Empire of Madara | |
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Information | |
Plane | Dominaria |
Part of | Sea of Serenity |
The Empire of Madara was a powerful Dominarian nation, once ruled by the powerful dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas.
Geography[ | ]
The Madaran Empire is an island-group, located west of Jamuraa.[1] Madara is the largest of the island cluster and the seat of the Empire. The cultural and economic center of Madara lay between the eastern Gitte-Yatay Mountains and the western sea. In it lay two great marshes and the main streams of the Suido River. This means that blue, black, and red mana met at a single point. On this point stood the Imperial Shrine of Nicol Bolas.
Other notable locations on Madara are:
- Dark's Keep, located near the island's western coast. This structure was home to the Imperial Assassin Ramses Overdark. Surrounded by swampland and a branch of the Suido River, it provided Lord Dark with bountiful access to the black and blue mana he implemented. It was destroyed by the Bogarden Seismicmage Kolo Meha under the instruction of Tetsuo Umezawa.
- Sekana village, a fisherman's port
- Pelada, another port, located on the west coast.
- The Talon Gates, two spires of rock set at the southern mouth of the Suido River.
- Umezawa Manor, the ancestral manor of Clan Umezawa.
Off the coast of Madara lie the Edemi Islands. These islands were somewhat under the control of the empire, but they would rebel every decade or so.
History of Madara[ | ]
Fifteen to twenty thousand years before Rift Era, the first battle between planeswalkers on Dominaria took place at Madara. It was a fight to the death between the elder dragon Nicol Bolas and an unknown Demonic Leviathan.[2] Their battle caused the Shattering of Madara, destroying one-third of the continent, and caused the first Time Rift on the plane. The rift was located at the Talon Gates, a remnant of that conflict.
The empire was founded by a warrior queen who styled herself a god-empress. Because of the three mana lines that met, Nicol Bolas thought Madara would be a good place to start a foothold on Dominaria. The dragon slew the warrior-queen and took the empire, becoming a real god-emperor.
For around 400 years Bolas ruled Madara through three individuals: the imperial assassin, the imperial champion, and the high general of the kentsu. The dragon later realized this system was becoming obsolete as assassin Ramses Overdark was successfully replacing the other imperial officers with his minions. Bolas then made a new system with only one placeholder for the emperor: imperial regent Ramses Overdark.
But not soon afterward, former champion Tetsuo Umezawa killed Overdark and exiled Bolas, destroying that system as well. After this, the empire plunged into chaos, with various nobles buying parts of the kentsu as their armies and oppressed islands and tribes rebelled. Tetsuo set out to restore balance to the empire, but how this ended was never revealed.
Madara is currently overrun by the cat-dragon race, the nekoru. The humans of Madara exist solely as servants, clerics, and slaves.
Trivia[ | ]
- The relative size of Madara compared to that of Jamuraa is that of Japan compared to Russia.
In-game references[ | ]
- Associated cards:
- Referred to:
References[ | ]
- ↑ Martha Wells (March 21, 2018). "Return to Dominaria, Episode 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ James Wyatt (2018). "The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Dominaria". VIZ Media.