The ENTIRE Story of Strixhaven: School of Mages | Magic: The Gathering Lore

with the strix haven lore coming to a close and having a chance to breathe it's time for the tldr version condensed down into what's all mtg lore goodness let's follow the story of stricthaven through the story spotlight cards for this set let's begin with a humble invitation with a letter of acceptance the young planeswalking twins will and rowan kenworth are whisked from their arena battleground of kylum to the plane of archavios the letter was sent by another planeswalker kazmina a mage and mentor looking to foster the growth and education of youthful planeswalkers throughout the multiverse she had observed their feats on el drain their home plane as well as their continued training on kylum and believed them to be perfect candidates for strengthshaven stricthaven is the premier center of magecraft education throughout the entire multiverse if you want to learn how to truly wield powerful spells you go to strixhaven always curious of how much they could learn the twins accept the invitation and after getting permission from garrick wildspeaker who was looking after them for their safety they traveled with kazmina to strix haven stricthaven however is not as safe as some would suggest because of its early origins the school has become a center of controversy for some back in the ancient days of arcavios the world's mana collided with that of another nearby plane creating dual enemy mana surges from these snarls five elder dragons were hatched and they wielded powerful magic as the planes settled and mortal races began to evolve these elder dragons became annoyed at these feeble minds bumbling away with their magic as brutish and as untrained as they were the mortal races used this untapped mana of strict haven to devastating consequences during an era known as the blood age in which fields were drenched in endless costly conflicts these ancient barbaric practices were brought to an end by the elder dragons who pitied the wills of mortals but understood their temptation to utilize their magic together they decided to educate and properly train the people of archavios in proper spellcraft founding the stricthaven school for mages and locking away the dark evil magic that gave the blood ward's name still some of this plain see the elder dragons who formed colleges based on their magical ideologies as nothing more than tyrants with elites who do nothing but stifle their potential one such person who sees strict's haven more as a source of oppression is named exodus gnar and yes i know this card has a flip side but that part comes later ecstasnar was once a prominent student at stricthaven a masterful linguist of the spoken word and arrogant to boot a perfect match for the silverquill college quickly he excelled and was seen as a protege for his time leaning into the common perception that he could one day become the next oracle of archavios a position of great prestige bestowed on the most powerful mortal mage on the plane by the elder dragons themselves however exodus was passed over for this opportunity and let's just say he doesn't take personal failings very well he lashed out at teachers his peers the dragon everyone he felt like he was personally stifled by in this corrupt tyrannical system just because he couldn't measure up to his own expectations classic silver quill so exitus went out and found other strix haven dropouts who formed a collective of burnouts called the auric in the card rise of exodus we see exodus wrestle control of the orc from their previous leader in an event we don't really get much detail on in the story but now exodus has his cult of like-minded outcasts and preparations were made for his personal revenge meanwhile the planeswalker liliana vest had traveled to strikeshaven under the false guise of a professor named onyx she was once a student at this school having attended the witherbloom college but she came back seeking ancient knowledge on a possible spell to resurrect gideon jorah another planeswalker who had sacrificed his life to save hers during the war of the spark event full of guilt she pleaded with belladros the witherbloom elder dragon who knew of such a spell but refused to give it to liliana fearing its use in mortal hands she walked away empty-handed liliana was disappointed but was soon distracted by a new threat the auric who she had discovered plumbing the forbidden secrets of strix haven within its vast biblioplax taking the advice of another elder dragon in her long life leliana decides to honor gid's memory rather than resurrecting him and looks to protect the school from the oric threat with the school year beginning kasmina drops off the twins who quickly acclimate to the scholagic affairs mostly by forcing themselves into random duels with the students this calm before the storm is represented in mentor's guidance as the card suggests stricthaven would test their skills as well as their character and although they are twins will and rowan's personalities are starting to diverge quite wildly rowan is becoming much more powerful and obsessed with strength as will is becoming more careful reserved and focused on studies so it's a classic red versus blue mage identity but still this causes friction in their relationship for the first time during their freshman year at the same time another planeswalker enters the scene luca a character from egoria who too was a misfit on his home world and shunned by a society that didn't quite mesh with him as he wanders archavio's word of a foreign mage who can bond with animals hits the rumor mills the orc get word of this and exodus arranges a meeting with luca after being badly treated by the natives of this world and hearing word of the strict rules set down by stricthaven luca joins the auric in exchange for some future knowledge or power or something else from exdes oh yeah and he also magically bonds with a little cute fox named mila it's cute but something less cute is also revealed beasts associated with the orc known as mage hunters these monsters are attracted to and feed off of arcane energy making them especially dangerous for wizards to face off against exodus has planned to use these beasts in an attack on the school and luca could be the one who leads them luca becomes obsessed with the idea of saving archavios from the tyranny of strict saving yeah this tyrannical school filled with children not a good look luca to combat this growing threat to stricthaven liliana vests or i mean professor onyx reaches out to some promising students she knows to be planeswalkers will and rowan she encounters them in professor's warning and begins personally schooling them in defense against the dark arts or combative spellcraft as magic the gathering would put it will and rowan rowan specifically is eager to learn this type of magic and put it into practice while will again wants to play things smart and reads up on their potential foe and the secrets they look to steal from the biblioplex the twins also explore their extracurriculars having joined the prismari school because is it colors and their flair for the dramatic the twins are ushered in with an explosive welcome as their relationship continues to fracture with rowan going out and making new friends while ignoring her studies and will taking his studies just far too seriously and not applying what he has learned into practice still both of them take some breaks to experience the joys of collegiate life such as a game called mage tower which really pushes their skills to the limit in a very fun environment still the orc we're gaining in both strength and support students who question their goals at the school who drop out those who were expelled or failed were constantly being recruited by the auric agents and through the temptation by the orc their numbers swelled will in rowan with professor onyx's mentorship hit the books on some practical research they needed to learn everything they could to face the coming calamity with rowan learning about the explosive force of powerful spells and will diving into the dark secrets of the blood age the forbidden knowledge that the auric and x's in particular were looking to plunder kazmina again appears after tracking this luca character for quite a while through her owl scouts she found that he has officially been invited into the orc as a crucial part of their plan and now he's sneaking into the campus grounds kazmina looks to put an end to this scheme and confronts the wayward bonder their conversation is brief and the fight is even briefer kazmina thought that luca could one day be an ally to them all not just the school but the multiverse while luca sees the school and the dragons who lead it as nothing more than tyrants who oppress those who practice magic in a way not to their liking they butt heads and fists and spells but clearly luca is outmatched the magic of kazmina is too powerful and with his little pet subdued in a bubble luca's sword just isn't enough in this test of talents luka is found wanting still his appearance here on the campus wasn't meant for this fight as luca now commands the legions of mage hunters and begins to set them loose on the school kazmina realizes the severity of this threat and alerts the school officials even warning the dragons as luka returns to ecstas a willing pawn in someone else's personal revenge the mage hunters begin their assault professor onyx helps lead the defense of strix haven and students and teachers alike work to push back the mage hunter attack liliana reaches out through the ether and finds that these beasts are in fact being controlled by a singular figure an innately powerful mage who she thought must have been another plane's walker this of course piques her interests as a threat she's very familiar with facing but still something seems a bit off as they defend the campus onyx senses that this is not the grand scheme of someone like exedus who wanted to not just destroy stricthaven but level the idea of this institution to the ground turning into rubble never to be rebuilt again for that he needed something more powerful than a bunch of mage hunters he needed the snarl that twisty knot of pure magic that rested just below the college within the biblioplex that was his true target his goal the ancient secrets and spells of the biblioplex combined with this raw mana of the snarl now with all the schools deans and defenses directed to the courtyards there was no one left to protect the biblioplax professor onyx saves the twins from an orc attacking them and redirects them to this biblioplex kazmina who left for reinforcements returned successful in her mission the elder dragons appear on the field of battle and turn the tide in the school's favor with their draconic intervention the mage hunters are bathed in dragonfire and the orrick members flee for their very lives not even luca would dare risk a face to face encounter with an elder dragon they hoped that these old beings were so aloof to the prattle of mortals that they wouldn't even bother coming to the defense of their own creation but how wrong they were exodus of course knew the dragons would eventually show up leaving his followers to their demise but this of course was at its very beginning a selfish movement and their lives meant nothing to him rather exodus found himself directly where he needed to be pouring the words of an ancient blood age spell into the untipped mana of the snarl as professor onyx and her twin students appear they find exodus mid-chant with a summoning spell conjuring an avatar that represented the entire blood age era the embodiment of every drop of blood spilled during those dark days exodus awakened the blood avatar he looked to unleash this being of pure malice and destruction upon all of archaevios starting here with strix haven fearing this powerful professor this onyx person who was on him since the very beginning could foil his plans exodus casts an exhausting spell to translocate her miles away into a forest unable to make it back nearly in enough time to stop him and for some reason she can't just you know plans walk her way back but whatever this left exes alone with two first-year students hardly a threat he believed but will and rowan had trained and studied hard with their mentor and were prepared for this fight rowan had grown so much in strength during her training she crackled with power as she too tapped into the powerful snarl she became transcendent and also terrible the power looked to overwhelm her but her brother will was there with his own set of knowledge and skills he was able to temper her unbridled power control that surge of emotions and direct it to himself she was strong enough to channel the energy but will had the smarts to shape it into a spell from their culmination of studies willow rowan overrode the control spell x's had used on the blood avatar and cast treason on it the blood avatar turned on its summoner and finally crushed exodus gnar killing the would-be anarchist will then begins to unsummon the blood avatar returning it to the twisting dimension of fear and rage from whence it came but as the lead was finally being closed on the portal the blood avatar reached out with its axe and cut clean through will's leg the blood avatar was gone but so was will's leg with both he and rowan collapsing from exhaustion and pain having to be rescued by the other professors who came to check out the disturbance happening inside weeks later will wakes up they had won the school was saved and a new memorial stands for those who had fallen in strict haven's defense a lot of credit goes to these first years who after all continue with their studies though they agree now that their personalities have certainly changed rowan thinks they have learned enough while will without a leg wants to continue the semester they know they're different but reaffirmed that they'd still love each other regardless kasmina tracks luca one last time watching as he and the scattered remaining auric forces wander off scrounging for food and shelter no longer a real threat to strickshaven now her attention turns to people of more interest especially for kasmina's more personal goals rowan has proven herself quite strong and will too shows great promise together they are exactly what she's looking for in recruits for her shadowy cabal a group of planeswalkers joining together for a threat far greater than this blood avatar but for now she lets the twins rest making sure her owls are always out watching professor onyx is proud of her students and her school she returns after a long hike back to stricthaven and walks in as professor liliana vest finally dropping that old disguise the other professors hail her actions in defending the campus and in warning about the auric threat before anyone else really took them seriously they elect to offer her a permanent position at the school and all that's despite her lying about her identity which no one really questions for some reason it seems like a disqualifying factor in a job advocation but okay anyway liliana agrees to become a professor here again with her new goal to be a good person in honoring gideon's memory she thinks teaching responsible magic to young mages is the best way to do that liliana has a condition though she wants to teach a course on necromancy her wheelhouse and of course with the eventual unintended consequence of making i'm sure new villains for stricthaven what can i say necromancers just make perfect threats in future stories and this is going to be a great way to make new villains for this plane and that you guys is the story of stricthaven in its entirety as told by the cards themselves final thoughts well if you take this story for what it is and not add in the side stories it does a decent job with a pretty monumental task with wizards moving to this single set block structure and every set having its own plane and story taking place almost independent of the one that preceded it and only five written articles a story there isn't a lot of room for world building and the lore of stricthaven suffers from that i know plenty of players who don't even know that stricthaven is just the school and that the plane is actually called arcavios for example the greater world outside of the school isn't explored we don't understand much of the elder dragons the oracle the archaics or the history of the blood age that effort was all put into building the lore of the school and the characters in the story i do think some of these points hurt some characters lore liliana for example being a former student doesn't fit with any of the canon kazmina ended up not doing much at all and luca is just well he's luca and he continues to be a punching bag of a character for wizards of the coast who really really need to find some strong compelling enemy planeswalkers soon geez still the growth we see out of will and rowan is commendable as they look to be powerful includes to a larger story taking place with them and despite some hang-ups liliana grows a lot with her own self-worth and understanding what it means to be a good person it isn't always enough to be the occasional hero the day-to-day of doing good for others is what gideon stood for and that's what she looks to do now as a teacher so as i'll say as a blanket statement the one block set formula is the biggest killer to entity's story and it again hurts stricthaven but it still succeeds in being an entertaining tale that develops characters we just need more consistency between sets and stories in the long run to make it all feel worth it anyway guys thanks so much for your support on the strict haven lore videos as well as my videos for the upcoming dungeon and dragon set adventures in the forgotten realms i'm doing loads of speculation and predictions right now and i'm glad that a lot of you guys are enjoying them remember you can support the channel by being a member liking and taking that notification bell you can also join me live on the channel mondays and thursdays 6 p.m eastern standard time for some mtg discussions as always guys thank you all so much for watching and until next time see ya

Channel: Aether Hub

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Keywords: video, sharing, camera phone, video phone, free, upload, mtg, mtg lore, mtgstx, mtga, mtg arena, strixhaven, strixhaven lore, strixhaven mtga, strixhaven standard, strixhaven deck, magic the gathering, aetherhub, magic arcanum, magic historian, mtg story, everything in strixhaven, school of mages, story spotlight, shorts, youtube live, mtga deck, mtga event, mtga gems, liliana vess, liliana vess lore, lukka, lukka lore, strixhaven end, what happens in strixhaven school of mages

Id: dmR2trBad-o

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021