When it was revealed that Commander 2014 would include older planeswalkers like Teferi, I said something a bit silly. 'If they don't make Freyalise,' I said, 'I will quit Magic.'
Fortunately, they did make Freyalise and I did not have to make good on my threat. But it did open a can of worms. Because Freyalise died during the events of the Time Spiral block. And part of the justification for her death was that Wizards wanted planeswalkers to have cards - she belonged to the older generation of near-omnipotent planeswalkers, and therefore was too powerful to have a card.
And yet here we stand with a Freyalise planeswalker card.
It is somewhat difficult to relate the early part of Freyalise's life. The comics that tell of it were written before the concept of a planeswalker 'spark' existed, and...well, frankly, they are a mess that makes very little sense. But I will try regardless.
Freyalise was a pyromancer living in Storgard, on the plane of Dominaria, during the Ice Age. Storgard was the last of the Fallen Empires, located in the terminal morraine of a vast glacier, and therefore constantly under threat of the growing ice. Freyalise was a bit of an oddity - she was a half-elf, something seen very rarely in the lore of Magic.
When the leader of Clan Ruby was killed in battle with an ice wurm, Freyalise was made the new leader of the clan. Pretty soon she clashed with the leader of Clan Emerald over whether or not to abandon Storgard to the encroaching ice. The king of Storgard (who was secretly being influenced by the insane Tevesh Szat) ordered Freyalise to fight the champion of Clan Emerald, Jason Carhelion. Though the battle was close, Freyalise fell to Jason's green magic...yet the blow that should have killed her did not. Instead, her planeswalker spark ignited, and in an odd twist, her own magic shifted from red to green.
Unfortunately, Storgard fell to the ice soon afterwards. Freyalise travelled to the Llanowar and Fyndhorn forests, where she used her newfound nature magic to help them endure the steadily increasing cold. As a result, the elves of both forests decided that she was a goddess, and started to worship her, despite her protests to the contrary. She also met and thwarted the plans of the demonic planeswalker Tevesh Szat a number of times. Szat, who styled himself 'The Doom of Fools' was bent on amplifying the Ice Age to cause as much death as possible, and was master of blue and black magic, in direct opposition to Freyalise's green. It is ironic that Szat was directly responsible for the sparking of his greatest nemesis.
The Ice Age was not a natural phenomenon. It was part of a much greater magical spell, created by Urza at the end of the Brother's War. In an attempt to fulfill Urza's wishes, the immensely powerful Sylex artifact had cut off Dominara and twelve other planes from the rest of the multiverse. While this prevented the Phyrexians and Urza from travelling to Dominaria (which was good) it also trapped some planeswalkers on Dominaria, including Tevesh Szat (which was bad). And a number of side effects, such as Dominara's Ice Age, were slowly destroying the twelve planes.
Five hundred years after Freyalise sparked, an elderly planeswalker named Faralyn called for a peaceful summit of planeswalkers to work out how to break the Shard. The summit was attended by Taysir (of the Arabian Nights), Kristina of the Woods, Leshrac Nightwalker, Tevish Szat, Freyalise and surprisingly - the Elder Dragon Chromium.
Unfortunately, Faralyn was not as altruistic as he appeared. He was counting on the rivalry between the planeswalkers (Freyalise vs Szat, Leshrac vs Taysir/Kristina) to end in violence. He had worked out that he could use the essence of a dead planeswalker to planeswalk through the Shard.
When violence did erupt, it was in an unexpected direction - Leshrac baited Tevesh Szat into killing Chromium. Whilst not a planeswalker, the Elder Dragon was immensely powerful, and Faralyn pulled off his escape plan - planeswalking to Shandalar, a world just outside the Shard. The opportunistic Leshrac quickly followed him. (And yes, it's the same Shandalar that Liliana found the Chain Veil on).
Freyalise, meanwhile, attacked Tevesh Szat in retaliation for the death of Chromium. Though severely wounded by a suspiciously prepared Szat, she rallied to destroy his blue mana sources, forcing him to flee. She escaped with her life, but lost her right eye in the battle.
It is interesting that, unlike the other planeswalkers trapped on Dominaria, Freyalise was more concerned about ending the Ice Age than breaking the Shard. And it is, ultimately, how she was able to succeed. People saw that she cared for Dominaria, and when she asked for help, people rallied to her cause, even at the risk of their own homes - or lives.
With the help of the Jaya Ballard (of Task Mage fame), Kaysa (the Elder Druid of Fyndhorn), and an artifact called the Ice Cauldron (provided by the elves of Fyndhorn), and using Shandalar's close proximity, Freyalise cast the most powerful spell in history. The World Spell shattered the shard, and ended the Ice Age. This also signalled the ultimate defeat of Tevesh Szat - without snow magic, the demonwalker was never able to seriously threaten Dominaria again, and he retreated to a plane of perpetual darkness.
Freyalise had saved Dominaria from becoming a frozen wasteland - but not without a cost. The melting ice raised the sea levels across Dominaria, flooding Fyndhorn. Kasya led her people to settle in the great forest of Yavimaya instead. Even worse was the fact that, with the Shard broken, the Phyrexians and their leader Yawgmoth now had access to Dominaria.
Wow, the story of Freyalise has turned out to be a lot longer than I expected, and poring through old comics and contradicting accounts of the same events has been a quite taxing. So that's it for now. Next week: Freyalise, Phyrexia and the End of Time Itself.
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