Yawgmoth, known as the "Father of Machines" and called the Ineffable by his underlings, is a fictional being from Magic, The Gathering, and is the unabated god of the plane of Phyrexia, a universe of untold corruption and mechanical monstrosity. He wields nearly unlimited magical might and commands infinite hordes of twisted creatures known as Phyrexians. Yawgmoth and the Phyrexians are the ever-present evil, opposed by a wide range of beings, both mortal and otherwise. The greatest concentration of information on Yawgmoth's origin and early life is chronicled in The Thran. Yawgmoth is a kind of medical genius, more concerned with proving his methods and theories than actually curing the illnesses he is called upon to remedy. He was the main antagonist throughout most of the original Magic, The Gathering sets until his death in the expansion Apocalypse.
Contents |
Yawgmoth was born a normal thran on the world of Dominaria during the reign of the technologically advanced Thran empire, about 5000 years before the birth of the inventor Urza. He was banished for his unorthodox beliefs regarding diseases and healing, but returned to the capital city of Halcyon to treat Glacian, the renowned engineer and inventor, who was suffering from an unknown illness after being attacked by an exiled leper named Gix. Though Yawgmoth was by trade & profession a medic, his ways went towards an unnatural fascination with the mechanics of the body. This fascination led to experiments with plagues and poisons, several of which caused widespread death among the various races that he had visited. Yawgmoth's obsessions would later become a kind of bio-mechanical religion, phyresis, mirrored in the metal realm of Phyrexia.
Yawgmoth was successful, however, in diagnosing the cause of Glacian's ailment; radiation from the numerous magic-charged powerstones that fuel the might of the Thran empire. Glacian was especially affected by the ailment because he managed the facility that produced them, and had been stabbed with a powerstone fragment when his facility was attacked by a mob of rejects of society known as Untouchables. These Untouchables were themselves severely affected by the sickness that Yawgmoth had discovered, which is why they had been exiled to the caverns beneath the city. Yawgmoth then used his knowledge and healing skills as a means to dominate the people of the empire, on the promise of curing the illness he dubbed phthisis.
Though for the most part he is detached from the gentler emotions, when called upon to heal the Thran genius Glacian he became enamoured of Glacian's wife Rebbec. His charm and generosity in caring for her husband and advancing the interests of the empire won her over. She was somewhat blinded from seeing the dark truth about him and his intentions for her and the empire. Not until the end did she discover that Yawgmoth was actually slowly killing Glacian by drawing his soul and essence into a powerstone implanted in his withered body.
Yawgmoth learned about other planes of existence from Dyfed, a powerful wizard known as a planeswalker. Dyfed took Yawgmoth to a living mechanical plane that was diminishing due to the death of its creator, an ancient dragon and planeswalker. Under her guidance, Yawgmoth bonded with the plane and made it his. After learning all he could from Dyfed, Yawgmoth used his twisted technology to subdue her and gave her to his scientists to study. Her living brain and body were carefully dissected, but Yawgmoth was not able to steal her ability to traverse the planes. But despite his lack of the special planeswalking ability, he was confident that he would eventually be able to spread his sinister religion across the multiverse.
Yawgmoth built upon the newfound world and renamed it Phyrexia, the ultimate incarnation of his vision of phyresis. Using the magical resources of this world, his research expanded and he built an army of once-human warriors, twisted and warped into purely lethal monsters.
Yawgmoth would return to Dominaria after establishing Phyrexia to launch a campaign of revenge against the Thran empire. Motivated mostly by the acquisition of power, Yawgmoth sought to encompass all of Dominaria in his grasp and convert it to his will. The ensuing conflict would become known as the Thran-Phyrexian war, and would rage across the known world.
Yawgmoth's eventual defeat came with the sealing of both himself and his followers in Phyrexia, at the climax of hostilities between his followers and the people of Dominaria. Using the powerstone containing Glacian's soul, Rebbec closed the portal between Dominaria and Phyrexia to prevent Yawgmoth from achieving his goal of dominating his homeworld. Yawgmoth's philosophy became more and more bent on the enhancement of the human body in his exile, and he became obsessed with using mechanical means to strengthen the human biostructure. He explored the depths of his new powers, and the depths of his own depravity, using his followers as guinea pigs. The Phyrexians, as they were called, became more rusting machine and monster than human, and the Phyrexian religion, dedicated to the worshiping of Yawgmoth and his concept of "grand evolution", effaced any traces of humanity within the realm. The flesh was seen as a form of mortal frailty, merely a starting point, and in the process of "evolving" a Phyrexian became more and more mechanized, more and more deadly.
Yawgmoth then lived in the Ninth Sphere of Phyrexia for 9205 years, methodically fusing himself with the plane. Still bent on avenging himself upon Dominaria, Yawgmoth engineered vast armies of Phyrexians - perfect war machines grown in flesh vats and sculpted into unspeakable abominations - and planned his invasion and eventual return to Dominaria.
The powerstone sealing the gate to Dominaria would be later broken by the artificers Urza and Mishra in The Brothers' War, leaving the portal open for Yawgmoth's long awaited attack.
The war between Urza and Mishra was the catalyst for Yawgmoth's release. The brothers fought over Glacian's powerstone, and it split in two, allowing some of Phyrexia's evil to seep back into Dominaria by removing the seal safe-guarding Dominaria. Mishra, seduced by Yawgmoth's magnificent machines and constructs, aligned himself with Yawgmoth in order to strengthen the attack capabilities of his nation and gain supremacy against Urza. The war, after mass exhaustion of resources by both factions, eventually ended in the destruction of the island Argoth by an explosion caused by an artifact called the Golgothian Sylex. The two halves of the powerstone replaced Urza's eyes and he became a planeswalker. Even after his victory over Mishra, Urza would forever blame Yawgmoth for his brother's corruption and would become the greatest foe of Phyrexia. Mishra, mistaken for dead, continued to live in suffering in Yawgmoth's 7th sphere.
Urza, now a planeswalker himself, would become the greatest force in opposition of Yawgmoth's planned invasion, and over the course of four millennia he would frustrate and ultimately defeat Yawgmoth's plans of domination.
Urza crafted a set of artifacts known as the Legacy to combat Yawgmoth. These were created with various powers and abilities and were designed to evolve into a powerful force for Dominaria's defense. He also manipulated the bloodlines of several Dominarian warrior nations to create his champion, Gerrard Capashen.
After ages of long preparation, Yawgmoth sent legions of his Phyrexians into the plane of Dominaria, and the human defenders could do little to hold them back. The crew of the airship Weatherlight joined in to defend Dominaria, and closed a portal linking Phyrexia and Dominaria. This, however, was only phase one of Yawgmoth's plan. The next step was to cause the artificial plane of Rath to overlap Dominaria, combining the two worlds and bringing millions of Phyrexians from Rath to Dominaria, an instant invasion. The second stage of the Invasion caused major losses for the Dominarian defenders. Worse yet, Dominaria lost its two most powerful and effective defenders to Yawgmoth's evil deception. At a crucial point the hero of the war, Gerrard Capashen (leader of the Weatherlight crew), pledged himself to Yawgmoth in order to restore life to his fallen love, Hanna. Urza Planeswalker, driven mad by the dark glory of Phyrexia, also pledged himself to the Phyrexian god in his delirious state.
Yawgmoth amused himself by forcing the two former allies to fight to the death. Gerrard eventually defeated (and decapitated) Urza, but broke free of Yawgmoth's control and escaped back to the Weatherlight with the severed but still living head of his planeswalker mentor. He then prepared his crew for one final charge against Yawgmoth.
Yawgmoth arrived in Dominaria in godlike form, as a corrupting cloud of black magic that killed millions and brought untold numbers of the rotting dead back into life. Beset from all sides, Urza and the Weatherlight crew hatched a desperate plan: harvest the white magic energy that the artificial satellite known as the Null Moon had collected for millennia, and focus it through the Weatherlight's weapons, pure white magic against pure black magic. The Null Moon's mana injured Yawgmoth, but was not enough to finish him off.
The only option left to the crew of the Weatherlight was to unlock the full potential of the artifacts of the Legacy, primarily Urza's powerstone eyes which contained Glacian's soul, Gerrard himself, bred to be the ultimate warrior, the Weatherlight, and the silver golem Karn. The result was an explosion that rivaled the one that ended the brothers' war. The blast annihilated Yawgmoth and infused all the Legacy artifacts with Urza's life force, turning Karn into a planeswalker. Despite tragic losses, and the sacrifice of great heroes, Dominaria was saved.
In later times, rumors lingered regarding whether Yawgmoth was truly gone. With Phyrexia in ruins and Yawgmoth's energies scattered across the planes, his survival doesn't seem likely...but nothing is impossible where this dark god is concerned. The goddess Karona briefly made contact with a force claiming to be the remnant of Yawgmoth, but the circumstances make it impossible to be certain. However Karona's visions have been ret-coned as non-canon, and as of the expansion "New Phyrexia" Yawgmoth is still nowhere to be found, despite the re-emergence of the Phyrexians, and is at this point assumed dead.