The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering by Jay13x and Kaburi
Welcome back to Archive Trap, the unofficial story column for all things
Magic: The Gathering!
Last time we talked 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. Today we want to take you 6,000 years into Zendikar’s past, where three Planeswalkers decided the fate of Zendikar.
Zendikar, a Chronology We’ve re-read all the story materials we could find relating to Zendikar, and we had so much material to work with we had to split this chronology in two. This first summary takes you from Zendikar's ancient past up until just after the release of the Eldrazi. Only pieces of stories directly relevant to the
Zendikar plot are represented here, so while we may mention
The Purifying Fire, it wasn’t focused on Zendikar and as such will not be fully summarized. We’re presenting the story here in chronological order, but it should be noted that these stories were written over a seven year period. Consequently, they don’t always flow logically together as not a lot of care is given to providing exact time frames, and "centuries" or "millennia" are thrown around frequently and often interchangeably. Some details have changed as time goes on, as have certain characters who may not seem familiar between their representations.
We encourage you to read the source material for whatever we mention here. However, at a recent event, Creative has even mentioned that their new status quo is to essentially retcon anything that doesn’t line up with where they want to go with a character. This means that many stories should only be taken from the perspective of broad strokes rather than any specific details being confirmed as canon. As far as we can tell,
Magic’s story will be a little flexible when it comes to canon for the foreseeable future. As much as possible we will avoid using the names of minor characters that only appear in a single story, as most side characters tend to be disposable and we don’t want to overload this with unimportant names to remember.
Finally, please keep in mind that we're putting this together for fun in our free time. We are not paid to write these articles, and we're not perfect, so you may find that we get some things wrong. If this happens, please let us know in the comments and we'll address it as soon as we're able.
The Ancient Past
The prologue begins 6,000 years before "modern day," on a plane whose name is lost to time. On this plane,
Nahiri and
Sorin rally the last survivors of a world devastated by the Eldrazi. Nahiri is new to being a planeswalker, and hasn’t yet achieved the power of some of the famous planeswalkers of the past. A single Eldrazi titan, implied to be Ulamog, arrives while they debate what to do next, and before Sorin or Nahiri can react, it rips a hole in the fabric of the plane, destroying everything that was left. The two planeswalkers escape and rendezvous on Zendikar.
Let's just leave these here for a while. I'm sure nothing could go wrong.
Art by Igor Kieryluk
As the two recuperate,
Ugin appears before them. Sorin knows the dragon, and although they worked together previously, Sorin is uneasy about working with the dragon. This unease only grows as Ugin mentions that while Sorin and Nahiri fought, Ugin watched and attempted to learn about the Eldrazi. Ugin reveals their nature as beings of the Æther, the Blind Eternities, and makes one very important point:
"Hence the dilemma," Ugin went on. "If we face them in the Blind Eternities, we face their full power in an environment where even we can barely survive. But if we defeat only their physical extensions—no mean feat in itself, as you have seen—still we accomplish nothing, for their true forms reside in the Æther."
Nahiri wants to try to destroy them anyway, but Ugin urges caution. They don’t actually know what killing the Eldrazi would do, so the three planeswalkers hatch a plan to capture the Eldrazi. Nahiri is convinced to use her home of Zendikar, as it is the only plane known to the three with all the right conditions, or rather, the only plane without the complication of maybe having to convince or fight any guardians. They would trap the Eldrazi on Zendikar, and Nahiri would watch over the prison. With the plan set, the trio set to work.
Forty years later, the trap was completed. A network of stone hedrons was constructed throughout Zendikar, intended as both bait and trap for the Eldrazi. Nahiri warned the world, which in the original version included vampires, something a later version would remove, so officially no vampires existed at this time, and the preparations were finalized. The Eldrazi arrived and the three titans were lured to Akoum, where the trap was sprung and the titans imprisoned. The only way to release them was for three planeswalkers, one of whom had the power of
Ghostfire, to gather at the nexus of the hedron network, the
Eye of Ugin.
But, as we all know, that was not to be the end of the story. For several hundred years, Nahiri continued to live among the people of Zendikar. Time passed, and she grew more and more distant as those she loved died around her. She taught them as best she could, creating a legacy in the
Stone Forgers with what she knew of lithomancy and showed them how to keep the "gods" from emerging to destroy the world. Finally, Nahiri cocooned herself in stone to sleep, tired of the world and feeling a growing sense of apathy.
The people of Zendikar may take things a little too literally.
Around 1,000 years before the events of the current story, Nahiri was awoken by the stirring of the Eldrazi. Brood lineages were ravaging the plane and something about the prison was… off. She used the Eye to summon her allies and waited, but neither arrived. It’s unclear how long she waited, but it was long enough for the spawn to spread across Zendikar. Realizing her mistake, she resolved to stop waiting and went out in search of the brood.
What she found shocked her. The people of Zendikar worshipped her… and the Eldrazi titans. She found a bizarre stone monument to herself and the Eldrazi, but not like they had been. Instead the Eldrazi were depicted as the races of Zendikar, the result of Nahiri's mistake in referring to them as gods. As she continued her search, she found vampires at the source of the disruption of the hedron network. These vampires were different from the kinds she had encountered before on other planes, as they had horns jutting from their backs and elbows, and they had built a temple on an important site in the hedron network. Here they conducted sacrifices to honor Ulamog, depicted as a god seizing the horns of the vampires. Nahiri dispatched the vampires and attempted to fix the damage to the network, but the patch was imperfect. The world started to react, beginning the Roil, and was reshaped into the Zendikar we know today. The Eldrazi were sealed again, but still Nahiri worried. Her friends hadn’t come, and she had no idea why. Her work done, Nahiri set out to find Sorin and save him if necessary.
The place where the vampires were making sacrifices is likely the Puzzle Tower, or Tal Terig.
In the Teeth of Akoum mentions that as a place where vampires regularly make sacrifices, and it's location near the feet of the Teeth makes it the probable location.
Sometime between when the hedron network was completed and modern day, Ob Nixilis traveled to Zendikar and lost his spark to the plane's wild mana. His machinations brought him to the attention of Nahiri, who implanted a hedron in his forehead that severely limited his power. Presumably this happened after her reemergence but before her departure.
Prologue for Zendikar
The modern story begins several years before the Eldrazi are released. It centers on Nissa Revane, a Joraga elf and one of the last animists. Being an animist is an object of shame in her tribe, as it was believed the line was wiped out by a vengeful Zendikar. Nissa has dreams of a darkness in the land, which cause friction between her mother and the tribe, and she comes to believe that Zendikar is trying to punish her. Eventually leaves her home because of her animist abilities and her dark dreams.
Once she left, however, Nissa discovers that Zendikar isn’t punishing her at all. Instead, Zendikar was asking for Nissa's help in saving it, revealing leylines that Nissa follows to the source of the darkness in her visions. Along the way she discovers her animist abilities allow her to summon elementals and use them to help her defend against attack. The leylines eventually lead her to the tallest peak of Akoum, where she tries to use her new power to banish the darkness in a blast of energy… but nothing happens. As she wonders what went wrong, she hears the darkness she sensed laugh at her and experiences visions of a monster. Just as she feels like she’s being consumed by the darkness, Nissa planeswalks away.
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
It’s unclear what this darkness is. The assumption is that it is the Eldrazi, and
Nissa's Revelation seems to confirm that it's Emrakul misleading her. It’s not quite clear what happened before Nissa planeswalked away, as she didn't release the Eldrazi yet, but this is the event that sets the rest of the story in motion.
Nissa arrives on
Lorwyn just moments before the Great Aurora. She encounters a troop of Lorwyn elves, but is disgusted by their casual slaughter of eyeblights. She returns home to Zendikar as
The Great Aurora changes the plane into Shadowmoor, to the taunting of
Oona.
Across the multiverse, on the plane of
Kephalai, Chandra Nalaar steals a mysterious scroll containing pyromantic secrets, later revealed to be the secrets of Ghostfire and a map to the Eye of Ugin. She returns to her home, a monastery on
Regatha founded by followers of
Jaya Ballard, but is pursued by Jace Beleren. Jace was dispatched by the Consortium to retrieve the scroll and when he faces off against Chandra, he bests her, wiping her memory of the scroll and taking it back with him. Upon her return to the monastery in defeat, she finds the monks hard at work copying the scroll.
Due to the dubious canoncity of
Ramaz and
Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014, we're not including them as her motivation here, but we did want to mention that they tie into the story. Ramaz is another servant of Nicol Bolas, and he's the one who puts Chandra up to stealing the scroll.
At the urging of Mother Luti of
Keral Keep, who believes there was more to the scroll than just the spell it contained, Chandra attemps to steal the scroll a second time. This attempt ends in disaster, but it was during this failed attempt that Chandra meets
Gideon. The two find themselves imprisoned on the plane of Diradin against an evil vampire lord. Working together, they would eventually escape, but during their imprisonment Gideon reveals to Chandra that the scroll came from the plane of Zendikar.
After this point, approximately three years pass. Jace worked for the Consortium for years, but by the time the main
Zendikar story rolls around, the main events of
Agents of Artifice occur and he takes over the Ravnican cell of the Consortium for a brief time before apparently cutting ties with it some time before the events of
Return to Ravnica.
Way to take care of the LAST THING your dad ever gave you.
Journey to the Eye Part 1 art by Nic Klein
The Awakening of the Eldrazi
Some time later, events conspired to bring Jace and Chandra back together. Jace's study of the scroll is interrupted by a cursed Garruk, searching for Liliana Vess. This will factor into a later story, but as Garruk is leaving, he reveals to Jace that the scroll points to Zendikar. Chandra is also searching for more on the secrets of the scroll, and she travels to Zendikar to find Anowon, a famed archaeomancer. After experiencing all the dangers involved with traveling around Zendikar as her guides die one after another, she finally arrives at Anowon’s camp only to be taken by surprise by Anowon himself.
Meanwhile,
Sarkhan Vol waits at the Eye of Ugin, placed there by
Nicol Bolas for an unknown purpose. Sarkhan goes mad during his time there spent waiting… or does he? During the story of Tarkir, it appears that a piece of hedron Sarkhan picks up there is some sort of vessel for a vestige of Ugin, and it’s his
tormenting voice driving Sarkhan to "madness."
On a re-read, I’m actually really impressed that the seeds of Ugin’s return are being sown here already. Unlike many things that seem like retcons, this flows nicely into the Tarkir story.
Anowon is convinced to help lead Chandra to the Eye of Ugin, but resents that Chandra has the only map to the place. As they reach the Eye, Anowon turns on Chandra, only to be attacked himself by an angry Sarkhan. With Anowon out of the way, Sarkhan leads Chandra to the Eye of Ugin, only to change into a dragon in an attempt to make a sacrifice of Chandra.
A short time later, Jace also arrives in Zendikar, and secures a guide from Anowon’s camp. They come across an injured Anowon, who feeds on his disciple and reveals that he knows the truth of the Eldrazi. Newly restored, he tries to stop Jace from inadvertently freeing the Eldrazi, but he’s overpowered and Chandra’s location is taken from his mind.
Jace follows the trail left by Chandra and Sarkhan and finds them dueling in the Eye. Jace and Chandra’s magic is diffused in the Eye, making their attacks not particularly effective, so Jace tells Chandra to use the Ghostfire described in the scroll to defeat Sarkhan in dragon form. The spell works and Sarkhan is defeated, but the presence of three planeswalkers combined with the power of Ghostfire unwittingly unlocks the Eldrazi prison.
Don't trust Ugin with your valuables, he's not good at locking things.
It should be noted that technically, this event makes Chandra a very high monk among the
Jeskai, as very few of them could use
Ghostfire.
A person who masters the three Jeskai fires has attained enough wisdom to explore the next level of existence and harness the sixth fire: ghostfire. Only a few people have ever learned to control ghostfire, and it is believed they are able transcend natural elements and alter their fundamental nature and existence.
Unfortunately Sarkhan changed history so that they no longer exist, and Chandra has never been to Tarkir anyway, but it is interesting given her new role as leader of the monastery of Keral Keep and the fact that
the monks there have prowess. Maybe she isn't as unqualified as she believes? Also, the dragon icon from the webcomics matches the tattoo on the
Ghostfire warrior.
Chandra appears to planeswalk away almost immediately while Jace escapes on foot, leaving behind a babbling Anowon and an unconscious Sarkhan. Jace's destination: Sea Gate. He appears to get out just in time, as on his way to the sea a
Pathrazer of Ulamog lumbers past him. Jace tells the sages at the Library of Sea Gate what happened at the eye before departing Zendikar.
Sarkhan comes to and realizes his stupidity in following Bolas. He notices that only half of the Eye is open, and that it waits on something else to unlock completely. As he leaves, he encounters a dragon being killed by Eldrazi spawn. He fights off the spawn, but a vision of the dragon's spirit appears to him and warns him against Bolas. Sarkhan breaks off a piece of the Eye to take with him before returning to report to Bolas. It’s pretty clear, on reread, that this vision is in fact the voice of Ugin, filtering through the madness and setting Sarkhan on the path towards Tarkir. Bolas taunts Sarkhan with his failure. Sarkhan believes the spirit of Ugin spoke to him, but Bolas dismisses this as a delusion. Bolas replies that he put Ugin where he lays, implying that he killed Ugin. Bolas then reveals that he conspired to have the three planeswalkers gather and unlock the Eye, and that he waits to see which of others will answer the call of the opened Eye.
We can only speculate as to Bolas’ reasons for wanting the Eye opened. Is it purely to spite Ugin? Is there some greater need he has for the Eldrazi? He’s certainly old enough to have been around well before their imprisonment, so he likely knows what they are capable of.
"I'll rooooot you aliiiive, with the sound of muuuuusic!"
Rise of the Eldrazi key art by Michael Komarck
Rise of the Eldrazi
In the Teeth of Akoum is a “special” book. It marks a major shift downward in the quality of the
Magic: the Gathering books, especially from the relatively high quality of
Agents of Artifice and
The Purifying Fire. The book features a typo on its very first line: "Nissa Revine," which hasn’t been corrected in the digital version, and it only gets worse from there. Wintermute’s unreadable novels marked a distinct low point for
Magic’s story, and one they’ve seemingly retconned pretty heavily with Nissa’s new origin story.
Nissa’s tone throughout the book is starkly different from the Nissa we’re presented with in her later incarnations. Don't really try to connect these two personas. Creative decided to go in a different direction with the character, so pretty much all of her early characterization should be ignored.
In the Teeth of Akoum should really only be taken from a broad strokes perspective, anyway, especially as recent con panels have more or less stated that the book is inaccurate. We're presenting Nissa in her original light in this summary, but just keep in mind that her personality has been changed.
The story begins with Nissa on a mission to the Tajuru elves in the Turntimber forests on the continent of Ondu. All the great Joraga leaders live abroad with other elves to understand other points of view, so Nissa's mission is to learn from the Tajuru. The Tajuru are explorers, very skilled at navigating Zendikar’s dangers, while the Joraga are much more militant, a fact Nissa is overly proud of. This fact is not lost on the Tajuru, as they have little love for the Joraga in return. She also has an almost Indiana Jones-like aversion to snakes and vampires. Shortly after returning from a patrol, Nissa is present for a Tajuru council that mentions a lost patrol. The patrol was attacked by strange creatures and Nissa’s team is sent to find out what happened. They’re quickly set upon by Eldrazi Spawn as Nissa uses her staff and her magic to summon
Nissa’s Chosen and to "seed" one of the Eldrazi and cause a plant to erupt from inside it. After defeating the spawn, they return to home to find that the Eldrazi have attack there as well. Nissa take a pearl dropped by the Tajuru speaker, and the squad then heads off in the direction the Eldrazi were coming from.
The squad finds the creatures: a huge number of brood lineage and their vampire slaves destroying a Tajuru village. They engage but the entire squad is wiped out in moments and Nissa is left as the only survivor. Sorin arrives in the aftermath of the slaughter and casts what appears to be some kind of
Damnation ability, wiping out most of the Eldrazi and leaving only a few remaining that he quickly dispatches. This leaves only Anowon, who was enslaved by the Eldrazi at the Eye and dragged across the plane to do their will. Sorin unnerves Nissa with his telepathic abilities and mentally dominates Anowon to serve him, a fact which Nissa doesn't seem to notice.
Sorin and Nissa talk, and as they travel he relates the truth of the Eldrazi, although cryptically. Sorin’s mission is to strengthen the Eldrazi Titan’s prison and put an end to the brood lineages ravaging Zendikar. Nissa reluctantly agrees to accompany Sorin and Anowon as their guide to the Teeth of Akoum, but she is repulsed by the vampire Anowon, and she doesn’t realize that Sorin is also a vampire. Nissa leads the group to
Graypelt, where she introduces them to a Merfolk map maker and friend. They acquire a map to help them on their way to Akoum, and then set out to the Makindi Trench. The Makindi Trench is kind of like the Grand Canyon but much, much scarier, with floating boulders ready to drop and crush you at any time. As they descend into the canyon below, a Roil strikes and Sorin is badly injured from a fall that should have killed any mortal, though Nissa again doesn't seem to notice anything amiss. Sorin slowly recovers over the next few days as they leave the trench and set out for Zulaport. The trio encounter an old "Eldrazi" palace with a pictogram showing the Mortifier, the vampire who betrayed the vampire race and made them slaves to the Eldrazi. This is heavily hinted at being Sorin.
We should note here that almost everything said about the Eldrazi in this novel is wrong. It has either been retconned, or the Zendikari simply misunderstood the ruins they encounter. It could also be a little bit of both. Regardless, it’s best to disregard anything said about the history of the Eldrazi in this book. In fact, it’s best to disregard any specific detail in this book, as we’ll outline some of the weirdness that happens at the end of this summary.
The Staff/Sword/Whip of the Animist. Patent Pending.
As the trio continues to travel, the group finds a mad Kor woman and her goblin entourage. The Kor has a piece of crystal that is implied to be a means by which one of the Eldrazi Titans is controlling her. The goblins are her followers, and they’re also journeying to the Eye. The two groups decide to travel together even though there is little trust between them. One by one, the goblins begin to disappear. Nissa attributes this to Anowon, despite Anowon obviously being underfed and bound. The group is set upon by a number of dangers, but eventually reach Zulaport with a few goblins remaining. While Sorin is away, Anowon and Nissa begin to discuss Sorin’s real motives, questioning that his motives and if the Eldrazi truly need to be re-imprisoned. Nissa begins to believe that the Eldrazi would leave if released and that they are the source of Zendikar’s problems. The group attempts to spend the night at an inn with Sorin bluffing about their money situation, as they have none, but they’re harassed by
a gang and are forced to make a quick exit. They steal a ship that none of them know how to maneuver or even how to drop the sails. Nissa solves this problem by summoning a giant creature which pulls the ship the entire way to Akoum, which is only a couple days journey across the sea.
When they arrive at Akoum, they’re beset by the Moon Kraken, to whom Nissa shows the pearl she picked up earlier. The speaker who owned the pearl had befriended the Moon Kraken long before, and in his grief the kraken spares their ship but leaves them on Akoum’s unwelcoming shoreline. Their ship becomes stuck at the base of the cliff, half destroyed, and the group is attacked by bandits but a show of force makes the bandits reconsider. The bandits help them off the ship and a few are coerced into being guides now that the group has reached Akoum. The would-be bandits lead the group to Tal Terig, the Puzzle Tower, where a horde of Eldrazi are trying to gain entrance. Inside are objects of great power, but the tower reassembles itself regularly, and the tower itself is only a fraction of the dungeon that winds underground. The group is attacked by the Eldrazi, but are saved by mutant elves from Ora Ondar. They’re then taken captive by the elves of Ora Ondar, but manage to escape when the basin is attacked by more Eldrazi.
Regrouping outside, Sorin can’t resist taunting Nissa and Anowon one last time. He tells them the Roil and all of Zendikar’s problems will continue, and the Eldrazi will consume their world. Anowon wants to force him to stand trial for his crimes against vampires, but he laughs and planeswalks away, warning Nissa not to let Anowon kill her in frustration. Anowon seems too horrified by the Eldrazi emerging from their mountain prison to attack.
The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering by Jay13x and Kaburi
Zendikar, a Chronology
We’ve re-read all the story materials we could find relating to Zendikar, and we had so much material to work with we had to split this chronology in two. This first summary takes you from Zendikar's ancient past up until just after the release of the Eldrazi. Only pieces of stories directly relevant to the Zendikar plot are represented here, so while we may mention The Purifying Fire, it wasn’t focused on Zendikar and as such will not be fully summarized. We’re presenting the story here in chronological order, but it should be noted that these stories were written over a seven year period. Consequently, they don’t always flow logically together as not a lot of care is given to providing exact time frames, and "centuries" or "millennia" are thrown around frequently and often interchangeably. Some details have changed as time goes on, as have certain characters who may not seem familiar between their representations.
We encourage you to read the source material for whatever we mention here. However, at a recent event, Creative has even mentioned that their new status quo is to essentially retcon anything that doesn’t line up with where they want to go with a character. This means that many stories should only be taken from the perspective of broad strokes rather than any specific details being confirmed as canon. As far as we can tell, Magic’s story will be a little flexible when it comes to canon for the foreseeable future. As much as possible we will avoid using the names of minor characters that only appear in a single story, as most side characters tend to be disposable and we don’t want to overload this with unimportant names to remember.
Finally, please keep in mind that we're putting this together for fun in our free time. We are not paid to write these articles, and we're not perfect, so you may find that we get some things wrong. If this happens, please let us know in the comments and we'll address it as soon as we're able.
The Ancient Past
Nahiri wants to try to destroy them anyway, but Ugin urges caution. They don’t actually know what killing the Eldrazi would do, so the three planeswalkers hatch a plan to capture the Eldrazi. Nahiri is convinced to use her home of Zendikar, as it is the only plane known to the three with all the right conditions, or rather, the only plane without the complication of maybe having to convince or fight any guardians. They would trap the Eldrazi on Zendikar, and Nahiri would watch over the prison. With the plan set, the trio set to work.
Forty years later, the trap was completed. A network of stone hedrons was constructed throughout Zendikar, intended as both bait and trap for the Eldrazi. Nahiri warned the world, which in the original version included vampires, something a later version would remove, so officially no vampires existed at this time, and the preparations were finalized. The Eldrazi arrived and the three titans were lured to Akoum, where the trap was sprung and the titans imprisoned. The only way to release them was for three planeswalkers, one of whom had the power of Ghostfire, to gather at the nexus of the hedron network, the Eye of Ugin.
But, as we all know, that was not to be the end of the story. For several hundred years, Nahiri continued to live among the people of Zendikar. Time passed, and she grew more and more distant as those she loved died around her. She taught them as best she could, creating a legacy in the Stone Forgers with what she knew of lithomancy and showed them how to keep the "gods" from emerging to destroy the world. Finally, Nahiri cocooned herself in stone to sleep, tired of the world and feeling a growing sense of apathy.
What she found shocked her. The people of Zendikar worshipped her… and the Eldrazi titans. She found a bizarre stone monument to herself and the Eldrazi, but not like they had been. Instead the Eldrazi were depicted as the races of Zendikar, the result of Nahiri's mistake in referring to them as gods. As she continued her search, she found vampires at the source of the disruption of the hedron network. These vampires were different from the kinds she had encountered before on other planes, as they had horns jutting from their backs and elbows, and they had built a temple on an important site in the hedron network. Here they conducted sacrifices to honor Ulamog, depicted as a god seizing the horns of the vampires. Nahiri dispatched the vampires and attempted to fix the damage to the network, but the patch was imperfect. The world started to react, beginning the Roil, and was reshaped into the Zendikar we know today. The Eldrazi were sealed again, but still Nahiri worried. Her friends hadn’t come, and she had no idea why. Her work done, Nahiri set out to find Sorin and save him if necessary.
The place where the vampires were making sacrifices is likely the Puzzle Tower, or Tal Terig. In the Teeth of Akoum mentions that as a place where vampires regularly make sacrifices, and it's location near the feet of the Teeth makes it the probable location.
Sometime between when the hedron network was completed and modern day, Ob Nixilis traveled to Zendikar and lost his spark to the plane's wild mana. His machinations brought him to the attention of Nahiri, who implanted a hedron in his forehead that severely limited his power. Presumably this happened after her reemergence but before her departure.
Prologue for Zendikar
Once she left, however, Nissa discovers that Zendikar isn’t punishing her at all. Instead, Zendikar was asking for Nissa's help in saving it, revealing leylines that Nissa follows to the source of the darkness in her visions. Along the way she discovers her animist abilities allow her to summon elementals and use them to help her defend against attack. The leylines eventually lead her to the tallest peak of Akoum, where she tries to use her new power to banish the darkness in a blast of energy… but nothing happens. As she wonders what went wrong, she hears the darkness she sensed laugh at her and experiences visions of a monster. Just as she feels like she’s being consumed by the darkness, Nissa planeswalks away.
Nissa arrives on Lorwyn just moments before the Great Aurora. She encounters a troop of Lorwyn elves, but is disgusted by their casual slaughter of eyeblights. She returns home to Zendikar as The Great Aurora changes the plane into Shadowmoor, to the taunting of Oona.
Across the multiverse, on the plane of Kephalai, Chandra Nalaar steals a mysterious scroll containing pyromantic secrets, later revealed to be the secrets of Ghostfire and a map to the Eye of Ugin. She returns to her home, a monastery on Regatha founded by followers of Jaya Ballard, but is pursued by Jace Beleren. Jace was dispatched by the Consortium to retrieve the scroll and when he faces off against Chandra, he bests her, wiping her memory of the scroll and taking it back with him. Upon her return to the monastery in defeat, she finds the monks hard at work copying the scroll.
Due to the dubious canoncity of Ramaz and Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014, we're not including them as her motivation here, but we did want to mention that they tie into the story. Ramaz is another servant of Nicol Bolas, and he's the one who puts Chandra up to stealing the scroll.
At the urging of Mother Luti of Keral Keep, who believes there was more to the scroll than just the spell it contained, Chandra attemps to steal the scroll a second time. This attempt ends in disaster, but it was during this failed attempt that Chandra meets Gideon. The two find themselves imprisoned on the plane of Diradin against an evil vampire lord. Working together, they would eventually escape, but during their imprisonment Gideon reveals to Chandra that the scroll came from the plane of Zendikar.
After this point, approximately three years pass. Jace worked for the Consortium for years, but by the time the main Zendikar story rolls around, the main events of Agents of Artifice occur and he takes over the Ravnican cell of the Consortium for a brief time before apparently cutting ties with it some time before the events of Return to Ravnica.
Meanwhile, Sarkhan Vol waits at the Eye of Ugin, placed there by Nicol Bolas for an unknown purpose. Sarkhan goes mad during his time there spent waiting… or does he? During the story of Tarkir, it appears that a piece of hedron Sarkhan picks up there is some sort of vessel for a vestige of Ugin, and it’s his tormenting voice driving Sarkhan to "madness."
On a re-read, I’m actually really impressed that the seeds of Ugin’s return are being sown here already. Unlike many things that seem like retcons, this flows nicely into the Tarkir story.
Anowon is convinced to help lead Chandra to the Eye of Ugin, but resents that Chandra has the only map to the place. As they reach the Eye, Anowon turns on Chandra, only to be attacked himself by an angry Sarkhan. With Anowon out of the way, Sarkhan leads Chandra to the Eye of Ugin, only to change into a dragon in an attempt to make a sacrifice of Chandra.
A short time later, Jace also arrives in Zendikar, and secures a guide from Anowon’s camp. They come across an injured Anowon, who feeds on his disciple and reveals that he knows the truth of the Eldrazi. Newly restored, he tries to stop Jace from inadvertently freeing the Eldrazi, but he’s overpowered and Chandra’s location is taken from his mind.
Jace follows the trail left by Chandra and Sarkhan and finds them dueling in the Eye. Jace and Chandra’s magic is diffused in the Eye, making their attacks not particularly effective, so Jace tells Chandra to use the Ghostfire described in the scroll to defeat Sarkhan in dragon form. The spell works and Sarkhan is defeated, but the presence of three planeswalkers combined with the power of Ghostfire unwittingly unlocks the Eldrazi prison.
Chandra appears to planeswalk away almost immediately while Jace escapes on foot, leaving behind a babbling Anowon and an unconscious Sarkhan. Jace's destination: Sea Gate. He appears to get out just in time, as on his way to the sea a Pathrazer of Ulamog lumbers past him. Jace tells the sages at the Library of Sea Gate what happened at the eye before departing Zendikar.
Sarkhan comes to and realizes his stupidity in following Bolas. He notices that only half of the Eye is open, and that it waits on something else to unlock completely. As he leaves, he encounters a dragon being killed by Eldrazi spawn. He fights off the spawn, but a vision of the dragon's spirit appears to him and warns him against Bolas. Sarkhan breaks off a piece of the Eye to take with him before returning to report to Bolas. It’s pretty clear, on reread, that this vision is in fact the voice of Ugin, filtering through the madness and setting Sarkhan on the path towards Tarkir. Bolas taunts Sarkhan with his failure. Sarkhan believes the spirit of Ugin spoke to him, but Bolas dismisses this as a delusion. Bolas replies that he put Ugin where he lays, implying that he killed Ugin. Bolas then reveals that he conspired to have the three planeswalkers gather and unlock the Eye, and that he waits to see which of others will answer the call of the opened Eye.
We can only speculate as to Bolas’ reasons for wanting the Eye opened. Is it purely to spite Ugin? Is there some greater need he has for the Eldrazi? He’s certainly old enough to have been around well before their imprisonment, so he likely knows what they are capable of.
Nissa’s tone throughout the book is starkly different from the Nissa we’re presented with in her later incarnations. Don't really try to connect these two personas. Creative decided to go in a different direction with the character, so pretty much all of her early characterization should be ignored. In the Teeth of Akoum should really only be taken from a broad strokes perspective, anyway, especially as recent con panels have more or less stated that the book is inaccurate. We're presenting Nissa in her original light in this summary, but just keep in mind that her personality has been changed.
The story begins with Nissa on a mission to the Tajuru elves in the Turntimber forests on the continent of Ondu. All the great Joraga leaders live abroad with other elves to understand other points of view, so Nissa's mission is to learn from the Tajuru. The Tajuru are explorers, very skilled at navigating Zendikar’s dangers, while the Joraga are much more militant, a fact Nissa is overly proud of. This fact is not lost on the Tajuru, as they have little love for the Joraga in return. She also has an almost Indiana Jones-like aversion to snakes and vampires. Shortly after returning from a patrol, Nissa is present for a Tajuru council that mentions a lost patrol. The patrol was attacked by strange creatures and Nissa’s team is sent to find out what happened. They’re quickly set upon by Eldrazi Spawn as Nissa uses her staff and her magic to summon Nissa’s Chosen and to "seed" one of the Eldrazi and cause a plant to erupt from inside it. After defeating the spawn, they return to home to find that the Eldrazi have attack there as well. Nissa take a pearl dropped by the Tajuru speaker, and the squad then heads off in the direction the Eldrazi were coming from.
The squad finds the creatures: a huge number of brood lineage and their vampire slaves destroying a Tajuru village. They engage but the entire squad is wiped out in moments and Nissa is left as the only survivor. Sorin arrives in the aftermath of the slaughter and casts what appears to be some kind of Damnation ability, wiping out most of the Eldrazi and leaving only a few remaining that he quickly dispatches. This leaves only Anowon, who was enslaved by the Eldrazi at the Eye and dragged across the plane to do their will. Sorin unnerves Nissa with his telepathic abilities and mentally dominates Anowon to serve him, a fact which Nissa doesn't seem to notice.
Sorin and Nissa talk, and as they travel he relates the truth of the Eldrazi, although cryptically. Sorin’s mission is to strengthen the Eldrazi Titan’s prison and put an end to the brood lineages ravaging Zendikar. Nissa reluctantly agrees to accompany Sorin and Anowon as their guide to the Teeth of Akoum, but she is repulsed by the vampire Anowon, and she doesn’t realize that Sorin is also a vampire. Nissa leads the group to Graypelt, where she introduces them to a Merfolk map maker and friend. They acquire a map to help them on their way to Akoum, and then set out to the Makindi Trench. The Makindi Trench is kind of like the Grand Canyon but much, much scarier, with floating boulders ready to drop and crush you at any time. As they descend into the canyon below, a Roil strikes and Sorin is badly injured from a fall that should have killed any mortal, though Nissa again doesn't seem to notice anything amiss. Sorin slowly recovers over the next few days as they leave the trench and set out for Zulaport. The trio encounter an old "Eldrazi" palace with a pictogram showing the Mortifier, the vampire who betrayed the vampire race and made them slaves to the Eldrazi. This is heavily hinted at being Sorin.
We should note here that almost everything said about the Eldrazi in this novel is wrong. It has either been retconned, or the Zendikari simply misunderstood the ruins they encounter. It could also be a little bit of both. Regardless, it’s best to disregard anything said about the history of the Eldrazi in this book. In fact, it’s best to disregard any specific detail in this book, as we’ll outline some of the weirdness that happens at the end of this summary.
When they arrive at Akoum, they’re beset by the Moon Kraken, to whom Nissa shows the pearl she picked up earlier. The speaker who owned the pearl had befriended the Moon Kraken long before, and in his grief the kraken spares their ship but leaves them on Akoum’s unwelcoming shoreline. Their ship becomes stuck at the base of the cliff, half destroyed, and the group is attacked by bandits but a show of force makes the bandits reconsider. The bandits help them off the ship and a few are coerced into being guides now that the group has reached Akoum. The would-be bandits lead the group to Tal Terig, the Puzzle Tower, where a horde of Eldrazi are trying to gain entrance. Inside are objects of great power, but the tower reassembles itself regularly, and the tower itself is only a fraction of the dungeon that winds underground. The group is attacked by the Eldrazi, but are saved by mutant elves from Ora Ondar. They’re then taken captive by the elves of Ora Ondar, but manage to escape when the basin is attacked by more Eldrazi.