Pattern Recognition #238 - The Life and Times of Ajani Goldmane

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berryjon

5 May 2022

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Hello everyone! This is Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series as written by myself, berryjon. I am something of an Old Fogey who has been around the block quite a few times where Magic is concerned, as as such, I use this series to talk about the various aspects of this game, be it deck design, card construction, mechanics chat, in-universe characters and history. Or whatever happens to cross my mind this week. Please, feel free to dissent in the comments below the article, add suggestions or just plain correct me! I am a Smart Ass, so I can take it.

Introduced in Lorwyn as part of the initial five Planeswalkers, Ajani Goldmane represented ] in the colour pie, and was the only non-human Paneswalker in the initial set, a unique distinction that lasted until Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker was printed not too long after. He has been an intermittent character since then, having parts in Alara, Theros, Kaladesh and War of the Spark both major and minor. He has grown quite dramatically over the years, and while he retains his core colour identity of , his move from to as his secondary colour is one of actual character development and not just author fiat.

But thats for later. Let's talk the character first.

Born on Alara, or rather the Shard of Naya, Ajani Goldmane was not well named. As a Nacatl, he was born in a people that had been broken and destroyed by their own internal conflicts. His people used to rule large sections of Naya before Marisi, Breaker of the Coil destroyed the physical representation of the Laws of the Nacatl, the Coil itself. His people embraced their wild nature, and took that name for themselves, being the Wild Nacatl.

However, he was born an Albino, his white fur seen as an omen of death, and his tribe only barely tolerated him due to the presence of his brother, Jazal Goldmane. Jazal was among the best of their tribe, a great warrior, and a great leader. It is a testament to Jazal's skill and tenacious ferocity that he was able to be all this with the chain around him of being Ajani's brother. After all, becoming Kha of the Qasal tribe was no easy feat.

But Ajani was in no way weak. He had power, even before becoming a Planeswalker. The Tribe's Shaman, Zaliki, saw in Ajani a rare power. For Ajani, his mane as white as death, could see into the souls of others. Soul's Fire, Soul's Grace, Soul's Might, and Soul's Majesty are all representative of how he could use this power. In deed, despite his outcast status, Ajani was widely recognized as the best healer in the tribe and beyond. As long as you could stand his presence, and hide your shame, he would help you.

As a note here, the archetype of the Necessary Outcast, the one who is shunned by the community, but an integral part of it, offering a service that is seen as vital, but not demeaning, is a heavy tradition in European folk-lore, from the witches in their huts, to the Jester in the Castle. There is precedent for Ajani's treatment here.

But things started to unravel one day when Ajani was attacked by a raiding party of humans. This in of itself wasn't unusual, but what was odd was that they were after Ajani in particular for mysterious reasons, and not the Nacatl in general. This disturbed Jazal, who defended Ajani (again) from their tribe who now added "Lightning Rod for attacks" to his list of imaginary crimes.

Anyway, given that his people were followers of Marisi - who, by the way was still alive. The destruction of the civilization is living memory - they celebrated the anniversary of the Destruction of the Coil as you do such things. And so Ajani figured, hey, why not go out and hunt the biggest and most awesome of prey, a Godsire, and prove how awesome he is and maybe his tribe will raise their respect for him to 'begrudging acceptance'.

Nice plan! The tribe values strength, and maybe make the effort to show how his white hair means that he brings death to his enemies, and not to his allies. So he goes out and does exactly that, tracking, finding, and bringing one down. But as he does so, his kill is taken from him by another Nacatl, Tenoch. Tenoch being one of the people who really didn't like Ajani, and thought the idea of him bringing down a Godsire and offering it at the feast was so untenable that there was no way that he should be allowed to do so. You know, usual bully thoughts. So Tenoch beat Ajani up and stole the Godsire kill for himself, along with all the honor for it.

Ajani... took it. Because what else was he to do? He made his way back home, victory, honor and meat stolen, not willing to cause a ruckus when it would be easy for Tenoch to turn things against him. That night however, things went wrong. Well, wrong-er than normal.

A ~mysterious figure~ crept through the camp to the central fire, and tossed a dark relic into it. A horde of undead erupted form this container, and rampaged through the tribe, killing many. You see, part of the problem is that Naya, as a Shard, utterly lacks and mana. The concept of undeath is not conceivable to them, so the Nacatl had no context for what they were being slain by. Now Ajani, being , had options to deal with them, once he figured out that they were bound souls without a proper body, but by then, it was too late.

Jazal was dying. He had been attacked in his home, killed with his own weapon. Ajani came upon him in his last breaths, and his last words were lost as Ajani, in grief, Planeswalked away.

Ajani 'Walked to an adjacent Shard, not a far distance as Planeswalks go, and wound up on Jund, the Shard of Alara. There, he ran afoul of the locals, and wound up being saved from a dragon by Sarkhan Vol. Vol gave Ajani the obligatory "So, You're a Planeswalker now!" speech, encouraged him to use his power to find his brother's killer and set things right, and helped him get back to Naya.

This Vol guys seems like a nice fella. I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen to or because of him.

Back on Naya, Ajani quickly made his way to his home valley and found his tribe scattered. Examining the valley for any sign of the initial attacker, he found himself in the ruins of a place called Antali, where he encountered a strange vision that explained that the attack on his tribe originated from outside of it, and outside of Naya.

Now aware of what Planeswalkers are, Ajani took all this in stride, and set about in a calm and reasonable manner to the next step in his plan, which he admitted should have come first. He returned to Jazal's lair to properly deal with the body, but found it missing. All that was left was part of his axe. Ajani melded his and his brother's together to create a single double-bladed weapon so that he could carry his brother in spirit with him as he hunted down his murderer. Of course, that led him to finding out what had happened to the body. As it turns out, members of the tribe, led by the earlier bully, Tenoch, had created the body, leaving only ashes behind. Ajani calmly and rationally took the ashes as paint for his fur, and with utter due diligence to any possible extenuating circumstances, tracked down Tenoch to have a polite and civil discussion.

Which, if you are incapable of reading the sarcasm, means that Ajani was absolutely livid, and was enraged. In fact, you could say that he was Ajani Vengeant. And he confronted Tenoch on the edge of a cliff, quickly overpowering him with his no-longer restrained anger. Tenoch confessed to the cremation, but denied having anything to do with the attack. In fact, he totally respected Ajani and could he please not hold him out over the edge of the cliff by his neck with just one hand please and thank you?

Ajani agreed that it was a reasonable request, as his arm was getting tired, so he let go, dropping Tenoch over the edge. Tenoch tried to catch himself, but failed. He did, however, catch Ajani for just long enough to drag him over the edge with him. The fall seriously hurt him, and in desperation, knowing that he people would never find him, let alone help him, he Planeswalked away.

He traveled to another Shard of Alara, Bant, which was in nature, and spent two weeks recovering under the care of another Planeswalker, Elspeth Tirel, who had come to his aid upon his arrival. This was the start of a wonderful friendship, and I say that with complete honesty, and without a trace of sarcasm, snark, deceit or any thing else that could imply that those two were not fast friends.

Once he had recovered, he thanked Elspeth for her help, and warned her of the developing threats on Jund and Naya. She promised to get Bant ready for the inevitable, and Ajani headed back to his home to try and piece things back together.

In his absence, Tenoch's mother had become the new Kha, and she pointed him at Marisi himself, as he in their great leader, and an attack on the tribe would be known by him. So Ajani went to Marisi, and tried to confront him, but was stopped by Mayael the Anima, who informed both of them that the real culprit was a dragon named Nicol Bolas.

Marisi went "What's a Dragon?", while Ajani knew what they were and where to find them. And he even had a contact that liked Dragons! So he went to Jund to talk to Sarkhan Vol.

Only to run into a small problem. Just a little one.

Jund no longer existed.

Nicol Bolas had started a plan to take the five shards of Alara - Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund and Naya, and reforge them into the unified Alara reborn. Of course, this was only the parts that people like Ajani saw, so we'll get back to the full plan later.

Rather, Ajani found himself on pseudo-Jund, now being merged with another shard called Grixis, and found himself in the presence of Kresh the Bloodbraided, and Clan Nel Toth, who had recently exiled Meren of Clan Nel Toth for being a necromancer. Everyone compared notes, and the name Nicol Bolas kept coming up, Kresh and the Clan agreed to aid Ajani against Bolas, but first they had to deal with Bolas' agent on Jund, one Rakka Mar. Seeing this as quite reasonable, they persued Mar to the conflux-joint where Grixis and Jund were merging, and while Kresh did most of the work, it was Ajani, and his -2 to cast Lightning Helix that finished off Mar.

Kresh actually took this well, seeing it as a sign of Ajani's strength. White fur? What does that have to do with anything? In his eyes, Ajani was awesome, and that was all that mattered.

But before the dust settled on that, Zaliki (Ajani's friend back on Naya) and Mayael found him there, where Grixis, Jund and now Naya were merging. They pleaded with him to bring his new army with him to help them fight against a massive flight of dragons, led by none other than Sarkhan Vol, who has sworn loyalty to the most powerful dragon of all.

No way for that to bite Vol or Bolas in the ass later.

Anyway, as part of this negotiation, Zaliki confessed that it was he who had used the dark artifact that had ravaged their tribe. It had been given to him by Marisi, who had manipulated him into doing so, hiding the cost and effect of the artifact. While Ajani was recovering and doing his own thing, Zaliki and Mayael had killed Marisi, and the former offered himself to Ajani for his vengeance.

Ajani... relented. He saw now that it was Bolas against whom his anger should be spent. Not the unwitting and unwilling pawns of other pawns. He bade Zaliki rise, to contribute to the battle against Bolas and his armies.

And so they marched, joined by Elspeth, who had gathered Bant and Esper armies to their cause, and the might of five Shards marched on Bolas, who resided at the center of Alara, manipulating the Conflux.

Bolas was absorbing the energy of the Conflux, the excess generated by the convergence of the five Shards and hoping to re-power his Spark to the pre-Mending power he once had.

However, Ajani saw that they couldn't fight Bolas. Instead, he turned to his other gift, that of soul sight, and saw a plan through which he could save Alara. He interjected himself into Bolas' mana flow, taking some of that power for himself, and used it to summon a spirit-copy of Bolas.

It would be later retconned that Bolas mistook this spirit-dragon for Ugin, and he lost control of the Maelstrom, and was kicked out of Alara by Ajani, who still held a fragment of that power.

That's right, Ajani stopped Bolas' Plan A for when it came to regaining Godhood. The War of the Spark was Plan B at best, so we can all blame Ajani for getting Gideon killed.

Anyway, after that, Ajani was offered leadeship of his tribe, and the Nacatl in general. However, he found that he didn't have that in him, and with Bolas gone but not defeated, he knew that there would be other evils to fight. So he passed the effective leadership of Naya to Zaliki, and Planeswalked away.

After traveling the Planes for a while, he wondered what happened to his friend, Elspeth, who pulled through for him on Alara. After some searching, he found her on Dominaria, fighting in the pits of Urborg (probably in the arena that Demonlord Belzenlok set up as part of his attempt to re-write history), fighting another Planeswalker named Koth of the Hammer, a fellow victim of New Phyrexia. He pulled her out of the pits, and argued that this sort of self-destructive behaviour wasn't her, it was giving into despair and hopelessness. She feared, or rather, had convinced herself that her golden Bant was gone, that Grixis would have destroyed it by now, and that there was no point in anything any more.

Ajani failed to convince her otherwise, but instead was able to return to her the armor she wore on Bant, allowing her to remember better days and better times.

However, Ajani could not let that be the end of it, and he soon followed her to Theros to try again. He went there to talk to a friend of his, a local named Brimaz, King of Oreskos. Brimaz told her that she was now called The Champion, favored by Heliod, God of the Sun, and was currently tasked with stopping Xenagos, the Reveler from his own vile plans. And so, with the help of Brimaz, Ajani found Elspeth again. He saw that she was hurting badly, not only physically, but mentally from the constant effort and stress she was under, and so while he knew he could not talk her out of her path, he could do the next best thing.

He could be a Total Bro, and walk beside her on their path.

Together, him supporting her as Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. Now, I'll skip over most of this as it's Elspeth's tale, not his. But Ajani was there for her every step of the way, supporting her even as she made self-destructive choices and he tried to pull her back from the brink. But it was not to be.

The two of them battled Xenagos, God of Revels, and it was Elspeth who struck him down with her spear, Godsend. But their victory was short-lived, as Heliod could not allow for any mortal to kill a god without being punished - despite ordering the death in the first place, and killed Elspeth with her own weapon. Enraged, Ajani and the dying Elspeth were transported back to material Theros, where he prepared to hold the line one last time, defending her from the Agent of Erebos sent to collect her, and take her to the underworld. But his efforts were thwarted by Brimaz, whose people ambushed him and took him away before he could make things worse by crossing another God.

Once he had recovered, he found himself adrfit. What had caused Elspeth to act as she had? Why had she done that? What was it that she had that was worth fighting for? He thought and thought and realized that in the end, Elspeth had been deceived by the gods, that her faith had been misplaced, and that faith without reward, without consequence, without reciprocation, was worthless. That the Gods of Theros were worthless.

With this resolve in his heart, he openly travelled to Meltis, the nominal capital of all the City-States of Theros, walked right into the middle of Heliod's first and greatest temple, and proceeded to proclaim to all how he had deceived and murdered Elspeth, his Champion.

And Heliod did nothing to stop him. He could do nothing to stop Ajani as Ajani insulted and degraded him on the steps of his own temple. And his call that the gods themselves were creations of belief and faith were listened to. Drawing Elspeth's cloak around him as a cape, he then left Theros behind.

In mourning, he went to a friend of his, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, who resided on Kamigawa. They shared a love of stories, and of teaching. There, he related Elspeth's tale to her, and she allowed him the time and space to mourn, though she did warn him of the crimes that had been committed on Kamigawa by another Planeswalker named Tezzeret the Seeker, and his Infinite Consortium.

That was a name he had heard. Elspeth had mentioned that person as an ally of her hated foe, New Phyrexia, and so in honor of Elspeth, he resolved to hunt down Tezzeret and bring him to justice for his crimes. In pursuit of Tezzeret, he tracked him from Ravnica to where he was then, Kaladesh, where he had become Head Judge of the annual Artifice competition.

Ajani quickly made contact with the local Renegades, a group of Artificers who were fighting back against the increasing control being put out by the Consulate. When his efforts to rescue Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter first failed, he tried again, this time he was able to save her, Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Nissa, Vital Force from the Deadlock Trap that Baral, Chief of Compliance had put them in.

As the Renegades found themselves moving more openly, Ajani, Valiant Protector of the innocent, Ajani Unyielding in the face of injustice, did not fight the Consulate directly, but rather acted in one Heroic Intervention after another to save and protect the people of Kaladesh from the fighting all around them. He healed and aided the wounded and the helpless, raising up heroes to defend their own. He aided the newly-formed Gatewatch in ejecting Tezzeret from Kaladesh, and agreed to take up their mantle, swearing the Oath of Ajani to keep his watch.

With his newest allies under his wing, Ajani, the Greathearted soon found himself trapped on Ravnica during the War of the Spark, where he helped rally and lead the population of Ravnica against his oldest foe - Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God.

However, Ajani was a different Nacatl since his days on Alara. He had chosen a different path than the one that led him on his quest for vengeance. Instead of confronting Bolas directly, he helped and aided everyone else, lending strength and courage to those who needed it, offering to Gideon Jura a Pledge of Unity that no matter where they would go, no one would fight alone.

After Gideon's death, he helped take his body back to Theros, to be interred properly.

Since then, he has stayed behind the scenes, supporting other people with their problems. He helped Chandra with her own personal crises, and helped her reconnect with her mother, Pia Nalaar. He even found Elspeth Resplendent while helping Kan, Scion of Urza plan against New Phyrexia, and showed her the way to her home-plane, New Capenna.

Ajani is certainly a character, but today has just been his biography. And this article is a bit long in tooth, so join me next time when I talk about his character, why he's amazing, and his cards and why they are amazing too.

Seriously, we need more Ajani.

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!