During the latest Town Hall, we received some tantalizing eye candy for the Earth and Death Splinter Legendary Summoners. A welcome surprise to satisfy our thirst, in the build-up to their release.
We look to decipher the clues within the name and artwork of this new Summoner, to theorize the abilities that he could potentially receive. We will also attempt to determine his mana cost based on our theory of abilities. We must also take into consideration the abilities of existing Legendary Summoners, as they will serve as a guide, under the presumption that there should not be any overlap.
So, without further ado…
My initial response to the reveal of Immortalis was a bit perplexing. I struggled to identify a connection between the name, Immortalis, and the artwork, being that of a lightning wielding shepherd and his dog. Now, don’t get me wrong… The artwork is amazing, and I do love the name, Immortalis, but neither leads to an obvious theme for this Summoner when placed side by side.
To gather a better understanding of the creator’s intended purpose for this Summoner, we should dissect each component separately, starting with the name.
Immortalis is a Latin word, from which we derive the word immortal: meaning to live forever; never dying or decaying. Going along with the theme of immortality, we can deduce which abilities lend themselves to the preservation of life, and then by process of elimination, figure out the most likely candidates.
| Ability | Reason | Yes/No | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Cleanse | Cleanse fits the bill, however, there is already an existing Legendary Earth Summoner with this exact ability (Scarred Llama Mage). | ❌ |
 | Divine Shield | Granting each monster protection from the first instance of damage (excluding poison), this is a potential candidate, although a one-off damage nullifier is not consistent with being immortal, but we will keep it on the list, for now. | ✔️ |
 | Forcefield | Reducing the damage of attacks with a power of 5+ to 1 is a great ability for survival, but I am a bit iffy on this one. We’ll keep it for now. | ✔️ |
 | Immunity | Making the entire team immune to status effects is a strong consideration for an immortal ability. The word, immunity, can also be used in a similar context to immortality. | ✔️ |
 | Last Stand | Like the cleanse ability, Scarred Llama Mage already has Last Stand as well, making this an unlikely candidate. | ❌ |
 | Life Leech | Life Leech just screams OP. This ability has the potential to sustain your entire team, thus making them immortal, so this one gets the nod from me. | ✔️ |
 | Redemption | I find this one rather interesting. Although it requires a Monster to die, in order to take effect, which is not consistent with the traits of immortality, it does allude to the idea of living beyond the grave as you deal damage, after death. For this reason, I have included it in our list. | ✔️ |
 | Resurrect | Although this ability fits the theme very well, the Life Splinter already has a Legendary Summoner with this ability (Chanseus the Great.) | ❌ |
 | Scavenger | Operating similarly to Life Leech (although not quite as potent in some cases), scavenger has the potential to sustain the entire team. | ✔️ |
 | Tank Heal | Another strong consideration in the theme of immortality, however, there is already a Legendary Dragon Summoner with this ability (Byzantine Kitty). | ❌ |
 | Triage | Like the Resurrect ability, Chanseus the Great already has Triage as well, making this an unlikely candidate. | ❌ |
 | Health | More health is always great and adds to making the team more durable. A tick on the side of immortality. | ✔️ |
As mentioned earlier, there wasn’t an obvious theme that stuck out to me in my initial viewing of the artwork. To delve further into the mind of the creator, I decided to highlight the individual features that I felt show a distinct sign of character portrayal.
🔴 Lightning Bolt
- Seeing a lightning bolt wielded aggressively, immediately draws my attention to the Greek god, Zeus. He is considered the ruler and protector of all gods and humans and is often depicted as an older man with a beard, wielding a lightning bolt.
🔴 Robe
- Robes often signify a proficiency in the use of magic (in the case of fantasy and roleplay). They also play an important role in religion.
🔴 Shepherd Staff
- A shepherd’s primary responsibility is to protect their flock. The most notable shepherd in history was Jesus, although he was not a shepherd in the literal sense, but figuratively. He was the shepherd over his followers, providing protection, deliverance,healing and making the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the flock.
🔴 Dog
- The dog is hard to decipher in this context. It supports the narrative of a shepherd, but could also refer to the idea of a guide if we consider the lightning in the eyes to be a depiction of blindness. Because the addition of a second character is so unusual, I am inclined to believe that the creator took this as an opportunity to immortalize their pet in the form of a Splinterlands card, however, I could be wrong.
🔴 Long Grey Hair And Beard
- A representation of old age or wisdom, that is often used to depict godly or enlightened beings. Long grey beards are also a common feature in wizards or mages.
So, what could this mean?
If we combine the breakdown of all these features, the result is that of a divine being, who through the use of “magic”, protects their “flock”. A combination of both Zeus and Jesus if you will.
| Ability | Reason | Yes/No | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Divine Shield | For starters, it has the word divine in the name, but the function of the ability itself is that of a protector. | ✔️ |
| Redemption | The idea of redemption or a redeemer is relevant in the conversation of gods or the divine. In this context, the redemption ability would function as an act of punishment against those who hurt the flock. Another interesting point is the appearance of the hair, lightning eyes and beard combined, looks very similar to the Redemption symbol itself. | ✔️ |
 | Magic | The artwork has several mage-like characteristics, making this a likely candidate. | ✔️ |
 | Speed | Lightning bolts can often be used to represent speed. The most notable example would be DC Comics hero, Flash. Immortalis is depicted with both a lightning bolt in his hand, as well as in his eyes. | ✔️ |
So, where does this leave us?
After carefully analysing the clues left in the name and artwork of this Summoner, we are left with just a handful of abilities. The below illustrates the crossover between each:
| Ability | Name | Artwork | Crossover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Divine Shield | ✔️ | ✔️ | Yes |
| Forcefield | ✔️ | ❌ | - |
| Immunity | ✔️ | ❌ | - |
| Life Leech | ✔️ | ❌ | - |
| Redemption | ✔️ | ✔️ | Yes |
| Scavenger | ✔️ | ❌ | - |
| +Health | ✔️ | ❌ | - |
| +Magic | ❌ | ✔️ | - |
| +Speed | ❌ | ✔️ | - |
In my opinion, these two abilities alone did not warrant the status of Legendary, therefore a 3rd ability needed to be added to tip this Summoner over the edge.
After much deliberation, I settled on the below as my final choice of abilities and the corresponding mana cost:
💠 Abilities: +2 Speed, Divine Protection, Redemption
💠 Mana Cost: 8
Justification
- The lightning is a major feature in the artwork of this Summoner. I was conflicted between +1 Magic and +2 Speed. Magic seemed plausible, seeing as Immortalis was wielding a lightning bolt and wearing a robe, but I felt speed was a better representation of the power of lightning and was more consistent with a divine being, having the ability to appear in the blink of an eye.
- The reference to Zeus and the shepherd staff made for a compelling argument in support of a divine being, whose responsibility is to protect others. This made Divine Protection the unequivocal choice to portray these qualities.
- I realize this choice is a bit unorthodox, but that is also the reason why I believe it could be one of the chosen abilities. It is so unexpected, yet consistent with the artwork and the name (if my theory of a Zeus and Jesus fusion is correct).
Although I am not completely sold on my prediction of Immortalis' abilities, I feel that I allowed my interpretation of the name and the artwork to dictate my final decision, regardless of how unorthodox it seemed.
It is easy to be misled by the name, to think that he is a Summoner that grants immortality. My feelings are that the name, Immortalis, is a direct reference to the immortal nature of the Summoner himself, rather than the powers that he grants to Monsters.
I could be completely wrong here, but either way, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of analyzing and theory crafting, so much so that I will likely do a post on Astral Entity - The new Legendary Death Summoner.
If I overlooked anything, or you have your own theory that differs from mine, then please leave a comment. I would love to know your thoughts!
I appreciate your time and attention and I look forward to seeing you in the next post...
God Bless~
-Kxlm
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