So, I've been recalling arguments about Phyrexia back when it was cool to do so, and I've come across some queries that I haven't found a source for:

- Has it been ever implied that the glistening oil was nanotechnology? I've seen it crop up here and there.

- Is there any defenitive statement about New Phyrexia encompassing all colors of mana? There has been contradicting statements about not being under Yawgmoth anymore and that Mirrodin's core/Suns influenced the different factions to form, neither of which I hve found official sources about.

Yawgmoth is dead.

For stuff on New Phyrexia: You can start here. It is fractured into five large factions aligned with the five colors, though each faction has subgroups.

What DS said.

Also, you could try Salvation's wiki, or appeal directly to the Dark God of Timelines himself, if you feel brave enough. If you choose the latter, make sure you have a virgin sacrifice on hand.

In more seriousness, I can only comment on New Phyrexia since Yawgmoth was dead before I ever ascended. There are five top factions, one in each color of mana, in Mirrodin/New Phyrexia; though I'm unsure if that was because of Mirrodin's suns or because old Phyrexia was a plane of only mana. I don't remember whether Yawgmoth himself was a planeswalker, but I know that during pre-mending era of the original Phyrexia, planes could be created by powerful 'walkers to contain only one type of mana, like Serra's Realm which was only .

Yawgmoth was not a planeswalker.

ETA: Is Yawgmoth kind of like Lex Luthor?

Yes, I realise that. I've been around since New Phyrexia, you know.

And it still does not answers my query.

For the sake of my personal headcanon, and in accordance to Keeper, I think Old Phyrexia was stup- I mean mono- because of Yawgmoth being Phyrexia and Phyrexia being Yawgmoth. After he died, phyrexians are no longer bound by him, and if the order of the articles' publication and Elesh's recent conquests mean anything, is actually probably the most naturally phyrexian colour, which fits with it's obsession with hierarchy, [twisted] morality, unity, propagation and proselytism, religion and perfection.

Serra's realm was not only . Serra was incapable of making it so no matter how hard she tried. Each plane has to have at least a small amount of every color, though it can be overwhelmingly made to be one color in comparison. It has to be constantly adjusted though, since even as far as instability of artificial planes go, it will try to achieve balance. It won't prevent it from falling apart if it has balance, but it still seeks equilibrium.


The plane that would become Phyrexia was basically colorless. It was artifice, and when Yawgmoth took over, he corrupted virtually every aspect of the world, making it black with is presence. It had small, tiny little pockets of other colors, but those were isolated mostly where nothing worked, more of a preservation than anything.
It also was not a natural thing for Phyrexia to develop as it did on New Phyrexia, but the abundance of power from the suns. It is not a logical step to declare white the natural color of Phyrexia, because it only became white due to the oil whispering to white beings. With the previous method of compleation, it pretty much broke people and made them black as part of the process.

I see, and it makes sense, given that the oil was used lastly, to solidify the convert's new alligiance.

I still need the sources for the involvement of the suns in this, though.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/a ... ly/stf/127
There you go.
The suns are just the most notable aspect of the mana of Mirrodin. More symbolic than anything else.

Thanks, it has been most helpful

What's your source on this? I don't have The Thran handy, but I've been over the section where the plane is introduced pretty many times and I don't recall anything like that, or anything to suggest that there were other colors present on Phyrexia... (although I've always personally suspected that the original plane had colored artifacts.)

At the time, the plane was completely colorless as near as we can tell. The other colors came after Yawgmoth turned it into what it was.
They were all located on the first sphere, and it was one of the aspects that caused Urza so much doubt when it came time to destroy it all.
So, it was during the Invasion cycle that the other bits of Phyrexia had more color, like in the peaceful razor fields.

I can't remember anything saying specifically that the five colors were present there, though. Just that it was an artificial ecosystem and Urza was really into that.

Do you have a quote?

It was more the impression I get, plus the extrapolation that all colored worlds need all colors. The artificial ecosystem was too peaceful, the biomes too diverse for them to be black or colorless.

Hm, how do we know that they need all colors? I mean, they need them to remain stable, from what we've seen, but Phyrexia and Serra's Realm were unstable planes.

Serra told us that all planes needed at least a small bit of each color. It was impossible for her to build a world that didn't contain at least a smidge of all of them.
And it actually doesn't matter if an artificial plane has all five colors, all artificial planes break down, stable or not. The only reason Mirrodin isn't collapsing is because it was built in a planar void, a space that already existed naturally.

A quick word from Doug on a tangential subject:

So, maybe there's hope for more Phyrexians-as-we-knew-them yet.

I wouldn't write them "as we knew them" since that essentially means Yawgmoth's ego stroking dolls.

I was thinking more "Kerrick" Phyrexians cut off from Yawgmoth in the Tolarian time bubbles.