Talk:Teferi Akosa

Rastafari

I was reading about Rastafari on Wikipedia and was interested to read this:

In Amharic, Ras, literally "head", is an Ethiopian title equivalent to prince or chief, while the personal given name Täfäri (teferi) means one who is revered.

I suspect a connection. Not so much that anyone would've gone to Rastafari specifically for name inspiration, but African languages for the African-inspired continent? Sure. BlackDiamondDragon (talk) 16:50, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

It's suggestive, but we don't have a statement of intent by the authors. They may have simply chosen some appropriate-sounding syllables and hit on that by chance. You might try asking Mark Rosewater on his blog, since he was responsible for the original Weatherlight Saga and may have the necessary information. If he responds in the positive, I'd certainly say to add it. --Corveroth (talk) 18:12, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Success! It doesn't feel very definitive though. http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/159008849263/when-reading-about-rastafari-on-wikipedia-i BlackDiamondDragon (talk) 19:30, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

I think it would be fair to say that he has acknowledged the similarity, but not confirmed the intent. --Corveroth (talk) 19:42, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Just checking something with y'all

In the first paragraph of the "History" section, it is mentioned that, quote, "How [Teferi's] spark has returned is not yet known." Isn't this an outdated inclusion, now that we've seen that his spark was returned by Jhoira in the events of the Dominaria block? If so, I'd suggest just removing this sentence from that section entirely, so that this paragraph may better serve as an introduction into the rest of the chronology detailed thereafter. If not, it may be prudent to specify which incident of losing his spark this refers to -- to my knowledge, though, there has only been one such instance in his history.Crossark (talk) 06:04, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

You're right. Done --Hunter (talk) 05:32, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Colors

Added his colors to page but they are not showing in his info box--J spencer93 (talk) 20:30, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

How did Jhoira even get his spark?

As per header. How in the world did she get a hold of it? I know that they needed him to be a planeswalker for sales and ideological reasons, but was it ever explained as to why Jhoira was literally able to go "Oh here it is, I had it all along"?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 8cardhand (talk • contribs).

Not really: the only explanation Jhoira gives is that she used the Mana Rig. Somehow a powerstone got imbued with Teferi's spark while he worked on it? Don't know, every answer is only speculation at the moment.--Firebead elvenhair (talk) 18:23, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

Age

Does the confirmation that he is 1200 years old resolve the issue with the note (on this page) or is that still a possible date change?--66.116.14.44 21:13, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Last Name

So how canon exactly do we think the Jaya Ballard In Memoriam site is? Because it was certainly created or at least contracted by Wizards, but at the same time it seems like a relatively weak source to confirm this detail. RudleyDudley (talk) 06:53, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

Ethan gave soft confirmation on Twitter so I'm moving the page. RudleyDudley (talk) 02:22, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

Describing Teferi's ethnicity

Does it make sense to describe Teferi as Black? Like, his features are unquestionably those associated with Blackness in our world, but I don't think Dominaria has an equivalent idea of Blackness as a racial identity -- it's as weird to me as calling Narset, Saheeli, or Kaito Asian. I also don't see anybody else on this wiki described in terms of a real-world race, which also makes this confusing.

I'm somewhat ambivalent on this myself. It's true that the Magic world as far as we know has no concept of race within its creature types, but Teferi obviously fits all real-world conceptions of Blackness, and his focus in the "Black is Magic" Secret Lair drop (which it should be noted focused on the race and not the Magic color) also shows that Wizards does acknowledge that part of his and other characters' identities. I'd like to hear others' opinions, as I'm not sure one way or the other. RudleyDudley (talk) 06:55, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyuzmvIvBnA) Spice8Rack put out a video concerning this very thought. Teferi is a part of it, as is the culture and place he calls (and called) home. Just one view/side, but it is one nonetheless ~Neo (talk) 12:53, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

On the Magic Story Podcast, they explicitly refer to Teferi and Rona as Black. However, they also refer to Sanwell as Native American, which obviously makes no sense in-Universe. At this point I think the best decision is to use our current descriptors like "dark-skinned" but include an explanatory footnote mentioning that they are referred to as Black behind the scenes. RudleyDudley (talk) 18:59, 14 April 2023 (UTC)