Welcome to the official Storyline resources thread!
This thread is to replace a couple older storyline threads (specifically the Info Centre) as the new source for up-to date information on Magic Story. I would also recommend you check out the Wiki to help you find whatever you're looking for. It has a huge amount of information on most subjects, just be advised that it's created by users and not everything in there is going to be 100% correct. Please note that the following is not always as detailed as the List of Storyline Sources on the Wiki, but is organized to be more user-friendly.
If you're looking for story summaries rather than the stories themselves, check out the thread A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story.
If you're looking for Ebooks, check out the Magic: The Gathering eBook Portal at vronos.com. I link to the Kindle versions here, but if that's not your preferred source Cary has you covered.
Where to Start?
Magic's Story can best be divided up into three 'Eras' of storytelling, although I should be clear that there aren't any hard lines between each era, more like a gradual shift. Those eras are known as Pre-Revision, Pre-Mending, and Post-Mending. Post-Mending can be further divided into Before and After Magic Origins, which started the current Gatewatch-centric storytelling model. I've written two very high-level story summaries that cover most of Magic's story from beginning to end. You can find them below.
High Level Story Summaries
- Elder Dragons to the Mending (Everything before the current crop of characters)
- Alara to Amonkhet (Everything from the introduction of the new crop of characters to their defeat in Amonkhet)
- A Vorthos Guide to MTG (More Detailed Summaries of every era)
- Multiverse in Review (A blog with detailed summaries of Magic lore)
A Brief History of Magic Publishing If you're brand new to Magic Story, I highly recommend starting with Magic Origins and then working your way forward. It was designed as an entry point for newcomers and there's very little time investment in getting caught up from there than diving headfirst into the novels of Magic's first 20 years. This guide is laid out in roughly chronological order, however, so skip down to The Post-Mending Story (And the Post-Mending chronology) if you're new. You don't need to know everything about Magic's past to get caught up.
The Pre-Revision Story
The stories of the Pre-Revision era were largely handled externally from Wizards of the Coast. The two major sources of lore from this time period were the Harper Prism novels and the Armada Comics series. While many of these events were never referenced again or retconned to fit the new story direction in the Weatherlight Saga, the rule of thumb has been that these events are canon unless explicitly contradicted, and many characters made the jump to post-revision canon. Certain stories, like the Antiquities War and the Ice Age, were later retold in the novels.
Early Story Sources
From the Library of Leng (The Duelist)
Greensleeves Cycle
The Pre-Mending Story- Arena
- Whispering Woods
- Shattered Chains
- Final Sacrifice
- The Cursed Land
- Prodigal Sorcerer
- Ashes of the Sun
- Song of Time
- And Peace Shall Sleep
- Dark Legacy
- Tapestries
- Distant Planes
- Elder Dragons #1-#2
- Dakkon Blackblade #1
- Arabian Nights #1-#2
- Antiquities War #1-#4 (Part 1, Part 2)
- The Urza-Mishra War #1-#2
- Fallen Empires #1-#2
- Ice Age #1-#4 (Parts 1 & 2)
- Shandalar #1-#2
- Magic: the Gathering - Shandalar (Microprose Video Game)
- Homelands #1
- The Shadow Mage #1-#4
- Nightmare #1
- Wayfarer #1-#5
- Jedit Ojanen #1-#2
- Fallen Angel #1
- Serra Angel #1
- The Story of Battlemage Ravidel (Summary of "Planeswalker War" story)
- Magic: the Gathering - Battlemage (Battlemage's Lore)
The novels of the Post-Revision era, now known as the Pre-Mending story, are presented here in roughly chronological order. Most of the stories took place in novel series called cycles, but many short stories have since been made available online. An in-depth knowledge of this era is not required for understanding the modern story. They just add some fun background flavor for a few known planes. Only a single art book was created during this time: The Art of Magic: the Gathering - The Rath Cycle. Only a few comics were produced in this era, a comic from Dark Horse retelling the story of Tempest block, and a series of short 'intro' comics for TopDeck magazine as a teaser for certain novels.
The Artifacts Cycle
The Mirrodin Cycle The Kamigawa Cycle
The Post-Mending Story- The Thran (Ebook)
- The Brother's War (Ebook)
- Loran's Smile
- Planeswalker (Ebook)
- The History of the Sarpadian Empires
- The Gathering Dark (Ebook)
- The Eternal Ice (Ebook)
- The Shattered Alliance (Ebook)
- Vannemir's Choice
- The Horror at Ronom Glacier
- The Battle of Kjeldor
- Keeping the Cold (Coldsnap Player's Guide)
- Johan
- Jedit
- Hazezon
- Time Streams (Ebook)
- A Time for Remembrance
- Scars of the Legacy
- Bloodlines (Ebook)
- Phyrexian Autopsy
- Assassin's Blade
- Emperor's Fist
- Champion's Trial
- Tempest: Into the Storm
- Maelstrom
- Torment
- Rath and Storm (Ebook)
- Gerrard's Quest #1-#4 (Dark Horse Comics)
- Mercadian Masques
- Mercadian Masques (TopDeck #1 Comic)
- Nemesis
- Nemesis (TopDeck #4 Comic)
- Prophecy
- Prophecy (TopDeck #8 Comic)
- Invasion (Ebook)
- Invasion (TopDeck #12 Comic)
- Planeshift (Ebook)
- Apocalypse (Ebook)
- Family Man
- Odyssey
- Chainer's Torment
- Judgment
- Onslaught
- Legions
- Scourge
- Colors of Magic
- Myths of Magic
- Dragons of Magic
- Secrets of Magic
- Monsters of Magic
The Mirrodin Cycle The Kamigawa Cycle
- Outlaw: Champions of Kamigawa (Ebook)
- Heretic: Betrayers of Kamigawa (Ebook)
- Guardian: Saviors of Kamigawa (Ebook)
- Mountain Secret
- Duty Bound
- Everything
- Eight and a Half Tails
- Security
- The Dragon's Errand
- Thankless Child
- Bonds of Ice and Fire
- The Dragon Shield
- Told in Whispers
- A Servant's Mission
- Patron of the Akki
- Personal Battles
- Redemption Smiles
- The Sound of Crickets
- War's Wage
- The Face Behind the Mask
- The Meeting
- Iizuka the Ruthless
- The Last Visitor
- Ravnica: City of Guilds (Ebook)
- Guildpact (Ebook)
- Dissension (Ebook)
- Wake Up Call
- Precious Gold
- Makin’ the Law, Makin’ the Law
- Azorius Fiction: The Hussar's Last Mission
- Simic Fiction: Life is Beautiful
- Rakdos Fiction: The Merrytown Massacre
The current story for Magic takes place after the Mending, in a time when planeswalkers no longer have god-like power or immortality. Plots to regain that lost power or the consequences of its loss are major themes in the post-mending multiverse, as old threats barely contained by what are now known as 'oldwalkers' are now the problem of these weaker 'neowalkers'.
Worldbuilding and the Planeswalker's Guides
One of the great resources made available to readers post-mending is the advent of the Planeswalker's Guides, a series of articles talking about the flavor and worldbuilding of the planes visited in each block. These are great resources for getting the feel of a plane that the story or cards don't necessarily convey. It took a while for these articles to cement, so earlier blocks have some worldbuilding articles I've included that aren't necessarily called planeswalker guides. The official website's Plane Profiles also contain a wealth of information.
- Lorwyn/Shadowmoor: A Taste of Lorwyn, Champions of Goldmeadow, Elementalism, Bog is for Boggart, Lorwyn Survival Guide, Folk of the Non-Pines, The Shadowy Pendulum, Saving the Queen, The Mysteries of Eventide,
- Alara: A Planeswalker's Guide to Alara is an out-of-print book that covered what later guides would do online. Some of the material can be found in the 2008 Savor the Flavor articles, including Perfection Through Etherium and The Soul of the World.
- Zendikar: A Planeswalker's guide to Zendikar (Full Links Here) covers the plane of Zendikar, and while Rise of the Eldrazi did not have a Planeswalker's Guide, there were three articles acted as one: Gods and Monsters, The Defiance of Angels and The Three Brood Lineages. There is no guide for Battle for Zendikar.
- Mirrodin: Mirrodin didn't get its own Planeswalker Guide, partially because it was already well fleshed out from the previous Mirrodin block. The Human Cultures of Mirrodin and The Non-Human Cultures of Mirrodin were reviewed, but the big reason was because of what was on the horizon.
- New Phrexia: To the surprise of some, the Phyrexians won and took over the plane of Mirrodin. Phyrexia: The Strong and the Scattered discusses how this came to be and their history, while A Planeswalker's Guide to New Phyrexia (The Machine Orthodoxy, The Progress Engine, The Steel Thanes, The Vicious Swarm, The Quiet Furnace) and Getting to Know the Praetors covers the current state of the plane.
- Innistrad: A Planeswalker's Guide to Innistrad covers the plane of Innistrad itself, while A Backstory Update for Dark Ascension goes into detail about the current plight of Innistrad and A Planeswalker's Guide to Avacyn Restored Part I and Part II covers what happens after the story concludes.
- Ravnica: Another setting that had already been well fleshed out, A Planeswalker's Guide to Return to Ravnica Part I, Part II, Part III and A Planeswalker's Guide to Gatecrash Part I and Part II cover the current state of the ten guilds, while Ravnica, Then and Now covers what happened in the original story and how things have changed.
- Theros: The plane of Theros is covered in three guides: A Planeswalker's Guide to Theros Part I, Part II, Part III, A Planeswalker's Guide to Born of the Gods, and A Planeswalker's Guide to Journey into Nyx.
- Tarkir: A Planeswalker's Guide to Khans of Tarkir Part 1 and Part 2 details what would have happened without Sarkhan's intervention. A Planeswalker's Guide to Fate Reforged details Tarkir's past, before Khans or Dragons happened. A Planeswalker's Guide to Dragons of Tarkir Part 1 and Part 2 shows Tarkir as it 'is', after Sarkhan traveled through time.
- Kaladesh: The plane of Kaladesh is so far covered in just one Planeswalker’s Guide to Kaladesh.
- Amonkhet: No Planeswalker's Guide was created for Amonkhet.
- Ixalan: Planeswalker's Guide to Ixalan, Part 1 and Planeswalker's Guide to Ixalan, Part 2.
- Kylem: The setting of Battlebond received only one worldbuilding article, The World of Battlebond.
- Eldraine: A Planeswalker's Guide to Eldraine
Much of Magic's flavor and story in recent years has been told through online articles.
- Savor the Flavor, originally a series called Taste the Magic, was a series of articles that focused on flavorful aspects of Magic: the Gathering. It tended to vary a lot in the type of content it provided and was eventually scrapped in 2012 in favor of Uncharted Realms. All the short stories have been collected on our wiki, which also helpfully divides them by plane and main character.
- Magic Story, originally titled Uncharted Realms, replaced Savor the Flavor in 2012, around the same time the Magic Novels were cancelled. Unlike Savor the Flavor, this series focused entirely on short stories and story-related information, with a new article coming out every Wednesday. Many of these stories flesh out the worlds that each block takes place on, but they also advance the overall plot. A recent shift in creative direction has serialized these short stories into longer ongoing story arcs.
- Planeswalker Webcomics were an early post-mending attempt at making the Magic story more accessible for players. The webcomics were the beginning of many of the story's elements and are a must-read for any story fan.
A Planeswalker Novel
There were three books in this series, and a fourth, cancelled, novel focusing on the character of Liliana Vess.
- Agents of Artifice follows Jace Beleren's early adventures with Liliana Vess as an agent of the Infinite Consortium while under the tutelage of Tezzeret. It is widely regarded as a pretty solid read and is recommended if you want to learn about Magic's story.
- The Purifying Fire follows Chandra after her first confrontation with Jace Beleren in the webcomics. This novel also introduced Gideon Jura. It's considered probably the best of the post-mending novels, and is definitely recommended.
- Test of Metal follows Tezzeret as he tries to slip free of Nicol Bolas' control. It does a great job of characterization for Tezzeret, but it introduces a universally hated magic called clockworking that throws the canon of novel's events into doubt. It is not a recommended read.
There are three novels and two e-novella series in the block novel series. They cover every block from Alara to Theros, with the exception of Innistrad which did not get a block novel but instead two summary articles.
- Alara Unbroken is the Shards of Alara block novel. It tells the story of Nicol Bolas' bid to regain his lost power. It's the best of the block novels Post-Mending, and is recommended.
- In the Teeth of Akoum is the Zendikar block novel. It tells the story of Nissa and Sorin's quest to re-seal the Eldrazi. The book itself is not particularly good, and it's not recommended. All you need to know is the ending, where Nissa breaks open the final seal (ignoring Sorin's advice) and releases the Eldrazi.
- The Quest for Karn is the Scars of Mirrodin block novel. It tells the story of Elspeth, Venser and Koth's search for Karn on a changing Mirrodin. It is borderline unreadable and not recommended. Again, all you need to know is the ending, where Venser dies to restore Karn's spark and mind.
- The Secretist is the Return to Ravnica block novel, told in three parts. It doesn't really deal with any major characters or themes from the original Ravnica, so it's pretty safe to read as a stand alone. It is recommended.
- Godsend is the Theros block novel, told in two parts. It deals with Elspeth being chosen by the god Heliod to defeat Xenagos. It is recommended.
The Post-Mending story has been told through three different comic book venues at this point.
- Path of the Planeswalker Volumes I and II are the collections of the original Magic webcomics that premiered on the main website during Alara through Scars of Mirrodin. They're linked in my post-Mending chronology below.
- Magic: the Gathering (2012), Magic: the Gathering - The Spell Thief, Magic: the Gathering - Path of Vengeance, and Magic: the Gathering - Theros were the first series of IDW comics released featuring new planeswalker Dack Fayden. While the comic featured the same plane as the blocks they were published alongside, the plot was completely unrelated.
- Magic: the Gathering - Chandra (2018) is the second series of IDW comics, this time featuring fan-favorite planeswalkers like Chandra and taking place between those character's appearances in the main plot.
The Art of Magic: The Gathering
The most recent resource are the new series of Magic Art Books that have been released. These appear to be taking the place of Planeswalker's Guides for 'Return to...' planes, such as Battle for Zendikar and Shadows Over Innistrad. While new planes will still get planeswalker guides, the art books are by far the greatest source of worldbuilding information on each plane.
- The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Zendikar
- The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Innistrad
- The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Kaladesh
- The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Amonkhet
- The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Ixalan
- The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Dominaria
- Plane Shift: Zendikar
- Plane Shift: Innistrad
- Plane Shift: Kaladesh
- Plane Shift: Amonkhet
- Plane Shift: Ixalan
- X Marks The Spot: A Plane Shift: Ixalan Adventure
The story is presented here in roughly the order it was published. For the most part, that also means that it is in chronological order, but that won't always be the case, such as with Magic Origins or various background stories. Note that I have placed the webcomics where they belong on the timeline rather than when they were published. It is also divided up as much as possible by who it affects, as many events in the story take place concurrently. Please note that I'm ONLY including stories that are either relevant to the plane they take place on, the overall plot, or to one of the main characters. In general, this means that only characters who appear more than once in the story will appear here, and then only if they have bearing on the overall story. You can find a full list of the short stories in the links I provided earlier to Savor the Flavor and Uncharted Realms articles.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Cycle (Stand-alone series)
- Lorywn
- Morningtide
- Shadowmoor
- Eventide
- The Raven's Eye (Liliana's Original Backstory)
- The Seeker's Fall (Tezzeret's Backstory)
- Honor Bound (Elspeth's Backstory)
- The Flight of the White Cat (Ajani's Backstory)
- Agents of Artifice (Ebook)
- Fuel for the Fire (Takes place concurrently with Agents of Artifice)
- The Purifying Fire (Ebook)
- Test of Metal (Ebook)
- Alara Unbroken (Ebook)
- Journey to the Eye
- Awakenings
- Enter the Eldrazi
- Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum (Ebook)
- The Battle of Fort Keff
- Phyrexia and the Vaultlord
- Corrupted Conscience
- Gathering Forces
- Scarred
- Dark Discoveries
- Scars of Mirrodin: The Quest for Karn (Ebook)
- Liliana's Mission (Recap of Liliana's story)
- Sorin's Homecoming
- The Guardian, the Witch, and the Angel
- The State of the Faith
- The Prison of Silver
- Preview Article: Mikaeus Unhallowed (Details the assault on Thraben)
- The Cursed Blade
- Angel's Rise and Demon's Release
- Magic: the Gathering (IDW Comic) (Ebook)
- The Spell Thief (IDW Comic) (Ebook)
- Odric, Master Tactician (Serves as an epilogue for Innistrad)
- Krenko, Mob Boss (Serves as a prologue for Return to Ravnica)
- The Shadows of Prahv Part I and Part II
- Return to Ravnica: The Secretist Part I (Ebook)
- Gatecrash: The Secretist Part II (Ebook)
- The Greater Good
- Teysa Karlov
- Barrin's Tall Tale
- The One Hundred Steps
- Dragon's Maze: The Secretist Part III (Ebook)
- Battle for the Ninth
- The Gorgon and the Guildpact
- Path of Vengeance (IDW Comic) (Ebook)
- The Lost Confession
- Theros: Godsend Part I (Ebook)
- Kiora's Followers
- Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
- Journey into Nyx: Godsend Part II (Ebook)
- Ajani's Vengeance
- Building Toward a Dream Part I and Part II
- Dreams of the City
- Theros (IDW Comic) (Ebook)
- Beast (Takes place before Odric, Master Tactician, possibly retcons it)
- Nissa, Worldwaker
- Veil of Deceit
- The Hunter Cannot Pity
- Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015
- Monster
- Dreams of the Damned
These stories tell the origin of the core five planeswalkers, in some cases retconning established details of the existing story. At this point in the story, the direction shifts completely from a vaguely connected series of events starring a rotating cast to a more tightly plotted serialized narrative told entirely through online stories.
- Jace's Origin: Absent Minds
- Chandra's Origin: Fire Logic
- Gideon's Origin: Kytheon Iora of Akros
- Nissa's Origin: Home
- Liliana's Origin: The Fourth Pact
- Battle for Zendikar Story Site (The main story for BFZ is found here)
- Battle for Zendikar Story Summary (Summary and Ebook Compilation)
- Oath of the Gatewatch Story Site (BFZ's story is continued here)
- Oath of the Gatewatch Story Summary (Summary and Ebook Compilation)
- Family Values (Continues Teysa Karlov's Story)
- All the Cairns of Jund
- Pride of the Kraul (Released in 2017 as a story for Commander Anthology)
- Shadows Over Innistrad Story Site (Ebook Compilation)
- Hanweir Chronicle
- Eldritch Moon Story Site (Ebook Compilation Included)
Kaladesh
- Kaladesh Story Site (Ebook Compilation Included)
- Aether Revolt Story Site
Core 2019 - Chronicle of Bolas & Vivien Reid
Children of the Nameless
Guilds of Ravnica & Ravnica Allegiance (Slice of Life Stories)
Guilds of Ravnica & Ravnica Allegiance (The Gathering Storm Main Story) War of the Spark
- War of the Spark: Ravnica
- Old Friends and New (Web Fiction version of the novel)
- The Path to Opulent (Web Fiction version of the novel)
- Rallying the Reluctant (Web Fiction version of the novel)
- Desperate Operatives (Web Fiction version of the novel)
- Operation Desperation (Web Fiction version of the novel)
- Ashes (Web Fiction version of the novel)
- War of the Spark: Forsaken
- Collected Edition (Pre-Order)
- The Wildered Quest (Ebook)
- Coming Soon
Please note that some links may be broken due to Wizards closing out the old site's archive. I've fixed what I can, but if you encounter more please post about it here. In addition, some links to the wiki redirect back to this post, if that happens just go to the wiki manually and type in the name.
1
Yeah, I had this issue in the bottom corner. Not too big of a deal.
1
I'm really sad that Garruk isn't here, but I'm hopeful he'll return later. Gone are my fantasies of him beheading Bolas.
1
Edit: Updated with pics!
Also, Grant, as usual, with the great bonus! Thanks!
1
Don't play Providence in EDH! Unless you want to play on hard mode!
1
1
1
2
bobthefunny. Thanks for running this awesome exchange, and making sure that alters cover many territories like a tide of cards and joy. It makes me so happy every year.
grant1. Another sick alter to add to my collection of grant1 alters in decks. My Burn deck thanks you!
Mohawkdan2.0. Thank you! The map is amazing and relevant! I'm going to have a lot of fun casting these spells!
1
My hope springs eternal. Pun intended.
2
Of course, the holidays wouldn't be complete if we didn't take a moment to remember those who couldn't be with us this year. RIP Harambe.
Thanks everyone for making this a great exchange again!