Magic: The Gathering plane name changed to avoid racist connotations
Wizards of the Coast has announced a big change to one of Magic: the meeting‘s most iconic aircraft of the past decade. In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said the aircraft previously named Kaladesh – an Indian-inspired environment known for innovation and cultural advancement – would be renamed Avishkar. In two posts, the company explained both in the universe And real world reasons for this change, which are a result of community feedback following the set’s original release in 2016.
According to Wizards post “Avishkar: Why we changed the name of an aircraft”, the creative team had initially chosen the name Kaladesh as a combination of the Hindi words kala (which can mean ‘tomorrow’ or ‘art’) and desh (meaning ‘home’ or ‘country’). In the years since the set’s debut, community feedback informed the team about the term kala can also mean “black” with a different pronunciation, a usage that has racist and colorist implications when applied to an individual.
Upon returning to the plane for the next one Aetherdrift Line, the Wizards team worked with a group of cultural advisors with expertise in Indian culture and Hindi to “find a way to honor the spirit of the plane and its real-world inspiration.” Wizards has previously used cultural consultants to check the sensitivity of its products, particularly in the wake of the previous one Game shame edition.
With the help of the subject matter experts, Wizards has compiled a list of possible names. After discussing and vetting the candidates, they collectively settled on Avishkar, from the Hindi word aavishkarwhich means ‘invention’. Once the name was chosen, Wizards decided not to revise the lore, so the plane always had the new name. Instead, the company decided to provide narrative reasons for the change. Here is the explanation of “Planeswalker’s Guide to Aetherdrift, Part 1”:
The consulate that Kaladesh headed has also been abolished after a popular, almost bloodless revolution. The plane is united under a new planar government, the Avishkar Assembly, and the capital remains the city of Ghirapur.
Unlike other cases where cards have been withdrawn from circulation due to harmful or potentially racially offensive content, materials using the aircraft’s previous name, such as Kaladesh remastered or Invasion of Kaladeshwill not change their language. However, Wizards said it “will not use the term ‘Kaladesh’ in the future, except to refer to past products or the time in the storyline when Avishkar bore his previous name.”
The newly renamed aircraft will be part of the upcoming Aetherdrift line, the first legal standard set of 2025, in which 10 racing teams participate in the Ghirapur Grand Prix spread over three areas. Preorders for Aetherdrift are available nowfor release on February 14, 2025.