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Jace Beleren is a human planeswalker that is incredibly intelligent and adept at blue magic, with such talents as clairvoyance and illusion. His specialty, though, is in the art of inborn telepathy which makes him extremely unique within the multiverse. He has a reserved and decadent nature and a troubled conscience, as he has made some poor decisions in the past.[1]
Jace's Adolescence
Jace's unique gift of telepathy manifested very early in his life, oft times to his parent's immense embarassment. As such, his father sought the assistance of the local mage known as Alhammarret. Alhammarret took Jace from his father, and allowed him to apprentice underneath him, where Jace spent years learning new spells and talents, and most importantly, feeling welcome for the first time in years.
It was not to last though. Jace eventually became strong enough to try his talents against his master, and learned the shocking truth of his own existence. That his spark had ignited over a year ago, dipping him into the blind eternities only for a moment, and Alhammarret had lied to him about what had happened. His teacher told him his illusions had backfired and not to concern himself with it, and secretly told Jace's father about it. It was agreed they would not tell Jace.
Jace seethed over this news for days, holding his temper close to his heart until finally, during one of their practice sessions, Jace snapped. Jace slipped into his mind and unleashed all of his rage and pain at once, completely destroying Alhammarret's mind. Jace left, a wanted individual everywhere within a hundred miles of his hometown. Finally, Jace erased his own memories, so that he would never have to see his teacher's face again and feel the weight of what he had done.
Agents of Artifice
Sketch by Alexi Briclot revealing his unhooded face.
In Agents of Artifice it is shown that Jace has been living on Ravnica for an undisclosed amount of time. He lived in the upper echelons of society and made his money primarily through blackmail, using his telepathy to extort the secrets from the wealthy. While conducting some business, Jace is attacked by creatures summoned by members of the Infinite Consortium. After a small amount of background research, Jace confronts the Consortium's master Tezzeret and learns that these attacks were in fact an "invitation" for Jace to join Tezzeret's Infinite Consortium. With some hesitation, Jace agrees and begins training with Tezzeret to hone his telepathy for the Consortium's use.
Jace is partnered with a blademaster by the name of Kallist, who by some coincidence looks remarkably like Jace, and together they begin to train each other in their own specialities between assignments. After a few years, Jace begins to realize how badly the Consortium's attitudes have impacted him, and starts to feel guilty, ironically, of not feeling guilty about some of the things he has done in the Consortium's name. Things begin to come to a head when a mission to Kamigawa ends spectacularly with the massacre of a Nezumi village. In punishment, Tezzeret has Jace beaten for failing, though the mission failed through no fault of Jace's.
Shortly thereafter, an agent of Nicol Bolas, the original master of the Infinite Consortium and Tezzeret's main rival, contacts Tezzeret over a mining dispute on an unknown plane. Tezzeret schedules a meeting with the dragon on an arctic plane and brings Jace along to insure that Bolas does not probe Tezzeret's mind. Jace becomes distracted while the dragon converses with them both, and his defenses, which were untested to begin with, fail. After fleeing for his life with Tezzeret, Jace succumbs to frostbite and loses a toe. This is the least of his injuries though, as Tezzeret uses a manablade to torture Jace for having failed despite his inexperience and the vast difference of power that Bolas possessed.
Finally, Jace grows uneasy with Tezzeret's methods and lust for power, and after refusing a task which went against his very nature, he ultimately falls out of Tezzeret's graces. Jace takes Kallist with him and flees to the far reaches of Ravnica in hopes of escaping the Consortium's wrath. While trying to lay low, the pair run into the lovely necromancer Liliana Vess who flirts endlessly with both of them, finally settling into a torrid affair with Jace. Without Jace's knowledge, and a heavy heart, Liliana reveals where Jace and Kallist had settled to the Consortium. In a desperate attempt to save both their lives, Jace tries to absorb Kallist's mind and ends up switching bodies with the assassin.
Six months later, "Jace" in Kallist's body dies and his mind returns to its original body with extreme trauma to Jace's psyche. Liliana takes him away to recover and urges him to pursue Tezzeret for his part in Kallist's death. This results in Tezzeret and Jace scheming against each other, Tezzeret trying to kill Jace for his insubordination and impudence, and Jace just wanting to finally be free from Tezzeret and the Consortium. Jace turns to Nicol Bolas for help in locating Tezzeret's sanctum, and he and Liliana assault the artificer's base. Ultimately, the attack fails, Jace is captured, and Liliana's treachery comes to light. Tezzeret spends months constructing an artifact to control Jace's mind without damaging his abilities, all the while having Jace tortured. Liliana approaches the captured Jace and tries to make him understand the reasons she'd done the things she did. She genuinely cares for Jace and betrays Tezzeret helping to free Jace and together they once again attempt to destroy Tezzeret. Ultimately, the two duel resulting in Jace wiping out Tezzeret's mind leaving the consortium without a leader. Jace made a vow to himself to help Liliana in any way that he could.
It is later revealed that Jace, despite his hesitance, has taken over the Ravnican cell of the Infinite Consortium for lack of any better option at the time.
The Purifying Fire
At some point during the period Jace worked for the Infinite Consortium, he was sent to track down and retrieve a scroll Chandra stole from the Sanctum of Stars in Kephalai. However, his mission was to erase all memories of the scroll from the pyromancer, not just to return the scroll. He tracked her to the monastery of Keral Keep where he confronted the girl. After a short battle between them Jace completed his objective and planeswalked away.
Test of Metal
Jace plays a minor role in Test of Metal.
Possessing all of Tezzeret’s knowledge about the Infinite Consortium and Tezzeret’s life, Jace has set up a series of traps to try and locate him should he have survived Kamigawa.
When Tezzeret trips a trap on Esper, Jace and Baltrice are alerted and go there to try and capture him. Tezzeret gets the upper hand, infecting Jace with an etherium device which prevents him from using any of his abilities, including planeswalking. Tezzeret promises to remove the device after Baltrice helps him find the sphinx Crusius the Mad.
Zendikar
Roughly three years after retrieving the Dragon Scroll from Chandra, Jace's interest in it is once more piqued for an unknown reason. With Garruk's "assistance" Jace soon decodes the location the scroll maps out as being Zendikar. Shortly thereafter, he follows in Chandras footsteps, having hired a guide through the mountains of Akoum. Using his skill at illusion to keep himself safe, he and his guide soon encounters the bedraggled Anowon who attacks Jace and kills his treacherous guide. Subduing Anowon, Jace rips the information he seeks from Anowon's mind and then convinces Anowon to act as his guide to the Eye.
Upon arriving, at the Eye, a wall slides down and seperates the two, with Anowon shouting warnings at Jace that fall on deaf ears. What Jace finds, much to his surprise, is an immense Dragon fighting Chandra, who is hard pressed to continue the fight. Jace immediately offers his help, but is stunned to find his spells malfunctioning and one of the Hedrons floating about the cave absorbing his magic. Acting upon intuition, Jace tells Chandra to try and generate fire that cannot be seen, and with it, she defeats Sarkhan, knocking the entire group unconscious. Chandra is the first to awake and helps Jace to his feet before 'walking away, leaving Jace to ponder who had manipulated the two walkers into crossing each other's paths.
With Chandra gone, Jace has no reason to stay in the Eye. With his goal accomplished, albeit catastophically, he wanders the eye and ponders once more how all three walkers came to be in the same place at the appropriate time. Despite his ignorance of the plane and the Eye, Jace can't help but notice that something had been set in motion with his involvement. He resolves to inform the sages of Sea Gate at Halimar of this development, but before he can leave the labryinth, Anowon returns, demanding to know what had happened. Before Jace has a chance to answer, the vampire sage stalks off into the heart of the Eye muttering to himself. With no guide, Jace manages to find a nearby town and acquires a mount, wasting no time, he begins his trek back to the ship to finish his voyage. On the way, an enormous Eldrazi spawn attacks him, withering Jace's mount to naught but ash and leaving the mind mage unscathed. Jace arrives on the boat and continues on his way.
Two weeks later, Jace stands consulting an archivist at the Lighthouse at Halimar. He learns a bit about the Eldrazi, but feels no wiser for the knowledge. He recounts the events of his journey for her, and decides to search out where Chandra learned of the scroll. The merfolk archivist pleads with Jace to return if he learns anything, and Jace walks away acknowledging her wishes.
Trivia
Lorwyn
Jace may have spent an undisclosed length of time on the plane of Lorwyn around the time of the Aurora studying the peculiar nature of dreamstuff in that world. In this hypothetical encounter he had a brief mental encounter with the flamekin Ashling, though she never became aware of his presence.[2] The nature of this article leads to some doubts as to its veracity.
Printings
Promotional card of Jace for the Agents of Artifice novel.
As of July 2010, Jace's Lorwyn Planeswalker card has been reprinted five times featuring a total of three different arts, including the Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra, and later as a special promotional card for Agents of Artifice buyers in selected stores. A fourth art version of Jace Beleran is scheduled for release in a special Japanese print run of the Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra,
In-Game References
Represented in cards:
Associated cards:
- Counterspell (Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra)
- Fact or Fiction (Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra)
- Jace's Erasure
- Jace's Ingenuity
- Lay Bare
- Negate (Magic Player Rewards)
- Selective Memory
Quoted or referred to:
- Chandra's Outrage
- Hive Mind
- Illusionary Servant
- Mind Control
- Nature's Claim
- Phantom Warrior (M10)
- Summoner's Bane
References
- ↑ Jace Beleren
- ↑ Template:MTGref
External links
- Template:Featref2
- Template:Featref2
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- Jace at the Planeswalker Minisite
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