Piru

Piru
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Piru Volatile.jpg}}|250px]]
Details
Race	Elder Dragon
Birthplace	Dominaria
Lifetime	During Blackblade–Dihada War
Spouse	Chromium Rhuell
Children	Crosis
Parents	The Ur-Dragon
Relatives	Arcades Sabboth (cousin) Chromium Rhuell (cousin) Palladia-Mors (cousin) Merrevia Sal (cousin) Nicol Bolas (cousin) Ugin (cousin) Vaevictis Asmadi (cousin) Lividus (cousin) Ravus (cousin) Rubra (cousin)
Colors
Sources
Dakkon Blackblade

Piru was an Elder Dragon and the life-partner of Chromium Rhuell and mother of Crosis.

History

Piru was one of the Elder Dragons, creatures spawned by the Ur-Dragon when Dominaria was young. With her mate, Chromium Rhuell, she birthed entire nations of dragons, including the primeval dragon Crosis, the Purger. Piru and Chromium were among the very few Elder Dragons who survived the Elder Dragon War instigated by Nicol Bolas.

Millennia later, both Piru and Chromium were servants of the planeswalker Geyadrone Dihada and were summoned by her to fight the planeswalker Dakkon Blackblade. Dakkon tried to put mind control on Rhuell and ordered him to kill Piru; but, since Elder Dragons are nearly as powerful as planeswalkers, Dakkon failed.

Rhuell started to drain away Dakkon's energy but was sent to an unknown location by the planeswalker at the last moment. Piru then fought him but was killed when Dakkon stabbed her with the Blackblade, causing the release of a massive energy blast that created the Dueling Chasm of Golthonor.

Geyadrone Dihada absorbed much of Piru's energy and had planned the dragon's death all along; she wanted the power of an Elder but knew this could only be gained when such a dragon died. Since they were almost impossible to kill, she had Dakkon forge the Black Blade and then manipulated him into fighting and killing Piru.

Note

Piru in combat with Dakkon Blackblade

There used to be some debate about whether Piru was a true Elder Dragon or just one of their direct descendants. Some sources say there were only five Elder Dragons that survived the Elder Dragon War: Chromium Rhuell, Nicol Bolas, Palladia-Mors, Vaevictis Asmadi and Arcades Sabboth; which would suggest that Piru was not. Some of later Magic comics, however, claimed that Piru was a sixth Elder Dragon. Furthermore, Piru seemed to be colorless, making it the "sixth color" not represented in the others.

When the Blackblade resurfaced on Dominaria, its legacy was remembered as being the weapon that killed an Elder Dragon, thus rendering the discussion of Elder vs Non-Elder moot. The Elder Demon Belzenlok took credit for that victory upon receiving the blade.

The debate was definitively decided when her card from Modern Horizons 2 featured the type line Elder Dragon. Piru's colors were also clarified by the card, which represents her as red-, white- and black-aligned.

Trivia

• Piru is a Finnish word for the Devil.
• Piru would traditionally be read piˈɾu, which is a Brazilian Portuguese slang for a penis (exactly equal in both phonetics and writing). This required her name to be changed to Pairoo (read as pajɾuˈu) in the Portuguese localization of the card. The comic nature of this situation - as well as the inherent possibility for in-game jokes and puns - made it so that the English version became more valuable and sought-after in Brazil. Even though there is a wide price range for both Portuguese and English versions of the card (within a variety of options: normal, old-frame, variant, foil), as of April/2022, the highest price a store offered a Portuguese version for reached 6.12 USD, while the English version reached the highest price of 15.00 USD - according to Brazilian site LigaMagic.

Gallery

• 

  Piru vs Dakkon Blackblade.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Piru, the Volatile

Referred to:

• Blackblade Reforged