Black Waltzes Matter (BWM) is an international activist movement. Originating in the Black-Magician community on the Outer Continent, they campaign against violence toward black mages. BWM regularly organizes protests around the deaths of black mages in killings by a member of the Knights of Pluto. They protest broader issues of racial profiling, knight brutality, and racial inequality in the Gaian criminal justice system.
The movement began with the use of hashtag “# BlackWaltzesMatter” on social media, after the defeat of Black-Magician Black Waltz 1 by Knight of Pluto Adelbert Steiner.
The Black Waltzes were apart of the Black Waltz Party, a revolutionary black mage organization manufactured by Zorn and Thorn. At inception, the Black Waltzes Party’s core practice was to armed its citizens with powerful magic. They challenge knight brutality in Alexandria. The history of the Black Waltz Party was controversial. Scholars have characterized the Black Waltz Party as the most influential black mage movement organization. Other commentators described the Party as more criminal than political, characterized by “abuses of magic”.
Participants in the Black Waltzes Matter movement demonstrate against the deaths of numerous Black Waltz 1, 2, and 3. Black Waltzes Matter began to publicly challenge the Alexandrian Empire to state their positions on BWM issues. The overall Black Waltzes Matter movement, however, is a decentralized network and has no formal hierarchy or structure.
In describing the brutality received at the hand of the Knights of Pluto, Black Mage No. 288 responds:
“We became aware one day, each under different circumstances. It was the same with me. I just woke up one day… …and there was a human body lying next to me. His body was covered in blood. It scared me… I didn’t know what it meant. I ran as fast as I could. When I looked around, I was far away from the front line. There were many others like me, and we decided to escape together.”
When asked about Vivi Ornitier, who has been friends with White Mage Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII and Adelbert Steiner (a Knight of Pluto), Black Mage No. 288 referred to him as an “Uncle Mage”.
