Fate Reforged Vorthos

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

If you've been popping over with any regularity here to the MTG Realm blog (there's been more than six million visitors since 2008), then you know that we do have a good appreciation for the storyline ('vorthos') of each new Magic: the Gathering set.  We were very disappointed with no animated trailer from Wizards of the Coast for the new Fate Reforged set and were disheartened to hear that no eBooks / novellas were further planned - but - we are certainly satisfied so far with the offerings from the Uncharted Realms article installments so far with the Khans of Tarikir block.  

SPOILER ALERT 
If you've not read today's excellent post from Doug Beyer on the mothersite yet, please do, as we'll want to be getting in to it now.

Uncharted Realms, Unwritten, by Kelly Digges

Sarkhan Vol has arrived in Tarkir’s past, more than a thousand years before his birth. When he first arrived, he saw the plane’s long-extinct dragons for the first time, watching them emerge from a crackling storm.

Then he saw her: a human woman fighting with a glowing dragon’s claw on her staff and a sabertooth cat at her side. She killed a dragon broodling with powerful magic and drove the others away. She is everything he hoped for when he yearned for Tarkir’s dragons.

Uncharted Realms, The Reforged Chain, by Doug Beyer

Sarkhan Vol followed the whispers of the spirit dragon Ugin back into Tarkir's past, with no idea what to expect. He found a glorious world, full of hungry dragons and vigorous clans.

But all is not well in ancient Tarkir. Yasova, khan of this era's Temur clan, revealed to Sarkhan that she is following the guidance of a dragon as well. Unbeknownst to her, her patron is—or will later become—Sarkhan's most hated enemy: the unfathomably ancient dragon Planeswalker Nicol Bolas.


Now, Sarkhan races against time to find Ugin before Bolas can set Tarkir's history—and Sarkhan's own—on the path to ruin.

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To very roughly summarise the travels of Sarkhan Vol on the plane of Tarkir, we may look no further than these three images -

Tomb of the Spirit Dragon | Art by Sam Burley

Ugin’s Nexus | Art by Sam Burley

Art by Daarken

Crucible of the Spirit Dragon | Art by Jung Park

It appears that Sarkhan may have saved the mortally wounded Ugin by encasing the Sprit Dragon within the mystical hedrons.  What happens next to Sarkhan as he blinks out of this time stream is very much up for debate - Does he just cease to exist ("even had led to his own existence, had become nullified") ?  Does he return to a much-changed future?  Is balanced restored to Tarkir?  We do love the vague endings presented and very much look forward to the next installment.  Perhaps the tyranny of the warring Clans are simply replaced by the tyranny of Dragons.  Or not. Of certain however is that the next block is called 'Dragons of Tarkir' which is a pretty big hint - we just are left to anticipate / contemplate which we are quite comfortable with.

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