#and i mean in terms of multiverse destruction he has the tragic backstory for it and everything

[albatris]

avery is my favourite OC because he’s probably powerful enough to destroy the entire multiverse but instead he’s just like “ok but how do I use these powers for the aesthetic”

[loreleywrites]

Raiders of the Lost Arcs

Marvel didn’t start with The Avengers. Instead, they gave Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America their own films to set foundations for their characters before showing how they interacted. Every development from these four superheroes since is still rooted in those original films. Tony Stark is still striving to improve the world with technology. Bruce Banner just wants to be left alone.

Wizards of the Coast didn’t start with the Gatewatch either. Instead, Magic Origins provided us with the backstories of the five pivotal Planeswalkers in this group. Chandra, Nissa, Gideon, Liliana, and Jace were born at different times and on different planes. They each have their own stories, only coming together as one fighting force to confront some of the deadliest foes in the Multiverse.

Like the members of the Avengers, the members of the Gatewatch are still defined by their origin stories. In fact, many of those stories set up conflicts that are still playing out in Magic years later. Today’s article is going to go through each Planeswalker’s origin story and trace where those first conflicts stand in today’s lore.

Chandra

Story art by Lius Lasahido

Chandra Nalaar’s origin is told in “Fire Logic.” She was born in the city of Ghirapur on the plane of Kaladesh. Aether is refined and distributed by a governing body known as the Consulate. While this organization is intended to benefit all citizens of Ghirapur, a handful of corrupt officials have perverted it for a profit.

Aether is strictly regulated, much to the chagrin of many brilliant inventors. Mages are outlawed, as their powers are wild and unpredictable. Unfortunately for Chandra, she is a pyromancer and daughter of two aether smugglers. This pits her against an icon of the Consulate, bad cop Dhiren Baral. He murders Chandra’s father, captures her mother, and is set to personally execute the pyromancer. This is when Chandra’s spark ignites, bathing Baral in a blaze.

Of course, we know what happens to this story arc. In Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, Chandra returns home for the first time in eleven years. She rescues her mother, defeats Baral, and helps the renegade forces extricate the corrupt Consuls.

It doesn’t go so easy, however, and we end up getting insight into Chandra’s personal demons. We learn that she’s internalized Baral’s words branding her as a monster, that she’s reckless and a danger to everyone around her. And for Chandra, that’s difficult to deny. She’s killed people, innocent people, and she never really comes to terms with it. In “Burn,” she almost lets it get the best of her:

“I’m not a monster. But I can be.”

Nissa’s intervention convinces Chandra that despite Baral’s taunts, she is a loved part of many people’s lives.

Chandra has closure on her initial external conflict; Baral is rotting in prison for the rest of his life. What is still to be seen is how she reconciles her past recklessness. As a Red character, personal responsibility is not her strong suit. She’s also only twenty-three. Good intentions and destructive magic make for a volatile life. Shouldering this is her next step into adulthood.

Nissa

Nissa’s Revelation by Izzy

In “Home,” Nissa forges an animist’s connection with Zendikar as it conscripts her in the fight against the still-trapped eldrazi titans. It leads Nissa to Akoum, where her mind is attacked by the dormant Emrakul. She is whisked away into the Blind Eternities, awakening as a Planeswalker.

From there on out, Nissa’s conflicts continually put her at odds with the eldrazi. She ends up releasing the titans themselves in The Teeth of Akoum, hoping they would flee Zendikar for another plane. The next two years involved her failing to stop Ulamog’s relentless assault.

Nissa spent almost forty years living alone with Zendikar, so she didn’t quite understand what was at stake in her fight. It’s not until “Nissa, Worldwaker” that she realizes there are other people who she can ally with. Other people who have lost loved ones. Other people who have fled their ancestral homes. And when Gideon, Jace, and Chandra show up; other people who bear the shameful responsibility of unleashing the eldrazi.

Defeating Ulamog and Kozilek requires Nissa to play well with others. Her skill manipulating leylines is only one part of the puzzle. Chandra’s harnessing of a plane’s worth of mana into one spell is the other.

Emrakul still loomed on Innistrad, however. Emrakul, the titan who flung Nissa into the Blind Eternities in the first place. The Gatewatch helped Nissa realize that she has the power to help planes other than Zendikar, and this was her opportunity for closure against the eldrazi.

But did she win? Was there closure?

Nissa tries to use a similar technique to try to destroy Emrakul, but Innistrad’s mana does not cooperate. In addition, Emrakul manipulates Tamiyo into merely binding her in the moon. “The Promised End” depicts just that, an end. Victory? I’d say not.

Nissa’s core internal conflict is trust. Kaladesh block had her warm up to Chandra, while Amonkhet broadened her perspective with access to Blue mana. Her social skills are new, but growing. The question remains if Nissa herself is trustworthy.

“The Hand That Moves” gives us some horrifying clues for the future. Nissa has a vision of what she interpreted as Emrakul, who utters:

“I can do anything I want. Anything at all.”

A corrupted version of Nissa also said these words to Jace in his vision in “The Promised End.” The Emrakul inside Nissa’s trance also asks if she’s a pawn or a queen. This ties back to the game of chess Jace played with the titan. Remember, that ended with one of Jace’s pawns stabbing his queen.

We don’t know exactly what this Nissa-Emrakul connection means, but calling it foreboding is an understatement.

Gideon

Tragic Arrogance by Winona Nelson

I didn’t used to be much of a Gideon fan, but he’s grown on me a lot in the past two years. His arc is an internal struggle.

He wasn’t always called Gideon Jura, as we learned in his origin story. “Kytheon Iora of Akros” chronicles Gideon’s youth as an orphan, prisoner, and Sun’s Champion. Kytheon and his buddies are petty thieves, landing them in jail. The warden, Hixus, sees Kytheon’s potential as a hieromancer, a law mage. He trains Kytheon in such magic and instills in him a sense of justice. Kytheon ends up using his power of indestructibility to help defend Akros from monsters and feels pretty good about doing a good thing.

Heliod, God of the Sun, later tasks him with killing a giant sent by Erebos, God of the Dead. Kytheon is given a glowing spear, which easily slays the menace. But hubris drives him to take aim at Erebos himself. The god reverses the spear’s trajectory, killing all of Kytheon’s friends. Kytheon survives, flung off to Bant (before the Conflux that reunited Alara). The knight who finds him mishears “Kytheon Iora” as “Gideon Jura,” and the Planeswalker adopts this new identity.

Why?

It’s a complicated question. Gideon spends the rest of his life defending the weak, putting his own life on the line for others. He carries regret and blames himself for the death of his friends. But he also still carries the tragic arrogance that killed them. This parallel is directly echoed in “The Liberation of Sea Gate” during the Battle for Zendikar story. Gideon falters in finding his purpose. Is he a figure for others to rally around? Is he a one-man army?

These questions get more profound during the rebellion on Kaladesh. In the appropriately named “Quiet Moments,” Gideon ponders the role of the Gatewatch on the plane:

“Jace and Liliana's alarm at Tezzeret's presence seemed genuine, but both had been scant in the details of the specific threat he poses. Yes, Tezzeret inserting himself into the politics and leadership of Kaladesh certainly caused Gideon concern and was reason enough for the Gatewatch to investigate. But Tezzeret's entanglement with Kaladeshi forces, along with the relationship between the Consulate and the renegades made things...complicated. Cutting down Eldrazi and the threat they posed to Zendikar and Innistrad left little room for questions. His sural slicing through whirring gears of Kaladeshi-forged automatons, battling Consulate forces that were just trying to defend the laws of the land...

Far more complicated.”

Amonkhet doesn’t make anything easier for Gideon. He leads the charge into Nicol Bolas’s hell-plane…only to find gods that are actually nice to the people. It’s sunny. Folks work hard and are well cared for. The gods even call Gideon by his old name, Kytheon Iora. He does eventually find out the cruel intent of the trials in “Brazen,” but not without Bontu, God of Ambition (metaphorically) slicing right into Gideon’s heart:

“Such a long quest for faith, Kytheon Iora, and still you know nothing of it. Of course they doubt. Doubt is the necessary shadow to the light of faith, Kytheon. The stronger the faith, the deeper the shadows of uncertainty. Yet still, their ambitions drive them to shine brighter, reach higher, unsatisfied by complacent divinity. When will you be able to say the same for yourself?”

Gideon is waffling on what he believes, what ideals he defends, whose benefit he’s fighting for. Who is Gideon? So far, all he’s figured out is, “Not Kytheon Iora.” I think Gideon so readily accepted a new name because he wanted to leave Kytheon Iora dead on Theros.

How perfectly tragic that the soldier who wishes to die protecting his friends is cursed with indestructibility. We’ll see if Gideon’s wish ever gets granted.

Liliana

Story art by Victor Adame Minguez

Holy moly does Liliana have a lot going on. She’s a pre-Mending Planeswalker, which means she first ascended when Planeswalkers were immortal, god-like beings. The Mending stopped the collapse of the Multiverse, but made Planeswalkers normal mages again. Live for 200 years like Liliana and you get wrapped up in a lot of drama. So let’s focus on her narrative through-line: cheating death.

“The Fourth Pact” is Liliana’s origin story, but hers is not the first life she tries to save. That belongs to her brother, Josu, fatally injured in war. Liliana was a healer who dabbled in necromancy, and was tricked into turning Josu into an undead monster by the mysterious Raven Man. Emotional trauma! Liliana ascends.

After the Mending, Liliana begins to age again. Near death, Nicol Bolas arranges meetings with four demons for her. They each offer Liliana power and youth in exchange for her services whenever they call.

Death is averted, for now, but it doesn’t take long for the demon Kothophed to task Liliana with bringing him an artifact known as the Chain Veil (told in the webcomics “The Hunter and the Veil” and “The Veil’s Curse”). She retrieves the vexing and hexing item, but uses it to kill Kothophed instead of handing it over. She has found a way out of her pacts! Except the Veil fills her mind with the droning of ghostly ogres, threatening to kill her to bring about some new calamity. I’ve written a lot about the Chain Veil and the Onakke Ogres and the Raven Man already, so I’ll just refer you to my past article about them instead of explaining more here.

In case “The Promised End” wasn’t meaty enough already, it’s also the story where Liliana joins the Gatewatch. The Chain Veil is killing her, so it’s time for her to avoid death once again and find a new source of power. Her oath says it all:

"I see that together we're more powerful than we are alone. If that means I can do what needs to be done without relying on the Chain Veil, then I'll keep watch. Happy now?"

Currently, she’s relying on the Gatewatch to help kill her third demon, Razaketh, on Amonkhet (She killed Griselbrand with the Veil back on Innistrad.) But we also know Razaketh serves Bolas. Liliana has woven a complicated web of relationships, ripe for drama. I told you she was wrapped up in a lot of drama.

Liliana’s story is still developing (as it has slowly been doing since before Innistrad), but where does it end up? She has two demons left to kill. The Onakke want out of the Chain Veil. The Raven Man’s mysterious plans for her are still blooming. And, most importantly to Liliana, she still hasn’t found a way to save her brother:

“Only one thing, in those days, had seemed beyond the reach of her magic: undoing what she had done to Josu.”

The ending of Aether Revolt strongly hinted at a return to Dominaria, Liliana’s home plane. Expect big things from Magic’s most ambitious necromancer as her life spins out of control.

Jace

Story art by Ryan Barger

And that brings us to Jace. This poor boy from Vryn is just outright lost. He was bullied for being a telepath. A sphinx named Alhammarret recognized his talent, however, and trained him in the mental arts. Then Jace found out Alhammarret was using him to steal military secrets and prolong the plane’s civil war, wiping the boy’s memory after each mission. Jace confronted Alhammarret and engaged in a telepathy battle. Jace wins, but “Absent Minds” ends with him waking up on Ravnica with no idea who he is, where he’s from, or what he’s doing.

As you can imagine, this makes it difficult for Jace to continue his origin story’s arc. We know Jace’s family is still on Vryn. The war might even still be raging. But without an external impetus to go there, Jace won’t find his way back on his own.

That isn’t to say he hasn’t kept himself busy. Jace is naturally curious, and that’s what has defined his story since ascension. He’s gotten his hands into Bolas plots, Tezzeret plots, Liliana plots, Garruk plots, Chandra plots, eldrazi plots, Ob Nixilis plots, and is the highest-ranking government official on Ravnica. Not that he sticks around much.

You know what happens when you keep jumping from project to project? You don’t follow up with the consequences of your actions. “Keeping busy” becomes a way of avoiding your problems. Jace lacks responsibility.

This passage from The Secretist is a perfect indication of the lengths Jace goes to not deal with things. He has just wiped the memories of Kavin, a vedalken who was helping him investigate the Implicit Maze, because he thought they were going to get in trouble. Emmara, his elf friend, is witnessing the event and begs Jace to stop:

“It’s not about watching you do it. It’s not even about you choosing not to help me, or about being present while you destroy part of yourself. It’s about the mistake you’re making. That’s what [sic] impossible to watch.

He wondered if their friendship was breaking apart, but decided it was worth it to protect her.

“I can’t help you.”

“You have to. Just think about it for a moment.”

“I have,” he said. “Please stay.” And then he cast a spell he never thought he would use on himself.

Not only does Jace stay busy to avoid dealing his problems, but he’s still wiping his own mind too. To be fair to Jace, we’ve seen a little growth in this regard. He runs off with Gideon to Zendikar to own his role in releasing the eldrazi. Jace never wiped his memories of his relationship with Liliana, which of course means he’s still wallowing in that toxicity.

Jace may not remember his past, but his story has been one of a child becoming an adult, making difficult decisions, and dealing with problems in healthy ways. He’s not there yet, but the Gatewatch sure is giving him opportunities to mature and finally take responsibility for his actions.

A Storied Future

Feel free to dismiss any complaints that the Gatewatch members aren’t developed as characters. While Chandra’s origin story has come full circle, we’re still witnessing repercussions of events deep in the past of the other four members. Nissa’s battle with Emrakul doesn’t seem over, Gideon still hasn’t figured out what he stands for, Liliana’s flight from death keeps running right back into it, and Jace’s lost memories have left him a powerful yet immature person thrust into adult situations.

During a panel at Momocon, Kelly Digges confirmed that Hour of Devastation is going to represent a major shift in Magic’s story. The Gatewatch is heading into a battle that will fundamentally change them. Will Liliana’s loyalties be tested? Will Jace finally step up and take responsibility for his shady past? Will Gideon finally die the heroic death he thinks he deserves?

Hold on tight, Planeswalkers, for there is so much more Magic story to tell.