MTGSalvation forums (which i barely read) were going pretty nuts with speculation. Is it her, is it not her, is it her twin sister? Hell, someone even suggested a twilight-themed set... because slash fiction will really help Magic's mainstream image, right? Either way, i have a sneaking suspicion that black players (that's the mana colour, not the "brothers") should be pretty excited.
If they just made a new Liliana Vess with anywhere near the power level of her romantic interest in the story (that's Jace, apparently, though i can't really see them as a couple: "Oh, look, you tutored up a Grave Titan? I guess i'll fateseal that, now shut up and make my dinner,") i'd already start putting away cash to buy a playset - preferably foils if that's the artwork.
Personally i wouldn't read much more into it than that, however. As much as i'd love to see some kind of crazy modern day version of the Torment set, a single picture doesn't say as much as people are making out. Take a look at the recent 'Announcing...' Arcana and you'll see that the image chosen is more relevant to the plot more than it is to the power concentration of the set. For example, shouldn't MBS' Arcana have featured Tezzeret if it was chosen for the most powerful/important cards? Instead they went with Mirran Crusader, which is very good in some decks, but it's far from being as important as some people expect Liliana to be in Innistrad... if it's even her... which i really think/hope it will be.
Speaking of the "is it/isn't it her" debate, my own view is that the evidence points to yes. I don't pretend to be an art expert or anything like that, but the similarities are too striking to be coincidental. Also, apparently the veil in her hand has something to do with the story. If that's so (I haven't read that much of the lore) then i don't see how this can't be Liliana.
As for the set itself, the name to me sounds like a town or city. When people saw Richard Garfield's name on the design team they jumped to the conclusion that it will be city-based like Ravnica. While i don't think Garfield's inclusion necessarily means that at all, the name surely does. I suppose the fact that it sounds very much like Leningrad or Stalingrad (the 'grad' syllable meaning 'town') could just be a coincidence, of course, but even so, it does sound an awful lot like it should be a town or city rather than a whole plane.
As always, though, i guess we'll have to wait till September to find out. In the meantime, let the wild, baseless speculation continue!
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