The Gatewatch

The Gatewatch

 

Visions and prophecies

 

The Gatewatch
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Gatewatch cropped.png}}|150px]]
History
Founded on	Zendikar
Active	Mending Era
Membership
Notable members	Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Teferi, Kaya, Nissa Revane

The Gatewatch is a group of planeswalkers initially allied together to fight the Eldrazi on Zendikar. Named for their defense of Sea Gate. Their commitment is to protect the people of the Multiverse from threats that no one else can handle. From Battle for Zendikar up till War of the Spark, the Gatewatch became the center of Magic's storyline.

Membership

The group was founded by Gideon Jura, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, and Nissa Revane.

Name	Status	Joined	Oath	Left	Note
Gideon Jura	Deceased		"For justice and peace, I will keep watch."		Sacrificed himself to save Liliana from her demonic contract.
Jace Beleren	Active		"For the sake of the Multiverse, I will keep watch."		De facto leader.
Chandra Nalaar	Active		"If it means that people can live in freedom, yeah, I'll keep watch."
Nissa Revane	Ambiguous		"For the life of every plane, I will keep watch."		Left the group in protest after Gideon insisted in helping Liliana to kill her last demon. Rejoined during the War of the Spark. However, events in the Zendikar crisis against Nahiri have marred her relationship with Jace and she thus cut ties. However, she remains friendly wth Chandra and helps the group against the phyrexian menace.
Liliana Vess	Quit		"I'll keep watch. Happy now?"		Left the group when Nicol Bolas gained control over her. After the Elder Dragon's defeat, she fled to avoid retribution for her part in helping Bolas during the War of the Spark.
Ajani Goldmane	Compleated		"Until all have found their place, I will keep watch."		Joined the phyrexian faction.
Teferi	Active		"For the lost and forgotten, I will keep watch."
Kaya	Active		"So everyone gets what they truly deserve, I will keep watch."

Additionally, Lavinia, Jace's assistant on Ravnica, is in charge of maintaining the Gatewatch's headquarters on that plane and knows that they are planeswalkers.

History

Zendikar

The Gatewatch was formed after the founding members together defeated the demon planeswalker Ob Nixilis on Zendikar. The four planeswalkers realized that they were helpless against large threats on their own, but that they could stand against just about any force in the Multiverse by working together. Thus they swore an oath to stand together and the Gatewatch was created. Jace devised a plan to bind the Eldrazi Titans Kozilek and Ulamog to Zendikar, drawing the bulk of the Titans into the plane so that their energy could be dispersed into Zendikar, killing them in the process. Helped by a massive fire spell of Chandra, they succeeded.

After the defeat of the Eldrazi titans, Jace and his friends were berated by Ugin for killing the ancient creatures. Ugin implied there could be consequences for the multiverse and that Sorin Markov (one of the other original Eldrazi planeswalker opponents) would be less forgiving. After consultation with his friends, Jace decided to investigate Sorin's whereabouts on his homeplane of Innistrad, and recruit him as an ally against Nicol Bolas and other interplanar threats.

Innistrad

On Innistrad, Jace found only madness that affected the entire plane that soon proved to be the influence of the last Eldrazi Titan Emrakul. Aided by the planeswalker Tamiyo, he returned to Zendikar to bring the rest of the Gatewatch to fight Emrakul. When Liliana Vess came to their aid with a Zombie army, her reception by the Gatewatch was poor, especially since Nissa felt the dark magic radiating from the Chain Veil. While that power protected her against Emrakul's insidious influence and allowed her to attack the Titan directly, it also took a great toll on her body, leaving her near death.

When she reawakened, Emrakul had been sealed in Innistrad's moon by the Gatewatch and Tamiyo, and her wounds had been healed by the other planeswalkers. Seeing that a group of allies could be useful for her long-time plans, she decided to join the Gatewatch, albeit to direct them for her plans.

Ravnica

In the three months that followed, the Gatewatch made its headquarters on Ravnica. Thanks to the aid of Tamiyo, they received an emissary from the Consulate of Kaladesh, the Vedalken Dovin Baan. The Vedalken wanted to hire the Gatewatch to protect an Inventor's fair that would take place in Ghirapur. Liliana, however, quickly made clear that the Gatewatch intended to combat other planeswalkers and similar extraplanar threats, not local unrest. Additionally, several influential members of the Azorius Senate of Ravnica had been petrified, leaving Jace to believe that Vraska, a rival planeswalker, could have returned. When they discovered that Chandra and Liliana had vanished, they suspected that she might have planeswalked to Kaladesh. Nissa volunteered to find them.

Kaladesh

After Liliana discovered that Tezzeret was active on the plane, she alerted Jace and Gideon, who traveled to Kaladesh and met with Nissa and Chandra, as well as their new ally Ajani Goldmane. Together, the group went into the arena where Tezzeret was about to execute Renegade Prime Pia Nalaar in a quicksmithing match. When the planeswalkers confronted him, Tezzeret announced the end of the Inventor's Fair and retreated to a skyship. Discovering that their presence had been used as a distraction to confiscate the inventions displayed at the Fair and to take the inventors prisoner, the Gatewatch swore to uncover what Tezzeret had planned.

The Gatewatch aided the Renegades in their rebellion against the Consulate. They were helped by Ajani Goldmane, who afterward joined the team. Despite Ajani's plea that they should further amass allies before confronting Tezzeret and his master Nicol Bolas, the rest of the group decided to follow the artificer to Amonkhet.

Amonkhet

On Amonkhet, the Gatewatch discovered that Bolas was creating an army of Eternals; highly trained fighting specialists which had been zombified while keeping their skills intact. When they confronted the dragon, they were soundly defeated. Each one fled away on their own. Most of them managed to retreat to Dominaria, which Ajani had suggested as a gathering point. However, Jace became trapped on Ixalan by the power of the Immortal Sun.

Dominaria

The shock of losing Jace as well as the anger towards Liliana's actions caused Nissa to leave the Gatewatch. Chandra, realizing the Gatewatch was not strong enough, also quickly left Dominaria. Thus, only Gideon and Liliana were left to confront the demon Belzenlok on their own, because defeating him would free Liliana's potential that would be needed in their fight against Bolas.

Gideon and Liliana would later board onto the new Weatherlight to fight against the Cabal, ruled by Belzenlok. Later, Chandra regrouped with them. The Weatherlight's crew had wanted to find Karn, and Chandra had wanted to find Jaya Ballard, and all of this coincided in Yavimaya.

Jace, who managed to escape from Ixalan due to the Immortal Sun's removal, managed to locate his friends in the Weatherlight. After he told them the plans of Bolas, he went away to help Ajani to recruit more people.

The three members of Gatewatch in the Weatherlight (Chandra, Gideon, and Liliana), along with the other boarding members of the new Weatherlight, notably the planeswalkers Teferi, Karn, and Jaya, managed to defeat the Cabal's Stronghold and kill Belzenlok. Then Teferi made his Oath and joined the Gatewatch. Jaya and Karn refrained from officially joining. But all of them left Dominaria to find Jace, except Liliana who fell under the control of Nicol Bolas due to her pact with the demons that he had brokered.

War of the Spark

The Gatewatch plotted to engage Bolas on Ravnica. Little did they suspect that Bolas had not only accounted for their interference but was practically relying on it. When they traveled to Ravnica for the final confrontation, they immediately became trapped there due to Bolas's use of the Immortal Sun. Alongside many other planeswalkers and Ravnicans, they fought against the Eternals of Bolas' Dreadhorde.

During the invasion, the trapped planeswalkers got together with Ravnican leaders to strategize. At Jace's recommendation, they decided to split up into teams to focus on specific tasks. Gideon, Aurelia, Angrath, and Huatli led a massive force of planeswalkers and Boros, Izzet, and Simic troops into battle against the God-Eternal Rhonas, who was leading a battalion of Eternals to destroy the gathered opposition. Gideon and Aurelia led the aerial units, while Angrath led the ground units. After battling his way to Rhonas, Gideon was able to kill the god, stabbing him in the eye with the Blackblade and draining his essence. Rhonas' lazotep shell collapsed to the ground, an empty husk.

Later, Gideon instructed Chandra to reactivate the Immortal Sun (which she had disabled), intending to use Bolas' trap against him. He rode his pegasus toward the dragon, only for the God-Eternal Oketra to shoot the pegasus down. However, the demon lord Rakdos caught him and brought him within striking distance of Bolas. He struck Bolas in the head with Blackblade, but the sword broke against the dragon's flesh; Bolas revealed that he had enchanted Blackblade so that it would never be able to hurt another elder dragon again.

Meanwhile, Jace, Jaya, Teferi, and Vivien had volunteered to assassinate Liliana. Jace had a lot of conflicting feelings about their mission: rationally, he knew that it was the right thing to do, but he still cared for her and wished that there was a way to help her. When they found Liliana, Teferi warped time around her, slowing her ability to react, defend herself, or strike back at her attackers. This allowed Jaya and Vivien to badly wound her with fire, arrows, and animal spirits, although the Onakke spirits in Liliana's Chain Veil protected her. Nonetheless, they almost succeeded, but Bolas stepped in and saved Liliana by destroying the buildings they were standing on. Fortunately, Teferi saved himself and the other three planeswalkers by slowing their falls.

After Liliana repented, Bolas used the power of the demons' contract against her. Gideon sacrificed himself to save her, using his hieromancy to take the contract and its lethal effects upon himself. When Chandra tried to kill Liliana (believing she'd killed Gideon), Jace stopped her by explaining the situation. After Bolas' defeat, Jace was telepathically contacted by Ugin, who came to take Bolas to the Meditation Realm to prevent him from coming back to life on Ravnica. At Ugin's request, Jace used an illusion to hide the fact that Ugin had planeswalked away with Bolas' body, making everyone believe that the corpse had disintegrated instead.

Coincident with the events of War, Kaya joined and Nissa rejoined the Gatewatch. The survivors were present during the Planewide Celebration that followed their victory, and held a memorial service for Gideon on Theros, but soon after most went their separate ways.

Karn, Ajani, and Teferi travelled to Femeref to discuss the growing threat of New Phyrexia (plane).

Innistrad

By request of Arlinn Kord, Chandra, Teferi and Kaya travelled to Innistrad to fight the coming of the Eternal Night. Failing to do so they formed a resistance group to battle Olivia Voldaren's vampires, and sought the help of Sorin Markov. Together, they managed to help the locals in restoring the normal day-night cycle. Before their departure, Teferi urged Arlinn to be on guard against the return of an old enemy, the Phyrexians.

Dominaria United

Ajani was revealed as a Phyrexian sleeper agent and killed Jaya Ballard during the second Phyrexian Invasion of Dominaria. He disabled and took Karn to New Phyrexia, leaving the Gatewatch without their strategic commander.

Teferi, Saheeli and Kaya resolved to find a solution to the Phyrexian problem in the past, and installed the Temporal Anchor in Urza's Tower. Here, they were joined by Jodah, Wrenn, Elspeth and Vivien Reid. They devised a plan to mobilize Kaldheim and Ixalan. Meanwhile, Jace was on Ravnica lobbying for support from the guilds, while Chandra had gone to Zendikar to contact Nissa, who acquiesced for this event. Saheeli intended to spearhead the defense of Kaladesh. Information dispensed by Tezzeret showed them that the Mirran camp on New Phyrexia itself, led by Koth, was still active.

Relations with other Planeswalkers

Name	First Contact	Last Contact	Relation	Note
Arlinn Kord			Ally	By request of Arlinn Kord, Chandra, Teferi and Kaya traveled to Innistrad to fight the coming of the Eternal Night.
Dovin Baan			Deceased (former enemy)	Dovin approached the Gatewatch under the orders of the Consulate but was wary of them and several of their methods. He later fought them because he was loyal to the Consulate, and in War of the Spark, he sided with Bolas against them, fighting Chandra.
Elspeth Tirel			Ally	Elspeth has joined the New Dominarian Coalition against the Second Phyrexian Invasion. Has been given the rank of military commander, as the most experienced combatant amongst planeswalkers.
Huatli		|colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; background: #9f9;"|Ally	Implied to be the contact on Ixalan recruited to defend the plane against Phyrexia.
Jaya Ballard			Deceased (former ally)	Like Karn, Jaya fought alongside the Gatewatch against the Cabal. She refused to join the Gatewatch formally but continued to join forces to fight Bolas. Killed by Ajani Goldmane during Dominaria United.
Karn			Ally	Karn fought alongside the Gatewatch against the Cabal led by Belzenlok. He refused to join the Gatewatch formally because he considered New Phyrexia as his prime enemy but agreed to join forces against Bolas. Currently imprisoned on New Phyrexia.
Kiora			Ally	Kiora was part of the team that fought Kozilek and Ulamog on Zendikar but left afterward in shame after nearly stopping their plan. During War of the Spark, Kiora once again allied with the Gatewatch.
Nahiri			Neutral	Nahiri formed a temporary truce with Sorin and helped the Gatewatch during War of the Spark. She was one of the planeswalkers who chose to stay even after the Immortal Sun was shut down. Events in the Zendikar crisis have made her an enemy of both Jace and Nissa, but it is unclear if she seeks revenge against the group.
Nicol Bolas			Enemy	Nicol Bolas is the primary enemy of the Gatewatch. He managed to defeat them effortlessly on Amonkhet and controlled Liliana to turn against the team to work for him instead. He was eventually defeated by the alliance of Gatewatch, Ugin, and native ravnicans during the War of the Spark.
Ob Nixilis			Neutral (former enemy; temporarily allied)	Ob Nixilis fought the Gatewatch after he reignited his spark by absorbing the power of the hedron network used to seal the Eldrazi. He was later defeated by the Gatewatch and promised vengeance against them and fleed. However, he helped the Gatewatch instead when he met them again during War of the Spark to shut down the Planar Bridge out of self-interest. He then refused to be involved in the event again and planeswalked away.
Ral Zarek			Ally	Ral once served Nicol Bolas but turned against him during War of the Spark. Alongside Vraska, Ral helped Jace to revive Niv-Mizzet.
Saheeli Rai			Ally	Saheeli is an ally of the Gatewatch on Kaladesh, joining forces with them to free her friend Rashmi from Tezzeret. During War of the Spark, Saheeli helped the Gatewatch to shut down the Immortal Sun. Currently part of the New Dominarian Coalition as their chief technological expert.
Samut			Ally	Samut fought alongside the Gatewatch before her ascension but had no contact with them afterward. During War of the Spark, Samut helped the Gatewatch to shut down the Planar Bridge.
Sorin Markov			Neutral	Sorin rescued Jace and Tamiyo from a maddened Avacyn but considered them unimportant. He formed a temporary truce with Nahiri and helped the Gatewatch during War of the Spark. He was one of the planeswalkers who chose to stay even after the Immortal Sun is shut down. He temporarily allies with the group to rescue his grandfather and the Moonsilver Key from Olivia Voldaren's possession and thus restore the balance between day and night in Innistrad.
Tamiyo			Former Ally	Tamiyo refused to join formally but went on to pass the word of the Gatewatch's existence to other planeswalkers. Later, she was compleated and joined the Phyrexians.
Teyo Verada			Ally	As a newly awakened planeswalker, he helped the Gatewatch during War of the Spark. Was offered a place among Gatewatch, but did not accept and Kaya took the offer instead.
Tezzeret			Ambiguous	Tezzeret is classified as an enemy of the Gatewatch, due to past involvements with Jace and Liliana as well as his actions against Chandra's family. He works against New Phyrexia, but does not coordinate with, or follow any moral imperative upheld by, the Gatewatch.
Ugin			Neutral	Ugin tried to make the Gatewatch imprison the Eldrazi titans, but they destroyed the Titans instead. Ugin berated them for killing the ancient creatures instead of trapping them, fearing dire consequences for the multiverse. During War of the Spark. Jace helped cover up Ugin's involvement in Bolas' defeat.
Vivien Reid			Ally	Has joined the New Dominarian Coalition against New Phyrexia in Dominaria at the behest of Kaya.
Vraska			Ally	Vraska was hostile to Jace due to her past involvement with him in Ravnica, but the events that happened on Ixalan turned her into an ally. As a part of their plan to sabotage Bolas, she returned to Bolas' side after Jace removed her memories of him at her request. Her memories were ultimately restored and she helped Gatewatch fight Bolas and is in a close relationship with Jace.
Wrenn			Ally	Joined the New Dominarian Coalition at the behest of Teferi, though her overall motivations are unclear.

Other temporary allies during War of the Spark that had no contact before or further contact afterward are:

• The Wanderer
• Angrath
• Jiang Yanggu
• Mu Yanling
• Dack Fayden

In the cards

Incomplete Founder Cycle

The founding members of the Gatewatch represented four of the five colors, lacking only black. This gave the impression of an incomplete cycle, although the Gatewatch is a set of thematically linked characters, rather than a mechanically linked set. Additionally, the only black planeswalker present, Ob Nixilis, directly opposed the group. That circumstance led to the humorous observation that Ob Nixilis was previously known as Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, thus “completing” the cycle of oaths.

Joining the Gatewatch

Any future members of the Gatewatch will have an “Oath” card printed to represent their induction to the group.

Liliana was the first one who joined the Gatewatch after its formation. She and her oath are both Black, which completed the cycle. Note that the first five members of the Gatewatch are also the planeswalkers featured in Magic Origins.

Ajani was the first multi-colored member of the Gatewatch. His oath was also multicolored.

In Standard

When the Gatewatch storyline was started, R&D began with the assumption that the members of the Gatewatch should always be represented on planeswalker cards in Standard. Starting with Hour of Devastation they will pull back significantly on how often Gatewatch planeswalkers appear. They'll appear when it's important but at a much slower rate.

In-game references

Associated cards:

• Call the Gatewatch
• Deploy the Gatewatch

Referred to:

• Emrakul's Influence
• Hour of Devastation
• Joraga Auxiliary
• Open into Wonder

Oaths:

• Oath of Ajani
• Oath of Chandra
• Oath of Gideon / Gideon's Sacrifice / Rest in Peace (Signature Spellbook: Gideon)
• Oath of Jace
• Oath of Kaya
• Oath of Liliana / In Bolas's Clutches
• Oath of Nissa / Broken Bond
• Oath of Teferi

See also

• Rise of the Gatewatch
• The Gatewatch/Visions and prophecies