Archive Trap: Liliana, Garruk, and the Veil


The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

Welcome to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! In this installment, we talk about Liliana and Garruk, a tale about the Chain Veil and its curse, but one that also encompasses Jace Beleren, Ob Nixilis and Nicol Bolas! Liliana was supposed to get her own planeswalker novel in 2010, but that book was cancelled and its material presumably repurposed for the Liliana stories we’ve been drip fed over the last five years. As always, we encourage you to read the source material for whatever we mention here. Every story mentioned is either available for free online or purchasable as an e-book.

 


Pretty much the only time Liliana is sympathetic
Liliana, Heretical Healer art by Karla Ortiz

Origins

 

A little over a hundred years before the current story, Liliana Vess is young woman of noble birth on Dominaria. She is the daughter of a famous general currently engaged in a war, the details of which are never made clear. Because of her reckless ways, her father apprentices her to Lady Ana, a great healer. While Liliana is a fair student, she finds herself tempted by the darker side of healing: powers that will lead her to her necromantic ways. When her brother Josu falls ill after being struck by a mage blade, Lady Ana sends her after the cure that will stave off his growing corruption: esis root.

Liliana ventures into the nearby Caligo Forest, while the sounds of battle and death echo in the woods. She is startled by a mysterious stranger with golden eyes as she heads to the esis root grove. The man, who claims to be a faithful servant of her father’s, warns her that the enemy is approaching. He tells her that the grove she seeks has been burned by enemy skin-witches. He reveals knowledge of Liliana that no one should know, including her affinity for darker arts. He encourages her to embrace that dark power, which far outstripped her abilities as a healer, then disappears into a flock of ravens (although not expressly stated, this entity is the Raven Man, a recurring character in Liliana’s story).

Liliana heads to the burned grove and uses her dark power to battle the witches, draining their life force. Once defeated, all she can find is a piece of burned esis root, so she uses the life she stole from the witches to reinvigorate it before returning home. She uses the revived esis root to brew a glowing golden potion that she intends to give to her brother. Lady Ana attempts to dissuade her from administering the unfamiliar potion, but Liliana presses on and pours the drink down her brother’s throat. To her horror, the potion kills Josu and then revives him as a monster. He kills everyone in the room, then turns on Liliana. Liliana’s spells only seem to strengthen him as she desperately tries to defend herself. He presses on and gains the upper hand, draining Liliana’s life force. In her horror, Liliana’s spark ignites and she is filled with a surge of raw power. She raises the corpses of the dead in the room to attack Josu before she is carried away across the blind eternities. Note: The Raven’s Eye Part 1 and The Fourth Pact both tell of the same event in Liliana’s past but slightly differently. As it is the most recent, The Fourth Pact trumps The Raven’s Eye when they conflict.

 


Tuition fees are ridiculous these days
Demonic Tutor art by Scott Chou

Liliana’s spark carries her to an unfamiliar but inviting plane: Innistrad. On Innistrad she finds a world perfect for her to hone her necromantic powers and spends time practicing on both the living and the dead. Eventually, she is ready to return to Dominaria and confront the Raven Man. Once home, she earns the attention of an Archangel. Having grown more than powerful enough to take it on, her undead minions kill the angel, but not before Liliana takes its tiara for her own. Note: this last bit was originally listed as taking place on Innistrad, however Magic: Duels confirms it takes place on Dominaria upon her return.

When Liliana returns to Dominaria, she finds that she has been exiled for killing the heir to her house. No matter what she tried, she could not undue what she had done to Josu. Her father casts her out for damning his heir, and so she spends the next century out in the multiverse. During this time she is able to track down and best the Raven Man, although he still lives. And she enjoys her power until a crisis on her home plane results in a personal problem. The Mending has mutated the planeswalker spark and taken Liliana’s vast power and youth with it. For decades, she tries to regain that power, until finally in desperation she allies herself with the Elder Dragon Nicol Bolas. Bolas presents her with a solution: pacts with four demons, power in exchange for her soul.

Each deal regains her a little bit of herself. Her first three deals with the demons Razaketh, Belzenlok, and Griselbrand regain a significant amount of her power, although the specifics of each deal are unknown. Her final deal with the demon Kothophed would restore her youth and grant her agelessness, but first she must to do battle with the demon. As a lesson on what would happen if she tried to escape her deal, the demon handily defeats her and cuts her open, revealing her younger self underneath. He then scratches the terms of their pact onto her flesh. Liliana is left stronger than she has been in decades, but finds herself at the mercy of the demons who will come to collect her soul. And the clock is ticking.

As a young boy, Garruk begins learning nature magic under the tutelage of his father. One day, as Garruk first learns to use his magic to sprout a seed, the sheriff of their shire arrives to conscript Garruk. Every boy that reaches the age of ten in the land of their liege lord is put to work in the lord's army. Garruk’s father objects and tells Garruk to run into the forest, giving him a talisman that will allow Garruk to hear his father’s voice before turning to fight the sheriff’s men. Garruk flees into the woods while his father gives him advice through the talisman, presumably having been captured. The sheriff’s men give chase, but Garruk stumbles upon an enormous baloth that eats the soldiers while Garruk escapes.

Garruk’s father continues to talk to him while Garruk tries to survive in the woods, but his father screams in pain and then grows steadily weaker. He advises Garruk against trusting people and to instead to trust in nature. Garruk begins to use his power as a nature mage to befriend the baloths of the woods. Garruk lives in the forest for seven years, befriending wurm and baloth alike until he’s finally ready to return to civilization. When he does, he uses his baloths to force a confrontation with the sheriff. The sheriff tells Garruk his father is still alive and leads him down into a dungeon, where he reveals a cell with the bones of Garruk’s father and the sword that killed him still lodged in his skeleton. The sheriff locks the door behind Garruk, intending to let him rot, but Garruk summons one of his wurms to kill the sheriff and make his escape. Fully distrustful of people and civilization, Garruk leaves again for the forest.

 


Much to my dismay, this was not a picture book! Enjoy random card art!
Snuff Out art by Steve Argyle

Agents of Artifice

 

Years after making her pacts, Liliana’s demons are getting ready to collect on their deals. To save herself, she allies once more with Nicol Bolas, about the only being in the multiverse capable of ending her debts. She proposes a plan to regain something Bolas wants. A splinter of Bolas' interplanar network, called the Infinite Consortium, has rebelled against him. Liliana devises a labrythine plan to overthrow the usurper, Tezzeret, and restore control of the Consortium to Bolas. Bolas agrees to intercede on her behalf if she successfully returns control of the Consortium.

After working for the Consortium as a freelancer, presumably looking to get insider knowledge of the organization, Liliana finally finds her chance when Jace Beleren flees from the organization with his friend Kallist. Liliana "stumbles" across the two of them while claiming she was also on the run from the Consortium. Jace detects no deception from her, showing Liliana has the unique ability to avoid mental manipulation, and eventually a love triangle forms between the three of them, but an attack from Tezzeret leaves a shaken Jace to botch a reckless spell, one that swaps his mind with his friend's. Liliana, horrified, goes along with the switch and leaves with "Kallist," or rather Kallist’s mind in Jace’s body. Months later and seeing no changes, she forces the issue by hiring a mercenary to make an attempt on "Jace's" life. She and "Kallist" defeat the assassins sent after them and set out to save "Jace" from this mercenary. They're too late, as they arrive to find "Jace" being attacked then killed. "Kallist" is hit by a surge of magic and Jace's mind is restored as his friend dies.

Liliana uses her own betrayals to make Jace believe Tezzeret is still hunting him. Eventually, they go to Nicol Bolas, who gives Jace a means of tracking down Tezzeret. He and Liliana follow Baltrice, one of Tezzeret's lackeys, to Tezzeret's tower on an unnamed plane. Jace discovers Liliana's betrayal but is captured. Liliana finally comes clean to Jace about her demons, but not her plan about the consortium, and she rescues Jace. The pair form a plan to hand Tezzeret over to Bolas, but Jace, sick of Liliana's manipulations, leaves her in the cold after defeating Tezzeret. When Jace doesn't return to their rendevouz, Liliana returns to Bolas in disgrace. Unable to hold up her end of the deal, she's forced to look for other means of breaking her bargain.

 


Fun Fact: The Veil's design includes the Planeswalker Symbol Upside-Down
The Chain Veil art by Volkan Baga

The Chain Veil

 

On Shandalar, a group of bandits hide away in a small farmhouse with a chest of treasure. They speak of being chased by a woman, just before Liliana breaks in. The bandits are worried that she is there for the chest they hold, but she reveals wants the aid of one of the bandits to help her kill the viceroy of the area. Before she can recruit him, however, an angel destroys the roof and smites one of their number. The angel calls out the demon among them. The bandits panic, as this is the "she" they referred to hounding them earlier, and the angel goes about smiting almost all of the bandits. Liliana, furious with the angel and assuming the angel was referring to her as a demon, decides to take action. She binds the angel with darkness while one of the remaining bandits stabs it. With its dying breath, the angel gasps out a warning about "the darkness" being released. On the angel's demise, Liliana once more asks the remaining bandits for their aid. A few days later a surviving bandit smuggles the treasure chest into the Onakke Catacombs. He opens the chest to reveal a veil that he places on an Onakke skeleton in an act of reverence, making it clear the bandits were actually cultists.

Elsewhere on Shandalar, Garruk is on the hunt for a creature called the Ursoth. His internal monologue shows that he’s got a growing sense that people see him as a monster because they see only the results of his kills. His line of thought is cut short when the object of his hunt ambushes him. The Ursoth shows incredible speed and strength so Garruk dons his helmet and summons a horde of his trademark beasts to help him take it down. The creature is defeated, but rather than killing it, Garruk marks it, absorbing its essence to summon forth when needed. Garruk finishes his internal monologue by stating he’s not just a monster, he’s a legion of them.

Unfortunately for Liliana, she's unable to find a way to break her pacts before her demons begin calling in their markers. Kothophed tasks her with retrieving an artifact for him. She laments having needed him more than he needs her, and so she sets out in search of The Chain Veil to retrieve for her demon master. Kothophed doesn’t tell her the veil’s purpose and warns her against trying to use it. Along the way she encounters a beast belonging to Garruk, and it scares her horse so much it throws her. While the beast feeds on Liliana’s mount, she kills it in frustration and moves on to the Onakke Catacombs. Inside she finds the Onakke skeleton where the cultist’s artifact was delivered, but is forced to climb into the alcove where the skeleton is interred to avoid more beasts following her. She uses her necromancy to revive the skeleton and grabs what she believes to be the veil from the skeleton’s tusks before setting it against the beasts. Liliana revels in the power of the catacomb, realizing that Kothophed intends to use this power for his own ends. Outside, Garruk finds the body of his first dead beast and begins hunting down the one who killed it.

 


This is an awesome moment I'm surprised isn't really on a card.
The Hunter and the Veil Part III art by Alex Horley-Orlandelli

Liliana's revelry is short lived. She hears the echoes of the dead Onakke, and they debate but decide she might be strong enough to be their vessel. The false veil is destroyed and she senses that it wasn't the real power. Liliana demands the voices show her more, and she walks through a newly opened portal just as Garruk arrives and demands she stop. The Onakke spirits imply that Garruk is part of their plan, and he bashes through the now solid wall to find Liliana. The Onakke promise Liliana great power if she takes the veil, and that she can protect her soul with it. Liliana takes the veil just as Garruk summons the Ursoth to attack her. With the power of the veil, she easily dispatches the creature and then curses Garruk. The Onakke whispher to her that this new power is the combined strength of the Onakke. It's possibly the strength of all the planeswalkers to wear it before her. It's not clear, but later stories imply it's the Onakke. With her new prize in place, Garruk writhing on the ground in pain, and the catacombs seeming to fall apart around her, Liliana planeswalks away.

Garruk frees himself from the rubble but finds that he is trapped in the catacombs, and worse, he can feel death magic under his skin. He summons a beast for help, but finds that it comes out sickly and corrupt, cursed to live in pure agony. He mercy kills the corrupted beast and digs himself out of the catacomb instead. When he emerges, Liliana’s trail has gone cold, so Garruk heads to Ravnica to find Jace Beleren, the only person he knows in the multiverse who may know how to find Liliana. Garruk breaks through Jace’s defenses and demands Liliana’s location. Jace tells Garruk he needs healing, offering to bring him to visit his friend Emmara. As Garruk prepares to sink his axe into Jace, Jace calls him a monster and brings Garruk back to his senses. Garruk says he doesn’t believe Emmara can heal him because it isn’t a physical illness. Jace reluctantly tells Garruk he might find Liliana on a plane called Tavelia, and Garruk leaves Jace with some critical information: the map he is studying leads to Zendikar.

Elsewhere, Liliana lays siege to a castle using the power of the veil. Drunk on its power, she kills everyone inside and lounges upon the throne. Contemplating its power, she realizes it could grant her the power to kill Kothophed himself. She planeswalks away to confront her first demon as Sarkhan Vol reports to Nicol Bolas that she is taking the veil. Liliana confronts Kothophed while using the veil and easily overpowers him, ignoring his pleas and warnings about the veil. To Liliana's dismay, killing Kothophed did not remove his etchings from her skin. They begin to bleed as she sits to think about her path forward.

Liliana’s next step is to resurrect a cleric she has heard knows more about the Onakke than anyone, in an attempt to rid herself of the veil. The cleric’s resurrected corpse calls her Lili although she doesn't notice the tell at first. She is weak from her overuse of the veil and locks herself in a stone barn with the corpse while townsfolk outside try to break down the door. As they talk, she is wounded by an explosive and the corpse helps her to the roof. It tells her that the bond between herself and the veil is not easily broken, and refers to her as its vessel. The cleric’s corpse reveals itself to actually be the Raven Man, and he lectures her about being free, before healing her with a similar potion to the one given to Josu. Now healed, Liliana lashes out at the corpse and the Raven Man before donning the veil once more. She decides that the veil is the lesser problem if an eternity of suffering awaits her if she dies, and she planeswalks away once more.

While searching for Liliana Vess, Garruk hunts down warlords for the gorgon of The Gorgon’s Haunt, a small fortress full of monsters. He delivers a warlord the gorgon wants dead, but gives a false name, Jace Beleren, and demands information on Liliana’s whereabouts. The gorgon reneges on their deal and feigns ignorance on Liliana’s location. Garruk leaves, but spies on the gorgon with the same talisman he had used to hear his father’s voice, planted on the now-dead warlord he had delivered. From the gorgon he learns of a name Liliana spoke: Kothophed.

 


The companion piece with this art is controversial to say the least
Triumph of Cruelty art by Izzy

Innistrad

 

On Innistrad, Griselbrand was enacting his own plans. His scheme: to destroy Avacyn, an angel created by Sorin Markov to keep the balance between the monsters of the world and the human population. Powerful demons on Innistrad can’t be killed permanently. When destroyed, they eventually re-form into a new, equally powerful demon. Instead, Avacyn imprisons the strongest demons in the Helvault, a holy relic of the Church of Avacyn. The secret of the Helvault is known only the very highest order of the Church of Avacyn. Griselbrand duels with Avacyn in the Helvault courtyards and tricks her into sealing herself in the Helvault alongside him. The church covers up this event, and the people are left to wonder at the waning power the church’s magic provides.

Liliana’s quest to free herself from her debts takes her to Innistrad to confront Griselbrand. But when she arrives on Innistrad, Griselbrand is nowhere to be found, and neither is Avacyn. Liliana begings tracking down any connection she can find to the demon. Eventually, she learns of a cult of human demon worshippers known as the Skirsdag, and their trail leads her to the capital city of Thraben, all the while dodging the cursed Garruk, who continues to hunt her. He befriends a pack of werewolves who try to do good with their curse, but he finds himself consumed more and more by the bloodlust. When he catches Liliana, her powers overwhelm him and she leaves Garruk for dead in a swamp.

While Liliana searched for Griselbrand, however, Thraben was under siege. The twins Gisa and Geralf, necromancers through magic and science respectively, laid siege to the city. During this siege, Geralf snuck into the city and murdered the pontiff of the Church, known as the Lunarch, Mikaeus. Before he can leave, however, the siege is lifted and Liliana arrives. Thalia, the recently promoted guardian of Thraben, led the twin’s combined forces into a trap and burned their zombie army along with the outer ring of the city.

Liliana tracks down and questions the leader of the cultists, but he reveals that only Mikaeus, now dead, could give her the answer to what happened to Griselbrand. Liliana gets the location of his burial place and raises Mikeaus from the dead. Mikeaus reveals to her what happened, and Liliana raises a fresh, or not-so-fresh as the case may be, army of zombies and storms the cathedral where the Helvault is located. Thalia moves to stop her, but Liliana paralyzes her holy soldiers, known as Cathars, and gives her an ultimatum between opening the Helvault and the death of all of her people. Thalia makes her decision, the Helvault is destroyed, releasing Avacyn and every demon she had contained therein, including Griselbrand. Avacyn’s release begins a resurgence in the church’s power and balance begins to be restored once more.

Griselbrand attempts to escape, but Liliana follows him across Innistrad. The two face off, the Chain Veil giving Liliana too much of an edge, and Griselbrand is obliterated entirely. It’s unclear from the story whether or not he’ll reform as a new demon. The victory continues to worry Liliana about the cost taken on herself by using the veil. Is she freeing herself, or just indebting herself to a new master?

 


Garruk hasn't showered in twenty years
In Garruk's wake art by Chase Stone

Garruk’s Curse

 

With Avacyn free and the balance if the plane so heavily skewed against her people, Avacyn unleashes the cursemute on Innistrad. This cursemute changes most werewolves, beings created from an inharmony in the spirit, to Wolfir, more majestic beings in harmony. The cursemute helps Garruk, but only temporarily. Defeated by Liliana, he wanders Innistrad in attempt to pick up her trail once more. The cathar Odric comes across the weakened Garruk and subdues him, but for a reason not explained does not return to Thraben with him as he intends. Instead, Avacyn tasks Vronos, a native planeswalker of Innistrad and sworn cathar, to track down and capture Garruk. Vronos fails, and is beheaded in the process, with Garruk taking his mask as a trophy. This is the opening scene of Duels 2015.

On Ravnica, Jace faces down the serial killing planeswalker Vraska and learns that something has happened to Garruk. At some point, it’s unclear whether this is narration for the player or something Jace actually knows, Jace tracks down information on the Onakke, the curse, and Ob Nixilis, and how they’re all connected. He hires a nameless planeswalker, the player character, with the strength to fight Garruk, something Jace has never been able to do successfully. He tells the planeswalker of an altar in the Onakke ruins that Garruk is being drawn to, and tasks the planeswalker to destroy the Onakke Altar to prevent Garruk’s full transformation into a demon. Jace leaves the planeswalker with a final warning: that Garruk is hunting them, too.

After a long journey across many planes and finding the corpses of the planeswalkers who came before, the unnamed planeswalker tracks down and challenges Ob Nixilis, into whom Nahiri implanted a power-dampening Hedron into centuries earlier. Ob Nixilis allows himself to be defeated and plays dead while the planeswalker removes the Hedron. Jace’s plan was to face Garruk together, but as Ob Nixilis is defeated, Garruk emerges and tells him it’s too late. The unnamed planeswalker and Garruk battle, and Garruk is defeated, but this defeat only causes a further transformation in Garruk, causing him to become more demonic in appearance. Garruk is weakened enough that the unnamed planeswalker implants the Hedron in Garruk’s chest. On Zendikar, Ob Nixilis, formerly cursed by the veil and his power weakened thanks to the Hedron, stretches his wings once more and relishes in the return of much of his power as he plots his next move.

After the Hedron has had time to work, Jace tracks down Garruk again to see how effective it was at halting the curse. Jace pretends to be Liliana to provoke a reaction, but Garruk handles it calmly and immediately recognizes it as a ruse. He grabs Jace and begins to choke him, admonishing him for his over-reliance on illusions and telling him to learn to fight, or find others who are stronger to fight with him. Jace enters his mind to see if Garruk is free of the curse, and to Jace’s surprise he is. Jace agrees to leave Garruk alone and returns to Ravnica. Garruk, relieved, allows his real weakness to show. The Hedron is taking its toll on Garruk, and he’s weaker than he was before even though the curse is contained. Another planeswalker, nicknamed Icy by Garruk, watched Garruk and Jace’s confrontation and strikes once Jace leaves. He had been paid by Vronos to help take down Garruk, but had waited after seeing how quickly the others had all been killed. Garruk kills him as well, revealing that while he is no longer out of control, he is still fundamentally changed from what he was before.

 


I feel like a lot of Liliana's problems could be resolved with a scarecrow
Art by Adame Minguez

The Price of Power

 

Liliana returns to Shandalar to learn more about the Onakke, the ancient race who created the Veil. This likely takes place before Duels 2015, as the ruins haven’t collapsed yet. Voices from the veil echo loudly in her mind, and she heads out to where she found it. On entering the ruins once more, an angel bars her way. The angel attempts to warn her about the veil, but Liliana destroys the angel and begins to move on. The angel’s final words distract her: that she is the vessel for the Onakke, and may be responsible for freeing them. At this revelation, the voices echo loudly in her head and she has a vision of what is presumably the Onakke civilization being destroyed. In this vision she sees the Raven Man, and he seems to see her. She lashes out at him, but strikes only the ruins and is shocked out of the vision. She returns to where she claimed the veil and tries to return it while arguing with the voices. Every time she tries to let go, however, she finds she can’t get rid of it. Finally, one of the Onakke skeletons awakens and its spirit manifests. Liliana attempts to use her magic on it, but it just passes through the spirit. She argues with the spirit, and the spirit tells that they’re still waiting on the seed that was planted when she killed her brother to bloom and bring about destruction. Frustrated, she taps into the veil’s full power and snuffs out the spirit before leaving Shandalar once more to seek help.

Her first stop? Jace Beleren, now the Living Guildpact. After finishing with supplicants for the day, Jace retires to his sanctum but has an unexpected knock at the door. Unexpected because the location of his sanctum is a closely guarded secret and the knock was coming through a door connected to an entirely different district. Behind the door is Liliana, who wants Jace’s help with the veil. Jace is reluctant to trust her after her betrayal in Agents of Artifice, but he is eventually convinced to hear her out over dinner. Liliana never gets around to making her plea for help, however. She talks around her issues coyly and soon their dinner is interrupted by a wounded Gideon. Gideon has come to Jace for help on Zendikar because of his nature as a planeswalker and his experience with leyline puzzles. Liliana storms off in a huff as Jace agrees to help Gideon, too prideful to have actually asked for help.

Liliana had wanted Jace’s help to figure out the hold the veil has on her mind. She refused to help on Zendikar because it would mean using the veil’s power again, and losing more of her control. As she broods, she fails to notice an unkindness of ravens beginning to surround her. She moves to an empty courtyard and watches as the Raven Man appears once more. The Raven Man argues with her and mocks her, but Liliana refuses to believe that there is nothing to do but accept her fate. In their confrontation, the Raven Man appears to be able to physically touch her and read her mind. She tries to attack him, but he disappears into a flock of ravens, most of which she kills, before Liliana planeswalks away. She has decided that she needs to solve her own problems, and sets out for points unknown.

That’s it this time! Liliana is beset on all sides by enemies. Her final two demons, Razaketh and Belzenlok, still own pieces of her soul. The Raven Man’s mysterious agenda and influence have seemingly shaped her life, and it’s unclear whether he’s imagined, physically real or a spirit hitching a ride in her psyche. Garruk is presumably still not very happy with her, although it’s unclear whether he is still actively hunting her or not. It looks like we'll be exploring Liliana's story further soon.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments or on the forum, and we’ll address it in future updates. Have a suggestion for something you’d like to see? Let us know, and we could address it in a future column. As always, you can check out our Wiki to learn more.

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