Talk:Serendib

Delete proposal

As far as I can tell, this doesn't actually appear in lore. You could say it is implied by the card names, but there are many proper nouns in Magic with no exact definition that don't receive a page. The geographical information comes from the real-world work One Thousand and One Nights and is about the actual island of Sri Lanka. RudleyDudley (talk) 22:38, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

I suppose the approach should depend on the exact status of the set itself. It was originally based on the OTaON book, but then there was an effort to canonize it in some way (with lore and comics). The question is: was the set canonized partially, or fully? If we assume that only cards referenced in the storyline sources are canonized, then Serendib should probably be deleted. If we assume that the whole set is canonized within the context of Rabiah, then I think that the inference that Serendib is a location is actually a good one (such nouns changing a type of the referent would be highly unlikely). Not that a minor mention on few card names warrants a page of its own - it could be integrated to Rabiah's Geography section instead. I'm not sure what the answer to my question is though. I seem to recall some official lists of planes with their set counterparts - which would suggest the set was fully canonized more than the opposite, but I can't look for them right now. Ontos (talk) 02:51, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

Ok. I forgot Serendib Efreet actually featured in the story sources (Encyclopedia of Dominia; Eater of the Infinite), just the location didn't, so my last answer doesn't fully make sense, but it could still be useful to discuss the principle of including/excluding such nouns here. The official set pages only mention the original OTaON inspiration: old; middle; the newest set archive is embarrassingly bare bones and the only relevant thing it says is: "Relieve the tales of Sindbad and Aladdin, battle powerful djinns and efreets, and journey to strange exotic lands." But the more story-focused lists just acknowledge the set as representing Rabiah and being a part of the lore: "Arabian Nights originates from the nearby plane of Rabiah" 1; "Rabiah the Infinite - Expansions: Arabian Nights [...] Many elements of Rabiah are taken from the One Thousand and One Nights..." 2.

That tells me all such nouns in Arabian Nights should be taken seriously as referring to Rabiah's lore. In case of 'Serendib', the inference to a location of these efreets' and djinns' place of origin still seems a good one to me. Especially that in the design, Garfield made the connection between the cards' color (blue) and the Island which produces that mana ("The blue pair were both named, appropriately, after an island, which I believe is Ceylon (better known as Serendib)"). And Serendib Sorcerer was printed since then, practically confirming that the noun type didn't change (from a place to a name of a tribe for instance) in WotC's understanding which seals the deal for me.

TL;DR: my final vote is that 'Serendib' should remain being understood as an island on Rabiah and a place where Serendib Efreeti and Djinni originate from (the island also having some human presence). I'm ambivalent on whether it should stay as a separate page or be integrated into Rabiah#Geography as a minor location. Ontos (talk) 12:42, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

Me again, sorry. I forgot that Serendib Sorcerer is a shifted card from Planar Chaos, representing alternate realities, so scratch that confirmation of human presence on Serendib proper. Ontos (talk) 16:28, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

I support the deletion of this article because it is a stub with almost no chance of being expanded without a revisit of Rabiah. I think Ontos has demonstrated that Serendib is an in-multiverse location, or at least it's supposed to be, with respect to the gray-area-weirdness that Arabian Nights has. If we have a consensus that is the case, we should add it to Rabiah#Geography. -- RivalRowan (talk) 22:44, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

That all sounds fine with me. RudleyDudley (talk) 01:30, 19 October 2025 (UTC)