Hello all! I'm making this post to discuss my predictions about Reality Fracture, the Echoverse, and the changes we might see in it, from a very particular and in-depth angle.

It's been confirmed that, when he made the Echoverse, Jace's main design goal was eliminating the 3 biggest threats to the original Multiverse: Phyrexia/Yawgmoth, Nicol Bolas, and the Eldrazi. So, what I want to discuss is, how would things actually be different without these 3 forces? What kinds of butterfly effects are created by removing these 3 great villains from the history of Magic?

For the purposes of this, I'm just going to assume that the 3 forces mentioned just never existed from the very jump. They weren't killed or changed, they just never existed to begin with. No confirmation that that's how it'll be, but it makes things simpler for this discussion. We'll start with that baseline, and everything else will proceed as normal from there. While it has already been confirmed that Jace has tinkered with the lives of his closest friends in addition to all of this, again, we'll ignore that for now for simplicity's sake.

It should also go without saying, but I don't actually think all of these changes WILL happen. Think of this as me setting a baseline for all of the changes that COULD happen. I'm sure WotC is going to want various worlds and characters to say somewhat recognizable, after all. And lastly, there is a lot here, so I'm certain to miss a ton of stuff. And if I did, please let me know!

Alright, enough preamble! Onward!

Phyrexia

I'm just gonna bullet point each of these, to make things easier. That in mind:

• Right off the bat, no Yawgmoth/Phyrexia means that everything involving the Thran Empire is different. So the fall of the Thran probably doesn't happen the way it does originally. Which actually has major cascading effects, because...
• No fall of Thran means no Mightstone or Weakstone to seal Phyrexia away, which means that the Brothers' War probably doesn't even happen. I know people might talk about a version of events where Mishra wins the war, but without the original stones to start it all, the brothers are likely never torn apart. Hell, without Thran artifacts scattered all over for them to study, who knows if they ever even become archaeologists/artificers?
• Going off of this, no Brothers' War means that the Sylex Blast doesn't happen, meaning no Ice Age, and no Flood Age to follow it, meaning that Terisiare stays one continent and never becomes an archipelago like it is now.
• Keeping on this "no Brothers' War" train, this also means that the Tolarian Academy likely isn't established, meaning Teferi never ignites his spark. This in turn means that Zhalfir never gets phased out.
• Since the Legacy was made as a series of weapons to fight Phyrexia, this means that the Weatherlight and its crew aren't a thing, Karn never needs to be made, and Gerrard likely is never born.
• In fact, if Karn is never made, that means that all of Mirrodin likely doesn't exist.
• Lastly for all of our Brothers' War shenanigans, no conflict with Phyrexia means that they don't follow Urza around and corrupt everything in their wake, meaning Serra's Realm isn't collapsed and remains intact.
• Speaking of planes destroyed by Phyrexia, them being gone means that Capenna is never devastated, meaning the crime lords never seize power and the city of New Capenna is never formed.
• This in turn means that Elspeth potentially never sparked, which in turn means that she never takes Heliod's blade and starts that whole ordeal.
• For a few other planar shenanigans affected by Phyrexia's non-existence: Aranzhur is never destroyed, Rath is never merged with Dominaria, and Mercadia never gets settled by goblins. I don't know if Mercadia as a world was barren before the goblins escaped there, but at the very least, the focal Mercadia City on the inverse mountain wouldn't exist.
• Lastly, because Urza's conflict with Phyrexia led to so many of them forming, I think that the Temporal Rift Crisis would not have happened. This one has me uncertain though, because undoing that would mean undoing the Mending and bringing back godlike planeswalkers, and I seriously doubt that the story will go in THAT direction.

Nicol Bolas

• First off, no Nicol Bolas means that he never kills his brother, meaning that Ugin never becomes a spirit dragon. However, this is very minor compared to the next few changes.
• Because Ugin now never fights and nearly perishes at the claws of Bolas, this means that Tarkir now develops naturally; the dragonstorms neither intensify nor die out. They remain as they were at the beginning, for all time. I almost wonder if no Bolas means that Ugin would never help form Tarkir in the first place, but being meta for a sec, I think WotC is going to want to do Echoverse Tarkir.
• Probably the biggest change though is that Amonkhet and its gods are never devastated. All 8 gods get to live, the entire plane isn't a desert, and Naktamun never becomes a soldier factory.
• No Bolas also means that Vivien's home of Skalla isn't destroyed. This almost certainly means that she doesn't have the Arkbow, and it may mean that she isn't sparked either.
• Also, because it was made to trap Bolas, this means that the Immortal Sun doesn't exist. This likely means that Orazca is never discovered, but also all of the other planeswalkers aren't trapped on Ixalan. Azor continues bringing law to the Echoverse, Angrath never becomes a pirate, and that means that Huatli never ignites her spark, or if she does she isn't sent right back and can instead wander the planes, potentially not becoming a warrior-poet.
• Without Bolas nudging it along, it's questionable if the Alaran Conflux would have happened.
• Lastly, no Liliana death contract or War of the Spark has me convinced that Gideon is alive in the Echoverse, which leads to a theory I'll posit at the end.

Eldrazi

• Obviously, no Eldrazi means that the Gatewatch never forms. But this ends up being completely negligible, since the Gatewatch was formed to face all 3 of the threats discussed here, which are now gone. Meaning they wouldn't have their original purpose anyways.
• More importantly, no Eldrazi means that Zendikar's Roil never develops, making the plane as a whole FAR less hostile to life on it. Even more importantly, though, without the Eldrazi, Sorin and Nahiri and Ugin likely never team up together.
• This has huge ramifications for Innistrad, because now Sorin and Nahiri aren't enemies. This means that he doesn't trap her in the Helvault with Avacyn, meaning Avacyn continues to protect humans for a thousand years, and is never corrupted by Emrakul.
• The last thing to note is that, assuming that Eldrazi in general are just 100% gone, this means that the Fomori-Eldrazi War in The Edge never happens. And this leads me into my theory.

My theory is that Reality Fracture will pull a Crisis on Infinite Earths: both realities will merge together, and their two histories will meld together into something new, which has always been that way. This allows for WotC to make any story retcons they feel justified making. Notably, this would be an EASY way to bring Gideon back, and I am convinced that the Echoverse is how the Fomori will become the next big bads of the story. Not saying retconning things like this would be a GOOD thing, but it would be an easy way for them to do it, if they wanted to.

Let me know what changes mentioned here interest you most! Personally, I like the ideas of "untouched" versions of Tarkir, Amonkhet, Capenna, and Innistrad that could develop without the interference of these outside forces. Hope you're as excited for this as I am!