Oko

Oko
Details
Race	Faerie Planeswalker
Birthplace	Unknown
Lifetime	Mending Era
Children	Kellan
Colors
Center:

Oko is a shapeshifter fey planeswalker from an unknown plane. He is the father of the half-fae Kellan.

Appearance and characteristics

Oko is a shapeshifter who is as charismatic as he is conceited, a man who is mysterious, uncommonly clever, and vain. He also has healing, illusory, and mind-controlling powers. He considers himself pretty and witty, and so tends to talk too much. He has high cheekbones, pale skin, pointed ears, and ink-black hair. His arms are blue as if they had been dipped in woad. His upper face has the same blue tone, giving the appearance of a blue mask across his eyes. His eyes are dark, pensive, and even a little melancholy. When in his own form, he is rarely seen wearing a shirt. Oko's somewhat meager telepathic ability once allowed him to escape his persecutors. The technique to mesmerize someone was used on him long ago before he'd turned the tables on his captors. For this reason, he hates inflicting this on others, although it doesn't stop him from doing it. Oko can shift another person into the same shape as he is taking if he is touching them when he does it. His illusion magic comes from his fae heritage, which can be recognized by another fae; it also takes focus, with a shock being enough to strip off the masquerade. He commonly uses colorful, thorned vines when fighting or capturing opponents.

Hating authority, Oko is an iconoclast and a bit of an anarchist. He sees it as his mission to help others — the hapless, the ignorant, the weak, the youthful strivers — to embrace their freedom and to cast off the rules of any government. He also seeks out alleged hypocrisy wherever he finds it. This often leads to quite cruel “pranks.” Ruining a wedding day, stealing the spotlight at someone's lifetime moment of triumph, fooling a mother into believing her child has returned from a conflict – these are all great shapeshifting jokes to Oko who sees nothing as sacred, least of all the noblest of emotions. Hypocritically, he usually avoids having to deal with the consequences of his actions by planeswalking away.

Oko generally tries to avoid revealing himself to other Planeswalkers, preferring trickery and manipulation to all-out battle. He is almost always mistaken for an elf. Oko has access to green and blue mana.

History

Oko Concept Art

Origin

Oko never had much of a father. He is from a plane ruled by Fey who believe in a unified society, one where the ruling class has decided that for the betterment of all, the natural mischievousness of the Fey has to be suppressed. To the ruling class, they had created a perfect society — but for Oko, who was born with incredibly powerful shapeshifting abilities, this culture went against everything he was and contradicted his deepest, truest self.

Styling himself as a speaker of truth, Oko felt he held a mirror to the hypocrisy of his world. The ruling class did not quite see it this way. They subjected him to magical procedures intended to suppress his powers but only succeeded in igniting his spark. It was a terrible experience for him and one that would make it almost impossible for him to trust anyone again — especially those in positions of authority.

Fathering Kellan

Shortly after arriving in Eldraine around 4545 AR, Oko met the human hedgewitch Alyse in a field of nightshade. The two met regularly in the same location over the next few years and shared knowledge of their planes. She left her witch mistress and began learning magic from Oko, and he promised her a throne. She eventually became pregnant with a son, the half-fae Kellan. Upset at the villagers' dislike and mistreatment of Alyse, Oko lashed out at them, causing her to leave him. On his return trip years later, he reached out to her again, but she chose to remain with her son.

The Wildered Quest

Having just returned to Eldraine in 4560 AR, Oko found out that he was stalked by Garruk Wildspeaker. Trapping the brute in a net of thorn-laced vines, he found out that Garruk was a planeswalker hunting his peers, and that he for some reason had a hedron embedded in his flesh. Oko mesmerized Garruk, turning him into a slave bodyguard called Dog.

On Eldraine, Oko sought to disrupt the rule of the Realm, and to do so he plotted to eliminate the High King himself. Seeing a chance to destroy the tentative peace between the elves of the Wilds and the five courts of the Realm, he waited for the Grand Procession to take place, a time when the king would travel throughout the Realm to reinforce the peace.

Oko, Thief of Crowns

While he waited, he came upon Will and Rowan at the Choking Drum, and had Garruk save the duo from a horde of redcaps. Quickly he used his charms to gain the favor of Rowan, while her brother remained cautious and suspicious of the man. Traveling with the duo, he had Garruk await in the forest as they arrived at Beckborough and they split ways.

At some point he took the form of the knight Cado, and slipped into the Grand Procession, giving the twins a wink that bewitched them and made them forget their encounter with him. Having Garruk kill the king's guards, he kidnaps the man and flees into the wilds.

Over the following months, he tried to gain the favor of those who were the least secure in times of peace. Queen Ayara, an elf, was his primary target, and he attempted to spark the hatred that much of her race held towards humans, but the woman thought him suspect.

As midwinter came around he retreated to the Wilds and tried to meet the Council of Druids to further his plans, however, Queen Ayara herself met with them, warning them against the stranger. Oko, however, had another plan in motion; he had transformed the High King into a stag and had magically put it to sleep, to awaken on that morning with the rising sun. Awaiting within his faerie circle on a makeshift throne he awaited Garruk to find the stag so he could guide the Wild Hunt to it that night.

As he awaited he was surprised to see the Kenrith twins walk into his circle, where his glamour on them faded and their old memories returned. Oko played upon their naivete, mainly Rowan's, to learn of their vision within the mirror, until Cado and the loremage Elowen stumbled into the circle.

Elowen quickly deduced he was not of Locthwain as he claimed, for he did not wear their emblem and his ploy to get them to eat within the circle was obvious. A scuffle broke out and Oko turned himself and Elowen into eagles before he reverted to his true form, the transformed mage flying away.

As Garruk arrived with the healer Cerise, her unicorn, and the stag, Oko revealed his plans and created a dome of thorns to bind the adventurers as he walked away with the stag they had sought. Later, the twins came upon him again as he guided the Wild Hunt after the creature, however, he evaded them by releasing a small swarm of faeries.

As the stag was cornered, Oko watched from a tree in the form of a raven. As a fight broke out between the gathered knights and the elves, he took the form of Queen Ayara (who had hidden near the back of the gathering to not be seen) and shot the stag in the chest with an arrow. He was almost struck down that instant by Garruk who ambushed him from behind, but he took the form of a raven once more to avoid his axe and took to the air, taking the form of a drake as griffins tried to stop him. Avoiding Garruk again, he accidentally flew into the electrified ice of the twins and was quickly pinned to the ground.

As Garruk moved to kill him, Rowan forbade it, which Oko thanked the girl for. Too quickly for the twins to comprehend, he shifted form into a drake once more, then a raven, a crested eagle, then an antler before dissolving into golden sparks, planeswalking away to parts unknown.

Thunder Junction heist

Oko unites a team to invade Maag Taranau.

Oko retained his Planeswalker spark through the Desparkening, following the end of New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse. At some point, he was contacted by Ashiok and hired to perform a heist to steal the contents of Maag Taranau on the plane of Thunder Junction. He and Ashiok gathered together a crew of outlaws including Breeches and Malcolm, Eriette, Gisa and Geralf Cecani, Kaervek, Rakdos, Satoru Umezawa, Tinybones, and Vraska. Arriving on the plane, Oko went to meet Annie Flash, attempting to recruit her for her ability to see through illusions. Using her past connection to the dragon Akul, leader of the Hellspurs gang, Oko tried to convince her to join, telling her to meet him at the Wildcard Saloon if she accepted. As he expected, Annie came to the saloon and joined the gang after thinking it over. Oko introduced her to his team and informed her of their goal. To further the plan, Oko wanted to secure one of the keys to Maag Taranau, which had been acquired by Bertram Graywater, head of the Sterling Company. While at their headquarters, he also wanted to break two members of the gang, Kaervek and Satoru Umezawa, out of holding cells in the building.

Oko snuck into the front office using his shapeshifting and smuggled Tinybones in with a delivery box. He gained access to Graywater's office, and alongside Umezawa, whom his associates had released from prison, they secured the key. On the road out of town, however, Oko ran into Ral Zarek and was shocked to see that he was accompanied by a user of fae magic. He was unable to maintain his true form and was forced to flee, chased by Ral and his bodyguards from the Sterling Company. However, the fae magic user caught up to him alone and revealed himself to be his son Kellan, who had traveled across multiple planes looking for him. They were cornered by Ral and company, but Kellan fought off the bodyguards with magic, and when Oko's gang arrived to back him up, Ral was too surprised by the appearance of Vraska to attack, allowing Rakdos to send him flying with one strike. Oko gave the order to retreat and took Kellan with him, deciding that he could be a useful asset.

The next stage of the plan was to find the actual location of the vault, which nobody on the team knew. Annie, however, knew of a scholar named Nolan who studied magical artifacts. The Sterling Company had hired him to analyze the key, and Vraska worried that they may hold him hostage until they were able to get it back, so the team decided to hijack his train into Prosperity and deal with him directly. Kellan was worried about this plan, but Oko promised him that no innocents would be harmed. Oko and Kellan snuck onto the train, disguised as Sterling Company guards, while Breeches forced the train to stop by exploding a bridge and Gisa caused a distraction by releasing zombies to rampage on the train. The team successfully extracted Nolan, but thanks to Gisa's overzealousness, zombies overran the train and it was headed over the bridge with passengers still inside. Kellan wanted to save them, but Oko preferred to run away from the approaching Sterling Company reinforcements. Ultimately, he left his son to save the civilians alone. Kellan managed to save everyone on the train.

When the gang regrouped to decide their next move, Oko lied that he had run away because he believed in Kellan to finish the job himself. Ashiok used their mental powers to extract knowledge from Nolan's head and determined that, while their key was authentic, Akul held the other five. However, Ashiok also learned that there was a map that could lead the team to Tarnation, Akul's base of operations, and the location of Maag Taranau. Oko sent Gisa and Geralf to dig it up. When the siblings returned with the map, Oko decided to infiltrate Tarnation with a small team of himself, Annie, Kellan, and Vraska, with the rest of the gang waiting outside the town to rendezvous with them. Unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, he made some additional preparations: he picked Kellan for the team due to his poor lying skills, which he knew would get them captured, and thus bring them face-to-face with Akul; he had Tinybones disassemble himself to imitate the Hellspurs' bone armor; and he submitted an anonymous tip about Tarnation's location to the Sterling Company so they would raid the city.

Upon arrival, one of the Hellspurs immediately picked a fight with Kellan, and the infiltration team was captured, as Oko had planned. When the Hellspurs shackled him with iron cuffs, his fae magic failed, allowing them to realize that he was the one who had stolen the last key. The four were taken directly to Akul, who took the key from Oko and combined it with his five to form the true vault key. The plan seemed to be unsalvageable, but Kellan challenged Akul to a duel. At first, the dragon dismissed the challenge as a joke, but Oko, Annie, and Vraska questioned his honor, taunting him for being afraid of Kellan. Akul realized that turning the duel down now would mean being seen as a coward by his gang, and accepted the duel. Oko was brought in chains to watch the duel, but did so with complete disinterest in its outcome, waiting for the Sterling Company to arrive. When they did, Oko had Tinybones unchain him and stole the complete key, making for the vault. As he was escaping, he noticed that Kellan was being captured by the Sterling Company, but did nothing.

Oko and the gang arrived at the vault, but Kellan, who had joined forces with Ral, and the Hellspurs were close on their trail. A fight between Kellan and Oko for the key broke out, with Annie grazing him with a thunder blast, but it ended in Oko's favor when Ashiok arrived and paralyzed Kellan, allowing Oko to open the vault. Much to his surprise, when Ashiok took their prize from the vault, they dispelled an illusion and revealed themself to be Jace Beleren in disguise. Jace and Vraska had set Oko up, and his usefulness was at an end. Oko was only just able to planeswalk away before being petrified by Vraska's gaze.

After his team escaped the vault, Oko met up with the rest of them back at his base, sans Annie, Malcolm, and Breeches, who had abandoned the team. Most of them concluded that the heist had been a complete failure and a waste of their time, and told Oko that he could contact them again, but only for a larger prize or to get revenge against Vraska and Jace. They all left, except Eriette, who told Oko that, in his absence, Kellan had awoken his fae powers and escaped from the vault. Oko accepted this outcome, as it meant he could continue to be absent in Kellan's life. They wished each other goodbye and Oko planeswalked away.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Throne of Eldraine: The Wildered Quest	Kate Elliott	September 2019	Throne of Eldraine	Eldraine	Rowan Kenrith, Will Kenrith, Oko, Garruk, Algenus Kenrith, Linden Kenrith, Cado, Titus, Cerise, Hazel Kenrith, Erec Kenrith, Elowen, Yorvo, Ayara
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 1: An Offer of Revenge	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-11	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Archie Dixon, Akul, Annie Flash, Fortune, Mr. Towning, Oko, Kellan, Ral Zarek
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 2: The Jailbreak	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-13	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Annie Flash, Tinybones, Breeches, Malcolm Lee, Oko, Geralf Cecani, Gisa Cecani, Eriette, Vraska, Ashiok, Rakdos, Kaervek, Satoru Umezawa, Ral Zarek, Kellan
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 3: A Train to Prosperity	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-18	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Akul, Oko, Kaervek, Annie Flash, Vraska, Gisa Cecani, Geralf Cecani, Eriette, Malcolm Lee, Breeches, Satoru Umezawa, Tinybones, Kellan, Ashiok, Nolan
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 4: Finding Tarnation	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-18	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Oko, Kellan, Rakdos, Kaervek, Nolan, Breeches, Malcolm Lee, Tinybones, Vraska, Eriette, Ashiok, Annie Flash, Satoru Umezawa, Gisa Cecani, Geralf Cecani, Twist Fandango, Akul
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 5: High Moon	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-22	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Oko, Kellan, Akul, Annie Flash, Vraska, Ral Zarek, Tinybones
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 6: The Ballad of Thieves and Thunderslingers	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-25	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Oko, Breeches, Annie Flash, Tinybones, Rakdos, Satoru Umezawa, Geralf Cecani, Gisa Cecani, Kaervek, Akul, Vraska, Malcolm Lee, Eriette, Kellan, Ral Zarek, Jace Beleren, Loot, Amalia Benavides Aguirre

Planes visited

• Eldraine
• Thunder Junction
• Zendikar

Planeswalkers met

• Garruk Wildspeaker
• Jace Beleren (Disguised as Ashiok)
• Liliana Vess
• Ral Zarek
• Rowan Kenrith
• Vraska (Desparked)
• Will Kenrith

Gallery

• 

  Oko, Thief of Crowns variant art.

• 

  Oko binds Garruk.

• 

  Oko, in disguise as Ayara, shoots Algenus Kenrith.

• 

  MTG Arena avatar.

• 

  Outlaws of Thunder Junction key art featuring Oko's crew by Lie Setiawan.

• 

  Oko's crew

• 

  Concept art of Kellan and Oko for Outlaws of Thunder Junction by Kieran Yanner.

• 

  Wanted poster from Thunder Junction.

• 

  Wanted poster in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction trailer.

• 

  Oko's crew.

• 

  Oko in elk form.

• 

  Oko's introduction in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction trailer.

• 

  Oko in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction trailer.

• 

  Oko, Vraska, and Rakdos rob a train.

• 

  Oko's crew in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction trailer.

• 

  Outlaws of Thunder Junction key art featuring Oko's crew.

• 

  Kellan squares off against Oko.

• 

  Oko squares off against Kellan.

• 

  Oko in elk form model for the Outlaws of Thunder Junction trailer.

• 

  Cast art for MTG-JP April Fools Outlaws of Thunder Junction: The Movie.

• 

  Oko in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction x Cowboy Bebop trailer.

• 

  Oko in the Outlaws of Thunder Junction x Cowboy Bebop trailer.

• 

  Oko riding an elk.

• 

  Oko's crew.

• 

  Disdainful Stroke (Promo) by Maxilla.

• 

  Product art for Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

• 

  Outlaws of Thunder Junction MTG Arena avatar.

Trivia

• Oko's character is loosely based on the Shakespearean character of Puck.
• In the video game Magic: The Gathering Arena, Oko is voiced by Usman Ally.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Oko, the Ringleader
• Oko, the Trickster
• Oko, Thief of Crowns

Associated cards:

• Oko's Accomplices
• Oko's Hospitality
• Trickster's Elk
• Wrath of Oko

Depicted in:

• Annie Joins Up
• Betrayal at the Vault
• Kellan Joins Up
• Map (The Big Score)
• Plan the Heist
• Rakdos Joins Up
• Rakish Crew
• Tinybones Joins Up
• Vraska Joins Up

Quoted or referred to:

• Bramblefort Fink
• Concession Stand (Unfinity, #205c)
• Costume Shop (Unfinity, #206b)
• Desertion (Special Guests, #31)
• Fleeting Reflection