MTG Theory: Magic's Most Notorious Tribes Are Linked

Magic the Gathering is filled with all the classic kinds of fantasy races you see in medieval fantasy literature and games--elves, goblins, dragons, merfolk, and more--but the game has its fair share of unique creatures. Some of them are quite horrifying. Almost none are more terrible, unnerving, and powerful than [Slivers](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&subtype=+[%22Sliver%22]). Other than a handful of humanoid slivers, these creatures are "depicted with an armored vertebrate body, a long, bifurcated whip-like tail, one arm with a single talon for a hand, and a head with an armored crest" ([MTG Wiki](https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Sliver)). They have been a boogeyman both in the story of Magic and in gameplay due to their hive mind ability. Slivers act as a hive collective controlled by a single Sliver ruler--Sliver Queen or Sliver Overlord--with each Sliver rapidly evolving over time and sharing any newfound powers with all other Slivers. The origins of Slivers have been long shrouded in mystery...until fairly recently, we were given a new clue:

[The First Sliver](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=464149)

This first Sliver is very special for having the ability called Cascade. Cascade is an extremely powerful ability which essentially bends time and space to bypass mana (the magical energy which gives entities their power and flows in leylines through each plane of existence) in order to cast spells freely. When The First Sliver comes into existence, its very presence breaks the boundaries of magic and causes all other Slivers to do the same. Gaining, using, and controlling mana is at the core of Magic's Multiverse and The First Sliver doesn't need mana. This is our primary clue as to where Slivers come from.

There's another creature in Magic which is beyond the use of mana. It is possibly the most horrible creature to have ever graced Magic's timeline: the [Eldrazi](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=457105). Just like the Cthulu, the Eldrazi are Eldritch monstrosities--titans of tentacles--whose sole purpose is to consume and annihilate entire planes of existence. [Here is a mostly complete theory on their purpose in the Multiverse and explanation of what they are](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/6j39fr/theory_a_complete_explaination_to_what_the/). In short, taken from the link, is "**the Eldrazi are a cleanup crew, they are the higher order of the Multiverse. They find planes that have died or are dying, and they recycle them into new ones.**" Another important fact to note: Eldrazi and their spawns are colorless (the titans due to not having an actual physical body)...at least for the most part. As the story of the Eldrazi progressed, many of the spawns started requiring colored mana to come into existence ([Barrage Titan](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=401815) and [Birthing Hulk](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=407631) as examples).

What does this all mean?

I think Slivers were originally a tribe of Eldrazi. The Eldrazi are special: there are three titans (that we know about), and they spawn miniature forms of themselves in a hive collective--but this is just how Slivers operate; they are not bound by the normal rules of physical existence by being able to travel freely from one plane of existence to another--but we see here The First Sliver breaks reality too; the Eldrazi are colorless by their own ability and cost--but some of them do require colored mana, as if their continued presence in/around reality imbues them with mana, and it's in every color just like Slivers are in every color. And finally, the Eldrazi and Sliver share similar visual styles (tentacles or tentacle-like bodies).

My guess is The First Sliver gave up its incorporeal form as an Eldrazi and chose a permanent physical body to exist in. The reason The First Sliver decided to do this is still unclear.