The Seeker's Fall

 

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 said teacher instead.

Part two: Tezz is a Seeker now, but he's still looked down upon for coming from the Tidehollow ghetto. He fights his way into the Seeker's inner sanctum to learn the secret of creating etherium, only to discover it's all a scam. He's caught and stabbed, but his spark flares and he ends up on Grixis.

Part three: Eh... he fights through a bunch of Grixis monsters before finally running into Nicol Bolas, who tells Tezz to kneel as his servant.

REVIEW

The webcomics continue to be pretty sweet, even if they're only trailers for other stories. I am running out of stuff to say about them though... The art is still good, even if these specific styles are not my personal favorites. And the story is just very slight by design, pointing you to the novels for more.

In this case the novel it was released alongside with is Agents of Artifice, which features Tezzeret as its main antagonist. There we got only a single paragraph on his origin, which lines up pretty will with part two of this comic. In AoA he says he eventually learned Bolas was the secret master of the Seekers and then stole the Infinite Consortium from him as a form of revenge. The Planeswalker's Guide's description of Tezz fits somewhere in between, as it states he's still seeking who is behind the Seekers. Which puts paid to the idea of the Guide happening at a specific point, as its description of Ajani fits halfway through Alara Unbroken, years after Tezzeret stole the Consortium.

The real novel linked to this comic isn't any previously released source though, but Test of Metal, which will expand on Tezz's origin and feature Silas Renn as a character. That story is a continuity minefield though, so I'd really have to re-read it before comparing it to the events here, and as it wasn't released until a year and a half after The Seeker's Fall, we're not going to be covering it for a while. But expect me to return to this comic at some later point.

If you know, you know

For now though, while part two covers events we already knew, part one is entirely new, fleshing out Tezzeret's youth a little and making him just a bit more sympathetic while keeping him as the ruthless bastard we know. Chapter three is a bit of a let down in terms of content. It's neat enough on its own, and I like how it is initially unclear if the narration is Tezzeret's thoughts or not, but really all that happens is Tezz having some silent fights with random monsters, and then Bolas making his grand entrance. I'd be more interested in seeing the relationship between those two while Tezzeret worked for Bolas before stealing the Consortium from him. Or even that theft itself, and the trigger of Tezzeret learning the truth about the Seekers!

For what it is though, it's a nice addition to the canon.

CONTINUITY & TIMELINE

The main point of comparison will have to wait till the Test of Metal review. I'll just note here that this is the first of the "Nicol Bolas hangs around in the background" webcomics. We'll see more of those.

About the timeline, for now I'm just going to stick all of it at "Years before 4556" alongside the first part of Flight of the White Cat. I know Test of Metal gives some ages for various events in Tezz's life, perhaps we can tie that together with his age in the Visual Guide ("early 40's") to get a bit more specific in due time.