Ertai The Corrupted's History
Ertai was a talented, arrogant young wizard from Tolaria who signed on to be the Skyship Weatherlight's mage. He was resurrected during the second Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria.
Following the kidnapping of Captain Sisay, the Weatherlight crew required a mage to fix the coordinates of Rath into the planeshifting powerstone. Hanna suggested that
Barrin could fill the role, but when approached, he refused and instead provided Ertai, one of his top apprentices, who had just been granted full journeyman status. Dubious of his qualifications, Ertai challenged Hanna to a competition which he won easily.
After arriving in Rath, Weatherlight's planeshifting engine was damaged in battle with the Predator. Ertai, therefore, volunteered to keep the planar portal they found open as an escape route. While trying to open the portal, Ertai was contacted by Lyna, who offered to aid his rituals in exchange for letting the Soltari use the portal as well. Ertai agreed and they successfully opened the portal. However, the Weatherlight was being hotly pursued by Predator as it fled and so was forced to leave Ertai behind.
After Weatherlight abandoned him, Ertai was captured by
Greven il-Vec and taken back to the Stronghold. He became an unexpected dark horse candidate in the contest to replace
Volrath as Evincar, largely because of his romantic relationship with Belbe. However, he knew he was no real match for
Crovax and thus spent much of his time trying to find a way to escape Rath. When Crovax and Volrath dueled for the throne, Ertai saw that Crovax would win regardless, but by aiding him, he could prevent the deaths of bystanders from Crovax's ability to regenerate himself by killing them, so he used his magic to off-balance Volrath at a critical moment and thus give Crovax the victory. Soon after, Belbe was killed by Eladamri, who also used the last energy of Belbe's personal portal to flee to Dominaria. This gave Ertai no hope of escape, so he chose to submit to the new Evincar and was thus transformed into Crovax's loyal lapdog.
Embittered by his abandonment by the Weatherlight crew and by Belbe's death, he regarded
Gerrard and company as personal enemies. After the Rathi Overlay, Ertai accompanied Predator into battle with Weatherlight, where he captured Gerrard (and, accidentally,
Squee) and teleported them into the Stronghold. After Squee was given the ability to resurrect, Ertai delighted in killing him over and over again, until finally Squee, quite by accident, overloaded the Phyrexian healing device he was using, supposedly killing Ertai in the explosion.
Several centuries later, Ertai was resurrected somehow by
Sheoldred as part of the second Phyrexian Invasion. He compleated Aron Capashen and Squee's clan of goblins, although the latter was purely to torment his old 'friend.' After escaping a battle with Jaya Ballard, Ajani Goldmane, Danitha Capashen, and Radha, he travelled to Squee's clan to compleat the immortal goblin and retrieve the Salvation Sphere. He managed to protect himself when Squee accidentally blew up his clan's mountain. He was present at the Battle of the Mana Rig, and led an attack on Karn from the Compleated Weatherlight. He was last seen stumbling over the edge of the Rig before its self-destruction.
