The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Lore & Story Summary

Last updated on January 16, 2024

Palani's Hatcher | Illustration by Aaron Miller

The different planes that were affected by the New Phyrexian invasion of the Multiverse have started to move on. Or at least, they’re trying to. We’ve seen how Eldraine’s Wicked Slumber, the spell that stopped the invasion in its tracks, still affected the inhabitants of the plane.

Now we’re moving far away from the world of knights and fairy tales. We’re going to a world of adventures and wonder. Of dinosaurs, pirates, and vampires. We’re back on Ixalan.

This time around the set isn’t so strongly focused on factions and their mutual dynamics. They’re still present and relevant, but the focus of this set’s story is on adventure and discovery. It’s a journey to the center of Ixalan in search of a new resource that all of these factions want: cosmium.

What Is The Lost Caverns of Ixalan About?

Huatli's Final Strike | Illustration by Marta Nael

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan explores the changes that Ixalan overwent since the disappearance of the Immortal Sun. The different factions of the plane are independently led underground in search of different things. These various expeditions lead the explorers to discover a wondrous secret about their world: Ixalan is a hollow world, with a whole other inhabited area within it. And a valuable resource called cosmium is found there, once again putting the factions at odds with each other.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Setting

This set takes place on the plane of Ixalan, and more specifically it takes place within its hollow interior. This story happens one year after the New Phyrexian invasion of the plane, with the inhabitants of Ixalan having had some time to regroup and rebuild.

Main Characters

Quintorius Kand

The Lorehold student and planeswalker shows up on Ixalan as he teams up with Huatli and other inhabitants of the empire in an attempt to uncover the origins of an ancient civilization he calls “the Coin Empire”. He’s part of the main crew sent to explore the underground ruins underneath Orazca.

Wayta

A young soldier of the Sun Empire, Wayta had dreams of becoming a warrior-poet. The Phyrexian Invasion laid waste to those dreams as she was witness to the unspeakable horrors her fellow soldiers were put through. She then joined the Brazen Coalition for a time, until eventually returning and re-enlisting under the Empire. She’s part of the expedition team exploring Ixalan’s underground world.

Huatli

The Sun Empire’s warrior-poet leads an expedition deep into a set of ancient ruins found beneath Orazca. She’s joined by Quintorius as well as a host of explorers from the Empire. The entrance to the underground ruins and caves is heralded as a way to enter Ixalan’s core, which could lead to where humans originated in the plane.

Malcolm Lee

Malcolm is a siren pirate, member of the Brazen Coalition. He, along with the goblin Breeches and a small crew, delves into Downtown, a mining settlement where all the inhabitants have suddenly gone missing. His investigation leads him toward an ancient and nigh unstoppable being that lives deep underground.

Amalia Benavides Aguirre

A young scout and cartographer for the Legion of Dusk, Amalia joins an expedition to find the lost god of Torrezón’s vampires. She believes she can hear her god’s voice in her head, which drives her towards adventure. But this journey will take her to some unexpected places.

Vito Quijano de Pasamonte

A fanatical heretic who’s in conflict with the Church of Dusk in Torrezón, Vito leads a party in an attempt to find Aclazotz, the ancient god of vampires. He believes his god to be somewhere deep beneath Ixalan. Driven by his fanatical adoration, nothing can stand between Vito and his goal.

The Mycotyrant

Deep beneath Ixalan, life still thrives. And The Mycotyrant doesn’t want his fungi to simply survive, but to spread out and conquer, taking over the surface. The Mycotyrant is the sentient overlord of a colony of a mycoid fungal network that brutally spreads by infecting other hosts, whether living or dead.

Secondary Characters

Saheeli Rai

The artificer and former planeswalker is on Ixalan, helping her girlfriend Huatli on their expedition. However, she’s more an inventor than a fighter, and thus stays behind once the adventuring party sets off.

Inti

Huatli’s cousin and known as seneschal of the sun, Inti is a warrior and officer of the Sun Empire.

Caparocti Sunborn

Caparocti is a human warrior and champion who serves the Sun Empire, fanatically opposing its enemies. He’s more prone to violence than other members of the expedition, like Huatli and Wayta, which puts him at odds with them more often than not.

Breeches

Breeches is a violence-prone and reckless goblin pirate from the Brazen Coalition, and, maybe more importantly, he’s Malcolm’s friend and companion during their delve deep into Ixalan’s depths.

Clavileño

One of Vito’s most convinced followers, Clavileño is a cleric for the Legion of Dusk. He serves as Vito’s right-hand-man on their expedition to find Aclazotz.

Bartolomé del Presidio

Bartolomé is a vampire knight and director of the Queen’s Bay Company. He joins Vito’s expedition as director of his Company, while also spying on him for Queen Miralda. He’s very protective of Amalia.

Kellan

The omenpaths have led Kellan to Ixalan as he searches for his father. He somehow ends up in the underground caves, where he’s found and rescued by the vampire expedition.

Abuelo

Quint uses a poncho he found to channel the ghost attached to it. This brings forth an old man who calls himself Abuelo. Abuelo helps the Sun Empire reach Ixalan’s core, while also needing to warn the people there of the unavoidable danger of the Mycotyrant’s return.

Akal Pakal

Akal is the wise leader of the Oltec people that inhabit the hollow core of Ixalan. She welcomes the Sun Empire expedition as cousins to her people and leads them in the final confrontation against their enemies.

Anim Pakal

Akal’s sister and leader of the Oltec warriors known as the Thousand Moons, Anim Pakal leads her warriors against the invaders that attack the core.

The Plot

Episode 1

A whole year had passed since the New Phyrexian invasion. Quintorius, who’s planeswalker spark had ignited during his defense of his own plane, makes his way to the plane of Ixalan in search of what he calls the “Coin Empire”. He arrives and is met by the warrior Wayta and her dinosaur companion. She leads Quint to meet Saheeli and Huatli, who are attempting to open an old door that was uncovered beneath the city of Orazca.

Through the combined efforts of Huatli and Quint, they’re able to understand the puzzle that kept the door locked, promptly granting them passage into the underground tunnels of the plane.

Elsewhere, the siren pirate Malcolm leads a party to the underground mining settlement of Downtown. The Brazen Coalition has received news that the inhabitants of the place had gone missing. Malcolm, along with Breeches and other pirates, goes to investigate and tries to find answers for what happened. Once there, the crew is led downwards through the mine’s elevators, much to Malcolm’s dismay.

The final group is that of the vampires. Amalia follows Vito’s men, plagued by visions of a mysterious door and a strange voice that calls to her. Their party reachs the Temple of Aclazotz, which is in ruins and being reclaimed by the jungle. Within the ruins they find a locked gateway. Without any hesitation, Vito brings forth one of their human servants and offers him as a sacrifice to their god, opening the doors that leads downwards.

Episode 2

The crew of the Sun Empire march on into the dark caves beneath Orazca. Signs of struggle dot the different rooms they pass through, with damaged pottery and paintings, among other things. While Huatli and the other warriors grow anxious, Quint is enthralled with all the archaeological evidence around them. The road is also blocked by the occasional trap or puzzle, although the crew manages to overcome them relatively swiftly.

They eventually make their way to what looks like an ancient settlement. It was long since abandoned, with skeletons dotting the place. Quint finds an old poncho and uses his archaeomancy to summon the spirit bound to it. An old, kind man manifests from the poncho, calling himself Abuelo after Wayta compares him to her own.

Before he can spend any more time on introductions, Abuelo speaks of warning the people in a place called Oteclan about a mycoid infestation and quickly sets off towards a door.

Malcolm and his crew delve deeper, alternating between tunnels and elevators to reach the depths of the mine. On their way, down they come across a monstrous creature like they’d never seen before: It resembles a dinosaur, or at least its corpse, but it’s moving and completely covered in fungi. The beast attacks, but before the pirates can even begin defending themselves, they realize others like it are gathering around them.

The crew fights off the monsters, cutting through until they’re all done. Malcolm realizes some of his men have been injured and strange markings have begun spreading through their bodies, but they claim to be in no pain whatsoever, so he chooses to ignore it for the time being.

Vito’s vampires haven’t yet encountered any of the fungi monsters in their travels. The only problems they come across are altars to Aclazotz that they quickly surpass by sacrificing their human pawns at each step of the way. That changes as they come across a large room completely covered in sand. The sand itself is dotted with sinkholes and threatens to drag down Vito and all his followers. Clavileño turns half of his body into mist and swiftly determines all the safe spots so that the rest of the group can walk past the dangerous room. Before they make it all the way across, they’re attacked by a group of insectile monsters. The damages they suffer is ultimately minor, but they begin running short on human servants and prisoners. The rest of them make it through, but tensions begin to rise as Vito’s and Bartolomé’s ideological differences start to clash.

Not long after the desert is left behind, the environment around them becomes even more hostile, with lava falls surrounding them. Amalia notices strange markings on the stones, representing what seemed like cat maws. The area appears completely deserted, but in less disrepair than other similar spots they’d come across. There they come across a young man who was escaping from a group of aggressive creatures: the young half-fae Kellan. Amalia uses her cartomancy powers to save him and invites him into their group, much to Vito’s distaste.

Episode 3

Wayta and Quint chase behind Abuelo through the narrow streets of the ruins. Abuelo then vanishes as they encounter a massive monster. A titanic creature made of mushrooms towers before Quint and Wayta. Before they can do anything, the beast charges. The fight is long and arduous as the other warriors join in to protect them. Luck isn’t in their favor, as other mushroom-monsters begin to appear around them. Right before everything is definitely over for them, a wave lashes out from an underground river as a group of River Heralds joins the fray. They cast protective spells on the explorers and throw them into the river to get them out of danger. The explorers arrive at a large underground city in the middle of the river. The leader of the merfolk explains that they await the opening of the gates to the world’s core.

The black markings on the wounds of Malcolm’s companions begin spreading over their bodies and glowing in a shade of green. Their attitudes have also changed, much less conflictive and aggressive than what’s common with these pirates. Their elevator clashes against something as it descends; a big mushroom blocks the way. One of the pirates cuts through it and releases a cloud of spores. With swift and relentless motions, those who are infected by the mushrooms shove the rest of the pirates into the spore cloud. Malcolm and Breeches manage to escape as the goblin clings to the siren and they fly upwards, away from the elevator. They cut the ropes and let the box fall into the depths.

As Malcolm and Breeches catch their breath, a message written in fungi appears at the bottom of the shaft, claiming it’s safe to come down. Filled with doubt and dread, Malcolm decides to risk it and continue their descent.

The party of vampires keeps moving forward as the lava around them grows from a single lavafall to several spouts and rivers. The environment is as hostile as it can be. As fear plagues Bartolomé’s thoughts, pondering what will happen if Vito is actually able to reach Aclazotz, a group of armed strangers surrounds the vampires. The jaguar-people, who call themselves the Malamet, take the vampires as prisoners and lead them to their city. The entire place is built around or into massive stalactites in the caves.

The Malamet take no time in determining the vampires are a threat to their people, sentencing them to be thrown into a massive sand pit.

One by one, the vampires and their entourage are cast into a huge sinkhole and they sink into the ground. As Amalia begins to think this is it, that they’ll die in a sandpit underneath the earth, the bottom of the pit gives way to a fall, then water. Before they can even understand the situation they’re in, a group of River Heralds surrounds the vampires and takes them to their city, prisoners again.

Episode 4

The explorers of the Sun Empire await their meeting with Great Shaper Pashona, the leader of the River Heralds at this city. But before they can make it to the meeting, they come across the recently arrived vampires. The Great Shaper met both groups together, interrogating the intentions each of them have in their respective journeys. Tensions are high among the three groups, but Huatli manages to convince Pashona to work together in translating the sigils on the door and opening the gate together. Bartolomé also interjects, offering a truce between the three groups, much to Vito’s anger.

Huatli, Wayta, and Quint immediately get ready to work on solving the puzzle to opening the door. To that purpose, they summon Abuelo again. The old ghost helps them through the several steps to getting the door open. And open it does. On the other side they observe something that simply shouldn’t be possible; a sky, clouds, and people staring back at them from the other side of the opening.

Malcolm and Breeches find the remains of the elevator at the end of the shaft, mostly intact. No corpses in sight. The two pirates follow the mushroom-covered tunnels deeper into the ground until they finally reach a large cavern. The cavern itself contains a huge fungal forest, from which people start emerging. All covered in mushrooms, all behaving in the same ways. One of them, the mayor of Downtown, Xavier Sal, approaches Malcolm. Xavier speaks to the pirates, identifying himself as the Mycotyrant. Everyone and everything there is, technically, the Mycotyrant. A massive mushroom colony that infects anything it gets its spores on. Malcolm learns that the chaos from the Phyrexian Invasion has awoken the Mycotyrant, and it now wants the one thing he felt had been taken away from him: the sun.

Amalia, as well as the other vampires, follow the large mass of people to the other side of the gate. The horizon bends upwards and a purple sun followed by a trail of metal adorns the center of the sky. Bats fly around the sky, and Amalia can hear the voice in her head still beckoning her.

Anim Pakal, atop a bat, flies down to meet them. She introduced herself, and Abuelo speaks to her to introduce the explorers of the Sun Empire. He then warns her of the Mycotyrant and the impending threat that will soon reach Oltec. The Oltec and those of the Sun Empire regard each other as cousin peoples and very quickly find common ground. Those from the Legion of Dusk aren’t so lucky. As soon as they’re identified as vampires, the Oltec round them up and take them to holding cells. The explorers find some time to get to know the Oltec, as they introduce themselves, and regain some of the strength after the arduous journey, but their rest proves short-lived.

In the holding cells, Amalia and Kellan talk as they wait, but Vito and his men have other plans. A dark cloud of mist covers the building as the guards are taken out either by vampires or by traitors that secretly worship Aclazotz. Vito seeks to claim Kellan as sacrifice to his god, but Amalia and Bartolomé oppose him. Only the cartographer and the half-fae manages to escape with their lives, as Bartolomé sacrifices himself to bar Vito from reaching them.

Episode 5

Those of the Sun Empire are introduced to a coming-of-age ceremony of the Oltec: learning to tame and ride a giant bat. Huatli, Wayta, and the others all partake in the ceremony when Wayta returns worried, warning that a cursed fog is covering the building where the vampires are supposed to be locked. Amalia and Kellan, who’d been taken prisoner, explain everything to their captors. The Oltec prepare themselves to fight, assuming the worst.

Still deep within the tunnels and caves, Malcolm and the Mycotyrant’s conversation comes to a sudden end as the fungus makes the decision to assimilate the two remaining pirates. They dash into an escape which leads them straight to the city of the River Heralds. The merfolk fight the invading mushrooms off as well as they can, as Malcolm and Breeches make their way to the open gate.

Vito and his men, now joined by the servants of Aclazotz that live among the Oltec, make their way to the place where their dark god is imprisoned. A series of tests are now the only thing between the vampires and their god. Vito overcomes the tests before him and finally reaches the imprisoned god. A monstrous creature like a demonic bat, chained to the floor. Relentless and obedient, Vito feeds his master the blood of people they’d taken from several villages they passed on the way here. Aclazotz grows in power, becoming once again a powerful beast. He towers over Vito and pierces him with his fangs, imbuing him with his blessing and power. One by one, Aclazotz’s faithful receive his blessing, and one by one they all turn into monstrous beings, becoming more bat-like as the power morphs their bodies.

Aclazotz leads his monstrous followers out of the temple, and using his powers, rejoins the pieces of metal that float around the sun in the middle of the sky, which he calls Chimil. The metal shards form a prison that encages Chimil, shutting off most of its light and plunging the underground world into darkness.

As the sun grows dark, Huatli, Wayta, the warriors of the Sun Empire, and the Oltec all gather their forces and set off to fight the incoming bat-monsters that approach them. The bat riders of the Oltec and the vampire monsters clash in the sky, once again plunging Wayta and Huatli into never-ending battle.

To add insult to injury, through the open portal of the gate comes first a siren and a goblin. Immediately after them, a wave of green fungi begins pouring out and swarming the place. Malcolm recognizes Wayta from their time together in the Brazen Coalition. They greet each other and bring each other up to speed as succinctly as possible. Their reunion is joined by those who hadn’t engaged in combat against the vampires, including Steward Akal, who calls for the reinforcements of her people.

The battle in the skies rages violently as vampires, bats, and humans all fight, kill, and die. Inti locks himself in combat with Vito, managing to catch him off guard. The two skirmish briefly, but before Inti can truly harm Vito, another monster, the transformed Clavileño, descends upon him and coldly snaps his neck. With a scream, Huatli follows after her fallen cousin, and Vito chases her.

Episode 6

Huatli mourns the death of her cousin as she cradles his body on the blood-soaked ground he’s fallen on. But she has no time to dwell on her loss. Vito descends upon her, threatening her. The two engage in combat, Vito keeping the advantage as he thrusts his spear at Huatli, keeping her on the defensive, retreating. Huatli uses all her concentration and might to spread her magic around her, summoning the dinosaurs around them. With a swift move, she disarms Vito as he tries to impale her, and before he can regain his stance, a pack of dinosaurs surrounds him, slashing at him and covering him in cuts. As the vampire shrieks and tries to fight back, Huatli grabs Vito’s spear and thrusts it through his heart, pinning him to the ground. The hierophant of Aclazotz is dead.

Elsewhere, the Mycotyrant spreads like the fungal infection it is. Quint and Abuelo summon Abuela’s echo to join their fight against the Mycotyrant. Before they even come up with a strategy, a group of reinforcements, the so-called gardeners, arrive. They’re joined by an army of other echoes, which take to the fight against the mushrooms, destroying them in various ways. Amalia, Malcolm, Breeches, Kellan, and even Quint all join the battle to defend the land against the invading fungi.

After the seeming defeat of the mushrooms, Amalia and Kellan hurry to the temple from which Aclazotz and the vampires had emerged. By the time they get there, they learn in horror that they were too late. Aclazotz has escaped.

A week after the battle, a Sun Empire delegation reachs Oteclan. The River Heralds have left, as well as the pirates, Amalia, and Kellan. Diplomatic relations have to be established with the Oltec, as well as deciding what the Sun Empire will do moving forward in regards to attacking Torrezon and the Dusk Legion. Huatli and Caparocti strongly oppose each other in this regard, to the point that their disagreement turns into a bitter argument.

Malcolm leaves the caves eager to reach Sunray Bay; eager to rest and lose himself at the bottom of a tankard. Nothing is ever so easy, though. The city is deserted, much like Downtown had been. There’s only one explanation for it, and Malcolm dreads it deeply. And so, along with Breeches, Malcolm sets off to High and Dry in an attempt to warn them before it’s too late.

Amalia has promised Bartolomé she’ll inform the queen of all that has happened. But in truth, she chooses another path, one that leads her away from the dark and terrible god she’d believed in for so long, away from the schisms and conflicts of her people. Away from Ixalan. With Kellan, Amalia steps forth through an Omenpath, to wherever it may take them.

Quint continues his investigations in the temples at the core of Ixalan, discovering a series of edifications that’d been built by giant beings long gone. But his meddling goes a bit too far, accidentally awakening the last sleeping being.

Far from Oteclan, on the surface, two threats have taken to sea. The Mycotyrant has taken over sailors and pirates in Sunray Bay and is now seeking to travel the world of Ixalan and bring it all under his influence.

On another ship, a dark god sails towards Torrezon. Towards his vampiric descendants. Towards Vona de Iedo, the Antifex who’d managed to see the truth of their people. He’s eager to meet her.

Story Spotlight Cards

Orazca Puzzle-Door

Quint and Huatli find a way to open the mysterious door underneath Orazca, which leads them down into the underground tunnels and caves of Ixalan.

Fanatical Offering

The spilling of innocent blood will not bar Vito from reaching his dark god. He’ll sacrifice whoever’s necessary to accomplish his dark goals.

Abuelo’s Awakening

Quint and Wayta awaken an old spirit using his poncho as a channel. The old and wise man who chose to call himself Abuelo joins them.

Matzalantli, the Great Door

The great door that bars Oteclan and the rest of the underground world within Ixalan’s hollow core from the rest of the world.

Chimil, the Inner Sun

On the other side of the door lies the core of Ixalan, an inhabitable land brightened by Chimil, the sun that lies at its center.

Canonized in Blood

Vito willingly sacrifices those around him to Aclazotz, the dark god of vampires. This massive sacrifice grants him his god’s blessing as well as his dark, terrible powers.

Malicious Eclipse

The reinvigorated Aclazotz uses his powers to enclose Chimil in its cosmium cage, plunging the Core into an unnatural darkness that’ll be the beginning of his bloody reign.

Huatli’s Final Strike

Still mourning the death of her cousin Inti, Huatli defeats and kills the monstrous Vito, running him through with his own spear.

Bitter Triumph

While Huatli takes care of the evil Vito, Caparocti avenges Inti by piercing the heart of Clavileño, Inti’s killer.

Family Reunión

Huatli and Akal Pakal regard their peoples as long-separated cousins that have been finally brought together. The Oltec and the people of the Sun Empire think of each other as long lost relatives.

Wrap Up

Malicious Eclipse | Illustration by Campbell White

And that’s that for the story of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan! There are things I personally liked, and others I didn’t enjoy all that much. That said, make sure to check the stories for yourself on Wizards' official website! It’s always good to support creators and artists, and we need to make sure WotC doesn’t think of taking the short stories away again any time soon.

I think the story suffers from the very same issues Magic’s been having, which is mainly that it goes too fast. There are too many characters, some of which are completely new, with which we spend a really short time before they either die or go away to be seen again who-knows-when.

But to focus on the good things, I really like that the return of the Mycotyrant is a direct consequence of the Phyrexian Invasion disrupting the world. I like that the conflict between the Dusk Legion and the Sun Empire has been left at a dubious standstill thanks to the invasion, and that the Church of Dusk is going through a schism. I also enjoy the threats not really being solved by the end, especially since they were teased as massive, almost unbeatable enemies for the whole story. I mean, Alcazotz is literally a god, after all.

Enough about what I think. What did you think of this set’s story? Did you enjoy it? What do you think will happen next? Do you think we’ll keep seeing more of Kellan and Amalia? Make sure to leave a comment letting us know. And while you’re here, pay our Discord server a visit! There you’ll find an amazing community of MTG fans just like you.

That’s all from me for now! Have a good one, and I’ll see you next time.