神河当時 - 《沼居の災い魔/Scourge of Numai》のフレイバーテキスト

昨日の記事の続きです。

Poor, Poor Numai

R&D Card Name: [Dependant Demon]
Mana Cost: o3oB
Spell Type: Creature —
Creature Type: Demon Spirit
Power/Tough: 4/4
Rules Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 2 life if you don’t control an Ogre.

Art Desc.:
Color: Black
Location: your choice
Action: Show an evil, badass oni (demon) of your design. It must have two horns and a third eye in between its other two, but the rest is up to you.
Focus: the oni
Mood: I want to mutilate everything I see.
Notes: Oni are spirit-world creatures and therefore need orbiting objects around them of your design.

Man, I love sowing misery! The Reito Massacre from Champions’ flavor text was such a complete slaughter of humanity that it spawned its own kami (Horobi, Death’s Wail), and now I set my sights on crippling an entire town with demons! Muhahahaha ha ha ha ha heh... ha... hee... wooo...

Ahem.

It was always my belief that the rotting muck of the Takenuma Swamp expanded during the Kami War, swallowing up the surrounding terrain. Certainly the Takenuma became darker and more dangerous, as described in the flavor text of Pull Under and Swallowing Plague, and Oni ran rampant, as described in the flavor text of Blood Rites and Deathcurse Ogre. Well, I mused, what would happen if the swamp engulfed an entire town at its edge, corrupting it with its vileness? Thus came about the idea behind Scourge of Numai’s flavor text...

"Where a once-proud human city once stood, now only the ruins of Numai remain, deep amidst the rotting bamboo and crawling with oni." -- The History of Kamigawa

Betrayers of Kamigawa style guide image

By the way, I found the Oni to be some of the hardest cards to name in Kamigawa, largely because their art descriptions were almost identical. Since we as Creative Writers didn’t see the artwork when writing, it was always tough to figure out what made a particular Oni distinct over its brethren. The tactic here, as you see, was to tie the Oni to a particular place, the ruined city of Numai.

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

『神河物語』時点で起きた「霊都の虐殺」は、定命の住民が大量に死んだ大事件です。それにインスピレーションを受けて、竹沼で鬼が暴れ回り、その腐敗した泥が周囲の街へと広がっていくことを考えました。

その様子を表したのが、《沼居の災い魔/Scourge of Numai》のフレイバーテキスト、ということです。

かつては人々の街があった沼居も、いまや腐った竹に埋もれ鬼に穢された廃墟が残るだけだ。
――― 神河史書.

引用元
《沼居の災い魔/Scourge of Numai》のフレイバーテキスト

余談として、鬼はカード名を付けにくいことが語られています。というのも、イラストを見ないで作成していたため、鬼ごとの個性を出すのが難しかった、とのことです。今回のカードのように「沼井」という地名を付けたのはその差別化のための方法でした。オリジナルカードを作るときにも、少し参考になる話でした。