MTG’s Multiverse: The Blind Eternities in Magic: The Gathering

Coax from the Blind Eternities | Illustration by Jaime Jones

Magic’s Multiverse is rich with lore, ideas, and cultures spread through the planes, only a few of which have been properly explored by the lore and story; we can only glimpse so much of it one set at a time.

But the planes aren’t the only thing in the Multiverse. Separating the planes are the Blind Eternities, a realm of pure Æther and potential, as deadly as it is mysterious. This is everything we know about the unknowable fabric of the Multiverse.

What Are the Blind Eternities in MTG?

Moment of Truth | Illustration by Rovina Cai

The Blind Eternities is the space between spaces, filled with a primordial substance called Æther that separates the planes of the Multiverse. For a visual representation, see this picture of a crepe cake:

Source

Think of the planes as the crepes and the Blind Eternities as the pastry cream—if the pastry cream were, in fact, nothing and entropic, destroying nearly any organic matter it touched.

Prior to the Omenpaths’ opening, the majority of the Multiverse was unaware of the Blind Eternities. Everyone thought their plane composed all of existence. The broad exception were the planeswalkers, who have sparks that allow them to traverse the Blind Eternities and walk between planes, though there are non-planeswalker entities capable of traversing the Blind Eternities, plus some characters such a Kruphix with knowledge of the Multiverse at large.

While the Blind Eternities aren't a place per se, a planeswalker can enter them from a plane and stay there. Planeswalkers can “sit” in the Blind Eternities and look for a plane to enter or simply not complete the planeswalk, though they can’t survive the Blind Eternities for long. An example of this recently came in the Phyrexia: All Will Be One story, when Elspeth took Karn's Sylex into the Blind Eternities.

Descriptions of the Blind Eternities vary widely, with some media, mostly books, describing the multiverse from the perspective of planeswalkers as they travel through it. However, the Blind Eternities have no stable form, and it's likely any description of the Blind Eternities told from a planeswalker's perspective is unique to them and a result of them imposing personal experiences to comprehend the unexperienceable.

The Blind Eternities in Magic Lore

The nature of the Blind Eternities means sets are never really set there, but some multiverse-altering sets have an impact on the Blind Eternities; they’re an intrinsic part of the Multiverse, so they’re impacted by anything that alters it.

The Brothers’ War/Ice Age

Obliterate | Illsutration by Kev Walker

The Brothers' War and the Ice Age are closely connected periods of Dominaria's history as they revolve around Urza and the Sylex Blast he triggered on Argoth: The Sylex Blast ended The Brothers' War with such calamitous force it ushered in the Ice Age.

Even the Multiverse didn’t escape unscathed, as the Sylex Blast created something called the Shard of Twelve Worlds: Twelve planes, including Dominaria, were cut off from the rest of the Multiverse. Only planeswalkers within the Shard could traverse those planes, and any outside—including Urza himself—couldn’t enter Dominaria or any of the Shard-planes from the outside. This corresponds with the start of the Ice Age.

Future Sight

The story of the Time Spiral block, in short, is that centuries of war and invasion left Dominaria barren and covered with rifts that drained the plane of its mana, threatening its existence. Over the three sets, these rifts were closed.

When the last time rift was closed in Future Sight, the Multiverse underwent a great restructuring known as the Mending, which dramatically altered the nature of planeswalkers. Pre-Mending, planeswalkers were practically gods: immortal, incredibly powerful, capable of creating planes and working awe-inspiring magics. The Mending weakened them, stripping them of their immortality and reducing them to extremely powerful mages with the ability to planeswalk (most of Nicol Bolas‘s plans in the modern lore were about reclaiming his pre-Mending power). Another consequence of the Mending was that all planar travel devices stopped functioning, though Rashmi's Planar Bridge proves the technology can be rebuilt.

Eldritch Moon

Through the Breach | Illustration by Randy Vargas

Eldritch Moon introduced the idea of inter-planar communication as the planeswalker Nahiri was able to perform rituals on Innistrad that called the Eldrazi titan Emrakul to her side.

March of the Machine

Spark Rupture | Illustration by Viko Menezes

March of the Machine oversaw New Phyrexia's invasion of the Multiverse, which started with Realmbreaker ripping holes through the planes and the Blind Eternities so Phyrexia could invade the Multiverse all at once rather than conquering individual planes. The previous set, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, also saw the Blind Eternities directly affected by the Sylex: The Gatewatch's original plan to defeat New Phyrexia was to use a replica of the Golgothian Sylex to destroy the plane, but they were too late to stop Realmbreaker; Elspeth took the Sylex into the Blind Eternities to detonate out of fear that the explosion on New Phyrexia would extend through the portal Realmbreaker formed and harm innocent planes.

The combined incursions on the Blind Eternities had several consequences: Firstly, the Spark Rupture de-sparked many planeswalkers, who found themselves unable to planeswalker anymore. A few prominent planeswalkers who lost their spark include Liliana Vess, Nissa Ravene, Kiora, and Nahiri. The Omenspaths opened, connecting planes. Finally, Teferi's home continent of Zhalfir, which had been phased out on Dominaria for a very long time, finally reconnected with the Multiverse, but it became a unique plane instead of returning to Dominaria.

The Blind Eternities in Magic Cards

In Card Names

• Coax from the Blind Eternities

In Flavor Text

• All Will Be One
• Coax from the Blind Eternities
• Growth Spiral (SLD 2472)
• Inquisition of Kozilek (STA 031)
• Sage of the Unknowable
• Serum Visions (SLD 029)
• Spark Rupture
• Spatial Contortion
• Terramorphic Expanse (EOC 0062)
• Transcendent Message
• Vanish into Eternity

In Card Art

• Omniscience (M13)

Are the Eldrazi from The Blind Eternities?

Yes! The Eldrazi are cosmic beings native to the Blind Eternities that devour planes for sustenance. Eldrazi can only partially appear within a plane, reaching in to consume all mana and life until the plane dies. The terrors that ravaged Zendikar were nothing more than the hand of the Eldrazi titans reaching into the plane.

Do Planeswalkers Travel Through the Blind Eternities?

Yes! Planeswalkers can travel through the Blind Eternities at will due to a unique feature of their bodies called a spark, which binds their soul to the Æther and protects them from its caustic nature. A planeswalker's spark often ignites due to a traumatic experience that sends them through the Multiverse.

While the exact nature of a spark is unclear, it gives planeswalkers a deep connection to the Blind Eternities and the Multiverse as a whole, as evidenced by how Multiverse-altering events affect planeswalkers and their sparks.

Can Planeswalkers Take Other People in the Blind Eternities?

While it isn’t possible in the current Magic lore, planeswalkers could bring companions through the Blind Eternities pre-Mending, when planeswalkers were vastly more powerful.

One way this was done was by turning the non-planeswalker into a stone statue, then reconstituting them once the planeswalker reached the destination plane.

Can Non-Planeswalkers Travel Through the Blind Eternities?

There are a couple of answers to this. After March of the Machine, the answer becomes a resounding yes. The Omenpaths have connected the Multiverse as never before, allowing anybody to travel between them so long as they're daring enough to step through them, but there were exceptions before that.

The Eldrazi are beings from the Blind Eternities, so they can travel them comfortably. Other immensely powerful beings are also capable of traversing the planes—for example, Marit Lage can move through the planes, as can The Ur-Dragon, which created all races of dragons in its travels.

It’s also possible to construct portals that allow for travel between planes. The Thran made one such portal; Rashmi made a lesser version on Avishkar, the Planar Bridge, that Nicol Bolas had Tezzeret steal to transport his army of Eternals in War of the Spark (Rashmi's was lesser because it only transported non-organic matter). Yet another example of plane-traversing technology was Skyship Weatherlight, an airship Urza built with the ability to planeshift.

The ancient civilization called the Fomori could also travel the planes, as indicated by many signs of their passing scattered throughout the multiverse, including the vault on Thunder Junction that contained Loot. It’s currently unknown how they did this, but the answer is likely technological.

The most recent example of these technologies is Realmbreaker, the tree New Phyrexia used to rip through the Multiverse so they could invade every plane of existence all at once.

Are the Blind Eternities the Same as Space?

No, each plane has its own “space” and solar system and stars. Each plane is a universe within itself; the Blind Eternities fill the gaps between the planes.

Is the Meditation Realm Inside the Blind Eternities?

Yes. The Meditation Realm is a bit of an odd plane—before the Mending, it was an artificial plane connected to Dominaria, though it became its own plane after the Mending. In the story of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Jace invaded the Meditation Realm to use it to reshape the Multiverse, indicating the plane has special properties that may become clearer as the story unfolds. But it’s still one plane within the Multiverse, and thus, the Blind Eternities.

Is the Edge Inside the Blind Eternities?

No. The Edge is itself a gigantic plane that encompasses the Multiverse, Blind Eternities and all. If you think of the Blind Eternities as an orange, the Edge is the peel, and the Multiverse the fruit.

There's also a layer called the Chaos Wall which separates the Edge from the Multiverse; in keeping with the orange analogy, the Chaos Wall would be the white pith between peel and fruit. Travel through the Chaos Wall is possible, as evidenced by Tezzeret, but it’s currently unclear how he reached the Edge, and he has yet to find a way home.

Will We Get a Set That Takes Place in the Blind Eternities?

Almost certainly not. The Blind Eternities aren’t a place; they're the absence of a place, not to mention extremely hostile to anything that isn't a planeswalker or Eldrazi. Planeswalkers can enter the Blind Eternities and not leave to another plane, but they’ll only survive there for a short period.

These restrictions, plus the lack of culture or anything within the Blind Eternities, would make it at the very least an extremely challenging setting for an entire set. The best we could hope for would be a set that cares deeply about the fabric of the Multiverse—with the upcoming Reality Fracture being a great example—having a scene or scenes take place within the Blind Eternities. Anything more would require a major revelation of something previously unknown in the multiverse, like a domed city that exists within the Eternities or something of that nature.

Are the Omenpaths Part of the Blind Eternities?

While many mysteries surround the nature and creation of the Omenpaths, they’re important to the Blind Eternities. Omenpaths are openings in the Blind Eternities that connect planes, allowing non-planeswalkers to travel between planes without a spark. Some Omenpaths are stable, which means they either stay open or open at regular intervals and always connect the two planes—for example, a stable Omenpath connects Fiora, the plane from Conspiracy sets, and Arcavios, the plane that’s home to Strixhaven. Unstable Omenpaths open randomly and bring characters to planes unexpectedly; one such Omenpath played a big part in Lorwyn Eclipsed‘s story.

Importantly, the inside of an Omenpath isn’t a barrier that separates the traveler from the Blind Eternities; it’s made of the Blind Eternities themselves, which part to form the Omenpath. As established in Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos, non-planeswalkers who spend an extended amount of time within an Omenpath will begin dying, and staying in an Omenpath when it closes is presumably lethal.

Wrap Up

Planar Genesis | Illustration by Liiga Smilshkalne

The Blind Eternities are mysterious, if only because their nature as a non-space makes them unknowable. While they rarely feature prominently in a story, they’re a vital part of the Magic lore and bear the consequences of Magic’s greatest events.

Do you enjoy the Blind Eternities? Do you want more planar breakdowns? Let us know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! If you want more Draftsim, check out our newsletter and YouTube channel, both called The Daily Upkeep!

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