In the early days of Avacyn's presence in Innistrad, long before the block takes place, the archangel sought to rid the plane of its demonic influences.

Accompanied by her fellow angels, she challenged each demon she encountered to single combat, defeating and dispatching them one-by-one.

However, since demons are beings composed of pure mana, their defeat only meant that their physical forms were shattered, their dark essence living on.

This oath is reflected in the symbol of the archangel herself, the Collar of Avacyn, shaped to bind any evil that would not be destroyed.

[11] It was then that the great demon Griselbrand decided to challenge Avacyn to single combat, boldly landing on the top of the Helvault itself.

[12] Seeing as she could not defeat Griselbrand, Avacyn used all her remaining power to cast a final binding spell to drive the archdemon into the Helvault and seal him away forever.

The spell backfired, drawing in both angel and demon to the Helvault, with the ongoing spectators watching in horror as their beloved archangel was impaled, then imprisoned within the magical chunk of moonsilver.

Sensing weakness, Innistrad's werewolf howlpacks, vampire hordes and unstoppable waves of zombies began preying actively on the humans.

Liliana used the power of the Veil to kill one of her four demonic masters, Kothophed, and she has tracked her next target, Griselbrand, to Innistrad.

During her search for the demon, Liliana was beset by the Planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker, on whom she had used the Chain Veil to bestow a curse in a previous encounter.

Due to this lack of adequate preparation, the holy city was caught unawares by the massive army both siblings had amassed.

Thalia's plan was simple, to use the thatched straw roofs of Thraben's houses to create a ring of fire, burning down the entire army of undead.

The plan was successful as most of the city was spared from the undead horde, albeit at the loss of many cathars and buildings because of the great fire.

Not wanting the news to demoralise the already downcast human citizens of the plane, the other church officials buried the lunarch in secret.

Liliana used this opportunity to raise Mikaeus from the dead and interrogate the corpse of Griselbrand's whereabouts, instead learning of the epic battle between Avacyn and her demonic master and their current entrapment in the Helvault.

Not possessing magic capable of sundering the great silver mass, Liliana approached the problem from a different angle.

Now charged with protecting the Helvault at all costs, the newly appointed Guardian of Thraben, Thalia faced off Liliana with a squad of elite cathars backing her up.

Catching them completely off guard, Liliana paralyzed the squad of cathars with a wave of dark magic and gave Thalia this ultimatum: sunder the Helvault, or watch her comrades fall to the undead army.

It only took the strangled cry of a single cathar as he fell prey to the ghouls that Thalia pointed toward the Helvault and cursed Liliana.

Her angelic host was restored to its full powers, which gave the humans the chance to gain the upper hand in their fight against evil.

In a powerful wave of spells that would become known as the Cursemute, Avacyn's magic reverberated throughout the plane, transforming not just many werewolves but undoing many of the world's foul curses.

At the moment the Cursemute swept across the land, Garruk was knee-deep in swamp muck surrounded by the severed limbs of Liliana's ghouls.

Within seconds the veins reappeared, his blood seemed to thicken to tar, and his back bent under the weight of the Veil's curse once again.

[18] Cards with fateful hour abilities have an enhanced effect when their controller has 5 or fewer life points remaining.

In a review of Innistrad in Black Gate, Scott Taylor said "In all, I say bravo to Wizards of the Coast for recapturing the magic of what could have been.