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Theros Block
Theros is a set of three expansions to the Magic: The Gathering game, consisting of the sets Theros (September 27, 2013), Born of the Gods (February 7, 2014) and Journey into Nyx (May 2, 2014). The setting was later used for a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook, Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020). The lore and aesthetics of the game setting was based on Greek mythology.
Nyx is depicted as the land of night and home of the gods as believed by the inhabitants of Theros. As a result, dreams are believed to be messages from the gods. When the likenesses of the gods appear in the night sky, it's as though the gods are inhabiting both the mortal and spiritual world at the same time. Enchantments are gifts from the gods, and the gods themselves are Living Enchantments. Each color has its own god: Heliod, God of the Sun (white), Thassa, Goddess of the Sea (blue), Erebos, God of the Dead (black), Purphoros, God of the Forge (red), and Nylea, Goddess of the Hunt (green). Each god also has their own signature weapon that shows up as a legendary artifact enchantment. The pantheon is rounded out by ten lesser gods, one for each combination of two colors: Athreos, God of Passage (a white/black psychopomp), Ephara, Goddess of the Polis (white/blue), Iroas, God of Victory (white/red) and his twin Mogis, God of Slaughter (black/red), Karametra, Goddess of Harvests (white/green), Keranos, God of Storms (blue/red), Kruphix, God of Horizons (blue/green), Pharika, Goddess of Affliction (black/green), Phenax, God of Deception (blue/black), and Xenagos, the newly ascended God of Revels (red/green).
There are three major cities, each known as the poleis (singular "polis"). They are Meletis, city of learning, magic, and progress sitting on the coast surrounded by rivers and grassland; Akros, city of die-hard warriors surrounded by mountains that restrict contact with the rest of the plane; and Setessa, a city close to nature that puts a lot of emphasis on families.
Theros is a "top-down" design, meaning that its Design, Development and Creative teams consciously modeled the set on Greek mythology and its tropes; this is opposed to a bottom-up design, where the designers start with a gameplay experience and then layer a story on top of it. As such, many cards allude to famous myths: Akroan Horse to the Trojan Horse, Chained to the Rocks to the fate of Prometheus, Rescue from the Underworld to the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, Labyrinth Champion to Theseus, and more. To quote Head Designer Mark Rosewater: "Here's a theme you're going to hear again and again. 'We were doing a Greek mythology set so we had to do X.'"
The block's main protagonist is Elspeth Tirel, a White-wielding human planeswalker first introduced as a member of her adopted homeworld Bant in Shards of Alara, whose travels have brought her to Theros. It is actually not her first visit; some time in the past she had sojourned briefly there, witnessing a clash between Heliod and Purphoros and absconding with a sword that was dropped during the tumult. This sword, Godsend, was the property of Heliod, and when she returned to Theros he attempted to reclaim it by force. Of course, as a planeswalker, her magical powers were sufficient to resist him. Insecure in his powers, he transformed the sword into a spear and tasked Elspeth with traveling to his temple in Meletis. On her journey, she encountered Polukranos, World Eater, a giant hydra who had been released during the initial conflict between Heliod and Purphoros and which had terrorized the countryside ever since. By putting an end to this menace, she earned the approbation of Heliod and was declared Elspeth, Sun's Champion.
The block's primary antagonist is Xenagos, The Reveler. Once a satyr hedonist in the Skola Valley, his planeswalking turned him to nihilism, infusing him with the realization that, in the grand scheme of things, he mattered little and less. After returning to Theros, he decided to ascend to the Theran pantheon. To do this, he spread lies and rumors about Godsend, so that Elspeth was beset by many of the Theran gods during her journey to Meletis. He then gathered an army of savage creatures and attacked the city of Akros, forcing Elspeth to lead a hasty defense. Despite desperate odds, the Sun's Champion prevailed, and the city of Akros was consumed in celebration. Unbeknownst to all, though, the bacchanalia was the final ingredient Xenagos needed to deify himself. Ascended, he became Xenagos, God of Revels. Heliod, his wrath awakened by the undermining of the sacred Pantheon, blames Elspeth for Xenagos’s ascension and seeks to kill her. Elspeth is forced to flee into the wilderness, where she finds fellow planeswalker Ajani Goldmane and enlists his help. Ajani, who feels he owes a debt to Elspeth for her help on his home plane of Alara during the great Conflux, agrees to journey with Elspeth into the starry underworld of Nyx, where legend has it that somewhere hidden deep is the secret to killing a god.
Elspeth and Ajani find the temple of Kruphix, God of Horizons, thanks to the timely assistance of the mysterious merfolk planeswalker Kiora, the Crashing Wave, who is often mistaken for Thassa, God of the Sea. Kruphix grants them passage into Nyx, but Elspeth must first undergo an ordeal of one of the gods of her choosing. She selects Erebos, and the God of the Dead tempts her with a vision of a peaceful home – something she has sought after all her life – with the stipulation that she must lay down her sword and give up the fight against Xenagos. Elspeth refuses Erebos’s offer and presses on into Nyx. Elspeth and Ajani join the ongoing battle between the dark Returned that dwell in the underworld and the celestial beings that Xenagos has trapped there. Elspeth battles fiercely with Xenagos and finally succeeds in striking him down with Godsend, the god-forged weapon of Heliod, finishing the God of Revels off for good.
Despite Elspeth’s heroic efforts to undo the devastation that Xenagos wreaked on the plane, Heliod does not forgive her for enabling the satyr to ascend in the first place. He stops Elspeth and Ajani as they flee from Nyx and strikes Elspeth down with her own weapon. Heliod orders Ajani to bear Elspeth back to the mortal realm to die, where she may be taken away by Erebos to the Underworld. The storyline of Theros concludes as Ajani leaves Elspeth and is hurried away by his leonin kin back into the wilderness, and Erebos claims the Sun's Champion for his own at last.
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Theros Block
Theros is a set of three expansions to the Magic: The Gathering game, consisting of the sets Theros (September 27, 2013), Born of the Gods (February 7, 2014) and Journey into Nyx (May 2, 2014). The setting was later used for a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook, Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020). The lore and aesthetics of the game setting was based on Greek mythology.
Nyx is depicted as the land of night and home of the gods as believed by the inhabitants of Theros. As a result, dreams are believed to be messages from the gods. When the likenesses of the gods appear in the night sky, it's as though the gods are inhabiting both the mortal and spiritual world at the same time. Enchantments are gifts from the gods, and the gods themselves are Living Enchantments. Each color has its own god: Heliod, God of the Sun (white), Thassa, Goddess of the Sea (blue), Erebos, God of the Dead (black), Purphoros, God of the Forge (red), and Nylea, Goddess of the Hunt (green). Each god also has their own signature weapon that shows up as a legendary artifact enchantment. The pantheon is rounded out by ten lesser gods, one for each combination of two colors: Athreos, God of Passage (a white/black psychopomp), Ephara, Goddess of the Polis (white/blue), Iroas, God of Victory (white/red) and his twin Mogis, God of Slaughter (black/red), Karametra, Goddess of Harvests (white/green), Keranos, God of Storms (blue/red), Kruphix, God of Horizons (blue/green), Pharika, Goddess of Affliction (black/green), Phenax, God of Deception (blue/black), and Xenagos, the newly ascended God of Revels (red/green).
There are three major cities, each known as the poleis (singular "polis"). They are Meletis, city of learning, magic, and progress sitting on the coast surrounded by rivers and grassland; Akros, city of die-hard warriors surrounded by mountains that restrict contact with the rest of the plane; and Setessa, a city close to nature that puts a lot of emphasis on families.
Theros is a "top-down" design, meaning that its Design, Development and Creative teams consciously modeled the set on Greek mythology and its tropes; this is opposed to a bottom-up design, where the designers start with a gameplay experience and then layer a story on top of it. As such, many cards allude to famous myths: Akroan Horse to the Trojan Horse, Chained to the Rocks to the fate of Prometheus, Rescue from the Underworld to the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, Labyrinth Champion to Theseus, and more. To quote Head Designer Mark Rosewater: "Here's a theme you're going to hear again and again. 'We were doing a Greek mythology set so we had to do X.'"
The block's main protagonist is Elspeth Tirel, a White-wielding human planeswalker first introduced as a member of her adopted homeworld Bant in Shards of Alara, whose travels have brought her to Theros. It is actually not her first visit; some time in the past she had sojourned briefly there, witnessing a clash between Heliod and Purphoros and absconding with a sword that was dropped during the tumult. This sword, Godsend, was the property of Heliod, and when she returned to Theros he attempted to reclaim it by force. Of course, as a planeswalker, her magical powers were sufficient to resist him. Insecure in his powers, he transformed the sword into a spear and tasked Elspeth with traveling to his temple in Meletis. On her journey, she encountered Polukranos, World Eater, a giant hydra who had been released during the initial conflict between Heliod and Purphoros and which had terrorized the countryside ever since. By putting an end to this menace, she earned the approbation of Heliod and was declared Elspeth, Sun's Champion.
The block's primary antagonist is Xenagos, The Reveler. Once a satyr hedonist in the Skola Valley, his planeswalking turned him to nihilism, infusing him with the realization that, in the grand scheme of things, he mattered little and less. After returning to Theros, he decided to ascend to the Theran pantheon. To do this, he spread lies and rumors about Godsend, so that Elspeth was beset by many of the Theran gods during her journey to Meletis. He then gathered an army of savage creatures and attacked the city of Akros, forcing Elspeth to lead a hasty defense. Despite desperate odds, the Sun's Champion prevailed, and the city of Akros was consumed in celebration. Unbeknownst to all, though, the bacchanalia was the final ingredient Xenagos needed to deify himself. Ascended, he became Xenagos, God of Revels. Heliod, his wrath awakened by the undermining of the sacred Pantheon, blames Elspeth for Xenagos’s ascension and seeks to kill her. Elspeth is forced to flee into the wilderness, where she finds fellow planeswalker Ajani Goldmane and enlists his help. Ajani, who feels he owes a debt to Elspeth for her help on his home plane of Alara during the great Conflux, agrees to journey with Elspeth into the starry underworld of Nyx, where legend has it that somewhere hidden deep is the secret to killing a god.
Elspeth and Ajani find the temple of Kruphix, God of Horizons, thanks to the timely assistance of the mysterious merfolk planeswalker Kiora, the Crashing Wave, who is often mistaken for Thassa, God of the Sea. Kruphix grants them passage into Nyx, but Elspeth must first undergo an ordeal of one of the gods of her choosing. She selects Erebos, and the God of the Dead tempts her with a vision of a peaceful home – something she has sought after all her life – with the stipulation that she must lay down her sword and give up the fight against Xenagos. Elspeth refuses Erebos’s offer and presses on into Nyx. Elspeth and Ajani join the ongoing battle between the dark Returned that dwell in the underworld and the celestial beings that Xenagos has trapped there. Elspeth battles fiercely with Xenagos and finally succeeds in striking him down with Godsend, the god-forged weapon of Heliod, finishing the God of Revels off for good.
Despite Elspeth’s heroic efforts to undo the devastation that Xenagos wreaked on the plane, Heliod does not forgive her for enabling the satyr to ascend in the first place. He stops Elspeth and Ajani as they flee from Nyx and strikes Elspeth down with her own weapon. Heliod orders Ajani to bear Elspeth back to the mortal realm to die, where she may be taken away by Erebos to the Underworld. The storyline of Theros concludes as Ajani leaves Elspeth and is hurried away by his leonin kin back into the wilderness, and Erebos claims the Sun's Champion for his own at last.