Innistrad (plane)

Innistrad is a plane. It takes its inspiration from Gothic fiction set in 18th and 19th century North Eastern Europe.

Description
The plane is primarily populated by Humans but these live in fear of a number of classical creatures of horror and regularly fall prey to Zombies, Werewolves, Vampires or Ghosts. Further, Demons are becoming an ever-growing threat. It is the plane where the Innistrad block takes place.

Life on Innistrad is dominated by the single moon in its sky. Though the inhabitants of the plane know little about it, the moon drives the seasons and also hunting patterns of the monsters, harvests of the humans, etc.

Human society is dominated by religion with the Church of Avacyn promising protection from the evils that lurk in the night. The church is named for an Archangel who helped to drive back the monsters that preyed on humans. When she went missing, the power vacuum created was rapidly being filled by the demons. A secret cult of Demon worshippers named Skirsdag also emerged from this. When Avacyn was released from her prison, the Helvault, she rallied her troops to contain the demonic threat and, ultimately, to cleanse Innistrad of all these infernal creatures.

It is also the birthplane of the famous vampire planeswalker Sorin Markov. Innistrad was also home to other native planeswalkers, like the half-devil Tibalt, the deceased Vronos, and the werewolf Arlinn Kord.

Corruption
The planeswalker Nahiri called the Eldrazi titan Emrakul forth to Innistrad to take revenge on Sorin Markov for imprisoning her in the Helvault. Emrakul's corruption led to the death of Avacyn and the creation of many mutated horrors. In her place, the archangel Sigarda has taken control over the uncorrupted angels that stand watch over humanity, while Emrakul has been banished into Innistrad's silver moon.

With the madness of the angels, a variety of new cults sprang up across Innistrad. Some were direct continuations of the demon cults that had proliferated during Avacyn's absence, but others were entirely new—centered on madness and revering monsters that had arisen in response to the angels’ madness.

Locations on Innistrad
The mainland of Innistrad is split into four provinces called Gavony, Kessig, Stensia, and Nephalia, with much-unexplored wilderness lying beyond these provinces. Beyond the great seas, other continents are rumored to exist that harbor exotic species of lycanthropes.


 * Gavony
 * High City of Thraben
 * Tree of Redemption
 * The Helvault
 * Moorland
 * Trostad
 * Nearheath
 * Videns
 * Wittal
 * Effalen
 * Estwald
 * Hanweir
 * Kessig
 * Ulvenwald
 * Lambholt
 * Hollowhenge
 * Devils' Breach
 * Stensia
 * Somberwald
 * Ashmouth
 * Needle's Eye
 * Nephalia
 * Drunau
 * Havengul
 * Selhoff

Tribes
On Innistrad, there are five tribes; major creature types that also play a role mechanically. Each tribe is linked to an allied color combination.


 * Humans: humans occur in all colors but dominantly in white and green. Humans represent the victims of the other tribes and monster hunters. Humans on white are isolated from the other tribes and colors in terms of mechanics and cycles. This is the first set in which humans are treated as a tribe.
 * Spirits: spirits occur in white and blue, and sporadically in the other colors. White spirits represent guardian spirits and blue spirits are ghosts.
 * Zombies: zombies occur in black and blue. Blue zombies (or skaab) are tied to mad scientists, while black zombies are more oriented to graveyard recursion.
 * Vampires: vampires occur in black and red. Some black creatures are double-faced cards, but many others have the "Slith" ability: they get a +1/+1 counter when they deal combat damage to a player. In the Shadows over Innistrad block, they are the tribe most associated with the Madness mechanic.
 * Werewolves: werewolves occur in red and green. Every werewolf is a double-faced card with the transform mechanic. Until Eldritch Moon, one side of each of the werewolf cards was a human werewolf, however, Eldritch Moon saw several Werewolf creatures that started as Werewolves and transformed into Eldrazi.

Sapient races
• Angels

• Demons

• Humans

• Homunculi

• Spirits

• Vampires

• Werewolves

• Wolfir

Artificial
• Constructs

• Gargoyles

• Golems

• Juggernauts

• Scarecrows

Other
• Avatars

• Bats

• Bears

• Beasts

• Birds

• Boars

• Cats

• Crabs

• Devils

• Dogs

• Dragons

• Drakes

• Dryads

• Eldrazi (during the invasion of Emrakul).

• Elementals

• Elemental Dogs

• Elk

• Foxes

• Frogs

• Fungi

• Griffins

• Hippogriffs

• Horses

• Horrors

• Hydras

• Insects

• Kraken Horrors

• Leechs

• Lizards

• Mole Beasts

• Nightmares

• Plants

• Plant Skeletons

• Octopuses

• Oozes

• Oxes

• Rats

• Shades

• Shapeshifters

• Skeletons

• Slugs

• Snakes

• Spiders

• Treefolks

• Turtles

• Wolves

• Wurms

• Zombies

• Zombie Giants

Native
• Arlinn Kord

• Sorin Markov

• Tacenda Verlasen (possibly)

• Tibalt

• Vronos

Visitors
• Chandra Nalaar

• Dack Fayden

• Davriel Cane

• Garruk Wildspeaker

• Gideon Jura

• Jace Beleren

• Liliana Vess

• Nahiri

• Nissa Revane

• Ral Zarek

• Sifa Grent

• Tamiyo

• The Wanderer

• The Unluckiest

• Vivien Reid