It came into existence with time itself on Avalon, serving as a kind of safety valve for the Time Stream. At some point in its origins, the Gate was bound to the Phoenix by some unknown person or entity, who was also the first to understand how to use it.

Its first known chronological appearance is in 10 AD, when the Roman Magus became the first to combine it with the Grimorum Arcanorum and the Eye of Odin to cast the Spell of Humility.

The Gate next appears in 975, when Princess Elena’s father made it her dowry for her marriage to Prince Malcolm. The Archmage learned of this and, unlike Elena and her father, understood its true nature. Desiring to possess it so he could combine it with the Grimorum Arcanorum and the Eye of Odin to become an all-powerful sorcerer, he sent bandits to seize it from the princess and her escort, the Norman Ambassador. The bandits were foiled by the time-traveling Xanatos, Fox, and Petros Xanatos, arriving from 1995 with a future version of the Gate. The Archmage next sent Demona, then his apprentice, to steal it, but she encountered both her future self and a future Goliath, witnessed the aftermath of the Wyvern Massacre nineteen years later, and chose to tell the Archmage she had lost the Gate rather than surrender it. She split the Gate, sharing half with Goliath as a token of their love.

Both retained their halves for the next 1020 years, until Xanatos and Fox’s wedding in 1995. Xanatos and Demona tricked Goliath into attending the wedding with his half so that Demona could reconstitute the Gate and travel back to 975. Xanatos used the trip to arrange his financial future, while Demona attempted to persuade her younger self not to share the Gate. Upon returning to 1995, Goliath stored the Gate at the Clock Tower alongside the Grimorum and the Eye of Odin.

Under the instructions of the Weird Sisters, Demona and Macbeth stole the three magical objects from the Clock Tower and delivered them to the Archmage. The Archmage used the Phoenix Gate to travel back to 984, rescuing himself from the abyss and bringing his younger self forward in time. Together, they arranged the events necessary to create the enhanced Archmage. When Goliath finally defeated him, battling across multiple time periods, he took the Gate into his custody to ensure it would never be used again.

He later broke that promise when the Avalon World Tour reached London and he encountered Leo and Una, who blamed him for their friend Griff’s disappearance in 1940 and kidnapped Elisa, Angela, and Bronx in retaliation. Goliath chose to use the Gate to travel back to 1940 and uncover the truth, meeting the three gargoyles in the process and saving Griff by bringing him forward to 1995. Afterward, Goliath threw the Phoenix Gate into the timestream.

Near the end of the Avalon World Tour, Puck attempted to trick Goliath into giving him the Gate so he could bribe Oberon into excusing him from the Gathering. He caused Goliath to experience a vision of a grim New York in 2036, ruled by Xanatos, where the only way to save the city was to use the Gate to change history. Realizing Puck’s deception and understanding that the Gate had to be willingly surrendered, Goliath activated it and cast it into the timestream without a mind to control it, hoping it would be lost forever. The Phoenix Gate dissolved.

Goliath was mistaken. In early 1997, the Phoenix Gate reappeared in New York before Brooklyn, Angela, and Broadway while they were on patrol. When Brooklyn tried to touch it atop the Flatiron Building, the Gate melted, releasing a great fiery bird, the Phoenix, which carried Brooklyn away to 997 as Broadway and Angela watched in horror. The Phoenix then transported Brooklyn to various points across the timeline over the next forty years of his life, ultimately returning him to Manhattan just forty seconds after he had departed, accompanied by his new family. The fate of the Phoenix remains unknown, though there is some indication that it returns to its point of origin in time and begins the cycle anew.