Original ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Art Director Confirms ‘The Dark’ Set Was “A Commentary On The Evils And Hypocrisy Of Right-Wing Christians”
In finally confirming what many players have long suspected ever since its release in 1994, original Magic: The Gathering art director Jesper Myrfors has admitted that the classic The Dark set was absolutely created to rebuke not only the overall Satanic Panic, but more specifically the “conservative so-called Christians” whose hysterical pearl-clutching sparked the entire thing.
The fourth overall expansion to MTG‘s base set, while The Dark does not go so far as to outright break the fourth wall with its criticism, even a quick glance at its offerings reveals that it wears its frustration with American Christianity’s crusade to crown themselves the arbiters of modern morality.
Its storyline, as told via its card’s flavor text and ancillary books and short stories, tells the tale of the eponymous time period known as The Dark, as named after the temporary sun-blotting that occurred as a result of Urza’s final attack in The Brothers’ War and defined by the rise of the Church of Tal, a wave of anti-magic zealots that blamed the power and its practitioners for Dominaria’s environmental suffering.
And though most of the set’s artworks depict the typical MTG fare like Goblins, spell slinging, and a literal ‘Mind Bomb’, those featured on its White offerings bear far more of a ‘real world bent’ than usual, with card artworks depicting such scenes as the Vervamon the Elder being burned alive by the Church of Tal on false suspicions of being a magic user, a fiery church preacher angrily banging from his pulpit, and a Catholic-styled monk praying to a real-world Christian cross.
Given its creative direction, speculation regarding The Dark‘s anti-Satanic Panic swings first began to pop-up near immediately after the set’s release, but ultimately never received any attention from anyone related to MTG‘s official production in the 31 years since.
That was until October 28th, when the TCG’s original art director Jesper Myrfors, himself having served as the set’s lead designer, took to his personal Facebook page to declare apropos of nothing in particular, “FOR THE RECORD: There have been rumors. Now I will clear it up and be as unambiguous as possible. The Magic: The Gathering release The Dark was 100% a commentary on the evils and hypocrisy of bigoted right wing Christians.”
“Having gone through the idiotic satanic panic of the 80s and then listening to their moronic and unfounded pearl clutching arguments that MTG promoted ‘devil worship’, I had had enough and decided to hold a mirror up to them. That is why White is represented as dangerous, dogmatic and unempathetic in the set. White in The Dark glorifies ignorance, mob mentality and violence against those who are different. The truth is that people who view themselves as virtuous and righteous can be as deadly and dangerous as any blood sacrificing devil cult when they forget the message of love that is supposed to be the foundation of their belief system. We can see that replaying today with MAGA.
“I also wanted to paint spooky stuff. Two birds, one stone.
“Now you know. If you go back and look at the white cards in The Dark it will become crystal clear what the meaning of the set is. The Dark was a reference to the dark ages, when the church had full control of the population, when wise women and folk healers were burned as witches, education was only for the very elite and anyone who spoke up or strayed from the herd was killed in horrific ways.
Even today people are trying to bring those dark days back. I was shining a light on them with this set. That is one of the important roles art plays in society and I view games as an artform.”
Providing further insight into the circumstances surrounding the set’s creation during a subsequent interview with Polygon’s Corey Plante, Myrfors recalled, “Legends had just been finished. We didn’t have another set on the horizon. Magic was selling faster than we’d ever imagined, and there was kind of an internal panic. I saw that little gap and thought, ‘If I can present them with a finished set, they’ll probably accept it because the clock is ticking.’
“These aren’t stupid people [at Wizards of the Coast]. I’m sure they could tell what the direction of the set was. But all of them had lived through the Satanic Panic too. We’d all been victims of those false accusations, so I think everyone appreciated it on some level.
“I was getting really tired of the judgmental, holier-than-thou attitude coming from a lot of conservative so-called Christians. The set gave me room to show what that has looked like in history: witch trials, angry mobs, the Inquisition, intolerance, dogma, anti-science. Ugly, ugly sections of history that these people would rather ignore.”
Closing out his tale, Myrfors ultimately asserted, “Some of the best people I know follow the teachings of Christ. But people who preach division and hate and othering make the world a worse place.”
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