This content was deleted from the Acclaim website during an update. The original page can be accessed via Wayback Machine here.

---

I am Rahel, one of Serra’s Angels, and I have been charged with the responsibility of recording the actions of the planeswalker Ravidel. I have watched him for centuries, and followed his growth in both power and wickedness. Now, on the eve of his greatest triumph-or failure-I have been allowed to place this brief account into the hands of mortals, that Ravidel may be better understood and, perhaps, defeated. I am not permitted to take an important role in the planeswalker war that is coming, but I am at least allowed to impart this knowledge. Rest assured that had I the dispensation, I would gladly end the wickedness of Ravidel once and for all. That fate, however, is in the hands of another-the one who now reads these pages.

Dominaria, the world at which dozens of planes intersect, has a long and exciting history. From the long-lived perspective of planeswalkers, however, there are several major defining events that stand out.

Because Dominaria is a world with many cultures, there is no single calendar or way of telling the year. Different lands have their own ways of marking the passage of time. As a result, any timeline is uncertain at best, but this account is the best that may be hoped for, marked as it is with the Eras of Magic. The causes of the war are varied and as complex as the long history of Dominaria that now unfolds…

The Time of Legends

Millennia after the fall of the mighty Thran Empire, on prehistoric Dominaria, the demon Geyadrone Dihada was attracted to the mana rich, heavily forested continent of Corondor. There, much to her delight, her special brand of magic corrupted the forests, turning them into swamps. The heady power of manipulating such power set her on a mission of conquest. and she corrupted a Force of Nature native to the forest of Khone, creating Sol’Kanar the Swamp King. This war-god swept Dihada’s forces across Corondor, smashing villages and throwing down empires. A survivor from the village of Carth sought a champion against these villains, and found one in the form of a planeswalker named Dakkon Blackblade. Blackblade’s war with Dihada created the Dueling Chasm of Golthonor, and drove away Dihada-at the cost of his planeswalkerhood. Owing a debt of honor to the boy who brought him to his greatest battle, Blackblade named the boy “Carth the Lion.” ancestor of a long line of powerful wizards.

During this time, a scheming magician subdued a Serra Angel named Trine using a fabled Crown of Thorns. Trine became the Fallen Angel, and, over the course of the next three centuries, helped her master conquer the northern half of Corondor, even as Dihada turned the south into swamps. Trine was redeemed by me, not long after Blackblade defeated Dihada. I had been summoned to Dominaria by the adopted son of Trine’s keeper, Eskil. During the final conflict, Eskil was struck blind, but I then convinced him to become a white mage. Eskil would go on to become a benevolent planeswalker and protector of Corondor’s White Woods.

When Geyadrone Dihada departed Dominaria, she left behind a seething Sol’kanar the Swamp King. Anxious to regroup his power, he spread his influence over the remaining swamps of southeastern Corondor, and discovered a chronicle of The Dragon War, in which Scarzam Dragons, lead by a woman astride a colossal beast, invaded the land centuries before, like an angry swarm.

In an effort to retrieve the beast and use it to challenge the Fallen Angel and conquer Corondor, Sol’kanar recruited two women (Chondaeh of Shikar and Gydolien M—r of Khone) to weave magic powerful enough to summon it. After years of effort, they were indeed successful, but a plan hatched by the Shikaran woman turned Sivitri Scarzam against Sol’kanar, and the beast revolted. As a result, the City-State of Khone was destroyed by Sol’kanar, and would not be rebuilt for thousands of years. Thus ended the time of Legends.

Forging Antiquities – The Coming of Taysir – The Shard

About four thousand years prior to the present day, the Brother’s War occurred on the continent of Terisiare. This terrible conflict between the artificer brothers Urza and Mishra resulted in great advances in the creation and usage of magical artifacts, but the massive devastation from their conflict resulted in severe climatic shifts. Unknown to any but the most powerful, the effects of the Brothers War reached beyond the world of Dominaria and into the multiverse of Dominia. In time, Dominaria and eleven of its neighboring planes became locked together in “The Shard”, which prevented both entry into and exit from this small set of worlds. One of the results of this war was the beginnings of the Five Houses of Magic, as wizards sought to refine the more primitive clockwork artifact magic used during the war, in the hopes of gaining enough power to stop the destructive conflict. On the world of Dominaria, the modern interpretation of Magic’s colors are derived from these humble beginnings.

Not long after these events, in world of the Arabian Nights on the plane of Rabiah, Taysir, one of the most powerful planeswalkers in the history of Dominia, was born and had many fantastic adventures. His final adventure on Rabiah set him against the Sorceress Queen Nailah, a powerful and vindictive mage who used her last ounce of strength to ban Taysir from his homeworld forever.

Centuries after the events of Arabian Nights, Taysir arrived on Dominaria just prior to the final sealing of the Shard. Dominaria is a nexus world, attached closely to at least eleven other worlds, and within easy reach (to a planeswalker at least) of many, many others. Taysir was fascinated with the so-called Brothers War (also known as the Antiquities War), which had taken place some centuries before his arrival. He busied himself researching the conflict between Urza and Mishra (with its clockwork magic, and roots to eons forgotten Thran Empire), which had resulted in the devastation of the continent of Terisiare, and the complete annihilation of the massive island of Argive.

While venturing across the continent of Corondor, Taysir became enchanted with a planeswalker native to Dominaria named Kristina of the Woods. Her innocence and zest for life reinvigorated him, and made him forget his homesickness for the first time. Unfortunately for them both, they discovered when they tried to return to Rabiah, they were caught in the “Shard”.

The Dark

As the decades passed, the era known as The Dark began. The aftermath of the Brothers War on Terisiare was a time of ignorance, fear, and persecution. Magic in any form was opposed and eradicated, whether beneficial or not. The survivors of the magical apocalypse scattered into small communities, leaving only a few viable cities remaining. The populace turned to religion for succor, and the religions then turned against the spellwielders, purporting them to be evil. (This same fanaticism was inflicted upon Sarpadia by zealots such as Farrel; his blind hatred for anything magical sped the Empires to their doom.) The origin of Tevesh Szat can be traced to this time in Sarpadia’s history. Only as the Ice Age took its grip upon Dominaria did the mages return to prominence, as every resource was needed to aid in the race to survive the encroaching cold.

Making the best of his situation, and hoping to impress Kristina, Taysir dedicated himself to becoming a scholar. To this day, his writings on the Brothers War, the period of the Dark, and the collapse of the Fallen Empires of Sarpadia are considered by many to be definitive.

Among the eleven other worlds trapped in the Shard was the place a young white magician named Ravidel called home. The calamities brought on by the Brothers’ War threatened to wipe out Ravidel’s people, and to save his life, his parents apprenticed him to a planeswalker named Faralyn. The wizard accepted Ravidel, and set him to be the keeper of the Elder Dragon he held in thrall-a Chromium Dragon, called Rhuell.

Ravidel was embittered by being cast out of his homeworld. He would have chosen the dignity of suffering with his people rather than being exiled into space with a strange wizard. But he took solace in caring for Rhuell, and even under these extreme circumstances, the two became genuine friends. It was one of the last times Ravidel would ever feel compassion for another being.

The Fallen Empires and the Ice Age

The world of Dominaria grew cold as a result of the mass of dirt thrown into the atmosphere during the explosive destruction of Argoth and climactic changes caused by Dominaria’s isolation in the Shard. The empires of the great continent of Sarpadia begin to crumble. Drawn into these conflicts were Tymolin Loneglade, and her brother, the planeswalker Tev Loneglade.

When Tymolin was mercilessly killed in a conflict between cult factions (The Farrelites and the Cult of the Ebon Hand), Tev Loneglade transformed himself into a hideous monster, and used his vast magical powers to hasten the fall of Sarpadia’s empires, intent on rendering Dominaria a lifeless ball.

A thousand years later, in the midst of the great Ice Age, Tev Loneglade, now called Tevesh Szat, continued his quest to exterminate all life on Dominaria. He used his magic to perpetuate the endless winter, and tried manipulating the surviving populace into destroying itself. Among his opponents was an orphaned teenager named Jason Carthalion, whose noble resistance sparked the red mage Freyalise to turn away from the mountains, and ascend to the plansewalkerhood as a green-embracing Nature Goddess. She would come to be worshipped by many hardy Ice Age survivors on the continent of Terisiare.

During their many years trapped together, Taysir and Kristina explored all twelve of the Shard’s planes. They searched for clues as to how to break the Shard, and became involved in the affairs of the various civilizations struggling for survival. Both Taysir and Kristina became great heroes to many, and he couldn’t help but fall ever more deeply in love with her.

During their centuries together, Taysir witnessed the full bloom of Kristina’s power. During lengthy discussions, he realized that-once free from the Shard-Kristina, of all the magicians he’d come across, had the power to return him to his home plain of Rabiah. Taysir’s love will slowly grow into an obsessive determination to use Kristina’s power to return home

The desire to crack the Shard and escape was not confned to Taysir, though. The planeswalker, Faralyn also wished to escape, for when you have the power of a planeswalker even twelve universes can come to seem a prison. Faralyn kept a temple on the Null Moon of Dominaria, an artificial satellite said to have once been occupied by an enormously powerful being. The Null Moon had come into Dominaria’s orbit at some point before the Antiquities War.

Faralyn had by this time raised Ravidel from a mere apprentice to a full spellsquire (sometimes calling the youngster his “Journeying Angel,” a title which I find noxious). With the help of his friend the Chromium Dragon, Rhuell, Ravidel aided Faralyn in the study of the physics of the Shard.

Eventually, Faralyn deduced a method of escape from the Shard. He led a number of other planeswalkers to a summit on the Null Moon, including Tevesh Szat, the Doom of Fools; Kristina of the Woods; Taysir of Rabiah; the evil Leshrac, Walker of Night; and Freyalise. This Summit of the Shard was actually a trick. Now desperate for a way out of this maddeningly limited space, Faralyn intended to manipulate the planeswalkers into killing one another, unleashing enough power for Faralyn to escape the Shard.

In the midst of the terrible magic duel that ensued, the duped planeswalkers were able to puzzle through Faralyn’s scheme-but not before spellsquire Ravidel, and the dragon Rhuell, were slaughtered by Leshrac and Tevesh Szat. Ravidel’s released life-essence was enough for Faralyn to use to punch through the Shard and escape. He was quickly followed through by Leshrac, however.

A well-meaning Kristina, joined by Taysir, cast a spell of resurrection, and revived Ravidel. Immediately realizing that he was betrayed by his honored mentor, and had been deprived of his beloved dragon, Ravidel went insane with grief, cursing Kristina with his enmity forever. There Ravidel declared himself a “Battlemage” and departed the Null Moon.

In the wake of this conflict, with an idea born of Kristina’s simple words, Freyalise decided to launch a plan which involved the use of a young Ley Druid named Kaysa in a spell that could end the Ice Age – the “Worldspell”.

At the same time, Tevesh Szat decided to pervert Kristina’s idea, and launch a massive spell that would use the energy of the Worldspell to deepen the Ice Age, and finally destroy all life on Dominaria. Kristina and Taysir were on hand to assist Freyalise, and the Nature Goddess sent a mischievous young knight name Jaeuhl Carthalion to foil Szat’s plans. Their struggle, and that of the nation of Kjeldor (one of the few to endure the Ice Age), however, was hindered by the undead forces of the necromancer Lim-Džl and the might of Tevesh Szat.

By the end of his quest, Jaeuhl managed to use an Amulet of Quoz to exile Tevesh Szat and the Legions of Lim-Džl, while Freyalise managed to successfully launch the Worldspell that would break the Shard, reverse the course of the Ice Age and begin the healing of Dominaria.

The Time of the Alliances

As the Shard dissolved back into the continuum of Dominia, Taysir revealed his wish that Kristina use her power to take them both to his home world of Rabiah. After some analysis, Kristina realized that, while she can indeed do this, it would certainly be a one way trip for them both!

Unfortunately for Taysir, Kristina did not wish to continue their alliance into the stars. She did not want to become Taysir’s betrothed, nor did she wish to spend the rest of her extremely long life on Rabiah. She wished to journey far away from Dominaria on her own, and enjoy her freedom.

Across Dominaria the warming climate caused major flooding. The unnatural speed with which the planet struggled out of the Ice Age causes violent storms which only add to the inhabitant’s misery. On Terisiare the city of Soldev is crushed by rampaging artifact creatures. The nations of Kjeldor and Balduvia attempt to find peace in the face of the encroaching floods whilst Fyndhorn forest is lost beneath the waves and the countryside consumed with plague. Escaping this catastrophe a convoy of Elves escape to the Yavimaya forest led by Kaysa, the new elder druid and Jaeuhl Carthalion, now the leader of the Juniper Order Advocates, a knightly order of Kjeldor dedicated to strengthening ties to the Elves. Unfortunately for the Elves the forest is inhabited by a malign sentience which takes a dislike to visitors. After an epic struggle, peace was made with the intelligent Yavimayan apes, and the Elves were allowed to settle. Jaeuhl and Kaysa had a child, and the Carthalion lineage continued.

With the end of the floods Terisiare is no longer a true continent. The flood waters and oceans have flowed into the gashes left by the glaciers and filled the cavernous strip mines left by the Brother’s War. Terisiare is reduced to an extensive archipelago and many of its greatest treasures are lost beneath the waves.

Ravidel might well have become just another minor planeswalker-and this war might never have happened-if it were not for Taysir. Frustrated in his desire to return to Rabiah by Kristina’s refusal, Taysir eventually found Ravidel and took him on as his apprentice. Taysir is one of the most powerful planeswalkers known to the Serra, and his tutelage caused Ravidel to grow in power exponentially. Taysir sought a way back to Rabiah, and Ravidel reminded him that one way of doing so was to steal the life energy of another planeswalker, as Faralyn did on the Null Moon.

Ravidel kept pushing Taysir to act on this notion, and finally Taysir agreed. He decided to avenge the breaking of the Treaty of the Shard by pursuing Leshrac and Tevesh Szat, and executing them. He would use their energy as a by-product to return to Rabiah.

Taysir and Ravidel found Leshrac first, and trapped him by means unknown in the clockwork hell of Phyrexia. Unfortunately the conceived prison would not render the required power to Taysir, who abandoned the trapped Leschrac. Of Tevesh Szat there was no sign.

Taysir, discouraged, eventually tired of his plan and cut Ravidel loose to continue as he saw fit. Ravidel took this to mean he was entering a new phase of his apprenticeship, and began a series of conquests throughout the multiverse, collecting artifacts and perfecting his dueling skills, all in Taysir’s name. Twisting Taysir’s desire to bring justice to evil beings like Tevesh Szat and Leshrac, Ravidel launched a long-term plan to turn Dominaria, especially Corondor, into a raging battleground. It was his hope that enough misery and destruction would act as a beacon for Szat, bringing him home so Ravidel could destroy him in Taysir’s name. In the process, Ravidel himself would gain revenge on all the beings who had ever betrayed him.

Returning to Dominaria, he crossed paths with the Ash Warlord Embereck, one of that world’s most powerful planeswalkers, and they dueled over the fabled Argivian Sylex amidst the submerged ruins of a city in Terisiare. In the end, a bargain was struck, and Ravidel escaped with the Sylex.

Ravidel would return only every few decades to learn once again at the feet of Taysir.

As the storms subsided on Dominaria, civilizations rose anew (Kjeldor and Balduvia – after some centuries – united to become New Argive), but the struggle for survival amidst vast deserts and thawing wastelands continued. This was the time of the Robaran Mercenaries, and of legends such as their leaders, Adira Strongheart, and the Cat Warrior Jedit Ojanen.

The New Age and the Homelands Exile

As the last vestiges of the ice age disappeared on Dominaria, a new age was dawning. Many of the world’s greatest wise people gathered in the Haven of Minorad, the northernmost habitable point in Corondor, to share their knowledge and document the passing of time. The new Corondor calendar was established, and the date of the meeting was declared Year One of a new age.

Ravidel attacked this Summit of Minorad, and hatched an insidious plan. He used the Argivan Sylex to blackmail his arch-foe Kristina-as well as the Ash Warlord Embereck, Grenfell Mor of Golthonor, Altair of Coloni, and Liana of Minorad; the wisest and most powerful of Dominaria’s native planeswalkers-into his servitude. He did this by using the Sylex to threaten the butchering all of Minorad’s sages. The last bastion of Corondor’s knowledge would be destroyed before their eyes.

Ravidel’s demand was deceptively simple: merely to be left alone in performing his business on Dominaria, no matter what that business might be. Seeing no alternative but further violence (and perhaps racked with guilt over Ravidel’s current condition), Kristina convinced most of the planeswalkers to acquiesce. Only Embereck refused, and vanished with a vow of vengeance against Ravidel.

Ravidel’s demand was deceptively simple: merely to be left alone in performing his business on Dominaria, no matter what that business might be. Seeing no alternative but further violence (and perhaps racked with guilt over Ravidel’s current condition), Kristina convinced most of the planeswalkers to acquiesce. Only Embereck refused, and vanished with a vow of vengeance against Ravidel.

With little choice, and even less time to think, Kristina was exiled to her beloved woods (this may have been at Taysir’s wishes, isolating her from the remainder of Dominia as he was isolated from Rabiah, but Taysir’s role in this affair is hidden even from the eyes of the Serra); Altair was left to wander the land of Corondor (he was released from this enchantment thirteen centuries later by the Nightmare Caliphear), Grenfell was banished the the Sand Seas of Golthonor; and Liana was forced to become the consort of Ravidel’s own spellsquire, the Scarlet Vizier.

For hundreds of years, Liana was mind-controlled by the Vizier, and helped to construct the City-State of Arathoxia in Corondor. The Vizier insinuated himself into the family Carthalion-a lineage noted for producing children gifted with a natural magical aptitude, in the slim hope that one day a child with the planeswalker spark might be born into the family. With enough power, the Vizier might defeat Ravidel and become a planeswalker himself.

Whilst exiled in the White Woods, Kristina befriended the travelling Sandruu, an Anaba minotaur from the world known as Ulgrotha or the Homelands, and eventually took him as her lover. While searching the cosmos for signs of the marauding Tevesh Szat (unseen on Dominaria since his defeat at the hands of Jaeuhl Carthalion) , Ravidel discovered this blooming romance. Unbeknownst to Kristina, Ravidel led Taysir to one of her trysts with Sandruu, and Taysir, still obsessed with her, became furious.

Taysir pursued Sandruu back to Ulgrotha, and engaged the minotaur in a magic duel. At the duel’s climax, Taysir banished Sandruu to a plane so desolate and remote, that it would take the minotaur a thousand years to find his way back.

Taysir was then engaged by Feroz, the planeswalker guardian of the Homelands, who broke a vow of peace to avenge Sandruu. Taysir was physically destroyed in this duel, but his spirit was exiled to the plane regarded as the afterlife by the Anaba minotaurs of Ulgrotha.

There, over a course of two hundred years, he was taught redemption by the Ancestors, and he learned once again to be humble and compassionate. Eventually, he resumed his corporeal form, the remains of which had been guarded in a cave by the Anaba, his body had withered and looked much older, Taysir could have changed this but chose to keep his new form as a reminder of his follies. Even though he returned to the planes of the living, because of Feroz’s Ban, Taysir was locked on the plane of the Homelands for decades thereafter. Taysir chose to renew his interest in his scholarly pursuits and especially map making.

The Shadow Mage

Centuries had passed in Arathoxia and the Scarlet Vizier saw the House Carthalion and its lord, Adam, rise to major prominence on Corondor. Carthalion married a powerful mage named Gwendolyn Mor of Golthonor (daughter of the planeswalker, Grenfell), but he also began to realize something was wrong.

Signs and portents all pointed to the fact that Dominaria was due for yet another disaster. Lord Carthalion’s brief encounters with Ravidel (who sought to lure the wizard into his conspiracy of conquest), only served to prove that the world’s power elite were being used as pawns in a cosmic chess game. In an effort to protect his land, Lord Carthalion enlisted the aid of his spellsquire, Ezer, and embarked upon a (deluded) quest to grab the power he needed to become a planeswalker.

But Carthalion’s hunger for power proved to be his undoing, and soon he lost sight of his morals. He slaughtered the innocent in acquiring powerful spells and artifacts. He even sacrificed his wife to Ravidel, in a bizarre attempt to grab power from the being he hated most.

Only when Ravidel demanded the sacrifice of Carthalion’s son Jared, in the autumn of 1265 by the reckoning of the Sages of Minorad, did Adam Carthalion come to his senses-lashing out at the evil planeswalker in the Battle of Aster Fall.

Ravidel slew Lord Carthalion that night, but the heir to Castle Melmereth, Jared Carthalion, was spirited away by the spellsquire Ezer. Over the next sixteen years Ravidel plotted the fall of Corondor, and searched for Jared, whose magical potential was the greatest Ravidel has encountered since his tutelage under Taysir.

In the Homelands, Feroz had died some years before, and now the Ban he had created had begun to disintegrate. Taysir took on a pupil named Daria, but with the ban’s final collapse Taysir chose to remain to complete Daria’s education rather than take to the planes, however he never forgot his love for Kristina, his vow to bring justice upon Tevesh Szat, or his desire to go home. Eventually, when he felt Daria was mature enough to look after herself for short periods he began to take tentative steps back into the multiverse.

Taysir’s first visit was to Leshrac in Phyrexia. Seeing that Leshrac had not rehabilitated (and indeed had seemed to go mad), Taysir left him in his prison and continued his search for a way back to Rabiah the Infinite. Unfortunately, Taysir had all but forgotten Ravidel, who was still in the process of launching his mad scheme in Taysir’s name! Taysir would come and go from the Homelands for the next couple of years, eventually Daria was ready to accompany him. She was reaching her 14th year and her planeswalker spark was beggining to blossom.

Back on Corondor, the Scarlet Vizier was so busy building up his own power and concentrating on a way of betraying and grabbing power from his master Ravidel that a resistance movement in Arathoxia grew and flourished. When Arathoxian resistance to the puppet rule of the Vizier grew too great, Ravidel launched an all-out assault on the city. This resulted in the city’s destruction, and the slaying of the Scarlet Vizier. Jared Carthalion, who had been living in the city amongst a band of street urchins, finally puzzled together enough of his secret past to realize Ravidel was his arch-enemy, and escaped the conflagration.

With Liana free of the Scarlet Vizier’s hold, she joined Jared in a final assault against Ravidel at Castle Melmereth. The resulting chaos destroyed the castle and maimed Ravidel, but not before the villain filled Jared’s head with a twisted version of history–setting the boy on a wandering quest of self-discovery, and buying time for Ravidel to heal, though both Jared and Liana believed Ravidel was dead.

Some years later, Jared was discovered by Kristina, who had been living in Corondor, and monitoring Ravidel’s progress. While Kristina was forced to uphold her vow against fighting Ravidel, she resolved to teach Jared the true ways of magic, in hopes that he will be able to defeat the villain. Ironically, she often uses the wisdom of Taysir to inspire the Shadow Mage, not knowing that it was Taysir who sparked Ravidel’s thirteen hundred year plan to turn Dominaria into a raging battleground.

In the spring of 1281, deep within the White Woods (aka the Quirion Woods), a Force of Nature recognized Jared as a potential Ley Druid, and revealed to Jared and Kristina that Ravidel was alive and in pursuit of the Moxes, five colored gems that store enormous magical power held by Liana. Should Ravidel gain the Moxes, he could use them to restore himself of the maiming dealt him by Jared’s Shivan Dragon, and complete his mission of preparing Corondor to become a beacon to lure Tevesh Szat home. In Minorad, Liana engaged Ravidel in a duel in which the villain finally broke his oath against doing harm to the Sages.

In a desperate attempt to keep the Moxes from Ravidel, Liana gave them to an arriving Jared and Kristina. She told them that Ravidel could be disarmed of the Argivan Sylex by use of a spell that could be found hidden in the waters off the coast of the Isle of Corundis, east of Corondor. She hastened their escape by tricking Ravidel into following her into the Nether Void. There, Liana was killed by Ravidel.

In Golthonor, Jared and Kristina met Jared’s maternal grandfather, Grenfell. Grenfell revealed the story of Ravidel’s invasion of the Summit of Minorad to the Shadow Mage, vilifying Kristina’s involvement. It was he who had been working on a counter-spell to Ravidel’s Argivan Sylex, and after an attempt at betraying Kristina and Jared, he was forced to give it up. The spell was called “Rust.” On his sixteenth birthday, Jared and his mentor Kristina became lovers.

In the Dueling Chasms of Corondor, Jared and Kristina were joined by Altair of Coloni and the Nightmare Caliphear, and together they challenged Ravidel. The villain revealed that he has been trained by none other than Kristina’s “dear friend,” Taysir, and that enough damage had already been done to attract Tevesh Szat back to Dominaria. Only then, declares Ravidel, can Taysir take revenge on the Doom of Fools.

In the desperate battle that followed, Jared managed to destroy Ravidel’s Sylex, ending his direct threat to the Sages of Minorad. However, Jared refused to use black magic to destroy Ravidel, as it would have involved the sacrifice of one of his friends. Ravidel took advantage of this, and used his unparalleled skill to kill Altair, defeat Jared’s alliance, and take the Moxes. Only a well-placed Fissure spell, the Shadow Mage’s nascent planeswalking ability, and a rescue by the Quirion elves, prevented Jared and Kristina from being killed.

It is said that the culmination of these events were witnessed by Daria (cloaked in an illusion to make her appear to be Liana)-the first to arrive in response to Ravidel’s beacon. It is likely that where Daria is, there is Taysir. However, Taysir, has not shown himself yet and none know his plans.

Magic: The Gathering – BattleMage

As I write these words, Ravidel has fused the five Moxes into a Mox Beacon, an artifact that sends out waves of magical energy designed to draw planeswalkers to Corondor. In particular, Ravidel seeks to draw the attention of Tevesh Szat, so that he may at last take his revenge. Indeed, the beacon has already freed Leshrac from Phyrexia. From his centuries long exile, Sandruu the minotaur comes to re-claim the woman he loves. And from planes so dark even the Serra fear to tread there, comes a figure out of Legends, the creator of Dakkon Blackblade and Sol’Kanar, the demoness Geyadrone Dihada arrives to reclaim both her long-lost lieutenant and the land she wished to consume.

Once the planeswalkers arrive, Ravidel has concieved of a way to empty the spell troves of his enemies and short out their connection to the land that provides them with mana, magical energy. That this method will also strip his own spells matters not to the madman, he has prepared and will race to re-acquire enough land and spells to crush his enemies.

As major powers. old and new prepare to descend upon Corondor A tremendous war is at hand, with numerous planeswalkers stepping up to stop Ravidel-or join him. The Shadow Mage and his surviving friends must seek new allies, and prepare for the ultimate duel…a planeswalker war that will engulf all of Corondor.

Ravidel is terribly powerful, however, and the outcome of the war is cloudy, even to those of us among the Serra. We do not know who will live, and who will die. We have caught glimpses of the mysterious planeswalker Teferi, who phases in and out of reality like a Mirage, and we do not know what role he and the new spells of the dark continent of Jamuraa will play. My sisters and I hope to see Ravidel put down at last, like a once honorable but now mad dog, so that his centuries of slaughter and deception may at last come to an end.

It is in your hands, planeswalker. Read this account and know that Ravidel is a force of evil, a liar, and a beast of the worst sort. He will honor no bond, respect no authority. He will keep on hurting and killing until, like a frenzied, wounded tiger, he is slain.

I leave this account here in Corondor, in the hopes that it will be of use. I pray to Serra that I may return to this text soon, and record within these last few pages how the “Journeying Angel”, the BattleMage Ravidel was at long last slain, and peace restored to Dominaria. But alas, the Mox Beacon flares, and the storm clouds gather. There will be no peace…until there is war.