Magic: The Gathering has its first canonically deaf character - and she is surprisingly accurate.
For decades, the game of Magic has slowly rolled out a handful of inclusive characters. Genders, races, disabilities, orientation - fans and players can identify with someone in the game. However, for deaf players, they never really got character. That is, until Lorwyn Eclipsed came out earlier this year.
Here, the first canonically deaf character was introduced - Abigale, the owlin student at Strixhaven. Fans loved it, the author loved writing her, and even cards she was on have been well-regarded.
And, thanks to the "We swear this isn't a block but we are kind of continuing the storyline with many of the same characters" approach by Magic, she's coming back for Secrets of Strixhaven. Magic usually goes full measures when trying to get cultural or representation aspects right. So...how did they do with the first deaf character?
First of all - is her signing even accurate?
It was hard to tell early on how they were going to address it. For the storyline, we know that her signing is magically/telepathically translated, but there was no real frame of reference. But then the Secrets of Strixhaven revealed that, yes, everyone knows what she is saying and that she is using American Sign Language (ASL). Don't know ASL? Watch the trailer with closed captioning on and, well, it will be interpreted for you.
The team at Wizards of the Coast could have easilly made something up - after all, they have created entire languages before. But it seems with Abigale they went with the more realistic route. Blur Studio, who made animated content with her in the trailer, had an ASL consultant on hand to make sure they got it all right. So, in a strange way, this fantasy world somehow has ASL as a real language in there.
Nonetheless, those little details like automatic interpretations (which are possible to a degree today through apps) and actual ASL make Abigale more real. She may be an owl creature, but the realistic arm and hand/talon movements when signing help sell the realism. Plus, as many a post have shown, the efforts are well appreciated by the deaf community.
Abigale may only be one character, but she is part of ever growing number of characters that help represent another part of society in Magic. And even better, they are making her accurate. Or as accurate as they can for an owl creature who attends a school of magic.
