The Fall of Elspeth

~
Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

We had provided a summary and review of the latest Magic: the Gathering eBook 'Journey Into Nyx, Godsend Part II' by Jenna Helland in this post here.  What we attempted was to avoid speaking about any major spoilers until the community at large had an opportunity to give this book a read.  Given all the attention on various forums and blogs, we think it safe to yatter about this now, so if you had not read Godsend yet, avert thine eyes now.

In summary, it appears that everyone's favourite planeswalker, Elspeth, met a sticky end on the plane of Theros with Erebos, God of the Dead claiming Elspeth's soul.  We suggest you may be well served by having a look at the 'Stinger' video posted by WotC which shows all Three Theros Block Trailers, with Additional Content at the end.  This Journey into Nyx video now shows some additional memories from Elspeth’s life, before she was killed by Heliod and claimed by Erebos. And there’s a short “stinger” after the Journey video that confirms Elspeth’s presence in Theros’s Underworld.  What we see is quite clearly Elspeth's weapon 'Godsend' had been fashioned into a funerary death mask which the Returned use in their afterlife.

Doug Meyer who has the popular Voice for Vorthos on Tumblr had this to say -

Like other mortals who die on Theros, she went to the Underworld, where she will reside for eternity unless she’s able to find some way out. She’s unable to planeswalk out of there, sort of in the same way she wasn’t able to planeswalk directly into Nyx — those realms have special properties that are not travel-able by planeswalking. Elspeth will have to find some other way out of the Underworld if she ever wants to planeswalk again someday.

The conclusion of the Journey into Nyx stinger shows a mask with two gems, similar to the shape of Elspeth’s sword / Godsend weapon. So Elspeth’s Returned mask is indeed forged — but she isn’t wearing it. Escaping the Underworld as a Returned, at the cost of her identity, is an option that may be open to her, but obviously it’s not a very palatable one.

As we now conclude the Theros story, Elspeth retains her identity along with the other deceased in the Underworld, in the clutches of Erebos.

~
The cliffhanger here really is that we see the death mask but not Elspeth.  Some speculate on the words from Erebos within the stinger video 'true heroes never die', which is followed by a nearly inaudible whisper 'or do they?'.  We think that this may not be the end of Elspeth just yet, and similar to that of the Angel Avacyn (on the plane of Innistrad), she emerges her former self but tainted from her sequestration.

Anywhoos, all very good fodder for speculation.  We'll wrap up with some very cool artwork from Peter Mohrbacher illustrating some alternate death masks for Elspeth.  Singles from the Theros block are available from MTG Mint Card to help supplement your love of the game's storyline.

~