What are the Eldrazi? | Magic Arcanum 

Thanks Nicole Bolas!

the spaghetti monster in the moon is planning to sell a future set by bringing the eldrazi back

Nahiri "calling Sorin out" is a bit of an understatement. She attacked him because he refused to fulfill his oath and he was belittling her powers. He imprisoned her for attacking him. He could have just killed her.

It's likely that the Eldrazi work to recycle dying or dead planes. Ulamog appears first to take the magic out of the land and life, Kozilek distorts the remaining land and magic, and Emrakul uses this distorted magic to create new life. Emrakul likely realized that she was only distorting life, instead of creating it on the plane of Innistrad, hence why she decided to imprison herself. This makes the feud between Bolas and Ugin even more interesting, as Bolas could have simply been trying to release the Eldrazi to start up the recycling of dead planes once again.

Definitely need to make more, Nicole make him do more

If you pour over the details, the conclusion seems to lie in the fact that the three Titans in unison are world shapers. Ulamog tears up the mana of the plane, Kozilek uses that mana to reshape the landscape of said plane, and Emrakul manipulates and breathes "life" into the blank slate. This is extremely simplified Emrakul likely imprisoned herself in the Moon of Innistrad because she knew she couldn't complete her job without the other two Titans.

15:40 in a video that goes into this in more detail, (don't remember the channel) jace is put into a kind-off dream land by emrakul. he goes trough a bunch of differant rooms where he meets the other members of the gatewatch in some parrel jada-jada. in the last room, he finds emrakul. not in her usual form, but as a stone angel. emrakul wants to play chess. she sucks at the game and jace beats her easily. but once jace get's checkmate, the piches start moving on their own and start killing jace's pieces by tearing them apart. jace says something along the lines of "what the hell" and emrakul says: *"they were always my pieces jace, but right now i don't want to play anymore."* and once i heard that emrakul became my favourite character in mtg.

That pond analogy was brilliant

Thank you Nicole

Wait wait wait hold on. Jace didn't ignore Ugin's plan to re-capture the Eldrazi. He, along with the rest of the Gatewatch, actually managed it! Until Ob Nixilis showed up and ruined everything in order to regain his spark. It was only after the entire hedron network was ruined and Kozilek was summoned from the depths of Zendikar or wherever that Jace and crew decided to go with plan B: lots of fire. So don't blame Jace, he recognized that Ugin was way smarter than him and tried to be a good good boy, but things went pear shaped and the Gatewatch had to improvise

All I know about the eldrazi is that the "Endless One"s synergize well with my Abzan deck, so I play with 4. I feel like the other, more experienced planeswalkers, look at me like I'm toying with powers I can't understand.

Everyone: "What are the Eldrazi?" Me: "Hungry"

I was expecting you to mention how Emrakul appeared in Nissa's mind during the events on Amonkhet, how she taught Nissa how to use blue mana, if that's a foresight that Emrakul wants to make Nissa a proper vessel for her to possess or something.

I suspect Emrakul is being saved for one of three reasons: 1. A deus ex machina for the inevitable fight against Phyrexia. 2. There is still more to her line on inistraad 3. They are saving her as the eldrazi are cash cows and the next time they lose value she comes back out of the moon

I think you're spot on with the "interplanar reset button" comment. Each of the Eldrazi titans and their brood represent a step in the process of remaking planes. Ulamog is the "ceaseless hunger" and basically wipes everything away, Kozilek as the "great distortion" changes how the nature of the plane works, and we see from Emrakul's influence on the werewolves and the "emerge" creatures in the Eldritch Moon set that making new life is her thing, which also fits into why she's the only Eldrazi titan seen as female, and makes sense of her depiction by the people of Zendikar as "Emeria".

“My assistant Nicole...” Nicole... Nicol Bolas... This guy is Nicol Bolas’ boss!

3:05 I love the use of Ugin's explanation to Jace 11:40 dammit, you knew XD

Liliana's story next? She seems likely to play some primary role in the next set, and it'd be interesting to see some details of all those demons she's linked to

One of my favorite bits of lore about the Eldrazi is the Shrine of the Forsaken Gods

Personally, although I don't know how much the lore supports it, I always really liked the idea that the Titians might be old-walkers, who survived past the common madness of ascended mortals and after aeons, mentally transcended to a point where their thoughts and motives are incomprehensible to mortals, or 'young' immortals. 'If' you think Liliana's not really evil, because she's still trying to think on a timescale where the lives of gods and avatars are as brief as mayflies, then you can't help but wonder what an eternity living with the first hand knowledge, that every plain has finite and relatively brief existence, would do to a mind. I haven't actually read the story, but I have heard one person suggest that because Emrakul seemed to act after finally noticing the Gate-watch's resistance, that she actually held back because they didn't accept her, and that from her perspective, consuming worlds might, in someway, be a way to preserve a part of them against the inevitable entropy of the universe. I'm not really sure how sound those theories are, but the epic-ness of their scale still excites me.

ancient titans. devourer of worlds and mana. ripping apart reality itself. lets burn them with the power of friendship!!!!

Magic Arcanium and Pretty Deece are the only reasons why I’m subscribed to TCGPlayer

I really do hope we get some more Eldrazi the next time there’s an Inistrad set. They’re, in my opinion, the coolest creature type in Magic

Before there was time. There was anything. And before there was anything. There were monsters.

I believe it's worth noting that, according to the WotC stories, the Helvault actually prevented Sorin from hearing the call when the eye was activated. Granted this only has fringe ties to the Eldrazi, who are the focus of this video. Does anyone know which plane the Three we're fleeing FROM before they trapped the Eldrazi on Zendikar? That plane, if we ever visit it, may be the best indicator for the Eldrazi's "plan" (if such a thing exists)

Can you do one about the history of the slivers. Pretty please

It would be so interesting if Eldrazi invade Phyrexia in future expansions

Poor Sorin man, dude just can't catch a break.

The gate watch's plan for the first two titans wasn't just to destroy the avatars on the plane but the things behind those avatars. The part of the plan you missed was that Nissa drew down the true eldrazi onto the plane, to the point where the sky disappeared and was replaced with eldrazi. The plane couldn't take it, literally the plane was buckling under the presence of the two titans. So at the last moment they poured all the power of the plane into Chandra who turned that power into fire and poured pure destruction into a much larger chunk of those two eldrazi than you gave them credit. If attacking the titans is like a fish biting a man's hand causing him to pull it back; this is like the fish pulling the man into the water and then eating his arm and a bit more causing him actual harm. Or at least that's how I understood it. Emrakul on the other hand is just plain creepy above everyone else. But you did miss out both her fight with Liliana and her conversation with Jace. The latter one being where she explains to Jace through chess her power and laments Innistrad not being ready. In the chess game she makes seemingly random moves and Jace wins, only for his pieces to switch sides and defeat his king. When he says that that is cheating and that those are his pieces Emrakul replies "all pieces are my pieces". Which is interesting.

Nicole is just the voice of Emrakul's influence.

There is only one detail you missed about the lock in The Eye of Ugin. In addition to the three Planeswalkers, the colorless breath of Ugin was also needed. When Chandra and Jace found Sarkhan in the Eye, Chandra used a colorless fire spell against him, thereby undoing the lock.

Eldrazi are reapers confirmed.

Planes can actually interact with each other as well as their common habitats can go from one plane to another, but with the certain power of the sorcerer or aura or portal that can be provided. Not only planeswalkers can do that.

TIL: The Eldrazi Titans are glorified janitors. What is their plan? Probably a well earned break before they get back to cleaning up the planes.

You should 100% do a podcast on the history of magic. Quick 15 minute episodes going through the key moments in magic history. One thing about the lore is i dont know where to start! Your descriptions are clear, easy to follow amd fun to listen to! Keep it up

Thank you very much! It is good to see the connection between the cards, never noticed.

These are excellent. Any chance you'd consider one of the following? - The Nephilim - False God Karona - The Weatherlight Saga - The Brothers War - What's going on on New Phyrexia Especially loved the Nicol Bolas chronicles - those multiple, 5-6 minute videos were a great format.

Nicole thanks for getting us those extra content

Please make more videos! Such great content and I'm always excited to see more

Dude as soon as he said Blind Eternities my window flew open. It was most likely the storm outside, but still... that's some creepy shit right there.

Man, I love these videos. Thank you for all of your k owledge

God, I love the fish-in-the-pond analogy. :)

Just found your videos and thank you these. I absolutely love hearing the stories behind the characters and spells I see on the cards and get snippets of in flavor text.

I had totally overlooked what Innistrad's moon was made of in reference to Karn. Thanks for another awesome video!

Imagine having a duel of the ages with gargantuan creatures from other planes that devour souls and destroy land in the blink of an eye... to see who will do the dishes

"Ugin was wise enough to realize they could not defeat the Eldrazi outright" An elf, a Belmont, a nerd, and a hooligan: Are you sure about that?

I love Magic Arcanum. As a new Magic player, this series allows me to learn about the lore and background info on a lot of MTG stuff that I don't know or can't understand well, especially since I don't bother to read from the cards' flavor texts

I really love your fish analogy for the Eldrazi, very well spoken!

Thank you for covering those details. I find the eldrazi arch endlessly fascinating, probly cause I'm a dark souls fan and anything ambiguous af tickles my fancy. I'd like to offer that the eldrazi are likely inspired from eldritch horrors of the lovecraftian persuasion. They seem to function similarly and share some visual aesthetic parallels.

What a great birthday present! Ive been hoping to hear about the eldrazi and ryan is a great storyteller!

I want a series of magic movies, I can’t be the only one who wants this

I like the way you go through the lore and explain potentially esoteric parts of it. Thanks

OMG YES THANK YOU FOR THIS! Eldrazi are my favourite race in mtg and I'd love for wizards to develop more of them. Also i loved your concept on that the eldrazi aren’t completely in any plane. That makes them seem much more terrifying to me (which i love). Can’t wait for another eldrazi themed set. Gonna get so many of those cards then. I bet emrakul is gonna wait out her time (and with the silver moon she’ll basically use it as a cocoon to exist outside of time itself, kinda like the sphere of the daleks in doctor who), wait till some outside help arrives (maybe a contingency plan from some warped creature/object she left on innastrad, or another 4th unknown eldrazi titan arrives etc) and conquer the plane. There is one question I’d love to know tho: why the heck did Nicol bolas let the titans escape when he wants to rule all planes instead of letting them be destroyed? Just how huge is bolas’ ultimate endgame? Does he have some way of controlling the titans hunger to only impact planes he cares nothing for or destroy the gate watch? Keep the vids coming! Thanks Nicole for influencing this vid’s creation!

Emrakul best girl

Thank you Nicole! Thanks for getting this dude to do this!

I love your videos focusing on mtg lore. I especially enjoyed this Eldrazi origin story. I also enjoyed the Modern Horizons Easter egg video mainly because of the history and lore involved. It would be great to see the Urza, Serra, and Yawgmoth stories which were hinted at being their own videos worth of information and entertainment. I am super supportive of these becoming made and would love to see them! Thanks for the awesome videos and keep up the good work 😃👍

Eldrazi are just cute spageti monsters, that feel so lonely that they search through entire worlds by devouring them to find someone who can understand them and be their friend as a 4th Eldrazi, so Emracul has realized that we haven't developed enough to chill with them and it desided to wait to give us time. Work hard, boys and girls and soon we can all become Eldrazi.

Wow this video was great. Good job. In regards to what Emrakul is up to? She's gonna invade another planes 7 blocks from now and will bring with her two new titans that are also evil planeswalkers.

Great job on the channel, Nicole!

Oh shit, this is a great video! The Eldrazi, and Tamiyo, are some of my favourites in Magic, and it's great to learn so much about them. Thanks!

I would like to see more Eldrazi titans in the future. Along with Emrakul, of course.

Thanks Nicole! I play Eldrazi Tron 😈 and the vid was spot on

This was an absolute pleasure to watch!

Huge thanks to everyone who made this video. As a game master, this is huge world building inspiration.

I really like the idea that they are a part of the natural order of the multiverse. Entities that maintain some unknowable cosmic balance.

YEEEESSS I started playing MTG during Eldritch moon so I feel nostalgia for these giant spaghetti aliens *Edit* : 7:42 I want that playmat *Edit* : *HOLY S**** WE MIGHT SEE THE ELDRAZI AGAIN!!!

i am legit binge watching thess stories man this series is so good.

Storytime with Ryan yeah. Honestly though this is certainly one of my most favourite format on Magic story telling... And also the only one I watch and listen but that's not important. 😅 Please keep these coming they are really enjoyable. Thanks🙏

Eldrazi are so cool zendicar is one of my favorite sets. Can you do the ravnica allegiance stories

Reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft

Battle For Zendikar was my first block and I freaking loved the Eldrazi stuff. I know a lot of people hated them for being OP or having weird mechanics but I loved it. I hope they come back one day.

the pond analogy was a great way to explain the scope of the Eldrazi

So, a bit of expansion on the Eldrazi knowledge we have. (A lot of this is conjecture, but based on heavily researched materials I'm highly familiar with). It may not come as a shock to you, but the Eldrazi are based on Lovecraft's cosmic horror (think c'thulhu or nyarlathotep). Now, many people know of this subsection of horror but don't quite grasp it, and to be honest, neither did I until about two or three years ago when I started experiencing the stories myself. See, the key here is that Lovecraftian horror is based on the idea that the thing that's the source of fear, that is behind all the madness, cultists, suicides and monstrosities you see in such stories are being whose plane of existance is so much larger, more vast and elevated than the human one, that trying to understand their motives or action is unfathomable, in fact, simply trying to understand their existance at all drives most people mad. Many cults in the Lovecraft mythos, in fact, operate under the logic "they will come, we can't stop them, but if we help them, maybe they'll kill us before driving everyone mad in horror" (Sounds familiar? The zendikar vampires had a similar logic at one point). Here's the thing tho: Magic has been trying to do this with the eldrazi, although their inspiration on this mythos is looser than most other properties in pop culture (might as well, it's really hard to get cosmic horror right in non written form. If you want a game that does it right, try bloodborne). However, a problem with the eldrazi is that we don't understand them because we lack information, not because their nature feels so alien that they make us grasp how small we are or how little our way of thinking about the universe fits it. Assuming we get a good writing team on the case, my guess is that what we will see once Emrakul resurfaces will be events that directly correlate to her actions in the past very obviously, but in such a way that the logic still makes no sense, while making us thing that such logic indeed makes no sense because we are biologically uncapable of comprehending it, rather through scale or a similar method. I, personally, would be very excited to see a mechanic that messes with that idea (in magic terms it would have to be something that does something really chaotic to the hand and library).

Man this makes me want Eldrazi on Kamigawa

Nicole u are awesome this is the frist thing that has actually talked about them thanks

Once i played a ffa with my friends for the dishes. It was one of the most challenging and fun matches of my life

One might say that the Eldrazi are... the Colorless Out of Space ;)

I wonder if the Eldrazi can eat Bolas. I mean, surely Ugin had the foresight to think they would be useful in the future. At least as useful as Lovecraftian void aliens can be. The main issue I'm considering is why Jace chose to destroy the other titans. If it was so uncharacteristic then maybe something clouded his mind. If Tamiyo can be fully controlled then who's to say something wasn't interfering. Also, if these creatures from beyond the void exist, why would there only be three? Maybe there are more titans in the Blind Eternities. That would certainly create a good bit of turmoil after we move on from bolas as the main antagonist. Clearly the Eldrazi are much older than we imagine. But why would they age if they inhabited a plain for an extended period of time? Why would Emrakul imprison herself in a time capsule? Also, Sorin is still a living statue, maybe he'll be released when the time is right for Emrakul to escape the moon. I love Lovecraft's eldritch horror so I've always enjoyed the Eldrazi. I'm looking forward to the inevitable re-return to Innistad. Not to mention the inevitable return to Zendikar.

Thanks for making this video. I'm kinda new to MTG and it's been a bit overwhelming trying to take everything in. The Eldrazi however caught my attention and have started to make me want to learn more about the plot. Zombie Alien Gods devouring worlds... I'll bite. You've got a new subscriber.

Fraking beautiful I love this lore explanations, thanks!

So just imagine like a big rock and squid in one demonic spaghetti monster.

If you are looking for an episode when nothing major is discussed (more like a filler) I´d like to suggest an episode on mysterious characters. For example: We know a few things about Ashiok, but not much. We know that Marit Lage exists and is able to travel between planes (at least left one) but is there a connection to the eldrazi? (Marit Lage is black so... no?) What is the deal with Ob Nixilis And such characters. Characters that might not fill an episode themselves. A bit like the Christmas Episode :)

I like to thank you so much for helping me learn how to build a deck. You help me by showing and explaining thing I did not understand. So thank you.

thank you so much for these, i could watch this all day. can you please give us Garruks story next? hes one of my favourite characters in the game :D

The "Hedron" is the reference for *Hadron* which is a "force" between the space, That's where Eldrazis came from. ("The Blind Eternities") The Colorless symbol is formed by getting 4 corners from 4 cards together. "the space between cards" In particle physics, a Hadron is a composite particle made of two or more quarks held together by the "Strong Force" in a similar way as molecules are held together by the Electromagnetic Force. Also, do you remember that particle accelerator from 2017? that's what the hedron Network represents, The Hadron Collider This Post explains IRL what Eldrazis are. This game was made by a team of mathematicians... p.s. Tamiyo best u Planeswalker

"Something nice to her in the comments down below" No problem man I can do that. Also, good story

Luv ur ability to bring so much life to the history of Magic. Tyvm.

Thank you Nicole, you are appreciated

Absolutely fantastic video! I see a lot of comments below asking for Liliana's story and I have to agree that would be fantastic! (Maybe do a Garruk and Jace one after since intertwined). Otherwise I'd love to learn more about the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor setting, outside of Innistrad and Ravnica it's easily my favorite setting, loved every archetype in there.... Hoping we can return there someday!

Nicole, thank you for making Ryan doing a video on the Eldrazi. My belief is this, Emrakul is going to chill in the moon until she can be at full power. She will then go back in time to slightly before Kozilek and Ulamog get taken out on Zendikar. With all of them free to roam she will take them back to the moon in Innistrad. Then once all three are powered up to apocalyptic levels they will head out and him the cosmic plane reset button. The real threat from the blind eternities will emerge (the ones who created the eldrazi) and fashion the planes in there image and eliminate all who go against them. From there the timeline will be unknown and options will be unknown until that time (if MtG lasts that long). Side note: yes I think about this way too much and have all too much time to be wasting on this, but i will say this, magic theories are one of my favorite past times.

I think Eldrazi is a really cool concept of monsters adapted from Lovecraftian horror of the unknown cosmic horrors. Love both of them.

Hi ryan! Im new at mtg story and I'm really enjoying your videos! But could you talk about the basic stuff? Like, who are the guardians, what do they do, and things like that!

Thanks nicole!

It would be great if you could list the source material so we can read the full story.

When I read the Jace story in Eldritch Moon, where he communicates with Emrakul (sort of, in a small way that his mind can grasp), we come across this quote: "Life! Life is the answer! Relentless life." This, combined with the ways the three titans change the world around them, led to a cool theory: The Eldrazi titans are trying to survive entropy itself. Ulamog consumes everything. It bloats and gorges, and hopes to save up enough energy to weather all things. Kozilek warps and changes things into impossible forms, in an effort to find some solution to heat death, some material or arrangement that cannot wither. Emrakul mutates and imbues life. Everything Emrakul touches grows, flourishes, and mutates. It may not be the type of life they were used to, but clearly the best kind according to Emrakul. By injecting life into all things, Emrakul hopes to stave off entropy indefinately. It fits with the alien mindset. It makes them more than just mindless monsters. They are just beings that act and think on a bigger scale than us. Like how humans can care about climate change while a fly wouldn't. They are the humans to our flies.

These videos are great! I look forward to the Eldrazi coming back but I do hope we visit some more planes first like Tarkir or a new plane.

Keep pushing him Nicole!

In my opinion, except for Nicol Bolas himself, the Eldrazi are the most dangerous creatures to exist in the Magic Universe. I am very eager to see what magic has planned next for the Eldrazi and Emrakul in particular. Me and a few friends of mine have been brainstorming and think that somehow, Emrakul will show back up as a 5 color monstrosity(blame George for leading the charge on our discussion, loves 5 color commanders) which, given that the eldrazi having some colors in Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch, that theory isn't so far fetched. Silver Moon, is she abosrbing power? Time travel? Will we see more Eldrazi titans? The 3 are the only ones we know of, the blind eternities, much the black space between galaxies IRL, is, as far as we know, possibly infinite. More titans I am totally up for. Any opinions?

This was fun. Thanks Nicole.