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choosing your own name should be the norm
(hexbear.net)
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this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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This was how magic the gathering introduced their first trans character, and it was pretty cool. She was like from a tribe where they choose their names after their first victory in battle, so when it's her turn and she's like "I'm naming myself after my grandmother" everyone is like "ok yeah that's cool, you just killed a dragon who are we to question this"
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is a pretty ballin name. Here's the full story if anyone wants to read it.
The section of the story where she names herself:
"It had been a day like this, a battle very much like this, when Alesha won the right to name herself. With blood running down her back where the dragon's claws had raked her flesh, she pulled a spear from a dead man's back and plunged it into the beast's mouth, up into its brain. The spear shaft splintered, but the dragon died in an instant. She didn't remember if she had been afraid as the monstrous head lunged at her.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.
And the whole gathered horde shouted "Alesha!" in reply. The warriors of the Mardu shouted her name.
In that moment, if anyone had told her that in three years' time she would be khan, she just might have dared to believe it."
I love that. It beats the hell out of something like Skyrim where some guard will give you shit for talking to them after they ostensibly watch you shout a dragon out of the air, beat it to death, suck its soul, and harvest its bones all while wearing armor made of other creatures hearts that is essentially bleeding.
tbf, that's because they're given dialogue options based on quests and skill-levels, not overall level. They can't react to how you are right now. The MTG characters were written, not coded, so they can respond appropriately to what just happened.