Golgothian Sylex

Golgothian Sylex
Characteristics
Origin	Dominaria
User	Urza
Status	Uncertain

The Golgothian Sylex (also known as the Argivian Sylex) was a massively destructive artifact created by the Thran or an earlier civilization. Urza used it to unleash the Sylex Blast and end the Brothers' War.

History

Discovery and use

The Sylex was accidentally netted by Yumok fishermen in 34 AR, and sent to Feldon in Terisia City for study. It was made of an unknown copper-like metal, roughly one foot in diameter, and described as a cross between a bowl mounted on a thick pedestal and a squat, wide-rimmed goblet. Its interior was carved with glyphs in several languages, including Thran, Fallaji, and Sumifan, making it a Rosetta Stone for the others.

Those glyphs named the item "sylex" and its origin "Golgoth". Without sufficient context, Feldon was unable to determine whether Golgoth was a location or a person responsible for the item's creation. He translated the Fallaji glyphs as:

“

Wipe the land clear. Bring the ending. Topple the empires to bring a fresh start. Call the end, fill with memories of the land.

”

Shortly before Terisia City fell to the siege by Mishra's forces, some of its population escaped under the cover of a sandstorm. Among them, Loran fled the city with the sylex, with the intent of keeping it away from either of the warring brothers or anyone else that might be able to use it. She was later wounded, captured, and relieved of the sylex by Ashnod. During the final battle of the Brothers' War on Argoth, Ashnod passed the sylex to Tawnos, who conveyed it to Urza. Immediately prior, Urza had sparked during a face-to-face duel with his brother, and had become acutely aware of the scope of the damage the war had done to the land itself. In remorse, he activated the sylex.

The ensuing Sylex Blast destroyed both armies and the island of Argoth, altered Dominaria's climate to begin the Ice Age, and caused the downfall of most of Dominaria's then-extant major civilizations.

Destruction?

The planeswalker Ravidel obtained the Golgothian Sylex through a bargain after a duel with Ash Warlord Embereck in a sunken city of Terisiare after the Ice Age. In Year One by the Reckoning of the Sages of Minorad, Ravidel appeared at Minorad and threatened to use the Sylex unless the five planeswalkers present — Liana of Minorad, Ash Warlord Embereck, Kristina of the Woods, Grenfell Mor of Golthonor and Altair of Coloni – promised not to interfere with his actions on Dominaria, to which they agreed. In the year 1281 by the Reckoning of the Sages of Minorad, Ravidel threatened to use it again, so Jared Carthalion and Kristina found the long-daggers that would destroy the Sylex. Jared used the daggers to make it vulnerable to a shatter spell, which finally destroyed the artifact.

There are some arguments for a theory that the destroyed Sylex wasn't the original.

Retrieval and certain destruction

During the events of Dominaria, sixty years after the Mending, Karn dug up the Sylex in Yavimaya, planning to use it to destroy New Phyrexia. He later investigated the Caves of Koilos to find information about its use and found a clay tablet that seemed to refer to the Sylex. He secreted the Sylex and the tablet away in a closet of Jhoira's on the Mana Rig in Shiv.

The Sylex was a pivotal object in the Second Phyrexian Invasion of Dominaria. Karn's plan to detonate it at New Phyrexia served as the strategic focus for the Phyrexian sleeper agents led by Sheoldred. During the assault on the Thran Mana Rig, the compleated Ajani crumpled the Sylex and took a disabled Karn to New Phyrexia.

A perfect replica

However, Saheeli Rai, another artificer planeswalker, made a perfect replica using the plans Karn had uncovered. Unfortunately, the mystery of the Sylex's activation was not mechanical — it was magical, a spell buried in history. To discover the secret of its detonation, Teferi Akosa travelled back in time with help of Saheeli's Temporal Anchor.

Teferi's spirit engaged in conversation with Urza after the Sylex Blast, and learned that there was no unknown spell to discover, no secret mechanism by which Urza had activated his Sylex. The trigger to detonate the Sylex was not a spell or an artifact — it was a person.

Continuity issues

It was originally unclear if the object that Karn retrieved, originally referred to as "the Cylix," and said to be "created by Urza to help defeat the Phyrexians" was meant to be the same object as the Golgothian Sylex. The spelling of the name, the origin story, its location (Yavimaya instead of Argoth) and its survival seemed to contradict the established continuity. At some point between April 2019 and May 2020, the term "Cylix" in Wells' story was edited to "Sylex," the original spelling. The Dominaria United story also rectified the origin story, while the description of the object exactly matched the one from the Brothers' War novel.

According to Ethan Fleischer, it is "definitely the original Golgothian Sylex that Urza used to blow up Argoth. Or it's Ashnod's counterfeit Sylex. Or it was one that Urza made later." It "probably isn't the one that Ravidel used to threaten the Sages of Minorad".

The continuity issues were in-world addressed in the Magic Story for The Brothers' War:

“

The Golgothian Sylex had first been created or discovered by Feldon, a scholar of languages and ancient glaciers, some decades before the Brothers' War. As well, it had been created by Ashnod, carved from the skullcap of the qadir her master, Mishra, replaced. Also, it had been pulled from Old Phyrexia's deepest ichor well by Gix, a demon who slouched to Dominaria out from dreams of steel and oil. Also, the Sylex had been chiseled from a giant's tooth and kept by the kobolds of the Khers; as well it was one of Tal's hardened tears, the spell-frozen corona of a falling star, the melted heart of a mountain hammered into shape by Sardian dwarves, and so on, and so on. The myths of that old world-ender's beginning filled reams, and there was no way to tell which one was true. Likewise, for the Sylex's end. Karn believed his to be the real one, but histories Teferi had dug up spoke of the Sylex being destroyed by Urza, or shattered by Jared Carthalion, or consumed by a great and long-dead dragon, or tossed into a lake as a tribute to some icebound god.

”

Rules

The card Golgothian Sylex is one of the three released expansion hosers and has its own rules section. It originally affected cards printed with the expansion symbol . However, modern rules policy states that all cards sharing a name are identical. Therefore, the expansion hosers have received errata to avoid referencing the expansion symbol and use the names of cards originally printed in those sets instead.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 206.3b One card (Golgothian Sylex) refers to permanents with a name originally printed in the Antiquities™ expansion. Those names are Amulet of Kroog, Argivian Archaeologist, Argivian Blacksmith, Argothian Pixies, Argothian Treefolk, Armageddon Clock, Artifact Blast, Artifact Possession, Artifact Ward, Ashnod’s Altar, Ashnod’s Battle Gear, Ashnod’s Transmogrant, Atog, Battering Ram, Bronze Tablet, Candelabra of Tawnos, Circle of Protection: Artifacts, Citanul Druid, Clay Statue, Clockwork Avian, Colossus of Sardia, Coral Helm, Crumble, Cursed Rack, Damping Field, Detonate, Drafna’s Restoration, Dragon Engine, Dwarven Weaponsmith, Energy Flux, Feldon’s Cane, Gaea’s Avenger, Gate to Phyrexia, Goblin Artisans, Golgothian Sylex, Grapeshot Catapult, Haunting Wind, Hurkyl’s Recall, Ivory Tower, Jalum Tome, Martyrs of Korlis, Mightstone, Millstone, Mishra’s Factory, Mishra’s War Machine, Mishra’s Workshop, Obelisk of Undoing, Onulet, Orcish Mechanics, Ornithopter, Phyrexian Gremlins, Power Artifact, Powerleech, Priest of Yawgmoth, Primal Clay, The Rack, Rakalite, Reconstruction, Reverse Polarity, Rocket Launcher, Sage of Lat-Nam, Shapeshifter, Shatterstorm, Staff of Zegon, Strip Mine, Su-Chi, Tablet of Epityr, Tawnos’s Coffin, Tawnos’s Wand, Tawnos’s Weaponry, Tetravus, Titania’s Song, Transmute Artifact, Triskelion, Urza’s Avenger, Urza’s Chalice, Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Miter, Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Tower, Wall of Spears, Weakstone, Xenic Poltergeist, Yawgmoth Demon, and Yotian Soldier.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Golgothian Sylex
• Karn's Sylex
• Urza's Sylex

Associated cards:

• Inscribed Tablet

Depicted in:

• Urza, Lord Protector (The Brothers' War)
• Urza's Ruinous Blast

Referred to:

• Llanowar Wastes

Trivia

• “Golgotha” (“The Place of the Skull”) is the name for the hill upon which Jesus of Nazareth is reported to have been crucified.
  • There is no in-universe explanation for the word Golgotha.