Magic: The Gathering – Who Is Elesh Norn?

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• Creation And Rise

• Encounter With Ashiok

• Leading The Invasion

The leader of New Phyrexia and the self-proclaimed Mother Of Machines, Elesh Norn is the main villain of the Phyrexian Invasion arc of Magic: The Gathering. Created on the Plane of Mirrodin, she and her fellow Phyrexians transformed the Plane into New Phyrexia.

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Elesh Norn leads all of New Phyrexia in a quest to take over the Multiverse and convert everyone into Phyrexians. She wants all to be one, and those who refuse are better off dead. She is the white Praetor, one of the five main Phyrexians that lead the five factions of New Phyrexia — one for each color of mana.

Creation And Rise

Elesh Norn (along with the other Praetors) was created through the five suns of Mirrodin. Norn was birthed through the White Sun's influence. She leads the faction of the Machine Orthodoxy, a hyper-religious group that preaches the word of the Karn, Father Of Machinesand creator of Mirrodin. They do not care about how they deliver their messages, even if it means complete bodily reconstruction to show them the glory of Phyrexia.

Elesh Norn herself is very influential on the Plane and has used other Praetors as pawns. She was easily able to manipulate Vorinclex, the green Praetor, and work closely with Jin-Gitaxias, the blue Praetor. She is often at ends with Sheoldred, the black Praetor who wants to take Elesh Norn's position as New Phyrexia's leader, and Urabrask, the red Praetor who believes in free will.

During New Phyerxia's rise, Elesh Norn destroyed the domains of Sheoldred and Urabrask, but both resurfaced during the height of the second invasion of Phyrexia.

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During New Phyrexia's takeover of Mirrodin, Elesh Norn captured the angel Atraxa —and in a show of unity, invited the other Praetors to compleat her and turn her into a Phyrexian.

All the Praetors but Urabrask attended, leaving a now-compleated Atraxa without red mana. Elesh Norn delegates much of her work to Atraxa to carry out her vision, acting as her champion.

Encounter With Ashiok

Before New Phyrexia began to invade the Planes of the Multiverse, Elesh Norn had a run-in with the Planeswalker Ashiok. On New Phyrexia, Norn attempted to compleat a Mirran woman in front of an audience, but the compleation failed miserably when nature erupted from the woman's body instead of machinery.

Norn was shaken by its failure, and while trying to figure out what went wrong, she discovered it was a nightmare that Ashiok had conjured up for her. Ashiok was surprised that one of their nightmares could be induced on a Phyrexian, but was pleased with the results.

Norn was enraged. Ashiok revealed that she had discovered the Phyrexians through the nightmares of Elspeth Tirel — a Planeswalker she met on Theros who had trauma caused by Phyrexia. When Elesh Norn tried to attack Ashok, they conjured up an image of Elspeth donned in Norn's armor.

This made Elesh Norn feel emotions that were once foreign to her; uncertainty and fear. Ashiok left New Phyrexia as Elesh Norn vowed that she would rid the Multiverse of Elspeth.

Her fear of Elspeth is discovered byUrabrask, who relayed this information to the Planeswalker Vivien Reed on New Capenna to take back to the Gatewatch — as Urabrask prepared for a rebellion against Elesh Norn on New Phyrexia.

Leading The Invasion

Elesh Norn decided she wanted to spread the glory of Phyrexia throughout the Multiverse. To accomplish this, she employed the Planeswalker Tezzeret — who had the Planar Bridge inside that allowed non-Planeswalkers to travel between Planes. In exchange for his assistance, she promised him a body of darksteel — indestructible metal that would replace the poisoning to his body caused by the Planar Bridge.

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The invasion's first steps involved Vorinclex traveling to Kaldheim to retrieve the tyrite — a sap that would be turned into the Realmbreaker, and which was capable of infiltrating other Planes.

Jin-Gitaxias was sent to Kamigawa to study the kami of the Plane, and made the breakthrough that allowed Phyrexia to compleat Planeswalkers — something that would kill them originally.

With growing strength, Sheoldred resurfaced and was sent to Dominaria to capture Karn. She succeeded in this mission, and Elesh Norn kept Karn hostage. Norn showed him the Realmbreaker, and how she planned to use it to spread Phyrexia throughout the Multiverse.

Elesh Norn succeeded in nurturing the Realmbreaker, with it reaching out to many Planes across the Multiverse. By the time the Planeswalker strike team arrived on New Phyrexia, it was already too late.

Norn revealed the compleated bodies of the Planeswalkers Nahiri and Nissa Revane, and offered the remaining Planeswalkers who hadn't been compleated a chance to turn. They all refused, and Norn used Nissa's powers to activate the Realmbreaker — initiating the Phyrexian invasion of the Multiverse.

Next: Magic The Gathering: Who Are The Phyrexians?