Tarkir: Dragonstorm Lore & Story Summary

Stillness in Motion | Illustration by Kai Carpenter

We finally find ourselves at the culmination of Magic’s most recent story arc: the Dragonstorm. What began with the appearance of the mysterious Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest in Bloomburrow now comes to a head with the return to Magic’s most dragon-infested plane: Tarkir.

Things have changed since the last time we visited Tarkir, so let’s take a look at it.

What Is Tarkir: Dragonstorm About?

Corroding Dragonstorm | Illustration by Sergey Glushakov

The story follows Narset and Elspeth as they join forces to investigate the increasing dragonstorms that are hitting both Tarkir and the rest of the Multiverse. Along the way, they meet with old friends and foes alike as they traverse a changed Tarkir, free from the rule of the Dragonlords.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm Setting

Tarkir: Dragonstorm takes place several years after the New Phyrexian Invasion. The main setting for the story is the plane of Tarkir, which has seen some significant changes since the last time we saw it several years ago (over a decade ago, to be precise, but that makes me feel old and I don’t like that).

After the Invasion, a group of representatives from each clan organized a rebellion against the tyrannical Dragonlords that ruled over them with iron claws. For this purpose, the rebel leaders performed a ritual spell that summoned five spirit dragons, each of them embodying the core ideals of each clan. These new spirit dragons were instrumental in defeating the elder dragons, forcing them into a dragonstorm, after which they seemingly disappeared for good.

The clans now coexist in relative peace, occasionally engaging in armed conflict with each other. However, the dragons plaguing the plane are all but gone: New dragonstorms continue to appear, and they spawn new beasts that consistently threaten the clans and their people.

Main Characters

Narset

Narset, Jeskai Waymaster | Illustration by Randy Vargas

Some time in the past, Narset led a rebellion against the dragonlords of Tarkir along with other clan leaders. She’s now Waymaster of the Jeskai, doing her best to keep the peace for her people.

Elspeth

Elspeth, Storm Slayer | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

The archangel planeswalker presents herself before Narset in search for her knowledge and help to end the dragonstorms that have been plaguing several planes across the multiverse.

Sarkhan

Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant | Illustration by Billy Christian

Broken by the loss of his draconic powers, and furious at the rest of Tarkir for ending the rule of dragons, the former planeswalker wanders Tarkir trying to find a way to harness the power of the dragonstorms.

Ajani

Still drowning in self-loathing over the things he did as a Phyrexian, Ajani has chosen to cast himself away, leading an isolated life in the wastes of the Abzan territories.

Jace

Jace has been on a quest to reach the “center of the multiverse,” where he believes he’ll find a way to remake the entire multiverse in his own vision; a place without hurt, pain, or scarred loved ones.

The Plot

Episode 1: Stories and Their Bones

Read or listen for yourself: Episode 1

Our story starts with Narset at a tavern beside a lake. There, she observes as two performers retell the story of how a group of rebels, Narset included, faced the Dragonlords, summoned the new spirit dragons, and restored the old clans, ending the Dragonlords’ subjugation of the people of Tarkir. But this representation sparks discussions as members of the audience that belong to different clans argue over their different interpretations of the story.

Narset brings this to a halt, and she does her best to properly explain what happened. But she’s interrupted by Jeskai messengers: The planeswalker Elspeth is here to see her.

Episode 2: Omens

Read or listen for yourself: Episode 2

Narset and Elspeth meet at a Jeskai skyship that serves as a moving temple. Elspeth asks Narset for help from her and the Jeskai to investigate the dragonstorms that have been spawning all over the multiverse. Their meeting is cut short by a massive dragon that attacks the airship.

Rally the Monastery | Illustration by David Astruga

After it bores a hole below the ship, the beast crawls inside and attacks monks and students alike. With Elspeth’s help, Narset and the Jeskai monks fight the beast back and drive it away from the airship, harming it enough that the skywarriors that guard the ship can finish it off.

Narset ponders Elspeth’s call for help. Torn between her responsibilities as Waymaster and her desire to help the multiverse, she finally comes to a decision: The Jeskai don’t have the resources to help Elspeth and won’t be involved, but Narset herself will accompany the archangel in her search for answers.

Episode 3: What the Past Devours

Read or listen for yourself: Episode 3

For the first time since the end of the Invasion, we see Ajani again. He’s settled on Tarkir, striking a deal with the Abzan so they’ll let him live on the outskirts of their territories in exchange for help with hunting and keeping guard. The leonin doesn’t seem to live so much as survive here; he does little besides covering his base needs and rejecting the Abzan’s ambassadors that seek to offer him help. Well, all but Nur, whom he ends up liking, much to his dismay. Nur cares for him and tries to get Ajani out of his self-loathing rut as they share meals and talk.

Elsewhere, Narset and Elspeth begin their investigations at the most obvious place: the Crucible of the Spirit Dragon. A place imbued with Ugin’s energy, and the place where the new spirit dragons have spawned. There, the two women hear a disembodied voice talk to them, urging them to find a temple in the dragonstorms.

Narset's Rebuke | Illustration by Diego Gisbert

At the Crucible, they come across Sarkhan. The former planeswalker claims to wander Tarkir, following the dragonstorms, in hopes that he’ll ensure a way for the rule of dragons to return. He tries to attack Elspeth, but the archangel defeats him quickly and with ease.

Back in his home, angry and frustrated at his own weakness, Sarkhan is approached by a monk: Taigam. He claims to have a way of restoring Sarkhan’s draconic powers.

Episode 4: Heart of Fire

Read or listen for yourself: Episode 4

Sarkhan and Taigam hunt after a young dragon. They need its heart for the ritual that’ll supposedly allow Sarkhan to become a dragon once again. After a short and brutal fight, the former planeswalker rips the dragon’s heart out and bites into it. Right before he is flooded with power, he wonders for the first and last time if he’s making a mistake.

Stormplain Detainment | Illustration by Livia Prima

Narset and Elspeth are taken into custody by the Abzan under accusations of trespassing on their lands. Elspeth wants to simply get away violently, but Narset urges her to help keep the peace between clans, and she agrees to a meeting with the Abzan Khan.

After much time wasted, the meeting finally takes place only for it to devolve into petty arguments between the heads of the Abzan houses. Right before Elspeth takes the more violent way, the meeting is interrupted; Ajani bursts in with grave news: A massive dragon, whom he’s sure is Sarkhan himself, advances with an army of dragons in tow over Abzan lands.

Episode 5: Recursion

Read or listen for yourself: Episode 5

After a long and tedious deliberation, the Abzan Khan gives Narset and Elspeth free passage through their lands but refuses them any kind of military aid. The two have a brief moment to catch up with Ajani, who still feels immense guilt over having wanted to kill Elspeth when he was a Phyrexian. They try to recruit him, but Ajani refuses.

Narset and Elspeth venture closer to the dragonstorms, within one of which they find an Omenpath. On the other side, they find a world that defies logic: the Meditation Realm. And within it, they find Jace and a knocked-out Loot.

Episode 6: How Wretched Love

Read or listen for yourself: Episode 6

A brief look to the past shows Jace and Vraska struggling with their fantasies of simply being a happy, if strange family and the truth of the things they must do to remake the multiverse. We also see what ultimately amounts to Jace’s mistreatment of Loot, reducing him to little more than a tool. Loot later escapes into a dragonstorm and finds his way into the Meditation Realm with Jace close behind, leading to their encounter with Narset and Elspeth.

Stillness in Motion | Illustration by Kai Carpenter

Narset finds a way for the Realm to make sense by accepting that they have to empty their minds and simply embrace a conception of the world that goes beyond their understanding. Once the Meditation Realm takes its proper shape, they’re met with a terrible sight: Ugin and Nicol Bolas, intertwined, as they had been ever since the end of the War of the Spark.

The spirit dragon bids the planeswalkers and Narset to leave immediately, but Jace has other plans. Before the other two can react, he teleports to Ugin’s head and grasps the Spirit-Gem between the dragon’s horns and leeches its energy… just in time for Vraska to arrive and try to stop him.

Jace attempts to wield this energy to remake the Multiverse, make it without pain, without suffering, without the scars and hurt that he and his loved ones now carry. And he fails. By disrupting their imprisonment, Jace causes Bolas to escape his brother’s grasp, as an encroaching darkness takes Jace away along with the rest of the Meditation Realm.

Episode 7: Return

Read or listen for yourself: Episode 7

Sarkhan only has one purpose on his mind: to gain complete control over the dragonstorms, and bring the glory of dragons to the entire Multiverse. For this, he needs to destroy the temple at the heart of the dragonstorm.

Vraska, Elspeth, Narset, and Loot all make it out of the Meditation Realm, only to find themselves surrounded by a massive cloud of dragons that’s big enough to darken the sky. And at its heart is a massive beast: Sarkhan’s new dragon form.

Vraska escapes with Loot, but Narset and Elspeth stay behind to fight off the onslaught. The two fight tirelessly until a group of Abzan reinforcements and Ajani arrive. Faced with the impending doom of his friends, Ajani breaks free from his self-imposed chains of self-loathing and hurls himself head-first towards a dragon to save Narset.

United Battlefront | Illustration by Darren Tan

The group, and their Abzan allies, fight furiously, but in the end, nothing seems to be enough. But right before the end, Ugin stops Sarkhan in his tracks. The spirit dragon tries to reason with the former planeswalker, but nothing he says is enough, so he finally unleashes his ghost fire on Sarkhan. His dragon form becomes ash, and he disappears (editor’s note: Story Lead Roy Graham has confirmed that Sarkhan is not dead). Ugin points out that he’ll take control of the dragonstorms, but that Nicol Bolas is free.

Elsewhere, a silvery-lake begins to take form. And within that lake, a blue cloak appears.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm Spotlight Cards

Call the Spirit Dragons

The leaders of the newly-reformed clans perform the Stormnexus ritual, which allows them to invoke five spirit dragons that embody the clans themselves and overthrow the dragonlords.

Rally the Monastery

Narset and Elspeth fight off the wild dragon that brutally attacked the Jeskai airship-temple.

Narset’s Rebuke

A furious Sarkhan attempts to attack Narset and Elspeth, but the pair fight him back and beat him.

Stormplain Detainment

As Elspeth and Narset travel through Abzan-adjacent lands, they’re detained by the clan’s guards.

Sarkhan’s Resolve

Sarkhan performs the Stormnexus ritual by killing a dragon and consuming his heart as sacrifice.

Stillness in Motion

Narset’s wisdom and what she’s learned from Ojutai allow her to see past the Meditation Realm’s illusions.

United Battlefront

Sarkhan’s draconic onslaught is faced with the whole might of the Abzan war forces, pushing it back.

Wrap Up

Call the Spirit Dragons | Illustration by Liiga Smilshkalne

And that’s that for Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s story. As always, if this summary caught your interest, make sure to read the actual stories at Wizard’s site! The people writing these are doing a wonderful job, and it’s good to let Wizard’s know we want the story to keep being free and easily accessible. This set also included a series of short stories that delved into each of the clans, but for brevity’s sake I had to leave them out of my summary. Make sure to go check them out!

But enough about me. What did you think of this set’s story? Did you expect things to go the way they went? Are you excited for what will come next? Leave a comment below to let us know! And don’t forget to visit the official Draftsim Discord where you can find and join an amazing community of MTG fans.

That’s all from me for now. Have a good one, and I’ll see you next time!