Nightmare War
| Nightmare War | |||||
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| Information | |||||
| Era | Rift Era | ||||
| Date | 4306 AR | ||||
| Location | Otaria, Dominaria | ||||
| Sets | Onslaught | ||||
| Characters | Akroma, Braids, Ixidor, Kamahl, Phage, Stonebrow, Virot Maglan, Zagorka and many others | ||||
| Outcome | |||||
| Timeline | |||||
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The Nightmare War was an event on Otaria, on the plane of Dominaria during the Rift Era.[1]
Description
At the heart of the Nightmare War stood Ixidor, the dream-sculptor. Once a master of illusions, Ixidor had been exiled to the burning desert of Otaria for forging money. There, the forgotten magic of the ancient numen Lowallyn awakened within him. This power allowed Ixidor to shape reality itself. He raised from the sands a paradise he named Topos, a gleaming world born entirely from his desires. His crowning creation was Akroma, an angelic being forged for a single purpose: revenge against Phage, the woman who had killed Ixidor's beloved, Nivea.
Akroma led Ixidor’s armies against the Cabal, the cruel merchant-priests who had ruled through blood and fear. Though she struck hard, the Cabal retaliated and, along with the fierce Krosan wildfolk led by Kamahl, tracked Akroma back to Topos. What they found there was a land of wonder — and horror.
Desperate to defend his realm, Ixidor unleashed new monstrosities. He summoned disciples — glowing sprites that could pierce the mind — and armies of putty men, shapeless warriors shifting at their creator’s whim to clone attackers. The disciples worked a dreadful magic: upon invading the minds of Cabal and Krosan alike, they forced them to vomit forth living beetles that transformed into the living embodiments of each person’s worst nightmare.
In the madness, Kamahl — the druid who had once been the Mirari's guardian — was forced to battle a twisted version of himself, the Mirari-maddened beast he had become during the Judgment. Yet it was Phage who unleashed the true cataclysm. For every soul she had slain in her bloody ascent, a beetle was born, and each became a towering deathwurm—monstrous entities that not only slaughtered indiscriminately but tore rents into the very fabric of reality.
The wurms rampaged across Topos, creating the Nightmare Lands, but one deathwurm, born from Phage’s murder of Nivea, moved with chilling purpose: it hunted down Ixidor and, despite the illusionist attempting to escape through his unmen portals, devoured him whole.
With Ixidor's apparent death, the forces of Topos faltered. Phage, witnessing the devastation she had unleashed, began to change. The taint of her sins, expelled into the world, allowed the woman once known as Jeska to resurface from within Phage’s twisted soul. But the horror was not yet ended: the deathwurms continued to rampage and devastate, and Akroma was not quick enough to kill them all.
Knowing she alone could contain them, Jeska made a terrible decision. With Kamahl's reluctant aid, Akroma — still bound by Ixidor's final orders — commanded the mind-wisps to lure the deathwurms to Jeska. In a feat of grim will, Jeska absorbed all the nightmares into herself, sealing their darkness within her own body.
Thus ended the Nightmare War. Ixidor was gone. Phage, now a vessel of terrible power once more, was neither truly redeemed nor wholly damned. Kamahl, weary and broken by the cost of the conflict and the loss of his sister once again, abandoned the world of men and returned to the wilds of Krosa. Akroma, bereft of her creator but still alive, seized control of the ruins of Topos. Her hatred for Phage burned undiminished. The Cabal, bloodied but unbroken, withdrew to rebuild their empire in the shadows.
References
- ↑ J. Robert King. (2002) Onslaught, Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 0-7869-2801-8.