MTG Wiki:Lore Policy

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The Lore Policy governs articles that cover the story of Magic: The Gathering.

Lore articles should take care to avoid the biases inherent in the primary sources that they rely on. While all story sources are valid and notable, a minority have been explicitly declared non-canon by Wizards of the Coast, and should be treated separately from the rest.

MTG Wiki generally does not cover lore of Universes Beyond franchises or other properties outside of Magic.

Notability guideline

MTG Wiki has a subject-specific notability guideline for lore subjects. All characters in the lore are considered notable, and may be covered on the wiki. This guideline does not establish whether those characters should have an independent article.

Sources

The lore consists of all story-relevant texts and statements published by Wizards of the Coast, its employees, and its contractors. Source materials include, but are not limited to:

• Novels and written online fiction
• Planeswalker's Guides and art books
• Comics and individual cards
• Marketing materials, such as trailers or deck inserts
• Video games and Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks (but not D&D sets)
  • D&D sourceboooks present Magic lore dressed in D&D mechanics. D&D sets, like AFR, frame D&D lore in Magic mechanics.
• Quotations from persons involved in creating the lore, from interviews, podcasts (such as Magic Story), blogs (Blogatog), or social media accounts

Style

When covering lore topics, editors should aim to be neutral, but not uncritical. Lore articles tend to rely heavily on primary sources from Wizards of the Coast. Those sources are often far from neutral, and may include word choices that constitute puffery or editorializing, or might engage in poetic prose. Avoid injecting opinions, either your own or those of fictional characters.

For example, a source may describe a character with valued terms like "brave", "good", or "evil". Rather than merely accepting those value judgments, editors should write about the objective qualities and documented deeds that inspired those descriptions.

• ❌ Yawgmoth was a cruel evil scientist.
• ✅ Yawgmoth was a scientist who mutilated living persons, destroyed the Thran Empire, and waged a millenniums-long campaign of interplanar conquest.

Do not invent detail to "flesh out" a subject. Unsupported claims may be flagged or removed by other editors, and should not be restored without a supporting inline citation.

Writing about canonicity

While the lore includes all story publications, the canon encompasses only those parts of the lore that are held to be authoritative or true. The ultimate and only judge of the canonicity of a fact or source is Wizards of the Coast. As wiki editors, we do not have the power to make that determination. Editors should refrain from use of the word "canon" in the Main article namespace, except to document official statements of the canonicity of a source, and then only in the article for that source.

Some parts of the lore contradict each other. In the absence of an explicit statement by Wizards to resolve the conflict, either of two conflicting facts are potentially true. Where such contradictions exist, our role is to observe and document their nature and extent, and to place them in an appropriate context without passing judgment. Context can be established by noting the nature and degree of consistency between sources.

• ❌ In Pre-Revisionist stories, planeswalkers were often sorcerers who somehow acquired the incredibly vast amount of mana required to perform the ritualistic sorcery of one's own ascension.
• ✅ Some characters gained the ability to planeswalk by expending large amounts of mana in a ritual. Such depictions are rare, and none have occurred in stories published later than 1996.

Speculation

Primary sources may depict lore subjects in a manner consistent with, but separate from, the acknowledged story. Such depictions should be considered speculation, and placed in an article or section titled as such.

Speculation can often be avoided by phrasing information as facts.

• ❌ Jace would be transformed into a fox if he visited Bloomburrow.
• ✅ There is circumstantial evidence that Jace may have visited Bloomburrow, and Helga dreamed of a fox with markings that resembled Jace's tattoos. Jace's Imagine: Courageous Critters card also depicts him as a fox, but those cards are not canonical.

Non-canon

Some source materials are explicitly and entirely outside of the primary canon. When discussing the contents of such sources in other articles, clearly separate that discussion from the rest of the article by using an appropriate heading or {{Ambox}}.

Universes Beyond products depict the existing, established lore of their partnered franchises. They do not intersect with Magic's lore, and MTG Wiki generally does not cover Universes Beyond lore topics. Universes Beyond game mechanics are covered by MTG Wiki, and while those articles may include a brief description of the relevant Universes Beyond lore, those articles are outside of the scope of this policy.

What is canon?

Unless otherwise noted, any source of Magic lore is presumed canonical.

Explicit statements clarifying canon status are listed below.

• Pre-Mirage sources : ✅ Prior to Mirage block, stories were often written by teams external to Wizards of the Coast. No official statement denies that they are canon, despite several contradictions with later lore.
• Test of Metal: ✅ Test of Metal is canon. However, significant parts of the story are a fever dream of one of the characters.

• Direct statements: ❓ A statement by a Wizards of the Coast employee may be canonical "Word of God" if that person's work involves authorship of the story or worldbuilding. Lore statements from Wizards employees working on other facets of the game, such as mechanics, card design, or rules, should be considered speculation. Information that appears to derive from internal Wizards documents is also speculative until reflected in published sources.
• Portal: Three Kingdoms: ❓ The setting of Portal Three Kingdoms resembles historic Earth. Wizards employees have offered contradictory explanations: the setting may be an unnamed plane within the Multiverse, or it may be more similar to a Universes Beyond product.
• Magic: The Gathering movie and television series: ❓ The canon statuses of the upcoming Magic movie and Netflix series have not been stated.

• Universes Beyond: ❌ Universes Beyond products and their content are not canon. Earth is not canon.
• Dungeons & Dragons: ❌ Some Magic products depict lore from Dungeons & Dragons. These sets are not canon, and are also not Universes Beyond.
• BOOM! comics: ❌ The Magic BOOM! comics are not canon.
• The Un-iverse: ❌ The Un-iverse is a comedic alternate universe, and is not canon. Some canon Magic characters have non-canon Un-iverse counterparts.
• Some specific cards: ❌ Special Guests cards and test cards are non-canon representations of their subjects.
• Some marketing materials: ❌ The Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 trailer is not canon.

External links

• List of storyline sources