What is Nicol Bolas' Ultimate Goal?
Lore forum
Posted on April 9, 2015, 12:58 p.m. by Kryzis
After reading through some uncharted realms articles, I came upon this article talking about where each planeswalker is currently in the multiverse, here.
Nicol Bolas' post is all about some great interplanar goal of his, and I've been thinking about what it could be. With Battle for Zendikar coming out next, I began to speculate that he's more involved with the Eldrazi than previously thought. The article had a lot more planeswalkers involved with the Eldrazi than I thought there would be, and I'm wondering if some major storyline will come out soon, like that Bolas is trying to gain control of the Eldrazi somehow. They are currently the only beings that can challenge him in power, and maybe he needs to gather planeswalker spawn to help him capture them?
Wouldn't that shake up the storyline, Bolas becomes master of the Eldrazi.
CommanderOfBolas says... #3
He wants to become omnipotent. He wants dominion over the entirety of the multiverse. He is also working on obtaining his pre-mending powers again (in other words, immortality, the ability to retain infinite amounts of knowledge, etc.)
April 9, 2015 1:22 p.m.
CommanderOfBolas do you think WotC would give him powers over the Eldrazi?
April 9, 2015 1:27 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #6
I'm thinking that he wants to undo the Mending so he can have his pre-Mending powers. He can use the Eldrazi to tear into the fabric of the multiverse, which then lets power leak through. Walkers channel it and become more powerful, so if he makes the Eldrazi mess up the multiverse a little then all walkers can go pre-Mending and power up.
April 9, 2015 3:19 p.m.
biggestmtgnerd says... #7
He did arrange for the Eye of Ugin to be opened, so the eldrazi are definitely going to get involved somehow. It does seem that his end goal is to undo the mending, but how he intends to do that we're not sure of
April 10, 2015 7:14 a.m.
JamesAzimuthPHD says... #8
A guy at my LGS has a really unique theory on this particular subject...and I, for one, believe it's very plausible...as well as extremely cool.
He, and I, believe that Nicol Bolas is preparing for the return of Yawgmoth.
Seems unlikely, right? Well, consider the following:
Bolas brought about the Conflux in attempt to regain his Pre-Mending, God-like powers. He definitely wanted his power back, but besides fear/greed...Perhaps he wanted his power back so he would be strong enough to combat Yawgmoth.
New Phyrexia. Bolas wasn't really responsible for the rise of New Phyrexia, but he did take quite an interest in it, nor did he attempt to stop it. The New Phyrexians despise Yawgmoth, considering him to be an inferior Father of Machines; Jin-Gitaxis even goes so far to say that Yawgmoth is more detestable than Karnak. Perhaps Bolas took interest in New Phyrexia's rise because they could be potential allies in the fight versus Yawgmoth.
...and finally...
- The Eldrazi; something that Yawgmoth cannot touch. Bolas was instrumental in the release of the Eldrazi, most likely because they embody Colorless Mana, and they mindlessly feed on all other Colors of Mana. Can anyone remember what Yawgmoth was when he "died"? Uhm...Black Mana Incarnate! Yawgmoth manifested as a cloud of pure Black Mana, sounds like it would be a pretty damn tasty treat for the Titans :D
Bolas doesn't want to control the Eldrazi (I doubt he thinks he can), he wants to inadvertently weaponize them against Yawgmoth.
...So, what do y'all think? I obviously a huge fan of this theory...and before I get a bunch of responses saying "YAWGMOTH IS DEAD!", consider these two things:
1.) Can you completely eradicate an incarnation of pure Mana of a certain Color? Urborg is basically a crater full of Yawgmoth's Black Mana residue...Sooo, I'm guessing the answer is, probably no.. I'm pretty sure Urza's White Mana moon laser hurt like hell, but I don't believe it had/has the power to completely eradicate Colored Mana like the Eldrazi do.
2.) Canon or not; Hallucination or not; Karona traveled to the ruins of Phyrexia and spoke with Yawgmoth long after his supposed demise.. I'll let you form your own opinions on it.
Sorry for a huge wall of text, but I LOVE this theory. Hope someone else does too.
April 10, 2015 12:18 p.m.
JamesAzimuthPHD says... #9
I obviously meant Karn In the second paragraph.. Stupid autocorrect, apologies :P
April 10, 2015 12:24 p.m.
You can check his colors to see his mindset. Being red, he's driven by his emotions of selfishness and hatred and will lash out at any who defy him; Being black, he's driven by his own benefit, without concern to morality or consequence; being blue, he uses his intellect and knowledge to attain his goal of perfection, namely perfecting himself. Mostly, Bolas's endgame to attain his immortality, smite his foes, and regain omniscience. He was once top dog, and he wants it back.
April 10, 2015 2:51 p.m.
JamesAzimuthPHD says... #11
Octrate I'm not disagreeing with any of this at all. I just, personally, believe that Bolas's machinations aren't that simple; he's far too old and intelligent. He knows something that everyone else in the Multiverse doesn't, and it's something that scares him.
Bolas has been depicted as a wholly evil character, but I have the feeling that there's going to be some sort of plot twist involving his motives. He's NOWHERE near powerful enough to control the Eldrazi, and if they eat the entire Multiverse, then he'll have nothing to rule.
His plans run far beyond the information we currently have.
April 10, 2015 3:34 p.m.
beakedbard says... #12
What i want to know is why he killed/attempted to kill Ugin was that just because he feared Ugins power or was that because without Ugin the Eldrazi can no longer be sealed again. Its obvious Bolas wants to regain his former power the events of Alara tell us that much but the Eldrazi seem like an odd thing for him to aim for. I mean i doubt even Bolas can control the Eldrazi or absorb their power so what does he want from them.
On another note if the power to reverse time exists why is Bolas not researching that the prevent the mending in the first place. I know that would completely screw with the MTG storyline too much for it to happen but its the route that would make the most sense. Then again mtg time travel is confusing and hazy at best.
April 12, 2015 6:18 a.m.
lemmingllama says... #13
Time travel in MTG only affects a single plane, which is the one that you time travel on. The Mending happened all over the multiverse, although it was primarily focused on Dominaria. So time travel couldn't undo it all without facing off against a lot of walkers on different planes.
April 12, 2015 8:17 a.m.
beakedbard says... #14
If said events were stopped from happening how would it work though? I mean someone could go back and prevent things that forced the mending to happen. Admittedly I don't know all that much about the mending and things that happened around that time but if the mending was prevented and it would only effect Dominaria how would that effect the other planes?
April 12, 2015 8:27 a.m.
lemmingllama says... #15
I don't know if it would affect the other planes other than that the planeswalkers would be different. Really they haven't fleshed out the concept enough. The biggest difference would be that people like Venser wouldn't die, and we would have a lot of oldwalkers going around being all god-like and stuff.
April 12, 2015 4:24 p.m.
SimicPower says... #17
I believe his "ultimate" goal is to deal 7 damage to someone, make that person discard 7 cards, and finally... wait for it... make that person sacrifice 7 permanents.
Scary, I know.
:-)
willsm87 says... #2
Planeswalker Bolas with the ultimate of putting 20 10/10 Eldrazi with Super Mega Annihilator onto the battlefield. When they swing, your opponent sacrifices X turns and you get to continually attack them on your extra turns until they die... Super Mega Annihilator triggers each of your extra turns.
April 9, 2015 1:11 p.m.