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archcanni · 7 years

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Zos'e Reznik- Expanded Background part 1

Zos'e Reznik was a normal human girl born into privelage before the mayhem that would cause her spark. She was born to Cedril Reznik and Nastya Reznik who both where merchants who held estates both in Nephalia and Gavony often traveling between the two provinces when conducting businesses. Ever since her birth Zos'e was raised to take up the trade of merchant having some of the finest tutors Nephalia could offer. The Reznik family was dedicated to the church of Avacyn and firmly believe the light could hold back the darkness of that surrounded them all. This would all change with the disappearance of Avacyn 4604 and the resurgence of the various dark forces that dwelt within Innistrad. The young girl was traveling along with her parents in an armored convoy from Havengul heading towards the borders of Gavony to eventually head for Thraben and its safety it offered as both spirits and the living dead was on the rise within the region. Her father said better be safe then sorry which was especially true within Innistrad. Only for their luck to finally run out during there travel along the Northern Marches where the caravan was ambushed by a deranged stitcher and his creations. During the melee the stitchers tools manage to overload and cause a sizable magical explosion. Leaving dozens of bodies scattered over the marsh grounds and there among them was Zos'e who had taken refuge behind a cart after a Skaab had overturned their carriage. As the battle raged on a group of Cathars joined into fray to take care of the now masterless skaabs , if they had just been there a bit earlier the scene would have turned out quite differently. There Zos'e lay among the bodies of the fallen trapped between the dead bodies of people just the other day had spoken of the wonders of Thraben. But she was still alive as she tried utter a noise to make the Cathars notice her. She saw the survivors of the attack gather the fallen and she reached out. Zos'e noticed her parents looking around trying to find their daughter as she tried to move desperately. Nothing. Nothing happened, no noise, no movement as she slowly came to realize that her entire body was paralyzed. She spent hours within the pile of bodies as the mass grave was finished, the bodies and the remains of the fallen was dumped into it. There was no time for a proper burial and the fire would alert other creatures within the swamp. She was dumped into the hole in the ground as the dead piled down upon her. Zos'e looked up to see moon of Innistrad for a few more moments as the soiled ground came down over the holes opening. Darkness. One would think this was the moment where to spark happened as the air slowly began to ran out for the paralyzed girl. But no it was not for it was dark times upon Innistrad and nothing stayed dead for very long. It was not known if it was by the will of a ghoul caller or simply the malign forces on the plane that took hold. But slowly and surely the bodies within the mass grave started moving. The necrotic energy seeping into them as they squirmed and writhed against the poor girl as she was not in panic before thing got truly desperate. Starting to struggle for air and feeling the now undead bodies reach for her. Zos'e tried to cry, tried to scream but nothing as the spark ignited at the very edge of her lifespan. The dark ebony star that sparked from her brow left her now somewhere else. A place of meat and bone that churned with a while stench to the air. Unknown to her at the moment she was now on Grixis after the world became a part of New Alara. She was free to breathe but around her corpses still littered the endless fields of bone and flesh. Calming herself took a while as the now young planeswalker tried again. She had to start moving or else some other foul predator would come along. Had she accidentally crossed over into the realm beyond the Ashmouth? Had Avacyn truly forsaken such a devoted follower such as she to a fate worse than death. Zos'e had to get up, she had to endure. She focused her will to move but her body did not respond. Suddenly one of the corpses started to move and get up. Instinctively she began to panic remembering her moment just an hour ago as the corpse stood up right. It was of some creature she never seen before as it was larger than a man. She gasped within her mind and the thing gasped as well... It was a strangely familiar gasp as well for it was her own. Fear turned into morbid curiosity and excitement as she tried something else. She focused on lifting her arm and so did the ogre like zombie. Carelessly she thought of it moving forward towards her but it only stumbled over the massive ribs sticking out from the flesh like ground and impaled itself on them. “ Right .. Let's try that again “ Zos'e blinked finding it odd to hear her own voice from a rotten windpipe of the large zombie as with trial and error she got it moving as she wanted. Deciding she would have focus and train this ability if she was to survive the hellish domain she had been taken to. This was the beginning of Zos'e Reznik life as a planeswalker as she found out later where she was and the realizing her own power after months of haggling and dealing with some of the overlords within the domain. Her families education served her well in manipulating lesser minds and feigning subservience to the demons that ruled. Finding that she had a special ability that allowed her to make the bodies of the dead extensions of herself. It allowed her to subvert control over most of the living dead which made her a force to be reckoned with within Grixis. Forging flesh suits to keep her vulnerable body safe from physical attacks and to act as her body and some started to believe the girl was gone replaced by a monster. But her stay there would not last as eventually she found out that she was a planeswalker. Trial and error as finally she managed to find herself back home. It had felt like decades being away and looking around she did. Like start till end it always drove her to places of death it seemed as a town was under siege by the dead of a Ghoulcaller. She saved the town by killing the necromancer and taking control of the dead. But the townsfolk called her monster and soon was beset by angels as the resurgance of Avacyns return. Zos'e realized then she had no home here no more. Avacyn had forsaken her and tossed her out as howling rage she planeswalk, never to return till she could find a way to undo the faith. She had no purpose as all she did was to survive and come home. Nothing would embrace her then death and the dead. Then a thought was formed in her head as death had worked bit different from her home and New Alara. There must be other worlds out there and their own ways. Zos'e would seek out that knowledge and shape it. She did not know what it would turn out in the end but now she had a new goal. The girl would embrace the deaths of the multiverse and become their scholar, their storyteller. In the mind of a traumatized teenage girl it sounded lovely. But was it what she really wanted?

#Zos'e Reznik #MTG #Fanwalker #Writing #Monoblack

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planar-echoes · 7 years

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The Guardian, the Witch, and the Angel (Innistrad) By Doug Beyer (3/21/12)

Disarmed. Disheartened. Dying.

The people of Innistrad are in trouble. With its protector, the archangel Avacyn, trapped in the Helvault, the Avacynian Church has no way to fight back. Humanity is dying out. The vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and other monstrosities of the plane have no plans to sustain humanity as their prey—they're playing for keeps. If nothing changes, humanity will lose forever, and Sorin's worst fears of a world without humans will be realized.

The trouble is, Avacyn's whereabouts are all but unknown to humans. She resides within the holy relic of moon-silver, the great Helvault that stands within Thraben Cathedral, but the Church that reveres her has kept her fate a terrible secret.

Today we'll learn how one cathar found herself burdened with a duty that will put her on a collision course with a planeswalker. We'll see how an obsessive mission might jeopardize the battle within that planeswalker's soul. And, as the Avacyn Restored Prerelease approaches, we'll see how you can play a role in Avacyn's release—and help determine the fate of the humans of Innistrad.

Thalia's Rapid Rise

Thalia was one of Gavony's most promising cathars. As a young inquisitor, soldier, and vampire slayer, she proved her worth soon after graduating from the academy at the Elgaud Grounds. She was an excellent swordsperson, besting old vampires of several bloodlines and earning a reputation for cunning on the battlefield, all within months of becoming a cathar. But it was her obstinately caring soul that distinguished her and earned her a place among Thraben's elite ranks.

When she was only a second-year cathar, she attracted the attention of a man called Lothar, the so-called Guardian of Thraben, a revered soldier who led a force of elite protectors in service of the Lunarch. Lothar witnessed Thalia charging into an entire howlpack of Krallenhorde werewolves to rescue a single old man, and was impressed with her selfless valor. The young cathar slashed and fought and risked everything for a single innocent soul, and Lothar made her part of his elite guardians that very day. Soon, she rose to become Lothar's second in command, entrusted to help him defend the High City of Thraben.

As Lothar's trusted right hand, Thalia learned of the Helvault, the great silver obelisk in the Cathedral courtyard. She learned that the Helvault was a protected holy relic of the Avacynian Church, but she was not told the secret: that the missing archangel Avacyn had become imprisoned within it.

The Risks of Release

The role and purpose of the Helvault was known only to the lunarch, Mikaeus, and a few of his most trusted bishops. To make the world safe from demon-kind, the protector Avacyn had used the Helvault to confine those powerful, recurring demons she could not kill. But the Helvault eventually became the angel's undoing. The elder demon Griselbrand challenged Avacyn to a duel, landing boldly and heretically on the Helvault itself, right in the center of the Thraben Cathedral courtyard. Angel and demon fought as the Lunarch and his highest officials looked on, their titanic battle raging for days. Eventually, Avacyn gathered up her remaining strength and summoned the binding spell to drive Griselbrand into the silver prison once and for all. Griselbrand tricked Avacyn, though, stabbing her through the heart with his spear and causing her binding spell to backlash. Both the devious demon lord and the wounded angel fell into the Helvault, plunging Innistrad into a time of darkness.

With Avacyn gone, the power of holy magic dwindled. As Thalia herself had witnessed firsthand, in Avacyn's absence, the evils of the world rose to attack humankind.

Mikaeus struggled with what to do about Avacyn's entrapment. Should he work on magic that could sunder the silver skin of the Helvault, potentially freeing Avacyn? The Helvault contained the world's savior, but it also contained Griselbrand and the ranks and ranks of unimaginable horrors that Avacyn had trapped over the years. Shattering the Helvault would free Avacyn, but release all those demons back into the world, as well.

Worse than that, Avacyn's heart was pierced through as she fell into the silver prison. Inside the timeless interior of the Helvaultthe artifact's magic bound her in a kind of stasis, keeping her alive when otherwise she would die from her wound. If Mikaeus found a way to break open the Helvault, he might complete Griselbrand's treachery and let Avacyn be destroyed forever.

The decision was made, and the nature of the giant silver shard was kept quiet. Mikaeus didn't even inform his captain of the guard, Lothar, that the Angel of Hope dwelt within the holy obelisk—he only told Lothar to protect it with his life.

Lothar taught Thalia of this duty in turn. She never understood what lay within—she only knew that the Helvault must be protected from the claws of evil at all costs. Thalia took the same oath that Lothar swore: that under pain of death, she would never allow the Helvault to come to harm.

Then came the hordes of death.

The Siege of Thraben

Geralf and Gisa, that sibling team of zombie masters, unleashed their life's greatest achievement: a vast horde of necromantic ghouls and necro-alchemical skaabs. They besieged the city of Thraben with their ghoulish army, each hoping to outdo the other in their mad sibling rivalry, sending waves of unhallowed creatures at the holy city. Scores of civilians and cathars fell in Thraben's defense. Ultimately, Thalia hatched a plan, gathering the straw from thatched roofs around Thraben to create a trap for the undead hordes. She outwitted the ghouls and skaabs, burning them to ash in a great circle of fire before they could penetrate Thraben Cathedral's inner sanctum.

But she wasn't able to save the life of her beloved superior. Tormented by strange, evil voices during the battle, Lothar plunged off one of Thraben's high walls to his death.

The Lunarch Mikaeus would have been the one to promote Thalia, to bestow her with the title of Guardian of Thraben. But the Lunarch, too, was killed in Gisa and Geralf's assault. The death of the Lunarch would have been grim news to the four provinces, and yet another blow to the perception of the Church's efficacy. So Mikaeus was entombed in secret, whisked away to the clandestine catacombs beneath the cathedral.

And buried with Mikaeus was the secret of Avacyn's imprisonment within the Helvault.

Thalia took charge of the elite guardians of Thraben, becoming the Guardian of Thraben in her predecessor's stead. She became the one human being who bore the duty of keeping the Helvault safe—and, unbeknownst to her, of keeping Avacyn sealed within the Helvault. She might even have been able to crack the Helvault herself, if she had the knowledge and inclination to do so. She might even have been the one with enough courage to face the demonic creatures it might unleash. But she had made a promise to her old friend Lothar—and to the Lunarch. She kept the Helvault, and her promise, intact.

Her protection did not last long.

Deathmage on a Mission

We turn now to another woman who will play a role in Innistrad's closing chapter: Liliana Vess, whose quest has led her to Innistrad.

Long ago, Liliana promised her soul to four powerful demons in exchange for everlasting youth and an extraordinary command over death magic. But although she enjoys the benefits of that dark deal, Liliana isn't one to pay her debts fair and square. Believing that slaying those demons will free her from her soul-debt, she's been on a mission of destruction across many planes.

She has already killed Kothophed, the first of the four demons who claim her soul. But that has not brought her peace. She still sees the marks that glow on her body when she uses magic, the runic terms of her contract that are inscribed directly on her skin. And the dark power of the artifact she holds, the Chain Veil, tempts her with ever-greater power the more she uses it. She hopes that killing the next on her list will improve her lot.

She knows the demon Griselbrand resides somewhere on the plane of Innistrad. And her search is nearing its end. By intimidation, persuasion, and outright threat of death, she has gathered the clues she needed to make her way to her destination.

In the province of Stensia she snuffed out devils while searching for information around the sulfurous Ashmouth. She eventually made her way to a minor demon, but the demon only taunted her and laughed at her attempts at intimidation. But she got what she wanted when the demon bragged of human worship. Liliana had a new lead to pursue.

She made her way from Stensia to the province of Nephalia, where she dug up gossip about demon worshippers in the towns of Havengul and Selhoff. Her inquiries got her to a name and a place: the Skirsdag cult and the city of Thraben.

But Liliana has another factor to deal with: the planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker, whom she cursed at their last meeting with the dreaded Chain Veil. Even as she is on Griselbrand's trail, Garruk is on hers, and the affliction with black mana has only made the massive beast-hunter all the more relentless.

Thus far, Griselbrand has proved to be frustratingly shy. Liliana must make her way to Thraben and find out more about the Skirsdag cult, in hopes that someone will know the demon's whereabouts. In the meantime, she is beginning to feel doubts about the wisdom of using the Chain Veil to further her death magic. Its insistence has been growing—alarmingly so. But she's not sure she will be able to defeat Garruk without the artifact's power, and the cursed beast-mage pursues her tirelessly. She'll need to evade him as best she can, or outthink him if she can't—and all for the privilege of facing Griselbrand, Innistrad's epitome of evil power.

Collision in the Cathedral

These two single-minded women will soon encounter one another. Thalia, the woman sworn to protect Thraben, who would never allow harm to come to the holy Helvault relic at her city's heart, will face Liliana, the woman determined to hunt Griselbrand, who would never allow one plane-bound soldier to stand in the way of her ambitions. And as they clash, the fate of Avacyn will be uncovered.

#magic the gathering #vorthos #innistrad #liliana #vess #thalia #thraeben

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