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[The Technomancer]

Wasn't sure if this was threadworthy or not, but I saw it garnering some comments around the web and thought it would be nice to put it in front of a few more people's eyes. In particular I think its noteworthy because its another "classic hardcore" game showing that you don't need to be some indie project to care about representation.

One of the five characters from the latest set release has been revealed as a trans woman in an official piece of media today. I know she's "just one card", but people do actually get invested in these characters, and based on some of the comments I've seen a lot of people are happy to see this. She's also one of the coolest cards in the set:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/uncharted-realms/truth-names-2015-01-28

What she remembered was the panic that came after. Earning her war name had been her only goal. When the fight was over, she stood silently among the other young ones who were boasting of their accomplishments and the bold, grisly names they would choose. Headsmasher. Skullcleaver. Wingbreaker—Gedruk had been among them. Some of them, mostly orcs, boasted of their ancestors' deeds and spoke of their pride in adopting those ancestors' names. She had been so different—only sixteen, a boy in everyone's eyes but her own, about to choose and declare her name before the khan and all the Mardu.

The khan had walked among the warriors, hearing the tales of their glorious deeds. One by one, they declared their new war names, and each time, the khan shouted the names for all to hear. Each time, the horde shouted the name as one, shaking the earth.

Then the khan came to Alesha. She stood before him, snakes coiling in the pit of her stomach, and told how she had slain her first dragon. The khan nodded and asked her name.

"Alesha," she said, as loudly as she could. Just Alesha, her grandmother's name.

"Alesha!" the khan shouted, without a moment's pause.

Magic has been really good about these representative things in the last few years. It started with a conscious decision towards better representation of women in proportion, appearance, and characterization and led to their first agendered character last year and now this

 

[Brakke]

Lovely.

 

[Cerity]

I read a few of the mtg novels in highschool and I'm honestly surprised they haven't had a trans character yet.

The type of stuff that goes on in some of the novels...

 

[Tinfoilhatsron]

I read a few of the mtg novels in highschool and I'm honestly surprised they haven't had a trans character yet. The amount of (fucked up) shit that goes on in some of them...

What? Might wanna clear youself up on that lol, but I know that's two seperate trains of thought. I hope.

Anyway, that's cool.

 

[Emerson]

Well done. Really nice lore to go with it too. Good on them all around.

 

[Dastardly Jerks]

Got a source?

 

[xxracerxx]

I read a few of the mtg novels in highschool and I'm honestly surprised they haven't had a trans character yet. The amount of (fucked up) shit that goes on in some of them...

Terrible way to phrase that sentence. I am assuming you are not saying trans people are fucked up.

Edit: autocorrect changed trans to teams.

 

[Dastardly Jerks]

Terrible way to phrase that sentence. I am assuming you are not saying teams people are fucked up.

That's exactly how it comes across.

Gross.

 

[Nathan_Drake]

I read a few of the mtg novels in highschool and I'm honestly surprised they haven't had a trans character yet. The amount of (fucked up) shit that goes on in some of them...

Retreat retreat. Post backfire I am sure. I hope...

 

[The Technomancer]

Got a source?

Warning: middling quality fantasy writing ahead:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/uncharted-realms/truth-names-2015-01-28

And yeah, in their reaction to the reception they've made it very clear that this is deliberate

 

[Firemind]

I thought Ashiok was the first character who's transgender. Or am I mixing the vocabulary up?

 

[Takuhi]

I really like the way they did this. It's not a story about her struggling with her identity, it's a story about her being a badass and her trans identity is mostly incidental to it.

Sweet card, too.

 

[Ferrio]

And you wouldn't know it looking at the card, good.

 

[Dastardly Jerks]

Warning: middling quality fantasy writing ahead:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/uncharted-realms/truth-names-2015-01-28

And yeah, in their reaction to the reception they've made it very clear that this is deliberate

Cheers!

Good, I'm glad that's the case.

Nothing says adversity like overcoming real life bigotry as well as in-realm bigotry. Which obviously doesn't exist since the khan are all like "hey, you kicked butt, your name is all that matters".

 

[Volimar]

Before the playable planes walkers came out I didn't know whether Chandra was a male name or a female one. I guess that doesn't count. Good on wizards.

 

[Crocodile]

Surprised it wasn't mentioned in the main Magic thread. Cool

I thought Ashiok was the first character who's transgender. Or am I mixing the vocabulary up?

Ashiok is gender neutral. Alesha was born genetically male but identifies as female.

 

[Cerity]

(Hopefully) cleared up my post. Didn't mean trans people are fucked up, just that the novels were often worse than fanfic levels of writing.

 

[Toxi]

The names are actually a pretty interesting way to transfer the trans identity in a fantasy culture while also showing us more of the world. This being Uncharted Realms though, it probably isn't well-written, but it is interesting.

I thought Ashiok was the first character who's transgender. Or am I mixing the vocabulary up?

Ashiok has no gender (anymore). Gender basically doesn't matter to the being because it's more concerned about being an embodiment of nightmares. Basically wants to be formless.

 

[The Technomancer]

Cheers!

Good, I'm glad that's the case.

Nothing says adversity like overcoming real life bigotry as well as in-realm bigotry. Which obviously doesn't exist since the khan are all like "hey, you kicked butt, your name is all that matters".

Yeah it was pretty well done. The reception was the reason I posted about it as well: I've seen quite a few "thank you!" responses around the internet, which just goes to show that people do care about these characters

 

[Hackworth]

I thought Ashiok was the first character who's transgender. Or am I mixing the vocabulary up?

Ashiok is agender, (which I think is a type of trans?), Alesha is male-to-female trans.

Either way, I'm really glad they did this. The reaction seems really positive.

 

[victreeb3l]

Thats awesome man. Good to see more diversity!

 

[freenudemacusers]

huh, i didn't know there was any sort of deep lore to MTG, or even novels. how is this handled in the lore/world? what I mean is, do other characters/factions/whathaveyou consider it controversial, is it looked down upon, etc?

 

[Ferrio]

huh, i didn't know there was any sort of deep lore to MTG, or even novels. how is this handled in the lore/world? what I mean is, do other characters/factions/whathaveyou consider it controversial, is it looked down upon, etc?

Think the characters in MTG have bigger fish to fry.

 

[The Technomancer]

huh, i didn't know there was any sort of deep lore to MTG, or even novels. how is this handled in the lore/world? what I mean is, do other characters/factions/whathaveyou consider it controversial, is it looked down upon, etc?

They used to do novels, but they didn't sell well, so now they primarily tell the story on the cards and via short stories they release every week. The lore gets ridiculous though; the current storyline is a back to the future style time travel plot to save the life of one character to help prevent another ongoing villain from reviving a race of Lovecraft style reality eaters from another storyline and...yeah its basically like superhero comics.

In the context of this one particular character the clan of warriors that they lead is entirely cool with their female identity it seems

 

[explodet]

That's cool.
She's still going down with a lightning bolt, though!

 

[Ferrio]

What ever happened to Urza and gerald and all that stuff? I used to read those novels a lot when I was young.

 

[Xyrmellon]

So no one would ever be able to tell based on the card, so they have to issue a press release? I mean good on them, but it feels like they're screaming for attention.

 

[Ferrio]

So no one would ever be able to tell based on the card, so they have to issue a press release? I mean good on them, but it feels like they're screaming for attention.

Does it really matter?

 

[The Technomancer]

What ever happened to Urza and gerald and all that stuff? I used to read those novels a lot when I was young.

All dead, stopping the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria, which was the big ongoing storyline for ages. Now they've got this interweaving plot thing going on in which they visit different planes each year and tell different stories but tie some of them into each other and have characters show up across storylines.

 

[Ferrio]

All dead, stopping the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria, which was the big ongoing storyline for ages. Now they've got this interweaving plot thing going on in which they visit different planes each year and tell different stories but tie some of them into each other and have characters show up across storylines.

All dead? Like... killed or time has passed? Wasn't Urza immortal?

 

[The Technomancer]

All dead? Like... killed or time has passed? Wasn't Urza immortal?

Killed in action I believe. Urza was basically a god, but he could be slain. And then a few years after that basically all of the fallout from the attempted Phyrexian invasion had the multiverse ripping at the seams, so a bunch of big magic happened to fix things and now planeswalkers are just really powerful mages who can step between worlds instead of literal gods

But the game does have those now too

 

[mnemovore]

All dead? Like... killed or time has passed? Wasn't Urza immortal?

IIRC, Urza sacrificed himself for the sake of the Legacy Weapon so Yawgmoth could be killed.

 

[Christine]

Not too shabby. I would've appreciated it far more 20 years ago but it got a twinge out of a part of my heart that's most always numb. It's astonishing how much representation has changed since I was a teen.

 

[jon bones]

MTG stays being pretty cool

 

[Permanently A]

Wow I had no idea the cards had lore. Very cool.

 

[ClayKavalier]

Wow I had no idea the cards had lore. Very cool.

Yeah, there's a ton of books. I never got into those when I was into Magic, but even reading the flavor text on the cards you can kind of piece together a larger story, kind of like reading item descriptions in Dark Souls.

 

[John Kowalski]

That's pretty cool. I like that her opportunity to become someone else was gained from killing a goddamn dragon. That's one way to come out.

So no one would ever be able to tell based on the card, so they have to issue a press release? I mean good on them, but it feels like they're screaming for attention.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

[Toxi]

So no one would ever be able to tell based on the card, so they have to issue a press release? I mean good on them, but it feels like they're screaming for attention.

Press release? Uncharted Realms is a weekly column that has short stories about the cards, and this reveal was part of a story specifically about the character. Hell, someone linked to the story in this thread.

 

[Mesoian]

Neat.

 

[Kaiterra]

Cool story and cool card. Would totally make a Commander deck for her if I was still playing.

 

[Derwind]

I haven't played MTG since highschool, since the Betrayers of Kamigawa set. But I've been feeling I should get around to playing somemore and news like this certainly helps convince me I should.

Good job Wizards of the Coast.

 

[Professor Renegade]

.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Killed in action I believe. Urza was basically a god, but he could be slain. And then a few years after that basically all of the fallout from the attempted Phyrexian invasion had the multiverse ripping at the seams, so a bunch of big magic happened to fix things and now planeswalkers are just really powerful mages who can step between worlds instead of literal gods

But the game does have those now too

I don't get it. If they're not a creature, then what are they? Just permanents? I don't see how that's useful other than for the mana cost ability on them since I don't think they can attack or block if they're not creatures.

 

[The Technomancer]

I don't get it. If they're not a creature, then what are they? Just permanents? I don't see how that's useful other than for the mana cost ability on them since I don't think they can attack or block if they're not creatures.

The idea is that they're very big for the mana cost you pay. So you play them early to use their abilities, and once you meet their devotion requirement they become creatures you can attack with

Edited

FYI I would edit that out, that term isn't looked kindly on here

 

[Ferrio]

.

I appreciated the pun, even if a little crass.

 

[Toxi]

I don't get it. If they're not a creature, then what are they? Just permanents? I don't see how that's useful other than for the mana cost ability on them since I don't think they can attack or block if they're not creatures.

They're still enchantments. You can still use their other abilities when they're not creatures (Like scrying 1 at the beginning of your upkeep). You just can't attack or block with them.

There is also Progenitus, who is kinda a god.

 

[Horse Detective]

.

damn

RIP

 

[WorldStar]

when i was in middle school some kid offered to sell me a black lotus for $10 but i said no

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Android: Netrunner also has a character that is Trans. It's actually pretty remarkable how diverse the characters are in that game.

 

[Home]

Great job wotc

So no one would ever be able to tell based on the card, so they have to issue a press release? I mean good on them, but it feels like they're screaming for attention.

It's not a press release it's a column they release on their website occasionally to flesh out the lore in the worlds magic visits, focusing on the characters in the game.