Braids

Braids
Barra Fulla
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Braids, Arisen Nightmare.jpg}}|250px]]
Details
Race	Nightmare Formerly Human
Birthplace	Cabal City, Otaria, Dominaria
Lifetime	Born ~4276 AR
Colors
(main story) (alternate reality)
Sources
Odyssey, Chainer's Torment, Judgment, Onslaught, Legions, Scourge

Braids was a powerful — and very mad — dementia caster for the Cabal on Dominaria. She was later resurrected as a nightmare during the second Phyrexian Invasion.

Storyline

Unlike most dementia casters Braids maintained a fair degree of lucidity, making her much more useful to the Cabal beyond simply being a pit-fighter. The name "Braids" was a nickname due to her hairstyle, as her actual cabalist name was Fulla, while her secret name was Barra.

To the Mer Empire

She was first placed in charge of the Cabalists that were sent to the Mer Empire capital to catalog the valuable artifacts held in the vaults. While there, she made a deal with Laquatus to find the Mirari for him in exchange for being able to keep any interesting artifacts she found. However, her team did not find the Mirari as it instead was first found by Emperor Aboshan, who used it to sink a third of Otaria and also accidentally killed himself in the process. Afterward, the Mirari fell into Braids' hands, but she was immune to its lures as her mind was already occupied with her dementia visions. Instead of using the orb, she merely pocketed it and made her way back to Cabal City to give it back to the First.

In league with the Patriarch

Upon Braids' return to the city, she soon found herself back in the pits fighting alongside Skellum in a rigged fight against an Order squad. She put on a decent show for the audience but was laid unconscious by an Order justicar. However, unlike Skellum she escaped the fight with her life intact. Afterward, she presumably recovered and carried on fighting until the Patriarch was exiled by Chainer. Following this, she began seeing visions of Kuberr that told her to go south to Aphetto, which she did just to make him quiet. Along the way, she ran into the Patriarch, who told her to go ahead of him and prepare Aphetto for his arrival. This she did and was rewarded by becoming his second-in-command.

While in Aphetto, Braids again met with Laquatus, who tried to ally with the Cabal to help recover the Mirari from Kamahl. She passed the request onto the Patriarch, who agreed and dispatched Braids to hunt Kamahl down with five serpent assassins that Chainer had created to keep guard on the Patriarch. The death squad made swift progress tracing Kamahl, slaughtering several Order patrols, a small mountain village, and Kamahl's three former pupils along the way. However, she was unable to claim the Mirari as the barbarians put up significant resistance and killed all five of her snakemen. Defeated, she then met up with Cabal reinforcements and convinced them that they lacked the power to take the Mirari and were better off fighting the Order army that had also come to claim Kamahl and the Mirari.

The capture of Jeska

Human form.

Following a stalemate battle between the Order and Cabal forces, both sides broke off and gave chase after Kamahl and Balthor as they fled to Krosa. Both armies reached the edge of the forest at the same time and fought another indecisive battle in which they both lost significant portions of their forces, while Laquatus tried to ambush Kamahl with his commandos and with Burke, but ended up losing both. Laquatus then intervened and proposed a temporary alliance between the two forces. Braids then zombified Balthor in revenge for him killing Leer and then set him loose to hunt Laquatus before teleporting away, leaving the dementia caster Traybor in charge of the Cabal army. Braids did not reappear until much later when she, Traybor, and Commander Eesha revealed Laquatus's treachery and teleported their forces away from Krosa, leaving the merman alone in the forest. Along the way, Braids somehow happened upon Seton's dwelling, where the centaur was caring for Jeska. She then killed the centaur and kidnapped Jeska to take her before the Patriarch.

After Jeska was turned into Phage, Braids was charged with taking care of her. Later on, when Kamahl and the First made a truce against Ixidor, she was charged as commander of the Cabal forces. During the fight, she became injured and wasn't able to return to Aphetto. Akroma found her and decided to use her to gain access to the Cabal's secrets, during this time she became an acolyte for Akroma's religion claiming Ixidor as their god. She eventually recovered and managed to escape, and rejoin the Cabal.

Succumbing to Dementia

As she came back, she helped Phage and the recently born Kuberr survive the First's assassination attempt, and she killed him instead with one of her nightmare beasts. In the following events, she stayed alongside Kuberr in the Grand Coliseum.

After Karona appeared, Braids led a force of Cabal members claiming that she was theirs to take, because since everyone wanted to see her, everyone could pay the Cabal to see her at their events. In the end, like many other Otarians, she fell into a state of fanaticism and ended up trapped in her own dementia space while trying to keep from being buried alive. For a long time, it was unclear if she was still trapped there or had died in it.

Dominaria United

In dementia space, Braids was trapped, torn apart again and again by her own nightmares, until a desperate conclave of Cabal summoners performed a ritual to drag her back to Dominaria (and unfortunately blowing up all their heads in the process). Braids escaped from her dementia space during the second Phyrexian invasion, but split in two. Now a nightmare herself, she allied with Shanna Sisay, Tiana, and Rafwyn Capashen to kill her shard-self. Afterwards, they witnessed the compleation of the Weatherlight.

Now, she intends to lead the Cabal into a new golden age.

Gallery

• 

  Magic: The Gathering Arena avatar.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Shards of Nightmares	Phoebe Barton	2022-08-17	Dominaria United	Dominaria	Shanna Sisay, Tiana, Rafwyn Capashen, Slimefoot, Arvad, Braids

Trivia

Braids in an alternate reality

• Braids originally was never meant to be a card, but when Eric Peterson reinterpreted a Matt Wilson sketch for what was supposed to be Diabolic Tutor for Odyssey, the card was so impressive and powerful that Continuity and R&D decided to make Braids her own card. Her ability was taken from a card that wasn't used in Tempest.
• In the Planar Chaos set, the card Braids, Conjurer Adept depicts an alternate version of Braids, where she became a magical researcher instead of joining the Cabal.
• Braids, Cabal Minion is banned in Commander (EDH).

In-game references

Represented in:

• Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• Braids, Cabal Minion
• Braids, Conjurer Adept
• Braids, Conjurer Adept Avatar

Associated cards:

• Braids's Frightful Return

Depicted in:

• Blackmail
• Bosom Buddy (Unhinged)
• Head to Head (Unhinged)
• Skulltap

Quoted or referred to:

• Battle-Rage Blessing
• Bone Splinters (Dominaria United)
• Distress (Tenth Edition)
• Face of Fear
• Ghastly Demise
• Gibbering Barricade
• Grave Consequences
• Head to Head
• Krosan Constrictor
• Mirari
• Peer into the Abyss
• Phyrexian Gargantua (March of the Machine)
• Restless Dreams
• Screeching Buzzard (Battlebond)
• Skirk Prospector (Onslaught)
• Spined Basher
• Tattered Apparition
• Unhinge
• Zombie Assassin