Liliana has to be in the plane still, otherwise the plot set up they did in the zendikar storyline is pointless for Jace, he is coming to look for Lilly to then go to Sorin, now we know that ain't how its going to play out, but that is the base.
Now on to why the angels are being turned astray and the magic of their protection is waning, I would say that is entirely out of what Nahiri is doing, the story says Sorin created the angels on Innistrad, Nahiri has a similar power level and could easily be inflicting with the way the angels perceive reality the same way Sorin implanted that perception on them at moment of creation. (So I expect Nahiri to have a minus loyalty ability to steal creatures or permanents)
On the shadow part, I think the demons who escaped the helvault are trying to gather mana through the possessed people to gain strength again and this might be somehow related to Lilly and why she is still here.
All this is based on completely trust worthy facts and inside information from Bolas himself.
1) Jace is looking for Sorin because Ugin told him too. We don't yet know why Lili is going back.
2) Sorin created Avacyn. Not all of the angels. The others just rallied behind her.
3) Nahiri is nowhere near Sorin's power level. And she certainly would have no sort of reality warping powers as she is a lithomancer.
The MTGS wiki right? It clearly says that Traft v Withengar occured before the events of Innistrad block and that his current whereabouts are unknown after his reformation. However from what we know if his that process works for him to have just been reborn as Withengar rather than as another demon with vague memories of being Withengar is strange.
Geist of Saint Traft was from Innistrad, the first set, meaning he was already dead. Elbrus, the Binding Blade was from Dark Ascension, so Withengar was still alive for that, but was trapped inside the blade or somesuch (like a mini-Helvault). He wasn't seen in Avacyn Restored, but he also wasn't seen dead for it. But in Innistrad lore demons are just beings of black mana, and the mana eventually reforms.
Hey I'm just repeating what the wiki has to say about Withengar. As for the demons reforming usually they reform as different demons that may have a slight inclination as to their former plans or motivations.
My understanding was Withengar had been trapped in the bone sword, but wasn't dead. It wasn't until Avacyn Restored that he got out. But as a 13/13 he'd have a big enough body to fight the Eldrazi in standard and still succumb to a Tragic Slip, etc.
According to the wiki he was released from Elbrus when some Skirsdag tricked St. Traft into using it. Withengar killed Traft then a bunch of angels killed Withengar. However it also says that he reformed seemingly mostly intact (notably unlike other demons like Gris) during the events of DKA.
I eagerly await WotC's explanation for why in the world Liliana has backtracked to Innistrad.
I mean, yeah, it seems obvious that she's working on her veil problem currently, but nothing we've bee told so far would indicate that anything related to the veil is on Innistrad. I suppose they could have an Uncharted Realms between then and now where Lili returns to, say, Kothoped's lair, and finds a clue that leads her to Innistrad, but it still would feel contrived if it just happened that the trail led her to, out of all the planes in the multiverse, one she's familiar with.
Ugh... It just feels like they're putting Liliana in this block because of player expectation/demand, rather than because they have a good story reason to. Hopefully, WotC will prove my misgivings to be unfounded.
But it doesn't have to be the veil problem. Yes that's probably the most pressing thing for her at the moment but considering how tied to the plane she is there's plenty that Creative could concoct that would get her there and make perfect sense.
I still says she has no logical reason to be there. But, oh well.
That you know of. As I've said repeatedly she spent a lot of time in Innistrad in her youth. There are plenty of things they could bring up as unfinished business. Since she's so afraid of the veil right now her demons might not be the best things for her to try to take on right now. Besides the Jace v Ugin UR was pretty obvious about Jace acknowledging Lilis connection to Innistrad.
Besides, while Vorthos can cook up any number of reasons for her to not be there I imagine the greater fan base at large expects her to be there. And WotC talks all the time about how important fan expectations are.
Doesn't Lili know that Jace went to Zendikar? I'm to lazy to go look it up but I could swear on their date Jace asked Lili to come with him and Gideon.
I'm pretty sure in The Lunarch's Journal we learned that Avacyn isn't aware of her origins and thus doesn't defer to Sorin for anything.
We have no indication that Sorin knows anything about Lili. We really have no real understanding of exactly how many people know about her outside of the people present at the helvault.
Lest we forget that Lili does have feelings for Jace.
Also these justifications for who wants to kill Lili are pretty poor and speculative.
OH! And Lili spent a long time training in Innistrad and could have lots of other things that they could have pop up.
OH RIGHT! Before I forget. At PAX they said Lili would be showing up very shortly after BFZ.
Nope not done with you pal. The raven man also showed up on Shandalar and Ravnica. He is definitely not a Dominaria only occurence.
Point being: Lili very well could show up in SOI and it wouldn't be bad story telling or illogical. She could very well not. And it would actually, probably, worse because of how important player expectations are.
Forget the DOminaria one considering MaRo wanted to remove said plane from the centre of the multiverse and forget about it during Dragons Maze.
Also you forgot about the recent story about the church of Orzhov breaking the Guildpact rules and imprisoning the RW mazerunner.
MaRo didn't say that that's what he wanted. He said that it was what creative had started with but changed it. The only thing stopping dominaria is the scale of the world. You can't summarize all of Dominaria with a single sentence the way you can the rest of the planes.
I'm probably going to get infracted for this but; mate perhaps you should grow up a little before you go posting on a forum the way you have. You we're an absolute child throughout that entire interaction. When you make a claim burden of proof falls on you. Not the one disputing your claim. Then when people give you evidence to counter your idea for you to just say "butt out I wasn't talking to you." is just, as I said, childish. You posted in the public space of a forum. "I'm not talking to you" is not an option.
Not to mention Sorin not understanding why Ugin and Nahiri were missing during ZEN block.
Oh and there's the fact that Nahiri went searching for Sorin and Ugin around 1000 years ago when they didn't respond to her call at the eye during the minor break out.
It's entirely possible that Lili of the Veil or any other planeswalker card gets reprinted in any expert set. With the removal of core sets they have said that they will be looking for places to do reprints. Much the same as Felidar Sovereign and Dragonmaster Outcast, if the flavor of the card fits they will do a reprint. However possible and probable are not the same. That incarnation of Lili is a lot like Lightning Bolt or Elvish mystic. It can have a dangerous warping effect on the format and needs to be placed very carefully. Not to mention that Lili is currently afraid of the power of the veil and doesn't want to use it. Hopefully their plans with the veil won't be done when Lili loses it disposes of the veil. Perhaps someone with fewer scruples like Ob will acquire or reacquire it.
1) Jace is looking for Sorin because Ugin told him too. We don't yet know why Lili is going back.
2) Sorin created Avacyn. Not all of the angels. The others just rallied behind her.
3) Nahiri is nowhere near Sorin's power level. And she certainly would have no sort of reality warping powers as she is a lithomancer.
Hey I'm just repeating what the wiki has to say about Withengar. As for the demons reforming usually they reform as different demons that may have a slight inclination as to their former plans or motivations.
According to the wiki he was released from Elbrus when some Skirsdag tricked St. Traft into using it. Withengar killed Traft then a bunch of angels killed Withengar. However it also says that he reformed seemingly mostly intact (notably unlike other demons like Gris) during the events of DKA.
Isn't Withengar dead? Maybe Shilgengar instead.
But it doesn't have to be the veil problem. Yes that's probably the most pressing thing for her at the moment but considering how tied to the plane she is there's plenty that Creative could concoct that would get her there and make perfect sense.
That you know of. As I've said repeatedly she spent a lot of time in Innistrad in her youth. There are plenty of things they could bring up as unfinished business. Since she's so afraid of the veil right now her demons might not be the best things for her to try to take on right now. Besides the Jace v Ugin UR was pretty obvious about Jace acknowledging Lilis connection to Innistrad.
Besides, while Vorthos can cook up any number of reasons for her to not be there I imagine the greater fan base at large expects her to be there. And WotC talks all the time about how important fan expectations are.
We have no indication that Sorin knows anything about Lili. We really have no real understanding of exactly how many people know about her outside of the people present at the helvault.
Also these justifications for who wants to kill Lili are pretty poor and speculative.
OH! And Lili spent a long time training in Innistrad and could have lots of other things that they could have pop up.
OH RIGHT! Before I forget. At PAX they said Lili would be showing up very shortly after BFZ.
Nope not done with you pal. The raven man also showed up on Shandalar and Ravnica. He is definitely not a Dominaria only occurence.
Point being: Lili very well could show up in SOI and it wouldn't be bad story telling or illogical. She could very well not. And it would actually, probably, worse because of how important player expectations are.
MaRo didn't say that that's what he wanted. He said that it was what creative had started with but changed it. The only thing stopping dominaria is the scale of the world. You can't summarize all of Dominaria with a single sentence the way you can the rest of the planes.
Oh and there's the fact that Nahiri went searching for Sorin and Ugin around 1000 years ago when they didn't respond to her call at the eye during the minor break out.