Planeswalker's Guide to Reality Fracture

The Multiverse as we know it is at stake. Jace Beleren, Planeswalker and mind-mage, is attempting to rewrite reality with his own vision for existence. Reality Fracture will take us into his Echoverse, confront his plans and twisted past, and change Magic forever. It's all been leading up to this: the start of Reality Fracture's story on August 31, 2026, available on DailyMTG and The Magic Story Podcast.

But what is the Echoverse? What is Hexhaven Academy? And why, after years of attempting to save the Multiverse, has Jace Beleren turned heel? To help prepare you for this monumental moment in Magic's narrative, we've compiled the Planeswalker's Guide to Reality Fracture. Some of your questions will be answered today. As for the rest? You'll have to read the story to find the answers.

Follow the story of Reality Fracture when the first episode releases on August 31! Reality Fracture releases on October 2, 2026, and is available for preorder now from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold.

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Traveling between worlds is nothing new to a Planeswalker. The thrill of setting foot on a new plane never goes away. But it is rare, nearly unheard of, to step into an alternate reality.

Here in one of the many memory-prisons inside the tower is the part of Jace that is honest about himself. He stands in the imaginary ruins of his former sanctum within the Chamber of the Guildpact.

Jace Beleren's Grand Project

I swore an oath to protect the Multiverse.

Over and over, I have. But as time wore on—as we fought murderous villains and devastating disasters without end—we had a thought. An experiment ignited by our trauma after the Phyrexian Invasion of the entire Multiverse: What if these monsters never existed at all? What if there was a version of the Multiverse where no one had to suffer, or lose friends, or be shaped into an abomination against their will?

There are no Eldrazi here. Their corruption never touched soil or souls. There are no Phyrexians. Our bodies are ours and ours alone. There is no Bolas here. Our destinies are not determined by a self-serving egoist but a benevolent thinker.

What started as a noble idea has become a nightmare. When our original plan failed, Jace was unmade in the Meditation Realm. But pieces of him—like me—lingered. As he rebuilt the fractured elements of himself from the essence of the realm, what remained was the desperate need not to fix the Multiverse but to build a better one.

From the Meditation Realm, we began constructing a new reality, painstakingly calculating and recalculating the variables necessary. This new Multiverse is nearly complete, but it is unstable. Too late I had my own realization: This vision was corrupted by the worst parts of our nature. It was cruel, and it wasn't right. It's merely an echo. Our carefully crafted reality wasn't worth the lives and minds we'd leave ruined in our wake.

Jace Beleren, The Theorist

Our prior fragmentation allowed multiple voices to confer, debate, and argue. But in his self-assigned role as the Multiverse's "savior," my most stubborn self refuses to hear dissenting opinions. He's even gone so far as to carve out the parts of himself that disagree with what he's done. It began with the pieces that didn't believe he could do it and continued with those that didn't believe he should. I was the first. I was the part that was honest about who we are. Our intentions. Our considerable abilities, but also our limitations.

Now, the Theorist is all that remains; an amalgamation of our worse traits magnified, without any of the empathy that made us a leader. We have always been a powerful mind-mage, but now the Theorist is done holding back, erasing memories and puppeteering his enemies without concern for concepts like "free will." The Theorist betrays everything we've come to stand for. He's allowed himself to become like the cruel tutors of our past. His so-called perfect end is enough to justify means he once vowed never to inflict on others.

The piece of Jace that was once the Guildpact sighs. "This is our creation. If you understand it, maybe you'll understand how to handle him."

The Echoverse

No Phyrexians. No Eldrazi. No Bolas. The Echoverse—a term the Theorist stubbornly refuses to use—contains a reproduction of every plane from the Multiverse, except for the components we deemed too great an evil.

To create a Multiverse free of pain and suffering, the Theorist calculates probabilities and works to excise elements (a person, an event) from a plane's history. As his thoughts become reality, it is as if these elements never existed. From there, the further creation and expansion of the Echoverse is mostly autonomous. The Theorist is not micromanaging every outcome. He is pompous and misguided but not mad.

Yet for all its cold logic, the Theorist's vision is unstable. The paradoxes that come from rearranging reality are beginning to pile up. A Multiverse missing so much pivotal history is little more than a jigsaw puzzle of misshapen pieces beaten into place. The only way to give it stability is to lay its skin atop the bones of the existing Multiverse. The key to this step is understanding the creation of Arcavios—how the collision of two planes created something new and stable. That is why he is here, overseeing the final stage of his reality's emergence.

Welcome to Echoverse Arcavios

Here, we see a plane in the process of being born: dangerously unpredictable and in a state of wild flux. But to the people of Echoverse Arcavios, it has always been this way. Their memories stretch back generations. The lessons of their past were artificially constructed to endear them to us.

The Theorist's efforts to minimize discordance in the Echoverse influenced the mana alignment of this plane. Instead of snarls of conflicting sources, on the Theorist's Arcavios, harmonious mana merged, creating five elder sphinxes and inspiring schools that held unified perspectives.

The Theorist's Tower

An immense, impossible tower rises from the plane's largest leyline confluence. This specific collection of leylines is a rich source of magic that fuels the education and training at Hexhaven Academy, the equivalent of Strixhaven in the Echoverse. From his sanctum high in the tower, the Theorist can survey and guide his fledgling Multiverse through mage-ring portals. The Theorist siphons the leyline energy concentrated under the tower to fuel his work. He rarely leaves his sanctum, preferring to project mental illusions around the tower (and the Echoverse) to gather information and monitor progress.

When the Theorist arrived on Echoverse Arcavios, Hexhaven's campus buildings comprised a fortress complex, encircled by a defensive outer stone wall. He took up residence in the central bell tower, where his presence and continued wielding of reality-bending magic warped and twisted the campus architecture into the tower as it now stands. Hexhaven Academy's campus makes up the lower majority of the tower, with each school inhabiting a different vertical "neighborhood."

Walls bend and floors fold. No matter where you are in the tower, other parts of campus appear at unexpected angles. One person's floor might be another's wall. A cadet taking a staircase upward might end up three floors below where they started if they aren't paying attention. Hexhaven's campus has what Konstrari professors call a "consciousness of its own." The hallways don't move, per se, but the tower has a way of disrupting where someone is trying to go.

Our psychic influence is felt across Arcavios, but it is concentrated around Hexhaven. Surreal and mind-bending creatures wander the plane. Physical reality twists and turns in unexpected ways. The tower's architecture incorporates elements of our life and memories, increasing in density as you approach the Theorist's sanctum. Doorways and windows resemble his insignia and mage-rings from our home plane of Vryn; statues of him loom over the tower's occupants.

It wasn't our intention to echo our own history here so strongly. While we concentrated on the multiversal calculations, errant thoughts and memories drifted out and shaped the environments.

It should have been a warning.

The Eradia

In addition to twisting Hexhaven campus into a tower, the Theorist's reality-bending magic left a wasteland surrounding it for nearly a hundred miles. The Eradia, as it is called, is crawling with mage-eating monsters and prone to dangerous distortions of reality. Mage hunters and witchstalkers carpet the ground like a swarm of ants, drawn to the powerful magic emanating from the top of the tower.

Any journey into or through the tempestuous Eradia usually requires significant protection and planning. This fact is not lost on unfortunate cadets tasked with "clearing" sections of the Eradia for disciplinary reasons.

Creatures of the Eradia

Mage Hunters and Witchstalkers

Mage hunters are vile, monstrous, spider-legged creatures that naturally sense the presence and use of magic. Their multiple legs allow them to quickly skitter across any type of terrain (and any angle of verticality). The glowing spines on their bodies sense magic similar to the way insect antennae enhance sensory input. In addition to their usual mode of hunting, some mage hunters have a mode of hibernation in which they fold up. This allows them to conserve energy and increases their magic sensitivity.

Witchstalkers are fearsome multicephalic wolves with multiple legs and lucid eyes. They can run incredibly fast and, given an opening, can easily scamper up the tower walls. They are drawn to the scent of magic, hunting in packs. Any magic-users they consume become fuel for their powers.

Creatures Bent by Reality

Some creatures and people exist in a partial state after being caught in the twisting reality of Arcavios. Hexhaven cadets regularly see statues split in threes, caught between past, present, and future. Faceless specters, known as figments, wander the halls in a dream-like state, tethered to the Echoverse but also not here. Shifting creatures hold the forms of two different beings, changing before your very eyes as they move. Many creatures in and around the Theorist's tower are two-headed, no doubt mutated by the magical energy he is projecting to create his copy of the Multiverse.

Surveillance Creatures and Tower Defenses

The Theorist maintains a constant state of surveillance across his Echoverse. One of the many ways he does this is by intentionally projecting his essence into living creatures.

Birds are often seen with our hooded face in place of the head. They perch on archways and spires around Hexhaven. A variety of creatures have been observed with a large singular eye bearing the Theorist's sigil. When he tries to project his essence into a creature farther away, the connection is fragmented.

Most cadets try to avoid the faceless guards patrolling near the Theorist's sanctum. Resourceful or curious cadets might recognize that their uniforms have more in common with Vryn than Hexhaven, but questions about this to the Theorist have been summarily silenced.

Hexhaven Academy

Hexhaven Academy stands as a defensive bastion of magic against the danger and unpredictability of Arcavios. Hexhaven is a grueling, regimented magical academy that trains cadets to be battlemages. Its graduates also serve as healers, protectors, and advisors for many of Arcavios's distant villages and townships. No cadets are accepted from other planes in the Echoverse.

While the five schools take up the majority of Hexhaven Academy's vertical footprint, there are several communal areas around campus that are shared by all. Near the middle of the tower, you can find the cadet dormitories, the mess hall, and the Folioplex.

Enrolling in Hexhaven

Prospective students are accepted based on their acumen and abilities. Hexhaven admission officers travel the plane searching for recruits. Communities are encouraged to inform these officers of children with magical aptitude.

Hexhaven classes are focused on aggression, defense, and control. Recreation at Hexhaven is limited since cadets are encouraged to spend their time outside of class practicing, drilling, or disciplining their minds. This training quiets their thoughts so that the Theorist is not distracted by their mental cacophony. It also has the side effect of making them more susceptible to mind reading. All cadets wear a badge that resembles the Theorist's eye.

First-year Hexhaven students wear a common school uniform. Their first semester is focused on introductory training and coursework. This includes learning the basics of spellcasting, the flora and fauna of the plane, and the history of Arcavios. In their second semester, first-years rotate through courses with each of the schools, serving as research assistants and training attendants for advanced students. Some even become subjects for experimental spells. This second semester affords them opportunities to observe, practice, and experience firsthand the different disciplines of magic.

Induction Trial and Ceremony

Once per academic year, the representatives from each community on Arcavios are invited to gather at Hexhaven's central arena for the induction exams, trial, and ceremony.

A series of exams at the end of a student's first year tests their aptitude for different schools of magic. They must showcase a variety of skills to achieve the objective.

The trial's challenge changes year to year. During the trial, first-years are encouraged to use whatever magic and skills they have learned in their year of studies. The Founder Sphinxes select the cadets they wish to enroll based on their exam results, trial performance, and methodology. For example, when asked to retrieve an object guarded by a puppetbeast and its mage, does a first-year attack head-on with damage spells, or do they manipulate the environment to build tools to reach the item?

Once the trial is complete, the induction ceremony begins for successful cadets. When a cadet's name is called, they present themselves to the sphinx and provost on stage and receive their new school uniform. However, not all first-years are selected for induction. Some don't even complete the trial. These rejected mages return home to learn non-magical trades in Arcavios settlements.

The Founder Sphinxes

Our complex relationship with sphinxes undoubtedly influenced the shape of these creatures. Official histories of Hexhaven assert that the elder sphinxes took pity on the denizens of Arcavios and offered them protection from the elements—a wistful interpretation of the truth. What the residents of Echoverse Arcavios perceived as storms and seismic activity were actually the residual effects of our reality magic as the plane and its collective history took shape all at once.

The sphinxes began teaching some of these people the magic they innately commanded. A community of students grew, and the sphinxes formally founded an institution where they oversaw the training of Arcavios's population to ensure their survival. Hexhaven Academy was built on top of the large leyline confluence from which the sphinxes had emerged.

Since then, the sphinxes have become aloof, mercurial, and puzzling. They may have once taken pity on the peoples of Arcavios, but now they are indifferent, more interested in their legacies, as represented by the parade of elite battlemages that graduate from their schools.

As the deans of each school, the sphinxes hold audiences to hear updates and concerns from professors and elite cadets. However, most of the day-to-day operations are left to the professors, provost, and the campus headmaster.

Hexhaven has five schools dedicated to different disciplines of magical training based on the magic mastered by each of the Founder Sphinxes.

Fatehold

The School of Future History

Major areas of study: History, Divination, Archival Studies, Prophecy

"Those who wait for what the future holds will be waiting forever."

Fatehold believes the optimal course of history can be divined and crafted. The school trains mages to become prophesizing strategists who can see the future and shape the path of history. Fatehold predictions and fate-controlling spells have stabilized communities across the plane.

Denzilore Fatehold founded this school to improve the outlook for the denizens of Echoverse Arcavios. He established the following principles for his students:

• The future is a cautionary tale and a model for the present.
• Predict what can happen, then influence a component of that future to direct the course of history.
• Use the power of future knowledge for the betterment of all.

Fatehold divination spells target the potential energy vibrating within every object and living thing to peer into its possible futures. They find the optimal end state and work backward to tweak, influence, and control elements of the world to ensure it reaches a peaceful and stable future. Fatehold spellcasting is precise yet energetic, requiring a great deal of concentration. It manifests as spectral book pages and scrolls.

Many Fatehold mages confine themselves to their archives and divination chambers, pouring over possibilities. Divination can take place anywhere, but the Preopticon is a space created to amplify the power of prophecy with multiple mirrors that surround a circular platform. Newer cadets are not allowed to use the Preopticon. An unprepared mind cannot hope to survive it.

In fateshaping courses, Fatehold cadets learn to wield divination spells as combat magic. Futurescribes specialize in stream-of-consciousness writing to chronicle the visions and future truths other mages divine, ensuring no detail is missed in the documentation. Fatehold's research archives and prophecy repository are lined with shelves and cabinets stuffed with notes and scrolls about prophetic visions. Records remain here until the prophetic juncture has passed and the event is no longer a future possibility, at which point the records are moved to the Folioplex.

In combat, Fatehold mages use their ability to predict many different outcomes—sometimes taking control of their opponents' possible futures to overwhelm them, other times using what they've learned to ensure the necessary conditions for victory. They also create tangible manifestations of the "pages of fate" to attack or defend against foes in the present.

Fatehold graduates generally either gravitate toward advisory roles or continue their work in the future archives. Some mages become foreseers, chronologists, and strategic prophets. They learn not only the art of prophecy but also how to analyze and distill key information so that they can act as advisors and offer actionable guidance.

The Fatehold campus is located at the base of the tower, physically and metaphorically forming the foundation of Hexhaven. Closest to the ground, Fatehold's archways and windows look out at the Eradia and serve as a constant reminder of the future they seek to ensure.

"Why study the past, which cannot change? Focus on the future possibilities and shape the best outcome for the peoples of Arcavios."

Theorix

The School of Esoteric Mathematics

Major areas of study: Arcane Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, Shadow Numbers, Paradoxology, Impossible Geometry, Manaphysics

"Infinite knowledge leads to infinite power."

In Theorix, cadets learn to plumb the depths of theoretical math and physics to develop solutions to the world's problems. Theorix mages use impossible theorems and arcane equations to conjure portals and twist the very rules of reality around them.

The elder sphinx Uldaros Theorix used his reality-bending magic to build the original fortress of Hexhaven, keeping the campus out of reach of the mage hunters, which had grown bolder in their attacks.

Seeking students who demonstrated a thirst for knowledge and a capacity for abstract thought, the Theorix founder established the following magical laws to guide his school:

• Reality cannot be created or destroyed without sacrifice.
• Leyline energy is a multiversal constant.
• The dimensions of reality are defined by the minimum number of points in contact with the Blind Eternities.

Drawn to the impossibilities of the universe, Theorix mages think on large scales and in abstractions. Incredibly studious and often demonstrating high intelligence from an early age, they are some of the best problem-solvers at Hexhaven Academy. Theorix magic looks like geometric diagrams and ritual circles. Each line conveys a portion of the equation. Mages use their bodies to trace these shapes in the air as if drawing with the tips of their fingers.

Cadets and professors are constantly experimenting. They refuse to be confined by the "rules" of reality and push for new possibilities, new proofs, new truths. But such academic fervor is full of danger. Void theorists specialize in abstractions, paradox magic, and portals to summon creatures from other dimensions. Impossible geometry can twist physical reality with mathematical theorems. Some proofs can create gravity wells and murderous black holes. It is not safe to spend long periods of time in certain areas of the Theorix campus.

On the battlefield, Theorix mages use their reality-bending powers to evade and defend against attacks. However, they typically can't create realities, only transform or convert them. They've found a loophole to this law by pulling in matter from other realities—and sacrificing some of their own sanity. There is a shadow-draped rock garden at the outer edge of the campus where cadets practice their battle spells. The number of shattered or unnaturally shaped rocks betrays the type of spells they are practicing.

The Theorix campus is located near the top of the tower and is the closest to the Theorist's sanctum. This campus is the most twisted and dangerous. Its ever-rotating, ever-changing architecture can turn itself inside out. Corridors can become doorless rooms without warning. There are many portals and gravity wells scattered throughout.

At the center of the Theorix campus is the Parabox, a perfect cube of void space, eleven feet on each side. From the outside, the Parabox's surface is black and smooth, with swirling purple portal magic along its edges. Inside the cube is an infinite-seeming theory-space where the manipulation of reality is contained within its walls. Mages use this space to test the most extreme mathematical theories without affecting the campus.

"Existence can be categorically denied. You just need the right variables."

Stingerquill

The School of Painful Words

Major areas of study: Poetry, Composition, Rhythmancy, Emotional Psychology, Neolinguistics, Curses

"Blades cut only flesh. Words cut right to the soul."

Stingerquill mages are often deployed as battlepoets or voxmancers who defend Hexhaven and the villages of Arcavios. Cadets with quick reaction times and sharp communication skills are often inducted into Stingerquill.

Ingris Stingerquill composed the following canons for her followers and school:

• Have the last word—at any cost.
• Quick wit will win.
• An opponent's heartbeat betrays their fears and doubts. Speak and hold power over them.

With a wide vocabulary and ability to tap into emotions, Stingerquill cadets are the most charismatic and volatile of all Hexhaven mages. These battlepoets compete in duels and engage in one-on-one combat with the monsters of Arcavios. Unlike other schools who gather their power from external sources, Stingerquill mages are themselves the source of their magic. Their self-sufficiency allows them to think fast, act faster, and triumph before their opponents know what is happening.

Stingerquill faculty members teach a wide variety of subjects, including composition, linguistics, poetry, and verbal sparring. Rather than relying on lectures, the professors demonstrate skills and cadets break into groups to practice, duel, debate, and compose verses. Everyone is trained in mental agility to improve reaction times. There aren't essays or long, thought-out treatises in Stingerquill. Coursework and exams are spur of the moment.

Rhythmancy teaches cadets about the patterns and movements in language and speech. It also trains Stingerquill mages to cast magical glyphs through the vibration of the words they speak and the movements of their bodies.

An important part of Stingerquill battle strategy involves tapping into and affecting a person's emotional state. Cadets learn how to make people laugh, cry, and feel empowered, create doubt, and manipulate emotions. Elite mages with these skills are called soulbreakers.

Visual intimidation is also part of their strategy. Cadets embellish their clothes and themselves. Many accentuate their mouths with jewelry or tattoos, while others wear clothing that highlights their hearts, alluding to the power within themselves. Their fashion might even seem agonizing. Pain is an acceptable sacrifice to ensure they can better hurt their opponents.

"Don't let the blaze from my lips interrupt your delusions of adequacy."

Konstrari

The School of Constructive Arts

Major areas of study: Anatomy, Structural Design, Carpentry, Sculpture, Tethermancy

"Nature is the best teacher, in elegance and in ferocity."

Konstrari is a school devoted to the craft, construction, and animation of puppetbeasts. Its cadets are over-the-top architectural builders, sculptors, and designers who understand the essence of natural materials. Their constructs defend the peoples of Echoverse Arcavios, lead scouting missions into the wastelands, and offer a glimmer of wondrous creativity in a dim world. Unlike some of the other schools, Konstrari is not focused on changing the plane. They are trying to live in it and build the tools needed to survive.

Aerid Konstrari mastered the ability to animate inert materials by condensing leyline energy into a heartwood crystal. Born from the confluence of red and green leylines, they established the following tenets for their school:

• Embrace the heart (bravery) and trust the soul (insight).
• Lead with instinct and imagination.
• Creativity grows from emotion.

Puppetbeasts are made from wood, stone, and clay and embellished with metal and fabric. They range in size, from the height of a human to dozens of feet tall. Larger constructs are built by teams of designers and builders, including the tethermage who serves as the primary pilot (but not the only one). The shapes of these constructions are a form of self-expression.

Konstrari students are audacious, risk-taking creatives who dream big and build bigger. They are driven to create, combining their vast imagination with a loose rulebook to design the improbable. Cadets who demonstrate an aptitude for natural materials, unfettered imagination, bravery, and strong spatial awareness are often selected for Konstrari. Their commanding presence inspires others to follow their bombastic energy into battle.

Konstrari teaches courses in sculpture, architecture, engineering, design, and tether mastery. Konstrari magic is some of the most physical of the schools, from moving materials to driving puppets. Therefore, physical training is an integral part of their arts education.

Graduates gravitate toward vocations as architects and engineers who either help build innovative infrastructure or command their constructs as scouts and warriors.

Anima schematics—studies of creature anatomy—form the basis of all Konstrari structural designs. Mages who specialize in these schematics to guide construction are known as "diagramancers." The Prototype Den contains a small library of past construct designs to inspire students.

Courses in natural fabrication teach increasingly complicated joinery spells to levitate and lash together natural materials. By tapping into the mana within these raw materials, cadets can create spectral strings that move things around. In every workshop, desks are cluttered with small-scale models and blueprints.

Tethermage training courses can only be pursued after a cadet has siphoned their first heartwood, using it to animate and tether a puppetbeast to its pilot(s). Tethermages create spectral strings spun from the mage's lifeforce and the construct's natural materials into a crystalized heartwood. Most cadets house the energy in a small container that hangs from their belt. The most advanced Konstrari mages have honed their skills to create a crystal directly out of leyline energy. This ritual takes place at the leyline confluence at the base of the tower in a room so old the masonry is worn smooth from the leylines' vibrations.

Tethermages repeatedly practice maneuvering their puppetbeasts with spectral strings until the movements are instinctual. Highly skilled tethermages can pilot a construct from a great distance, but most ride on top. The mage who siphoned the heartwood is forever connected to the puppetbeast. It is possible, but uncommon, to sever this connection. For the largest constructs, multiple tethermages create heartwood strings that link them to the puppetbeast.

Marlmaze Formation is a series of workshop spaces separated by large arched alcoves that house in-progress constructs. Piles of raw natural materials (stone, wood, clay, and cloth) clutter its corners. It can be mesmerizing to watch the Konstrari mages move the materials into place, join them, then reveal the construct's true form through sculpting and refinement.

From there, one can follow the suspended walkways to the Puppetport, a massive hall on the Konstrari campus that houses a vast array of constructs when they are not in use. The varied shapes of the puppetbeasts give this atrium the feeling of both a zoo and a museum. Cadets from other schools roam the space, admiring the craftsmanship of the constructs.

All the raw materials used by Konstrari come from Esker Hollow, where a river has cut a small ravine along the base of a cliff. Sturdy, fast-growing trees line the riverbank right next to an immense wall of natural stone. Vigorbloom propagators assist with the planting of new saplings each year.

"With nature's tools, we can endure and engineer solutions to any problem."

Vigorbloom

The School of Invasive Healing

Major Areas of Study: Medical Botany, Hortimancy, Graft Surgery, Phytomancy

"Nature is healing."

Vigorbloom is a school committed to the healing and care of the injured and ill. Cadets learn to diagnose ailments and heal wounds by sowing plant matter directly into flesh. Their botanical treatments regularly result in rapid healing. Vigorbloom celebrates the harmony of life, embracing the healing properties of plants to help the peoples of Arcavios endure.

The elder sphinx Kwia Vigorbloom emerged from the leyline confluence with the ability to grow and manipulate plant matter. After founding her school, she cultivated the following ethics and oaths for her followers:

• I will serve a higher purpose than myself.
• I will grow, heal, and strengthen the community.
• I will ensure survival of the community through healing by any means necessary.

All Vigorbloom cadets are taught the basics of medicinal botany and first aid. They learn to make short-term remedies from plant ingredients—poultices, tonics, tinctures, and splints—to treat immediate pain, prevent inflammation, and stabilize the patient before undergoing more advanced healing methods. Medicinal Botany is the least hands-on of any Vigorbloom course, focused on identifying plants and their various healing uses, collection methods, and ideal grafting conditions. All of this documentation lives in the Folioplex.

Vigorbloom campus is dotted with dozens of greenhouses, where seedlings and spores are cultivated and stored for future grafts, surgeries, and implants. Kwia's Nursery, the students' nickname for the largest greenhouse, consists of a central structure with hallways branching off to lab rooms for experiments, class projects, and active botanical research.

Some Vigorbloom mages specialize in hortimancy, working primarily as gardeners in the greenhouses to cultivate and experiment with growing the best plants. It is their responsibility to ensure seedlings and spores are available to the field medics. Known as sproutdruids, they also pioneer new magical growing techniques.

While some injuries must be treated in situ or on the battlefield, most patient treatment takes place in the Invasive Care Infirmary. There are multiple operating rooms, the largest of which is the Sowing Theater, which doubles as an auditorium-style classroom where cadets attend lectures and observe specific graft surgeries. Graft surgery involves the implantation of plant matter or seedlings into a person, followed by growing the plant to facilitate the healing process. Becoming a weave medic or graft surgeon requires knowledge of plants, knowledge of patient anatomy, and the ability to cast cultivation magic to rapidly grow a plant to the correct size and maturity.

Large windows let ample sunlight into the Solarium Branches, where patients recover post-surgery. The light ensures the plant has enough energy to take root in the host. While here, patients receive attentive care.

The mages that thrive in Vigorbloom are resourceful. They experiment regularly, testing and trying out new plants, methods, and solutions with the rich biodiversity in the greenhouses. Whether under pressure of applying first aid on the battlefield or diligently attempting a resurrection in the operating theater, Vigorbloom mages demonstrate a wide breadth of knowledge to diagnose and provide treatment.

Extremely devoted to the cause and call to heal, Vigorbloom mages will sometimes disregard the wishes of family to nearly resurrect patients. The priority, as Vigorbloom sees it, is the preservation of the health of the group over the wishes of the individual. They are dogmatic in their commitment to healing.

Vigorbloom mages revere the potential that plant-matter integration brings. While most other Hexhaven mages experience invasive healing as a response to illness or injury, some Vigorbloom mages are interested in pursuing a deeper, more widespread unification with plant life.

The most advanced phytomancy coursework at Vigorbloom teaches mages how to implant vegetation into opponents to cause injury or smother them. Training in aggressive healing is reserved for elite cadets who have demonstrated the moral grounding needed to ensure this magic is not used on the "wrong" subjects.

If Vigorbloom cadets fail to graduate, they can sometimes find employment as community farmers in Arcavios hamlets.

"Vigorbloom is sowing the seeds for longevity and vitality in the communities of Arcavios."

Hexhaven Graduation

After the successful completion of all relevant coursework and training, advanced cadets compete in a final multistage accension trial to graduate. A group comprised of a cadet from each school enters the dueling arena together to face off against mage hunters and environmental challenges.

Every school has a story of a promising cadet who failed their accension trial. A Theorix champion attempted an impossible portal to shortcut the trial and never reemerged. A Fatehold champion looked into the future to anticipate the results of the trial, saw her death a hundred different ways, and quit. A Konstrari champion was crushed under the foot of their own colossal construct.

Many graduates serve within their schools as professors or teaching assistants, continuing their academic work and going on assignments for the sphinxes and the Theorist. Others take jobs as official magical healers, advisors, and builders in remote Echoverse Arcavios communities. Even in those cases, their allegiance to Hexhaven remains strong.

Those who survive but do not pass their final trial seek employment at the academy as librarians, mess hall cooks, groundskeepers, and research assistants. Failed students are forbidden from accepting formal magical roles (though some do so discreetly).

Folioplex

Hexhaven's Folioplex is a dimly lit archive for magical research. The sphinxes encourage the professors to keep all records of experiments conducted, theorems proved, and discoveries made. Yet this information is tightly controlled. Students in the Folioplex are heavily monitored by figments, statues, and staff. Formal requests must be submitted to access each document, scroll, or artifact. The Theorist has restricted many volumes and sections to ensure that no individual with ill intent can gain access to powerful magic. This includes Codie, a menacing sentient tome, which contains dangerous, arcane knowledge from across the Echoverse.

The Sanctum

You can see the grand designs of Hexhaven even if you don't understand the math it takes to get there. But the sanctum is different. If we're going to have any hope of undoing this monstrosity, we must be able to navigate it.

Just outside of the innermost reaches you'll find a rainy street corner. All the architecture will shift to Ravnican, the sky will go gray, and—

you I we me YOU

will

stop

chattering.

What you have heard is irrelevant. You will not be able to stop it. Weaker selves argue that it cannot be done because they are too busy with needless moral details. They argue that it should not be done because they do not understand that any sacrifices made are irrelevant. The new world will bear no scars.

Only I can repair the world. It must be me.

You will forget what you have heard.

---

Confront this twisted reality head-on when the story of Reality Fracture begins on August 31, 2026, then join us for the set's debut on September 8, where we'll reveal more secrets from the Echoverse. Your presence is requested by the Theorist himself.

Reality Fracture releases on October 2, 2026, and is available for preorder now from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold.