Episode 14: The Dawn of a New Era

The Multiverse had survived — but it was no longer the same. The Mending had sealed the rifts that tore through reality, but it had also rewritten the fundamental laws of magic. Planeswalkers were no longer gods. The era of immortal titans was ending, and a new generation was emerging — more vulnerable, more human, but just as determined to shape the destiny of worlds.

Welcome to episode 8 of our exploration of Magic: The Gathering lore. We are entering the Modern Era — the post-Mending period that defines contemporary Magic. Discover the origins of the iconic planeswalkers who would become the faces of the game: Jace, Chandra, Liliana, Garruk, and Nissa. Follow their first steps in a transformed Multiverse, and witness the catastrophic event that unleashed the Eldrazi upon Zendikar.

A Transformed Multiverse

The Mending had changed the rules of the game. Before this cosmic event, planeswalkers were quasi-divine beings: immortal, capable of creating worlds, traveling through time, and reshaping reality at will. Urza had lived for more than four thousand years. Nicol Bolas had dominated empires for tens of millennia.

After the Mending, all of that vanished. Planeswalkers retained their ability to travel between planes — that spark which set them apart from ordinary mortals — but they had lost their immortality, their invulnerability, their nearly limitless power. They could now be wounded, fall ill, be killed. They aged like anyone else.

For the few surviving Oldwalkers like Nicol Bolas, this transformation was an unbearable humiliation. But for a new generation of planeswalkers, these limitations were not losses — they were simply reality. They had never known the old power. For them, the post-Mending Multiverse was the only world they had ever known.

On the left, Jace Beleren, the telepath with a fragmented past, whose erased memories hide as many traumas as secrets. In the center, Chandra Nalaar, the passionate pyromancer whose flames mirror her indomitable temperament. On the right, Liliana Vess, the necromancer who struck pacts with demons to escape the mortality the Mending had imposed on her.

Jace Beleren: The Telepath with Lost Memories

On the plane of Vryn, a world of perpetual conflict between rival factions, a child with unusual abilities was born. Jace Beleren manifested telepathic powers from the youngest age — so young that his parents, Gav and Ranna, grew worried. The thoughts of others invaded his mind without invitation. The secrets of neighbors, the fears of strangers, the unspoken desires of all who came near him — Jace heard them all.

At thirteen, his parents sent him to study with a local mage named Alhammarret — a sphinx who promised to help him master his gifts. What they didn't know was that Alhammarret had his own intentions. The sphinx immediately recognized Jace's potential: not only a powerful telepath, but a latent planeswalker.

For years, Alhammarret manipulated his apprentice. Each time Jace's spark stirred, briefly pulling him into the Blind Eternities, the sphinx would erase his memories of the event. He wanted to keep Jace under his control, to use his powers for his own political machinations on Vryn.

The truth eventually came out. When Jace discovered the extent of his master's betrayal, he confronted him in a telepathic duel of unprecedented violence. The fight ravaged the minds of both combatants. Jace won — but the price was terrible. So that he would never again see his mentor's face, so that he could forget the weight of what he had done, he erased his own memories.

The force of the duel triggered his first conscious planeswalk. Jace found himself on Ravnica, alone, amnesiac, with shreds of power and no idea who he truly was.

On Ravnica, Jace had to rebuild himself. He learned to use his powers in a self-taught way, developing unique techniques of mental manipulation. But his habit of suppressing his own painful memories created gaps in his personality — shadowed areas he preferred not to explore. This psychological fragility made him unpredictable: sometimes a brilliant strategist, sometimes paralyzed by traumas he didn't understand.

Chandra Nalaar: The Indomitable Flame

On Kaladesh — a plane of technological wonders where aether powered extraordinary inventions — magic was paradoxically forbidden. The Consulate that ruled Ghirapur suppressed any manifestation of magical power, viewing mages as threats to public order.

It was in this context that Chandra Nalaar was born, daughter of Kiran and Pia Nalaar, two inventors who secretly trafficked aether. From childhood, Chandra showed a gift for fire — flames that erupted spontaneously whenever her emotions ran wild, which happened often given her volcanic temperament.

The Consulate eventually discovered her family's activities. Her father was killed. Her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Chandra herself was captured and sentenced to public execution for using magic. She was dragged into the arena of Ghirapur, where the executioner Baral — an officer who himself possessed secret powers — raised his blade.

The moment the steel descended toward her neck, Chandra's spark ignited. Literally. An explosion of fire consumed the arena, and the young girl vanished into the flames — planeswalking to Regatha, a plane where fire was venerated rather than feared.

On Regatha, Chandra found refuge at the monastery of Keral Keep, where the teachings of the legendary pyromancer Jaya Ballard still guided the disciples. She learned to channel her flames, to transform her rage into controlled power — even if "controlled" remained a relative term for someone so impulsive.

Chandra became a pyromancer of exceptional power, capable of generating enough heat to melt rock. But she remained fundamentally a rebel, allergic to authority, quick to act first and think later. These traits would often put her in danger — and sometimes, put the entire Multiverse in danger.

On the left, Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, depicting the young pyromancer before her full awakening. In the center, Keral Keep, the monastery where she learned to master her flames under the spiritual influence of Jaya Ballard. On the right, the Pyromancer's Goggles, an artifact that amplified her already devastating magic.

Liliana Vess: The Demonic Pacts

Unlike the others, Liliana Vess was not a "newwalker." She had awakened her spark long before the Mending, on Dominaria, where she had been born into a noble family of Benalia. But the Mending had hit her hard, ripping away her immortality and condemning her to age like any mortal.

Liliana's story had begun centuries earlier. Daughter of a Benalish general, she studied healing arts in the Order of the Vanguard — while secretly practicing necromancy, a forbidden magic. When her brother Josu fell gravely ill during a battle, Liliana tried to save him using her dark powers.

A mysterious figure she would later call the Raven Man taught her a ritual to create a curative potion. The remedy worked... in part. Josu was healed of his illness, but the treatment drove him mad and turned him into a cursed creature. Liliana had to kill her own brother with her own hands. The trauma awakened her spark, and she fled to Innistrad.

For centuries, Liliana lived as an immortal planeswalker, perfecting her mastery of death and the undead. Then the Mending came. Overnight, she began to age. Wrinkles appeared. The death she had so often manipulated was now coming for her.

Desperate, Liliana sought a way to recover her youth. She met Nicol Bolas, who offered her a deal: he would arrange contracts with four powerful demons who would restore her youth and a portion of her power, in exchange for her servitude.

On the left, Kothophed, Soul Hoarder, the first of the four demons, who sent Liliana to retrieve the Chain Veil. In the center, Griselbrand, the demon of Innistrad whose defeat cost an archangel her life. On the right, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, a demon whose grip on Liliana was particularly cruel.

Liliana accepted the deal. The contracts were etched into her skin as purple tattoos, marks that pulsed with demonic power. She regained her beauty, her youth, a fraction of her former power. But she was now chained to four demonic masters: Kothophed, Griselbrand, Razaketh, and Belzenlok.

Kothophed sent her to Shandalar to recover an ancient artifact: the Chain Veil, a mask created by the Onakke that dramatically amplified the power of its wearer. Liliana seized it — and discovered that the artifact could help her destroy her demonic masters. The Veil whispered secrets to her, promising freedom if she dared to use it.

Garruk and Nissa: The Wild Nature

Garruk Wildspeaker

Garruk grew up on a nameless plane, son of a farmer who was also a "taskmage" — a magical mercenary. When his father Raklan was killed by the forces of a local lord, the young boy fled into the wilderness. He spent years there, learning to survive among beasts, developing a mystical connection with the creatures he hunted and tamed.

His spark awakened during a confrontation with a particularly dangerous predator. Garruk planeswalked to Shandalar, where he continued his life as a solitary hunter, summoning ever more powerful beasts to accompany him.

It was on Shandalar that his path crossed Liliana's. When she killed one of his summoned creatures, Garruk attacked her with animal fury. Liliana used the Chain Veil to defend herself — and cursed him. Black magic seeped into him, corrupting his powers. His blood turned black and oily. His summons began to twist into monstrosities.

On the left, Garruk Wildspeaker in his original form, master of beasts and protector of nature. In the center, Garruk, Cursed Huntsman, showing his transformation after Liliana's curse. On the right, Garruk's Horde, representing the massive creatures he could summon before his corruption.

The curse gradually transformed Garruk into a planeswalker hunter. A prophecy foretold he would become a demon called the World-Destroyer if he did not find a cure. The green giant became a wandering threat, hunting other planeswalkers across the Multiverse.

Nissa Revane

On Zendikar, a plane of wild beauty where the land itself seemed alive, lived an elf named Nissa Revane. A member of the Joraga tribe of the Bala Ged region, she possessed a rare gift: a spiritual connection with the land so deep that "her soul spoke to Zendikar, and the plane was as much a part of her as the blood in her veins."

Nissa perceived the leylines of mana that ran through her world. She felt the pulse of the land, the whispers of the forests, the secrets buried in the rock. And she also felt something else — an ancient presence, buried in the deepest reaches of the plane. Something terribly, fundamentally evil.

Her spark awakened when she confronted this sense of dread for the first time. She planeswalked, explored other worlds, but always returned to Zendikar. Her world needed her. And what she would soon discover would change everything.

On the left, Nissa Revane, the animist elf in her original form, connected to the forces of nature. In the center, Nissa, Worldwaker, showing her power to animate the land itself. On the right, Nissa's Pilgrimage, representing her spiritual quest through the forests of Zendikar.

The Eldrazi Prison

What Nissa was perceiving was the Eye of Ugin — and the horrors it contained.

Millennia earlier, long before the Mending, three planeswalkers had joined forces to confront a cosmic threat: the Eldrazi. These titans of the void were not creatures in the traditional sense — they were primordial forces that devoured entire planes, turning reality to dust. Three of them stood out for their absolute power: Emrakul, Ulamog, and Kozilek.

Nahiri, a kor lithomancer native to Zendikar, had forged a network of hedrons — geometric magical stones — to trap the titans in physical form. Sorin Markov, a vampire from Innistrad, had used his magic to lure the Eldrazi to Zendikar. And Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, had woven the final spell that bound them to the plane.

Together, they had created a planetary prison. The hedrons channeled the leylines of all of Zendikar like the bars of a cosmic cage. The Eye of Ugin, an underground cavern on the continent of Akoum, served as the focal point — a lock that could only be opened by three planeswalker sparks acting in concert, plus the invisible, colorless breath of Ugin himself.

On the left, the Eye of Ugin, the cavern that served as the focal point of the Eldrazi imprisonment. In the center, the Hedron Archive, representing the mystical stones that formed the cosmic cage. On the right, Zendikar Resurgent, evoking the vital link between the plane and its imprisoned magic.

For millennia, the prison held. The inhabitants of Zendikar forgot what slept beneath their feet. The Eldrazi presence seeped into the local culture as confused legends — the "gods" Emeria, Ula, and Cosi, deities the peoples worshipped without knowing they were venerating their cosmic jailers.

But after the Mending, the barriers between planes weakened. The seals holding the Eldrazi began to crack. And Nicol Bolas, the dragon seeking to recover his lost power, saw an opportunity.

The Eye of Ugin: The Liberation

Bolas manipulated events with a predator's patience. He sent his servant Sarkhan Vol — a human from Tarkir obsessed with dragons — to watch over the Eye of Ugin. He knew that sooner or later, the conditions would align to break the seal.

Sarkhan had been a general on his home world, a man who venerated dragons as the ultimate predators. When he met Nicol Bolas on the plane of Jund, he was utterly captivated. Here was a dragon worthy of his devotion — the oldest, the most powerful, the most cruel of all. He exchanged his blood with the dragon's, gaining power he had never imagined, and lost his soul in the process.

But the years spent near the Eye of Ugin shattered Sarkhan's mind. The whispers of the Eldrazi crept into his skull. He heard voices, saw visions, lost his grip on reality. By the time other planeswalkers arrived at the Eye, he was already half mad.

On the left, Sarkhan Vol in his original form, a planeswalker capable of transforming into a dragon. In the center, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, showing his draconic power. On the right, Sarkhan's Rage, illustrating the violence he was capable of.

Chandra arrived first, drawn by rumors of an ancient scroll hidden in the ruins. Jace followed, sent by a secret organization on Ravnica to retrieve the same artifact. When they met in the tunnels leading to the Eye, confrontation was inevitable.

Sarkhan attacked them both, transforming into a dragon to fight them. The chaos of the battle — three planeswalkers unleashing their power in a cavern saturated with magic — created exactly the conditions needed to weaken the seal. The hedrons trembled. The leylines wavered.

But it was not the battle that freed the Eldrazi. It was Nissa.

Nissa's Fatal Choice

Sorin Markov sensed the disturbances from Innistrad. The millennia-old vampire, one of the three architects of the prison, understood that something terrible was unfolding. He planeswalked to Zendikar to reinforce the seals.

There, he met Nissa. The elf had spent her life feeling the malevolent presence buried beneath Zendikar. Now, she was seeing it with her own eyes — the slumbering titans, the horrors that waited. Sorin asked her to help him reinforce the prison, to keep the Eldrazi captive for eternity.

Nissa refused.

She did not trust Sorin — a foreign vampire who had used her world as a jail. She believed that if the Eldrazi were released, they would flee Zendikar to devour other planes, leaving her world in peace. It was a terrible calculation, perhaps a selfish one, but understandable for someone whose soul was bound to that land.

In an act of defiance, Nissa shattered the main hedron of the Eye of Ugin.

She was wrong.

The titans did not flee. They remained on Zendikar and began to devour it.

On the left, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, the largest and most terrible of the titans, capable of corrupting the very minds of her victims. In the center, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, a force of pure destruction that turned everything to dust. On the right, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, an entity that warped reality around itself.

The Eldrazi titans emerged from their millennia-old prison. Their forms defy description — tentacled masses of impossible geometry, mountains of flesh and void that transcended the traditional colors of mana. They were colorless, fundamentally alien to reality itself. Where they walked, the laws of physics collapsed. Time distorted. Space folded. Creatures that gazed at them too long lost their minds, their psyches unable to process what they were seeing.

With them came their lineages: thousands of lesser Eldrazi, drones and spawn that spread across Zendikar like a tide of destruction. The land itself blanched in their wake, drained of all life, all color, all essence — turned into chalky dust that the wind carried away like the ashes of a dying world.

The Awakening of the Titans

Zendikar plunged into chaos. Entire regions were devastated within weeks. The inhabitants — humans, elves, kor, goblins, merfolk — found themselves facing a threat they could not even comprehend. How do you fight creatures that transcend reality?

Nissa, consumed by guilt, joined the defenders of her world. Her connection to Zendikar allowed her to feel every wound the Eldrazi inflicted upon the plane. It was as if her own flesh were being devoured piece by piece.

Other planeswalkers came running. Some to help. Others for their own reasons. Gideon Jura, an indestructible warrior, organized the resistance. Kiora, a merfolk from Zendikar, attempted to rouse the leviathans of the oceans to fight the titans.

On the left, Gideon Jura, the hieromancer warrior whose body was virtually indestructible. In the center, Ob Nixilis, Reignited, a former planeswalker whose spark had been stolen, reduced to a demonic state on Zendikar. On the right, Kiora, the Crashing Wave, a merfolk who commanded the creatures of the deep.

The battle for Zendikar would last months. Two of the titans — Ulamog and Kozilek — would eventually be destroyed through the combined efforts of several planeswalkers. But Emrakul, the most terrible of them all, escaped. The titan of mental corruption disappeared into the Blind Eternities, seeking a new world to consume.

She would find Innistrad.

The Seeds of the Future

The awakening of the Eldrazi was only the first in a series of cataclysms that would shake the post-Mending Multiverse. On Mirrodin, the artificial plane created by Karn, the glistening oil that the golem had unwittingly brought with him slowly corrupted the inhabitants. The Phyrexians were being reborn — not under the banner of Yawgmoth, but under new praetors who would transform the metallic world into New Phyrexia.

Nicol Bolas was weaving his web across the planes. The dragon had lost a significant portion of his power with the Mending, and that humiliation consumed him. He was crafting a plan over centuries to recover his divinity — a plan that would involve manipulating entire civilizations, sparking wars, and sacrificing countless lives.

The new generation of planeswalkers did not yet know it, but they would be at the heart of these conflicts. Jace, Chandra, Liliana, Gideon, Nissa — five individuals with incompatible personalities and conflicting motivations — would have to learn to work together. They would form an alliance called the Gatewatch — a pact of mutual protection to defend the Multiverse against the threats that menaced it.

But before that, each would have to face their own demons. Liliana would continue her quest to eliminate the four demons that owned her. Garruk would carry on his cursed hunt. Jace would uncover truths about his past he had preferred to forget. And Chandra would return to Kaladesh to discover that her mother was still alive.

On the left, the Oath of Jace, by which the telepath swore to protect the Multiverse. In the center, the Oath of Chandra, in which the pyromancer pledged to burn those who would threaten the innocent. On the right, the Oath of Nissa, in which the animist committed to defending every world the way she defended Zendikar.

"For the shadow of the people we could have protected."
— The Oath of the Gatewatch

Recap: The Dawn of a New Era

The post-Mending era marked a fundamental turning point in the history of the Multiverse:

The Major Changes

• The end of the gods — Planeswalkers became mortal, vulnerable, limited
• A new generation — Jace, Chandra, Liliana, Garruk, Nissa became the new faces of magic
• The Eldrazi unleashed — The millennia-old prison of Zendikar was shattered
• Phyrexia reborn — The glistening oil on Mirrodin was preparing a new nightmare
• Bolas's machinations — The ancient dragon was plotting his cosmic revenge

The Lessons Learned

• Pride has a price — Nissa believed she could manipulate the Eldrazi and caused a catastrophe
• Power corrupts — Liliana, Garruk, and Sarkhan were all transformed by their pursuits of power
• Strength in unity — No single planeswalker could face cosmic threats alone
• The past does not stay buried — Ancient evils (Eldrazi, Phyrexia) returned to haunt the present

The post-Mending Multiverse was a more dangerous place than ever. Without the quasi-divine Oldwalkers to maintain a brutal balance, new threats emerged everywhere. But it was also a Multiverse of hope — for this new generation of heroes, despite their flaws, traumas, and mistakes, was determined to fight for a better future.

Episode 9: The War for Zendikar

The Eldrazi devour Zendikar. Gideon organizes the resistance. The Gatewatch is formed. Discover how five planeswalkers with incompatible personalities united their forces to face the impossible — and the terrible price they paid to defeat two titans of the void.

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Sources and References

This episode is based on:

• Agents of Artifice — Novel by Ari Marmell (2009)
• The Purifying Fire — Novel by Laura Resnick (2009)
• Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum — Novel by Robert B. Wintermute (2010)
• Lorwyn, Shadowmoor sets (2007-2008)
• Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi sets (2009-2010)
• MTG Wiki — Articles on the planeswalkers of the modern era and the Eldrazi