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Where to Start with
Magic Story

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

So what are you looking for?

The Basics of Magic’s Multiverse

The Multiverse 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 represent the Blind Eternities.

In the last few years, new portals known as omenpaths have opened between the planes. Some of these omenpaths are stable, providing a reliable travel connection between two planes, while others can be fleeting or change destinations based on when you entered them. As travelers move between the omenpaths, more planes are made aware of the existence of a wider Multiverse.

Even with omenpaths around, most characters don’t have the ability to leave their plane and travel to another world 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, magically transporting themselves across the Blind Eternities to reach planes both familiar and unfamiliar to them.

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

Elspeth, Storm Slayer
Professor Dellian Fel

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

The Latest Story

The latest story is from the set Secrets of Strixhaven, the third set of the finale arc as described in the Magic at 30 GenCon Panel. This arc’s story is primarily told from Lorwyn Eclipsed through Reality Fracture and will conclude a larger three-year story.

Secrets of Strixhaven is a return to the plane of Arcavios, where Strixhaven University is located. The main story follows a cast of five first-year students (who were first seen in the main story of Lorwyn Eclipsed), as well as the returning Planeswalker characters Ajani Goldmane and Chandra Nalaar. The core mystery surrounds the erratic behavior of the plane’s archaics, leading the group off campus in search of difficult answers.

While it is possible to start reading with Secrets of Strixhaven, we would advise reading the seven-episode main story for Lorwyn Eclipsed if you also intend to follow the larger story arc through to Reality Fracture. For those seeking the most complete experience with time to spare, the Planeswalker’s Guide to Secrets of Strixhaven and side stories detail the wider world of Arcavios, revisit the students from Strixhaven: School of Mages, and hint at looming secrets on the horizon for Reality Fracture.

Magic Comics

Magic has returned to comics once again with Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories, a series by Dark Horse taking place within the main story continuity. The first four-issue series, Untold Stories – Elspeth, tells the unpublished story of the set Theros: Beyond Death. The second four-issue series, Untold Stories – Jace, reveals a lost story from his time working under the Infinite Consortium, led by Tezzeret.

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 era 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