Thread by @jay13x

A thread on The Brothers' War! #MTGBRO #Vorthos

Diegetically (meaning in-universe), it's also know as The Antiquies War, or the Antiquity War, which is the name of the book written on it by Kayla bin-Kroog.

(I'll have a whole article to prep you coming next month, don't worry)

Let's start with the things that cause the darn war, the Mightstone and Weakstone! These are two halves a single powerstone containing the soul of the ancient Thran artificer, Glacian. They were used to seal the Gateway to Phyrexia. Each brother covets the others'.

The Mightstone makes things stronger, the Weakstone makes things weaker. Hence, the mechanics. What starts as sibling rivalry results in the death of their mentor and eventually, each brother finds themselves in a position of power between feuding nations.

(Skipping a lot of story), this culminates in a war for the last island full of natural resources for their war machines. Urza (though a series of events) comes into possession of the Sylex (seen in his right arm here)...

Realizing his brother has been co-opted by a Phyrexian named Gix that has been manipulating the war behind the scenes for decades, he detonates the sylex, devastating the continent and ushering in the Ice age.

In the blast, he fuses with the Mightstone and Weakstone (which become his eyes), his spark ignites, and he becomes Urza Planeswalker.

Meld is just the perfect mechanic for this, and I'd love to see something similar for Phage/Akroma and Karona one day.

Urza has a number of titles over time, starting off as the chief artificer of Kroog after marrying Kayla bin-Kroog, the princess of the nation of Yotia. Yotia eventually falls to Mishra's forces and it takes years to reconquer it.

He eventually becomes the head of a multi-nation alliance and becomes Lord Protector. Also Lord High Artificer. Names sound familiar?

Meanwhile, his wife becomes Queen of Yotia.

Kayla is a complicated character who I think the Magic community at the time viewed pretty unfairly.

Kayla's design has been updated for the set. She first appeared in the old comics (which were retconned by The Brothers' War novel), but she's obviously a black woman now, and not depicted as sort of the princess who things happen to, anymore. She's cool.

A cool detail here is the control rod for the Urza-side war machines. Kayla is wielding one and is backed up by the mech behind her.

I might as well mention it: there's a pretty gross subplot where Kayla sleeps with Mishra to save Kroog, and Mishra sacks and destroys the city anyway. And then no one is quite sure which brother is father to her son Harbin.

That's not something the set or the story touches on. Harbin is Urza's son. He raised him, for better or worse, and Harbin thought of him as his father, in my opinion, that's all that matters. Urza ultimately grieves him as *his* son.

Mishra, for his part, starts off as slave to the leader of the Fallaji, as his 'wizard'. Eventually, Mishra is the one everyone turns to and ascends to take control.

Mishra is more personable than his brother, and people like him (this is not the same thing as him being nice).

I'll talk about the Fallaji when there's actual art of them, but they get a rather nice update from being the generic fantasy desert tribe.

Unfortunately for Mishra, he falls under the sway of Gix's disciples, and is eventually converted by the end of the story.

Gix is a high-ranking Phyrexian 'demon', or 'praetor', but those terms aren't exactly the same as the modern praetors nor was he a true demon. He was modeled on the Yawgmoth Demons.

When the brothers accidentally open the portal to Phyrexia by removing the might and weakstones, he comes through and begins subverting things through the Disciples of Gix. The throughline of these folks can be seen throughout Dominarian history, from the Soldevi Adnates to Rona.

Ashnod is easily the most interesting and complex characters in the book. She is Mishra's apprentice. She's not good! Not even remotely! But she's the only character who grows wise to the Disciples of Gix and ultimately saves Dominaria by giving Urza the Sylex instead of Mishra.

Ashnod's area of expertise was using the human body as a machine, or converting it. But she had to draw a line somewhere, and her ruthlessness did not extend accepting Gix.

Okay LET'S TALK ROBOTS. Back in the day, the artifact designs were... unique. They got a bit more focus and stronger art direction around the Invasion saga, but in general they were kind-of all over the place.

The art direction for each faction is really strong this time around easily the most excited I've been for a redesign. Urza machines are bulky, like giant steampunk robots wearing plate armor.

Mishra machines are sleek and skeletal, and have a sort of internal furnace look that's just so cool and scary.

Older Thran artifacts take after the Dominaria (2018) redesign for Thran tech, and actually *look* advanced and high tech.

I think I've run out of images to talk about, but anyway this is my first creative text on a set, too. I'm very excited for it because I've already forgotten everything in it 🤣

Oh I missed the Hurkyl Art. Hurkyl was the person who discovered and founded modern Magic on Terisiare. She and her husband Drafna ran the original College at Lat-Nam, which became the foundation of the academic tradition that would end with the modern Tolarian Colleges.

So this is the third set to handle the story of the Brothers’ War. The first was Antiquities, the second was Urza’s Saga (which just covered the end of the war in Green). But I love the set symbol reference here to that set!