Characters: Urza Planeswalker
A long time ago, I thought about describing here in a handful of posts some of the characters in movies, literature or games (yes, games have often excellent storylines with the most interesting characters). Think it is a good time to get it started. And I'll start by Urza Planeswalker, the main character of the longest and best story arc in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering.
Urza's story can be followed across several books. What makes Urza so interesting and complex to me is the way he spent his near-immortal life fighting against evil in his own and unortodox way - often in the edge of madness. Urza's mortal life ended when, to finish the war against his own brother, Mishra, he poured his memories and emotions into a strange bowl-shaped artifact called "the golgothian sylex" - and as he did this, he wiped out the land of Argoth from the map, sank the world into an ice age and locked the plane of Dominaria away from the rest of the Multiverse. As a consequence of the sylex blast, Urza also became a greater being, a planeswalker - an immortal, god-like creature capable of walking the planes at will, with the Mightstone and the Weakstone that set both brothers apart lodged into his eyes. He then understood the evil of Phyrexia, an artificial plane where the evil Yawgmoth created an army of darkness by meshing flesh and artifice. Urza then decided to dedicate his power and his immortal life to decimate Phyrexia. And for four millenia, that was his single purpose - to destroy the phyrexians and avenge his brother. Along his way, he has been into several places, all of them marked by the destruction that always followed in his wake. Serra's realm, an artificial plane of pure, white mana, collapsed under a Phyrexian invasion. The island academy of Tolaria was blasted away by an experiment with the time flow. And eventually the whole Dominaria was invaded by Yawgmoth's minions. Along his way, Urza made several friends, and all of those met the same fate than the places touched by the planeswalker. Xantcha, the phyrexian sleeper agent, sacrificed herself to save Urza from the demon Gix. Barrin, the master mage that was Urza's most trusted lieutenant, blasted himself with a powerful spell that wiped the whole of Tolaria when the planeswalker abandoned it during the Invasion. And his greatest creation - Gerrard - was ultimately the own who killed Urza, in order to unleash the power of the Legacy into the skyship Weatherlight to destroy Yawgmoth. It is said that, when Gerrard was about to kill the planeswalker, Urza's face was peaceful - peaceful for the first time in more than four thousand years.
And as Urza died, one can't help going back to another moment of his life, when after blasting Argoth away with the golgothian sylex, Urza met his former apprentice, Tawnos, in the desolate shores of Yotia. The Urza told Tawnos to tell Kayla, his former wife who he neglected entirely, "to remember me not as I was, but as I tried to be". And that sentence alone defines his whole life. Urza was never what he truly was. His whole life was a sequence of attempts and failures, of never giving up, until he found piece at last when everything was lost for him. When he was himself, again.
Urza's story can be followed across several books. What makes Urza so interesting and complex to me is the way he spent his near-immortal life fighting against evil in his own and unortodox way - often in the edge of madness. Urza's mortal life ended when, to finish the war against his own brother, Mishra, he poured his memories and emotions into a strange bowl-shaped artifact called "the golgothian sylex" - and as he did this, he wiped out the land of Argoth from the map, sank the world into an ice age and locked the plane of Dominaria away from the rest of the Multiverse. As a consequence of the sylex blast, Urza also became a greater being, a planeswalker - an immortal, god-like creature capable of walking the planes at will, with the Mightstone and the Weakstone that set both brothers apart lodged into his eyes. He then understood the evil of Phyrexia, an artificial plane where the evil Yawgmoth created an army of darkness by meshing flesh and artifice. Urza then decided to dedicate his power and his immortal life to decimate Phyrexia. And for four millenia, that was his single purpose - to destroy the phyrexians and avenge his brother. Along his way, he has been into several places, all of them marked by the destruction that always followed in his wake. Serra's realm, an artificial plane of pure, white mana, collapsed under a Phyrexian invasion. The island academy of Tolaria was blasted away by an experiment with the time flow. And eventually the whole Dominaria was invaded by Yawgmoth's minions. Along his way, Urza made several friends, and all of those met the same fate than the places touched by the planeswalker. Xantcha, the phyrexian sleeper agent, sacrificed herself to save Urza from the demon Gix. Barrin, the master mage that was Urza's most trusted lieutenant, blasted himself with a powerful spell that wiped the whole of Tolaria when the planeswalker abandoned it during the Invasion. And his greatest creation - Gerrard - was ultimately the own who killed Urza, in order to unleash the power of the Legacy into the skyship Weatherlight to destroy Yawgmoth. It is said that, when Gerrard was about to kill the planeswalker, Urza's face was peaceful - peaceful for the first time in more than four thousand years.
And as Urza died, one can't help going back to another moment of his life, when after blasting Argoth away with the golgothian sylex, Urza met his former apprentice, Tawnos, in the desolate shores of Yotia. The Urza told Tawnos to tell Kayla, his former wife who he neglected entirely, "to remember me not as I was, but as I tried to be". And that sentence alone defines his whole life. Urza was never what he truly was. His whole life was a sequence of attempts and failures, of never giving up, until he found piece at last when everything was lost for him. When he was himself, again.
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