In an exciting update for Magic: The Gathering fans, Wizards of the Coast has decided to rename one of the game’s most beloved settings from the past decade. As announced this Tuesday, the plane formerly known as Kaladesh—an imaginative world inspired by Indian culture and renowned for its advancement and innovation—will now be called Avishkar. This change is a response to player feedback following the set’s original launch in 2016, and Wizards provided both fictional and real-world explanations for the alteration.
According to their post titled “Avishkar: Why We Changed the Name of a Plane,” the team originally coined Kaladesh as a blend of the Hindi words kala and desh. While kala often translates to “art” or “tomorrow,” it can also mean “black” with a slight pronunciation change—an interpretation that raised concerns due to its potentially racist and colorist undertones.
As the team returned to this intriguing setting for the upcoming Aetherdrift line, they collaborated with cultural experts specializing in Indian culture and the Hindi language. Their aim was to honor the essence of the plane while being mindful of its real-world influences. Wizards has a history of consulting with cultural experts, notably with their previous Spelljammer release, to ensure sensitivity and accuracy.
With this guidance, Wizards created a shortlist of new names and eventually settled on Avishkar, drawn from the Hindi word aavishkar, meaning “invention.” Rather than altering existing lore to suggest the plane was always called Avishkar, Wizards chose to weave a narrative around the change. The “Planeswalker’s Guide to Aetherdrift, Part 1” provides a compelling storyline for this transformation:
“The Consulate that led Kaladesh has also been done away with following a popular, nearly bloodless revolution. The plane has been united under a new planar government, the Avishkar Assembly, and its capital remains the city of Ghirapur.”
In contrast to instances where cards were pulled over harmful or racially insensitive content, Wizards will not adjust the language of materials like Kaladesh Remastered or Invasion of Kaladesh. Nonetheless, moving forward, they will stop using “Kaladesh” except to reference past products or specific periods in the storyline when Avishkar still bore its old name.
This newly renamed Avishkar will debut in the Aetherdrift line, marking the first Standard-legal set of 2025. It features an exhilarating Ghirapur Grand Prix, where 10 teams race across three planes. Fans eager to dive in can pre-order now ahead of its launch on February 14, 2025.
