ideals many great warriors were forged during the travails their faith hammered like steel plunged in the cold waters of their eldrazi foes such figures as adeline resplended cathar stood from the fray risking everything to fend off the hordes of emrakul while she led a force into battle her home was left defenseless easy pickings for vampires who took advantage of the chaos adeline's own brother was abducted for what reason it's still unknown adeline doesn't know if her brother still lives but in helping secure innistrad's future she's also began a personal campaign against the vampires slaying as many as she can get her hands on all in the pursuit of knowledge of her lost family oh and shonda nalar may or may not have a crush on this noble fighter another gallon figure of the cathar order is one rem carlos the stalwart slayer in the days before the travails rem was just another albeit extremely talented cathar of the church of avison he held the church's ideals yes but wasn't so blinded by them to follow avison in her corruption he actually was the one who found avison spear the one she dropped upon her on making with this ancient artifact rim returned to the newly formed order of saint draft where he handed the spear over to thalia and it went on to help end the madness of innistrad rem himself wanted desperately to face this abomination this emerald in combat but was unable to reach the flying monster after the travails rem found the largest griffin he could and tamed it taking to the skies on his new flying mount meaning that he would never again miss out on any foe now during the midnight hunt however he faces folklore and bedtime stories made real as he investigates the haunting figure known simply as old stick fingers while angels continue to be a dwindling site on innistrad new angels are starting to pop up although not so much new as very very old so old that many people have forgot they existed at all the flight of dusk was an ancient group of angels on innistrad who existed prior to avison's creation they were led by the archangel liza and always filled a rather niche role on innistrad rather than wage war with the forces of darkness as many of their sisters did liza and her flight bargain with demons devils and geists liza figured if these dark forces could think and communicate then perhaps they could learn a thing or two about their enemy maybe even break bread with them all for the benefit of mankind of course if you kill a demon their essence fades from the world for a short time only to reforge and return later on if you bargain with them come to an understanding maybe humans would be better off in the long run that was the philosophy of the flight of dusk and their leader liza the reason why this flight was lost to innistrad resulted from the arrival of abason avison drew a hard line in the sand any who parlayed with demons was no true angel despite her noble intentions liza and her flight crossed that line avacyn purged their ranks and forbid the utterance of their names for years to come but on innistrad the dead rarely stay dead for long sometimes that even means angels as it turns out the demon known simply as the buried one well that was the demon liza was dealing with before she was killed by avacyn the buried one bargained with liza to keep the dead dead on innistrad a deal was struck and the two entities were tied as liza and the buried one were killed in holy fire the buried one did what all demons do and collected his essence within the blind eternities and slowly reformed himself on innistrad and thanks to their deal liza the archangel of dusk did the same coming back into the world along with her partner eliza sees innistrad in a state she can hardly comprehend her sisters the other flights fall into madness and slayed the dead scour the world night lasts longer and longer and the buried one has also returned when in the past liza came to parlay with the demon the buried one now shows his true demonic colors a demon can hardly be trusted no matter how reasonable they may seem while he would control the undead on innistrad it was a ploy to increase his own power he would make himself lord of the dead using them as his own personal army using the threat of undeath to rule innistrad something apparent even to the lowly cultists who in desperation summoned the buried one back into this realm as the buried one devours those lost souls responsible liza the fallen archangel appears again to call an end to their bargain though one demon is stopped there are still countless threats facing humanity although different from the angels of the past liza still ultimately hopes to save the innocent now during the midnight hunt the flight of dusk is reforged a new archangel lends her wings to the fight to bring back the dawn [Music] with so many angels gone humans seek alternate ways to secure their homes and families while some try in vain to bargain with demons others attempt ancient magic and even witchcraft to help fend off the dark though witches have always been present on innistrad there's one organization long lost to the public eye a group that practices witchcraft not out of selfish malevolence but for the good of humanity and with the coming midnight hunt their reappearance couldn't be more timely they're known as the dawn heart coven the dawn heart coven and their hedge witches back to the earliest recorded dates we have for innistrad they were founded long before the birth of avacyn nearly a thousand years ago in those days before the archangel humanity still struggled against the forces of darkness but carved out their own existence how without the help of avacyn the answer witchcraft powerful spells that utilized one of the most abundant human resources and turned it into a weapon against the creatures of the night that resource being hope hope itself is a type of magic on an astrad with avison's creation soren markov specifically used hope and faith as a sort of energy mechanism to fuel evasin's power knowing that these beliefs were a true source of magic as avacyn was fueled by hope so too were other angels but before and after humans had hope and faith in themselves hope when astrad works more effectively the more of it you have in a certain area the more people joyously celebrating together means a more powerful spell can be cast and it was this type of magic that the dawn hard coven specialized in when angels weren't enough to guard humanity from the dark their spells of hope and faith protected the weak and innocent when avacyn appeared the hope was directed towards her and the dawn heart coven's influence faded to history the group went dormant waiting in their earthen hovels until innistrad needed them once again the witches of the dawn heart coven are actually more closely related to druids than traditional witches on innistrad these are not your typical tattered old necromancers cursing any traveler they see these are individuals with strong ties to nature and the abundant life around them this is expressed visually in their garb the don hart coven clad themselves in natural leather hides with sticks mud and moss covering their skin they wear elaborate headdresses and masks made of animal bones believing they bring them closer to the wilds their other spells aside from those of hope almost exclusively relate to druid or shamanistic effects growing vegetation often thorns being one of the most common spells for this coven while the dawn heart coven didn't worship avison as much as the rest of innistrad had that's not to say that they were completely without a religious base most of these witches instead worshipped an ancient deity a god of innistrad's past known as grindanu this is a primordial god of the earth and nature who the dawn heart made a pact with long before recorded history on innistrad little is known of this god but the more time we spend on innistrad the more we learn of the ancient origins of this plane mainly that older gods still have strong ties to the people of innistrad and in the absence of avicin in her church they're again regaining prominence the dawn heart coven worship grindanu the god of nature but we also learn of an old snake god known as the coiled one this deity is the embodiment of the darker side of druidism the ferocious side of nature taking the physical form of a giant snake it now exists deep below innistrad's surface waiting for worshipers to again summon it back into the world which almost happened during the midnight hunt through its servant sarath sarath was once a member of the don hart coven until the whispers of the coiled one drew her from that path the dawn heart recognized the coil one as an evil entity but sarath broke her vows believing this god with the true key to power the witch practiced cruel magic summoning serpents everywhere she went capturing innocent people and feeding them to her god eventually the coiled one was partially summoned to innistrad but was defeated by the don hart coven who refocused their faith on grindanu and their fellow inistrations another god of the old world referred to as the drowned has also gained a significant following of cultists in the coastal province of nephalia we don't have much information on this god but it seems to speak to oracles through whispers who in turn gather followers of the drowned this group was actually originally founded by a vampire a noble progenitor named rono stromkirk lord of the stromkirk bloodline their philosophy is simple the lands of innistrad are teeming with monstrosities and death a clear indication that humanity was not meant to walk upon it their home and their origin is the sea and it is there that the drowned will return and shelter them one day their drowned god will return and cast a wave over all of innistrad returning them all to the paradise of the dark depths or so their current leader liar disciple of the drowned likes to preach pivoting back to the dawn heart coven their magic is designed specifically to guard the innocent of innistrad from the forces of night that would see them devoured as they couldn't be everywhere at once gathering groups of humans together to coalesce enough hope was a challenge that's why they came up with the ideal of a celebration a time of year in which for a week people gathered cheered and shared together their hope in the future this was the birth of the harvest tide festival the harvest night festival is meant to gather people and hope as much of it as possible which would in turn fuel a massive spell meant to safeguard the fragile balance of innistrad for the year to come this sort of celebration is in and of itself a dangerous prospect wherever humans tend to congregate the forces of knight sniffed them out and attack a grim gamble that's why the don hart coven temped people in with promises of hot meals cider merriment music essentially a fun time a distraction from the crushing reality in which they live the rest of the year all for the promise of literally a brighter tomorrow in this the don hart coven always award an outsider the title of sovereign of the harvestide the sovereign is a member of the general public brought in to ensure the festivities in revels never falter giving the coven the best chance to cast the hopeful spells they needed they're typically chosen for their upbeat and extroverted personalities they're magnanimous hosts who understand how to have a good time they're chosen from outside the covens ranks because they need to have a strong tie to the community surrounding the harvest side being the bridge to the people spreading the word of the festivities and ushering them in during the midnight hunt the modern day sovereign given the title the autumn sovereign was a woman named leonor it was her job to keep up spirits with carved pumpkins spiced cider and fresh fruits anything to fuel the magic of the witches she also by happenstance aided the coven and stopping the rise of the coiled one proving the autumn sovereign's duties extended far past being a simple hostess during the harvest diet itself people are enchanted with the wondrous sounds smells and activities of the celebration we've already discussed how patrons are greeted with spiced hot cider and beautiful pumpkin carvings but they also marvel at the floating light displays put on by the witches hovering candles light the path for the prospective party goers guiding their way towards the harvest tide these are known as candle guides often scare pros and whacked men are created for this purpose standing as telltale signs first festival seekers despite how creepy at first they come off during the celebration itself they keep the grounds illuminated in a safe glow warding off creatures who'd rather not be seen one of the main and certainly most flashy attractions of the harvested festival is the torching of demons practice every year nothing inspires hope more than facing and vanquishing one's enemies and while humans are for the most part pretty bad at doing this one in a strad they can do the next best thing so during the harvest dye large effigies made of straw and hay bales are sculpted to resemble various threats werewolves vampires zombies you name it these oversized representations of humanity's nightmares are then marched from town to town before arriving at a local festival where it's then burned a symbol that humanity will always overcome these threats so long as they face them together during this harvest-eyed season however one small village made the mistake of burning an effigy of a prominent vampire the voldarin progenitor olivia voldarin which prompted a rather extreme response from the vampire lord the current leader of the dawn heart coven is a witch named katilda and her youth katilda was just like any other follower of the church of avison placing her faith completely in the angel to protect her and her family that faith however wavered when her small town of avabrook was destroyed by the forces of darkness losing everything katilda escaped to the ulvenwald forest to the rocky caves of the nethernolls where she found people camping and practicing an old form of magic hedge magic these were witches over the next two years since the travails this group worked to reforge the dawn heart coven and protect the people of innistrad katilda's strong will and quick mastery of the spells soon saw her standing above her peers becoming the unanimous leader of the coven while still young katilda is wise beyond her years soaking up ancient knowledge and gaining a perspective on innistrad not known to many her hair appears in a tangle nodded by twigs and branches that make up a natural headdress and she carries with her a large staff that she uses to practice her druidic magic she's been shown to have the power to change herself into a white stag hide the dawn arc coven's location in natural camouflage summon thorns and cast blasts of green wild magic and enemies yet even with all this power katilda's main focus is throwing a party like no other while the harvestide festival is a great boon to the people of innistrad it's not just their hopes the don hart coven are looking to utilize their magic is powerful yes but sometimes it's not strong enough to shift the balance of day and night for that they turned to an ancient device carved out of the earth by the first of their order centuries ago now lying dormant the celestis [Music] finally we come to the strangest of the new revelations to come out of innistrad midnight hunt the celestis this huge mechanical ancient relic that looms of the forests and horizons of kessig of the several times we visited in astrad of the countless tidbits we've learned about this world's landscape and its history not once have we heard of the celestis until midnight hunt which is rather odd given its size and the mystery surrounding it it's said to be at the base as large as the village green making it a natural place for people to gather the arms of the celestis reach far into the sky it's angular and shifting arcs implying that it can circle around the mechanism in every direction still there is little written about it on innistrad as much as the writing here tried to describe the celestis's prevalence on innistrad for this entire time despite anything before being mentioned of it the celestis feels rather out of place on innistrad what we get in midnight hunt is an account from arlen court who as a child would hear stories of the celestis from her parents explaining to her how she should stay clear of it that a relic of the past should remain to the past as most people have lost any sort of connection with this ancient device still arlen describes how tall it is how she wishes to scale it and see the other provinces over the treetops while this tries to establish some sort of history and prominence to the celestis with no other previous accounts it comes off hollow still it is now part of innistrad's history and lore so let's explore it the object itself found deep in the oven walled forest was originally built by the hedge witches that went on to found the don hart coven the struggle people face to balance the cycles of day and night is not a new thing on innistrad and in the past aided by folk magic rather than avacyn the witches crafted the celestis to correct any imbalances its origins aside from this are a complete mystery as it has gone unused since at least the birth of avacyn and probably far before that we know its purpose as it was designed to adjust innistrad's moon back into an appropriate place which means the astral body has and probably on a pretty consistent basis fallen out of cycle before meaning the influence of americal in this regard well it could very well be coincidence only how it accomplishes this feat however well that's another discussion entirely all we really know is that it uses hope generated from the harvested festival to power a massive spell how the mechanism actually works and how the magic works and how the moon is affected well all those things are questions left unanswered again this thing hasn't been turned on for centuries at this point so the inner workings not being explained well could just be chopped up as ignorant by innistrad's denizens even by the newest don hart coven what we know is that this order of witches see the celestis as the center of their most important rituals the ultimate reason for their creation their natural tents and hovels along with their robes are adorned with symbols of the moon through all the phases from full to crescent the dawn heart coven pulled great symbolism from the moon because of the importance the celestis has in the life cycle of innistrad but still it takes more than just a festival and hope to power it another artifact is needed to fire up the celestis and write the balance of innistrad one since lost to the ages under strange circumstances a relic known as the moonsilver key the key must be used on the center of the celestis where a lock is found known as the sun gold lock by meeting the sun gold lock and the moon silver key and empowered by hope the celestis can adjust the cycle of the moon and again bring balance to innistrad however while the celestis is easily found never moving in its station the moon silver key can be lost kept hidden from those who seek it as the original dawn heart coven began to disband they sought to secure the relic with those who they believed had a vested interest in humanity's survival the newly founded church of avacyn the witches left the moonsilver key with a family of bishops and holy men a family who gave their lives to the church the bitsholts though time has changed a great many things on innistrad and since the travails the bedsolts too have crumbled away say for a single illegitimate heir denik though young and foolhardy dennick always aspired to become a cathar a warrior of light who protected others only his father warren could not name him as a true betsal not eligible for either his father's name title or to carry their family's ancient charge looking after the moon silver key with no legitimate air warren betzel gave the key to another lord of innistrad one who had done much in their long life to protect this world the vampire sworn markov there the moonsilver key rests as the bedsults all fall to the travails the family is no more but still a fragment of their former piety remains dennick may not have lived his life as a cathar but his perseverance allows him to carry on even after death now the geist of the young man protects the streets of gavin along with his family's ancestral house continuing on with his father's work the current woes of innistrad which occurs in the main story of midnight hunt begin slightly in the plane's past with the history of the planeswalker arlen cord arlen is a native of innistrad who as a kid belonged to a town outside of avabrook to a family of blacksmiths this was a town of good simple folk but those things don't guarantee your survival on innistrad so the people of the village turned inwards and isolated themselves from the occasional passerby and adventurer you never did quite know who could be a wolf in sheep's clothing on innistrad still arlen believed in something more believed that true freedom wasn't something that you traded away for security arlen though was a decent youngster she listened to her parents listened to the church of avison sermons she attended each and every morning to praise the rise of a new day and yet something inside her yearned for more yearned to run wild and free as wolves howled in the distance the wilds continued to call out to her until one day the sounds of freedom was too much and arlen willingly gave herself to the mandrone and halpak then led by a strong and compassionate werewolf named tovalar tovalar took arlen under his wing trained her to use her transformation how to run how to hunt how to embrace the wild spirit within her it took slow methodical steps tovalar grew attached to the young wolf and cherished the new addition to their pack but still arlen clung to her humanity much to tovalar's dismay she would return every dawn to her home her family her church leaving arlen conflicted tovalar wanted to remove all doubts of who she truly was after a few nights of hunting deer toller decides it's time for arlen to choose either her pack or her humanity the wolves capture a group of foresters in their territory surely the humans strapped with silver bolts intended on killing members of the pack what would arlen do would she slay them sink her teeth into their flesh and feel their blood drip from her muzzle howling with them once the deed is done no arlen looked at the other humans who had already been slain by tovalar with disgust to arlen there must be a different way a better way humans and werewolves could easily co-exist werewolves even stood as guardians of humanity during the time of avazon's curse mute tovalar didn't listen any further the tall stoic man a few words stood over the human and delivered a death blow trying to get arlen to see his truth that humanity would never accept them humans hunt werewolves and they feast on humans it is the natural order their world is the forests and the night both of which the werewolves would take back from humanity arlen would be forced to accept this arlen however was strong both in body and spirit she had learned a lot from her family and her church that good can be found in everyone to some degree and that slaughter would only be get more slaughter she wouldn't join tovalar no matter how grateful she was if freedom meant this then she would reject it violently as other members of the pack surrounded the youngster and the alpha a circle formed tensions were high a battle was brewing it was quick and painful with both arlen and tovalar leaving lasting scars on one another arlen had made her point loud and clear she would no longer be a part of the mondrone and how pack arlen abandoned tovalar a pain worse than any physical wound but as arlen turned her back on the pack tovalar knew that she would one day return home return to him and he quietly lets her leave arlen returned to her village to her life and tried to suppress the curse that boiled within her each and every night the moon's power caused her to sweat and convulse but still she managed to control it either through prayer avasonian symbols or fasting or maybe out of sheer will arlen managed to control the beast within she was so good at it in fact that she was able to join the church proper and become an archmage of gold knight a sect that followed the wills of angels and defended their wards the people of innistrad despite her affliction arlen wanted nothing more than to protect the innocents of innistrad but she couldn't fend off the curse forever one day when out on a mission for the church to defend a village from a devil attack arlen lost her cool only for a moment but it was enough time for the wolf to break free in a haze she can hardly remember arlen the werewolf slaughtered devils people and even an angel in a blood rage one so intense from so many years of denial that it caused her layton planeswalker spark to ignite and suddenly the wolf found itself hunting an unfamiliar forest until daybreak arlen awoke still as a wolf but able to think and recall the events of the previous night she was stuck as a werewolf but gifted with her human mind over the years arlen studied her affliction learned to master it she would soon regain her ability to shift in and out of her forms while keeping her human mind all throughout she had become the ultimate werewolf free to hunt on all fours with the wind and her fur but with the sense that her power could be used as a tool to safeguard humanity not devour it arlen planes walks back to her home innistrad seeking a balance that she had long been denied arlen has since lived throughout many adventures not only here on innistrad but throughout the multiverse she has seen magnificent cities the size of an entire plane and even defended it from a tyrant dragon she has made allies with other planeswalkers those who call themselves the gatewatch knowing that if needed she could always call on powerful friends to aid her but still her world of innershad would always call her back beckon her to return a world so strife with dangers in need of any who would stand for the innocent in one of arlen's greatest tests now much older she aided the realm of sanity against the twisted abominations of emerical the eldrazi titan who looked to devour innistrad though many of her kind the werewolves were twisted by the titans corruption arlen managed to rally hundreds in innistrad's defense joining the resistance of humans and vampires in their common cause but now emerical is trapped within innistrad's moon it's direct influence gone and innistrad again settles into normalcy werewolves hunt humans humans shelter themselves away nothing's changed but so too has everything arlen tastes the cold winds something ominous comes for innistrad winter is fast approaching the frost spreading unnaturally south and the days have shortened the eldrazi monsters may have been vanquished but she fears this may be a lasting scar from that encounter with day and night off balance those beasts who cherish the dark grow bolder and humanity has little to their defense it may not be much but arlen will always stand with them even if that means tracking a single vampire who hunts in a small forgotten village while investigating these attacks arlen learns that the people too sense the gathering shadows their harvest had to be cut early they returned home sooner and sooner in the afternoon they huddled together without angels to hear their prayers the humans are a resilient lot they aren't prepared to roll over and accept their fates this village shares with arlen the stories of witches in the woods a group called the dawn heart coven magic wielders who come promising some salvation arlen at first is apprehensive witches don't usually mean anything good on innistrad so to be safe she begins to search for the dawn heart coven arlen may have rejected tolvalar's pack of werewolves years ago but that's not to say she's abandoned the idea entirely here in the forests of kessig arlen runs with her own pack of wolves those who see her as their alpha their leader they hunt together in the wilds run play be as nature intended them there was boulder a big lug streak a quick bugger redtooth the most bite-happy of the pack and of course patience a wolf which arlen had a particularly close bond always loyal together they raced into the forest sniffing the tracks of the don hart coven following glyphs of moons arrayed in a pattern of the phases the pack eventually encountered a white stag this was no ordinary creature of the wood through arlen's heightened senses she could smell no flesh of a deer so the two dropped their facades arlen from wolf to woman and the deer to katilda katilda introduced herself and her order the dawn heart coven a group of hedge witches who looked to correct the imbalance plaguing in astrada the hour of day was ending soon eternal night would be upon them they would practice an ancient spell and forgotten rituals in order to spare and astrad this fate arlen cord wanted in as the accord was struck she hears familiar cries coming from the forest beyond they haunt her still but also beck in her home it was tovalar arlen couldn't ignore this call as was the case so many years ago on the first ever hunt she wanted to join them wanted so badly to run by toll our side to taste true freedom with him once again everything he had promised before crushing everything with his callousness still something inside arlen wants to be like tovalar the darker wolf inside her yearning to rip maim and devour but she's more than that now a planeswalker a guardian in control of both her spirits now she rushes towards his cries with new purpose she finally arrives at his encampment but tolvalar isn't alone she knew he ran with a pack but nothing like this the pack had grown substantially since arlen left and those strangers she didn't recognize were unnatural large powerfully built with the deep sunken eyes that held no empathy they were killers as tovalar called them dire werewolves seeing these a part of tovalar's pack only cemented that he had grown even further from the werewolf she had known their reunion was bittersweet despite their confrontation and their opposing views tohola wanted nothing more than for arlen to rejoin them calling out to her asking her to come home arlen as she did before rejected him instead demanding to know what he was planning to do with such a large pack even before asking arlen already knew the answer tovalar had always seen humanity as the true enemies of freedom the true oppressors of their kind the woods belonged to them the night belonged to them so with the eternal midnight hunt approaching all of innistrad would belong to them though arlen was ready to end his reign as alpha here and now squaring tovalar up ready to lash out it wasn't the right time tovalar's overwhelming presence caused everyone to gravitate to his side he was a true alpha and even arlen's own pack couldn't deny that her wolves her pack mates they aided tovalar even as arlen stood against him arlen would be a lone wolf in this fight and that's a fight she'd be destined to lose she turns her back even on her own pack even on the feelings she had buried deep inside her for so many years because she was more now she had made great allies as she plays walks away to recruit a new pack arlen court arrives on ravnica the world she had visited once under the thumb of a tyrannical god dragon with an undead horde at his back here alliances were forged by war as she steps into the sanctum of jace balerin the headquarters of the gatewatch she first runs into teferi a man whose reputation is well known throughout the multiverse a mage of time something innistrad was in desperate need of next to show up was chandra nalar a hot-headed girl a pyromancer naturally who always looked to get into trouble or help out a friend whichever came first the last was someone arlen was less familiar with kaya she seemed cold and distant at first but like the others had taken the vow to help those in need and arlen was just that plus people say she's an expert at killing ghosts meaning she'd fit in just fine on innistrad this was it arlen's new pack made not from natural instincts but through their shared humanity as the group heads back to innistrad arriving back at the dawn heart coven camp katilda the leader of the witches addresses the party on their plan to write innistrad their magic is ancient but strong they would need to gather the people of innistrad together in one place collecting their hopes and faith so that a spell could be channeled to extend the day not only that but they would need the use of the celestis in order to complete this ritual that is where arlen and her friends would come into play the celestis was easy enough to locate its sun gold lock resting in place at its base for centuries what was decidedly missing was the second requirement for the mechanism the moonsilver key years ago when the dawn hard coven disbanded the key went missing they needed to find the key and return it before the sun dipped for the final time they must find the moonsilver key while kotilda and the other witches tend to this festival they plan to gather as many people as possible the harvest died as they called it let them plan the party the planeswalkers will find the key with no information to go off of a cathar named adeline who chandra takes a particular interest in suggests they start by checking the old records of the church sure the church of avison may have fallen but for a long time they were the chief purveyors of knowledge and records of innistrad if any mention of a moon silver key would be anywhere it would likely be in thraben only problem is the city was in ruin lost to the sea of dead risen by liliana vest during the fight against emerical and left there as a parting gift getting through would be dangerous with no clear chance of success nonetheless arlen and the others accept and march on arriving in thraben the holy city is decidedly less holy what with all the zombies meandering about arlen feels a great sorrow so much of her youth was spent learning from the lessons of the church singing thraben in this state gnaws at her heart not to mention all the faces of people she knew and loved now reanimated as lifeless husks still it reminded her of what they were fighting for an innistrad of day of the living for others to grow up as she had before while searching through abandoned homes and offices kaya the ghost assassin was making quick work phasing in and out of the physical world getting to locations far too dangerous for the others each time bringing back more dusty tomes of logistics finally one promising note was found it mentioned two things the moonsilver key and a family name the bedsults coincidentally arlen knew of a bed salt growing up an older priest of her parish warren but he had never mentioned any key but luckily they didn't have to track the holy man down much more unluckily he probably wouldn't be of much help arlen's spots worn among the sea of dead he too was risen in liliana's necromatic call now without orders he appeared in a collapsed church at its pulpit mouthing voiceless prayers with his congregation mimicking what they had done countless times in life no doubt the group fans out reaching warren would be difficult but it was the only clue to the moons over key chandra and adeline were the first through the fray the strong arm of adeline's sword drawn cut through the undead like butter chandra's flames followed behind charring a pass through the pews the dead do not hold many memories of their former lives but base instincts still remain as they scatter at the rush of heat engulfing them arlen begins her push towards warren but more zombies jump at her they would have gotten a good bite out of her too if it wasn't for teferi's quick thinking the attackers were trapped in a slow time bubble moving just a fraction of a minute off but buying arlen enough time to transform and do what she does best together they reach warren arlen approaches hoping he would somehow recognize a familiar face as her allies beat back the never-ending sea of dead try as arlen might conversing with the dead appears futile his lifeless eyes look past her and he has no answers for a moonsilver key he just groans a name over and over dennick denik no key but another clue as light fades arlen offers her old mentor a final prayer and sends him to the blessed sleep they still have a mission to complete they venture to the next inhabited town looking for any connection to edenic as luck would have it a kindly old lady tending to her garden willingly shares with arlen that she knows edenic he was the son of warren who last she knew was returning back to their family home the bedsols had always been a bit secretive so their affairs never made much waves in the small town still arlen wasn't assured that she'd find dennick there the house had fallen to pieces since the travails her guess young denek was likely dead still arlen was free to go up there if she'd like the bet's old mansion was indeed old and falling apart clearly haunted by innistrad standards thankfully this was an arena kaio was well practiced in without giving it a second thought kaya burst through the door as the group peered through veiled glass and broken windows only getting short glimpses of kaya popping in and out driving ethereal daggers into spiritual flesh arlen wasn't sure what happened to the ghost when they died she only hoped it was something good for the forlorned as they suspected denek was deceased but his geist still lingered arlen approached the ghost once kaia had cleared out the rest dennick had been a good lad in life a young cathar aspiring to protect innocent just as this group was doing now this was his chance to do his part for humanity where did his family keep the moonsilver key denik however never had a great relationship with his father warren who never saw him as a true son and so the key was never entrusted to him with warren the bet's old line would die out and so he handed it over to a vampire dennick revealed that his family gave the moon silver key over to the markov bloodline specifically to their prince sorin who now in all likelihood still possessed it a troubling thought for those who knew the planeswalker leaving the ruins of the haunted mansion behind them they traveled to the twisted halls of markov manor soren's home the travails had hit everyone hard even vampires and especially soren markov his home was destroyed his family and bloodline wiped out and he was forced to kill his greatest creation avacyn the hope of innistrad if anyone had a right to brood it would be sorin arlen speaks a silent prayer one she used to whisper to avacyn for protection but now no one was left to hear it everson was gone and they had to rely on themselves in the tattered throne room arlen approaches soren markov she had seen him before during the travails and again on ravnica during that wretched war time had not lightened his rage though tethiri and chandra both tried to calm sworn down talk him into relinquishing the key arlen realized the vampire had reached his limit he had tried and given everything to protect this world and every time the plane itself found new ways to self-destruct he was done if his brethren or the werewolves wanted to hunt innistrad to extinction and oblivion then let them feast soren pulls his sword on arlen believing she is nothing more than a mongrel who means to threaten him but as he brings the blade down it's parried in a flash of holy light an angel had answered arlen's prayers it was sagarda the former archangel of the flight of herons now the final remaining archangel on innerstride still listening to what prayer she can she means to speak with soren about his creation about avacyn the mere mention of his angel causing soren to lash out in fury sagarda tells the group the moonsilver key was in soren's personal chamber to go and let her handle the vampiric planeswalker they find the moonsilver key residing in a bowl held by a statue of avacyn that soren had apparently beheaded ignoring the sounds of combat coming from the throne room angel vs planeswalker arlen and company head back to the dawn heart coven to revive the day on innistrad true to her word ketilda and the other witches have put on a festival the likes of which innistrad had ever seen dancing warm cider pure merriment could be found all around them as they gathered at the celestis anticipating arlen's success the harvest died had done its part they had enough hope and faith to cast the spell they only needed the moon silver key to complete the ritual and arlen had just arrived with it in hand before she could spot katilda however something else catches arlen's attention a howl one that was all too familiar tovalar she had always known a gathering of this many humans in one place spelt nothing but trouble it was too big a feast for the monsters of innistrad to ignore and tovalar intended to make this a lasting statement declaring forever the midnight hunt was on as the sun sank heavy in the sky night was almost upon them arlen turns towards her allies tafiri casts a powerful spell one that captures his every attention it pulled on the very earth beneath them and the sky above the time mage slowed the moon itself he extended the day it wouldn't be for long as the spell was exhausting to maintain they had to complete the ritual and fast while trying also to save as many lives as they could from tolvalar's how pack arlen hands the moon silver key to kaya her ability to jump through space making her the best deliverer of the artifact chandra and adeline acting as true leaders joined the fray with the witches defending the festival grounds and meeting enemy werewolves in combat arlen ran off to find tovalar he was the alpha he could call off this attack end it all if he could only be persuaded or barring that silenced dire strained werewolves painfully transform right in front of them adeline chandra and the other hedge witches work in tandem to safeguard the fleeing innocent fire the scent of charred fur calls and orders fill the battlefield the attack has only just begun and already people are coining the phrase the harvested massacre that's what this would be a massacre even the protective barriers erected by the dawn heart coven wasn't enough to hold back the tide of the how pack by the start of night there would be countless dead but chandra and the cathars kept hope with each life saved arlen again faces her past tovalar the man who taught her to be free who taught her the ways of the wolf she had respected him at one point but could no longer follow him down this genocidal path tovalar again pleads with arlen to join him rejoin her pack be where she belongs she had spent too much time with the church not enough in the wild with her own kind she had been tainted he so desperately wanted to make her see reason his reason but arlen didn't agree she could never agree spending time with her family in the church she learned how good people could be how good life can be that simply being a beast wasn't the most freeing thing there was there would be no reconciliation blows would be met their fight starts while both are in human form still holding great physical strength regardless their muscles tense as their bodies are endlessly on the verge of transformation they trade blow for blow tovalar not anticipating arlen's quick strikes believing she had lost her instincts having wasted so much time in civilization throughout tovalor begs her to come home to change to become the wolf she knows she is everything inside her screams for her to change to let go get on all fours and meet teeth with flesh but she fights it off just as she had done so many times in the past it wasn't about denying herself that rush it was a statement she was already home no matter what she was she stood for humanity he could either call off the attack or die still the fight drags on as tovalart changes so does arlen it's only natural still this doesn't mean she joins tovalar though he can feel her savage heartbeat he could convince her standing by his side is arlen's old pack boulder streak red tooth all except for patience even these who she regarded as her kin bowed to tovalar's influence and attacked her the pain of their betrayal cutting deeper than their bites to her flesh she was truly wounded body and spirit this was his chance tovolor again calls her home to join them again rejoin her pack say it he wants her to say it i'm home arlen dazed and staggered speaks she is home in her wolf form she is home in the forest she is home but so too is she home with her family she is home at church her home wasn't for him to decide as she was successful in balancing the two aspects of her life he was consumed by the wolf still all toevalar sees is what he wants to see arlen drops her stance says that she's home and tovalar embraces her holding tight ferdifer arlen snaps to a rush of adrenaline as her allies scream for help all around her and a less than noble act arlen plunges her claws deep into the back of tovlar while he takes her in she grabs into flesh a death grip ready to yank out whatever gooey organ she could in a moment's notice tovalar gasps wind knocked out of him both by the pain and by this final betrayal innistrad is home she says to tovalar and she will protect it so long as she draws breath arlen demands he call off the howl pack or die looking at her his eyes dimming he knows he will never get arlen back from this she lied he falls to his knees and with a whimpered howl the call echoes through the pack retreat though earning its name the harvest tide massacre was over the rest of the howl packs slunk back to the forest led by their wounded alpha the dead would be remembered in time all playing a role in securing innistrad's future but now their sacrifice needed to be validated tafiri could no longer keep the night at bay the ritual must be completed now kaio was successful in handing the moon silver key over to katilda with the key and locked joining the hum of the celestis could be heard as ancient mechanisms sprang to life the key the harvest died these were not the only requirements for the spell katilda needed arlen one last time for the ritual to be completed they needed to join blood and spirit the root of innistrad an old branch decayed by magic join the blood of a werewolf arlen but what of the spirit no answer would come as the ritual is interrupted olivia voldaron the vampire queen of the volderan house and self-proclaimed new lord of innistrad arrived to crash the festival she had heard tale of a great gathering of humans rumors of a spell that would right the imbalance of innistrad as intriguing as that was to olivia she rather liked the extended knights werewolves weren't the only ones to benefit from the gifts of the moon besides she is a bride-to-be no sense in letting sunlight ruin her upcoming wedding she dives down as katilda activates the final portion of the celestia spell the soul kaia can see it where others can't katilda's soul is wretched from her body even before olivia reaches her the vampire progenitor grabs katilda's body and begins to bargain with arlen that key of hers the moon silver key well it would make a mighty fine wedding gift from this rabble she would gladly exchange a witch for it arlen puzzles over the deal but they don't have enough time to go over everything could they complete the ritual right here right now without katilda did any of them know how it was done doubtful without the key could eternal night be reversed all questions none of them had answers to only katilda held that knowledge without her none of these artifacts would matter the key would be useless and the celestis would return to ancient obscurity arlen agrees to olivia's trade the key goes up to the vampire and ketilda's body crashes back down with only arlen's own cushioning the impact olivia flies off with an evil self-satisfied laugh the celestis falls silent the sun sets eternal night has arrived on innistrad [Music] throughout the main story we learned about some of the legendary characters that appear in midnight hunt we've already in this video discuss the likes of ketilda adeline denik etc but there are others who don't appear in the story proper let's explore the various new and returning legendary creatures and planeswalkers who make an appearance in this set note that throughout this discussion video i've already explained a few of the characters and i won't be going over them again in this section so if you don't see a specific legendary that you're interested in please feel free to watch the other segments of this video and you're sure to find them let's begin with jadar the ghoul caller of nephalia in the past jadar was a prominent surgeon and physician for a small township in this coastal province though when presented with an unusual plague the doctor turned to necromancy in a desperate attempt to understand the disease and combat it jadar failed in his mission being the lone survivor of his town which spiraled the doctor towards grief riddled madness in a manic display jadar raised his former patience in undeath issuing the entire town a clean bill of health as they were dead they were no longer sick thus injudar's insane mind meant they were healthy and that he had succeeded since then jadar has only slipped further into madness becoming a prolific necromancer second only to gissa on innistrad he patrols the marshes of nephalia known as morkrut in search of bodies to reanimate and sends them on callous missions for his own amusement jadar has always been rather clever and once presented with a certain problem he always found a creative solution he once found so many bodies in merck ruts that his wheelbarrow wouldn't cut it so he found the corpse of a large turtle and reanimated that he used unnatural magic to wake and grow the abomination to terrible size naming it gorex the beast now serves as dadar's transportation and corpse carrier both the horse and the cart as it were jadar is a really interesting character because it's one we've heard from in the past even back to the original innistrad a character of flavor text seen on cards like skeletal grimace and nephalia drown yard who gets more fleshed out with their debut card in midnight hunt another returning character is a fan favorite on innistrad the delightfully insane ludwick of alm also known as the necro alchemist and the necro genius titles befitting a man of his humility as a young scientist ludovic began his studies as a simple stitcher a creator of zombies who used technology and magic to combine various parts of corpses into true monsters his creations were noteworthy probably some of the greatest inner strat had ever been terrorized by but this was not ludwig's true passion he aspired to learn of true fear to measure the value of fear his creations caused and apply those measurements to his endeavors sounds mad right well some say he wasn't always this way but his habituous consumption of untested potions and ingestions of unregulated toxic vapors likely led to this obvious decline over the years great horrors such as krom and ludwig's abomination have been attributed to this great scientist and even his pupil the stitcher giroff has gone on to create great monsters of his own like his masterpiece but ludwig isn't content with fading to innistrad history just yet even with a growing illness threatening his life he still has enough imagination for one final creation by taking flesh metal and pieces from four different brains ludwig created olog however for a scientist so helmet on wreaking as much havoc as he could with his minions olog came out different when his machines breathe life into the beast ludvik ordered it out into the world to maim kill and destroy but the inquisitive monster simply responded with but why in what seemed to be an innocent voice ludwig was furious his final creation was to his dismay kind the audacity he locked ola away in the basement scheming of ways to unleash the murderous side of his final creation all the while olog isn't alone in the catacombs a mysterious figure visits the sad monster who promises to grant them freedom very soon to what purpose is still unknown but someone has plans for little olog unbeknownst to ludvik the trees of innistrad stand out from those on other planes sure other worlds may have more magical flora some very exotic species but still there's a toughness a strength to those mighty oaks and pines found on innistrad it's a fact ren the plane's walking dryad knows from experience ren comes from an unknown world but her past is one born in flames literally as a dryad she of course has a close connection to the natural world all her kind does and her people in particular bond with a specific tree for their entire life the tree becomes their home their source of strength their perspective of the plane and without it they wilt away ren was no different for a time until a great flyer ravaged the grove where she and her kin had planted their entire lives the trees burned and her people suffered wren stepped forward to quench the fire using her own brand of magic powered by her latent planeswalker spark wren drew the blaze into her body the dryad expected this to kill her and the tree she had bonded with willing to make that sacrifice for the good of the grove but in that intense moment her spark ignited and she and her tree were whisked to a new world the fire raging inside her still but contained the trees she bonds with now become sentient could communicate with her share their feelings and desires even move they would become tree folk there on ren would gather companions of bark taking them with her as she traveled the multiverse first there was one then two and so on until it was time to return her sixth companion who originated from the plain of innistrad wren believes some of the strongest trees powerful enough to contain the fire essence she still carries within her come from innistrad it is here after leaving six back with their home that ren found her seven leaving innistrad to one day return and find her eight ren isn't the only one who understands the importance of tree folk on innistrad however though tree folk here take on a decidedly darker tone than those found throughout the multiverse essentially true folk on innistrad are trees who have a spiritual geist residing within them they are ghost haunted trees brought to life by the spirit dwelling inside still this is a neat little trick if you're looking to bring a spirit back to the realm of the living a trick katilda the leader of the dawn heart coven understood and used to her advantage she called upon the spirit of one of the first dawn heart witches one who had coordinated the first ever harvest died and was there at the creation of the celestis believing their knowledge would be crucial for their success during the midnight hunt this was the spirit of kubris the first harvested sovereign he was called back from the grave and given a green vessel the ritual worked in kubris the harvest-eyed celebrant expressed interest in aiding their cause but two he was pulled to feed the base desires of the vessel he now called home the plant calling out to feed on whatever life essence they could find during the travails before the arrival of emerical in the shadows appeared over innistrad a lot of strange things started to occur across the plain strangeness can only be answered with sleuthery and from the shadows detective started to become a common profession amongst the people of innistrad one of the greatest was known as eloise of nephalia as eloise investigates her home province she's pulled into a mystery involving a roving geist seems like an open and shut case at first but like every good detective story not every clue leads to the obvious conclusion now her original target could be her greatest informant for a conspiracy that goes far deeper than the investigator ever could have realized while most humans stand together during the midnight hunt there are those more selfish in their activities such as the cheerful tormentor lind linde is a powerful witch but not the good kind of witch like the don hart coven no she's more of the traditional hex cursing type of witch on in a strad no slate was too small for lin to curse someone even a small bump in a crowded street was enough to draw her ire such was the case when she tangled with an opponent far stronger than her an unknown planeswalker the figure easily deflected the curse and marked her with a spell of their own now the tormentor had become the tormented the curse stopped lin from aging a great boon accompanied by all manner of other problems bad luck jolts of pains spiders crawling from her throat the typical curse fair she suffered like this for years until she found a way to relieve her suffering and have some fun at the same time she created a spell that allowed her to transfer the negative aspects of this curse onto other victims via a doll of their likeness for as long as she saw fit this person will experience tragedy pain and misfortune currently the doll resembles this man we don't know who this guy is but according to lin he is the most annoying person she had ever met in her extremely long life whomever they are they're currently the most cursed person in the multiverse innistrad isn't a plane of just storybook monsters sure vampires werewolves zombies and ghosts are great gothic cars but the plane also plays host to a large array of other beastial nightmares think back to the git rock monster who actually gets a touching cameo in midnight hunts to the days when it was merely a baby toad monsters like these get overshadowed by the more prominent races but they still add that ever needed eeriness we come to expect from innistrad with no new copy of git rock monster printed which is honestly a true crime i must say the mantle of weird monsters in midnight hunt falls to slogurk the overslime and old stick fingers slogurk the overslime continues wizards of the coast's obsession with the featureless goo monster there is no origins to this mass of sentient gelatin just stories shared by the shipmasters who sail through its home of merck root its body is unnoticeable from the other floating clumps of moss decaying bodies and swamp grass but when a ship comes within range slogirk launches upwards and thrashes violently the passengers jump to the waters below avoiding the main body of the creature but what they don't understand is that slogirk is the swamp and they simply swim towards one of its other countless moths old stick fingers is more of an old folk tale than slogerk elders pass down stories and rhymes about old stick fingers coming to get children who misbehave or disobey a bedtime story to scare children that's what most think of old stick fingers but on innistrad folklore is almost always based on some aspect of reality and stick fingers is as real as any werewolf in reality old stick fingers is an aspect of the forest a spirit that can be summoned and controlled through a specific ritual if one knows the words stick fingers can be called and used sort of like a scarecrow as both a sentry and guard dog for your lands against intruders of course if the ritual is messed up well old stick fingers may just come for you and your entire town finally our last legendary creature to come out of innistrad midnight hunt not a werewolf but a vampire one who will likely usher us to the story of crimson val at least in some small way this is the prestigious florian volderen scion the vampires of innistrad have always existed in a strange middle ground between monsters and civilization they have a culture family bloodlines they can even be civil and reasonable only problem is they need to feed on human blood to survive putting them at odds with humanity as a whole before the travails the formula was simple the vampires hunt the humans the angels tried to protect as many as they could it was a real cat-and-mouse situation after the travails with the vampires having to band together with humans just to survive a new perspective was gained at least for a while some vampires like florian here grew tired of endlessly invading and slaying humans for just that night's blood drawings he believed there was a better way a more efficient way being gifted in charm magic florian went to the town in his normal hunting grounds and simply charmed the humans into giving up their blood under his spell the humans willingly gave a portion of their blood each not enough to do any lasting harm but enough to feed his vampires an easy and relatively painless way to ensure a constant stream of blood without fear of over-harvesting or repopulation issues this was a brand new means to ensure a certain balance between the races one florian is eager to share with his progenitor the glorious olivia voldaron who's busy planning the wedding of a thousand lifetimes the crimson vowel [Music] innistrad midnight hunt and crimson val will stand as two distinct sets that both pull from the same written material and lore as night sets on this already dark world our heroes of midnight hunt will continue their campaign to restore the day on innistrad and the hope of humanity that comes with it that's not to say however that their mission will be easy in vampire society the bash of all bashes is being planned an unholy matrimony between some of the most powerful vampires on innistrad olivia voldaron appears to be the bride and the groom is likely one of the markov bloodline soarin seems a likely choice but even he seems perturbed by the sudden disappearance of his grandfather edgar markov from his sleeping chambers the progenitor of all vampires on this plane vampirism started with him and his stirring is only another added concern to the mortals of innistrad sorin as well is going through some personal struggles after countless betrayals endless wars fought for others and trying to save his world from itself over and over again the vampire prince has become a bit melancholy the last time he was home his former student encased him in a tomb of jagged rocks which he had to claw and chew himself free of after that he was never the same vampire his refusal to simply hand over the moonsilver key to save innistrad speaking to just how jaded sorin has become something else weighs heavy on his mind his kind the vampires they seem to want to drain the world dry plunge it to darkness and he no longer believes he can stop them even an angel a former follower of avacyn sir garda has come seeking answers from the vampire we can only speculate what cigar to look to get out of sorin in regards to avacyn or even if the angel survived their fight regardless it's clear from soren's demeanor he's given up with olivia's nuptials likely being the catalyst to their own self-destruction a crimson vow made during an endless night innistrad midnight hunt has changed a lot of what we know about innistrad what once was a world of classic gothic horrors has evolved to a world of ethereum eldritch madness and once again returned to its roots werewolves have always been such a powerful and flavorful part of innistrad's lore and design and we really learned a lot more about how this unique tribe has evolved over the years on this plane from a pitiful cursed mob who isolate themselves only to hunt ferociously and without cause at night to semi-cured guardians of people with their souls and minds enlightened to what we see now in midnight hunt a hybrid werewolves now seem to have the same human faculties in reason as you'd expect from any normal person but they see themselves as a totally different species to the humans they once were it's not clear if this feeling is shared universally but as arlen cord stands against it we assume there are other werewolves out there still fighting for humanity a fight innistrad is all too familiar with humanity again struggles against the night as darkness falls on the plane for the final time [Music] you

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Keywords: mtg, mtg lore, aether hub, magic arcanum, magic the gathering, eldrazi, eldrazi lore, what are the eldrazi, eldrazi return, elrdazi lore, mtg history, innistrad, innistrad history, innistrad story, emrakul, emrakul lore, innistrad return, midnight hunt, crimson vow, sorin markov, sorin markov lore, new innistrad, midnight hunt preview, crimson vow spoiler, wrenn and seven, wrenn lore, midnight hunt lore, midnight hunt story, complete midnight hunt, midnight hunt history

Id: BKmMNXm7QTA

Length: 98min 5sec (5885 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021