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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 is a fine representation for what the Blind Eternities is. But 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!

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

The Latest Story

The latest story is from the set Duskmourn: House of Horror, the second set of the Dragonstorm Arc as described in the Magic at 30 GenCon Panel. The Dragonstorm Arc kicks off a story that will be told across a full year of sets and will feed into a larger three-year story arc continuing through 2026.

Duskmourn is a new setting contained entirely within a house, controlled by a demon named Valgavoth. The main story focuses on a group of returning characters including Kaito Shizuki, The Wanderer, Tyvar Kell, Niko Aris, and Zimone Wola as they venture through the haunted plane in search of Nashi. If you’re new or returning from prior to 2023, Doing the Aftermath details the Omenpath changes to the Multiverse in the wake of the New Phyrexian Invasion. Optional prior readings for this set’s story are A Long Way from Home and Bring the End, Part 1 and Part 2.

You can find the latest stories by heading to the Home page, selecting the desired set name in the Associated Set field, and clicking Search.

Recent Magic Comics

The recent comic series from BOOM! Studios explores some of the most popular Planeswalkers in its own unique continuity. In the 25-issue main series, the core cast of Kaya Cassir, Ral Zarek, and Vraska face down interplanar threats old and new during the time following War of the Spark. If you’re looking for one-shot comic stories, then the Ajani Goldmane, Nahiri the Lithomancer, and the Magic: Noble and Notorious spinoffs may be for you.

Upcoming Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons comic lines from Dark Horse have been announced for summer 2025 . No titles or details are available at this time.

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 (nearing) complete list of these materials on the Dungeons & Dragons page.

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