- “Brackish water, dark and blind “Heed my will, to you I bind.”—Opening passage of Leshrac's Rite
Leshrac, also known as "The Walker of Night" or simply Nightwalker, was a planeswalker trapped inside the Shard during the Ice Age.
Plot[]
Demon. Anarchist. Chaos through evil. All these easily spring to mind when a citizen of the plane of Dominaria hears the name of Leshrac. Incredibly ancient and powerful, Leshrac has taken on the mantle of Walker of the Night for good reason. Indeed, it seems as though Leshrac has complete mastery over all the evils of the multiverse. It is uncertain in what time period Leshrac was born, merely that he rose to power as a powerful planeswalker sometime before the beginning of the Ice Age. Leshrac specializes in manipulation, twisting the fates of those evil or foolish enough to do his bidding. Leshrac was somewhere in the Shard of Twelve Worlds during the conclusion of the Brothers’ War.
After the cataclysmic conclusion of the war, Leshrac found himself unable to leave the prison that these twelve worlds had become. It looked as though he would have to find new playthings to solve this problem for him. Leshrac first made his presence known to a lone soldier in the service of Marton Stromgald’s division of the army of Kjeldor, the most powerful nation in the frozen wasteland that Terisiare had become. Sensing a growing dark power emanating from the young soldier, Leshrac began to investigate the source of his newfound strength, gathering only that his power was being derived from a blood-red ring. Leshrac would have perhaps lost interest in this strange man’s necromantic powers had not an even more powerful planeswalker not confronted him directly.
It appeared as though Tevesh Szat had plans for this new toy, as well. Leshrac appeared before Szat and the powerful human and made a bargain. With Leshrac and Szat keeping the other planeswalkers from interfering with the human’s plans, he could ravage the land with hordes of the undead. It is unknown exactly what use Leshrac would have gained from the destruction of the human lands of Terisiare, but Leshrac was never one to turn down death on a massive scale. Together Leshrac, Szat, and the new necromancer sealed an unholy trinity that would plague Terisiare for hundreds of years.
More than this, the young necromancer would become a household name that was spoken only in daylight for fear of his minions visiting in the night. Lim-Dûl was reborn on this day. Lim-Dûl began to raise the fallen dead on a massive scale, establishing a fortress in the former monastery of the priests of the machine god Gix. Renaming the fortress Tresserhorn and polluting the Ronom Lake to the point of making it a powerhouse of black mana, Lim-Dûl slowly began to increase in notoriety throughout the battered kingdoms of Kjeld, Krov, and Soldev.
Indeed, it appeared as though there was no stopping Lim-Dûl, for every time a warrior in the service of one of these three nations died, he rose again moaning Lim-Dûl’s praises. Leshrac’s glee grew day by day as the annoying humans that permeated this land were slowly becoming extinct. “Will not the mountains quake and the hills melt at the coming of the darkness? Share this vision with your enemies, Lim-Dûl, and they shall wither.” Leshrac continued to manipulate Lim-Dûl to his dark needs. Tevesh Szat had gone missing, possibly locked beneath the sea in a prison of ice. One day, Leshrac found Lim-Dûl meddling with the affairs of Jodah, an incredibly powerful wizard even more ancient than Lim-Dûl himself. Lim-Dûl failed in controlling Jodah, however, and soon called Leshrac to destroy the ancient being.
Leshrac grew tired of Lim-Dûl’s failures, and, instead of personally attending to the duty, sent his minions after Jodah. Jodah then summoned Freyalise to escape Tresserhorn, making Leshrac so furious that he altered Lim-Dûl’s physical form by giving him horns and fangs. “I know you, Lim-Dûl, know you from the base of your spine to your hollow heart. I know your secrets and the shadows that you think will protect you. Know this, fleshworm—I can peel you apart at a whim and cast the center of your being away. But you’re more fun alive like this. You’re a fleshworm, but you’re my fleshworm, and you will find what I seek. You are my best toy, beast. But you presume much, and I get bored with my toys. Risk my displeasure and welcome more of the same.”
Leshrac probably would have continued Lim-Dûl’s mutilations, had not Freyalise appeared. Another incredibly powerful planeswalker, Freyalise was the deity of the forest of Fyndhorn. Freyalise invited both Leshrac and Tevesh Szat to attend a meeting of planeswalkers upon the Null Moon. Leshrac and Szat were perplexed by an invitation from Szat’s most hated enemy, but agreed to join … and perhaps entertain themselves in the only way they knew how. Leshrac and Szat arrived at the Null Moon to find a gathering of the most powerful planeswalkers of the land. Gathered there was Faralyn, another planeswalker with nothing but evil intentions for the multiverse. Included among the crowd were Taysir and his lover Kristina. Taysir was the oldest planeswalker any of the others had ever met, older perhaps than Dominaria itself.
Kristina was not nearly as ancient, but had been with Taysir for some time, searching through the twelve worlds Shard in order to find some means of escape. Near Taysir stood the Elder Dragon Rhuell. Last of the assembled was Ravidel, a student of Faralyn’s with noble intentions. At the meeting, Freyalise discussed the growing concern that several planeswalkers had about the Shard and the lowering temperatures of Dominaria. Those who did not know learned that day that Dominaria was in an Ice Age that would continue until the Shard of Twelve Worlds was destroyed. Also, Freyalise had devised a plan to harness the power of Shandalar, an unstable plane that would arrive near Dominaria soon. This plan would allow the presence of Shandalar to cause the destruction of the Shard of Twelve Worlds, ending the imprisonment of the planeswalkers. However, bad blood began to boil between the near-god planeswalkers and fighting soon broke out. Leshrac and Tevesh Szat stayed close to one another, eventually slaying Rhuell and Ravidel.
After their deaths, however, the planeswalkers sensed their life-force energies being used to empower a growing dimensional flux. Faralyn has used his incredible powers to create a temporary gateway to escape from the Shard. Enraged, Leshrac followed. Day by day, Lim-Dûl’s powers grew to the point that he stood at the final battle for control of Terisiare. Unfortunately, Jodah had raised a formidable army consisting of the nation of Kjeld and the nearby barbarians of the Balduvian Mountains. Lim-Dûl fought Jodah in the climax of the war, losing his hand and his powerful ring. However, it appeared Freyalise had fulfilled her plans and had destroyed the Shard of the Twelve Worlds, enabling Leshrac to summon Lim-Dûl to Shandalar just before Jodah struck the final blow. “Enjoy your cold little world. I am done with it now.”
While the majority of Lim-Dûl’s undead forces were leaderless on Dominaria, Leshrac had managed to transport a good portion of them to Shandalar. Also, it seemed Tevesh Szat had returned from his exile, and had the intention of completing his master plan. Using Lim-Dûl’s armies, Leshrac and Szat confronted the guardian of Shandalar, the planeswalker Sahrmal, but were unable to defeat him. Weakened by this turn of events, Leshrac left Szat and Lim-Dûl to fend for themselves by escaping to a nearby plane to recuperate. Leshrac’s rest was short-lived, however, as Taysir and Ravidel tracked him to his hiding place. The three planeswalkers battled for many days, with Leshrac eventually overcoming Ravidel. This only enraged Taysir, and soon the battle came to an end with Leshrac lying defeated. However, Taysir could not bring himself to slay Leshrac, but also could not allow him to wreck havoc on the multiverse.
Taysir decided to imprison the truly evil Leshrac in the most evil place conceivable: Phyrexia. Leshrac was taken to the Seventh Sphere to be tortured forever for failing to reveal his secrets to Yawgmoth. Here, Leshrac laid for hundreds of years being sliced to pieces by grinders, only to have his flesh heal to prepare itself for more torture. Eventually, Tevesh Szat managed to enter Phyrexia and rescue Leshrac from never-ending torment. However, Leshrac’s time on Phyrexia has changed him utterly. His eyes no longer glowed with a crimson fury, instead shining with a pale gray glow. It appears as though that is one of the least of his changes. Leshrac’s current whereabouts are unknown. Should he choose to return to Dominaria, it is unknown whether the plane could survive his presence. Only time will tell whether the Walker of the Night returns to create further anarchy.
Referenced on Cards[]
- Dark Banishing (Ice Age)
- Dark Ritual (Ice Age)
- Herald of Leshrac
- Leshrac's Rite
- Leshrac's Sigil
- Minion of Leshrac
