Welcome guys. This week Ixalan was fully spoiled and with it the next installment of the MTG Story. Today I’ll be going back to my roots and annotating the story.

Before we begin, if you like these articles and would like to see more, please like and retweet, and as always feedback is welcomed.

Let’s begin!

Huatli looked around the plaza as she and her cousin passed under the arch at the entrance to Pachatupa.

Pachatupa is the capital of the sun empire, and takes it’s name from an inversion of Tupac Amaura, the last native ruler of the Inca.

The high arches of the Empire are to let large dinosaurs pass through.

Only the two knights’ mounts (two bright-eyed clawfoots) seemed to care about their presence.



In the same way we don’t call dogs Canis lupus familiaris , the Dinosaurs of Ixalan aren’t referred to be their taxonomic names as we usually do. The made up dinosaur names also give them an excuse to have more fantastic dinosaur designs. Clawfoots are based on Dromaeosaurs, commonly known as Raptors and are often used as mounts.

Inti held out a hand, and Huatli passed him the stolen sword. He rolled his wrist to test its weight and handed it back. “You should have seen their priest,” he said.

“Hierophant,” Huatli corrected.

Hierophant isn’t a rank used in Spanish or Catholic clergy, but a term stemming from ancient Greece, were it was used for the leaders of the mystery cults. The word means “to show the holy” and the job entailed sharing holy wisdom with acolytes. It’s well known today because of it’s Tarot card, which (tying back to the Catholic vibes) is also known as The Pope.

The Legion of Dusk are very religious, being co-ruled by the Church of Dusk and their Queen Miralda, and their Vampires wade into battle, feeding only on the blood of non believers.

A girl no older than thirteen broke from the group and ran up to her, eyes wide and breath short. “Warrior-Poet, are you delivering an oration at the homecoming ceremony.

A warrior-poet is a character type of a civilized artisan warrior, who finds glory in battle as well as the arts and philosophy. While the rank here is totally fictional Hautli’s status as a poet (and somewhat similar name) show a link to Nezahualcoyotl.

A famed warrior-poet himself, he ruled the city state of Texcoco and revolutionized Nahua poetry by writing from a personal point of view, a sharp divide with the anonymous hymns of earlier generations. His poems were stepped in oral tradition for decades and to this day he is the namesake of the Nezahualcóyotl Award, given to writers in indigenous Mexican languages. Nezahualcoyotl’s personal style is reflected with Hautli’s emphasis on using poems to share her feelings.

Poetry that is honest has magic in it; the ability to let other people feel what you feel is a very powerful magic indeed."

Huatli’s magic based on feeling is an example of wotc showing the non destructive parts of red magic.

Huatli lay a hand on her dinosaur’s rough hide and willed her to be still.Wait, she urged, sending the scent-memory of food through the connection between her and the beast.



Knights of the Sun Empire form mystic bonds with their steeds. This power is connected to the Threefold Sun, as seen in the text of Sun-Blessed Mount.

The city around them shone with amber and the light of the noonday sun.

While amber-like resin was heavily used in Mesoamerica, these copal, served as incense for ceremonies, it’s less solidified state making it more aromatic for burning.

The temple itself had been built on the foundation of an older temple, which had been built over several ruins even older than that. The Sun Empire itself was much the same. It was the latest iteration of a land whose rulers were constantly vying for power, building on top of the old and reaching ever higher with the new. Whereas the River Heralds had once controlled the continent, under the leadership of its new emperor, the Sun Empire had cemented its grip on the land.



This process is called Spolia and is very appropriate for the setting. By the time The Spaniards arrived in Mesoamerica a long list of various civilizations had risen and fallen in prominence from the Olmec to the Zapotec to the Maya and Toltec. The Aztec Triple Alliance Cortex encountered was the product of a long line of mesoamerican cultures. The idea of the Sun Empire supplanting the River Heralds takes it’s cues directly from how the Mexica people rose from wandering squatters and mercenaries to the dominant power of the region by usurping their predecessors.

The thing was flimsy and thin, meant for quick stabs rather than smooth cuts, and a tacky black rose was welded to one side. To think that these inferior craftsmen thought themselves conquerors.



The weapon is a Rapier , invented by the Spanish. Destreza, a martial art of it’s use was formalized around the same time they made landfall in the Americas. The Spaniard themed legion of dusk use them, but also have fangs at the tips to showcase their vampiric nature. The Black Rose is an emblem of the Legion of Dusk, and like the Sun Empire symbol, it looks very much like the seal of Ixalan’s binding.

"Kinjalli, hear my call!

The time has come to wake the sleepers,

To pierce the eastern shadow

That would darken all our days. Tilonalli, hear my call!

Fill your children’s hearts with fire

That we may be the dawn that breaks

To immolate the Dusk.

The Sun Empire worship three aspects of the sun, one for each color of mana they use. Kinjalli is the wakening sun, of white mana Tilonalli is the burning sun of red mana. Huatli being RW homages these aspects of the sun in particular.

Kinjalli is close to K’injal which would be Mayan for “Sunify.” While Tilonalli is a corruption of tōnalli, the Nahua word for day.

A bit of irony in that the Aztec inspired faction is the one with the Holy trinity.

"Driving the Brazen Coalition and the Legion of Dusk from our eastern coast means that we are ready to reclaim the south,” Apatzec announced.

Miraldanor is the name of the Vampire territory in the south of Ixalan. It’s named after their queen, and is where they first landed.

He had the body of a blacksmith, but the head of an animal that Huatli had only seen around Legion of Dusk forts—a bull? Heavy iron chains were wrapped around his chest, and he seemed to glow from within like a furnace, a steady flow of steam rising from his snout.

Bulls aren’t native to Ixalan and Hautli only knows them from the Legion, just as in real life bulls were brought to mesoamerica by Europeans. Angrath’s burning horns are drawn to look like the burning ropes hair Blackbeard used in his hair for intimidation.

Hijack by Sveltin Yelenov

Blackbeard by Miles Teves





“I am the dread pirate Angrath,” he said, “and I seek the Immortal Sun.” Huatli laughed out loud. “You and everyone else, fool.”

“Dread Pirate” is a term taken from the classic film/novel the Princess Bride. Angrath’s foreign accent and alien way of fighting are because he is a planeswalker, one who is trapped on Ixalan and as Angrath’s Marauders tells us, not very happy about it. His name is an on-the-nose meld of Anger and Wrath that is similar to Dominarian hero and Tahngarth of the Weatherlight Saga.



The Immortal Sun is a lost treasure that all four factions on Ixalan want for different reasons.

The Vampire believe it will make them immortal without needing to drink blood.

The Sun Empire wishes to reclaim their lost city of Orazca

The Pirates want the ultimate treasure

and the Merfolk want to keep it from anyone else because they believe if found it will cause doom.

Her vision burst into a miasma of color and light, sound rushed through her ears, and she felt her body begin to break away from itself. It was bright and warm and should have been frightening, but it felt like the most natural thing in the world—she felt her head pass forward, deeper into the color and light, and she saw. It was a city that shone with the warmth of gold.

Huatli’s first planeswalk is an attempt to get to Kaladesh, a plane ruled by the creativity she so values and one that has a golden city, just as in her culture’s legends.

Her perception was yanked sharply back, as if some unseen force was pulling her backward to the jungle. Whatever door she peered through had slammed shut, barred her from entry. Everything was flying again through color and light, sound and noise, until her body rearranged itself on the forest floor. Huatli’s blood pounded, and her vision settled on a strange triangle-and-circle symbol hovering with a strange glow above her head.

Huatli’s first planeswalk is stopped by the same sealing that trapped Jace and that also traps Angrath.

She was not a seer, yet she had seen. She was not a voyager, yet her mission was to voyage. Huatli was two things, and neither seemed connected to the destiny that lay ahead. Huatli closed her eyes and calmed her busy mind. Her dreams were dappled with gold, shining with the colors of a place beyond her any she had ever seen. The dream shifted, transformed, became more prophecy than dream, and she saw herself as she would someday be.

Huatli has been compared to Joan of Arc by her creators, in that both are female knights driven by religious visions. The Golden City of Orazca’s mythic and sacred value to the Sun Empire as a bygone city mirrors the status of of Aztlan as the legendary homeland of the Nahua people.





And that wraps up this chapter’s annotation, I hope you guys enjoyed and special thanks to cultural consultant @stevethesorcerer .