Because I'm bored, I decided to create a post introducing the Magic story for whenever an OT topic is created for details about the presumably still upcoming Magic movie.
The General Story
Welcome to the Multiverse! There exist multiple worlds that exist side by side in different dimensions, known as
planes, and each plane is as different as night is from the day. One plane is incredibly tiny, where a leviathan that is far larger than a blue whale on that world is no bigger than an elephant on another. One plane is entirely covered by a single city, which is ruled by ten guilds. Some planes are ruled by the whims of capricious gods. All of them, however, have a form of magical energy known as
mana, generated from bonds to the land, that can be channeled into powerful magic.
Usually, all of these planes are mutually unaware of each other, but there are some special beings with the unique ability to safely travel between them, known as
planeswalkers. They aren't, by nature, any stronger than a typical wizard, but the ability to create mana bonds with land in different worlds and learn spells from all over the Multiverse puts them a step above everyone else.*
You can find several official stories in the world of Magic: the Gathering
here.
*= In the past, Planeswalkers were, in fact, significantly stronger than typical wizards by nature, but that has since changed. This will be explained a bit later.
What is Magic: the Gathering, the game?
Magic: the Gathering is a Trading Card Game, the first of its kind, developed by Richard Garfield and his playtesters for the gaming company Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game quickly became a big hit, and after some hurdles, it is currently bigger than it ever has been.
In the standard game, you and your opponent play the role of dueling Planeswalkers, using customized 60-card decks made up of your spells, the creatures you can summon, your mana bonds with lands, and even other Planeswalkers you can call in to help out. Whoever can get his or her opponent down to 0 life, from a start of 20, wins, and your rival Planeswalker flees to fight another day, although there are various alternative ways to triumph.
There are other popular formats, including limited, where you are given a collection of various cards and have to build a 40-card deck then and there before getting to the actual matches; and commander, where everyone has 99-card decks and a separate "commander" card (for a total of 100), with its own set of rules in addition to the normal ones.
For those who want to start out, it is recommended that you check out the Duels of the Planeswalkers video games, which offer tutorials and AI opponents to face, so you can fail in the privacy of your own home. As for the physical game, it indeed can be an expensive hobby (it isn't called "cardboard crack" for nothing), but if you can keep yourself under control and make sure you actually have people you can play your cards with, it should be worth it. There is also a Magic Online application, but let's just say they could really learn a lot from Hearthstone.
The Colors of Magic
There are five colors of magic, each of which has mana tied to a different kind of land. Each color has different spells and creatures affiliated with it, but also interestingly, each follows a different philosophy, which I personally find to be one of the most intriguing aspects of Magic: the Gathering. Each color favors two other colors (the ones next to it on the above chart) and has two other colors that it disfavors (the ones across from it).
This tension between colors, known informally as the color pie, can be used to describe a great many conflicts in stories. Some people have even credited the color pie with helping them with their stories, by allowing them to better understand what is motivating their characters and what they are conflicting about. The current head designer of Magic, Mark Rosewater, has written a great deal about the colors. Articles specifically about this from 2008 and before can be found
here, and his newer articles on that topic and much more can be found
here.
White
White mana is tied with Plains, and is affiliated with order, societies that benefit as many as possible, organized religion, organized armies, helping those in need, and law. Typically, this leaves white as the default good color, but one man's justice can be another's tyranny. White is allied with green and blue, favoring the former's sense of community and desire for everyone to have a place in the world, and the latter's ability to improve the world. White is enemies with black and red, disapproving of the former's amorality and the latter's desire for freedom at any cost. White mana is affiliated with humans (though they appear in every color), cat-humans known as leonin, soldiers, clerics, and angels, among others.
Blue
Blue mana is tied with Islands, and is affiliated with learning, continuous improvement, the belief that everyone starts as a blank slate and can become anything they want to be if they try hard enough, education, trickery, and meritocracies, in addition to elemental associations with the air and sea. Blue is often good or neutral, but its tendency to dick around with those it deems inferior and run experiments regardless of the consequences sometimes places it in a villain role. Blue is allied with white and black, favoring the orderly society of the former, and the focus on individual improvement and lack of restrictions of the latter. Blue is enemies with green and red, disapproving of the former's fatalism and desire to keep the status quo, and the latter's irrationality. Blue mana is affiliated with merfolk, wizards, sea creatures, flying birds, faeries, djinn, and sphinxes, among others.
Black
Black mana is tied with Swamps, and is affiliated with amorality (it doesn't believe in good and evil), focusing on your own needs above everything else, taking advantage of others, death, undeath, social darwinism, capitalism, and self-confidence. As you might expect, black is typically evil, but many anti-heroes are black; black is fully capable of being friendly and even loving (if it's in its own best interest); and black will help save the world if it's the world that black lives in. Black is allied with blue and red, favoring the former's intelligence and ability to ignore morals, and the latter's hatred of rules. Black is enemies with white and green, disapproving of how the former takes an already difficult existence and then proceeds to make it even harder with restrictions and forced morality (though black will gladly take advantage of those adhering to this system), and how the latter doesn't care much for the individual and wants to keep the status quo. Black mana is affiliated with zombies, vampires, assassins, clerics, wizards, and demons.
Red
Red mana is tied with Mountains, and is affiliated with listening to your emotions, freedom, rage, loyalty, acting on impulse, trickery, living in the now, passionate love, and artistry (though as an action game, those last two rarely show up on cards), along with elemental associations with fire, stone, and lightning. Red appears equally often as a hero and a villain, covering both the hotheaded hero that fights for friendship and the mindless brute. Red is allied with black and green, favoring the former's lack of restrictions and encouragement to accept who you are, and the latter's belief in acting on your instincts and desire to live and let live. Red is enemies with white and blue, disapproving of the restrictions the former places on everyone, and the latter's tendency to reject emotions and generally be agitating. Red mana is affiliated with goblins, ogres, minotaurs, shamans, warriors, and dragons.
Green
Green mana is tied with Forests, and is affiliated with nature, destiny, the idea that everything has a place in the world, patience, growth, life, instinct, reverence of the past, wisdom, and viewing things in the long term. Of all the colors, this is probably the most difficult to understand as it applies to a sapient individual, but heroes of destiny and their mentors tend to have at least some green in them. Green is allied with white and red, favoring the former's desire to keep the peace and the latter's tendency to listen to its heart. Green is enemies with blue and black, disapproving of how both mess with the world and others on large scales but lack perspective on the long term; but green is the color that most accepts that its enemies have a purpose. Green mana is affiliated with elves, treefolk, beasts in general, shamans, druids, wurms, and hydras.
Ongoing Storylines
Each year of Magic will develop and wrap up storylines set on particular worlds, but there are also larger stories that cover multiple planes.
Nicol Bolas
Long ago, the Planeswalkers were far more powerful than they are now, being able to create entire planes on their own and living nearly immortal lives. But still, this was not enough for the elder dragon Planeswalker Nicol Bolas, who strove to achieve true immortality and infinite power. But then came
The Mending, where the very nature of the Planeswalker ability was changed and Nicol Bolas suddenly found himself significantly weaker. He was still immensely powerful, but now he was even further away from his goal than before, which agitated him, to say the least. Regardless, he has plans within plans spanning multiple worlds, Planeswalker underlings, the willingness and ability to bring about the destruction of an entire plane just to further one of his plans by a bit, and the patience to let things develop on their own for centuries until the time is right to act.
The Eldrazi
Before mana even developed distinct colors, the Eldrazi came into existence, born in the gaps between planes. Like Planeswalkers, they are able to travel between worlds, but they devour every one that they come across. There appear to be swarms of Eldrazi, but in fact, there are only three extradimensional ones whose projections into the third dimension appear as distinct beings. Before the Mending, three Planeswalkers were able to seal them into the plane of Zendikar: the vampire Sorin Markov, the kor lithomancer Nahiri, and the spirit dragon Ugin. The Eldrazi laid there dormant for thousands of years, until they were awakened through the machinations of Bolas and are now roaming freely. As Sorin travels to reunite those who once sealed the Eldrazi, other Planeswalkers also travel to warn others and possibly find a way to fight back.
Phyrexia
Long ago, before the Mending, there existed an evil empire that corrupted everything it touched, called Phyrexia. Over the course of thousands of years, the Planeswalker Urza led the fight against them. He died in the end, but his creation, Karn the silver golem, and the hero Gerrard brought an end to Phyrexia once and for all... or so they thought. After Phyrexia's defeat, Karn became a Planeswalker and created his own plane that came to be known as Mirrodin. What he didn't realize was that he was carrying some of Phyrexia's glistening oil, which he had transferred to Mirrodin in turn, and over the course of centuries, the oil corrupted more and more, merging flesh and metal to create monstrosities to further the infection. By the time the people of Mirrodin noticed what was happening, it was too late. Mirrodin was turned into New Phyrexia. Thankfully, Phyrexians are incapable of becoming Planeswalkers, and Planeswalkers can't be infected by Phyrexia, but there is evidence that Phyrexia is already present on planes other than Mirrodin somehow.
Garruk and Liliana
Long ago, the Planeswalker necromancer Liliana Vess made a deal with demons on various worlds in order to gain more power, and she got it, but she didn't like the idea of being stuck in deals with such untrustworthy partners. But then, she discovered the Chain Veil, an artifact of great power--enough power to allow her to kill them. Liliana thus set out on a journey to do just that, but the Chain Veil may be costing her more than the demons would have. On the way, Liliana angered another Planeswalker named Garruk, a powerful hunter, and tested the power of the Chain Veil on him when he attacked. The Chain Veil turned Garruk into a mad killer, hunting every other Planeswalker he came across, and right before he started turning into a demon, the corrupting influence of the veil was halted by INSERT PLAYER NAME (this happened in a video game), but he's still not cured.
