Ravnica is a popular plane, and it’s history is very storied and interesting. We’re going to be doing a brief overview/timeline of the plane’s major historical events and a fun little overview of each of the Guilds within the plane.

Let’s hop to it shall we?

The Erstwhile

Prior to the Guildpact, prior to much of Ravnica’s actual history, there was a race of soldier factions called the Erstwhile. Eventually all of the Erstwhile perished, but were sealed away in the very bowels of the plane. Their resting place was Umerilek, Mausoleum of the Erstwhile. They would later be raised as zombies by Mazirek of the Kraul for Vraska.

The First Guildpact

Taking place ten thousand years before the events of Ravnica: City of Guilds, the plane of Ravnica was wracked by violent and bloody conflicts, one after another. Various factions fought ferociously, each seeking total control of the world. The Sphinx planeswalker Azor saw this violence and realized it would eventually consume the entire plane. In his wisdom, he gathered together nine others from the various factions, proposing a way to end the violence and suffering.

Thus, the Guildpact was created. Ten leaders, known as the Paruns, each signed the magical document. The power of the Guildpact essentially prevented overreach; factions couldn’t interfere with each other’s business, and each faction fulfilled established roles within the society. The magic contained with the document provided the power necessary to nullify any actions taken of hostility towards the other factions. In time, these factions became known as the Ten Guilds of Ravnica.

During the Guildpact’s signing, Azor himself added extra magic to the document. In the event that the magic was ever broken, this fall-back system would activate. In doing so he created what became known as the Implicit Maze.

One Guild (the Dimir) would eventually fade into legend as the missing “Tenth Guild.” This was actually intentional; one of the clauses of the Guildpact specified that no one could ever reveal the existence of House Dimir.

The Signing of the Guildpact was widely regarded as a cause for celebration. Every year the Festival of the Guildpact took place within the city to commemorate the lasting peace made possible by the magical document.

Ravnica: City of Guilds

Ten thousand years passed. Upon the cusp of the Decamillenial Celebration of the Guildpact’s signing, it suddenly came crashing down.

Agrus Kos, an officer of the League of Wojek, began investigating the death of Saint Bayul. Fonn Zunich, a Ledev Guardian, helped him track the killers. They eventually discovered a conspiracy to kill Mat’Selesnya (the consciousness that governed the Selesyna Conclave).

The Devkarin Elf Savra was being manipulated by Szadek, the ancient Parun of the Dimir Guild. Aided by the Golgari Guild’s ancient Parun Svogthir, Savra was taking control of the Golgari Swarm away from the Sisters of Stone Death. This manipulation culminated in an attack on the Selesnyan Conclave, using the Guild’s Quietmen. Agrus Kos was instrumental in stopping this conspiracy. In doing so he very publicly arrested the vampire Szadek at the Decamillenial.

Due to the clause in the Guildpact that prevented the reveal of the Dimir, the public arrest of Szadek single-handedly broke the Guildpact’s magic (though many would not know for some time that this had occurred). Szadek was imprisoned by the Azorius Guildmaster and secretly executed.

Guildpact

Agrus Kos retired from life as a Wojek officer, stepping down from detective work to instead work for his friend Pivlic in the Utvara Reclamation Zone as an Orzhov Security Guard. However, it wouldn’t be long before the former Wojek again crossed paths with danger. Agrus’ former friend Feather, an angel, left to find the Boros Firemane Angels. Baroness Teysa Karlov moved to Utvara to claim her inheritance. These two events pushed Zomaj Hauc (an Izzet Guild Archmage) to accelerate his plot to hatch dragon eggs within the reclamation zone.

Joining up with Teysa (in addition to Gruul Vor Golozar and the goblin Crixizix), Kos infiltrated Zomaj’s base of operations. Unfortunately the acceleration worked; the dragons hatched. During the ensuing chaos, the Izzet observation sphere carrying Kos and Crix crashed, fatally wounding the Wojeck officer. Zomaj was killed and his plan stopped, but Kos perished despite Crix using a teardrop (a mana healing device) to try to heal Kos’ broken body.

His funeral was attended by many that he had known during his time as savior of the world twice-over.

Dissension

Unfortunately for good old Agrus Kos … death was not the end of his service. Conscripted as part of a clause in his Wojek contract to serve as a spirit guard for the Azorius Senate, Kos was once again called into action by the Azorius Guildmaster Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. Szadek, Guildmaster of the Dimir, although he had been executed, was loose as a ghost. Clearly didn’t think that one through – Editor

As Kos had unknowingly broken the Guildpact, Kos was now conscripted to find him.

Several major events occur during the timeline of Dissension.

This section starts out reasonably enough, but gets pretty intense; hold on to ya butts – Editor

We find out that the Boros Angels and their flying ship the Parhelion have discovered Aygrem, a place where ghosts from Ravnica congregate. (Aygrem came into being because the Guildpact prevented planar travel into and out of Ravnica). Feather found the Parhelion and met with Razia, the Parun of the Boros Legion. The Angels were embroiled in conflict with the ghosts, and Razia was killed by the spirit of Szadek. Feather was able to hide in Agyrem and later escape. The Parhelion, however, began returning to Ravnica, set on a collision course with Prahv, the seat of Azorius power.

Also during this time, Jarad, Guildmaster of the Golgari and his son Myc Zunich (For those of you not keeping score at home, Fonn Zunich was at one time married to Jarad, resulting in little Myc) are abducted by Rakdos cultists. They are taken to Rix Maadi, where Lyzolda (the acting Rakdos Cult Guildmaster) uses his blood in addition to draconic cerebral fluid taken from the remains of Zomaj Hauc’s dragons to revive Rakdos, the ancient demonic Parun of the Guild. (Don’t try this at home, kids. Ever.) Myc thus develops a mind-link with the demon until he is saved by his parents. Jarad is killed by Lyzolda during this time, but uses his powers to raise himself as a Lich.

Meanwhile, Crix of the Izzet finds a group of Nephilim, ancient beings that crawled out from the depths of the Utvara Reclamation Zone, feeding upon the draconic corpses left by Zomaj Hauc’s plot. The Nephilim grow in size and strength because of their draconic meal, and head towards more populated sections of Ravnica. Crix attempts to warn Niv-Mizzet, the Parun of the Izzet Guild, but Niv-Mizzet feigns disinterest and leaves the scene. This causes Crix to abandon the Guild.

The Parhelion crashes into Prahv as Kos is conscripted to find Szadek by Augustin IV (Azorius Guild Leader). The day’s delights continue to multiply: Kos is informed that due to the magical law surrounding Szadek and the Guildpact, Kos is the only person who can destroy the vampire. Augustin IV sends Kos to infiltrate the seat of the Simic Combine. The Simic Guild, not a machine for harvesting corn or wheat – Editor

The Simic are reported to be working with both Szadek and the God-Zombie Svogthir (who has taken residence within Savra, Jarad’s sister and previous Matka of the Devkarin Elves). Seriously, this is beginning to feel Byzantine – Editor

Kos infiltrates the Simic, but blows his cover. He also takes up residence inside the body of Savra. Think weird Russian Doll situation rather than Super 8. Not that that really makes it better – Editor

After overpowering Svogthir, Kos kills Momir Vig, the Guildmaster of the Simic Combine. He’s not fast enough, however, to prevent the Elf from release Project Kraj, a living cytoplastic marvel that consumes every piece of cytoplasm in the city of Ravnica in mere moments. Kraj rampages into the city, taking on Rakdos who is now under the full control of Lyzolda (now that the mind link with Myc Zunich has been severed).

The Azorius Senate prepares to declare martial law to take control of the plane. However, Kos objects and reveals the truth: Augustin IV was responsible for Szadek, sending the Vampire’s ghost to Aygrem to rally the ghosts against the angels, and was even responsible for Momir Vig being killed. He had engineered everything that had happened, with the goal of creating a new Ravnica in the image of the Law.

In the end, Augustin IV is defeated, destroyed by Szadek himself as the Vampire turns on him. Kos is raised back as a semi-corporeal ghost two years later as Aygrem overlays onto Ravnica, creating the Ghost Quarter. Feather, the new Boros Guildmaster reveals that a new Guildpact has been created, one that does not rely on magic. Kos is tasked with becoming the commander for the Boros within Aygrem, as Szadek’s ghost has escaped there.

Interim

The non-magical Guildpact does not officially recognize House Dimir as an official Guild, but the Guild remains active under the leadership of the shapeshifter Lazav. During the interim between the original Ravnica block and Return to Ravnica, it is revealed that the Guilds themselves face near-dissolution before reforming. Feather was ousted as the leader of the Boros Legion, replaced by the war-angel Aurelia.

Relative peace settled upon the plane, preparing it for its next event: The Implicit Maze.

Return to Ravnica and the Implicit Maze

The Planeswalker Jace Beleren, having called Ravnica his home for a long while (being the first plane that he planeswalked to from his home plane of Vryn), begins undertaking research that had been discovered by the Izzet League’s Parun, Niv-Mizzet. Codes and symbols confront the Guilds, leading to the discovery of something none of them could have ever anticipated.

Amidst the constant conflict between the Guilds, Jace discovers that the messages left behind point to becomes known as the Implicit Maze.

Azor, the Sphinx Planeswalker who was Parun to the Azorius Senate, had known that the Guildpact could be broken. He thus created the Maze as a way to force the Guilds to work together to reinstate the Guildpact Reborn.

At the same time that Jace makes this discovery, so does Niv-Mizzet. Niv, however, does not understand what the Maze’s goal means. He believes that the Maze means ultimate power for the Guild that completes it, and he puts out a call to the other Guilds. Each Guild presents a champion to run the Maze in order to gain that power. As the Guild Champions fight and feud, Jace finds his way to the end of the Maze. He comes face to face with the Baliff, a being that declares Jace as the Living Guildpact. Jace is now a mediator of magical law, the living embodiment of the Guildpact documents.

Vraska, the Kraul, and the Look Ahead

Jace settled into his office as the Guildpact, but became challenged by the planeswalker Vraska. Vraska attempted to take control of Jace, but the Guildpact was able to shrug off her advances. Jace left Ravnica to find Garruk Wildspeaker and eventually to help save Zendikar, forming the Gatewatch in the process. Vraska stayed on Ravnica and sought to gain power over the Golgari Swarm.

By working with those disenfranchised within the Guild, including Mazirek of the Kraul, Vraska was able to discover the presence of the Erstwhile below Ravnica’s soil. The Zombie army was raised by Mazirek to carry out a coup of the Guild.

Vraska was then approached by Nicol Bolas, who promised to give her control of the Golgari if she were to utilize her talents on Ixalan for him. Vraska performed this function for him, procuring for him the Immortal Sun. She returned to Ravnica to become Guildmaster of the Golgari. She also used her powers to petrify the Sphinx Isperia, leaving a power vacuum within the Azorius Senate.

As we look ahead to the Guilds of Ravnica storyline, we know a few big important things:

• Isperia is petrified, leaving the Azorius Senate vulnerable
• Lazav of the Dimir suspects that at least some other Guilds have fallen under an invader’s influence (i.e. Nicol Bolas)
• Niv-Mizzet’s control of the Izzet League is slowly being peeled away, likely by the Planeswalker Ral Zarek (confirmed minion of Nicol Bolas)
• Five Guilds will fall to Bolas’ influence, while Five will not

The Guilds of Ravnica

So now that we’re caught up on history, let’s talk turkey and go over some of the players and details of the Guilds.

The Azorius are classified by the colors Blue and White, and believe in Law and Order above all things. Their Parun was the Sphinx Planeswalker Azor I (otherwise known as just Azor) and the known Guildmasters include Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Leonos II, and the Sphinx Isperia. The champion Lavinia was chosen to run the Implicit Maze. However, she ended up becoming a personal assistant to the Living Guildpact, Jace Beleren. The Azorius handle the governmental and legal sectors of the City of Ravnica.

Classified by the colors Red and White, the Boros Legion serve in both army and security functions across the city of Ravnica. The Guild’s Parun was the angel Razia; she held her position as Guildmaster until the events of Dissension when which she perished at the hands of Szadek of House Dimir. Pierakor az Vinrenn D’rav (aka Feather) took over as Guildmaster in her stead, swiftly followed by the war-angel Aurelia (simultaneously imprisoning Feather). The Guild’s Champion for the Maze was Tajic, Blade of the Legion. The Boros are separated by various tiers of service; one of these is the League of Wojek which provide law enforcement services throughout Ravnica. The human Agrus Kos was a Captain of the Tenth District within the League of Wojek.

The mysterious tenth guild that never existed, House Dimir is classified by the colors Blue and Black. The Guild’s Parun is the ancient vampire Szadek, who sought to undermine the Guildpact by proving the Guild’s very nature of existence. Szadek succeeded in this venture by lowering his guard to Agrus Kos and allowing himself to be arrested. Dimir is responsible for much of the espionage and assassination in the city. It is currently headed by the shapeshifter Lazav, and its Implicit Maze champion was the vampire Mirko Vosk.

Classified by the colors Green and Black, the Golgari actually serve an important role in the City of Ravnica, performing agricultural work and waste management.  The Guild’s Parun is the ancient God-Zombie Svogthir, an undead necromancer of great power. The Golgari Swarm has arguably had the most power plays for control of its guild than any of the other Guilds. Svogthir was defeated by Gorgons known as the Sisters of Stone Death, who were then overthrown by Savra (and Svogthir). After Savra’s demise, Jarad (Savra’s brother) took command of the Guild, persisting even through his death in Dissension when he became a Lich. Jarad ruled the Golgari until the Planeswalker Vraska overthrew his leadership with the help of Nicol Bolas. The Guild’s champion for the Implict Maze was Varolz.

Classified by the colors Red and Green, originally the Gruul were charged with maintaining the wild nature of Ravnica. Much to their chagrin they found that civilization overgrew those places, and eventually the Gruul were left without a job. Several other Guilds sought to take on the mantle of caring for nature. The Gruul decentralized into numerous clans and thus have no one leader. However, the largest clan is led by the cyclops Borborygmos, who is considered by many to be the de facto leader. The Clans also revere the being known as Ulasht, the Hate Seed, despite it not being officially affiliated with the Guild. The Guild’s champion for the Implicit Maze was a two-headed ogre named Ruric Thar.

The Izzet League is classified by the colors Blue and Red; they are scientists, engineers, and some of the most brilliant minds on the entire plane. The Guild is controlled solely by the dragon Niv-Mizzet, who is known as the Firemind. The Izzet are known for their zealous nature in the pursuit of science, oftentimes killing themselves with a new experiment gone wrong. One of the chief members of the Guild, the Planeswalker Ral Zarek, has secretly taken control of the Guild while the Firemind himself is distracted by his own research. Ral Zarek is secretly in league with Nicol Bolas. The Guild’s champion for the Implicit Maze was a Weird named Melek, Izzet Paragon.

Classified by the colors black and white, the Orzhov is the Guild of Deals, handling banking and protection as well as religious services as one of the plane’s largest religious orders. Dealings with the Guild extend often into one’s afterlife. The Parun of this Guild is actually a group, known as the Obzedat, the Ghost Council of Orzhova. The Obzedat is comprised of past patriarchs and matriarchs of the Orzhov lines, although it is unclear which of these was present for the signing of the Guildpact. One of the primary Orzhov aligned characters in the lore and also the Champion for the Implicit Maze is the Advokist Teysa Karlov, who secretly harbors hatred for the Obzedat, and has recently attempted to destroy the Ghost Council.

The Cult of Rakdos is classified by the colors Red and Black, and their fanaticism is bar none among the forces of chaos. Although the Cult provides numerous services in the form of entertainment, food industry, and manual labor, they are also heavily involved in murder and slavery. Their Parun is the ancient sleeping demon Rakdos, for which the Guild is named.  Many have taken up the Guild leadership while he sleeps. The Guild’s Champion for the Implicit Maze was Exava.

Classified by the colors Green and White, the Selesnya see themselves as stewards of life and nature, providing services such as healing and religious faith (competing directly with the Orzhov) as well as charity work. The Guild’s Parun is the spirit Mat’Selesnya, which is the formation of several dryads into a single elemental being. Mat’Selesnya lives within the Vitu-Ghazi tree, until it was ultimately destroyed by Kraj and Rakdos during Dissension. The current Guildmaster is the triple-dryad named Trostani, and the Guild’s champion during the Implicit Maze was Emmara Tandris, a nature mage who had a close relationship with the Planeswalker Jace Beleren.

Classified by the colors Blue and Green, the Simic work towards perfection of life sciences and conservative efforts for the improvement and betterment of society through science. They handle are responsible for many of the physicians and much of the medical care within the city. Out of all the Guilds it is actually unknown who the Simic Parun is/was; it was once mentioned that the Parun was supposed to be a Vedalken Biomancer with the surname Simic. The Simic have seen the most change of all the Guilds, as their Guildmaster Momir Vig was killed during the events of Dissension along with Project Kraj. After this, the Guild rejected the corruptive nature of science for advancements through nature and magical means, reorganizing under the merfolk Zegana. The Guild’s champion for the Implicit Maze was Vorel.

Wrapping Up

That’s all we have this week folks! I hope you enjoyed our little trip down Ravnica’s memory lane! I love doing these since it’s just a lot of fun to delve into the history of the planes and lore of this game.

Until next time!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Tawnos, Urza’s Apprentice

A former toymaker who became embroiled in a war that was not his own, Tawnos was a brilliant artificer who became the apprentice of Urza during his time in Kroog. Tawno’s myriad creations were often based on living creatures, taking cues from nature to improve his machines. Tawnos was also a trusted companion of Urza’s wife, Kayla bin-Kroog, and he helped raise Urza’s son Harbin while Urza was away during the war.

Tawnos also developed a somewhat romantic relationship with Ashnod, Mishra’s chief artificer, even agreeing to meet with her on the night before the final battle. Tawnos would be directly responsible for taking the Golgothian Sylex from Ashnod and giving it to Urza.

Instead of perishing in the Sylex Blast, he survived by sealing himself away in a coffin he had designed to imprison Mishra. There he remained for 5 years in stasis before Urza, now a planeswalker, freed him. Tawnos left the remains of Argoth and returned to Kayla, narrating to her what would eventually become known as The Antiquities War.

Lord Windgrace

Once a powerful panther warrior turned planeswalker, Windgrace remembers well what his home of Urborg looked like before the Sylex Blast leveled Argoth and changed it into a world of swamps, liches, and undead. As such, Windgrace’s view of Urza and his technology is highly negative.

However, that did not stop Windgrace from assisting Urza during the Phyrexian Invasion as one of the Nine Titans. During the assault, Urza cracked and killed Taysir, a fellow planeswalker. Windgrace took Taysir’s heart into his own, and worked with the other planeswalkers to detonate the soul bombs they had placed around the plane. When Yawgmoth came to the plane, Windgrace stood firm and defended it.

Years later WIndgrace commanded many creatures in the Urborg area, using his own personal ‘gladehunters’ to destroy anything related to artifice. He even held the neo-walker Venser under his control during this time. Windgrace later attacked the Urborg rift, attempting to seal it before it could allow a multitude of time-displaced Phyrexians in. However, as the rift folded in upon itself, it pulled the life essence from his very body. Before Windgrace perished however, he cast a spell fusing a portion of his life essence to the very soil of Urborg, claiming that he would protect the land forever.

Xantcha

Xantcha was a Phyrexian newt and Sleeper Agent, grown out of a vat on Phyrexia’s Fourth Sphere. Her purpose was to eventually infiltrate other worlds by appearing as a species that inhabited that plane. She was recruited by Gix, a Phyrexian Demon, and taught the skills she would need to survive. However, Xantcha’s thoughts and dreams were slowly becoming not that of the Ineffable Yawgmoth’s, but her own. As such other Phyrexians attempted to execute her for trying to escape while on a different plane. Xantcha was saved by the planeswalker Urza, who did not yet realize that she was not human.

Xantcha told Urza how to get to Phyrexia, the planeswalker taking her on a dragon engine to attack the plane. While Urza tried and failed to defeat the various forces of the metal world, Xantcha located her heartstone from the Fourth Sphere before Urza was forced to planeswalk the two away.

The two companions ended up in Serra’s Realm, where they would eventually leave before Phyrexians infiltrated the plane looking for them. They retreated to Dominaria, the world from Xantcha’s dreams (and her intended plane), as Urza suffered from insanity due to Yawgmoth’s touch inside of his mind.

Xantcha sought to break Urza’s insanity, to force him to address the Phyrexian threat. To this end, she rescued a slave named Ratepe, who she dressed and tutored to become “Mishra” for Urza. Together, Xantcha and Ratepe helped Urza slowly regain his sanity before becoming embroiled in a war in which Xantcha discovered that Gix was still alive.

Pursuing the demon to his lair at Koilos, Urza and Gix fought. Just when it seemed like Gix had the upper hand in the fight, Xantcha and Ratepe intervened, sacrificing themselves to allow Urza the necessary time to kill Gix. Urza would never forget the two, even going as far as to collect Xantcha’s heartstone. This would eventually be used by Urza in the creation of the silver golem Karn.

Varchild

Varchild was a young girl who grew to become a mighty warrior in the region of Kjeldor during the Ice Age. After family tragedy at the hands of Balduvian barbarians, she quickly worked her way up the military chain before becoming the right hand of Avram Garrison.

Garrison’s ambition however, would propel Varchild into the annals of legend. His lobbying of King Darien to unify the military under his leadership as general and subsequent ignoring of said lobbying led the Kjeldoran Garrison to form the Knights of Stromgald, an organization with the mission of assassinating the King and making it look as if the Balduvians were responsible. Varchild, unable to stomach the coup, stepped up and defended her King when the time came.

In the aftermath, it was revealed that the necromancer Lim-Dûl was the secret benefactor of the Stromgalds, allowing King Darien to unify the various military orders under a single rule. Varchild became the first General of a new military order under powerful rule, but there was one catch. They would have to ally with her hated enemies the Balduvians to do so. Despite her hatred, Varchild stepped up alongside the barbarians to defeat Lim-Dûl when the time came.

However, Varchild would not be able to resolve the pain she had experienced and family lost as a child. She resigned as General and became the Betrayer of Kjeldor, raising her own militia to attack the Balduvians. Her crusade would not last as Kjeldor and Balduvia eventually would set aside their differences to become New Argive, leaving Varchild and her militia by the wayside to the annals of history.

Arixmethes

Little known to most, Arixmethes has actually appeared in the lore before during the Theros block. The legend of Arixmethes is strange, as most of Theros believes it used to be a prominent polis on the plane before it was smote by Heliod for an unknown crime.

In reality however, Arixmethes is not just the name of a city, it’s the name of the gigantic kraken that the city lived on. The original inhabitants had thought the great beast to be an island, building their city on its back. However, the city faced its doom when the kraken awoke, dragging its inhabitants to a watery grave. In fact, the art itself even depicts the polis before Arixmethes’ awakening, while below the surface of the water you can see the very crustacean-like kraken (as all of Theros’ krakens are like) slumbering.

Arixmethes would later come to the forefront of the lore during Theros block when the planeswalker Kiora tricked Ajani and Elspeth into taking her to the great kraken before their journey to the edge of the world. There, Kiora battled Thassa, God of the Sea. Kiora attempted to wrest control of Arixmethes from Thassa, however the Sea God’s control over the beast was simply to great and Arixmethes retreated to the deep to slumber once more.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have this week folks! What else would you guys like to see in these lore articles? Hit me up in the comments or Discord to let me know!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

The Birthing of Dragons

The original Elder Dragons were birthed from the Ur-Dragon, falling from the tempest storms upon an unknown plane (largely assumed to be the plane of Dominaria, but as of yet unknown). They had to immediately contend with the nature of humanity and the savage world in which they found themselves. One of the dragons, Merrevia Sal, was killed by hunters after her birthing upon the plane.

Of the dragon egg-stones that fell, two in particular were of great interest: the dragons Nicol and Ugin, who would eventually transcend mortal life and become planeswalkers. The other Elder Dragons that survived this harsh time were:

• Chromium Rhuell
• Palladia-Mors
• Vaevictus Asmadi
• Arcades Sabboth
• Piru

While each of these dragons began to establish themselves among the world and their own territories, a violent conflict was on the horizon.

The Elder Dragon War

Thousands of years before Urza and Mishra warred upon the plane, even before the Thran arose, there were the Elder Dragons. The conflict waged between them was violent and catastrophic, killing most of their own kind and shaking the very foundation of the multiverse.

In the end of this conflict, the Elder Dragon Nicol Bolas emerged victorious, wherein he became a planeswalker. Among his kind, the other six Elder Dragons (Ugin, Chromium, Palladia, Vaevictus, Arcades, Piru) were the only survivors of this catastrophic war.

Beyond this, not much else is known about the locations or particular pieces of the conflict. With the M19 story continuing to develop it is possible we may receive new information on how the conflict proceeded, since it seems to be integral to how Nicol Bolas became a planeswalker.

It is known however, that many of the losers of this conflict were stripped of their wings, eventually becoming the Elder Land Wurms.

The Major Players

Nicol Bolas

Feared by many for his mind-crippling touch and sinister nature, Nicol Bolas is one of the most powerful living Elder Dragons and planeswalkers, with machinations of sheer power. He is currently one of two assumed living Elder Dragons, between himself and his twin brother Ugin. Bolas seeks to gather enough power to return what he lost as a planeswalker during the Mending.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Ugin is Nicol Bolas’ twin brother, and a powerful planeswalker in his own right. Ugin’s magic works upon the plane of Tarkir, birthing dragons from elemental storms, while the enigmatic planeswalker seeks to understand the multiverse at large. He is also partially responsible for trapping the Eldrazi in their prison on Zendikar.

Chromium Rhuell

A mutable and metallic dragon, Chromium became often involved in the matters of planeswalkers, even ending up in direct conflict with characters such as Leshrac, Dakkon Blackblade, and Kristina of the Woods. Chromium’s life partner was Piru, an Elder Dragon who was slain by Dakkon. Dakkon used the power of the Blackblade to steal Piru’s life force.

Arcades Sabboth

Arcades was a wise and powerful dragon who opted to learn to teach humanity instead of destroy it. Over time he built a peaceful empire. However, he was eventually summoned by Leshrac in a duel with Kristina of the Woods, where he was killed.

Palladia-Mors

A vicious and powerful hunter, Palladia spent most of her time gorging and feasting upon her kills. Eventually she ended up in a cave near the town of Arcus where she was kept under a sleeping spell by the use of “Tickery” magic. It was revealed that Chromium was largely responsible for this, and she was defeated and sent back into the sleep spell after being awakened by Vaevictus Asmadi.

Vaevictus Asmadi

Vaevictus was a monstrous creature, preying on dragon hunters that emerged near his territory. At some point, he was transformed into a dragon whelp by a planeswalker. He pretended to be under the control of a warlord, manipulating the warlord to undo the magic binding Palladia-Mors in order to allow her to transform him back. He did transform back into an Elder Dragon, but during the subsequent duel with Palladia, one of his spells was reversed upon him and he disappeared. It is assumed that he is dead.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have this week folks! We’re going to hopefully dig a little deeper into this storyline stuff for the Elder Dragons the more information we receive from the M19 storyline, and next time have a followup article on what we’ve learned about the relationship between Nicol Bolas & Ugin, the Spirit Dragon!

Until next time!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

This week we’re talking about one of the pieces that ties the whole thing together, the history of the Skyship Weatherlight.

Creation of the Weatherlight

After the events of the Tolarian Academy explosion, Urza realized that experimenting with time travel was not going to cut it in defeating the Phyrexians. He needed a better plan, a grander plan. One that involved the entire plane of Dominaria. To do so, he needed to make alliances with the right people. Having already discovered from Jhoira that a very rare metal could be made in Shiv, he journeyed there and found that there was a foundry there that could create and shape Thran metal.

Urza made an alliance with the viashino and the goblins of Shiv, finding that the foundry (later known as the Thran Mana Rig) could also create and produce Thran powerstones as well. Urza then made the journey to the forest of Yavimaya, to commune with the forest and ask for its help.

Yavimaya, under the watchful eye of its avatar Multani, placed Urza in a state of suspended animation for roughly two years, tormenting the planeswalker over his involvement in the destruction of Argoth. Eventually, Multani relented, seeing the danger that Dominaria faced against the Phyrexians. He agreed to help Urza.

So, with a design in mind and a number of ingredients (Thran metal from the Mana Rig, the Weatherseed from the oldest magnigoth tree in Yavimaya, a large Thran powerstone created in the Mana Rig), Urza began the plans for a growing, plane-shift capable skyship.

Thus, Weatherlight was born.

The 300 foot long skyship’s maiden voyage was into the heart of Serra’s Realm, where it utilized the collapsing energy of the white mana stored in the plane to energize the Thran Powerstone at its heart, allowing it to planeshift away.

For some time, the Weatherlight served under the care of Jhoira of the Ghitu, until she decided to return to Shiv. From there, it returned to the care of Urza himself.

The Beginnings of a Legend

Urza’s experimentation eventually gravitated into developing a human component, the perfect example of humanity to wield his Legacy as well as become the inheritor of the Weatherlight. Urza, hoping to keep Phyrexia’s eyes off the Weatherlight, gifted the ship to a wealthy Zhalfirin family, where it ended up in the hands of Sisay. Sisay gathered a healthy crew, using the Weatherlight to seek out the pieces of the Legacy that she had heard about for so long in her family’s tales.

After some time, Sisay inevitably picked up the human component of the Legacy, a Benalish man named Gerrard Capashen. Gerrard stayed with the Weatherlight for some time, leaving after the death of the elf Rofellos. Sisay took the ship and located a long-forgotten piece of the Legacy, the golem Karn.

After Karn’s retrieval, Sisay was betrayed by Starke to Starke’s master Volrath. The Weatherlight‘s captain was kidnapped, spirited away to the shadowy plane of Rath. Gerrard returned, reactivating Karn and taking charge of the ship to head to the plane of Rath to save Sisay.

Rath and Storms

Weatherlight arrived on Rath to immediately face a rival like no other: Predator. The Phyrexian skyship, under the command of Greven il-Vec, attacked the Weatherlight and her crew, damaging many of her systems beyond repair and knocking Gerrard overboard. Hanna managed to get the ship set down, but there was plenty of damage including a crack in the Thran Crystal that powered the ship’s planeshift capabilities.

The crew would eventually reunite with Gerrard, taking to the sky once more to assault the Stronghold in order to rescue Sisay. The ship would find itself locked in combat once more with Predator, but thanks the integration of the Skyshaper, it was able to outfly the enemy flaghship and escape through a portal to another realm.

The Weatherlight crash landed on the plane of Mercadia, where it was interpreted by many of the native peoples of the Cho-Arrim and Rishadan/Sapprazzo’s of a sign of the coming of the Uniter, their god Ramos. The ship was attacked and stolen by the Cho-Arrim, and was later retrieved by the Mercadians. It was during this time that the ship was heavily outfitted with more of the Legacy’s powerful artifacts in the forms of the Power Matrix and the Bones of Ramos. The ship and her crew escaped Mercadia, Thran Crystal intact, returning to Dominaria… just in time.

The Phyrexian Invasion

Weatherlight burst back into Dominaria at the very moment of the Phyrexian invasion. Guns blazing, it attacked the Phyrexian fleet. The Weatherlight was at the forefront of every conflict during the Invasion, while Karn worked tirelessly in her hold to continually improve and become the most complete version of itself.

The ship was destroyed by the Primeval Crosis, but through the completion of the Legacy, it was reborn as a thinking, sentient being. Weatherlight was filled with life, connecting with Karn on a level he had never known.

Then Yawgmoth arrived. The Father of Machines stepped onto Dominaria as a cloud of death, killing everything in its path. Weatherlight sacrificed itself in an attempt to save Dominaria, finally perishing off the coast of Urborg.

Reconstruction

For many years Weatherlight lay off the coast of Urborg. Sixty years after the Mending occurred, Jhoira of the Ghitu formed an expedition to raise the ship from its watery grave. All that was left of the ship was the Thran metal skeleton, the bulky coils of its engines, and the original Thran powerstone.

The powerstone was restarted by the Serran Angel, Tiana, while a new hull seed was granted to Jhoira by the elemental avatar Molimo. The ship was raised and rebuilt in full, but without the capability to planeshift. Jhoira took the reins as captain of the ship once more, taking the ship to fight the Cabal in Urborg under the command of Belzenlok.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have this week folks! Join us next time as we start delving into the history of one of the most violent conflicts of all time and its participants: The Elder Dragon War.

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

The Beginnings of Karn

Karn’s very existence began as a very simple idea. Urza Planeswalker, in his crusade to seek out a way to defeat the Phyrexians, began experimenting with the concept of time travel as a way to prevent the Thran from becoming the Phyrexians. However, there were severe limitations to this, as organic material was basically incapable of the act. This led Urza, with the assistance of Master Mage Barrin, to create various probes to go back in time. The two found that silver seemed to withstand the stress of temporal magic much better than any other metal, and set to work building a man out of silver at the Tolarian Academy.

Urza utilized a powerstone heart that had one belonged to Xantcha, a Phyrexian Sleeper Agent that had allied with him in his crusade. And thus, the probe that would come to be known as Karn was born.

The nameless probe was sent out to learn from the students of the Academy, and was immediately beset upon by a young Teferi. Teferi used the golem as a plaything, referring to him as Arty Shovelhead. The golem, not knowing any better, simply played along. Thankfully, Jhoira of the Ghitu was able to get the golem away from Teferi, where she began to teach him. It was during their first talks that Jhoira named the golem Karn, the Thran word for “Mighty”.

Karn began to learn and grow, while helping Urza and Barrin behind the scenes in various temporal experiments. It was during one of these experiments that Karn learned that Jhoira had taken a lover, a man she had rescued outside of the Academy that had crash landed on the island. Furthermore, Karn found out that that man, Kerrick, was infiltrating the Academy to gather plans to invade with the help of Phyrexian Negators. Jhoira was murdered, and Karn / Urza in desperation sent Karn back in time to prevent the Academy from being overrun.

Karn succeeded in going back in time and prevented the invasion as well as Jhoira’s death, but the stress placed on the temporal device became too much and the device exploded.

Karn would later return to help reconstruct the Academy with Urza and Barrin, finding that his dear friend Jhoira was still alive. Reconnecting with her and Teferi, Karn found that without the temporal experiments, he no longer had a real place. Urza had decided to bolster Dominaria’s defenses against Phyrexia, abandoning the plan to send Karn back in time.

Karn was present for many victories, such as the diplomatic talks that allowed the use of the Shivan Mana Rig, and the Weatherlight‘s first mission into Serra’s Realm. Eventually, Jhoira left to work with Teferi on the Mana Rig, while Karn sought to fill the hole in his life by joining the Weatherlight and her crew. However, his depression only worsened. Seeing him distraught, Barrin approached Urza to help him. Urza created a mental cap that would dampen Karn’s memories, allowing him to only recall 20 years at a time. However, Karn would never forget Jhoira, spending every night with a picture of her stating “Jhoira is my friend.”

The Legacy of Urza

Karn was later entrusted with the culmination of all of Urza’s artifacts and his work that resulted in the creation of the human component of the Legacy  – the Capashen bloodline. Karn became a trusted advisor to the Capashens, guiding them towards a single point – Gerrard Capashen. However, Phyrexian raiders attacked the Benalish family when Gerrard was young, forcing Karn to escape to bring the young heir to the Legacy to Sidar Kondo, a Jamuraan war leader who had previously agreed with house the boy should the worst ever come to pass.

Karn stayed with Gerrard until Vuel, jealous of Gerrard’s Legacy after ruining his Rite of Passage, stole the pieces of the Legacy. When Karn went to retrieve them, he was tricked by Vuel into killing an innocent bystander and then deactivated by use of the Touchstone.

Karn lay dormant for years until he was retrieved by Captain Sisay and placed on the Weatherlight. Gerrard found the golem within the hold of the ship after Sisay had been kidnapped by Volrath, reactivating him. Once again, Karn was with his friend and the Legacy, but the killing of the innocent weighed heavily on his mind. He swore an oath of pacifism, vowing to never again raise his hand against another.

The golem joined the crew of the Weatherlight to the plane of Rath, where he was captured by the vicious Greven il-Vec, and taken into the Stronghold. There, Greven tortured Karn’s mind by filling his cell with Mogg goblins and forcing him to land on them, killing them. Being rescued by Gerrard and the others, Karn independently sought out the Legacy artifacts, finding them with the Sliver Queen. Karn convinced the Queen to part with the artifacts, explaining to her that the Legacy was a part of him, just as her swarm was a part of her.

Karn would later join the crew in their escape from Rath and into Mercadia, where they located further pieces of the Legacy. The Weatherlight would arrive back into Dominaria in time for the beginnings of the Phyrexian Invasion.

The Invasion, and Ascension

Karn’s vow of pacifism would catch up with him during the early days of the Invasion, where he was forced to confront Tsabo Tavoc, the Phyrexian general. Karn realized his vow was keeping from protecting the people he loved, and then he was struck on the head, removing the mental cap that dampened his memories. Karn immediately remembered millenia of time, and how he had killed before in the name of protecting Jhoira. He became instrumental in helping Gerrard defeat Tavoc.

However, as the Invasion progressed and Rath began to overlay itself onto Dominaria, Karn took to the Weatherlight and spent most of his time guiding the ship as it further integrated the pieces of the Legacy. To Karn’s surprise, he found that he was able to understand the Thran Tome and its contents, triggering Weatherlight’s sentient final evolution. Karn was overjoyed to have found someone who truly understood him.

However, the ship gave itself up in life to try to defeat Yawgmoth, and Karn was reunited with Urza and Gerrard. Urza instructed Gerrard that there may still be hope and to take his powerstone eyes and place them inside of the silver golem to trigger the Legacy Weapon. With this act, a surging wave of white mana spilled forth, killing Yawgmoth and both humans. Karn was left, having ascended to become a planeswalker.

Karn, the Planeswalker

Karn spent some time traveling the Multiverse before creating the artificial plane Argentum, a plane of mathematical perfection. He created probes to send out among the multiverse, one of which ended up on Dominaria and became the Mirari. Karn again descended into a deep depression caused by the horrid state of the worlds he found himself gazing upon. He was jarred out of this depression by the arrival of Karona. Karn disguised himself as Lord Macht to converse with her and then she left, bringing Karn’s attention back to Dominaria. He found that Karona had been defeated, where her essence had merged back into the form of Jeska, which in turn ignited her own planeswalker spark.

Karn took Jeska under his wing after returning the Mirari to Argentum where he developed it into a guardian named Memnarch. All was not well however, as glistening oil traces left by Karn’s Phyrexian powerstone heart (the heart of Xantcha) infected the guardian. Memnarch transformed the plane into Mirrodin, and shut his creator out of the plane.

Eventually Karn was able to break through the planar blockade by sending dreams to the nascent planeswalker Glissa Sunseeker. Glissa, Slobad, and Bosh were able to finally defeat Memnarch, lowering the blockade for Karn to fix things. He transformed Memnarch back into the Mirari and entrusted it in the care of Glissa, Slobad, and Geth before leaving once more.

Karn would later return to Dominaria, heeding the call of Jhoira to help correct the time rifts that had been plaguing the plane. Karn returned back in time to the Invasion, where he sought to close the rift. However, the Phyrexian corruption began to take hold on Karn’s mind. To protect the others, he planeswalked through the Blind Eternities, eventually returning to Mirrodin.

The Father of Machines

Karn settled in the core of Mirrodin, being hailed by the budding Phyrexians as the Father of Machines. While the Phyrexians vied for his favor, Karn was trapped in his own mind, facing becoming his own worst fear. In a moment of sheer lucidity he sent a messenger to bring to him Venser of Urborg.

Venser, Koth, Elspeth, and Melira found Karn at the center of the plane’s corrupted core, where Melira (a Sylvok who was immune to the effects of glistening oil) cleansed the Phyrexian corruption from Karn’s body, but was unable to cleanse the golem’s heart. Knowing his own life was forfeit due to medical condition, Venser gave up his own spark/life to transfer it into Karn. The sacrifice cleansed Karn, freeing him from the Phyrexian control.  Karn briefly mourned his friend before joining the battle against the Phyrexians.

Dominaria Once More

Karn traveled back to Dominaria in search of a weapon that would destroy the Phyrexians for good, the Golgothian Sylex that Urza had used in the Brother’s War. During this time, he met with Jaya Ballard and Chandra Nalaar, while trying to quell Multani’s regrowth spasms to get to the Sylex. Karn became convinced to defeat the Cabal and Belzenok, meeting his friends Teferi and Jhoira once more.

After the Cabal’s defeat, Karn agreed to help the Gatewatch fight against Nicol Bolas, believing that he is a threat. However, he chose not to take the Oath of the Gatewatch, as he intended to head to New Phyrexia at some point.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have this week folks! I hope you enjoyed this little look into the world of Magic. Next time we’re delving deeper into the older storylines, with a look at the history of a well-known ship. The Weatherlight.

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

Early History

Teferi was born in the Jamuraan nation of Zhalfir, quickly becoming a practical jokester with extreme amounts of talent. He eventually was brought to the Tolarian Academy by Barrin, which is where he first met Jhoira and Karn.

Teferi at the academy continued much as he had before. Although he was a magical prodigy, he still played pranks and constantly sought Jhoira’s affection. Teferi’s jokes led him to dub the newly created Karn with his first name: “Arty Shovelhead”, a name which Karn would fondly remember down the line. His affection for Jhoira led him to discover that the Ghitu woman had been harboring a secret love outside of the school, but his loyalty to her prevented him from disclosing this to Barrin and Urza (under the alias Malzra).

During the day of the Phyrexian attack that resulted in the explosion of the time machine, Teferi became caught in a slow-time bubble, his clothes on fire. Jhoira discovered him and threw a wet blanket at him that took another five years to put out the fire.

Teferi was eventually freed by Jhoira after she awoke from her coma years later. She devised a method, using the water of Tolaria, to create an apparatus to free Teferi from the slow-time bubble. After returning to the world of normal time, he felt depressed due to the fact that everyone he knew was either dead or older. Jhoira was instrumental in developing their friendship, and Teferi grew out of his depression into a much more mature individual.

Teferi later joined Jhoira in Shiv to help manage the Thran Mana Rig, while also keeping up with Urza’s crusade against Phyrexia. However, at some point he left and returned to Zhalfir, becoming a royal mage and protector of the realm. During this time he befriended the reclusive Jolrael.

The Mirage War

At some point, Teferi ascended and his planeswalker spark ignited, transforming him into an immortal being. In order to cultivate order in Zhalfir, he created a guild system to guide the country while he was gone. Things of course, did not go as planned. When Teferi returned, the continent was on the verge of all-out war. While Teferi attempted to unite the nation once more, he was never able to completely unify it.

Teferi decided to leave Zhalfir at this point, retreating for an island in the Chaza Isles with a group of his most trusted advisors. There, Teferi “played” with the concepts of manipulating time in order to make it easier to summon creatures. However, again… things did not go as planned. Teferi’s experiments had caused damage to the temporal balance and in trying to fix it, ended up phasing the entire island out of existence.

It would be several years before Teferi’s Isle would reappear, the people living there unaware of any changes in the timeline. Teferi would soon find out that his “cure” to fix the timeline had caused more bad than good. The energy surge caused by the island’s return had attracted attention from powerful individuals in the forms of Mangara of Corondor, Jolrael, and Kaervek of Urborg. The three had arrived years ago each with their own agendas to search for the Isle, but had found only bare rock.

War broke out, with Kaervek manipulating Jolrael into allying with him. Teferi, unable to interfere directly because of his duty to reconstruct the timeline, aided the defenders of Jamuraa by granting them visions and more powerful spells. Teferi felt tremendous guilt over his role in starting such a conflict, preferring to remain a recluse in the Chaza Isles.

The Phyrexian Invasion

Prior to the invasion, the nation of Keld attacked Teferi’s home of Jamuraa. Teferi however, remained quietly absent until the very last moment when he lended aid with his powers to defeat the Keldons. The Keldon invasion began to make Teferi think about Urza’s crusade against Phyrexia, making him realize he didn’t want to be a part of those plans any longer.

Teferi devised a plan, convincing Urza to assist him in weaving a spell by teleporting in and out of Phyrexian portals to overload them and use their energy. However, Teferi had presented a ruse and finally revealed his intent: to phase out the nation of Zhalfir and part of Shiv from the time stream to save them. Urza was furious and ordered Teferi to stop, but the deed was done. Teferi then disappeared into the time stream.

Hundreds of years later the goddess Karona pulled Teferi out of the time stream. The canonicity of this is highly debated, but Teferi was able to see that Dominaria had survived the Invasion.

The Mending

Teferi returned to Dominaria, this time with Jhoira, in an effort to safely rephase Zhalfir and Shiv back onto the plane. However, Teferi found that Dominaria was almost completely devoid of mana. After speaking to the planeswalker Freyalise, Teferi learned of Karona. This casts doubt on whether the planeswalker had actually met with the Goddess in first place.

Teferi later allied with Radha and Venser, as well as Jhoira, to close the time distortions across Dominaria. After Nicol Bolas was freed by Venser, the two battled with Teferi losing. The planeswalker finally was able to return Shiv to the timeline and seal the rift, but at the cost of his planeswalker spark and powers.

The Zhalfirin rift however, would not experience the same success. Although Teferi tried to guide the planeswalker Jeska to seal the rift properly, Jeska had been manipulated by another planeswalker named Leshrac to forcefully close the rift, sealing the phased lands of Zhalfir away forever.

After the Mending

After the Mending, Teferi faded into obscurity, stopping the use of magic altogether and coming up with excuses as to his name to hide his true identity throughout the years. It is during this time that a plot on his life by the Femeref warrior Kwende led Teferi to meet his wife, with whom he would have a daughter named Niambi.

Sixty years after the Mending, Niambi and her aging father worked to discover hidden artifacts left behind by Urza Planeswalker that could potentially aid in the reparation of the Zhalfirin time rift and bring Zhalfir back. He was able to retrieve one of the artifacts with the help of the Weatherlight crew and the Gatewatch. At Jhoira’s urging, he joins the crew to fight Belzenok and the Cabal.

Teferi meets up again with Karn, and Jhoira approaches him with an offer of a powerstone that she made at the Thran Mana Rig that supposedly contains his spark, offering to make him a planeswalker again.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have for this article, folks! Is there a specific character you’d like to see get focused on during these articles? If so, hit the comments or hit me up on Discord / Twitter!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

Howdy folks! It’s Joe again with another fun look into the world and storylines of Magic, with a focus on interesting characters in those worlds.

This week we’re continuing our focus on Dominarian characters by talking about none other than Jodah, the Archmage Eternal! Without skipping a beat, let’s get right into it!

Early Life

Jodah was born several generations after the Sylex Blast that leveled Argoth and ended the war between Mishra and Urza. Jodah’s own family line is actually connected to the two brothers by Kayla bin-Kroog. While Jodah’s family was wealthy, they were forced to abandon their estates when Jodah was a young man due to the shortening of summers and overfarming of the land.

Jodah apprenticed to a wandering mage named Voska. At this time the Church of Tal hunted magic users, believing that the practice of magic was inherently evil. Voska bestowed upon Jodah a magic mirror, an item that would eventually be incredibly important later in the mage’s life.

The Dark

Jodah and Voska were captured by the Church of Tal and became separated. Jodah managed to escape but was unable to reunite with his master. During his travels, Jodah hid from a group of raiding goblins by submerging himself in an abandoned fountain. As it turned out this fountain was the legendary Fountain of Youth, which slowed Jodah’s aging to a crawl. However, it would take years for even Jodah himself to notice.

Jodah would eventually find out that his master had been executed by the Church of Tal. He began travelling alongside another mage named Sima on their way to the City of Shadows, a training ground in secret for mages like them.

However, Jodah never made it. The group was attacked by merfolk, who captured Jodah and traded him to a shadowy figure known as the Rag Man for an artifact of some power (the Coral Helm). The Rag Man took Jodah with him to the Conclave of Mages, a group ran by the mysterious Mairsil. Jodah passed Mairsil’s test and became part of the Conclave.

The Conclave of Mages

Jodah was happy to become part of a group of mages, but unknowingly had become a key player in the political situation within the Conclave. The Rag Man had been sent by a figure known as Lord Ith, the former ruler of the Conclave. Mairsil had overthrown Ith and imprisoned him in Barl’s Cage above the bottomless pit at the bottom of the citadel. Mairsil knew something of Jodah’s past, and how one of his ancestors had opened a portal to the Dark Lands, a place that Mairsil himself sought to go to in order to gain power.

Mairsil’s plotting was interrupted by an assault from the Church of Tal. During the chaos of the assault Jodah was reunited with Sima. The two mages followed the Rag Man to lowest level of the citadel where they found Ith’s prison. Ith himself had gone insane during his imprisonment, using his power to destroy Mairsil and inadvertently the Rag Man.

The act destroyed the Church’s forces but left the Conclave in shambles. Jodah was forced to use his magical mirror, which in turn brought Ith to his senses. With the mage opting to leave and travel the land, Jodah and Sima led the rest of the survivors of the attack into the City of Shadows.

The Ice Age

Jodah prospered inside the City of Shadows. He became the Archmage in addition to marrying Sima. However, his adventure in his youth with the fountain had caught up to him. His aging halted, those around him died while he stayed the same. This caused Jodah much grief, causing his mind to deteriorate. To maintain his sanity, he used his mirror to cleanse his memories of emotional attachment.

Jodah became the Archmage Eternal, and oversaw the change of the City of Shadows into the School of the Unseen.

During the Ice Age, Jodah was kidnapped by Gerba Äagesdotter, his second in command at the school and her cousin Gustha Ebbasdotter, the Royal Mage of Kjeldor. The two became envious of his power, and turned him over to the necromancer Lim-Dûl. Lim-Dûl drugged Jodah, forcing him to research magic for him, specifically magic related to the plane of Shandalar and how to defeat the beings known as planeswalkers.

Jodah was saved by a former apprentice of his, a fire mage named Jaya Ballard. However the drugs combined with the fact that Jodah had been kidnapped before his normal memory cleansing ritual, resulting in Jodah quickly going insane. Jaya called upon help from Freyalise (then regarded as a Goddess), who was able to help cure him, placing both in the planeswalker’s debt.

Having realized Lim-Dûl was not a good person, Jodah and Jaya traveled to Kjeldor to convince them that the necromancer was truly a threat. Kjeldor refused to listen, even wondering if the necromancer could be useful against the barbarians of Balduvia. During this time, Lim-Dûl attempted to stage a coup of the Kjeldoran government using the Knights of Stromgald. Joda, Jaya, Gustha, and Varchild were instrumental in stopping the coup, which finally convinced King Darien of the danger at hand.

Eventually, the forces of Kjeldor and Balduvia allied together to destroy Lim-Dûl’s forces, resulting in a large battle the following spring. Jodah was face to face with Lim-Dûl, who revealed that he was actually a merger between the Kjeldoran soldier named Lim-Dûl and Mairsil, who had stored his essence in a ring that had been found by Lim-Dûl.

Jodah was unable to take his revenge upon Mairsil, as the planeswalker Leshrac intervened in the battle. Leshrac was displeased with Lim-Dûl, as Lim-Dûl had wasted his magical talent on the forces of Kjeldor when Leshrac had plans for Lim-Dûl on Shandalar. Leshrac cut off Lim-Dûl’s hand, severing his link to Mairsil and then took the necromancer to Shandalar.

After the battle, Jodah received a summon by Freyalise. The planeswalker wanted Jodah to pay up on his debt, asking to borrow his magical mirror. Freyalise used the mirror to cast the World Spell, thus ending the Ice Age. Afterwards, Freyalise returned the mirror, but Jodah had felt the planeswalker had altered its fundamental essence somehow. From that moment on he stopped using the mirror.

The Time of Alliances

Jaya Ballard returned to Jodah years later, showing the Archmage that she had located the severed hand of Lim-Dûl. The hand should have held the ring that contained Mairsil’s essence, but the ring itself was missing. Fearing that Mairsil would impose his will upon another, the two set out to locate the ring.

During their travels, Jodah helped broker a truce and alliance between the forces of Balduvia and Kjeldor once more, allowing for the beginnings of New Argive to take place.

Jodah and Jaya’s journey led the two to Soldev, where they found out that the Soldevi Adnates had unearthed several Phyrexian War Beasts. After this discovery Jaya betrayed Jodah, stabbing him fatally.

Jaya revealed that she had become the new vessel for Mairsil. With the Soldevi Adnates help, they used Jodah’s blood to reactivate the Phyrexian War Beasts (since Jodah was the closest blood-relation to Urza). The War Beasts leveled Soldev, and ended up destroying the School of the Unseen as well.

Having no options left, Jodah decided to use the mirror to heal himself. In doing so, he found out that Freyalise, having detected an individual with a planeswalker spark near her, had added a spell intended to trigger that spark. Freyalise had believed that individual to be Jodah. Jodah realized that Jaya had been present during every meeting with Freyalise. The Archmage knew that Jaya had been the individual Freyalise had sensed.

During an intense duel with Jaya/Mairsil, Jodah found himself in the appropriate position, smashing the mirror into his friend’s face. The act triggered Freyalise’s spell, burning away Mairsil/Lim-Dûl’s essence and causing Jaya’s spark to ignite.

Now a planeswalker, Jaya assisted in defeating the War Beasts. Jodah decided to not rebuild the School of the Unseen, much like Ith had decided before him. With Jaya leaving to travel the planes, Jodah began to spread rumors and conjecture about himself to disappear into myth and legend.

Later in Time

Jodah became a mythical figure, so mythical that it was often decided that Jodah never actually referred to a single individual but rather different people over the course of time. Are you saying Jodah is the Doctor Who of Magic??!! – Editor

The Archmage Eternal would later appear to his distant blood relative, Urza Planeswalker, after Urza’s return to Dominaria. Urza had gone insane, and Jodah’s assistance in understanding what had happened to Dominaria in his absence helped restore Urza to sanity.

Jodah returned during the events of Planar Chaos, where he had sensed through scrying that Jhoira of the Ghitu would arrive in Urborg. The Archmage waited for Jhoira there, where he offered to assist in preventing the deterioration of Dominaria’s space-time continuum. He had even created a new mirror that was a direct copy of the original mirror he had owned, offering it to Freyalise as a potential method to heal the world. Freyalise discarded the mirror, stating it would not stop the rifts.

Jodah became enamored of Jhoira, inviting the artificer to find him after their quest was over. After the Mending, Jhoira sought out the Archmage Eternal. Jodah revealed to her that he was not the same man as the Jodah she had read about in Legend. Whether this meant that he was a completely different Jodah who had arrived from another timeline through one of the rifts or whether Jodah had painted a different image of himself in legend was never explained.

Current Status

Due to his position as a near-immortal, Jodah continues to live on to the current timeline. His current status is master of the Tolarian Academies. It is revealed that he and Jhoira have long been separated.

Jodah is instrumental in assisting Jhoira and the new crew of the Weatherlight, including Gideon and Liliana, in rooting out a Cabal sleeper agent within the Academy at Tolaria West.

Wrapping Up

I hope you folks have enjoyed this little dip into Dominaria’s character history. Next time we’re going to dip into the history of another of Dominaria’s most important heroes – the planeswalker Teferi!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

This week we’re gonna talk about none other than Jhoira of the Ghitu, otherwise known as the new Captain of the Weatherlight (as well as… the first Captain of the Weatherlight)!

Jhoira is an artificer from the Ghitu tribe on the continent of Shiv. Because of her heritage, she is adept in the skills surrounding artifacts.

The Tolarian Academy

Jhoira came to the Tolarian Academy as one of the original students when Urza started the school. She was slightly older than Teferi, a young mage who would constantly prove to be a nuisance to her as he was constantly seeking a romance with her.

Jhoira would later befriend the silver golem that Urza had created for his experiments, giving him the Thran name ‘Karn’, which stood for ‘Mighty.’

Jhoira’s time on the island, in addition to her dislike of Teferi, made her long for her home and for a strong man (unlike Teferi) like the men of the Ghitu tribe she came from. When Jhoira found a man crashed on the beach in a ship, she hid his presence from the rest of the school and build a secret place for the two. She fell in love with the man named Kerrick, her friend Karn being the only other soul that knew he existed.

Unbeknownst to Jhoira, Kerrick was a Phyrexian sleeper agent. He had arrived on Tolaria with the intent to invade and destroy Urza’s science projects. Karn himself discovered this during one of his trips to the past, but was unable to prevent the attack by Kerrick when he returned. Jhoira perished in her room, killed by a Phyrexian Negator.

Karn immediately traveled back through time to save his friend. Although he was successful in preventing Jhoira’s death, the time machine overloaded and malfunctioned. It exploded and exposed the island to extreme temporal energies. Urza and those closest to him were able to escape, but Jhoira remained stranded on the island.

Aftermath of Destruction

Jhoira lived alone on the island of Tolaria for ten years before she would be found again by Urza and Barrin. During this time she used her knowledge of artifice to rig up machines to collect water from areas that had been affected by the temporal energies of the island. Drinking the water from these areas slowed Jhoira’s aging to a standstill, to the point where she now appears to only age days over the course of centuries.

Jhoira’s survival on the island was crucial to the new Academy. By using her knowledge of the island and the different slow and fast time zones of it, she was able to help navigate its dangers. After falling into a coma for ten years, she was also crucial in helping to save Teferi, who had been caught in a slow time bubble, by developing the method in which different time zones could be entered and exited.

Fighting the Phyrexians

Jhoira was instrumental in assisting Urza with his plans for resisting the Phyrexian Invasion. She not only took command of the Weatherlight at the very beginning (as well as being crucial in the original construction of the Skyship), but also assisted in overseeing the Thran Mana Rig in her home of Shiv alongside a more mature Teferi.

At some point, Jhoira began to see as well what Teferi had seen: that Urza’s war was going to destroy their world. She helped with Teferi’s plan to phase their homes of Shiv and Zhalfir out of existence. Jhoira officially left the time stream.

Time Spiral and the Mending

Jhoira would return later with Teferi to Dominaria, intent on restoring the continents of Shiv and Zhalfir to the timeline. Although Jhoira did not totally trust Teferi’s intentions, she went along with the plan. Jhoira during this time would come to befriend Venser of Urborg and Radha of Keld, in addition to meeting the infamous Jodah, Archmage Eternal.

Jhoira assisted Teferi after he lost his spark while sealing the Shivan rift. After the Mending Jhoira disappeared into obscurity and legend.

The Here and Now

Sixty years after the Mending, Jhoira returned to prominence as she managed to locate the remains of the Weatherlight off the coast of Urborg. After salvaging the ship, she left it to be repaired using a new weatherseed that she received from the nature spirit Molimo. She is currently assembling the Weatherlight’s new crew.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have this week for another look into the lore of Dominaria! I’m going to continue this character series by delving a little deeper into the lore of Jodah, Archmage Eternal!

Until next time!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

Howdy folks, this is Joe again with another look into the world and storyline of Magic: the Gathering! This time around, we’re going to take a brief (for values) look at the history of a plane we’re about to return to soon. I’m talking of course about Dominaria! Dominaria is a plane steeped in rich history, having been the center of attention for most of Magic’s early years. Let’s get right into the thick of it shall we?

The History of Dominaria

Dominaria is at its core a pretty big place, but most of the storylines have taken place on only a few continents, Terisiare is the largest of these; however, the continents of Otaria, Jamuura, and Sarpadia have all taken center stage at one time or another.

A Harsh Age of Dragons

Early Dominarian history is largely only remembered by Dragons. While being one location for the Elder Dragon War, Dominaria was also ruled for some time by the Primevals. These dragons were the very primeval essence of the world; we know them by the names Darigaaz, Crosis, Rith, Dromar, and Treva. The Primevals ruled the world harshly, putting humans beneath them. This lasted many years, until a group of human wizards amassed enough magical power to defeat them, steal their powers, and seal them away.

However, it was not to be happy times; three of the wizards got together and decided to slay the other two, taking power for their own. These three would later come to be known as the Numena, powerful entities who were like gods.

The Thran

One of the most centrally defining moments of Dominarian history was the rise and fall of the Thran. A powerful empire with advanced technological marvels, the Thran were responsible for most of the artifacts unearthed by archaeologists centuries later. However, the Thran were beset by civil unrest due to a disease contracted by the lower class citizens. It wasn’t until the city’s lead artificer Glacian contracted the disease himself that the ruling council of Halcyon would do anything. They called on one of their eugenicists, a man named Yawgmoth, to help diagnose Glacian’s condition.

Yawmgoth diagnosis was phthisis, a disease contracted by overexposure to powerstone radiation. Because the lower class citizens who had the disease were shoved into caves, riots took place against the ruling class. Yawgmoth seized this opportunity to position himself into a place of power, all the while falling in love with Glacian’s wife, Rebbec.

Yawgmoth’s rise to power continued as the planeswalker Dyfed came to visit Glacian. Dyfed had recognized a latent planeswalker spark in Glacian, and wanted to encourage it. Yawgmoth took this time to befriend Dyfed, who helped him locate an unpopulated plane that the evil Yawgmoth would later call Phyrexia.

Yawgmoth’s power plays eventually came to a head as several other city states allied together against his atrocities. They threatened to move on Halcyon if he was not removed from power. Yawgmoth overthrew the Halcyon ruling council and declared martial law. He later had the council exiled to the plane of Mercadia, and established a portal link to Phyrexia. From Phyrexia he beckoned the Thran to come escape the powerstone radiation. In reality, this was the beginnings of Yawgmoth as the Ineffable Father of Machines.

The final battle of the Thran Empire saw Yawgmoth’s forces defeated by the power of the Null Sphere, an artifact that later became known to Dominaria as the Null Moon. He retreated back to Phyrexia, and the portal was closed on the Dominarian side by Rebbec. She used two halves of a powerstone containing Glacian’s essence to keep the portal sealed.

The Age of Magic and the Brother’s War

Following the fall of the Thran Empire, most technological advancement ceased. Instead, nations across the world (such as Jamuura and the continent of Corondor) developed magic. On Terisiare, artifice began to be rediscovered as people unearthed pieces of the Thran’s fallen empire.

Then came Urza and Mishra. After their father took ill, these two young boys were sent to study with the archaeologist Tocasia, one of their father’s old friends. As the two boys developed they shared a thirst for discovery, but approached artifice in very different ways. It was under Urza and Mishra’s guidance that items like the ornithopter were discovered.

However, there was always an uneasy tension between the two brothers. This tension came to a head when the two discovered a cave at a place called Koilos. Koilos was the home of the powerstone that sealed off the portal to Phyrexia. When the two brothers touched it, it split into two halves. Each brother was in possession of half (otherwise known as the Mightstone and Weakstone). Each brother coveted the other’s half, leading to a falling out between the two as well as the death of their teacher, Tocasia.

Urza left the camp and went to Yotia, where a contest to marry the ruler’s daughter drew his attention. However, he was solely interested in a Thran tome that was part of her dowry. Urza won the contest by creating an artifact, and earned with it not only the marriage of Kayla bin-Kroog but also the title of Chief Artificer of Yotia.

Mishra, on the other hand, rose in power among the Fallaji desert people. He became known as the Raki (or wizard) after defeating and controlling a dragon engine that attacked the nomadic peoples.

The conflict between the two brothers escalated after a peace talk went awry; it soon engulfed the nation in all-out war. Unknown to Urza, a fanatical machine-worshipping cult known as the Brotherhood of Gix had not only infiltrated both sides of the conflict, but had succeeded in swaying Mishra in their ways.

The Brother’s War enveloped the continent of Terisiare, culminating in a battle over the prime natural resources of the Argoth forest. During the final battle, Urza discovered that his brother was now a fully mechanical construct, having been corrupted by Phyrexian influence. With no way of stopping things, Urza turned to magic. He poured himself into the Golgothian Sylex and unleashed its power. The full force of the Sylex caused a tremendous catastrophe.

The Sylex blast completely slaughtered both armies. It decimated the landscape and sunk the Argoth forest. The power of the blast altered the the weather patterns of the world, leading to the Ice Age. It also created the Shard of Twelve Worlds. This was a barrier of energy that restricted planeswalkers’ movement; they could only travel to any of the planes contained within the Shard. Most importantly, it also transformed Urza into a planeswalker. With both halves of the Thran powerstone serving as his eyes, Urza left Dominaria searching for revenge against Phyrexia.

The Dark and the Ice Age

After the fallout of Argoth, much of the world fell into disarray due to the ever-growing winters. The continent of Sarpadia, the setting for Fallen Empires, was destroyed as various races fell to both their own hubris and the cooling of the world. On Terisiare, religious zealotry condemned the acts of artifice and wizardry; those with magical talent were hunted down. It was during this time that figures like the wizard Jodah first appeared.

The Ice Age plunged the world into endless cold, where the empires of Kjeldor and Balduvia fought each other. However, the two powers had to put their differences aside to deal with the looming threat of the necromancer Lim-Dûl.

A group of planeswalkers, chief among them the nature-oriented Freyalise, worked together to break the Shard of Twelve Worlds. They wanted to once again travel more than just the planes contained within the Shard. They were betrayed by Tevesh Szat, a dark planeswalker who sought to bury Dominaria in eternal ice.

However, through the aid of Jodah, the use of several artifacts, and the magic of the Shard itself, the planeswalker Freyalise was able to cast the World Spell, a powerful magic that broke both the Ice Age and the Shard.

In the aftermath of the Ice Age, numerous nations rose and fell, including the Soldevi and Tresserhorn. Jodah reappeared during this time, as did the pyromancer Jaya Ballard. Jaya would later ascend to become a planeswalker, after Jodah saved her from being consumed by the essences of Mairsil and Lim-Dûl.

The Age of Legends

After the Ice Age, many of the stories and figures from the set Legends took place, including the rise and fall of the Madaran Empire underneath the control of the dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas. His champion, Tetsuo Umezawa, managed to rebel and trap Bolas.

The Return of Urza

Urza returned to Dominaria after some time, having traveled the multiverse. He discovered that Phyrexia was planning on invading Dominaria. Urza developed the Tolarian Academy on the isle of the same name. He sought to create a time machine that could be used to go back in time and prevent the Phyrexian existence. These experiments resulted in the creation of the sentient golem, Karn.

Karn’s name means ‘Mighty’ in Thran. He was named by the student Jhoira, and befriended by the young mage Teferi. Karn was made out of silver, a metal that could withstand the temporal flow of time. Urza intended for Karn to go back in time to perform Urza’s great works. However, Urza’s experiments were interrupted by an attack by a Phyrexian sleeper agent. In the attack, Jhoira died. An emergency trip back in time to save Jhoira was successful. However, it also caused a catastrophic failure that destroyed the academy and left Tolaria in a state of shattered temporal magics.

Urza and his friend Barrin returned to the island with new students. Along with Jhoira and Teferi, work began on the greatest of Urza’s efforts: the Legacy.

Throughout the work on the Legacy, Urza was involved in negotiations with Shiv to utilize the Thran Mana Rig. He made peace with the forest of Yavimaya over the death of Argoth. The nature spirit Multani even provided a seed that would create the hull of the Legacy’s centerpiece: Skyship Weatherlight.

Skyship Weatherlight was but one piece of the puzzle of the Legacy; Urza foresaw that he would need a human component to wield the might of the collection of artifacts. He began developing the Bloodlines Project. In addition, he developed Metathran soldiers to defend Dominaria during the invasion. The Bloodline Project culminated in the birth of Gerrard Capashen, the oft-unfortunate inheritor of the Legacy.

The Mirage Wars and the Weatherlight

Some time later, Teferi ascended and became a planeswalker himself. He was involved in a conflict between several nations in his homeland Jamuura when the dark wizard Kaervek tried to conquer them all. This is noteworthy because of the presence of the Skyship Weatherlight during this time, under the command of Captain Sisay. Sisay was captured by an agent of Rath, under the control of its evincar. The evincar was a shapeshifter by the name of Volrath. Volrath was otherwise known as Vuel, Gerrard’s step-brother who was corrupted by the nature of Phyrexia into serving in Rath’s role in the Phyrexian invasion.

The crew of the Weatherlight left Dominaria and headed to Rath in search of Sisay; they would eventually return during the events of the Phyrexian Invasion.

The Invasion

The Phyrexian Invasion began strongly in 4205 A.R. with the Phyrexians opening portals to the plane and sending through massive plague ships. Dominaria quickly understood the impact the invasion would have. The entire plane rallied behind the crew of the Skyship Weatherlight, a shining beacon of what would come to be known as the Coalition.

Urza and Master Mage Barrin surfaced, putting the metathran army into play. Gerrard and the rest of the Weatherlight crew struggled to contain the invasion. It’s during this time that Hanna, Barrin’s daughter and the love of Gerrard, is infected by Phyrexian plague and dies.

The invasion comes to a head when the plane of Rath overlays onto Dominaria, providing a staging grounds for Yawgmoth’s invasion. It’s during this that the Elven leader Eladamri ends up in Dominaria and becomes a focal point as one of the leaders of the Coalition.

A few major things happen during the course of the Invasion:

• Teferi decides that he doesn’t want to be a part of Urza’s plans, and uses his planeswalker magic to phase Jamuura and Shiv entirely out of existence. He’s aided by Jhoira, who agrees with his plans.
• Barrin, upon hearing the death of his daughter, travels to Tolaria and unleashes the Obliterate spell, completely liquefying Tolaria and himself. This spell is powerful enough that it also causes a rift in time and space.
• The planar overlay of Rath drastically changes the geography of Dominaria forever.

Urza, along with several other planeswalkers, took the fight to Yawgmoth himself. They attempted to plant soul bombs on the plane of Phyrexia to destroy it and end the invasion. However, Urza was tempted by the opportunity to study and understand the perfection of Phyrexia. He betrays the other planeswalkers and joins Yawgmoth. It is here that Urza is pitted against his own champion, Gerrard. Gerrard had been lured into service with the promise of receiving Hanna back from the dead. This battle ended with Gerrard severing Urza’s head from his body. Gerrard betrayed Yawgmoth however, escaping with the planeswalker’s head.

Enraged, Yawgmoth entered Dominaria in full form, killing millions of people in mere minutes. With the Apocalypse looming, the crew of the Weatherlight embarked in a last ditch effort. They punctured the Null Moon to unleash the full force of the white mana that the artifact had been gathering for centuries. Despite being weakened greatly by this, Yawgmoth was able to lash out and attack once more.

Gerrard finally accepted his place as the inheritor of the Legacy; he took Urza’s gemstone eyes and placed them in the cavities inside Karn’s chest to complete the Legacy. A sentient light was created that completely dissolved Yawgmoth, killing him as well as sacrificing Urza and Gerrard. This act, combined with the magic of the powerstones, changed the silver golem Karn into the first artificial planeswalker. As a happy aside, it also ended the threat of Phyrexia.

Otaria

The continent of Otaria seemed to be the only place that had not been greatly damaged by the Invasion; many refugees migrated there. Several great powers arose in this area in the aftermath, including the Cabal, the Order, and the Mer Empire.

Karn, having left Dominaria, still wanted to keep an eye on the world. He created a probe that landed on Dominaria, but it was defective. It became known as the Mirari, an artifact of great power. Numerous factions desired its power, but many fell to its magic. Only the barbarian Kamahl was capable of wielding it in some capacity.

The Numena, once great wizards and gods of mankind during the time of Primeval dragons, were reincarnated. A great civil war occurred. Akroma, an angel created by the reality shaper Ixidor, fought against Phage, the champion of the Cabal who had once been known as Jeska, Kamahl’s sister.

This war continued until Akroma, Phage, and another figure named Zagorka were killed by Kamahl using the Soul Reaper. This act fused the three together and they became Karona, the living embodiment of all magic. Karona’s very existence tore at the fabric of the plane’s magic until she was killed by her two most loyal subjects. This act returned Karona to the three beings that created her, finally settling into the form of Jeska. It’s at this point that Jeska’s planeswalker spark ignites. Karn returns to take the Mirari away from Dominaria, and offers to show Jeska the planes.

Time Spiral and the Mending

Dominaria’s vast history of apocalypses and catastrophic events have caused numerous rifts and tears in time and space. However, the nature of these rifts changed with the appearance of Karona. The rifts began drawing mana from the land, causing the world to approach dangerously close to becoming barren and toxic.

Teferi returns with Jhoira, in addition to new characters Venser of Urborg and Radha of Keld. Their goal is to return Jamuura and Shive back to the timeline after having phased them out during the Invasion.

Several important things occur during this storyline:

• Teferi loses his spark in sealing the Shivan rift and phasing Shiv back into the timeline.
• Freyalise sacrifices her life and spark to seal the rift over Keld.
• Lord Windgrace, the planeswalking panther protector of Urborg, sacrifices his spark and life to seal the rift over the Stronghold in Urborg.
• Karn appeared and offered his assistance, going back in time to close the rift over Tolaria. Karn succeeds, giving up his own spark, but flees towards the world of Argentum (Mirrodin) when he sees a vision of his future.
• Nicol Bolas is released from his prison in Madara. He uses the spark of the planeswalker Leshrac to close the Madaran rift and then leaves the plane.
• Jeska reappears and uses part of Radha’s life force to close the Zhalfirin rift, which cuts off northern Jamuura from the timeline forever.
• Jeska also sacrifices Radha’s spark to close the Yavimaya rift, which kills Multani.

Finally, the largest act of all occurs in this story. Jeska closes the Otarian rift, the largest of the rifts. Her existence as Karona permanently alters the natures of planeswalking forever in an act known as the Mending.

The Here and Now

Now we come to the here and now, based on what we know about what’s coming. Dominaria is going to be a very interesting place when we return. We know that we will be seeing familiar names and faces such as Jhoira, Teferi, and Karn, in addition to characters such as Jaya Ballard. However, we also know that Gideon and Liliana both play a part in this part of the story, since it takes place immediately after the events of Hour of Devastation.

I’m looking forward to it myself. After years of watching Dominaria’s deep history and world-building grow, I’m really excited about going back. Are you? Sound off below in the comments!

Until next time!

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp

The History of Jace

Let’s flashback to 2008. Hot on the heels of Lorwyn in 2007 where the new Planeswalkers were introduced, not many people really knew a whole lot about them. They weren’t actually part of the Lorwyn storyline. Shards of Alara in 2008 would be the first storyline that would include Planeswalkers as part of its central focus. This meant that for many people their first actual introduction to Jace Beleren was through the card “Counterspell” from the Jace vs Chandra Duel Deck.

Oh man. Look at that flavor text. Jace is a kind of an a-hole here right? Right. See, before Jace Beleren  started appearing in the actual story, the creative writing team at Wizards didn’t really know much about what to do with Jace’s character. He wouldn’t actually appear in the storyline until Zendikar in 2009. Because of this, Wizards opted to shove Jace’s image and flavor text to be in line with the typical “blue” mage; superiority complex with no interest in common mages. It made him appear to be a bit of… well, a jerk. He could counter all your stuff and was basically unbeatable. That made Jace not only uninteresting, but also actively hated by many people. How could anyone actually relate to a character who was perceived as a Mary Sue* and incredibly perfect in every way? Some fans developed a webcomic where Jace battles Chandra to take back the Dragon Scroll that leads her to Zendikar in the first place, and Jace’s character is very much the same as it was in the flavor texts.

*(Editor’s note: A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character. Often, this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment. They can usually perform better at tasks than should be possible given the amount of training or experience.)

Jace finally did appear in the official storyline, chasing after Chandra to Zendikar as she made her way to the Eye of Ugin. We actually found out that the Jace in the stories was nothing like the Jace of the flavor text. This Jace, while still presenting an air of superiority, was actually no more superior than anyone else. In fact… he was physically inferior and his mind appeared to be cracked in many ways. But we still didn’t have a firm grasp on his character.

That is, until Agents of Artifice.

The novel Agents of Artifice was the first real look we had at the character of Jace Beleren. While living in Ravnica, Jace used his mental talents for blackmail purposes, allowing himself to live an easy life. Until, that is, he was conscripted into serving the Infinite Consortium under the planeswalker Tezzeret. It’s during this novel that we find out that Jace is capable of extreme memory magic, wiping his own memories and replacing them with his friend Kallist’s to throw off the Consortium’s trail.

It’s also during this book that we see how Jace and Liliana Vess’ rocky relationship begins, a relationship classified by many as actually abusive on Liliana’s part.

Flash forward to Zendikar, where Jace ended up serving as one of the three planeswalkers required to unlock the Eldrazi’s prison in the Eye of Ugin. Then jump to Ravnica, and the Implicit Maze left behind by Azor. During this time Jace’s character drew much criticism, partly due to the poor writing of the Dragon’s Maze books and partly due to how Jace overcame each obstacle. Nevertheless, he eventually became the Living Guildpact.

Jace as the Guildpact was another major dent in his character, as people saw the telepath again as a Mary Sue who could do no wrong.

It wasn’t until we got to Magic Origins that we found out exactly why Jace is this way. During this set we learned that Jace was taught by a sphinx named Alhammeret. Alhammeret used Jace as a double agent on both sides of the warring factions of his home plane Vryn. However, Alhammeret also became aware of Jace’s planeswalker spark. In order to keep Jace under his control, Alhammeret used his mind magic to repeatedly mind wipe Jace. After Jace found out about this, a telepathic duel between himself and Alhammeret resulted in the destruction of not only the sphinx’s mind, but Jace’s mind as well. His planeswalker spark ignited, landing Jace on Ravnica. The only clear remembrance of Alhammeret was the symbol of the sphinx’s collar, now revealed to be the facial tattoos that Jace bears.

After Origins, the storyline shifted to Jace assisting Gideon amidst the Battle for Zendikar set, but not before Jace met the planeswalker Vraska, a gorgon who was part of the Golgari.

During Battle for Zendikar, Jace’s character became slightly more pronounced in regards to his physical weaknesses. It was during this time that he grew slightly, thanks to both the presence of Gideon as well as becoming part of the Gatewatch. However, he was still a little stubborn. He opted to ignore the advice of Ugin and come up with a plan to kill the Eldrazi. During this time, unbeknownst to us, Ugin implanted a mental trigger into Jace’s mind.

After the formation of the Gatewatch, Jace went to Innistrad to decipher what had been happening on the plane. During this time, Jace actually went somewhat insane, driven mad by the energy being funneled across the plane. It was during this block that Jace was reunited with Liliana, and briefly visited a mind prison created by the Eldrazi Titan Emrakul.

Flash forward again to Amonkhet, and the Gatewatch’s fateful encounter with the dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas. During this battle, Jace’s mind is crushed. He planeswalks away on instinct, landing on the plane of Ixalan.

The Here and Now

So now we arrive in present day, and how the storyline is actively treating Jace on Ixalan. As a hotly contested character, many people either really like Jace or actively hate him. Often times however, the hate is derived either from the initial way Jace was presented (all the way back to that printing of Counterspell) or how his character was presented in badly written stories (Dragon’s Maze).

Regardless of this, the Jace we know now is actually a lot different and a lot more likable with the Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan storyline. Losing his memories, Jace is forced to sustain himself. He eventually ends up in the company of Vraska, the gorgon planeswalker he once met on Ravnica. During this time, the two begin to form a relationship based on respect and trust. Jace is accepting and broken, willing to put his faith in Vraska.

I definitely recommend to anyone who may be on the fence about this character to maybe take some time and sit down and read through the Ixalan storyline and through the first part of the Rivals of Ixalan storyline. I know I personally was getting sorely tired of Jace as a character through Battle for Zendikar and up to Amonkhet, but the current storyline has done quite a bit to really develop Jace as a character worth having around.

Wrapping Up

That’s all the time we have for this week folks. I might do more of these in the future, especially if people really enjoy this. If I do, what characters do you want to hear about? What storylines do you want to discuss?

Joseph Dyer II

Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy.  As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events.  To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/volrathxp