Ask Jay

How canonical the Untold Stories cycle actually is? The Jace’s seriers has some strange stuff going on…

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 06:40:56 -0400

They’re all canon

Hi Jay! How you’re doing? Are the gods theros as good as shapeshifting as the greek gods who inspired them?

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:35:29 -0400

They can shapeshift, in both size and form, yes.

Is Mica named after the mineral, or it’s just a coincidence? :)

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:01:27 -0400

Likely intentional

Hello Jay! 👋 The size of a plane has been discussed in the lore several times now. For example, Theros is said to be only as large as a single continent, and Zhalfir is only as big as its eponymous landmass. My question is, what happens if one were to hit the “edge” of these planes? Do they always loop back around like a spherical planet? Is there some sort of magic wall at the edge of the world? Or am I just misunderstanding the nature of all this?

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:43:25 -0400

It varies. Many of them it’ll never come up, others are spheres, Theros you can fall off into nothing.

>> “Venser was the first “Post”-Mending planeswalker” – but his case (and Radha’s) was kinda unique; they were born before the Mending, their Sparks affected by the rifts. Meanwhile, all the post-Mending PWs are as they are because Jeska desided to make them so while closing the Otarian rift with the power of Karona.

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:52:26 -0400

This is what the quotations were intended to denote.

In the end, they were all the same kind of planeswalker, even if Venser's route was unique.

Radha was never a planeswalker, she had a spark but it never ignited for her like Venser's did. She and Glissa share that distinction of being main characters with the potential but never planeswalking themselves.

So, as far as I get it, there’re three kinds of Planeswalker: the old-walkers (immortal, powerful, basically gods), the post-mending-walkers (mere mortal mages able to walk the planes), and Venser, who was “the first of a new breed of Planeswalker” and should be something in between, as he was clearly not a god, but somehow managed to live for about 60 years and hasn’t aged a month. Am I correct?

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 17:17:31 -0400

Venser was the first “Post”-Mending planeswalker. What happened to him is what happened to everyone else after.

Wizards on Dominaria can just live long pretty easy. Maybe he got some of that time water. Maybe it was a continuity error they just went with.

Regarding Phyrexian spirits, were the Pneumagogs not compleated then?

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 22:23:23 -0400

Pneumagogs were a weird thing on Phyrexia but notably physical on the upper spheres.

When spirits are compleated, do they get tangible mechanical body? Or are they still intangible with mechanical appearance? (examples: “Moira and Teshar” from MOC #0007, “Ugin, the Ineffable” from SLD #1243)

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:09:32 -0400

Urborg spirits are just more tangible, I think. I'm not sure we've gotten a full explanation of that one.

The Ugin card is just a what-if, and Ugin isn't a literal spirit as in a ghost. He's just got an ethereal vibe.

Given the bio in the “Legends of…” article, should Dellian be consiedered an undead?

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 21:29:57 -0400

The implication certainly feels like he’s a well preserved lich but unfortunately we don’t have any more info to confirm yet.

What is “Drix” (the creature type from EOE) named after? Are they related to “Adrix and Nev”, “Kezzerdrix”, “Shardrix Silverquill”, “Tanazir Quandrix”, or “Vizzerdrix”?

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:06:08 -0400

They are unrelated to all of those things. While the edge echoes the multiverse not everything there is a parallel.

Was what happened to Shadowspear/New Khrusor ever addressed? In articles, cards, “word of god”, anything? I picked up the last issue of Untold Stories: Elspeth today mildly hoping that little mystery would be solved, but its last appearance was just lying on the ground next to Elspeth. No one is seen picking it up, there’s no panel of it crumbling to dust or disappearing. It’s just left on the ground, not shown in the background afterwards, and she just planeswalks away without it.

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:47:45 -0400

She left it behind. It's not really a mystery, it just stopped being relevant.

Where does the food in New Capenna come from?

Sun, 31 May 2026 21:09:43 -0400

Implication is There’s a lot of gardens and green spaces throughout the city. Massive greenhouses with Druidic Magic, livestock and animals shrunk down. See: Jetmir’s Garden, Rumor Gatherer.

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.