A Planeswalker's Guide to Caliman (Portal: Second Age)

 Welcome to Caliman!  An island to the south of the vast world of Dominaria, to the southeast of Jamuraa's coast.  Portal Second Age takes places here, sometime before the first Phyrexian Invasion.  

(sourced from the Portal Second Age guide book)  Thanks to u/TrioCarto for the scans for each page and faction.  

Caliman's elves, goblins and humans have long coexisted in relative harmony — or ignorance of each other. But in the last 150 years, disagreements between the races have led to skirmishes, and those skirmishes may eventually lead to war.

The island uses a mixture of technology and magic. Seagoing merchants draw on ancient Thran technology; the swamp dwellers have evil Phyrexian artifacts and trade them with the goblins; the humans benefit from the genius of a great inventor. Only the elves of the northwest forest, masters of green magic, are without any technology.

White

White is the color of Alaborn, a human kingdom dominating Caliman's southern plains. It is a civilization at the height of its architectural, intellectual, and artistic accomplishments.

Over thousands of years of peace, Alaborn's weapons and armor became increasingly elaborate and useless. When the Alaborn finally encountered the goblin tribes of the mountains, humiliating military defeats followed. Only ingenious military inventions saved them from complete destruction.

Recently, the Alaborn have discovered a new enemy, whose cunning and ruthlessness far exceeds that of the goblins — the swamp queen, Tojira.

(illustration: Mike Zug and Kev Walker)

 

 

Blue

Blue is the color of the Talas, an agile and muscular race from far to the west of Caliman. Over thousands of years, they have become a significant power on the seas and scattered islands of this part of Dominaria.

Merchants and pirates, the Talas control timber towns to the east as well as several port towns built on ancient Thran ruins. About thirty years ago, they began harvesting the elves' rare featherwood trees, which yield an immensely light timber valuable for crafting ships and thopters.

(illustration: John Avon, Mark Tedin, and Mathew Wilson)

 

 

Green

Green is the color of the elves of Norwood, the northern forest. Over the thousands of years since they settled on Caliman, they have transformed their home into a sylvan paradise.

Elves are generally a little smaller than humans, with a slight but muscular build. Their skin color is primarily caucasian, and their average lifespan is 500 years.

All elves are well trained and proficient with missile weapons, and their ability to move silently makes them virtually unbeatable in their own territory.

Red

Red is the color of the mountain tribes — goblins, ogres, and giants.

Goblins are sneaky and tend to attack in small bands. Their weapons range from rocks and sharpened sticks to slings, bows, and some Phyrexian airguns they've traded for with the sweamp queen.

Ogres are large humanoids with massive, muscular builds. They recently created the dreaded battlesaw, a large chainsaw-like weapon that combines Phyrexian mana battery with a specially forged blade.

Giants are brooding and dangerous creatures. Their solitary nature means that little is known of them.

(illustration: Tony DiTerlizzi)

 

   

Black

Black is the color of the swamp queen and her minions.

For centuries, the salt marsh at Caliman's north end was uninhabited except for a few animals and semi-intelligent monsters. Ten years ago, this sorceress appeared in the ruins of the ancient Thran city there. Since then, she's grown in power, sending an increasing number of her forces out in search of artifacts and slaves.

The swamp queen is served by nightstalkers, magically created black-mana creatures. They ride large mechanical beasts whose spread feet allows them to easily lope through the uneven swamp terrain.

The stage is set for the forces of good and evil to march into battle.

(illustration: Kev Walker and Mark Tedin)