Children of the Nameless

 So, I went and read the Children of the Nameless, a MTG tie-in novel released for free a couple years ago (it must have been a few, given that Davriel showed up in War of the Spark.)

This might be the first actual tie-in book I've actually read (as I said before, I never finished The Book of Atrus,) if you don't count online-only postings (though this kind of counts as that, given that I read it on the Apple Books app on my laptop.)

Anyway, it was a quick read and actually pretty good. Either it's novella in length or I burned through it very quickly (it's 539 pages in the Books app, but the pages are pretty generously spaced and large-fonted, so I imagine it'd be much shorter in other formats.)

The story takes place on Innistrad, but aside from a few references to angels going insane and the threat of werewolves, vampires, and geists, I think someone without any familiarity with the world could easily grasp the basics of the book.

Tacenda is a teenage girl who has a gift bestowed upon her by "The Bog," a circular pond near her village. Tacenda has access to a number of magical songs that can, among other things, ward off monsters. Her sister, Willia, has been gifted with powerful strength, which she uses to fight off monsters. However, with these gifts comes a curse - Tacenda is always blind during the day, and her twin sister is always blind by night, meaning they can never actually see one another at the same time.

One day, Tacenda's world shatters when a swarm of horrible geists come in and massacre her town, killing her sister, parents, and nearly anyone she knows. She suspects that the "Man of the Manor," a recently-arrived nobleman who displaced the previous lord (who had been a vampire) is behind the attack, and goes to take her revenge.

However, when she arrives, she discovers that the lord and his demonic servants had been framed, and she and the lord, Davriel Cane, go to investigate.

Though Tacenda is, I would say, more of the protagonist here, Davriel is obviously the real highlight of the book. This is a Magic book, after all, and Davriel is a perfect black-mana antihero. He is a master demonologist and diabolist, who has retreated to Innistrad (yeah, he's a planeswalker) in order to hide from his foes and live in comfort and laziness.

Davriel is a cynic, often lambasting Tacenda's moral sense and laying out a philosophy of transactional relationships and a sense that people who believe they are "good" are the most likely to commit atrocities. He's clever, having arranged contracts with demons that ostensibly would forfeit his soul to them, but which couldn't practically ever be fulfilled (for example, with one of his demons, he will surrender his soul if he makes it to 65 without dying, but never told the demon that he had already died once.)

While the colors of magic are never mentioned, the book does a rather interesting exploration of Magic's nuanced view on the matter - Davriel's demons are actually quite likable and sympathetic characters who also mourn the loss of their fellows, even if they are in theory motivated by the desire to claim and consume souls. Miss Highwater, a succubus-like demon, respects Davriel for recognizing her skill at contracts and employing her in a job that does not reduce her to a mere seductress.

The story is not an epic, taking place all within a single night, but it hints at a much deeper and larger story for Davriel, which will likely be explored if WotC uses him in future sets (his appearance in Historic Horizons is promising, and I suspect we'll find that the plane New Capenna is on is either his home plane or the first one he planeswalked to.)

Important to the story, and certainly to his character, is that he carries within him an "Entity" that is the sentient remnant of a destroyed plane. Though it is not a demon, the Entity acts very much like one, always begging for him to give in and use its power. But, for reasons that are eventually revealed, he has refused, even though he is certainly not a scrupulous person.

Anyway, it's a fun read.