{"id":12018,"date":"2026-01-20T09:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mizoutcg.fr\/mtglore\/fragments-alara\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:23:31","slug":"fragments-alara","status":"publish","type":"lore","link":"https:\/\/mizoutcg.fr\/en\/mtglore\/fragments-alara\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 15: The Shards of Alara"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

A world shattered into five shards.<\/strong> Alara was once a single plane, but an ancient catastrophe split it into five distinct realms, each with access to only three of the five colors of mana. Now, after millennia of separation, the shards are beginning to converge \u2014 and chaos ensues.<\/p>\n\n

This episode explores the plane of Alara<\/strong> and the Conflux<\/strong> crisis that drew the attention of Nicol Bolas himself.<\/p>\n\n[lore_illustration \n url=\"https:\/\/images.ctfassets.net\/s5n2t79q9icq\/5S5s5S5s5S5s5S5s5S\/5S5s5S5s5S5s5S5s5S5s5S\/alara-reborn.jpg\" \n alt=\"The five shards of Alara converging\" \n caption=\"The Conflux: when the five shards of Alara come together, chaos reigns. Art: Wizards of the Coast\"\n]\n\n

The Five Shards<\/h2>\n\n

Each shard of Alara had developed its own culture, its own magic, its own worldview. Without contact with the other colors of mana, each realm had evolved in unique ways:<\/p>\n\n

Bant \u2014 The Realm of Light<\/h3>\n\n
\"Rafiq<\/a>
Rafiq embodied the ideal of Bant: honor, courage, and devotion to the common good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Bant<\/strong> knew only white, blue, and green. It was a world of knights, castles, and guardian angels. Honor was the highest virtue, and conflicts were settled through ritual duels called Conflux<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

The inhabitants of Bant had never known natural death from disease or old age \u2014 angels watched over them. They had never known gratuitous cruelty or betrayal. Their world was, in many ways, a paradise.<\/p>\n\n

Esper \u2014 The Realm of Artifice<\/h3>\n\n
\"Sharuum<\/a>
Sharuum ruled over Esper, a world where perfection was sought through the fusion of flesh and metal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Esper<\/strong> knew only white, blue, and black. It was a world of mages and artificers who had perfected the art of replacing flesh with metal \u2014 etherium<\/strong>, a magical alloy unique to their shard.<\/p>\n\n

The inhabitants of Esper aspired to perfection through augmentation. Every citizen had at least one part of their body replaced with etherium. The most powerful were almost entirely mechanical.<\/p>\n\n

Grixis \u2014 The Realm of the Dead<\/h3>\n\n
\"Sedris,<\/a>
Sedris ruled Grixis from his throne of corpses \u2014 a king among the dead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Grixis<\/strong> knew only blue, black, and red. It was a world of necromancers and demons, where life itself was a rare and precious resource.<\/p>\n\n

Deprived of white and green mana \u2014 the colors of life \u2014 Grixis was a dying world. Its inhabitants survived by stealing the life force of others, animating the dead, and making pacts with demonic entities.<\/p>\n\n

Jund \u2014 The Realm of Predators<\/h3>\n\n
\"Kresh<\/a>
Kresh wore the trophies of his victims \u2014 the law of Jund was simple: devour or be devoured.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Jund<\/strong> knew only black, red, and green. It was a world of volcanoes and jungles, dominated by massive dragons that regarded everything else as food.<\/p>\n\n

Survival on Jund was a constant struggle. Humans lived in nomadic tribes, always on the move to escape predators. Strength was the only recognized virtue.<\/p>\n\n

Naya \u2014 The Realm of Giants<\/h3>\n\n
\"Mayael<\/a>
Mayael communed with the behemoths of Naya, the most massive creatures in the Multiverse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Naya<\/strong> knew only red, green, and white. It was a world of lush forests and titanic creatures \u2014 behemoths<\/strong>, some of which were as large as mountains.<\/p>\n\n

The elves of Naya worshipped these giants as divine manifestations. Their society was organized around respect for nature and its most imposing creatures.<\/p>\n\n

The Conflux<\/h2>\n\n

After millennia of separation, the five shards began to converge<\/strong>. The boundaries between worlds thinned. Creatures from one shard appeared in another. Mana, once limited to three colors per shard, began to flow freely.<\/p>\n\n

\"Conflux\"<\/a>
The Conflux was a cataclysmic event that reshaped the reality of Alara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

This Conflux was no accident. It had been orchestrated by an ancient power who saw in this event an opportunity for unprecedented power.<\/p>\n\n

Nicol Bolas<\/strong> had found Alara.<\/p>\n\n

Bolas's Plan<\/h2>\n\n

The ancient dragon had discovered that at the moment of the Conflux, a colossal amount of mana would be released \u2014 enough to restore some of the powers he had lost during the Mending.<\/p>\n\n

\"Cruel<\/a>
Bolas manipulated the Conflux for his own ends, indifferent to the millions of deaths it would cause.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Bolas manipulated events to maximize chaos. He stoked conflicts between the shards, ensuring the Conflux would be as violent as possible. The more deaths, the more mana to absorb.<\/p>\n\n

The Heroes of Alara<\/h3>\n\n

Faced with this threat, heroes from each shard united. Ajani Goldmane<\/strong>, a leonin from Naya whose planeswalker spark awakened during the Conflux, became the leader of this resistance.<\/p>\n\n

\"Ajani<\/a>
Ajani lost his brother to Bolas's machinations \u2014 and swore to avenge him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Ajani had a personal reason to fight Bolas: the dragon had manipulated his own brother, Jazal<\/strong>, causing his death. This tragedy transformed Ajani from a pacifist into a determined warrior.<\/p>\n\n

The Battle for Alara<\/h2>\n\n

The Conflux culminated in an apocalyptic war. The armies of the five shards clashed in a chaos of magic and violence. The knights of Bant fought the undead of Grixis. The dragons of Jund battled the behemoths of Naya.<\/p>\n\n

\"Maelstrom<\/a>
At the heart of the Conflux, reality itself twisted into a maelstrom of mana.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

At the center of it all, Bolas absorbed the energy released by so much death and destruction. The dragon grew more powerful with every passing moment.<\/p>\n\n

Ajani and his allies eventually managed to interrupt Bolas's ritual, but they could not stop it completely. The dragon escaped, significantly strengthened but not as powerful as he had hoped.<\/p>\n\n

The Aftermath<\/h2>\n\n

Alara was reunified<\/strong> \u2014 the five shards merged into a single world. But this reunification was traumatic. Cultures that had never known of each other's existence were suddenly confronted with realities they could not understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inhabitants of Bant had to learn of the existence of evil. The mages of Esper discovered the limits of their rationality in the face of green magic. The predators of Jund found new prey \u2014 and new predators.<\/p>\n\n

As for Bolas, his partial victory over Alara was only a step in a much larger plan. The powers he had absorbed would serve even more ambitious projects.<\/p>\n\n

In the next episode...<\/h2>\n\n
\n

Episode 8c: Scars of Mirrodin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mirrodin, the metal world created by Karn, is infected by a Phyrexian corruption. What begins as an isolated infection becomes a full-scale invasion, transforming the plane into New Phyrexia<\/strong>. The praetors emerge, and a new era of terror begins.<\/p>\n

The corruption of Phyrexia was never truly defeated \u2014 it was simply biding its time...<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Sources<\/h2>\n\n