The Magic Anthology Books (Colors, Secrets, Myths, Monsters, Dragons) are kind of hard to learn about since the wiki has at best vague story blurbs. Can anyone enlighten me on exactly what each story is and what storylines they relate to? It seems like secrets might be worth getting in terms of overall lore, but I have no clue what dragons might contain.
The best Dragons story I recall involved Astor, Keldon Warlord and a Covetous Dragon named Kavalex. The most pertinent to the overarching storyline was one where Urza and Barrin used a blue dragon's egg in the construction of their Metathran. I don't recall much else from that story, though.
I wish I had seen this thread before I left for college, since I have the Myths one, and read it over the summer. I'll just summarize what I remember as best I can.
One story is about an island of pompous glassmakers somewhere on Dominaria that gets visited by a powerful sorceress, narrated by a poor vagrant who was once a glassmaker's assistant. The sorceress commissions the most skilled of them to make a carnelian in a specific, magical shape so she can get her skyship airworthy again. These carnelians, imbued with magic, have the power to levitate, and obey instructions from their owners. Consumed by laziness, the island's people start to use the artifacts to perform all manner of menial tasks. The vagrant impresses the sorceress in some manner I can't recall and leaves as a crewmember on her ship. Eventually, the island has so many of the carnelians on it that the whole thing is ripped out of the sea and into the heavens. Its denizens would die if they turned them off and let it drop, so they stayed up there. This island eventually becomes known as the Null Moon by the rest of Dominaria, though the story may not be true.
Another tale is about a vicious pirate captain known as Samal the Razor who is chased by either other pirates or some nation's navy into cursed waters. The island nation of Tyree was taken advantage of by those from the mainland who stole their people and recourses, so a witch who lived there keeps all ships away with illusions. He and some of his crew, one of whom is a former native, manage to thwart the traps to get there. Of course, Samal tries to kill the witch so he can pillage as he pleases. I can't remember if his scheme works, but it was well-thought out, and he manages to escape the island at the expense of his crewmates.
Then there's the phyrexian origin one, which is actually told to us in the form of memories implanted into a librarian they had captured and were compleating to serve as a keeper of knowledge. In the end, the librarian's own phyrexian assistant/lover betrays him in the same vein as Yawgmoth's wife.
Next is an origin story, which may or may not be true, for Dominaria, told to us by a snarky crab. Written in a biblical style, apparently all sentient life grew and warred inside the original Leviathan before land existed. Merfolk evolved first, they had multiple factions one of which was addicted to magic weed or something.
I don't remember much about the one with the badass Keldon Warlord, except that he was badass and had to pass a bunch of trials.
The other creation myth is about Gaea and the mountain god having a daughter, making the animals, elves, dwarves, etc. The kid has to hibernate or something to heal after fighting a grueling war against the goblins none of the gods created, along with Balthor, and the dwarven tribes go pay their respects to her stone cocoon every once in a while and protect the whole mountain range. The story was told by an old dwarf to his granddaughter, who thought she had better things to do than go to church.
My favorite of the lot is about a city with five colored merchant guilds (not ravnica). A higher-up in the white one had had enough of the black guild's shenanigans, and gathers some mages to summon an avatar of justice to punish them. However, the avatar soon becomes out of control, roaming the city in search of all wrongdoers and meting out punishment as it sees fit. Even those who merely stole fruit when they were like seven get cursed with boils. Appalled by his superior's hubris, the white-guild mage protagonist pleads with the old witch who runs the black guild to help him banish the avatar. She begrudgingly agrees, and they manage to stop the avatar after a grueling battle. Having learned to work together, the guilds all get along better afterwards.
There were probably one or two more I can't recall, but Squirle Master up there is definitely wrong, in that the Mirari was not involved in Balthor's story.
The Balthor story I was talking about is from Secrets of Magic, not Myths but you are right in that I was mistaken: Balthor found Urza's staff, rather than the Mirari.
Thanks, Squirle.
So I think my decision to just get Secrets was the correct one. Myths doesn't sound very plot useful, and I'm not really going to cover anything in the rest.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
One story is about an island of pompous glassmakers somewhere on Dominaria that gets visited by a powerful sorceress, narrated by a poor vagrant who was once a glassmaker's assistant. The sorceress commissions the most skilled of them to make a carnelian in a specific, magical shape so she can get her skyship airworthy again. These carnelians, imbued with magic, have the power to levitate, and obey instructions from their owners. Consumed by laziness, the island's people start to use the artifacts to perform all manner of menial tasks. The vagrant impresses the sorceress in some manner I can't recall and leaves as a crewmember on her ship. Eventually, the island has so many of the carnelians on it that the whole thing is ripped out of the sea and into the heavens. Its denizens would die if they turned them off and let it drop, so they stayed up there. This island eventually becomes known as the Null Moon by the rest of Dominaria, though the story may not be true.
Another tale is about a vicious pirate captain known as Samal the Razor who is chased by either other pirates or some nation's navy into cursed waters. The island nation of Tyree was taken advantage of by those from the mainland who stole their people and recourses, so a witch who lived there keeps all ships away with illusions. He and some of his crew, one of whom is a former native, manage to thwart the traps to get there. Of course, Samal tries to kill the witch so he can pillage as he pleases. I can't remember if his scheme works, but it was well-thought out, and he manages to escape the island at the expense of his crewmates.
Then there's the phyrexian origin one, which is actually told to us in the form of memories implanted into a librarian they had captured and were compleating to serve as a keeper of knowledge. In the end, the librarian's own phyrexian assistant/lover betrays him in the same vein as Yawgmoth's wife.
Next is an origin story, which may or may not be true, for Dominaria, told to us by a snarky crab. Written in a biblical style, apparently all sentient life grew and warred inside the original Leviathan before land existed. Merfolk evolved first, they had multiple factions one of which was addicted to magic weed or something.
I don't remember much about the one with the badass Keldon Warlord, except that he was badass and had to pass a bunch of trials.
The other creation myth is about Gaea and the mountain god having a daughter, making the animals, elves, dwarves, etc. The kid has to hibernate or something to heal after fighting a grueling war against the goblins none of the gods created, along with Balthor, and the dwarven tribes go pay their respects to her stone cocoon every once in a while and protect the whole mountain range. The story was told by an old dwarf to his granddaughter, who thought she had better things to do than go to church.
My favorite of the lot is about a city with five colored merchant guilds (not ravnica). A higher-up in the white one had had enough of the black guild's shenanigans, and gathers some mages to summon an avatar of justice to punish them. However, the avatar soon becomes out of control, roaming the city in search of all wrongdoers and meting out punishment as it sees fit. Even those who merely stole fruit when they were like seven get cursed with boils. Appalled by his superior's hubris, the white-guild mage protagonist pleads with the old witch who runs the black guild to help him banish the avatar. She begrudgingly agrees, and they manage to stop the avatar after a grueling battle. Having learned to work together, the guilds all get along better afterwards.
There were probably one or two more I can't recall, but Squirle Master up there is definitely wrong, in that the Mirari was not involved in Balthor's story.
So I think my decision to just get Secrets was the correct one. Myths doesn't sound very plot useful, and I'm not really going to cover anything in the rest.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath