Do Not Enter: MTG Horror — The Garden Beneath Strixhaven

Entry 002 | Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist

There are students at Strixhaven who chase power loudly.

They conjure storms. They summon armies. They burn bright and fast and leave scorch marks on the lecture hall floors.

Arnyn was never one of them.

She was quiet. Patient. Brilliant in the way that makes professors uncomfortable — not because she struggled, but because she never seemed to need them at all.

She was placed in Witherbloom, where the curriculum revolves around the balance of life and death. Growth and decay. The eternal give-and-take that keeps the natural world turning.

Arnyn studied that balance carefully.

Then she decided it was inefficient.

The Question That Started Everything

Most Witherbloom students learn to respect the cycle. Arnyn wanted to accelerate it.

Her early experiments were small. Delicate plants. Fragile fungi. Organisms that bloomed and died within hours. Her gardens grew faster than anyone else's — denser, healthier, more alive. Faculty took notice. Students were impressed.

No one asked what she was feeding them.

The Lovelies

She moved her work underground. Below the campus, past the roots, past the damp stone, into the dark where the air never moved.

That's where she made them.

Not quite plants. Not quite animals. Something in between — small, weak, and always hungry. She called them her lovelies.

She fed them insects first. Then small creatures. Then anything that stopped moving long enough.

The more they ate, the more they grew. The more they grew, the more they needed.

Arnyn didn't see a problem. She saw perfection. A closed system. A cycle where nothing was wasted and death was just another form of fuel.

The Change

Somewhere in the process, the cycle claimed her too.

Her blood thickened. Darkened. She stopped eating. Stopped sleeping. Stopped aging the way everyone else did. By the time anyone noticed, Arnyn wasn't entirely human anymore.

The first incident was written off as a greenhouse infestation. She offered to help. By morning, the pests were gone.

So were three students.

In their place — a new flower. Black petals. Veins pulsing beneath the surface. Dripping something too dark to be nectar.

The faculty sealed the room. Declared it forbidden.

Arnyn didn't protest. She just went deeper.

The Garden That Breathes

She still walks the campus sometimes. Soft footsteps. Calm voice. Polite smile.

But beneath Strixhaven, her garden has spread into something vast. A living network. A breathing system. A cycle that never stops — because her creations no longer wait to be fed.

They hunt.

And Arnyn? She doesn't fully control them anymore. She listens. Because somewhere along the way, they started whispering back.

That's why no one shuts her down. Why no one destroys what she's built.

Because it works. Too well.

Nothing is wasted in Arnyn's garden. Everything feeds something else. Endlessly. Perfectly.

And sometimes, when a student disappears… the soil grows just a little richer.

What She's Building Now

Lately, Arnyn has turned her attention to something new. Smaller creatures. Fragile. Weak. Easy to replace.

Because the smaller the life, the faster the cycle. And the faster the cycle, the more power it creates.

If you go deep enough beneath the campus — past the roots, past the stone — you can hear it.

Breathing.

Not one thing. Thousands. All hungry. All waiting.

And somewhere in the dark, soft and gentle and loving:

"Be patient, my lovelies… your next meal is already here."

Do Not Enter: MTG Horror is a video series exploring the darkest lore in Magic: The Gathering. Watch the full episode on YouTube.

🌿 Browse our dark fantasy TCG accessories at SoupUhManTCG.com