Your fight is not yet done, Lore Seekers! Last week we took a look into the history of Elspeth Tirel, who has just become our first angel planeswalker! Today we're going to look at the deep lore surrounding that transformation, including the goddess herself, Serra. It's hard to believe that it's been five years since I wrote about Serra in The Song of Serra, but I'll be picking up some of the threads from that here in how Elspeth echoes Serra's story. Let's dive in!

The Echo of Serra

Serra the Benevolent by Magali Villeneuve

Okay, but what about that Serra reveal, though? I covered the history of Serra (the person) in The Song of Serra. But that was before Dominaria (2018). There's too much to dive into here, so make sure to read that if you don't have a solid background about Serra. Now, let's talk about Serra's impact on the multiverse and the faith that has sprung up around her. While we know explicitly about three planes where Serra's influence extends, there's a strong likelihood that the angels of Serra's Realm touched many planes.

On Dominaria, the Church of Serra has become one of the major faiths, in large part due to the valor of Serra Angels during the Phyrexian Invasion. In fact, the Serran faith went from being outlawed in Benalia before the Invasion, to becoming the state religion in the present day. Benalia has since expanded to encompass Sursi as well, the site of Serra's death, where in her dying breath she bestowed an enchantment upon the land that continues to birth new Serra Angels.

On Ulgrotha, the Serrans have fared poorer. A sort-of cold war developed between Sengir, the Dark Baron and Serra during her time there, with the people of Aysen taking up worship of Serra and defending themselves with righteousness. The card set Homelands takes place 20 years after Serra's death, and while Aysen is still going strong, by the novel Future Sight all we see of the plane is Sengir's army.

Recently, we've learned that on New Capenna, Elspeth's group had once worshiped Serra as well, although Serra's name was forbidden for them to speak.

The Nature of Angels

Homelands #1 panel by Rebecca Guay

Overall, throughout the multiverse angels are incarnations of White mana. Like many creature types, what exactly that means varies from plane to plane, but in general it means they're more akin to other beings made of mana, like elementals, than living beings, and typically don't have souls. Since a planeswalker spark is an imprint of the Blind Eternities on the soul, the lack of a soul means a being can't become a planeswalker.

However, in the earliest days of Magic, it was established that Serra created her angels from the souls of fallen warriors (see the above panel). It's a bit of an obscure piece of lore, so in The Brothers' War, the Platinum Angel reprint made sure to reference this fact:

It's worth noting that Bant's angels are created through similar means. While I'm not going to go into detail about them here. You can read the relevant passage from the Planeswalker's Guide to Alara in my twitter thread if you're interested in more details.

Theoretically, both Serra and Bant's enchantments could have generated an angel planeswalker, although such a thing would have been astronomically more rare than a regular planeswalker. A being would need both a planeswalker spark, and the exact right conditions to be transformed in death without losing their spark.

Of course, in New Capenna we are introduced to a kind of angel. From the start, Giada, Font of Hope appears in every way a normal human girl... except for her ability to produce halo, the angelic essence intrinsic to New Capenna's kind of angels. During a pivotal scene, both she and Elspeth glow in a way that matches the other angels, just less intensely. More on that in a minute.

The Serra's Realm Powerstone

Skyship Weatherlight by Kev Walker

When Serra's Realm collapsed a millennia ago, as depicted in Planar Collapse, Urza trapped the power Serra had poured into her realm in a powerstone. It became the heart of his masterpiece, the Skyship Weatherlight. When Urza's Legacy Weapon killed Yawgmoth and ended the original Phyrexian Invasion, the Weatherlight was destroyed and sunk beneath the ocean.

Centuries later, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain would unearth the still-intact framework of the Weatherlight. Inside, the powerstone remained untouched, but dormant. In Return to Dominaria Episode 3, it took the prayer of a Serra Angel, Tiana, Ship's Caretaker, to coax it back to life. Almost like it had an intelligence remaining inside it, lying dormant, waiting to be awoken.

Years later, in the Dominaria United story Shards of Nightmare, the powerstone is the only thing staving off complete Phyrexian corruption of the Weatherlight. Unfortunately, so much of the ship was lost that they had to remove it and escape:

The same powerstone becomes part of a pivotal confrontation between Teferi and a compleated Ajani during The Brothers' War trailer. It's an easy thing to miss - they don't mention it by name, but when Teferi puts it into The Temporal Anchor, it's clear which powerstone it is.

The Temporal Anchor is full of fun easter eggs, which include an orb recovered by Teferi in Return to Dominaria Episode 6, the Moonsilver Key, an updated version of Tawnos's Coffin, and... the Weatherlight's powerstone. From The Brothers' War Chapter 1: Stronghold:

We later learn that the powerstone imploded, resulting in Teferi being Desynchronized in time during The Brothers' War Chapter 5: Exodus:

All that power - the power of an entire plane, so strong even an oldwalker (a planeswalker before the mending with god-like abilities) like Urza couldn't replicate it - had to go somewhere, right? It's also interesting that the powerstone caused the Anchor to malfunction in exactly the right way to shunt Teferi back to Zhalfir.

Elspeth's Ascension

Archangel Elspeth by Denys Tsiperko

The being Elspeth meets is not the real Serra, who is long since dead. It is more akin to Soul of Windgrace, an avatar or echo of power an oldwalker left behind. Elspeth meets her on the verge of death, and the echo of Serra acts a guide through her angelic transformation.

So, what does this mean for Elspeth. Is she a Serra Angel, born from the energy that remains from the once heavenly plane? Is she a New Capennan angel, simply waiting for the moment her true powers reveal herself? Well, she's probably a bit of both, and more. She has the light-based wings of the other New Capennan angels, but lacks the stained glass design, instead imitating more traditional angelic wings.

The whole sequence is deliberately open to some interpretation. It's a nod to the thirty years of lore that built to this moment, a passing of the torch from Serra to Elspeth as Elspeth grows beyond what Serra was. And the story where it happens, Episode 6: The Last to Leave, is easily one of the best single web fiction stories in Magic Story.

Deep Lore FAQ

I've also clarified a number of issues on my Twitter Thread FAQ. It's easy to get lost with a story like this, so I answered the big points here to hopefully stem some theories based on more poetic langues. In any case, that's it for Elspeth from me for now - March of the Machine has so much lore to it, I'm going to be talking about this set for months, so keep joining me!