Ruin of Seffala - Worldbuilding with Vanilla, French Vanilla, and Creme Brulee Creatures

To clear these out of the way, let's discuss some very simple creatures. Every set needs a few vanilla creatures, which are creatures with no rules text. French Vanilla creatures are those with just an evergreen keyword or two. What I'll call Creme Brulee creatures are simple creatures with set-specific keywords.

These creatures not only fill out the commons (literally called 'filler'), but also provide room for some worldbuilding and storytelling.

You may need to click to enlarge, though there's not much to look at.

In white, Homestead Survivor is one of the few humans who did not opt to join the Drove. We will see more of these kinds of characters, primarily in white, that refuse to join sides and want to just live off the land, just how some Witherkin (the Jarren faction) refuse to make war like the Nettlers and Balders, and escape the mountains and swamps to live in the forest (those come later). Ceremonial Escort is filler for Shaman tribal. The Blue, Black, Red, and Green vanilla creatures here fill out the menagerie of life in Seffala. Springstep's Grizzly is an allusion to Springstep, a legendary character which we will come across later. (Giera and Hanne Volant have also aready been mentioned, and we will see many of these characters later.)

Like Homestead Survivor, Farm Guard, Farm Yak, and Friendly Neighbor fill out the last of the White farmers trying to keep to their land. Brother & Sister Volant are simple Shamans in Volant's cult, while Lofty Dimmer is a simple Djinn. Once more, the rest of the creatures simply fill out some of the animals of the land.

Here, now, we see the Witherkin being our first set of Creme Brulee creatures (as all Witherkin must be, since they all have Wither and it is a set-specific keyword). In the creature subtypes and names, you can start to learn the story of the world. Balders are sticking to their native swamps, fighting against the Parasites, Nettlers have settled in the mountains, and fight for their right to live there against the Djinni, and Jarren continue to explore to the forests to live in peace away from both enemies. Mushrooming Moss is part of the forest of Seffala's defense mechanism to ensure the forest can survive and heal. Scourge of Slog Bog is a bit of a joke card, an early card I came up with when I was still taking this set unseriously. I still find it funny (I even considered making it legendary). Once more that last few cards fill out more of the beasts that live on the plane.

Okay, that's a heck of a lot of (mechanically) boring cards, but now that that dump is over with, we'll be able to focus on more interesting cards and mechanics.