The Loremaster: Nicol Bolos, Elder Dragon

MtG: Commander was originally called Elder Dragon Highlander. Highlander, because there can be only one. Elder Dragon, after a cycle of cards printed in Magic's third expansion set, Legends. They were dragons. They were big. They were splashy. They were three colours. They were...mostly not very good. But in Commander, it's ok to be bad if you're a powerful dragon from the dawn of Magic.

In the beginning were the Elder Dragons, who ruled the plane of Dominaria 25 000 years ago. Being dragons, they made war upon each other, until only five were left - Nicol Bolas, his brothers Arcades and Chromium, his sister Palladia-Mors, and their cousin, Vaevictis Asmadi. The other Elders were slain, or cast down and stripped of their power.

The children of Bolas and his relatives were also considered to be elders, though lesser in power. It is said these lesser elders gave rise to all the dragons of Dominaria. The cast down Elders were no longer even called dragons, and their children became the drakes and wurms.

Because scarves are cool.

Though all five of the Elders were powerful, only Nicol Bolas possessed the spark that allowed him to become a planeswalker. The first planeswalker duel on Dominaria was between Bolas and a massive leviathan planweswalker. The fight lasted for a month, and destroyed two-thirds of the Empire of Madara, leaving only two jutting rock spires called the Talon Gates. After winning, Bolas absorbed the power of the leviathan, and proceeded to the imperial capital of Madara, where he killed the empress and took control of the Empire. This wasn't just because he felt like ruling an Empire. Madara contained a rare confluence of three leylines (blue, black, and red), above which Bolas built an Imperial Shrine.

Meanwhile, a blind man named Toshiro Umezawa, mysteriously appeared on the coast of Madara. He quietly made his way into the empire, where he eventually got married and started a noble family. Few knew of Toshiro's true origin - he was not from Dominaria at all, but hailed from the plane of Kamigawa, and had been brought to Madara by a powerful kami-spirit called the Myojin of Night's Reach, for reasons that are still unclear.

Bolas ruled Madara for 400 years as the god-emperor, until his evil ways caught up to him. The imperial champion Tetsuo Umezawa (a descendent of Toshiro) finally had enough of the dragon, and tricked Bolas into sending his spirit into the Meditation Realm, after which he used a Meteor Hammer to collapse the Shrine around Bolas' body. Although never proven, it is believed that Night's Reach had a hand in manipulating these events.

This is how you dance after killing an Elder Dragon.

Over the years, the other Elders fell as well. Vaevectis was killed by Palladia-Mors during the Battle of Mors Ridge. Chromium, not wanting to kill his sister, then placed her into an eternal sleep beneath Mors Ridge. Arcades was slain by Kristina in a planeswalker duel between herself and Leshrac the Nightwalker. And Chromium was killed by the demonic Tevish Szat (though ultimately, Leshrac was responsible for this as well).

And so the age of the Elder Dragons had passed. Or so everyone thought. Though still trapped in the meditation realm, Nicol Bolas was still very much alive.

During the events known as the Mending, time rifts opened across Dominaria, threatening to destroy the entire plane. Teferi and Venser got sucked into one of the rifts, and somehow Bolas was able to use magic to rescue Venser, dumping him on the coast of Madara, overlooking the Talon Gates, above which swirled a time rift. The massive battle aeons ago had weakened the aethers above Madara, and the damage had finally caught up. Bolas, disguising himself as a 'Master Ryu', asked Venser to help him escape the Meditation Realm before the rift consumed it, a task Venser eagerly took up.

Teferi escaped the time rift on his own, and tracked down Venser. When Venser explained what he was doing, Teferi looked across to the Talon Gates, and a horrible suspicion formed in his mind. He tried to warn Venser, but it was too late - Bolas was free, returned to his bodily form. Teferi engaged him in battle, knowing he was hoplessly outmatched. Fortunately for the two planeswalkers, Bolas had far more on his mind than them, and after deflecting Teferi's attacks, left Dominaria.


But when Bolas returned to the Talon Gates a few weeks later, he walked straight into a trap laid by Leshrac, who revealed himself as agent of Night's Reach. At first it seemed that the Nightwalker had the upper hand - until Bolas revealed the cracked mask of Night's Reach. He had already tracked down and killed the Myojin. Capturing Leshrac, he used the planeswalker's spark to seal the time rift over Madara, also avenging the death of his brothers.

The threat of the time rifts was ultimately averted, at great cost. Freyalise, Lord Windgrace and Jeska (aka Phage the Untouchable) died closing the rifts, and though Karn and Teferi survived, their sparks were lost. And the closing of the rifts altered the very fabric of the multiverse. The planeswalkers who survived with intact sparks found their powers greatly diminished.

Even an Elder Dragon Legend likes to curl up with a good book.

Not even dragons live forever. Nicol Bolas was now over 25 000 years old, and thought to be the oldest living being in the multiverse. And with his powers weakened, his vast age began to catch up to him. He sequestered himself in the crumbling necroplii of a demiplane called Grixis and plotted, relying on minions such as Tezzeret and Sarkhan to do much of his work for him. Rarely venturing forth, Bolas set a number of grand schemes into motion.


When Jace encountered the ancient planeswalker, he found a dragon who seemed lost in the past. 'Once we were gods,' he told Jace, waxing lyrical on the things he had done when he had his full power. But again, one should never underestimate Bolas. His tales distracted Jace, and then he had broken through Jace's mind shields with vaster telepathic power than Jace could fathom, and the mind mage discovered that even an Elderly Elder Dragon with failing faculties was more than a match for him. Jace escaped knowing he was lucky to be alive.

We do not know who it was that tore the plane of Alara apart into five demiplanes. But Nicol Bolas does. And he knew when the five demiplanes - including Grixis - would reconverge. And so he plotted and waited. He sent Sarkhan to Jund to unite the dragons. He assassinated Jazal Goldmane, and hijacked the visions of Mayael the Anima, to ensure the leonin and elves of Naya could not stop him. He sent Gwafa Hazid to Bant, to destroy the entire city of Giltspire. As the planes merged, a maelstrom of energy formed in the centre of the plane. And his various plots bore fruit - Bant fought Esper, Naya fought Jund, and the ravening hordes of Grixis fought everyone else. And the cascading magic fed the maelstrom.

My name is Ajani Goldmane. You killed my brother.

When Jazal's brother Ajani finally put the pieces together and confronted Bolas at the Malestrom, he was, like Teferi, a moment too late. The ancient dragon absorbed the vast energy of the Maelstrom, as he had so long ago absorbed the power of the leviathan at the Talon Gates.

All his years melted away. Much (though not all) of his power returned. Bolas was back, seemingly young again. Ajani took the remaining dregs of power in the maelstrom and summoned an avatar of Bolas to fight the dragon, apparently banishing him from Alara.

Or did he? Did Bolas just leave, as he left Teferi and Venser, having more important things on his mind than upstart young planeswalkers? What is he planning next? Did he really manipulate Chandra and Jace into releasing the Eldrazi? Why would he even do that?

One thing is for certain: His shadowy claws are everywhere. We have not heard the last of the first and oldest of dragons.