Tolaria

Tolaria was a legendary island on Dominaria, home to the original Tolarian Academy.
==History==
Most people thought of <c>Tolaria</c> as a myth: a land of great wealth lost to an unknown curse that covered the island in terrible, devouring mists. For centuries sailors told tales of that land, of people who entered the isle's interior only to return weeks later without any knowledge of the time that had passed, or worse still, of people gone for hours, but aged years. It was marked on maps only as a place to avoid.Will McDermott (November 1998). "A Time for Remembrance". The Official Guide to Urza's Saga
Before its destruction, Tolaria lay in the middle of the ocean, far to the west of Jamuraa and the south of The Domains. Surrounded by coral reefs, it was a large, tropical isle, lightly forested, with palms on the shore and hardwood trees on the interior. It was part of a chain of islands, most likely uninhabited.
Before the founding of the Academy, Tolaria was home to many shapeshifters, such as the <c>Morphling</c>. After the founding of the Academy, human wizards flocked to the island. Other creatures native to Tolaria include faeries, drakes, snakes, lizards, rabbits, birds, and sentient illusions, and merfolk and sea serpents dwelt in the surrounding waters. Finally, the island was the birthplace of the metathran race, created by the planeswalker Urza.
===The Tolarian Academy===
In 3285 AR, Urza and Barrin founded the Tolarian Academy. The island was the best choice for Urza's laboratories because Tolaria was far from any other land on Dominaria. Urza wanted to keep its existence a mystery, and knowing that Phyrexian sleeper agents never appear in child form, his new students were exclusively children. 
Urza intended to gather all possible knowledge on Tolaria to stop Phyrexians. His first plan was to create a time machine. He wanted to change the ancient past, when still the Thran ruled Dominaria, and halt them on the path that would give rise to the horrors of Phyrexia. Because no living being could survive the temporal stresses of time traveling, Urza created a golem-probe, soon after named Karn.
===The Tolarian Temporal Disaster===
When Jhoira's life was taken by a Phyrexian sleeper agent during a Phyrexian assault in 3307 AR, Karn used Urza's time machine to go back and save her; Although he succeeded, the time machine suffered a catastrophic failure, destroying the academy and leaving Tolaria a shattered temporal landscape. This also created the Tolarian Time Rift.
Headmaster Urza escaped with Mage Master Barrin and thirteen other students and scholars.Jess Lebow (April 1999). "Forgotten Lore: Jhoira de Vivre" The Duelist #36, p.19. Karn rescued thirty-three more, but Jhoira was stranded alone.
===The Invasion of Tolaria===
The survivors of the academy moved their school to a grand sailing ship named New Tolaria.Will McDermott (April 1999). "Scars of the Legacy". The Official Urza's Legacy Game Guide Ten years later, Urza, Barrin, and Karn returned to Tolaria with a new batch of students to help rebuild the academy and discovered Jhoira still alive, and Teferi trapped in a slow-time bubble. Jhoira and Karn worked hard and eventually devised a method to rescue Teferi. When Urza left the island to visit Shiv and Yavimaya, the Invasion of Tolaria began, with K'rrik's negators swarming over the island in increasing numbers. This invasion was ended only through the combined efforts of Barrin and his students, faculty, and artifact creatures, Jhoira and Teferi and their allies from Shiv including Rhammidarigaaz, Gherridarigaaz, viashino and goblins, as well as the spirit of Multani carried inside Urza.
===Tolaria today===
Tolaria was almost utterly obliterated by Barrin's final spell, its ruins sunken beneath the waves. Although, a part of the island is believed to have survived the explosion: possibly the location of the Pendrell Vale, as it continued to emanate magic for hundreds of years after the Invasion. Although since then it was almost forgotten, on a tiny island far away in the northern Spice Isles, scholars of magic decided to immortalize the memory of that great school by building a new academy. The island was named Tolaria West, honoring the memory of the original Tolaria.
==Geography==
Locations on Tolaria:
*Angelwood - a slow-time verdant paradise teeming with fish, birds, and fresh, running slow-time water.
*The Curtains of Eternity - a series of thin but wide time bubbles of extremely slow or fast time, deadly to the touch.
*The Giant's Pate - a high vista where almost the entire island could be viewed
*The Hives - a fast-time bubble where its inhabitants lived a tribal life, building mud hut villages at 100 times the speed of the bubble's outside.
*Jhoira's Cove - a small bay on the western shore of Tolaria, where Jhoira lived in a cave for 10 years after the Tolarian Temporal Disaster.Steven E. Schend, J. Robert King, ed. (2001.) "Of Protectors & Pride", The Dragons of Magic, Wizards of the Coast.
*Lotus Vale - a garden of Black LotusesPete Venters (October 1997). "Dominian Chronicles: Weatherlight Ports of Call." The Duelist #19, 33-34
*Pendrell Vale - a valley of magically perpetual mist and the mysterious <c title="Tabernacle">The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale</c> in its midst.
*Slate Waters - a slow-time bubble swamp, wide, desolate, and filled with gray, dead trees.
*Teferi's Shrine - an extreme slow-time bubble within which Teferi was suspended in the air for over 10 years, perpetually on fire.
*The Tolarian Academy - the famous school of learning established by Urza and Barrin
**The Hall of Artifact Creatures - a museum where Urza placed important but obsolete inventions. Destroyed in the Tolarian temporal disaster, but rebuilt in the new academy.J. Robert King (1999) - Time Streams, Wizards of the Coast
**The Tower of Artifice
**The Tower of Mana
*Vanish Point Tim Ryan, J. Robert King, ed. (2003.) "The Reluctant Student", The Monsters of Magic, Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 0-7869-2983-9.
*The Western Reaches - the tallest mountains on the island
==Notable inhabitants of Tolaria==
*Barrin
*Darrob
*Dreva
*Ertai
*Gatha
*Halfdane
*Hanna
*Jhoira
*Karn
*Kerrick
*Rayne
*Riand
*Skaven
*Teferi
*Urza
==In-game references==
==References==
 
Category:Weatherlight Saga
Category:Islands