Sylex Blast

Sylex Blast
Event Information
Era	End of Brothers' War, start of the Dark Age
Location	Argoth, Terisiare, Dominaria
Sets	Antiquities and The Brothers' War
Characters	Urza, Mishra, Tawnos, Ashnod, Harbin, Titania
Outcome	Absolute devastation of Argoth and death of almost everyone there, including Mishra, Titania and Harbin Defeat of Phyrexians on Dominaria for a time Ascension of Urza as a planeswalker End of the Brothers' War and start of the cooling of Terisiare, beginning the Dark Age Start of the formation of the Shard of the Twelve Worlds Creation of a Time Rift
Timeline
Battle at Argoth Sylex Blast First Talite Crusade

The Sylex Blast, also referred to as the Cataclysm, was the climactic and traumatic explosion that ended the Brothers' War on Dominaria in 63 AR.

Cause

After realizing that his brother had become a Phyrexian and noticing the unseen influence of Gix on the entire war, Urza used his newly found magical skills to activate the Golgothian Sylex. The outburst of energy from this instantly vaporized all but a fraction of Argoth, and sent a massive shock wave across Terisiare that reached as far as the Ronom Glacier. It also destroyed the tectonic plate beneath Argoth, and began the onset of the Dark Age, slowly leading into the Ice Age. Terrible as this was, it succeeded in Urza's aim to stop the Phyrexian influence on Dominaria.

Result

While both Urza and Mishra were disintegrated by the blast, the Mightstone and the Weakstone were united to resurrect Urza as a planeswalker. Realizing the damage both he and his brother had inflicted on the world, Urza rescued his apprentice Tawnos, and told him to tell the story of what happened before departing from Dominaria.

Urza's son Harbin was aboard a ship headed for the mainland when the blast occured. His ship his a giant wave, then crashed down. Although Harbin never arrived in Penregon afterwards, and was assumed dead by his mother Kayla bin-Kroog, there were rumors years later of a hero in a flying machine far to the west, who had died in the cataclysm and been reborn.

The Sylex blast disrupted the climate of Terisiare to such an extent that the Fall of Penregon happened only 15 years after the blast, caused by encroaching glaciers that would eventually affect the continent to such a degree that it would create the era known as the Ice Age.

So terrible was the blast that Dominaria began to form the Shard of the Twelve Worlds, which trapped twelve planes in a bubble from the rest of the multiverse and stopped any transplanar magic or technology from reaching them. The planeswalker Faralyn referred to this upheaval as the Cataclysm of the Twelve Planes. While this kept Urza out, it also helped protect the devastated Dominaria from Phyrexia, preventing them from entering for almost 3,000 years, when the Shard finally fell.

Hundreds of years later, the cataclysmic effects of the Sylex Blast were still felt by Dominaria. Time Rifts, caused by the Sylex Blast amongst other monumental catastrophes, were tearing reality apart. These rifts were only healed with the sacrifices of a handful of planeswalkers, furthering the death toll claimed by the Sylex Blast.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Urza's Ruinous Blast

Referred to:

• The Brothers' War
• Calamity's Wake
• Llanowar Wastes