Obviously you're all used to irregular updates on this blog by now, but I thought I'd just let you know that I'll be in Japan for the next three weeks. New updates after that! I'm nearly done with an article on the original version of Nissa, and I'll be taking The Purifying Fire with me for the flight ..read more

Writer - Jenna Helland Story - Jenna Helland, Doug Beyer & Brady Dommermuth Illustrators - Nils Hamm, Tomas Giorello & Steven Belledin Letterer - Jino Choi Art Director - Jeremy Jarvis Based on characters by Brady Dommermuth and Volkan Braga Released October 2008 SUMMARY It can be found here. Part one: Elspeth and her squire Aran head out to find the truth about "frightening tales" going around Bant. She has a few flashbacks to her youth and ascension, and eventually they discover a Grixis incursion into Bant. Part two: Elspeth and Aran fight during a siege of Grixis monst ..read more

ALARA REBORN MINI-SITE & FEATURE ARTICLE Last time I said that the Alara Reborn minisite (see Alara in Chaos, The Shards at War & The Threat to New Alara) had little more to say than "there's gonna be war and chaos!". I guess that wasn't entirely true, as it also mentioned the beginnings of the shards' cultures merging, like nacatl moving to Bant and taking the old name of leonin, Vithian survivors being welcomed as refugees by the humans of other shards, and Esperites discarding the laws of the Ethersworn, but the main point is still all the chaos and how it's fe ..read more

Writer - Doug Beyer Cover Artist - Chris Rahn First Printing - ...is not given in the colofon? But it's May 2005 according to the wiki. I guess this book was never printed, and just miraculously appeared in stores one day? SUMMARY The book is split up in three parts, corresponding to the sets of Alara block. Part One After an prologue on Grixis, in which we see Nicol Bolas bossing around Malfegor and planning to use the convergence of the shards to regain his vitality, we get stories set on Bant, Jund & Naya. On Bant Gwafa Hazid destroys Gilts ..read more

  Writer - Jenna Helland Story - Jenna Helland, Brady Dommermuth and Doug Beyer Illustrators - Trevor Hairsine, Dan Scott and Aleksi Briclot Letterer - Jino Choi Art Director - Jeremy Jarvis Based on characters by Brady Dommermuth and Aleksi Briclot Released January/February 2009 SUMMARY It can be found here. Part one: Tezzeret, as a poor kid who was allowed in the academy of the Seekers of Carmot because he showed promise, looses a duel against fellow student Silas Renn on examination day. A teacher wants to kick him out of the academy, but Tezzeret kills ..read more

Something happening at different times on different timelines!? Oh no! For a long time now I've thought about making my timeline a bit more legible. Maybe something with a few different columns, to make it so the Weatherlight Saga can sit in one without being interrupted by, say, the backstory of Benalia. Or perhaps just to have one column for definite dates and one for vague "approximately several centuries before..." references. But before doing such a big overhaul I want to make sure it's as complete as I can make it. Having crossed the Mending seems like a good opportunity to fin ..read more

INTRODUCING THE CONFLUX As is usual at this point our first introduction to the new set comes through a mini site (split up in The Shards Collide, Sowing Fear, Reaping War & Claws of an Ancient Evil) and a feature article (Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker). These tell us that the shards are converging, though that can't have come as that great a surprise after the Planeswalker's Guide hinted at it... and we already knew the name of the next set was "Conflux". A bigger reveal is that Nicol Bolas has been fermenting war all along. Some stuff he's been doing we knew, just not t ..read more

Writer - Brady Dommermuth Story - Brady Dommermuth, Doug Beyer and Jenna Helland Illustrators - Greg Staples, Rafa Garres & Dave Kendall Letterer - Brian Dumas Art Director - Jeremy Jarvis Based on characters by Brady Dommermuth and Aleksi Briclot Released October 2008 SUMMARY It can be found here. Part one: Jazal puts his brother Ajani on patrol, though his fellows say he's jinxed because he's albino. Humans show up to hunt Ajani and his pridemates abandon him. Jazal shows up to save him, and takes a scroll from the humans with a picture of a white, one-eyed nacatl on it. Part ..read more

Right. How am I going to do this with the current state of the Magic website?  Well, I've gone to the Wiki, checked out the articles linked on the bottom of the Alara page and everything from the Savor the Flavor page. That should give me the initial introduction to the setting, and what stories need to be put onto the timeline, plus whatever else might turn up in the main storyline column. To actually read those articles I can look them up on MaxMakesMagic's listing of articles in the Internet Archive. All of which was enough of a pain in the back that I didn't feel like try ..read more

A Planeswalker's Guide to Alara Authors - Doug Beyer, Jenna Helland Cover Art - Raymond Swanland First Printing - September 2008 ...and a whole bunch of other people. Review For the past few years Wotc had been putting up bits and pieces of their style guides, which storyline fans obviously loved, leading to them asking to see the whole thing. Eventually WotC put up a poll asking if people would buy one if they could, and since everybody said they would, here we have the Planeswalker's Guide to Alara. It's not really a style guide though, as it has loads of card art rather ..read more