[[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rath_and_storm_9752.jpg]] The '''Weatherlight Saga''' is the most ambitious storyline ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has ever told. The game was still young and most storylines, while mostly taking place on the same world – Dominaria (with the notable exceptions of ''Arabian Nights'', which took place on Rabiah the Infinite, and ''Homelands'', which took place on Ulgrotha) – ran through one or two sets at most. The Weatherlight Saga ran for four years and eventually encompassed thirteen sets, while also having links to past storylines. Furthermore, cards in the set depicted many events from the storyline, to the point that it was possible to arrange them into a [[http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature/113 storyboard]]. '''Rath and Storm''' chronicles the first act of the saga, corresponding to the expansions ''Weatherlight'' and those of the Tempest block (''Tempest'', ''Stronghold'' and ''Exodus'').

Gerrard Capshen is the heir to the Legacy, a collection of artifacts he must use to defeat a mysterious evil known as the Lord of the Wastes. After the death of his friend Rofellos, Gerrard turned his back on his destiny, leaving the skyship ''Weatherlight'' and its crew behind. However, his former crewmates have come to his home Benalia to get him back. Their captain Sisay has been abducted by Volrath, ruler of the shadowy plane of Rath, and Gerrard is asked to lead her rescue. However, behind Volrath lurks an even greater evil...

This book is somewhat infamous among storyline fans for its constrained structure. It is set up as an anthology, with each chapter written by a different author and told from a different character’s point of view. It also has an insane amount of story to tell, corresponding to four expansions. As such, there are times where it reads more like a summary than an actual novel. Readers are advised to also pick up a copy of the comic ''Gerrard’s Quest'', which covers many of the same events, but goes into more detail about things that ''Rath and Storm'' skims over, such as Crovax’s tragic backstory.

''Rath and Storm'' is followed by the ''Artifacts Cycle'' (consisting of ''Literature/TheBrothersWar'', ''Literature/{{Planeswalker}}'', ''Literature/TimeStreams'' and ''[[Literature/BloodlinesMagicTheGathering Bloodlines]]''), a prequel revealing the origin of the ''Weatherlight'', the Legacy and even of Gerrard himself. The storyline then goes back to the present, picking up where ''Rath and Storm'' left off in the ''Literature/MasqueradeCycle''. Then comes [[Literature/TheThran another prequel]] before the story concludes with the ''Literature/InvasionCycle''.

!! Tropes in '''Rath and Storm''':

* AbortedArc: Lyna and the Soltari were originally meant to have a more important role, but due to creative control changing hands neither ever appeared again after this book.
* ActualPacifist: Karn the Silver Golem is one of these, and has it horribly exploited against him by Volrath.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Mogg goblins of Rath, in contrast to the varying types of Dominarian goblins.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: The only image of pre-Volrath Vuel is an [[https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kh1yyYY2z7Y/VrS36GtS8eI/AAAAAAAAE-Q/CzQcX0Z4vv4/s1600/11.jpg uncolored sketch]], but he was Jamuuran by birth and [[http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Sidar-big.jpg this man was his father]]. It's safe to say he qualifies.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Nearly quoted outright by Greven il-Vec after his first mate Vhati's UnfriendlyFire gambit fails:
--> '''Greven:''' Ambition, Vhati il-Dal, is a meal that oft times bites back.
* AristocratsAreEvil: Subverted with Crovax, at least initially...
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: The [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4505 Aboroth]], a monster from Tahngarth's Tale.
* BadassBookworm: Hanna might be an artificer first and foremost, but when pressed she is capable of going up against an [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=4740 Unstable Shapeshifter]] and coming out the winner.
* BadBoss: Volrath is one to Greven. As this card-only quote puts it:
--> '''Volrath:''' There's very little that escapes me, Greven. And you will escape very little if you fail.
* BigBad: Volrath is the "Evincar" of Rath, which roughly translates to EvilOverlord and makes him the Big Bad by default.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Spikes, sluglike creatures that were introduced in the Rath cycle and never appeared again after. They get a token mention between chapters, attacking Gerrard and Starke in Volrath's Gardens.
* BloodKnight: The book contains three of these:
** Greven il-Vec, as it is said at one point that he only smiles when he is about to kill someone.
** Like all Keldon warriors, Maraxus of Keld is one of these.
** [[spoiler:Crovax]] becomes one of these in the final chapter.
* BornUnlucky: Poor [[spoiler:Mirri]] was doomed practically from the word go, as she was born with different-colored eyes that caused her people to see her as an ill omen and cast her out.
* BreakTheHaughty: Tahngarth is subjected to this, being captured by Greven and mutated in order to serve as the Predator's new first mate. Being a vain [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=26646 Talruum minotaur]], Tahngath does ''not'' take this well.
* BreakThemByTalking: The Oracle en-Vec reduces Starke to impotent stuttering with just a few pointed words when he comes to kill her.
* BrokenAce: Outwardly Mirri is one of the most talented and capable members of the Weatherlight crew. Inwardly she sees herself as a freak and an outcast.
* ButtMonkey: [[spoiler: Mirri]] does not get a happy ending in this book or [[spoiler: any other for that matter.]]
** Ertai is also often made one of these, though it doesn't really kick into high gear for him until ''Nemesis''.
* CainAndAbel: Volrath is the Cain, Gerrard is the Abel.
* CannonFodder: Mogg goblins are manufactured for this purpose and have the mentality to go with it.
* CatGirl: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=106405 Mirri, Cat Warrior]] is an archetypal example.
* CharacterNarrator: This is the narration style used, though it is used inconsistently: some character's tales are narrated in the first person, some in the third, and tale of Crovax isn't even narrated ''by'' Crovax (Orim recounts it, for reasons that don't become fully clear until ''Nemesis'').
* ChekhovsGun: Gerrard’s hourglass pendant was supposed to be this, but due to the saga changing creative control, it came to nothing in the end.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Starke suffers from this.
* ClassicVillain: Volrath is one of ''Magic's'' first BigBad characters, and has such he's a lot more stereotypical, especially early on, than the villains that would come after him. Specifically, he is almost a completely stock EvilOverlord archetype, checking off the criteria such as "is a BadBoss to his [[TheDragon Dragon]]" and "dabbles in {{Evilutionary Biolog|ist}}y on the side" as if scrolling down a list. [[spoiler:Ultimately he does gain more depth, particularly in ''Nemesis'', but this is not enough to save him and he ultimately ends up becoming a DiscOneFinalBoss]].
* CombatMedic: Orim can fight, though she is not an adept at it and doesn't particularly enjoy it.
* CoolAirship: The Weatherlight and its EvilCounterpart, The Predator.
* CorpseLand: The aptly-named Death Pits of Rath, which predictably assails the Weatherlight with DemBones.
* TheCorrupter: Starke is this to the young Vuel, taking an angry but principled youth and turning him into an amoral murderer. And that's ''before'' he travels to Phyrexia and is transformed into [[HumanoidAbomination Volrath]].
* CripplingOverspecialization: Ertai is interested in magic, and ''only'' magic. Neither artifacts nor history nor just about anything else interests him.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: In Karn's Tale, Vuel cuts a Jamuraan blacksmith open, disembowels him and keeps him alive with magic.
* {{Curse}}: Selenia apparently carries one, and passes it to [[spoiler:Crovax]] when he kills her.
* DamselInDistress: Captain Sisay, who is abducted to Rath by Volrath, providing the impetus for the Weatherlight to travel there.
* DavidVersusGoliath: Gerrard is the David and Greven is the Goliath, though almost anyone fighting Greven would be a David thanks to EvilIsBigger.
* DeadSidekick: Rofellos, who was Gerrard's sidekick before dying several years before the events of the main story. Tragic but perhaps for the best, seeing as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15237 his card]] was a notorious GameBreaker in its day.
* DeathFromAbove: At one point Mirri leaps from the Weatherlight to kill a Rathi sentry, a scene which is depicted on the Stronghold card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5180 Leap]].
* DestructiveRomance: Crovax's obsession with Selenia winds up [[spoiler:getting her killed and turning him into a vampire]].
* DreamSequence: There's two, a brief one between chapters where Gerrard sees visions of his past in Volrath's Dream Halls, and a longer one in Mirri's Tale where she goes on a VisionQuest.
* DirtyCoward: Vhati il-Dal is said to be one of these. Despite this, he manages to FaceDeathWithDignity.
* DisneyDeath: Gerrard falls off Weatherlight, and seemingly to his death, in Greven's Tale. Being the main hero of the story, he of course survives the fall, unlike the luckless Vhati.
* TheDragon: Greven il-Vec, to Volrath.
* EmotionsVsStoicism: Used in Karn's Tale, with Gerrard as the Emotional and Karn as the Stoic.
* EnigmaticMinion: Maraxus of Keld is this thanks to the book paying him only the most obligatory of attentions.
* EntitledBastard: Volrath is not a bastard in the classical sense, but he is most certainly one for the purposes of this trope. His entire turn to villainy occurs because he believes that Gerrard's Legacy is rightfully is and that Gerrard usurped his rightful role as heir to Sidar Kondo.
* EvilIsBigger: Seems to be a recurring theme on Rath.
** The Predator is almost twice as large a ship as the Weatherlight. [[spoiler:Unfortunately it later succumbs to VillainForgotToLevelGrind]].
** Commander Greven il-Vec, the captain of Predator, is nearly seven feet tall, outfitted from head to toe in Phyrexian exoskeletal armor, and if his card is an accurate depiction of his strength, has a strength surpassing his master Volrath, any of the Weatherlight's heroes, and even the ''legendary dragons'' that show up in the Literature/InvasionCycle.
* EvilMinions: Moggs are literally manufactured "like maggots" for this purpose.
* ExploringTheEvilLair: A very major part of the story. The fact that the second set of the Tempest block is called ''Stronghold'' might clue you in.
* EyeScream: Starke is blinded with a sword by his daughter Takara. [[spoiler:Or rather, Volrath disguised as Takara]].
* FaceHeelTurn: Selenia and eventually [[spoiler:Crovax]].
** FaceMonsterTurn: Selenia is this, though exactly ''how'' it happens is unknown. She callously lets Vhati il-Dal fall to his death, leads the Phyrexians to the Weatherlight and attacks the heroes in the Stronghold, but at the last she shows notable reluctance, crying as she fights Crovax.
* FallenAngel: Selenia, the angel who is bound to Crovax. Flavor text from the cards reveals she was actually a warrior from [[Literature/TimeStreams Serra's Realm]] before falling to the Phyrexians and finding her way from there into the service of Crovax's family.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: Inverted with Barrin, who is estranged from his daughter Hanna because she is more interested in the hard science of artifice than the wizardly magic that is his forte.
* FlawExploitation: In Tahngarth's Tale, Gerrard ''creates'' a flaw to exploit in the aboroth by turning it into an artifact with the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4442 Than Forge]].
** Maraxus of Keld is also defeated this way, as Gerrard manages to isolate him from his army and defeat him in personal combat -- [[KilledOffscreen not that the book does a good job of telling you that]].
* FogOfDoom: The [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=4486 Fog Elemental]], a monster from Ertai's Tale.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Greven has a brief encounter with the wizard Ertai in Greven's Tale. The two characters will get to know each other much better come ''[[Literature/MasqueradeCycle Nemesis]]''.
* FramingDevice: A very awkward one, taking place in a library at an undefined point in the future. An aging librarian tells the story to a young boy who has never heard of Gerrard. However, the finale of the saga is so devastating that it leaves Dominaria a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic wasteland]], making it very unlikely that he wouldn’t know about it. The librarian is also hinted to be more than he seems, but after this book neither of these characters never appear again.
* FreudianExcuse: Volrath's is that he was cast out of his clan after failing a rite of passage (which was actually sabotaged by his future mentor Starke).
* GadgeteerGenius: Hanna of Tolaria, who is the Weatherlight's navigator.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Greven's Tale and character card were both written very specifically to avert this, as revealed by Mark Rosewater [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/making-legend-2003-08-25 in a 2003 article]].
* GardenOfEvil: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=5260 Volrath's Gardens]] fit the bill admirably.
* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: And [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4557 Maraxus of Keld]] needs his followers just like a god needs their prayer, as like all Keldon warlords he draws strength from the number of soldiers that believe in him.
* GoodNeedsEvil: Referenced between chapters late in the book, where the boy Ilcaster wonders if Volrath was actually doing Gerrard a favor by giving him a challenge to overcome so he could become a hero. The librarian narrator agrees with him.
* GreenEyedMonster: Vuel, the young Volrath, is described as "obsessively jealous" of his hated stepbrother Gerrard.
* [[LukeIAmYourFather Gerrard, I Am Your Brother]]: Somewhat unusually, the reader is told up front that Volrath is Gerrard’s stepbrother, although Gerrard doesn’t find out until very late in the book.
* TheHeart: This is Hanna's ''real'' value to the Weatherlight according to Mirri.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Mirri]] dies in battle with [[spoiler:Crovax]] to protect [[spoiler:Gerrard]].
* HiddenElfVillage: Tolaria is populated by wizards, not elves, but it still counts as this as it is warded with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=10462 mystic enchantments]] that make it nearly impossible for any non-natives to find (and even the native-born Hanna has trouble finding her way back).
* HiveQueen: The Sliver Queen, which like Maraxus is disappointingly only encountered off-page.
* HonorBeforeReason: The young Vuel had this attitude, being furious at having his life saved by Gerrard because he considered dying preferable to living with disgrace. As Volrath, he trades it out for RevengeBeforeReason.
* HopeSpot: Vhati il-Dal has one of these when the angel Selenia appears before him during his fall -- only for her to laugh at him and fly away because she's a FallenAngel now.
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: At one point Gerrard has to fight a mind-controlled Sisay. It's another of those irritating recounted-between-chapters scenes.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler: Mirri]].
* InformedAbility: Sisay is hyped in Gerrard's Tale as being a very capable warrior, to the point of one-upping him in a knife-throwing contest. Unfortunately for her she spends most of this book playing the DistressedDamsel, and when she is rescued, is too weak from months of captivity to really be much of a factor. Later installments would see Sisay firmly kick this trope to the curb, but here it fits.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Ertai manages the somewhat impressive feat of offending nearly ''every'' member of the Weatherlight crew without meaning to.
* {{Insufferable|Genius}} TeenGenius: Ertai is the brightest wizard of his generation and is not particularly shy about letting people know.
* ItWontTurnOff: Inverted with the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4444 Touchstone]], a Legacy artifact that can activate or deactivate any other artifact -- including the sentient golem Karn.
* JerkJock: Pre-Volrath Vuel gives off this vibe, being described as athletic and having a haughty bearing.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ertai can really put the ''insufferable'' in InsufferableGenius, but his intentions are good, and while you have to go to AllThereInTheManual for it, he is ultimately the reason the Weatherlight is able to escape Rath.
* JerkassHasAPoint: In Karn's Tale, Vuel tells Karn that "greatness cannot be handed to a man" and that one who is handed greatness will "denigrate and despise it." Vuel is a thief who has stolen the greatness he refers to, but he also has a point here: Gerrard ''does'' view his Legacy as more burden than responsibility, at least at the time.
** There's also Keilic the brash cat warrior from Mirri's Tale, who chides Gerrard for not treating Mirri with the respect she deserves.
* JustFriends: Mirri's Tale reveals that [[spoiler:Gerrard feels this way about Mirri, feeling that they are LikeBrotherAndSister and that he cannot reciprocate their love because they are too different]].
* KlingonPromotion: Volrath tells readers in Starke's Tale that he had to challenge Rath's previous evincar and "prevailed, though at great cost" to become the new evincar.
* KilledOffScreen: Maraxus gets the literary version of this, as his entire story, including his death, is recounted ''between chapters'', which is very disappointing to those who wanted to learn more about him.
* LackOfEmpathy: Selenia's corruption seems to have had this effect on her.
* TheLancer: Tahngarth to Gerrard.
* LeftHanging: The book is so much this that it almost is a case of NoEnding, concluding with the Weatherlight's escape from Rath, and that's it. No word of where it is going, no word of what happens to Ertai and Crovax (who are both left behind on Rath), no word on where the real Volrath is or how the impending invasion can possibly be thwarted. It's even considered a weak ending ''in-universe''.
* LethalLavaLand: The [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=4819 Furnace of Rath]], which is so hot that the Weatherlight catches fire ''in midair'' just from flying through it.
* [[LikeFatherUnlikeSon Like Father, Unlike Daughter]]: Barrin of Tolaria is a master wizard, while his daughter Hanna is an artificer.
* LiteralMinded: True to his nature as an artificial being, Karn can sometimes fall prey to this.
* LivingStatue: Karn spends years as one of these, as revealed in Karn's Tale.
* LotusEaterMachine: The [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=5105 Dream Halls]] can be this for weak minds.
* LovableCoward: Squee is supposed to be this, though how "lovable" he is can vary from reader to reader.
* LoveMartyr: [[spoiler:Mirri learns during her VisionQuest that Gerrard can only love her "after his fashion" and that it will never be what she needs, but she decides to stay by him anyway]].
* LoveTriangle: Type 4. [[spoiler: Mirri]] LOVES Gerrard but he likes her as a friend. [[spoiler: Hanna]] likes Gerrard, a feeling which is [[spoiler: reciprocated.]] What makes it all worse is that Gerrard doesn't know [[spoiler: Mirri]] LOVES him (he learns it in a dream state, but forgets it immediately after).
* MagicVersusScience: The source of tension between Ertai and Hanna. Ertai believes in the supremacy of magic, and Hanna of science. Her relationship with her father Barrin is strained for the same reason.
* MasterPoisoner: Starke "has some familiarity" with drugs and poisons, and sabotages Vuel's rite of passage by lacing his war paint with bitterleaf and thoughtsease.
* MechanicalEvolution: Hinted at in Hanna's Tale, when Hanna remarks that the Weatherlight "seems as if it's changing beneath our feet sometimes". Later installments would reveal that she was more right than she knew.
* TheMedic: Orim fills this role on the Weatherlight's crew. Being a member of the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=268 Samite Healers]], this role comes naturally to her.
* MessianicArchetype: Oracle en-Vec believes that Gerrard is one of these, the prophesied "Korvecdal" who is so named because he is supposed to unite the Kor, Vec and Dal tribes of Rath.
* MyGreatestFailure: Karn feels this way about the time he accidentally slew an innocent Jamuraan villager.
* {{Nanomachines}}: Flowstone, an artificial substance which is manufactured on the plane of Rath, is made up of these. We learn more about the particulars of it in ''[[Literature/MasqueradeCycle Nemesis]]''.
* {{Nature Hero}}ine: Mirri is one of these, being a cat warrior who has spent the past several years training in the forests of Llanowar.
* NoSocialSkills: Ertai of Tolaria is this in spades.
* NoWaterProofingInTheFuture: Played with -- Karn is hollow and fills up with water when he strides through a lake, but as a magical construct it doesn't slow him down one whit.
* OurElvesAreDifferent: Rath's Skyshroud Elves are more war-like than the Dominion Elves due to their harsher environment.
* TheParanoiac: Due to being a self-aware DoubleAgent, Starke is this.
* PervertDad: Despite Starke's love for his daughter Takara supposedly being his one redeeming feature, there's a skin-crawling line in Starke's Tale where he thinks of her as "so beautiful, like her mother."
* PlayingBothSides: This is Starke's specialty.
* PlotCoupon: The Legacy artifacts serve this purpose, and in proud Plot Coupon tradition both the heroes and the villains GottaCatchThemAll.
* PluckyComicRelief: Squee, the goblin cabin boy and ship's "[[LethalChef cook]]".
* PrincelyYoungMan: Crovax is a dark take on this trope, being a young nobleman from [[{{Mordor}} Urborg]].
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Tahngath the Minotaur is one of these.
* TheQuisling: Volrath was once Vuel of Jamuura before betraying his people and his world to the Phyrexians in pursuit of power.
* {{Red Shirt}}s: Indirectly referenced in Greven's Tale, where Greven thinks of Weatherlight's unnamed crew as "silly, screaming humans in shirts the color of their own spilling blood".
* RedSkyTakeWarning: Rath's skies are pretty much red 24/7.
* RefusalOfTheCall: A point of tension between Gerrard and Sisay in the backstory, as well as the reason why he abandoned the Weatherlight to serve in the Benalish military. Unfortunately for him TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive and he is convinced to return in order to save Sisay.
* SaveTheWorldClimax: Saving the world doesn't happen until a [[Literature/InvasionCycle couple of cycles later]], but partway through this book, Gerrard already finds out that his homeworld is in danger.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Before he became Volrath, Vuel killed his own father Sidar Kondo.
* SeriesContinuityError: Hanna's mother is briefly mentioned as being dead, however we find out in ''[[Literature/MasqueradeCycle Prophecy]]'' that she's quite alive. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, she dies in the same book.]]
** During one of the interludes Tolaria is mentioned to still exist, however in the Literature/InvasionCycle Barrin destroyed the island with the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=23098 Oblierate]] spell.
* ShapeshifterShowdown: Played with late in the book with the final battle of ''Exodus'', which is seemingly Gerrard vs Volrath and Starke vs a mind-controlled Takara. [[spoiler:"Volrath" is actually a shapeshifting stunt double, while "Takara" is actually the real Volrath in disguise]].
* ShockCollar: Greven has a shock ''spine'', courtesy of Volrath.
* SignificantWardrobeShift: In Mirri's Tale, Crovax swaps his "usual foppish clothes" for a midnight blue robe [[spoiler:as a sign of his impending FaceHeelTurn]].
* SpannerInTheWorks: Despite being a very minor character in the Weatherlight Saga, all of Dominaria owes a debt to Vhati il-Dal. If he hadn't betrayed Greven, the Predator could have finished off the Weatherlight and its crew, ending the strongest resistance against the coming Phyrexian invasion before it even launched. But because Vhati ''did'' betray Greven, the Weatherlight was able to escape into the Skyshroud Forest, allowing the rest of the story's events to unfold the way they do.
* SquishyWizard: Ertai can cast all manner of powerful spells, but at the end of the day he's [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5146 not very physically impressive]].
* TheStarscream: Vhati il-Dal, an ambitious Rathi warrior from Greven's Tale who attempts to off said Greven via UnfriendlyFire. It doesn't work out for him.
* TheStinger: The very last pages recount the literary example of one, with the only librarian reading the scene depicted on the card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=6076 Mind Over Matter]] (which was TheStinger for the card set too) where Lyna is shown observing the Weatherlight's escape with [[spoiler:Urza]]. This was a ''huge'' deal at the time, as [[spoiler:Urza]] had hitherto been a prerevisionist character that was almost a complete cipher. He would go on to become arguably '''the''' main character of the Weatherlight Saga.
* TheStoic: Karn is one of these, not because he believes his lack of emotion makes him superior, but because he is afraid of what emotion may compel him to do. This book doesn't explain why, but the Artifact Cycle books do.
* SuperSenses: Being a CatGirl, Mirri has these.
* SuperStrength: Crovax has this, as seen in Hanna's Tale where he effortlessly flings aside a heavy branch several of the crew's RedShirts are unable to lift.
* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Crovax gets these in Mirri's Tale.
* TheSwarm: Slivers, which we see in Starke's Tale. They check off all the criteria, having a HiveMind and attacking the Weatherlight via ZergRush.
* TheSymbiote: All Slivers are mutual symbiotes, as they get stronger in each other's presence and there are several different varieties.
* ThatManIsDead: "There is no Vuel. That man died with a stolen destiny."
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: At one point Crovax has to fight a shapeshifter, and he goes rather a bit overhead with it, a scene which is depicted on the Stronghold card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5109 Amok]].
* ThouShaltNotKill: After accidentally killing a villager in the past, Karn the Golem has sworn to this. Unfortunately for him he is in a setting that is not very kind to pacifists...
* TokenEvilTeammate: Either Starke or Crovax qualify for this role. The former is a treacherous Rathi who volunteers to guide the Weatherlight crew through Rath (for motives of his own, surprise surprise); while the latter is an unstable DoomMagnet obsessed with the angel Selenia.
* TortureTechnician: Volrath is one of these as a side hobby, and he is so good at it that he even figures out a way to torture a golem with the ability to FeelNoPain (no ''physical'' pain is the catch, of course).
* {{Trapped in|AnotherWorld}} AnotherDimension: Three ''entire'' races (the Dauthi, Soltari, and Thalakos) are this, though their impact on the story is minimal since we only meet a single named character from any of the three races: Lyna, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4900 Soltari Emissary]].
* UndyingLoyalty: Tragically subverted, as [[spoiler:Mirri does in fact die for her loyalty to Gerrard]].
* UnstoppableRage: This is more or less Crovax's fighting style.
* UnwillingRoboticisation: One of the Legacy artifacts, the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4442 Thran Forge]], is capable of this, though the effect is only temporary.
* UseYourHead: Mogg goblins are said to be able to kill mountain goats when the two bump head to head.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Volrath is both capable of this himself ''and'' has shapeshifting monsters in his employ.
* VisionQuest: Mirri takes one of these in a flashback.
* VolcanoLair: Volrath’s Stronghold, further solidifying the former's EvilOverlord cred.
* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler:Crovax]] tells Mirri she could have joined him in Mirri's Tale.
* YourMagicsNoGoodHere: Mana is much less plentiful on Rath than it is on Dominaria, and consequently magic is weaker. The importance of this is later revealed in ''[[Literature/MasqueradeCycle Nemesis]]''.