The Colors of Magic

The Colors of Magic is a Magic: The Gathering anthology of stories published in February 1999, as the first in a series of five. It features stories by various writers. It was edited by Jess Lebow.
==Overview==
Title 	Author 	Publishing date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
The Colors of Magic	Jess Lebow and various	February 1999 	Dominaria 	Kotara, Sabul Hajeen, Axdan Hajeen, Multam Ilmiera, Tartesk Hajeen, Yirtag Ilmiera, Eskander Ilmiera, Otori Ilmiera, Ferren Tynlo, Finroy, Rhindle, Evara, Jerod, Duke Devareux, Thaddeus, Shaboo, Lord Rothchild, Lady Rothchild, Lord Barsus, Sir Udo, Ariel, Jorgensen, Joren Homdallson, Edgur, Artulle, Riliana, Meckie, Embric, Dare, Phreus, Perrick, Aga, Penkin, Tanton, Varno, Adal, Temken, Gwenna, Armand Ar-basinno, Latavino Bar-bassanti, Squee, Sarapinna Machieve, Krank, Fizzer, Druze, Quilk, Farf, Elkan, Groth Jonar, Varchild, Lavash, Jel, Tramas, Michand, Tayva and Loria, Brucius, Tomaya, Ebnezzer, Winton, Crucias, Gheiri, Elgia, Nunieve, Biggs, Damon, Sabra, Jervis, Annarais, Wane, Dumoss, Annise, Feldon, Loran, Drafna, Hurkyl (mentioned), the Archimandrite (mentioned)
==Featured characters==
Scaled Wurm.jpg|Rhindle
Gwenna.jpg|Gwenna
Varchild art.jpg|Varchild
Crucias Titan of the Waves.jpg|Crucias
Feldon of the Third Path.jpg|Feldon
Loran.png|Loran
Drafna.jpg|Drafna
Hurkyl.jpg|Hurkyl
The Archimandrite.jpg|The Archimandrite
==Blurb==
The Brothers' struggle for power has ended ...
Argoth is decimated ...
Tidal waves have turned canyons into rivers ...
Earthquakes leveled the cities ...
Dominaria is in ruins.
Now the struggle for this war-torn world is to survive.
==List of stories==
;White
*Angel of Vengeance, by Richard Lee Byers
** 3850 AR, Zhalfir - the angel Kotara is summoned by the civic guildmage called Sabul Hajeen, living in Ki'pamu, on the continent of Jamuraa. Sabul's brother Axdan Hajeen has been murdered, and Sabul accuses Multam Ilmiera of the murder. He sends Kotara out to kill the murderer, who escaped Zhalfirin justice. After that, he starts having her kill accomplices and relatives of the killer. These evil acts start having an effect on Kotara, who changes both physically and mentally, losing her radiance and her connection to "the Divine Will". Eventually, this frees her of her summons, as in the end, she is no longer a creature of white mana, and thus unaffected by Sabul's summoning spell. When the family of the killer summons a demon to kill their opponent though, Kotara realizes that even despite her now being a fallen angel, it would still be wrong to let the demon wreak havoc in Zhalfir. Thus she returns and sacrifices her life so Sabul, who has seen the error of his ways, has the time to cast a killing spell on the demon.
*Reprisal by Tom Leupold
** 2910 AR, Kjeldor - Finroy of Tyarel is apprenticed to Lord Rothchild, the lord of Jornstad. Rotchild is a great public speaker and much loved, but Finroy quickly discovers that he is a drunkard, a philanderer, and generally unreliable in private. Finroy is thus forced to cover for Rothchild twice, first by pretending to be the lord during a joust, and again when the lord promises to kill the <c>Scaled Wurm</c> Rhindle only to go missing on the day of the hunt. Finroy is no match for the wurm, but he accidentally lures it to a village where the villagers chase it off. In the end, everyone is toasting the wisdom of Lord Rothchild in making them realize their strength.
;Green
*Versipellis, by Paul B. Thompson
** 4000 AR, New Argive - Edgur, a coppersmith's apprentice, makes a deal with a nature spirit named Dare, hoping to win the hand of Riliana, the woman he loves. He gains the ability to turn into a bear and uses this ability to kill his opponent, Joren Homdallson. But the townsfolk, seeing only a dangerous predatory animal, then converge on Edgur, killing him.
*A Song out of Darkness, by Loren L. Coleman''
** 164 AR, Terisiare - A century after the destruction of Argoth, an elf named Temken finds Gwenna, the elf whose actions allowed the two brothers Urza and Mishra to discover the island. She's now living in a <c>bayou</c>, utterly empty and world-weary. Temken is a member of the Survivors, elves who want to rebuild their society. A malevolent shadowy presence in the bayou wants to keep the elves living there and tries to capture Temken as well. Temken manages to convince Gwenna that things are not as hopeless as she thought. Together, Temken and Gwenna fight the shadow being and succeed in trapping it, although Gwenna sacrifices her life in the process. Her valiant act buys time for Temken to lead the other elves in the bayou to safety, and they head west to found a safer haven for elves on Terisiare.
;Red
*Goblinology, by Francis Lebaron
**4000-4200 AR, the Flarg - The not-very-respected archaeologist Armand Ar-Basinno writes about the culture of the goblins of the Flarg. Armand is convinced they once led a highly cultured empire with sacred religious rituals and an elaborate linguistic system. Latavino Bar-bassanti, a scholar formerly of the Argivian University, disagrees with Armand, saying he is a complete hack. Armand presents a letter written by one of the Flarg goblins, which clearly describes them playing rugby or American football, although they call it "cricket". Armand interprets this as a grandiose religious ritual and thinks the recurring name of "Squee" refers to a great god. Latavino correctly identifies cricket as a game but is skeptical of its supposed big impact on their culture, not able to imagine any society spending a great deal of time and resources on a mere game. Evidence points to the game of cricket over time getting completely out of hand, leading to a civil war that wiped out the goblins, leaving only ruins.
*The Crucible of the Orcs, by Don Perrin
** 2945 AR, Karplusan Mountains - A Balduvian mage named Elkan is goading the orcish general Groth Jonar into attacking the Kjeldorans in Balesh Pass. Jonar just lost a big battle, so Elkan is hoping this battle will turn out to be the end of the orcs, which are uneasy allies of Balduvia at best. Elkan augments their forces with the goblins of the Flarg, against Jonar's protests. But just before the battle Elkan lets slip to Jonar that he intends for the orcs to die. Jonar then has the goblins fight the Kjeldorans first, trapping them between their spears and the enemy. The goblins and Kjeldorans battle and Jonar uses this distraction to attack. While the goblins are slain, the knights are routed by the orcs and regroup further down a slope, calling a parley which Jonar obliges. When a furious Elkan tries to intervene, Jonar kills him and then lets the remaining knights leave without further harm, claiming only their battle standard to mark his victory.
;Black
*Dark Water, by Vance Moore
** 2954 AR, Kjeldor - After the World Spell, the cousins Tayva and Loria are living in a decrepit shack by a lake in a swamp. These two women used to be socialites who were taught black magic by the passing wizard Ebnezzer, which they used to mind control and kill people for fun. Then the World Spell happened, sapping them of most of their power. They flee into the backwoods where they only occasionally have the opportunity to do some thrill killings, mostly by feeding an evil spirit living in the murky lake by their house. Years later, they hear of plague spreading in the south and think it is a good opportunity to have some fun. By this time, they have both grown old, and each one thinks the other will slow them down, so they both try to kill each other. In the end, the lake spirit decides the outcome, as it does not want either of the cousins to leave the swamp. The spirit reanimates the corpse of Winton, the last man the women killed, and he drags both of them into the waters.
;Blue
*Expeditions to the End of the World, by J. Robert King
**63-64 AR, the Shielded Sea - The unscrupulous ship's captain Crucias is ferrying rich Argivian nobles to Argoth to witness the battles of Urza and Mishra. His passengers get more than they pay for as they firsthand witness the Sylex Blast. Everyone on deck dies except Crucias himself, who is blinded by the blast. As he crawls blindly through the wreckage of his ship, he thinks of his past. He used to be a swashbuckling pirate until one of the women he slept with dumped a child on him. He named her Nunieve, and turned his life around to care for the little girl, but when she was nine years old, she fell ill and died. Crucias breaks down the door to his cabin, but it collapses on top of him, pinning him down. As Crucias lies in the rubble, he has a hallucination of his daughter telling him to live. Then the hallucination clears and it turns out there is another survivor on the ship: Elgia, the niece of lady Gheiri, who was below decks on account of sea sickness. Elgia commands him to live and save her, and he does so. Crucias would later ascend as a planeswalker and change his name to Bo Levar.
*The Mirror of Yesterday, by Jonathan Tweet
** 2950 AR, the coast of Terisiare - The apprentice Damon fails a test involving the Mirror of Yesterday, a test that would have made him become a wizard if he had succeeded. The test involves his master shaving his head and putting him in front of the magical mirror, which shows what he had looked like the day before - with long, brown hair. Damon fails to notice this discrepancy, and Master Wane tells him he will never become a wizard. While Damon and three other apprentices are awaiting the return of their master, a Stromgald assassin turns up. The assassin wants to kill Wane for his aid of the Kjeldorans. The apprentices try to trick the assassin but are killed off one by one. Eventually, Damon is the last one left, but he manages to kill the assassin by using the mirror to make the assassin think she is the healer she pretended to be when she first turned up and tricked her golem into attacking her. The ordeal makes Damon realize what his master meant when he said he would never become a wizard - because he was already a wizard. The attack foiled, Damon waited for his colleague Wane to return to their tower.
*Bound in Shallows, by Kevin T. Stein
** 70 AR, unnamed Terisian city - An unnamed protagonist is engaged in the shady business of summoning creatures and having cockfights with them for gamblers. His girlfriend Annise is working at a casino, where the casino boss Dumoss is trying to seduce her. Their relationship is going nowhere, with him being way too self-centered and Annise not wanting to be touched by anyone. Instead of talking to her about it, the guy is convinced he just needs to defeat the casino boss to make everything all right. When Annise tells him she is leaving him, as she needs to figure things out on her own, he uses mind control on her. He forces her to stay in his house and kisses her against her will, then steals her magical locket. Afterward, he goes to face down Dumoss. It seems like he will win, but then Annise turns up and uses the little magic she has to distract him, making him lose the battle. Since that also kills the last summoned creature he has, that also bankrupts him, leaving him destitute.
;The Gold Border
*Loran's Smile, by Jeff Grubb''
**73 AR, near Ronom Lake - Feldon, a firm believer in the Third Way, hopes to be able to resurrect his wife Loran with magic. It starts with the death of Loran and chronicles Feldon's attempts to bring her back to life using artifice and the five colors of magic in turn. He succeeds in a fashion, but what he brings back is not the real Loran. Feldon says goodbye to her and lets her go. 
**This story is available online here.
==Notes on the timeline==
*While some stories, like Versipellis and A Song out of Darkness directly spell out when they occur, most stories have vaguer reference points that anchor them to certain periods, such as Reprisal happening after the rise of Lim-Dûl, but apparently before the reign of Darien, and Angel of Vengeance happening after the establishment of the guilds of Zhalfir, but before Mangara's Harmony.
*While the story The Crucible of the Orcs spells out that it happens 100 years after the Ice Age, this is impossible given that Balduvia and Kjeldor are still at war, as well as the mention of General Varchild still working for Kjeldor. Thus, the story must happen about 15 years after the end of the Ice Age at the very most.
==References==
Category:Anthologies