The World of Zendikar Part VI: Oath of the Gatewatch


The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering

 

Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things Magic: The Gathering! Today we’re returning once more to the world of Zendikar, the plane that jumpstarted our articles and that we’ve 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's changed since we were last around and addressed the plane as it exists now. Today we're going to talk about the plot and the end of the Eldrazi conflict. Part V took you through the story of Battle for Zendikar, right up to the emergence of Kozilek. Today we take you through the formation of the Gatewatch, in Oath of the Gatewatch.


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're looking for. You can read the (much) shorter summary they've 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 don't want to spend hours reading the whole thing.

 


Ob Nixilis is a refreshing change of pace from so many magic villains lurking in the background.
Art by Ryan Barger

Ob Nixilis Victorious

Kiora returns to her Cosi devotees and gathers them together for an assault on Ulamog. She uses the power of the Bident to summon the most power creature of the deep: Lorthos. She matches her will against Lorthos and he accepts her. Together, they charge Ulamog - just as the hedron network fails and Kozilek emerges. The plan immediately goes awry, as Kiora is attacked by one of her own under Kozilek’s thrall. She is forced to defend herself and is distracted as the fight between colossi begins. Kozilek and Lorthos collide in a frenzy of tentacles, but Kozilek’s blades make quick work of Lorthos, slicing him to pieces. In his death, Kiora falls into the water below - losing the Bident in the process.

Jace and Nissa’s victory celebrations are cut short by the arrival of Ob Nixilis and Kozilek. Jace realizes before the hedron trap fails that he could redirect the leyline’s power to possibly destroy Ulamog, but Ob Nixilis’ interferences ruin any hope of that happening. Nissa watches the scene unfold and curses Ob Nixlis as an Eyeblight (a very telling word choice, and it all but confirms Nissa’s dalliance with black mana is still canon). Nissa moves to chase Nixilis down while Kozilek’s reality distortions threaten to destroy her. She makes it through and tackles Nixilis, but he knocks her away and calls Kozilek spawn to distract her. The distortions become so bad, Nissa sends Ashaya away because she fears what it will do to the elemental, and by extension the plane.

Ob Nixilis, for his part, monologues about how he would have just left the plane if Nissa hadn’t interfered with his work. Jace attempts to make Nixilis flee through mental suggestions, but Nixilis realizes that thoughts are not his own and confronts the mind mage. Jace splits off illusory duplicates to defend himself, but Nixilis casts a pain spell that causes the real Jace to reveal himself. Jace attempts a last ditch mental assault, which seems to only cause Nixilis to miss his neck-snapping attack. Gideon then engages Nixilis and the two warriors trade blows, both of them realizing the other is their match. Nixilis distracts Gideon by casually casting a spell that kills more Zendikari and sowing doubts about Jace. He seizes an opportunity to strike and nearly drowns Gideon in a shallow pool of water, but instead flips the unconscious Gideon over rather than letting him die. Victory in hand, he collects the three planeswalkers and leaves Sea Gate. The classic villain mistakes made here are pretty obvious, but it’s likely that Jace’s last mental attack gave Nixilis the suggestion to keep them all alive, as Nixilis was dead-set on murdering them all moments earlier.

 


Of course, he's not as cool when he goes full slow-death bond villain here.
Remorseless Punishment by Ryan Barger

Hope Emerges

Mina and her brother Denn are exploring the blighted wastes that used to be the forests of Murasa. She comes across her brother along with a Tajuru elf, and Mina relates to the Tajuru that they are probably all that is left of the Mul Daya elves. Months before, their home was overrun because the Mul Daya Speaker believed their defenses adequate against the Eldrazi threat. Mina and Denn went in search of other elves to help, but only just now found this group of Tajuru. The Tajuru, for their part, have kept their leadership, the Conclave, on the move to avoid being trapped by Eldrazi spawn. They’re discovered by Kozilek brood, and Mina finds she is able to communicate with her ancestors and uses their power to defeat the brood with the roots of a jaddi tree. After the attack, Mina and Denn accompany the Speaker of the Tajuru to join with Tazri and the Zendikari Army at Sea Gate.

At Sea Gate, however, Tazri sinks into depression as the last shred of hope she had is gone. Her small squad of soldiers is hit by a distortion wave from Kozilek and are all killed, but Tazri is protected by a halo around her neck, and she has a flashback to how she got it. Tazri was once one of the youngest people ever to become a Caravan Captain, but one day her caravan discovered an angel, wounded by vampires and unable to heal. Another band of vampires was on its way, and to prevent them from prolonging the angel’s pain, Tazri mercy kills her. But killing an angel comes at a price, and for Tazri this was a curse that cost her hopes and dreams. Four years later, she was blacklisted on the caravan circuit and applies to work with the Sea Gate Militia, under Vorik. 15 years later, she’s wounded that after all her time with Vorik, he would abdicate to Gideon.

 


Ob Nixilis was defeated using a technique known as 'progressing the plot'.
Devour in Flames by Svetlin Velinov

Then Tazri is struck by visions of the future. She sees herself as a slave to Kozilek, with Gideon, Nissa, Jace and Chandra dying in their attempt to defeat the Titan. He tortures them by rewinding the moment of their deaths over and over, expressing a dark amusement that Tazri hears in her mind. 10,000 years pass, and she has incredible powers granted to her by Kozilek… but as she tries to rebuild Zendikar from the husk it became, she finds that his powers won’t allow her to create anything new. She has control of all the drones (which she refers to as automatons) that Kozilek left behind, but she has been waiting millenia for Kozilek to return. She then sees herself trillions of years in the future, and Kozilek still hasn’t returned. She hibernates for billions of years at a time, reliving the day Gideon died in her sleep, over and over.

A white flash appears, and the angel she had killed in her youth appears to her. She tells Tazri that she has suffered long enough. Tazri’s memories of being Kozilek’s thrall begin to fade as the angel heals her. The angel, connected to a realm unconnected to the mortal concepts of time, keeps her safe until Kozilek’s distortion wave passes through her. Finally, the angel breaks Tazri’s curse and restores her hope as Tazri is returned to her time. Once back, she watches as Noyan Dar and a surviving pocket of roil mages are nearly eliminated, with only Noyan surviving, Drana having swooped in at the last second and rescued him. She meets up with the remaining leaders and takes command. With the curse broken, she begins to inspire her troops like she could never have done before. The memories of her eternity as Kozilek’s slave are gone, but she has still been changed by the experience.

Jori En finds herself in the water of the basin after Sea Gate has been destroyed by Kozilek. She hears a cry for help and sifts through the corpse of Lorthos to find Kiora. Kiora has been injured and is completely despondent, but she wants to find the Bident she lost. The two merfolk reset Kiora’s leg and use magic to heal it into usable condition. Kiora is able to sense the Bident, so the two follow its path into a cavern underwater. A Kozilek spawn warps space to fit itself in a crevasse to block to the entrance, and they realize that must be how Kozilek was hidden underground for so long. They dispatch the spawn and move inside to find a cave network with Kozilek’s unique reality-warped textures everywhere. As they travel, Jori keeps Kiora calm as Kiora nearly loses it in the narrow twisting corridors. They encounter Goblin Dark-Dwellers, goblins that fled underground and were warped by the Eldrazi magic, as well as more spawn. Eventually, they find the Bident and Kiora uses it to erode the entire cavern in seconds, destroying everything within, and escapes.

 


I would have gotten away with it, too! If it weren't for you meddling kids.
Nissa's Nemesis Art by Svetlin Velinov

Birth of the Gatewatch

In the aftermath of Kozilek’s release, Chandra searches for Gideon but only finds his buckler shield. Instead, she encounters Tazri, who tells her Gideon was defeated by Ob Nixilis and captured. Chandra ends up leading a horde of Eldrazi away from the remains of the allied forces and blasts her way into Ob Nixilis’ cave. Inside, Nixilis has Gideon, Jace and Nissa bound using stolen Kozilek spawn. She tries to fight Ob but is overmatched, until Jace tells her telepathically to kill the Kozilek drones imprisoning them. She feints a blast of fire at Ob, who dodges, leaving the drones in the path to be incinerated. With the others free, they attack Ob together and manage to keep him off balance long enough for Chandra to hit him with a huge blast of pyromancy. Ob realizes that he’s not enough of a match - yet - for all four planeswalkers together and he retreats from Zendikar, vowing vengeance.

Outside, the planeswalkers emerge from the cave where they beheld a blighted landscape. There are no signs of life, not even the Zendikari army. The four walkers argue over what to do next. Jace advocates leaving, Chandra is uncharacteristically quiet, and Nissa refuses to leave. Gideon realizes despite the argument, all three are still there, so he gives a small speech and suggests that together, there may be no limit to what they could accomplish. He makes an oath to never let something like this happen again, and to stand united with the others to face it. Nissa takes up an oath to protect life in the multiverse. Jace sees the value in allies like this, and makes an oath as well. Chandra is hesitant to pledge herself at first, but she ends up committing fully. Together, the Gatewatch head off at Chandra’s direction to find Tazri and what is left of the Zendikari army.

 


Alternatives to the Jacetus League: The Juravengers. The Zendikeers. The Planar Rangers.
Call the Gatewatch by Yefim Kligerman

The fragile alliance meets with the leaders of the allied forces, Tazri, Munda, Drana, Jori and Kiora. They all turn to Jace for a plan, and he begins to describe it. Chandra, being bored of the details, is sent to help fight off the spawn around them. Jace proposes using a glyph, shown to him by Ugin, to replicate the effect of the hedron network. Nissa thinks she can make it happen, but only for a limited time. They consider their options: they can no longer trap the Eldrazi, so trying to defeat the titans is really the only option. He mentions that Ugin wanted them trapped again, but at this point they simply have no other choice. The two titans need to be close enough together that they will both be caught in the glyph, and so the remaining army will have to serve as bait.

The biggest problem is that, even if the allies defeat the titan's physical forms, they’ll simply leave the plane. Nissa suggests that she, in the same way that the hedrons bled off the Eldrazi’s power, could force them fully into Zendikar. But it could destroy the entire plane... so it's not to be undertaken lightly. Jace and Nissa exchange their experiences at the Eye, and Jace is surprised that Nissa knows Sorin - filing that information away for later.

The group devises a plan to destroy the Eldrazi, which basically comes down to this: Jace and Nissa will work together to bind the Eldrazi, Gideon will lead the remainder of the army to lead the Titans into a trap, Kiora will clear the water from the basin and use it to keep the spawn off the troops. Showing a rare insight, the group simply gives Chandra free reign to burn everything that isn’t a titan, for fear of driving them off the place. Cautiously, Jace also mentions that it’s possible the Titans could get bigger when brought more fully onto the plane. Gideon and Chandra end up both acting as bait while Kiora keeps the hordes at bay. Chandra really doesn’t like the plan and while the group is in telepathic contact, asks to attack the titans directly (repeatedly). Despite the personality conflicts, the plan appears to work and they get the Titans into position, with Nissa beginning the spell to bind them to the plane.

 


A for Effort, Gideon. You're totally helping.
Fall of the Titans by Chris Rallis

Kiora notices that the binding is also draining the plane’s mana, and that the world is fracturing worse than any roil as the Titans full forms are drawn inward. They aren’t just bigger, they fill the sky and literally rain spawn down on the plane. Nissa begins to have trouble maintaining the binding, but they realize that being dragged fully into the plane is hurting the Titans. Kiora isn’t willing to wait, and releases the massive wall of water to try and kill the Titans herself - with the rest of the remaining allied forces in the way. Jace counters her attempt and the water parts, avoiding injuring anyone, but he knows they’re now out of time and gives Chandra carte blanche to attack the Titans. Chandra tries, but her flames are nothing to the horrendous enormity of the titans. Remembering how she defeated the hellion on Regatha, she has Nissa channel the leylines’ power into her, which fuels a massive world-shattering firestorm that destroys the Titan.

What is left of the army mops up the remaining spawn, but there is a palpable lack of enthusiasm among the survivors. This victory cost them nearly everything, and now it’s time to begin rebuilding what is left of their world. After the battle, Gideon catches up with Tazri, and the two part as friends while Tazri assumes command. They begin to plan how to help with the mop up operation, but are interrupted by the arrival of an irate dragon - Ugin has come demanding answers. He’s furious that these upstarts would kill ancient beings whose purpose and worth is unknown. Jace treads cautiously as he reveals what happened to Ugin, but it’s clear that Ugin wants nothing more to do with the Gatewatch. Thankfully, he leaves in peace, warning the other planeswalkers that they’ve set events in motion that they can’t possibly predict, the ramifications of which may not be felt until after their lifetimes.

 


A quarter mile of Zendikar lives! Plane saved, good work everyone!
Zendikar Resurgent by Chris Rallis

Afterwards, the Gatewatch try to figure out what to do next. Ob Nixilis is an obvious threat, as well as Bolas. None of them are sure why Bolas wanted the Eldrazi released. Between those two, Emrakul at large and the Chain Veil (and, though they don’t know it, the threat of New Phyrexia) the Gatewatch has their work cut out for them, and almost no leads on what to do next. Nissa buries the seeds given to her by Anowon’s messenger in the fertile soil marking the spot where the Eldrazi were defeated. Afterwards she is approached by Jace. With no obvious next step, finding the two of planeswalkers of old - Sorin and Nahiri - is their best chance. He asks her to show him everything she knows of Sorin (and presumably, the events of In the Teeth of Akoum are revealed to him). Jace heads to Innistrad for leads while the other four stay to help Zendikar recover.

Thanks for reading! We hope this helped you get caught up on the world and flavor of Zendikar, and the origin of the Gatewatch! With Ulamog and Kozilek destroyed and Emrakul at large, the story moves on to Shadows Over Innistrad! Jace is headed out to find Sorin Markov: the ancient vampire planeswalker who first helped seal the Eldrazi, and who was in turn sent by Ugin to find Nahiri. We know that Nahiri is on Innistrad and angry with Sorin, but what exactly she's up to isn't immediately clear. Once that block concludes, we'll have another retrospective article like this one to catch you up!

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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