Elesh Norn's History
Elesh Norn was the Praetor of the white-aligned Machine Orthodoxy, which led New Phyrexia. She was called The Mother of Machines, Grand Praetor, or Grand Cenobite by her followers. She was an arrogant master manipulator who devoutly believed in her rhetoric and did not like to be questioned. She was a fascist, theocratic dictator who designed monuments in her image. Although she worked with the other praetors, she wanted to be the one leading the charge. Elesh Norn designed grand plans for all of Phyrexia and wrote the Argent Etchings, scriptures for her followers.
When the Phyrexians infected Mirrodin, it was a world of five suns, one for each of the five colors of Magic. The five praetors each rose under the influence of a sun, with Elesh Norn emerging under the power of the White Sun. Norn adopted human and elvish elements of culture. She was formed from the mana of Bringer, the white sun.
New Phyrexia's white-aligned faction, led by Norn, believes that Phyrexia must adhere to the teachings of the Father of Machines. They intend to indoctrinate everyone about the truth, even if it means tearing them limb from limb and reattaching the parts into a creation that is worthy of Phyrexia. They are dogmatic, hierarchical, and orthodox in their methods.
Norn appears on the surface to be delirious to some extent, and her religious fanaticism has been interpreted as her being blind to the machinations of the other praetors. She is a highly manipulative individual, subtly influencing her faction to suit her desires. During Karn's reign as Father of Machines deep in the plane's core, she even attempted to bring him to the surface to protect him from her fellow praetor, Jin-Gitaxias.
During the final battle in which the Phyrexians officially conquered Mirrodin, a Mirran angel named Atraxa was captured. Elesh Norn was impressed by Atraxa's tenacity and "rewarded" her with compleation, a process by which organic beings are converted into Phyrexians. Elesh Norn's intent was for Atraxa to become the "praetors‘ voice", a symbol of Phyrexia's unity. Elesh Norn invited the other praetors to contribute, with only Urabrask declining. Atraxa's creation marked the final victory of Phyrexia over Mirrodin.
Eventually, Elesh Norn gained the upper hand in New Phyrexia, overwhelming Sheoldred's and Urabrask's forces and becoming the dominant praetor. She was able to manipulate Vorinclex easily, as he was the least ambitious of the praetors. Jin-Gitaxias, Vorinclex, and many of the Black Thanes pledged themselves and their spheres to her grand vision, but Urabrask remained outside her grasp as did some of the Steel Thanes that joined him in his rebellion. She is now the Mother of Machines, the highest power in New Phyrexia. As a ruler she was mostly hands-off, spending her time in the lower spheres preparing her conquest of the Multiverse and delegating most tasks to Atraxa.
At some point after the events of Theros Beyond Death, Elesh Norn tried to compleat a Mirran woman in front of a large gathering of Phyrexians. When the compleation failed horribly, the Praetor investigated, discovering that she was experiencing a nightmare produced by the Planeswalker Ashiok. Ashiok was surprised to see that Phyrexians could have nightmares as well, and their intrusion left Norn furious and shocked. She tried to attack Ashiok when they conjured a figure of Elspeth Tirel wearing Norn's armor. Enraged, Norn vowed she would kill Elspeth - but even the exiled Urabrask knew that this meant Norn feared her.
At some point after the War of the Spark, Tezzeret determined that the only way he could house the Planar Bridge damaging his body was to obtain a darksteel body from Elesh Norn, for which he bargained access to his Planar Bridge and the powers of the Reality Chip. Both Vorinclex's infiltration of Kaldheim and Jin-Gitaxias's planeswalker compleation on Kamigawa was facilitated with his help, and once both of these were achieved, Norn felt confident to send troops across the planes.
Elesh Norn successfully sent Sheoldred to Dominaria in a large-scale infiltration to fetch Karn. Welcoming him back as Father of Machines, she introduced him to New Phyrexia's Invasion Tree, Realmbreaker, a corrupt imitation of the World Tree of Kaldheim which she would use to connect all the planes in the Multiverse. In this way, Norn planned to expand and bring the glory of New Phyrexia to every plane. As she prepared for Invasion, her faction had become the Machine Legion, the core of the Phyrexian armada. At some point, she altered the formula of the glistening oil so that she was the one personally issuing orders throughout the Phyrexian hive mind.
Though her throne room sits in the Fair Basilica, New Phyrexia's third-lowest layer, she began residing in its second-lowest, the Mycosynth Gardens. She forbade any visitors to the two lowest layers without her invitation, including other Praetors.
Hoping to spoil the coming invasion, a planeswalker strike team attacked New Phyrexia to destroy Realmbreaker with a copy of the Golgothian Sylex. Kaya Cassir and Kaito Shizuki hesitated to detonate the Sylex because they thought it could obliterate all planes accessible from New Phyrexia through the activated Invasion Tree. This mistake was all it took for Norn to appear with a compleated Nissa Revane and order her to control Realmbreaker, initiating the invasion of the Multiverse.
After commanding Ajani to execute Sheoldred, dispatching Nahiri, Lukka, and Tamiyo to conquer their home planes, and sending Ajani to Theros to subvert its Gods, she gave the most important task to Atraxa. The Phyrexian angel was sent to lead the efforts of the Machine Legion against Capenna. She was commanded to salvage the ship of the Old Phyrexians, scavenge any remaining Phyrexians for parts, kill all citizens of New Capenna, and destroy the Halo wellspring. Both Ajani's and Atraxa's missions were designed to counteract the threat of a return of Elspeth, of whom Norn had become paranoid.
Norn's plans were disrupted when Chandra Nalaar and Wrenn arrived on New Phyrexia with a plan to defeat her. Along with Koth, they invaded the inner spheres, arriving at the Fair Basilica before being confronted and defeated by Nissa and Jin-Gitaxias. As she moved to give the order to compleat them, her worst fears were fulfilled as the newly anointed archangel Elspeth burst from the Blind Eternities, giving the planeswalkers time to escape and carry out their plan.
As Norn dueled her hated enemy, Elspeth told Norn that her egotism had grown to the point of self-importance, an utter contradiction to the philosophy of Phyrexia. She acknowledged that Phyrexia's ideals of unity had merit, but declared that its crusade of conquest was only conducted for Norn's selfish wishes, not for Phyrexia's. Norn's increasing rage only confirmed Elspeth's words. After fighting the Grand Praetor to a stalemate, she then flew away to cover the planeswalkers' attack on Realmbreaker, as Norn impotently screamed after her to finish their duel.
Wrenn successfully carried out her plan and fused herself with Realmbreaker, reaching out across the multiverse to find Zhalfir. She switched the two planes, leading Teferi and the massed Zhalfirin army to New Phyrexia, where they engaged in an all-out battle with the Phyrexians. Unfortunately, Jin-Gitaxias chose this time to mutiny, becoming frustrated with Norn's selfishness and deciding she would be better off as spare parts. The infighting made it easy for the Zhalfirins to rout the Phyrexians, including Norn.
Barely clinging to life, stripped of her armor and legs, Norn crawled toward the planar portal to New Phyrexia, perhaps planning to regroup. However, it would not come to pass. The reconstructed Karn, deciding to rectify the grand mistake of Argentum once and for all, broke his vow of pacifism and used his machine magic to shred her mechanical components, leaving the once-great Mother of Machines a red smear on the ground.
Since Norn had taken direct control of the hive mind, it abruptly went silent upon her death, causing the Phyrexian invaders across all planes to shut down. This marked the end of the multiversal invasion.
