As you walk past the open arches along the corridor you cast a glance outside.  A thin, white blanket over the grounds signals the first snowfall of the season.  You wish it could stay, but the rising sun looks strong and determined to wipe it away.

You have never visited the old man this early in the day before, but your only responsibilities of the day have been delayed by the snow and cold.  Hopefully he will be willing to tell you another story.  Just before your hand pushes his study door open, you realize that the old man may not even be awake at this matinal hour.

My, you are here early today.  Avoiding your duties are you?

Your hesitance at the last-minute seems to have been unnecessary.  You wonder if the old man known as Issar Roon ever sleeps.

I see.  Well, I suppose I could delay my work along with everyone else and tell you a tale.  I daren’t keep you too long.  I believe it would be appropriate to continue my previous storyline, at least in an abstract sense.  Today shall be a tale of Teferi, a Jamuraan planeswalker.

You remember the old man mentioning that name in his previous story.  There was a hint of something unique about the planeswalker.  You decide it is worth your time to listen and make yourself comfortable on the floor.

Teferi at a young age was a bit like you, troublesome, meddlesome and a burden on his teachers.  He was also a prankster, and constantly taunted other students.  Ah, but I’m forgetting an important detail already.  The reason why the young Teferi had teachers and peers was thanks to Urza.  When Urza found Teferi during his travels in Jamuraa he met a young mage filled with great potential.  Almost immediately Urza invited him to the Tolarian Academy, Urza’s school built with the purpose of training those who would defend Dominaria from a Phyrexian invasion.

It was at the Tolarian Academy that Teferi met Jhoira and Karn, among others.  They befriended him despite his pranks and provocation, and became his first true friends.  They learned together and trained together, becoming some of the greatest successes the Tolarian Academy had seen.  When the Academy was attacked by Phyrexians, it was Karn who traveled back in time to save Teferi and Jhoira with the help of Urza.

Saved from death, the two students faced a new source of trouble when the time machine Karn was using blew and ripped the island of Tolaria into various time bubbles.  Teferi became trapped within a slow-time bubble, unaware of the years that passed on the rest of Dominaria.  Over a decade later, Jhoira created a way of saving her friend, and Teferi was brought back to Dominaria’s main time stream.  The experience held no lasting negative effects on the Jamuraan mage, but it cemented the three peers as life-long friends.

As the decades passed Teferi helped to rebuild the Academy, prepare for the future Phyrexian invasion, and joined in some of Urza’s other plans.  He went to Shiv with Jhoira to work on the Thran Mana Rig, and there they grew closer than simply friends.  He also helped to defend the Academy from a second Phyrexian attack.  Yet, as time passed, Teferi grew weary of the constant drive of preparing for the Phyrexians.  While he believed the danger to be very real, he desired a life beyond anticipation and training.  Eventually, Teferi returned home to Jamuraa.

The old man lets a note of bitterness seep into his last few words.  You are unsure of the cause, but are able to determine the bitterness is directed at someone other than Teferi.

No one is quite sure when Teferi finally ascended, not even Teferi himself.  Urza has been recorded in history to have said it was after Teferi returned home, but that is all we know.  Teferi holds a unique place in planeswalker history as one of the few that lack a significant event or trauma to have caused their ascension.  Though he knew not when he ascended, Teferi did eventually notice a change in his magic and abilities.  Thus, he created the guilds of Zhalfir to watch over his homeland, and left to walk the planes of the Multiverse.

When Teferi returned from his travels, he found his homeland divided and on the brink of war.  A splinter of Zhalfir had become Femeref, and Suq’Ata had infringed upon borders in the name of gold.  Teferi, disturbed by the squabbling, trained a new leader for the people Zhalfir, and then left once again.  The ruler, crowned Queen Yormeba, brought peace to the land, but was unable to achieve Teferi’s goal of unification.  It wasn’t until Mangara’s Harmony that the disparate lands grew with one another.

As for Teferi, he made for a hidden island among the Chaza Isles to the west.  There, he began to research and experiment with his ideas and theories on time.  Years passed and Teferi achieved some minor successes.  While his theories were sound and could be proven, actual implementation involved unstable elements that could cause irreparable damage a thousand-fold the possible good they might bring.  In fact, troubles were already revealing themselves across the island from his minor experiments, and Teferi was forced to rectify his mistakes.  With a gigantic blast of mana everything on the island disappeared.

Three wizards came to investigate the discharge of so much energy; Jolrael, a Zhalfirin mage concerned for Teferi’s safety, Mangara of Corondor, a mage intrigued by the strange event, and Kaervek, an ambitious mage from Urborg in search of his own kingdom to rule.  All they could find was the rock that made the isle.

The old man cuts his story off with the last line.

And that is where I shall leave you for today.  I believe it is time you get to your responsibilities.  Harbor no sadness for I will finish my tale in the near future.

Knowing the old man is right about your duties, you make your leave.  Before you exit the study you have already begun searching your mind for the next available moment when you can return for the rest of Teferi’s story.

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.