Mishra

Mishra
Details
Race	Phyrexian (Formerly Human)
Birthplace	Argive, Terisiare, Dominaria
Lifetime	0 - 64 AR?
Sources
The Brothers' War, Planeshift

Mishra was the brother of Urza. A cruel and ruthless Argivian artificer, he had the same humble origins as his brother, eventually coming to control the western half of Terisiare (i.e. Zegon). Mishra was able to confederate various Fallaji tribes of the Western Desert under his command. Eventually, he and Urza fought a long and bloody war. Unlike his brother, he did not become a planeswalker.

Early Years

Mishra was born on the last day of the year 0 AR (Or 912 PF) to one of the noble families of Argive, one of the three coastal kingdoms of Terisiare. His older brother Urza was born on the first day of the same year.

A number of years after the Brothers' birth, their mother died. Their father married another member of the aristocracy. This woman ignored the boys at best and showed them contempt at worst. In 10 AR, their father fell ill, and he arranged for them to travel to the excavation sites of Tocasia, to whom he had done a favor some years earlier. They were apprenticed to her, and unlike other children sent to her camps, they remained with her.

Apprenticeship to Tocasia

Tocasia's camp was located in the desert, and was populated by the more modern of the desert tribesmen, called the Fallaji, and by young nobles who were sent there by their parents. Through the years, Mishra grew to be the polar opposite of his brother, for his brother was cold and favored the artifacts they excavated. Mishra instead enjoyed interacting with the people at the dig sites and participated in almost all of the digs, and eventually came to oversee all of the digs done at Tocasia's camp.

While studying the Thran, an ancient race whose machines were the main reason for Tocasia's camp, Urza discovered that all of the sites where large amounts of Thran devices were found seemed to circle around a central point. Tocasia, Urza, and Mishra flew to this place in an ornithopter, a Thran flying machine found by Mishra and his brother. Once there they found a large Thran city, which Urza named Koilos, the Argivian word for "secret". They landed and wandered among the ruins of the city, and when the finally got to the center of the city they found a great machine powered by a Thran powerstone. While inspecting the machine there was an explosion; when they awoke from the aftermath each brother was holding one half of the great stone in his hand.

After the explosion, each brother became increasingly hostile towards one another. The stones seemed to have odd effects on both living and nonliving things. Urza's stone, which he named the Mightstone, seemed to make things stronger than normally possible, while Mishra's stone sapped the strength from both artifacts and living creatures. Urza named this the Weakstone. Another effect the visit to Koilos had was that Mishra had disturbing dreams about darkness, trying to lure him to somewhere.

One night after drinking Mishra went to confront Urza and tried to take the stone from him, the fight was heard around the camp, and when Tocasia tried to stop the brothers she was caught in between the power surging from the two stones and died. Mishra, ashamed at what he had caused, fled into the desert during the confusion that followed.

Fallaji Rakiq

Mishra traveled through the desert, lured to Koilos by the darkness in his dreams. Before he could reach it, he was captured by the Suwwardi, a militant faction of the Fallaji, was subjugated into slavery for them and had the Weakstone taken from him. He was forced to do all sorts of menial tasks until he came across Hajar, a young Fallaji who had been at Tocasia's camp. Hajar convinced the Qadir, or leader, of the Suwwardi to appoint Mishra as rakiq, or teacher, to his young son, teaching him the language of Argive. Mishra's lot improved for a few years, but the Qadir began to worry about his son. In Fallaji culture, it was seen as a weakness to rely on others, so the Qadir began to ponder having Mishra killed so his son would not rely on him.

That plan never developed, for one night, Mishra had another disturbing dream, of a mechanical parody of nature. Waking from this screaming, he had no time to dwell on it, for a giant mechanical beast in the shape of a dragon appeared from under the sands and started rampaging. The Qadir was killed in the confusion. Mishra and Hajar used this confusion to retrieve the Weakstone, so Mishra could weaken it, but to everyone's surprise, Mishra found he could directly control it.

The Qadir's son became the new Qadir, and appointed Mishra his Raki, or Wizard, and set about using the dragon engine, or Mak Fawa, to unify the Fallaji people under the Suwwardi.

Pawn of Gix

During the last years of the war against Urza, both sides became infiltrated by a group of fanatical, machine-worshipping priests called the Brotherhood of Gix. They created a wedge in the relationship that was already shaky between Mishra and Ashnod. Before too long, they became Mishra's council. It is unknown exactly when; but, at some point, Mishra was betrayed by them and turned over to Gix.

Based on hints of Ashnod's last talk with Tawnos, it was likely before he arrived on the island he and Urza were fighting over. Gix had sworn to slay both of the brothers long ago; the Brotherhood of Gix told Mishra they had ways to make him stronger as old age and a lung disease began to weaken him. At this point, it is speculated that Mishra was brought to Phyrexia and either slain by Gix who had Mishra's skin stretched out over some form of construct that replaced him or Mishra was turned into a Phyrexian by his own accord and still retained his true self when he had his final battle with Urza.

Final Punishment

In the battle of Argoth, Urza revealed Mishra to be a construct of flesh and Phyrexian metal. When Mishra completely abandoned his humanity to attack his brother, Urza released an enormous burst of power that destroyed both Mishra and the sentient forest they were fighting over.

During the events of Apocalypse, Urza, mesmerized by sights of Phyrexia, abandoned his fight and descended deep into the core of the world of glistening oil to bow before Yawgmoth. On his way, he met the body of Mishra deep in the Center of Phyrexia, wrecked with fresh pain and torments day in, day out, asking brother to help him out. However, as the entirety of Phyrexia is the direct product of Yawgmoth, and adding to that the somewhat unstable state of Urza's mind at the moment (or rather one could say it was never stable, especially with regard to his brother's demise), we can not be sure if it was really Mishra, who somehow survived the Sylex Blast; an apparition presented by Yawgmoth to further stress and confuse the great planeswalker; or merely Urza's hallucination.

Gallery

• 

  Young Mishra.

• 

  In the Caves of Koilos Mishra opens the portal for Phyrexia. He and Ashnod use the portal.

• 

  Mishra with Weakstone during the Antiquities War.

• 

  Mishra "improves" your body with Phyrexian technology.

• 

  Mishra during the Brothers' War.

• 

  The brothers Urza and Mishra battle during the event known as Brothers' War.

• 

  Urza finds the body of his brother Mishra in Phyrexia.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
• Mishra

Associated cards:

• Ankh of Mishra
• Mishra's Bauble
• Mishra's Factory
• Mishra's Groundbreaker
• Mishra's Helix
• Mishra's Self-Replicator
• Mishra's Toy Workshop
• Mishra's War Machine
• Mishra's Workshop
• Weakstone

Depicted in:

• Endoskeleton
• Retaliation
• The Antiquities War
• Urza's Guilt

Quoted or referred to:

• Artifact Blast
• Ashnod's Battle Gear (Antiquities)
• Assembly-Worker
• Battering Ram
• Dragon Engine
• Elvish Herder
• Grapeshot Catapult
• Mightstone
• Staff of Zegon
• Strip Mine
• The Rack
• Treetop Rangers
• Urza's Factory