A Grim Tale?

There’s been a lot of speculation about who or what is casting the shadows over Innistrad. The current suspects include Emrakul, Marit Lage, and Nicol Bolas. A few have mentioned Yawgmoth, while a few others have suggested the Phyrexians. While it may be too soon to say for certain, I feel the clues directing me to just one source:

“Marit Lage” is an anagram for “A Grim Tale.”

(It’s also an anagram for “A Girl Team.”)

Marit Lage is the original eldritch horror of Magic: the Gathering. She brought terror to the multiverse long before the rise of the Eldrazi.

“The Argivian scholar Arkol thought Marit Lage was a planeswalker, but he was wrong. What’s known about Marit Lage is that she is a being of immense power, able to move across the planes but not by the same means planeswalkers can. She is not native to Dominaria, and could justifiably be called a demigod. She is mentioned in passing a couple of times in The Eternal Ice, a Magic novel by Jeff Grubb. It’s implied that she wreaked havoc on Dominaria at some point, and it’s clear that she had a human following (see the flavor text of Brine Shaman, Curse of Marit Lage, Wrath of Marit Lage, and Dehydration). One interesting footnote about Marit Lage is that the cards that bear her name penalize black’s allied colors rather than its enemy colors.” — Brady Dommermuth

I am, like many others, becoming convinced that the terror befalling Innistrad is the ancient evil Marit Lage. Why do I think so? Let’s consider the clues:

Clue 1: Jace’s New Coat.

“A chill rain fell from patchy clouds, and something howled in the night. Jace had only been on Innistrad for two days, and he already hated it. The only saving grace so far was a new leather coat he’d bought to keep the rain and some of the cold at bay.” [X]

    

Maybe it’s always chilly on Innistrad. Or maybe it’s the signature move of a sinister force.

Clue 2: Ice Counters

The last time we saw ice counters on cards was Coldsnap. We’ve only seen ice counters once before in Ice Age. Now they’re back on a card mechanically reminiscent of the land where we most often encounter Marit Lage:

Clue 3: The Tides

Many believe the current threat to Innistrad is Emrakul. They have good reason to believe this: she was absent from Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. We’ve seen cards spoiled from Shadows over Innistrad that feature random eyeballs and tentacles that could easily be attributed to an Eldrazi source.

Emrakul “twists all things living, be it plants, animals, or sentient beings. She causes silent terror wherever she soars, embodying desolation, emotional and physical distance, the chill of the void, and the terror of being alone.” [X]

Sounds a lot like what’s happening on Innistrad. But Emrakul, though she is the Titan of Corruption, “does not affect unliving matter – rocks, water, etc.” [X]

Marit Lage, on the other hand, borrows from Cthulhu’s playbook and “ends up slumbering in a large body of water” while human worshipers wait for her return. [X] She is more kraken-like than the Eldrazi, which includes her penchant for the water.

Clue 4: The Clue Tokens

A new feature added to the game with Shadows over Innistrad is the “clue” token: an artifact token that can be sacrificed to draw a card. Each clue has different art, and different flavor text. We don’t often see flavor text on tokens, and considering these tokens are literally “clues,” I think there’s more to this decision than just flavor.

“For every answer, three questions.” This to me feels an awful lot like a nod to the activated ability of Dark Depths… “3: remove an ice counter from Dark Depths.” And notice the art in this token is a heron-shaped stone like those found on the card Drownyard Temple (a cryptolith?). Speaking of which…

Chanting… from her current disciples on Innistrad, perhaps? Eldrazi don’t have disciples. Marit Lage does. And look at the pendant in the art of this clue token. What is that symbol in the middle? The border around the symbol looks a bit like this:

If that’s the case, then perhaps the symbol within is a slumbering Marit Lage, waiting for her disciples to awaken her.

Is this the truth Tamiyo discovered? What do you think?

[Bonus speculation: what if there really is “a Girl Team” on Innistrad? What if it’s both Marit Lage AND Emrakul? This is total speculation, but I can see it happening.]

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