Back in 2018, beloved fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson dipped his toes into a surprising world: he wrote a huge, free novella for Magic: The Gathering. That story, Children of the Nameless, is now considered to be one of the best stories ever written for the venerable card game’s lore, so it’s excellent news that it’s finally getting a print run for the first time. Well, mostly.
This week Wizards of the Coast and Subterranean Press announced (via Polygon) that they would be teaming up for a lavish special edition of Children of the Nameless. The story, set on Magic‘s gothic-horror plane of Innistrad, follows a young girl named Tacenda, blessed by a powerful protection spell since birth that has allowed her to safeguard her village from the myriad horrors that haunt Innistrad—until it suddenly stops working, and Tacenda loses everything she loves. Seeking revenge, she ends up crossing paths with a Planeswalker (the interplanary-hopping powerful mages that are a major pillar of the Magic universe) newly created by Sanderson for the novella, named Davriel Cane—who even went on to get a few Magic cards of his own, much to the delight of Sanderson.
With a limited run of just 1,500 copies, the new edition features brand-new interior and dust jacket artwork inspired by the story by famed Magic artist Cynthia Sheppard, as well as a lavish hardcover design under the sleeve. To boot, each numbered copy in the print run will also be signed by Sanderson himself, making it extra special. But that also explains why the limited run will cost $250.
It’s a lot of money, but at least Subterranean Press will provide a portion of the sales to the Child’s Play charity. But it’s still a lot of money, and especially stings considering that eventually Wizards of the Coast pulled Children of the Nameless from its online story archive in the 8 years since it first released, making the new run the first—and currently only—time the story has been officially accessible in a while.
But there’s good news for people who don’t want to spend $250, no matter how great Sanderson’s love letter to Magic is. In a comment shared with Polygon, Subterranean Press confirmed that a larger, unsigned run of the book, 5,000 copies in total, will be available to order next month and further noted that “Sanderson and his team are also working on creating an even more widely available version, as well as working on getting the ebook back up again.”
Whether or not there are any significant differences between the deluxe edition and the regular edition beyond Sanderson’s signature remains to be seen, but at least fans won’t have to wait long to have a less-lavish option—and hopefully won’t have to wait much longer than that for the digital versions of the story to be available to enjoy once more.
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