Jodah

Jodah is a fictional character created by Jeff Grubb in 1999 for Wizards of the Coast's ' ("Magic") franchise. He first appeared in the "Ice Age Cycle" novels by Jeff Grubb; "The Gathering Dark", "The Eternal Ice", and "The Shattered Alliance", based on the ', ', and ' respectively. Jodah is a powerful, near immortal mage, and is related to Urza, one of the main characters in the "Magic" franchise. He appears in two other books, but his only appearance in the customisable card game is in the name of a card.

Character history

Jodah is the great-great-grandson of , a powerful black mage who managed to open a gateway to Phyrexia. Jarsyl in turn was the grandson of Urza Planeswalker. Jodah was a very powerful mage capable of commanding all the colors of magic, and was one of the few key figures who delved into the mysteries of magic, and changed the way Dominarians looked at the mystic arts.

He fell into the Fountain of Youth at age 15 while attempting to hide from a gang of goblins, making him age almost imperceveably. His extreme longivity gained him the title of Archmage Eternal, and is incorrectly thought to be a planeswalker (the most powerful magic users in the "Magic" franchise). Jodah was given a magical mirror from his teacher, , as a reward for casting his first spell. The mirror is used by Jodah in the second and third books to keep himself sane: the painful memories that accumulated over thousands of years needed to be transferred to the mirror then reabsorbed, to prevent the emotional anguish from overwhelming him. It is also used by Freyalise in the third book to cast the World Spell that ends the Ice Age. Freyalise casts a spell on the mirror, intended to turn Jodah into a planeswalker.

After destroying , Jodah decided to "disappear" from the world, as he was becoming increasingly famous. He went around spreading some lies about himself, give others the credit for his work, and over many generations, the famous Archmage Eternal became a legend, to becoming a myth, to becoming a footnote in history, forever forgotten and a mystery to all historians in the world.

"Who is this mysterious Jodah, who is found all over history? But no one really knows if it's the name of a person, or many people who are key figures in history."

He no longer has his magical mirror, destroying it to destroy Mairsil, who was possessing . This turned her into a planeswalker and he was soon-after blessed by her, as a thank-you for saving/damning her by making her ascend, with the ability to remember his past without the pain of emotion, and to live as long as he wants. After the events of the "Ice Age Cycle", Jodah 'dissappears', with quotes appearing in the novels from a fictional scholar who attempts to work out who the mythical Jodah was. Jodah does not appear again in the books until the "Time Spiral" story arc, where he appears in "Planar Chaos" by Scott McGough and Timothy Sanders, based on the card set of the same name. He becomes a companion of Teferi, , and as they attempt to remove the time rifts threatening to destroy Dominaria, although he leaves near the end of the book. Jodah briefly appears at the end of "Future Sight" by Scott McGough and John J. Delaney, based on the card set of the same name, when he is visited by Jhoira.

Appearances

Books

"Ice Age Cycle"
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"Time Spiral Cycle"
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Cards

Despite his impact within the fictional universe, it was not until the "Planar Chaos" expansion in February 2007 that Jodah was named on a card.cite web |url=http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/index.aspx?term=Jodah&Field_Name=on&Field_Rules=on&Field_Type=on&Field_Flavor=on&setfilter=All%20sets |title=Gatherer - the Official Magic: The Gathering card database |accessdate=2008-04-04 |publisher=Wizards of the Coast |quote=Database search for cards including the text 'Jodah'] "Jodah's Avenger" is a blue creature card capable of weakening its power and toughness attributes in exchange for certain . [cite web |url=http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/carddetails.aspx?&id=124482 |title=Gatherer Lookup Window - Jodah's Avenger |accessdate=2008-04-04 |publisher=Wizards of the Coast |quote=] Unlike other characters who appeared in the "Ice Age" books, Jodah does not appear in the flavour text of any "Magic" card.

References