The Dutch bookseller Bol.com has posted the 12 pages of The Wildered Quest by Kate Elliott, the upcoming Throne of Eldraine novel due out on September 4, 2019. The previewed pages reveal the return of a much-requested character and introduce a new planeswalker.
Spoilers for The Wildered Quest below.
The Wildered Quest
The Wildered Quest by Kate Elliott serves as an introductory story to Magic: the Gathering’s upcoming set Throne of Eldraine. It focuses on Rowan Kenrith, a Planeswalker native to the plane of Eldraine, and will be available as an ebook for $3.99 on September 4, 2019.
The story is “about going on a quest and getting lost—maybe not physically lost so much as in other ways,” Elliott said during the book’s announcement on Weekly MTG. It’s “the start of a larger story arc, so I knew that I would be grounding the future” of Magic’s story with The Wildered Quest.
The Return of Garruk Wildspeaker
The progression of Garruk from mono-Green to Green/Black.
The first chapter reveals the return of Garruk WIldspeaker, one of the original Planeswalkers that were introduced along with the Planeswalker card type in the Lorwyn block in 2007.
Garruk began as a mono-Green Planeswalker with an affinity for nature and the drive to become a predator. His path irrevocably changed when he encountered Liliana Vess on Shandalar where she killed one of Garruk’s beasts, instigating a fight that forced her to use the Chain Veil to defeat Garruk, which ended up cursing him.
The curse only worsened and eventually overtook most of Garruk’s Green nature, turning into a Green/Black hunter who saw Planeswalkers as the ultimate prey. The last we saw of him—right before the beginning of the Gatewatch arc —Garruk was wandering the multiverse hunting and killing Planeswalkers.
Since his disappearance from the story after Core Set 2015 five years ago, fans have been asking when Garruk will return to Magic. Then earlier this year, Magic’s Head Designer Mark Rosewater began confirming that he would eventually return, saying that “[w]e have plans for him.”
Mark Rosewater confirms that Wizards has plans for Garruk’s return.
It appears that we now know what those plans are—a return in Magic’s upcoming set, Throne of Eldraine.
Introducing Oko, a New Fey Planeswalker
The Wildered Quest opens with Garruk having been captured by a new character: Oko, the fey Planeswalker. Oko is a talkative being that had been attacked by Garruk and used vine magic to subdue him. Oko ends up casting a spell on Garruk to gain control of him then names him “Dog” (with Oko being “Master”), declaring that they will travel the multiverse together “to seek rule-bound tyrants to overthrow, pious frauds and smug deceivers to unmask, and hypocritical liars to expose.”
Oko, having explored Garruk’s mind, doesn’t seem terribly troubled with his past or his drive to hunt Planeswalkers. “If a few Planeswalkers must meet their end,” Oko says, “So be it.”
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