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Where to Start with
Magic Story

The story of Magic: The Gathering has been told in many ways across the game’s 30 years. This quick guide helps you start with what interests you.

So what are you looking for?

The Basics of Magic’s Multiverse

The Multiverse of Magic is made up of individual worlds, called planes. These planes have a variety of different inhabitants, environments, creatures, and magics. Each plane is a different setting for the story.

The planes of the Multiverse are separated from each other by the Blind Eternities. If you imagine each plane as a floating bubble with a world inside, then the space left between those bubbles would representat the Blind Eternities. (Note: There are additional cosmological elements introduced with Edge of Eternities, however their relevance are currently limited to the most recent story.)

Most characters don’t have the ability (or luck) to leave their plane and travel to another at a moment’s notice.

That is where the Planeswalker Spark comes in! Some beings in the Multiverse are born with a magical gift called a Spark which can be “ignited”—usually by a major life event—to make them into a Planeswalker. Once they are a Planeswalker, they are able to planeswalk, transporting themselves across the Blind Eternities to reach different planes with convenience and ease.

In the card game, Planeswalkers are even represented by their own card type!

Elspeth, Storm Slayer
Tezzeret, Cruel Captain

Those are the basics of the Multiverse, planes, and Planeswalkers of Magic’s story.

The Latest Story

The latest story is from the set Lorwyn Eclipsed, the second set of the yet-named finale arc as described in the Magic at 30 GenCon Panel. This arc kicks off a story that will be told across a full year of sets and will conclude a larger three-year story arc continuing through 2026.

Lorwyn Eclipsed is a return to the dual-aspect plane of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. The original Lorwyn and Shadowmoor block stories focused on the machinations of the fae queen Oona and ends in her defeat, but not her final death. In Lorwyn Eclipsed, the threat of Oona’s return still looms over both Maralen and the elven warrior Rhys, who is tasked with killing Maralen in the event that Oona reasserts control. Concurrently, a group of Strixhaven students arrive on Lorwyn after falling through an omenpath on Arcavios, and are caught up in the plots of this peculiar world.

The story is approachable to new readers through the lens of the students, however both the Planeswalker’s Guide to Lorwyn Eclipsed and Preparing for Lorwyn Eclipsed are recommended readings for understanding the world and dynamics from the original stories. For those seeking the most complete experience with time to spare, the original Lorwyn, Morningtide, and Eventide novels tell the main story of the first visit.

Magic Comics

Magic is returning to comics once again with Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories. The first four-issue series, Elspeth, has started to tell the unpublished story of the 2020 set Theros: Beyond Death. The second four-issue series, Jace, will be releasing later this year.

The previous comic series from BOOM! Studios explored many of the most popular Planeswalkers in its own unique continuity. Across the 25-issue main series, the core cast of Kaya Cassir, Ral Zarek, and Vraska face down interplanar threats old and new in the time following War of the Spark.

You can find a complete list of Magic comics on the Comics page.

Magic Story From the Beginning

If you’re compelled to start your fiction experience in the order originally released, you’ve got quite the journey ahead! While the story is currently told through free web fiction, the first two decades was primarily books. Around half of the novels are only available in physical print, with varying pricing and story quality.

You can start reading from the beginning on the Chronological Order page.

Planes and Worldbuilding

One of the game’s greatest strengths is the Multiverse and the planes that populate it. Most worlds that have been featured in Standard sets have either had a Planeswalker’s Guide article or a full art book delving into their geography, inhabitants, and cultures. These remain the premiere resources for fans who want the finest level of detail and seek a deeper understanding of Magic’s unique worlds.

You can find a (nearing) complete list of these materials on the Planeswalker’s Guides & Art Books page.

D&D Supplements

Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons has included Magic’s settings and characters in a number of crossovers since 2016. These started with shorter Plane Shift guides before developing into official D&D books.

You can find a complete list of these materials on the Dungeons & Dragons page. [Temporarily unavailable while under renovations.]

Stories of Your Favorite Planeswalker or Commander

Everybody has their favorites, be it your Commander, the first Planeswalker you opened, or a character you just vibe with. But with Magic boasting over a thousand legends across three decades, not every character has received a significant amount of time in the spotlight. Sets in the past few years have more reliably given lore to each carded legend, so the more recent the character the better likelihood they have some amount of backstory available. (Sorry, Riven Turnbull-heads.)

You can find stories featuring Planeswalker or Non-Planeswalker Characters by heading to the Home page, entering the character names in the respective fields, and clicking Search.

Fan-Favorite Stories

Of course, there are stories that come highly recommended by many Magic story readers. To provide an easy starting point, the following list includes a majority of stories requiring very little additional context before diving in. Asterisks denote stories where additional character or set context is recommended.

Shorter Fiction

Longer Fiction

MTGLore.com