Transcript for:
Epic Saga of Magic: The Gathering

This is the story of Magic the Gathering, a sweeping epic 30 years in the making that spans millennia, that encompasses countless planes and details the rise and fall of myriad empires. It's a story of struggle, a tapestry of conflict woven by great powers and unstoppable forces. A tale of ambition and hubris that details the blind eternities and the shape of the multiverse at large. This video is divided into eight distinguished epochs of MTG's main story.

All dates given are in relation to the Argivian Reckoning, the birth of Urza Planeswalker, and will be abbreviated as AR. I want to preemptively address the well actuallys and you forgot to mentions in the comments. The multiverse is too vast to detail every story arc and character and too complex to delve into the deepest intricacies.

A cursory retelling of the most significant plotlines is what follows. From the birth of history, to the fall of the Thran, the Weatherlight Saga, Nicol Bolas'machinations and new Phyrexian invasion, we'll uncover magic's essence. Major spoilers to come for all story arcs.

Alright, let's dive in. In the beginning, the multiverse was unformed, its protean landscape a seething chaos from which five fundamental essences coalesced, distinguishing themselves from one another in distilled aspects of reality. These became the five colors of mana, each embodying critical aspects of existence. White, the color of constancy and structure.

Red, the color of ingenuity and emotion. Blue of intellect and insight. Green of verdure and growth.

Black of death and power. From mana came planes, and from planes came time, space, reality, and life. Each plane represents an entire universe of events and possibilities, and infinite planes populate the great expanse of the blind eternities. A primal void of ether, raw energy inscrutable and inhospitable. Interestingly, it's this unwelcome and destructive expanse that supported the first beings of existence.

The incomprehensible race of Eldrazi stalked the Blind Eternities'ancient mists, acting as nature's gardeners, their voracious hunger consuming planes completely and pruning the Great Emptiness. Other entities, avatars of mana, and manifestations of elements formed within the Blind Eternities. The Ur-Dragon, for example, rose as the progenitor of all dragonkind across the multiverse, the parent of fire that is proposed by the Fire-Blooded. purported to live betwixt and between realities. It's such mythological figures that dominated the earliest days of time.

The first documented event in civilized history takes place in roughly negative 100,000 AR, when the Equilorians first initiate their multiversal trek towards enlightenment. And this is the state of the multiverse for much time, nascent planes developing life cycles and complex ecosystems. primitive civilizations rising from the earth to command the colors of mana, the nature of time and reality stabilizing from the first throes of chaos.

Then, in negative 25,000 AR, the Ur-Dragon unfurls its massive wings and rides on the winds of eternity, seeding countless planes with its offspring as it sojourns across the multiverse. It descends upon the plan of Dominaria, and from the sky eggs plummet like meteors to the earth. From these molten craters emerge fully conscious and extremely powerful dragons, known collectively as the Elder Dragons, a pedigree that includes such mighty and infamous figures as Nicol Bolas, his twin brother Ugin, the intellectual Arcady Sabbath, and the rapacious Palladia Moors.

The Elder Dragons, possessed of great ambition, quickly dominate Dominaria's ancient races and assert authority over the plain. For thousands of years they rule with draconian authority, but roughly 5000 years into their reign, the dragons are consumed in an intractable and bitter war instigated by the schemes of Nicol Bolas. His designs for power are complex, his ambition boundless.

Bolas manipulates his kin and the Elder Dragon war erupts across Dominaria. For generations, dragons slay one another, their legions of slaves clash on fields of battle scorched in fire. Death and destruction are all.

We see the retelling of this mythical conflict in the saga The Elder Dragon War. When the screams end and the dust settles, Only seven elder dragons remain, Palladia Mors, Vivictus Asmati, Chromium Ruel, Arcadius Sabbath, Piru, Ugin, and Nicol Bolas. The aftermath of the war sees Ugin's planeswalker spark ignite, and out of such strong resentment, jealousy, and contempt for his brother, Nicol Bolas also ascends. The twins leave Dominaria in scorched ruin and begin a journey of mutual struggle that will forever see them conflicted and their fates tied to one another. Ugin seeks understanding, Nicol seeks power.

They fight over ages and planes, but ultimately Bolas slays his twin above the meditation plane's serene waters. With his greatest rival vanquished, Bolas claims the title of mightiest being. But Ugin's essence remains, and though his body is destroyed, he's reborn from the meditation plane as Ugin the spirit dragon.

He spends his energy chasing after his brother and studying the complexities of the multiverse. On Dominaria, years pass into centuries and centuries into millennia. The remaining elder dragons fade into obscurity, but from them are spawned the second generation of all-powerful dragons known as the Primevals. Though they can't contend with the superiority of the elders, the Primevals still possess unparalleled strength and magic. the full extent of their prowess awakened when in the presence of one another.

The five primeval dragons each embody one aspect of the dragon's life cycle and manifest particular abilities. They are Ramadarigas, Rith, Treva, Dromar, and Krosus. For one thousand years the primeval dragons ruled the plane as undisputed gods, intimidating and dominating the other races dwelling here. It isn't until roughly negative 16,000 AR that Dominaria's dragons are finally checked by a force as powerful as themselves.

Five mysterious and mystical wizards, known to time as the Numenna, gather strength in secret beneath the primeval's yoke. Lost to myth are their origins, and nothing is known of the period following their rise, but the Numenna embody ambition and selfishness. Together, They defeat the primevilles with salvos of magical energy, but with their purpose fulfilled, the group devolve quickly into personal plays for power.

They refuse to share their position as new overlords of Dominaria. Two are slain in conflict with one another, and the rest make of the plane what they will. For nearly ten millennia, Dominaria remains a wild, unpredictable realm, ruled by warlords whose influence extends to the very limit of their power.

The molten chaos consume it, but Dominaria isn't the only plane in the multiverse. Across the great expanse of Aether, the foundation for a structured and civilized society is formed on the plane of Ravnica, which has up to this point been riven by clans of warmongers. The Sphinx planeswalker Azor arrives and with assistance of the most influential leaders among barbarous tribes, drafts the charter of the Guildpact. Much like Dominaria, Ravnica's early history is ravaged by war and instability.

The Guild Pact is a doctrine fused with hieromancy and bound to the Plains'ley lines to end internecine conflict and assert some form of normalcy. Signed by the Perens, among them Niv-Mizzet, Razia, Rakdos, and the Obzedot, the Guild Pact establishes the Ten Guild system of administration on Ravnica and allows for the Plains'slow but inexorable transformation from a blasted wildscape into the most populous and urbanized plane known in the multiverse. And the reborn Ugin makes a home of the plane of Tarkir.

His presence creates massive, manifused storms that rage across the landscape. From these tempests emerge fully formed dragons that quickly rise to power. The epoch of mytho-history comes to a close.

The absolute authority of Dominaria's dragons passes. Lawlessness and brutality are gradually replaced by order as societies form across countless planes. It seems power, too, is distilled and distributed. Aside from the rare planeswalkers, gone are the days of beings who wielded power enough to fracture land and reality. A sense of calm follows the tumult that first shook the multiverse into existence.

On Dominaria, a race of technologically advanced people, known as the Thran, rise to dominance through the use of power stones, artifacts charged with mana, that themselves energize the mechanical functioning of several devices or else act as battery wells for significant infrastructure. Through the Power Stones, Thran invent grand technology that defies physics, that simplifies and eases life, that bestows dangerous weapons of untold destruction. With these devices, the Thran carve out a grand empire across land, sea, and sky.

Halcyon, the magnificent city that floats above the desert, establishes itself as the Thran capital, wherein power is divided by two factions, the imperialists and the republicans. Master builders, grand artificers, and the elite side with the imperialists, while eugenicists, mystics, and healers side with republicans. In a grand coup, the elite take the reins of power and destroy the last remnant of republican resistance by casting out as exiles all eugenicists. Among them, a young healer named Yawgmoth is destined to walk the endless wastes in the years that surround negative 5000 AR.

Halcyon administers the Thran Empire and wields unparalleled power. The technology of their stones fueling grand ambitions, but power comes at a price. Ignorance blinds them to the reality that power stones exude significant magical radiation that seeps into atmosphere, ground, and flesh. The bizarre disease known as Thysis originates from the Power Stones and rapidly spreads across the Thran Empire. Hysteria grips the population.

Thousands are consumed by this horrible disease that eats skin, destroys muscle, and rots bone. In shock, Halcyon sends its afflicted untouchables to the mountain caverns and pits beneath the city's luster. Here, in the Caves of the Damned, the poor wretches are left to wallow in misery until death takes them. The imperialists are helpless to stave Thyssis.

They can do nothing to control its spread. Soon, it will take the lives of all Halcyon. Glacian, the genius of Power Stone technology is himself afflicted, and five years after his exile, Yawgmoth is recalled to Halcyon to cure his affliction. This innocuous event leads to the tragic collapse of the Thran and the birth of a vile race of artificially and magically enhanced monsters that dwell within a metallic hell.

Yawgmoth desires power, bereft of compassion or sympathy. He cares only about knowledge and influence and possesses a deep yearning to elevate the Thran people, through genetic engineering, to supreme forms beyond humanity. Through medical expertise and insidious manipulation, Yawgmoth rises on the waves of fear.

His discovery of a treatment for Thysis earns him devotion of the untouchables and respect of the administrative elite. In short order, he gains control of Halcyon and has at his call thousands of loyal followers. Yawgmoth's mercurial tyranny doesn't go unnoticed, and delegates from the Empire's other great cities demand he be imprisoned.

But in a coup, Yawgmoth dissolves Halcyon's council, declares himself lord of the city, and prepares for conflict. against the alliance that opposes him, thus sparking the Thran civil war. Violence engulfs Dominaria. Meanwhile, through the planeswalker Dyfed, Yawgmoth is shown an artificial plane of nested spheres. It's a paradise of metal, where the sun's rays glint off an idyllic simulacrum of natural life.

Yawgmoth is struck with a vision. Here is the location where he will conduct genetic experiments. This is where the human race will evolve beyond its own confines and ascend to something far greater.

Under the guise of an infirmary meant to treat untouchables, Yawgmoth creates a portal that connects Dominaria to this artificial world through the caves of the damned and conducts experiments to perfect a process he terms Phiresis. The continual improvement and evolution of a creature until it reaches perfection. In grotesque chambers and atop bloodied tables, the first generations of what will be Phyrexians are born. Yawgmoth induces a form of Phyrexian rhesus within himself as he treks to the artificial plane's core and in its bowels conducts infernal rites, binding his essence to the metal.

His will permeates every layer of the plane, and he becomes its terrible god. He embodies the divine, supreme ruler of his paradise. Thus is the plane of Phyrexia established, a steel hell, Dominaria's nightmare, and the bane of many in the millennia to follow. As the Thran civil war reaches a crescendo, Yawgmoth's opposition surrounds Halcyon and prepares a final confrontation. Caught unaware, however, by the eugenicists'experimentations, they're thrown into disarray when Phyrexian warriors, creatures resembling humans but lost entirely, slaughter with abandon.

Their improved attributes win them the field, and as the tide of war swings into Yawgmoth's favor, the Thran and Dominaria itself are spared the terrible fate of Phyrexianization, when heroic efforts launched the Gnoll Sphere into orbit and far away from Halcyon City. The sphere was originally a Thran military operations center that controlled artifact creatures and weapons from across the empire. After it fell to Yawgmoth, he stationed it around his capital city to protect Halcyon from the magical destruction unleashed by the newly developed Stone Chargers. weapons that generate blasts of pure mana, consuming all in a wave of desolation. With the Null Sphere no longer in protective orbit, Halcyon, the Thran Alliance, Yawgmoth's Phyrexians all on the field and everything within miles are consumed entirely by the Stonecharger blasts.

Yawgmoth himself is exiled to Phyrexia after Rebek severs the portal connecting his plan to Dominaria in the Caves of Koilos, the Caves of the Damned. This historical tragedy, the incomprehensible loss of life and progress, is forever immortalized in the saga, The Fall of the Thran. The Thran are obliterated, the once glistening jewel of civilization, of ingenuity and promise, hopelessly lost. The Fall of the Thran creates a power vacuum, the consequence of which lead to cultural and technological regression over generations as much as forgotten.

Over millennia, new kingdoms rise. Dominaria's map is carved as regions like Zalfir and Carondor assume more, wield greater clout. This is the time of legends and it's in this span that mythical figures similar to Heracles and Sun Wukong of our own history carve their names into Dominaria's.

Endeavor great deeds and cement their infamy. Individuals such as Dakin Blackblade and Gaeadrone Dehada conflict in vile blood feud. The dragon speaker, Savitris Skarsam, conquers through death and fire much of Corondor.

The progenitor of the famous Cartholian bloodline achieves greatness and solidifies his family's role in Dominarian politics. Chromium Ruel, surviving elder dragon, battles and defeats his family. Put simply, the time of legends is a period of uncertainty. of darkness and heroism in the aftermath of Thran collapse.

Their artifacts and ruins remain, however, and call forth in whispers for the intrepid to uncover their secrets. Across the multiverse, ancient history is carved as societies rise from obscurity. On the plane of Archavios, humanoids emerge at the end of the dawning age, in which dragons ruled absolutely through their mastery of magic.

The elder dragons of Arkadios attempted to teach this wondrous but volatile power to the new races, knowledge that ultimately leads to the conflict endemic of the Blood Age. On Innistrad, due to blight and starvation, Edgar Markov develops the curse of vampirism to save his family, and the Eldrazi titans are first noticed by Ugin the spirit dragon on his sojourn through the blind eternities. These beings are plain consumers. forces of nature that might very well be keystone actors in the ecology of the multiverse. In roughly negative 1500 AR, they are lured to the mana rich plane of Zendikar.

and imprisoned by the coordinated effort of Ugin, the core lithomancer Nahiri, native of the plane, and the vampire planeswalker Sorin Mark, son of Edgar. This act sows the seeds of tragedy and violence that will take thousands of years to bear fruit. It also instigates the formation of the royal on Zendikar, the plane's natural response to what it views as infection by the presence of the Eldrazi. And so it is that the this epoch comes to a close with awesome and deadly events set in motion, events of which few are aware and that which none could have predicted, but nonetheless set the blind eternities on a precarious course.

This is the age of Urza, the most conspicuous individual of the multiverse. A man of deep motives, of flaws and ambitions, of great genius and even greater power. He is among the most notorious of all characters.

His overwhelming presence dominates this epoch as we see him transcend to planeswalker status and toil for thousands of years in desperate grand strategy against his fiercest foe. A game that consumes him entirely and leads ultimately to his demise as he works in Dominaria's defense against the dark. god Yagmas encroachment. But all this is yet to unfold as a young boy, unassuming and unknown, is born alongside a younger brother in the year 0 AR. Urza and Mishra, natives of Tiresier, the continent whose kingdoms are born upon the skeletons of the now ancient Thran, train from an early age in the skills of artifice and archaeology, with inquisitive minds and thirst for knowledge.

Their fraternal rivalry drives them to great heights as they seek desperately to outshine one another while beneath the tutelage of Tokasha, a master archaeologist. Tokasha's interest is in Thran artifacts, and she establishes several dig sites within the desert around Koilos to uncover hidden relics and ascertain wisdom. Urza and Mishra showcase their budding ingenuity by drafting prototypes of Thran devices.

By improving designs and rediscovering lost means of labor and travel, we see such creations in the Ornithopter, the Onulet, and the Suchi. While surveying the desert, the trio uncover a pattern that leads them deep into the caves of Koilos, whose chambers are haunted by the echoes of the ancient Thran. It's here, in the Hall of Tangson, that Mishra and Urza happen upon an item that forever alters their fate. and that of Dominaria's. The power stone used by Rebek, those ages past to seal from the plain Yawgmoth and his Phyrexian horrors, sits atop a mantle in the center of the chamber.

The stone calls out to each brother, a siren whisper that draws them closer. They grab for the stone and at once a magical pulse is unleashed. The pair are pushed to the wall and the power stone fractures into two pieces, disparate.

but nonetheless part of one whole. This we see illustrated in the card Splitting the Power Stone, whose flavor text is full of foreboding. As the glowing stone broke apart, so too did the last shred of the brother's bond. A terrible consequence of this action goes unnoticed by all.

With the seal shattered, nothing holds evil at bay. Dark forces stir on Phyrexia, and Yawgmoth is once more free to exert his covetous influence. on Dominarne, free to instigate a return. From this fracture, the Might Stone and Weak Stone are born, and possessed by Urza and Mishra respectively. These stones have great power, but they also have an insidious aura.

Envy, avarice resentment, stir between the brothers. Their fraternal competing sours as Mishra and Urza descend to scathing remarks and paranoia. They seek the other stone. Bickering grows into confrontation, an ultimately explosive conflict as Urza and Mishra use their stones against one another.

Caught in the fray is Tocasha, who tries to defuse their row, but whose life is inevitably forfeit. Horror strikes both brothers, especially Mishra, who cannot dare face the truth and escapes into the night. This quarrel is seen in the cards Brotherhood's End and Overwhelming Remorse.

Neither brother can forgive themselves or each other for what unfolded, and the next several years see each man in separation develop into a genius, a wielder of power and artifice. Mishra ascends the ranks of desert nomads known as the Falaji, ultimately becoming the tribal leader after using his power stone to tame an ancient Phyrexian dragon engine named Machfawa. Urza meanwhile stations himself in the city of Krug within the kingdom of Yosha, marries into the royal family and becomes chief artificer of a workshop that gains great renown across all Tiresiare. Resentment bruise between Yosha and the Falaji as flashpoints of contention erupt along the Suwardi marches, the fractious border zone separating these mighty kingdoms. After many deadly skirmishes, a summit is assembled to include all political forces on the continent where grievances can be aired and greater bloodshed avoided.

Both Mishra and Urza act as liaisons for their respective kingdoms, and they share an awkward reunion where emotion hangs thick in the air. and the chasm separating both men becomes palpable. Voices boom and blood rises.

The peace talks verge on collapse, which we see in the illustration of Bitter Reunion, the flavor text of which reads, The peace summit proved the grudge between Urza and Mishra could end only in blood. Unknown to Urza, the king of Krug plotted to strike with swift violence against his philogy enemies. under the auspices of peace.

A group of ornithopters of Urza's own design launch a blistering bombardment that kills many gathered and sends the summit into pandemonium. Hope of a resolution dissipates in the blaze. War is the final act for those from whom discourse and diplomacy have fled.

Their festering resentment denies any stable interaction, and spurred by Urza and Mishra's loathing, war engulfs the continent. The Peace Summit treachery ignites what becomes known as the Brothers'War, as Yoshi declares itself against the Falaji, witnessed in the eponymous saga. The conflict is a generational tragedy, a war that lasts decades and sees the destruction of countless cities, depletion of innumerable resources, and loss of tens of thousands of lives, as Mishra and Urza's machines revolutionize battle, becoming exceedingly destructive in their capacity.

To each brother, more power is conferred. Their genius and leadership essential to combat one. Standing in opposition is the third path. An assemblage of wizards, mystics, and pacifists beleaguered by the conflict, who've recently rediscovered magic and the essence of mana. Their archaeologists happen upon an inscrutable artifact, a bowl whose surface is etched with ancient glyphs, and whose aura exudes foreboding.

The Golgothian Silex is a construct of unknown origin, but realized to possess immeasurable destruction, as its inscription reads, Wipe the land clear, bring the ending. Topple the empires to bring a fresh start. Call the end, fill with memories of the land. As the Brothers'war rages, Yawgmoth, the dark god of Phyrexia, sends through the unsealed portal at Koilos his demonic praetor Gix. To sow discord, weaken Tiresias and prepare it for invasion.

In Mishra, Gix finds the weakness of ambition, fear, and greed, and through these emotions seeks to undo him. The war radicalizes Mishra's worst qualities, and his court of advisors is soon infiltrated by Gix's minions, who whisper Phyrexian lies to erode both mind and spirit. As Mishra ages, his body weakens. 6. Fear of Death and concomitant promise of immortality espoused by the Gixians drive the Falaji ruler to undergo the first steps of Phyrexianization.

He is increasingly replaced by metal and oil, his soul twisted beyond redemption. The final stages of the Brothers'War see a continent denuded of all resources, barren and lifeless. A final confrontation unfolds on Argoth, an island off the coast recently discovered and replete with much needed riches. Both Mishra and Urza themselves lead their war hosts, and as conflict ensues, the Phyrexian Gix arrives with an expeditionary force to destroy the weakened armies.

Death and mayhem engulf Argoth. An inevitable meeting brings the two brothers face to face for the first time in years, and horror dawns upon Urza. Mishra is no longer himself.

The man he once was has been replaced by artifice, empowered only by lingering hatred. It's a pang Urza's heart cannot bear, witnessed in cards like Gruesome Realization and Retaliation. The later reading, a foul metallic stench, clogged Urza's senses.

It was then he knew his brother was no more. With the Golgothian Silex in his possession, Urza completes the invocation that unleashes devastation. A moment that reverberates through the entire multiverse.

The Silex blast destroys all of Argoth. In a stroke, the Brothers'war ends as both armies and Gix's Phyrexians are eviscerated. Energy from the blast roils across Dominaria and shifts abruptly the plane itself. Unforeseen consequences of the Silex Blast loom. The Shard of Twelve Worlds begins to form a metaphysical barrier that encapsulates twelve planes and greatly isolates them from the rest of the multiverse.

This once again severs Yawgmoth's connection to Dominaria, and a slow but unstoppable ice age descends upon the plane that will consume much in frost. As for Urza, a latent planeswalker spark. housed within the united might and weak stone, ignites, and the man whose eyes are replaced by the power stones ascends to the status of planeswalker. Consumed by remorse and seeking absolution, Urza now initiates a millennia-long fight against Phyrexia in atonement for his sins.

In war's aftermath, survivors of now-devastated Teresier shun all manner of artifice, technology, magic, and progress out of fear. A dark age of superstition reigns as cultures and civilizations regress. The genius of the brothers forgotten to time. Winters lengthen. The land remains fallow.

This period of time, roughly 170 AR, sees the lens shift from Tiresias to the remote island of Sarpedia, wherein five empires vie for dominance, each affiliated with a race and a color of mana. The red-aligned mountain dwarf. are overrun by invading orcs and goblins. The elves of Havenwood fall to creatures of their own invention when thalids multiply beyond containment.

The merfolk of Valdelia are caught off guard by legions of homerids that have dispersed from the far north as plummeting temperatures change ocean currents. The Ebon Legion too are defeated by their own hubris following the creation by Endric Saar of thralls and their subsequent rebellion. It's here that Tev Loneglade assumes the mantle of Tevish Zot, a draconic planeswalker interested only in causing pain and torment.

Acacia, the last bastion of the fallen empires, is destroyed by Zot as he sends forth legions of orcs and goblins. Thus, Sarpedia is left to ruin as masterless Thrall and mindless Thalid roam, as magecraft and artifice are more aggressively persecuted by Darius. Dark Age dogma, several havens have established in secret to house mages and scholars.

Two of these are the Conclave of Mages and Lat-Nam. Notably, a descendant of Urza and Mishra grows to prominence. Jodah, in his studies and wanderings, happens upon a fountain of youth that bestows significant longevity on the man.

He navigates with cunning the intrigue surrounding the Conclave, including the feud between Lord Ith and Marcelle. With near immortality, Johto will continue to be a force in Dominaria's history, and his learning grants him mastery over all five colors of mana. By the year 600 AR, Dominaria is fully consumed by the Ice Age, cold hunger familiar to all, and the Shard of the 12 Worlds has now completely coalesced. This traps planeswalkers and other creatures of the blind eternities within, and it's this claustrophobic imprisonment that acts as impetus for many events as walkers attempt dangerous plots to escape.

We must briefly embark from the Shard of Twelve Worlds and visit the far-flung plain of Ixalan, where around this time the Fourth Age draws near a close within the hollow core of the plain. Little is known of the Age, but it's common belief that dinosaurs ruled in abundance before falling to the civilizations that came after. The Fourth People existed, alongside these monstrous beasts.

One among them knew of the twilight that descended, and of the fate that awaited the closing of the age. His name was Aklazots, and through fear of death he endeavored to become a more powerful man. Folklore holds that he performed dark and terrible rituals on his own people, sacrificed and fed off their energy until none lived save him. As Aklazots accumulated power, he witnessed the dawning of a new age.

and with it, new gods. Chimel, the inner sun, acted as progenitor of Ixalan's deep gods. As they came into divine being from her essence, Aklazot seized an opportunity in which to secure his position. He killed the black-aligned deep god, drank of its essence, and ascended himself to the status of godhood, his body twisting into that of a massive bat. The advent of the fifth age sees establishment of the Oltec civilization within the core.

The fifth people revere Chimel, the inner sun, as source of their existence and bearer of light. As the Oltec advance in agriculture, architecture, and society, many among them are plagued by distant whispers promising life eternal and power beyond comprehension. Aklazots, the great betrayer, speaks beyond the veil of life and death to the Ultec, enthralls them with honeyed words to prey on their fears and their avarice in hopes of using them to assert his power. At his behest, the whispering war ravages across Ixalan's hollow interior, as Ultec fight ruthlessly against Aklazots'cultists. The demon god is defeated, however, with the arrival of the deep gods who defend the fifth people.

The Bat is imprisoned and the Golden Age of the Sun follows. A millennia-long period of prosperity, peace, and expansion for the Oltec peoples. But nothing lasts forever.

The Age of Sun is cast into darkness in roughly the 1900s AR with the arrival of the Fomori, a race of extraplanar giants with the capability to travel through the blind eternities aboard advanced navigational ships. The Fomori arrive in their shard ships, first requesting a peaceful settlement within the core, as they seek safety from an unknown threat. Relations quickly cool however, and evolve into outright conquest and colonization, as the Fomori take by force control of the core and imprison Chimil.

Thus begins the Night War, a conflict between the Oltec and their increasingly tyrannical oppressors that lasts nearly three centuries. and sees much bloodletting. Ultec resistance erupts in sporadic violence, but after a string of victories garners momentum, they grow more brazen in their strikes against the Fomori. Eventually, Ixalan's natives attack the heart of Fomori power and wrest Chimel from her prison.

Thus invigorated, the inner sun allows for the return of the deep gods who fight alongside the Ultec in destroying all remnants of the invaders and their shardships. The Night War ends in the 2200s AR, with profound consequences. First and most alarming, is a return of the demon god Aklazots from his prison, and re-emergence of his cultists. Second, is a great exodus from the core, as intrepid adventurers make their way through Ixalan's extensive network, and discover the world that exists on the plane's outer surface.

We leave Ixalan, at a fulcrum in its history. The wheels of time and fortune turning drastically as events heat up amidst Dominaria's ice age. Urza Planeswalker, who has spent over 1000 years shoring defenses and protecting the Shard of 12 Worlds against Phyrexian incursion, now prepares an offensive.

He rescues the defective Newt and Phyrexian sleeper agent Xantcha, who possesses a self-will beyond Yawgmoth's control, and enlists her aid in a direct assault. on the dark god's plane. Out of guilt and hatred, Urza launches an individual crusade against all of Phyrexia. His attack burns through several layers of the plane, but is stalled before it reaches Yawgmoth's core. Zansha uses the distraction to steal her heartstone from Phyrexian vats, seen in the illustration and flavor text of Ill-Gotten Gains.

Urza thought it a crusade. Zansha knew it was a robbery. Planeswalker, meanwhile, is psychologically assailed by Yawgmoth himself, and the dark god's touch brings madness to Urza's mind, shatters his spirit, and severely weakens him.

This we see in the illustration of Corrupt. Even with power armor, with god-like abilities, and a massive dragon engine, Urza fails in his conquest. He's forced to retreat to Sera's realm, an artificial plane of all-white mana. ruled by the planeswalker Sarah, who administers Urza's convalescence.

Although Sarah heals his body, her skills are unable to mend Urza's madness, and his persona grows increasingly unstable. Shortly, Urza and Zantja are found by probing Phyrexian search parties, whose presence brings corrupting black mana to the plane. Over the next several centuries, Phyrexians work to corrupt and conquer Sarah's realm.

For now, Urza, Xantcha, and Sera flee and the planeswalker entrusts stewardship of her plane to the Archangel Radiant. Meanwhile, on Dominaria, Tiresias'Ice Age nations are built atop frozen ruins of their ancient progenitors. The proud peoples of Kjeldor fight constantly with the barbarian tribes of northern Balduvia. The Findhorn Forest shelters bands of elves and human rangers who worship the half-elf planeswalker Freyalise as a god and protector of the woods. In the Frozen West, a powerful necromancer named Limdul gathers strength and builds an army under the knights of Stromgald to assault Kjeldor and undermine the leadership of King Darian.

Granted additional powers from the planeswalker Leshrac for his eternal servitude, Limdol's army of undead threatens all of Tiresiere if the factions don't unite. Jodah the Eternal, Jaya Ballard, an impetuous pyromancer, and Freylis all work to form a coalition between the Ice Age factions and confront Limdol. His army is defeated in battle, and the necromancer retreats in the waning days of this epoch for great forces conspire to end the Ice Age and shatter the Shard of Twelve Worlds.

Ambitious planeswalkers, imprisoned for centuries, wish to escape the Shard by jumping to the rogue plane of Shandalar, which moves erratically through the multiverse. The walkers Faralyn, Leshrac, and Tevish Zat manipulate others into attending the summit of the Gnoll Moon, under pretense of combined effort to destroy the Shard. What they intend, however, is to turn the planeswalkers against one another in hopes that one will be slain.

Their death would release sufficient energy for the three to planeswalk to Shandalar and escape the Shard. The summit devolves into anarchy, and though no walker is slain, the elder dragon Chromium Ruel and spell squire Ravadel, Leshrac, his minion Lim Dol, Faralyn, and Tethysh flee. But perhaps the most significant outcome of the summit is in Freyli's casting of the world spell in 2934 AR.

This spell unleashes immense magical energy on par with the Silex Blast. It shatters the Shard of Twelve Worlds, frees interplanar travel to the rest of the multiverse, and for the mortals of Dominaria, it ends the Time of Ice, brings about a great thaw, and inundates the land in the Flood Age. This epoch comes to a close with change on the horizon, planar healing, and tumult for which few can prepare. The world spell's immediate aftermath is disastrous for Dominaria, as floodwaters drown many continents.

Tricere separates into six isles. Its ice age civilizations are swept away on the tides of time, and new empires rise to take their place in this warming world. Findhorn's denizens are displaced to the sentient forest of Yavimaya. Kjeldor and Baltuvia are united as new Argive under the guidance of Archmage Jota.

They're threatened however by the spirit of the mage Mersil, who possesses Jaya Bellard, and looks to machines of the ancient past to wage war on their enemies. Resurrected Phyrexian warbeasts destroy Sol'dev and others among Mersil's enemies. Jota intervenes, dispels the wizard's spirit, and Jaya ignites her latent spark, ascending to planeswalker.

But Mersil isn't the only one who looks to revive the past. Hydar, a charismatic Cryomancer and leader of the Rhymewind mages, seeks to return Dominaria's Ice Age. Floods and warmer temperatures bring with them disease, stagnation, death.

He enters a dark alliance, first with the infernal forces of the Stromgald and seeks wisdom hidden in Limdull's fortress at Tresserhorn. Here he gleans knowledge of Phyrexian war machines and searches for a means of awakening them. This next brings Hydar and Leag with with the vampire Garza Zul, queen of the pestilent city of Krav. He requires the power of the Kravikin elementalists to create magically infused ice crystals and reanimate the long derelict machines.

Heidar and his Phyrexians are successful at first, but soon madness seeps into his mind and the machines of war rampage chaotically. Eventually, an alliance between New Argive and Yavimaya destroys the Rhyme Wind mages. and allows Dominaria's thaw to continue. Tiresiare, now drowned and scarred, no longer stands as the beacon of progress. The continent of Carondor rises to prominence as it becomes a refuge for many displaced people across Dominaria.

Here, under the guidance of five planeswalkers, the wisest of the plane meet in the city-state of Minerad. The sages of Minerad build an impressive library and dedicate their time to sharing knowledge and seeking enlightenment. Their first summit occurs in the year 3000 AR.

Far from Dominaria, on the distant plain of Olgrotha, two factions of planeswalkers vie for dominance, the Tolgath and the Ancients. Olgrotha is a land of abundance and tranquility, but its very existence is threatened when war escalates between the rivals. Battle consumes the entire plane, and mages are forced to draw from erratic rifts in the fabric of the multiverse to fuel their spells. A dramatic end to the war comes in 3200 AR, with the ringing of the Apocalypse Chime, a device whose devastation is so complete that all planeswalkers, all mana, all light and life are consumed. It even disrupts the mana ley lines of other planes, including Dominaria, and the Japanese-inspired plane of Kamigawa.

Weakening the veil that divides its mortal realm from the spirit realm, much of Ulgrotha becomes a dead zone that eats the mana of any being who walks its surface. With the fabric of his reality disrupted, the Kamigawin daimyo Takashikonda of Iganjo crafts a plot to secure eternal peace and prosperity for his people. On the night of his daughter's birth, Kanda performs a sacrilegious ritual and pierces the veil between mortal and spiritual. A trespasser in the spirit realm, Kanda seeks the child of Okagachi, the greatest of kami, and kami of the veil, illustrated in the card that which was taken.

Its spiritual essence grants Lord Kanda immortality, invulnerability to the kami of the plane, and immeasurable power which he uses to secure his vision. This heinous crime. doesn't go unpunished, and Kanda's actions instigate the 20 year long Kami War, which ruins the plane as the spirit world turns against mortal. Only by the merging of the Taken One with Takashi's daughter, Machiko Kanda, is the war ended.

United as the sisters of flesh and spirit, they defeat both Okagachi and Takashi, claiming for themselves the role of guardians over the veil and rulers of the spiritual and mortal realms respectively. Elsewhere in the multiverse, Ugin observes the danger posed by his brother Nicol Bolas and conspires with the Sphinx Azor to bring about Bolas'defeat. Azor sacrifices his planeswalker spark to create an artifact with the power to trap walkers known as the Immortal Sun.

The Sphinx waits on the isolated plane of Ixalan with the prepared trap while Ugin ventures out to lure his brother. Unfortunately for Azor, now marooned on Ixalan, Ugin never returns. Instead, the spirit dragon is confronted on his adoptive plan of Tarkir by his brother, and Bolas uses deceit to manipulate Tarkir's natives against Ugin. Ultimate battle breaks out between the twins and ends with Ugin's final death in 3279 AR. Or is it?

Some 1200 years later, the planeswalker Sarkhan Val will travel through time at the nexus of Ugin's tomb and save the spirit dragon, seen in the illustration of Crux of Fate, whose flavor text reads, Ugin's whispered summons led Sarkhan Val to the moment that would echo down the centuries and seal Tarkir's fate, the primal battle between Ugin and Nicol Bolas. This act spares Ugin's life, and even though the dragon takes centuries to convalesce, it has profound ramifications that alter both Tarkir's and the multiverse's history. But now, we return to the exploits of Urza Planeswalker and Xantcha. Under the pretense that the Shard of Twelve Worlds remains intact and that it safeguards Dominaria from Yawgmoth, Urza first travels to the plane of Equilor seeking enlightenment from its denizens, before returning to Tiresiair. Urza, however, is not himself.

His madness has progressed since the attack on Phyrexia, and the planeswalker grows increasingly cloistered and erratic. He willfully blinds himself to threats posed by an invasion of Phyrexian sleeper agents across the plane. The dark god plots for a grand return, and all the while Dominaria's greatest defender is consumed by remorse.

Xantcha breaks Urza from his madness when she introduces to him a man whose likeness is reminiscent of Mishra. With senses restored the planeswalker fabricates artifacts to slay the embedded phyrexian agents. He then travels to the cave of the phyrexian.

caves of Koilos. The Hall of Tagsin is still a strong and open portal to the metallic plane, and fights there the demon praetor Gix, Urza's old nemesis and the one responsible for Phyrexian incursions. It's only by Xantcha's sacrifice that Gix is defeated and the portal closed. Xantcha's death is the final act that restores clarity to Urza.

He needs allies. He needs strong genetic bloodlines. He needs time. to create a weapon powerful enough to eradicate Yawgmoth entirely from the multiverse. This epoch comes to a close with fevered visions of the legacy weapon, with Phyrexian war looming on the horizon, and with Urza Planeswalker preparing as best he can for a fight that will decide Dominaria's fate.

The Legacy, a collection of artifacts and individuals connected through undeniable magic and the forces of fate, consumes Urza in the centuries leading to his confrontation with Phyrexia. First, however, Dominaria must be adequately defensible. The Planeswalker, with assistance of the Master Wizard Baron, assembles the plane's greatest minds and founds in 3285 AR, the Tolarian Academy, on a secluded island free from Sleeper Agent's watchful eyes.

Here, wizards and artificers are trained to develop new technologies and magic with which they arm Dominon. A young Joira and Teferi, both intelligent adepts, are brought to the school where their minds are sharpened. Urza and Baron busy themselves with creating probes to send through time rifts back into the past.

The planeswalker hopes that by neutralizing Yawgmoth before he first rose to power, the present might be spared. Most probes can't handle the constraints of the time machine until Urza's discovery, shown in the art and flavor text of Stroke of Genius. After a hundred failed experiments, Urza was stunned to find that common silver passed through the portal undamaged. He immediately designed a golem made of metal. He fuels the golem design with Zansha's heart stone and creates a sentient artifact in Karn Silver Golem.

Before sufficient testing is conducted, however, the sleeper agent Krik discovers the academy and unleashes destructive Phyrexian negators. The Tolarian Academy is in ruins. All of its wizards, slain or scattered, is sent back in time to stop the assault. Though he stalls the attack, such meddling with the time streams destroys the temporal aperture. It explodes in a torrent of magic, levels the academy, and leaves scars of slow and fast time across the island.

Sunder's art and flavor texts illuminate this moment. The flow of time was disrupted, like a flooding river it rose from its banks. Teleria was drowned in an instant that stretched toward infinity. Nearly a decade later, the planeswalker and baron return to the island to build a new academy, and discover that Krik has survived within a chasm of fast time, where he breeds Phyrexian hordes at a blistering pace.

Urza spends the next several years gathering allies to confront Krik. On the volcanic island of Shiv, he seeks the aid of reborn primeval dragon Darigaz and the dragons and goblins of their realm. Urza also discovers the ancient Thran mana rig, which had once produced powerstones to fuel their impressive weapons.

He, Joira, and Karn stoke the forge once more and begin powerstone fabrication to energize Urza's designs. The Planeswalker next travels to Yavimaya to enlist the sentient forest, stating that Phyrexia threatens all that is green and good. But Yavimaya's memory is long, and the forest remembers the ruination Urza unleashed during his brother's war.

It imprisons him for a time, but ultimately learns that he's the only force that can contend with Phyrexia, and relents. Its voice, the marrow avatar Multani, grants Urza the weatherseed. which forms the foundational hull of living wood in the planeswalker's plans for a ship that can travel the planes and surgically strike at Yawgmoth's forces. The ship he and Joira design is christened Skyship Weatherlight.

Its maiden voyage, captained by the Shivan Artificer, is a harrowing rescue mission to Sera's realm. Nearly 1000 years have passed since Urza and Zansha's initial visit. Artificial plane teeters on desolation. mana has corrupted what remains of Sarah's benevolent protectors. The Archangel Radiant's mind has been twisted.

and survivors are hunted by both her and Phyrexian invaders. Urza wishes to defeat Yawgmoth's forces and salvage the plane, but Sera's realm is beyond cleansing, and Radiant is deaf to his pleas. She harbors animosity, which we hear in the flavor text of knighthood. He has returned.

He who brought the dark ones. He who poisoned our paradise. How shall we greet him?

With swift and certain death. While Radiant does combat with the planeswalker, Joyra organizes evacuation of as many Saren refugees as can fit on all its powerful cannons cut through swathes of Phyrexians. The Archangel nearly kills Urza, but as she rips out his mightstone and weakstone eyes, the artifacts clear her mind long enough for realization to dawn and Radiant commits herself to death, illustrated in the ardent text of Vindicate.

Nothing more can be done for Sarah's crumbling rhyme. Urza uses his immense power to collapse the plane and preserves its stored energy within Skyship Weatherlight's Power Stone engine. They return to Dominaria with a contingent of Saren refugees.

With this bridge burned and with Krik's forces eliminated by combined Dominarian effort, Urza is given breathing room in roughly 3385 AR. to initiate the next phase in his legacy, the Bloodlines Project. He intends to control genetic breeding of noble lines over centuries to create the perfect soldiers with which he might combat Yawgmoth's Phyrexians. It's an interesting parallel that the sworn enemy of the Dark God would resort to his own style of completion and perfection, under guidance of Baron and his wife Rain, all of the Tolarian Academy.

begins work on the project in one form or another. But Yawgmoth doesn't remain idle. He himself enacts plans for a grand invasion. Under the stewardship of Croag, a Phyrexian inner circle member, and Davil, development and expansion of the pocket plane known as Wrath begins in earnest.

Wrath is an artificial world constructed from the flowstone created in its central stronghold, and it's tied metaphysically to Dominaria. Yawgmoth intends for it to be a staging area for Phyrexian war hosts. When prepared, a temporal overlay of the plane will allow countless invaders to cross the Blind Eternities and attack Dominaria from all sides. Even as Wrath grows, temporal anomalies allow Phyrexian scouting parties to besiege Dominarian civilizations, especially sites of Urza's project. In this manner, Hundreds of captives are taken and used as slaves in Wrath's pits.

As First Evencar, or Ruler of Wrath, Davil also spends decades perfecting Phyrexian negators which become increasingly dangerous in their attacks on Urza Planeswalker. And there's dissent within Beren's Tolarian Academy. The genius Gatha defects and begins his own bloodline project among the war hosts of Keld. With his genetic manipulation, The Keldons grow into a physically superior and aggressive fighting force on the plane.

While Yawgmoth and Urza continue their twisted game, many happenings unfold elsewhere in the multiverse. On the plane of Archavios, the barbarity and violence of the Blood Age gives way to reason as the Elder Dragons found Strixhaven University and share their magical wisdom with mortals. Thus begins the Mystic Age, and the college grows to become the beacon of enlightenment. across the plain, that attracts like moths to a flame those with potential. The continent of Torazon and the eastern reaches of Ixalan falls from its golden age, when according to myth, the enigmatic sphinx Azor withdraws with the immortal sun and disappears into the unknown.

A parlous civil war erupts between a family of nobility and the strict adherents of the church, known as the Apostasene War, that lasts several centuries. Meanwhile, the Eldrazi who had been kept in stasis on Zendikar for untold generations stir in their chains. Though Nahiri the Lithomancer awakens in time to maintain their prison, Eldrazi influence corrupts the mortals of Gul Droz and spawns the plane's first vampires. Nahiri seeks out Ugin and Sorin to warn them of the titan's activity and requests their assistance.

Ugin lies inert in Tarkir's earth while Sorin remains unaware on Innistrad. He's just created the Archangel Avacyn as guardian of Innistrad and protector of balance alongside the magical prison known as the Hellvault. Avacyn's charge is to defend humanity against Innistrad's evils and curb his own race's debauched practices.

For he knows that if humans die, so too will the vampires. Nahiri planeswalks to Innistrad and confronts Sorin. Their argument soon grows heated and brings Avacyn's intervention. The angel and the core fight before Sorin banishes Nahiri into the Hellvault, where she will remain for thousands of years. On the Dominarian continent of Jumura, the planeswalker and temporal archmage Teferi continues his studies on the time stream.

Countless experiments fray the fabric of reality around his island, however, and Teferi attempts to restore the damage he caused to the time stream. He unleashes a wave of mana with an unforeseen consequence. He and all living things on the island phase completely out of existence in 4000 AR.

For 200 years Teferi's island lies beyond time, but the energy unleashed by his phasing spell draws the attention of three powerful beings who descend upon Jamora and work against one another in what will be known as the Mirage War. Mangara, a skilled politician from Karandor, Jolrael, a beastmaster and old friend of Teferi, and Kervek, an ambitious mage, entangle themselves within Jamoran politics and their Mirage War. devastates Zalfir, Femaref, and other nations.

The war erupts in earnest in 4195 AR, and while Teferi busies himself returning the phased island to the time stream, he works indirectly through visions and dreams to aid defenders against Karavek's ruthless attacks. War ends with Mingara's release from, and Karavek's imprisonment, in the Amber Prison. It's now that Yawgmoth pressures Urza into his plan's next phase. Gather and empower the legacy weapon, which is told mainly through the Weatherlight Saga and the actions of its heroes. Pyrexian attacks on Bloodline Project's stations around Benalia, Teresiaire, and elsewhere jeopardize its progress.

The perfect human, the culmination of centuries of genetic manipulation, manifests in the child Gerard of Clan Capuchin, who is whisked away to safety by Karn as Benalia suffers Yawgmoth's forces. Gerard is adopted into the family of Siddhar Kondo of Jamura, where he grows and befriends Kondo's son, Vool, but trust gives way to contempt and hatred, as Vool is shadowed by Gerard's glories. When he fails his clan's coming of age trial, Vool's life is spared by Capuchin's intervention, but he is exiled from his family.

Vengeance twists his heart. and approached by Phyrexian agents, Vuhl transforms into the shapeshifter and new evencar of Wrath, Volrath. He vows not to rest until Capuchin and all he holds dear is destroyed. In the years leading up to invasion, Volrath abducts Sisay, the new captain of Skyship Weatherlight, and imprisons her within his stronghold on Wrath.

Gerard and Karn gather allies across Dominaria, the likes of Tangarth, Ertai, Hanna, Crovax and others, aboard Weatherlight as they give chase. With the Skyship's ability to shift through planes, they land on Wrath. Suffer many debilitations and injuries within the artificial plane's forest, furnace, and death pits, including a harrowing escape from the adaptable hive mind species known as Slivers, who guard the stronghold in a brutal battle against Weatherlight's terrible nemesis, the Skyship Predator, captained by Graven Ilvec.

Perhaps the most significant outcome of their assault on Wrath is Gerard's discovery of Yawgmoth's invasion, illustrated in the art and flavor text of Invasion Plans. Gerard studied the globe as Mirri kept watch. Suddenly, his eyes widened. This is Dominaria. Thousands of machines of war gather on Wrath.

Flowstone continues to expand the artificial plane. The Wrath-y overlay fast approaches. Capuchin and Dominaria are running out of time. Though the crew retrieve Captain Sissay, Weatherlight suffers heavy losses, including the death of Mirri, the abandonment of Ertai, and Krovac's transformation into a vampire.

The skyship hobbles through the plains until it lands on Mercadia. Mercadia is a realm known for its corruption and opulence. It's situated near Dominaria in the Blind Eternities and shares a history.

Its peoples are descendants of Thran survivors. brought by the planeswalker Dyfed at the height of the Thran civil war. Millennia ago, Mercadia City is ruled by a secretive magistrate under the employ of Volrath, and none aboard Weatherlight know it, but the shapeshifter has snuck aboard and sows discord among the heroes under disguise.

Volrath faces his adopted brother in a grand duel, but is ultimately defeated by Gerard, and so is the Phyrexian cell operating within Mercadia. Balrath is deposed and slain back on Wrath by Crovax, who installs himself as the new Evencar. The Weatherlight flies through the plains to bring warning to Urza about Yawgmoth's plans, but they arrive too late and are instantly thrown on the defensive.

In 4205 AR, the dark god of Phyrexia launches his scheme centuries in the making, and all of Dominaria is destroyed, as the invasion begins. The first phase of invasion is a forward assault from the planar portal that remains inside the caves of Koilos and several other surgical strikes meant to weaken defense. Dominarians cast all differences aside and form a united coalition to drive battle to Yawgmoth's forces, aided by the Meta Thran soldiers produced by Urza's bloodlines.

While others are engaged, Urza seeks out other planeswalkers to lead a direct assault on Phyrexia, where they'll detonate devastating soul bombs of his own design and obliterate Yawgmoth. This mission is illustrated in the saga Urza Assembles the Titans. Urza approaches his one-time pupil Teferi, who declines his request.

Instead, the temporal mage saves his homeland from desolation by phasing all of Zalfir from the time stream, seen in Teferi's protection and Teferi's moat, thus creating the Void. Meanwhile, Heroes of the Weatherlight and Coalition successfully resist Phyrexian attack and seal the portal inside Koilos. They aren't afforded a moment of respite. The second phase of invasion commences with the Wrath-y overlay. This dangerous gambit physically shifts the entire pocket plane of Wrath atop Dominaria with destructive results.

There's no front line, no direction of attack. Within moments, the entire plane is awash with countless Phyrexian soldiers embarking from their staging areas. The next punch in this war of strikes and counterstrikes is thrown by Urza. With the titans assembled and equipped with advanced power armor, they strike at the very heart of Phyrexia. As they plant their soul bombs, the group is betrayed however by Tevish Zot.

The planeswalker's duplicity was foreseen by Urza. He kills Tevish and uses the released energy. to charge the soul bombs. Explosions erupt across Phyrexia's metallic surface, and the titans stand triumphant. But before the crucial bombs initiate a chain reaction within Phyrexia's core, some seed planted long ago within Urza's psyche blooms.

He looks at Phyrexia, and sees a plane of artificial perfection, of paradise. He cannot bring himself to destroy such a miracle, and disables the remaining soul bombs. A change of heart from Yawgmoth's most fervent enemy comes as a shock to all. Urza submits himself to Phyrexia and the corrupting whispers of its god. Gerard Capuchin is himself captured and brought before Yawgmoth.

His heart is broken from the death of his love Hannah, and his resolve crumbles as he meets old companions since corrupted by Phyrexia. In Crovax, Urtai, and even Urza. He relinquishes to evil and strikes a bargain with Yawgmoth.

He'll fight and slay Urza in the Phyrexian arena in exchange for Hanna's resurrection. This we see depicted in the card Yawgmoth's vial offering. Gerard decapitates Urza Planeswalker, but the Hanna promised isn't truly his beloved, merely a facsimile without her essence. Gerard strikes at the replica, and is thrown from Phyrexia with Urza's head in tow. As a planeswalker, Urza still lives through the ordeal, and urges Gerard to complete the legacy.

In the climax of Phyrexian invasion, Yawgmoth himself appears on Dominaria as a massive cloud of pure black mana, a miasma that kills instantly. He rolls over continents, and millions perish. The weatherlight crew attempt to unleash the white mana preserved in the gnoll moon, to halt him, and though this strike severely weakens him, Yawgmoth continues his advance.

With no time, Gerard gathers the legacy. The collection of items and persons, including the skyship, Urza's power stone eyes, Karn's heart stone, and Capuchin himself is key. United in the legacy weapon, a blinding light of pure mana washes over the entire plane.

Yawgmoth's body dies, and his presence withers wherever it's felt. His legions perish. The corruption of Phyrexia is eradicated.

Dominaria's ancient enemy is no more, and the plane is spared from oblivion. The discharge of the legacy weapon consumes Urza Planeswalker, Gerard Capuchin, and Karn Silver Golem. The lingering spark preserved in Urza's power stone eyes attaches itself to Karn, as does Gerard's essence.

The Silver Golem ascends as a Planeswalker, an amalgamation of all three heroes. Both the protagonist and antagonist of Magic's greatest story arc have met their fate. This epoch ends with Dominaria in ruins, but with hope that a brighter dawn is to come. In the years following his ascension, Karn travels the multiverse to learn and to forget. He uses his newfound power to create an artificial world from a dying one and transforms it into Argentum.

Argentum is a plane of mathematical perfection. It's cold, hard, populated only by Karn's golem creations. From his seat, the Lord of Argentum watches over much of the multiverse through spherical surveillance artifacts keen on preserving good against evil. A probe he sends to Dominaria short circuits, becomes temperamental, and crash lands on the continent of Otaria in roughly 4300 AR, one century after the Phyrexian invasion.

and Dominaria still heals from terrible wounds. Generations removed, many of its denizens know Yawgmoth and his doom, only in story, but other threats still lurk. Karn's faulty probe is discovered by Chainer, a member of the black-aligned Cabal faction that rules part of the continent. It's discovered to possess great power.

It reads the ambition of those who gaze upon it, and promises realization of their desires. It's called the Merari, and it pulses with power within the Cabal Vaults. Merari's presence and its corrupting influence instigate a terrible war across Otaria as all seek to claim it. The cycle of desire cards showcases the leaders of Otaria's factions obsessed with the Merari, and nearly all fall to ruin. Kamal, a barbarian from mountainous Partia, claims the artifact, but falls under its thrall.

In a frenzy, he lashes out at much of his clan and mortally wounds his sister Jeska. This shatters the spell and clears his mind, but Kamal can do little to save his sister. He retreats into the heart of the Krosan forest, plunges his Mirari-hilted sword into the ground, and swears an oath of druidic pacifism. Jeska is captured by the Cabal and brought before their patriarch.

He uses his killing touch on her, but the- The presence of a latent planeswalker spark within instead transforms Jeska into Phage the Untouchable. Otaria's tumult is amplified by the re-emergence of the Numenna, the mages who usurped power from Dominaria's primeval dragons in bygone days. The blue Numen, the Wallen, is reincarnated as Ixador.

Master of illusory magic, the black Kuber, is worshipped as the Cabal's god. and the essence of the red Averroo infused into the city bearing its name. Ixador is banished from Cabal City and left heartbroken following the death of his love Nivea in the fighting pits to Phage's killing touch. In his misery, he unlocks Lualan's latent power and discovers he can make the intangible tangible and create real things from illusion. He fabricates a resplendent facsimile of his lost love.

in the form of the angel Akroma and charges her with vengeance against Vage and the Cabal. Akroma's war ravages Otaria and coincides with proliferation of the highly invasive and dangerous race of slivers revived a century after the Wrath of the Overlay by researchers of the Riptide Project. The mages in their experiments lost control of the slivers who quickly overran the research facility and spread from their isolated island to mainland Otaria. The tragedy of their folly is heard in the flavor text of Crypt Sliver. Death couldn't contain the slivers.

What made us think we could? War and infestation are furthered by mysterious mutations spreading through Otaria's flora and fauna. Beasts transform grotesque. Forests explode with bizarre adaptations.

And many sentient races fall victim to mutagenic growth. The Mirari. Plunged into the earth and forgotten in the Krosan forest, as leeched into the continent, it disperses its mana-fueled aura across all things. Its energy is responsible for the transformations and it draws Otaria inward towards savagery and violence.

Its radiating power is heard in the flavor text of Centaur Glade, the Mirari called to the Centaurs, and all who heard it were forever changed. All these factors and forces seeth to a boil, erupting in climax as Phage does battle with a Chroma and Kamal forsakes his pacifism to end with a both of them. But as he lands a killing blow, his blade cleaves through Phage, a Chroma, and a third individual.

The energy released and twisted by their deaths creates a new being, transcendent and awesome. Kamal inadvertently gives form to Corona, the false god and avatar of all of Dominaria's mana. The plane will never be the same.

Corona draws strength from belief. and is empowered by the faith her overwhelming aura demands. All in her presence revere her as a goddess, but as her abilities grow, Corona's psyche is twisted by the emotional desire of her supplicants.

Madness soon encroaches and the false god seeks to dominate all of the plane. She first stokes religious fanaticism, gathering an army of zealous followers from Otarius Populus, hopeless to resist her splendor. While Corona's war devastates Otaria, it goes no further. Kamal, alongside the Numenna, orchestrate her downfall. And though the wizards are slain by the god, and Kamal disarmed, opportunity opens for another to drive the Mirari sword through her.

Corona's death untangles Jeska's essence that resided within Phage and ignites her latent planeswalker spark. Kamal's sister is finally restored and transcendent. The energy released signals Karn Silver Golem to return from Argentum. He realizes the devastation caused by his erratic probe and takes the Mirari. He's joined in walking the multiverse by his new pupil, Jessica.

Before the pair begin their journeys, Karn brings the Mirari to Argentum and houses it as a power source within his Golem steward. The warden, named Memnarch, is charged with safeguarding Argentum in its creator's absence. Karn is unaware, however, that tiny droplets of Phyrexian oil remain within his heart stone.

An ancient, terrible enemy gains purchase on Argentum, and the oil works insidiously on Memnarch, twisting his mind and the artificial plane. Karn leaves his plane to its fate, one stained evil by the promise of a new Phyrexia. In the century after Corona's war, Memnarch initiates a grand project Harvest the planeswalker spark for himself. Instigated by whispers of the glistening oil, he terraforms and populates lifeless Argentum, transforming it into Mirrodin. Mycosynth, a bizarre and magical mixture of fungus, oil, and metal, creates organic material from inorganic, and vice versa.

Peoples, captured in Memnarch's soul traps and brought to Mirrodin from across the multiverse, have metallic outgrowths, a fusion, of flesh and metal. Memnarch destroys Karn's Ur-Golems and assumes the mantle of ruler over his new Mirrodin. His spark harvesting project kills thousands and pressures the planes races to fight against his armies of levelers and lumen grid disciples.

Glissa Sunseeker, the goblin Slobad, and Bosh Iron Golem unite as the heroes against Memnarch's cruelty. Karn is left hopelessly on the sidelines, as he finds his Madden steward has erected metaphysical barriers against planeswalking. The Mirrans are left to their own devices, and though Memnarch nearly succeeds in harvesting Gliss's planeswalker spark, he's ultimately thwarted and slain. The planes barrier falls and Karn returns.

He melts the body of his wayward warden and entrusts the Mirari's care to Miridan's protectors. Still, he doesn't see the signs of Phyrexian contamination on his metal world. and Karn is denied an opportunity to investigate further as he is drawn by great strife unfolding on Dominon.

Meanwhile, The plane of Ravnica approaches the Guild Pact's decamillennium of existence in the late 4400s AR. The binding magic of Azor's document has created a plane of stability and growth, as the ten guilds work to bring much progress. In fact, it has become one of the densest and technologically advanced urban centers in the multiverse. The city extends to the very fringes of the plane, but discontent simmers and ambitious parties seek to destroy the Guild Pact to assume greater power over Ravnica.

The Dimir Perin Zedek orchestrates the dissolution of the guild pact, which throws the city into chaos. Several individuals seek to revive Ravnica's ancient dragons from newly discovered eggs and use them to dominate the guilds. The revival of Ravnica's dragons coincides with the re-emergence of its ancient deities, forces of nature known as the Empowered by consuming a dragon's corpse, These entities threaten Ravnica's stability and could plunge it into a new age of barbarity. Through the actions of Agris Kos, the Perons Niv-Mizzet and Rakdos among others, the danger of Sadek and the Nephilim curtailed. The day is saved, but the guild pact's magic is shattered, and an unofficial non-binding guild pact does little to stave the plane's disorder.

Ravnica is left teetering on a knife's edge. In 4500 AR, after millennia of reality-warping disasters, of war, destruction, the siphoning of mana, and fraying of the time stream, the multiverse itself reaches a tipping point. The nexus of the blind eternities acts as stage for the temporal crisis.

Time rifts emerge across the plane. Portals lead to alternate futures. Ancient pasts, others trap individuals in pockets of slow time. Others yet eviscerate in fast time. Great tears in time-space drain the plane of mana.

Without it, life is stymied as energy evaporates. Narya is left in desolation. Time Spiral Crisis draws legendary planswalkers from across the multiverse, and heroes from past days.

It forces them to coordinate their efforts and seal the temporal rifts, or else threaten oblivion. The disaster claims many. as planeswalkers sacrifice themselves and their sparks to unleash energy sufficient to seal the rifts.

Teferi and Joira work to mend the Shivan Rift and the Chronomancer must relinquish his spark, which we hear in the flavor text of Teferi, Mage of Zalfir. To save this plane, he must forsake all others. The planeswalkers Fraylis and Lord Windgrace, survivors of apocalypse and legendary figures, sacrifice their lives to seal two major rifts. rifts.

The Golem Karn is thrown back in time to heal Talaria's rift. The cost of success is his Planeswalker Spark, and he's hurled through the Aether towards Argentum. Off the coast of Madara, near the ancient Talon Gates, the essence of Nicol Bolas'spirit lingers.

His physical form was slain centuries ago by Umazawa during the Madaran Uprising. He uses the latent spark that resides in Venser, a mage from Urbor. to pull a body of himself from a previous timeline and emerges as the eldest reborn.

Bolas realizes the danger of the temporal crisis and volunteers to close the Madaran Rift. He does so by enthralling and destroying the planeswalker Leshrac. Perhaps the most prolific of Dominaria's defenders during this crisis appears in Jeska, who uses various means to heal three more rifts, the third and largest.

comes at the cost of her own life and spark. But it also unleashes something unforeseen. With Dominaria's massive time rifts close, the plane and the multiverse are spared destruction.

As mana once more surges, a cascade of magic sets off the phenomenon known as the Great Mending. The Mending is an attempt by the multiverse to heal itself, to offset the damage caused over eons and prevent further disruption to reality's fabric. Many gave everything, and their actions are remembered in the saga The Mending of Domino. This epoch comes to an end with major ramifications echoing through the blind eternities. The Great Mending represents an inflection point in the history of the multiverse with profound consequences.

dominor holds position as the nexus of the multiverse and as such many new planes care Characters and events are explored that separate themselves from the dominarian driven arc. Planeswalkers, immortal and nigh-omnipotent beings lose much of their power as the mending changes the nature of their sparks. No longer will they be able to shape reality to their whim and bend spacetime. All planar portals and means of traveling the blind eternities without a spark are rendered inert as the multiverse heals from its many wounds. The Mendingera is dominated by two overlapping narratives, that of the Gatewatch Saga, and that which follows the grim machinations of Elder Dragon Nicol Bolas as he seeks to reverse the Great Mending and reclaim his godlike power.

In the spell's aftermath, the dragon travels to the sun-scorched plain of Amonkhet, drawn by the mysterious mineral Lazotep, and rebuilds a base of influence. He decimates the population. dominates the minds of its gods and creates a society in which all are brainwashed to worship him as their savior and god pharaoh. Over decades the culture generates thousands of zealous warriors that are trained into potent killing machines within the god trials and transformed into lazartep plated zombies in the city of the eternals where they await the god pharaoh's prophesied return. Bolas then establishes an interplanar league of power brokers and information gatherers.

known as the Infinite Consortium, centered on the city plane of Ravnica. Here he recruits many planeswalkers and manipulates them into furthering his cause. With a net cast across the multiverse, Bolas pursues all avenues of regaining his lost abilities.

The fractured plane of Alara, with its five shards fast approaching a violent collision, sparks the dragon's interest in 4556 AR. He installs himself within the foul shard of Grixis, and studies the conflux. He infiltrates the societies of all five shards and foments aggressive posturing within them, intent to trigger a plane-wide war when Alara merges. He plans to harness the energy released by the conflux and subsequent maelstrom to ascend to godhood.

He employs the planeswalker Sarkhan Vol and Tezzeret of Esper to manipulate Alara into full-scale war, thus awakening each shard's obelisk and increasing the maelstrom's chaotic magnitude. Though Bolas gathers much of the maelstrom's essence, he's confronted and ultimately defeated by the Nayan-Leonin Ajani-Goldmane, who conjures a reflection of the dragon's own soul to fight him. This we see in the card Ajani's Last Stand.

While Bolas orchestrates his grand designs, several other planeswalkers come into their own and cross paths with one another through the decades. Liliana Vess, once a healer from a renowned Dominarian household, turns to selfishness and the dark arts. She wishes to preserve her immortality after the mending, and so signs a binding contract with four demons who take possession of her soul in exchange for eternal youth and greater power. A trio of young planeswalkers become entangled in intrigue surrounding the Dragon's Scroll, an artifact that contains the ghostfire breath of Ugin and a secret map of Zendikar. Chandra Nalar, a brash pyromancer from the plain of Kaladesh, steals the dragon scroll from its keepers who hire the Infinite Consortium for its return.

The Consortium tasks mind mage Jace Bellerin, the plain of Vryn, with tracking Nalar down. The two confront each other in a mystical duel, from which Bellerin gains the advantage and retrieves the scroll. Still intrigued by its hidden meaning, Nalar wishes to learn more of the dragon scroll which brings her into contact with Gideon Jura.

once a brave, if troublesome vagrant named Kithian Eora from the plane of Theros. They find themselves opponents at first, and then tentative allies as Jura seems to care greatly for Chandra's well-being. After helping her escape a grim fate, Gideon discloses the Dragon Scroll's connection with the tumultuous and vibrant plane of Zendikar.

Meanwhile, the necromancer Liliana follows whispers of an artifact of immense power known as the Chain Veil. and created by the ancient race of Onaki Ogres on the plain of Shandalar. The chain veil promises freedom from the demons who hold her soul, and Liliana seeks the cursed artifact within Onaki Catacombs. Once in her possession, Vess crosses paths with the huntsman and shaman Garak Wildspeaker.

He's whipped into a frenzy after Vess kills a prized beast he tracked through the forest, and he attacks her. Armed with the chain veil, the necromancer overcomes Garak and places a terrible curse on the man, which slowly corrupts his magic and his soul. She then uses the artifact to slay the demon Kothfet, one of her contract holders. Despite her growing power, the chain veil exerts its own influence on Liliana. Nicol Bolas's malevolence is next felt on the plane of Zendikar.

He alone has uncovered the secret of the dragon's scroll. and has studied his brother's chamber in the Eye of Ugin. For reasons known only to him, the Elder Dragon wishes to free the Eldrazi titans from their slumber.

He sends his agent Sarkhan Vall to the mountains of Ahkum, and manipulates Chandra as well as Jace Bellerin to converge at the Eye. Fighting breaks out between the three walkers within the chamber, and Chandra unleashes the ghost fire held within the dragon scroll. Unknown to all, the presence of three planeswalker sparks and the use of Ugin's Ghostfire closes the Eye of Ugin, binds the Hedron Network, and awakens the Eldrazi Titans, the destroyers of worlds in 4557 AR. Ulamog, Kozilek, Emrakul, and their broods of drones roll across Zendikar in a relentless and all-consuming hunger, which we see in the card Calamity of the Titans.

While the Zendikari natives unite to face the existential threat, the walkers responsible for the Eldrazi's release disappear. Gideon Jura, who had followed Chandra to the mountains of Akum, remains to fight off the first waves of Eldrazi drones. But when he sees the menacing titans looming in the distance, he knows that allies are required to win this fight.

Though the Eldrazi are most pressing, another danger builds momentum on the plain of Mirrodin. In the 4550s AR, over a century since Phyrexian oil first stained Memnarch, it has worked to corrupt the core of the world and spread its miasma across the surface. Yawgmoth might be gone, but his dream of perfection remains, and takes a unique form as the factions of New Phyrexia rise.

These Phyrexians embrace all five colors of mana, each led by a powerful Praetor who embodies that color's goal of perfection. Elish Norn, the wide-aligned praetor and head of the Machine Orthodoxy, works to assume the mantle of Mother of Machines. The Phyrexians bide their time deep within the core, until enough force is built and contagion engines have corrupted much of the surface, before they launch a brutal war of conquest and completion against Mirrodin. Karn, who had been flung to the plane after sealing a time rift, is without his planeswalker spark, and so susceptible to the glistening oil. The Mirans are hopeless against the onslaught.

Cough of the Hammer, a Volshok native and planeswalker, travels to Dominaria in search of allies to cleanse his plane. Here, he recruits the Ascended Venser, who shares friendship with Karn, as well as Elspeth Tyrell, a knight renowned for her sword skill, whose past was darkened by traumatic memories of Phyrexian enslavement on her own plane. The trio attempt to lead Miran resistance.

liberate Karn, and wipe clean the plane of glistening oil. Their efforts are heroic. Venser sacrifices his life and spark to reignite Karn and cure him of Phyrexian contagion, but ultimately, they are defeated by hordes of Phyrexians.

Mirrodin is beyond redemption. The resistance is scattered. Most have fallen to completion and Phyrexis rolls over the plane. We see in Phyrexia's core that even the heart of the plane has succumbed.

Once again, Karn sees himself as a failure. Guilt and desire for vengeance drive him to seek ways to destroy new Phyrexia. He knows the danger they pose. With victory secured, Elish Norn consolidates power and hears whispers of other planes in the multiverse. She initiates a project to spread blessed perfection across the Blind Eternities.

This will come to have major consequences in the near future. Meanwhile, on the plane of Innistrad, the terrible demon lord Grizzelbrand has disappeared within the hellvault, but not before he snags Avacyn and pulls the archangel into the mystical prison. With Avacyn's absence, the plane no longer has a guardian and humans lose their most valuable weapon against evil. Innistrad's nightmares grow ever powerful, its vampires and ghouls hunt and slay humans, and the powers of Avacyn's church wane. Liliana arrives on the plane seeking out Grizzlebrand as one of the four demonic owners of her soul, but she's pursued by Garak Wildspeaker.

A cursed huntsman threatens vengeance upon the necromancer if Liliana doesn't release him from the Chainveil's curse. The two fight across the Innistrad, but Vess ultimately evades Garak. She learns of Grizzlebrand's imprisonment within the Hellvault, and forces the Cathar and Knight of Thraben, Thalia, to destroy the prison.

This action releases untold monsters, the core planeswalker Nahiri, but also liberates Archangel Avacyn. In the wake of the Hellvault's destruction, Vess obliterates Grizzlebrand using the powers of the Chain Veil before walking away. Avacyn's power surges across the plane in a wave of cleansing energy called the Curse Mute. Her church is restored and her flight of angels slay wicked predators, saving humanity from doom. On the plain of Ravnica, the guilds struggle to pick up the scattered pieces of the guild pact.

The city is on a knife's edge as violence threatens to break between all ten guilds and consume the city in blood. The Firemind and Izzet guild parent Niv-Mizzet, alongside Jace Bellerin and the planeswalker Ral Zarek, uncover clues to the implicit maze. A failsafe left behind that if completed with the cooperation of all ten guilds, will re-establish the binding powers of the guild pact. If the guilds fail to unite, then the supreme verdict will be delivered and the city leveled. The maze runs through Ravnica's various districts, and each guild prepares their champion runner.

At the end of the race, while the guilds bicker and threaten failure, Bellerin uses his psychic powers to connect the minds of all present. He completes the maze, and through his actions becomes the new, living guild pact, paragon and protector of the plane. Jura arrives from Zendikar seeking desperate aid.

He needs one with knowledge of ley lines to restore the hedron network, as it seems tied to the Eldrazi. Gideon beseeches Jace, and with a guilt ridden conscience for his part in unleashing Zendikar's doom, the telepath agrees to return to the plane. What they find is a realm desolate and drained of its mana.

Emrakul has disappeared, but the broods of Ulamog and Kozilek consume entire continents. Jura, the planeswalkers Kiora and Nissa Ravain, leads Indakari in a fight to reclaim the lost city of Seagate, while Bellerin studies the stone hedrons. Here, he crosses paths with Ugin the spirit dragon, one of the three who initially bound the titans.

Ugin enlightens Jace but warns him against destroying the Eldrazi outright. They have a greater significance in the multiverse than either of them can comprehend. The gathering of walkers.

alongside recently arrived Chandra Nalaar, use their combined power and their newfound knowledge to first bind Ulamog and Kozilek's physical presence to the plane, then obliterate them in seething torrents of energy. This we see illustrated in the cards Bonds of Mortality and Fall of the Titans. Zendikar survives extinction and stands resurgent. Under the charismatic leadership of Gideon Jura, the gathered planeswalkers found the Gatewatch, each swearing upon a binding oath to keep watch for threats to life and freedom across the multiverse. The first challenge to the nascent Gatewatch rears its head on Innistrad.

In anger against Sorin for imprisoning her within the Hellvault and nearly destroying her home, Nihiri warps Innistrad's ley lines to beckon the Eldrazi titan Emrakul from across the Blind Eternities. Emrakul's influence corrupts Avacyn and her angelic host. It transforms many denizens into eldritch horrors, and the plane descends into madness.

Markov realizes that his creation is twisted beyond redemption, and so has no choice but to destroy Avacyn, illustrated in the card Anguished Unmaking, whose flavor text reads, Sorin had created Avacyn, so it was a cruelty beyond imagining, a pain beyond description, that it fell upon him to end her forever. But with Avacyn's death, Her protective barrier around Innistrad disappears and Emrakul manifests physically. The Gatewatch jumps into action and defends the high city of Thraben against Eldrazi horrors and denizens gripped by insanity.

They're overwhelmed and spared only by the unexpected intervention of Liliana, who uses her necromancy to march an army of undead into the city and battle Emrakul's drones. She next aids the Gatewatch with her chain veil in striking directly at the Eldrazi titan. The Soratame moonfolk planeswalker from Kamigawa, Tamio, who had been studying the mystical powers of Innistrad's moon, also lends her aid, and with combined effort, they subdue Emrakul and bind the titan within the moon, highlighted in the art of Imprisoned in the Moon.

With their first challenge met, the Gatewatch recruits Liliana Vess to their cause. The narratives of Nicol Bolas and the Gatewatch now cross paths on the plane of kaladesh home of invention and genius and birthplace of chandra nalak bolas takes interest in the work of rashmi eternity's crafter who has developed technology that allows for the transportation of inorganic material across space and time her planar bridge represents the first active planar portal since the great mending and a potential asset for the elder dragon to exploit he sends his minion tesserit Infiltrate the consulate government on Kaladesh during the inventor's fair. and confiscate Rashmi's planar bridge technology.

Tezzeret's mission is contested by the Gatewatch, who arrive not only for personal reasons of Chandra, but to break the yoke of a consulate now corrupted by Bulas's pawn. The Gatewatch sides with the plane's renegades and the Aether Revolt consumes the city. The planeswalkers fight Tezzeret's artifacts at the Battle of the Bridge, and Nalar successfully launches a thopter into the planar bridge, destroying it. Not before Tezzeret incorporates its powerful engine within his own metallic body. Liliana catches the artificer before he can flee, and under cruel torture, Tezzeret reveals that his master gathers power on the plane of Amonkhet.

The Gatewatch is forced to deliberate on their next steps. They realize all too well the threat Bolas poses to the entire multiverse, and though they don't understand his designs, Many argue that they can't sit idly and allow him to act unimpeded. But Johnny Goldmane, who assisted the renegades on Kaladesh and a recent addition to the Gatewatch, offers counsel and advises waiting. He's the only one among them who has done battle with Bolas and claimed victory.

He knows the dragon's strengths and he warns against rushing headlong into his base of power, where traps beyond imagining lurk. Against his concern however, the The Gatewatch decide Bolas won't expect their arrival, and that his strength grows with each moment. They next planeswalk to the sands of Amonkhet, intent on bringing Lo a god. The party arrives in the oasis city of Naktamun, to find a culture that is on its surface, pristine and honorable. But subtleties of the Elder Dragon's influence grow increasingly apparent.

Bolas is firmly cemented, as the central god to whom all of Amonkhet is devoted. Their lives revolve around his praise, and they seek glory and death while undertaking the god trials. Those deemed worthy are taken in funerary barges to the gates of the afterlife, where they are then touched by the god pharaoh's gift.

Dissension isn't countenanced. The gatewatch is astonished at Bolas's manipulation and the citizens'zeal. When the recounting of hours commences and hearkens the god pharaoh's prophesied return, reality is painfully made bare.

Nicol Bolas had been gathering an army of zombie eternals, lazotep plated undead, completely obedient to his will, that retain the warrior skills they once displayed in life. They are a force unstoppable. The elder dragon uses three forgotten gods at the head of his army to bring about Noctamun's devastation. The Gatewatch do what they can to rescue innocents, but know they must confront Bolas directly to spare the city. With a united strength they assault, but in the hour of devastation, the depth of the elder dragon's power is displayed.

One by one, the Gatewatch is defeated. The dragon uses their strengths against them. They were ill prepared, and now suffer the consequences. Noctamun lies in ruins.

The Gatewatch is shattered. as its members flee for their lives. Now, no force stands in Bolas's way.

He's gathered an army of ruthless, mineralized undead, and a means to transport them across the multiverse. The next phase in his designs requires an object hidden on the plane of Ixalan. Long ago, Azor created the Immortal Sun to bind Bolas.

It's this artifact the dragon now seeks. The sun prevents planeswalkers from leaving. But it has great power besides, and is hidden in the lost city of Orozca, a place all of Ixalan's factions seek.

Jace Bellerin, after having his mind wiped in battle with Bolas, finds himself marooned on Ixalan. He takes up with the planeswalker Vraska and her pirate crew in search of the Immortal Sun. Jace has no memory of his past with the Gorgon, and he is unaware that Vraska's benefactor is actually Nicol Bolas.

But as the pair venture further into Ixalan, Bellerin's memory returns. He begs Vraska for her assistance against the dragon, but their plans require he wipes her thoughts to avoid detection. They discover Orozca, find the sun, and Vraska summons Tezzeret to retrieve it for the Elder Dragon.

The final phase in his decades long scheme is fast approaching. Meanwhile, on Dominaria, the defeated Gatewatch disbands as Chandra and Nissa go separate ways. A wounded Gideon assists Liliana in defeating her final contractor in the Elder Demon Belzenlok, leader of the Cabal.

The pair enlists the aid of Xhoira and the legendary skyship Vraska. Weatherlight to assault the Demon's Fortress. In the Cabal's vaults, they find the ancient sword of Dakin Blackblade, a weapon that drinks the souls of those it pierces and has already slain one Elder Dragon.

Gideon hopes to use it in his next confrontation with Bolas. The two planeswalkers defeat Belzenlok, seen in the illustration of Settle the Score, and Liliana is freed from her contract, or so it is believed, instead. Nicol Bolas materializes and reveals that as the contract drafter, should it default in any way, Vess's soul would be forfeit to him. In this manner he gathers the necromancer's unwilling obedience. Elsewhere on Dominaria, Teferi, Karn, and Ajani discuss not only the threat of Nicol Bolas, but the rising darkness of new Phyrexia on Mirrodin.

Karn searches the plane for the Golgothian Silex. With it, he intends to right his wrongs. and cleanse Mirrodin.

All of the pieces are aligning. All of the manipulations and schemes are coming to fruition. On the plane of Ravnica, Bolas recruits planeswalkers to infiltrate the guilds, to assume roles of guild leaders or else assassinate them, to sow discord and weaken any potential defense.

Through his agents, Bolas twists Niv-Mizzet's project lightning bug, a device that alerts the parent of planeswalking activity, into an interplanar beacon that irresistibly lures hundreds of planeswalkers from across the blind eternities to Ravnica. Once gathered, the immortal sun activates, its symbol seen in Ravnica's sky and illustrated in no escape, which reads, Jace surmised that they were walking into Bolas's trap. He felt no joy in being right.

With this, Nicol Bolas, the god pharaoh makes his final move. Planar Portal rends the hull of the Guildpact, sunders Ravnica's ley lines. From it pours forth countless legions of undead, led by the domineering God Eternals and Liliana, who commands the Dreadhorde army with her necromancy. So begins the War of the Spark. The truth of Bolas'schemes are laid bare when he enacts his Elder Spell.

This is a powerful ritual, ancient and depraved, that consumes sparks once released by a planeswalker's death. and utilizes their essence to deliver transcendence upon its caster. The Elder Dragon wishes to reclaim his pre-mending godhood, and he paves the way with blood.

The Dreadhorde Eternals fight and slay countless planeswalkers. The Gatewatch organize resistance alongside the ten guilds, and planeswalkers break off into different groups to neutralize the Immortal Sun, to close the planar portal, and to thwart the Elder Spell. The War of the Spark rages. All of Ravnica, and indeed the multiverse, places its hope with Gideon Blackblade, who flies through the air with sword in hand to slay Bolas.

But as his blade strikes, it shatters. The Elder Dragon foresaw this potential, and long ago enchanted it against him. The outcome is bleak. Sparks are harvested by the dozens, but as the light fades on Ravnica, one is illuminated inside Liliana Vess. She sees the destruction she's been upon in pursuit of power most of her life, no longer.

She decides she will live and die on her terms and with the power of the chain veil, wrests control of the dread horde from Bolas and even liberates the minds of the god eternals. We see the cost of her actions in price of betrayal, as Bolas enacts her contract, but as her body frays, Gideon Jera transfers her binding magic onto himself. and suffers the consequences.

A founding member of the Gatewatch is no more. Gideon's sacrifice allows the god Eternals to disrupt the elder spell and neutralize Bolas's power, seen in D-Spark. Ugin then transports his brother to the meditation realm and strips him of all power, all titles, before merging his spirit essence with the realm as eternal guardian. Nicol Bolas, after decades of scheming, now has centuries to ponder defeat. Ravnica celebrates its victory over evil, and mourns the loss of fallen comrades.

Niv-Mizzet, who was slain by Bolas in the first moments of the invasion, is reborn as the new living guild pack and commands great power. We see other planeswalkers join the Gatewatch and hunt Bolas's pawns across the multiverse. For many however, this is time for preparation rather than celebration. Just as one grave threat is neutralized, another storm brews on the horizon.

The rise on Mirrodin of new Phyrexia and the closing of this epoch. A paltry band of Mirrans remain uncorrupted and resist Phyrexian efforts, but the plane is beyond redemption. Elish Norn gathers power, neutralizes her rivals or else convinces them to join her cause.

Mirrodin is slowly transformed into the form of old Phyrexia. Layers are built on top of one another, each its own hell. Armed with the glistening oil and the knowledge that other worlds exist across the blind eternities, Norn burns with purpose. To spread Phyrexian contagion, to corrupt and complete every plane until all are one. To achieve this, she enlists the aid of Tezzeret, who still possesses the planar bridge.

On Kaldheim, A plane divided into ten realms all connected and supported by the branches of the world tree. The green aligned praetor vornkleks appears as a ghastly beast in the snowy tundra. Kaia Kassir, the ghost assassin, tracks vornkleks across Kaldheim, but ultimately fails to slay him. The Phyrexian escapes after breaking into the Tyrite sanctum and stealing a sample of the material. The essence of the world tree, back to Norn.

The plane of Kamigawa, which has surged to a technological golden age since the days of Takashikonda a millennia ago, is visited by the blue-lined praetor Jin Gitaxius. Gitaxius establishes experimental laboratories in Kamigawa's illicit undercity to test theories on the nature of kami spirits. He seeks to understand their essence and learn more of the veil that separates the spirit and mortal realm. As on Kaldheim, Phyrexian interests are steered toward metaphysical discoveries to perfect interplanar travel. Jyn Getaxius and Tezzeret are opposed by Kamigawa's native planeswalkers in Keito Shizuki, Tamiyo the Moonsage, and the Wandering Emperor, who attack the Praetor's Labs.

Here, significant progress is made on the Reality Chip, an artifact that augments whatever it attaches to and even alters the nature of planeswalker sparks. Tezzeret and the Phyrexians kidnap Tamiyo and retreat back to New Phyrexia. Torturous experiments are performed on the Moonsage with a reality chip, and Tamiyo becomes the first completed planeswalker.

Her spark no longer defends against the glistening oil contagion. Next, the Phyrexian praetor Urobrasque is seen on the plane of New Capenna. Urobrasque and his furnace represent a rogue faction within New Phyrexia.

that aren't entirely under Norn's control. The Praetor seeks a weapon that threatens the glistening oil and Phyrexia's rise in the form of Halo. Capenna shares a long and brutal history with Phyrexia. In the time of Yawgmoth and beyond, the plane was invaded and threatened by ancient Phyrexian war machines. The denizens, under the protection of both angels and demons, fled and established the city of New Capenna.

Halo is the last gift of the angels. It's derived from their divine essence and inoculates against Phyrexis. It represents a check to New Phyrexia's dangerous corruption and is sought by both Urbrask and Elspeth Tyrell, a Capenna native who returns to her home plane for the first time since her tortured youth.

It's discovered that the teenage girl Giada is actually the last of Capenna's active angels and the font of Halo for the plane. Various factions pursue her for control of Halo and in the climax of events of New Capenna, she sacrifices herself, unleashing a wave of Halo infused magic that spares Elspeth's life and awakens the plane's angels long held in stasis. Back on Dominaria, Karn has uncovered the Golgothian Silex that his master Urza used untold centuries ago to end the brothers war and defeat Phyrexia's first advance.

The Silver Golem intends to use it once more, this time to destroy new Phyrexia and excoriate the multiverse of Norn's presence. But his actions don't go unnoticed. Tezzeret has transported the Black-aligned Praetor Sheoldred to Dominaria, and she establishes a network of Phyrexian sleeper agents who move in secret across the plane. They infiltrate all levels of society.

They are impossible to discern. And Shjoldred also works to resurrect weapons of war used during the invasion of Dominaria. After months, she activates all of her embedded sleepers.

The plane is thrown into chaos and faces a second Phyrexian invasion. Thousands are completed, countless more are slain. Most tragically, a Johnny Goldmane is discovered to be a sleeper agent.

Karn is ripped apart alongside the Silex and brought as captive to Elish Norn. Even the Weatherlight, the legendary symbol of the Coalition and victory over Phyrexia, is completed, but not before members of the Gatewatch take the Power Stone core from its engine. Though Dominaria and its heroes survive the first wave of Phyrexian aggression, they realize the fight must be taken to the enemy.

Saheeli Ray, genius inventor and metallurgist from Kaladesh, weaves with her magic a filigree replica of the destroyed Gulgathian Silex. Unfortunately, the secret to unlocking its destruction has been lost to myth. Using the Weatherlight's Power Stone and the Moon Silver Key, an artifact acquired by agents of the Gatewatch on Innistrad after successfully thwarting vampiric plans to bring eternal night upon the plane, Saheeli next crafts the Temporal Anchor, fueled by the magic of Temporal Archmage Teferi and Ghost Assassin Kaeya.

With this device they send Teferi's spiritual essence back in time, thousands of years to the events surrounding the brothers war. He hopes to learn directly from the source how to activate the Silex. The mission is successful, but issues with the temporal anchor strand Teferi between space and time.

He is marooned on his own home nation of Zalfir, a place Thoth phased out of existence for eternity. Elspeth heads a strike team of planeswalkers including Jace, Vraska, Nissa, Nahiri, Kato, and others intent on penetrating Phyrexia's defenses and detonating the Psylax in the plane's core. They're separated instantly into smaller bands which are often overrun by monstrous creatures. As the walkers descend further into Phyrexia's heart, more are lost to Phyresis and the corruption of glistening oil.

Kaya? Elspeth, Jace, and Tyvar Kell reach Phyrexia's hollow core, but nothing can prepare them for what awaits. Elish Norn, using the Tyrite obtained on Kaldheim, has created a Phyrexian version of the World Tree, named Realmbreaker. Its tendrils rip through the blind eternities and connect countless other planes to new Phyrexia. This is Norn's vision realized.

An invasion force tens of thousands strong. prepares to bring blessed perfection to the multiverse. The planeswalkers realize detonating the Psylax won't just destroy new Phyrexia, but also bring ruin to every plane with which Roundbreaker is entangled.

Elspeth believes it to be murder, but Jay sees no other solution. With Phyresis already corrupting his mind, Bellerin activates the Psylax, which we see in the card Bring the Ending. The flavor text reads, Kaia watched in horror.

as the illusion vanished from her hands. Jace held the real Psylax, and had activated it before Phyrexis claimed his mind. There is no explosion, no doom for Phyrexia.

Elspeth, to the last a hero for the innocent, grabs the artifact mid-detonation and planeswalks into the blind eternities. With none now to oppose her, Elish Norn uses the elemental magic of completed planeswalker Nissa, to guide Realmbreaker. In 4562 AR, Pyrexia launches a grand offensive of unequaled scale and begins the invasion of the of the multiverse. This we see in the cards All Will Be One and Breach the Multiverse.

The former reads, The invasion tree broke through the blind eternities and sent Phyrexian perfection coursing across the multiverse. Fighting breaks across dozens of realms from Alara to Lorwyn to Ikoria and Tarkir. Many notable characters and legendary heroes are slain, or else completed, as the Phyrexian war machine looms unstoppable.

Just when all hope seems lost and the light fades, a brilliant flash opens in the skies above Elish Norn's basilica. Elspeth has died and been reborn, no longer a mortal but a divine and resplendent archangel. With her newfound powers and her halo-infused blade, she severely wounds Norn. The attack on the Mother of Machines affords distraction enough for Chandra Nalar and the planeswalking Dryad Wren. to lead an assault on Realmbreaker.

As a Dryad, Wren is able to bond with the invasion tree and direct its functions, using its tendrils to open an omen path that connects Phyrexia to the pocket plane of Zalfir, Teferi, and a battle ready Zalfiran nation pour forth from the Wren and clash with Norn's forces. Most significantly, the planeswalkers use their abilities to exchange Zalfir and new Phyrexia. banishing Phyrexia to a prison beyond the time stream and reincorporating the lost nation of Zalfir.

As the warhost storms the Seed Corps, Capenna's angels fly through the Omen Paths and spread Halo to severely weaken the Phyrexians. Illustrated in the card Surge of Salvation, with her Seed of Power destroyed, Elish Norn's final defeat comes at the hands of Karn, who in his guilt-ridden conscience, blames himself for her creation. The mother of machines lies dead in a pool of ichor.

Without her, the glistening oil is rendered inert, and most Phyrexian beasts or machines of war lose all drive and control. Many of the planeswalkers previously completed, if not slain, are cured of Phyresis and reborn. Across the multiverse, planes hack and burn the Phyrexian remains while celebrating their victory. But for a second time, reality has been nearly torn asunder, and the multiverse pushed to the limits of space and time.

The omen paths of Realmbreaker, the detonation of the Silex within the Blind Eternities, the reconstitution of Zalfir into the Timestream, all have played their part, and the multiverse lashes out in kind. In an act parallel to the Great Mending, the Blind Eternities seeks to rectify and heal the wounds left by such powerful events. Great de-sparking takes place, where planeswalkers from all walks lose their sparks, their ability to tread the realms.

We see it in the card Spark Rupture. Though this de-sparking isn't lethal, the spark is intrinsically connected to a being's soul, and planeswalkers who lose their spark feel hollow, cold, yearning. Despite so many losing their ability to planeswalk, the multiverse has never been more accessible. In the wake of invasion, several of the Omen Path portals remain active and connect various planes to one another, allowing smooth movement through the Eternities. This also begins the Omen Path arc and the active storyline in Magic the Gathering at the time of this recording.

There aren't definitive answers as to how this tale ends, but several plots lie beneath the surface. First, is discovered remains of what the newly ascended planeswalker Quintorius Kahn refers to as the Coin Empire, deep within the hollow core of Ixalan. The Coin Empire was an ancient force in the multiverse that predates much of remembered past, led by the race of giants known as the Fomori, whose home plane was the manor-rich Ur. The Fomori utilized ships and technology that could travel the blind eternities to colonize or subjugate, establishing an interplanar empire. For unknown reasons, the Fomori were interested in Ixalan's core, and so came to dominate its people.

This we hear in the flavor text of Cartographer's Companion. Ever since the Fomori's attempt long ago to extinguish Chimel's light, the Ultec have taken extensive measures to never get lost in the core. This realization coincides with rediscovery of the core by Ixalan's surface nations, and a mad dash to seize riches and power.

In the aftermath of Phyrexian invasion, the Bat God Aklazoth awoke and escaped from his centuries-long imprisonment, and though he and his Legion of Dusk followers were unable to extinguish the core's light, Aklazots retreated to the nation of Toritson. Traces of the Fomori are found again on the Plane of Thunder Junction, a once uninhabited and blank world only recently populated due to its significant position as a crossroads of several omen paths. A Fomori vault, called Mag Tarnow by locals, is purported to house immeasurable wealth and rare treasures from realms unknown, but remains locked from outsiders. Several factions race against one another to gather the keys required to open the vault. Jace Bellerin and Vraska are drawn to Thunder Junction by rumors heard years ago of what lies inside.

A being of great power, a creature even the elder dragon Nicol Bolas feared. rests dormant within the vault. But after the pair overcome the other factions and unlock the Fomori vault, they're shocked to find a small infant, possibly a Fomori child, tucked inside Magtar now. Its appearance is deceptive.

The creature, named Lute, has etched within its mind a map of the entire multiverse and the omen paths that connect it. None know what other powers seethe within the small body, but Lute could be a part of it. prove indispensable for whomever wishes to capitalize on its knowledge. Two other narratives, begun in the years before Phyrexian invasion, continued to develop. The first involves a trio of planeswalkers from the plain of Eldraine.

Twins Willenrow and Kenrith sought in their youth their lost father, King Alganus Kenrith of the realm. He had been transformed into a stag by the glamour magic of Fae Trickster Oko to spark unrest between the realm. and Eldraine's Wilds.

With the assistance of Garruk Wildspeaker, whose Chainveil curse is finally shattered after a near-death experience involving the Cauldron of Eternity, the siblings locate their father and return him to his position, before igniting a shared planeswalker spark. The pair travel the blind eternities, learning of magic and battle on the plane of Caelum, before accepting enrollment at the mystical college of Strixhaven on Archavios. Here, They continue to refine their skills under the tutelage of Liliana Vess, disguised as Professor Onyx. Liliana seeks respite from the haunting memories of Gideon's death, and also a means to resurrect her fallen comrade.

Vess offers sage wisdom both Will and Rowan take to heart, but as the days progress, the siblings realize that there are moral and logical differences between them, which builds tension. The The third individual is the younger half-Fae Planeswalker Kellen, who in the wake of Phyrexian invasion, embarks on an adventure of self-discovery that takes him across myriad realms in search of the truth of his heritage. He looks for his father, who happens to be none other than the Fae Oko. The second narrative involves the secrecy of Planeswalker and Nightmare Wielder Ashiok, whose intentions remain unknown.

They haunt the dreams of Elspeth Tyrell during her death and brief stay in the Theron underworld. From her, Ashiok learns of Phyrexians. Their grotesque appearance and innate terror intrigue the nightmare caster.

They infiltrate New Phyrexia as the invasion fast approaches and enter Elish Norn's mind. Here, Ashiok embeds doubt and sows the seed of fear within the mother of machines. To what end, none can say. Ashiok's tale and that of the Kenriths converge on Eldraine in the months following Phyrexian invasion. The plane is enthralled by a sinister curse, the Wicked Slumber, that afflicts many across the realm.

Will and Rowan both seek to undo the magic and learn that Ashiok and the Witch Ariette are propagating the slumber to increase their control over Eldraine's inhabitants. While Will fights against them, Rowan shares in some of Ariette's motives. She wishes to help her plane, but can no longer see eye to eye with her brother.

The siblings fall out, and though Will achieves victory, Rowan escapes his grasps and flees into the wilds. Ashiok's next actions remain obscured, and though they were seen on the plane of Thunder Junction, it's discovered to be Jace Belren in disguise. Beneath all of this, the vain and ambitious Niv Mizit schemes to gather more influence both for himself and for Ravnica.

As the living guild pact, Mizit draws strength from the plane itself. He's also its paragon, its greatest protector. He is the self-styled leader of all ten guilds.

Following his death, rebirth, and the Phyrexian invasion, the Draco genius fears another defeat, so wishes to strengthen himself beyond all measures. It seems he plots to transform Ravnica into the new nexus of the multiverse through understanding of the Omen paths. Perhaps, with the portals connecting myriad other planes to Ravnica, and as the living guild pact, Mizzet will be able to command their mana ley lines, suffusing himself with the power he desires, and fortifying him against any future threat.

But this is of course speculation, and it remains to be seen how the pieces of the multiverse will fall after new Phyrexia's defeat. But if the magic story has taught us anything, it's that there is always a greater foe who stirs after one has been vanquished. So ends the story of Magic the Gathering, a sweeping epic that spans tens of thousands of years in which countless heroes and villains have both risen and been cast into oblivion. It's a story of power, despair, and hope as forces beyond imagining work against one another to bring balance to the multiverse. Thanks so much for watching and listening.

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