The Vorthos Cast

We're kicking off our month (and a half) of Omens of Chaos this week with a special guest, Kathleen De Vere of LoadingReadyRun! If you haven't read Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos by Seanan McGuire, you should do that now, because this episode is spoilers all the way down. We're talking about structure, plot, tone, themes, characterization, and all the ways this book succeeded (and some of the ways we think it could have gone further) as both a Magic novel and a novel in its own right.

Starting next week, we'll be doing a deep-dive into the novel chapter by chapter, giving summaries as well as more specific thoughts about the details of the book. Want to read along? Here's how we're breaking down the book:

Part 1: Pg.1-125
Part 2: Pg.126-167
Part 3: Pg.168-253
Part 4: Pg.254-306
Part 5: Pg.307- 413

If you'd like to support the show, you can find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! All supporters get access to our Discord server, where Vorthoses around the world are telling stories and discussing Magic with each other! All patrons get access to early episode releases, and patrons at our $3/month tier can listen to us record episodes live!

First of all, the name is Loreley's responsibility.

After the preview panel at MC Vegas, we thought now would be a good time to revisit the story of Jace Beleren since the events of Phyrexia: All Will be One. The last few years of story have all been leading to this moment, as Jace has worked covertly (and somewhat overtly) to enact his plan for planar engineering. What led him from hero to villain, and what exactly has led up to Reality Fracture? Chris and Cary also get to do a little speculation as to what's going to happen, and who we might see writing the story.

If you'd like to support the show, you can find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! All supporters get access to our Discord server, where Vorthoses around the world are telling stories and discussing Magic with each other! All patrons get access to early episode releases, and patrons at our $3/month tier can listen to us record episodes live!

It's time for the flavor gems of Secrets of Strixhaven, a show where we look at all the most flavorful cards of the set and talk about art, callbacks, and lore you may have missed! This set is full of callbacks to the first time we were on Arcavios and new mini-stories hidden in the card art and mechanics! There's also Noxious Newt!

If you'd like to support the show, you can find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! All supporters get access to our Discord server, where Vorthoses around the world are telling stories and discussing Magic with each other! All patrons get access to early episode releases, and patrons at our $3/month tier can listen to us record episodes live!

This week we're joined by Wizard and author of the story for Secrets of Strixhaven, K Arsenault Rivera! She's contributed to the Magic Story since Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and has been a frequent guest of the podcast over the years since. We talk about writing the students of Strixhaven, as well as catching up with Chandra and Ajani after they've both been through so much.

We had to do some very unusual recording for this episode, so if things sound weird, I did my best!

If you'd like to support the show, you can find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! All supporters get access to our Discord server, where Vorthoses around the world are telling stories and discussing Magic with each other! All patrons get access to early episode releases, and patrons at our $3/month tier can listen to us record episodes live!

This week is the final episode discussing the web fiction of Secrets of Strixhaven, including the two side stories for Silverquill and Witherbloom! The stories explore the rocky relationships between the people of the world and tackling grief and loss in different ways. You should read both of them, because they're so good! We also give some thoughts about the overall experience of the stories for this set, and what we're looking forward to in the future.

Read "Winnowing Season" by Emma Mieko Candon: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/secrets-of-strixhaven-winnowing-season

Read "Down to the Lake, Alone" by Isaac Fellman: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/secrets-of-strixhaven-down-to-the-lake-alone

If you'd like to support the show, you can find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheVorthosCast! All supporters get access to our Discord server, where Vorthoses around the world are telling stories and discussing Magic with each other! All patrons get access to early episode releases, and patrons at our $3/month tier can listen to us record episodes live!