The Phyrexians are an invading race of hive-minded machines from a world of their own: “machines made of oil, shadow and, in essence, alien”. They conquered infernal Paris, were fought for four years, and finally withdrew to “their horrible world”. Survivors keep a custom: “Let’s not mention them! Horrid as they are.”
| Type | People (machine race) |
| Origin | Their own world |
| Spanish entry | Pirexianos |
Nature
They are maquinares (“machinaries”), defined by “unity in multiplicity”: one mind acting together in many bodies. They come in colors, by which they are told apart in the field: “there are blue ones, green ones, red ones, more natural ones.”
Behavior
They act as both army and plague: they rebel, conquer, and then “proliferate and contaminate everything”. In infernal Paris they raised at least one church, “a cursed temple about three kilometers high”. They climb walls and seek high positions.
They attack collectively: they charge death energy and release it “all together”.
Their known weakness is water: “water is not liked by the Phyrexians.” Faced with water they do not charge; they run to their place and try to climb the walls.
History
The struggle against the Phyrexians lasted four years, and one person sustained it alone the whole time. Their withdrawal changed the state of the territory: “the Phyrexians go back to their horrible world.” They were not exterminated; they left.
Open questions
- No individual Phyrexian has been described: size, form, limbs or sound.
- What distinguishes the blue, green, red and “more natural” kinds: castes, functions or ranks.
- How long the death energy takes to charge and what its range is.
- Whether water harms them or only repels them.
- What is worshiped in the three-kilometer temple and how it was built.
- The route to their world, and whether they can return from it.