Liliana Vess (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deathsmajesty) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2026-06-04 04:43 am
deathsmajesty) wrote in fandomhigh2026-06-04 04:43 am
Entry tags:
Song of Dominia, Thursday, Period 3
"So, I know I brought up the Planeswalker War last week, but I've decided that it's entirely too stupid to talk about," Liliana announced from where she was lounging behind her desk. "Honestly, it will just be a bunch of names - even moreso than usual - fighting over even stupider things than usual. One group of people wanted power, another group of people didn't like each other, a third group was trying to play peacemaker of course they were white and green mages, this was back before Magic's color wheel had anything even approaching depth, and in the end, Leshrac - mustache-twirling villain, even sans mustache - ended up ringing the Grey Chime. The Grey Chime was something of the poor man's Apocalypse Chime--" which had also gotten rung and yes, by a Planeswalker, but hey! Not on Dominaria! "--and destroyed most of Corondor, annihilating three major cities, Shikar, Telemar, and Hamath, and staining the sky above the continent eerie colors."
Sure, it had involved magical beacon that had lured a bunch of Planeswalkers into one place and wouldn't let them leave, but when would that ever become relevant again?
"As some of you may remember, the Phyrexian war we discussed last summer was only the second-worst calamity to befall Dominaria. As terrible as it was, Dominaria remained the Nexus. Billions of deaths and countless atrocities don't endanger the fabric of reality, so let's discuss what does.
"Of the many, many calamities that Urza caused or, at least, had a significant hand in, the most grievous was, of course, the detonation of the Golgothian Sylex. It obliterated the subcontinent of Argoth, created a massive tidal wave that killed thousands - likely would have been more, but so many people had been vaporized in the Sylex Blast - and tore down whole cities, liquified a tectonic plate, and literally shifted Dominaria on its axis. And that was just the physical damage. It also ruptured Dominaria's mana system; likely the Shard of the Twelve Worlds that formed was something akin to a bandage to keep all of Dominaria's mana from hemorrhaging out of the plane entirely. As if that weren't enough, the Blast ripped a hole in the planar fabric of Dominaria itself--a time rift. Among other things, rifts cut off the plane from its mana, and cause anomalies in space and time. We spoke in the first class about how mana travels along ley lines, and those ley lines transcend planes. It's a system, the magic flows across the Multiverse, from one plane to another through the Blind Eternities. Rifts interrupt that system, sapping the mana that should be flowing into the plane, as well as sucking out the mana that exists there already. One time rift is a danger to the survival of any plane, two are probably enough to doom it, and three would likely lead to its imminent destruction. Sixty years ago, Dominaria had eight. And, of course, any time a new rift would form, the others would get bigger and more destructive. Likely the only reason Dominaria was able to handle so many was because it was the Nexus."
So, uh, maybe don't do that again, Dominarians. You were all out of Nexus insurance.
"That rift was called the Yavimayan Rift, as it had been located in Yavimaya, a great forest on what remains of Terisiare, after the Blast turned an entire continent into an archipelago. And, somewhat surprisingly, it was not the first rift to be formed. That honor belongs to the Madaran Rift." Liliana pulled out a large map of Dominaria, pointing to a small island off the western coast of Jamuraa, the southernmost continent. "Stop me if you heard this one," she continued wryly, "But Madara also used to be a continent. It was, in fact, where Nicol Bolas had his empire, back during Mythohistory. Unlike Ugin," and some other Planeswalkers who won't be named, "Bolas didn't just leave Dominaria once his spark ignited and never returned. He had power and dominion here, especially after unlocking powers that dwarfed even those of the other Elder dragons." Did Liliana sound wistful there? Nah, surely not. "Madara was the scene of the very first duel between Planeswalkers, some fifteen thousand years ago. Nicol Bolas and an unnamed demonic leviathan fought to the death. The stories that remain of that battle are sketchy at best, save that it took days, the seas went mad, storms rent the skies, and a third of Madara was utterly destroyed. Whatever spell took out a third of a continents also tore open reality and created the first rift."
Planeswalkers and wrecking reality, the peanut butter and jelly of Magic history.
Sure, it had involved magical beacon that had lured a bunch of Planeswalkers into one place and wouldn't let them leave, but when would that ever become relevant again?
"As some of you may remember, the Phyrexian war we discussed last summer was only the second-worst calamity to befall Dominaria. As terrible as it was, Dominaria remained the Nexus. Billions of deaths and countless atrocities don't endanger the fabric of reality, so let's discuss what does.
"Of the many, many calamities that Urza caused or, at least, had a significant hand in, the most grievous was, of course, the detonation of the Golgothian Sylex. It obliterated the subcontinent of Argoth, created a massive tidal wave that killed thousands - likely would have been more, but so many people had been vaporized in the Sylex Blast - and tore down whole cities, liquified a tectonic plate, and literally shifted Dominaria on its axis. And that was just the physical damage. It also ruptured Dominaria's mana system; likely the Shard of the Twelve Worlds that formed was something akin to a bandage to keep all of Dominaria's mana from hemorrhaging out of the plane entirely. As if that weren't enough, the Blast ripped a hole in the planar fabric of Dominaria itself--a time rift. Among other things, rifts cut off the plane from its mana, and cause anomalies in space and time. We spoke in the first class about how mana travels along ley lines, and those ley lines transcend planes. It's a system, the magic flows across the Multiverse, from one plane to another through the Blind Eternities. Rifts interrupt that system, sapping the mana that should be flowing into the plane, as well as sucking out the mana that exists there already. One time rift is a danger to the survival of any plane, two are probably enough to doom it, and three would likely lead to its imminent destruction. Sixty years ago, Dominaria had eight. And, of course, any time a new rift would form, the others would get bigger and more destructive. Likely the only reason Dominaria was able to handle so many was because it was the Nexus."
So, uh, maybe don't do that again, Dominarians. You were all out of Nexus insurance.
"That rift was called the Yavimayan Rift, as it had been located in Yavimaya, a great forest on what remains of Terisiare, after the Blast turned an entire continent into an archipelago. And, somewhat surprisingly, it was not the first rift to be formed. That honor belongs to the Madaran Rift." Liliana pulled out a large map of Dominaria, pointing to a small island off the western coast of Jamuraa, the southernmost continent. "Stop me if you heard this one," she continued wryly, "But Madara also used to be a continent. It was, in fact, where Nicol Bolas had his empire, back during Mythohistory. Unlike Ugin," and some other Planeswalkers who won't be named, "Bolas didn't just leave Dominaria once his spark ignited and never returned. He had power and dominion here, especially after unlocking powers that dwarfed even those of the other Elder dragons." Did Liliana sound wistful there? Nah, surely not. "Madara was the scene of the very first duel between Planeswalkers, some fifteen thousand years ago. Nicol Bolas and an unnamed demonic leviathan fought to the death. The stories that remain of that battle are sketchy at best, save that it took days, the seas went mad, storms rent the skies, and a third of Madara was utterly destroyed. Whatever spell took out a third of a continents also tore open reality and created the first rift."
Planeswalkers and wrecking reality, the peanut butter and jelly of Magic history.