Welcome back, Lore Seekers! We're about to journey to the center of Ixalan, but before we do I figured it was time for another Preparing for... article! Ixalan is a fairly recently plane, although it's been six years since we were first there, it may not be a place everyone knows much about. So let's dive in!

The World of Ixalan

Ixalan Map by Jared Blando

• Planeswalker's Guide to Ixalan, Part 1
• Planeswalker's Guide to Ixalan, Part 2
• The Art of Magic: the Gathering - Ixalan
• Jace, Alone
• A Question of Confidence
• The Talented Captain Vraska
• The Shapers
• Something Else Entirely
• The Race, Part 1
• The Race, Part 2
• The Flood
• Glimpse the Far Side of the Sun
• The Arbiter of Law Left Chaos in His Wake
• Sabotage
• Who Tells the Stories
• Wool Over the Eyes
• Conqueror's Galleon Flash Fiction
• Captivating Crew Flash Fiction
• Unbowed, Part 1
• Unbowed, Part 2
• Unbowed, Part 3
• MOM | Ixalan: Three Hundred Steps Under the Sun

The original Ixalan introduced us to a world where four factions were in conflict for the continent of Ixalan, which shares a name with the plane. The continent of Ixalan is the last known region of the plane unconquered by the Legion of Dusk, the vampiric conquistadors who have subjugated Torrezon, their home continent. The central conflict stems around The Immortal Sun, an ancient artifact hidden on Ixalan centuries ago, and one that all four factions believe they have a claim to. The Immortal Sun has untold power, and also prevents planeswalkers from leaving the plane. Turns out, The Immortal Sun was part of a plan devised by Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Azor, the Lawbringer to imprison Nicol Bolas on the plane, but the plan went sideways and Azor became stuck, sparkless - because he used his spark to create The Immortal Sun.

The original story follows Jace, Cunning Castaway who finds himself stranded on Ixalan, unable to planeswalk away, and without his memories. He is rescued by Vraska, Relic Seeker, the captain of a pirate ship that includes Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator and Breeches, Brazen Plunderer. Vraska doesn't reveal their previous animosity to the amnesiac Jace, and without the weight of their history, the two fall in love on their journey. Vraska is after The Immortal Sun, having been hired by Bolas, but as the race to find it heats up, Jace's memories return and they come up with a plan to trick Bolas. It goes poorly, but that's not part of this story.

If you want a more detailed story summary, some of my earliest articles for CoolStuffInc were about Ixalan, so check out Recapping Ixalan and Recapping Rivals of Ixalan.

With that, let's dive into the other factions and their stories!

The Legion of Dusk

Call to the Feast by Yongjae Choe

A millennia ago, Azor decided to entrust The Immortal Sun to a small monastery in what was then the country of Torrezon. When a war was fought over it, Azor reappeared and took The Immortal Sun to the continent of Ixalan. A warrior monk named [Elenda, the Dusk Rose] followed, and centuries later she returned as a vampire, bringing this dark gift to her former people and ending a civil war. Centuries later she left again to find The Immortal Sun, and in her absence Torrezon became the center of the Dusk Legion, an empire that spread across their entire continent before launching an expedition across the sea to claim Ixalan as well.

The Dusk Legion has two pillars, a monarchy and nobility ruled by Queen Miralda, and the Church of Dusk, led by a pontifex. The entire aristocracy of Ixalan are vampires, as are the clerics of the church. The tenants of the church express that blood is holy, and place restrictions as to who can be fed on, but in practice many vampires simply go through the motions in order to get away with whatever they want. When the Dusk Legion finally made it to Orazca, the golden city, Elenda emerged from a centuries-long stasis to be horrified at what her people had become, and she departed along with a most of the Legion to set things right in Torrezon.

The Brazen Coalition

Admiral's Orders by Slawomir Maniak

The Brazen Coalition come from a hodge podge of seafaring civilizations driven out of Torrezon by the Legion of Dusk. When they arrived in Ixalan, they were rebuffed by the Sun Empire on the mainland and were forced to seek shelter on the outlying islands. While native to Ixalan, many goblins joined these pirate crews. Eventually, these seafarers turned to piracy to survive, and were eventually unified into a loose coalition by Admiral Beckett Brass.

The Sun Empire

Rivals of Ixalan Key Art by Chris Rallis

When Azor arrived with The Immortal Sun after taking it from Torrezon, he brought it to the Sun Empire. The emperor at the time used its power foolishly, and their capital city of Orazca was sealed away. Emperor Apatzec Intli III sought to reclaim the empire's lost glory, and dispatched Huatli, Warrior Poet to track down the lost city and The Immortal Sun before the Dusk Legion did. Although they failed to reclaim the Immortal Sun, they did succeed in reclaiming Orazca, and even prepared to launch a counter-offensive to Torrezon.

The Sun Empire worships the Threefold Sun, that is the power of the sun in its creative, nurturing, and destructive aspects. They believe the dinosaurs native to the continent are aspects of the sun, and they have magic that allows them to call to and help control dinosaurs (although the control effect is not dominating). Dinosaurs are used as both mounts and beasts of burden by the Sun Empire, and their cities are designed around them.

The River Heralds

River Augur by Alayna Danner

When the Sun Empire also proved untrustworthy of the power of The Immortal Sun, Azor turned to the River Heralds. Rather than take the power for themselves, the Heralds sealed away the city and erased all knowledge of its whereabouts - even from themselves.

The River Heralds are a culture of nomadic merfolk bands, each band is led by a Shaper, and each is named after one of the nine tributaries of Ixalan's rivers. The Shapers have the ability to literally shape nature to their will, but use this ability only to defend themselves and usually just leave the jungles and rivers undisturbed by their movements.

Lost Caverns of Ixalan

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Key Art by Anna Podedworna

Magic Story returns on October 20th with the story of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. The Phyrexian Invasion has uncovered ancient secrets, including paths deep into Ixalan leading to a secret world at its core. Venturing down there are new planeswalker Quintorius, Loremaster and former planeswalker Hualti, Poet of Unity. While MagicCon Vegas revealed a number of other details about the set, I'm not going to get into them very much here, other than to say there's a lot of cool stuff brewing deep beneath the surface!