Feb 13, 20233 min read

Legends & Lore - Tyvar Kell

Updated: Aug 29, 2023

Tyvar Kell is an elf planeswalker born on the plane of Kaldheim. The younger brother of King Harald of the Skemfar elves, Tyvar is a renowned warrior in his own right.

Easily recognized by his distinctive tattoos and his double-bladed sword honoring Koma, the Cosmos Serpent, Tyvar has the unique ability to transmute his body and those of his allies into substances that are close at hand. Having become adept and creative in combat with his abilities, he provides an invaluable edge to himself and his allies in battle.

We first meet Tyvar as Tibalt, a fellow planeswalker, finds himself on Kaldheim causing mischief disguised as the god Valki. Tibalt visited the elves of Skemfar, seeking audience with King Harald and warning him that he must prepare his armies for a coming conflict. Tyvar, not fully trusting the disguised Tibalt, decides to tail the god as he travels the realms of Kaldheim.

Traveling to the realm of Gnottvold, Tyvar met Kaya, another planeswalker, battling a group of Torga trolls. After aiding her and defeating the trolls Kaya noticed a small hedron from the plane of Zendikar around Tyvar’s neck. Kaya realized and explained to him that he was a planeswalker and had traveled to another plane when he visited Zendikar, instead of what Tyvar had originally believed to just be another one of the realms of Kaldheim.

Becoming travelling companions, they traveled to the realm of Immersturm where they discovered Tibalt in the process of creating a Doomskar. Doomskars are cataclysmic events in Kaldheim where two realms collide, causing earthquakes and the collision of the peoples on those realms, leading to inevitable conflict. Tibalt’s Doomskar let a demon named Varragoth and his demon armies loose to attack the realm Immersturm had collided with.

Aided by the god Alrund, Kaya and Tyvar were advised to bring the Sword of the Realms to the god of Battle, Halvar, who would have the power to stop the Doomskar. Given a giant raven by Alrund to aid them in getting to Halvar, they were beset by the demon Varragoth, who wanted the sword himself. In their flight from Varragoth they were knocked from the raven, and fell near an army of zombies from the realm of Karfell. Their friend and traveling companion Arni stayed behind to hold off the zombies as the two planeswalkers fled with the sword, but in their flight Tyvar heard the horns of the army of elves led by his brother.

Breaking away from Kaya, he sought out his brother and together they led the army against the invading demon and zombie armies. Kaya reached Halvar with the sword, and after a titanic battle in which Kaya kills Varragoth the zombie and demon armies were defeated and the Doomskar halted. Praising Kaya for her bravery and prowess in killing Varragoth, Tyvar commits to Kaya he is ready to travel the multiverse and protect the people of all planes.

Tyvar would get his first chance to aid another plane when the planeswalker Jace called for help in defeating the Phyrexians on New Phyrexia. Tyvar joined the team of planeswalkers traveling to New Phyrexia to destroy Realmbreaker, a piece of the World Tree on Kaldheim that was stolen by Vorinclex and was placed in the Seedcore on New Phyrexia. Grown to epic proportions now, it would allow Elesh Norn and the Phyrexians to merge with other planes in the multiverse and invade.

On their journey to the Seedcore, members of the team fell left and right, succumbing to the Phyrexian Phyresis, with Jace first being infected by Vraska, and Nahiri being infected shortly after. Still carrying on, Tyvar continued to defend the group, until they were confronted by a completed Ajani and Tibalt. Tyvar and Elspeth stayed behind to battle the two as Kaito, Kaya, and Jace continued to the Seedcore with the sylex bomb.

Tyvar would defeat his longtime adversary Tibalt by stabbing him with his own tail, and with Elspeth’s defeat of Ajani they would catch up to their companions, only to have Elspeth stab Jace and planeswalk away with the Sylex. Down to only three members of the ill-fated team, Tyvar, Kaito, and Kaya were confronted with Elesh Norn and the completed planeswalkers Tamiyo and Nissa. Unable to stop Elesh Norn, Tyvar watched as the Phyrexian invasion of the multiverse began with the activation of Realmbreaker.

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