Weatherlight Saga

Weatherlight Saga

 

Storyline in cards

 

Beginning with the Weatherlight expansion in 1997 and lasting through Apocalypse in 2001, the Weatherlight Saga was a storyline that incorporated or overrode much of the then-existing continuity, which came to be known as prerevisionist.

Description

During its run, characters and plot events were featured prominently on the cards themselves, such that the basics of the story could be gleaned from them. Fan response to this was mixed at best and Wizards of the Coast largely abandoned this approach for many years, though the addition of Story Spotlight cards starting with Kaladesh has been seen as a return to this type of storytelling.

Note that the events surrounding Urza and the story of the prequel The Thran are usually seen as a part of the Weatherlight Saga. Although they predate the Skyship Weatherlight by millennia, they start a chain of events that ultimately lead to its creation. The storylines of expansions before Weatherlight are also still considered canon.

The Weatherlight Saga was plotted by Magic author and editor Michael G. Ryan and Mark Rosewater, with additional help from Bob Kruger, Kij Johnson, and Pete Venters. Plot lines were based on universal themes as recognized by the famed scholar Joseph Campbell. Ryan and Rosewater were removed as the people in charge of the story during the end of Tempest block (during Exodus) and that event created a schism between R&D and the creative team for several years.

Original pitch

The final story of the Weatherlight Saga deviated radically from the initial version pitched by Michael G. Ryan and Mark Rosewater.

Exodus

Crovax was planned to gravely injure, not kill, Mirri.

Mercadian Masques

Rather than being captured by the Cho-Arim, the Weatherlight is compulsorily bought by Mercadia City's leader in exchange for medicine to heal Mirri. Starke would have been killed by Volrath in disguise as Tahngarth, rather than Takara. The Phyrexian's plan to invade Dominaria would have been discovered here by Hanna, instead of in the Stronghold by Gerrard. An obscure Mercadian law would have allowed Gerrard and company to challenge the city's leader to an "elaborate contest" for possession of the Weatherlight. Instead of using the ship to planeshift back to Dominaria, the crew would have learned about a planar portal back, not aware that it would also be a portal to fifty years in the future, after Phyrexia had conquered Dominaria.

Invasion block

The Weatherlight crew would be located by an elderly wizard leading the Dominarian resistance, soon revealed to be Ertai, who had somehow escaped Rath. He would task the crew with retrieving Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant (Dominaria United Commander Decks), the key to defeating Phyrexia which had unfortunately been left with a friend of his prior. Volrath, still disguised as Tahngarth, would reingratiate himself to Phyrexia by reporting on the Weatherlight's return. One highlight would have been the crew fighting Volrath in the form of a dragon. Nothing is said of how the Phyrexians would have been "banished" from Dominaria.

See also

• Weatherlight Saga/Storyline in cards
• Mark Rosewater (August 29, 2022). "Dominaria United States of Design, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. (original plotline)