Jin-Gitaxias
| Jin-Gitaxias | |
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[[File:{{#setmainimage:Stf138 art1.jpg}}|250px]] | |
| Details | |
| Race | Phyrexian |
| Birthplace | Mirrodin |
| Lifetime | Mending Era, deceased |
Jin-Gitaxias (Phyrexian: aEDn,Gyts, IPA: [ʤiʔn ɢytx]) was the blue-aligned praetor of New Phyrexia.[1][2] His twisted sciences contributed massively to the power of New Phyrexia, both bolstering the potency of Phyrexia's infectious oil and discovering the revolutionary method by which Planeswalkers could be compleated.
In the wake of the New Phyrexian Invasion of the Multiverse, he is presumed dead, struck down during the final battle and devoured by his own spawn.[3]
Description
When the Phyrexians infected Mirrodin, it was a world of five suns. The five praetors each rose under the influence of each sun. Jin-Gitaxias was influenced by blue mana, so he searched for knowledge. He grabbed everything he could and improved on it.[4] He was cold, brutal, and believed he was the smartest of the praetors.[5]
Jin-Gitaxias' enormous body was made of chrome, with clawed arms and a curved spine. Exposed ribs and pointed vertebrae were displayed like metalwork. His face and mouth were monstrous and bird-like, with too many sharp points and long, flat teeth.[6] His voice sounded like metal grating against metal.
Obsessed with perfecting Phyrexia to its highest potential, he was the author of a revisionist philosophy known as "Great Synthesis", which takes some liberties with Phyrexia's core religious philosophy to make progress easier. For instance, he saw the original Father of Machines as ultimately imperfect (the same applied to the later leader), and discarded the term "evolution" when applied to Phyrexia as he felt it an inappropriate term to describe what was occurring (as well as to distinguish his views of perfection from those of Vorinclex and Glissa).
Living in what was once the Lumengrid, he tended a large variety of newts that grew in vats attached to nearly every place in the facilities. His interest in perfection and natural curiosity led him to explore the occult, and it was implied that he could make use of White and Black mana. Using Sheoldred's necromantic prophetic visions, he had access to many creature designs he could turn his newts into.
He hated Vorinclex and considered Karn too incompetent to rule. He once captured Tezzeret, and brought him before Karn.[7] Although Elesh Norn was aware of his machinations, Jin-Gitaxias appeared to keep at least a neutral relationship towards her until the end.
Neon Dynasty
As Phyrexians are soulless creatures, they inherently are unable to possess planeswalker abilities. In her bid to take over The Multiverse, the praetor Elesh Norn challenged Jin-Gitaxias to find a way to turn planeswalkers into Phyrexians. With the aid of Tezzeret, Jin-Gitaxias arrived on Kamigawa, believing the plane's dual-realm nature would help further his studies.[8]
There, he began working with the Hyozan Reckoners and the Futurist Tameshi in the Towashi Undercity.[6] Having long coveted the secrets of planeswalking, Jin-Gitaxias began performing experiments on Kamigawa's kami, believing their ability to pass between Kamigawa's two realms made them perfect test subjects.[9] Through these experiments, he successfully devised a way to compleat a planeswalker without removing their soul.[4] Kaito Shizuki and Tamiyo eventually discovered his base and fought with him, during which the Wanderer appeared suddenly and cut him in half. However, his body was recovered by Tezzeret and rebuilt on New Phyrexia, where he compleated the kidnapped Tamiyo into the first Phyrexian planeswalker.[10][11]
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
At some point, Jin-Gitaxias began to perfect the glistening oil itself to be more virulent, weakening the effectiveness of Melira's healing abilities on those affected by it.[12] He also made it much more potent, allowing it to take over organic material faster and thus reducing the necessary time to compleat those exposed to the oil.[13]
After Norn agreed to fulfill her end of her bargain with Tezzeret, she sent him to Jin-Gitaxias to build him a new darksteel body.[14] Upon the operation's success, Tezzeret attempted to planeswalk away, but found that Jin-Gitaxias had bound him with the same material that had trapped Karn on New Phyrexia. Jin-Gitaxias revealed that he intended to warp the darksteel into blightsteel using a corrupted version of the Reality Chip. He then opened a secret compartment containing one of Urabrask's scrapchiefs, revealing that he had known Tezzeret's and Urabrask's intentions since before the rebellion began. After the scrapchief willingly granted control of himself to Tezzeret, he broke free from his containment and attacked Jin-Gitaxias. The praetor slew the scrapchief, but Tezzeret escaped before he could be further experimented upon.
March of the Machine
The Chrome Host invaded many planes during New Phyrexia's invasion of the Multiverse, each directed by intelligence from Jin-Gitaxias. He was present in New Phyrexia's Seedcore when Elesh Norn captured the remaining Mirran rebels and was prepared to strike down Koth before Elspeth, now an archangel, intervened. In Norn's hysteria upon Elspeth's return, she directed an unreasonable number of forces towards killing — not compleating — Elspeth, while a second rebel force comprised of Mirrans threatened the Invasion Tree, Realmbreaker. Meanwhile, when Jin-Gitaxias advised Norn to do otherwise, she tore off his arm.[15] Jin-Gitaxias retreated and prepared his armaments: a war machine escorting a vat of his newts, his vision for the next generation of Phyrexia.[3]
As the rebels gained control of Realmbreaker and summoned the armies of Zhalfir into New Phyrexia's core, the tide of battle turned against the Phyrexians, and Jin-Gitaxias' patience with Norn's megalomania finally ran out. He directed his Gitaxian army to attack and kill Norn; however, doing so left him open to the Zhalfirin forces, who attacked his war machine and caused it to collapse upon itself. Jin-Gitaxias fell into his own vat of newts, who promptly devoured him.
Trivia
- In the Webcomic Dark Discoveries, it was revealed that Jin-Gitaxias was a parent when he threatened to feed Tezzeret to his larvae. He referenced this threat again after performing Tezzeret's surgery.[14] During the final fight of the New Phyrexian invasion, Jin-Gitaxias appeared atop a war machine built of a vat of his newt-like progeny.[3]
- Two of Jin-Gitaxias' minions, Ezuri and Tamiyo, are green-aligned - ironic, given Jin-Gitaxias' hatred of Vorinclex and his Phyrexian faction and ideology.
- The flavor text of Steel Sabotage (Mirrodin Besieged) attributes support for the Great Work to a member of the Progress Engine, whose relationship to Urabrask is unfriendly.
- Jin-Gitaxias is the primary antagonist of the animated trailer for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.[16]
- While speaking the Phyrexian language, Jin-Gitaxias preferred to use complex, compounded words.[17]
Planes visited
As a powerful Phyrexian, Jin-Gitaxias could travel to other planes using an improved form of the Planar Bridge.
Gallery
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Original concept of Jin-Gitaxias by Richard Whitters.
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Tezzeret and Jin-Gitaxias.
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With Tezzeret's help, Jin-Gitaxias arrives in Kamigawa.
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Jin-Gitaxias, and Tezzeret survey the praetor's kami experiments.
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Jin-Gitaxias, and Tezzeret confront Kaito Shizuki and Tamiyo.
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Jin-Gitaxias fights Kaito in his lab.
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Jin-Gitaxias attacks Kaito.
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Jin-Gitaxias attacks Kaito.
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The Wanderer saves Kaito from Jin Gitaxias.
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The Wanderer rescues Kaito and Tamiyo from Jin-Gitaxias' lab.
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Magic: The Gathering Arena avatar.
Story appearances
In-game references
- Represented in:
- Associated cards:
- Depicted in:
- Blue Sun's Twilight
- Cut a Deal (Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander)
- Mirrodin Besieged
- Planar Incision
- Psychic Surgery
- Serum Visions (Modern Masters 2017)
- Shadow of Doubt (Secret Lair, #414)
- Solve the Equation (Secret Lair, #1022)
- Spell Pierce (Neon Dynasty)
- Swords to Plowshares (Secret Lair, #1021)
- The True Scriptures (March of the Machine, #297)
- Wanderer's Intervention
- Quoted or referred to:
- Atmosphere Surgeon
- Breeding Pool
- Consecrated Sphinx (Mirrodin Besieged)
- Culling Dais
- Distant Memories
- Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
- Explosive Entry
- Inexorable Tide
- Malcator's Watcher
- Malicious Malfunction
- Noxious Revival
- Psychic Miasma
- Reject Imperfection
- Rooftop Saboteurs
- Synthetic Destiny
- Tamiyo's Safekeeping
- The Surgical Bay
- Swiftwater Cliffs (March of the Machine)
- Vraan, Executioner Thane
- Xenograft
References
- ↑ Savor the Flavor (May 11, 2011). "Getting to Know the Praetors". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Creative Team (April 19, 2011). "A Planeswalker's Guide to New Phyrexia: The Progress Engine". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b c K. Arsenault Rivera (March 28, 2023). "March of the Machine - Episode 9: The Old Sins of New Phyrexia". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b Hipsters of the Coast (October 30, 2022). "The five praetors each rose under the influence of each sun.". Twitter.
- ↑ Grace Fong (January 31, 2023). "Planeswalker's Guide to Phyrexia: All Will Be One". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b Akemi Dawn Bowman (January 24, 2022). "Episode 2: Lies, Promises and Neon Flames". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Dark Discoveries
- ↑ Ari Zirulnik, Grace Fong, Emily Teng, and Gerritt Turner (February 11, 2022). "The Legends of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Flavor text for Planar Incision
- ↑ Akemi Dawn Bowman (January 27, 2022). "Episode 5: Threads of War". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 27, 2022). "Will there be an explanation about how Phyrexians can now hold a spark?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Jay Annelli (2022), "Magic: The Gathering - The Visual Guide", DK
- ↑ Grace Fong (January 31, 2023). "Planeswalker's Guide to Phyrexia: All Will Be One". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b Reinhardt Suarez (January 17, 2023). "A Man of Parts". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ K. Arsenault Rivera (March 23, 2023). "March of the Machine - Episode 7: Divine Intervention". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Official Animated Trailer - Magic: The Gathering (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (February 15, 2022).
- ↑ Building Worlds (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (January 12, 2023).
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