Tezzeret

Template:Character Tezzeret is a male human planeswalker. Born in Tidehollow on the shard of Esper, he specializes in artifice and mental magic. He joined the academy of the Seekers of Carmot, the sect that was said to possess the Codex Etherium, a sacred tome containing Crucius's teachings. He joined in hopes of seeing the Tome and inheriting its secrets for himself.

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Tezzeret is a planeswalker who wields blue magic. His specialty is artifice: spells that forge artifacts, manipulate artifacts, and even bring artifacts to life, creating huge constructs from mere scrap bits of metal.

Tezzeret was a talented artificer from the Alara shard of Esper. Like all Esperites, he has part of his body "enhanced" by the magical alloy etherium, part of an overarching planar venture to create perfection of both body and mind.

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Tezzeret has a very explosive temper, with frequent violent outbursts, and an unscrupulous nature. His primal driving force is a lust for power and knowledge; and, he is prone to punish people who failed him in severe and often brutal ways if he needs them in the future, or kill them outright if he does not need them.

History

Tidehollow

Tezzeret was born to scrapper parents, neither of whom cared enough for him to even name the boy. His father was abusive and his mother was a whore who had grown too old to earn her trade, which she would remind her husband of at virtually any opportunity. Despite the toxic environment in which he grew up, he was not at a loss for peers. It was his peers, in fact, that gave him his name, Tezzeret being Tidehollow slang for "an improvised weapon"; he attained this name during his first act of calculated violence, stabbing an older boy who had bullied him.

Tezzeret's life would change when he was approximately seven, the day his mother died. While begging in Lower Vectis, she was run down by a guildmaster's carriage, leaving Tezzeret and his father alone and, while cleaning the corpse out of the street, his father imparted the seeds that would alter Tezzeret's worldview forever; the strong ruled and took whatever they could from the weak and, on Esper, there was no force greater than the mages. With this simple declaration, Tezzeret swore he would become a mage someday, so that nobody could take anything from him ever again. The next day, he began to help his father salvage metal from the cesspools. It was during this time that he learned of his natural talent in rhabdomancy, which gave him the ability to find metal more easily than his father, who soon stopped doing any work short of selling their finds. It was this lack of diligence on the older man's part that allowed Tezzeret to begin stealing etherium at the age of nine. He would receive a violent thrashing every time he was caught, which was almost always intentional, as it allowed him to get away with stealing even more of the metal while his father believed him pacified.

While pursuing his goal of escaping his father, Tezzeret also rose in the ranks of the various Tidehollow gangs. It was here that the effects of his mother's death and his father's worldview became most apparent, as anybody who crossed the boy would find their mothers stabbed to death, proving at least in Tezzeret's mind, that they were weaker than he was. At the age of eleven, Tezzeret had stolen a total of 200 grams of etherium, most of which he had hidden beneath his skin and hair. With this small investment, Tezzeret fled Tidehollow, leaving his father to whatever life the old man could make for himself.

Education

Tezzeret apprenticed to an artificer immediately after leaving the cesspools of the Tidehollow. He assumed a new name and swore apprenticeship for seven years, mastering what the artificer had to show him in only three. He fled and began to search for hidden caches of etherium buried about the city, which were surprisingly abundant. These troves, along with whatever etherium he could extract from bandits that he murdered frequently, soon allowed him to join the Mechanists' Guild, spending a third of his fortune for a single year's tuition. He sought to be a master at manipulating magical artifacts as opposed to the more mundane artificing that he had already mastered. What was normally accomplished in seventeen years, Tezzeret accomplished in a mere five. He far outshone his rich and pampered classmates, having developed an appreciation for not wasting any materials. It was this trait that earned him his journeyman status so early and with that, he gained more access to the etherium he desperately needed. At the age of 19, Tezzeret performed the ritual that severed his right arm and replaced it with a solid etherium arm of over ten kilos worth of the metal, a dream he had fostered for an entire decade since he began to steal from his father.

Upon seeing what he had done, the guildmasters immediately elevated him to master status. Tezzeret left and never returned, proceeding straight to the Academy of the Seekers.

Tezzeret the Seeker — A youthful Tezzeret during his time with the Seekers.

The Seeker's Fall

Tezzeret gained entry into the Vectis City Academy wishing to join the Seekers of Carmot; but, after being defeated in a duel with Silas Renn, his powers were considered substandard and not worthy to join the ranks of the Seekers. His father offered him no support, wishing his son would give up his starry-eyed dreams, but Tezzeret grew more adamant at gaining entrance. He went to the academy later that night seeking to clarify the quality of his performance to the headmaster, Amalet Pannex, but learned he was to be expelled instead, partially owing to his lowly birth. In an effort to cover his expulsion, he murdered Pannex and continued his training unabated.^[1]

Three years passed, and Tezzeret was still dismissed by his peers. His grisly act had never been discovered, and yet he was still looked down upon. Right after Renn gained a heart supposedly forged of new etherium to prove his membership within the Seekers, Tezzeret had enough. He broke into the vault to access the Codex Etherium for himself. The Codex proved to be a fraud: its pages blank. His trespass was not ignored this time, and the artificer was caught by the guards who brutally beat him and attempted to kill him, accidentally triggering his spark in the act. Tezzeret planeswalked wildly, falling through the Blind Eternities without guidance. Immediately afterwards, he awoke to find himself on Grixis not knowing how he got there or why.^[2]

Miraculously, he managed to survive the hardships and attacks from Grixian monsters in his condition, and reached Nicol Bolas, who promised him power in exchange for servitude.^[3]

In a non-specified future after his ascension, Tezzeret secretly built his own structure of agents inside Bolas' Infinite Consortium. In one fell swoop, he orchestrated the assassination of all high-positioned cell leaders who were directly subordinated only to Bolas, replaced them with his own people and effectively took over the Consortium leadership.

Agents of Artifice

Paranoid of spies answering to Bolas, Tezzeret sought out Jace Beleren on to join the Consortium on Ravnica. After investing a great deal of time and training into Jace, Tezzeret revealed to him that he had been groomed to be Tezzeret's ace against Nicol Bolas who possessed an enormous grudge due to Tezzeret's betrayal. Tezzeret, however, viewed Bolas as the betrayer as he had learned that Bolas was the secret master of the Seekers that had lied to all of Esper and shunned him so long ago. Tezzeret had acquired Jace because of his unique telepathy and used him to ensure that none of Bolas' agents infiltrated the organization.

When Tezzeret and Bolas became directly conflicted over the mineral rights to a specific mountain range on an unknown plane, Tezzeret sought to confront Bolas personally and negotiate the issue. He took Jace along with the hopes that Jace could protect him from Bolas, who Tezzeret feared had telepathic abilities of his own. Tezzeret's plan fell short though, as Bolas swept Jace's defenses aside and plumbed Tezzeret's mind for whatever secrets he could find. Tezzeret was shocked, but confident that Bolas would still be unable to harm them. Unfortunately for the duo, Bolas had planned ahead. He betrayed each of them, having hired a troop of barbarian mercenaries to hunt the pair. They escaped with their lives, but just barely.

Tezzeret leveled an ultimatum at Jace after this failure, and when Jace willfully failed the next mission, Tezzeret began to dream of Jace's death, seeing it as an enormous betrayal of Tezzeret's investment. He spent upwards of 6 months tracking Jace, thirsting for his blood after Jace fled the Consortium. Eventually, Tezzeret and Jace were pitted against each other due to the manipulations of a third party and Jace and his lover, Liliana, invaded Tezzeret's sanctum. Tezzeret captured Jace and allowed his second in command Baltrice to torture Jace while Tezzeret worked on a device that would turn Jace into his puppet. Jace broke free of his prison though, and attacked Tezzeret once more. Tezzeret lost this duel against Jace after they planeswalked to Kamigawa and his mind was utterly obliterated. Further, he lost his etherium arm when Jace amputated it with his manablade, a blade stolen from the artificer in the first place, in order to access the absorbed mana stored in the arm. Nicol Bolas reveals that pitting Jace against Tezzeret had been Liliana Vess' plan all along, and Bolas had agreed in order to regain control of the Consortium that Tezzeret had stolen control of twelve years before. Bolas kept Tezzeret, or at least his mangled and mindless body in his keep in the Meditation Plane.

Test of Metal

Tezzeret learned soon enough why Bolas had kept the husk of his former life. After an extended period of time, Tezzeret's mind and body were finally restored, albeit with alterations made by the elder dragon. Tezzeret awoke on Jund, in the Worldheart Chalice, where Bolas had chosen to lair. After casually abusing the restored artificer, Bolas tasked Tezzeret with a mission: Find the sphinx Crucius and the secrets to forging etherium. Tezzeret at first scoffed at this mission, as he had learned absolutely nothing from the Seekers of Carmot except their lies. Bolas took a particular pleasure in telling Tezzeret that the Seekers had not lied at all. With his worldview shattered, Bolas took it as an opportunity to introduce Tezzeret to his taskmaster, a mental construction he chose to call Doctor Jest. With that, Bolas started him on his mission.

Transported to Tidehollow, Tezzeret's first inclination was to acquire some form of currency. To that end, he sought out a brewery that had been constructed by the Consortium during his reign. He found his etherium cache, but learned too late that his secrets weren't safe anymore. When Tezzeret reached out for his treasure trove, he triggered the trap that had been set for him. A trio of Magma Scorpions chased him throughout Lower Vectis until at last Tezzeret bartered passage with a Tidehollow Sculler, trading a piece of sangrite for his protection. Safely aboard the boat, Tezzeret knew who had set the trap, the only person who could have done it: Jace Beleren. He knew, as well, what Jace would do next.

Tezzeret returned to his father's hovel and fought Jace and his former second, Baltrice, in the shack where he grew up. The artificer had anticipated this confrontation and used his retrieved etherium to construct a device to incapacitate, and eventually kill Jace. With the telepath under his thumb, he coerced Baltrice in assisting him with his next plan. Killing Nicol Bolas. Of course, that was the goal, but first they had to return to the Sanctum Arcanum and his old rival Silas Renn. Theirs was not the only arrival of note, as Sharuum, Grand Hegemon of Esper, was also visiting the Sanctum. Indeed, she was ultimately the reason for this diversion. Tezzeret knew she was the closest being to Crucius before his disappearance and in the Sanctum, all present learned an astonishing secret. Sharuum was in love with Crucius. She knew of Tezzeret's quest and promised him her kingdom, her very life, if she could spend yet one more heartbeat with her beloved. Tezzeret agreed to her proposal. She offered him two riddles, given to her by Crucius himself, to help him in his quest.

The first led to the Crystal Labryinth, which was under siege by millions of zombies. This army could only have been orchestrated by Renn, stinging from Tezzeret's treatment of him at the Sanctum. Tezzeret knew they did not have any hope of defeating Renn because of Silas's ability at clockworking, but Renn had anticipated even this and hurt Baltrice badly while capturing Tezzeret. With no choice, Tezzeret retreated back to the Worldheart Chalice with the assistance of Doctor Jest. Here, he used a piece of sangrite and the multitude scraps of etherium left in his body from childhood to empower himself. He shaped the etherium into a device which would inject the powdered sangrite directly into his heart, gaining unbelievable powers which he used to teleport directly to the Labryinth and defeat Renn horribly. Using Renn's body as a machine, Tezzeret tapped into his clockworking abilities to solve the maze. In doing so, he came face to face with Kemuel, The Hidden One, and he stood before The Riddle Gate.

Using the gate, he was transported to a pocket plane called the Metal Island, a plane where he was virtually a god. Here, the final parts of his plans came together. Nicol Bolas soon arrived, unaware of Tezzeret's transformation in this plane, and began to demand answers of the artificer. Baltrice arrived next, along with Jace, followed lastly by Sharuum, stripped of her etherium. Sharuum bequeathed all of Esper to Tezzeret, as per their agreement, and she asked him only to rule as she had. As soon as she left, a terrible fight broke out among the assembled walkers, and it ended with Bolas apparently victorious. However, during the fight, his concentration and powers severely waned. This was revealed to have been engineered by Tezzeret, who was the true victor of the fight. He revived Baltrice and Jace, giving Baltrice a sangrite necklace which would undo the mental tampering that Jace had been forced to use to save her. Jace fled under Tezzeret's malicious smile and Tezzeret himself left Bolas trapped on the island.

While in the Blind Eternities, considering his options, Doctor Jest returned, much to the artificer's surprise. Bolas had predicted Tezzeret's actions and sent a mere simulacra to the island so that Tezzeret would think he had won. Doctor Jest proved otherwise, causing much of Tezzeret's gloating to fall flat, and the good Doctor informed Tezzeret that Bolas wished them to go to Mirrodin.

Mirrodin

Bolas sent Tezzeret to observe the growth of New Phyrexia, report its progress, and prevent leadership from taking hold. Tezzeret established himself within the Phyrexian hierarchy without the compromise of undergoing compleation. His first encounter was with Jin-Gitaxias, who presented him directy to Karn. He worked his way closer and closer to Karn until he sat at his right hand alongside Geth and Glissa. As Koth and his allies sought to free Karn, Tezzeret moved against the other two, plotting to usurp Karn's throne. This put him in direct combat with Glissa, the outcome of the fight ending in an unknown.

Due to the somewhat contradictory nature of Quest for Karn, and the utter and complete lack of the praetors in the book, it is unknown if Tezzeret could have usurped the throne even if he had defeated Glissa.

In-game references

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References

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[1] The Seeker's Fall Part 1.

[2] The Seeker's Fall Part 2.

[3] The Seeker's Fall Part 3.

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