Ugin's History
Ugin is an elder dragon planeswalker from Dominaria. He is a dragon of great stature, with feathered wings and scales of coruscating blue. He is the twin brother of
Nicol Bolas, and sibling to
Arcades Sabboth,
Chromium Rhuell, Merrevia Sal and
Palladia-Mors. Unlike his twin brother, Ugin is uninterested in power for its own sake, preferring instead the pursuit of knowledge in the hope of understanding the nature of the multiverse. Ugin's unparalleled knowledge allowed him to transcend the colors of mana, and he is now centered in colorless mana, although he retains the ability to use all 5 colors.
Like his twin brother, Ugin is one of the most powerful planeswalkers in existence. His capabilities range from the transmutation of energy into matter to the manipulation of time and fate, and on several occasions he has proven able to return from death. Ugin generally uses his powers to create rather than destroy, but if threatened he is capable of unleashing ghostfire, an invisible flame that can incinerate virtually anything in the multiverse.
Ugin was spawned from
The Ur-Dragon alongside his twin, Nicol. Where in every other egg there was only one, they woke together, they named themselves together, and touched the soil of Dominaria at the same instant. They were both only half the size of their siblings. When they witnessed their sister Merrevia Sal's being attacked by non-specific humanoids and their dogs; Nicol tried to rescue and then avenge her, while Ugin was far more pressed to find their other siblings and seek more knowledge. Upon climbing a mountain, Ugin expressed wonder at the multiverse, while Nicol sought to become strong to not die like their fallen sister.
After Palladia-Mors mocked their size and their hunting techniques, the twins spent years perfecting various techniques for hunting in tandem. The next years, they lived with Arcades Sabboth, who had taken up residence as dragonlord in a human settlement. Here Nicol learned about the nature of humans, and how easy they could be manipulated to further his own goals. Meanwhile, Ugin made particular friends with an old holy elder named Te Ju Ki, whose sole purpose in life, it seemed, was to think about things that could not be seen. He soaked up the calm wisdom she exuded and learned about the existence of other planes. After several years, Bolas had learned enough and took Ugin to seek revenge for their sister's murder. On their way to the birth mountain, Ugin was wounded and poisoned by humans that had evolved into dragon hunters. After recovering, Ugin witnessed Bolas manipulating the dragon hunters into a quarrel between several factions, and taking over as supreme leader. After Bolas tried to use his brother to aid in his endeavors, Ugin realized that Bolas had never truly cared for him at all. This mental shock caused his planeswalker's spark to ignite and he planeswalked to the Meditation Plane.
While the rest of the Elder Dragons clashed in the Elder Dragon War, Ugin instead explored the Multiverse, marveling at its grandeur. When he, at last, chose to return home, he found the world embroiled in war, with Arcades Sabboth and Nicol Bolas sending their armies of dragons and humans against each other. Seeking to convince them to stop fighting, Ugin revealed himself. Nicol, who had believed that his twin had been killed by the humans after he had taken control of him, distrusted him at first but was convinced that he was the real Ugin. When Nicol proudly displayed his empire before him, asking his brother to join him in being emperor of all. Ugin retorted that all that Nicol had achieved was a minor speck in an infinity of worlds and nothing to be proud of, revealing that he had found a way to travel between worlds. Nicol angrily asked Ugin to show him how to planeswalk, and when he could not, suspected that he had been in hiding somewhere on Dominaria and plotted against him. The brothers exchanged bitter words before Ugin left Dominaria again, cementing the rift that had grown between them.
Many, many years and adventures later,
Nicol Bolas (having discovered his own spark) confronted Ugin on the Meditation Plane. First above the wide waters of the Meditation Realm and then on a wild pummeling path through the planes, they struggled for days, years, generations. Knowing that he could not match Bolas' savage hatred, Ugin returned to the Meditation Realm and was fatally wounded by his brother. As his body fell into the pools of the Meditation Realm, the ripples created an expulsion of power that fractured the very plane and cast Bolas back into the Blind Eternities.
An unknown amount of time later, Ugin awakened, his spirit inhabiting a new body formed from the Meditation Realm's waters. The newly reborn Spirit Dragon had found his purpose - to protect the multiverse from threats like Bolas, whose hatred would destroy entire planes if left unchecked.
Ugin eventually made his home on the plane of Tarkir, where his magic was responsible for the creation of the plane's dragons. Valuing both the dragon broods and the humanoid Clans, he gifted the Clans with concealment magic so they could evade the depredations of the dragons. He also revealed the secret of Ghostfire to the Jeskai Way, and the art of the Whisper Mind to the Temur Frontier. By sharing his secrets among the clans, no one clan would have more power than the others.
Ugin was the mastermind of the trio of planeswalkers, alongside
Sorin Markov and
Nahiri, that lured the Eldrazi to Zendikar to imprison them within the Eye of Ugin. Over the course of 40 years, the planeswalkers prepared Ugin's plans, creating a massive network of stones known as hedrons, powered by leylines and coded by draconic runes. When the Eldrazi finally arrived on Zendikar, Ugin's part was to combat the Eldrazi with his own colorless magic, the magical key to unlocking the Eye.
Thousands of years after the Eldrazi were sealed, Ugin and fellow planeswalker Azor devised a plan to trap Bolas on Ixalan. Before it could come to that, Bolas tracked his twin to Tarkir. The two planeswalkers waged a titanic battle, leaving Ugin broken and nearly dead. Bolas dug deep into Ugin's mind for information about the Eldrazi and their prison. His purpose accomplished, Bolas departed, leaving the grievously wounded Ugin to die. In the original timeline, although physically dead, the dragon's spirit had not departed and found its way into the mind of the planeswalker
Sarkhan Vol. Sarkhan was plagued by Ugin's whispers in his head, 1,280 years after the dragon's death. Sarkhan later discovered that the whispers were Ugin's psychic plea across time and space for help.
Sarkhan Vol was drawn back to his home plane of Tarkir by the whisperings of Ugin's spirit in his head. While there, he was able to travel back in time 1,280 years using Ugin's Nexus, a spiritual nexus surrounding Ugin's bones. The nexus transported Sarkhan back in time, just before the battle between Ugin and Nicol Bolas.
Using a shard of a hedron containing Ugin's life force, Sarkhan created the Crucible of the Spirit Dragon to save Ugin and thereby alter the fate of the entire plane.
Sarkhan was transported back to the future, and the timeline of Tarkir was forever changed.
1,280 years after Sarkhan Vol saved Ugin, the spirit dragon still rested in his cocoon of hedrons. During that time, Tarkir's history changed and Ugin's dragons had now become the dominant species on the plane. Sorin Markov arrived on Tarkir and with the help of an enthralled Atarka warrior made his way to Ugin's resting place. There, Sorin awakened and freed the spirit dragon from his slumber. Ugin explained about his battle with Nicol Bolas to Sorin who then informed him about the awakening of the Eldrazi. A shocked Ugin inquired about Nahiri stating that they would need her help to fight the Eldrazi again by rebuilding the hedron network. Ugin soon realized that Sorin was purposely hiding the information about Nahiri's fate and was annoyed. He warned Sorin to put aside whatever spat the vampire and Nahiri had and to find her. He then thanked Sorin for his assistance with a warning that they will meet again on Zendikar, and Nahiri had better be with the vampire.
Later, Ugin met Sarkhan Vol who had arrived searching for answers. The spirit dragon had been studying Tarkir's new history in the various carvings around the canyon. He eventually questioned Sarkhan on his actions and how a hedron from the Eye of Ugin arrived on Tarkir. Sarkhan informed Ugin of the events in the past few years, deducing his actions in the past. As Ugin had no memory of the alternate timeline and the role his spiritual echo had played in it, he theorized that Sarkhan had now created a time paradox of sorts. The Dragon Man had appeared from nowhere and had saved Ugin the Spirit Dragon before disappearing to reappear a thousand years later. Understanding this, Sarkhan made his peace with Ugin and left.
Having been freed from stasis on Tarkir, Ugin returned to Zendikar. With Sorin Markov and Nahiri missing, he started to rebuild the Eye of Ugin and the hedron network. When
Jace Beleren arrived to investigate, the Spirit Dragon revealed how the network might be used to again immobilize the Eldrazi titans, but Jace suspected that the same trick might instead serve as a first step in killing them. Ignoring Ugin's dire warnings, Jace left the Eye and made his way back to Sea Gate to pass this information on to Gideon. After the newly formed Gatewatch destroyed
Ulamog and
Kozilek, Ugin berated them for killing the ancient creatures instead of trapping them, fearing dire consequences for the multiverse.
Seeking to end the threat posed by his brother once and for all, Ugin conspired with Sarkhan to take down Bolas. Sarkhan helped Ugin bypass the wards that Bolas used to protect the Meditation Realm, which enabled Ugin to quickly take back control of the plane. This also allowed Ugin to see through the Spirit-Gem between Bolas' horns, giving him one way to effortlessly spy on his brother without any chance of being noticed. (This was because the Spirit-Gem was metaphysically tied to both Ugin himself and the Meditation Realm, as Bolas had taken it from Ugin's essence after killing him there.)
Upon learning that Bolas would be going to Ravnica to complete the Elderspell, Ugin allied with the Ravnican dragon
Niv-Mizzet. Together, they came up with a contingency plan to resurrect Niv in the event of his death: Niv preserved his consciousness in an advanced device that could house his mind and his soul for a century. When Bolas killed Niv (as expected), Ugin sent Sarkhan to retrieve the device and bring it to the Meditation Realm, where he could keep it safe until Ravnica's leaders performed the ritual to bring Niv back to life.
After that, Ugin sent Sarkhan to Amonkhet to retrieve the spear of the god Hazoret. As an object created by Bolas and infused with his energy, Hazoret's spear was one of the few weapons capable of harming the elder dragon. As Ugin had planned, the spear wound up in the hands of the newly-resurrected Niv-Mizzet. Niv used it to stab Bolas in the back, impaling him. This enabled the God-Eternal Bontu to deliver the fatal blow, biting Bolas and harvesting all the sparks he'd consumed as well as his innate spark.
After Bolas' defeat, Ugin took his brother's body to the Meditation Realm to prevent him from coming back to life on Ravnica. To prevent anyone from following him, Ugin had Jace use an illusion to conceal his presence from everyone, making them believe that Bolas' corpse had disintegrated instead.
Ugin wrapped Bolas in his wings while traveling through the Blind Eternities. Despite this protection, and even though Bolas was an elder dragon and a former planeswalker, the journey to the Meditation Realm ended up causing even more damage to Bolas' body, stripping the scales off his hide.
Nonetheless, Bolas still came back, although it took him weeks to regain consciousness and months to start recovering. Upon awakening, Bolas found himself completely powerless, unable to planeswalk, or even use the simplest spells. Furthermore, Ugin had stripped away his names, preventing anyone from summoning him. To add insult to injury, Ugin explained precisely how he had managed to outmaneuver his brother, revealing how he worked with Sarkhan and Niv-Mizzet to orchestrate Bolas' defeat.
Ugin then expanded himself throughout the plane, revealing that he'd merged his essence with the Meditation Realm. He'd also sealed the plane off from the rest of the multiverse, preventing anyone (including himself) from entering or leaving again. Ugin told Bolas that he will keep watch over him, ensuring that he cannot bring any more harm to the multiverse, until Bolas' natural death in thousands of years.
