Agnate

Agnate
Details
Race	Metathran
Birthplace	Tolaria, Dominaria
Lifetime	Birth unknown, Died 4205 AR.
Sources
'Invasion, Planeshift'

Agnate was a Metathran general and the twin brother of Thaddeus, with whom he shared a semi-telepathic bond, which helped coordinate their armies on the battlefield.

The Metathran were created as part of Urza Planeswalker's Bloodline project. Unlike the main project, which was set up to create a single heir to Urza's Legacy, the Metathran were a mass production, created to be a perfect army for fighting the Phyrexians. Agnate and Thaddeus were to be the perfect generals for that army.

After they were created, instructed, and trained, Agnate and Thaddeus were placed in the Curtains of Time, time rifts on Tolaria where time passed extremely slowly. Years later, but seconds from their point of view, the Phyrexian Invasion began. Urza and Barrin released the two commanders, but Agnate collapsed from the stress. Thaddeus used CPR to revive him, but to Urza's surprise he did so not because he just wanted to save a useful ally, but because the two commanders felt a strong connection. Thaddeus even said he could not fight without his "brother".

After this incident the two were transported to Koilos, where the most important battle of the first stage of the Invasion was being fought. Agnate and Thaddeus each led part of the army in a pincer attack against Tsabo Tavoc's Phyrexians that had taken the caves. Agnate's forces fared badly, and were unable to force a breakthrough. Agnate held onto his courage for Thaddeus's successes, since the other commander did force a breakthrough and even entered the complex.

But what they did not know was that it was all a trap set up by Tavoc. She had sensed the brother's arrival on the battlefield and realized that they were the result of genetic manipulation on par with that of Phyrexia itself. She had allowed Thaddeus to make a breakthrough in order to isolate him from his forces and to capture him after he had entered Koilos. Agnate was hurt badly by the disappearance of his brother, and insult was added to injury only days later when Urza introduced him to Eladamri, an elven commander he had chosen to replace Thaddeus. Only after Eladamri had bested Agnate in combat did the Metathran and his forces accept the elf as the new commander of Thaddeus's half of the army.

In the final battle of the first stage of the Invasion, all the troops Urza could spare, backed up by the Nine Titans, launched an assault on Koilos. The attack was a success; Tavoc had to flee and Urza closed the portal to Phyrexia. However, before he could do this Agnate discovered something horiffying: Tsabo Tavoc had vivisected Thaddeus. Agnate found his brother stripped of his limbs and flayed tissue by tissue. Only his ribcage and head remained. Agnate hoped Urza could build a new body for his brother, but Thaddeus no longer wished to fight for Urza, having learned in the vivisection how similar the Phyrexians and the Metathran were. Agnate fulfilled Thaddeus' last wish and ended his brother's misery.

Agnate continued to fight at Urza's side, but had become very depressed, nearly suicidal, after what he had had to do in Koilos. This continued until he met a man who was very similar to Thaddeus both in looks and in inner strength: the lichlord Dralnu. His mind addled by grief, Agnate even left the battlefield with all his Metathran troops to meet with Dralnu in the underground city of Vhelnish.

Agnate introduced the undead ally he had made to the other commanders of Urza's army: Eladamri, Lin Sivvi, and Grizzlegom. They did not trust Dralnu as much as Agnate did, but allowed him to stay on the battlefield, as all forces that fought against Phyrexia were welcome. A short while later Agnate fell ill. He thought it was the plague the Phyrexians had unleashed on Dominaria and went to Orim for treatment, only to learn it was something else entirely: after he had entered Vhelnish, Dralnu had washed Agnate's feet in what he said was "an ancient rite, that will make us allies forever". In truth, Dralnu had infused Agnate with his own plague, hoping to add the Metathran to his own undead army. Not wanting to wither before his death like Thaddeus, Agnate asked Grizzlegom to kill him and take command of his armies. The minotaur general fulfilled this wish and then led his troops into Vhelnish to slay every single minion of Dralnu, before returning to the front to fight the Phyrexians.

In-game references

Depicted in:'

• Allied Strategies
• Chromatic Sphere
• Exotic Disease
• Stormscape Battlemage

Quoted or referred to:

• Daring Leap
• Maggot Carrier
• Pygmy Kavu