Avacyn's History
Avacyn was an archangel who inhabited Innistrad, the central figure of the Church of Avacyn, who gave the humanity of that plane the faith to fight for survival.
The vampire planeswalker
Sorin Markov created Avacyn and tasked her with protecting Innistrad. Through her, the magic of faith would create true power to fend off the darkness. The Church of Avacyn rose from the power Sorin invested in her.
Avacyn's purpose was to maintain the balance on Innistrad. Without her, the equilibrium between humanity and the dark forces would be broken, which would result in the extinction of humanity at the hands of the vampires or werewolves and the triumph of demons over the plane; this would inevitably lead to the vampires resorting to cannibalism once humans and the other species were extinct, resulting in their own extinction as well.
Sorin knew never to expect peace and harmony on his shadowed homeworld, but he thought he had arranged a kind of effective equilibrium, a set of safety measures designed to keep one side of the scale from ever tipping too far. He trusted that this system would maintain itself without his intervention and left the plane in the hands of his creation.
About 1000 years ago one of the archangels of Innistrad, Liesa, became allied with a demon lord, an act condemned by most angels. In response, Avacyn declared her a heretic, an accomplice to the very monsters Avacyn and all other angels were sworn to defeat. Avacyn single-handedly slew Liesa and her entire angel flight for their heresy, then declared the very mention of her name forbidden.
The demon Griselbrand eventually came to the Helvault, defiantly challenging Avacyn to combat. The two battled for days, out of view of all but Avacyn's host, the Lunarch, Mikaeus, and his most trusted bishops. Finally, in an act of desperate effort, Avacyn used all of her remaining strength to drive Griselbrand into the Helvault. However, as his final act, Griselbrand threw his spear and impaled his angelic nemesis. The binding spell backlashed as she was impaled, and Avacyn became imprisoned in the Helvault alongside every other demon that had been trapped within. The angel's disappearance not only endangered the humans of Innistrad, but it also shattered the carefully-constructed balance between humanity and the creatures of the night.
As the situation on the plane grew more dire,
Liliana Vess visited Innistrad in the hopes of destroying Griselbrand, with whom she had made a demonic pact that would result in her soul's enslavement. To this end, she opened the Helvault by forcing an ultimatum on Thalia, its guardian: either she'd destroy the rock, or her soldiers would die. This resulted in the release of both the demons and Avacyn, restoring mankind's defense against the darkness.
The people of the remote village of Gatstaf appealed to Avacyn for aid in breaking the lycanthropic curse after her return. Avacyn appeared to them in Gatstaf Grotto, where many had gathered to strike down what they saw as their scourge. Avacyn's message was short and simple: she could not break the curse of lycanthropy. The curse mingles the human spirit with the spirit of the wild, and the wild spirit could not be destroyed without also destroying the werewolf's humanity; those afflicted with the curse would forever have it. However, Avacyn offered the Gatstaf werewolves a special place at her side. If they promised to serve as guardians of humanity, she would transform their curse, fusing the two warring aspects and allowing them to dwell in the light of her blessing. The lycanthropes at the Grotto accepted her offer, and she transformed them into the wolfir. In a powerful wave of spells that would become known as the cursemute, Avacyn's magic spread through the plane, transforming not just many werewolves but many of the world's foul curses. The wolfir emerged as a new race of great wolf-creatures dedicated to the principles of the Church of Avacyn. However, some of the afflicted humans were fully cured and allowed to lead normal, non-hairy lives.
The cursemute would eventually end with Avacyn's corruption, returning cured werewolves to their natural state.
In the aftermath of her return, Avacyn led Innistrad's humanity into a time of prosperity and peace that lasted roughly a year. This changed, however, by the end of that year's Harvest Moon: the village outcast Kelse prayed to her for help in finding her son, who had ventured into the woods. Avacyn descended and rescued the child, only to be attacked by a strange spell that gave her a vision of
Nahiri's works and invaded her mind with strange thoughts, claiming that mankind was corrupted. During this, Kelse was possessed by rage and punished her child. This event, combined with the foreign thoughts, caused Avacyn to feel a new sense of disgust towards humans.
As revealed later, Avacyn's madness was actually caused by Nahiri's cryptoliths. The redirection of mana that they caused was especially harmful for the angels, who are formed of raw mana.
Sometime later, Lunarch Macher felt insecure in Avacyn's status as a deity and prayed for evidence of her power. Avacyn responded by verbally abusing him, causing him to urinate himself and faint. By this point, black trimming began to invade her irises.
Months later, in late Hunter's Moon, Avacyn paid a visit to Sigarda's house, alongside Bruna and Gisela. By this point, her eyes were already flashing black prominently and her spear began to shift into a more menacing weapon, and her thoughts of disgust towards humanity became dominant, advocating a genocidal solution. Sigarda remained unconvinced, but Bruna and Gisela had given in fully to the madness before they appeared in the former's house. Avacyn blew up Sigarda's roof, and implied a threat towards her should she not collaborate.
By the end of Hunter's Moon, Avacyn returned to the village where Kelse lived. Commanding a flight of angels, she attacked the town, slaughtering its inhabitants with beams of light and prompting a crisis of faith in Kelse. The woman ordered her son to run away, much to Avacyn's anger, and was in turn burned by a beam of light. Satisfied, Avacyn kept attacking the town, now hearing soothing whispers from the Moon.
At Thraben Cathedral, Avacyn encountered
Jace Beleren and
Tamiyo, who tried in vain to restrain her. As she prepared to kill the two planeswalkers, Sorin Markov arrived, asking her to accompany him to the Vault of the Archangel where he had created her. Avacyn did not recognize him, telling him to stand down or face her wrath. As her spells did not affect him, Sorin told her that he was her creator, and Avacyn's madness momentarily withdrew. She questioned herself, reminded of her acts in the grip of madness. She came to denounce Sorin; since he had created her, he was responsible for the flaw within her that had driven her against the innocents of Innistrad and thus was responsible for the creation of Innistrad's greatest current threat. Realizing that she could not harm Sorin, Avacyn instead called the angels of Innistrad down on him. The ancient planeswalker was able to defeat them, but the madness once again took hold over Avacyn, allowing her to harm Sorin. In the ensuing battle, Sorin managed to plummet Avacyn through the Cathedral floor into the Vault. Sorin offered to heal her, but she refused, stating that if she wasn't the daughter he had wanted, they would battle again and again because she would not yield to a monster. When she stated that she knew that Sorin would simply bind her, because what cannot be destroyed must be bound, her creator answered that she could very well be destroyed. When Sorin unraveled the spell that had formed her, Avacyn's last thoughts were: "I am Avacyn. I am to protect."
