MTG Lore: Yawgmoth and the Thran Empire (The Biggest Villain in MTG!)

Yawgmoth was born in Dominaria, in the last century of the ancient Thran Empire, during the Thran Civil War. Throughout his early years, he learned a lot about medicine and became an excellent physician. He was also weirdly fascinated by the human body and believed it was a wonderful "machine".

The Thran were a grand civilization that ruled over Dominaria for many, many years. They were magnificent artificers, the minds behind many technological wonders, and left a big mark on Dominaria, particularly after Yawgmoth's time. He, by far, became the most famous member of this empire.

The Thran Civil War

The Thran Civil War lasted around a hundred years and involved Thran artificers and eugenicists. The artificers believed that powerstones were the only way to move forward as a society, while the eugenicists believed studying the human body was key, as this way they would prevent and heal any disease.

Yawgmoth was an extreme eugenicist who believed, just like many of his colleagues, that the human body was a machine and that it should be studied and "enhanced" to reach perfection.

The war wasn't idealized by the artificers and the eugenicists, exactly. Instead, political parties that supported both sides put everything in motion. The elite imperialists backed the artificers, and the republican rabble backed the eugenicists. After the republicans were defeated, the eugenicist leaders, including Yawgmoth, were exiled from the Thran Empire, and their entire philosophy was banned.

Exile

During his exile, Yawgmoth kept on searching for knowledge, and, on this journey, he caused harm wherever he went with his extreme methodology. He manipulated and created plagues that devastated many races, including Elves, Dwarves, Minotaurs, and many others. All because he wanted to study their bodies under certain conditions.

After five long years of dark experiments, he was called back to Halcyon, the capitol of Thran.

Glacian, the chief artificer and technological genius of the Thran Empire, had been attacked and hurt with a powerstone. He started exhibiting weird symptoms, like he was sick, but nothing could heal him. Rebbec, his wife, used her influence to bring Yawgmoth back with the hope that his eugenicist philosophy could heal her husband.

With his medical expertise, Yawgmoth was soon able to identify why Glacian was sick and named it phthisis, a type of radiation poisoning caused by the powerstones. The Untouchables, who lived isolated where it would eventually be known as the Caves of Koilos, had also been infected with this disease.

When Gix, the man who attacked Glacian, learned about this "powerstone" disease, he blamed the Thran for it. He gathered followers from the Untouchables to fight back against the high society of Halcyon.

Yawgmoth won the trust of Halcyon's elders with Rebbec's support and started dominating the capitol more and more. He eventually became responsible for public health and used his position to create a serum. His idea was to use "phthisis" to manipulate the Untouchables as well and foster unrest in the capitol, while he secretly infected more and more people.

Soon, Yawgmoth was also the head of security in Halcyon, and, when the Untouchables tried to attack the city, he was already prepared. He had created a device to control all powerstone technology in the city to stop Gix and his followers, and he was successful.

In the middle of all of this, someone new got to Halcyon: Dyfed, a planeswalker who was friends with Glacian and wished to visit him. Yawgmoth was fascinated by her powers and asked for her help to find an empty plane where he could keep experimenting, and Dyfed agreed.

After ending the Untouchable crisis and saving the lives of many people, Yawgmoth became a hero in Halcyon and was honored and celebrated by the Thran.

He eventually found an abandoned plane with Dyfed that had supposedly been created by another planeswalker a long time before. Yawgmoth decided it had everything he needed to create a paradise and called it Phyrexia. Dyfed opened a permanent portal between Dominaria and Phyrexia, and soon Yawgmoth started bringing his patients there, where he could study and experiment on them freely. This was how he created the first Phyrexians.

Some time later, an alliance of nations rose against Yawgmoth for all the atrocities he had committed on their territory during his exile. They went to Halcyon and promised to declare war on the entire Thran Empire if they kept supporting Yawgmoth, but that didn't scare him. Once again he used his influence and struck one last time. He took over Halcyon and got rid of his enemies. Rebbec had also fallen for Yawgmoth's lies and was in love with him, unaware that he was, in fact, a monster.

When Dyfed returned to Phyrexia and saw the horrors that Yawgmoth had created there and how he had changed the plane entirely, she tried to put a stop to it but ended up killed. Yawgmoth then bound himself to the plane within its core and became part of it. He fed off its power and turned himself to a mechanical abomination like the ones he had created.

The transformations in Phyrexia emanated a terrible, deadly, harmful gas, which was being contained by one of Dominaria's moons. After finding out about the horrors of Phyrexia and finally understanding that Yawgmoth had been manipulating everything and everyone since the beginning, Rebbec and the artificers managed to sabotage the portal that connected Phyrexia to Dominaria. Like so, all the toxic gas was released and destroyed Halcyon. Nonetheless, this contained the horrors of Phyrexia and Yawgmoth to their own plane, at least for a while.

The Brothers' War

For ages, Yawgmoth kept evolving and transforming Phyrexia. He eventually became a god, with an army of mechanical abominations under his control. With their own technology, the Phyrexians created portals to other planes, trying to find Dominaria again, but all they found were unknown planes. Wherever they went, they destroyed everything and everyone, transforming any survivors into new Phyrexians.

When young Urza and his brother Mishra accidentally unlocked the seal that kept the portal to Phyrexia closed, Yawgmoth saw another opportunity to finish what he had started so many years before. Once again Phyrexia was free to conquer.

Yawgmoth is an interesting character and was the most important MTG villain for a long time. His story carries on from where young Urza's story starts. If you'd like to know more about Phyrexia, click here!

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