Distant Planes

Distant Planes is one of the two prerevisionist Magic anthologies. It was first published by HarperPrism in June 1996.Goodreads. Distant Planes entry Retrieved 27 June 2014. Authors include Robert Vardeman, Amy Thomson, and Michael A. Stackpole. The book was edited by Kathy Ice. The anthology describes a diverse set of characters, time periods and settings, although most of the stories are set on Dominaria.
==Blurb==
Each of the compelling stories in this collection opens a door into a place called Dominia, well known to players of the internationally bestselling game, MAGIC: The Gathering. But even newcomers to this enchanted universe will be spellbound by the unstoppable excitement of a world where the action and the magic never stop.
Over one billion MAGIC: The Gathering cards have been sold.
==Overview==
Title 	Author 	Publishing date	Set 	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Distant Planes	Kathy Ice and various	June 1996 	Fourth Edition	Dominaria 	Grover, Loot Niptil, Sopti Borth, Kyyrao Grrenmw, Windgrace (mentioned), Malkean Feorr, Vlorik, N'ciczli, Haspian Chastoril, Gormank, Boxx, Dolores, Eorra, Frenna, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, Vincent, Peter Langwynd, Vram, Mao, Peft, Vetro, Dobeh, Mendil, Ladric, Ruannon, Alandrah, Nimbys, Ingvik, Firal, Dovroder, Rafthrasa, Gillmin, Grex, Milos, Torya Longshanks, Rogan, Jess, Delly, Lacjsi (mentioned), Mairsil (mentioned), Ith (mentioned), Leaf, Shade, Busjaw, Kruuna, Helana, Koborah, Rorsa, Gohrah, Illith, Gerheart, Boris Devilboon (mentioned), Somilar, Verus, Kinekin, Kalin, Spenggra, Kebwin, Teeka, Andros, Gospor, Hendron, Xavis, Hamu, Ikenet, Makura, Malanai, Herhoona, Uharoo, Arnam, Huharna, Amahu, Joerrin, Thirran, Vacu, Farnip, Garrac, Shen, Spirokai, Ophelia, Teeth, Cleatin, Methos, D'Bray, Markus
==Featured artwork==
Insufficient Evidence.jpg|Insufficient Evidence: The Justiciar of Automatown and the cameo featuring Loot Niptil's face.
Festival of Sorrow.jpg|Festival of Sorrow: Gormank and Boxx's ghoul in the Coraleon cemetary.
Chef's Surprise.jpg|Chef's Surprise: Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar and her <c>Drudge Skeletons</c> and <c>Bog Imp</c> kitchen aides.
Foulmere.jpg|Foulmere: Peter Langwynd, Vram, and Mao see the Big Bog Frog in Foulmere.
Rafethrasa.jpg|God Sins: Rafthrasa meets the worshipping brothers Firal and Dovroder and chases them away.
A Monstrous Duty.jpg|A Monstrous Duty: Torya Longshanks meets the healer as she buries her family in front of her burned-out home.
What Leaf Learned of Goblins.jpg|What Leaf Learned of Goblins: in Savaea, the goblin Busjaw cowers as he shows the rock of parlay.
Dual Loyalties.jpg|Dual Loyalties: Helana in her worshipping ritual, the Sun above and the Moon below.
Distant Armies.jpg|Distant Armies: Kebwin and Somilar and their dream alter-egos.
Better Mousetrap.jpg|Better Mousetrap: Teeka and some of her creations, the Copper Falcon, The Silver Courser, the Gold Falcon, and <c>Teeka's Dragon</c>.
The Face of the Enemy.jpg|The Face of the Enemy: Xavis looks out on the battlefield from his ruined castle.
Horn Dancer.jpg|Horn Dancer: The Hurloon minotaur Hamu, and Ikenet with her daughter Malanai.
Shen Mage-Slayer.jpg|Shen Mage-Slayer: Shen telling the story of Joerrin to a cat warrior cub.
Defender.jpg|Defender: The <c>Granite Gargoyle</c> wakes up in Binyen.
The Old Way to Vacar Slab.jpg|The Old Way to Vacar Slab: Spirokai transporting the Abuser, while Ophelia and Methos look on.
==Stories==
*Insufficient Evidence, by Michael A. Stackpole
** 4100 AR, Red Iron Mountains - Loot Niptil gets framed for the murder of the inventor Sopti Borth, and has to prove his innocence via trial by combat against an automaton, the Justiciar of Automatown. He learns that the killer is Haspian Chastoril, the forger who built the Justiciar. Loot, Kyyrao Grrenmw, and the town's marshal Malkean Feorr manage to defeat the construct and bring Haspian to justice.
*Festival of Sorrow, by Robert E. Vardeman
** 4100 AR, Cape Tempest - The ogre Gormank travels with a <c>Benalish Hero</c> to the city of Coraleon in North Aerona. There he wants the wizard Boxx to resurrect the elvish woman Eorra. Unfortunately, Coraleon's Festival of Sorrow is going on, and the Lady of Sorrow, Dolores forbids the use of magic for the duration of the festival. An oracle has foretold Gormank he has to do the resurrection within that day though, or Eorra will be lost to the grave forever. Gormank finds Boxx's <c>Scavenging Ghoul</c>, who brings the ogre to the wizard. It turns out that Boxx is indeed a box, or at least uses a box as a stand-in for his own body. Gormank bribes the wizard's box with a magical amulet and promises to fight Dolores if necessary to proceed with the plan. The ogre, the ghoul, and the box travel to the cemetery, eventually finding Eorra's grave and fending off the inquisitive Dolores. Boxx resurrects Eorra, but she is severely weakened from being dead for almost a week. It turns out that Eorra was the only person to ever best Gormank in combat, and she even did it twice - so Gormank wants to kill her personally to reclaim his honor, as someone else had stolen that from him when they killed Eorra in combat. But in her post-dead state, she's barely able to speak, let alone fight. Gormank, who had boasted he never feels sorrow, can now never restore his honor. Dolores shows up again and reveals that she let the resurrection ritual commence without interfering despite the active use of magic during the festival, as she had seen into Gormank's soul and knew that the result would crush him. She walks off triumphantly, and Gormank dejectedly joins the Festival of Sorrow in his grief over the failed ritual.
 
*Chef's Surprise, by Sonia Orin Lyris 
** 4100 AR, an unnamed tavern in Dominaria - Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar is a female wizard who summons a Lord of the Pit named Vincent, but runs out of creatures to feed it. Being a great cook, she escapes being eaten by entering his service as a chef for seven years and seven days. During this time, she wrote The Underworld Cookbook and has twenty copies made. Because only two copies were sold across the 1000 hells in five months, she orders two imps to burn the remaining copies. However, the line to the incinerator is too long, so they instead use a garbage chute that leads to the overworld, where the book becomes incredibly popular among humans, dwarves, elves and goblins, none of which are used as ingredients in the book. After her time is up, Vincent proposes to marry her, but she turns him down, and he releases her to the overworld as promised. She is finally free, only to find herself hunted by all the creatures she describes as delicious in the book.
*Foulmere, by Stonefeather Grubbs
** 1600 AR, Foulmere - The Naturalist Dr. Peter Langwynd is a sorcerer who has become a hermit in the Fens of Foulmere, to escape people at his academy in Akkat asking him for ways to use his magical studies in commerce or warfare. One day he is visited by the planeswalker Vram who does just that. Peter takes Vram and his cat Mao to a Big Bog Frog that Vram wishes to use in battles, but they are attacked by another planeswalker. During the battle, Vram turns into a violet-haired yellow-skinned woman, and Mao turns into a violet-haired yellow-skinned girl. They are Dobéhma, a cursed race of female-only spellcasters that originated in Sarpadia. Vram blows up the swamp and is sent hurtling through the multiverse, expelled from the plane, while Peter is stuck with Mao. They and the dwarf Ingvik and the gnome Peft are the only apparent survivors of the battle, and the bog itself has turned from a vibrant marsh full of life to a horrid black peat bog of shambling undead.
*God Sins, by Keith R.A. DeCandido 
** 4100 AR, Kartya - Rafthrasa is a planeswalker who wants to live a simple life as a mortal farmer on Kartya, the island of his birth. Because he once ruled the place as a god-emperor, people continue to treat him as such, invading his farm and asking for his words of prophecy and his aid. After a long struggle where Rafthrasa gathers an increasingly large crowd outside the farm, repeatedly chasing them away or killing them, he eventually gets them to leave him alone by helping them get rid of the famine and beetle infestation plaguing the island. 
*A Monstrous Duty, by Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury 
** 425 AR, Angremur - During the Dark Age, the farmer Torya Longshanks who was recruited as a soldier in a war against the goblins of the Flarg is burying her family by her burnt-out farmhouse. Her family - her father and two younger sisters - were all killed by raiding goblins while Torya was away in the war. A healer shows up and bites Torya's hand, using her blood to cast a curse on king Rogan of Angremur, whose failed crusade roused the Flarg into pillaging the countryside. The healer is instantly struck by a <c>Lightning Bolt</c>, blowing her to bits and sealing the curse. Torya decides to enlist again, and on the way to the citadel of Angremur, she hears it is under attack from some monster. Upon reaching the city, she learns that the wound the healer gave her won't be cured until she lifts the curse cast with her blood. Rogan is far younger than Torya thought, barely a man, and has more humility and humanity than she'd imagined. She is assigned to be a bodyguard in his chamber, and at night, the terrible monster attacks his chamber. She attacks it and scrapes her hand on its rough scales. Suddenly, the attack is over, and the king is lying on the floor with blood on his back. It turns out that the curse involved Rogan changing into the monster each night due to the curse, which Torya now has ended. She stays to help the king become a good ruler, and he welcomes her.
*What Leaf Learned of Goblins, by Hanovi Braddock
** 4180 AR, Savaea - The elves of Savaea are disturbed by a series of single goblins from the Red Mountains entering their woods, each carrying a single rock glyph. When the elder Leaf interrogates one of these goblins, a groveling male named Busjaw, it turns out that each of the goblins had been sent as messengers asking for help from the elves on behalf of their chieftess, Kruuna. Leaf agrees to travel to the <c>goblin warrens</c> to parlay with Kruuna. Krunna shows Leaf an <c>Ivory Cup</c> to stay immortal, which she had been using to stay immortal, but it is no longer filled with white mana. Lead explains that the destruction of Oneah also caused the cup to no longer work, as that nation's spellcasters are gone. Leaf then offers to take the chief to Savaea and tries to teach her the wisdom of accepting the cycle of life and death. This fails horribly and the goblin clubs Leaf's head, cracking her skull. The elves immediately shoot Kruuna full of arrows, killing her on the spot. With her last words, Leaf tells her elf friends what she learned: Not all may know wisdom - goblins should not be filled with arrows without a thought. Goblins should be pitied. Then with arrows.
*Dual Loyalties, by Glen Vasey
** 4100 AR, unknown plane - A sun priest called Koborah is about to be summoned by a planeswalker called Gerheart, so he quickly has to teach his adopted daughter Helana how to be the next priest of their parish. However, he is whisked away before being able to tell her the use of all the magic Sun-stones in possession of the church. Finding a special prismatic Sun-stone that allows her to track her father to the plane where he was summoned, Helana meets the demon Illith. Illith tells her that her father has been taken down to Hell, and they go together. They are attacked repeatedly by various bandits and undead. Yet Helana seems to be guided by some unseen hand and trades the precious Sun-stones for trophies from the enemies she defeats. In the end, she and Illith trick the servants of the Archduke of that part of Hell to releasing her father, and just as the Archduke is about to cast a devastating spell to kill her, she brings them back to their plane, and the Archduke's spell misfires, blasting his palace apart and killing him and most of his servants. Although Helana succeeded in her mission, it was led covertly by Gohrah, the goddess of the dark half of the Moon, and this caused Helana to pick up much black magic during her journey. She has gone from a pure Sun worshipper into one that is half-dark, just like the Moon itself. She has to give up her priesthood and walk away from her father and parish, although her father still loves her. At least she is joined on her trip by Rorsa, her winged dog, and also finds a stone that enables contact with Illith, who gladly offers her his services in the future.
*Distant Armies, by Peter Friend
**7500 AR or later, Ironclaw Hills - In a potential future, the children in the Ironclaw Hills start dreaming of war 3000 years in the past, where the merfolk of the islands and the Benalish from the plains make war on the races of the mountains - orcs, goblins, dwarves and centaurs. The children start temporarily vanishing during sleep and waking up bruised and battered. Kalin's orcish daughter Somilar and Spenggra's dwarven son Kebwin are among those afflicted. In their dreams, they are adults fighting actively in the war, and their wounds carry on into waking. They talk about some woman whose life is worth saving, no matter the cost. Eventually, the strange dreaming stops, but by then Somilar is catatonic and Kebwin is dead.
*Better Mousetrap, by Jane M. Lindskold 
** 4100 AR, Teeka's Shop of Wonders - Teeka is a talented artificer, who has created her 'Shop of Wonders' in the K'Cur Mountains of Cape Tempest. She notices that some of her creations have been vanishing and mysteriously reappearing with minor battle wounds sometime later. It turns out that they have been summoned by warring wizards. In reaction, she builds her masterpiece: <c title="a guardian dragon">Teeka's Dragon</c> to protect her other works and to find out who is taking them. The dragon eventually follows another artifact creature and returns with many battle scars and a note that reads “How much to lease this dragon?”
*The Face of the Enemy. by Adam-Troy Castro
** 4100 AR, Viroscek - The wizard Xavis has fought another wizard for 10 million years and laid waste to the entire landscape around them. One day, a lone artifact creature approaches Xavis's castle, delivering a message. The message tells Xavis that his opponent has yielded. Curious, Xavis rides to his opponent's crumbling castle, where the withered old man reveals to Xavis that he has created Xavis himself, and the almost-endless battle had been intended to turn him into the perfect spellcaster to fight his creator's true enemy. After his creator dies, Xavis rides off across the charred but slowly recovering plain, while his true enemy waits far away.
*Horn Dancer, by Amy Thomson 
** 4100 AR, Hurloon - The <c>Hurloon Minotaur</c> Hamu finds a wounded, pregnant human named Ikenet in the snow of the Hurloon mountains. He takes her in and cares for her, and they become friends. She is an acrobat from a wandering troupe who was expelled when she became pregnant with their ringleader's child. She teaches him how to dance, tends to his home, and brews tea. He provides her with food and shelter, and luxurious rock gazelle clothing. During the annual contest between the males, Ikenet performs together with him, earning the Great Mother Makura's favor and much adoration from the crowd. However, the wrestling contest held to decide which male gets to breed with the most desirable woman is won by the arrogant Herhoona, who earlier injured Hamu and threatened Ikenet. Despite Herhoona's victory, Makura chooses Hamu as her Consort once again, even allowing Hamu to meet his son Amahu. Herhoona is enraged at this insult and charges Makura, but is tackled down by other males and executed by one of the Grandmothers for endangering a Mother and her child. Ikenet eventually leaves Hurloon but is asked to bring other Horn Dancers back so that the new tradition can continue. 
*Shen Mage-Slayer, by Laura Waterman 
** 4100 AR, unknown location - The cat warriors of Shen's tribe encounter a lone human woman who appears outside their home. Her name is Joerrin, and she is eventually brought into the tribe, living with them for a time. Suddenly, a lone man appears, and without saying a word, Joerrin leaves the tribe to go with the man. Curious, Shen follows them and becomes witness to the humans fighting in a duel. During the battle, Joerrin keeps summoning illusory versions of each cat warrior from Shen's tribe and uses them in the fight against her opponent. Her opponent wins eventually, and each of the phantasmal cat warriors is killed brutally, but this does not affect the real cat warriors of the tribe. Afterward, a story spreads that both mages were killed, and Shen was the one responsible for killing the enemy mage, earning her the name "Mage-Slayer". Shen tries to deny this story and present the real version of events, but the Mage-Slayer title sticks.
*Defender, by Edd Vick
** 4100 AR, Muraytt Mountains - In the abandoned city of Binyen, a <c>Granite Gargoyle</c> realizes that he is all alone, the city's inhabitants having left it behind centuries ago. Feeling lonely, the gargoyle sees a plume of smoke coming from a cave in the Muraytt Mountains and thinks it belongs to some other civilization that he can guard. He flies to the cave and discovers a temperamental Shivan Dragon who tries to kill him. She can't even damage him, however, since he draws strength from the mountain she lives in. Even though she repeatedly tries to murder him, the gargoyle decides that she needs guarding, as she leaves her cave at night to hunt, leaving it defenseless. He sets up a position at the edge of her cave and hopes she will accept him eventually.
*The Old Way to Vacar Slab, by Michael G. Ryan Powell's Books. Distant Planes entry. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
** 4100 AR, Jamuraa - The people of Kenlefia only mete justice on Vacar Slab, a place in the middle of the desert. A group of Kenlefians is on their way to Vacar Slab to execute a man they call The Abuser, but the journey is very dangerous, and they start dying sequentially. Two are ambushed by Aerathi berserkers and killed, one is bitten by a poisonous viper, and their water-bearer Teeth falls off a cliff with most of their water. Then D'Bray, their flagbearer dies of thirst, and Cleatin, their <c>Gray Ogre</c> protector is killed by a Duneclaw. Then Methos too dies of thirst, and the remaining two, Methos's sister Ophelia and <c>Akron Legionnaire</c> Spirokai who feels no pain, bring the Abuser the rest of the way. They are caught in a <c>Sandstorm</c>, during which Ophelia frees the Abuser and tries to escape. Spirokai catches them, though, and buries the Abuser up to the neck. He is about to do the same to Ophelia for betraying him when suddenly a zombified Teeth shows up and slashes Spirokai in the head with his sword. Teeth has been struck by a curse of undeath, and to end it, he wraps himself up in the last of their bandages, becoming a mummy. Before dying, the Abuser tells Ophelia his name is Markus. Ophelia, now the sole apparent survivor, but carrying both a weapon and water, leaves Vacar Slab alone. But behind her, Spirokai has survived both his head wound and being buried alive and starts to claw his way out.
==References==
Category:Anthologies