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Thran Empire

Rebbec

Color: White

Race: Human

Class: Artificer

The chief architect of the Thran capital of Halcyon and Glacian's wife. When her husband became ill with the seemingly incurable phthisis, she used her influence to have the physician Yawgmoth called back from exile in order to find a cure.

Ambiguous Situation: Did she really ascend to become Dominaria's planar spirit Gaea or was it just Yawgmoth's delusion? The story seems to favor the second option, yet the card Gaea's Will strangely mirrors Yawgmoth's Will.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Yawgmoth seems convinced that she ascended to become Gaea, the Worldsoul of Dominaria. This is fairly unlikely, given that Rebbec and Gaea have no known connection and Yawgmoth was not in the slightest mentally stable when he made the claim.
Broken Bird: By the end of The Thran, she has lost everything. Her husband is dead, the empire is crumbling and she's been one of the first to witness the reality of Phyrexia. The only thing she can do is refuse Yawgmoth's offer of godhood (despite still loving him somewhat) and let herself be consumed by the white mana cloud.
The Ego: She has to mediate between Yawgmoth's cold pragmatism and Glacian's volatile genius.
Even Evil Can Be Loved: She hesitates before sealing the portal to Phyrexia when Yawgmoth begs her to follow him and, while this doesn't stop her, it's clear that she still holds some affection for him.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's depicted with blonde hair and is well-intentioned, if very naive, woman who tries to see the best both in people and in technology.
The Lost Lenore: Millennia after her death, Yawgmoth is still obsessed with her, to the point he thinks she's become the goddess Gaea.
Mercy Kill: She provides one to Dyfed, who has been incapacitated and experimented on by Yawgmoth.
Redemption Equals Death: After sealing the portal to Phyrexia, she lets herself be consumed by the white mana cloud to atone for her role in the fall of the empire.
Rule of Symbolism: She was fond of it, incorporating it in much of her architecture (her temple, for instance, was meant to only be accessible by stairs because ascension had to be earned). It shows her naïvety that she puts the symbolism before the actual practical use of her work.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She brought Yawgmoth back to the capital and helped his rise to power in the hope of finding a cure for the disease that was threatening her husband's life. The rest is history.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: She envisions a bright, utopian future for the Empire while rarely considering the downsides.

Glacian

Color: Blue

Race: Human

Class: Artificer

Rebbec's husband and the most important Thran artificer, who contracted phthisis after being stabbed with a powerstone by Gix.

Genius Ditz: Glacian was a brilliant artificer and engineer, but he was also noted to have poor social skills, easily manipulated, and didn't believe in medicine.
The Id: Despite his brilliant mind, he tended to rely almost fideistically on powerstones without questioning their side effects. His brash personality only got worse after he became infected.
Insufferable Genius: Smug, irritable, and classist despite his unquestionable knowledge about artifacts.
Irony:
- He was the one who pioneer the powerstones that would go on to be used as a power source for Thran Empire's technology and powerful artifacts. Yet, it was also the very source causing the disease, phthisis.
- Yawgmoth thirsted after Rebbec, Glacian's wife, and wanted to be a planeswalker. Unbeknownst to anyone but Dyfed, Glacian was a latent planeswalker.
Missed the Call: He was born with the Planeswalker "spark", but never had the knowledge or chance to awaken it. Thousands of years later, his spark would pass to Urza.
Sanity Slippage: As the disease progressed, he became increasingly aggressive and paranoid.
Uncertain Doom: Last time Glacian was heard of, his soul had been taken into the powerstone that would later become the Weakstone and Mightstone and is able to commune with Rebbec, still self-aware and intending to watch over the portal to Phyrexia. By the time of Brothers' War several thousand years later, there is no sign of Glacian's soul. It's unclear is his soul remained in the powerstone but didn't communicate by choice, if he merely faded away over the millenia, or if the powerstone being broken in two somehow affected him.

The Brothers' War

Mishra

Color: Black and Red (primary), Blue

Race: Phyrexian human

Class: Artificer

Urza's brother, born on the last day of the year Urza was born (Urza being born on the first day). They fought over possession of a stone.

Arbitrary Skepticism: During his life, Mishra travels to another plane of existence which he had previously seen in his dreams, summons dragon engines from said plane through means he can neither explain nor understand, and insists that the Weakstone "sings" to him and speaks of it in mystical tones. Despite all this, he doesn't think magic is real. He dismisses the arcane texts taken from Terisia City as "bunk and camel droppings", and he accuses his generals of lying to make themselves look better when they report that they struggled to take the city because the scholars were using magic against them.
Badass Normal: Mishra barely counted as a mage, let alone a Planeswalker like Urza. Weakstone and Phyrexia notwithstanding, he didn't even believe in magic, preferring to rely on technology. Up until being compleated, Mishra was just a man - but he was an even match for his brother to the very end.
CCG Importance Dissonance: For a long time, Mishra only appeared on a single card. It was also underpowered. This was rectified in the Brother's War set, which revisits the fight between him and Urza with more modern design sensibilities.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: In true Phyrexian fashion, this happened to him. When Urza gets a good look at him during their final confrontation, he sees how much of a machine Mishra has become and realizes he's just gone.
Dark Lord on Life Support: By the final years of the war, various factors have made Mishra grow fat and sickly, leaving him with fluid-filled lungs and a persistent, violent cough. His ailing health gives the Gixians the perfect opening to corrupt him, as they convince Mishra that he can transcend his weak flesh through compleation.
Dragon Tamer: He manages to summon several dragon engines from Phyrexia and bend them to his will. He can't explain how he did this or why they obey him, but he doesn't question it much.
Driven by Envy: He wants everything that Urza owns: his beautiful wife, his school, his city, and especially his Mightstone. And if he can't take these things through trickery or force, he'll destroy them instead.
Energy Absorption: The Weakstone can drain energy from artifacts and living creatures, weakening them if not destroying them outright.
Formerly Fit: Mishra was a strapping young man in his youth thanks to years of working with the diggers, but he let himself go after becoming qadir of the Fallaji Empire, growing into an obese and slothful hedonist. He regains his former vigor and physique as a by-product of his compleation.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Mishra went from being a powerless slave of the Fallaji to their leader, and he used his technological innovations to turn these desert bandits into an army that could threaten the whole world.
Fusion Dance: He merges with one of his dragon-engines to become a gigantic mechanical monster at the climax of the Brothers' War. This is represented in-game by "Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia", an incredibly powerful card that can only be played by melding "Mishra, Claimed by Gix" with a Phyrexian Dragon Engine.
Hot Blade: The card "Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa" depicts him as wielding a scimitar with a blade that's glowing a dull red from heat. In "Mishra, Claimed by Gix", the claws of his right hand are likewise glowing orange.
Ironic Hell: If Yawgmoth is to be believed, he's in Phyrexia being tortured for using Phyrexian technology. Possibly still to this day.
Life Drain: His "Mishra, Claimed by Gix" card steals life from your opponents each time you attack, with the amount stolen being equal to the number of creatures you commit to the attack.
Made a Slave: By the Fallaji, a nomadic warrior tribe. He proved his worth to them and eventually ended up as their leader.
Misblamed: Yawgmoth blamed him for the Koilos portal closing "for an age" when technically that was Gix's fault.
That's No Moon: The first land to be animated on its own bears his name.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to his brother's Blue. Compared to Urza, Mishra is more sociable and gregarious, quicker to anger and take offense, and more impulsive.
The Resenter: Resented Urza for being able to lead a relatively peaceful life and found his own school while he had to fight for everything and never settle down.
Robot Master: He eventually reverse-engineered lesser copies of his original dragon engines and put them into mass production, and he built many other deadly war machines in his quest to kill his brother. This propensity is reflected in "Mishra, Eminent One", which lets you make creature token copies of any non-creature artifact you control.
Secondary Color Nemesis: The Sickly Green Glow of his Weakstone contrasts with the red light of his more heroic brother Urza's Mightstone.
Sickly Green Glow: His Weakstone radiates a green light which saps vitality from whatever it falls upon.
What Happened to the Mouse?: With Yawgmoth's defeat, Mishra's final fate is a very mysterious thing. He might have actually died thousands of years ago as most believe, he might have actually been kept alive by Yawgmoth only to die when the Hidden One did, or something else might have happened to him altogether. According to former creative director Brady Dommeruth, Mishra's fate "intentionally has some unknown elements".

Kayla bin-Kroog

Anyone can destroy a continent. Few have the vision to rebuild one.

Color: Red and White

Race: Human

Class: Noble

Urza's wife. Though Urza initially only married her for an ancient Thran tome in her possession, they eventually grew to love each other thanks to the advice and friendship of their mutual friend, Tawnos, barring an incident in which Kayla was unfaithful to Urza with his brother.

Kayla would survive the end of the Brother's War, and took up stewardship of the city of Penregon, becoming known as the Last Queen of Argive. She ruled it as best she could for 15 years before the encroaching ice led to the city's abandonment, and Kayla would be one of the last to leave for the warm west. After parting ways with her grandson in New Yotia, Kayla disappears from history after hearing tales of a hero from the war supposedly reborn as a spirit, hoping to find her long dead son.

Kayla is the author of The Antiquities War, an epic poem and one of few primary sources about the Brother's War.

Ascended Extra: Kayla was not a minor character by any means, but she was more a supporting character in the original Antiquities War story, existing more as a part of Urza and Mishra's story than as her own person. Come the Brothers' War set, and Kayla is the focus character of the two first short stories, which recount her life after the end of the war. If anything, her accomplishments as an ordinary mortal were more impressive than Urza's were as a planeswalker.
Awful Wedded Life: Urza and Kayla held little love for each other in the beginning, but did eventually develop a proper relationship. That was sadly ruined by Urza's deteriorating mental health towards the end of the war, and after the Sylex Blast, Kayla tells Tawnos that while she doesn't celebrate his death, she is glad her husband is dead.
Cool Old Gal: In her later years, Kayla was a mage while the mage-hunting church of Tal was spreading across the continent. While her grandson expressed worry about her, Kayla simply laughed it off, saying that there wasn't a woman her age who hadn't been called a witch at one point and she wasn't about to let the church get her that easily.
Earn Your Happy Ending: After decades of suffering from both the endless, pointless war her husband waged, and having to pick up the pieces of the devastation he caused, Kayla's story ends with her journeying west to explore lands she has only heard rumours about, perfectly content and free from the struggles she had faced all her life.
Irony: Kayla, who grew up in the age of artifice when magic was looked down upon as the practice of charlatans and fringe societies, especially by her husband, became one of the first mages of Dominaria's magical era.
Magic Versus Science: Kayla was on the side of science most of her life, being married to a famous artificer and living in a kingdom who's military might was built on artifice. After the war, however, artifice became rarer, and Kayla discovered her latent talent for pyromancy, spending the rest of her life mastering the art.
Modest Royalty: Kayla was the princess of Kroog, and even in Penregon after the end of the war she lived as one might expect from a city's steward. After leaving Penregon and reaching New Yotia, however, she was happy living in a simple apartment above a tea shop for a year before continuing westward.
Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Kayla had taken a liking before he won the challenge for her hand, though that unfortunately soured a bit after Urza spent their wedding night reading a book. They did grow to develop a loving relationship over time, though that was all ruined thanks to the war.
Outliving One's Offspring: Kayla and Urza's son, Harbin, died in the war. Kayla blamed Urza for his death.
Playing with Fire: One night while screaming in her empty manor, expecting the cold to kill her by morning, Kayla unlocks her latent potential for magic, sparking fire in the empty room. She proceeds to dedicate her spare time towards mastering pyromancy, becoming one of the first true mages after the age of artifice.
Race Lift: Kayla was portrayed as a caucasian (or Dominarian equivalent) woman in the Antiquities War comic, but the Brother's War set depicts her as a black woman.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: While she didn't fight at the front lines herself, her skill in statescraft was the glue that kept Penregon from falling apart, and she managed to keep the city going for fifteen years after the end of the war, even without Tawnos' constructs. In fact, the city was only abandoned because of the encroaching ice age. It's also noted that, during the Siege of Penregon, the defenders looked to her for guidance, and she, in her own words, served as the defenders' conscience.
Trauma Conga Line: Kayla was given to Urza, a man who wasn't remotely interested in her, as a prize because he won a contest, and he spent their wedding night reading a rare book from her library. While they would eventually develop something resembling a happy marriage, Urza's pointless war with his brother took that from her, killing her son and her husband and leaving her alone to pick up the pieces afterward. She proceeded to spent years with no outlet for her trauma and pain while keeping a stoic fascade up for the people of a city she was thrust into stewardship over. The poor woman went through a lot.
Tough Leader Façade: Kayla kept Penregon alive for years by being a stoic exemplar for the people, never giving up or showing an ounce of doubt in her people's survival. In private, she was a tired, broken woman filled with anger, grief, and pain who screamed herself to sleep every night.
Uncertain Doom: Kayla disappears from history in her old age, and the last time she appears in any story she is travelling westward, free of responsibilities and finally content.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: The Brothers' War book gives great attention to describe Kayla's great beauty.

Tawnos

“Don’t thank me. Thank nature for its wondrous designs!”

Color: Blue (primary), 5 Color (though never all at once)

Race: Human

Class: Artificer

A gifted toymaker from Yotia. He became Urza's foremost apprentice and was the closest thing the man had to a friend during his mortal life.

Above the Influence: A drunken Kayla once called Tawnos to her chambers with the intent to seduce him because her father had recently died and Urza was neglecting her. Tawnos refused to take advantage of her in this state, instead offering Kayla some advice which helped repair her relationship with her husband.
Gadgeteer Genius: He was one of the best artificers in his day, with the quality of his designs managing to impress Urza when they first met. His inventions ran the gamut from autonomous children's toys to deadly war machines, though he was never proud of the latter.
Golem: One of his creations was an animated statue consisting of amorphous "primal clay" over a solid humanoid endoskeleton. These statues were very strong and difficult to injure, as the clay could "heal" from being cut or pierced.
Honorary Uncle: To Urza's son Harbin. Tawnos isn't related to any of Harbin's potential parents by blood, but he's a close friend to both Kayla and Urza, and he personally delivered Harbin during a thunderstorm while shepherding Kayla through the wilderness to safety.
Mechanical Animals: He based many of his creations on living creatures, such as a wooden snake that could slither and hiss like the real thing, and toy birds that could fly around of their own accord. This is reflected by his ability as "Tawnos, the Toymaker", which lets you create artifact creature copies of any Bird or Beast that you summon.

The Dark Age

Lord Ith

Color: White and Blue

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

The leader of the Conclave of Mages, a gathering of wizards who wished to keep their studies secret during the suppression of magic that dominated Terisiare during the Dark. He was betrayed and imprisoned by one of his followers, Mairsil, but was able to send forth an animated puppet to call for Jodah to free him.

Amazing Technicolor Population: His skin was a pale purple.
Ambiguous Situation: When Jodah confronted Mairsil about his betrayal of Lord Ith, Mairsil claimed that Ith was mad from the start and that he betrayed Ith to protect himself and all of Ith's other students. Whether or not this was true was vnever established, but Ith's actions after being freed (wiping out any of his former students not already killed, almost killing Jodah, then helping an anti-Goblin fanatic execute a genocide campaign) did not exactly dispel any of Mairsil's accusations.
The Archmage: He was the leader of the wizards of the Conclave of Mages during the Dark, and one of the most powerful mortal wizards alive at the time.
Ax-Crazy: Whether he was crazy from the start or grew crazy in captivity is never made clear, but however he came by it Ith was dangerously unstable by the time Jodah met him and just as liable to attack potential allies as enemies. He may have stabilized after being freed, but again this is unclear.
Captured Super-Entity: After overthrowing him, Mairsil kept him imprisoned in order to feed off of his former master's power.
Decomposite Character: In prerevisionist lore, his name was Barl and Lord Ith was a formal title; thus, Barl's Cage was intended as "the cage that holds Barl". In modern lore, Ith is his name, and Barl was instead the artificer who built the cage.
Fantastic Racist: After being freed, he helped the anti-Goblin crusader Tivadar in his campaign to wipe all goblins off the face of Terisiare.
Fate Worse than Death: He punished his treacherous pupil's assistant Barl, the man who forged the cage he spent a dozen years trapped in, by forcibly transforming him into his next Rag Man.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the book he primarily used black and red magic (summoning the Rag Man and various fire spells) but his card is white and blue. As Mairsil's teacher, it's likely that he was also a Red Mage who could harness all five colors of mana.
Inexplicably Awesome: It's never made clear exactly what Ith was or why he was so powerful. He survived fifteen years in a cage without food or water, so he was definitely something more than human, but he is identified as mortal so he wasn't a planeswalker either.
Living Battery: Mairsil used him as one through the cage he was imprisoned in.
Man in the Iron Mask: Even after 14 years of refining his skill, Mairsil very much still feared Ith, and only continued to keep him alive because he was the magical battery powering the castle. He was a lord, or at least called himself one (and insisted on others doing the same). And just like the Trope Namer, Ith's release brought the Big Bad's plans and reign both crumbling down around him.
The Maze: In the CCG he is associated with one, the eponymous Maze of Ith. The book gives it a token mention, with Barl telling Jodah it was being worked on under Mairsil's predecessor as a defense for the Conclave before being abandoned.
Mood-Swinger: Swung wildly between morose rationality and raving lunacy both when Jodah encountered him and after being freed.
Our Mages Are Different: Most ordinary MtG wizards still require basic human needs, but somehow Ith was able to survive for fifteen years without them.
Too Dumb to Live: Found a magical school at a period in history when wizards of all ages are hounded by the Witch Hunt? Good idea! Build your magical school atop a Leaking Can of Evil? Bad idea.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: There was already one wizard school active on Terisiare, the City of Shadows, but Ith decided to found a second one because he found their thinking to be too restrictive and old-fashioned.
What Happened to the Mouse?: It's never said what happened to Ith after helping Tivadar in the Goblin Wars. A throwaway line on the Dauth Trapper card stated that his Rag Man became infamous enough to become a children's bogeyman still remembered thousands of years after the Dark.
Wizarding School: Founded one, though after Mairsil usurped his authority he decided it wasn't worth saving.

Mairsil

"What do you have that I cannot obtain?"

Color: Blue, Black, and Red

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

Mairsil, called the Pretender, was a wizard who treacherously overthrew his master, Lord Ith, to take control of the Conclave of Mages. He perished when a maddened Ith was freed, but his consciousness remained alive within a ruby ring and continued to trouble Terisiare long afterwards.

Ambition Is Evil: His ambition was to become a planeswalker, since he did not know that planeswalking was a gift that one was either born with or not and could not be acquired in any other way.
Arch-Enemy: He considered Jodah to be his greatest foe, as Jodah was responsible for ending Mairsil's reign over the Conclave of Mages and for his physical death as well. Most of Mairsil's activities after he became trapped inside his ring were intended to bring about Jodah's downfall and death.
Arc Villain: Of the Ice Age cycle as a whole, being the only villain who appeared in all three books.
The Corrupter: After he became a mind trapped inside a ring, he tempted and corrupted those who wore him in order to use them as tools for his revenge. Most notable here are his corruption of a common Kjeldoran soldier, who became the necromancer Lim-Dûl, and a pre-planeswalker Jaya Ballard, whom he drove into attempting to murder her mentor Jodah.
The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Speculated at one point to have been the reason why he went bad, as the Conclave Ith and he founded was built atop a Leaking Can of Evil connected to Phyrexia.
Death by Irony: The villain whose ultimate goal was to become a planeswalker was ultimately killed by the ascension of a brand-new planeswalker he'd been using as an Unwitting Pawn.
Doomed by Canon: Because readers know the qualifications of being a planeswalker, they know from the start that Mairsil will never become one.
Evil vs. Evil: Late in The Gathering Dark, he finds himself pitted against a Church Militant group and personally duels The Witch Hunter that leads them. Evil or not, most readers will find themselves rooting for him as said witch hunter is a complete Hate Sink.
Gentleman Wizard: He appeared to be this at first, setting himself apart from the magical dilettantes that make up most of the Conclave and inviting Jodah into his service by playing the role of a wise and gentlemanly patron.
In-Series Nickname: He's called "the Pretender" behind his back for having usurped Lord Ith's authority. By the time we meet him almost no one dares use this nickname aloud, and the one character dumb enough to is very quickly punished.
No Honor Among Thieves: In spite of Barl's long and dedicated service to him, Mairsil was more than happy to throw him under the bus, blaming him for an incriminating transcript Jodah finds and then audaciously claiming the entire imprisonment scheme was Barl's idea and he was just an Unwitting Pawn when confronted by his furious former master.
Magitek: He and Barl invented magical devices powered by Lord Ith's mana that activated as the equivalent of modern electricity and heating, allowing those within the Conclave's castle to live more comfortably than just about anyone else on Dominaria.
Mood-Swinger: Ironically enough like his mentor, though Mairsil wasn't mad by any means, he just had a bad habit of losing his temper when faced with a setback.
Red Mage: He called himself the "Rainbow Mage" because he mastered all five colors of magic and could cast spells from any of them.
Repressive, but Efficient: Mairsil's dozen-year reign over the Conclave was not exactly a barrel of laughs, as he kept the wizards in line through fear and wasn't above arranging "accidents" to punish those wizards who failed him. That said, he still kept the lights on for twelve years, and wizards that were part of the Conclave at this time lived better lives than anyone else alive during the Dark period, or even for thousand of years after.
Shout-Out: As written by Jeff Grubb, Mairsil's concept and character arc is very clearly a shout-out to the Rich man Dives from the Biblical tale of the Rich man and Lazarus immortalized in The Four Gospels. Just like Dives, Mairsil is a rich man dressed in fine clothing who feasts sumptously every day (the phrase 'sumptuous feast' is even included in the first paragraph that introduces him), and just Dives he suffers a Karmic Death by being cast into flames of torment.
Soul Jar: He managed to survive his death by transferring his consciousness into a ring, within which he endured for another two thousand years.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Ith described the younger Mairsil as a good and dedicated apprentice, a far cry from the Deceptive Disciple one would expect such a character to have been.
The Usurper: He became known behind his back as "the Pretender" for usurping the authority of Lord Ith.
Villain Decay: By Shattered Alliance he had given up completely on becoming a planeswalker or even just returning himself to life and focused himself entirely on revenge against Jodah.
Villainous Virtues: Ruthless and deceitful though he may have been, Mairsil was still a gentlemanly scientist, studying magic with professional dedication and co-inventing several Magitek devices. He wasn't a Fantastic Racist either, promoting the pure Muggle Barl to be The Dragon to him, and hated the Church of Tal for their narrow-minded fanaticism.
Wizarding School: Took over the Conclave of Wizards founded by Ith and ran it competently, if ruthlessly.
Would Hurt a Child: He was willing to sacrifice Jodah to the lords of Phyrexia to become a planeswalker.
You Have Failed Me: Mairsil rarely went so far as to order death as a punishment for failures, but he did often arrange for incompetent minions to have nasty 'accidents' as punishments.

The Ice Age

Lim-Dûl

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lim_dul.jpg

Leshrac, my liege, grant me the power I am due.

Color: Black

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

Lim-Dûl the Necromancer was a Kjeldoran soldier who one day came across the ring that held Mairsil's mind, which had lain for over two thousand years in the ruins of the Conclave of Mages. The ring gave Lim-Dûl incredible magical power, but Mairsil's influence slowly drove him deep into evil. Lim-Dûl made deals with powerful and dangerous entities for his power, and although his armies and sorcery were the terrors of two planes he was ultimately little more than a pawn for greater wills than his.

All There in the Manual: Lim-Dûl's activities after leaving Dominaria are not recounted anywhere in the books, but only in comics of now-dubious canonicity and an ancient PC game. His activities as the Raven Man who manipulated Liliana from her pre-sparking days, on the other hand…
Body Surf: He survived his original death on Shandalar by transferring his soul into another living body, and later took over the Shandalari wizard Azar's after the latter tried to slay him. Liliana seems to be his latest host of choice, once he finally “becalms” her.
Classic Villain: Being one of MtG's very first villains, Lim-Dûl is very classically villainous, hitting most of the bullet points on the list.
Deal with the Devil: He gained a great deal of power and knowledge through deals with the dark planeswalker Leshrac. Ultimately, this turned against Lim-Dûl and ultimately made him nothing more than Leshrac's minion and tool.
Evil All Along: One might think Lim-Dûl suffered from a Loss of Identity after obtaining Mairsil's ring, as the Pretender boasted about having "educated, instructed, and remade him" and even claimed to have undergone a mental Fusion Dance with him. But Leshrac quickly proved the latter wrong, and while finding Mairsil's ring undoubtedly altered him, a line he gives about the man's personality indicates that Lim-Dûl was always inclined to evil and Mairsil just cultivated what was already there.
Flip Personality: In the final battle with Jodah he flipped back and forth between his Lim-Dûl and Mairsil personalities.
From Nobody to Nightmare: He was once nothing more than a lowly soldier in the armies of Kjeld, until he stumbled upon the ruins of the Conclave of Mages and a magical ring that gave him untold power and a luring voice in his mind.
Horned Humanoid: After Lim-Dûl attempted to break free from Leshrac's influence, the planeswalker disfigured him by giving him a pair of large antlers in retribution and to make sure that Lim-Dûl would always know he was only a working animal for his master.
It's Personal: With Márton Stromgald, his commander as a Kjeldoran soldier who led him into the mission that almost killed him. One of the first things he did upon gaining necromantic powers was to reanimate Stromgald (it's not clear whether he killed Stromgald or if the man was already dead by that time) and set him up as a puppet with which to manipulate Kjeldoran politics.
Necromancer: He gained powerful necromantic powers through deals with dark powers, and his armies of the walking dead terrorized Terisiare during the closing days of the Ice Age.
Red Mage: A limited one, as he could only use Black Magic and Red Magic.
Retcon: Being one of the oldest MTG villains, Lim-Dûl was a focus of a lot of early material that was superseded by the Jeff Grubb books.
The Starscream: While he was a true Unwitting Pawn to Mairsil, Lim-Dûl was only too aware of his servitude with Leshrac, and schemed to overthrow his master by using a captured Jodah to find a way to kill a planeswalker. The attempt failed and Leshrac found out, though he was more amused than enraged by the plot.
Unwitting Pawn: For most of his life, Lim-Dûl was simply a pawn to Mairsil, who slowly poisoned his mind in order to use him against Jodah, and to Leshrac, who saw him as a valuable minion and intended to use his undead army for his purposes. Eventually, Leshrac asserted full control and made sure than Lim-Dûl had no delusions about who precisely he served.
What Happened to the Mouse?: After being defeated by Jodah, Leshrac appears and takes him away. While Lim-Dûl's fate after that is known, it's not mentioned anywhere else in the Grubb books, and one must go to All There Inthe Manual to learn the necromancer's ultimate fate. “Homecoming”, however, reveals that he’s the Raven Man who’s been manipulating Liliana since before even Bolas entered the picture.

Varchild

Is that your dream, Archmage, nations of petty merchants instead of brave warriors?

Color: Red

Race: Human

Class: Knight

A Kjeldoran general who fought against Lim-Dûl and helped end his reign of terror. Unfortunately she could not tolerate the new era of peace and became a renegade, leading a terror campaign of her own against the Balduvian barbarians she had always despised.

Adaptational Nice Girl: Jeff Grubb's novel The Shattered Alliance cut a few of her Kick the Dog moments from the cards (such as enslaving goblins and killing students
Badass Normal: Varchild couldn't use magic and was nothing more than a well-trained soldier. She still survived the great battle against Lim-Dûl that killed several wizards and drove Jodah himself to his limit in a later encounter.
Blood Knight: When it came to Balduvians, Varchild was very much this. Even the Balduvian chief Lovisia Coldeyes respected her, despite not at all liking her.
Bodyguard Crush: If Jodah's theory is to be believed, Varchild fell in love with the young Kjeldoran king Darien.
Country Mouse: Unlike most other Kjeldoran characters, Varchild hailed from the hinterlands, where she had several unfortunate childhood encounters with the Balduvians.
Ignored Enamored Underling: Jodah believed that this was the root of her going rogue, as she did not abandon Kjeldor's king Darien until after his second marriage, which was stated to be for love rather than politics.
Irony: In the original Alliances set, one of Varchild's complaints was about national borders, specifically arguing that because birds can fly wherever they want there was no need to respect the borders between Kjeldor and Balduvia. Grubb's novel turned that on its head, presenting two nations on the verge of merging and making Varchild's complaint about that fact rather than her being a conqueror who wanted to subsume Balduvia.
Not Brainwashed: Jodah suspected that Varchild might have been another unwitting dupe of Lim-Dûl, but learned to his regret that "her evil was all her own".
Outdated Hero vs. Improved Society: Played painfully straight, as she was a legitimate force for good during the Ice Age but she just couldn't bring herself to stomach the new alliances brought about by the Thaw.
Revenge Before Reason: Sticking it to Balduvia was more important to Varchild than seeing her long-suffering nation enter a new era of peace.
She Who Fights Monsters: She joined the Kjeldoran army to protect her people from bloodthirsty Balduvian raiders, only to give in to her worst impulses and terrorize the Balduvians just as they terrorized her.
Tragic Bigot: Her grievances against the Balduvians were legitimate (they killed her brother and most other members of her family in various raids) but her hatred of them was so uncompromising she was willing to drag Terisiare back into war rather than see a peace form between her people and theirs.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Varchild's final fate is lost to history, though none of her pursuers were ever able to capture her.

Saffi Eriksdottir

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saffi_eriksdotter.jpg

Color: Green and white

Race: Human

Class: Scout

A woman from an unknown region of Dominaria (probably Kjeldor) during the Ice Age who became well-known for running into the infamous monster known as the Lhurgoyf.

Ascended Extra: The notoriety of lhurgoyf's flavor text eventually led to both Saffi and Hans getting their own cards.
Fish out of Temporal Water: She is shown among the inhabitants of Dominaria pulled into the future during the Time Rift crisis of Time Spiral block.
In the blink of an eye, she strode from deep snow to dusty waste. From the crease of light behind her, a voice rang hollow: "Saffi, wait for me..."
Know When to Fold Them: She has enough sense to run away when a hideous corpse-eating monster is coming after her, unlike her brother.
Posthumous Character: The first mention of her, on lhurgoyf's flavor text, is listed as her last words. In Time Spiral she's one of the people pulled into the future, thus presumably preventing her original death, but that was still centuries before the setting's present.
Sibling Yin-Yang: She was much, much more situationally aware than her brother Hans.
Signature Line: All together now: "Ach! Hans, run! It's the lhurgoyf!"

Weatherlight Crew

Original Crew

Gerrard Capashen

"Wear courage as your armor. Wield honor as your blade."

Color: White (primary), Red

Race: Human

Class: Soldier

The master-at-arms of the "Weatherlight" during the Weatherlight Saga. One of the products of Urza's Bloodlines program, he was orphaned as a youth and raised by the benevolent Jamuraan warlord Sidar Kondo.

Action Hero: He was basically created to be MTG's answer to Errol Flynn, the template to alll swashbuckling rogue characters like Gerrard.
Army of Thieves and Whores: During the Phyrexian Invasion, many heroes and armies come together to fight the enemy. Urza brings the Metathran, Eladamri the Elves, Darigaaz the Dragons, and Lord Dralnu the Zombies of Urborg. Gerrard recruits an army from a Benalish prison...
Because Destiny Says So: He had a lot of destiny to back him up, but he would've been a lot happier if it didn't.
Cain and Abel: With his evil brother Vuel a.k.a. Volrath.
CCG Importance Dissonance: Despite his importance in the story arc, his card is quite weak. Notably, he had a boss fight against Tsabo Tavoc, once the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria got underway. In story: Gerrard walked away. In-game? Tavoc walks away.
Determinator: He is one of the most strong willed characters in early Magic flavor, and pulled off incredible stunts just because he never gave up. Except while grieving Hanna's death.
Face–Heel Turn: He bowed to Yawgmoth and agreed to fight with Urza to the death in order to get Hanna back.
Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrificed himself to kill Yawgmoth with the Legacy. He is now remembered as a martyr accordingly.
I Just Want to Be Normal: He wasn't interested in serving on Weatherlight and even abandoned it for several years. He only returned when Sisay was kidnapped by Volrath.
Light Is Good: Associated strongly with White mana and thematically opposed to several Black characters.
Love Makes You Crazy: In Apocalypse, Hanna's death led him to almost make a Deal with the Devil.
Shattering the Illusion: He realized that the Hanna Yawgmoth offered him is just an illusion.
Super Breeding Program: He was one of the last products of Urza's generation-spanning 'Bloodlines' program. He's not an artificial being like the Metathran, but was the result of generations of selective breeding.
Turned Against Their Masters: In Apocalypse, he beheaded Urza. Then, when he discovered Yawgmoth's "reborn" Hanna is an illusion he did it again to his new master.

Sisay

"Helping people is mostly a matter of teaching them to help themselves."

Color: White (primary), Green

Race: Human

Class: Soldier

The captain of the Weatherlight during the Weatherlight Saga. Sisay's family was entrusted with the skyship by Urza as part of his Bloodline Project. Sisay steered the ship and commanded its crew from a young age, up until its destruction during the Phyrexian Apocalypse. Her efforts were rewarded with a new skyship, the Victory which she sailed with Tahngarth and Squee. Her ultimate fate is unknown.

Black Boss Lady: While Gerrard was often center stage as the Heir to the Legacy, the Weatherlight was always under Sisay's command.
Deceased Parents Are the Best: Sisay's family is murdered by Phyrexian agents while she is very young, before they can tell her about the true value of the skyship. She immediately takes off and begins having adventures across Dominaria (and the Multiverse) with the ship.
Damsel in Distress: Her abduction by Volrath is what kicked off the Weatherlight Saga.

Hanna

"What separates junk from treasure is imagination."

Color: White and Blue

Race: Human

Class: Artificer

The original Navigator and mechanic aboard the Weatherlight. The daughter of Rayne and Barrin from the Tolarian Academy.

Badass Bookworm: She was the daughter of Barrin, master of Tolarian Academy.
Gadgeteer Genius: As the Weatherlight's navigator, this is Hanna's specialty.
Incurable Cough of Death: Meets her end from the Phyrexian Plague. Half of the Invasion book revolves around Gerrard and Orim struggling to find a cure.
Killed Off for Real: One of the long, long list of characters that died in the Invasion saga.
Like Father, Unlike Daughter: Her father Barrin is the Master Mage of Tolaria, while she is an artificer.
Wrench Wench: Hanna was especially adept at tinkering with artifacts and studying the Legacy Weapon.

Tahngarth

"Hold your position! Leave doubt for the dying!"

Color: Red (primary), Green

Race: Minotaur

Class: Warrior

First Mate of the Weatherlight under Sisay.

Hot-Blooded: He's the most impulsive and aggressive member of the crew.

Squee, Goblin Nabob

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/squee2.jpg

"Some goblins are expendable. Some are impossible to get rid of. But he’s both—at the same time!"

Color: Red

Race: Goblin

Class: Noble

A cabin-hand of the Weatherlight under Sisay.

Back from the Dead: Unfortunately for him, after he (briefly) dies in the Invasion block storyline, Yawgmoth brings him back and grants him Resurrective Immortality so that Crovax can enjoy killing him over and over.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being one of the original crewmembers of the Weatherlight, Squee is often left out of the narrative. In Dominaria United, he's apparently been exaggerating his role in events when retelling them to make up for it.
Historical Hero Upgrade: In-universe. According to the "Invasion of Mercadia / Kyren Flamewright" card, Squee is remembered on Mercadia as a brave and mighty mage. He's become an inspiration to young goblins as a result.
Inspired by tales of the legendary hero Squee, many young Kyren goblins strove to emulate his magical skill and courage in the face of danger.
Idiot Savant: He's a typical goblin mentally but is quite the crack shot. Also, he's immortal.
Killed Off for Real: In Dominaria United, a resurrected Ertai compleats him, which removes his soul from his body while his body is still alive. As Salvation, the sapience of the Salvation Sphere, explains to him, this could end his immortality if he wants to, since his immortality requires his soul and body to stay together. Squee chooses to be resurrected, but for the last time, meaning that he only has one more lifetime before dying for real.
Lethal Chef: As quoted in Orim's journal:
My medicine bag and I have treated countless wounds and illnesses. But never have I seen so many made so sick for so long. We will never eat Squee's cooking again.
The Nicknamer: When he meets Salvation, the sapience within the salvation sphere, Squee casually calls her Sally.
Popularity Power: Was given an increased role in the story due to being very popular with a Vocal Minority who read and wrote in to The Duelist, WoTC's short-lived magazine.
Resurrective Immortality: He cannot die — no matter how badly he's injured, he'll just get up again, his soul pulled out of goblin heaven by a giant hand. Post-Face–Heel Turn Crovax amuses himself by killing Squee repeatedly and watching him come back to life.
- His immortality is mechanically represented in the Dominaria 2018 set, where Squee can be played from a player's hand, from their graveyard, and even when removed from the game.
- His first appearance as a card was Squee, Goblin Nabob in the 1999 Mercadian Masques set. The card's ability to come back from the graveyard wasn't originally supposed to represent literal Resurrective Immortality, just a knack for getting out of trouble and being impossible to get rid of, but author J. Robert King made it literal in the Invasion block novels that came later.
Take a Third Option: In Dominaria United, Salvation offers him a choice between ending his immortal life and be reunited with his old Weatherlight friends, or continue as he is. Squee suggest a third option; Resurrect him now, but only once, meaning that he will die for real next time and will have to live his life to the fullest.
Touched by Vorlons: Dominaria United reveals that he's a double case of this. His physical immortality is a result of Yawgmoth's meddling, but he would have usually come back wrong if it wasn't for the Salvation Sphere, who's sapience decided to protect his soul from the degradation that would usually come with his repeated resurrections.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He's one of the very few people who lived through the Invasion but what happened to him after has never been revealed. Dominaria United finally reveals that he's been around going on various paths in life until eventually ending up as the king of a goblin tribe after freeing them from a tyrant.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Downplayed. It's not the living that bothers him, but the constant deaths. As he says to Salvation, before he became immortal, he had never died once, and despite history having forgotten him, he was an important goblin and true crewmember of the Weatherlight. After hundreds of years of dying and being resurrected, however, he's just some goblin that refuses to die and nothing more. After being offered the option to die for real, he choses to be resurrected once and never again, intending to make the best of his final lifetime.

Orim, Samite Healer

"The silkworm spins itself a new existence. So the healer weaves the threads of life."

Color: White

Race: Human

Class: Cleric

An old acquaintance of Hanna from her time studying at New Argive, Orim joins the Weatherlight not as a member of Urza's ancient Bloodlines project, but as chief healer aboard the vessel.

Combat Medic: Particularly skilled with healing magic and research. Orim is the one who develops a vaccine to the Phyrexian Plague that devastates the Dominarian forces in the opening stages of the Invasion.

Ertai, Wizard Adept/Ertai the Corrupted

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ertai_wizard_adept.jpg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ertai_corrupted.jpg

"There is nothing you can do that I cannot simply deny."

Color: Blue (primary), Black, White (formerly)

Race: Phyrexian human

Class: Wizard

A talented, arrogant young wizard from Tolaria who signed on to be the Weatherlight mage.

Back from the Dead: Sheoldred somehow resurrects this mf in Dominaria United, possibly related to Kraynox's pet project.
Bald of Evil: As seen in his pics, he lost most of his hair when he went bad. Though resurrection apparently includes the resurrection of his hair as seen in Dominaria United.
Body Horror: A side effect of his being "healed" by black mana and mutated by Crovax.
Butt-Monkey: A bit on the obnoxious side, but still did not even remotely deserve the sheer mountain of horrible crap that fell on him.
Fallen Hero: Fell into the Despair Event Horizon after Belbe's death and joined Crovax for the chance of Revenge against Gerrard.
Guile Hero: Before Jace Beleren hit the scene Ertai was the quintessential blue mage, specializing in Anti-Magic and the Battle of Wits.
Heroic Sacrifice: He stayed behind on Rath so the rest of the crew could escape. By the end he really wished he hadn't.
Insufferable Teen Genius: He was the most magically talented Tolarian of his generation, and he both knew it and made sure everyone else around him knew it.
Jerkass Has a Point: In Planeshift and Apocalypse he very quickly came to hate Squee after finding out the idiot goblin would live forever while Belbe was dead.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: When Crovax altered Ertai one of the extras he included was two extra arms growing out of the original ones.
No Social Skills: Until he met Belbe, all Ertai cared about was magic and being the best wizard he could be, and he acted accordingly.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: All he wanted in Nemesis was a way to get back to Dominaria. Sadly by the time he got that chance he'd already fallen into the Despair Event Horizon and joined the bad guys.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Him and Belbe in Nemesis.
The Friend Nobody Likes: He didn't exactly have many fans on the Weatherlight, though Gerrard did express regret at not being able to come back for him.
Took a Level in Jerkass: After being mutated by Crovax.
Undignified Death: Squee accidentally fried him in his rejuvenation chamber after eating his nose because he thought it was a bug.
Weak, but Skilled: He was one of the weakest crewmembers physically but his adept command of magic made him an asset to Weatherlight.
Your Magic's No Good Here: Due to the weaker mana content, Ertai's magic was much weaker on Rath than on Dominaria.

Mirri, Cat Warrior

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mirriduelist.jpg

"I cradle my rage even as the earth cradles my dead kin."

Color: Green (primary), White

Race: Leonin

Class: Warrior

The Ace: She's a talented warrior, hunter, and maro-sorcerer, evidenced by her card having the three abilities of vigilance, first strike, and forestwalk.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: She didn't think much of Ertai or Hanna early on because they weren't warriors. Hanna proved her worth defending Mirri, but she died before she could see Ertai's Heroic Sacrifice.
Born Unlucky: Doomed practically from the word go, as she was born with different-colored eyes that caused her people to see her as an ill omen and cast her out.
Butt-Monkey: She has an unrequited crush on her childhood friend Gerrard. She loses nearly all of the fights she's in. She dies fighting Crovax after he gets cursed. She's barely even mentioned after her death. And then, in the Time Spiral block, she's the one who gets cursed and becomes evincar of Rath while Crovax, the man who killed her in the original timeline, lives and becomes a hero. When even multiple timelines conspire to ensure you never have anything remotely resembling a happy ending, you know the multiverse hates your guts.
Cat Folk: Often described as a Cat Girl but in actuality she is one of these, being a native of one of Dominaria's tribes of cat people.
For Want Of A Nail: Mirri the Cursed depicts an Alternate Universe form of the character in which she struck down Selenia instead of Crovax. The result was her inheriting his curse full bore and taking his place as Evincar during the Phyrexian Invasion.
Senseless Sacrifice: She attempted to commit a Heroic Sacrifice to stop Crovax, but he lived in spite of her best efforts.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Grew up alongside Gerrard, but he has no idea of her feelings. And then she dies.

New Crew

When the Weatherlight is raised and restored by Jhoira in a salvage expedition, she sets about to find a suitable crew to run the vessel and right the wrongs of the Multiverse.

Raff Capashen

Color: White and Blue

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

A White/Blue teenage wizard, Gerrard's distant relative and younger brother to Danitha Capashen; his sister was Jhoira's first choice for replacing their ancestor, but she refused to leave Benalia in its hour of need and Raff volunteered instead. Impetuous, boastful, and hungry for adventure.

Badly Battered Babysitter: Raff is quickly deputized by Slimefoot to watch over its spawned Thallid children. Much to his surprise.
Contrasting Replacement Character: Replaces Gerard as the ship's resident Capashen, and is a meek and inexperienced mage, in contrast with Gerard, a confident fighter.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: When the Weatherlight crew captures a Cabal spy, they struggle to find a way to make the spy answer their questions. Raff casually mentions he snuck into the Tolarian Library and read a mind-reading spell in the forbidden archives. Smash-cut to the crew leaving with all the information they need.
Jumped at the Call: Where his older sister gave a Little "No" in reply to the Call to Adventure, Raff was rather enthusiastic in volunteering.
Master of Illusion: "Master" is being quite generous, but even Jhoira acknowledges he has natural skill with illusion and mind magic.

Shanna Sisay

"I am heir to many treasures. None is as precious as knowing how my ancestor lived her life."

Color: Green and White (primary), Blue

Race: Human

Class: Soldier

A Green/White Jamuraan warrior and a descendant of Captain Sisay. She joins the new Weatherlight crew to create her own legacy, rather than living off the legends of her distant grandmother.

Anti-Magic: The death spells of the Cabal bounce harmlessly away from Shanna when she battles them in Jamuraa's streets. Just like her many-times-great grandmother.
Tough Act to Follow: In-Universe, Shanna accepted Jhoira's invitation to join the vessel's crew, acknowledging that her ancestor's heroics cast a shadow over her own actions fighting the Cabal on the city streets.

Arvad

"I won't abandon the Weatherlight. My destiny is to serve at Jhoira's side. This 'illness' means I must trust my faith more and myself less."

Color: White and Black

Race: Vampire

Class: Knight

A White/Black mysterious vampire knight from Benalia. Captured by the Cabal and transformed into a vampire, the awakening of the Weatherlight's core drew him to Jhoira's camp.

Continuity Nod: A White/Black vampire that was once human as part of the Weatherlight crew? This couldn't possibly go wrong.
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Arvad still honors his vows as a Benalish Knight to protect the innocent from the Cabal. When he makes a promise, he keeps both the letter and spirit of the pledge.
Vegetarian Vampire: Arvad's vampiric hunger is sated by his proximity to the Weatherlight core. He has no qualms about feeding off of Cabal minions, though.

Slimefoot

"Pyromancers throwing fireballs on a wooden skyship?" Raff didn't look happy. "Is that really a good idea?"
Slimefoot thought it was a terrible idea.

Color: Black and Green

Race: Thallid

Class: Shaman

A Black/Green stowaway aboard the new Weatherlight, Slimefoot is a fungus creature originating from a seed provided by Molimo, Llanowar's Maro-Sorcerer. He grew as a regular fungus on the Weatherlight's hull, eventually dropping off and awakening to conscious existence. He serves as the ship's janitor, working alongside a crowd of tinier fungus creatures that follow him wherever it goes to keep the ship's halls squeaky clean.

Almighty Janitor: Slimefoot's ability to create an army of infinite Saprolings is used... to clean the ship.
From a Single Cell: The creature is fungus-based, growing from a cell upon a seed gifted to Jhoira.
Monster Is a Mommy: Or a genderless fungal progenitor, at least. Slimefoot is formally introduced in Chapter 10 of the Dominaria storyline, where it spawns a small brood of 10 Thallid children in the hull of the Weatherlight. The crew is shocked by the discovery of both the Thallids and Slimefoot but quickly adapt to its presence.
Mushroom Man: It resembles a colossal, humanoid and faceless toadstool. It started out as a regular fungus, but mutated to its current size and sapience during the rebuilding of the Weatherlight. Slimefoot does not use any sort of pronouns in its internal monologue when referring to itself, so its "gender" (if it even has such a thing) is undecided.

Tiana

"Nothing is too broken to mend."

Color: Red and White

Race: Angel

Class: Artificer

A Red/White Guardian Angel sent by the Church of Serra to help salvage the Weatherlight's power core: the powerstone holding the original Realm of Serra, created by Urza long ago. Her skill with artifice and knowledge of the Weatherlight engines is a mystery to Jhoira.

Cursed with Awesome: The original machine Tiana was created to protect? An irrigation pump. Destroyed by the Cabal before she even laid eyes on it. The runner-up machine she's been charged with protecting? A planar traveling skyship with a crew of legendary heroes, dredged from the ocean depths by the Jhoira to fight the evil Cabal.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Tiana was created by Serra and her Angels to guard an enormous irrigation system that supplied an entire town. It was destroyed by the Cabal before she ever arrived at the town. She's been left without a purpose ever since then.
Gadgeteer Genius: She has an innate, probably magical, understanding of how The Weatherlight's mechanisms seem to work, apparently sent to her by Serra. Arvad calls her an "Artificer Angel."
The Magic Touch: The inert core of the Weatherlight becomes active and powerful from Tiana's touch.
Mysterious Waif: The circumstances of Tiana's "birth" (attended by the Archangels of Serra's Realm, the last ones who remember the flight out of Serra's Realm) and her knowledge of repairing the Weatherlight's machinery hints that there's more to Tiana than has been revealed.
Tears of Joy: When the Weatherlight is raised from the depths, Tiana begins silently weeping- without realizing it.
Wrench Wench: Just look at her card art- she has the short hair, cute face, and a magical wrench in hand!

Other Weatherlight Saga Characters

Radiant, Archangel

"Serra ruled by faith. I cannot afford that luxury."

Color: White

Race: Angel

An Archangel from Serra's Realm, she was left in charge after her master left due to the Phyrexian taint. Over time, she became more and more ruthless, even turning against loyal subjects in her attempts to protect her master's dying realm.

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She almost killed a pre-mending planeswalker, an epic feat of punching above one's weight class unmatched by anyone else in MTG lore except Yawgmoth.
Doomed by Canon: Her goal was to restore Serra's Realm to its original glory, but readers know the whole time she can never succeed because Urza and Serra both stated a book earlier that artificial planes require constant upkeep and Radiant simply didn't have the power to sustain the realm in Serra's absence.
Fatal Flaw: Pride. Even before Serra left, she considered herself her creator's peer if not equal, and after her departure Radiant believed she was the only one worthy to take Serra's place.
Horrible Judge of Character: Put her trust completely in her treacherous war minister while rejecting Urza's repeated attempts at first forming an alliance and then just trying to save her people.
Jerkass Has a Point: Radiant let her ego get the better of her, but she wasn't wrong when she called out Serra for her cowardly abandonment of the plane she created.
Knight Templar: Was obsessed with purifying Serra's Realm of all evil. Ironically, she was being played completely by the Phyrexians the whole time.
Light Is Not Good: Her own name is very suiting for a tyrannical angel. Brady Dommermuth even considered her a quintessential White-aligned villain.
My God, What Have I Done?: "I am the mad one!"
Tragic Villain: Left to secure an entire plane collapsing on all sides from its cowardly creator's absence and from the invasion of the most horrendous possible enemy, it's no wonder she went cuckoo.
Unwitting Pawn: Her trusted war minister was a Phyrexian sleeper agent who manipulated Radiant on behalf of Yawgmoth.

Barrin, Master Wizard

"Without order comes errors, and errors kill on Tolaria."

Color: Blue

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

The Mage Master of the Magical Society of Tolaria, Barrin was Urza's Number Two and had the unenviable task of wrangling the erratic planeswalker. He was one of the masterminds behind the Weatherlight, father to Weatherlight navigator Hanna, and The Mentor to Teferi, a pre-mending planeswalker who survived into the post-mending era.

Civilization Destroyer: The Obliterate spell he used to destroy Tolaria was in fact the same spell that Urza instinctively used when he first became a planeswalker. You know, the one that leveled an entire continent and fractured the multiverse itself. Barrin's version was less destructive only because he didn't boost it with the Golgothian sylex like Urza did.
Despair Event Horizon: He suffers two, when his wife and daughter are each killed. He does not recover from the last one.
Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Didn't go so far to to outright forbid, but he wasn't happy with his daughter Hanna's choice to become an artificer, and the two often quarreled.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Barrin has had two legendary cards, both of which portray him as a Squishy Wizard focused exclusively on magical trickery. In both Prophecy and Invasion the man was a straight-up One-Man Army and Person of Mass Destruction.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: As the mage master of Tolaria, Barrin served this role to Urza, and was one of the few mortals who could rein in Urza's Mad Scientist excesses.
The Mentor: He taught a number of characters who went on to become important figures in Dominarian history, including Teferi, Jhoira, Gatha, and Ertai.
One-Man Army: Took on entire armies of Phyrexians in Invasion, more than once doing so single-handedly.
Origin Story: His is presented in the anthology book "The Secrets of Magic".
Person of Mass Destruction: As a mage master capable of casting the continent-destroying Obliterate spell, Barrin was almost as powerful as a pre-mending planeswalker and could have more than matched most of the post-mending walkers if he wasn't, you know, dead.
Unstoppable Rage:
- After his daughter dies to a Phyrexian disease, he goes on to destroy every Phyrexian on the island of Tolaria, as well as himself, in a massive blast of fire.
- During the Keldon invasion, after he finds his wife Rayne's headless corpse, his first act on finding a Keldon trapped under debris is to disintegrate her head.
Wizards Live Longer: His origin story revealed that he was originally from the time of the Ice Age, making him thousands of years old by the time of the Invasion.

Maraxus of Keld

"I have no master. I am chaos."

Color: Red

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

A regenade Keldon warlord who became The Brute to Volrath. He was the first antagonist in the Weatherlight Saga.

Ascended Extra: He was the character chosen to represent Red in Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds and is more memorable there than he ever was in the story itself.
Blood Knight: He's a Keldon. It's kind of their thing.
Flaw Exploitation: Fell victim to this; since Starke knew the secret to his strength was drawing power from his followers, the traitor lured him into a one-on-one duel with Gerrard and then knifed him from behind.
He Knows Too Much: Starke killed Maraxus because the latter knew he was an untrustworthy Double Agent.
Informed Ability: He was supposedly the strongest of Keldon Warlords, an earlier one of which was powerful enough to almost kill a godlike Phyrexian praetor. Maraxus never demonstrated even a tenth of this strength.
Killed Offscreen: Subjected to this ignoble fate in Rath and Storm.
Magic Knight: A hulking warlord who is also capable of casting red magic.
Malevolent Masked Men: Wore a full face mask for no reason that was ever made clear.
Starter Villain: The first of Volrath's agents to be faced by the Weatherlight heroes.
Undignified Death: Stabbed in the back by the weakling traitor Starke.

Eladamri, Lord of Leaves

The lord of the Skyshroud Elves and, later, general in the armies of Keld. One of the chief generals of the Coalition resisting the Phyrexian Invasion.

Color: Green

Race: Elf

Class: Warrior

Better to Die than Be Killed: At the climax of the Phyrexian Invasion, he and Lin Sivvi are stranded within the boughs of the Magnigoth Treefolk- safe from the Phyrexians but with Yawgmoth's poisonous essence closing in from the sky. They opt to jump rather than be consumed by Yawgmoth.
The Chosen One: He is the legendary Korvecdal foretold in prophecies as the one who would unite the people of Rath.
Supporting Leader: Unites the Rathi characters to support The Hero Gerrard.

Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero

Color: White

Race: Human

Class: Rebel

Better to Die than Be Killed: At the climax of the Phyrexian Invasion, she and Eladamri are stranded within the boughs of the Magnigoth Treefolk — safe from the Phyrexians but with Yawgmoth's poisonous essence closing in from the sky. They opt to jump rather than be consumed by Yawgmoth.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Her character card revolves around recruiting allies. In the story she is exclusively a bodyguard type of character, and Eladamri is the one who does the recruiting.
Weapon Specialization: Lin Sivvi's preferred weapon- a chain whip with a glaive's blade on the end.

Darigaaz, the Igniter

Lord of Dragons on Dominaria and an ally of Urza's, he embarked on a world-spanning quest to awaken the other Primeval Dragons across the world — Rith, Dromar, Crosis and Treva. He becomes more and more powerful with every dragon he awakens — although each comes with a bloody sacrifice of the more "mortal" brethren, and they do untold damage to the Coalition Armies when they become fully godlike.

Color: Black, Red, and Green

Race: Dragon

Born-Again Immortality: By the time of Dominaria (2018), Darigaaz is reborn from an egg found inside a time rift, which hatched into a new incarnation of the ancient dragon.
Heroic Sacrifice: He threw himself into a volcano to weaken his brethren.
My God, What Have I Done?: Gets brought back to his senses by Karn, causing him to have this epiphany.

Mirari Saga

Jeska, Warrior Adept / Phage the Untouchable

See Magic: the Gathering Planeswalkers Pre-Mending

Cabal Patriarch

Color: Black

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

Virot Maglan, leader and founder of the Black-aligned, avarice-worshipping Cabal.

A Father to His Men: Surprisingly, he was this. He was referred to as Pater by his subordinates and referred to them as his children. This swung both ways, though, as his idea of "fatherly discipline" was giving them a fatal hug.
The Bad Guy Wins: Chainer's rebellion against him ended with the dementist overloading himself on the Mirari after just a few weeks and the Patriarch retaking Cabal City without resistance, the exact outcome he told Chainer would happen.
The Chessmaster: He did a pretty good job of staying one step ahead of his enemies and even managed to keep Laquatus on his toes.
Deal with the Devil: Made one with the numena Kuberr, trading his allegiance for power and his family for immortality.
The Exile: Is briefly exiled from his seat of power in Cabal City by Chainer. By the book's end he's back in power.
Friend or Foe?: He was both ally and enemy to The Hero Kamahl at points, since Kamahl didn't particularly care about overthrowing him or curtailing the Cabal's influence in any way.
Good Is Dumb: Expressed these sentiments in the flavor text: "Any fool who would die for honor is better off dead."
I Have Many Names: Virot Maglan, his birth name that he discarded to join Kuberr; Calchexis, his Cabal 'secret name' that has the power to immobilize him; the First, which is the title most characters in-series know him as; and the Cabal Patriarch, his job description that is mostly used in the cards rather than the story.
No-Sell: Withstood the full force of Chainer's death bloom that was strong enough to kill an army. This was because of Kuberr's protection, which was eventually rescinded.
Only Known by Their Nickname: In the cards he is only ever referred to as the Cabal Patriarch, while in-series he is known to all as simply the First.
The Paranoiac: Falls into this in Legions after Phage becomes pregnant with his child.
Pragmatic Villainy: His Cabal is the fantasy equivalent of a mafia, and while completely amoral and ruthless the organization did not exist to just do evil for evil's sake.
Really 700 Years Old: When confronted by Chainer he boasted of having lived for centuries.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Barely ever raises his voice, even when he is threatening his enemies or vowing retribution against them.
Squick: The thought of him and Phage being in a relationship and having a child together.
Touch of Death: His mere touch literally caused people to rot, which led to him "forgiving" those who failed him with a hug.
Weaksauce Weakness: His secret name of Calchexis is a very closely guarded secret, as anybody who speaks it can immobilize him just as he can immobilize his own followers through the use of their secret names.
We Can Rule Together: Tried this with Phage in Legions. It didn't last very long.
Villain Decay: He was a lot more competent and cunning in the Odyssey Cycle than he was in the subsequent Onslaught Cycle.
You Have Failed Me: And those who failed him were subject to hugs. Deadly, flesh-rotting hugs.

Chainer, Dementia Master

Color: Black (primary), Red

Race: Human

Class: Minion

Body Horror: He dies by tapping too deeply into the power of both the Mirari and his own dementia space, which unleashes everything he has stored in there, as well as turning him into a writhing mass of nightmarish beings that form the vague outline of his old body. Kamahl ends up killing him in an act of mercy.
Dark Is Not Evil: Chainer, despite being brutal to his enemies and delving in the darkest of magic, is actually a pretty good guy, being exceedingly loyal to both the Cabal and his friend, Kamahl. He is one of the few Black-aligned protagonists in Magic.
Defeat Equals Friendship: A twisted version of this is how dementia casters gain control of their nightmares. He has to enter his dementia space and defeat the monsters within before they will obey him upon being summoned.
Power Born of Madness: Dementia magic is a very literal case of this, allowing the user to summon horrible monsters based on their own fears and nightmares. It also has the side-effect of slowly turning the user insane as they delve further and further into the darkness of their own psyche — which, in turn, leads to more powerful monsters to summon.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: So very much. Apart from the insanity brought on by his practice of dementia magic, Chainer also goes way off the deep end once he gains control of the Mirari and overthrows the Patriarch, trying to gain control of Cabal City on his own. The more he uses it, the looser his grip on reality becomes.

Braids

Braids, Cabal Minion

^{Braids, Arisen Nightmare}

Color: Black

Race: Nightmare (formerly Human)

Class: Minion

A powerful dementia caster for the Cabal. She continued to serve the Patriarch after he was ousted by Chainer and moved the Cabal to Aphetto, though she later killed the Patriarch for betraying Kuberr. In a failed attempt to capture Karona, Braids was trapped in her own dementia space for hundreds of years, until she was summoned by the new Cabal after the death of Belzenlok.

Action Girl: A dementia caster, pit fighter, and Cabal enforcer for the Patriarch before killing him.
Admiring the Abomination: Are you even surprised at this point? Her response to seeing a massive, oily shell of spiky black metal with disturbingly organic shapes wrapped around a mutilated human form (in other words, the March of the Machine version of Phyrexian Gargantua) kill six of her best wizards is to acknowledge that "as nightmare fuel goes, it's a truly inspired design."
Alternate Self: Received a card during Planar Chaos set, which depicts an alternate version of her as a Blue-aligned Tolarian Academy student rather than a Black-aligned cabalist.
Ascended Extra: Initially wasn't intended to have her own card, with the art on her card intended for Diabolic Tutor. But Continuity and R&D were so impressed with the finished art, they decided to create a Braids card to use it on.
Braids of Action: Her most notable feature is her many braids. She even retained them after she became a Nightmare.
Comedic Sociopathy: Quite willing to engage in violence and murder for fun, which cards will sometimes use for comedic effect. For instance, the flavor text on Skirk Prospector:
"I like goblins. They make funny little popping sounds when they die."
The Dragon: To the Cabal Patriarch and later to Kuberr.
Dragon Ascendant: Became the leader of the new Cabal post-Mending.
Enemy Mine: She briefly helps the new Weatherlight crew against the phyrexians. However, for the most part she just doesn't care much about the conflict.
Evil Is Petty: According to the flavor text of Blackmail.
In addition to killing peasants, punishing subordinates, and raising an army of nightmares, Braids somehow found time for her favorite hobby: petty extortion.
Goggles Do Nothing: One of her more notable features, besides her namesake braids, is her goggles, which she keeps mostly on her head and retained even after she became a Nightmare. She is seen using them in the art of Skulltap though.
Insanity Immunity: Insane, but lucid enough to realize she's insane. This makes her more dangerous than most dementia casters, who tend to descend into full-blown madness. This insanity also made her immune to the influence of Laquatus as well as the Mirari.
Nightmare Fetishist: If the flavor text on Screeching Buzzard^* and Spined Basher^* are anything to go by. It doesn't let up during the New Phyrexian invasion, either.
Only Known by Their Nickname: "Braids" is not her cabalist name (Fulla) or her secret name (Barra).
Pet the Dog: She tried to comfort Chainer. Being who she is, it wasn't very effective.
Was Once a Man: A few centuries trapped in her own dementia space turned her into a Nightmare. Not that she seems to mind.

Ambassador Laquatus

The Manipulative Bastard extraordinaire of Dominarian history, Laquatus was a regenade merfolk noble who allied himself with the cephalds. He is the main villain of the Odyssey Cycle.

Color: Blue

Race: Merfolk

Class: Wizard

Ambition Is Evil: Wanted to possess the Mirari and take over the Mer Empire while he was at it.
Apparently Human Merfolk: Could transform his lower half to either a tail or legs at will, but in either form he was described as humanoid and attractive to human sensibilities. Ironically, in the cards his art was changed to a less human look in the Tenth Edition set.
Arch-Enemy: to Kamahl, being the complete antithesis of the barbarian hero and a recurring thorn in his side.
Arc Villain: Other villains rose and fall, but Laquatus was the most recurring villain of the Odyssey Cycle, and said cycle ended with his defeat.
"Ass" in Ambassador: He was sent by Aboshan as emissary to the human world because of his humanoid appearance, but he hated humans and considered the assignment a humiliating one.
The Casanova: Attempted to woo Braids and the mermaid Veza to his side. Neither attempt succeeded.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: There was not a single one of his allies that Laquatus didn't end up betraying at one point or another.
Consummate Liar: Swore oaths of loyalty to the Mer Empire, the Cabal, and the Northern Order, and broke every single one of them.
Death by Irony: After chasing the Mirari for three whole sets, Laquatus finally got it when Kamahl rammed it, now a sword, through his guts.
Deceptive Disciple: To the cephalid emperor Aboshan, who he he put up the front of being a loyal retainer to only to constantly wrestle more and more power over the Mer Empire from, culminating in killing him to get the Mirari after the latter tried using the sphere to flood the Otarian continent in its entirety.
Dragon-in-Chief: Seemingly a simple ambassador of the Mer Empire, Laquatus was clearly their most prominent representative and strongest mage, ever taking more and more power for himself until finally killing Aboshan himself and making his own bid for power.
Expy: He was Tabletop Gaming's ode to Paptimus Scirocco, as both characters were Manipulative Bastard outsiders with great Psychic Powers, ambitions of being The Starscream, and bad habits of acting as The Casanova to woo female underlings (though Laquatus was decidedly less successful than Scirocco in this regard).
Familiar: Preferred to have one, which were called 'jacks' on Otaria, to do his fighting for him.
Flunky Boss: While he was more than accomplished as a mage, he preferred to let his minions Turg and Burke do the dirty work for him.
From Nobody to Nightmare: From a minor merfolk noble to a a political power in his own right. He overthrew his lord Aboshan and almost did the same to Aboshan's wife Llawan.
Last of His Kind: Last of the Otarian merfolk, thanks to a Deal with the Devil he made with Aboshan.
Manipulative Bastard: Excelled at conniving his way into the good graces of Otarian faction leaders and then undermining them for his own benefit.
Mind Manipulation: When his regular manipulations weren't enough, Laquatus used advanced blue magic to twist people's perceptions or personalities to his own benefit.
Playing Both Sides: Played the Mer Empire, the Cabal, and the Order all against one another as he climbed to power. By Judgment his deceptions were all exposed and his allies all abandoned him.
Psychic Link: Always had one with whatever jack he was using at the time.
Stepford Smiler: Was extremely friendly and courteous while usually planning to murder the person he's talking to.
The Villain Must Be Punished: The last set of the Odyssey Cycle is called Judgment. Three guesses which villain is the one who gets judged.
Xanatos Speed Chess: Throughout Torment and Judgment he had to continuously revise his plans on the fly as new complications kept getting in his way. He was largely successful, though, at least until Braids returned to expose his deceptions.

Ixidor, Reality Sculptor

Color Blue

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

Formerly a colliseum participant in Otaria together with his wife, Nivea. The two of them faced off with Phage in the tournament, resulting in Nivea's death and Ixidor's exile. He later discovered that he could transform his fantasies into reality, and thus used it to create Akroma and wage war against Phage.

Anti-Villain: Technically the Big Bad of the first book of the Onslaught cycle, but he wasn't evil, just traumatized and fixated on revenge against the (completely evil) Cabal.
Creating Life Is Bad: Created illusion creatures and was depicted as a villain (or at the very least an antagonist). His greatest creation, Akroma, became a tyrant who terrorized the Otarian continent in his name.
Equivalent Exchange: Akroma was his strong right arm, and to create her Ixidor had to sacrifice his actual right arm.
From Nobody to Nightmare: From second-rate pit fighting illusionist to reality warper on such a scale he created his own kingdom and army.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: He's pretty much a Non-Action Guy in the story, but in the card game is a fighter of prowess equal to the master-at-arms Gerrard Capashen.
It's Personal: With Phage, who killed his lover Nivea.
Loss of Identity: He was possessed by Lowallyn and in Scourge lost his identity to the numena entirely.
Maker of Monsters: Creates an entire army of nightmares to fight against the Cabal/Krosa alliance when they invade his domain. This is reflected in his card's association with morph creatures.
The Power of Creation: Created various fantastical beings and a vast kingdom that continued to exist even after he was swallowed by a deathwurm.
Reality Warper: What do you expect when his title is Reality Sculptor?
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Against Phage, using Akroma.

Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Color: White

Race: Angel

An angel created by Ixidor in order to avenge his wife's death at the hands of Phage the Untouchable. One of the main characters in the Onslaught Cycle.

Adaptational Wimp: In Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds she's a predictable Flunky Boss who relies completely on the Zerg Rush to win fights.
Badass Creed: "No rest. No mercy. No matter what."
A God Am I: After Ixidor's death, she started her own religion dedicated to him.
For Want Of A Nail: Akroma, Angel of Fury depicts an Alternate Universe form of the character in which she was created using Black and Red magic rather than White and Blue. Her manifestation is depicted in a 2007 short story on the MTG website.
Fusion Dance: With Phage and Zagorka, to make Karona.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Her cards are usually pretty invulnerable, having multiple color protections, abilities, and high power and toughness. The Akroma of the books, while powerful, wasn't nearly as overpowering and could be beaten back by Phage (who has no chance against Akroma in any card-to-card matchup).
Gone Horribly Right: Played with, as Ixidor in fact created Akroma acidentally while having a nightmare of himself fighting with Phage. He was awed and repulsed by her all at once (even wondering to himself if she would kill him for rejecting her) and while he aimed her at Phage, for the most part he wasn't particularly happy about the tyrant he's created.
Knight Templar: From her point of view, everything is good when done against Phage.
Light Is Not Good: She was an angelic being but arguably was even more malevolent than previous White-aligned angel villain Radiant. At least Radiant cared about Serra's followers and had to be tricked into killing them, but the only person Akroma cared about was Ixidor, and she led half a continent to war against the other half without a qualm.
Meaningful Name: "Akroma". Or, "a-chroma"—"no colors". An object is white if it reflects away all colors.
Moral Sociopathy: Only really cares about the fall of Phage. While the goal is good, the methods not only aren't, but she also doesn't really care about anybody or anything other than her creator.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Angel of Wrath." Would YOU stick around to piss off someone named "Angel of Wrath?"
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Hence the epithet "Angel of Wrath".
Replacement Goldfish: She was created in the image of Nivea, but Ixidor knew from the moment he sees her that she was not Nivea, and he wasn't at all attracted to her.
Undying Loyalty: To Ixidor. It was an unthinking, absolute loyalty, and very much not portrayed as a good thing. Even Ixidor himself was terrified by it.
We Can Rebuild Him: Akroma lost both her legs after a particularly nasty brawl with Kamahl and Phage. Ixidor replaced them with the lower body of a jaguar. (This is not reflected in the card art.) Later she lost the panther legs too and got a pair of steel spikes, which was finally accurately depicted in the 2020 card Akroma, Vision of Ixidor.
Wolverine Publicity: She is absolutely the most popular character of the Otarian Saga and has been depicted in multiple legendary cards as a result.

Karona, False God

Color: 5 Color

Race: Avatar

A Physical God who at least in the story is in fact very true, Karona was the physical manifestation of all Dominarian mana. She was incarnated twice by the Numena, an Ancient Conspiracy of sorcerer-kings determined to enslave or destroy her.

Artifact of Attraction: A living one, which was strange given that the previous cycle featured pretty much the same thing in the Mirari, making Karona seem like a living Recycled Plot. Notably this aspect of Karona wasn't present in the cards.
Break the Cutie: Made her debut as a Wide-Eyed Idealist confused and horrified by mortals and their obsession with possessing her. Seeing the things they would do in her name darkened her attitude, and after clashing with the numena and remembering her full history she went Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
Final Boss: Of the Onslaught Cycle, and the Otaria Saga as a whole.
Fusion Dance: She was the result of a trinitarian merger of three women: Akroma, Phage, and Zagorka.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: False god in the cards, real goddess in the story.
Gold-Colored Superiority: Befitting her all-color status, she wore ornate golden armor.
Hate Plague: Her presence drove Otaria's various factions to go to war against each other. In the books this was something she couldn't control; in the cards it was implied she did it on purpose.
Made of Magic: She was the physical manifestation of all Dominaria's magic. When she left the plane, she took all magic with her.
Power Floats: Befitting her status as the goddess of all magic, her feet never touched the ground.
Reality Warper: Could alter reality entirely at her whim. Her only limit was that she had to have followers present who believed in her.
Red Mage: As the physical manifestation of Magic, Karona was a complete Master of All and could cast any type or color of spell at will.
Time Abyss: She originally manifested 20,000 years ago but did not remember this right away.
Weaksauce Weakness: Because the Mirari sword was forged on a different plane, it was the only weapon on Dominaria capable of killing Karona.

Dominaria during the Time Rift Crisis

Jhoira of the Ghitu

Color: Blue and Red

Race: Human

Class: Wizard, Artificer

A Ghitu artificer and Teferi's (often exasperated) friend, Jhoira of the Ghitu's history with Teferi and Dominarian history goes all the way back to Urza's famous Tolarian Academy, and her incredibly slow aging stems from her drinking slow-time water in the wake of the time disaster.

Recognizing the rising threats in the Multiverse and on Dominaria, Jhoira mounts an expedition to raise and restore the Skyship Weatherlight. She succeeds and becomes the restored ship's new Captain.

The Captain: As of Return To Dominaria.
Dude Magnet: Several male characters, such as Teferi and Venser, fell in love/lust with her. Ironically, the only man she wanted turned out to be a Phyrexian spy who didn't want her at all.
Famed In-Story: By the time of Return To Dominaria she's this. People who meet and/or hear about her repeatedly ask if she's "the Jhoira", as in the same one from all the stories.
In Another Man's Shoes: She tries to make sure that Teferi understands the mortal perspective of planeswalker meddling. While it doesn't take immediately, the extinguishing of his spark and the experiences he has afterwards leads him to a very profound understanding.
Old Flame: With Jodah of all people, per the Dominaria storyline.
Older Than They Look: She is over one thousand years old, though she does age very slowly.
Only Sane Woman: She's the sensible, competent, and grounded one of the group, compared to Teferi's well-meaning mendacity, Venser's perpetual panic, and Radha's barely-checked aggression.
Not So Above It All: While she tends to be the sensible and careful one, she eventually does slip up when using Venser to help cast a defensive glass storm spell, which ends up going out of control and ravaging the Shivan desert for miles.
Pair the Smart Ones: While she does care about Venser, the smart one Jhoira finds herself more drawn to is Archmage Jodah, who is immortal after a dip in the Fountain of Youth.
The Smart Guy: While Teferi's knowledge of time is extensive, Jhoira is the one who organizes and makes sense of the information Teferi gives her to form a plan.
Team Mom: She's basically the cat-herder of the group.
Villains Act, Heroes React: She acknowledges that their basic plan of action is "get a vague sense of what's most pressing and do that next."
Wrench Wench: She is a supremely skilled artificer. Fitting for the lady depicted in Tinker.

Radha of Keld

Color: Red and Green

Race: Half-Elf

Class: Warrior

Half-Skyshroud Elf and half-Keldon, Radha is one of the new breed of planeswalkers, along with Venser. However, the only things that interest her are fighting and reclaiming the glory of her Keldon heritage. By the time Magic's story comes to Dominaria in 2018, Radha is the Grand Warlord of Keld and is forging a new future for her people after their apocalypse happened during the Phyrexian Invasion, and the Keldon living were found unworthy by the Keldon dead.

Amazonian Beauty and Statuesque Stunner: Teferi immediately describes Radha's combination of elven and human features, vitality, and connection to mana as beautiful, and she's stated as being just shy of seven feet tall.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: As was the rule for Keldon warlords, Radha leads her warhost by virtue of being the baddest ass on the block.
- As of the Dominaria 2018 set, Radha is now Grand Warlord of Keld. Probably had to kick a lot of asses to get that title...
Badass Boast: She loves to give these, and they're a part of Keldon battle strategy and magic.
Blood Knight: In spades, as was typical for Keldons. Jeska notes with some pleased surprise that Radha wasn't a cruel bully like she'd assumed...granted, this was because she'd pick a fight with anything, even the sun if she felt she had to. By the end of the story, she mellows out to Boisterous Bruiser.
Determinator: She displays both good and bad aspects of this. Her stubborn devotion to Keld as well as her supreme tenacity is praiseworthy for its earnestness, but it also makes her miss the bigger crisis at hand until she gets the importance pounded into her.
Don't Think, Feel: Interestingly, she displays both sides of this. Early on, her overconfidence and reliance on ferocity leave her outmatched and badly hurt when she fights enemies that simply outclass her. Later, however, she uses her speed, power, and spur-of-the-moment creativity to get the edge on more calculating opponents.
Dual Wielding: She often fights with a blade in each hand.
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!: The primary thing she wants out of life is to be able to define herself on her own terms and not be under anyone's yoke.
Kick the Dog: After Freyalise's sacrifice to seal the Skyshroud rift, she finds herself without a source of green mana, and it leaves her even more volatile than usual, reacting to starving refugees begging for her to slow their march by stabbing one of the leaders through the chest before healing him using painful red adaptations of green healing spells. She does privately express dislike of the spells, but decides to make do with what she has.
The Nicknamer: Mere moments after meeting her, most people have at least one. The Viashino were Scalies, Venser was Pasty, Jhoira was Little One, and Teferi got a two-for-one bonus: Clean-head and Gasbag. She does switch to using their names if warranted or necessary, though.
Pet the Dog: While dismissive and belligerent towards most people, when she sees a child who was likely forced to watch his parents get murdered and himself mutilated by Gathan raiders, she gives him one of her blades and tells him to play dead, wait for the raiders to come back and taunt him up close, then leap at them and kill as many as he can. Later, she has the boy brought to her warhost and is currently training him. She also shows unabashed admiration and solemn respect for people brave enough to die fighting, even when completely outmatched.
Refusal of the Call: She initially has no interest in the rift crisis, partly because she thinks her talents don't really apply, but mostly because it neither has anything to do directly with Keld nor involves beating the tar out of people. On a related note, she does possess a spark like her associate Venser, but it remains dormant inside her because she just doesn't care about it.
Unstoppable Rage: She is more or less in a chronic state of this, until Multani restores her connection to green mana.

Dinne il-Vec

Race: Human

A Vec warrior caught between realities like most of Volrath's troops, Dinne il-Vec first serves the Weaver King before the Weaver King dies and Leshrac takes up the reins.

Archenemy: Finds himself to be Radha's, after he attacked the boy she saved and severely injured her lieutenant.
Combat Sadomasochist: He relishes the feeling of pain, because it's one of the few things he feels any more.
Empty Shell: The Weaver King used severe Mind Rape to excise all of his emotions that didn't have to do with the hunt and kill.
Intangible Man: As a shadow creature caught between realities, it's difficult to affect the material world. He's got an atypical degree of control over his tangibility, though.
Light Is Not Good: Well, he is White-aligned.
Storm of Blades: He fights with a barrage of conical throwing spikes.

The Weaver King

Race: Human at one point

Formerly Oleg il-Dal, he was trapped in an oubliette by Volrath and experimented on until he became a bodiless "mind-spider", capable of creating parasitic psychic threads into other people and using them as proxies. He's the arc villain in the Planar Chaos novel.

Breaking Speech: He likes to hurt with words to force people to overreact and deepen his hold on them...or simply because it amuses him.
For the Evulz: Destroying the will of others gives him pleasure.
From Nobody to Nightmare: He was just the leader of an outcast group of Dal before Volrath turned him into the horror he is now.
Grand Theft Me: He plans to do this to everyone he can, but especially Venser.
Psychopathic Manchild: He's a selfish and childish wreck who likes nothing more than to bend creatures of all kinds to his will.
Marionette Master: His main way of manipulating events.

Jodah

Color: White, Blue and Red (primary), 5 Color

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

The Archmage Eternal Emeritus of the School of the Unseen, he was rendered immortal by a dip in the Fountain of Youth. He descends from Urza, but despises his ancestor's ruthlessness and sociopathy.

Alternate Universe: He is actually a planeshifted Jodah, from a timeline where Jaya Ballard died.
Deadpan Snarker: He's about as comeback-y as Radha sometimes, though more playful about it.
Old Flame: Apparently he and Jhoira were a together for a time; we only have Jhoira's side of the story in Dominaria though.
Older Than They Look: He is at least as old as Jhoira.

Dominaria (2018)

Danitha Capashen

Color: White (primary), Green

Race: Human

Class: Knight

A Knight of Benalia, descended from cousins of the legendary Gerrard Capashen.

Refused the Call: When approached by Jhoira to join the crew of the restored Weatherlight she flat out refuses, preferring to fight the Cabal from Benalia.

Demonlord Belzenlok

"All hail the Demonlord Belzenlok, Evincar of the Stronghold, Scion of Darkness, Doom of Fools, Lord of the Wastes, Master of the Ebon Hand, Eternal Patriarch of the Cabal..."

Color: Black

Race: Elder Demon

The primary antagonist of the Dominaria set. Belzenlok has usurped the Cabal, conquered Urborg, and threatens the nation of Benalia. He's also the last demon on Liliana's list to free herself from the curse of the Chain Veil.

Back from the Dead: How Belzenlok planned to get the better of Liliana- raising her dead brother as a Lich Lord.
Internal Retcon: Belzenlok has stolen historic titles from Dominaria's history, indoctrinating the common folk that he is everything from the original Cabal Patriarch to the Evincar of the Stronghold.

Rite of Belzenlok: "The Demonlord has ruled every age. Every ruin, myth, and nightmare proves his power."

Lyra Dawnbringer

"You Are Not Alone. You never were."

Color: White

Race: Angel

The leader of the Church of Serra and one of the last Archangels remaining who lived within Serra's Realm before Urza collapsed it. She oversees the Church and defends Benalia against all evil.

Call-Back: Lyra's surname, Dawnbringer, hearkens back to another of the most popular Legendary Angels in Dominaria's history: Reya.
Good Shepherd: New Benalia universally sees Lyra and her Serran Angels as this. Her critics accuse Lyra of being too involved in Benalish politics. Her response? She doesn't deny this interference- she justifies it.
Knight Templar: Lyra has rather... strict views about black magic and necromancy. She almost refuses Gideon and Liliana entrance into Benalia until one of her angels vouches that Liliana did indeed help defeat agents of the Demonlord Belzenlok.

Niambi

Color: White and Blue

Race: Human

Class: Cleric

Teferi's daughter. She is currently in her fifties and looks roughly the same age as her centuries-old father. While his equal in intellect, she does not possess the Planeswalker spark.

Applied Mathematics: Her numerology is the key to solving Urza's ancient puzzle in the Jamuraan desert. Her calculations to solve the puzzle are correct but still don't work until the Gatewatch and the Weatherlight arrive to assist. The only reason it didn't work the first time? As Jhoira points out, Urza is a cheating bastard.

Tetsuko Umezawa

"I am a master at making great bad choices."

Color: Blue

Race: Human

Class: Rogue

The descendant of Tetsuo Umezawa, she is an expert as slipping in and out of places unseen.—-

Death by a Thousand Cuts: Or one big one, if you can make a 20/1 creature. Tetsuko's ability means any creature with Power OR Toughness of 1 is unblockable by your opponents.

Others

Jodah

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_eternal_ice_8723.jpg

"What he looks like in his later years."

Also called Archmage Eternal, due to his longevity. He discovered/laid down the laws of magic that future generations will take up, and is the founder of a school of magic which still exists today. He fell into a Fountain of Youth when he was young, causing him to age very, very slowly. He is also a mentor to Jaya Ballard.

Action Survivor: He survived the Dark Age and the Ice Age, flipped off planeswalkers, helped two people become planeswalkers and saved the world at least twice in the same day.
After the End: He was born after the Brother's War, which destroyed most civilizations on the planet.
Apocalypse How: He was born after a Class 2 apocalypse and lives through a Class 1 Apocalypse. The latter would have been just as bad as the former if he had not been forced-he would have done it anyway-into cushioning the impact. He also helps prevent a Class O which was in the form of a Zombie Apocalypse.
Apocalypse Wow: He was unable to stop the planeswalker Freyalise from destroying the world, though he was able to cushion it.
Divine Parentage: Of a sort. He is descended from Urza who is a planeswalker.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He gave a verbal one to a planeswalker, and got off scot free. More or less.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Justified and Invoked. He deliberately spreads lies about himself and diminished his status in history. Also a bit Zig-Zagged as while he has been reduced to a footnote in history, his footnote appears throughout three thousand years of history, puzzling many future historians including the narrator.
Fantastic Racism: Towards planeswalkers. Downplayed and Justified. He does not necessarily hate planeswalkers, but he condemns them for misusing their power, and is critical of their mental outlook on mortals.
Heroic Build: The man has more muscle than the classical archmage. His build is comparable to Gideon's if not the same in his later years, despite contradictory cover page art.
Magic Mirror: From Freyalise. This is the same mirror which he uses to ignite Jaya's spark.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He comes off as this to people sometimes. He apologizes a lot.
Legacy Character: Subverted. Dominarian scholars think he's one of these, seeing the repeated mentions of a "Jodah" throughout history as referencing either a title or a family name. The reality is he's simply immortal, and he doesn't exactly discourage the idea in the present since it allows him to be left alone.
Magic Knight: He is skilled with both magic and swordplay, though he doesn't use the latter much in his later years.
My Skull Runneth Over: He deals with this through a magical trinket that he periodically uses to store some of his memories.
Odd Couple: He's this with Jaya, made especially so as Jaya kissed him once on the lips and once on the cheek — though she was brainwashed at the time.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gave one to Freyalise — and planeswalkers in general — after she ushered in the Age of Storms.
Really 700 Years Old: He's old, though might not look it because he fell into a Fountain of Youth.
Time Abyss: By the time of the Dominaria set, he's well over four thousand years old.

Maro-Sorcerers

Nature Spirit: They are the sapient manifestations of the forests of Dominaria.

Multani

Color: Green

Race: Elemental (Maro)

The Maro-Sorcerer of Yavimaya.

Fusion Dance: During New Phyrexia's invasion, he attaches himself to the Urborg phantom Yargle to help him resist phyresis from all of the Phyrexians and their oil he ate. It's not entirely clear if Yargle even noticed.
Heroic Sacrifice: Downplayed. He survived the spell he used to transport a large section of Yavimaya and its powerful natives to Urborg, where they could help fight the invasion, but the strain caused him to discorporate for over three hundred years.
Nature Is Not Nice: He imprisons Urza in a tree for years while inflicting the same pain upon Urza that he inflicted on the forest of Argoth.
Truly Single Parent: He's the sole parent of Muldrotha, who was created when he essentially cleaved off a piece of himself to establish a new branch of Yavimaya on Urborg.

Muldrotha

Color: Blue, Green, and Black

Race: Elemental (Maro)

Muldrotha, the Gravetide, is the avatar of the section of Yavimaya that was transported to Urborg. Like the land that gave her birth, she is a dark, wild and unpredictable force.

The Blank: She doesn't have a face, as such — her head is a smooth orb of swamp water, with no features save for a pair of horns a glowing light at its center.
Dark Is Not Evil: Muldrotha is a towering collection of swamp mud and rotting trees, is constantly furious, and is the living embodiment of Urborg's decidedly less than wholesome magic, but is not any more evil or even all that more hostile than any other Maro-Sorcerer.
Heart Light: Her form pulses with a diffuse green glow, which is concentrated within her chest.
Summon Bigger Fish: In the Return to Dominaria storyline, she appears when the thallid Slimefoot calls on her to fight off a giant frog monster attacking the Weatherlight, which she quickly and decidedly defeats.

Titania

Color: Green

Race: Elemental (Maro)

The Maro-Sorcerer of Argoth, a forested island that existed southeast of Terisiare during the Brothers' War. She fought against Urza and Mishra when they attempted to consume her island's resources to fuel her war, and ultimately perished when Urza detonated the Golgothian Sylex and shattered Argoth beyond recovery.

Gaia's Vengeance: After her attempts to bargain with Urza and Mishra failed, she turned the entirety of Argoth's creatures against them in a last-ditch effort to save the forest.
The Ghost: Due to her actual nature being left unclear in her debut — it was never fully established whether she was a powerful spirit, a powerful mortal, an actual deity or something else — she didn't appear in any cards of the original sets, despite being mentioned and named in several cards and stories. She only received a card in the 2014 Commander set, long after the period where she was a part of the active story, then got more cards and storyline focus with The Brothers' War.
Mother Nature: She was a powerful spirit of nature in the form of a woman, worshipped by her followers as a maternal and protective deity.
Retcon: She wasn't originally a Maro-Sorcerer, as she predates the introduction of the concept by a fair bit. She was introduced as a powerful entity of unclear nature, but was later retconned to have been Argoth's Maro-Sorcerer after these beings were established as existing due to it most closely matching her original portrayal.

Deities

Gaea

Color: probably Green

Gaea is the most widely-revered goddess in Dominaria. She is primarily associated with nature and the wilderness, and is chiefly worshipped and served by elementals, treefolk and elves.

Anthropomorphic Personification: In Dominaria United, she is identified through Nissa as Dominaria's worldsoul, the embodiment of all life on the plane. She is to Dominaria what Mat-Selesnya is to Ravnica and Progenitus is to Alara.
Deity of Human Origin: As noted above it is possible she is an ascendant Rebbec, but the only person who notes this is also a completely insane Mad God.
God Is Displeased: Millenia of war and invasions has understandably left Gaea rather bitter, to the point where she doesn't even answer to Nissa's calling at first.
The Ghost: Gaea has a lot of cards named after her and is mentioned and described by multiple characters, but never makes any personal appearances herself, likely because she's too big conceptually to fit on a card.
Mother Nature: She's typically described as a protective, nurturing figure and the creator and defender of Dominaria's wild places and natural world.
Nature Is Not Nice: Her solution to the Phyrexian problem was the gestating of the Kavu, monstruous reptilian creatures designed to feed on the biomechanical invaders. They also don't mind attacking anything else however, and well after the invasion they are still predators causing problems for the locals.
Retcon: In prerevisionist lore, she was simply a Green-aligned Planeswalker with a more extensive cult than usual. Postrevisionist material describes her as a true deity.

Svyelun

Color: Blue

Race: Merfolk God

Svyelun of Sea and Sky is the goddess of the Pearl Moon, and the patron deity of the ancient merfolk empire of Vodalia. Her worship waned after Vodalia's destruction, but saw a resurgence when New Vodalia was established from a single surviving outpost and continues to the present day. She's typically portrayed as a stern and distant goddess, who holds herself as far from her worshippers as the moon is from the sea. She also holds the distinction of being the first Dominarian deity to receive her own card.

God of the Moon: She's the goddess of Dominaria's Pearl Moon, and the merfolk view her as a distant goddess who holds herself aloof from her people like the moon hangs unreachably far above the sea.
Ethnic Goddess: She is a merfolk deity first and foremost (indeed, she's typed as a Merfolk God on her card), and isn't worshipped by anyone outside the merfolk of the Vodalian civilization.
Our Mermaids Are Different: She is the patron of Dominaria's merfolk, and herself appears as a great mermaid.

Tal

Color: presumably White

Tal was a White-aligned god who rose to prominence in Terisiare during the Dark. His church quickly became powerful and influential, dominating Terisiarian civilization until it eventually faded from prominence at the onset of the Ice Age.

Ambiguous Situation: A sun god is also mentioned in the Distant Planes anthology (which takes place somewhere in Dominaria) and as being worshipped in Jamuraa, but it is unclear if its the same god as Tal.
Anti-Magical Faction: His church was deeply opposed to magic, and extensively persecuted wizards. They themselves, however, used White magic in their rites; the discovery of this fact was what set their decline in motion.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: Between his ties to the Medieval-flavored Terisiare and his church's hatred of magic and tendency to burn heretics at the stake, Tal's church has a lot of similarities to medieval Christianity.
God of Light: He's a solar deity mostly tied to order and law; his church was also a fanatical lot determined to hold the remnants of civilization together but willing to go to extreme and bloody lengths to do this.
Light Is Not Good: Tal is a god of light, daytime and protection, but his church quickly turned into a fanatical and oppressive faction willing to persecute and kill those they opposed.
Stern Sun Worshippers: His religion is composed of fanatics purging all magic... who happen to be hypocrites whose "miracles" are White Magic spells.

Prerevisionist

"Prerevisionist" refers to any work in the continuity that was published before the Time Spiral and Ravnica cycles. This point marks a large-scale attempt to make the setting's lore and background more unified and coherent, as earlier works had not always used a single setting, existed in clear relationship with one another or significantly explained important narrative concepts. As such, not all prerevisionist material is considered strictly canon anymore. See this page for more information.

Feldon of the Third Path

"She will come back to me."

Color: Red

Race: Human

Class: Artificer

An artificer and archeologist active during the Brothers' War, Feldon excavated a number of ancient artifacts from the Ronom Glacier, including the Golgothian Sylex that in Urza's hands would bring ruin to Dominaria. He later became an important figure of the Third Path, a group that chose to side with neither Urza nor Mishra in their war. He survived the Sylex Blast but lost his wife soon after, and in his later years became obsessed with finding a way to bring her back to life.

Ancient Artifact: Feldon's Cane, which for many years was all he was known for story-wise. Of note is that Feldon did not actually create these Canes, and they are just named for him because he discovered them. It is unknown how many there are, but they seem to be Thran artifacts.
Future Slang: Centuries after his death during the Dark, "Feldon's Cane and Crutches!" became a mild profanity used by wizards.
Gentle Giant: In The Brothers' War, before his world and the rest of the world around him goes to hell.
The Lost Lenore: His dear wife Loran, who died early after the Sylex Blast due to injuries sustained during the Brothers' War complicated by the worsening climate. His story is about how he copes with his grief.
Playing with Fire: As typical for a Red mage.
The Quest: After Loran's death he goes on one of these to bring her back, first with artifice and with magic. He eventually makes peace with her death and lets her go.
Renaissance Man: He's an accomplished archaeologist, glaciologist and eventually even mage.
Take a Third Option: He is one of the founders of the group called the Third Path, called so because they chose to align with neither Urza nor Mishra.

Characters / Magic: The Gathering: Dominaria

Main Character IndexPlaneswalkers: Planeswalkers who ignited Pre-Mending, Planeswalkers who ignited Post-Mending: A-M, N - ZPlanes and their peoples: Factions, Other Characters (Dominaria, Phyrexia, Rath and Mirrodin, Innistrad, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Theros, Tarkir, Zendikar), Planes

Thran Empire

The Brothers' War

The Dark Age

The Ice Age

Weatherlight Crew

Original Crew

New Crew

Other Weatherlight Saga Characters

Mirari Saga

Dominaria during the Time Rift Crisis

Dominaria (2018)

Others

Maro-Sorcerers

Deities

Prerevisionist

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Characters / Magic: The Gathering: Dominaria

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Main Character IndexPlaneswalkers: Planeswalkers who ignited Pre-Mending, Planeswalkers who ignited Post-Mending: A-M, N - ZPlanes and their peoples: Factions, Other Characters (Dominaria, Phyrexia, Rath and Mirrodin, Innistrad, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Theros, Tarkir, Zendikar), Planes

Thran Empire

The Brothers' War

The Dark Age

The Ice Age

Weatherlight Crew

Original Crew

New Crew

Other Weatherlight Saga Characters

Mirari Saga

Dominaria during the Time Rift Crisis

Dominaria (2018)

Others

Maro-Sorcerers

Deities

Prerevisionist

Previous

Index

Next