As you walk the familiar path to Issar Roon`s door your mind wanders to thoughts about the passageways near his study.  You wonder why the halls and corridors in this section of the monastery remain so well kept while corridors like the one outside your small room have become wet, dirty, and dark.  These passageways see much less use, but why do the sconces remain bright or the roofs not leak?  It is a strange mystery, and one you have no answer for.

Forgetting the questions forming in your mind, you open the oak door to the old man`s study.

Hello again.  Thank you for the rejuvenating walk during your last visit.  It helped my research greatly, and I have returned to following the trail of my quarry.  Perhaps I could share some of the background with you.

The old man gestures to your usual spot on the rug, and turns away from his books.

Do you remember Phyrexia?  That plane has played a very significant role in the events of the Multiverse over the past three or four millennia.  Understanding Phyrexia is a large step toward defeating it, and helping the Multiverse as a whole.  Oh yes…Phyrexia still exists, if in a different form than the layered plane I taught you of.  More important than the force itself, we must understand how Phyrexia was created.  To do that, we must delve into the history of a man named Yawgmoth.

The physical creation of the plane is lost, taken by the currents of time, but Phyrexia did not exist until Yawgmoth arrived.  The plane was devoid of purpose when Yawgmoth found it, and he bent it to his desires.  But I`m getting ahead of myself again.  Yawgmoth did not create the plane of Phyrexia, nor was he born there, nor was he a planeswalker; he started as a simple eugenicist.

The old man notices your look of confusion, and gives you more detail before continuing his story.

Eugenicists are interested in the enhancement or improvement of the human race.  They have been found on many worlds across the Multiverse, but were especially prominent during Yawgmoth’s early years on Dominaria.

Yawgmoth was born during the fading years of the Thran Empire.  It was an era of conflict between the elite Imperialists and a group known as the Republicans.  Being born to a common family and having no foothold in the elitist parts of society, Yawgmoth’s allegiance lay with the Republicans as he grew older.  More specifically, he found a home among the eugenicists of the Republicans, a group he shared many common beliefs with.

After Yawgmoth had grown to adulthood the power struggle came to an abrupt end, and all Republicans were exiled from the Thran Empire.  Instead of foundering and wasting away in foreign lands like many of his compatriots, Yawgmoth seized this chance to learn more.  Beyond the borders of Thran civilization Yawgmoth was free of its rules and customs, allowing him to follow his twisted eugenic beliefs.

During these years of his life Yawgmoth committed many unspeakable acts, bringing multiple civilizations across Dominaria to ruins.  He traveled from one culture to the next, each time stopping only long enough to set lose a disease or plague and study its effects.  Many called him mad, cruel, or insane.  Yawgmoth never denied these accusations, but merely continued to study each new experiment.

You begin to see a connection between the man named Yawgmoth and the force of Phyrexia.  You give the old man silent praise for creating such a truly evil enemy in his stories.

Oddly enough, Yawgmoth’s actions went unnoticed by the Thran.  Little communication took place between the civilizations of Dominaria at that time, and very few of them even knew at first it was he who had unleashed the atrocities upon them.  These advantageous facts allowed Yawgmoth to return to Thran after many years of exile.

The Thran’s chief artificer Glacian had been stricken with a growing ailment among the population.  Knowing of Yawgmoth’s skills and interests in eugenics during the Republican uprising, Glacian’s wife Rebbec called for his return in hopes of saving her husband.  Yawgmoth immediately set to studying the disease among the working class of the Thran capital Halcyon.  Finding that the disease degraded one’s faculties, he named it phthisis.  The word literally meant “continual degradation” in the Thran language, but you already knew that.

The old man says the last line with a grin on his face, and a wink.  As you look closer at the old man his expression hardens to his usual scowl, and you wonder if it was all just your imagination.

During his studies of phthisis, the idea of Phyrexia began to grow within Yawgmoth’s mind.  When he accidentally interrupted a meeting of Glacian’s, the idea became reality.

Glacian had been visited by a planeswalker named Dyfed, interested in meeting the genius artificer.  After the meeting Yawgmoth talked to Dyfed, and convinced her to help him find a “paradise” within the Multiverse, one within which he could study his experiments freely.  Shortly after their first meeting Dyfed took Yawgmoth to a new world, one empty of life and ready to be built by Yawgmoth’s hand.  Yawgmoth had his wish, and quickly set to twisting the empty world into his “paradise.”

The old man stirs from his story and looks directly at you.

That is all for today.  There is much more to tell, but I do not have the time.  I will gladly continue my tale of The Ineffable upon your next visit.  Goodbye.

With a wave of his hand, the old man turns back to his books and begins flipping through a faded brown volume.  Knowing there is no more to hear this day, you make your way to the door and quietly close it behind you.  You walk back the way you had come, toward the dank and dungy halls that connect to your sleeping room.

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.