Welcome back! This week we have a last minute hole fill. The original white common that was in this space turned out to be a problem, so the team decided to just fill the space with a white vanilla creature. Fortunately/Unfortunately the artwork has already been commissioned. All we need left is to name the card.

(I'm a big fan of crediting the artist when I can, but sometimes I can't. I can say, however, that a reverse image search lead me to this page. I'd provide a terrible French translation for you, but to be honest, I'd rather you didn't go to that page until after you come up with a name for the card. It's an intellectual property you likely recognize, and I'd rather that didn't influence your answer.)

Oh, right! This image is cropped. If you would like to see an uncropped version of this image, you may go here. Don't worry. There are no franchise spoilers on that page.

Hmmm. Well, I'm seeing woman dressed in... I want to say French duelling style; being surrounded by - given the shield art, phoenician hoplites. (Fighting them? Leading them?) And she's holding - a very long wand? An extremely fancy fire-poker? Doesn't look like a sword, or at least it has no guard.

And she is stupidly strong for a single fighter, of any kind.

Ok; what was the name of that lady spy in the three musketeers? The one who was a cat in dogtanian? Ah, "Milady de Winter". Sure; that can sound big enough to not have to be a legend, and also works with the robes and the rod. Throw in a surprisingly related yet unrelated quote, file off a few serial numbers and:

Cold Lady
Milady lacks mercy, and compassion
- and forgiveness

(Note - the 'do not look at this' has the secret in the URL. Thankfully, this gave nothing away to me, because it's after nine)

Good point. I fixed it by masking it w/ a redirect.

­Knight of the Pale Kirtle

Phoenix Corps Mage-Adjutant

Edit: It seems like there's a perception that the focal figure is engaged in combat with the armored figures around her, but I don't think I see it that way. She looks more like an officer than a combatant, and the poses of the armored figures seem calm.

I also took the device in her hand to be a stylized wand, not a martial weapon, especially given the way she's holding it. It looks most like a pool cue, but it's also reminiscent of a pointer like a lecturer might carry.

So, I see her as an officer or someone officer-adjacent, and she has a wand, which makes her a spellcaster of some sort. The figures around her have a red-and-gold bird of some sort emblazoned on their shields, which could be a depiction of a phoenix.

­Library Guardian

I know those aren't glasses but... :)

They aren't?

Definitely gives off scholarly vibes to me... Then, I saw Jack V's suggestion was basically that, so I'm going to go for something else.

Though, this kind of looks to me a lot less like someone guarding a library and someone who has gone and 'got themselves into trouble', by that, I'm more referring to the setting, and not necessarily the background of the fight (which is what I'm assuming is happening)

Though, this woman is not dressed in armor (typical fantasy tsk tsk), the others are, and they have shields... this is a weird weapon for sure, definitely not exactly a sword... but perhaps something mythical?

So, maybe this is a traveling scholar, hence the background having stuff beyond (the blue and fog hints to more landscape)... I can't tell from this crop if this is indoors or perhaps in an alleyway?

OK, so i checkd the full crop and it didn't add much, but judging from the plain-ness of the floor, meaning lack of decorations, rubble or even blood, I assume this is

1. An alleyway
2. The fight is just breaking out

She appears confident in her chances to win against so many better-armed combatants... thus, I assume that she is either trained, or her weapon is supremely powerful (really the only thing that could be is a weapon, or perhaps a magical channeling device but it's definitely neither a staff nor a wand, in my books... mostly due to it's seemingly metallic nature and lack of orthodox structure)

So, a travelling scholar... plus a mysterious magical weapon? Perhaps she found this during one of her journeys, and has learned to use it, since?

But, how would she learn that? Sure, she's a scholar, so she could find even the meekest bits of research on the odd weapon... but that's not reliable NOR efficient... perhaps the weapon itself taught her how to wield it...

Okay, I've got it, this weapon is the center of the image, not the scholar wielding it nor the location nor the other fighters NOR the setting.

The weapon is clearly the star of this interpretation... Now, why are these individuals fighting her? They don't appear to be entirely in a battle stance, so maybe they were just here to confront her, but not necessarily do battle... she appears to be the only one in a strong battle stance, but she is not mid-attack, nor does she appear to be necessarily on the verge of murdering a bunch of outranked fools..

So, she is flaunting her might, and probably the weapon... The guards almost appear surprised, maybe? Though, it's hard to tell any emotion with the helmets and fullbody armor.

From the rubble under her feet, it definitely appears she is just starting to raise her weapon now, perhaps to their surprise... they appear to be well-trained, hence the detailed insignias on their gear (could also be their society is rich and militarily well-endowed, but the former is less to fit into a Magic card name)

So... a name for the sword... well, I could do this for days, but something simple and generic is Mythomir, I could have written Mythblade or Mythwand, or etc, but this (as mentioned b4) doesn't resemble a conventional weapon, thus, the unorthodox suffix. Also Mythomir sounds cool, so big bonus.

Also, yes, this is probably going way overboard for a vanilla common without even keywords... alas, i am too epic for the card.

Okay, so Mythomir what? it's a noun, for sure, and probably has to describe the woman, since it's on a creature. This art could reasonably be on an instant/sorcery and have a name that describes raising the mythomir to fight.

Okay, so the person... the person should be possessed by the weapon, not necessarily lore-wise, but in the name's translation. Kind of how they do it with stands from JJBA, if you've ever watched it.

So, finder is a good choice, better than scholar, because a scholar doesn't typically battle... but i need a cool synonym, first...

well, there weren't many good choices, there! achiever, collector, taker and hustler were all okay, but IDK for sure if they fit... probably too much background to be reasonable..

Maybe a different approach would work better... maybe they are truly possessed (lorewise) by the weapon? So something like 'container' or synonymous would be better.

Ugh, I can't decide: I'll let you take one of both. this is far too long already lmao.

Mythomir's Taker and Mythomir's Thrall are both options, but I actually profer the latter a lot more.

MY FINAL NAME: Mythomir's Thrall!!

In practice, this would be the perfect place for a name very specific to the setting. But we don't know anything about the setting, which hampers us somewhat.

To me it looks like she's the commander of a small patrolling task force of soldiers. And yeah, those glasses and her ornate outfit suggest she's an officer and scholar. So I say she's a...

Loreguard Captain
Creature - Human Soldier
"We have reports of multiple tome thieves in this district. Search the area, but summon me before engaging. Those worms can occasionally use the grimoires they've stolen."

My flavour text is always too long. If that doesn't fit, it's probably better anyway as

"Search the area, but summon me before engaging. Tome thieves can occasionally use the grimoires they've stolen."

"In practice, this would be the perfect place for a name very specific to the setting. But we don't know anything about the setting, which hampers us somewhat."

Absolutely true. But, only if you don't make up your own lore, of course :)

Fencing Instructor

I'd somewhat expect a fencer to have first strike, but she's not actively fencing in the art

Voting is open! Vote here for your favorite choice(s)!

Alex's entry of Loreguard Captain barely edges out Phoenix Corps Mage-Adjutant to claim the top spot. I also added Alex's longer flavor text with minor nips and tucks because this is a vanilla card, and we're allowed to take up the space with flavor.

Froggychum's deep dive forced me to take another critical look at this card, and I spotted something I didn't notice before, and that I didn't see anyone else pick up on. In the non-cropped art, the forwardmost soldier's shield is facing the audience. I know some people posited that the soldiers were surrounding this woman, but that seems to be a clear indicator that they are protecting her as they move forward (and that the rear guards towards the back are being extra cautious by keeping a close eye on their flank.)

But the rest of this painting does remain a mystery. We can't even be sure the guards in uniform are human. That level of full plate is rarely practical, and especially when one is keeping an eye out for threats. But I fear I'm starting to overthink this more than the artist themselves did.

I'm glad this name won. It was so much better than mine. Haha