Shandalar (comic)

Shandalar was a comic published by ARMADA in two volumes (March and April 1996). It preceded the Microprose game that used the same setting and became known under the same name.
==Overview==
Title 	Author 	Publishing date 	Set 	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Shandalar #1-2	David Quinn	March - April 1996	Ice Age	Shandalar 	Faralyn, Tevesh Szat, Leshrac, Lim-Dûl, Kenan Sahrmal, Bani Bakur, Ravash Mog
==Volume 1: Exiles In The Promised Land==
The Broken Barrens of Shandalar
Having escaped from Shard of the Twelve Worlds, the planeswalker Faralyn has arrived on Shandalar, a plane that is incredibly rich in mana. Drunk with power, the archmage shapes a storm of lava in vainglorious totems representing Tevesh Szat, Leshrac, and Lim-Dûl. He mocks them for trying to betray him and claims Shandalar for his own.
On Shandalar, folks say "In the healer's hands, poison is a cure". Unknowingly, Faralyn is about to receive the wisdom of the phrase's antithesis: he is no healer - but he drinks deeply of potent poison!
A curious Astral dragon winks into being, a creature composed of the purest mana, the "living energy" of Shandalar. Overwhelmed, every ward and evasion that Faralyn had taken from the shard is forgotten. He tries to burn the creature, but it feeds him mana in return. The dragon declares that he was sent to see if Faralyn's arrival merited his creator's attention. He now finds that Faralyn is little more than noise for Kenan Sahrmal. It fills Faralyn with mana until the wizards can't take it anymore and explodes in a rainbow of colors.
An emaciated Leshrac has been watching from afar and remarks that Faralyn's denouement is sweet and fitting and that his dominion was indeed limited by his imagination. Leshrac notices that wizards are not that special on Shandalar and that they have to rely here on their brains as well. He places a ward on himself, to warn him of the arrival of Tevesh Szat or any other planeswalker. He vows to defeat Kenan Sahrmal and conquer Shandalar for his own. He regards it as the promised land and sets out to find worshipers.
Later in the dusky heart of the Shadowwood
The dark elves of the forest are confronted by human zombies for the first time in their lives. They are overwhelmed and preparing to make a last stand. At the last moment, they receive help from above. The duel sisters Bani Bakur and Ravash Mog arrive on flying seahorses and smite the zombies with their enchanted weapons. Red-haired Ravash wonders why Bani's mythical Kenan Sahrmal hero hadn't foreseen this threat and hadn't shown up in person to save the day. Dark-haired Bani admonishes her and tells her to keep faith in Sahrmal and his Book of Rings. As they are cleaning up the last remnants of the zombies, Bani is spooked by a swarm of bats. Ravash notices how Bani has been acting strangely lately, as if everything is a game to her, unfazed by walking corpses but scared by flying rodents. She leads her sister back to the city founded by Sahrmal, burnished-towered Ardestan.
Ardestan
Within the rune-warded walls of Ardestan, some would whisper of worlds not chronicles in Sahrmal's Book of Rings, worlds uncivilized, where the people are not one with the mana of their land. In Ardestan, porters, vintners, and artisans alike are making use of magic for everyday chores. But when the duel sisters arrive in the city, Bani notices that something has changed, as if some alien influence has corrupted the mana currents. As the sisters warn the citizens to be careful with their magic, Ravash again notices the need for Sahrmal to take back control. Bani says that he has been absent for twelve years, but that he listens to prayers whispered at the mouth of the catacombs.
El-Aman
Twelve weeks after his arrival, Leshrac wanders through the desert in search of strong magic to challenge Kenan Sahrmal. The ward on his chest warns him of the arrival of Tevesh Szat who arrives from Dominaria together with Lim-Dûl. Leshrac warns his fellow planeswalker that Shandalar is protected by a powerful guardian and that the mana of this world wreaks havoc with their usual rites and with their bodies. They find that Lim-Dûl has become entombed in stone upon his arrival. The necromancer pleads for help and offers his help to study the world. Leshrac scoffs at him, because all the powerful artifacts that Lim-Dûl had collected are still back at his keep back on Dominaria, and he only has his zombies to aid him. Crawling out of the stone, Lim-Dûl admits that even his zombies on the plane have escaped his control. Wroth, Leshrac conjures an immense fire spell and seemingly obliterates the necromancer. Szat notices that Leshrac has become noticeably stronger on this plane and flees away.
The Catacombs of Shandalar
Lim-Dûl appears in the Catacombs unscathed. The necromancer who had groveled at Leshrac's feet and perished in flames was just one of Shandalar's mana manifestations. The real Lim-Dûl has acquired the ability to travel through Shandalar's stoney mantle, and the planes sing to him with dozens more secrets to learn. He feels the arrival of humans, who seek a savior out of legend they have never seen in the flesh, and changes his visage into that of a mysterious crone called Magus. As Baki and Ravash enter the Catacombs, they meet Magus and are led to believe that it is Kenan Sahrmal in disguise. As they bow to the crone, Magus asks for their help to battle invading planeswalkers.
A pleasant meadow beside a bubbling stream
Tevesh Szat is reminded of Sarpadia before the Empires fell. He remembers his sister and thinks she would have recommended forgetting the past and starting afresh. He decides this is impossible because all pleasure perished when he let Tymolin die. In his mind, Shandalar would be faultless only when it's covered in ice. Just like Dominaria.
El-Aman
Leshrac conjures a vision of Kenan Sahrmal in his flames and wonders why the protector of Shandalar hasn't shown himself yet.
The Catacombs
Wielding the Jester's Cap to discover their weaknesses, Magus commands the duel sisters to raise an army. When they question his need for an army, he distracts them with an attack of giant bats that he says are sent by Tevesh Szat. While Bani is crippled by her abject fear of bats, Ravash tries to spring into action. But Ravash's secret fear is paralysis in the heat of battle, and Lim-Dûl exploits that fear by casting a <c>Mind Whip</c> on her. Ravash slips on the edge of a precipice and falls to her death. Feeling Ravash's death is her fault and cursing Sahrmal for his inaction, Bani swears to find Tevesh Szat and kill him.
Secretly touched by Bani's determination, Lim-Dûl wishes her good luck. Unbeknownst to the necromancer, he is watched by Sarmahl himself from the back of the catacombs. The ears of the protector still sting from the bitter words of his waylaid acolyte. He thinks that maybe Bani was right and that the "great" Sahrmal always casts spells from hiding because he is not a man you'd want watching your back.
==Volume 2: The Threshold==
At the Eastern Sea coast
Three weeks ago, Bani Bakur vowed to destroy the planeswalkers who had invaded her homeworld and corrupted its living mana. Continuing their hope that Magus is Kenan Sahrmal, she and her allies fight Tevesh Szat in the desert. Still stung by the death of her duel-sister, her lust for vengeance is real. But so is the consummate passion for destruction of Szat, who now calls himself World-Ender. Although Szat is deflecting all death-chant attacks, he is struggling to control the living mana of the plane. He now believes that some local hero has aided Leshrac in his "mana-mastery" and vows to kill that person. Unbeknownst to both sides, the real Kenan Sahrmal is watching their fight in his astral form.
None of this is concealed to the malignant <c>Clairvoyance</c> of a third interloper ... Lim-Dûl. Still stung by the betrayal of Leshrac and Tevesh-Szat, he plans to trick Kenan Sahrmal into attacking the two intruding planeswalkers. After the inescapable defeat of Sahrmal, he plans to assume the leadership of Shandalar and to invade Dominaria to take his revenge on the Knights of Kjeldor. First, he creates <c>Manabarbs</c> and attacks Szat. Seeing that Szat is weakened, Sahrmal joins the fight and sends <c>Fire Sprites</c> into the fray. While Szat is busy with the Sprites, Bani's soldiers decide to strike. Unfortunately for them, Szat's power is formidable even if his concentration is divided. Arrows fly through the air and hit their mark. Szat turns onto Anthanor and casts a <c>Essence Vortex</c>. The spell completely devours the soldier. Szat then casts <c>Winter's Chill</c>, a spell he brought with him from Dominaria's Ice Age, and is on the brink of wiping out the remaining soldiers.
This is the moment that Sahrmal unveils his mortal form. Before Bani can move in for the final confrontation, he holds her and her guerillas at bay with a protective spell. Szat takes advantage of the moment and stuns Sahrmal with <c>Infernal Darkness</c>. The demonic planeswalker continues to hurt himself with these spells, but it looks to him like it is do-or-die at this point. As Bani watches the events unfolding, she wonders if Sahrmal is following his own Book of Rings, Which learns that indirect assault may triumph where direct assault fails. Right after, she begins to despair as Szat prepares to kill Sahrmal.
Then Leshrac returns to not only put Szat in his place but to wake him up because Lim-Dûl is still alive and is the one sapping his strength with the manabarbs. Szat releases the Infernal Darkness and reacts as expected - he blasts Leshrac with <c>Lava Burst</c> for letting Lim-Dûl get away. While Leshrac and Szat bicker, Sahrmal makes good his escape while casting a spell of <c>Whimsy</c>. This puts . Disgusted, and frustrated with Shandalar's bizarre mana, Szat and Leshrac make a hasty retreat.
With only Sahrmal remaining, Lim-Dûl decides to launch his final gambit. Sahrmal thinks ahead and frees Bani and her renegades, hoping to strike a blow in his favor. Unfortunately for him, Lim-Dûl is even more clever. As Bani's blow comes down, the necromancer uses a <c>Mirror Universe</c> spell with Kenan Sahrmal. The shock of suddenly being in Lim-Dûl's body causes Sahrmal a moment of hesitation, enough to allow Bani to slice off his head. Meanwhile, the body of Sahrmal with Lim-Dûl's essence fades away.
After her Ravish Mog's funeral, Lim-Dûl once more tries to trick Bani into thinking that he is Sahrmal returned, but Bani has lost all faith in planeswalkers and now finally heeds Ravash's words that idols are best admired at arm's length. The rejected Lim-Dûl spends the next dozen years in mustering and of , , , , , and . Then his attack on Ardestan begins.
==Covers==
Cover art illustrated by Zina Saunders.
File:Shandalar 1.jpg|Volume 1
File:Shandalar 2.jpg|Volume 2
==External link==
*
Category:ARMADA Comics