This is part two of a look at the life of Freyalise. Part one can be found here.
Last week, we left the story with Freyalise casting the World Spell to end Dominaria's Ice Age. We are not sure what Freyalise did for the next 1000 years, apart
from the fact that she spent at least some of the time on Shandalar.
This is mostly due to Wizards cancelling the comic book line so they
could focus on the Weatherlight Saga. Prepare for lots of Urza in the spotlight.
Urza, obsessed with
defeating Phyrexia, would spend the same thousand years on Dominaria
concocting overly complicated plots involving time travel experiments,
genetically engineering super soldiers, uniting Dominaria into a massive
Coalition, and crafting a number of powerful artifacts that would
eventually combine to form the Legacy Weapon.
Just
before the Phyrexians invaded Dominaria, Urza seemed to remember that he
was not the only planeswalker who cared about Dominaria, and set out to
sway a number of them to his side. They would be called the Nine
Titans. Besides Urza, the Titans included the panther warrior Lord
Windgrace, Kristina of the Woods, Taysir and his daughter Daria,
Freyalise and - of all people - Tevesh Szat. Teferi had been invited as well, but refused due to his numerous disagreements with Urza's methods.
When
Phyrexia invaded Dominaria, it was not through portals as expected.
Instead they marshaled their army to the artificial plane of Rath, and
proceeded to crash Rath into Dominaria. Pieces of Rath appeared across
Dominaria in an event known as the Rathi Overlay. Most pieces were full
of Phyrexians, but others brought unexpected allies - Skyshroud Forest
and it's elven and merfolk inhabitants were dumped into the icy wastes
of Keld. Fortunately for the Rathi, Dominaria had a planeswalker with a
lot of experience in protecting a forest from extreme cold. Freyalise
blanketed the forest in a protective spell before meeting up with the
other Titans.
Leaving
the defense of Dominaria to the Coalition, the Nine Titans then went on
a daring raid of Phyrexia itself, hoping to destroy the plane with
Urza's 'soul bombs'. Freyalise was an unstoppable whirlwind, clearing a
path for the Titans into the very core of Phyrexia. It was at this point
that Tevesh Szat betrayed the Titans.
I mean, it's
Tevish Szat. Of course he was going to betray them. The demonwalker
revealed a secret alliance with Phyrexia, killing Kristina and Daria.
But Urza was prepared for this. He disabled Szat and then used his life
energy to power up the soul bombs, killing the demonwalker in the
process. In an uncanny repeat of the events at Faralyn's summit years
before, it was revealed that Urza had actually been counting on
betrayal, needing the life essence of a planeswalker to power the bombs.
But
the corrupting touch of Phyrexia had finally caught up to Urza.
Shocking the remaining titans, he disabled the master control of the
soul bombs, killing Taysir when he tried to interfere. Urza then left to
pledge himself to Yawgmoth, leader of Phyrexia.
Freyalise and Lord
Windgrace did not give up. They placed the soul bombs, and activated
them manually before planeswalking to safety. The bombs did their job
well, completely obliterating Phyrexia.
Yawgmoth meanwhile, had entered the fray on Dominaria. Appearing as a massive death cloud, he slowly washed across the plane, destroying everything he touched. Freyalise prepared to defend Llanowar and Skyshroud.
But she didn't need to. Urza had planned for everything - including the possibility that he might become corrupted. The silver golem Karn formed the Legacy Weapon and obliterated Yawgmoth. With his death, and the loss of his will driving them, the Phyrexians lost all hope of victory, and were slain by the Coalition forces.
Freyalise and Windgrace were the only two Titans to survive the invasion. They were joined by Karn who had become a planeswalker after using the Legacy Weapon. After it was all over, Freyalise erected the Martyrs' Tomb in memory of the fallen, and officiated at it's dedication.
After the end of the Urza saga, Wizards moved away from stories involving planeswalkers for a while, apart from brief cameos by Karn. They were thought to be too powerful for players to relate to and understand (which was a problem because players were supposed to actually be planeswalkers themselves). As such, we again know little of Freyalise's actions for the next few hundred years. We can assume, however, that she continued to ward Skyshroud against the ice, and helped in the regrowth of Llanowar, which had been badly damaged in the invasion.
When the game returned to Dominaria, it was 300 years after the Phyrexian Invasion. And bad stuff was happening. The plane had become unstable, and time rifts were tearing it apart. It was the fault of all the planeswalkers, really. Every time vast amounts of magic had been unleashed, Dominara had been damaged - from Bolas' massive battles in Madara, to Urza's spell that ended the brothers war, to Teferi's time manipulation, the unleashing of the Legacy Weapon, even Freyalise's World Spell.
All of the old planeswalkers who were still alive returned - and with the death tolls from two wars, the list was terribly short: Freyalise, Lord Windgrace, Teferi, Leshrac and Karn. Slowly they began to realise that the only way to seal the rifts and save Dominaria was to use their sparks themselves. This risked either the loss of their planeswalker abilities, or their very death.
Lord Windgrace died sealing the rift over his beloved Urborg. Teferi and Karn lost their sparks sealing the Shivan and Tolarian rifts. Leshac actually managed to seal three rifts before dying.
As for Freyalise? At first she refused to listen to Teferi's insistence that she should risk her spark to seal the rift over Skyshroud. She had always protected the forest, and this would be no different. But as the rift grew more unstable, she realised Teferi had been right, and understood the sacrifice he had made. To refuse to do the same was selfish. She knew Skyshroud would fall to the cold without her, but there was far more at stake than a single forest. She pulled in all the mana she was using to prospect it, and, in a burst of red and green mana, sealed the rift above Skyshroud - at the cost of her life. She died as she had always lived, protecting Dominaria, and saving the lives of it's people.
Without her protection, Skyshroud will not stand against the ice very long. But because of Freyalise, the elves of Llanowar had sworn eternal brotherhood with those of Skyshroud. The Skyshroud elves will find a home in Llanowar. And Freyalise will never be forgotten.
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