Who Is... Grandmother Sengir

Magic Untapped takes a look at the story of the mad matron of Ulgrotha, "Grandmother" Ravi Sengir.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to Who Is on Magic Untapped as we explore the stories of characters from throughout the Magic: The Gathering multiverse.  I am Barry White.

This time around, we’re travelling to the plane of Ulgrotha to learn about an unlikely young mage who would, over time, become a mad matron of dark magic: A woman whom would become known as Grandmother Sengir.

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In a barony on the plane of Ulgrotha lives Ravi, a simple farmer girl.

Despite the town being in the shadow of the Baron’s castle, things were not going well.  In fact, the town had become infested with plague rats.  Over a short amount of time, most of the town’s inhabitants died, including Ravi’s mother.

At her funeral, Ravi met a strange young boy wearing regal dress.  He introduced himself as none other than the Baron’s son and revealed to the farm girl that his father had recently begun studying black magic and, not only did his father not care about the villagers, the Baron had used him to bring the rats into the town.

The boy continued, telling Ravi that the only way to save the village from the infestation was to kill his father.  He would do it himself, but the law prohibits him from inheriting his father’s title should he be the one to kill him.  The boy then asks Ravi to do the deed for him and teaches her a song that would allow her to control the rats.

Ravi, however, didn’t feel comfortable killing anyone – even a man as cruel and uncaring as the Baron.  Her mind changed, however, after her father died from the same plague that claimed her mother’s life.

With the village now nearly deserted and nowhere else to go, the farm girl decided to do as the boy requested.

Singing the song he taught her, she commanded the rats and met up with him.  The boy was impressed at her skill with the rats and ponders that the farm girl might be more than she seems.  The two then enter the Baron’s castle, the swarm of entranced rats following behind them.

They easily enter the Baron’s chamber, but Ravi’s resolve falters as she still can’t muster the will to kill the man.  Once she noticed him working on his mother’s now-mutilated corpse, however, that all changed.

She commands the rats to devour the Baron.

The Baron, though, had become skilled in dark magic and attempts to take control of the rats with a song of his own.  Hearing the two songs at once confuses the swarm and the rats turn their attention to the only one in the room not singing: the boy.

Just as soon as the Baron noticed his son laying dead on the floor, he broke his song and cast a spell on the boy’s corpse.  Taking the opportunity, Ravi continued her singing and commanded the rats to attack the Baron one more time.

The deed now done, she instructs the rats to leave the barony completely.

Everything now quiet in the castle, an exhausted Ravi opens a nearby window for some fresh air.  She’s then startled by a scream of agony from behind her.  The boy was alive, brought back by his father’s spell.  He was also, it seems, now intolerant to sunlight.

She closes the window, then she and the boy speak.

He tells her that she must be a very powerful wizard for having overpowered his father as she had, telling her she might even become a powerful planeswalker in the future.

Ravi, however, tells the boy she has no interest in magic.

It’s now that the pair realize they don’t even know one another’s name.  Ravi formally introduces herself to the boy and the boy, in return, introduces himself as the new Baron Sengir.

Quite some time later, Ravi had not only finally accepted her magical talents, but had also transcended into being a planeswalker just as the young Baron had predicted.

She had affiliated herself with a group known as the Tolgath – an inquisitive group of young mages and planeswalkers who had a desire for knowledge.  It’s a desire that led them into a multi-plane conflict with another group, one full of older, jealous, and selfish wizards and planeswalkers, known as the Ancients.

Hopping from plane to plane, the conflict between the Tolgath and the Ancients had finally come to Ulgrotha.

In response, Ravi’s mentor handed her a relic known as the Apocalypse Chime.  He instructed her to use it only in the most sinister of times, promising her that it has the power to cleanse the world.  He dared not tell her any more, however, as nobody who truly knew the full extent of the chime’s power would ever dare use it.

At the peak of the conflict on Ulgrotha when it seemed like all other options were fruitless, Ravi rang the chime and, and took shelter in a magical coffin inside of a basalt spire as instructed.

The effects of the chime were cataclysmic.  The area immediately surrounding Ravi’s location became a dead zone, devoid of mana and life.  Both parties in the war – the Tolgath and the Ancients – were destroyed.  As for the rest of Ulgrotha, the majority of life – both flora and fauna – ceased to exist.

As for Ravi, she laid in the coffin and was unaffected by the chime’s apocalyptic effects, but she wasn’t exactly safe.

One of the things her mentor kept from her was how to escape the coffin once the chime’s work had completed.

Over years and years, decades and decades, she laid there in the still, quiet darkness – her connection to Ulgrotha’s mana severed.  Always awake, unable to sleep, aware of every passing moment, she felt herself slipping away into madness.

No, madness was too simple a word.  She was beyond madness.  She was broken.

Eventually, after who knows how many generations, her coffin was unsealed.

Before her was a face she might have known in her youth, had she had any recollection of reality anymore.

The Baron Sengir, now a vampiric lord whom had somehow survived the effects of the chime, plucked the withered, broken woman from her personal prison.  Once again noting the magical abilities within her, he brought her back to the Castle Sengir and gave her the monicker “Grandmother Sengir.”

Once settled into her new life and her new name, the old, crazy crone came to refer to the Baron as her grandson and took on the responsibility as his private tutor.

Despite her broken mind, she still retains the magical abilities and incantations from before the apocalypse.  From her, the Baron’s magical prowess only grows.  A number of books are also written containing much of the Grandmother’s knowledge – books that were used as a corrupting influence on the apprentice wizards at the Wizards’ School on the Floating Isle as well as the Death Speakers in the Serra-worshipping nation of Aysen as the Baron extends his cold grip over the plane.

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As for Grandmother Sengir now, a character who made her Magic: The Gathering debut with her namesake card in the 1995 set, Homelands and had her story fleshed out a bit with the 1996 Homelands comic book by Armada Comics, she’s still around.

In fact, she’s the focus of the flip side of the card Invasion of Ulgrotha from the set March of the Machine from 2023 in the form of Grandmother Ravi Sengir.

And, who knows, maybe when Wizards of the Coast finally gets the courage to return to Ulgrotha for a set or two at some point in the future, we’ll finally see what the Grandmother and the Baron have been up to after all these years.

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