Sarpadian Empires, Vol VII: Ch. 1

Today's chapter of the Sarpadian Empires is more a picture book than anything else. To truly understand a Magic set's flavor is much more than cards and a good story. The missing element that really ties everything together is the artwork. The artistry put onto each card tells far more story than a simple flavor text might—after all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

There are issues with artwork in the old Magic sets, though, that wasn't corrected until the Rath cycle and the first true style guide came about. Prior to that, artwork was one hot mess of whatever the artists conjured up. This often caused problems with interpretation by the viewer. For example, creatures without flying having wings soaring above the clouds is rather confounding. Other things like a human empire being filled with non-human creatures didn't quite make sense flavor-wise.

A reread or perhaps first read through the initial style guide article helps to put these things into perspective. While I agree freedom is what allows artists to soar, constraints help to create a world under a unified vision. For instance, what can you glean about the Icatian Army—and Icatia itself—from these cards:

Icatian Javilneers artwork by Edward Beard Jr.	Icatian Scout artwork by Phil Foglio.
Icatian Skirmishers artwork by Heather Hudson.	Icatian Infantry artwork by Christopher Rush.

They don't wear shirts sometimes, yet other times they're so heavily equipped they could take on a Terminator. When they aren't hang-gliding on flying blue sugarbabies, they enjoy taking long hikes in winter woods stalking the ever reclusive big bad wolf. Can you guess which one plays the piccolo to the wolf's bassoon?

Now let's do the same thing again, and look at a more unified approach. Repeat the last exercise with these four images:

Icatian Infantry artwork by Douglas Shuler.	Icatian Lieutenant artwork by Pete Venters.
Icatian Phalanx artwork by Kaja Foglio.	Icatian Scout artwork by Douglas Schuler.

Now we have a real army composed of both heavy and light units. The Scout and Infantry offer a very formation-oriented light division capable of fast movement and cohesive strikes. The light tunics indicate the speed at which they can move, but they still have adequate basic protection, unlike our shirtless hero from above. The Lieutenant and Phalanx both suggest heavy tactical formations that could use small numbers to overpower much larger forces. Basically, these four images seem to show just exactly why the Icatian empire was the last to the fall, and it's understandable with such military prowess.

As you can hopefully see, style guidelines really can help flesh out the world of Magic as well as create an overall sense of mood. When not used you get this disjunction set thanks to those "huh, what?" moments. These moments are created as each individual artist looks a seperate direction and goes down their own path, which not surprisingly is different from the rest of the artists. Why are Skirmishers in full cold weather gear (which makes sense with the climate cooling rapidly) while many other solider arts are almost nude? Mind you, these are enlisted soldiers, not barbarians—they should be wearing clothes if not armor.

The other problem isn't just telling a story, it's that you get some rather goofy cards without guidelines. Here are some cards that are cartoonish, and in one case art that probably would have been better off on an Un-card:

Goblin Chirurgeon artwork by Phil Foglio.	Initiates of the Ebon Hand artwork by Liz Danforth.
Basal Thrull artwork by Phil Foglio.	Orcish Spy artwork by Dalien Gelon.

Not that all of that is bad, but when designing a very dark set things like this tend to alleviate the mood. There is a stark contrast between these cards and several others that really disjoint the whole feel of the set. We'll discuss that Gothic and dark feel later.

One of the things I enjoyed about earlier sets, especially in Fallen Empires, was the multiple artwork on commons. Instead of playing with the same Order of the Ebon Hand every time, you could play with your favorite pieces of art, really giving the first hint of deck personalization. Not all commons would see playing time, but there were many important ones that still see play to this day: Order of the Ebon hand, Order of Leitbur, Goblin Grenade, High Tide, Thallid and Hymn to Tourach. This helps to ensure that the multiple card art legacy continues on to this very day.

Let's take a look at a multiple version set of cards and see just what exactly multiple artworks bring:

Vodalian Solider artwork by Melissa Benson.	Vodalian Solider artwork by Jeff A. Menges.
Vodalian Solider artwork by Richard Kane-Ferguson.	Vodalian Solider artwork by Susan Van Camp.

Here is the same creature represented four very different ways. The first seems to link the Vodalians directly to the Lord of the Atlantis bringing a sense of tribal cohesiveness. The color and tail design pay homage to his brilliance (of course the same artist doing both helps create cohesiveness). The next two both depict seemingly distinct combat features of the Vodalians. In one, they swarm the depths showing their mastery of deep water combat, while in the other they seem to be ruling the surface of the water as well. These two present a very feeling that the Vodalians truly are a powerful fighting force. The fourth in my opinion is the weakest of the lot, depicting a half-armored Vodalian backed by a shark which is an obvious parallel to the Merfolk being hunters of the sea. This kind of dual imagery is on par for Susan Van Camp who can't seem to help putting two different things in one image.

Now I'm sure much of the above could have been conveyed in a single image, but with four seperate images you really do get four distinct conveyances of the Vodalian Solider. I for one enjoy this even if I'm not a full-fledged art wonk. These days the only multiple artwork you get is with some reprints or special releases and on lands, which has left me wanting a little bit.

Beyond augmenting the flavor of the set and depicting the cards, the artwork as a whole should help to convey an emotion as well. Ravnica with its large city plane artwork really did evoke the feeling of being alone in the clutter, while Time Spiral's sullen artwork helped to evoke the despair that the plane felt as a whole. More recently Lorwyn's artwork gave off that goofy vibe that was the cuddle-hug set of the new millennium, and only a few images from Shadowmoor have people praising their dark lords for the end of fluffiness even if it is for only two sets.

Ask the Expert:

Drew Tucker did early artwork for Vampire The Masquerade and V:TES, a.k.a Jihad. His work is obviously watercolor, and is very impressionistic. His work serves well for Black cards and Gothic horror because of its vagueness. Gothic horror stems from that uncertainty that reality is not what you believe it to be. Of the 50 cards he has done, 11 are Black and one is Black/Red. Nine of his cards were from The Dark. His work always seems to show motion to me, even if the subjects standing still; a realistic capture of a blurred photograph. See Necrite and Infernal Denizen as examples.

Fallen Empires was a bizarre set as far as emotions go; you very much had this dark vibe and feeling of impending doom. This kind of dreary lack of emotion that often reminded me of the mood in refugee camps was displayed on many cards. This may have been heightened by artists' choices in materials and painting styles at many times, but this was a set whose artwork left you a little depressed sometimes. Drew Tucker, Richard Kane-Ferguson, Jeff A. Menges, and Anthony Waters were masterful at muzzling emotion in their artwork.

Ask the Expert: Kinghonkey

Richard Kane Ferguson and Drew Tucker. Richard was my favorite early Magic artist, and Drew appealed to my sketchy side as a young illustrator. Richard's artwork is very tribal looking to me; much of his work has a Native American or Viking feel to it. Runes in cards like Dakkon Blackblade and Dingus Staff hearken to a Norse background, while other works like Dissipate and Arcane Denial are very crowded and full of small details. This is called horror vacui, which means the fear of empty space, but in art it means filling up the entire canvas with details and decorations, very much like the Northwestern tribes like the Haida and Tlingit.

However, that was just one of the emotions displayed by the set. While some empires crumbled, others rose to greatness. In these rising empires you almost get this sense of revelry and sadistic glee—particularly in Red and Black. Thriving in the chaos, they were creating the Thrulls, Orcs and Goblins, who often looked anything but depressing, appearing delighted in the carnage created in their wake. The words "delightfully evil" come to mind.

Yet not all things evil are happy and perky in Red and Black. They tend to get very dark as the depression of some cards is complicated by the overall darkness. Much of the artwork helped to create a very Gothic feel due to the high emotion and grim overtones that run amok through the set. Gothic is more or less the perfect tone for the set with old life ending and a new bitter life beginning.

The Dark also had this gloomy artwork feel, and as the direct predecessor of Fallen Empires helped to feed the atmosphere. Magic as a whole had become gloomy and very Gothic—mind you Gothic, not Goth, there is a major difference. Some of the artists took to this style and evocation much better than others. Where the watercolors and acrylics of some conveyed a stifled state of depression, many took to bold dark colors that really embraced horror.

Ask the Expert:

Gothic horror is pretty much anything from Castle Otranto, through Byron, Shelley and Stoker all the way up to some of Lovecraft's work. It relies on eerie happenings and a building sense of dread and unease, more-so than shock and terror (which I could only assume would cost 1BR... oooh, bad Magic pun). It's like you know something is wrong, but can't quite put your finger on it until it puts its finger on you.

Ron Spencer, Christopher Rush, Edward Beard Jr, Pat Morrissey, Mark Tedin, and Anson Maddocks primarily used vivid colors and illustrations to convey emotion while Susan Van Camp, Scott Kirschner, Margaret Organ-Kean and Bryon Wackwitz used more traditional artwork styles that homaged actual medieval art styles. It's also very important to note that even if I found Anson Maddocks's work very vanilla in Fallen Empires, it was his and Mark Tedin's works more so than any others that defined Magic's artwork future.

Which leads me to my personal favorite magic artist during what I consider his period of greatest works: Ron Spencer. The above image of Order of the Ebon Hand to me represents the majority of his work in Fallen Empires. It has bold, vibrant colors yet still manages to be dark. It conveys that Gothic sense of horror with grim emotions and a sense of violence, without ever really showing anything violent. This sense of violence without violence encapsulated all his artwork.... well never mind, I forgot about the Thrulls.

The other cool thing is you may recognize a little inspiration out of Ron Spencer's Thrull Retainer and Armor Thrull. The grotesque bodies, the nightmarish images, the seeming interconnection between metal and flesh. Do you see it yet? How about after this image?

Now if you don't have it, I can only show you what I'm picking up on. So behold:

And there you go; if general progression towards more and more H.R. Giger-esque works weren't enough, hopefully his most well known work turned on the light bulb for you (and also one of his few printable works as well). If you still don't know who HR Giger is, maybe we can settle on "That crazy sex-obsessed dude who designed the Aliens." I find the parallels between Ron Spencer's works in Fallen Empires and Giger's works remarkable. It may just be me, but particularly in his Thallid I can't shake the similarities. I encourage you take a web field trip and study Giger some, but just be aware, he gets extremely risqué.

Ask the Expert:

I find Anson Maddocks's work H.R. Giger-esque in many respects as well. Both he and Ron Spencer do well in making creatures that are fused-flesh, nightmarish obscenities. While Giger did more with bio-mechanical work, Spencer's and Maddocks's creatures sometimes barely fit into the early traditional sword and sorcery motif Magic had going in its early years. See cards such as Spinal Villain, Derelor, Bone Shredder and Vebulid... along with Spencer's Thrull Retainer.

That ends our chapter, but I'll leave you with another Top 10 list; this time it will be the most influential artists in Fallen Empires.

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