Serra's History
Serra was a human female planeswalker from the ancient days of the planes, with an affinity for angels, born on an undisclosed plane. She was immensely powerful, enough to create her own plane - Serra's Realm, which she populated with her Serra Angels. The Church of Serra was founded on Dominaria in her honor, worshipping the planeswalker as a goddess.
Little is known of Serra's early days. At some point in the distant past, she visited Dominaria and created the first angels on the plane. This act and her general benevolence led to the creation of a church focused on her worship. This Church of Serra can be traced back to the days of the Sheoltun Empire, Benalia's forerunner. Here, she was revered as a goddess and a temple was built in her honor in Epityr. The enormous statue that is part of the temple depicts her with wings.
Sometime later, she created her own heavenly plane, Serra's Realm, formed primarily with white mana and populated by her angels and human worshippers. Her worldview, beliefs, and wisdom are chronicled in the Song of All.
Serra's personal realm came to an end when
Urza appeared, wounded from an attack by Phyrexians. He spent years there recovering and left the plane in peace. However, the Phyrexians attacked shortly thereafter, having tracked Urza to her realm, killing many of Serra's subjects. Worse still, the black mana essence of the Phyrexians tainted Serra's Realm so badly that Serra herself could no longer stand to stay there. She abandoned it woefully, taking those who would come with her and entrusting the archangel Radiant as its caretaker in her absence.
She wandered the planes for some time afterward, eventually meeting and falling in love with another planeswalker named Feroz. They lived together on the plane of Ulgrotha for some time, protected from the rest of the multiverse by Feroz's Ban, and protecting the people of Ulgrotha from Baron Sengir and his vampires. That is until Feroz himself was accidentally killed before her eyes.
Serra, heartbroken, fled Ulgrotha to Sursi on Dominaria and hid among some wandering refugees (possibly from her own plane). Serra joined Feroz in death soon after when she was attacked by an unnamed black planeswalker disguised as a thief. Though she could have healed herself easily, her will to live had been shattered and she wasted away. She used her last strength to sanctify the land around Sursi. Her death inspired Brother Angus, the man who had saved her from the thief, to build the Cathedral of Serra around her tomb.
After Serra's death, her legions persisted and were taken over by Radiant, who was prideful, quick to judgment, and lacked Serra's compassion, allowing her and many of her followers to become corrupted by the influence of Phyrexia. The sisterhood of angels fell completely under Phyrexian influence, with Radiant's corrupted angels becoming a terrible winged army, slaughtering the inhabitants of Serra's Realm.
Urza visited the Realm in its last days on the Skyship Weatherlight and saved many Serran refugees before collapsing the plane to prevent its total takeover by Phyrexia.
