Realmbreaker

Realmbreaker
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Realmbreaker.jpg}}|250px]]
Characteristics
Origin	New Phyrexia
Creator	Elesh Norn
Status	Unknown

Realmbreaker is New Phyrexia's Invasion Tree. He has the potential to forcibly merge planes. He became the new partner of Wrenn after the death of Seven, and she refers to him as Eight.

Description

Much like his progenitor, the World Tree, Realmbreaker is a massive tree. His massive, barb-tipped limbs feature white porcelain bark and deep red flesh. Each branch is tipped with a three-pronged barb that opens when the branch slams into the ground, anchoring it in place. His smell is a mix of ozone, fungal mycosynth, and Kaldheim's green air. Rather than the tyrite sap of the World Tree, he excretes glistening oil.

Each of Realmbreaker's branches is covered with thousands of seedpods, spiny vessels that transport the Machine Legion through the Blind Eternities. Each seedpod can carry up to an entire regiment of centurions, while others are filled with only glistening oil, meant to rain down from the atmosphere to spread phyresis as widely as possible. Still other seedpods are specialized surgical compleation units called cocoons. Once a non-Phyrexian being is thoroughly afflicted by the glistening oil, it is dragged into a cocoon, which seals around them and replaces any organic parts with machine ones. These newly-compleated beings are called converts or neophytes to distinguish them from original "pure" Phyrexians.

When bonded with Wrenn, Realmbreaker (now Eight) shows a nervous yet compassionate personality, expressing a wish to help the planes that New Phyrexia used him to invade. However, as the son of the World Tree, it is still in his nature to grow. Wrenn was able to appease both these wishes by helping him use his power to reach Zhalfir within the void and have it displace New Phyrexia.

History

Realmbreaker was grown in the Seedcore, the innermost sphere of New Phyrexia, a place that served as an incubation chamber. He was created with the tyrite of the World Tree taken by Vorinclex during his exploits on Kaldheim. It is noted that, due to being a cosmic tree, he should have sundered New Phyrexia, but Elesh Norn did something to stabilize his growth.

In early 4562 AR, he was still a sapling with beads of glistening oil hanging from his twigs like buds. Elesh Norn planned to use him to expand New Phyrexia across the Multiverse.

All Will Be One

The Gatewatch planned to destroy Realmbreaker with Saheeli Rai's Filigree Sylex. By the time they made their way to the Seedcore, Realmbreaker was massive, bearing white porcelain bark and red flesh much like Norn herself. They were too late, as Nissa Revane had been compleated before they arrived, and she had accelerated his growth to the point of operational maturity. His roots drove deep, and his branches reached so high they penetrated into the Mycosynth Gardens. His branches began to generate Omenpaths in order to connect New Phyrexia with other planes. Long, white oblong invasion ships hung in the air near the highest branches of the impossible tree, fading partially into the distorted distance as they reached for the Blind Eternities. As the tree connected to the Multiverse, a white light flashed twice with the brightness of the sun, followed by distorted glistening rainbows.

Inside Realmbreaker was a great domed room formed from woven roots, with dark passages splitting off from it. Through the largest passage, atop a low dais, was Karn. He had been broken open, vivisected, and spread across the platform. Still able to talk, he encouraged the strike force to detonate the Sylex. However, Kaya Cassir and Kaito Shizuki hesitated to detonate the Sylex because they worried that it might obliterate all planes accessible from New Phyrexia, or the Blind Eternities themselves. Jace Beleren still attempted to do so, but was stopped by Elspeth Tirel.

March of the Machine

During New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse, Realmbreaker's branches tore through the Blind Eternities and opened the way for the Machine Legion to invade other planes. To the defenders, it was a terrifying sight. To the Phyrexian forces, it was a glorious symbol of their might and inevitability.

Realmbreaker's branches were terrifyingly destructive weapons that could crush entire cities or pull dreadnoughts from the sky with insultingly casual ease. Each branch was tipped with a three-pronged barb that could anchor it in place, or act as talons to rip and tear into any structure or creature they encountered. Each branch of the Invasion Tree was covered with thousands of seedpods, spiny vessels that transported the Machine Legion through the Blind Eternities.

The planeswalker Wrenn had lost her partner Seven during the Invasion. As part of a new plan, she bonded with Realmbreaker, naming him "Eight". Together, Wrenn and Eight reached Zhalfir, and then began to swap its place in the Multiverse with New Phyrexia.

As Wrenn did this, Eight's branches retreated, but the Omenpaths he had created were left open for a while. This allowed Giada and other angels of Capenna to fly out and assist the other planes of the Multiverse. Eventually, Wrenn passed away from the strain of wielding Eight's power, her ashen body resting at the root of the tree.

Realmbreaker's fate after the fall of New Phyrexia is currently unknown.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
March of the Machine - Episode 8: Wrenn and Eight	K. Arsenault Rivera	2023-03-24	March of the Machine	New Phyrexia, Zhalfir	Wrenn, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Koth of the Hammer, Melira, Realmbreaker (now Eight), Teferi Akosa, Wezna
March of the Machine - Episode 9: The Old Sins of New Phyrexia	K. Arsenault Rivera	2023-03-28	March of the Machine	Capenna, New Phyrexia, Theros, Zhalfir	Giada, Atraxa, Heliod, Kaya Cassir, Ajani Goldmane, Elspeth Tirel, Teferi Akosa, Koth of the Hammer, Chandra Nalaar, Elesh Norn, Vorinclex, Jin-Gitaxias, Melira, Nissa Revane, Karn, Wrenn, Realmbreaker (now Eight)

In-game references

Represented in:

• Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree
• Wrenn and Realmbreaker

Associated cards:

• Norn's Seedcore
• Realmbreaker's Grasp
• The Seedcore

Depicted in:

• All Will Be One
• The Argent Etchings (March of the Machine, #338)
• Begin the Invasion
• Breach the Multiverse
• Bring the Ending
• Conduit of Worlds
• Jace, the Perfected Mind
• Phyrexian Atlas
• The Mycosynth Gardens

Referred to:

• The Broken Sky
• Cephalopod Sentry
• Dismal Backwater (March of the Machine)
• Gargantuan Slabhorn
• Ichor Elixir
• Kroxa and Kunoros
• Phyrexian Skyflayer
• Trailblazing Historian
• Worldsoul's Rage (Murders at Karlov Manor, #316)
• Wrenn's Resolve