This content was originally included in Homelands #1. The original article can be accessed via Internet Archive here.

---

Taysir is a most unusual being, born of not one world but five. These five incarnations each represented one of the colors of mana. Through the machinations of the Sorceress Queen Nailah, the individual Taysirs were brought together, resulting in a unique and powerful being with the knowledge of five men. This unusual birthing propelled Taysir into the ranks of the planeswalkers.

As is the nature of planeswalkers, Taysir spent many centuries in solitude, only encountering other beings when he required them as resources for his plans and machinations. He roamed far across the multiverse of Dominia, rarely engaging other planeswalkers and knowing little of how his powers ranked alongside theirs.

Taysir had the misfortune of being caught in the forming Shard that was being generated out of Dominaria, even as he had set about studying the epic poetry that was found in the aftermath of the Brothers War. Trapped in only a dozen planes, he could no longer postpone the inevitable contact with others of his kind. Taysir’s first encounter was with Kristina of the Woods, a mage of indeterminate age and beguiling wisdom. They frequently traveled the Shard together over the centuries, exploring their vast prison and searching for an escape route. Taysir’s essays from this period are viewed as some of the root documents of many civilizations’ accounts of prehistory.

Taysir and Kristina’s combined strength allowed them to survive their conflicts with many other similarly trapped planeswalkers. However, they were forced to confront some of the worst of them at the Summit of the Shard, conducted by Faralyn upon Dominaria’s Null Moon. There, with the aid of Freyalise and a then innocent Ravidel, they battled Tevesh Szat and Leshrac. The crafty Faralyn used the unleashed energies of this battle to escape to the plane of Shandalar, hotly pursued by Leshrac. Ravidel was killed in the clash, but Kristina and Taysir saw fit to resurrect him, a gift that was not well-received by the spelisquire. Meanwhile, Freyalise beat Tevesh Szat, flooding Dominaria with mana and initiating the breaking of the Shard.

With the entire multiverse again open to them, Taysir spoke to Kristina of the desires he’d been hiding from her. He had fallen in love with her, his constant traveling companion, and he wished for them to be married. Kristina, however, needed solitude, a time to selflessly reattune herself with nature; she had no choice but to turn him away. Taysir, heartbroken, sped into the void, where he threw himself into obsessive exploration. Eventually, when this was no longer sufficient to distract him from his heartache, he turned to the pursuit of vengeance against Leshrac and Tevesh Szat.

Occasionally, Taysir—spurred by his new spellsquire, Ravidel—would return to spy upon Kristina, It was on one such visit that he discovered she had a new companion, a Minotaur by the name of Sandruu. Enraged with jealousy, he ambushed the Minotaur, severely wounding him and sending him blindly back to his home plane, Ulgrotha… the Homelands. Giving chase, Taysir banished Sandruu to a transient plane from which there was no easy return. Feroz, having witnessed the fast part of the episode, fought Taysir on the Minotaur’s home ground. Taysir was defeated primarily by his own arrogance rather than Feroz’s spellcasting.

But Taysir was not dead. The Ancestors of the Minotaurs held Taysir’s spirit in their realm, and informed their living kin to carefully store the planeswalker’s body in a sealed cave. For two hundred years, the Anaba Ancestors soothed the tortured Taysir’s spirit, attuning him once again with his five souls. Their teachings made Taysir more reflective, and showed him the error of his arrogance. When they were satisfied that he was ready, they returned him to his body. However, his flesh had not endured the centuries well. It had neither rotted nor aged, but it had withered. Although he could have changed it, Taysir chose to retain that form as a reminder of all that had happened and all that he had learned.

Craving solitude once more, Taysir returned to his scholastic pursuits and began to map the Homelands. While working on the section that covered the Great Wood, he found a child called Daria, abandoned there by parents who feared her odd powers. Taysir took the girl as his apprentice, recognizing the spark within her that identified her as a planeswalker. As opposed to the mutual bitterness of his relationship with Ravidel, Taysir thrived on Daria’s inherent goodness and innocence, and he treated her as a beloved daughter. One day soon, he will once again travel Dominia, with Daria at his side.

Taysir is fully aware that much of what he wrought before his stay with the Ancestors will eventually return to haunt him. Even now, Ravidel is marauding across the world of Dominaria in Taysir’s name—threatening Kristina, and her own young apprentice, the Shadow Mage. The years ahead will be Taysir’s most challenging, ever. Soon he may find he’ll have to make enormous sacrifices in order to atone.