Reality Fracture preview season ends later this week and pre-releases and the official release on October 2nd are right around the corner. In addition to all the really cool and flavorful designs this set has to offer, it also has one of the best Magic stories for a very long time. In this article, I’m going to recap all the important events in this multiverse-shattering story that focuses on Jace Beleren’s efforts to create a new multiverse without suffering.
JACE’S MACHINATIONS BEFORE REALITY FRACTURE
During Phyrexia: All Will Be One, Jace Beleren and his paramour, Vraska, were compleated. Ultimately, they were healed, but they were traumatized by these events.
During the Outlaws of Thunder Junction story, Jace and Vraska break into the plane’s vault to obtain a strange beast named Loot who has the ability to locate open Omenpaths. These are interplanar portals that appeared throughout the multiverse that opened in the wake of the Phyrexian invasion.
During Tarkir:Dragonstorm, Jace revealed why he needed Loot – he was in search of the omenpath that would lead to Nicol Bolas’s hidden prison – the Meditation Realm.
Once Jace, Vraska, and Loot finally located the Realm’s omenpath on Tarkir, Jace seized control of Nicol Bolas’s Spirit-Gem – the object that hovers between his horns. As he held the gem and started channeling his magic into it, he revealed that the power of the gem and their location in the Meditation Realm gave him an opportunity:
“This place is a substrate to all of reality, touching countless worlds and moldable by sheer force of will. If I take control of it, I can fix everything. I can make it so that the Phyrexians never did what they did to Vraska.”
However, it seemed like the gem’s power was too much for Jace. He and the gem shattered like glass, and he was presumed dead.
Then, during the events of Secrets of Strixhaven it was revealed that not only was Jace still alive, he had actually succeeded in creating the new multiverse. Unbeknownst even to her closest friends, a Quandrix student named Tam was from Jace’s multiverse and was on Arcavios for a specific purpose – to kidnap Jadzi, the plane’s oracle, and take her to the Echoverse.
IT’S NOT JUST REALITY THAT’S FRACTURING…JACE IS TOO
The Reality Fracture story kicks off with Tam on the campus of Hexhaven – the Echoverse’s version of Strixhaven. She is thinking back on the moment she was created. Jace personally created her, but she feels very lost now that her purpose of capturing Jadzi has been achieved. She feels like an incomplete person. She also feels guilty for betraying Jadzi and her friends. Her feelings of doubt and guilt are made manifest by visions of her Strixhaven friends calling her a liar and referring to her as nothing but “parts.”
Later that day, Tam decides to talk to Jace (who now simply calls himself The Theorist), so she heads to his sanctum. Once there, she witnesses a battle between The Theorist and a very fast, very violent 13-year-old boy. The Theorist barely manages to defeat this child, by hurling him through a portal.
As The Theorist and Tam tend to his wounds, Jace calls the boy “an aberration” that had to be “carved out.” In other words, the boy was once a part of Jace himself. This also isn’t the first time Tam has witnessed The Theorist battling with one of these aberrations. In fact, it’s been a fairly regular occurrence.
As the two of them discuss The Theorist’s plans, he reveals that the next step is killing Jadzi. When an Arcavios oracle dies, their consciousness goes back in time to the beginning of the multiverse. Jace has to witness this event in order to get a handle on completing his own “perfect” multiverse free of all suffering.
Hearing about this plan just fills Tam with more guilt, so she heads to the dungeon to talk with Jadzi. She reveals The Theorist’s plan to the oracle and apologizes to her, prompting Jadzi to ask Tam to let her free, but Tam doesn’t want to betray her mentor and creator.
Tam’s old professor – Liliana Vess – is also in the dungeon, having been captured by her Echoverse counterpart back during the conclusion of Lorwyn Eclipsed. Liliana reminds her that there are people who care about her at Strixhaven, and asks her to free both herself and Jadzi, but Tam refuses.
LILIANA IS IMPRISONED, BUT SHE’S NOT HELPLESS
Liliana Vess is imprisoned in a cell where her necromantic magic is useless. Her Echoverse counterpart – referred to as “Professor Opal” – is in charge of torturing her.
Liliana is relieved when Tam comes to her cell again and sends Professor Opal away. She realizes that her attempts to make Tam feel guilty must have been successful.
Tam wants to know what will happen to her Strixhaven friends if Jace’s plan is a success. While Liliana tells the truth she does her best to describe things in excruciatingly painful detail in an attempt to continue to sow doubts in Tam’s mind. Liliana replies that the Echoverse will become the dominant multiverse and that it “will smother the souls of everyone in the original.”
This new information leads to Tam begging The Theorist to find another way to combine the two multiverses. The Theorist replies that he understands the guilt and the burden that she’s feeling, as he felt it too before he cut out all the pieces of him that objected to his plan. Each of the aberrations is one of those pieces.
This doesn’t do a whole lot to comfort Tam, so The Theorist says that if they are meticulous enough he should be able to overlay the Echoverse onto the main multiverse with few problems. However, this requires some work. Clearly just looking to distract her, he hastily sends her away to the main multiverse’s Innistrad to take some measurements so that his Innistrad will be perfect.
GETTING THE OLD BAND BACK TOGETHER
Because they were present on Arcavios when Jadzi was kidnapped, Ajani and Chandra know Jace’s plan, so they are in the process of finding a way to put a stop to it. The two planeswalkers travel to Jace’s home plane of Vryn, where they find Ranna (Jace’s mother), Vraska, and Loot, all still mourning Jace’s death.
They inform them that Jace is in fact still alive and has become a threat to the multiverse. After Jace’s three loved ones discuss it amongst themselves, Vraska agrees to help Ajani and Chandra, and she has a suggestion for another person to add to their team – Garruk, a planeswalker who is immune to Jace’s illusions.
Vraska begins to travel via Omenpaths to Jace’s multiverse while Ajani and Chandra head to Muraganda, where Garruk is residing. It takes some negotiating, but ultimately the gruff planeswalker agrees to help them.
TAM MAKES A NEW FRIEND
While Tam is on Innistrad researching and measuring the plane’s dimensions, she hears that there is a monster imprisoned in the moon.
She uses telepathy to probe the moon, but quickly finds that she is in over her head. She locates what seems to be a mind, but it’s alien and different from any mind she has ever experienced.
She then finds herself in a strange room with four white walls, and a gaunt woman who appears to be trapped there. The woman begins speaking to her with such powerful telepathy that it gives Tam a migraine. She offers to help Tam, who responds with confusion. The gaunt woman continues,
“I prune worlds. When one grows sick, threatens the wilderness of eternity, or fails to blossom fully, I aid the broader forest by felling a single tree…I smell a Multiverse on you. A cluster of worlds on the verge of becoming. I sense that you are burdened by the knowledge of this world. Let us help one another. Show me where your Multiverse is, coveter of life, and I will rid you of it.”
The woman then becomes much more assertive, and Tam then looks up and sees a mass of tentacles. This frightens her, and she manages to escape the prison and finds herself back in bed.
THE THEORIST’S PLAN COMES UNDER FIRE IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE
Back in the Echoverse, The Theorist is visiting his version of Ravnica, where he is discussing his plan with another of his excised aberrations – the Guildpact. This part of Jace thinks the plan is terrible and that they are in over their head, and if he hadn’t cut him out, it would be clear to The Theorist that the plan will fail.
Meanwhile, Vraska, Jace, Ajani, and Garruk arrive at Hexhaven and they head for the Theorist’s sanctum without encountering any meaningful resistance.
However, this powered-up version of Jace easily overpowers them three times and erases their memory each time too, so they aren’t even aware of how many times they have fought him. Even Garruk’s immunity to his illusions isn’t particularly helpful, since Jace can simply sever his brain’s connection to his limbs, or even take control of him to fight the others.
Each time, Jace tries to reason with Vraska to get her to join him, and he fails. The Theorist realizes one thing in all of these fights – even after excising so many parts of himself, he still cares for his friends, and he feels guilty for what he’s doing to them. He finds himself unable to kill them.
TAM JOINS THE FIGHT
Ultimately, Vraska and the others realize that they have fought the Theorist multiple times, but only because of their wounds and the spells that have weakened them. The Theorist also left a single phrase in Vraska’s mind – “You cannot defeat me.” Vraska’s vague memories also help her realize that this isn’t all of Jace, only “the worst part of him.”
As the foursome attempt to come up with a new plan of attack, Vraska senses someone strange in the hallway. Someone that she feels an inexplicable urge to protect. Vraska runs into the hall and finds a person who has a combination of both she and Jace’s features. She is emotionally moved by the sight. This woman already knows who Vraska is, and introduces herself as Tam.
Tam also feels a connection to Vraska, so she reveals her desire to stop The Theorist, but she thinks it’s impossible. Vraska convinces Tam that she and her friends can help, so Tam explains everything. She says that the way to stop him is to free Jadzi. She reveals that the tower is filled with Jace’s memory traps as well as Jace’s excised “aberrations,” and that the only way to get to Jadzi is to go through them.
Vraska convinces Tam that they need her help. After all, she’s a telepath who has many of the abilities of her creator, so she is the only one who stands a chance against the Theorist. Before she leaves to confront The Theorist, Tam effortlessly undoes all of Jace’s magic that is still afflicting Chandra, Garruk, and Ajani.
Once she is in The Theorist’s Sanctum, Tam openly objects to Theorist’s plan. He attempts to attack her mind, but is surprised when he finds that he can’t.
A Phyrexianized Jace (“The Nihilist”) tries to detonate the Filigree Sylex.
This causes another part of Jace to separate from The Theorist – The Nihilist. This is the part of Jace that overcame his Phyrexianization, and attempted to detonate the Sylex and destroy the Invasion Tree during the New Phyrexian Invasion. It would have destroyed the Phyrexians, but several planes in the multiverse too. The Nihilist tells The Theorist that he clearly didn’t learn from that experience. The Nihilist says their biggest mistake was that they “didn’t ask for help.”
The Theorist is thrown into a rage, and he kicks his other self through a portal. At this moment, Tam realizes that The Theorist is too far gone and can’t be reasoned with. Even one of his darkest selves realizes the Echoverse Overlay is a bad idea, but The Theorist doesn’t. He has excised too much of himself, and is no longer the man who made her. She runs away from him as fast as she can.
SEEING DOUBLE
Meanwhile, Vraska, Ajani, Chandra and Garruk are preparing to search for Jadzi while discussing the aberrations that Tam told them about. Chandra and Tam both conclude that there must be some part of Jace out there who would help them. In the middle of this discussion, the trio are confronted by something extraordinary – doppelgangers of all four of them.
There is a Garruk who never overcame the Curse of the Veil and instead embraced it; a cryomancer Chandra who never took part in a revolt to transform Kaladesh into Avishkar, instead becoming a part of Kaladesh’s tyrannical government; an Ajani who never overcame his thirst for vengeance and was instead consumed by it; and a Vraska who was never persecuted as a Ravnican child, but was instead embraced by the city.
Stunned by their appearance, the four originals are not able to put up much of a fight against them when they attack. They find themselves hurled through a portal.
COLLECTING JACES IN THE MEMORY TRAP
Vraska and the three planeswalkers find themselves in one of the memory traps that Tam told them about. It is a series of Jace’s memories all stitched together. They eventually encounter one of his aberrations – The Detective.
He represents the Jace of Shadows Over Innistrad, who uncovered the Eldrazi presence on the plane. He denounces The Theorist and promises to help his friends defeat him, but he notes that killing The Theorist will kill Jace Beleren. This causes Vraska to hesitate, but she realizes there is no other way, and she prepares herself to lose the man she loves. The Detective enters Vraska’s mind, where he says he will remain until she confronts The Theorist.
The group realizes that recruiting more Jaces and reuniting them with The Theorist is their best path forward.
As they continue to travel through his memories, they collect The Nihilist, who joins The Detective in Vraska’s mind. They also find The Warden, who represents a cautious Jace who as a young man was trying to control his overwhelming telepathy. Chandra takes his aberration into her mind.
The young Jace (“The Clean Slate”) fights a mental battle with Alhammarret.
Next, they encounter a teenage Jace who calls himself The Clean Slate, since he erased his own memories after using his telepathy to force his cruel and abusive mentor, Alhamarret, to stop breathing. They witness him reliving this event. Everyone but Garruk is overwhelmed by the boy’s telepathy. The Wildspeaker steps forward and comforts the distraught boy and keeps him from committing the act. He enters Garruk’s mind.
This causes the illusion of Alhamarret to revive, and he attacks the group, causing Vraska to be separated from the others. However, Vraska continues on alone, subsequently collecting The Soldier – who represents Jace during the time he worked for Alhamarret. She also adds The Guildpact to her collection.
Jace’s mind was shattered during a confrontation with Bolas
Next, she encounters the final aberration – The Survivor. He is the Jace who barely survived having his mind shattered during the Gatewatch’s confrontation with Nicol Bolas during Hour of Devastation. He is what gives Jace his vulnerability and emotional understanding. He’s also the very same Jace that Vraska fell in love with on Ixalan.
The two of them enjoy a long, emotional moment on the beaches of Ixalan, discussing The Survivor’s fear of death. She says she is proudest of this form of Jace, because he knew nothing about himself and just tried to do what was right. They exchange impromptu Vrynian marriage vows and share a kiss.
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
The Survivor asks Vraska to promise that she’ll look after Tam, and then he joins the other Jaces in her mind, ready to oppose the Theorist.
LILIANA VS. LILIANA
While the others are navigating the memory traps, Tam heads to the dungeon with a chicken from the Hexhaven cafeteria in hand. She rushes to Liliana’s cell and throws it inside. Even this small of a corpse is enough for Liliana to power up, and she breaks free of her prison, intent on seeking vengeance on her Echoverse self before facing The Theorist.
She animates the corpses of many rats in the vicinity and seeks out Professor Opal, who she quickly kills before reanimating her corpse.
THE OVERLAY BEGINS
Well aware that Vraska, Tam and the planeswalkers are working on a way to defeat him, The Theorist brings Jadzi to the Sanctum. However, despite thinking that he has removed all aspects of himself apart from cold logic, he still finds himself unable to kill the oracle.
When he voices these concerns to Jadzi, he’s shocked when she casually replies, “Oh, good it’s this timeline,” and then she slits her own throat.
As planned, The Theorist observes her consciousness returning to the beginning of time, and this knowledge gives him the last pieces that he needs to overwrite the main multiverse with his Echoverse. Jace ascends to omniscience and turns the top of his tower into a Fulcrum that will channel the necessary energies to merge the two multiverses.
Ajani, Chandra, and Garruk all arrive just as The Theorist is ascending, and they unleash the various Jaces that are contained within their minds. They each fight valiantly, but ultimately he overcomes their assaults on his mind and he begins the process to overwrite the multiverse. Chandra realizes that they need more of Jace’s aberrations, and she runs off to find Vraska.
THE END OF JACE BELEREN
Chandra finds Vraska in the last of the memory traps, but when they try to exit, they find that the Echoverse versions of themselves are waiting. A fight breaks out between all of them. Vraska, with the encouragement and aid of the various Jaces inside her head manages to quickly petrify her Echoverse counterpart. Now outnumbered, the other doppelgangers are also defeated.
Meanwhile, The Theorist is still guiding the merging of the two multiverses, with only Liliana and her zombified doppelganger trying to stop him. In the midst of this fight, Vraska arrives on the scene disguised as her Echoverse counterpart and joins The Theorist at his side. The Theorist gets ready to kill Liliana but Vraska uses the distraction to stab him in the heart while also releasing all of the parts of Jace in her mind. With his mind and body both under attack, The Theorist is disabled.
As all of the aberrations reunite inside of The Theorist, the old Jace returns, and he feels relieved that his friends – and the woman he loves – managed to stop him. As he lies dying in Vraska’s arms, he sends telepathic messages to each of them thanking them for everything they did, while also telling them that they need to find Tam if they want to stop the overlay. Then, Jace Beleren dies and a blue ball of light leaves his corpse.
AN UNLIKELY HERO
Tam is at Hexhaven-Strixhaven, looking for her old friends while trying to find a way to stop the overlay.
As she does, a strange blue ball of light appears, and collides with Tam. She feels completely overwhelmed by magic and it stuns her, but when she recovers, she feels like a complete person for the first time. Jace’s voice informs her that she now has a planeswalker spark, and he trusts her to use it better than he did.
Now more powerful than she has ever been, she has a plan to stop the Echoverse from smothering the multiverse. With her amped up telepathic powers she reaches out to the moon monster of Innistrad – Emrakul. She tells her the location of the Echoverse. In response, Emrakul breaks out of Innistrad’s moon and travels to the Echoverse. She happily devours it before it can destroy the original multiverse.
The crisis averted, Tam enjoys a reunion with her other friends on Strixhaven. While she gets a mixed reception, it’s clear that in the long run she and her friends will mend fences.
TAMIRA BELEREN
Sometime later, Tam planeswalks to Vryn and goes to visit Ranna, Vraska, and Loot. When Vraska answers the door, she’s surprised to see that she looks even more like an amalgamation of Jace and Vraska’s features than she did before. She’s even wearing a blue cloak like the one Jace used to wear. Tam says that she is mourning Jace, and she’d like to be with Vraska and the others while they mourn him too.
END STEP
This was a long, dense story – but it was also excellent. I think it was the best Magic story in at least a decade. It’s going to be interesting to see how the story shifts from here. What did you think of this story? Let me know over on X or Bluesky.
Jacob has been playing Magic for the better part of 24 years, and he especially loves playing Magic’s Limited formats. He also holds a PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. In 2015, he started his YouTube channel, “Nizzahon Magic,” where he combines his interests with many videos covering Magic’s competitive history. When he’s not playing Magic or making Magic content, he can be found teaching college-level history courses or caring for a menagerie of pets with his wife.