What ARE Slivers?
Lore forum
Posted on Sept. 2, 2013, 6:02 p.m. by ZarBluestar
Okay, I know slivers are like the HIVE mind colony, but WHAT exactly are they? My friends seem to think that they are machines/robots because of the flavor text on Sliver Construct , but I said "if they are machines, they'd be artifacts." IMO slivers are some sort of extraterrestrial species. What does the community think? Any theories are appreciated.
For future reference, I think this post would likely be best suited for the Lore forum section.
September 2, 2013 6:07 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #4
Slivers are a strange creature, and by far one of the most powerful tribes, if not THE most powerful tribe. They buff each other up, give each other abilities, and can build up board presence real quick, real fast. That is also, unfortunately, their downfall.They build up so fast and a single boardwipe can hurt, if not kill, the entire deck.
As far as what they are lore-wise, I have no idea. To me they are simply awesomely powerful creatures with flavor to them :3
September 2, 2013 6:10 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #7
Storm Crow , is it an Alien? A God? We'll never know.
September 2, 2013 6:16 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #8
It is unknown where Slivers actually came from, but they were first discovered and used by Volrath. They guarded the Legacy and attacked the Weatherlight and its crew when they tried to reclaim the Legacy. When Rath became overlayed onto Dominaria, the Slivers came with it, although most died.
Flash forward a hundred years, and wizards from the Riptide Project discovered Sliver fossils. The idiots brought them back to life, but without the Sliver Queen , the Slivers ran rampant. When Karona, False God was created, once again most Slivers died, but a small group mutated into the Sliver Overlord .
Slivers later survived the destruction caused by Karona's death, even flourishing on a dying Dominaria. While other tribes fought for dominace, the Slivers continued to mutate into new forms. They began to overrun the plane, not in a malevolent way, but because they once again had no overmind to command them. The Weaver King eventually took control over them for his own dark purposes, but when he died, another new consciousness began to grow: the Sliver Legion .
All this was taken from MTG Salvation Wiki right here.
September 2, 2013 6:23 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #9
I don't know if the M14 Slivers have any lore to them.
September 2, 2013 6:24 p.m.
The M14 variant of Slivers is found on Shandalar, a plane as yet unvisited outside the core sets. It is unclear what, if any, connection they have to the Rathi/Dominarian slivers, although there is an Uncharted Realms story about them that mentions fossils on Shandalar that have more in common with traditional slivers than the humanoid Shalarian ones. The story also suggests that they are non-native to Shandalar and were transported there, although there are no details and even that is conjecture. It is also worth noting that the Shandalarian sliver have recently discover magic, according to DotP 2014.
As to what Slivers are, they are a hive-mind species with moderate shapeshifting abilities. Slivers are able to share characteristics with other Slivers within a certain distance of them, represented in the game by gaining various abilities from other Slivers. They are usually very territorial and expansionary, spreading across and devouring whole continents worth of species. Volrath and his predecessors were able to control the Slivers with the Hivestone , and several artificers were able to create artificial Slivers to infiltrate the hives, but without these measures or an extremely powerful mage, little can be done to contain slivers, especially in high numbers.
These guys have been in Magic for a long time, and I doubt that we have seen the last of them.
September 2, 2013 9:19 p.m.
I figure they are a cross between the Predator and the Borg (ST:TNG)
September 10, 2013 12:14 a.m.
cupofnoodles says... #13
To my understanding, Slivers were a product of their environment. The plane where they originally first came from, Rath, was a world created with stolen portions of other planes. Rath was never meant to naturally exist, yet it was pieced together and created by Yawgmoth for his plan to invade Dominaria through alternate planeswalking. By overlaying Rath onto Dominaria, no planeswalker spark would be needed, and massive amounts of soldiers could enter Dominaria at once, unlike natural planeswalkers who can only travel alone when planeswalking.
I suppose this means that the slivers were never meant to naturally exist either, they were "created" as a byproduct of Yawgmoth's original design - Rath. He created Rath and the slivers came with it. Perhaps they too, might be composed of bits and pieces of other creatures from the stolen planes hobbled together, much like their world was?
In any event, the slivers are very real and are here to stay, now that they have bred to the point where they are no longer endangered but thrive. Removing the Sliver Queen was one of the worst things that could happen, since she was the one keeping things orderly and in control. Without her, the slivers cause random mayhem and breed like crazy, practically flooding the areas they congregate in, and all sharing their abilities with each other. Like their original world, they are truly a nightmare race.
September 10, 2013 1:27 a.m.
Um, Its not clear where the Rathi slivers came from. Its possible they were an artificial creation of Yawgmoth, but its equally likely that he simply stole them from somewhere else.
The new Sliver Hivemind (Sliver Legion ) may create control, or at least direction, for the slivers, and planeswalkers (at least pre-mending) could control slivers, so they may stabilize eventually.
(Also, pre-mending walkers may have been able to planeswalk with other non-planeswalkers. The lore isn't terribly clear on this point.)
September 10, 2013 1:58 a.m.
I believe Karona, False God was able to carry two passengers, but they nearly suffocated in the Blind Eternities. She wasn't officially a Plansewalker until the end of the story though.
October 9, 2013 10:41 a.m.
WanderingSpirit says... #16
Venser was able to carry a couple people with him in the Time Spiral books.
Also, Freyalise, a pre-mend planeswalker seen in the time spiral books as the leader of Skyshroud Forest, was able to control the entire population of slivers in her forest for a short time before the species threatened to take control of her, or drive her insane.
October 9, 2013 4:23 p.m.
The answer of "What are slivers" has been pretty much answered above. As for the origin of the Shandalaran Slivers, again, it's speculative with that "Uncharded Realms" article giving us the only insight. The what caught my attention was both the "Fossils" that sound not only like Rathi/Dominarian Slivers got there some how and began evolving (like Slivers love to do) but it almost seems to imply that some massive Sliver fossil at the center of the "Skep"(this hive's home) may have been a progenitor for this group. Add in that the the Skep is located on the shores of Shandalar's Eastern Sea, which is where Lim-Dul and Leshrac arrived on Shandalar after the events of The Eternal Ice (This is in the Magic the Gathering Micro Prose game)
Now, I'm just reaching here, but say when Rath Overlaid Dominaria, what if Shandalar (a roaming plane) happen to pass through the two at this time? What if some of the Slivers, and possibly the Sliver Queen , was snatched up and deposited on Shandalar by mistake (the hive was massive enough, that many could still have been left on Dominaria for the Riptide to discover later...) I mean, even if the Queen weren't grabbed in this instance, there's a chance that any Slivers could have pieced together some sort of existence and develop. Another thought would be the Birth and/or Death of Karona, False God , These were powerful magical phenomena that could have catapulted Riptide SLivers onto a passing Shandalar.
That's my crazy theories, and personally with the Fossil descriptions, the first is the one I'd lean on until we get a canon answer.
October 13, 2013 8:45 a.m.
Haemogoblin says... #20
All I'm really concerned about is how anthropomorphic they've evolved to look in their latest rendition. Pretty soon you won't be able to tell if your neighbour is a Sliver....
checks shotgun
October 19, 2013 9:09 a.m.
Either Slivers were genetically engineered by Yawgmoth, or they are a natural species the Phyrexians discovered and bred.
Schuesseled says... #2
They are a hive based species from dominaria, or something like that.
google it
September 2, 2013 6:04 p.m.