Innistrad: a Love Letter to Horror Part 1

Article by Vesta Nyx

 

Perhaps it is my biased, predisposition to the darker side of the spectrum; or simply the soft heart I have for the bastards, demons and broken things.  I’ve always come to find myself drawn to scary stories and ghastly musings. A love for ghost stories and scary tales that bloomed into a torrid affair for the disturbed and macabre; that has extended into most, if not all aspects of my waking life. I’ve always known vampires’, ghouls and specters to be those of the gothic persuasion, after all when the mana cost is black or any other color blended with black, it would be hard to say otherwise. Just the aesthetic of rotting corpses, and dancing skeletons draped in smoke and fog was enough to cement these creatures as my first true love of Magic the Gathering. Yet none of this can compare to the plane of my wildest dreams come true. From the soaring, imposing beauty of the cathedrals and other stone buildings; to the humble, yet unsettling human fixtures scattered across a hostile, and almost sentient geography. Innistrad would be and is a horror enthusiasts perfect world, but I’m getting ahead of myself here, so I welcome you to come inside, take a seat by the fire and be at ease. Pay no mind to the wind outside my widow, for even if your name can be heard within the silent whispers of the dead; you are safe within these walls…for now.       There is no mistake of the implications in play when we look upon the card art, and the overall design of the overall Innistrad arch. As it serves as a skewed, fantastic, and grotesque lenses into the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries of European/American history, but more on that later. If we take a closer look between the lines of the Innistrad and Dark Ascension as a whole, we can speculate how the distant past, present and possible future were influenced by the gradual and sometimes explosives trends in horror writing and ghost stories; who in turn was a cynical and reflective look upon society and the trends at the time. So without further delay, and before the sun rises let’s open your mind to the horrors hidden deep inside, after all we are faithful to the gore.

 

Innistrad and Dark Ascension: Sonnet to the Gothic

Change was unavoidable. As monarchies, ancient bloodlines of royalty and old-world views began to crumble and sway to progressive ideals at the time, there was much to brave about with the new found faith in and the unknown. God and the church was failing, as more people turned to medicine, science and technology ushering in the new age of enlightenment. However persistent, it proved hard to shake those old-world assessments. For all the brilliance the minds of men created with these open arms there still remained the haunting shadows of the past and the uncertainty that the future brings. It is in this cesspool of fear, and illusion that we are introduced to the greats and forefathers of Horror, and how their manipulation of this fear of the past can be felt through the veins of Innistrad.        It is in the isolation of knowledge that drives us into the shadows of our fears, just as the isolated human settlements across the landscape  drive them deeper into their paranoia, and over reliance on their holy relics. To mimic the same behaviors seen during that point in our history of the dependence of  science, and the logical problem solving brought with it.       Much like  the works of authors such as Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley, it is often that the good natured protagonist of the story that represents this arrogance of the tangible over the unseen, good and evil, or the laws of the ego over the laws of nature itself.   Too reliant on commonsense and logical thought to consider that just because you don’t see it, doesn’t make it unreal.        One of the many advantages that Magic the Gathering has in this aspect, is the personification of the imaginary in almost every facet. In their world, the ghostly galleons are real, the vampires in the night are real, the mad scientist, the headless horsemen, all of it is real as the moon in the sky. And suddenly we’ve realized that all those old-world tales were true. From the short stories, planeswalker’s guide and flavor text of Innistrad and Dark Ascension; we can see the story unfold as a classic gothic tale from the start, when we walk onto a plane that is familiar yet unnerving at the same time.  As every step you take, you are being watched somehow with no one there. Shadows lurk at every corner without ever knowing if its yours or someone else’s, the tension in the air thickens as you walk the streets, curious to know if a person is a vampire or not, if this will be your last day or not; or even if your eternal rest will be peaceful.       If you are ever a reader of the classic ghost stories, the setting is mostly if not always the same, in a deep dark forest or in the seedy streets of a glittering city or isolated homestead. The shining lights, and dampened moss of the overturned stones, the sounds of the rushing river, and bustling of the city. All distractions to be admired to give a false sense of security. A security that is tested by a quest to save a far away village, an unknown relative leaving a vast fortune to his only known heir, or simply an innocent soul in awe of the big city. And just as you found your way to this lovely plane, there is no real telling that your logic will save you from the terror that lurks just beyond your gaze. Can you feel it? The cold grip of death upon your neck? There’s no way out now. And just as the fire begins to die down into the night, your life slowly drains from you with my wicked smile being the last thing you see. And as always Stay Brewing and Battling my Friends.

 

Authors Note:

Hey everyone, Vesta here! It has been a real doozy writing this article, since this is the first of the series to come,  I wasn’t too sure how the flow would be. Nevertheless, this will be a two part series as I take on the cosmic horror next time around.

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