Kaladesh

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Be sure to note the Thopters, you'll be seeing a lot of them here.

"Steampunk. But no steam and no punk."

– Anonymous user

Kaladesh is the home plane of Chandra Nalaar and as such was one of the 10 planes featured in the set Magic Origins. It is also the setting for the Fall 2016/Winter 2017 expansion block of the same name, introducing the planeswalkers Saheeli Rai and Dovin Baan. It's kind of steam punk, but instead of the usual Victorian England, it's more based off India, specifically North and West India, hence the more Mughal-inspired architecture. It has neither British colonization elements, nor pollution, and it's all around prettier than typical steampunk.

Concerning Aether

Instead of magic being used in a way more common to other planes, it is used via artifice. These magic devices are fueled by Aether, a substance of the Blind Eternities, but extremely saturated in Kaladesh. It is in the rain that falls, and the swirls in the sky. Even the furs of animals have Aether-swirlies. About sixty years before the main set, some inventor named Aavati Vya figured out how to refine Aether, and that led to the Great Aether Boom.

The cycle of Aether can be split into five stages: Inspire, Innovate, Build, Liberate, Reclaim. The lore says that the six prominent races on Kaladesh embody the five stages and the cycle itself.

• Many tinkerers are inspired by Aether, but the Elves are more easily inspired by the Aether patterns in animals, hence they represent the "Inspire" stage. They are most likely to inspire others to see the natural laws of the plane. This makes Elves Green-focused in this set.
• Vedalken are a big part of Kaladesh, and they are known to innovate immensely, to the point of representing the "Innovate" stage. However, Kaladeshi Vedalken are unique in their embrace of imperfection and their six fingers. Their skin is blue and so is their focus.
• Of course, the Dwarves represent the "Build" stage, since they have a penchant for building things. One Dwarf named Sram keeps busy by repairing everything that gets wrecked in the oncoming scuffle. Unlike most sets, Kaladeshi Dwarves are white-focused.
• Aether is a tasty treat for Gremlins, and even the Consulate has a tough time getting rid of them, but they are part of the cycle... and they "liberate" Aether by attempting to feed on it. This is a messy process, which ends up freeing Aether back into the environment. No surprise that these gremlins are red-focused.
• Using Aether as fuel doesn't put soot and shit in the air; instead it makes living Black-focused soot-beings called Aetherborn. They have short (four-year) lifespans, and possess an ability Yahenni calls "Empathic Resonance." Because of how little time they have to live, have a YOLO mentality, and many are predisposed to vice and crime. Their entire existence is how Aether is reclaimed by the environment.
• And the humans? They recognize the Aether cycle as a cycle and synthesize all five.

Aether is also highly flammable, thus, fire magic is illegal and punishable by death, which makes Chandra's family automatic criminals. Not a great place for a pyromancer to be born. Either because of the nature of Aether or Consulate control, other mages like Lieutenant Baral (who has anti-fire magic) are more tightly regulated than Aether flow.

What is going on?

The whole plot is about a political conflict between the Consulate and the Renegades. The Consulate is basically Kaladeshi Ad-Mech, but instead of shunning innovation, they tightly regulate innovation through inspections and scheduled Inventor's Fairs. The story however railroads us into siding with the Renegades simply because of Chandra's family issues and Tezzeret shaking hands the Consulate's side. Such room for nuance, huh?

Welcome Home, Chandra

It starts with Dovin Baan asking the Gatewatch for help, but his Kaladeshi way of speaking ignites old memories in Chandra. Liliana and Nissa follow her back to her home. Of course, Chandra's mother Pia is caught as the Renegade Prime by Tezzeret, which must be his only Lawful Good moment so far. Chandra and Nissa run into an elderly renegade named Ms. Pashiri. The three of them run off and try to find more renegades, and they come across an Aetherborn partygoer named Yahenni. Nissa interrogates a Consulate enforcer who threatens to shut down the party going on, and finds out that Pia is in the Dhund, a hidden Consulate vault. Of course, the Consulate anticipated this. Chandra and Nissa are soon accosted by Baral, the man who killed Chandra's father. He locks Chandra, Nissa, and Ms. Pashiri in a Deadlock Trap, a cage specifically designed to kill mages. It isn't too long until Ajani shows up and busts them out of prison. Turns out, the White Cat is a friend of Pashiri from way back. Liliana brings Jace and Gideon to Kaladesh. The six planeswalkers reunite just in time for a showdown between Tezzeret and Pia. The metal-armed Planeswalker trounces the Renegade Prime, until the Gatewatch appears in the arena. After the scuffle, Saheel Rai shows up and tells them Tezzeret confiscated a lot of inventions. Dovin also found out what was going on, and he was not pleased with Tezzeret bungling everything up. Last we se of him in the initial set is when he tries to assure some inventors their works will be stored safely.

Aether Revolt

Chandra's mum leads a revolution which overthrew an oppressive, aether-flow-controlling government. Yahenni becomes an essence-drainer. Tezzeret escapes after the destruction of a Planar Portal he kidnapped a ton of inventors in order to build. Our noble heroes decided to set forth for the home plane of Nicol Bolas; Amonkhet.

Mechanics

Energy: A new resource for players to spend in order to activate the abilities of certain cards. As an alternate, persistent, liquid resource largely beyond the reach of opponents that fuels a handful of very potent artifacts, energy quickly proved to be one of the most broken mechanics WotC has ever come up with.

Vehicles: Artifacts that become creatures only when they are crewed by tapping creatures. Vehicles proved to be a popular niche and are now deciduous, being well suited to lore-heavy big dumb objects like the Weatherlight. The virtue of vehicles lies in that they are not creatures by default, and revert to not being creatures at end of turn. This allows them to hide from many forms of removal, especially sorcery speed.

Fabricate: Either place +1/+1 counters on a creature or create 1/1 tokens. Pretty lame, was limited to black/white/green, but there were a few cards that got some good use out of it like Marionette Master.

Revolt: Abilities get powered up if a permanent was removed from the field this turn.

Notable Cards

Fatal Push

This card is a staple in modern. Black is supposed to be the color with the best creature spot removal, and in modern, that wasn't the case until this card got printed.

B&

These cards have gotten B& in at least one format.

Felidar Guardian

1/2 of an instant win combo with Saheeli Rai. For a two-card infinite it's not actually that powerful due to needing three colors; remains legal in most formats.

Aetherworks Marvel

If you didn't hit your win condition (New Emmy or New Ula) you would likely at least hit an energy producer which might allow you to spin again next turn. You might even hit another Marvel. If you do and you choose the Marvel, Marvel comes in, legend rule sends one of them to the graveyard (you choose to send the tapped one to the graveyard) and you gain 2 energy. If you now have 6 energy, you get to spin a marvel again right away.

Attune with Aether

It may look innocuous card, and that's why I didn't bother to put up the picture. This was a ban intended to hose the energy decks, but not cripple them. If you don't get why this card matters at all, think of this card as an evolving wilds that gives you 2 energy.

After the original block

The mechanical wonders were once visited by a warrior woman who popped outta nowhere, only to be yanked out of sight by some chain. That was Huatli awakening her spark while fighting Angrath. Huatli would make a proper visit to the plane after Ixalan's Immortal Sun got spirited away by Tezzeret. Saheeli Rai and Huatli would later get into a romantic relationship. The first big thing they did together is invent dinosaur automatons. These sure came in handy when New Phyrexia attacked Ghirapur. The invasion was so much of a threat, that Baral was released from prison if it meant he could fight the Phyrexians... alongside the pirate Kari Zev. After the invasion stopped, omenpaths started to appear, and the more stable ones happened to lead to Ghirapur.

Settings of Magic: The Gathering
Multiverse:	Dominaria - Phyrexia - Blind Eternities
Pre-revisionist:	First Magic Sets - First Urza Block - Arabian Nights Legends - Homelands - Ice Age - Mirage
Weatherlight Saga:	Portal Starter Sets - Second Urza Block Tempest Block - Masques Block - Invasion Block
Post-Weatherlight:	Otaria Block - Mirrodin - Kamigawa - Ravnica - Time Spiral
After the Mending:	Lorwyn - Alara - Zendikar - New Phyrexia Innistrad - Return to Ravnica - Theros - Tarkir
Two-Block Paradigm:	Kaladesh - Amonkhet - Ixalan - War of the Spark
Post Two-Block Paradigm:	Eldraine - Ikoria - Kaldheim - Strixhaven - New Capenna
Omenpath Arc:	Thunder Junction - Bloomburrow - Duskmourn
Never in a standard set:	Fiora (Where the Conspiracy sets take place) - Kylem (Battlebond)