Zendikar (plane)

Zendikar, setting for the original Zendikar block and both its sequels, is a plane with powerful sources of mana, which flows differently there. Its riches in mana and other wealth has made it a destination for Planeswalkers to explore and exploit. The promise of this is also enough to lure in various local explorers and adventurers.

Geography
Zendikar's landscape is constantly shifting and changing. This process is called The Roil. It makes settlements very scarce and only few outposts of civilization are present.

The plane consists of seven continents: Akoum, Bala Ged, Guul Draz, Murasa, Ondu, Sejiri, and Tazeem. Bala Ged, Sejiri and Tazeem were devastated by the Eldrazi, but are now recovering thanks to Nissa Revane's use of the Lithoform Core.

Another geographical feature to be noted is the large, floating polyhedron-shaped stones called hedrons that litter the landscape. For a long while, nobody was sure what they were but their gravity-defying existence hinted at the strange properties of gravity and mana on the plane. These ancient, rune-carved monoliths are strewn across Zendikar. Up to ten miles long, some of these stones drift in the sky; others are buried in the ground, some whole, some broken.

Trap-riddled ruins can be found on every continent. Mysterious glyphs hint at truths long forgotten. Unspeakable monsters lurk in the quiet of these hidden monuments of a forgotten past. The ruins still emanate power, and both planeswalkers and local explorers will undergo great peril to reap their rewards.

Inhabitants
The plane is inhabited among others by goblins, elves, merfolk, humans and vampires. It is also the home of the Kor (who have been abducted to other planes from Zendikar). Other races that can be found on Zendikar are angels, ogres, minotaurs and giants. A reptilian race of questionable sapience, known as the Surrakar, dwelled exclusively on Zendikar but now seem to be extinct. Assorted wildlife, ranging from insects to beasts also dwell on the plane, posing another threat for explorers not to be eaten or killed by. Some of them, like the Gomazoa have adapted to the flying topography. These look just like the regular floating rocks.

Ancient civilizations
Prior to the imprisonment of the Eldrazi, there were various civilizations in all continents, which worshiped a myriad of "unrecognizable" gods. These have been mistaken for Eldrazi ruins, leading to several misconceptions about the latter.

Centuries before the arrival of the Eldrazi, the kor built an empire. Driven originally by a desire to see the world united in peace and harmony, this empire quickly grew into an authoritarian state where the kor imposed their own ideals, laws, and structure upon the unwilling peoples of other continents. This imposition bred resistance among their subjects, and as they met with increasing resistance to their rule, they became more and more oppressive and tyrannical.

The great capital city of Makindi, which gave its name to this kor empire, was in Ondu. To maintain the empire's hold over the world, kor stoneforgers built seven Skyclaves — military bases, government headquarters, and small cities that ﬂoated in the sky above each continent. Each Skyclave was built around a central power source like a miniature sun, designed as dozens of ﬂoating platforms that could close tightly into a sealed, hollow sphere for defense. As the world endured centuries under the kor's oppressive rule, the empire's iron grip began to weaken. One by one over the course of a century or so, the Skyclaves began to fall until only Emeria, the Sky Ruin remained in the air.

The Eldrazi
Zendikar later became the prison of the Eldrazi, an ancient and powerful race that devour planes and threatened the multiverse once in the past. They were sealed away by three ancient planeswalkers: Sorin Markov, Ugin, and Nahiri. The prisons of the Eldrazi weakened, and their minions broke free. Sorin returned to the plane to seal them away once more, though his two comrades were nowhere to be found. Nissa Revane, a native elven Planeswalker, assisted him, but her goals were to see the Eldrazi imprisoned elsewhere, away from Zendikar.

Meeting at the Eye of Ugin
The meeting of Vol, Nalaar, and Beleren in the Eye of Ugin chamber loosened the bonds that kept the Eldrazi in torpor, and they rose to feed on the life of Zendikar again.

The Battle for Zendikar
Thousands of years ago when the Eldrazi first had awoken, the destruction was vast; the natural world nearly perished. The power of the Eldrazi was unfathomable, and humanoids didn't so much as slow down their progress. It took the return of The Three to put the great Eldrazi to sleep again. Since then, the planet created the Roil to battle the drones and with the new awakening, some humanoids received a mana infusion that enabled them to fight back. Within two years of the release of the Eldrazi, Sea Gate on Tazeem and the entire continents of Sejiri and Bala Ged were overrun. However, the adventurers of Zendikar, even severely outgunned as they were, wouldn't fold to the Eldrazi abominations.

Gideon Jura took command, and started gathering allies to take the offensive. Battle-hardened veterans and desperate new recruits flocked to his banner. The vampires of Malakir joined in, as well as the Roil-mages of Noyan Dar. Kiora, a Planeswalker native to Zendikar, brought her own army of merfolk and colossal sea monsters to the fight. They began an attack on the Eldrazi-controlled Sea Gate, joined soon thereafter by Nissa. The Eldrazi were driven from the city, and Sea Gate's defensive ramparts were rebuilt and fortified. The soldiers of Zendikar celebrated a hard-won victory. Then, Jori En arrived with the news that Ulamog himself was approaching ....

The Planeswalkers enacted a bold new plan. While Gideon's troops and Kiora's forces held the city against this fresh assault, Nissa called on the elemental power of the earth to raise sunken hedrons from the ground and move them into a ring around the Eldrazi titan. Jace activated the hedrons' magic, and Ulamog was trapped! Then everything collapsed. Ob Nixilis appeared, having followed Nissa from Bala Ged. Gleaming with joy, he slaughtered the Kor guards and siphoned the power of the hedrons into himself, reigniting his spark. In one final act of vengeance against Zendikar, he destroyed the hedron network and awoke the slumbering Eldrazi titan Kozilek.

Oath of the Gatewatch
In quick succession, the Planeswalkers dedicated to stopping the Eldrazi were either defeated or went missing. Beset by the distortions of Kozilek, general Tazri was saved by the protection of her halo. She regrouped with Noyan Dar, the vampire queen Drana and the Kor squad leader Munda and, inspired by the angel she had killed long ago, took command. Meanwhile, Chandra Nalaar showed up and freed her planeswalker friends. Their concerted attack managed to scare Ob Nixilis away from Zendikar.

The four planeswalkers realized that they were helpless against large threats on their own, but that they could stand against just about any force in the Multiverse by working together. Thus they swore an oath to stand together and the Gatewatch was created. Seeing that he could not keep his promise to Ugin to neither harm the Eldrazi nor allowing them to escape from Zendikar, Jace decided to slay the Titans with the Gatewatch's and Kiora's help. After consulting with Nissa, he described the leyline pattern to her that would bind Kozilek and Ulamog to Zendikar, drawing the bulk of the Titans into the plane so that their energy could be dispersed into Zendikar, killing them in the process. To attract them, the remaining forces of Zendikar's defenders would pose as a bait.

While the plan worked at first, with Gideon keeping the Eldrazi swarms away from the army, Kiora clearing out any other swarms, and Chandra supporting them, once the Eldrazi titans were anchored to Zendikar, their destructive essence threatened to assimilate Zendikar into themselves. Afraid, Kiora tried to persuade Nissa to release the Titans and allow them to flee, but Jace objected. Chandra offered to burn the Titans instead and after preventing Kiora from attacking Nissa, Jace agreed. The pyromancer then connected with the animist, allowing her to channel her pyromantic magic through Zendikar's Ley Lines directly into the titans. In one brilliant blaze of flame, Ulamog and Kozilek were incinerated and destroyed, leaving only ashes raining from Zendikar's sky. The rebuilding of civilization was lead by General-Commander Tazri.

Zendikar Rising
Like an inflammation that persists after the infection is gone, the Roil remains active even after the destruction of the Eldrazi, and it remains one of the greatest hazards to adventurers who brave the wilds of Zendikar.

In the wake of the Eldrazi's fall, a plan was needed to rebuild Sea Gate. Unfortunately, the Sea Gate Reconstruction Project found itself with a few plans too many. Each of the five expeditionary houses presented its vision for a wonderful new city. Fed up with the houses' infighting, Commander Tazri drafted a plan of her own. The angel Linvala immediately stood behind Tazri's proposal, and the word of an angel swayed even the stingiest expeditionary house. Within a year, the city was restored.

Around the same time, an expedition of adventurers ascended through the ruins of Emeria and discovered the remnants of the Skyclave, which the merfolk had once claimed was the castle of their goddess. In the course of their exploration, they triggered the magical defenses of the ancient Skyclave — and awakened the other six. Whatever their state of ruin and disrepair, all seven Skyclaves rose back up into the air and opened. Above every continent, people looked to the sky and saw shattered fragments of cyclopean ruins drifting slowly among the clouds. While the entirety of the ruins took to the skies, broken-off chunks did not necessarily reattach. This resulted in free-floating structures, out of reach of the average adventurer. While Zendikar is rife with talented line-slingers, few were interested in risking their lives to access these obscure ruins—not when the "accessible" Skyclaves were filled with treasures of their own.

Two guardians returned to Zendikar, but they were at odds on how to restore Zendikar to its former glory. Guilt-ridden Nahiri vowed to negate the Roil, by using ancient kor technology. She didn't care if this would be accomplished at a massive cost of lives. Nissa Revane opposed her. In the end Nissa Revane prevailed, and restored the soil and wild nature of Zendikar by use of the Lithoform Core.

Languages Spoken

 * The Graypelt tongue, from which the name Ashaya was derived

Old Languages

 * Ancient Kor, spoken by Nahiri
 * It has its own runic writing system

Native
• Kiora

• Nahiri

• Nissa Revane

Visitors
• Chandra Nalaar

• Garruk Wildspeaker

• Gideon Jura

• Jace Beleren

• Nicol Bolas

• Ob Nixilis

• Sarkhan Vol

• Sorin Markov

• Tyvar Kell

• Ugin