The Gatewatch

The Gatewatch's History

The Gatewatch is a group of planeswalkers initially allied together to fight the Eldrazi on Zendikar. Named for their defense of Sea Gate. Their commitment is to protect the people of the Multiverse from threats that no one else can handle. The group was founded by Gideon Jura, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, and Nissa Revane.

The Gatewatch was formed after the founding members together defeated the demon planeswalker Ob Nixilis on Zendikar. The four planeswalkers realized that they were helpless against large threats on their own, but that they could stand against just about any force in the Multiverse by working together. Thus they swore an oath to stand together and the Gatewatch was created. Jace devised a plan to bind the Eldrazi Titans Kozilek and Ulamog to Zendikar, drawing the bulk of the Titans into the plane so that their energy could be dispersed into Zendikar, killing them in the process. Helped by a massive fire spell launched by Chandra, they succeeded.

After the defeat of the Eldrazi titans, Jace and his friends were berated by Ugin for killing the ancient creatures. Ugin implied there could be consequences for the multiverse and that Sorin Markov (one of the other original Eldrazi planeswalker opponents) would be less forgiving. After consultation with his friends, Jace decided to investigate Sorin's whereabouts on his homeplane of Innistrad, and recruit him as an ally against Nicol Bolas and other interplanar threats.

On Innistrad, Jace found only madness that affected the entire plane that soon proved to be the influence of the last Eldrazi Titan Emrakul. Aided by the planeswalker Tamiyo, he returned to Zendikar to bring the rest of the Gatewatch to fight Emrakul. When Liliana Vess came to their aid with a Zombie army, her reception by the Gatewatch was poor, especially since Nissa felt the dark magic radiating from the Chain Veil. While that power protected her against Emrakul's insidious influence and allowed her to attack the Titan directly, it also took a great toll on her body, leaving her near death.

When she reawakened, Emrakul had been sealed in Innistrad's moon by the Gatewatch and Tamiyo, and her wounds had been healed by the other planeswalkers. Seeing that a group of allies could be useful for her long-time plans, she decided to join the Gatewatch, albeit to direct them for her plans.

In the three months that followed, the Gatewatch made its headquarters on Ravnica. Thanks to the aid of Tamiyo, they received an emissary from the Consulate of Kaladesh, the Vedalken Dovin Baan. The Vedalken wanted to hire the Gatewatch to protect an Inventor's fair that would take place in Ghirapur. Liliana, however, quickly made clear that the Gatewatch intended to combat other planeswalkers and similar extraplanar threats, not local unrest. Additionally, several influential members of the Azorius Senate of Ravnica had been petrified, leaving Jace to believe that Vraska, a rival planeswalker, could have returned. When they discovered that Chandra and Liliana had vanished, they suspected that she might have planeswalked to Kaladesh. Nissa volunteered to find them.

After Liliana discovered that Tezzeret was active on the plane, she alerted Jace and Gideon, who traveled to Kaladesh and met with Nissa and Chandra, as well as their new ally Ajani Goldmane. Together, the group went into the arena where Tezzeret was about to execute Renegade Prime Pia Nalaar in a quicksmithing match. When the planeswalkers confronted him, Tezzeret announced the end of the Inventor's Fair and retreated to a skyship. Discovering that their presence had been used as a distraction to confiscate the inventions displayed at the Fair and to take the inventors prisoner, the Gatewatch swore to uncover what Tezzeret had planned.

The Gatewatch aided the Renegades in their rebellion against the Consulate. They were helped by Ajani Goldmane, who afterward joined the team. Despite Ajani's plea that they should further amass allies before confronting Tezzeret and his master Nicol Bolas, the rest of the group decided to follow the artificer to Amonkhet.

On Amonkhet, the Gatewatch discovered that Bolas was creating an army of Eternals; highly trained fighting specialists which had been zombified while keeping their skills intact. When they confronted the dragon, they were soundly defeated. Each one fled away on their own. Most of them managed to retreat to Dominaria, which Ajani had suggested as a gathering point. However, Jace became trapped on Ixalan by the power of the Immortal Sun.

The shock of losing Jace as well as the anger towards Liliana's actions caused Nissa to leave the Gatewatch. Chandra, realizing the Gatewatch was not strong enough, also quickly left Dominaria. Thus, only Gideon and Liliana were left to confront the demon Belzenlok on their own, because defeating him would free Liliana's potential that would be needed in their fight against Bolas.

Gideon and Liliana would later board onto the new Weatherlight to fight against the Cabal, ruled by Belzenlok. Later, Chandra regrouped with them. The Weatherlight's crew had wanted to find Karn, and Chandra had wanted to find Jaya Ballard, and all of this coincided in Yavimaya.

Jace, who managed to escape from Ixalan due to the Immortal Sun's removal, managed to locate his friends in the Weatherlight. After he told them the plans of Bolas, he went away to help Ajani to recruit more people.

The three members of Gatewatch in the Weatherlight (Chandra, Gideon, and Liliana), along with the other boarding members of the new Weatherlight, notably the planeswalkers Teferi, Karn, and Jaya, managed to defeat the Cabal's Stronghold and kill Belzenlok. Then Teferi made his Oath and joined the Gatewatch. Jaya and Karn refrained from officially joining. But all of them left Dominaria to find Jace, except Liliana who fell under the control of Nicol Bolas due to her pact with the demons that he had brokered.

The Gatewatch plotted to engage Bolas on Ravnica. Little did they suspect that Bolas had not only accounted for their interference but was practically relying on it. When they traveled to Ravnica for the final confrontation, they immediately became trapped there due to Bolas's use of the Immortal Sun. Alongside many other planeswalkers and Ravnicans, they fought against the Eternals of Bolas' Dreadhorde.

During the invasion, the trapped planeswalkers got together with Ravnican leaders to strategize. At Jace's recommendation, they decided to split up into teams to focus on specific tasks. Gideon, Aurelia, Angrath, and Huatli led a massive force of planeswalkers and Boros, Izzet, and Simic troops into battle against the God-Eternal Rhonas, who was leading a battalion of Eternals to destroy the gathered opposition. Gideon and Aurelia led the aerial units, while Angrath led the ground units. After battling his way to Rhonas, Gideon was able to kill the god, stabbing him in the eye with the Blackblade and draining his essence. Rhonas' lazotep shell collapsed to the ground, an empty husk.

Later, Gideon instructed Chandra to reactivate the Immortal Sun (which she had disabled), intending to use Bolas' trap against him. He rode his pegasus toward the dragon, only for the God-Eternal Oketra to shoot the pegasus down. However, the demon lord Rakdos caught him and brought him within striking distance of Bolas. He struck Bolas in the head with Blackblade, but the sword broke against the dragon's flesh; Bolas revealed that he had enchanted Blackblade so that it would never be able to hurt another elder dragon again.

Meanwhile, Jace, Jaya, Teferi, and Vivien had volunteered to assassinate Liliana. Jace had a lot of conflicting feelings about their mission: rationally, he knew that it was the right thing to do, but he still cared for her and wished that there was a way to help her. When they found Liliana, Teferi warped time around her, slowing her ability to react, defend herself, or strike back at her attackers. This allowed Jaya and Vivien to badly wound her with fire, arrows, and animal spirits, although the Onakke spirits in Liliana's Chain Veil protected her. Nonetheless, they almost succeeded, but Bolas stepped in and saved Liliana by destroying the buildings they were standing on. Fortunately, Teferi saved himself and the other three planeswalkers by slowing their falls.

After Liliana repented, Bolas used the power of the demons' contract against her. Gideon sacrificed himself to save her, using his hieromancy to take the contract and its lethal effects upon himself. When Chandra tried to kill Liliana (believing she'd killed Gideon), Jace stopped her by explaining the situation. After Bolas' defeat, Jace was telepathically contacted by Ugin, who came to take Bolas to the Meditation Realm to prevent him from coming back to life on Ravnica. At Ugin's request, Jace used an illusion to hide the fact that Ugin had planeswalked away with Bolas' body, making everyone believe that the corpse had disintegrated instead.

Coincident with the events of War, Kaya joined and Nissa rejoined the Gatewatch. The survivors were present during the Planewide Celebration that followed their victory, and held a memorial service for Gideon on Theros, but soon after most went their separate ways.

By request of Arlinn Kord, Chandra, Teferi and Kaya travelled to Innistrad to fight the coming of the Eternal Night. Failing to do so they formed a resistance group to battle Olivia Voldaren's vampires, and sought the help of Sorin Markov. Together, they managed to help the locals in restoring the normal day-night cycle. Before their departure, Teferi urged Arlinn to be on guard against the return of an old enemy, the Phyrexians.