Douglysium

To whom it may concern,

Do not fret my compatriot, for I have gotten your letter. Unfortunately, I was unable to get your name but I suppose keeping your identity under raps is of immeasurable importance in this city. Those common folk and self-righteous angels simply fear what they do not understand. On some level I must pity someone who cannot see the science and innovation minds like us put into creating what many may dismiss “abominations.” I have also written some letters concerning the other races on Innistrad for research purposes, such as Spirits(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/664030257036361728/the-taste-of-innistrads-spirits). However, to get back to the matter at hand, I got your hidden message. As a novice Stitcher, Ghoulcaller and Planeswalker you seek guidance in how to create better more efficient zombies from a fellow Planeswalker, and I must say it is quite impressive that you are proficient in both forms of zombie creation. Now, I am no Ghoulcaller but I have done my research on the subject and am a proficient enough Stitcher. Sorry for all the ramblings, it’s just that seeing someone who wants to become Stitcher such as myself, the legendary Geralf, or Ludevic is exciting. That’s not to say that I consider myself as even close to being as ingenious as they are but I hope that I may one day be.

Well, hopefully you’ve had your lab set up by the time you’ve started reading this, and if don’t you may just finish reading this once you have. This letter will be the first of many and will focus on one of the most important aspects of being a Stitcher or Ghoulcaller on Innistrad. That aspect of course being zombies, and in this letter I will be discussing their connection to Blue and Black mana along with what this connection can tell us about them, so let’s dive in.

Zombies on Innistrad come in two main varieties. There are the zombies aligned with Blue mana and the zombies aligned with Black mana, and of course by proxy there are those aligned with both. Let’s look at the philosophical alignments and connections that these zombies have with these colors starting with the Blue-aligned zombies.

he Blue-aligned zombies of Innistrad are called Skaabs and are artificially created by people known as Stitchers or Skaberen, such as you or I, for the sake of this letter I will be referring to the people of this craft as Stitchers. Similar to Skaabs, Stitchers usually have Blue in their color alignment. Unlike Ghoulcallers, Stitchers create zombies by combining various, usually human, body parts together via necro-alchemy, which is more of a scientific art than the necromancy Ghoulcallers use. As pointed out by a mysterious Planeswalker by the name of Gavin Verhey in his document titled “Something You’re Afraid of (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0efU3BVKX9E&t=10s&ab_channel=GoodMorningMagic)” Skaabs as a whole have some sort of thematic connection to, and has many parallels to, a famous monster that Planeswalkers such as you or I call Frankenstein. Well, technically I don’t the the monster is named, and Frankenstein is also the name of the doctor that created him but most people refer to the monster as Frankenstein so I’ll just refer to him as Frankenstein’s monster to keep things simple and avoid confusion. This of course adds to that “gothic horror” atmosphere that I’m sure you’re already well acquainted with.

Now of course comes the inevitable question Why are some of the zombies Mono-Blue-aligned? Well, I believe this mostly comes from their artificial nature. You see, Blue is a color that has a heavy connection to technology and artificiality. Blue likes knowledge and wants to use said knowledge to improve things. Due to it’s want to improve things it often jumps at the opportunity to embrace new, efficient and productive forms of technology. Blue is also a color that, while it likes to study and appreciate nature, it does not bind itself to the idea of what is and isn’t natural. Who cares if humans weren’t supposed to fly when you can invent a plane or jetpack to allow them to do so. If something like say glasses lets you see better why would you halt progress like that just because wearing glasses or using jetpacks is unnatural or not. On Innistrad this seems to manifest as the stitching of bodies and corpses together into new entities and devices that can do all sorts of things that a person couldn’t normally do by default.

You could for example create a flying zombie, a zombie to assist you in lab work, a zombie that’s super strong, a zombie to defend you so on and so forth.

The use of dead bodies, or what many laypeople may refer to as a desecration of dead bodies, probably ties into Blue not caring about the natural course in which things are supposed to progress and how Blue may not always have as strong of an objective moral center as it’s ally White does. Blue tends to be more questioning of why certain restrictions exist and it tends to be more by the numbers/logic driven rather than morally driven. There is also the true ultimate goal of Stitchers, which is to create true life. Unfortunately, this goal is “an undertaking which usually produces malformed “offspring” rather than true life.”

This ties into the parallels many Skaabs have with monsters such as Frankenstein’s Monster but it also connects to Blue’s philosophy of trying to achieve perfection through knowledge. As mentioned in a previous letter, it is not literal perfection but rather trying to be the best you can be. Now in the original story of Frankenstein the titular Dr. Victor Frankenstein was a scientist who created the monster in order to discover the secrets of life and death, learn how to renew life and create a new species. However, he sort of messed up and created what he deemed a monster. This disregard of the natural order and emphasis on research and invention can be considered very Blue. The fact that Stitchers are constantly trying to create true life ties into Blue’s themes of perfection as what they are basically doing is trying to reach a goal and create the best Skaab possible. One that isn’t just a zombie but a true living being, which does connect to Dr. Frankenstein’s attempt to create and unravel life and its secrets. It should be also be noted that Skaabs tend to take time and care to create, and we are aware that many Stitchers put great effort into making the best Skaabs possible. This sort of patience and taking time to know, understand and perfect something aligns well with Blue philosophy. We also know that one of the final steps of creating a Skaab involves re-educating it while it is in a calm “tabula rasa” state. This is something that connects to Blue’s themes of education, knowledge, learning and possibly manipulation. There is also the fact that Blue believes everyone starts off as a black slate with the potential to become anything. Which could likened to how Skaabs can be built with any parts you desire for any sort of purposes and how you can educate and teach them whatever it is you need them to know.

Now we shamble onwards to the Black aligned Zombies.

The Black-aligned zombies on Innistrad are usually created by Ghoulcallers, as opposed to Stitchers. Ghoulcallers use necromancy to create zombies or, as the populace often calls them, Ghouls and unlike Stitchers these zombies tend to be created more immediately via raising the zombies out of whatever ended up acting as their grave. They also resemble the more classical view of the rotting single minded shambling corpse we all know and love from many other planes and forms of media.

Understanding why Ghouls, and Ghoulcallers, on Innistrad are usually of the Black alignment is relatively intuitive because of the fact that Black has basically always been associated with zombies and the undead throughout magical history. The reason for this is because Black doesn’t believe in any sort of objective morality and is willing to use all the tools at its disposable to succeed and win. Thus, it is a color that is extremely likely to utilize things like necromancy and the desecration of graves/bodies for its own purposes. Colors like White and Green may find the desecration of bodies like this horrific, unnatural and/or immoral but for Black ideas like that are ultimately made up concepts. There is also definitely a fear and repulsion aspect to Ghouls/zombies. At the end of the day a lot of zombies are disgusting, unhygienic and rotting. Plus, zombies are traditionally very scary or horrific creatures. I say that both these things draw zombies even closer to Black philosophy. Due to the fact that in Black’s eyes basically any line is worth crossing as long as it helps you win and thus it is willing to take advantage of any weaknesses it may find in potential adversaries. Backstabbing, scaring the opponent, threatening their loved ones, invoking phobias, etc. nothing is off the table. Thus, Black is totally willing to use something like a disgusting rotting, scary and iconic monster that many may be unwilling to interact with due to all these factors. It could also potentially lower the moral or will to fight of certain adversaries. That’s not to mention there’s also the psychological factor of you being forced to fight the decaying bodies of your friends, family and neighbors.

There is also the fact that a rotting corpse could potentially spread and carry diseases which adds a biological warfare and corruption tactic to using zombies. Things like horrifying diseases or potentially doing things like poisoning water supplies or food with rotting corpses could play to one’s favor in a battle or siege of some sort. Black is also a color that is no stranger to utilizing disease and corruption in order to win.

An interesting aspect of Stitchers and Ghoulcallers is some of the ways they disagree and view each other. Many Stitchers see the resurrection techniques that Ghoulcallers use as crude, heretical, and something that provides unacceptable results. I think this highlights one of the disagreements Blue and Black philosophies have. The thing about color philosophies is that all the colors have agreements and disagreements, and ally colors are no exception(I mean if they had no disagreements they would just be the same color). When it comes to Blue and Black, while Blue may not be as morally minded as White it does have things that it would deem unnecessary or unhelpful. Black may do something like wipe out a town in order to get what it needs and Blue may see this as overkill or as wasting what could potentially be valuable knowledge or resources in the future via the people, objects or structures there. Black also tends to be more pragmatic and to the point than Blue. Black is less likely to care about how things get done as long as they are done, while Blue may get caught up in trying to understand something to the best of its ability. While both Blue and Black can have a shared thirst for knowledge that can often extend to knowing things that some may consider “forbidden” Black is less likely to be concerned with something that isn’t immediately useful for it now or in the near future. Meanwhile Blue likes to hang on to knowledge just in case it ever becomes useful or important. That’s not to mention that Black is potentially willing to destroy something in order to deprive enemies of its benefits. Which Blue may see as destroying something that could be used to improve things for people or create benefits for someone later. Black is also more power hungry than Blue. The reason Black crave knowledge is because it understands knowledge is powerful and while Blue understands knowledge can be powerful it’s more in it for the improvement of the world and people around it and the thrill of discovery rather than for power’s sake.

On the other hand, Black sees Blue as a color that can be a bit sidetracked by getting too caught up on HOW things are done rather than what needs to get done. Black likes to keep its eyes on the prize and if learning how something is done is what it takes for Black to get what it needs then so be it, but it if isn’t necessary to the goal then Black won’t usually waste time trying to figure out how something works. Blue can also be a bit slow to act because it likes to plan and be subtle, which can be a disadvantage since someone who is quick enough may be able to defeat Blue before they’ve finished thinking about what to do or the time spent thinking may give a foe the upper hand. Black on the other hand is totally fine with destroying threats quickly and without mercy.

I think the disagreements I’ve highlighted here do a good job showing why some of the conflict between the Stitchers and Ghoulcallers exist. First of all, the creation Skaabs themselves is usually described as more of an art or a science than Ghoulcalling. I think that aspect helps show some of the differing priorities Blue and Black aligned people may have. Skaab creation is all about improving, learning and experimenting. Getting better and better at the craft and trying to create new life or something that can make life easier in the future.

Ghoul creation has far fewer steps and is more straight to the point. In that respect Ghoulcalling ties into Black caring less about how things work, outside of what it needs to know, and potentially even to it’s more pragmatic nature. Since resurrecting zombies this way could allow one to react and dispatch threats in a much quicker manner or create a quick makeshift group/army that attempts to overwhelm the opponent in numbers. It also allows you to basically immediately resurrect any enemies you kill as more zombies for you to control in order to continuously add to your forces.

However, it can also show how Blue has more long term goals. We see in story articles such as “THE DANCE OF UNDEATH” that while ghouls rot slower than just normal dead bodies they still tend to rot overtime. Which means that you usually need more dead bodies or people to add to your ghoul armies. Skaabs also need bodies or people to create them but considering how many artificial processes are involved in making one I wouldn’t be surprised if they took longer to fall into decommission, we even see some Skaabs continue to carry out duties even after their Stitcher has died, zombies on the other hand tend to just wonder around, probably killing people, if their necromancer leaves.

Now what are the agreements Blue and Black have? I mean we do see some zombies and people who are Blue AND Black and there has to be a reason that zombies as a tribe are Blue and Black on Innistrad. One of the agreements that Blue and Black have that I think applies here is that they are both enemies of Green. That is to say that while a color like Blue cares about studying nature ultimately both Blue and Black are not beholden to nature or the natural way. If they want something done they don’t care if it’s natural or unnatural as long as it’s the best way to get the job done. Also Blue and Black are both colors that are likely to be willing to learn forbidden knowledge. Yes, Blue is an ally to the moral and righteous White but it does want to know all it can and it is more likely to inherently question why various morals exist or if they are even necessary. The knowledge of how to create a zombie ties into the sort of forbidden knowledge aspect that Blue and Black can have. The fact that zombies are Blue-Black overall probably also comes from their artificial nature. A lot of zombies are created artificially through things like necromancy, stitching and the like. While naturally occurring zombies do occur on places like Amonkhet or in other planes and media via virus’, fungi or what have you the zombies on Innistrad are leaning towards zombies that are manmade. These zombies are created through dark magic and or scientific means rather than some sort of anomaly or natural occurrence, and this aspect of them is something that Blue and Black are likely to utilize.

Now onto the mechanic many zombies seem to have as of late. Something that many Planeswalkers have dubbed Decay. The Decay mechanic reads “Decayed creatures can’t block. When they attack, they are sacrificed at the end of combat” and for the most part it’s an ability that only appears on 2/2 Black zombie tokens that. Decay’s flavor is that of a rotting zombie that’s so far gone it basically falls apart as it’s doing its job and can’t block effectively. Decayed also ties in with Black’s themes of doing things at a price. A lot of Black’s abilities come with or at a downside which captures how Black is willing to sacrifice or do whatever is necessary to get an important job done. Decayed also helps create the feeling of a massive overwhelming zombie horde overwhelming you and you forces in one massive army or a continuous endless assault of the dead that you must constantly fight off without cluttering up the board state with a bunch of permanent tokens or making things too unfair. The fact that they can’t block also encourages one to be aggressive which captures the feel of a mindless zombie that is single-mindedly shambling towards its victim.

Well, my new pupil, that is all for now. Hopefully you have received inspiration from my ramblings and will create new beautiful Skaab creations for me to witness. I wonder if there is anyone else you look up to or a zombie you strive to have your creations match? Do you have a favorite zombie, Stitcher and/or Ghoulcaller on Innistrad? I look foreword to your reply.

Signed, you know who