A Planeswalker's Guide to Alara

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 than just design sketches, and I assume all the text is at least updated from the original style guide to fit changes made through the development proces. So it's really more of a precursor to the later artbooks rather than a true style guide.

The guide gives you a quick introduction to the setting: how Alara used to be one plane before it broke into five shards, what life is like in those shards, which people live there, occasionally some history facts, and finally an overview of the four planeswalkers from Shards of Alara. All of which should be very interesting to hardcore storyline fans, and is accompanied with illustrations from both the cards and the style guide, which always look amazing.

...maybe a bit less so due to my scanner.

Yet while the artbooks were enough of a succes to last four years and eight entries, the Planeswalker's Guide series was cancelled after just this book, with the overviews of new worlds moving back to free online content. So what happened? Well, I can think of three reasons why this series was less successful.

First of all, the market was simply smaller. Not only was the Magic community overall a lot smaller before the game had a whole bunch of "best year ever"s in succession, also a far smaller percentage of players was into the storyline back then. The artbooks came out alongside a surge in storyline interest as the story was available for free on the website, with Duels of the Planeswalkers also tying into it, and after the main planeswalker characters had been present in sets for multiple years. The Planeswalker's Guide came out at a point where the story was only available if you knew a place where you could get the novels, and not long after an exodus of long time storyline fans following the Mending. A book full of background info is a more niche product than a novel, so you need to have a significant base of invested fans to make it work.

The second problem... well, just compare the two:

 

One of the great things about the artbooks is that you get to look at Magic's amazing art on a much larger scale than usual. They're the kind of book I can leave lying around the house and guests who aren't into Magic will still pick them up and leaf through them just for that. The planeswalkers guide though... there is still a fair amount of art that takes up an entire page in here, but that full page is a lot smaller than in the art books, and most art is only displayed at even smaller sizes, a lot of it only two times the size it's on the card.

On the plus side though, it does have a bunch of art that came straight from the style guide, which is a very neat inclusion.

Finally, there is the question of timing. The artbooks tended to come out after the last set of a block was released. I'm assuming to make that happen there had to be some uncomfortable conversations where someone from the book department had to sell releasing a book tying into the previous block to someone from finance who was adamant the focus should be on hyping up the next block, but if we're just looking at the quality of the product doing it that way was definitely the way too go. It results in nice big books covering the entire visit to a certain plane, including the conclusion of the story. If you wanted to get an Innistrad refresher before Midnight Hunt but didn't have time to reread the entire story, just pick up the art book and read the last few pages. They're great reference material.

The Planeswalker's Guide was released while Shards of Alara was still in preview season. As a result it hints that some mysterious being is in control of Malfegor, but never tells you who it is. The entries for the Knights of the Skyward Eye and the Seekers of Carmot don't even mention that anyone is manipulating them (though the entry for Tezzeret talks about him seeking out "the real force" behind the Seekers). There is no mention of the Conflux, the Maelstrom, the wars in Alara Reborn... thinking about it Alara might be one of the worst blocks to give an early release to the guidebook, since the setting basically doesn't exist anymore by the end. Oh, Bant and co are still there, but no longer as separate worlds, meaning a whole lot is going to change from the descriptions we get here.

In an ongoing series this will always be a problem to a certain extend of course. The encyclopedic value of the art books has obviously gone down a little now we've had several more stories in their settings that they don't cover, but this case is pretty egregious, as the guide was out of date four months after it was published!

Here we also have to come back to the slightness of the book. I haven't been able to find a word count for the guide, but it is a quick read, much more akin to the online planeswalker's guides we'll get for the next few planes than the art books when it comes to information density. Which means it didn't even have space to include everything we'll eventually learn about pre-Conflux Alara. For example, there is mention of the angels of Bant being ruled by Asha. In later online articles we'll learn she's actually sacrificed herself in combat against Malfegor centuries ago, before Alara broke apart! Surely that didn't need to be kept a secret until the second set?

I think those are the main reasons why this project wasn't a (financial) success. As a more personal complaint I'd add that I would've liked to see some maps and a clear timeline included. We only get some vague geographical descriptions, like how Valeron is on the coast while Eos, Akrasa and Topa are in the interior, and few clearer temporal references than the sundering having happened "centuries ago". This fits with the then-current thinking of the creative team that being too specific would only lead to fans pointing out inconsistencies (see the map discussion here), but I've always disagreed with that policy. Ever since reading Lord of the Rings in my first year of high school I've been convinced any story gets better when a map and timeline are included (family trees and linguistic lessons are optional).

All of that said though... the information is all very interesting, as Alara is a fascinating world, and the art is, like Magic's art always is, gorgeous. So if you know what you are getting and can find a cheap second hand copy, I would wholeheartedly recommend picking it up. It's not bad for what it is, it's just that what it is only has a fairly small audience.

Notes

• The guide is written as sort-of an in universe text, opening with this: "each chapter, written by our staff of expert researchers who have traveled to Alara, is fully illustrated with thumbnail sketches and artists' renderings of the spectacles and attractions you'll experience during your travels there". It also has some cheeky instructions on how to dress not to stand out, and reminds you not to use types of mana unknown to a specific shard. Who on earth would be writing a travel guide when planeswalkers are so incredibly rare? No idea. Probably the same people who published the Underworld Cookbook.
• The Sundering is never named as such in this book, that term will come from online articles. We do get the following description: "Many centuries ago, Alara was stripped of its mana in a cataclysmic planar event, perhaps brought on by the actions of a long-lost planeswalker. The drain on Alara's mana shattered something deep in its metaphysical structure, causing it to undergo a radical planar refraction ... Whatever agents caused this destruction abandoned what remained of the plane, its spell presumably finished", which just outright states what happened, while some of those online articles dance around that a bit. Ultimately it's just backstory though that'll never become important. To this day we don't know which planeswalkers did it, or what spell they were casting. Though the word "refraction" makes me wonder if there is any kind of link to the equally unexplained Thousandfold Refraction of Rabiah.
• The one hint of the future we get is that the shards are reconverging. The authors still hedge their bets a little, but it's pretty clear that is what is going on.
• Alara was apparently "rediscovered by planeswalkers only relatively recently". Not sure if that really means something in-universe, or is just a tongue in cheek reference to the place being invented for the latest set.

• There's a whole bunch of characters that only show up in this book. Some have made it onto wiki's, like the Jhessian pirate-Robin Hood Lisha of the Azure, others have not been so lucky, like Leogin, a lich who drowned before Vithia fell and now commands putrefied sea monsters.
• There's also a bunch of them who are essentially just names that get thrown out there. For example, we're told of angels guarding someone called "Adulai the Fool" on Bant, and that there is a stormcaller called Tiln who hangs out in a century-old storm on Esper.
• Some other characters introduced are a bit luckier. The necromancer Eliza & zombie Thraximundar will be featured in short online stories, while the sphinx Kemuel the Hidden One shows up in Test of Metal (though with that book's questionable continuity, I guess that means he's back to only ever having shown up here?)
• Places mentioned tend to be a bit more fleshed out, so the nations of Bant and the necropolises of Grixis all get at least one paragraph of information, though in the Esper section we do get bombarded with names without explanations: the pale Dwindling Sea, the placid Sea of Stars, the Twin Maelstroms, the vast Sea of Unknowing, the mysterious Kingdom of Fog...

• Aven are puzzled by humans elevating them for being close to angels, since they don't worship angels in the same way.
• Halcou is a Bantian weapons-based martial arts, its name derived from an alabaster bird with legendary grace and speed.
• Leotau steeds are semi-intelligent and have three subspecies "the white-coated orisil favored by the Blessed caste; the golden, fleet-footed mherva, and the large, calico/dappled grohm." I assume these will be as well remembered as the different kinds of non-Aven birdfolk we heard about in Odyssey.
• Bantian heroes turn into angels due to "ages-old enchantments". Given what happened in the March of the Machine story, I'm now wondering who placed those enchantments exactly...
• The Ethersworn believe "the plane will transcend its mortal and physical limitations" through etherium, and in the discussion of Crucius we hear speculation that it might have been intended as a way to reunite Alara. Which is actually the only reason we're ever given for the reunification, other than "the shards are just naturally drifting back together".
• The bit on Crucius also says "evidence suggests he may have been a planeswalker", though it gives no example of such evidence. Presumably it's just his access to etherium's ingredients that are found outside Esper.
• In fact, the whole Esper section sets up a mystery surrounding etherium, with the Jund sections even getting in on it a little (it's never outright stated, but you're clearly supposed to link carmot, the missing ingredient to produce more etherium to the sangrite crystals on Jund). This will all be further explored in Test of Metal, and then thrown into question again when that novel is pretty much thrown out of continuity. We'll get to that eventually.

If there's nothing on the Conflux, there's also obviously nothing on her.

• On the list of magical specializations on Esper we first hear of the term "clockworker" for "one who manipulates the forces of time". That will also come up in Test of Metal, and be much maligned by the fans.
• There are 23 Filligree texts, named after the 23 winds of Esper.
• "Before Grixis split off from Alara, it was home to Vithia, a thriving human empire proud of its dynasty of wise and honorable monarchs" which fought against necromancers. Once white mana disappeared, the 'mancers took over, alongside demons and Vithia's corrupted rulers. Sedris was the last Vithian king, but sold it to a demon in exchange for lichdom. After that the plane became known as Grixis, the Vithian word for "traitor". Sedraxis Necropolis is the former capital of Vithia.
• Skive is the Kathari religion, which involves cleaning flesh from bones to let the deceased go to the afterlife.
• Ciatrice is the home to an unnamed dragon, one of the most powerful on Jund, "a red-scaled, tattered-winged monstrosity". You'd think that would be Karrthus, but this is a she-dragon. Karrthus never actually gets named in the guide

We'll meet him soon enough though.

• There is a weird story about three planeswalkers fighting over sangrite. One of them succeeds in getting the stuff but goes insane, then the other two fight until one is killed and "the other disappeared with his prize and was never heard from again". It's such an odd non sequitur that it makes me wonder if it was intended as some sort of hint about Crucius and the sangrite/carmot connection, but I can't really make heads or tails of it.
• Humans on Jund are old at 30 and ancient at 50. Oh, and they have reptilian features. They've already faced viashino and dragon attacks when they are send out to fetch volcanic glass as a adulthood ritual... at age 10.
• Every 8 years a shaman gets a vision of a dragon falling out of the sky and summons the most decorated hunters of all tribes in the Bloodhall to go hunt a dragon in what is called a lifehunt.
• Highclan Tol Hera, lead by the "impetuous" Javid Hera, thinks the lifehunt should not be a rare ritual, but an ongoing war against dragons. They're only small in number due to being so reckless. There is no mention of Rakka Mar, who will be instrumental in ramping up the lifehunts later in the stories.
• Kresh is the champion of clan Tol Tera, is almost 40, has 22 braids in his hair (you get those from trophy hunts. We're told five braids makes you a hero, a dozen the stuff of legends) and has survived three lifehunts. He doesn't want to be a leader though. We'll come back to that when we cover his appearance in Alara Unbroken.
• Plikintok Agat is goblin for "wearing a garment of rock", aka squeezing through a tight crack. The information here sometimes gets very specific!

• Nacatl were the rulers of Naya for centuries. They had a code of ethics called the Coil, chiseled in "their pseudo-written language" on the Binding Wall outside Antali, the capital. Decades of low-level discontent came to head when Marisi formed an anti-civilization group, the Claws of Marisi, toppled the empire, and set up the Wild Nacatl civilization. Qasal is the last remaining stronghold of the Cloud Nacatl, and ruled by a Timus the Orange. About whom we learn nothing more than that he's smart and has the coloring of an ocelot.
• The Cylian elves are named after Cylia the Witness. There is a story here about how when "the world shattered", Cylia begged Progenitus "the five-headed Soul of the World" not to end creation. He struck her blind for her impudence, but that gave her a connection to the world which she used to hit Progenitus with a poisoned dagger, at which point "Progenitus's nature was revealed to be a five-headed hydra"... and that's where the story ends. Leaving me to wonder what Progenitus looked like before the dagger hit him. Presumably the poison puts Progenitus to sleep until he wakes up in the Conflux. This story also sounds like it could have been a cool way of dropping hints about Alara's past, the memory of the sundering being mythified by the elves, but it appears to be just a random story.
• Progenitus is, as we've just heard, a five headed hydra, but there are only three gouts of steam in the Valley of the Ancients, under which he sleeps. That's a neat little detail, implying that his other two heads were either lost in the sundering, or somehow stuck in other shards.

• Elspeth is said to be from an unknown plane "a place of strife and darkness". I guess that still fits.
• We're told that when Tezzeret "intruded into the sanctum of the Seekers of Carmot, he was caught, and the resulting battle nearly cost him his life". This matches what he told Jace in Agents of Artifice, though here there is no mention of the Seekers being a scam. We'll compare the various stories further when we get to the most complete telling of events in the webcomic The Seeker's Fall.
• Sarkhan's origin story stayed remarkably consistent over the years, considering we actually get details on his plane and ascension, rather than the vagueness we get with Elspeth. Here we learn he "comes from a plane where territorial warlords vie against each other in unending, brutal war", where dragons have been hunted to extinction. He belonged to a shamanic circle that venerated dragons, and ascended when he made contact with the spirit of one. The Tarkir story will add a bit about him leaving said circle after growing disillusioned with them, then being touched by said spirit (actually an ancient spirit dragon, in addition to being the spirit of an ancient dragon) during a battle, but it mostly holds up.

Timeline

The guide gives a few references to stuff happening years or centuries ago, but no clear timeline. Which is a shame, as the sundering of Alara is a significant event I'd love to be able to place on the one I'm building. Here's what the guide has to say on the matter:

• The breaking of Alara is consistently mentioned as having happened "centuries" ago here, which I personally wouldn't have used if it had been millennia.
• In the Grixis section we are told that the incurable ogres were cursed "soon after Alara fractured" and that "generations" of mutations have passed since. We also hear that humanity will soon be extinct on Grixis, which makes me wonder how they even survived for centuries. Both of these things seem to hint at it not being extremely long since the sundering.
• On the other hand, there is one reference saying that "the elves believe that Progenitus sleeps in the Valley of the Ancients, his body covered by millennia of growth", which suggests a longer time frame.
• Looking beyond the guide, on the Shards of Alara mini-site, released around the same time, we get a reference to Alara being torn asunder "millennia ago".

Another card you could probably build a Secret Lair about, considering the amount of planar disasters we've seen througout the storyline.

I checked the Visual Guide, but it only talks about the sundering in terms like "long ago" and "in a time lost to history". So I guess the break up of Alara is going to have to stay off the timeline for now.

We get no information here on how long ago (or how long since the sundering for that matter), Vithia and the Empire of the Clouds fell.

In the Esper section we learn that Crucius invented etherium "decades ago", and that he disappeared "years ago". The filligree texts were set in etherium "several dedcades ago", and the Seekers of Carmot arose... eh... "recently". All pretty vague, though it does prove that etherium is relatively recent, certainly no centuries old. I'm not sure that information became well known though. When checking the Visual Guide to see if it said anything about the sundering I spotted a reference to sangrite being the ingredient the Esperites missed "for centuries".

We finally get a specific date in the Naya section, when we're told that 15 years ago Progenitus began to wake up in what was called the Second Stirring. No idea what the First Stirring was. Perhaps him trying to end the world in the myth of Cylia? The elves believe that "only the close connection of the Anima and quick sacrifices kept Progenitus under the ground". Perhaps this had something to do with Alara beginning to be reunited, but we wont get any more information about this.

I like to think these dates suggest that Crucius started his etherium project in response to the Mending, and that the Second Stirring was an indication that Alara began reuniting, perhaps thanks to Curcius's work? But that is really just speculation based on stuff happening around roughly the same time.

In the planeswalkers section we also get some specific dates. 

• Elspeth ascended at 13, was a squire in Valeron at 17, and was knighted at 20. This will be contradicted in Alara Unbroken and than made even more complicated in Theros: Godsend. We'll have to see if we can untangle her history at some later point.
• Sarkhan reached Jund "after many years of travel" and stayed there "for nearly two years." 
• That doesn't mean much if you don't know when this guide supposedly takes place of course. Luckily Ajani is described as he is a number of chapters into Alara Unbroken, suggesting this is describing the shards right before the Conflux begins.