| Xantcha | |
|---|---|
| Orman'huzra[1] | |
 | |
| Details | |
| Race | Phyrexian Minion |
| Birthplace | Phyrexia |
| Lifetime | Dark Age-The Thaw |
| Born | c. 65 AR[1] |
| Died | 3245 AR |
| Colors | |
  | |
| Sources | |
| Planeswalker | |
Xantcha was a newt created in the Fourth of the Nine Spheres of Phyrexia.[1] She was designed to live undetected among humans.[2] She resisted Phyrexia's plans for her, instead developing a close relationship with Urza, and was responsible for taking in their companion Ratepe.
Description[ | ]
Like the other newts of her pod, Xantcha was initially nameless, sexless, and genderless. Instead of proper names, the words used to describe them referred to the places where they slept and fed. The word xantcha which was applied to her, referred merely to the clots of slag and ash that accumulated beneath the great furnaces, where she spent her first years. The newts of her pod were all identical in appearance to one another, and slightly smaller in stature than normal humans. They had dark hair, light skin, and angular but rather unremarkable features. Like the humans they were created to resemble, but quite unlike most other life on Phyrexia, they had to breathe, eat, and sleep to survive.[1]
History[ | ]
Creation[ | ]
Xantcha was a first-generation sleeper agent
The Fane of Flesh on the Fourth Sphere of Phyrexia was where Xantcha and several other hundreds of newts of her pod were created. The newts were to be Phyrexian-controlled spies called sleeper agents, their minds wiped and thus not knowing they weren't even human. They were to record their observations and send that knowledge to Phyrexia, where it would eventually be used in the invasion of Dominaria.[1]
Xantcha was eventually sent to the First Sphere, the least dangerous of them all, and was taught how to survive on the plane she would be sent to. Over time, several of the other newts from her cadre failed and were turned to flesh, and her cadre was merged with another, where she met another newt using the term xantcha to describe itself. To distinguish themselves from each other, they both altered their hairstyles, considered a treacherous act on Phyrexia. Xantcha had what was considered a gift in any other world, but on Phyrexia it was a fatal flaw — she thought for herself. Yawgmoth, the Ineffable, controlled all the sleeper agents, and to have one that was not part of this was very, very dangerous.
Xantcha secretly gained her identity while in Phyrexia
Overseeing Xantcha's group was the Inner Circle member Gix — a mighty Yawgmoth praetor. Xantcha had learned the concepts of gender from her dreams, and when she met Gix - a being who identified as male - she actively chose to identify as female to counterpoint him, another secret act of rebellion. Officially, Gix also gave her another gift, as he used Xantcha as a proper name for her like he used Gix for himself. Xantcha thus had gained both her name and her gender from her first meeting with Gix. Strangely, Gix did not punish her for her repeated rebellions, hinting to her that she had been made in part by special materials. Cues through the story assemble to reveal that the praetor had possibly used some of Mishra's flesh in the vat from which Xantcha was created and that he was the source of her dreams. Gix tried to mind control her to force her to reveal all her secrets to him, but she managed to partially resist this without letting Gix know, and he soon grew bored with her and moved on.[1]
Gix oversaw the launch of the sleeper agents in around 80 AR, but before Xantcha could be assigned her plane, the assignments stopped altogether. The reason for this was that the identical-looking and too-small sleeper agents had been found out by Dominaria's inhabitants and killed off. A new batch of newts was then created and trained, while Xantcha, largely forgotten, waited for an assignment that never came. The second batch of newts were taller than her and did not look the same as each other, with each looking distinctly either female or male. However, when this second batch of newts was to be sent out, it was discovered that the Formation of the Shard of Twelve Worlds had started, closing Phyrexia off from Dominaria. For this oversight, Gix was harshly punished by Yawgmoth with a grand display that Xantcha personally observed.[1]
Travel with Urza[ | ]
Xantcha receiving healing in Serra's Realm
Xantcha became traitorous to her people, but continued working with them as Orman'huzra, a seeker of relics. While her mission was to bring artifacts from various worlds back to Phyrexia, she usurped her role by destroying or booby trapping the artifacts instead. Her treachery was eventually discovered while out on an unnamed plane, where she was spotted by the planeswalker Urza. Urza had tried to get revenge on the Phyrexians for centuries for assimilating his brother, but he could not find their plane. When he saw the seemingly human Xantcha about to be killed by the Phyrexian monstrosities, Urza intervened. He rescued Xantcha from her executioners and, in return, Xantcha told Urza how to get to Phyrexia.
Over the next centuries, Urza assembled an eight-legged dragon engine, and after discovering the Phyrexians having returned to the world where Urza had resued her, Xantcha alerted Urza to their presence. Urza attacked, and followed the fleeing Phyrexians to their home plane, starting Urza's Assault on Phyrexia. However, Urza had seriously underestimated the might of Phyrexia. After breaching the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Spheres, Urza was halted by the Phyrexian forces, and his mind was assaulted by Yawgmoth. Xantcha had gone to the Fane of Flesh and gained her life matrix, a device she called her "heart", and returned to find that Urza's dragon engine had collapsed and Urza was under direct attack. She climbed into the engine's cockpit and shook him from his stupor, and as Urza was about to collapse, he planeswalked them away to safety.
They fled from plane to plane, eventually settling on Moag. For several decades, they were at peace, but then Xantcha discovered glistening oil in a fire god's temple on the southern continent. Urza blasted the temple, destroying most of the Phyrexians, and then went on to planeswalk across several planes for almost two centuries.
The two went to Serra's Realm. There, the planeswalker Serra used her white-mana magic to heal Urza at the risk of her own life. Xantcha slowly recovered with Serra's medicines, as white mana would have killed her. Five years later, Urza was physically healed. Phyrexian forces had tracked down Urza to Serra's realm to destroy him for his attack on Phyrexia. Urza and Xantcha planeswalked to Dominaria, escaping the destruction.
Sacrifice[ | ]
Gix and Xantcha facing off against each other
Urza and Xantcha lived on Dominaria but Urza was going insane from having Yawgmoth reaching into his mind. She found a slave that looked like Mishra (named Ratepe) and paid for his freedom. She sent him to Urza and together, they began to help Urza become sane once more. All went well until Xantcha detected sleeper agents in two small cities starting a small war. Urza created "screaming spider" artifacts which sent very high sound waves that humans couldn't hear but were deafening loud to sleeper agents. As Xantcha started planting these around the sleeper agent-infested cities, she went into a crypt where she discovered the praetor Gix.
Gix went to Koilos and waited for Urza. Urza followed the praetor and they fought to the death. At first, it seemed as though neither could win. Then, Gix was gaining the upper hand in the battle. Xantcha and Ratepe knew what they had to do if Urza was to survive and Dominaria was to stand a slim chance of surviving Phyrexia's invasion—they had to sacrifice themselves, and so they did. The disruption made Gix pause and gave Urza the chance to defeat him. Xantcha and Ratepe may have been killed by saving the planeswalker, but they will always be remembered.
Urza would later use Xantcha's Phyrexian Heartstone as the personality core for his silver golem Karn.[3]
Simulacrum[ | ]
In 4562 AR, Jodah opened the Starfield Orb left by Urza. This orb contained a pocket dimension of the cabin Xantcha and Urza had stayed in on Gulmany. It contained numerous plans of Urza's, a myriad of copies of The Antiquities War, and constructs of Xantcha and Mishra, who greeted Jodah.[4]
Story appearances[ | ]
| Title | Author | Publishing date | Set | Setting (plane) | Featuring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planeswalker | Lynn Abbey | September 1998 | Urza's Saga | Dominaria, Phyrexia, Serra's Realm, Equilor, Vatraquaz, Moag, Gastal | Urza, Meshuvel, Xantcha, Gix, Serra, Ratepe, Manatarqua, Varratsu |
| Forgotten Lore: The Sleeper Agent Awakens | Scott McGough | November 1998 | Urza's Saga | Dominaria | Urza, Xantcha, Gix |
| From the Ground Up & Postcards From Urza | Scott McGough | December 1998 | Urza's Saga | Dominaria, Phyrexia, Serra's Realm | Urza, Mishra, Titania, Xantcha, Serra |
Planes visited[ | ]
Though not a planeswalker, Xantcha traveled through the Multiverse as Urza's companion.
Trivia[ | ]
- Because she chose her gender despite being created as a genderless newt, Xantcha is generally considered Magic's first transgender character.[5]
- Xantcha's age is mentioned as being "just a few years" and "no more than seven decades" younger than Urza. She had been alive for years by the time of the failed launch of her pod, which was explicitly stated as happening a couple of decades after the Brothers' War, c. 85 AR. With Mishra dying in 63/64 AR, and his dead flesh having been used in her creation, these events all line up and place Xantcha's "birth" at around 65 AR. However, the same source later says she was almost 600 years old at the time of Urza's Assault on Phyrexia, but this impossible given the timeline printed the same source, which lists her meeting Urza as happening c. 1800 AR. Thus, either the timeline or her mention of her age at this time must be wrong.[1]
In-game references[ | ]
- Represented in:
- Depicted in:
- Quoted or referred to:
References[ | ]
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Lynn Abbey (1998). Magic: The Gathering - Planeswalker. Wizards of the Coast
- ↑ Commander 2018 blurbs
- ↑ J. Robert King (1999). Time Streams. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Reinhardt Suarez (October 24, 2022). "The Brothers' War - Chapter 2: Antiquities". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Jay Annelli (June 4, 2024). "She is generally accepted as Magic’s first trans character". Twitter.