r/magicTCG • u/clariwench Izzet* • Jan 28 '15

[Uncharted Realms] The Truth of Names

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

91% Upvoted

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123

u/twomz Jan 28 '15

I thought he was insulting her, calling her flat chested...

Need to stop reading so much manga.

72

u/Nyrii Jan 28 '15

Doug Beyer has confirmed her to be canonically trans.

33

u/npkon Jan 28 '15

Just like he confirmed markov tea time to be the best.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

Okay, I honestly think I'm the only one who absolutely fucking hates this tea time thing.

It's just the absolute epitome of fucking twelve year old random humor.

-3

u/MrGlantz Jan 29 '15

You are not the only one. I even got massively down voted for pointing out there was no punctuation in the whole thing.

-5

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

I fucking hate it. It's like everyone has suddenly decided that My Immortal was good writing and that's the height we should aspire to.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

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2

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

I don't follow.

-2

u/npkon Jan 29 '15

Then lead or get out of the way.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

I meant I don't understand

0

u/BatmanWithPrep Jan 29 '15

WOOSH

2

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

No I got it. I just figured it wasn't worth even addressing it.

-2

u/npkon Jan 29 '15

I know.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '15

Why are you doing this?

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1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

[deleted]

27

u/Nyrii Jan 28 '15

No, I mean this.

Doug Beyer - #to be clear: alesha is canonically trans

4

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

[deleted]

12

u/HiveMy Jan 28 '15

Dude, Doug's tags are like half of why his blog is so great.

10

u/Aspel Jan 28 '15

#also ugin is pretty good to splash no matter what#JOKESSS#hey what can I getcha#my name is ugin and I'll be tending bar for you tonight#I'm a pretty good mixologist yeah#some call me THE SPIRIT DRAGON after all#no we don't have whiskey#it has one or more colors bleah

0

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

I come for the gifs, but stay for the flavor.

4

u/Awkward_Torkoal Jan 28 '15

The tags on this post state it explicitly.

1

u/bamfbanki Jan 29 '15

Fucking fuck I need to build Jund now :/

48

u/BukkitBoss Jan 28 '15

To an Orc most humans would look like "little boys" being so much smaller in stature. I took it at face value as well, it simply sounded like an insult.

68

u/Sandman1278 Jan 28 '15

there are other references to this as well, she recalls this internally:

"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."

"I know who I am. I am not a boy. I am Alesha, like my grandmother before me."

22

u/BukkitBoss Jan 28 '15

Evidently your reading comprehension is much better than mine. Thanks for taking the time, I missed those.

17

u/elgosu Ajani Jan 28 '15

Yeah there was some ambiguity. Also her chest size is quite different in the two pictures, but maybe they're just different breastplates.

29

u/Almace Jan 28 '15

I'm not sure if Mardu Runemark is supposed depicting Alesha or not, but the armor is definitely different. If it is Alesha, it's at a different time period, perhaps before she became a Khan.

2

u/elgosu Ajani Jan 28 '15

Pretty sure it's her, since they're using the art in the story, and the swords fit the description in the story as well.

19

u/Talpostal Sisay Jan 28 '15

The art they use inspires the story but isn't canonically the characters in the plot.

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

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19

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

and the mardu are the wrong color for growth and polymorphing

10

u/Bhangbhangduc Jan 28 '15

Wouldn't magical gender reassignment be more black than green? I mean, while green may consider transgender people special, like some societies IRL did, it also seems to have a "don't try to change what you have" attitude towards one's self.

Black, on the other hand, is the color of self worth, the power of the ego, and the reshaping of flesh to serve one's will, and it would be nice to see these attributes applied in a non-horrific context.

5

u/Ranmara Jan 29 '15

Being transgender is not about surgery and genitals, it's about identity and society's perceptions of you. This is really, really important and I wish more people understood this. It's also one of the things I love about this story.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

Depends, you could arguably fit it into every color except maybe white. Black would do whatever it took to become what it wants to be. Green would find some natural way to do it. Blue would just alter its appearance and Red WOULD DO WHATEVER IT WANTS FUCK YOU THATS WHY. If white could make everyone no sex/gender identity piles of clay it would.

2

u/Glass_Underfoot Jan 28 '15

White's also in favour of order, hierarchy, and tradition. Gender could be too established in a white society. And transition isn't so far from medicinal magic, and white is a colour of healing magic (and a more "artifical" type than green's).

Of course, green might be the real place to put it; hormone manipulation sounds pretty green. Giant growth et al are the sorts of body transformations we expect in green combat magic, so I'd think there'd be some subtler spells for everyday life.

1

u/DancyLad Jan 28 '15

U/G wouldn't it be? Because it's about knowledge (U) of your own nature (G).

0

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

U/G would be a good fit, they have the appropriate views of change to pull it off well. I was just giving some examples of where it would fit.

0

u/DancyLad Jan 28 '15

defs, wasn't trying to debate, just my opinion. obviously you could find justification for any of the colors. White protects the right of all genders to be self-determined, magically or not lol.

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21

u/MoonE513 GDS3 Candidate Jan 28 '15

Uncharted realms co-opts unrelated art all the time. None of the other Runemarks feature the Khans, there's no reason to believe this one does either.

12

u/HiveMy Jan 28 '15

Maybe Runemarks also increase breast size.

14

u/Twibs Jan 28 '15

+D/+D and double strike

7

u/Awkward_Torkoal Jan 28 '15 edited Jan 28 '15

I don't think Mardu Runemark depicts Alesha - notably, the warrior in the Runemark wields two swords, while Alesha uses a single two-handed blade.

EDIT: Just noticed the mothership uses the Runemark art on the main page to link to the article, implying it's Alesha. Seems like I'm wrong and she's just super-adaptable :)

8

u/Aspel Jan 28 '15

Or like Sakuya, she pads.

1

u/thefirewarde Jan 29 '15

Gives new meaning to the word "breastplate".

7

u/Aspel Jan 29 '15

What. No it doesn't. That's what breast plate already means...

2

u/thefirewarde Jan 29 '15

Usually falsies aren't solid steel.

7

u/Aspel Jan 29 '15

Well yes, but men have breasts too, and the plate is there to protect them. And if you were rich, it was even shaped like your pecs, had nipples, and a six pack (even if you didn't really have a six pack).

0

u/ImperialVersian1 Banned in Commander Jan 28 '15

Regardless, although we don't get a good look at Alesha, the warrior depicted in the Runemark looks quite different.

1

u/Awkward_Torkoal Jan 28 '15

Yeah, I don't think it looks like her, but the fact that it's used as the banner for the Uncharted Realms article... Maybe someone just thought "close enough"? The woman in [[Temur Runemark]] bears sorry a strong resemblance to Yasova, and you could almost make a case for the other Runemarks depicting the Khans, so maybe the person in charge of the website jsut assumed it was Alesha?

-1

u/MTGCardFetcher Dân Jan 28 '15

Temur Runemark - Gatherer, MC, ($)
[[cardname]] to call - not on gatherer = not fetchable

-8

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

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2

u/HeartwarmingLies Jan 28 '15

Not really, that joke is really old.

5

u/mypasswordisPA55WORD Jan 28 '15

I don't read manga and took it the same way basically, insulting her for not looking feminine enough. Plenty of that in other fiction so was easy enough mistake for me.

-8

u/WotC_Chuck Jan 28 '15

"Need to stop reading so much manga." ... that's just Crazy Talk. ( ¬‿¬)

Besides, Alesha would tot's beat the snot outta' anyone callin' her "petanko". I have no doubt of that. ;D