While Seanan McGuire’s upcoming Magic: The Gathering novel, Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos takes place almost entirely on the world of Arcavios, that isn’t the only plane we get to see within its pages. One conceit of the book is that the main characters come from off-world: Strixhaven’s first batch of transplanar students. As the writer said in our recent interview: “This is the Age of Omenpaths”.
I’m not a fan of Magic’s latest big multiverse-shifting event, so with one of Magic’s premier authors in front of me, I couldn’t resist asking McGuire what she thinks of Omenpaths, the portals that now allow any character to pop up on any MTG plane.
“I do not like them, for all that they are extremely inherent to the structure of my book,” McGuire tells me, to my secret delight. The writer says she’s been open about her view on Omenpaths before; she doesn’t beat around the bush.
“I feel like they cheapen our Multiverse… in a way.”
“Part of what makes Magic so interesting is that we do essentially have all of these tidepools on a beach, and each one has its own ecology and its own biome. Most of the problems in Magic come from adding an octopus to that beach which can slither from tidepool to tidepool. And that description covers both planeswalkers and Eldrazi.”
“But if all the tidepools can just go from place to place- well in a real world that actually exists, being able to move around and exchange cultures and know each other is great and makes sense…
“But in a fictional world where we’re not talking about countries with arbitrary borders, we’re talking about completely separate ecosystems on different planes of reality… I’m just kind of waiting for everyone on Kamigawa to die of Innistradi flu; or for Ixalan screwflies to get loose on Eldraine.”
McGuire suggests that part of the reason this sort of thing seldom happens is due to lack of space.
“Even a generously large Magic story that’s 10 episodes long, that is 50,000 words. 50,000 words doesn’t even qualify as a short novel by the World Science Fiction Association’s rules. So we don’t have a lot of room; we don’t have a lot of space for delicate detailing
And when each set has its own cast of characters to introduce, not to mention its own dramas to explore and often a brand new world to define as well, there isn’t time to dive into the logical implications of omenpaths, of essentially joining all the planes.
“We always have to leave out things we would prefer to put in.”
That’s part of the reason why McGuire is so excited to have a full-sized book launching in April, as she’s been able to stuff it full of little details that wouldn’t make the cut in a short story published on the Magic website.
You can find out more about Omens of Chaos in our longer interview piece. Or come share your thoughts over on the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
