He does not seek light or darkness, never deceived or a warmonger while keeping away from magic—one with Nature, a Champion of Aeona, the Goddess of Nature.
Lore
Orphaned in the jungle as a child, Managarmr, the Moon Hounds parents, cared for Gilmow. He grew up with Managarmr as brothers and learned Nature's way. His first contact with another human was when he encountered Dionysus, who revealed that other humans like himself live in the jungle. This was when he got introduced to the Amazons. He quickly became friends with Selena being of the same age. Under General Orythia, Gilmow went through Guerilla Training and learned the skills of an amazonian warrior. When Gilmow came of age, he parted ways with Selena and the amazons. Vowing to use what he learned from them to preserve Nature's way.
Managarmr on his side, Gilmow saved lost creatures of Nature from despair. This was when he encountered the Nefarious Briar rotting away under death; with Cyrene's blessing, he kept the beast from its inevitable demise. The Marsh Walker was another beast he brought out from peril; being controlled by magic, Gilmow with the help of the Beast Speaker broke the spell that bounded the creature. All the while being watched by Chiron to see if he is a worthy Champion of Nature. Chiron approached Gilmow seeing he was honorable, taught him how to empower Nature and its creatures. When Gilmow mastered empowering Nature, Chiron took him to Sothek, who was championed as a Warrior of Nature.
When they got to Sotheks Lair, he was nowhere to be found; Sucella informed Chiron how Sothek had been deceived into War. Chiron, Gilmow, and Managarmr rushed to the site of the battle. They saw the warriors of War aggressively pushing back, defeating the warriors of Nature. Gilmow joined the fight with Managamr right beside him. This is when Gilmow saw the light shine brightly over the battlefield. The Legion of Light had come with his troops to stop the War, thus pushing back the warriors of War into retreat. After the Legion of Light made a judgment, Sothek had to pay for his actions even though he was deceived into War. Thus, Sothek paid his life's ultimate prize; being the warrior, he honored the judgment and sacrificed himself. A shrine was erected in Sotheks name.
Gilmow, Managarmr, and his new friends Baloo, the Rabid Bear and Bagheera the Black Jaguar went to pay their respects to the fallen champion at the shrine. The Goddess of Nature Aeona descended upon them and anointed Gilmow, The Protector of Nature.
Card Mechanics
He is primarily an end-game finisher for nature decks, and Nature tends to play wide on the board due to its RNG aspect. Therefore, I created this card to empower that trait of Nature. As the Protector of Nature, he needs the nature creatures around him, and if there are no nature creatures, there is nothing to protect. I also wanted to bring out the empowering aspect to the card by giving it a +4/+4, showing that the creatures rally around him. Giving him blitz compensated for his inability to hold his own as an 8 mana cost creature. Imagine you have no card draws, no creatures on the board, and he's it; he needed something more than protected 6/6. You will need to set it up to get maximum value of this card.
Inspiration
If you guys haven't already figured it out, the character is based on Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book." The name Gilmow is an anagram of Mowgli, the main character of the Jungle Book series. I read these short stories at a young age, and it stuck with me; my name Jungle Boy comes from this too (It was not because I was a jungler in League of Legends). I was fascinated with Rudyard Kipling's work, and I still have a framed poster of the poem "IF."
Conclusion
Hope I did justice to the work of a Nobel laureate. I wanted to keep the card design simple, like how you would play Nature. That said hope you guys like my card because I loved every minute of creating it. So thank you, @kephler, for running this contest, and thank you, @acidyo, for creating such a fantastic community. It's always "JUNGLE DIFF".
Sources
Images - https://fables.fandom.com/wiki/Mowgli
Card Creator - https://www.gucustom.cards/
