THE RISE OF THE ELDRAZI The Eldrazi titans were imprisoned for thousands of years. Once—just once—they enjoyed the merest taste of freedom, and the result was cataclysmic. Nahiri disappeared after this first escape, going in search of the other two Planeswalkers who had abandoned her world and left her to deal with the Eldrazi alone. Even in her absence, the magic of the Eye of Ugin held fast. Then, for reasons of his own, the elder dragon Planeswalker Nicol Bolas arranged for three Planeswalkers to converge on the Eye and unknowingly reactivate it. These were his own mad minion Sarkhan Vol, the mind mage Jace Beleren, and the pyromancer Chandra Nalaar. The activation of the Eye loosed teeming broods of Eldrazi upon the plane, but the titans themselves were not yet free. Sorin Markov finally returned to Zendikar in an effort to prevent that from happening, enlisting the help of the Planeswalker Nissa Revane. Sorin led Nissa to the Eye with the intent of sealing it once more, as Nahiri had done the first time the bonds were loosened. But Nissa had other ideas. She believed that, given their freedom, the Eldrazi would leave Zendikar and wreak their destruction on other planes, thus making her home safe again. Instead of sealing the three titans tightly into their prison once more, she broke the last bonds holding them in, and the titans emerged into the world. After so many eons in stasis, the titans were not able to leave Zendikar immediately. They needed to feed, gather strength, and restore themselves. They followed their broods, spreading out across the plane, destroying large sections of land before starting to target the settlements where survivors had taken shelter.
Near-Death Experience | Art by Dan Scott It was then that Gideon Jura first arrived on Zendikar, after following Chandra's trail to the plane in hopes of assisting her in the notoriously dangerous landscape. But by the time he arrived, Chandra was nowhere to be found, and Gideon became embroiled in attempting to protect the innocents of the plane as the Eldrazi carnage swept across Zendikar. After valiant attempts to defend the Zendikari against the titans' spawn, Gideon came face to face with one of the Eldrazi titans themselves. It was then that Gideon realized that he was unable to withstand this new threat alone. He needed reinforcements. Vowing to return, he left in search of aid at the center of Planeswalker activity: the city-world of Ravnica. Leaderless and hounded by inscrutable enemies, the resilient Zendikari kept moving across the dangerous plane, searching for safe places where they could regroup and try to reclaim their world.