I am Rahel, one of Serra’s Angels, and I have been charged with the responsibility of recording the actions of the planeswalker Ravidel. I have watched him for centuries, and followed his growth in both power and wickedness. Now, on the eve of his greatest triumph – or failure – I have been allowed to place this brief account into the hands of mortals, that Ravidel may be better understood, and perhaps, defeated. I am not permitted to take an important role in the planeswalker war that is coming, but I am allowed to impart this knowledge. Rest assured that, had I the dispensation, I would gladly end the wickedness of Ravidel once and for all. That fate, however, is in the hands of another – the one who now reads these pages.
In the time of the ice age, there was among the twelve planes of the Shard a young magician named Ravidel. The calamities brought on by the Brothers’ War threatened to wipe out Ravidel’s people, and his parents thought it best to apprentice him to the planeswalker Faralyn. This wizard accepted Ravidel, and set him to be the keeper of the Elder Dragonling he held in thrall – a Chromium Dragon spawn, named Rhuell.
Ravidel was embittered for being cast out of his homeworld. He would have chosen the dignity of suffering with his people rather than being exiled into the multiverse with a strange wizard. But he took solace in caring for Rhuell, and even under these extreme circumstances, the two became friends. It was one of the last times Ravidel would ever feel compassion for another being.
By this time Faralyn had adopted Ravidel as his spellsquire (sometimes calling the youngster his "Journeying Angel," a title I find noxious), and with the dragon, Ravidel aided Faralyn in the study of the physics of the Shard.
Eventually, Faralyn deduced a method of escape from the Shard. He led a number of other planeswalkers to a summit on the Null Moon, and precipitated a battle among them. In the course of the battle, the dragon Rhuell was slain – and so was Ravidel. Faralyn used his spellsquire’s life energy to escape from the Shard, leaving the young man’s corpse behind.
The planeswalker Kristina of the Woods cast a spell of resurrection and revived Ravidel. Betrayed by his honored mentor, his truest friend Rhuell lost to him, Ravidel went insane with grief and cursed Kristina with his enmity forever.
Ravidel might well have become just another minor planeswalker – and this war might never have commenced – were it not for the planeswalker Taysir, who was also at the summit on the Null Moon and a long-time friend of Kristina. For perplexing reasons, Taysir eventually found Ravidel and took him on as his apprentice. Taysir is one of the most powerful planeswalkers known to the Serra, and his tutelage allowed Ravidel to grow in power exponentially.
The pair spent some time tracking down the planeswalkers Leshrac and Tevesh Szat to exact vengeance for their slaying of Rhuell and Ravidel at the summit. They found Leshrac and trapped him for millennia, but Szat stayed out of reach. Ravidel’s hatred of Szat burned as strongly as for Kristina, and this did not rest well with Taysir. The planeswalker was in love with her (unrequited love, to Taysir’s eternal sorrow), and had hoped to reform Ravidel to some degree. This was clearly not going to happen.
Taysir, discouraged, eventually tired and cut Ravidel loose to continue as he saw fit. Ravidel took this to mean he was entering a new phase of his apprenticeship, and began a series of conquests throughout the multiverse, collecting artifacts and perfecting his dueling skills. Returning to Dominaria, he crossed paths with the Ash Warlord Embereck, one of that world’s most powerful planeswalkers, and they dueled over the fabled Argivian Sylex amidst the submerged ruins of a city in Terisiare. Ultimately, Embereck defeated Ravidel but allowed him to leave with the Sylex. Ravidel explained that he needed the Sylex to take revenge on those who had wronged him (Szat and Kristina), and the honor-driven Embereck sympathized. He would soon come to regret his poor judgement.
Over the next few centuries, Ravidel would occasionally visit with Taysir and continue his training. Taysir consented to this reluctantly, but he gave little thought to Ravidel or his desire for vengeance, considering him just another hotheaded young planeswalker.
As the last vestiges of the ice age disappeared on Dominaria, a new age was dawning. Many of the world’s greatest wise people gathered in the Haven of Minorad, the northernmost habitable point in Corondor, to share their knowledge and document the passing of time. The new Corondor calendar was established, and the date of the meeting was declared Year One of a new age.
Ravidel attacked this Summit of Minorad, and hatched an insidious plan. He used the Argivian Sylex to blackmail his arch-foe Kristina, as well as the Ash Warlord Embereck, Grenfell Mor of Golthonor, Altair of Coloni, and Liana of Minorad, all powerful planeswalkers – into his servitude. He did this by using the Sylex to threaten the butchering of all Minorad’s sages. The last bastion of Corondor’s knowledge would be destroyed before their eyes, and the new age would end before it began.
Ravidel’s demand was deceptively simple: to be left alone to perform his business on Dominaria, no matter the nature of that business. Seeing no alternative but further violence (and perhaps racked with guilt over Ravidel’s current condition), Kristina convinced most of the planeswalkers to acquiesce. Only Embereck refused, and vanished with a vow of vengeance against Ravidel.
Taysir had no inkling of what his apprentice was up to. He next saw Ravidel some years later, when Ravidel gleefully brought him the news that Kristina had taken a lover. Ravidel brought Taysir to the woods of Corondor, where they witnessed Kristina walking with her new love: a young planeswalking minotaur named Sandruu. Enraged, Taysir attacked Sandruu at the next opportunity. The battle occurred in the Homelands. In the end, Sandruu was banished to a distant plane for centuries, and Taysir was slain by the guardian of the Homelands, Feroz. Kristina knew none of this. Taysir’s spirit lived, however, and has returned to the world of the living only recently.
Ravidel had now lost his master Taysir, whom he greatly respected and admired. He decided to finish Taysir’s abandoned quest: the destruction of Tevesh Szat. To this, of course, Ravidel added a number of embellishments. He wanted to destroy Kristina and all other planeswalker foes, to establish a stranglehold on all of Dominaria.
He remained on Dominaria, gathering his power base in Corondor. He corrupted Lord Adam Carthalion, and eventually killed him at the Battle of Aster Fall. Ravidel used the Carthalion family’s power to undermine the rulership of Corondor, and worked towards the day when he would rule the continent.
When resistance in the Corondoran city of Arathoxia grew too great, Ravidel launched an all-out assault on the city. This resulted in the city’s destruction, and the slaying of the Scarlet Vizier. Adam Carthalion’s young son Jared, who had been living in the city amongst a band of street urchins, finally puzzled together enough of his secret past to realize Ravidel was his arch-enemy, and escaped the conflagration.
A series of occasional battles between Jared and Ravidel followed, battles which also involved Jared’s new mentor Kristina and several other planeswalkers. In the end, two of these brave heroes – Liana and Altair – died at Ravidel’s hands. In the final such battle, Ravidel secured several powerful magical artifacts known as Moxes.
As I write these words, Ravidel is using the tremendous potency of the Moxes to act as a beacon, one that will draw planeswalkers to Corondor. In particular, he seeks to draw the attention of Tevesh Szat, so that Ravidel may at last take his revenge.
Ravidel is destined to succeed in drawing Szat to Corondor. A tremendous war is at hand, with numerous planeswalkers stepping up to stop Ravidel – or join him. The beast is terribly powerful, however, and the outcome of the war is cloudy, even to those of us among the Serra. My sisters and I hope to see Ravidel put down at last, so that his centuries of slaughter and deception may at last come to an end.
It is in your hands, planeswalker. Read this account and know that Ravidel is a force of evil, a liar, and a beast of the worst sort. He will honor no bond, respect no authority. He will persist in hurting and killing until, like a frenzied, wounded tiger, he is slain.
I leave this account here in Corondor, in the hopes that it will be of use. I pray to Serra that I may return to this text soon, and record within these last few pages how this BattleMage, the rabid beast Ravidel was at long last put down.