The Travails
| The Travails | |||||
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| Information | |||||
| Era | Mending Era | ||||
| Date | 4559 AR | ||||
| Location | Innistrad | ||||
| Sets | Shadows over Innistrad, Eldritch Moon | ||||
| Characters | Brisela, Emrakul, Grete, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Nahiri, Odric, Olivia Voldaren, Rem Karolus, Sigarda, Sorin Markov, Tamiyo, Thalia, Traft, and many others | ||||
| Outcome | |||||
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| Timeline | |||||
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The Travails was the name given to the turbulent time on Innistrad that culminated in the death of the archangel Avacyn, the rise of madness across the plane, and the summoning of the Eldrazi titan Emrakul. The Travails shattered the fragile balance Avacyn had upheld for a millennium, leaving Innistrad’s people to face horrors without her shield.
Description
When the Helvault broke, the ancient Lithomancer Nahiri returned to Zendikar only to find the Eldrazi she had helped imprison long ago now loose and ravaging her world. Furious at Sorin Markov for abandoning their pact to protect Zendikar, Nahiri turned her wrath on his home plane: Innistrad.[1]
She attacked Markov Manor, twisting it with her lithomancy and imprisoning its vampires in the walls as a message to Sorin.[2] Nahiri raised cryptoliths across Innistrad to warp its leylines and draw the titan Emrakul from the Blind Eternities.[3] The cryptoliths’ distortion of mana drove many of the plane’s angels — beings made of pure mana — into madness. Even Avacyn, Innistrad’s great protector, fell under the growing corruption. When the Harvest Moon rose near the end of Avacyn’s year of peace, she was driven to see humankind as irredeemably tainted, condemning them to extermination instead of salvation. She and other corrupted angels turned on the innocent, slaughtering the faithful she once vowed to defend.
With Avacyn’s madness, the blessings she had woven — including the Cursemute that had transformed werewolves into Wolfir — unraveled. Many wolfir reverted to their savage forms and killed those they once protected.
Returning to his ruined ancestral home, Sorin saw Nahiri’s message carved in stone and realized her revenge was at hand. Shunned by other vampires, he sought help from the cunning Olivia Voldaren to gather the bloodlines in defense.[4]
Olivia agreed to rally the vampires if Sorin would do what must be done: destroy Avacyn. When he found her in Thraben Cathedral battling Jace Beleren and Tamiyo, he tried to reason with her one last time. But Avacyn, gripped by madness and despair, denounced him for making her flawed and corruptible. In a brutal fight, Sorin was forced to destroy his beloved creation — unmaking Avacyn in the same place where she was born, ending the last great ward that had shielded Innistrad for centuries.[5]
When Avacyn fell, Emrakul arrived. Sorin and Olivia gathered vampire armies to battle Nahiri’s machinations, while Liliana Vess raised legions of undead to shield the living.[6] Sorin confronted Nahiri at Markov Manor, but was defeated. Nahiri encased him in stone as poetic punishment: just as he had imprisoned her in the Helvault ages ago, now he would remain helpless while his home suffered.[7]
In the end, Sigarda, the only archangel untouched by the corruption, rallied the sane angels to protect humanity’s remnants. Emrakul was finally imprisoned within Innistrad’s silver moon at the Battle of Thraben through the combined efforts of Jace and Tamiyo.
The devastation of these events marked the collapse of Avacyn’s church as the plane’s dominant faith. In the wake of the Travails, new cults and superstitions rose to fill the void — and Innistrad’s long struggle between light and shadow continued without its greatest guardian.[8]
In-game references
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References
- ↑ Flavour text for Structural Distortion
- ↑ Markov Manor
- ↑ Kimberly J. Kreines (June 20, 2016). "Emrakul Rises". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Ari Levitch (April 13, 2016). "Promises Old and New". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (May 18, 2016). "I Am Avacyn". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (June 29, 2016). "Innistrad's Last Hope". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Ari Levitch (July 6, 2016). "Campaign of Vengeance". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Jay Annelli (2022). Magic: The Gathering - The Visual Guide, DK. ISBN-13 978-0744061055.