The Colors of Magic

The Colors of Magic
Publishing Information
Author(s)	Jess Lebow (ed.)
First printing	February 1, 1999
ISBN-13	978-0786913237
Preceded By N/A Followed By The Myths of Magic

The Colors of Magic is a Magic: The Gathering anthology of stories published in February 1999, as the first in a series of five. It features stories by various writers. It was edited by Jess Lebow.

Overview

Title	Author	Publishing date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
The Colors of Magic	Jess Lebow and various	February 1999	Dominaria	Kotara, Sabul Hajeen, Finroy, Rothchild, Rhindle, Deveraux, Edgur, Temken, Gwenna, Armand Ar-Basinno, Latavino Bar-bassanti, Elkan, Groth Jonar, Crucias, Damon, Feldon, Loran, Drafna, Hurkyl (mentioned), the Archimandrite (mentioned)

Blurb

The Brothers' struggle for power has ended ...
Argoth is decimated ...
Tidal waves have turned canyons into rivers ...
Earthquakes leveled the cities ...
Dominaria is in ruins.
Now the struggle for this war-torn world is to survive.

List of stories

White

• Angel of Vengeance, by Richard Lee Byers
  • The angel Kotara is summoned by the civic guildmage called Sabul Hajeen. Sabul's brother has been murdered, and he sends Kotara out to kill the murderer, who escaped Zhalfirin justice. After that, he starts having her kill accomplices and relatives of the killer. These evil acts start having an effect on Kotara, who changes both physically and mentally, losing her radiance and her connection to "the Divine Will". Eventually, this frees her of her summons, as in the end, she is no longer a creature of white mana, and thus unaffected by Sabul's summoning spell. When the family of the killer summons a demon to kill their opponent though, Kotara realizes that even despite her now being a fallen angel, it would still be wrong to let the demon wreak havoc in Zhalfir. Thus she returns and sacrifices her life so Sabul, who has seen the error of his ways, has the time to cast a killing spell on the demon.

• Reprisal by Tom Leupold
  • Finroy of Tyarel is apprenticed to Lord Rothchild, the king of Kjeldor. Rotchild is a great public speaker and much loved, but Finroy quickly discovers that he is a drunkard, a philanderer, and generally unreliable in private. Finroy is thus forced to cover for Rothchild twice, first by pretending to be the lord during a joust, and again when the lord promises to kill the Scaled Wurm Rhindle only to go missing on the day of the hunt. Finroy is no match for the wurm, but he accidentally lures it to a village where the villagers chase it off. In the end, everyone is toasting the wisdom of Lord Rothchild in making them realize their strength.

Green

• Vesipellis, by Paul B. Thompson
  • Edgur, a mere apprentice, makes a deal with a nature spirit, hoping to win the hand of the woman he loves. He gains the ability to turn into a bear and uses this ability to kill his opponent. But the townsfolk, seeing only a dangerous predatory animal, then converge on Edgur, killing him.

• A Song out of Darkness, by Loren L. Coleman
  • A century after the destruction of Argoth, an elf named Temken finds Gwenna, the elf whose actions allowed the two brothers Urza and Mishra to discover the island. She's now living in a bayou, utterly empty and world-weary. Temken is a member of the Survivors, elves who want to rebuild their society. A malevolent shadowy presence in the bayou wants to keep the elves living there and tries to capture Temken as well. Temken manages to convince Gwenna that things are not as hopeless as she thought. Together, Temken and Gwenna fight the shadow being and succeed in trapping it, although Gwenna sacrifices her life in the process. Her valiant act buys time for Temken to lead the other elves in the bayou to safety, and they head west to found a safer haven for elves on Terisiare.

Red

• Goblinology, by Francis Lebaron
  • This is a "scientific" article written by the not-very-respected archaeologist Armand Ar-Basinno. Armand is convinced the goblins of the Flarg once ruled a giant, highly cultured empire. Latavino Bar-bassanti disagrees, and thinks Armand is a complete hack. A letter written by one of the Flarg goblins clearly describes them playing rugby or American football (although they call it "cricket"). Armand interprets this as a grandiose religious ritual and thinks the recurring name of "Squee" refers to a great god. Latavino correctly identifies cricket as a game, but says it can't have had a big impact on their culture, not able to imagine any society spending a great deal of time and resources on a mere game.

• The Crucible of the Orcs, by Don Perrin
  • A wizard called Elkan is goading the orcish general Groth Jonar into attacking the Kjeldorans. Jonar just lost a big battle, so Elkan is hoping this battle will turn out to be the end of the orcs, making him a big hero in Kjeldor. Elkan augments their forces with the goblins of the Flarg. Jonar makes the orcs love the goblins, who are much more capable than anyone thinks. He then has the goblins fight the Kjeldorans first. When the goblins inevitably flee, he has the orcs cheer for them. Because the goblins don't understand orcish, they turn around and run into the charging Kjeldorans, whose charge is thus stopped, allowing the orcs to advance and rout them. Then Jonar boasts that he sacrificed the goblins like Elkan was going to sacrifice the orcs, and stabs Elkan for good measure.

Black

• Dark Water, by Vance Moore
  • After the World Spell, a pair of cousins are living in a decrepit shack by a lake in a swamp. These two women used to be socialites who were taught black magic by a passing wizard, which they used to mind control and kill people for fun. Then the World Spell happened, sapping them of most of their power. They flee into the backwoods where they only occasionally have the opportunity to do some thrill killings, mostly by feeding an evil spirit living in the murky lake by their house. Years later, they hear of plague spreading in the south and think it is a good opportunity to have some fun. By this time, they have both grown old, and each one thinks the other will slow them down, so they both try to kill each other. In the end, the lake spirit decides the outcome, as it does not want either of the cousins to leave the swamp. The spirit reanimates the corpse of the last man the women killed, and he drags both of them into the waters.

Blue

• Expeditions to the End of the World, by J. Robert King
  • The unscrupulous ship's captain Crucias is ferrying rich nobles to Argoth to witness the battles of Urza and Mishra. His passengers get more than they pay for as they firsthand witness the Sylex Blast. Everyone on board dies except Crucias himself, who is blinded and crippled by the blast. As he crawls blindly through the wreckage of his ship, he thinks of his past. He used to be a swashbuckling pirate until one of the women he slept with dumped a child on him. He turned his life around to care for the little girl, but she fell ill and died. As Crucias lies dying he has a hallucination of his daughter telling him to live. Then the hallucination clears and it turns out there is another survivor on the ship: the daughter of one of the nobles, who was below decks on account of sea sickness. Crucias decides to live and save the other survivor. Crucias would later ascend as a planeswalker and change his name to Bo Levar.

• The Mirror of Yesterday, by Jonathan Tweet
  • The apprentice Damon fails a test called "the mirror of yesterday", a test that would have made him become a wizard if he had succeeded. The test involves his master shaving him and putting him in front of a mirror, but the magic mirror shows that he still has hair, although he fails to notice this discrepancy. His master then tells him he will never become a wizard. While Damon and three other apprentices are awaiting the return of their master, an assassin turns up. The assassin wants to kill the wizard for his aid of the Kjeldorans. The apprentices attempt to flee but are killed off one by one, and eventually, Damon is the last one left. However, Damon manages to kill the assassin by using the mirror to make the assassin think she is the healer she pretended to be when she first turned up. The ordeal makes Damon realize what his master meant when he said he would never become a wizard - because he was already a wizard.

• Bound in Shallows, by Kevin T. Stein
  • An unnamed protagonist is engaged in the shady business of summoning creatures and having cockfights with them for gamblers. His girlfriend is working at a casino, where the casino boss is trying to seduce her. Their relationship is going nowhere, with him being way too self-centered and her not wanting to be touched by him, but instead of talking to her, the guy is convinced he just needs to defeat the casino boss to make everything all right. When his girlfriend tells him she is leaving him, he uses mind control on her, forcing her to stay and kiss him for the first time and then steals her magical locket. This does not please her, effectively ending their relationship. Afterward, he goes to face down the casino boss. It seems like he will win, but then his now-former girlfriend turns up and uses the little magic she has to distract him, making him lose the battle. Since that also kills the last summoned creature he has, that also bankrupts him, leaving him destitute.

The Gold Border

• Loran's Smile, by Jeff Grubb
  • Feldon, a firm believer in the Third Way, hopes to be able to resurrect his wife Loran with magic. It starts with the death of Loran and chronicles Feldon's attempts to bring her back to life using artifice and the five colors of magic in turn. He succeeds in a fashion, but what he brings back is not the real Loran. Feldon says goodbye to her and lets her go.
  • This story is available online here.