Eldrazi

The Eldrazi are an ancient race native to the Blind Eternities that have neither physical form nor color alignment. Their nature is ceaseless hunger, so they travel between planes devouring the mana and life energy until the plane’s destruction. All Eldrazi descend from one of the three Eldrazi titans: Emrakul, Ulamog, and Kozilek.

The Three

Millennia ago three planeswalkers: Sorin Markov, Ugin and an unnamed Lithomancer decided to rid the Multiverse of these terrible creatures. The Lithomancer would force them into physical form, and Ugin and Sorin would use respectively their knowledge of colorless magic and life-leeching energies to destroy the Eldrazi completely. But their plan failed: the Eldrazi were too powerful, so the Three were forced to consider a desperate course of action.

Imprisonment

The Three decided to force the Eldrazi into physical form and trap them on a plane, sacrificing that plane for the well-being of the Multiverse. They searched for a plane with lush ecosystems and uniquely dynamic mana—a powerful lure for the Eldrazi's insatiable hunger. They found Zendikar. Sorin Markov lured the Eldrazi to the plane, directing their hunger to that unique mana, Ugin used his invisible breath to combat the Eldrazi and his colorless magic to bind them to the plane, and the Lithomancer constructed a massive network of stone hedrons, whose power would form the bars of a planewide prison, forever preventing the Eldrazi from leaving. The planeswalkers concentrated the power of their imprisonment spell in a secret location deep inside Zendikar's mountains of Akoum: a subterranean chamber called the Eye of Ugin. To make sure that the imprisonment would not be broken, the three planeswalkers sealed the chamber with a mystical lock: the Eye of Ugin could only be reactivated by the presence of three planeswalker sparks—and the colorless, invisible breath of Ugin, the spirit dragon himself. The planeswalkers' trap worked. Emrakul, Ulamog, and Kozilek manifested in physical form on Zendikar, became confined by the magic of the network of hedrons, and thanks to the magic of the imprisonment spell, sank into harmless dormancy. Their mission complete, the planeswalkers disbanded and left the plane.

Awakening

Several centuries passed, and the dormant Eldrazi’s hunger grew. Their prison proved tenuous, and they came close to breaking free. They rose and with them legions of lesser Eldrazi Drones: the Brood Lineage. Together they wreaked havoc upon Zendikar, consuming its mana and massacring its inhabitants. But they were unable to return to their original form and so were unable to leave Zendikar. The Three returned and re-imprisoned them, agreeing to meet again if the Eldrazi should stir once more.

Rise of the Eldrazi

And now, thousands of years since they last fed on the plane, the Eldrazi stir once more. The meeting of Sarkhan Vol, Chandra Nalaar and Jace Beleren in the Eye of Ugin chamber loosened the bonds that kept the Eldrazi in torpor, and they now rise to feed on the life of Zendikar again. Across the plane, the dormant stone hedrons come to life, changing or combining into bizarre superstructures, bending the laws of nature around them. A new generation of the brood lineages shudders into existence around their colossal progenitors, and the carnage is immediate. Each of the three colossal Eldrazi spawns its own "brood lineage." The three brood lineages are composed of Eldrazi drones and other subordinate beings, each reflecting the image of its progenitor. This time only Sorin Markov finds himself on Zendikar, and in the absence of his companions, he allies with the elf planeswalker Nissa Revane to combat this great danger.

Anatomy

Though each lineage has a distinct anatomy, each of them seem to have a commonality. A proboscis located somewhere near a joint acts as a feeding tube, attaching to a subject and draining them of life. Eldrazi proper and their infant spawns have no color alignment and the mere presence of larger Eldrazis can cause reality to dissipate. However, Eldrazi Drones born to serve the larger base species are often aligned, being few examples of the creatures that are colored. Eldrazi drones, while formidable, are not as powerful as their larger counterparts and do not have the Annhilator ability.

Those born from the lineage of Kozilek have multiple eyes all over their body (curiously, rarely on the head) and have large, black jagged plates that float around them. They are also characterized by bisecting arms which they share with the Ulamog lineage.

The sires of Ulamog are characterized by having a bony mask over their heads, being completely featureless. They also possess writhing tentacles in addition to their aforementioned bisecting arms.

The lineage of Emrakul are perhaps the most bizarre of the Eldrazis, possessing a strange lattice-like flesh composition and being of unnatural hues (predominately of bright purples, blues and reds). Like the lineage of Ulamog, many possess tentacles seemingly for no real purpose. They possess no discernible sensory organs and many do not possess conventional forms.

In-Game References

Eldrazi Titans:

• Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

Eldrazi Brood Lineage:

• Artisan of Kozilek
• Broodwarden
• Dread Drone
• Emrakul's Hatcher
• Hand of Emrakul
• It That Betrays
• Kozilek's Predator
• Nest Invader
• Pathrazer of Ulamog
• Rapacious One
• Pawn of Ulamog
• Spawnsire of Ulamog
• Ulamog's Crusher

Associated Cards:

• All is Dust
• Consume the Meek
• Consuming Vapors
• Disaster Radius
• Dreamstone Hedron
• Eldrazi Conscription
• Eldrazi Monument
• Explosive Revelation
• Eye of Ugin
• Flame Slash
• Gravitational Shift
• Harmless Assault
• Hedron Matrix
• Inquisition of Kozilek
• Lay Bare
• Not of This World
• Oust
• Perish the Thought
• Skittering Invasion
• Surreal Memoir
• Traitorous Instinct
• Virulent Swipe

Referred To:

• Suffer the Past
• Escaped Null
• Hellion Eruption
• Spawning Breath
• Merfolk Skyscout
• Shrivel

Trivia

• The idea of the Eldrazi as timeless (and evil) alien gods worshiped by ancient cultures is similar to the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft, which included extraterrestrial "gods" that will destroy our dimension and warp time and space as they enter our reality.
• Eldrazi was featured as rules card 2 of 5 in the Rise of the Eldrazi set.

External links

• Doug Beyer (Wednesday, March 17, 2010). "Gods and Monsters". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Doug Beyer (Monday, March 29, 2010). "The Eldrazi Arisen". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• A Planeswalker's Primer to Rise of the Eldrazi: Eldrazi