Zendikar: The Complete History | Magic: The Gathering Lore

hey guys simon here and welcome back to the either hub for more magic the gathering lore today we're going over the noobish planeswalker guide to the plane of zendikar we'll briefly go over its entire history in the game so far leading us to our latest adventure on this world in zendikar rising so if you're not familiar with zendikar strap in because we've got a lot to learn but first i just wanted to say it feels so great to be back i've been away for a few months working on other projects but it's great to dive back into some mtd lore with that said if you're interested i started a new channel that focuses on another game passion of mine world of warcraft you can help support me there and help build a great community by checking the link on the screen right now or in the description below of course all of your support is greatly appreciated but for now let's move on to lore [Music] zendikar is a world full of lush landscapes teeming with great sources of mana it's known as one of the most mana rich worlds in the multiverse which has granted both great boons and terrible catastrophes zindercart itself is full of life from deep jungles tamed by tribes of elves to oceans home to some of the largest creatures ever known in mtg living alongside the plains native merfolk of course humans have also evolved on zendikar with outposts sprouting up throughout the plane seemingly always kept on their heels by how harsh the environment can be here one of the most iconic aspects of zendikar's ecology would be its natural royals a literal force of nature that acts upon the will of zenikar's world soul think of a consciousness but for a world these events such as fierce tectonic shifts seemingly sentient waterspouts as well as rampaging elementals seem to act almost as an immune response to hazards facing zendikar itself think of antibodies attacking a virus that enters the body these royals set out to protect zendikar from both domestic and foreign threats and zendikar over the years has seen its fair share of both even before the plane's most iconic villains ever arrived on zendikar the world proved it had a thing for attracting evil beings enter the world conqueror known as obnixalis long did he reign during the days of absolute planeswalker power before the mending cursed planeswalkers with mortality and limits to their godly abilities obnyxless stood as a symbol of hatred and oppression traveling the multiverse bringing entire planes to heal just to know that he could that was before he destroyed the entire population however bad luck can even befall a murderous god like obnyxless and thus when he acquired the chain veil yes the same one used by liliana vest and used it to further his malicious goals he was cursed physically transforming into a demon seeking a way to restore his body abnyxilus traveled to zendikar hoping to siphon off its immense stores of mana to undo the curse however the chaotic nature of zenikar's magic overloaded the spark that gave obny's list his insane power in the first place his spark was lost the world of zendikar had ended a beam that had conquered countless worlds before it though opnixla's fight with zendikar and its protectors would not end there the story of zendikar starts near the creation of the multiverse itself during the supposed birth of the beings known as the eldrazi these interplaner monsters live within the blind eternity the space between worlds and consume the mana of planes for sustenance they're literal world eaters we don't know much of their origins or purpose but there was one curious enough to go looking for answers the spirit dragon ugin however his actions would forever change the fate of zendikar learning of the horrors of the eldrazi titans ulamog emricole and kozolak ugin understood that these beans posed a grave threat to every world in the multiverse despite not having a full understanding of their ecology ugin set in motion a plan to imprison these titans to ensure that the multiverse would never go dark in the void of the eldrazi's wake enter a young planeswalking pupil nahiri the lithomancer ugin being an elder dragon has plans on his plans schemes to cover his schemes and backups to his backups about 6 000 years ago ugin set the young core on a mission to save the multiverse by using her own home plane of zendikar as a prison for the eldrazi scourge understanding this threat nahiri agreed and began using her powers of lithomancy or stone manipulation to create a powerful system of hedrons these hedrons were focal points of zendikar's mana a connection of waylines that could channel the very power of the plane's world soul into a powerful spell these hedrons would act as both a lore and binding for the eldrazi titans drawn in close by the condensed source of their favorite food mana and then trapped by the surge of an entire plane's worth of the stuff but even more was needed for ugin's plan to work so as nahiri was setting up the hedrons ugen recruited the final member of their company the vampire lord of innistrad soren markov soren is an ancient being a planeswalker who has known many threats over his extremely long life however his chief concern has and always will be protecting his home of innistrad at all costs however blessed with immortality soren often plays the long game in his efforts understanding even potential threats must be dealt with to ensure innistrad's safety thus when he was told of the destructive nature of the eldrazi soren realized that this was a threat he could never hope to combat alone should they one day arrive on innistrad and thus soren joined their efforts to trap the titans on zendikar forming a group known as the three the three were successful in their mission combining their abilities and luring in the titans finally imprisoning them when they were weakened by sorin's essence straining magic still though imprisoned the eldrazi posed a grave threat to the plane itself even the smallest break in the hedron network could result in a leak as the eldrazi represent themselves on a world by sprouting and sending out drones miniature versions of themselves these drones could easily slip through any crack and wreak havoc on zendikar someone had to remain as warden of the eldrazi a mantle taken up by nahiri who solely looked to protect her home thus to extend her mortal life nahiri encased herself in stone tying herself to the hedron network permanently standing guard should anything go wrong all members of the three agreed to return to zendikar should anything happen a message would be sent out to all of them to recall back to combat the threat but none could foresee the disaster that would soon befall zendikar unbeknownst to ugin a sinister force in the multiverse looks to set the eldrazi free from their prison it was none other than his twin brother the elder dragon nicol bolus who scheme to control as much power in the multiverse as possible bolus wants to be a god and again wield god-like power as he had done in the days prior to the mending when all the planeswalkers were essentially nerfed though ugin attempted to stop his brother bolas proved to be more powerful of the two and ugin was actually killed he would eventually be resurrected as the spirit dragon but for the story of zendikar ugen was deceased however before his death bolus was able to peer into ugin's mind and learn of the aldrazi as well as the secret behind their imprisonment with ugin now dead bolus sets in motion events that would result in the release of the eldrazi titans on zendikar due to ugin's intricate locking mechanism bolus required the presence of three planeswalker sparks and the use of a rare type of magic known as ghost flame it's a type of colorless magic perfected by ugin but extremely rare to find if bolus meets those two conditions the seal would break but what was his motivation why release eldrazi back into the multiverse consuming planes that bolus one day looked to rule over as a god well he had one objective to see if a band of planeswalkers would rise up to meet the threat of the eldrazi head-on to see if this group could one day have the potential to face the dragon himself and impede his plans if none could stop the eldrazi then none could ever stop him or at least that's the explanation we're given one of the founding trademarks of the eldrazi titans is their nature to corrupt any plane they come in contact with even though on zendikar they're in stasis and for the most part dormant in their prison some of their corrupting essence manages to seep through without nahiri's knowledge the corruption of the titan ulamag is one of the more prominent examples of this force at work as a native of zendikar nahiri had never met a vampire until swore markov as they don't really exist on her world however as she slept in her own prison of sorts ullog's corruption gave rise to the first blood chiefs on zendikar starting a whole new race of easily controllable minions of the audrazi should the eldrazi ever escape they would become thralls to their overlords and break free they did at least a tiny bit over the countless years since their first appearance on the plane the mortal races of zendikar had interpreted these beans in their own unique ways many like the core and merfolk in fact believe these titanic figures to be gods even going so far as to build temples and statues in their likeness and having them represent aspects of their culture and nature they literally worshiped the eldrazi titans as false gods however time would show that their gods were actually devils while nahiris said standing watch there's a shift in a hedron that makes up this powerful network which causes a slight break in the connection not enough to set loose the main bodies of the titans themselves but just enough for their drones to run ravage over zendikar faced with beans of immense power and unknown magic the denizens of zendikar are initially pushed back from the surprising assaults nahiri senses this disturbance and ends her own stasis realizing this is a job for the three nahiri lets loose the magical signal to summon her companions and nothing no answer back ugin and sorin seemingly have abandoned nihiri and zenikar to their fates nahiri is pissed and worried but first she must stop this leak nahiri fights back against the drones taking down several larger specimens with her lithomancy finally she uncovers the disturbance to the network vampires blood chiefs have mistaken the hedron as some sort of idol of worship left there by their god nahiri had been gone for nearly four thousand years and zendikar had certainly changed a lot during that time but still there were never vampires here before the only connection she could make is that her former ally sorin a vampire himself had brought his disease to zenikar as nahiri imprisoned herself feeling betrayed yet again nahiri corrects the hedrons secures the prison and heads out to look for her friends without zendikar's self-proclaimed guardian around the machinations of bolus came full circle his long winding goal to release the eldrazi just to see how potential heroes of the multiverse would react culminated in a series of events seemingly unconnected coming together for a single malicious purpose the plans walker sarkon val who has an affinity for powerful dragons and following them blindly began to hear whispers from a dragon of strength he had never known before a being worthy of service a true master these were the whispers of nicol bolus finding sarcon a satisfactory minion he instructed the dragon whisperer to zendikar to investigate and guard this eye of ugin the local name of the eldrazi prison sarkon was given no other information or instructions other than guard it from all other intruders and guard he did the other two pieces of the puzzle the planeswalkers jace balerin and chandra nalar wouldn't follow along so easily rather bolus had to resort to tricks tipping chandra off to a powerful scroll locked away in a library containing the means of a colorless fire spell with that the heist was staged and chandra lifted the scroll and made her escape to the recommended world of zendikar the scroll itself was tied to zendikar and its secrets would only be unlocked there her curiosity peaked and another pawn was set jace boleron followed a similar path actually chasing jondan allar and the scroll as she escaped to zendakar together they worked to unlock its secrets by using a local vampire guide to bring them to the eye of ugin however when they arrived sarkonvall greeted them with the aggression of his master and the three began to fight though all three were planeswalkers they quickly realized that their traditional magic didn't work near the eye of ugin it was as if their colored spells were devoured by some force of emptiness that shrouded the prison itself feeling her inability to fight a more skilled physical warrior in sarkon without spells chandra turned to the scroll and unleashed the ghost fire otherwise known as the breath of ugin a type of colorless fire magic with that the conditions for unlocking the hedron prison were met three planeswalker sparks and the breath of ugin used the shackles were loosened and the eldrazi brood exploded forth the three planeswalkers who aided in their release escaped without truly understanding their consequences that they unknowingly had doomed zendikar though bolus's plan did work it didn't quite have the desired effect yes the bonds were weakened but the true bodies of the titans still remained locked away the door was ajar but it would need to swing wide open for the eldrazi to fully be released yet that day was already destined and it all fell to a plane's walking native of zendikar the elf nissa ravine as the eldrazi brew devastated the lands nissa's tribe too fell upon hardships and death nissa commanded great military strength among her people but no band of mere companions could face against even a fraction of the eldrazi's great might it was looking bleak not only for the elves but the whole of zendikar something needed to be done anything so nissa turned to something desperate the vampire sauron markov again makes his way to zendikar after sensing the release of scores of eldrazi sensing their devastation even from his home on inistrod he was concerned if the eldrazi were freed where was the signal to regroup where were ugin and nihiri see nihiri was pissed years earlier that soran never arrived during the first minor break of the eldrazi but that was because his own protection of inistrad a monolith known as the hell vault used to trap demons and even potentially the eldrazi should they ever arrive also had the unintended consequence of capturing nihiri's original signal meant to let him know of the slight break in the prison soren was left confused that now with a much larger break nihiri was nowhere to be seen still he arrived on zendikar all the same with the sole purpose of closing off the hedron network and restoring the seal as he journeys to the eye of ugin he runs into nissa and realized she too is a planeswalker she's looking for allies to fight off the eldrazi and sora needs a powerful force to help him channel the mana of the hedron leylines so they decide to work together to again seal up the prison however once the pair make it to the eye of ugin nissa's true motive is revealed rather than helping secure the hedrons nissa channels all of her magic into the center command seal and shatters it the final chains when the eldrazi are broken ulumog kozilek and emerical freely escape and begin to feed on the whole of zendikar soarin utterly disappointed in the naive actions of the headstrong elf leaves without saying another word abandoning the plane to its fate nissa thinking in the best interest of her home didn't want zendikar to be a prison always afraid of the next eldrazi escape in shattering the seal she hoped the titans as if scared animals would flee their captors back into the blind eternity to feed on some other less troublesome worlds this wasn't the case however the audrazi must feed and they hadn't in a very long time now and zendikar was just too delicious of a prize to just leave nissa in trying to protect zendikar single-handedly caused its downfall some years later fate was again playing out on the plane of zendikar now devastated by not three but only one soul eldrazi titan ulamog had been the only titan scene across zindagar for some time as emerical and kozlak went missing shortly after their release with most assuming they had left the plane for good still even with one titan actively devouring zendikar there was no true force he could hope to combat against its twisted drones not to mention the titan itself still the plane didn't fight alone it had heroes champions from all over the multiverse planning to join the fight or to at least right some wrongs the one who started in this mission to save zendikar was actually the heromancer plane's walker gideon jorah from the plane of pharaohs he had visited zanikar when he attempted to chase after a potential love interest in chandra nalar hoping to save her from her own misfortunes yet in arriving on zenikar shortly after the full release of the titans gideon took up command of a human outpost as they were besieged by cursed spawn gideon was a skilled warrior and commanding officer but even he couldn't face against the might of emrakul who appeared and turned the fight again in the eldrazi's favor gideon was forced to admit defeat leaving the men he commanded to their deaths and planes walking away yet he would find others more powerful planeswalkers to help avenge them to atone for his failure the original three to band together on zindikar were gideon chandra and jace with the last two feeling personally responsible for the plane's fate because of their actions at the eye of ugin other planeswalkers that would come to join their mission were natives of zendikar looking to save their people and their world this included the elf nissa ravine and the merfolk kia ora together they formed a loose alliance based on a common goal working alongside leaders of all the major races on zendikar banding together merfolks humans angels goblins elves vampires and the core this group bickered and debated on the best strategy to deal with the titan but ultimately it was jace with the knowledge of the hedron and leyline networks which won out with his suggestion to trap ulamog at the city of seagate using these very hedrons basically recreating their original prison the plan and ensuing battle was bloody and with a great mortal cost but the trap did work the hedrons channeled the mana of zendikar into a ring and the group celebrated the capture of a titan but the joy was not to last an old enemy of zendikar the plane's walker turned demon obnixless returned to exact some some balance of revenge on the world that had been for so long his prison he used the hedron's imprisoning olomog to channel mana into himself instead granting him enough power to reignite his lost planeswalker spark the bonds again shattered and the tectonic disturbance brought forth even greater trouble it seemed that olamog wasn't the last titan to remain on zendikar kozolak had just buried himself deep beneath the soft crust of the oceans and was there dormant all this time however the frein of ulamog spurred kosolex slumber and zendikar again faced two eldrazi titans more hungry than ever before after being royally beaten to a pulp by a supercharged job nixolus the planeswalkers were rescued by chandra nalar and omnixlus was forced to retreat cackling that he had destroyed zenikar the group of gideon jace chandra and nissa stood with a decision to make do they flee a likely doomed plane with countless lives at risk throughout the multiverse or do they stand together to protect those who cannot protect themselves the vote was unanimous right there they formed the first generation of the gatewatch a group of planeswalkers looking to protect the multiverse from threats no plane bound beans could possibly prepare for the eldrazi were their first targets in searching for a new way to defeat these monsters jace actually ran into ugin who is now spirit after resurrecting himself ugin was busy rebuilding the hedron prison network and was the one who originally showed jace how to use them and the mana ley lines to trap the titans yet ugen forced jace to make a promise that he would neither kill or let the titans escape they must remain trapped on zendikar for the foreseeable future when asked why ugin could only say that the eldrazi are species of unknowns we don't know their purpose in the multiverse or how their destruction could impact the reality rather than risk unforeseeable consequences trapping them remained their best option even with that knowledge jace presented the gatewatch with an alternative end the fight here and now on zendikar use the mana ley lines in the magic of nissa to literally pull the physical forms of ulamog and kozolak onto zendikar then supercharge chandra's fire with the mana of the plane itself and burn the titans to a crisp ending this madness once and for all the group agreed and their plan was set in motion kiora and gideon played defense defending the group from the drones that swarmed around them jace used his telepathy guiding and commanding the effort nissa pulled on the essence of zendikar feeding the titans and drawing them in and then channeled the leyline network to lasso their forms and bind them to reality nissa then transferred the seemingly endless fonts of raw magical energy into chandra nalar whose pyromancy lit up the titans like a dry christmas tree in an explosion of gore and flesh what could be called the most devastating forces in the multiverse laid burned and scattered throughout zendikar their chunks as large as houses with what could be called their blood filling rivers it was messy but it was done the eldrazi titans were dead and zendikar was finally freed [Music] of course a lot has changed since our last adventure on zendikar the final eldrazi titan emerical was trapped on the plane of innistrad once sworn ally storan and nahiri have descended into bitter rivalry the elder dragon nicobolus who originally plotted the release of the eldrazi inadvertently formed the very gatewatch that would go on to defeat him years later during the war of the spark and the gatewatch itself has changed so much adding new members and losing others but the sun now rises on zendikar once again despite the troubles of its past for years this plane has been used as a dumping ground for all matters of horrific multiversal threatening monsters never free to grow evolve and change outside of the shadow of the eldrazi titans for the first time though in zendikar rising we get to see the world as nyssa saw it growing up with her tribe in the jungles of balaged now regrowing with new life and purpose or we can swim in the uncorrupted seas with the merfolk no longer following false gods and looking towards the redemption of the forgotten kia ora there is so much more to discover on zendikar outside of the eldrazi and i welcome zendikar rising thank you guys so much for watching this synopsis video on the history of zendikar leading us up to the return in zendikar rising if you enjoyed the video please show your support by leaving it a like subscribing and of course sharing it with your friends on social media it's the absolute best way to help this channel grow and remember you can also check out my new channel dedicated to my other video game passion world of warcraft by clicking the link in the description below you guys can go there and help me build a new community just as great as this one and as always guys thank you all so much for watching it's good to be back and i'll see you next time see ya

Channel: Aether Hub

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Keywords: mtg, mtg lore, aether hub, magic arcanum, magic the gathering, ikoria lair of behemoths, ikoria monsters, eldrazi, eldrazi lore, what are the eldrazi, eldrazi titans, new eldrazi, eldrazi return, elrdazi lore, ulamog, eldrazi ikoria, ulamog lore, ulamog ikoria, new zendikar, zendikar rising, return to zendikar, golgari nissa, nissa lore, gatewatch lore, zendikar story, zendikar rising lore, zendikar rising preview, zendikar rising spoiler, zendikar history, mtg history

Id: AUZ1aRhhyak

Length: 24min 35sec (1475 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 06 2020