Dominaria (plane)

Dominaria (archaic: Dominia Prime, the Wheel) is the setting for the majority of Magic storylines. All early sets except for Arabian Nights, and Homelands take place there; The Weatherlight Saga dealt with a devastating invasion of this world. After Scourge, storylines have been traveling to a different plane each block, though Wizards of the Coast has stated on numerous occasions that Dominaria will be visited again at some point in the future.

Geography

Dominaria is about two and a half times larger than Earth, with large but shallow seas. It has one natural moon called the Mist Moon. In the period between the fall of the Thran Empire and the end of the Phyrexian Invasion, Dominaria had an additional small and mysterious artificial moon, called the Glimmer Moon by natives and Null Moon by planeswalkers. During the Ice Age, Dominaria was the primary plane in the Shard of the Twelve Worlds. A Dominarian year takes 420 days of 24 hours.

Dominaria is a very mana-rich plane located closely by the Nexus of the Multiverse. Although little is known for certain about this Nexus, it must presumably be related to the large quantities of mana found on Dominaria. This is also the reason many Planeswalkers are attracted to this plane.

Although a full map of the plane has never been published, much has been written about its many landmasses. Even so, Wizards of the Coast employees such as Pete Venters and Brady Dommermuth have stated that there is still much left to explore.

The existence of the following continents has been acknowledged so far:

Terisiare, which has broken into about 6 smaller landmasses after the Ice Age
Aerona, which is part of the Domains alongside a host of small islands.
Jamuraa, which is actually a super-continent existing of 3 connected continents
Tamingazin
Otaria
Sarpadia
An unnamed north-polar continent
An unnamed south-polar continent.

There are some other landmasses which it is uncertain how they should be qualified.

Tolaria, an island far from any continent and thus hard to place.
Caliman, a landmass of unknown size and place on the southern hemisphere.
Corondor, often called a continent, but far smaller than any other continent.
Shiv, always called an island, but in fact larger than Corondor.

There are also places of unknown location on Dominaria:

Surr

History

The Times of Dragons

In ancient days, Dominaria was one of the planes involved in the Elder Dragon Wars, but even after the end of those conflicts, it kept being terrorized by dragons for ages. Shortly after the Elder Dragon Wars a woman allied herself with the Lesser Elder Scarzam and lead his offspring into battle on Corrondor, calling herself Sivitri Scarzam. Later the Primeval Dragons Rith, Treva, Dromar, Crosis and Darigaaz conquered the globe and ruled it with harshly until they where overthrown by the Numena, who stole their powers.

The Thran

After the Numena had fallen to inner fighting, there is a large gap in our knowledge of the history of Dominaria. We only know that in this gap the Thran Empire was founded on Terisiare. Around -5000 Argivian Reckoning this empire had outposts from Shiv to Caliman, but a man called Yawgmoth managed to usurp most of the power in the empire, which lead to both civil war and war with the various other countries of Dominaria. Eventualy the Thran empire collapsed, but Yawgmoth survived, having travelled to Phyreixa where he would become a godlike being and turn the other Thran refugees into his monsterous servants. In the final moments before the Thran capitol of Halcyon was destroyed Rebbec managed to seal the portal between Dominaria and Phyrexia, locking Yawgmoth out for ages.

The Golden Age of Magic

After the fall of the Thran the technological advancement and with that the mobility of Dominarians seems to have dropped quite fast. The various continents all developed in their own way. The only name known for this era is the “Golden Age of Magic”, but only Jamuraa went trough a time that could be called both Golden and Magical.

On Terisiare artifice was rediscovered after the fall of the Thran, but magic existed only in several isolated places such as Argoth.
On Jamuraa the country of Zhalfir was founded, which was the first human nation in the world to fully master magic.
On Corondor a dark age took place. Magic was abundant, but people like Geyadrone Dihada, Sol’Kanar the Swamp King and Xarl Angel-Keeper abused it in seemingly endless conflicts over territory.

The Brother’s War

With the birth of Urza the first year of Argivian Reckoning began. With the birth of his brother Mishra it ended. In their life these two brothers waged a war that ravaged Terisiare and in the final moment of their conflict they sent all of Dominaria into an Ice Age. Both brothers were sons of an Argivian noble, but cicumstances placed them at the head of the two sides of an old, slumbering conflict, which was ignited by their personal hatred and misunderstandings.

The Brothers’ War lasted 36 years and stripped Terisiare of most of its natural resources. In the final battle of the war, on a completely ravaged Argoth, Urza activated the Golgothian Sylex, an ancient artifact that released a blast that destroyed all of Argoth, created tidal waves that killed thousands, sent Dominaria into an Ice Age, shifted the entire planet off its axis and created the Shard of the Twelve Worlds, disrupting the multiverse significantly.

The Dark

The time between the Sylex Blast and the official beginning of the Ice Age is called the Dark. It was a time in which many countries fell and in which lots of people turned to religious zealotism as they interpreted the ever growing winters as a sign of the coming end of the world. We only have detailed information about this time on Sarpadia and Terisiare.

On the continent of Sarpadia, the cooling of the world indirectly caused the fall of nearly all its empires. Orcs, Goblins and Homarid left their ancestral lands looking for warmer places to live and got these by usurping the lands of Dwarves and Merfolk. In Havenwood the Elves manipulated fungus to keep their food supply up in the harsh winters, but unknowingly they created the Thallid, sentient fungi that would eventually overthrow them. In the end the entire continent was overrun by the Thrull, genetically engineered minions of the Order of the Ebon Hand who first rebelled against their masters and then set out to overthrow all other potential enemies as well.
On Terisiare magic was only just being discovered, and was brutally persecuted by the Church of Tal, causing wizards to join reclusive collectives like the City of Shadows and the Conclave of Mages. Here and there, goblin hordes were causing problems, but they where defeated in Tivadar's Crusade. Ultimately, however, all the nations on Terisiare would fall to either in-fighting or the ever growing ice. Only Strogard would survive until deep into the Ice Age.

The Ice Age

Although the Ice Age must have affected all of Dominaria (we know that Zhalfir had to use magic to survive the cold), we only have detailed information on the events in Terisiare, and even then we only know much of the last few decades.

Near the end of the Ice Age there were two great powers on Terisiare, Kjeldor and the nomadic barbarians from Balduvia. These countries were in a constant power stuggle, but eventually set their problems aside to face the necromancer Lim-Dûl.

At the same time a group of planeswalkers held a gathering on the Null Moon that would change the course of Dominaria. The ‘walkers where not happy with being trapped with the Shard of the Twelve Worlds, and had gathered to think of a way of escaping. It turned out that some of them had betrayed the others though: Faralyn, Leshrac and Tevesh-Szat had planned to start a fight in which one of the planeswalkers would be killed, and then hoped to use the energy of this death to puncture the shard for just long enough that they could escape. No planeswalkers died, but the death of Chromium Rhuell and Ravidel proved enough to let the betrayers escape.

But Tevesh Szat had to finish one other plan before he left. This ‘walker had always been obsessed with ending civilization, and wanted to give Dominaria a goodbye present: eternal slumber under a thick layer of ice.

To prevent his from happening the other ‘walkers that were present at the Summit of the Null Moon (Freyalise, Kristina of the Woods and Taysir of Rabiah) made a plan. They used Jahuel Carthalion and the Amulet of Quoz to thwart Szat, and used several powerful magical objects including (Jodah’s Mirror and the Icy Cauldron), and the young Elder Druid Kaysa to cast the Worldspell. This spell was as powerful as the Sylex Blast, but was channeled trough the Safe Havens, and ended both the Ice Age and the time of the Shard.

The Flood Ages

With the Worldspell Dominaria heated up again and was restored to its original axis. This wasn’t without its problems tough, as Terisiare (and probably other continents as well, although we have little information on those) had to deal with rising sea levels and many new plagues. Tresserhorn, Fyndhorn and many other places that had been powerful during the last years of the Ice Age where lost, while the School of the Unseen (previously named the City of Shadows and Lat-Nam) and Soldev were completely destroyed by a vengeful Lim-Dûl. Wrenna was taken over by a dark mage and Sheoltun’s once great power dwindled.

But not all was bad during these times. Many new nations flourished, such as Benalia, which replaced Sheoltun and Yavimaya, where Fyndhorn refugees started a new life. Some see the Flood Ages as a disaster as great as the Ice Age, but during it modern Dominaria was born.

The “Empty Quarter”

The time between Flood Ages and a modern ere of Dominaria used to be called the Empty Quarter, since little was known about it. However, this term was introduced with the Legends set, and since then several stories have been released that take place in this “Empty” quarter, most notable of which are the first Legends Cycle and Urza’s exploits in the Artifacts Cycle. Only Urza’s story has a major impact on Dominaria as a whole instead of just on a single country.

Urza, who had become a planeswalker in the Sylex Blast, returns to Dominaria after ages of absence. During his travels he discovered Phyrexia’s plans for an invasion and now he has set out to prevent this. This doesn’t go without difficulties though. His first large action against the Phyrexian Sleeper Agents causes the death of his companions Xantcha and Ratape, while his attempts at building a time-machine to prevent Yawgmoth from rising to power end with the devastation of the island of Tolaria. But he doesn’t back down and does many things to strengthen Dominaria against the coming invasion: he creates The Legacy, starts the Bloodline Project to create perfect warriors against Phyrexia and gathers allies such as Multani of Yavimaya, the Viashino of Shiv and angelic refugees from Serra’s Realm.

Modern times

Most of Magic’s stories take place during this age (which was never officially named), all of the prerevisionist novels except And Peace Shall Sleep and The Cursed Land and many of the comic books for example, as well as the Mirage Wars. Since this age was never officially named, it was also never given official begin and end dates. Since the Phyrexian Invasion was such a huge event in the history of Dominaria, I’ve given it a section of its own, ending the modern times there. Two large events happened in this age:

The Planeswalkers War of Corondor. Ravidel, who became a planeswalker after his was killed during the Summit of the Null Moon, wanted to extract revenge from the ‘walkers that harmed him (Szat and Leshrac for killing him and Rhuell, Kristina and Taysir for bringing him back) and created the Mox Beacon to lure them to Corondor. How this ended is unknown, but Corondor was devastated in the event.
The Mirage Wars, in which the wizard Kaervec tried to conquer the countries of north-western Jamuraa. The most important aspect of this war on a global level however, would be the involvement of the planeswalker Teferi. His meddling with the time stream had lured Kaervec to Jamuraa in the first place, and could have greater repercussions later on.

The Phyrexian Invasion

In 4205 A.R. the Phyrexian Invasion finally began. Urza managed to rally a massive army, with the Weatherlight and its crew as its elite, and eventually the Phyrexians where defeated, but a very high cost. A full summary of the events can be found here, here and here. On this page I’ll stick to the consequences of the war only.

The most obvious result of the war, was the death of billions. Phyrexia had let a vast army and plagues lose on Dominaria, and in the conclusion of the war Yawgmoth himself had traveled trough the portal in the form of a giant death-cloud, killing more people in mere minutes than the entire war had in a year.
During the battle against Yawgmoth the Weatherlight absorber the white mana the Null Moon had been gathering ever since it was brought into orbit, almost 9000 years ago. The moon was destroyed and Dominaria’s night sky was changed forever.
Teferi had decided he would rather avoid conflict than fight against the Phyrexians, and phased north-western Jamuraa and a large portion of Shiv from existence, to return when it would be safe again. This action probably caused a small lowering of the sea level of Dominaria, and promised to create even larger problems, like tidal waves, if Teferi decided to return the lands.
After hearing of the death of his daughter, the master-mage Barrin committed suicide by casting a spell - Obliterate, said to be as powerful as the Sylex Blast, completely liquefying Tolaria. Whether the blasts was really as powerful as the Sylex Blast remains to be seen.
The master stroke of Yawgmoth’s plan was the use of the plane of Rath. On this artificial plane Phyrexian troops had been building up for ages, and during the invasion it was merged with Dominaria in the so-called Rathi Overlay. It transplanted legions of Phyrexian soldiers on Dominaria in a matter of moments, but also altered Dominaria’s geography. The Stronghold was placed inside a volcano in Urborg and the Skyshroud Forest was transplanted into Keld. Its unknown where other Rathi landmarks like the homes of the Kor, Vec and Dal ended up.
Finally, in the aftermath of the invasion, enormous streams of refugees left their ancestral homes for a new life on Otaria, one of the few places not ravaged completely by the Invasion. This created even greater depopulation in the countries they left.

The Coming of Karona

After the Invasion Otaria was the only place where civilization hadn’t been destroyed, or at least hurt badly, by Phyrexian forces. Ironically it was here that only a hundred year later several other cataclysmic events happened.

Karn had left Dominaria after the Invasion, but wanted to keep an eye on the plane nonetheless. He created several probes for this purpose, but one of them, which would later be called the Mirari, was defective. The Mirari somehow channeled vast amounts of mana that several people tried to use for their own good. Eventually the barbarian Kamahl thrust the Mirari (which had been attached to his sword) into the ground of the Krosan Forest. From here the Mirari kept pulsating mana across the entire continent, causing mutations in the entire population until Karn took it back to Argentum
The Numena returned since Averuu had cast a spell that would reincarnate them before his death. They where each brought into being via a ‘mother figure’ and when these mother figures (Phage, Akroma and Zagorka) died in one moment a being called Karona was brought into being. She destroyed several cities on Otaria, but she was mana-incarnate and her presence greatly influenced the planar stability of Dominaria as well. She was eventually defeated, but her appearance might come back to haunt the plane this way,
In the Riptide Project Slivers where cloned, who quickly overran the Project island and eventually made it to the mainland, where some of them where present at Karona’s ‘birth’. The magical backlash of this fused those slivers into the Sliver Overlord. What happened to the Slivers afterwards is unknown, but seeing how quickly they overthrew the Riptide Project, Otaria might be in big trouble.

the Future of Dominaria

After Scourge, which ended with Karona vanquished, Magic went on a little ‘tour across the planes’, leaving Dominaria for while. WotC promised the story would one day return though and this will probably be in Time Spiral.

Many fans hope the story of Time Spiral will include a view of post-apocalyptic Dominaria and the return of Teferi and the lands he phased out, but the only official information we have is this quote by Brady Dommermuth:

The very existence of Karona damaged and warped Dominaria's planar stability. And it's not the first such threat. Others include the disaster at Tolaria, the overlay of Rath, and several notable other events. Something's wrong with Dominaria now -- something big, something that affects multiple planes.