On your way to Issar Roon`s study, you walk down a silent stone corridor.  Barren of everything but torches and faded rugs, its utility is obvious and reminds you of your own drab quarters.  Determined to distract yourself from these thoughts, you peer into the libraries and unused rooms you pass.  One room is filled with tables, each a different size and height.  Another is draped in darkness but for a single candle burning at the back of the room.  You slip past a library containing what looks to be the same large volume on each shelf.  A fourth room has multiple wood tables and chairs, but it is the central desk that grabs your eye.

Abandoning your current direction, you enter the empty chamber.  Walking directly to the desk, you scan the room for signs of a presence other than your own.  On the walls hang two magnificent portraits of aged men who could have been wizards of great power on another world.  A few shelves hold books, but this place is far removed from the clutter of a room like Issar Roon’s.  A few candles interspersed around the room are strategically positioned to light everything there.  Seeing nothing out of place other than the book, you finally aim your gaze upon the lone object.

Open, it is impossible to read the cover, but the visible edges send a shiver down your arms.  A glistening black, the edges look as though they could spread across the desk at any moment.  Ignoring the dread that emanates from the cover as best as you can, you stare at the pages.  A large title heads the open page, followed by tiny text.

Phyresis

"Phyresis is called many things by the races of the Multiverse;  plague, disease, scourge, infection, death, blight, sin, and even cure.  The only fact they can all agree on is that once afflicted, a being will never be the same."

"Phyresis comes from the language of the ancient Thran, meaning ‘continual progression,’ and it is with the Thran that Phyresis’ origins lie.  Phthisis, better known as `continual degradation` in the Thran language, was a disease that slowly grew as the Thran Empire did.  Afflicting many of the working class, Phthisis was caused by the very source of the empire`s strength, powerstones.  When unrest appeared and the leader Glacian became infected, the Thran took action to cure Phthisis.  A humble healer of the Thran named Yawgmoth was called.  Interested in all things medical, he set himself the mission of understanding the dangerous disease that threatened the grand empire of the Thran."

"Over the course of several years and through much political turmoil Yawgmoth found a cure for Phthisis, but he did not stop at such a simple task.  Interested in how Phthisis destroyed the body, Yawgmoth began to use his newly acquired power for his own selfish goals.  He studied those afflicted with Phthisis, and learned how the disease lived and acted.  Then, he reversed the process, modifying normal Thran with what he called `improvements.`  Thus, Phyresis was born."

Engrossed, you are disappointed to see the page end with the final sentence.  Frightened by the gleaming black cover, you are hesitant to go near the book, but are unable to stop reading.  You take a moment to calm yourself as best you can, then flip the page.

“At first, Yawgmoth was afraid of others discovering his research and goals.  He hid them within the Caves of the Damned away from the prying eyes of the Thran elite.  Eventually, he was able to move his plans to a new plane with the help of a planeswalker called Dyfed.  It was there that he truly began experimenting with Phyresis, and it was there that his power grew.  This place of experimentation and power was named by Yawgmoth himself, named after the `cure` he strove toward.  It was called Phyrexia.

It was on Phyrexia that Phyresis mutated into what we know it as today.  It started simply as experiments by Yawgmoth with the goal of `improving` the Thran.  Over time, Yawgmoth was able to produce `beings` - or something that might pass as a being from some strange plane - that could carry out his goal without direction or orders.  These `beings` were what enabled Phyrexia to populate itself with newts and creatures so quickly.  In time, Yawgmoth was able to refine Phyresis until it was able to corrupt and turn almost anything.  What it couldn’t subvert, it destroyed utterly.”

The explanation seems to have ended here originally, but you find a handwritten note continuing the topic.

“Even though Yawgmoth was destroyed at the climax of the Phyrexian Invasion, his creation lived on.  Phyrexia, the plane, was utterly obliterated preventing any further invasions, but not all of Phyrexia’s culture was taken with it.  Unknown to all, Phyresis itself survived and traveled to the plane of Argentum in the form of an oil.  There, it corrupted the guardian Memnarch, and began to once again propagate.

Today, Phyresis once again threatens the Multiverse.  It is slowly taking over and converting Mirrodin for its own purposes.  Few of the inhabitants have yet to realize their plane’s dire situation, but not all is lost.  A small group who still remember the Multiverse from before the Mending have allied themselves in search for the only one who can save us.  If those who fight darkness cannot stop this disease then the Multiverse may feel the shadow of Phyrexia upon it once again.”

You begin to understand why the old man talks of Phyrexia with such hate and fear in his voice.  Phyresis is almost unimaginable within your own world.  Trying to calm yourself once again, you remind yourself that it is unimaginable.  No such thing could possibly exist on Earth.

Even as you repeat the warm thought in your head, you refuse to touch the book again to restore the pages to the way you found them.  Silently, you back out of the room, almost as if the book itself might attack.  Beyond the threshold you make haste toward the small sanctuary of your quarters.

This is a work of fiction based on the stories and entries provided by Wizards about some of the early characters. The author takes some liberty with the story for dramatic purposes. So the story portrayed here may not be the exact story according to Magic Canon. The author has found references and art to use in the following locations: Encyclopedia Phyrexianna and the MTG Salvation Wiki. Written by Brendan Weiskotten.