Ask Jay

How old is Lilliana? I remember her contract with the demons was at least in part to make her young again if I remember correctly, and as that might have prevented aging I imagine that might have been a long time ago. Especially since Griselbrand was one of the demons right? So she would have had to do that pre Griselbrand imprisonment? Is Liliana pre-mending? HOW OLD IS SHE?????

Wed, 27 May 2026 15:16:25 -0400

She’s over 200.

Wait so Phyrexia was created by a unnamed Dragon Planeswalker, then Yawgmoth found it’s corpse, went nuts about it, then turned Phyrexia into what it became? If so, what was old old phyrexia like? And what do we know about that dragon?

Wed, 27 May 2026 15:16:09 -0400

A planeswalker in dragon form, not necessarily a dragon. We know nothing about it other than they created the plane that would become known as Phyrexia and invented stuff like the dragon engines and other artificial life.

Do you think we’ll ever see another larger time lapse in Magic fiction? Even if it isn’t centuries - say, ten or twenty years. I have, at times, thought that would benefit the stories.

Wed, 27 May 2026 15:08:21 -0400

It is always possible.

Following up on your answer about the glistening oil being nanomachines. Was it always the case, like even back with yawgmoth? Or is that something unique to new phyrexia. And assuming the former, what’s the over-under that phyrexia started off as a runaway tech made by the fumori?

Tue, 26 May 2026 09:45:45 -0400

That was an old Phyrexia thing. The “infectious” nature of the oil was New Phyrexia lore added for their version of it.

The glistening oil was originally created by a planeswalker in dragon form who also created old Phyrexia and died before Yawgmoth found it.

Hello! In the EoE story, the characters use Weft Travel, which I found quite clever. However, the mechanic is Warp, the opposite of Weft. Why is that? Does this suggest that the Edge at least has 5 dimensions in space and two in time?

Tue, 26 May 2026 09:41:36 -0400

I think warp was just a more resonant name that could be reused in the future.

aceofmoxes:

Do you mean that the mechanic Warp represents the flavor of Weft? Because those two words are opposites. Why would you name a mechanic for the opposite action?

I think that might be too literal a read of “opposites” here. They’re not antonyms, they’re two elements of weaving. Technically the weft moves through the warp, but it’s a term that works for both the flavor of “lightspeed” and the weaving flavor of weftwalking.

Howdy, VorthosJay- In the Invasion novels, there is glistening/ Phyrexian oil all over the place, and it’s just oil. When did they distinction get made that there is just regular “car oil” in Phyrexian creations and “magic oil” with some kind of conversion power? I have assumed it was a retcon since Mirrodin block, seeing as, again, spilling oil from the Weatherlight crew in battle was frequent. Thank you, have a great day tomorrow and everyday!

Mon, 25 May 2026 22:58:52 -0400

Phyrexian Oil is shown to have almost an intelligence of its own and a distinct “scent” pretty early on. It’s also hinted to be nanomachines early on. There is also just regular machine oil, iirc, but it’s all sort of conflated because the distinction wasn’t relevant.

The idea of it as an infection began with the first Mirrodin novel, true. But it’s also indicated to be a distinct type of oil, the stuff left behind on Dominaria and perhaps Capenna was different.

Hello! In the EoE story, the characters use Weft Travel, which I found quite clever. However, the mechanic is Warp, the opposite of Weft. Why is that? Does this suggest that the Edge at least has 5 dimensions in space and two in time?

Mon, 25 May 2026 22:41:43 -0400

I think warp was just a more resonant name that could be reused in the future.

Hey Jay, what is your favorite non-planeswalker character today, and what is something you particularly like about them?

Mon, 25 May 2026 22:40:15 -0400

Zacama, the beautiful love child of Godzilla and King Ghidora

Jodah, who is the antithesis of what oldwalkers were, using his power to protect the people overlooked in the name of the greater good.

Krenko, a legitimate businessman and pillar of the community.

Hello, Jay! Is there a canonical version of the M15/Duels of the Planeswalkers story? Like, we know that Garruk went nuts and nearly became a demon-beast and got the Ob Nixilis’s hedron implanted in his body, but who exactly did that? Jace? Some unnamed planeswalker he hired (aka “DotP player”)? The web fiction is kinda vague.

Sun, 24 May 2026 21:35:05 -0400

It was you, obviously.

The answer is no, it was a mystery planeswalker that Jace hired.

Do the secret Rendezvous/Joined Researchers characters have names and any lore?

Sat, 16 May 2026 11:49:02 -0400

Nothing beyond the cards, no

Hi! Do we know what the new cage-like thing Nissa has on her chest is/where it came from? It kind of reminds me of part of her metal cage as a phyrexian if it were more antlery, and I was wondering if that’s intentional.

Wed, 06 May 2026 09:27:50 -0400

Yes, the formerly compleated planeswalkers all kept little visual motifs of their time as Phyrexians as an art direction thing.

Do you know things about Reality Fracture that we the laypeople do not?

Sun, 03 May 2026 19:49:17 -0400

I wrote for the card set and edited the fiction.

Do you think it’s possible for a Theros god to have a Spark?

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:38:11 -0400

Probably not, because we saw Xenagos lose his when ascending. I’m not even sure they can leave. Like Nyxborn stuff can leave, but the gods themselves are primal forces on the plane.

Edit: yea, Doug said years ago he still had it. But we never saw him leave, so we’ll have to wait and see

Have you written somewhere about your feelings on Magic’s portrayal of an Indian inspired plane?

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:56:12 -0400

I love Avishkar but I’m not the person to do detailed thoughts on the portrayal, which does have problems. I married an Indian woman, speak a little Hindi, and have more familiarity with Indian culture than most white people but I’m not an expert and it isn’t my representation.

Shivam Bhatt has done a lot of coverage on it, and was even hired to be a consultant for Aetherdrift and doing some cool stuff for the world. He’s 100% the person whose thoughts you want to see, if you’re looking for thoughtful critique.

Do you know why Archon of Cruelty is an archon rather than a spectre? (Ignoring the name) Mechanically and colour wise it fits spectres much more than archons.

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 06:45:01 -0400

I’m not sure exactly, but it may be that Archons are enforcers of order and Bolas’ brand of order is black.

Any insight on the pronunciation of “Orysa”? Is the Y a long I or a short I? Thanks!

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:04:56 -0400

I’m the last person to come to for pronunciation advice, unfortunately.

Sice we’ve seen Darigazz and Rith in the last Dominaria sets, could we expect the other three Primevals to show up in the future or is any of them permanently gone?

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:04:25 -0400

The nature of the primeval is rebirth, I don’t recall any of their fates being final but Darigaaz is on at least his second reincarnation, and he’s got the ability to kick off their whole cycle again.

I think Crosis was trapped in a tar pit again, and Dromar and Treva’s fate is unknown as they flew away at the end of their story being chased by the other dragons.

Did Dellian Fel spark before or after the Invasion?

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:45:29 -0400

We don’t know, but it would make sense to me for it to be after.

So, Arcane spells, any lore implications with those?

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 18:19:18 -0400

Not really. It’s not super well explained anywhere that I recall.

Mostly it’s implied to be like Kami related or derived magic

Regarding Dominaria years being different from most of the multiverse, is there a reason this can’t be retconned or added to “time missteps fixed in the mending?” What I hear on this topic is that old lore is incompatible with modern lore, and usually that’s something you can fix in a story as fantastic as this one. Can you say anything about the reason not to fix this? I understand if you can’t.

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:49:34 -0400

It's not that any older lore is really incompatible with modern lore, we can more or less make anything work. Let me dive into my own thinking on this kind of thing.

There's just not really a place to address it, even if anyone wanted to. Maybe if some day an author wants to write in-depth conversation about the differences in calendars across the multiverse, I can give them a long note about it, but until that day, it will continue not to matter, really. And if we do address, for no narrative reason, what happens five to ten years down the line when someone does have a really good, plot relevant idea that might deal with it?

Personally, I have somewhere around 400 discrete dates across nine different planar calendars already on my calendar. I'm often tracking things down to the week if relevant (and there was a chunk of time where tracking that granularly mattered). Dealing with one plane's 18% longer year and adjusting everything on the timeline? Logistical nightmare. Especially when there are all sorts of potential explanations for the discrepancy (like you said, the Mending tweaked a bunch of time things). And that number has never been relevant to any Dominarian story that I can think of, or ever addressed again outside of Word of God. Pete Venters did a bunch of math and great map work for how big Dominaria is and how it would work, but I'm still not sure that 420 days wasn't just a weed joke. And he still handwaved how the gravity was earth-like.

What you should understand about fantasy worlds in stories, is that they're not actually trying to build a realistic alternate world, just give you enough that your brain interprets it as one. Similar to maps and languages, when you get that granular it can start to take over the story. Sometimes too much realism is bad for stories.