Most people have heard Magic the Gathering.But in case you haven’t, it’s a collectible card game that’s been around since the early 90s and is played all over the world. It is so popular, it has expanded in several series of novels, comic books, and even toys. One of the game’s most iconic characters is Liliana Vess.
Liliana is what’s known as a Planeswalker, a powerful mage who can travel between various realities and dimensions, and her story is a tragic one that resonates powerfully with many fans. She was born on the plane of Dominaria where her father was a powerful ruler. As a youth, she lived a scandalous life, trained in the art of healing, but also, dabbling in black magic. Her brother became tainted by a foul darkness and she was given the task of saving him. She turned to evil to do so and awakened her Spark, making her a Planeswalker.
Leaving Dominaria behind, Liliana fled to Innistrad,becoming a master of Nercomancy. While there, she lost to a vampire Planeswalker named Sorin which forced her into a quest for power that took her across the multi-verse. During this time, she sold herself to not one but four demons in trade for unimaginable power. In addition, she tracked down and obtained powerful, magical artifacts such as the Chain Veil. Another Planeswalker named Jace crossed her path and she fell in love with him and her relationship with him laid the foundation for her path towards redemptation. She joined his team of planeswalkers – the Gatwatch – and saved them more than once.
Wanting to be free of the demons controlling her, she tracked down each of them and killed them, only to have her contracts with them default to the great, elder dragon, Nico Bolas. Bolas, wanting to take over the plane of Ravnica, used her as the general of his Dreadhorde armies. She broke free of his control at the cost of her own life, turning against him to once again save the Gatewatch as well as the plane of Ravnica. Only the sacrifice of another planeswalker saved her from actually dying. Afterwards however, with only Jace willing to believe she was anything other than evil, she fled, and though her soul is now free, she remains under a powerful curse of the Chain Veil. What happens to her from this point is yet to be revealed. Many fans hope that she will finally be fully redeemed and join the side of good but it just as possible that she will be brought to justice and even killed for her crimes.
