Magic recently celebrated its 12th Anniversary, and it is still the king of CCGs. Or are they TCGs? I’ve grown confused—doing research for this article, I struck a vein of old The Duelist magazines. For those of you who don’t know, The Duelist was WotC’s official magazine, dealing mostly with Magic but touching on its other products (including, eventually, Pokemon, which led directly to the magazine’s demise. And they said fads never hurt anybody). Imagine a week’s worth of magicthegathering.com content with nice graphics and lots of ads, only that week’s content only comes every two months and is reporting old information. That doesn’t sound very nice, but this was back in the storied times before the internet had conquered our lives—often, magazines were the only easy source of information on the game for most of the magic public.
The year was 1997. Magic was just out of its infancy—it was in the middle of its first true unified block. The first glimmers of this came with Alliances, the expansion to Ice Age. Nine years on that doesn’t sound very impressive, but the idea was completely novel at the time—before that, expansions had only the most tenuous of links – other than Arabian Nights and Homelands (and, possibly, some parts of Legends), the expansions had all taken place on the same world, mentioned in the tiny rulebooks inserted in your starter boxes: Dominaria. The first true Magic storyline was, of course, that of Antiquities. Flavor texts of these cards mentioned battles and personages, all in an almost historical past tense, and with no real characters to speak of. Oh, there were names, but little more—none of the characters were even pictured on cards. If you wanted to know more about the story, you were forced to look at Wizard’s official dramatization of it: the Brothers’ War...
Comic Book.
I don't know what the bird
thing is about, either.
Remember, these were very primitive times. The only novels Magic was releasing were standalones, generic fantasy stories with a few Magic terms and locales thrown in. Many people, myself included, didn’t have access to the comic books—I didn’t start playing until Ice Age. It was some time before I even SAW a genuine Antiquities card, much less began to piece together the story. And "piece together" is truly the correct term.
Without the comics, the only source of Magic lore was the cards themselves – flavor texts, and only from cards you happened to have access to. At first, all the cards seemed separate and distinct, but gradually, recognizable names emerged. Two brothers named Urza and Mishra had fought a big war with each other. The continent of Argoth was destroyed at the end of it, in a blast that caused a climate shift. This was all very intriguing, but it wasn’t a STORY. At most, it was a history—events were recounted through the lens of time, making the flavor of each set seem to be that of a snapshot of some specific time period on Dominaria. No set was better at this than Fallen Empires, which had the benefit of multiple copies of every common to load the set with ample amounts of flavor. As a history buff, this all appealed to me… but unlike actual history, there was no simple resource to find out what "actually happened."
But there was a gradual shift in the flavor technique of Magic sets. Alliances picked up the flavor and setting of Ice Age, and actually added glimmers of a plot. Where Fallen Empires and The Dark showcased conflict, and even had a few "characters" who spoke, the conflict did not seem to build up to anything, and the characters merely offered points of view, and did not actually perform any significant deeds. Alliances was the first real set to offer a conclusion, to actually show conflict that led to positive change. It was a start.
Alliances was followed up by Mirage, which continued to deepen the storyline potential of sets. Besides showing off the Jamuraan setting, it also showed the first half of a war—the wizard Kaervek was taking advantage of the disappearance of Teferi to try to conquer the domains he protected. This wasn’t mere history—this was characters, with personalities, interacting with each other within the confines of an actual dramatic plot. The story was told in The Duelist, and there was even a choose-your-own-adventure style webgame on their primitive website (that I could never manage to beat). And players were interested.
Which finally brings us to the topic of this article. Allow me to quote MaRo from the ancient, near-forgotten text that was April, 1997 issue of The Duelist
Quote from Mark Rosewater, Insider Trading, The Duelist, April 1997 »
Here’s a Story Besides introducing several cool game mechanics, Mocha Latte will serve as a prologue for The Weatherlight Saga, an exciting new backstory for Magic. Following the adventures of Captain Sisay and her flying ship (first seen in the flavor text of Mirage), The Weatherlight Saga will differ from previous backstories in several ways:
The epic story will evolve through more than one or two expansions. Although each expansion will have its own resolution, the overall story arc will wind its way through the year 2000.
A single set of characters will continually evolve through the flavor text and art. These characters will be depicted in multiple pieces of art so that the players can see different interpretations by top Magic artists.
Starting in Dominaria, the story will leave the home of all the Magic expansions to date to explore other exciting worlds.
The story will expand to many different media (books, online promotions, and The Duelist), allowing interested players many opportunities to learn all about the characters and expansive plot.
For those of you skeptics out there, I promise you something quite different from the backstories of Magic past. Plotted by Magic author and editor Michael G. Ryan and yours truly, with additional help from Bob Krueger, Kij Johnson, and Pete Venters, The Weatherlight Saga is a hold-on-to-your-hat adventure, chock full of plot twists and surprises. I can’t let you in on any of the details just yet, but suffice to say that we spent a long time making this a story that players will remember for years to come. (We used the Star Wars trilogy as a spiritual guide. What more can I say?) I really think this is going to be something you’re going to like.
So far as I know, that was the first anyone heard of the multi-year arc. And it was big news. An epic storyline to continue through the distant year 2000? They were obviously serious about this, and from the way MaRo talked about it, it sounded quite awesome.
The next issue, in June, offered even more coverage—a quick overview of what planning such a long story entails (including some bits of foreshadowing: “We knew we wanted to take our characters to a dark shadow world, to the keep of a servant of evil, and to a plane where all the world is a market and anything can be bought—for a price.”), and a short story that served as something of a prologue to the saga. This story, “Maelstrom,” offered us the first glimpse of a story that would dominate the game for the next five years.
Our (alleged) hero, Gerrard, sporting an
unjustifiably cocky 'Fabio' look.
Now, as Michael G. Ryan did those eight years ago, I shall introduce you to the crew of the Weatherlight, and the beginning of what is and shall likely remain the greatest epic of all Magic storylines. I am only going to give you information we knew at the time, save for a few pictures from Tempest for characters not pictured in Weatherlight.
Gerrard – the man to whom a mystic collection of artifacts known as the Legacy belongs, a man destined to do battle with a mystical figure known only as the “Lord of the Wastes.” When he lost a childhood friend during the search for the Legacy, he left the ship, and currently holds a post in the military of his native Benalia.
Sisay – the Captain of the Weatherlight, Sisay has long quested after the Legacy artifacts, even after Gerrard left the ship. Sisay took some small part in the plot of Visions, giving transport to the heroes at a crucial time.
Mirri – a female cat warrior and best friend of Gerrard. She lives in Llanowar as the story begins.
Crovax – the last survivor of a noble family in wretched Urborg, Crovax wishes to escape the curse on him by questing with the Weatherlight.
Tahngarth – one of the particularly proud Talruum minotaurs, Tahngarth takes enormous pride in his appearance and strength. He serves as Sisay’s 2nd in Command, and resents Gerrard’s abandonment of the Weatherlight.
Hanna – daughter to an ancient wizard, Barrin, Hanna studied artifice in the Argivian University, and is the Weatherlight’s engineer. She and Gerrard had a burgeoning romantic relationship when he suddenly left the ship, and still harbors feelings of betrayal toward him because of it.
Ertai – when the crew realizes they need a mage, they turn to Hanna’s father, Barrin of Tolaria. Barrin opts out of the assignment, but offers instead his prized—but untried—student, Ertai. Ertai’s lack of experience does little to stem his arrogance.
Karn – a silver golem and part of Gerrard’s Legacy, Karn has been "switched off" for years; worse, the memory of being tricked into killing an innocent man is fresh in him, causing Karn to vow never to take another life.
Squee – the Weatherlight’s loyal Goblin cabin boy.
Starke – a duplicitous, unwilling servant of Volrath, who holds his daughter captive. Starke is willing to help Sisay recover the Legacy, if she will help him retrieve his daughter.
The short story, “Maelstrom,” recounts the beginning of Weatherlight’s great adventure. Starke approaches Sisay, offering information on the Legacy:
Quote from Michael G. Ryan, ‘Maelstrom,’ The Duelist June 1997 »
“I have learned that many of [the Legacy’s] pieces were stolen by a sidar’s son. I know you and the others aboard this flying ship seek those pieces.”
Sisay leaned forward. “How do you know these things?”
A faint smile twitched across Starke’s lips. “Because I know the sidar’s son was thought dead. I also know he is alive and now called Volrath.” Starke paused. “I know where he is—and how much of the Legacy yet remains with him.”
Starke offers to help Sisay find the Legacy, if she will rescue his daughter. Volrath, however, forces Starke’s hand, sending the ruthless mercenary Maraxus of Keld to kill him. In an effort to save his own life, Starke agrees to set Sisay up to be kidnapped, as bait for Gerrard.
And thus The Weatherlight Saga begins.
Some details were sketchy at first. It was some time before Gerrard got a last name – not that anyone else really got one. Not a popular thing in Dominaria, apparently. (Crovax, at least, did have one: Windgrace. Though he was of no relation to the panther warrior planeswalker of that name who also hailed from Urborg, some connection between Crovax’s line and the Planeswalker must have existed. This was never elaborated upon). The following issue of The Duelist had another story by Michael G. Ryan, Torrent, again focusing largely on Starke. But I shall reveal events roughly chronologically, just to make things easier. Bear in mind most of the back story—anything before the abduction of Sisay—was not available right away, and came together from many different sources. Other than the cards themselves, there were articles in The Duelist and other magazines, and again, a comic book line. This series was, to my knowledge, WotC’s last attempt at Magic-related comic books—they did not sell well, and were eventually replaced with traditional novels. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As a baby, Gerrard’s Benalish family had been killed at the will of the mysterious Lord of the Wastes.
Karn bringing infant Gerrard to his
foster father, Sidar Kondo.
His protector, Karn, took him and the Legacy to distant Jamuraa, where Gerrard was raised by a tribal sidar. The sidar’s son, Vuel, became Gerrard’s blood brother—until a Rathi agent, the selfsame Starke il-Vec, was sent to recruit Vuel for the Lord of the Wastes. During Vuel’s test of manhood, freeclimbing a local cliff (geology IS good for something), he began to lose his grip—thanks to some subtle poisons Starke had slipped him. Though the rules of the test involve strict non-interference, Gerrard rushed to save his blood-brother—forever ensuring that Vuel would never be a man in the eyes of the tribe. Vuel was furious, and wanted revenge. He stole the Legacy, selling bits of it to raise an army with which he destroyed his father’s tribe, and keeping other parts for himself. Karn tried to prevent all this mayhem, but Vuel tricked him into killing an innocent man, then deactivated the golem with a Touchstone.
That was the last Gerrard heard of Vuel for a long time—he thought Vuel dead with the rest of the tribe. Now even without his silver guardian for company, he set out into the world, eventually ending up under the tutelage of Multani, the Maro Sorcerer, with an elf named Rofellos. The two left Multani, meeting up with Mirri as well and joining the crew of the Weatherlight. Gerrard struck up a romance with the pretty blonde engineer, Hanna, and things were going well—until Crovax’s family came under attack by Gallowbraid and Morinfen. The Weatherlight came to the defense of its crewman’s family, dispatching the two beasts—but at great cost to all involved. Rofellos was killed, making the price of pursuing the Legacy too high for him.
Gerrard and Crovax, fighting
Gallowbraid and Morinfen.
Meanwhile, Crovax had freed the angel Selenia from the spell that bound her to protect his family. He was in love with the angel, but the moment the spell was broken, she was drawn away, into the service of another. Crovax, feeling his life cursed but wishing to pursue his angel, left the remains of his family (including Jolav, who existed only in comics and in the fiction, not on the cards) and went with the Weatherlight, just as Gerrard left the ship. Without Gerrard aboard, Mirri saw no reason to remain either, finding her way to Llanowar. Sisay continued on her quest to find the Legacy artifacts, prophesized to be the key to defeating the Lord of the Wastes.
Which brings us up to date for her abduction… almost. Right before setting up Sisay, Starke revealed to Crovax that Selenia is on Rath… and that his family was being slaughtered while he was looking vainly for the angel. Crovax returned home—giving Starke an escape plan. One which he would soon need, it turned out.
You now know far more than we did back in 1997—aren’t you lucky? All we knew was, Gerrard’s former blood-brother, who hated him and wanted envied the Legacy, kidnapped Sisay into his dark world of Rath, and the crew of the Weatherlight was reuniting to rescue her. Starke seeks shelter with Crovax in Urborg from Maraxus of Keldwhile the Weatherlight picks up Gerrard. Gerrard, for his part, deserts his post to help find his old captain, and despite his earlier abandonment of the crew, is put in command. This may seem odd, but the Weatherlight is part of the Legacy, and is his by right of birth—that fact doesn’t make Tahngarth like him any more. Abandoning now his post in Benalia, he leaves behind only an hourglass necklace with a friend.
The crew is determined to rescue their captain, but all they know is that she has been taken to another plane called Rath. While Weatherlight is capable of planeshifting, it requires a native of the destination plane—Starke—and a wizard of considerable strength to imprint the destination into the Thran engine. What is a ‘Thran’ engine? We didn’t know—something to do with the Legacy. What is the Legacy? Who built it, when, and why? Gerrard’s ancestor? Who is the “Lord of the Wastes?” Nobody knew at the time—I imagine some of you reading now don’t know, which is why I’m writing these articles in the first place.
Anyway, Gerrard suggests picking up Mirri, saying that she might be able to work the Thran engine. Gerrard knows well that she can’t, but he wants to be reunited with his friend—he needs someone to watch his back in case he screws up. Coincidentally, he finds the deactivated Karn gathering dust in one of the holds, and manages to release the golem from the Touchstone’s effects—though a pacifist now, Karn is still a loyal, titanic ally, someone else to watch Gerrard’s back in case he screws up. This might be a fine time to inform you all of a slight bias I have:
Gerrard < Pond Scum
Honestly, one of the biggest flaws with The Weatherlight Saga is the magnitude of the "hero"'s suckiness. Gerrard has his moments, but they are few, and interspaced between prolonged periods of angst and ineptitude. Not everyone shares my opinion, mind you. Just everyone I’ve talked to. Regardless, I shall let you all make your own judgments, once the saga is complete.
Llanowar is having some local trouble when Weatherlight arrives, and Mirri does not want to abandon her adopted people. Gerrard has one of his moments, and actually uses a combo to defeat the Aboroth. It was probably Hanna’s idea.
Mirri rejoins the crew, but is unable to work the engine. Hanna, grudgingly, reveals that her father, Barrin, is easily powerful enough to make Weatherlight shift to Rath (which we would later find out to be a gross understatement). Hanna and Barrin had been estranged for some time, and she won’t tell Gerrard why, but willingly leads Weatherlight to the mysterious island of Tolaria, where Barrin is the head of a secret order that tends the Lotus Vale. This detail was very quickly dropped, and in fact there is no later reference to Tolaria as the source of Black Lotuses—they just got a little overzealous linking the set to recognizable names from Magic’s past.
Barrin and Hanna don’t get along at all—the full nature of the dispute is never elaborated upon to my recollection.. The only source of disagreement we get is that Hanna wanted to study artifacts instead of magic, to the point that she went to New Argive, the world's major center of artifact studies. For whatever reason, Barrin decides not to come along--Gerrard can tell the tension between father and daughter would be a problem anyway. Instead, Gerrard suggests his apprentice,
Ertai--half the usefulness of any other
crewmember for only twice the talk.
Ertai—he may be arrogant, but at least he won’t tear the ship apart feuding with Hanna.
Equipped now with a wizard, Weatherlight needs a native of Rath to key the Thran engine in on where it needs to go. They travel to Urborg to find Crovax, whose home had been attacked by Rathi agents in the past, and again shortly before Weatherlight arrived, killing the remainder of his family. He knows nothing of Rath itself, but he does know someone who had been there—Starke. The Rathi man had fled to Crovax to be protected from Maraxus. Crovax sent him to hide with a friend on nearby Bogardan (the second richest red-mana environment on Dominaria, next to Shiv), not wishing to expose him to the Rathi agents attacking his own estates. The Weatherlight helps Crovax finally defeat Gallowbraid and Morinfen, and the nobleman joins the crew as they sail to find Starke.
Crovax’s friend has already been killed, and Starke captured by Maraxus’s forces. After sending Mirri to scout, Gerrard and Tahngarth infiltrate the Keldon’s camp to rescue Starke. They flee the camp, and are chased into the mountains. Weatherlight arrives to dispatch Maraxus’s troops, but he himself seems invulnerable—until Starke tells Gerrard Maraxus’s secret: Maraxus draws strength from the proximity of others. The more people around, the stronger he is (quite a good interpretation of Keldon Warlord’s flavor, really). Gerrard sends Weatherlight away to weaken Maraxus, Gerrard easily defeats the warlord, but before Maraxus can surrender, Starke comes out of hiding and does his thing, killing Maraxus before he can reveal his involvement in Sisay's abduction. Starke follows this up by swearing allegiance to Gerrard, revealing that his daughter is Volrath’s prisoner. Gerrard grudgingly trusts him—or rather, admits that, schemer or no, they need Starke to rescue Sisay. Weatherlight comes to pick them up, and they planeshift to Rath.
After the self-guided tour of some of Dominaria’s most scenic locales, (unfortunately not including the famous nude beach of pre-Invasion Otaria,) thus ends the first chapter in The Weatherlight Saga—or perhaps more appropriately, the prologue. We knew very little at the time. What kind of place was Rath? Why did Volrath despise Gerrard so? Would the rest of the crew become more important? All in all, it was an intriguing beginning—it explored many diverse areas of Dominaria, before leaving that familiar plane entirely for the foreboding-sounding Rath. I, personally, and most other players, couldn’t wait—especially after the first Tempest ads came out with the following quote:
Quote from Orim, Journals of the Weatherlight… upon arrival in Rath »
“There is no storm such as this.
It is a sickness in the sky.
It is crafted in Chaos
and even the darkness breathes.”
VestDan is an aspiring author who is not above shameless self promotion: you can view the half-finished draft of his ridiculously long scifi/fantasy saga, here.
Edited by Goblinboy
Banner by iloveatogs
Heh, sorry, Denver, I'm trying to make these weekly. Meaning the next one is... next week. Don't complain, though--back in the day, we had to wait 4 months to find out what happened!
Heh, sorry, Denver, I'm trying to make these weekly. Meaning the next one is... next week. Don't complain, though--back in the day, we had to wait 4 months to find out what happened!
But I've never even read any Magic books, I know nothing about this. I'm as lost as you were.
HAVE MERCY!!!
I can wait. I'm a patient "d00d". Besides, I think I hve to clean my room. For a week.
First of all, greetz to everyone. I ve been reading the site for a while, but this is my very first post.
Second, congratulations to the author for the job done. Very well written, i knew this because some friends told me about that, but it is very good reading it again. Knowing the quality of your writings, I will read your saga. Just can't wait for the next part of this article.
Last, I would like to talk about something MaRo said in one of his last articles. He stated that market research said that people didn't like stories like the Weatherlight Saga going through the sets. It's just me, or there are more people who definitely loved this story? I find the new sets a little bit flavorless, without Karn and Squee and the others. Just hope MaRo reads this and considers it.
Again, congratz to VestDan
Thanks for the glowing feedback! I had to reply to the MaRo comment tho:
I'll go more in depth when I get to the Invasion block article, but yeah, people were really into the Weatherlight saga, especially the Rath Cycle. The problem basically was, the ending was inexplicably weak and contrived, leaving a poor taste in readers' mouths. I liken it to the movie "AI: Artificial Intelligence"; the movie was actually pretty good, but the ending retroactively soured people's interpretations of it. Wizards, at least to my perception, saw the overall negative fan response to the ending (overall negative, some crazies liked it), and decided the entire idea of an overarching storyline was flawwed.
If you could find the article where MaRo or whomever said that, it would be very helpful.
Amazing job, VestDan. I am bowing to you, and I am eagerly awaiting next part, though I know the story back and forth.
If you continue this way, the storyline section of our forums will flourish.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Basically, Maraxus knew Starke was playing both sides, and was part of Sisay's kidnapping. Starke was afraid Maraxus would tell Gerrard about that, so he killed the warlord before he had a chance to speak.
Great summary, keep up the good work. The interesting thing is not even the rath and storm anthology covers these early days(except in a incredibly minor overview) and i've always felt that it deserved more literature.
I enjoyed your article quite a bit. Your writing is solid, however I think you need to work on your flow. You cover points you already made and jump around a bit making the reader somewhat confused.
Also the Weatherlight Saga is not the best saga Magic has gone through. Sure it does have its highlights, but the whole "Im a unwilling hero has been done to death". It did however create many identifiable characters such as Squee, Karn and Barrin to which many new characters are compared.
Because I was a poor college student for the entire Weatherlight Saga, I couldn't ever really afford to buy more than a handful of cards at a time. I would pick up a few packs of each set and find a way to cram them into decks. The problem with this is that such a low level of exposure to the set really diminishes the impact of an over-arching storyline. In fact, I hated it. I didn't buy any packs after about Tempest until Invasion came out (mostly because Invasion had a 5-color pre-con). I enjoyed Invasion a bit more, but still hated the storyline aspect because as a causal player, I felt like an outsider.
I have become a more tournament-oriented player in recent years, but I still have issues with the Weatherlight Saga. I personally believe that it was not just the ending, but the entire concept of the story that was a failed experiment. Wizards wound up alienating many of their casual players, and these make up the majority of the primary market. (How many serious tournament players buy individual boosters at retail?)
I think Odyssey and Onslaught were steps in the right direction, but Mirrodin and Kamigawa finally got it right. Give the settings, spells, and characters on the cards, but tell the story in the books. That way you can just play the cards without having to know what's going on in the story.
Look at Desperate Gambit and Debt of Loyalty, as well as other cards like Smite, Jilt, and Abduction that depict specific, story-related actual events from the novels. As such, they make less sense to one who doesn't know what's going on at the time. I'm much happier with the way things are done now.
That said, I appreciate VestDan taking the time to explain the story (and keep using those storyline cards, too). Good job - I'm looking forward to the next one.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the power comes from God and not ourselves." 2COR 4:7
Ah, Weatherlight saga. Good times. Personally, I miss the thrill of trying to figure out which characters will be printed as Legends in the next set/block. I really wish they would do another looooooong saga like this.
Quote from Soldancer »
Look at Desperate Gambit and Debt of Loyalty, as well as other cards like Smite, Jilt, and Abduction that depict specific, story-related actual events from the novels. As such, they make less sense to one who doesn't know what's going on at the time.
Yes, but it's also IMO what draws people into the storyline. Looking at the Tempest cards, I could see a story going on, but didn't have much of a clue. The more cards I saw, the more interested I became. The whole concept of a great saga expanding several blocks sounds terribly appealing to me.
Very awesome read, I enjoyed going over all this once again as it's been quite sometime since the Weatherlight saga. If you need any help when you hit Invasion block, hit me up I'm a fanatic of the Magic storylines (I applied for Storyline mod but didn't get the opportunity, unfortunately) and know the Invasion stories best of all.
Yes, but it's also IMO what draws people into the storyline. Looking at the Tempest cards, I could see a story going on, but didn't have much of a clue. The more cards I saw, the more interested I became.
That's a good point, because that's what Wizards wanted to happen. Apparently, however, their market research showed that more people were annoyed and put off by the story than interested in it. I'm very glad for the article though - it pays to know your history.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the power comes from God and not ourselves." 2COR 4:7
I thouroghly enjoyed this. I can't wait for the next one, and all those to follow.
Little mistake I noticed:
"After sending Mirri to scout, Gerrard, Starke, and Tahngarth infiltrate the Keldon’s camp to rescue Starke."
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb
of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits"
-Karl Heinrich Marx Cube
VestDan--wonderful work, again. Everyone, go read PIECES OF EIGHT (Po8), linked in all of VestDan's signatures. He's a tried and true Magic player/collector and a veteran of the MtGNews Boards (and has come here to share his talents). Po8 will never cease to amaze and surprise you. If you've read up on Magic (or still haven't started), go read Po8--you will not be disappointed (pissed off at his evilness, but not disappointed).
As for the bird on the cover of the ANTIQUITIES comic (commented on in the caption), that would be the Roc that attacked the ornithopter that Urza, Mishra, and Tocasia flew. After the attack, the three were stranded at the Thran Cave, where the Might- and Weakstone were discovered. For more fun Magic continuity tidbits, go visit the Storyline Board!
I was such a fan of the Tempest storyline, I thought it was really amazing when it came out. I remembered looking back through my Mirage cards to try and link the story together. Plus the little book they included in Tempest decks were story books instead of rules, which helped as well.
I noticed one or two mistakes, but have since lost track of where they are. They didn't detract from the writing too much.
I really enjoyed this article a lot. I've always thought the broad weatherlight storyline seemed interesting, but never read any of the novels.
I do agree with Soldancer, though, that the multi-year storyline is a bad idea. I'm going to use myself as an example. I started playing during invasion. Cards like jilt and probe and others made me realize there was a story going on, but made me feel so completely clueless. Also, it seemed that I was going to stay clueless because:
a) If I were to get caught up, it would require reading something in the neighborhood of 14-15 novels, many of them awful (or so I'm told), and all of them hard to find in your average bookstore; not to mention the price associated with buying all these books, which was just a little too much for a simple high-school student to afford.
b) Even if I did get my paws on all those books, I would have to read them at a pretty furious pace considering new sets come out every three months.
All-in-all, yes, the multi-year block is alienating to beginners (which may impact card sales), it's overwhelming for people who might be interested in the books (which miay impact book sales), and it's frustrating for people who just want to know what's going on in the art. Therefore, I am quite glad they dropped the idea of multi-year blocks, and I hope they never return.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Fa - ce - tious - ly: The only English word with every vowell in order.
Hmm... an interesting point, though much of the story could be derived from the cards themselves (the books were there for those interested in detail. But perhaps more could have been done to help the newer players catch up -- like storyline inserts in Starters/Precons or something. Honestly, they seemed to be tired of supporting the story by the time it was done, so if you didn't wanna read the book, you WERE kinda SOL
Magic recently celebrated its 12th Anniversary, and it is still the king of CCGs. Or are they TCGs? I’ve grown confused—doing research for this article, I struck a vein of old The Duelist magazines. For those of you who don’t know, The Duelist was WotC’s official magazine, dealing mostly with Magic but touching on its other products (including, eventually, Pokemon, which led directly to the magazine’s demise. And they said fads never hurt anybody). Imagine a week’s worth of magicthegathering.com content with nice graphics and lots of ads, only that week’s content only comes every two months and is reporting old information. That doesn’t sound very nice, but this was back in the storied times before the internet had conquered our lives—often, magazines were the only easy source of information on the game for most of the magic public.
The year was 1997. Magic was just out of its infancy—it was in the middle of its first true unified block. The first glimmers of this came with Alliances, the expansion to Ice Age. Nine years on that doesn’t sound very impressive, but the idea was completely novel at the time—before that, expansions had only the most tenuous of links – other than Arabian Nights and Homelands (and, possibly, some parts of Legends), the expansions had all taken place on the same world, mentioned in the tiny rulebooks inserted in your starter boxes: Dominaria. The first true Magic storyline was, of course, that of Antiquities. Flavor texts of these cards mentioned battles and personages, all in an almost historical past tense, and with no real characters to speak of. Oh, there were names, but little more—none of the characters were even pictured on cards. If you wanted to know more about the story, you were forced to look at Wizard’s official dramatization of it: the Brothers’ War...
Comic Book.
thing is about, either.
Without the comics, the only source of Magic lore was the cards themselves – flavor texts, and only from cards you happened to have access to. At first, all the cards seemed separate and distinct, but gradually, recognizable names emerged. Two brothers named Urza and Mishra had fought a big war with each other. The continent of Argoth was destroyed at the end of it, in a blast that caused a climate shift. This was all very intriguing, but it wasn’t a STORY. At most, it was a history—events were recounted through the lens of time, making the flavor of each set seem to be that of a snapshot of some specific time period on Dominaria. No set was better at this than Fallen Empires, which had the benefit of multiple copies of every common to load the set with ample amounts of flavor. As a history buff, this all appealed to me… but unlike actual history, there was no simple resource to find out what "actually happened."
But there was a gradual shift in the flavor technique of Magic sets. Alliances picked up the flavor and setting of Ice Age, and actually added glimmers of a plot. Where Fallen Empires and The Dark showcased conflict, and even had a few "characters" who spoke, the conflict did not seem to build up to anything, and the characters merely offered points of view, and did not actually perform any significant deeds. Alliances was the first real set to offer a conclusion, to actually show conflict that led to positive change. It was a start.
Alliances was followed up by Mirage, which continued to deepen the storyline potential of sets. Besides showing off the Jamuraan setting, it also showed the first half of a war—the wizard Kaervek was taking advantage of the disappearance of Teferi to try to conquer the domains he protected. This wasn’t mere history—this was characters, with personalities, interacting with each other within the confines of an actual dramatic plot. The story was told in The Duelist, and there was even a choose-your-own-adventure style webgame on their primitive website (that I could never manage to beat). And players were interested.
Which finally brings us to the topic of this article. Allow me to quote MaRo from the ancient, near-forgotten text that was April, 1997 issue of The Duelist
So far as I know, that was the first anyone heard of the multi-year arc. And it was big news. An epic storyline to continue through the distant year 2000? They were obviously serious about this, and from the way MaRo talked about it, it sounded quite awesome.
The next issue, in June, offered even more coverage—a quick overview of what planning such a long story entails (including some bits of foreshadowing: “We knew we wanted to take our characters to a dark shadow world, to the keep of a servant of evil, and to a plane where all the world is a market and anything can be bought—for a price.”), and a short story that served as something of a prologue to the saga. This story, “Maelstrom,” offered us the first glimpse of a story that would dominate the game for the next five years.
unjustifiably cocky 'Fabio' look.
The short story, “Maelstrom,” recounts the beginning of Weatherlight’s great adventure. Starke approaches Sisay, offering information on the Legacy:
Starke offers to help Sisay find the Legacy, if she will rescue his daughter. Volrath, however, forces Starke’s hand, sending the ruthless mercenary Maraxus of Keld to kill him. In an effort to save his own life, Starke agrees to set Sisay up to be kidnapped, as bait for Gerrard.
And thus The Weatherlight Saga begins.
Some details were sketchy at first. It was some time before Gerrard got a last name – not that anyone else really got one. Not a popular thing in Dominaria, apparently. (Crovax, at least, did have one: Windgrace. Though he was of no relation to the panther warrior planeswalker of that name who also hailed from Urborg, some connection between Crovax’s line and the Planeswalker must have existed. This was never elaborated upon). The following issue of The Duelist had another story by Michael G. Ryan, Torrent, again focusing largely on Starke. But I shall reveal events roughly chronologically, just to make things easier. Bear in mind most of the back story—anything before the abduction of Sisay—was not available right away, and came together from many different sources. Other than the cards themselves, there were articles in The Duelist and other magazines, and again, a comic book line. This series was, to my knowledge, WotC’s last attempt at Magic-related comic books—they did not sell well, and were eventually replaced with traditional novels. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As a baby, Gerrard’s Benalish family had been killed at the will of the mysterious Lord of the Wastes.
foster father, Sidar Kondo.
That was the last Gerrard heard of Vuel for a long time—he thought Vuel dead with the rest of the tribe. Now even without his silver guardian for company, he set out into the world, eventually ending up under the tutelage of Multani, the Maro Sorcerer, with an elf named Rofellos. The two left Multani, meeting up with Mirri as well and joining the crew of the Weatherlight. Gerrard struck up a romance with the pretty blonde engineer, Hanna, and things were going well—until Crovax’s family came under attack by Gallowbraid and Morinfen. The Weatherlight came to the defense of its crewman’s family, dispatching the two beasts—but at great cost to all involved. Rofellos was killed, making the price of pursuing the Legacy too high for him.
Gallowbraid and Morinfen.
Which brings us up to date for her abduction… almost. Right before setting up Sisay, Starke revealed to Crovax that Selenia is on Rath… and that his family was being slaughtered while he was looking vainly for the angel. Crovax returned home—giving Starke an escape plan. One which he would soon need, it turned out.
You now know far more than we did back in 1997—aren’t you lucky? All we knew was, Gerrard’s former blood-brother, who hated him and wanted envied the Legacy, kidnapped Sisay into his dark world of Rath, and the crew of the Weatherlight was reuniting to rescue her. Starke seeks shelter with Crovax in Urborg from Maraxus of Keldwhile the Weatherlight picks up Gerrard. Gerrard, for his part, deserts his post to help find his old captain, and despite his earlier abandonment of the crew, is put in command. This may seem odd, but the Weatherlight is part of the Legacy, and is his by right of birth—that fact doesn’t make Tahngarth like him any more. Abandoning now his post in Benalia, he leaves behind only an hourglass necklace with a friend.
The crew is determined to rescue their captain, but all they know is that she has been taken to another plane called Rath. While Weatherlight is capable of planeshifting, it requires a native of the destination plane—Starke—and a wizard of considerable strength to imprint the destination into the Thran engine. What is a ‘Thran’ engine? We didn’t know—something to do with the Legacy. What is the Legacy? Who built it, when, and why? Gerrard’s ancestor? Who is the “Lord of the Wastes?” Nobody knew at the time—I imagine some of you reading now don’t know, which is why I’m writing these articles in the first place.
Anyway, Gerrard suggests picking up Mirri, saying that she might be able to work the Thran engine. Gerrard knows well that she can’t, but he wants to be reunited with his friend—he needs someone to watch his back in case he screws up. Coincidentally, he finds the deactivated Karn gathering dust in one of the holds, and manages to release the golem from the Touchstone’s effects—though a pacifist now, Karn is still a loyal, titanic ally, someone else to watch Gerrard’s back in case he screws up. This might be a fine time to inform you all of a slight bias I have:
Gerrard < Pond Scum
Honestly, one of the biggest flaws with The Weatherlight Saga is the magnitude of the "hero"'s suckiness. Gerrard has his moments, but they are few, and interspaced between prolonged periods of angst and ineptitude. Not everyone shares my opinion, mind you. Just everyone I’ve talked to. Regardless, I shall let you all make your own judgments, once the saga is complete.
Llanowar is having some local trouble when Weatherlight arrives, and Mirri does not want to abandon her adopted people. Gerrard has one of his moments, and actually uses a combo to defeat the Aboroth. It was probably Hanna’s idea.
Mirri rejoins the crew, but is unable to work the engine. Hanna, grudgingly, reveals that her father, Barrin, is easily powerful enough to make Weatherlight shift to Rath (which we would later find out to be a gross understatement). Hanna and Barrin had been estranged for some time, and she won’t tell Gerrard why, but willingly leads Weatherlight to the mysterious island of Tolaria, where Barrin is the head of a secret order that tends the Lotus Vale. This detail was very quickly dropped, and in fact there is no later reference to Tolaria as the source of Black Lotuses—they just got a little overzealous linking the set to recognizable names from Magic’s past.
Barrin and Hanna don’t get along at all—the full nature of the dispute is never elaborated upon to my recollection.. The only source of disagreement we get is that Hanna wanted to study artifacts instead of magic, to the point that she went to New Argive, the world's major center of artifact studies. For whatever reason, Barrin decides not to come along--Gerrard can tell the tension between father and daughter would be a problem anyway. Instead, Gerrard suggests his apprentice,
crewmember for only twice the talk.
Equipped now with a wizard, Weatherlight needs a native of Rath to key the Thran engine in on where it needs to go. They travel to Urborg to find Crovax, whose home had been attacked by Rathi agents in the past, and again shortly before Weatherlight arrived, killing the remainder of his family. He knows nothing of Rath itself, but he does know someone who had been there—Starke. The Rathi man had fled to Crovax to be protected from Maraxus. Crovax sent him to hide with a friend on nearby Bogardan (the second richest red-mana environment on Dominaria, next to Shiv), not wishing to expose him to the Rathi agents attacking his own estates. The Weatherlight helps Crovax finally defeat Gallowbraid and Morinfen, and the nobleman joins the crew as they sail to find Starke.
Crovax’s friend has already been killed, and Starke captured by Maraxus’s forces. After sending Mirri to scout, Gerrard and Tahngarth infiltrate the Keldon’s camp to rescue Starke. They flee the camp, and are chased into the mountains. Weatherlight arrives to dispatch Maraxus’s troops, but he himself seems invulnerable—until Starke tells Gerrard Maraxus’s secret: Maraxus draws strength from the proximity of others. The more people around, the stronger he is (quite a good interpretation of Keldon Warlord’s flavor, really). Gerrard sends Weatherlight away to weaken Maraxus, Gerrard easily defeats the warlord, but before Maraxus can surrender, Starke comes out of hiding and does his thing, killing Maraxus before he can reveal his involvement in Sisay's abduction. Starke follows this up by swearing allegiance to Gerrard, revealing that his daughter is Volrath’s prisoner. Gerrard grudgingly trusts him—or rather, admits that, schemer or no, they need Starke to rescue Sisay. Weatherlight comes to pick them up, and they planeshift to Rath.
After the self-guided tour of some of Dominaria’s most scenic locales, (unfortunately not including the famous nude beach of pre-Invasion Otaria,) thus ends the first chapter in The Weatherlight Saga—or perhaps more appropriately, the prologue. We knew very little at the time. What kind of place was Rath? Why did Volrath despise Gerrard so? Would the rest of the crew become more important? All in all, it was an intriguing beginning—it explored many diverse areas of Dominaria, before leaving that familiar plane entirely for the foreboding-sounding Rath. I, personally, and most other players, couldn’t wait—especially after the first Tempest ads came out with the following quote:
Continue to Part 2
VestDan is an aspiring author who is not above shameless self promotion: you can view the half-finished draft of his ridiculously long scifi/fantasy saga, here.
Edited by Goblinboy
Banner by iloveatogs
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
But I've never even read any Magic books, I know nothing about this. I'm as lost as you were.
HAVE MERCY!!!
I can wait. I'm a patient "d00d". Besides, I think I hve to clean my room. For a week.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
- H.P. Lovecraft
Thanks for the glowing feedback! I had to reply to the MaRo comment tho:
I'll go more in depth when I get to the Invasion block article, but yeah, people were really into the Weatherlight saga, especially the Rath Cycle. The problem basically was, the ending was inexplicably weak and contrived, leaving a poor taste in readers' mouths. I liken it to the movie "AI: Artificial Intelligence"; the movie was actually pretty good, but the ending retroactively soured people's interpretations of it. Wizards, at least to my perception, saw the overall negative fan response to the ending (overall negative, some crazies liked it), and decided the entire idea of an overarching storyline was flawwed.
If you could find the article where MaRo or whomever said that, it would be very helpful.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
If you continue this way, the storyline section of our forums will flourish.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Basically, Maraxus knew Starke was playing both sides, and was part of Sisay's kidnapping. Starke was afraid Maraxus would tell Gerrard about that, so he killed the warlord before he had a chance to speak.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
Machius proudly supports R_E's right to Rumour!
…( `\(o),,_/` ¯ : o : : : o `-, …. Beyond the hard times from now
have/want: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/trading-post/details/80-quattros-trade-thread
Also the Weatherlight Saga is not the best saga Magic has gone through. Sure it does have its highlights, but the whole "Im a unwilling hero has been done to death". It did however create many identifiable characters such as Squee, Karn and Barrin to which many new characters are compared.
I patiently await your continuation
I have become a more tournament-oriented player in recent years, but I still have issues with the Weatherlight Saga. I personally believe that it was not just the ending, but the entire concept of the story that was a failed experiment. Wizards wound up alienating many of their casual players, and these make up the majority of the primary market. (How many serious tournament players buy individual boosters at retail?)
I think Odyssey and Onslaught were steps in the right direction, but Mirrodin and Kamigawa finally got it right. Give the settings, spells, and characters on the cards, but tell the story in the books. That way you can just play the cards without having to know what's going on in the story.
Look at Desperate Gambit and Debt of Loyalty, as well as other cards like Smite, Jilt, and Abduction that depict specific, story-related actual events from the novels. As such, they make less sense to one who doesn't know what's going on at the time. I'm much happier with the way things are done now.
That said, I appreciate VestDan taking the time to explain the story (and keep using those storyline cards, too). Good job - I'm looking forward to the next one.
Yes, but it's also IMO what draws people into the storyline. Looking at the Tempest cards, I could see a story going on, but didn't have much of a clue. The more cards I saw, the more interested I became. The whole concept of a great saga expanding several blocks sounds terribly appealing to me.
*****
ricklongo and RicardoLongo on MTGO
*****
Visit my gaming blog: http://www.gamingsweetgaming.blogspot.com
****************
Check out Rick's Picks, my PureMTGO article series
****************
(Also known as Xenphire)
That's a good point, because that's what Wizards wanted to happen. Apparently, however, their market research showed that more people were annoyed and put off by the story than interested in it. I'm very glad for the article though - it pays to know your history.
Little mistake I noticed:
"After sending Mirri to scout, Gerrard, Starke, and Tahngarth infiltrate the Keldon’s camp to rescue Starke."
of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits"
-Karl Heinrich Marx
Cube
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
As for the bird on the cover of the ANTIQUITIES comic (commented on in the caption), that would be the Roc that attacked the ornithopter that Urza, Mishra, and Tocasia flew. After the attack, the three were stranded at the Thran Cave, where the Might- and Weakstone were discovered. For more fun Magic continuity tidbits, go visit the Storyline Board!
I noticed one or two mistakes, but have since lost track of where they are. They didn't detract from the writing too much.
Next one should be coming this week, probably.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
I do agree with Soldancer, though, that the multi-year storyline is a bad idea. I'm going to use myself as an example. I started playing during invasion. Cards like jilt and probe and others made me realize there was a story going on, but made me feel so completely clueless. Also, it seemed that I was going to stay clueless because:
a) If I were to get caught up, it would require reading something in the neighborhood of 14-15 novels, many of them awful (or so I'm told), and all of them hard to find in your average bookstore; not to mention the price associated with buying all these books, which was just a little too much for a simple high-school student to afford.
b) Even if I did get my paws on all those books, I would have to read them at a pretty furious pace considering new sets come out every three months.
All-in-all, yes, the multi-year block is alienating to beginners (which may impact card sales), it's overwhelming for people who might be interested in the books (which miay impact book sales), and it's frustrating for people who just want to know what's going on in the art. Therefore, I am quite glad they dropped the idea of multi-year blocks, and I hope they never return.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6