Previously, on Innistrad

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GoldGhost012

24 March 2016

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The original Innistrad had a lot of things going for it: a cool theme, great Limited environment, powerful cards across all formats, excellent value, on-point flavor, neat mechanics and tribal influences, and interesting lore to all combine to explain its popularity. There was just about something for everyone.

I'm very much a Vorthos, specifically of the Dreamer subtype. All that really means is that I'm a person who gets very enthused with the lore of Magic. The weekly Uncharted Realms/Magic Stories are something I look forward to every Wednesday, and I love learning about anything that's ever happened in Magic's long history or what might happen in its hopefully vast future. Which makes me very, very excited about the Shadows over Innistrad spoilers so far- the mysterious atmosphere and the many possible answers for the plotlines make me think that this story has the ability to be quite good, just like the original. Now as the release date of Shadows approaches, I thought it might be a cool idea to take a look back at the story of Innistrad before the time of the likes of Avacyn, the Purifier  ^Flip and Descend upon the Sinful. Because a lot of the story is separated between multiple articles and all across the block's cards, I've written up a description of major events prior to and during the Innistrad block.

A Famine, a Demon, and a Deal

Approximately 7000 years before the original Innistrad block, Innistrad is in a time of great famine. People are dying, food is very scarce, and Edgar Markov, grandfather of Sorin Markov, is attempting to come up with a solution. But old Edgar had a powerful friend: the demon Shilgengar. Shilgengar helped Edgar come up with a solution to humanity's problem. He created a way people could feed on blood, birthing Innistrad's vampires. Sorin was one of the first people awarded with the ritual; once transforming, he vanished, his planeswalker spark igniting.

A Hunger, a Balance, and a Symbol

Centuries passed. The vampires continued to grow, in strength and numbers. Sorin spent an increasing amount of years away from Innistrad, but when vampires began to overwhelm humanity, he knew he had to act. Without humans to feed from, vampires would have no choice but to turn on themselves for sustenance. To prevent that, and becoming shunned by his kind, Sorin created Avacyn, Angel of Hope, empowering her with magic and enchantments that would help protect the humans.

Avacyn managed to rally the angels and gain the faith of the humans, creating the Church of Avacyn centered around her. The more besieged humans became due to vampires and the other evils of Innistrad, the more powerful she would become. Thanks to her, the uneasy balance was kept, and no one division of the plane became too powerful.

Demons, A Necromancer, and a Deal

First, let's touch up on the mechanics of demons on Innistrad. It's relevant, I swear. Demons have always existed on Innistrad, though their power ebbs and flows with the plane's other evils. If the zombies, vampires, geists, etc. become beaten back, demons and their devils grow stronger. There is a chasm called the Ashmouth where demons tend to spawn from once they become powerful enough. Once killed, a demon can reform after a period of time, as they basically exist as an integral part of Innistrad.

Anyhow, Avacyn protected humans for many, many years when a young human planeswalker arrived, making her first visit to another plane: Liliana Vess.

Innistrad was a great fit for the healer-turned-necromancer (lots of zombies and dead to practice on, you see). After the Mending robbed her of immortality and much of her power, Liliana made a deal with four demons to restore power. One of these deals was with a demon named Griselbrand, one of Innistrad's most powerful demons.

An Decree, a Challenge, and a Problem

Avacyn, Guardian Angel was very good at her protection detail. So good, the mortal evils of the plane were predominantly in retreat. Which meant more demons could manifest themselves to wreak havoc on the plane. Good times!

The holy forces engaged the demonic ones, and quickly found out about the demons reforming after being killed. So Avacyn made her famous oath: “What cannot be destroyed must be bound.” They took a new course of action: imprisoning defeated demons within the Helvault, trapping them so they couldn't reform.

It was a successful system. Eventually, only a small amount of demons remained. But one of them was Griselbrand. Griselbrand actually challenged Avacyn, and the outcome would change Innistrad's history.

Griselbrand was on the brink of defeat, and Avacyn was preparing to bind him inside the Helvault- when the demon impaled her through the heart, causing her magic to backlash and trap them both in the silver prison causing them to both be Griselbanned.

With Avacyn gone, holy magic began to weaken and the plane's evils grew stronger. Humanity went on the defensive and people started losing faith in the Church of Avacyn. The leader of the Church, Mikaeus, the Lunarch, was one of the few people who knew of Avacyn's fate, and he was in quite a bind. If public knowledge of Avacyn's imprisonment was released, human morale and faith would plummet, while their enemies would likely become more aggressive. They could destroy the Helvault, but that would also release the many, many demons within it, including the big bad Griselbrand. Freeing Avacyn could also risk killing her, as they had no idea if she would survive her heart-piercing wound once released. In the end, he chose to do nothing but offer reassurances to the populace and make sure word of Avacyn's fate never got out.

An Ascension, a Homecoming, and a Distraction

Let's take another aside to talk about another planeswalker native to Innistrad. Yep, I mean Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, the planeswalker everyone loves to hate. Tibalt abandoned training to be a skaberen, one who combines alchemy and necromancy to create skaabs like Skaab Goliath. Instead, he invested his time researching pain, the infliction and resistance of it intriguing him. Sort of like Magic's Count Rugen. Soon he started to torture people (for science!), and devils began converging to him, some even sharing information.

Eventually the cathars caught wind of his highly illegal experiments and went to arrest him. To escape, Tibalt used a powerful spell that simultaneously fused him with the nearby devils (causing him to become half-devil) and ignited his planeswalker spark. Recently Tibalt stumbled back to Innistrad to find humanity slowly sliding into chaos with the disappearance of Avacyn. He saw a great opportunity to oppress the population- and one particular person in particular.

After learning his creation had disappeared and humanity was all but at the mercy of the monsters, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad returned to his home plane to find her. Nothing would stand in his way- until a rambunctious devil-walker made it his mission to vex and distract the vampire. Sorin was attempting to spoil his fun by finding Avacyn, after all. Sorin reluctantly realized that Tibalt could be a real threat in the future if not dealt with immediately and turned his attention to... discourage the pain-walker.

An Alliance, a Siege Rhino, and Zombies

Sorin wasn't the only planeswalker to come back to Innistrad. Liliana of the Veil returned as well, hunting for Griselbrand. First she had a run in with Garruk Relentless  ^Flip, who had been hunting her ever since she accidentally cursed him with The Chain Veil on another plane. Managing to escape, she snuck into Thraben, the seat of the Church. There she met an interesting fellow named Geralf.

Stitcher Geralf and his sister Ghoulcaller Gisa were infamous necromancers. Geralf was a skaberen, maker of skaabs like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Gisa was a ghoulcaller, a rise-from-the-grave necromancer. They waged war on each other for necromancer supremacy before uniting for a new goal: the destruction of Thraben. Their combined zombie army besieged the city, breaking through the outer walls. But Thalia, Guardian of Thraben managed to defeat the horde by covering the lost outer city ring in thatch and burning said thatch. The zombies were covered in fire almost instantly.

While the defenders of the city were, well, defending the city, Geralf snuck into the cathedral itself, where he proceeded to find and murder Mikaeus. While he was escaping, he stumbled across Liliana, who was still looking for information on Griselbrand. Knowing Mikaeus would likely have that information, the stitcher led her to Mikaeus's resting place. She resurrected Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and retrieved the information she was after. The Church endeavored to keep Mikaeus's death a secret as well.

A Standoff, a Choice, and an Explosion

Liliana raised an entourage of zombies and attacked the cathedral while the cathars were still reeling from the siege. She made it to the Helvault before encountering a problem: how does a mono-black mage destroy an artifact?

Right on cue, Thalia assembled a squadron of cathars to stop Liliana. The planeswalker immobilized the soldiers and gave the Helvault's Guardian an ultimatum: either her zombies kill Thalia's soldiers slowly and painfully or the Helvault would be obliterated. Talk about an impossible sacrifice. Thalia eventually chooses to save her men, and the Helvault exploded, releasing a hell of a lot of demons… and Avacyn, whole and powerful once more.

A Plea, the Cursemute, and a Search

Avacyn's very presence revitalized the plane's holy magic, and humanity was able to fight back more efficiently against the dark forces. The momentum had slowly tipped back into their favor. The surge of holy magic is actually powerful enough to undo the lycanthrope curse for a night in Gatstaf, reverting werewolves back to their human forms. The citizens of Gatstaf prayed to Avacyn for a permanent solution, and she gave them the Cursemute.

The Cursemute transformed werewolves willing to serve Avacyn and the Church into the wolfir, combining the wolf and human spirits. Other werewolves actually ended up being fully cured of their lycanthropy and were able to lead fully human lives. But the Cursemute didn't just transform werewolves: it also weakened or dissipated curses.

Not long after confronting Liliana, Garruk, the Veil-Cursed  ^Flip succumbed to his curse, becoming more beast than man. When the Cursemute took effect, Garruk was not cured, but was temporarily healed from his curse. Realizing it was only a matter of time before it overtook him again, he decided to postpone his hunt of Liliana to seek whatever was the source of magic that healed him.

Freedom, a Capture, and Departures

Meanwhile, Griselbrand escaped back to the Ashmouth to recover strength and power. But Liliana finally has her prey in her sight, and she will not be denied- not by angels nor demons nor anyone. Griselbrand attempted to bribe her with more power, but she values her free soul more and utterly destroyed him using the power of the Chain Veil.

By the time Sorin eventually chases off Tibalt, Avacyn had already been released. Satisfied, he planeswalked away to attend to other business.

Garruk was accused of a murder and was captured by Odric, Master Tactician. They were going to bring him to Avacyn for judgment, but Garruk eventually planeswalked away, his curse still growing.

Other Interesting Tidbits

While that's the main storyline, there are quite a few extra bits of lore:

• Avacyn was imprisoned in the Helvault for just over a year.

• The famine that motivated Edgar Markov to creating vampirism may or may not have been the work of Shilgengar.

• To create the ritual that made him a vampire, Edgar exsanguinated the angel Marycz and used her blood in the concoction.

• Ludevic was a famous necro-alchemist who created skaabs and other abominations like Ludevic's Test Subject  ^Flip. Odric and his squad were in pursuit of him when they stumbled upon Garruk.

• Mikaeus was distantly related to Geralf and Gisa.

• When the Helvault was destroyed, the Devil's Breach, another portal to the underworld, opened wider and released more demonic forces.

• Saint Traft was a legendary cathar powerful enough that Avacyn's angels often fought beside him. He made the demon's hit list by foiling many demonic plans and slaying a lot of demons. One day Traft arrived home to find it broken into and a note warning him to come alone, or a child died. Leaving his angelic attendants behind, he rode to the indicated meeting place. When he arrived, he found a group of cultists holding a child hostage. The cultists magically hid the child before beginning a ritual. Traft killed as many as he could, but eventually realized that his sword had been switched with Elbrus, the Binding Blade  ^Flip. The ritual fulfilled, Withengar Unbound  ^Flip was released and killed Traft before being destroyed by angels. But Traft's spirit did not depart peacefully; the Geist of Saint Traft has been seen battling the monsters of the dark, still faithfully served by an angel.

• Tamiyo, the Moon Sage came to Innistrad to study the plane and became intrigued by its moon. She spent some time with the famous astrologist Jenrik, looking through his findings and adding her own data. Once Avacyn was freed from the Helvault, Tamiyo observed the effects that the angel's presence had on Innistrad and its residents.

• Of the four prominent vampire bloodline heads, the Falkenrath progenitor is the only one who has perished. They also come from a family of falconers. Olivia Voldaren, head of the Voldaren family, throws parties that are to die for (no, really). Runo Stromkirk, progenitor of the Stromkirk vampires, was previously a high priest worshiping a sea god. The Stromkirk family is also based in Nephalia rather than Stensia like the other bloodlines. Finally, Edgar Markov is of course the head of the Markov family and is the original vampire.

• Sigarda, Host of Herons, Bruna, Light of Alabaster, and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight lead the three flights of angels that serve Avacyn. The Flight of Herons protects humanity in life, the Flight of Alabaster protects them in death, and the Flight of Goldnight trains cathars and are the angels most primed to fight the monsters.

• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born was apparently named in honor of Ghoulcaller Gisa's face.

• The Blessed Sleep the humanity so craves is an undisturbed "sleep" after being put to rest. If you come back as a geist or have your grave disturbed, then you have not received the Blessed Sleep.

• The heron is the symbol of Avacyn and is thought to be seen on the face of the moon. Many believe the moon is made of pure silver, and while it may offer salvation to humanity, it also influences the plane's evils as well. There are three phases of the moon: the Harvest Moon, the Hunter’s Moon, and the New Moon.

Aaaand that's that. Hopefully you enjoyed that read and managed to finished (even though it's condensed a bit, it's still really long!). If you didn't and you're here at the bottom of the article anyway, I'll try to do better next time! If you're curious as to where any of these facts came from, I should have most of the articles and sources saved so I can link you to them! All you have to do is ask.

Be on the lookout for my next article as I investigate Jace's new coat and the effects it could have across the formats.