As Dominaria braces itself against the impending Phyrexian invasion, it’s important to remember that it isn’t the only threatened plane in the multiverse. Hazards abound, from the arid wastes of Amonkhet to the colourful landscapes of Lorwyn. Of all these worlds, none have smaller problems than the plane of Segovia.

Pint Sized Predicaments

Not much is known about Segovia aside from its diminutive nature. Its guardian angels stand less than an inch tall, and its sprawling Romanesque cities would barely cover a dining room table. The mighty Segovian Leviathan, while terrifying to the local populace, is roughly the size of an elephant. This makes the creature the equivalent of an ancient Ikorian behemoth or colossal eldrazi titan on this plane, but compared to monsters on other worlds, it’s rather underwhelming.

Perhaps the strangest quirk of Segovia is that when a Planeswalker travel there, they shrink down to its scale. That reduces them to approximately 1:100 their normal size, or about 15mm tall. This is good news for the inhabitants, since otherwise the entire plane would get flattened under Nicol Bolas’s claw when he first arrived. (It wouldn’t be the first world the dragon destroyed, but his machinations usually took longer than that.)

Strangely, the reverse of this quirk isn’t true. Summoned creatures from Segovia maintain their small stature when they appear on other worlds, making them more of a nuisance than a real threat. If there are any Segovian planeswalkers out there, their exploits have gone entirely unnoticed. Considering the incredible threat such a planeswalker would face from regular insects, house cats and stray shoes, it’s perhaps unsurprising that their adventures wouldn’t feature prominently in the interplanar conflicts of the War of the Spark or the most recent Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria!

This World has Little Land

It’s said that Segovia’s is mostly covered by water. Logically, the iconic Segovian Leviathan resides in an ocean large enough for it to swim around, so that makes sense. For all we know there may only be a single Segovian Leviathan, though: it’s literally the big fish in a little pond. If that’s the case, the “vast ocean” of Segovia might only be the size of a city aquarium, or a public swimming pool. Even if the Leviathan finds this ocean cramped, the tiny whales probably feel like they’ve got plenty of room.

As for dry land, it’s unclear what any of Segovia’s land masses look like, or how many there are. Given the limited descriptions of the plane, we would be forgiven for assuming that most Segovian cities are located near a coast. Perhaps the world lacks a single (relatively) large continent, and is made up of a series of archipelagos instead?

Regardless of the shape of the land masses, the prominence of the plane’s ocean(s?) suggests a rich tradition of ship building and sea trade. The brightly dressed population undoubtedly enjoys a variety of seafood dishes. Segovian fish sauce is probably quite popular!

The local fishermen surely have no shortage of fanciful tales about how they narrowly avoided being eaten or capsized by the great Leviathan; each time they tell one of these stories, the Leviathan always gets bigger… and maybe it literally does!

Segovia Wasn’t Built in a Day
(It took most of the weekend)

What little (heh) we’ve seen of the world’s architecture suggests a vaguely Roman aesthetic, much like the ancient architecture in the real-world city of the same name. The stacked arches of The Hippodrome (seen in the background of Segovian Angel) are very reminiscent of the aqueduct in the real Segovia, or the Colosseum in Rome. The deadly, high stakes chariot races that take place in this Circus Minimus look a lot like tiny reenactments of Ben-Hur.

That said, the antelope-like creatures pulling the wee chariots would suggest this world is more than just a scaled-down copy of the late Roman Empire. In true Magic fashion, this world is surely populated by a wide variety of species, likely a similar assortment as Theros. Merfolk are almost certainly present, living in ancient sunken castles beneath the shadow of the Leviathan; Merfolk treasure chests are probably full of bubbles….

To Scale

When everything is small, nothing is. Or at least, you can’t tell that it’s small. One of the core challenges to making a full Magic set on Segovia is that Magic requires creatures with a wide array of power and toughness. If the single largest creature on the plane is canonically a 3/3, it seems impossible to make a playable Limited format.

All hope is not lost, however. A functional set needs bigger creature cards, like 4/4s and 6/6s, but there’s nothing to say that these cards have to depict a single creature. Take Healer’s Flock for example: it’s a 3/3 creature card that represents a group of three 1/1 Healer’s Hawks travelling together. It’s far from the only example, either: Assembled Alphas, Trueheart Twins, Devouring Swarm, Halana and AlenaWar of the Spark even introduced the Army subtype, which uses a single game object to stand in for hundreds of individual soldiers. There’s no reason why this same principle can’t be used for Segovia; the Leviathan might be the biggest single creature on the plane, but a card representing a whole Segovian Legion could have more power and toughness.

Miniature Miniatures

While I think Segovia would be a fun, unique world to explore, it’s unlikely that Wizards will ever make a full Magic set based on the plane. It’s much more likely that we’ll see more of the world on one-off cards instead; Segovian Angel was a fun surprise in Modern Horizons 2, and there’s more than enough room for cards like that in the future. After all, nothing on Segovia takes up that much space!

If I had to choose, I think I’d actually rather see a tabletop miniature wargame set on Segovia rather than a full Magic set. 15mm models are a delight to paint, and the idea of an “actual size” game with models that small amuses me to no end.

The idea amused me so much that I’ve started puzzling out rules for it. They’re loosely based on Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, Forbidden Psalm, and of course Magic; I’ve got a lot of work left to do before it’s ready to share, but I think I have the basics sorted out. My next step will be play-testing…


Exploring the multiverse? Come visit The Mage-Rings of Vryn!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.