Green Mages: Environmental Storytelling in Magic

Welcome back to Green Mages, the only article series dedicated to exploring topics and themes of environmental sustainability in Magic: The Gathering. This entry is part two of a three-part mini-series focused on how Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast can use this amazing game as a platform to educate people on the impacts of climate change as well as a tool to help support the movement to combat climate change.

Part one of this series explored how games are a powerful tool for changing perspectives and opinions because of their deep level of immersive storytelling. You can find that article here. The TLDR is that games have proven to be very effective forms of influence.

With that in mind, in part two we're going to look at how Wizards has done on this front by looking at the stories of Magic and exploring any environmental themes that have shown up over the years.

Finally, in part three, the conclusion of this mini-series, we will look at ways that Wizards can leverage this game for more real-world good, both by improving their own performance and inspiring us to get engaged in defense of our home planet.

Where Vorthos Meets Activism

I very much consider myself a "Vorthos", the psychographic term used to describe Magic players that value the story and worlds of the game as much as they do the gameplay. Ever since I first got into the game around the original Theros block, I have been mesmerized by the vast and beautiful worlds of the multiverse. 

That being said, I am no lore master, so if I get anything wrong here please don't hold it against me. We're exploring themes, here, more than nuanced details.

While no Magic story as been entirely focused on environmental sustainability or protection, there are definitely elements of it sprinkled all throughout the history of the game.

The Brothers' War

Going all the way back to one of the first stories of Magic, there are a number of strong environmental themes that run throughout this epoch (which I think this story is big enough to deserves that title.)

At its highest level The Brothers' War is a story of humanity's greed and lust for power and its resulting impact on the natural environment. The battle between Urza and Mishra, brothers locked in combat, has them sacrificing everything around them in order to gain an edge. This includes the natural world that they occupied. 

The story centers around two brothers, Urza and Mishra, and their discovery of an ancient technology of immense power. This discovery causes a rift to form between the brothers over who kept what half of the powerstone, a rift that ultimately led to their falling out with one another. Years after the discovery, after each brother came to power in their own way, they waged war on one another to claim the power of the other's half of the stone. This war ravaged their home of Dominaria and left it in shambles.

While the story of The Brothers' War existed long before the 2022 debut of the set by the same name, the set did a beautiful job of depicting the impact of this war on Dominaria. Take a look at one of the painlands from the set:

I think this art does a fantastic job showing the impact this war had on the plane: plowing right through the heart of this field is a trench, cut through solely for war. That trench can easily symbolize the effect of the whole war on the plane. The heart of a once pristine land marred because of the unchecked greed and ambition of two of its own inhabitants.

But the impacts get even more extreme. Mishra, over the course of the war, succumbed to the Phyrexians, a destructive extraplanar race who sought to take control of Dominaria as a whole. In order to stop Mishra and "his" Phyrexian army, Urza detonated the Golgothian Sylex, a device whose blast wiped out both armies, sunk an entire continent, and ushered in an Ice Age on Dominaria that lasted centuries. 

The result of two men vying for power was generations of environmental destruction; not too far off from what we see happening in the world today. Power almost always leads to exploitation and sacrifice of the natural world around us. 

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

This one I really love. It's not so much a story beat but more of story told through the worldbuilding.

Kamigawa is a plane based on Japanese culture and is one of Magic's more beloved worlds. In our first visit to the plane, technology really didn't exist. It was a story of a plane and a people tied to spirits (kami) and the natural world. 

Upon returning to the plane, we found it riddled with high-tech advancements, a far cry from the plane we once knew. However, there were still strong elements of this spiritual and natural connection found throughout the set. A major theme of modernity versus tradition emerged. In game, this was mechanically exhibited through artifacts versus enchantments. The divide between these two approaches to the future of Kamigawa was best depicted on Jukai Naturalist and Enthusiastic Mechanaut. Same card, different approach. Both want the best for the future of the world but disagree on how to do it.

This same argument manifests itself in real life when discussing sustainability and the future of our world, like in the debate between Cornucopians vs Mathusians.

Cornucopians believe that we can innovate our way out of planetary limits (i.e. climate change), while Mathusians argue that there are limits to our planet and we need to decrease our impact in order to survive. Growth versus degrowth. Advancement versus regression. 

There is another facet also depicted on Kamigawa, one that embraces both sides. Artifacts and enchantments. Modernity and tradition melded as one. 

Maybe there's a path in our world that can also embrace both. A path where human ingenuity and human innovation meets self restraint and sacrifice. One where systems change and innovation meet to create a prosperous world world for all. This is the view I hold to for our future.

The Selesnya Conclave

In all of the world of Magic I think this no better group that embodies this idea of nature and humanity, tradition and modernity, living in harmony better than the Ravnica's own Selesnya Conclave.

The poster child for the this allied pair of colors, the Selesnya Conclave is one of Ravnica's ten guilds and is a nature-loving commune dedicated to preserving the history of Ravnica. They value the collective over the individual. They see deep value in the interconnection between citizen and nature. They strive for harmony and value the sanctity of life above all else. 

I have long loved the depictions of Selesnyan architecture as a textbook example of what an integrated world of nature and humanity could look like. If we look at the art above for Temple Garden by Titus Lunter, you can see the the iconic imagery of the conclave. Beautiful white stonework intertwined with the greens and autumnal oranges of the natural world around them. Not only that, but the city seems to be build directly on top of a tree. 

While obviously a fantasy world, this approach is not impossible to achieve in our own lives. We as a people can strive to be more connected with nature. Integrate it into our cities and homes. Biomimicry is a discipline dedicated to modeling items after the natural world and can be widely applied to help us utilize the perfect designs of nature to improve our lives. 

Storytelling is Power

This has been a very enlightening exercise for me, and I hope some of these themes have also resonated with you. I think there's so much power in stories and their ability to help us see highly complex issues in our world today in more simple and digestible terms.

To try and cover topics of humanity's exploitation of the planet for power grabs, the duel between innovation and reduction, and harmony of life and architecture with nature would have been a monumental task. However, having art and story out there that removes the political and cultural weight of these topics and can tell them in unique ways allows them to reach new audiences in ways that traditional mediums could never. 

While I still hope for a Magic set focused on environmental sustainability (happy to help consult on this if it does happen one day, Wizards) there are plenty of stories and themes in the Magic lexicon that cover the complexities of environmental protection and sustainability. 

If there are any stories out there that have particularly resonated with you on this topic, please let me know in the comments below; I would love to hear what you have found!

Please join me next month as we conclude this mini-series with ways that Wizards can use this amazing game as a platform to drive positive change in the world around us. I love Magic, I love our home planet, and believe that we can be doing more to defend it.