#vorthos

*recurs you*

*sacs you for a death trigger*

*recurs you*

*sacs you for a death trigger*

At MagicCon Atlanta 2025, it was announced that first time in years, we'll be receiving a new novel in the world of Magic the Gathering. This will be a Young Adult (YA) novel set in Strixhaven written by Seanan McGuire. Seanan McGuire has been writing MtG stories for years now including Duskmourn under the pen name, Mira Grant, fan favorite stories about Gisa and Geralf such as "Family Game Night", and the Hugo nominated story "Tangles".

People who have been into Magic the Gathering lore have often asked for more story. This is met by people involved in the process explaining that the best way to get this is to engage with the story directly. This means either reading the story directly off the MtG website or the audio recording on the MtG youtube channel is the best way to show for those working on the story show to higher ups that there is a demand and more budget be given for the story.

This novel is the result of the demand shown so far but more novels (YA or not) will depend on the success of this book. Below are some common questions you might have about how/why to support the book.

Why do pre-orders matter to publishers/Wizards of the Coast?

Pre-orders are added to the number of books sold in the first week which is used as a gauge for success and helps with getting on various best seller lists. This metric will probably also be important to WotC based on how sales will affect the green light for future novels.

The following is a comment by the author, Seanan McGuire, herself as seen on Reddit explaining how this novel is an experiment by WOTC.

I would like to support this novel, how do I pre-order?

The book is already listed on the publisher's webpage with links for pre-ordering from various retailers. You can also go to your local bookstore and pre-order it from them or even go through Bookshop.org and select a bookstore of your choice to support with your purchase. If you would like to be charged $20.99 closer to the release of February 17, 2026, Barnes and Noble charges you when it ships.

I do not have the extra funds/I would like to read the book to see if I like it. Is there another way to support?

There sure is! If you are in the United States, go to your local library and request that they order Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos.

If you prefer ebooks, you can request the title on Libby (it may take some time for it to show up. Currently looking up Seanan McGuire upcoming has the Monday, September 29th, release of her newest book so keep checking). The benefit of requesting the book on Libby, is that once it is available, you will get a notification that it is available. At that point you will be given the option to either check it out or place a hold.

This helps out sales because libraries across the country will be buying copies for their patrons. It can also be a way for you to read the book to see if you like it enough to buy it while still helping with that initial pre-order number that publishers like. Also if you like it, you can always let your friends know and they can also check out that same copy from the library. (BTW, not saying that libraries are only in the United States but that is the system I am familiar with and can give advice on)

Bands are playing in pageant wagons, though Cannibal Voyeurism has been given a proper stage with proper pyrotechnics. Performers from my Cirque and various Rakdosi troupes are plying their various trades in booths or in the street, complete with, somehow, the rapid installation of a carnival wheel that reaches above most buildings in the district.

Following Rakdosi tradition, each Guildmaster and everyone else who’s anyone has been invited, in addition to everyone I like personally and everyone who happens to be nearby. For those of us with means, that tradition has grown with the omenpaths, and invitations to my party have been sent out to such positions of interplanar power as Queen Marchesa, those sitting on the throne of each little faction of Eldraine, the heads of the Capennan Families, even a few names I’ve never heard of such as the Lord Skitter and someone named Morcant. Many, of course, will not deign to show up.

Black is one of the most misunderstood colors in Magic: the Gathering, not least because it appears on the surface to be so straightforward. Look at the most iconic black cards of Magic and you'll see deals with demons, necromancy, mass destruction and cruelty and suffering–the trappings of classic fantasy evil. Even the color's symbol itself is a skull, a universal signifier of death and danger.

And in early Magic that seemed to be all it was. White was the color of Fantasy Good, black was the color of Fantasy Evil, and the rest of the colors were... fire magic? Elves? Whatever odd but intriguing skeleton affairs are implied by Time Walk?

Gradually, though, Magic deepened as both a game and a storytelling medium. The color pie grew into itself as a system of complementary philosophies, archetypes whose associated aesthetics were only part of the full picture. Their arrangement around the wheel, below, is highly deliberate; neighboring colors are said to be allies with a high degree of philosophical and mechanical overlap, while colors on opposite sides of the pie are known as enemies, more likely to disagree on fundamental levels.

Black stopped merely representing capital E Evil and became the color of striving for power; unlike its peers, black felt that nothing, least of all morality, could prevent it from seizing what it wanted. Mark Rosewater's 2015 article about black emphasized the color's focus on the self:

"Black's philosophy is very simple: There's no one better suited to look after your own interests than you... Many costs require the sacrifice of others for your own advancement. Because it puts itself first, black is always willing to make this trade. The weak must fall for the strong to thrive." -Mark Rosewater

At its worst, black is an exploitative, amoral color that prioritizes itself at the expense of all others, allowing the "weak" to fall and scorning the very idea of compassion. Rosewater writes that black is "always willing" to trade others for itself. And these can certainly be parts of black's philosophy, when taken to its worst possible extremes, but they're far from the entire story.

Over time, Magic's outlook on black gained nuance. Magic story introduced protagonists like the necromancer Liliana Vess, whose craving for immortality, seemingly exploitative nature, and demonic deals called back to the oldest portrayals of black–and yet she was not one-dimensionally evil. She underwent character development over the years, learning the value of reclaiming herself and standing beside others, and at no point did she become any less mono-black for it. Remember her; we will come back to Liliana and her story later.

In addition to the usual death and decay, black cards began to feature a theme of relentless devotion. On the plane of Eldraine where each color represents a virtue, black's is persistence, explicitly as important as any other color. On the plane of Ikoria, the love between bonder and beast pulls Winota back from the brink of death. Wherever this Oathsworn Vampire printing is set, its flavor text is quintessentially black. It's the same self-driven attitude as before, but cast in a different light: black is nothing if not persistent when it's got its heart set on something (or someone) it cares about. Nothing, least of all the grave, will keep it down. After all, black will always come back for its own.

These newer cards uncovered the true face of black as a color capable of both great love and harm (sometimes even the latter for the sake of the former), and suggested a tantalizing new thread: perhaps putting yourself and yours first isn't all that bad, necessarily. Black is a deeply protective color; it says you don't just have to accept what you're handed, it's okay even to be furious about it (hello, ally color red), but let that galvanize you to do something about it. 

Vraska, a gorgon who faces extreme discrimination on her home plane of Ravnica, triumphs by reclaiming herself, gorgon powers and all–and even more radically, loving herself. She displays traits often considered the purview of white and green, such as a love of home and a drive to elevate the oppressed, but they are all filtered through the lens of her black alignment. Vraska staunchly refuses to deny herself or her people, the Golgari Swarm, of their value. Nor does she allow law or propriety to prevent her from championing them by any means necessary–even if that means cold-blooded murder, or aligning herself with a villain like the Planeswalker Nicol Bolas.

"[Vraska] thought of Mazirek, of the kraul, of the rest of the Ochran assassins and the malignant Jarad who reigned with casual ruin over the most downtrodden of the downtrodden. She remembered her years of isolation, and the heinous cruelty of the Azorius, and how no group deserved to suffer as much as those who would subjugate her own. Eliminating that hell was all she ever wanted." -The Talented Captain Vraska, Alison Luhrs

Like Vraska, black loves fierce and hard, willing to break any taboo for the sake of those it cares about. And it whispers, the entire way through, you are enough. You deserve better. No matter what others may say or do, you are enough.

"If I am to be met with disrespect, then I must first love myself with a fierceness no fool can take away." -Vraska in Pride of the Kraul, Alison Luhrs

Even black's "ruthlessness" isn't as fundamentally cruel as it appears, centering a passion for problem-solving (shared by its other ally blue) instead of a blunt disregard for others.

"People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means 'mean.' It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it." -K. A. Applegate

All of this comes together to make a black a color not of evil but of strength, integrity, and persistence. And that's all well and good, but I'm going to take it even further and put forward a new proposition: that black is the color of hope.