What Exactly Is Hexhaven in Magic: The Gathering?

Theorist's Sanctum | Illustration by Adam Paquette

Introduced in Reality Fracture, Hexhaven Academy is the Echoverse counterpart to Strixhaven. It has five schools, five magical founders, and even recognizable (if twisted…) counterparts to Strixhaven’s academic disciplines.

But Hexhaven isn’t simply “evil Strixhaven”. Its history, purpose, mana, and even the world surrounding it developed differently. So, what exactly is Hexhaven, where did it come from, and how do its five schools work? You’re in luck, because today is Orientation Day.

Fair warning before we jump into it: This Hexhaven tour involves major story spoilers for Reality Fracture.

The Lore of Hexhaven

No Admittance | Illustration by Serena Malyon

To explain Hexhaven, we first need to explain the Echoverse. And for that, we need to start with Jace.

Jace Beleren is one of Magic's recurring characters, the most powerful mind-mage in the MTG Multiverse. Over the course of Magic’s story, he has defended the Multiverse from countless threats.

Until, tired and scarred from so many fights, Jace decides that the Multiverse can only be healed if it starts from scratch: he invisions a Multiverse without the tragic events and the collection of Big Bads that caused all that suffering. No Phyrexians. No Eldrazi. No Nicol Bolas. Jace believed he could effectively rewrite reality and remove these problems from history altogether.

This went as well as these things tend to go: catastrophically wrong. During the events surrounding Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Jace attempted to reshape the Meditation Realm, but he was overwhelmed and shattered along with the realm. Pieces of his mind survived, however, and one of those aspects, eventually known as the Theorist, continued Jace’s project.

According to WotC's official Planeswalker's Guide to Reality Fracture, the Theorist is an amalgamation of Jace's worse traits, without any of the empathy that made him a leader. And, as you can probably guess, the Theorist is Reality Fracture‘s primary antagonist, and he has successfully created an alternate Multiverse known as the Echoverse.

The Echoverse reproduces the planes of the original Multiverse, but the Theorist altered key historical variables to remove things he considered sources of suffering. From there, the Echoverse largely developed on its own: The Theorist was sane enough not to micromanage every little detail, and he allowed the Echoverse’s reality to run its course.

One of the Echoverse’s recreated planes was Arcavios, the home plane of Strixhaven (and its mage school) in the original Multiverse. But Echoverse Arcavios developed under different magical conditions. The Theorist had tried to minimize conflict, and that affected the plane’s mana itself. Rather than conflicting sources of mana producing opposing philosophies, “harmonious” mana converged and produced five elder sphinxes. Those sphinxes became the foundation for five magical schools with much more unified views of how magic should be used. That institution became Hexhaven Academy.

There are many other differences between Hexhaven and Strixhaven, of course. Strixhaven is pretty much a university where you go to learn stuff; Hexhaven is more like a garrison and a military academy. Hexhaven's students are called cadets, they all wear a badge resembling the Theorist’s eye, and they go through a grueling training regime to become battlemages (even if, once they’ve graduated, they serve less combat-heavy roles like healers, builders, advisors).

Hexhaven also turns out to be central to the Theorist’s larger plan. Arcavios becomes particularly important because the original plane was itself formed through the collision of two planes. The Theorist studies Arcavios’s archaics and their connection to the plane’s creation, eventually using that knowledge to work out how the two Multiverses can be joined. So in a way, Hexhaven is the laboratory where the Theorist tests the final phase of his little “Multiversal Reset” project.

During the climax of Reality Fracture, Hexhaven and Strixhaven begin to merge. Buildings from both campuses occupy the same space while students and creatures from the two realities begin appearing alongside each other. Eventually, thanks to Tam, the Eldrazi Emrakul separates the Echoverse from the original Multiverse and consumes the artificial reality. Hexhaven, its Founder Sphinxes, and its inhabitants begin to fade away with it.

Where Is Hexhaven Located? Is It a Full Plane?

Rockfall Vale | Illustration by Cristi Balanescu

No, Hexhaven is not a full plane.

It’s a magic academy located on Echoverse Arcavios, the alternate counterpart to the Arcavios we already knew as the home of Strixhaven. The Echoverse itself contained versions of the planes from the Multiverse, so Echoverse Arcavios is the plane and Hexhaven is one very important location on it (just like original Arcavios is the plane and Strixhaven is the location).

As far as we know, we should talk about it in the past tense: in “Happy Birthday,” the last chapter of the Reality Fracture story, Emrakul devours the whole Echoverse (and specifically Hexhaven). So technically speaking, Hexhaven is located wherever stuff goes after it has been eaten by an Eldrazi. Yeah, let's not go there!

Also, the Hexhaven we get to see in the cards isn’t what it originally looked like. According to WotC’s Planeswalker’s Guide to Reality Fracture, the school was initially a large fortress surrounded by defensive walls. When the Theorist arrived, he took over its central bell tower. The enormous amount of reality-altering magic he performed from there gradually twisted the entire campus into the impossible vertical structure we see in Reality Fracture.

Who Created Hexhaven?

Prophesied End | Illustration by A. M. Sartor

There are several answers to this one, depending on exactly what you mean by “created”.

Jace Beleren created the Echoverse, and therefore ultimately created the reality in which Hexhaven existed. More precisely, fragments of Jace reconstructed themselves after his mind was shattered in the Meditation Realm, with the Theorist eventually becoming the dominant force behind the Echoverse project.

But it's not like Jace personally founded Hexhaven Academy.

As Echoverse Arcavios took shape, five elder sphinxes emerged from its great leyline confluence. According to Hexhaven’s own history, they protected Arcavios’s inhabitants from the dangerous environment and began to teach them their innate forms of magic. A community of students grew around them, and the sphinxes formally founded Hexhaven as an institution dedicated to training people to survive.

Those founders are Denzilore Fatehold, Uldaros Theorix, Ingris Stingerquill, Aerid Konstrari, and Kwia Vigorbloom. Each became the founder and dean of one Hexhaven school.

Uldaros Theorix deserves a little extra credit: His reality-bending magic created the original fortified Hexhaven campus. The Theorist later transformed that fortress into the bizarre tower we associate with Hexhaven.

The Schools of Hexhaven

Hexhaven is divided into five schools, each based around the magical philosophy of one Founder Sphinx.

There’s a very deliberate structural contrast with Strixhaven. Strixhaven’s five colleges use the five enemy-color pairs, emphasizing tension between two different approaches to a subject. Hexhaven instead uses the five allied-color pairs, reflecting the more harmonious mana of Echoverse Arcavios.

Every Hexhaven school retains one of the colors of its apparent Strixhaven counterpart while replacing the other.

Fatehold

Fatehold is the white-blue School of Future History, founded by Denzilore Fatehold. Major areas of study: History, Divination, Archival Studies, Prophecy.

While Strixhaven's Lorehold studies history in the way we would understand it (looking at the past to understand the present), Hexhaven's Fatehold teaches prophecy, divination, and manipulating possible futures. Their basic philosophy seems to be that if you can identify the best possible future, you can work backward and change the present until that future becomes reality.

Hexhaven is built as a tower and Fatehold is, both literally and metaphorically, the tower's foundation, located at the base.

Stingerquill

Stingerquill is the black-red School of Painful Words, founded by Ingris Stingerquill. Major areas of study: Poetry, Composition, Rhythmancy, Emotional Psychology, Neolinguistics, Curses.

Stingerquill is pretty obviously the counterpart of Strixhaven's Silverquill. Both schools focus on language, poetry, rhetoric, and emotion.

While both can weaponize language, Stingerquill makes combat application and inflicting pain their central focus. Its mages become battlepoets and voxmancers. They study composition, emotional psychology, linguistics, curses, verbal sparring, and rhythmancy, using speech itself as a magical weapon.

Advanced practitioners can manipulate emotions, exploit an opponent’s fears, and become soulbreakers. One of their core beliefs is: “Have the last word… at any cost.”

Konstrari

Konstrari is the red-green School of Constructive Arts, founded by Aerid Konstrari. Major areas of study: Anatomy, Structural Design, Carpentry, Sculpting, Tethermancy.

Konstrari is Hexhaven's version of Strixhaven's Prismari. Both are intensely creative schools, but Prismari treats magic as performance and fine art, while Konstrari makes creativity considerably more practical.

Its students are architects, sculptors, builders, engineers, and tethermages. Their main focus are puppetbeasts, enormous constructs made from materials such as wood, stone, clay, metal, and fabric. These can be animated using Heartwood and controlled by spectral tethers connecting construct and pilot.

Aerid Konstrari, the school's founder, learned to create Heartwood by condensing energy from red and green leylines, and Reality Fracture introduces Heartwood tokens as red-green artifacts that can produce red or green mana.

Vigorbloom

Vigorbloom is the green-white School of Invasive Healing, founded by Kwia Vigorbloom. Major Areas of Study: Medical Botany, Hortimancy, Graft Surgery, Phytomancy.

“Invasive healing” may sound as a tad ominous, but that's because they heal patients through botany. Vigorbloom's way of healing involves implanting plant material directly into injured bodies and magically encouraging it to grow. That can heal severe wounds remarkably quickly (even though the school’s devotion to healing by any means necessary sometimes overrides inconvenient little details such as the wishes of the patient or their family).

Vigorbloom's obvious counterpart is Witherbloom, and like with other Strixhaven-Hexhaven pairs it's almost an inversion. Witherbloom examines the cycle between life and death; Vigorbloom is determined to keep the “life” going no matter what, regardless of whether the patient particularly appreciates its methods.

Vigorbloom cadets that have proven themselves are taught aggressive healing, and how to cause injury to opponents by implanting vegetation into them.

Theorix

Theorix is Hexhaven’s blue-black School of Esoteric Mathematics, founded by Uldaros Theorix. Major areas of study: Arcane Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, Shadow Numbers, Paradoxology, Impossible Geometry, Manaphysics.

Theorix’s most obvious Strixhaven relative is Quandrix. Both are mathematical schools, but Quandrix is interested in the mathematical patterns underlying the natural world. Theorix prefers to explore the parts of mathematics that really shouldn’t work to twist reality's rules. Theorix mages use equations to bend reality, conjure portals, alter gravity, and reach into other dimensions.

The school founder, the elder sphinx Uldaros Theorix, was also the builder of the original fortress of Hexhaven. Theorix is also the school that is (literally) closest to the Theorist: Theorix sits near the top of the tower, where the Theorist's sanctum is located.

What Sets Does Hexhaven Appear in?

Reality Fracture is Hexhaven’s first full, named appearance, but Wizards teased the location beforehand.

The most important earlier appearance comes in Secrets of Strixhaven, which features borderless dual lands that show mysterious portals that lead… somewhere. Reality Fracture includes a matching land cycle showing Hexhaven cadets looking back toward their Strixhaven counterparts.

The Secrets of Strixhaven story also drops some hints: Tam passes into a strange version of Strixhaven that feels familiar but fundamentally wrong, teasing Hexhaven.

Lorwyn Eclipsed also foreshadows the Echoverse storyline when Liliana encounters an alternate version of herself, but I wouldn’t really call that a Hexhaven appearance (the encounter happens at Strixhaven, with Liliana's doppelganger visiting her there).

Inhabitants of Hexhaven

Theorist's Proxy | Illustration by Matt Stewart

Hexhaven doesn’t appear to have one dominant humanoid species. Like Strixhaven, it draws from the varied peoples of its version of Arcavios.

The stories show an azra cadet studying alongside Tam, while the finale mentions both an aetherborn cadet and a leonin riding a puppetbeast. Revealed school cards add more variety: Vigorbloom Vanguard is a troll druid, while Woodwork Prodigy is a cat druid. There doesn’t seem to be a special “Hexhaven people” creature type; its students are a mixture of familiar Magic species.

The Founder Sphinxes are Hexhaven’s most important magical beings. All five are elder sphinxes on their cards, and each is tied to the form of mana and magic that produced one of the academy’s schools.

Then there are the monsters of the Eradia, a wasteland surrounding the Hexhaven tower. Mage hunters are many-legged creatures that naturally detect magic and pursue spellcasters. Witchstalkers are multiheaded, many-legged wolf-like predators that hunt magic-users in packs and become empowered by consuming them.

Reality itself has also gone rather wrong near the Theorist. Some creatures have been caught between different states of existence. Figments wander Hexhaven as faceless specters, while other creatures shift between different forms. Two-headed animals are common enough to be another recognizable consequence of the Theorist’s magic.

And then there are the surveillance creatures: birds with the Theorist's hooded face, animals bearing enormous eyes marked with the Theorist's symbol, and faceless guards near his sanctum.

As far as the material we have goes, there isn’t an explicit Hexhaven counterpart to Strixhaven's archaics. The Founder Sphinxes fill the role of Hexhaven’s founders and deans, much as Strixhaven has its Elder Dragons. Archaics themselves still matter to Hexhaven’s story, though: It's through archaics that the Theorist observes how Arcavios originally formed in order to understand how a multiverse originates.

Wrap Up

Keeper of the Quiet Hour | Illustration by John Tedrick

Hexhaven looks like a twisted Strixhaven at first glance, but there’s quite a bit more going on under the hood (although, yeah, much of it is still pretty twisted!). They both train mages, but Hexhaven was created from different mana, and above all a completely different idea of what a magical school is supposed to accomplish.

And that’s about everything we know about Hexhaven!

Which school would you rather attend? Or, perhaps more realistically, which one gives you the best odds of actually surviving until graduation? Let us know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord. For more Reality Fracture news, subscribe to our newsletter, The Daily Upkeep.

I hope you've enjoyed this tour around Hexhaven's tower, and good luck out there!