Welcome back, Loreseekers! Today we're going to get you ready for Lorwyn Eclipsed by covering the original Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks in detail! Lorwyn holds a special place in a lot of Magic player's hearts, but its story is easily one of the most misunderstood or unknown of the post-Mending era. It also introduced the new card type Planeswalker, but notably, none of the so-called 'Lorwyn Five' were part of the Lorwyn story. Nor have they been to Lorwyn in any story! Today I want to pull back the curtain a little bit and dive into exactly what happened 15 years ago. With that out of the way, let's dive in.

Background

The Great Aurora by Sam Burley

Lorwyn is a plane of duality, co-existing with a darker version of itself called Shadowmoor. Where Lorwyn is stuck in perpetual mid-day, Shadowmoor is stuck in perpetual twilight. The plane used to shift every 300 years or so between each other, in an event called The Great Aurora. The original Lorwyn took place in the wake of the Mending, an event that occurred at the end of the Time Spiral block that changed how the multiverse worked forever.

One of the ramifications of that event was that it knocked The Great Aurora out of whack, upsetting Oona, Queen of the Fae's carefully laid cycle, and ushering in the change from Lorwyn to Shadowmoor too early. When we enter the story, Oona is scrambling to put plans into motion to protect herself in case this early aurora affects her, as well.

Lorwyn

Maralen of the Mornsong by Mark Zug

• Lorwyn
• Lorwyn Lore
• A Taste of Lorwyn
• Lorwyn: the Human-shaped Hole
• Champions of Goldmeadow
• Elementalism
• Bog is for Boggart
• The Flavor of Tribals
• Lorwyn Survival Guide
• The Book of Kith and Kin
• Folk of the Non-Pines

The story opens with Maralen of the Mornsong, a handmaiden who is travelling to the Gilt-Leaf Forest with her lady. Her party is attacked by invisible assailants, and Maralen is separated from the others, but eventually caught.

Rhys the Exiled, a former student of the ancient and respected Colfenor, the Last Yew, is the leader of an elvish hunting pack whose mission goes awry. He's forced to call in his back-up plan, the giant Brion Stoutarm and his brother Kiel. Afterwards, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf commands Rhys to exterminate the eyeblights (their word for ugly lesser races, mainly goblins called boggarts) who have taken up residence in a nearby valley. Rhys protests, as the valley is home to treefolk who could be caught in the crossfire, and the boggarts there are peaceful.

Nath launches the attack anyway, and the battle goes poorly. Rhys is nearly killed and forced to unleash an awful poison magic he learned from Colfenor to survive, killing friend and foe alike. Rhys awakens later to find his horns broken, marking him as an eyeblight. In the battle's aftermath, he encounters Maralen, who emerges from the woods alone, with no memory of her past.

Ashling the Pilgrim is dispatched to bring word for Rhys that his old master Colfenor has one final task for him at Kinsbaile, a kithkin settlement. Gaddock Teeg, the Cenn of Kinbaile, sends Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile, to accompany Ashling. They join Rhys and Maralen, but the Vendilion Clique harass them all the way back to Kinsbaile, having a special interest in Maralen.

Back at Kinsbaile, Rhys reluctantly agrees to plant Colfenor's seed at the Murmuring Bosk, so long as it will get him out from under the Yew's thumb. Complicating matters is the sudden arrival of Nath, out for revenge against Rhys for the raid gone wrong. The group escapes down the Wanderwine with the help of Sygg, River Guide, who takes them through underground rivers to escape. They plant the seed at the bosk, but Brigid betrays the group and nearly murders Ashling before escaping.

After the betrayal, it is revealed that Nath is holding Kinsbaile hostage, and Brigid was forced to betray the others to save her people. Colfenor was also manipulating events to position Rhys and Ashling where he wanted them. As the elves spring a trap upon the group's return to Kinsbaile, Colfenor uses Ashling to summon a greater fire elemental that incinerates him and the nearby Gaddock Teeg. Rhys and Nath duel to the death, and upon winning Rhys learns that Nath was using a glamour to hide his own age and deformities - and that the beauty standards of the elves are largely a lie to control the population. With Nath's deception revealed to his troops, Rhys and the others are able to escape the village in the resulting confusion.

Back in the Murmuring Bosk, the death of Colfenor and his absorption of elemental energies triggers the early sprouting of the Sapling of Colfenor.

Morningtide

Ashling the Pilgrim by Wayne Reynolds

• Morningtide
• In the Early Morningtide
• Good Things Come in Three
• Druids, Trees and Truth
• Interplanar Voyeurism: the Art of Morningtide
• The Warrior Esthetic
• Roguish Charm
• Following a Dream
• Tall Tales
• The Shaman's Cause

As Rhys and the others eke out a living in exile, Ashling has a vision of Mount Tanufel and the greater elemental she briefly fused with, and is mysteriously pulled across the plane toward it. The Sapling and one member of the Vendilion Clique set off to find her, while Brigid and Sygg journey back to Sygg's home to recover the Crescent of Morningtide, a relic of vital importance for what's to come. Along the way, they're attacked by merfolk who've been changed into bestial versions of themselves.

Rhys, Maralen, his giant friends and the remaining faeries set off to find Rosheen Meanderer, the sister of Brion and Kiel. Rosheen is said to possess knowledge that might help them figure out what happened to Maralen and what's really going on. They're pursued by Gryffid, Rhys' former lieutenant and the betrothed to Maralen's murdered mistress, who wants answers as to why Maralen survived when the rest of her party died.

At Mount Tanufel, Ashling's path to the greater elemental is blocked by flamekin monks, but with the help of the Sapling, she gets the rest of the way up the mountain. Sygg and Brigid discover that more and more merfolk are changing, and Brigid is shocked to learn that the humble Sygg is actually the heir to the Paperfin merfolk school's throne. They narrowly escape from more of the strange merfolk, and travel upriver to Mount Tanufel and the elemental at the source of the Wanderwine River.

Using faerie magic, Rhys and Maralen interpret Rosheen's dreams. Rhys learns that a great change is coming to Lorwyn with the aurora, and that Colfenor's plans had all been in service to surviving and ending the cycle. Malaren learns the truth of her origins, that the real Maralen is dead with the rest of her party, and that she is an avatar of Oona created as a back-up against the early aurora. Horrified, she hides this information and becomes determined not to change.

All of their efforts are for naught, as the Great Aurora falls upon Lorwyn. Ashling attempts to reverse what Colfenor did by siphoning the elemental's energy through the Sapling, but fails. As the world changes, Brigid can only watch in horror as the Crescent of Morningtide protects her.

Shadowmoor

• Shadowmoor
• The Deepening Shadowmoor
• The Shadowy Pendulum
• Saving the Queen
• You Can't Handle the Reaper King
• Allies in Conflict
• Choose Your Own Shadowmoor Adventure

The novel Shadowmoor is an anthology and doesn't directly continue the story of Morningtide. However, the short story Ode to Mistmeadow Jack does catch us up on the state of many of the characters in Shadowmoor. Sygg, River Cutthroat has become a pirate captain, with Brigid, who is unsure how to fix things, working alongside him. Maralen, unchanged by the aurora and now coming into her powers as an avatar of Oona, offers protection to Mistmeadow village from the now-rampaging Rosheen, Roaring Prophet, but the xenophobic kithkin reject her. Brigid and Maralen reunite, and the two attempt to plan on how to stop Oona and set things right.

Eventide

Beseech the Queen by Jason Chan

• Eventide
• Merfolk Resurfaced
• The Sapling of Colfenor
• Selkies and Subtypes
• Concepting Eventide', Part 1
• Concepting Eventide', Part 2
• The Seer's Parables

Around a year after the events of Morningtide, Maralen is desperate to gather enough power to stop Oona. Ashling the Extinguisher has become a destroyer, rampaging across Shadowmoor with the power of a greater elemental. Rhys, the Redeemed has joined Brigid and Maralen to defend Mistmeadow against Ashling, although he's confused by the two's overly familiar attitude toward him. Their efforts to defend against Ashling fail, but Brigid learns that Ashling has also retained her real memories but has been driven mad with the power she took from the greater elemental. The best the defenders can do against her is fling her across the plane.

Maralen's group negotiates with the greater water elemental known as the Source of the Wanderwine for aid against Ashling's fire, and all their former allies gather at Kinscaer, once Kinsbaile on Lorwyn, to stop Ashling. Just as it seems like Maralen may win against Ashling, Oona arrives and slaughters most of the defenders, turning them into puppets against the others. Oona binds Ashling to take the fire elemental power for herself, but Maralen intervenes and takes it for herself. With the power ripped away, Ashling's mind is restored.

The Vendilion Clique split up and take sides between Oona, Maralen, and the Sapling, who are all now vying for the future of Shadowmoor. Maralen's group heads to confront Oona at the Wilt-Leaf Palace, while the Sapling's group heads to Glen Elendra to kill Oona at her source. Maralen betrays Brigid, stealing the Crescent of Morningtide for herself to wield the power of fire and water elementals against Oona, but it's not enough. Oona is determined to eliminate Maralen, who has become too independent to live. Oona becomes distracted by a greater threat and leaves Maralen alive.

Back at Glen Elendra, Rhys, the Sapling, and Ashling pool their powers in an attempt to destroy Oona's bloom, a giant flower that is the source of her life and power. Oona returns and slices the Sapling in half. Before she can finish off the others, Maralen catches up and distracts her long enough for Rhys to finish the massive poison spell to destroy Oona's bloom. Maralen finishes off Oona's current form with moonglove, the poison that Oona had used to kill the real Maralen.

With Oona defeated, the aurora is broken and the plane has a regular dawn for the first time in centuries. Maralen gives up the elemental powers she stole, and asks Rhys to guard over her. Rhys solemnly vows to kill Maralen if there's even a hint that she's becoming Oona.

In secret, however, a new clique of fairies are born and given a task by a disembodied Oona.

Lorwyn Eclipsed

Art by Zoltan Boros

• Planeswalker's Guide to Lorwyn Eclipsed

It is now forty years after Oona's defeat and apparent death, and Lorwyn has reached a new equilibrium. The Planeswalker's Guide is an excellent tour through the plane, and I just want to highlight some important information from there below.

First, while the Aurora cycle is broken, Lorwyn and Shadowmoor now co-exist. The actual plane name is Lorwyn-Shadowmoor now. After a period of turmoil known as the Pendulum Year, two new divinities emerged representing each half of the plane: Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn] and Isilu, Carrier of Twilight. Whether these were ancient gods whose powers Oona harnessed for her own ends, or newly emerged gods born from the turmoil after her defeat, we don't know. What we do know is that they now control the phases of the plane, creating a delicate equilibrium.

The two phases of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor now ebb and flow across the plane with localized auroras, and beings caught in the shift or who walk though into a different zone will find themselves transformed. There are even overlapping realms called Eclipsed Realms, where the two co-exist, although staying there for a long period of time is almost uniformly a death sentence and both halves of the self destroy each other.

Maralen has taken on the mantle of the queen of the fae, ruling with a more just hand than Oona and eternally watched over by Rhys, who is now ancient for a Lorwyn elf.

While most of the peoples of the plane are more-or-less than same as they were 20 years, the Shadowmoor flamekin have changed significantly. Once known as cinders (Cultbrand Cinder, Cinderbones) thanks to the influence of Ashling having stolen the power of the greater fire elemental, many cinders have become rimekin instead, beings of cold fire and ice instead of dwindling flames.

Want to know shadowMore?

There's not too long to wait until we know more about Lorwyn, with the main story beginning in December! I'll catch up with you for flavor gems once the set is fully previewed next year. See you then!