MTG poster boy Jace Beleren has finally gone off the deep end, becoming a fully fledged villain in the upcoming Reality Fracture set. The story articles are now here, so we'll soon know how this incident will end, but it's possible we already have the answer. Reality Fracture may conclude with Jace's death.
The key evidence pointing towards this is a WotC email that went out on the Magic: The Gathering mailing list. That email, designed to drum up hype about the upcoming MTG set, included some worrying language.
For instance, it tells us we can "witness the conclusion of Jace's arc as his ultimate plan comes to fruition". That's not too bad, you might say. After all, an arc doesn't have to end with your demise, and characters can have multiple arcs.
The next bit is worse, though. "Celebrate and lament the last chapter of the mind mage". Ah, hmm.
If Jace is really on the way out, it seems like Wizards already has the perfect replacement lined up in the guise of the gorgon Tam. Artificially created from Jace's own thoughts and personality, Tamira is constantly described as just like Jace in both appearance and demeanour, and she has similar telepathic powers. If Jace dies, then Tam will carry on his legacy and likely his role in the story.
Perhaps more importantly, the way the Reality Fracture plot is going so far, it seems like Tamira may be instrumental in stopping the Multiverse-reboot plan that Jace has got going. She's already harbouring serious doubt and guilt in the first couple of episodes. She's got Jace's angst, as well!
That said, we don't want to read too much into the wording of a marketing email. This isn't exactly carved in stone. Perhaps Jace will just go into retirement after his latest misadventure and that's why he'll stop being 'the mind mage'.
And as we know from the constant cycling through its main villains, In a story like Magic's, no one's ever really gone. They could always kill off Jace now and then bring him back through shenanigans later on. Oh, that wasn't Jace, that was an illusion. That was Jace, but he'd transferred his mind into this here robot. Meet Jace Bleepytron!
Or it could be tied into the ongoing story. In Reality Fracture, The Theorist is a version of Jace with different parts of his mind removed. So even if he bodily died, perhaps the other personality fragments would still exist. Who knows how it works? This is all made up!
What do you think will happen? Share your own fan theories over on the Wargamer Discord.