MTG Salvation

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
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Welcome back to Archive Trap! Today we're going to talk about the first major post-Mending story: Agents of Artifice. To do that, we'll need to dive into the origins of three Planeswalkers: Tezzeret, Jace Beleren, and Liliana Vess. I've already covered Liliana's story pretty extensively in Liliana, Garruk, and the Veil, but three paragraphs on Agents of Artifice from Liliana's perspective doesn't do a lot to capture the full scope of the story. Because Tezzeret has just re-entered the story after an extended absence, I thought it was high time for a full summary of events that most storyline fans might not be aware of. Agents of Artifice was an interesting book because it doesn't really show our heroes in a flattering light. They all belong to an interplanar organization called the Infinite Consortium, which is exactly as shady as it sounds. While it's not just a criminal organization, the organization is ruthless in the pursuit of it's goals.

I'm not really sure what's brilliant or an ultimatum about this.
Brilliant Ultimatum by Anthony Francisco

Origins: Tezzeret & Jace

• The Seeker's Fall
• Absent Minds

On Esper, some unknown number of years ago, Tezzeret was a member of the Seekers of Carmot. The Seekers are prestigious because they claim to have found a way to recreate Etherium, something lost since the disappearance of it's creator, Crucius the Mad (a sphinx planeswalker). Tezzeret, a young prodigy, was initially accepted into the seekers because of how much talent he showed. As time went on, however, the richer members of the Seeker's Academy outperformed Tezzeret (not in small part due to their ability to afford extensive Etherium enhancements). Tezzeret, a poor scrapper from Tidehollow, had scrounged for years just to build his Etherium right arm. So when the headmaster of the Seeker's Academy informs Tezzeret of his expulsion, he does not react well. He destroys the messenger capsule containing the record of his explusion, and executes the headmaster, leaving his severed head on the desk (not as gruesome as it sounds given the headmaster's etherium body). Although some might suspect Tezzeret had something to do with the death, he gets away with the crime. Still, his wealthier contemporaries pass him by and he gets no recognition. Watching his chief rival get the first etherium heart created with new metal is finally too much. Tezzeret breaks into the vault containing the Codex Etherium, where the Seekers supposedly keep the secret of making Etherium. Inside he finds the Codex just blank pages, mean to impress but containing no details. In his shock and frustration, he's attacked by guards and stabbed - igniting his spark and sending him to the shard of Grixis. There, he fights his way through the undead, driven to a certain location by unknown means. When he defeats the last monster, Nicol Bolas appears before him, bidding him to kneel before his new master.

Jace the Mind Shredder is probably a more accurate title.
Clash of Wills by Yan Li

On Vryn, Jace is a 13-year-old boy who doesn't quite understand his powers yet. He's beginning to hear what people are thinking, and he aces his exams despite not truly being prepared for them (because he can read the examiner's mind). He gets picked on by some bullies - who nearly kill him by knocking him off a ledge - and he uses his abilities to control one them. The mind-controlled bully helps Jace up, and Jace runs. He relates this experience to his parents, who call for an expert: Alhammarret. He spends two years under Alhammarret's tutelage, learning from the sphinx in his position as High Arbiter. Vryn is a world of constant conflict over control over the Mage Rings - ancient devices capable of transmitting vast quantities of power across the plane. As a telepath, Alhammarret stays neutral and helps keep the conflict in check. He begins to send Jace out on intelligence gathering missions, as the leadership of the various factions never send anyone with any vital information. While returning from a mission Jace attempts to probe Alhammarret's mind to see how well his abilities have progressed. There he learns something horrifying: Jace's spark had ignited long ago, but Alhammarret had pulled him back and erased the memories from his mind. Furious, and fearful of what to do if caught, he writes a note for himself and erases the memories of his own mind. On another mission, he learns that Alhammarret had been using him to play the factions against one another and profit from it. Disgusted with being used, Jace packs his things to leave - only to stumble upon the note he wrote to himself. He confronts Alhammarret, and when the Sphinx puts all his mental force onto Jace, Jace realizes he can't beat him in a fair fight. Instead, Jace abandons his defenses and allows his own mind to be scrambled in order to defeat the sphinx. Jace loses most of his memories, but he destroys his old mentor's mind to the point where Alhammaret can't even breathe. In the battle, Jace planeswalks again, landing on Ravnica.

On Ravnica, he's scared, confused, and alone. He comes across an orphan, and learns from her mind that an elf named Emmara Tandris takes in orphans, sometimes. He goes to meet her, and she takes him in. The only things he can remember are his name, an image of a mage ring, and his home town: Silmot's Crossing. He gives Emmara a false name: Berrim.

I just wanted to show this art. It looks super cool.
Agents of Artifice Cover Art by Aleksi Briclot

The Infinite Consortium

• Agents of Artifice
• Fuel for the Fire

Liliana Vess has a problem. You see, after the Mending she sold her soul to four demons in exchange for restored youth and power. She had hoped, at the time, that she could get out of those deals before they came due... but her time is almost up and she has no way out. To save herself, she allies with Nicol Bolas, the very being who brokered her demon deals in the first place. Bolas is willing to help, but he wants something from her first. A splinter of his interplanar network, called the Infinite Consortium, has rebelled against him. The splinter is led by Tezzeret and headquartered on Ravnica. Liliana devises a labrythine plan to usurp Tezzeret and restore control of the consortium to Bolas.

The main story begins at the Thralldom’s End celebration (celebrating the fall of the Orzhov guild) with Kallist, a mercenary, dejectedly getting himself drunk after Liliana rejected him (Note: The story begins without context here). The two had been dating for several months, and Kallist is depressed because he doesn't know why she's dumped him. He bumps into a friend while in a drunken stupor, and his friend decides to confront Liliana on Kallist's behalf. Kallist, for his part, merely passes out. Liliana is still enjoying herself and doing her best to ignore her guilt over rejecting Kallist. Kallist's friend arrives, but his timing could not be worse: just as he reaches Liliana, a pair of mercenary assassins make an attempt on Liliana's life. She quickly uses her death magic to dispatch the pair, just as three more arrive. These three are more heavily armed than the first, and they threaten to kill Kallist if she doesn't come with them.

Kallist wakes up from his drunken stupor in his apartment. He quickly realizes an intruder is in the room with him, and casts an illusion to make himself appear to be unprepared. He knocks the intruder unconscious, and slips into a combat stance. Kallist's martial proficiency is still off due to his hangover (or so he believes), and his spellcasting has never been up to snuff, so the second intruder knocks him back into unconsciousness. He wakes up (again) tied to a chair and being interrogated by another mercenary. The mercenary wants to know where Jace Beleren is, and Kallist is so angry with Jace that he almost reveals his location. His resistance causes them to bring in Liliana, which changes his demeanor and he's willing to cooperate to protect her. He reveals Jace’s general location (the district), and manages to convince the mercenary leader to let him and Liliana live. The leader orders them bound and guarded while he determines if their intelligence was accurate.

Liliana and Kallist escape, of course, and race to rescue Jace. They're stopped by a goblin tribe that summons what can only be described as a sewer elemental, and later by corrupt district watch under the employ of the mercenary leader. They’re captured by the watch, but use their capture to find the mercenaries’ contact in the guard. They find him and escape (again), then extract information from him in one of the most brutal ways possible (Liliana basically kills him and promises his soul eternal damnation if he doesn't talk). They eventually find Jace’s location, only to realize the mercenary team beat them there. In the fight, Jace is killed, releasing a massive surge of magic. ‘Kallist’ is hit by that surge and realizes he is actually Jace. His true memories of the past couple years come flooding in.

Neither Liliana nor Jace win any hero awards this book.
Talent of the Telepath by Peter Mohrbacher

Years before, Jace (under the pseudonym Berrim), is living a high-rolling lifestyle on Ravnica. It's not clear how long has passed since he first came to Ravnica, but it's been at least a few years (because otherwise Liliana would be a pedophile). Using his mind magic, he extorts money for the secrets of the rich and keeps it all in multiple accounts across Ravnica. During a meeting with his banker, an elemental firecat smashes into their cafe and attacks him. Jace uses his illusions to confuse the elemental before escaping into the crowd.

Watching from above, it becomes clear that the firecat’s attack is actually a recruitment test by Tezzeret and his lieutenant Baltrice. Baltrice is a pyromancer with a preference for summoning elementals - who also happens to be another planeswalker. Tezzeret uses another mage to test Jace's mind-reading skills by forcing him to work after having been poisoned. Jace passes this test as well, and learns the location to meet Tezzeret for his recruitment into the Infinite Consortium... but he also summons an invisible creature to track the mage. Unnerved by the experience, he heads to the nearby home of Emmara. He explains to her what happened and asks for advice. She's heard of the Consortium and tells him it’s the place people go to find anything, literally anything, and from the discussion Jace infers that it is also an interplanar organization. Despite her warnings against them, he leaves Emmara to see what the Consortium wants from him.

Using the information his invisible informant gathered, he skips the meeting with Tezzeret and instead plants himself along their return path home. Tezzeret is surprised, and he extends an invitation to join the Consortium. Baltrice, however, takes an instant dislike to Jace, and when she mentions the name of Jace’s former mentor Alhammarret, he subtly takes his revenge by erasing the name from her mind. Jace's attempt to push farther and learn how Tezzeret gained control of the Consortium is met with a stern rebuke, with instructions not to do it again on pain of death. Anyone with any mental magic training can tell when they've been intruded upon, and Tezzeret has safeguards in place. The shady nature of the organization bothers Jace at first, but the promise of addition training finally lures him in. Of note, Tezzeret reveals that mind mages like Jace are incredibly rare, especially of the planeswalker variety, and that the Consortium currently employs five planeswalkers (of which presumably Tezzeret and Baltrice are two) and contracts with three more (one of which is Liliana Vess) who don’t know the full scope of the organization.

The training is more brutal than Jace expects, and Tezzeret quickly forces him to surpass his limits. His mental powers become sharper than they have been for a long time. Jace quickly grows bored of endless practice. When he is finally assigned a mission, he is partnered with a mercenary named Kallist Rhoka, who is suspiciously similar in appearance to Jace. The leader of the Ravnican cell confirms that this was intentional, and that this mission is to test how they work together and see if that visual similarity will become beneficial for future missions. They’re tasked with seeing if a local contact is skimming goods and funds owed the Consortium for herself. They're led into a trap.

Tezzeret's age is often baffling, as his first card represents him as a young man.
Tezzeret the Seeker by Anthony Francisco

Jace and Kallist escape the trap and bond in the process. When they return, Jace’s telepathy is used to hunt down the traitor that sold them out, but Jace’s squeamishness for the darker side of the Consortium’s business earns him some ire. The Consortium sets about toughening him up, and has him erase the memories of the traitor in order to spare the traitor's life (if he remembers nothing, he's no threat). Jace fails to surgically remove the right memories, and leaves the man essentially an empty shell.

As time goes on, Jace is sent out on more missions with Kallist and slowly he starts to become numb to the dealings of the Consortium. While Kallist always does the killing, Jace no longer feels much guilt about it. He also leaves the plane twice for missions, and it’s likely that during these missions is when Fuel for the Fire takes place. Eventually Jace is paired with Baltrice. The two of them are to kill the shogun of a Nezumi tribe on Kamigawa so that the shogun's son can take his place. The Nezumi are sitting on some swamps rich in black mana, and the Kamigawan cell wants some real estate there. The mismatched pair travel to the swamp, but it’s clear they’ve been given bad information and the mission goes south immediately. Baltrice ends up burning down much of the village, and the situation forces Jace to use his mental powers to kill the Nezumi shogun, but killing the tribe's shaman something he hadn't been prepared for. He talks about it later with Kallist, and reveals what happened with Alhammarret (the details of which were retconned by the story Absent Minds), and notes that he’s bothered how the assassination didn’t make him feel guilty. He’s shocked to learn later that Tezzeret blamed Baltrice, and tortured her using a mana blade (a magical knife that drains a mage's power). He begins to wonder if what he's learning and earning from the Consortium is worth it.

So here's the thing about Tezzeret in this novel: he starts off as a harsh but competent leader and mentor, but it's clear that he's feeling Bolas' pressure on his organization. How much of that is Liliana already making her moves, we don't know. But it's clear Tezzeret is slowly becoming more and more deranged over the course of the novel. Or maybe he's just revealing who he really is under presusre. If you betrayed Nicol Bolas, you would probably have a hard time keeping it together too, but Tezzeret was already more than a little bit of a psychopath. His stern but fair initial appearance slowly gives way to that psychopathic side.

A short time later, a messenger arrives from Nicol Bolas with terms for a negotiation. The negotiation will take place on neutral ground, a snowy plane. Jace learns of Tezzeret's history with the Seekers, and how he met Bolas. He and Bolas are to negotiate the terms of mining rights of valuable metals that may help in discovering the secrets of Etherium. Tezzeret brings Jace along to protect him from telepathic intrusion by Bolas, but the boring nature of the negotiations cause Jace’s attention to wander. Bolas takes advantage and communicates with Jace telepathically, telling him about how Tezzeret took over the Consortium by killing anyone who knew it belonged to Bolas. Bolas goes on to reveal that planeswalkers once had god-like power, and hints at the events of the Mending. When Jace asks why Bolas is revealing all of this to him, Bolas casually mentions that it makes a good distraction right before launching an all-out assault on Tezzeret’s psyche. Bolas' assault causes Tezzeret loses many important secrets he trusted Jace to protect. They’re set upon by natives who circumvent wards Tezzeret had placed to protect them from Bolas directly, and the pair barely escape with their lives (Jace even loses a toe to frostbite). For his failure against Bolas - a fight it was clear Jace probably couldn’t have won even if his attention hadn’t been diverted - Tezzeret tortures Jace with the mana blade, scarring his back. None of the Consortium's healers are allowed to heal Jace, but the constant pain from the blade forces him to seek out Emmara's help. Jace is horrified, it's the worst experience of his life and his soul is in agony from the torture. Emmara helps, but it's clear when Jace returns that he's persona non-grata with the Consortium. Another mistake and Tezzeret could take the mana blade to him again. That's when he gets assigned a mission to brainwash a priest (of a faith that worships planeswalkers). Jace finds the task so abhorrent upon entering the priests mind that he decides he has had enough, and he's leaving the organization.

Jace returns to the Consortium before anyone can realize that he didn’t complete his mission. Worried about Tezzeret’s reprisal, he warns his friend Kallist (on whom Tezzeret would take out his displeasure) and convinces him to go on the run, too. The two of them hide out in an out-of-the-way district, and they quickly find themselves at odds over their future. This is compounded when Liliana, who they had only known as a freelancer for the Consortium, ‘stumbles’ across the two of them while claiming she was also on the run from the Consortium. Jace detects no deception from her (in retrospect, her ability to avoid his powers may be due to the Raven Man Edit: It's an ability granted by Nicol Bolas), and eventually a love triangle forms between the three of them. That is, until they’re attacked by the Consortium in a market. Jace uses his powers to link to the people around him and try to detect danger, but when a drake he summons kills dozens as collateral damage for saving his life, his psyche is fractured. He only pulls himself back together thanks to Kallist's help talking him through it. Jace becomes convinced that the only way to save his friend is to take his mind into Jace’s own and transport him off world (planting his friend's mind into someone on the new plane), but the spell goes awry and he switches their bodies. Liliana follows 'Kallist', and when it becomes clear that he's not going to make a move, she hires the mercenaries to hunt down 'Jace' herself. She needs Jace back in his right mind to take down Tezzeret and fulfill her deal with Bolas.

Another quick note: Tezzeret was content to let Jace go after a brief initial search. It's Liliana, throughout the whole novel, manipulating things behind the scenes to make Jace and Tezzeret think the other is out to get them.

Disclaimer: Jace is not actually Batman in this novel.
Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 Loading Screen Karl Kopinski

The story returns to the future, where Liliana and a now-restored Jace assault the Ravnican cell of the Consortium in order to send a message to Tezzeret. Jace believes Tezzeret is responsible for the mercenaries who killed Kallist thanks to Liliana's manipulation. He threatens other cells on Kamigawa, Mercadia, and Aranzur (presumably there are more), then steals the mana blade from the leader of the Ravnican cell. I should note that Liliana reveals herself as being from Dominaria here, as she curses in Urza’s name (which is an exclusively Dominarian thing).

The duo return to Emmara for healing, and when it becomes clear that Jace doesn’t want to continue the fight or kill anymore, Liliana sells out Jace’s friends and gets everyone but Emmara killed (Emmara is saved by last minute quick thinking). Enraged, Jace tracks down Nicol Bolas through his couriers and goes to Grixis (still a shard world at this point). Bolas tells Jace how to find Tezzeret through the contested mining operation, and they end up following Baltice by having one of Liliana's shades hide on the pyromancer. Jace finds Tezzeret's sanctum in the middle of a desert on an unnamed world, a giant gleaming tower in the middle of nowhere. While infiltrating the tower, Jace tricks Liliana into revealing her betrayal (something he's suspected) - but their confrontation is put off by Tezzeret’s arrival. Tezzeret overpowers Jace and locks the mind mage away. He's only alive because Tezzeret intends to use Jace’s brain to create a device to replicate his powers. Still believing Liliana to be on his side (as she's been playing him like she's been playing Jace), Tezzeret fails to notice when Liliana helps Jace escape. She finally reveals to Jace her deal with the demons and that she needs Bolas’ help to free herself. Jace tells her what she wants to hear, but instead of leading Tezzeret away to Grixis like their plan called for, he leads him to Kamigawa instead. Specifically, to the swamp of the Nezumi tribe. Tezzeret is defeated and Jace uses the mana blade to destroy Tezzeret's etherium arm before turning him over to the Nezumi Shaman. The shaman is very eager to get revenge on the man who ordered the death of his shogun, and Jace leaves Tezzeret for dead.

Liliana returns to Grixis having failed to deliver Tezzeret or the remainder of the Consortium. Liliana’s hope for Bolas’ aid extinguished, she planeswalks away in defeat, desperate for options to free herself from her demons as her debts come due. Bolas returns to his sanctum in triumph, with Jace having unwittingly given him exactly what he wanted in the form of a broken Tezzeret for Bolas to reshape.

Psst. Hey you. Reader. Yeah, you, who just finished reading this. Did you know it's Archive Trap's anniversary this week? As a giveaway, anyone who responds to this tweet will be eligible to win a prize of their choice: a Premium Deck Series: Fire & Lightning for Magic Online, a foil FTV: Exiled Gifts Ungiven or a Fat Pack of Eldritch Moon! You don't need to do anything but respond to the tweet, I'll pick a winner at random and reach out when the contest closes, which it will Wednesday 9/21/16 at 11:59 EST. Keep the secret though! I'll open up the other prizes once this stealthy giveaway ends. Keep it cool, though! Don't give away the secret or you'll be facing a lot more competition! This contest has ended.

Thanks for reading! Jace's story would continue in the plot of Zendikar, which was the first plot arc I covered in Archive Trap. Tezzeret's return as Bolas' thrall has only just begun, which I'll cover in my four part series on Alara - starting in two weeks!

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 would 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.

Note: This article has been amended to make Jace's decision making process more clear.