“ | My advisors recommend I let them eat you. | „ |
~ Oko |
Oko is a fey Planeswalker and the main antagonist of the Throne of Eldraine set and the Wildered Quest novel from Magic: the Gathering.
In Magic: The Gathering Arena, he is voiced by Usman Ally, who also played M.O.D.O.K in Marvel's Avengers, Asav in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and the Hook-Handed Man in Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events TV series.
Description[]
Oko can be best described as equally as charismatic as he is conceited. He is mysterious, deceptively clever, and very vain. He views himself as both very smart and very attractive. In terms of his physical characteristics, he has high cheekbones, pale skin, pointed ears, blue arms with that same blue color across the top of his face, and dark eyes that may make him more melancholy than he would appear to be. While Oko's telepathic abilities aren't very strong, they are powerful enough to allow him to escape perilous situations. By mesmerizing those who wish to capture him, he is able to evade capture or planeswalk away unharmed. Hypocritically though, he claims to hate using these powers on others(even though he tends to use these powers often). He also can use transmutation powers to turn organic beings into other organic beings.
One characteristic that is pervasive about Oko is his hatred of authority. As an iconoclast and having some anarchistic tendencies, he wishes to free those who are under the thrall of governments and give them the freedom they deserve. He also wishes to expose hypocrisy wherever he finds it. These excursions often lead to him pulling cruel "pranks" on others. Examples of these include ruining weddings, stealing moments of glory from those who have earned it, and fooling parents into thinking that their child has survived a major conflict. To Oko, nothing is sacred and there are no limits to how he can mess with people. Usually, Oko can planeswalk away in order to avoid the consequences of his actions. When dealing with other planeswalkers, Oko would prefer to remain unseen as opposed to direct conflict. Oko also has a tendency to be mistaken as an elf.
History[]
Origin[]
Oko hails from an unknown plane where the elites control the entire plane while the fey are suppressed. While this ruling class believes it has created a utopia, Oko believed that this way of life went against everything he stood for. Fancying himself as a truth speaker, he wished to reveal the hypocrisy the ruling class presented. These elites saw Oko as a threat and experimented on him to try and suppress his magical powers, but inadvertently caused his planeswalker's Spark to ignite. Though he was able to escape, this experience traumatized him and made it difficult to trust others, especially authority figures.
The Wildered Quest[]
Once he arrived on the plane of Eldraine, Oko realized that he was the quarry for the cursed huntsman planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker. Using magic vines to capture Garruk, he learned that he was on a quest to kill planeswalkers across the Multiverse and had a hedron embedded in his flesh. Using his magic, Oko gained control of Garruk and now referred to him as his slave body guard Dog. Oko's goal on Eldraine was to disrupt the established authority by killing the king Algenus Kenrith. To do this, he needs to strike during the Grand Procession, a time when the king would travel across the plane to maintain peace between the elves and the five courts.
While he was preparing, he met the king's twin children, Will and Rowan(both of whom would eventually become Planeswalkers), at the Choking Drum where Oko and Garruk saved the pair from a horde of redcaps. Using his charm, he easily gained the trust of Rowan while Will remained cautious of this mysterious person. Oko traveled with the Kenriths to the Beckborough where they went their separate ways. During the Grand Procession, he posed as a knight named Cado and winked at the twins to make them forget their encounter with the fey. He then ordered Garruk to kill the king's guards while he kidnapped Algenus and fled into the woods. Over time, he attempted to gain clout with the courts who were suffering due to the king's absence. The Queen of the Locthwain court, Ayara, was his main target. He attempted to inflame the conflict that the elves had with humans, but Ayara had her suspicions.
During the midwinter, Oko attempted to return to the Wilds to meet with the Council of Druids to further his plot, but Ayara met with them first to warn them about Oko. Fortunately, Oko had another scheme brewing in which he transformed the monarch into a stag, magically put him to sleep, and he would not awaken until the morning of the rising sun. With his horde of faeries, he waited for Garruk to find Algenus so that when the Wild Hunt occurred, Oko could lead the elves to him. To his surprise, the Kenrith twins appeared in his throne room. Seeing Oko again managed to dispell them of his mind control magic. Oko preyed on their naivety(mostly Rowan's) to learn what they have learned from the magic mirror, but things changed when the real Cado and the loremage Elowen intervened. Elowen deduced that Oko was not among the elves of Locthwain since he didn't wear the emblem of that court and she knew of his scheme. A brawl broke out between the group Oko turned himself and Elowen into eagles before returning to normal. He used his shapeshifting powers to begin to escape.
When Garruk arrived with the Healer Cerise, her unicorn companion and Algenus as a stag, Oko revealed his plot and imprisoned the group in a dome of thorns. He then kidnapped the stag and escaped again. The Royal Scions managed to track Oko guiding the Wild Hunt toward the stag, but he used a swarm of faeries to distract them. Once the stag was found, Oko in the form of a raven watched a battle break out between the knights and elves. He then took the form of Queen Ayara and shot the stag with an arrow in his chest, but was attacked by Garruk(who regained control of his mind and was free of his curse). He turned into a raven again to avoid his ax and then into a drake to fend off an army of griffins. While evading Garruk, he was stopped with the combined powers of Will's ice magic and Rowan's electric magic and he was pinned. Garruk tried to kill him, but Rowan stopped him much to Oko's gratitude. Before anyone could react, Oko transformed into multiple creatures before planeswalking away.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Oko is predominantly based on the Shakespearian character Puck
- Oko, Theif of Crowns, is currently the card that is banned in the most formats of Magic: the Gathering.
- Oko wasn't originally set to be the main antagonist of the Elraine story. That honor would've gone to the black-aligned New Phyrexian praetor Sheoldred. Oko wasn't conceived as a character at this point. She would've been sent to the plane before Vorinclex travelled to Kaldheim, but after Eldraine was limited to one set as opposed to two and the Creative team wanted to take a break from an overarching story, Sheoldred was removed and Oko was eventually made to be the stories' main antagonist.
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Planeswalkers Phyrexians Multiversal Threats Villains by Plane Mirrodin/New Phyrexia Kamigawa Ravnica Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Alara Zendikar Innistrad Theros Tarkir Kaladesh Amonkhet Kaldheim Ikoria Arcavios Unknown |