The Decline and Fall of Fallen Empires, Vol. VI - Black

The penultimate entry of our deep dive into the flavor and worldbuilding of Fallen Empires, the Black episode is here! If you love Thrulls, indulge with us. If you DON'T love Thrulls...I don't know, get it together.
Yes, this was originally intended to be the final volume - but we've found that we have more to say, so in the spirit of Time Spiral's "Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII", we'll be back one more time!

[@JervisGermane]

17:00 I saw that video too!

[@TylerMKimball]

1:57:00 I think the Thrull Retainer is using the sense of a servant. So this is the thrull retainer of an Order member. It's a strange use of an aura enchantment to depict a follower of a creature, something the designers never really do anywhere else. Almost like the Follower card type in Legend of the Five Rings.
Also, with the Breeding Pit art, due to its flavor text establishing the ultimate thrull victory, I assumed that this was the final state of the thrulls - they were turning themselves into these far more humanoid forms, possibly replacing the original human populations of Icatia and the Order.

[@redozur]

1:58:01 Daniel Gelon LOVES long handed axes, he did the art for Uncle Istvan!

[@nuclearfuzzbomber]

Thrulls are my favorite creature type closely followed by saprolings. Of course, I did get into Magic shortly after Fallen Empires came out, so that likely influenced my affection for them :)

[@JervisGermane]

Finished just in time for Christmas!

[@ManaCritics]

That was absolutely the intent, but we're going to have to do a "Conclusions" volume - this is already our longest entry, and we didn't really get to address the comics or novel, or the set's legacy. I don't know if Vol. VII will make it out this year or not, but hey, Time Spiral was like 12 years after Fallen Empires, so that seems fine.