Crovax & Ertai

by Miguel Caron

 

 

Crovax of Urborg

A once great nobleman, he became one of the Weatherlight's crewman on the mission to rescue the woman known as Sisay, Gerrard Capashen's Captain. Upon his voyage to the plane of Rath, an amulet with a jewel. . . containing an angel which had protected his family for untold centuries. . . was shattered and the angel released, becoming corrupted by the dark Phyrexians, the Lady Selenia. In the rescue of Sisay, the feline Mirri and Crovax battled with Selenia, Crovax going on with her into a savage sword fight. . . in which Selenia was struck down by Crovax's sword, his mind being ravaged and torn apart by an ancient curse, becoming darker. . . and twisted. In the aftermath of the battle, a wounded Crovax loomed skulking, piercing Mirri's intrigued. A confrontation ensued and Crovax murdered Mirri in a bloody battle. 

 

Cast off the Weatherlight, abandoned in Rath, a twisted Crovax plummeted down in his misery, attempting to kill himself by being shredded in a great canyon of Rath. Before he would be splattered against the jegged rock however, he is spared by a strange dark prescence. . . suspended in a bi-planar field. . . and taken to the plane of Phyrexia. He is given the opportunity to gain great power as Phyrexia's new evincar of Rath, replacing the traitorous Volrath, and. . . a chance for revenge against Gerrard Capashen. . . who he begins to blame for the deaths of Selenia and Mirri. He eagerly takes the opportunity, the Phyrexian's beginning to treat his body in the same way as the other Evincars were, a host of biological enhancements, replacing foul blood with glistening oily substance. . . his body mass increased ten fold. His mind however, remained tortured of his acts in the past, his concious pained with horrors it could have never dealt with. The Phyrexians, under the cries of Crovax, reluctantly remove what remains of the beast's concious. 

 

After the process of reenginering his body, he is sent to the plane of Rath once more, this time to claim the title of Evincar. The Phyrexian created Belbe, an emmisary with instructions to choose the new Evincar, thwarts Crovax's early attempts at snatching the evincarship, telling him that he must first prove himself worthy of the title. . . the idea of which his twisted mind considers is to defeat the elves of the Skyshroud forest and annihilate them for good from the plane. His psychosis is that of a madman, as he ruthless has life exterminated, Crovax himself feeding off the life itself. . banishing the elves from Rath back into Dominaria. In a final battle to become evincar, Crovax faces off against the shapeshifter Volrath, the previous Evincar of Rath. After help from the mage Ertai, Crovax defeats Volrath and claims his place as Evincar. 

                       "Crovax never misses an opprtunity to cause widespread misery. "~Belbe

 

Ertai

The top student at Barrin's acedemy of magics in Tolaria, Ertai's aid is requested by Gerrard Capashen to rescue Captain Sisay, mainly aiding by manning the portal between Dominaria and Rath, a task which he easily accomplishes, almost as if it were a waste of his time, his arrogance and ego even greater than that of Urza Planeswalker. 

 

As the Predator flagship persues the skyship Weatherlight after the successful rescue of Captain Sisay, Ertai jumps from the ledge where he was manning the portal, but misses the Weatherlight entirely, plummeting towards what would be an assured death, drilling his own grave into the soil of Rath. The Predator, however, in it's attempts to run down the Weatherlight, had been at it's heels, it's rigging hanging out, tangling up Ertai. . . saving him from death of falling, but perhaps throwing him into a fate worse than death, being captured in the hands of one of the most feared figures in all the planes, the Dread Lord himself, the outcast Greven Il Vec. Ertai is soon hauled over in the Predator, only to be tortued and interrogated by Greven, who eagerly extracts all information about the Weatherlight. He is taken back to Volrath's Stronghold for further interogation. 

 

At that moment, as they arrived in the Stronghold, the Phyrexianized Crovax surprises them. . . claiming he is the new Evincar. Greven and his soldiers attack Crovax in a fierce battle, interrupted by the arrival of the Emissary from Phyrexia, Belbe. Ertai's cockiness and arrogance remain as he introduces himself to the emissary, only to be pulled away by a swarm of moggs for routine torture. He soon becomes a close aquantince of Belbe, who suggests Ertai could be the next Evincar, something which quite surprised him, but his fear of reprisal from Crovax keeps him quiet. Using Phyrexian technology to heal his wounds, he finds he is in better shape than he ever was. However, he finds that this comes at a price, his humanity begins slipping away as he begins to resemble Greven Il Vec. . . becoming much more muscular. Ertai soon begins to rage about the fact that Gerrard Capashen had never returned to rescue him from the savages of Rath, considering him to be an ingrate and a hatrred soons begins manifesting before him towards Gerrard. 

 

In the final battle between Volrath and Crovax, Ertai actually aids the madman Crovax, weighing down Volrath's sword with his magic. Something which Crovax is graetful for, for it had allowed him to defeat the former evincar, but something that had left him puzzled for the reasoning behind Ertai's choice. Soon afterwards, Ertai acts as an executioner for Vuel, now stripped of the bioenhancements that had made him the almighty Volrath;the Phyrexian science that had healed Ertai, had mutated him, giving him two extra arms, paler skin and whatnot. Ertai begins to plot his revenge on Gerrard, which he duly carries out when Gerrard is captured by the Phyrexians. 

           "Was that it?"~Ertai