Revisionist
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Nickname
This article is about a subject that has not been identified with a specific name in official sources.
“True power never dies, but lies awake, waiting for its name to be spoken.”
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Revisionist is a label that was applied to Magic stories beginning with the Weatherlight Saga. It was used to draw attention to a collection of retcons published around that time. If the label was still in regular use, the revision would now encompass the vast majority of the story.
The term dates to the year 2000, or possibly earlier.[1] In 2006, an MTG Salvation user claimed to be Jeff Lee, the author of Magic fansite The Legends of Magic, and said that he had been responsible for applying the term to the Magic story. He apologized for choosing a word with such strong connotations.[2]
Background
The first core sets had no unified setting, and early expansions were given free creative rein.[3] From 1994 to 1996, HarperPrism published ten novels, and ARMADA published several comic books, but Wizards of the Coast did not provide strong direction or substantial editorial control.
Beginning in 1997, Wizards of the Coast published descriptions of the setting that contradicted the earlier stories. An issue of The Duelist from April of that year describes a planeswalker's spark, a concept not previously established.[4] The following year, Wizards of the Coast self-published the novel The Brothers' War, in which the foreword declared that it was the definitive account of the events therein, contradicting earlier stories.[3]
Story consequences
Older stories described planeswalkers as powerful magic users who became capable of interplanar travel by varied means. The capacity to planeswalk by will alone is now understood to rely on possession of an inherent spark.
The events of the Ice Age were revised in the Ice Age Cycle. The Brothers' War and The Thran established new details regarding Urza, Mishra, Yawgmoth, and the Phyrexians. Jeff Lee claimed that older sources indicated that Yawgmoth was a planeswalker, contradicting his later depictions.[1]
References
- ↑ a b Lee, Jeff. The Legends of Magic: the Complete Guide. Archived from the original on March 10, 2000. Accessed February 17, 2017.
- ↑ MtG Continuity (November 20, 2006). Archived from the original on January 25, 2015.
- ↑ a b Brady Dommermuth (May 27, 2003). "The Story of the Story". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18.
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/the-duelist-16/page/64/mode/2up