The World of Zendikar Part V: Battle for Zendikar


The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Today we return once more to the World of Zendikar, the plane that jumpstarted our articles and that we returned to in Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. In Part I, we filled you in on all the key players and gave you a little bit of background on each. We also talked about the geography of Zendikar itself, which is as much a character as anything else, with its Roil-torn landscape, ancient dungeons and flavorful artwork. In Part II, we took you back 6,000 years into Zendikar’s past, where three planeswalkers decided the fate of Zendikar, and then took you all the way to just after the Eldrazi's release and Gideon's vow to find help. In Part III we filled you in on what happened between Gideon’s vow to find help and his eventual return to the plane, leading right up to Battle for Zendikar. Part IV explored what changed since we were last around and addressed the plane as it exists now. Today we will talk about the plot of Battle for Zendikar and the end of the Eldrazi conflict.


The Story of Battle for Zendikar

Battle for Zendikar represents the first fully serialized online story for Wizards. If the below wall of text looks a little too long for you, or you want to read all the stories for yourself, the Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch story summaries are what you are looking for. You can read the (much) shorter summary that Wizards put together or download the whole story as an ebook compilation. Below is our own summary, if you want more detail than the official summary provides, but do not want to spend hours reading the whole thing.


Is this meant to be the Sea Gate slaughter? Because... I do not see Sea Gate anywhere.
Gruesome Slaughter by Aleksi Briclot

The Loss of Sea Gate

Jace and Gideon return to Zendikar to find Sea Gate in ruins. Gideon was away too long and Sea Gate was completely overwhelmed. Uncertain what to do, they fight their way to a small group of survivors. Jace does not fight well, but Gideon manages to fight off waves of Eldrazi to ensure the survivors escape. They learn that Vorik has taken the remainder of the survivors toward Emeria. Jace arrives and asks around for Jori En, but all he finds out is that she is believed to have been trapped in Sea Gate while the others escaped. Jace meets Tazri, Vorik’s second-in-command, and Vorik — who is gravely wounded. Gideon leaves to find Jori and their last hope of saving Zendikar. Jace, ever pragmatic, believes it to be a fool’s errand.

Elsewhere on Tazeem, Nissa and Ashaya are spending their days protecting the Vastwood Forest and its people from Eldrazi predations. In an effort to save a group of survivors, Nissa wins a battle against many Eldrazi, but one slips by and destroys an important grove of trees. As she travels more, her connection to Zendikar is suddenly cut off and the elemental Ashaya crumbles to nothing. Unsure what happened, she starts moving in the direction of Emeria when she runs into Jori En and another small group of survivors. They are beset by more Eldrazi and are rescued at the last minute by a team of Kor accompanied by Gideon. Nissa learns Gideon is a planeswalker and asks Gideon if he felt something that would account for what happened to her, but he did not. Nissa is left wondering what happened to her connection to Zendikar, and she feels truly alone.


The first half of the story would have been better titled Nissa's Angst.
Nissa's Renewal by Lius Lasahido

At the burgeoning allied camp, called Skyrock, Jace is approached by Jori En while she studies one of the hedrons. To ease things along, Jace looks into her mind to learn what she knows of the Hedrons. Gideon approaches them and Jace announces that they have to go to the Eye of Ugin. Gideon insists that they need to stay and fortify the encampment instead, but his argument is undercut when he learns that Nissa left during the night. Gideon and Jace argue over the right course of action, with Gideon advocating for the immediate problems of the Zendikari and Jace for the bigger picture.

Jace and Jori En leave on their own for the Eye. Shortly after leaving, Jori strikes up a conversation about Jace’s power and how tempting it must be to use it to change people. Jace could have convinced Gideon to believe in their mission, and no one ever really knows if he did more while inside their minds than he said. Days later, they lose control of their Hurda after spotting a horde of Eldrazi. A Kor woman — Ayli — saves them. Ayli leads them to a place called Sanctuary, but Jori and Jace quickly learn that Ayli is not what she seems. Ayli is a member of a cult who call themselves the Eternal Pilgrims, and the Pilgrims want to use Jace and Jori as sacrifices to Ulamog, who appears on the Horizon. To escape, Jace uses his illusions to make the cultists believe he is a pyromancer. He makes them all believe they are burning while he and Jori make their escape. Once away, the two realize that Ulamog was heading in the direction of Sea Gate. They argue over how to warn the Sea Gate survivors, and Jace uses his power to force her to go back. By the time Jori snaps out of it, Jace is already long gone.

Back at the fledgling camp, now called Sky Rock, Gideon tries to build it into a fortified position. He and Tazri clash over priorities, she insists that he should be helping gathering food while Gideon keeps trying to help elsewhere. Gideon also wants to stay and begin to build a counterattack, while Tazri and Vorik want to regroup and retreat to Zulaport. Vorik – slowly dying – begins to defer more and more to Gideon, a fact which embitters Tazri further. In her view, they should not trust anything to the planeswalkers who could cut and run at any time. The argument to stand their ground or flee comes to a head when refugees from Ondu arrive at the camp claiming there is nothing left on Ondu for the survivors to retreat to. Survivors from all over the plane are headed to Sea Gate, believing it to be their last hope. During a heated debate in Vorik’s tent, Gideon proposes a bold plan to retake Sea Gate, stating that survival alone is not enough. Vorik takes this glimmer of hope to heart and places Gideon in charge, further alienating him from Tazri. At Vorik’s burial, Gideon delivers a passionate speech about retaking Zendikar which is quickly taken up by the other survivors.


Ugin does not lie, he just takes the Obi-Wan approach to the truth.
Ugin's Insight by Tyler Jacobson

Gathering Allies

Drana leads what remains of the people of Guul Draz following the Culling (a vampire civil war between the free and the thralls of Ulamog). Humans, vampires and others join together for a common goal of survival. She leads them on a long flight from the Eldrazi to the coast. There they are greeted by Kor Kitesail scouts sent by Gideon, bearing an invitation to join his allied forces. The meeting immediately becomes tense thanks to the child soldier brigade that Drana has enlisted. The scouts agree to aid Drana in battle against the Eldrazi pursuing her forces in exchange for joining Gideon’s coalition. Drana, however, sees the scouts as the perfect distraction for a particularly tough Eldrazi Sire that her forces have not been able to touch. She tricks the Kor into sacrificing themselves after ordering her child solders — the Orphan’s Brigade — into a suicide attack. It works as intended and she attacks the sire directly. She casts a spell to feed on the sire’s power, but as an unanticipated side effect she regains some memory of her time as an Eldrazi thrall. She learns that Ulamog wants to get away from Zendikar, and that the Eldrazi believe that they are feeding on a ‘broken’ world that “must be consumed and cleansed”. Her connection to the Eldrazi backfires, and she begins to take on Eldrazi characteristics and lose control. She fights it and reasserts her independence, stealing a massive amount of power that she uses to turn the tide in a blast of energy. After the battle, her forces want to retake Guul Draz, but she leads them to Sea Gate instead.

After leaving Sky Rock, Nissa wanders Tazeem aimlessly, trying to figure out what happened to her connection to the world. By chance, a goblin races past her, a small group of Eldrazi on her heels. Nissa fights them, but recognizes how much weaker she is without Ashaya. Munda arrives to help her, and inquires about the goblin. Nissa and Munda follow the goblin’s trail and find a large group of goblins trapped during a cave-in after hiding from the Eldrazi. The goblin from before was trying to rescue her friend, but by the time they arrived he was already dead. Munda leaves with the rest of the goblins, but the experience leads Nissa to believe that Zendikar must have also retreated somewhere, perhaps to the Khalni Heart. With that sudden insight, she planeswalks to Bala Ged to begin her search.

Following her confrontation with Thassa, Kiora arrives on Zendikar brimming with excitement over her newly acquired Bident. She immediately searches out her sister, Turi. After a long search, she encounters a group of merfolk under attack by Eldrazi, and uses her bident to create destructive whirlpools and summon sea creatures to help in the fight. She finds her sister among the group, but their reunion is cut short. Turi tells her about Sea Gate and Ulamog, but while Kiora wants to go fight, Turi wants to return home and check on the rest of their family. In the end, Kiora is only able to convince the Cosi worshipers (tricksters that are secretly important to merfolk society) to follow her in the fight. She and her sister part ways as Kiora leaves for Sea Gate.


Some of the 'pivotal moments' are pretty generic.
Outnumber by Tyler Jacobson

On her return to Bala Ged, Nissa is greeted by a desolate, chalky landscape. It was completely devoured, to the point where almost no Eldrazi remain. She begins to doubt herself as she moves through the barren wastes, until she stumbles across a lone Eldrazi and realizes there must still be life there. She eventually finds a cave with moss growing on the outside and enters. Inside, she finds a dying Khalni flower and realizes with a start that it was moved there on purpose — hedrons have been aligned around it creating an unnatural leyline pattern. While she is distracted, she is attacked by none other than Ob Nixilis. He believes her to be a servant of Nahiri at first, and as they fight it becomes clear that Ob has the upper hand. In a last-ditch effort, Nissa sends what remains of her power into the withered Khalni flower, which revives it and reconnects her to Zendikar’s power. With her power restored, she knocks Nixilis away and escapes as the cavern is destroyed and the Khalni flower disappears into the ground. Outside the cavern, she calls for Ashaya and the two return to Sea Gate.

The Khalni heart in Bala Ged is actually a second heart, according to the Zendikar Art Book. It states that Zendikar is using these to rebuild, but that it is believed that Bala Ged is not recovering as fast as it should be because all the elves there are either dead or have long since fled. This is the point where Nissa's connection to black mana is also brought back up. It is unclear how much of her history with black magic and fascism remain, but it is pretty clear that she still has access to black mana, though she refuses to use it. Clues throughout Nissa’s story in Battle for Zendikar indicate that most things about her character from In The Teeth of Akoum remain, however she has changed and suppresses them now. Being responsible for an apocalypse has that effect on most people (not Urza, though).

Jace reaches Akoum but realizes that he needs a guide, and sets out to find Tuktuk. An Eldrazi attacks him, but he finds help from Zada, who gleefully informs him that she killed and ate the golem. Zada leads him to the Eye and then happily leaves him to his ‘certain death’. Inside, Jace finds Ugin, who he at first mistakes for Nicol Bolas. Ugin, in turn, mistakes him for Sorin or Nahiri returning. Ugin introduces himself and quickly deduces Jace’s involvement with freeing the Eldrazi, and Bolas’ influence. He mentions that he does not know why Bolas would want the Eldrazi released, and that it is one of his top priorities to find out. Jace and Ugin argue over the best way of dealing with the Eldrazi, with Ugin advocating caution and imprisonment like he did millenia before, and Jace advocating for the dying people of Zendikar. Jace ends up belittling Ugin’s previous plan (which worked out SO well), but Ugin points out that his plan was only defeated through careful machinations by Bolas. After Ugin gives him a history lesson, he asks Jace to find Sorin on Innistrad, whose presence there Jace knew of through Liliana Vess. Ugin also explains the metaphysical nature of the Eldrazi and how they are not technically on the plane, using an apt ‘hand in a pond’ metaphor. In the end, Jace concedes and promises to imprison Ulamog rather than destroy him if possible.

Gideon continues to gather allies and, upon hearing of the newly dubbed roilmages, heads to Coralhelm. These roilmages are the successors of the lullmages, but rather than try to calm the roil, they direct it. He makes a spectacular entrance dropping in from a kitesail and requests a recalcitrant Noyan Dar to provide a demonstration. Noyan, convinced that Gideon is an idiot, obliges. The merfolk shows off by unleashing a giant destructive strike that engulfs both Gideon and a small horde of Eldrazi. Impressed, Gideon convinces Noyan to join the fledgling Zendikari Army along with the rest of the roil mages. Noyan agrees, but afterwards he realizes that Gideon played on his sense of superiority in order to secure his aid.


A hastily constructed plan to bind just one Eldrazi? Obviously, nothing can go wrong.
Aligned Hedron Network by Richard Wright

The Battle for Sea Gate

After some time, Gideon is finally able to assemble a force that could retake Sea Gate. He leads the charge, but he makes a major mistake, as he thinks of all the troops as front-line soldiers like himself, and his initial assault is a disaster. He and Munda are barely able to organize a retreat in time. He meets with Tazri and Munda to discuss what went wrong, and they point out that Zendikar has not had armies in millenia. Instead, Gideon needs to play to the strengths of the allies under his command. He spends the next few days planning and learning each group’s strengths and weaknesses. A new assault commences and is far more successful than the first. As they head to Sea Gate, a scout spots Kiora’s school of sea monsters approaching. That night, the vampires keep vigil, much to Gideon’s chagrin, but the vampire forces successfully hold the line so that the bulk of the army can rest. The following day Gideon meets with Kiora, who reveals that she stole Thassa’s Bident after the two recognize each other as planeswalkers. On the fourth day, the army storms into Sea Gate itself. Elementals soon appear to fight alongside the allied forces, and Nissa shortly behind them. As the allied forces finally seem to retake the settlement, Jori En arrives with her news: Ulamog is on the way.

In response to this news, Gideon gathered his advisors: Munda, Tazri, Drana, and Nissa. Kiora was not invited, but barges in anyway. They argue over whether to retreat from Ulamog’s path, the advisors divided, until Gideon decides that they should stay. Jace returns from the Eye (having done a sort of planeswalk hop to teleport back) and wants to help make a plan, but Kiora is eager to go off half-cocked into a fight. Jace’s plan is to build a trap, which Nissa dislikes because she wants to jump right in and kill Ulamog. Kiora runs off during the argument, but after some indecision, Gideon finally decides to go with the trap plan. They are not even sure if killing the Titan is possible. Nissa sets to work uncovering buried Hedrons for the trap, while Gideon and the army move the uncovered stones into position as Jace checks them against an illusory schematic.


Much like the Kool-Aid Man, Kozilek likes to bust in when he is not wanted.
Kozilek's Return by Lius Lasahido

Back on Regatha, Chandra’s life as Abbot is crushing her beneath the weight of her responsibility. She is bored and ill-suited for the administrative tasks she is given. Instead of writing an important speech, she planeswalks to Sea Gate to see how things are going on Zendikar. She immediately is attacked by a small group of Eldrazi, but she incinerates them easily. Seeing the allied forces’ efforts reassures her, and she planeswalks back… realizing as Zendikar fades from view that what she assumed was a mountain on the horizon was Ulamog descending on the Zendikari.

A scout spots movement in the trees nearby, but finds only the charred ground that Chandra left behind. The allies’ plan works, and the army holds off the Eldrazi horde while Ulamog is maneuvered into the trap. They lock the final hedron in place… but nothing happens. Jace and Nissa combine their powers to spot the misalignment — something Jace can’t see alone — by overlaying her vision of the leylines with his illusion to pinpoint what went wrong. To buy time, Gideon makes himself the titan’s focus, planting himself on a rock that is level with Ulamog’s head. He fends off the casual blows the titan throws his way, but it is clear that he will not hold out for long, and Ulamog is moving out of position for the trap. Jace and Nissa fix the Hedron Network just in time and Ulamog is pulled within its bounds. For a moment, the allied forces believe that they have won.

Lurking just off the battlefield, Ob Nixilis dispatches a sentry and looks on at what is unfolding below. It took time, but he dug himself out of the collapse Nissa unleashed on him. His previous plan, to use his own impromptu hedron network along with the Khalni Heart to restore his spark, failed. Instead, he brought the keystone of his old network with him as he tracked Nissa back down. At the crucial moment, he flies into the aligned network with his keystone and channels the energy into himself, successfully re-awakening his spark. His powers heightened once more, he lays waste to the allied forces and destroys the hedron trap. As a final act of revenge, he commands something within the plane to rise.

On Regatha again, Mother Luti chides Chandra for not being ready for her big speech, laying on even more pressure about responsibility. Chandra bungles the speech, but she realizes that she can only take responsibility by finding the problems that she can help solve and doing so, advice she passes on to her students. She turns to leave, but Mother Luti stops her, pressuring her into staying until Chandra finally breaks and insists she must go. Mother Luti, who had been trying to provoke this reaction from Chandra all along, tells her how proud she is. She only wanted to make Chandra sure of her own purpose. Chandra leaves for Zendikar immediately, just in time to see the Hedron trap lock into place and subsequently fail.

In horror, she watches as an enormous sinkhole opens up below Ob Nixilis, and the monstrous form of Kozilek emerges.

Thanks for reading! We hope this helped you get caught up on the world and flavor of Zendikar. Kozilek has emerged, and our heroes' hopes are dashed. In Part VI: Oath of the Gatewatch, we will examine the birth of the titular Gatewatch.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments or on the forum, and we will address it in future updates. Have a suggestion for something you want to see? Let us know, and we may address it in a future column. You can also follow me on twitter @Jay13x or Archive Trap Mini on Tumblr.

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