Chronicle of Bolas: The Twins
Lore forum
Posted on June 14, 2018, 3:35 p.m. by TheRealSpecialK
In which we get a special cameo from a certain Dragon Avatar, and the origins of two of Magic's most powerful Planeswalkers are explored.
Source: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/chronicle-bolas-twins-2018-06-13
They never really said that Ugin was from anywhere up until now, just that he had massive effects on a number of different planes.
June 14, 2018 4:01 p.m.
Hardhitta7 says... #4
I believe they called Tarkir his home plane or something like that, which doesn’t necessarily mean that is where he was born just where he made his home. Kinda like Jace’s home would be Ravnica.
I absolutely loved this story, and that’s coming from someone who has read pretty much all the magic lore available. I sat there in shocked silence for a full 10 minutes like “wtf they’re brothers?!?!?” I don’t judge the continuity and plot holes too harshly though, it’s hard to keep all the stuff straight while constantly changing authors.
Overall I thought it was great and I’m super excited to read more. I’m a big fan of Tezzeret so I hope he shows up. (He’s on the booster pack art)
June 14, 2018 8:11 p.m.
Dredge4life says... #5
My only grievance is that Ugin is probably going to die really soon, and I’m going to be devastated.
June 14, 2018 9:50 p.m.
Dredge4life: He did "die" though (In the Khans timeline at least). Besides, that would open up a plothole regarding Nahiri and Sorin. I don't think Ugin will be kicking the bucket again any time soon.
Also, seeing all the other Elder Dragons makes me wonder if we'll get newer versions of them as creatures.
June 14, 2018 9:59 p.m.
Dredge4life says... #7
Phaetion: I don’t mean in this set of stories, but by the end of whatever the “Not Ravnica but on Ravnica” storyline is. My fear is that they need someone important to die in order to make the losses seem real, and I think it’s either going to be Ugin or Beefslab at this point. Not happening now, but Ugin’s whole thing is that he wants to stop Bolas/maybe the Eldrazi, so he’d be easy to kill off. I hope you’re right, though. And yes, I definitely want to see new Elder Dragon cards.
June 14, 2018 10:31 p.m.
So are the retroactively the Elder Dragons at all points in the timeline or were they Baby Elder Dragons or does those qualities cancel each other out to just make them Dragons?
June 14, 2018 10:49 p.m.
TheRealSpecialK says... #9
I've had a couple thoughts about this story. I thought that the way the story explained the Ur-Dragon spawning dragons was very similar to how Ugin is explained spawning dragons on Tarkir. I wonder if Ugin is trying to emulate the Ur-Dragon, or if it is an unrelated coincidence.
Also, the story made it seem like the Ur-Dragon exits in the Blind Eternities, where we know the Eldrazi exist as well. Ugin is fascinated with the Eldrazi - I wonder if this fascination is driven in part because he's trying to understand the nature of the Ur-Dragon as well. Or maybe he's trying to contact the Ur-Dragon, and he thinks that studying how the Eldrazi exist in the Blind Eternities will help him in that endeavor.
June 15, 2018 7:30 a.m.
I think relating the Ur-Dragon to the Eldrazi may have been to provide further clues as to the nature of the Eldrazi; specifically, to lend credence to Ugin's theory that they are a necessary part of the multiverse, primoridal beings that serve as part of a greater ecosystem. The Ur-Dragon would seem to be just that, populating planes with dragons without reason or clear form.
June 15, 2018 8:12 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #11
We finally have an origin story for Bolas and the other elder dragons, and this troy provided two very important revelations: first, as many players have long suspected Ugin is, indeed, a Dominarian elder dragon, and, second, there was a seventh elder dragon, Merrevia Sal, who, unfortunately, was killed not long after her birth; I do hope that WotC prints a card of her, at some point, if not in Core Set 2019, then perhaps in a future Commander set.
Why did the story suddenly have that flashback partway through it? Was one of the twins having that vision? And who were the "twins" in the title: Naiva and Baishya, or Bolas and Ugin?
This was a very exciting story, and I hope that the next one is equally exciting.
June 19, 2018 10:36 p.m.
If you'd read it, you'd note that the flashback was one of the twins (Yasova's grandaughter) having a vision, basically recanting the story that the wind elementals had told her to Yasova; a story that Ugin had himself told the elementals.
However, there's some ambiguity as to how this exchange of knowledge took place, as if Ugin had directly given the story to the Elementals, they would know the name of the plane it took place on: Dominaria. But, they say there's no name for it in their language, which while true, wouldn't need saying if they had been told the story orally or telepathically as-is.
Additionally, Ugin seems to speak through the vision to Yasova at the end of the 'story', which would imply Ugin is actually either speaking forward through time to the person who will eventually hear it, or used a spell to tell his story through visions, telepathically, in the present. Either are plausible, given Ugin's power and association with time travel.
The twins in the title referred to Nicol and Ugin, but there were twins in the non-flashback part of the story to create parallels between the past and future. (Notice that one of them was a reserved tactician who had visions, while the other was a reckless fighter who wanted to ignore the other but knew they couldn't.) Thus, it creates the illusion for the reader that they're reading about Yasova's grandaughters, until the bombshell drops that this will actually be about the twin Elder Dragons.
TheRealSpecialK says... #2
So, first of all, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon was a Dominaria Elder Dragon the whole time!?!? I feel like that leaves some gaping plot holes in existing lore that I hope the next wave of stories clears up. Secondly - Bolas and Ugin are twins O_O They packed some massive pieces of lore into this article, and I am really interested on hearing what everyone thinks about these reveals.
June 14, 2018 3:43 p.m.