In The Hand That Moves Nissa had multiple visions, which, we now know, were actually events covered in future stories (though the events themselves may have happened in the past). As the visions seem to be more extensive than I gave creative credit for at first, I think it may make sense to have a little index of all the visions and what they mean or could mean.
(The numbering is based on paragraph and parts within paragraph, if there are multiple separate parts within the same paragraph.)
1: Awkward figures wrapped in white linen bent and dug in the harsh sands. Mummies, they called them. The anointed. Hundreds, thousands of the mummies dug into a deep pit, pulling out a blue ore. Cartloads of the ore snaked their way in a large procession toward the city.
This one is rather mundane. It's the mummies mining the lazotep, though its purpose was made much clearer later on, when the eternals were revealed.
2: Farther away, three young children stopped before a barrier. The beautiful city on one side, the stark emptiness of the desert on the other. They're whispering to each other. They look around, look at each other. Uncertain. A child presses through. The two others follow. All three are swallowed by the hungry sands.
This one was about Djeru, Samut and their aven friend (forgot his name) going through the hekma into the desert.
3: She saw a young man, his face erased, stumbling among a garden of statues. High above the man a growing cloud of dusk attacked the sun. From somewhere outside the garden there was a mighty roar.
As far as I know this has not been revealed yet. It could be an eternal (erased face, the garden of statues would be the crypt). But uh, this seems like a stretch.
4: Nissa saw a world, then tens of worlds, hundreds of worlds. Thousands. She saw this world, the world of Amonkhet, and wrapped around it was a dark sinewy line. That line stretched back through all the worlds, all the thousands of worlds, and she saw an unbroken line of darkness from Amonkhet all the way back to the beginning of the line.
Not so much a vision of future events, but more giving background information. Bolas has corrupted multiple worlds, but this is hardly news.
5: A large golden disc, shaped and stylized like a sun, descending from the sky. The sun disc approached a large circular stone tablet covered with strange sigils, and the two discs merged, becoming a single golden disc. Cracks appeared in the golden disc, small at first, then widening, growing. The disc crumbled away into nothingness.
This is one that only recently made sense. Many speculated this to be related to Ravnica and with the recent reveal of the Immortal Sun and Bolas' plans regarding Ravnica, this could very well mean that the guildpact will be broken using the Immortal Sun (possibly by Bolas).
6: The scenes shifted faster now, barely even an image forming before being replaced. 6.1: A fizzling torch. 6.2: A broken clock with a clean face. 6.3: A mummified head facing backward atop a mummified body. 6.4: A split tree, its sap oozing into the ground. 6.5: A shattered shield, its shiny metallic pieces torn and scattered.
This one is different from the others, because the scenes are more like screenshots. I heard a theory that these are supposed to be the defeat of the gatewatch by Bolas (In order: Chandra, Jace, Liliana, Nissa and Gideon) but I'm not sure. It just feels off. The other visions are rather straight forward once you know what they refer to, while these, if indeed relating to the gatewatch's defeat, are rather abstract.
7: She closed her eyes against the onslaught, but still the images came tumbling through her head, crumpling her in mid-air. 7.1: A falling dragon. 7.2: Giants, covered in metallic blue, stomping through streets. 7.3: A massive flash of light, consuming a world.
Like 5, these only recently started to make sense but are still somewhat obscure. 7.1 could refer to Niv-Mizzet dying to Bolas, 7.2 is clearly related to eternals, but not the eternals we know. Could the Nephilim be made into eternals? 7.3 This is possibly the strangest. Is it even related to Ravnica? Does Bolas want to take over Ravnica or destroy it? Could it be an entirely different world? Maybe Karn cleansing New Phyrexia?
3.
This is Jace reaching Orazca. His memories not yet restored while Vona is taking the immortal sun and the elder dinosaurs awakening. Or so has been speculated by others. Weird this may be the only non-amonkhet vision though
6.
Well established this is the defeat of the gatewatch to Bolas.
5.
Could be the second sun in HoD but now many are speculatng immortal sun vs guldpact
7.
Again could be Hour of Devastation but there werent "giant" immortals per se and some think this is the eternal army and more invading the next place they go
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3.
This is Jace reaching Orazca. His memories not yet restored while Vona is taking the immortal sun and the elder dinosaurs awakening. Or so has been speculated by others. Weird this may be the only non-amonkhet vision though
Were these events really worth putting in a vision though? Strikes me a bit of pareidolia, to be honest.
6.
Well established this is the defeat of the gatewatch to Bolas.
Do we have a word of god? While I don't deny that this is the strongest contender so far, it'd be really underwhelming if this is the case. I hope there's a bit more to it.
Erased face without a doubt is Jace
the stone statues i would also guess is vraska
cloud of dusk attacking the sun sounds like the legion of dusk invading the sun empire
the garden sounds like Orazca and the mighty roar is probably Zacama.
3. The young man with his face erased is Jace (he lost his memories). He is 'stumbling among a garden of statues,' as he is in the middle of suddenly recovering his memories as his illusions ('statues') pervade the surroundings. The cloud of dusk attacking the sun is Vona taking control of the immortal sun. The mighty roar are the elder dinosaurs awakening (such roars were noted in The Race, Part 2, when the city was raised).
6. It fits the defeat of the gatewatch incredibly well. I'd guess it was more esoteric so that Nissa wouldn't be able act on the obvious knowledge of the future to try and alter the course of events. Note that Nissa has yet to be personally involved in any of the visions that have come to pass outside of this one, and of the ones she may yet be a part of (5 and 7) she either gets equally abstract information (destruction of the guildpact being symbolized by the immortal sun uniting with a tablet covered in strange symbols before they crumble, or there's some seal on Ravnica that needs the sacrifice of Azor's spark to unlock and release whatever has been sealed away) or minimal information (7).
Honestly, the only issue I can raise with the idea of this vision being the Gatewatch's defeat is that it's not entirely in order (Chandra's defeat coming after Liliana's rather than first). Though I suppose they could be portraying the state of the Gatewatch members after their respective defeats: Chandra lost her confidence; Jace lost his memory twice (the surface wipe from this = blank face, the deeper damage to his memory after he confronted Alhamarret = the clock being broken); Lilian is a well-preserved ancient being whose heart and mind have given her conflicted loyalties; Nissa relied on her connection to the land and the purpose of the Gatewatch, but Bolas overpowered the former and Nissa now doubts the later so she now has little she can rely on; and Gideon failed in protecting his comrades and his shield failed to protect him twice on Amonkhet.
7.1. Outcome of Niv Mizzet vs Bolas (likely Niv getting beaten).
7.2. Shiny blue metal = lazotep. Through streets = Ravnica. Giants = maybe some of the Gruul, maybe Nephilim. Given that gods don't seem to be able to planeswalk (no scarab god), I'd find it unlikely that Bolas would personally eternalize members of the Gruul. Knowing that the Nephilim absorb that which they eat, I'd guess that more of them are released and they eat some eternals before continuing to rampage.
7.3. Maybe Immortal sun coming to Ravnica. Maybe the merging of the 2 discs into a single golden disc mentioned in vision 5 before it crumbles away.
Overall, 7 seems to be portraying events during Bolas's invasion of Ravnica.
7.2. Shiny blue metal = lazotep. Through streets = Ravnica. Giants = maybe some of the Gruul, maybe Nephilim. Given that gods don't seem to be able to planeswalk (no scarab god), I'd find it unlikely that Bolas would personally eternalize members of the Gruul. Knowing that the Nephilim absorb that which they eat, I'd guess that more of them are released and they eat some eternals before continuing to rampage.
Please oh please oh please let it be the Nephilim! I'm in the "Nephilim should have been legendary" camp. MaRo said he regrets not making the original Nephilim legendary, maybe we'll get some legendary lazotep Nephilim! I know its a stretch and that I'll never be able to officially use Ink-Treader as a commander but a dude can dream.
(The numbering is based on paragraph and parts within paragraph, if there are multiple separate parts within the same paragraph.)
1: Awkward figures wrapped in white linen bent and dug in the harsh sands. Mummies, they called them. The anointed. Hundreds, thousands of the mummies dug into a deep pit, pulling out a blue ore. Cartloads of the ore snaked their way in a large procession toward the city.
This one is rather mundane. It's the mummies mining the lazotep, though its purpose was made much clearer later on, when the eternals were revealed.
2: Farther away, three young children stopped before a barrier. The beautiful city on one side, the stark emptiness of the desert on the other. They're whispering to each other. They look around, look at each other. Uncertain. A child presses through. The two others follow. All three are swallowed by the hungry sands.
This one was about Djeru, Samut and their aven friend (forgot his name) going through the hekma into the desert.
3: She saw a young man, his face erased, stumbling among a garden of statues. High above the man a growing cloud of dusk attacked the sun. From somewhere outside the garden there was a mighty roar.
As far as I know this has not been revealed yet. It could be an eternal (erased face, the garden of statues would be the crypt). But uh, this seems like a stretch.
4: Nissa saw a world, then tens of worlds, hundreds of worlds. Thousands. She saw this world, the world of Amonkhet, and wrapped around it was a dark sinewy line. That line stretched back through all the worlds, all the thousands of worlds, and she saw an unbroken line of darkness from Amonkhet all the way back to the beginning of the line.
Not so much a vision of future events, but more giving background information. Bolas has corrupted multiple worlds, but this is hardly news.
5: A large golden disc, shaped and stylized like a sun, descending from the sky. The sun disc approached a large circular stone tablet covered with strange sigils, and the two discs merged, becoming a single golden disc. Cracks appeared in the golden disc, small at first, then widening, growing. The disc crumbled away into nothingness.
This is one that only recently made sense. Many speculated this to be related to Ravnica and with the recent reveal of the Immortal Sun and Bolas' plans regarding Ravnica, this could very well mean that the guildpact will be broken using the Immortal Sun (possibly by Bolas).
6: The scenes shifted faster now, barely even an image forming before being replaced. 6.1: A fizzling torch. 6.2: A broken clock with a clean face. 6.3: A mummified head facing backward atop a mummified body. 6.4: A split tree, its sap oozing into the ground. 6.5: A shattered shield, its shiny metallic pieces torn and scattered.
This one is different from the others, because the scenes are more like screenshots. I heard a theory that these are supposed to be the defeat of the gatewatch by Bolas (In order: Chandra, Jace, Liliana, Nissa and Gideon) but I'm not sure. It just feels off. The other visions are rather straight forward once you know what they refer to, while these, if indeed relating to the gatewatch's defeat, are rather abstract.
7: She closed her eyes against the onslaught, but still the images came tumbling through her head, crumpling her in mid-air. 7.1: A falling dragon. 7.2: Giants, covered in metallic blue, stomping through streets. 7.3: A massive flash of light, consuming a world.
Like 5, these only recently started to make sense but are still somewhat obscure. 7.1 could refer to Niv-Mizzet dying to Bolas, 7.2 is clearly related to eternals, but not the eternals we know. Could the Nephilim be made into eternals? 7.3 This is possibly the strangest. Is it even related to Ravnica? Does Bolas want to take over Ravnica or destroy it? Could it be an entirely different world? Maybe Karn cleansing New Phyrexia?
Feel free to speculate!
This is Jace reaching Orazca. His memories not yet restored while Vona is taking the immortal sun and the elder dinosaurs awakening. Or so has been speculated by others. Weird this may be the only non-amonkhet vision though
6.
Well established this is the defeat of the gatewatch to Bolas.
5.
Could be the second sun in HoD but now many are speculatng immortal sun vs guldpact
7.
Again could be Hour of Devastation but there werent "giant" immortals per se and some think this is the eternal army and more invading the next place they go
Erased face is Jace
Statues are from Vraska
Cloud of Dusk is Dusk Legion
The sun is the Sun Empire
Dominaria is the Nexus so stretching back from plane to plane leads there
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I don't know. Linking the statues to Vraska are quite a bit of a stretch. And you left out the roar. All in all it doesn't quite fit.
Were these events really worth putting in a vision though? Strikes me a bit of pareidolia, to be honest.
Do we have a word of god? While I don't deny that this is the strongest contender so far, it'd be really underwhelming if this is the case. I hope there's a bit more to it.
the stone statues i would also guess is vraska
cloud of dusk attacking the sun sounds like the legion of dusk invading the sun empire
the garden sounds like Orazca and the mighty roar is probably Zacama.
6. It fits the defeat of the gatewatch incredibly well. I'd guess it was more esoteric so that Nissa wouldn't be able act on the obvious knowledge of the future to try and alter the course of events. Note that Nissa has yet to be personally involved in any of the visions that have come to pass outside of this one, and of the ones she may yet be a part of (5 and 7) she either gets equally abstract information (destruction of the guildpact being symbolized by the immortal sun uniting with a tablet covered in strange symbols before they crumble, or there's some seal on Ravnica that needs the sacrifice of Azor's spark to unlock and release whatever has been sealed away) or minimal information (7).
Honestly, the only issue I can raise with the idea of this vision being the Gatewatch's defeat is that it's not entirely in order (Chandra's defeat coming after Liliana's rather than first). Though I suppose they could be portraying the state of the Gatewatch members after their respective defeats: Chandra lost her confidence; Jace lost his memory twice (the surface wipe from this = blank face, the deeper damage to his memory after he confronted Alhamarret = the clock being broken); Lilian is a well-preserved ancient being whose heart and mind have given her conflicted loyalties; Nissa relied on her connection to the land and the purpose of the Gatewatch, but Bolas overpowered the former and Nissa now doubts the later so she now has little she can rely on; and Gideon failed in protecting his comrades and his shield failed to protect him twice on Amonkhet.
7.1. Outcome of Niv Mizzet vs Bolas (likely Niv getting beaten).
7.2. Shiny blue metal = lazotep. Through streets = Ravnica. Giants = maybe some of the Gruul, maybe Nephilim. Given that gods don't seem to be able to planeswalk (no scarab god), I'd find it unlikely that Bolas would personally eternalize members of the Gruul. Knowing that the Nephilim absorb that which they eat, I'd guess that more of them are released and they eat some eternals before continuing to rampage.
7.3. Maybe Immortal sun coming to Ravnica. Maybe the merging of the 2 discs into a single golden disc mentioned in vision 5 before it crumbles away.
Overall, 7 seems to be portraying events during Bolas's invasion of Ravnica.
Please oh please oh please let it be the Nephilim! I'm in the "Nephilim should have been legendary" camp. MaRo said he regrets not making the original Nephilim legendary, maybe we'll get some legendary lazotep Nephilim! I know its a stretch and that I'll never be able to officially use Ink-Treader as a commander but a dude can dream.
nothing to do with these particually ones
she had a nightmare about emrakul but by default we all know she will eventually exit the moon
but my theory on how is another speculation thread