Atlani Swiftblade

Image by Qingxue Ye

**Atlani Swiftblade** is a planeswalker from pre-time travel Tarkir. She is accompanied by her sentient blade, named Selem. Atlani has no spark of her own, and planeswalks using Selem's spark.

## Early Life

Atlani grew up as a warrior among the Mardu Horde, earning the title Swiftblade after striking down eight enemies in three minutes during a Temur raid. After a fight against the Jeskai, she became interested in the idea of fighting without weapons, and spent three years training at the Dirgur Stronghold before returning to Mardu territory.

## Five Years Gone

After gaining the ability to planeswalk, Atlani spent a period of five years travelling to various planes, including Amonkhet. She spent this time hunting monsters, learning new techniques, and generally growing stronger. After five years, she was called to Ravnica for War of the Spark, then spent two more years adventuring before finally arriving on the arena.

## The Arena

### Lettie and Zero

Near the beginning of winter, Atlani was approached by Lettie about hunting down a drone. Taking on the job, she quickly found a smaller one than anticipated, followed by Atlani being found by Experiment 4, who attacked her for keeping the drone. Four successfully managed to hide from Atlani, who left while she could, delivering the messenger drone to Lettie (who gave it to Neeyo) before returning, and finding Zero instead of Four.

After losing in her bout with Four, Selem quickly decided that Atlani was no longer useful to him, and he left.

### Telepaths

Atlani was hired by some thug to "deal with" Allatu Kishar, who Atlani had no intention of killing, but decided to spar with. Allatu revealed to Atlani that dragons had been seen on Tarkir, Atlani fled to her home plane, finding it in its new timeline, where she learned of the Dragonlords and a little bit of what the Mardu had become.

After returning to the Arena, Atlani met with Anne, a strange ant-turned-humanoid planeswalker, and helped her reunite with her sister Bea. The two met again later, and Anne described her dangerous encounter with Lettie, and admitted to her distrust of the apothecary. Atlani, under the impression that the encounter was closer to a misunderstanding gone wrong, said as much, but Anne wouldn't hear it, invoking the motive that she was protecting what was left of her ruined home before leaving.

### Kadri's Kaiju

Atlani was present for the final round of defending a coastal village from Kadri alongside Lettie and Zero, far too late to protect the civilian militia. She was there just long enough to watch Lettie and Kadri warp away before Anne turned herself into a massive monster, believing that her sisters had been killed. The conflict then shifted to a matter of working with Bea to calm Anne while Zero tried to kill the monstrosity Anne had turned herself into.

Later, Atlani followed rumors of settlements left in ruins on the coast to find a weak serpent attacking a village. Quickly dispatched, the beast produced a mysterious compass, which Atlani followed to find Maevah, Kadri's spirit matron, who asked her to resolve the situation by clearing out the remaining wreckage of Kadri's ship from the harbor, a task that she was not expecting, but willing enough to do.

### Tarkir Reforged

As the result of a healthy merchant/customer relationship with the rat Zweil, Atlani came into possession of several artifacts from her home: A Mardu sword and shield, inscribed with two of the three Edicts of Ilagra. Asking if he'd found the third Edict, he produced only some Sultai coins. Atlani would later carve the final Edict into her bow.

Later, she found the merchant Tokata who dealt in enchantments, and lent Atlani three of her spirits to be used in combat until she recovered Selem.

### Elsewhere Invasion

Atlani was involved in the defense against the Elsewhere Invasion, being attacked by imps and a jellyfish horror, but successfully fighting them off with help from Michi.

### Retrieving Selem

After the Elsewhere Invasion, Atlani began searching for Selem in earnest, recruiting Doer to the effort. She eventually found Yenna Eisner, who pointed her towards the few planeswalkers who Selem had shown interest in. She was later summoned to the battlefield outside of Hocfeld to participate in the War for Selem, where she managed to reclaim the blade with the help of Doer and Anne, and planeswalk back to Tarkir after returning Tokata's spirits.

## Return to Tarkir

(This section will be updated as the story for Return to Tarkir is written)

## Personality

Atlani, above all, exudes the aura of a trained, disciplined warrior, remaining calm in even the most hectic of battles. She does not waver in the face of monsters multiple times her size, she is ritualistic in her maintenance of her weapons and camp, and she holds not only her tongue, but her mind, in the face of telepaths. Her time with the Jeskai only intensified this about her, providing additional mental and emotional tools to prevent acting or speaking recklessly, as the Mardu, and later the Kolaghan, are wont to do.

Living the life of the wandering warrior, Atlani has come to recognize the world as a dangerous place, where allies are often few and far between, and while the heat of combat often requires trust to form quickly, Atlani is quick to rescind that trust once the fighting stops. In light of the world's dangers, Atlani does anything and everything she can to make herself more powerful, from pursuing dangerous targets as a form of training, to accepting the gifts of a planeswalking sword.

However, Atlani realizes that she is not strong enough to solve every issue alone, and is not above gathering allies, such as Selem and Anne.

## Abilities

Atlani is the pinnacle of Mardu combat, supplementing that style with other techniques learned from the Jeskai or other methods.

### Physical Combat

Atlani was originally trained as a swordsman, earning her title with that weapon, and has a style that utilizes quick attacks to end fights quickly, with the speed and ferocity of the Mardu with the precision of the Jeskai. When Selem left on the Arena, Atlani was forced to lean on her comparatively weaker archery, though the distance allowed her to remain safer in the meantime. It was not long before Atlani was gifted a jagged-edged sword by Anne, and was able to return to hacking and slashing.

### Combat Magic

Atlani is moderately skilled at offensive magics, specifically electromancy, using bolts of electricity to combat enemies at range, and those whose armor cannot be pierced by her arrows or sword. She is capable of using a select few support spells to increase the speed, strength, and toughness of herself and her allies, though rarely uses them in favor of killing the enemy more quickly.

### Non-Combat Magic

Atlani is all but useless at forms of magic that do not directly relate to combat, with the exception of summoning. Though vastly inexperienced, Atlani was able to summon a snow leopard through the use of a scroll. She keeps the leopard now as a pet and hunting companion.

## Planeswalkers Met

* Lettie Wormwood
* Experiment Zero
* Allatu Kishar
* Anne Myria
* The Nameless Scholar
* Aelewin
* Rel Irkin
* Selem
* Zweil
* Michi
* Tokata
* [Everyone who was on BB at the time, which is... a lot of people.]

## Planes Visited

* The Arena
* Tarkir
* Amonkhet
* Ikoria

## References / Story Posts

1. ↑ A Lonely Ambition (Selem leaves Atlani): https://magicseteditor.boards.net/post/37240
2. ↑ Returning but not Home (Atlani returns to Tarkir): https://magicseteditor.boards.net/post/36170