Ravnica
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In the card game Magic: The Gathering, Ravnica is a plane whose primary planet is covered by cities. Ravnica is the setting for Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, and Dissension. The plane is separated from others, making it impossible for planeswalkers and ghosts to come or go. "Ravnica" is also the name of the city in which ten guilds, i.e. the ten guilds that signed the Guildpact, vie for complete control. The word Ravnica is most probably taken from Serbian language where it means plane.
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[edit] The Guildpact
Ten thousand years before the events of Ravnica: City of Guilds, the plane of Ravnica was one of untold violence and brutality. Ten factions constantly waged war against one (or more) of the others. Realizing that this never-ending war would ultimately destroy everything, a council was created. A faction leader by the name of Azor suggested a living, breathing magical enchantment that would ensure the survival of all ten factions. While there were initial disagreements from some of the order-phobic factions, eventually the nine other faction leaders realized that it was the best chance of survival. Over time, these factions became the ten Guilds of Ravnica.
The power of the Guildpact is subtle, preventing any Guild from dabbling into the business of any other Guild (or doing anything which would shift the Guild balance). For example, if a Gruul raiding clan were to attempt to demolish an Orzhov banking center, they would find themselves stopped by a case of dysentery, slowing them down long enough for a Boros counter attack.
Every year the anniversary of the signing of the Guildpact is celebrated in a day-long festival where all people lay down their weapons and celebrate. This celebration is called The Festival of the Guildpact.
Not all of the citizens of Ravnica are in one of the guilds, indeed the vast majority have no attachment. However, the Guilds are a required part of daily life, their presence felt everywhere on Ravnica.
[edit] Guilds
One of the core powers of the Guildpact was defining the role each Guild would play in maintaining the city of Ravnica, giving each one a monopoly on a good or service. The Guildpact also prevents a Guild from doing another Guild's business. Note: In the books, some of the guildmasters and champions die.
[edit] The Boros Legion
The Boros Legion adhere to a set of absolute, Platonic laws. This righteous devotion to this law gives the legion their furor, their power, and the awe with which they are beheld. Led by the archangel Razia, the Boros are the premier fighters and enforcers of justice of Ravnica. Very few dare to go into head-on-head conflict with the Boros, as they are simply the most skilled and most impassioned fighters in the City of Guilds. Unlike the Azorius Senate, who also uphold the purity of the law, the Boros champion action and swift retribution, leaving legal subtlety and moral ambiguity to the bureaucrats and the politicians. Perhaps this is why part of this guild, the League of Wojek, 'jeks for short, was chosen to enforce Ravnica's laws. Their absolute belief in justice makes them swift and effective in neutralizing any conflict. To those innocent, the Boros may seem to be the upholders of righteousness and truth, to those guilty, the Boros can be tyrannical.
Also Known As: The Legion
Real World / Literary Analogue: Police officers, soldiers, military leaders.
Guild Leader/Parun: Razia, an archangel of fire and Boros parun. She is an ageless creation of justice and purity who serves as a living ideal for the guild.
Guild Champion: The Wojek veteran and leader Agrus Kos. Agrus is the hero of the Ravnica books.
Guild Hall: Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Values: Passionate belief in law and order, and, to a lesser extent, the cultured civilization that Ravnica represents. Depending on who is discussing them, they may be the bastions of stability or blind, close-minded zealots.
Structure: Fully military. The Boros view Razia as more of a figurehead than an actual commander-in-chief. Still, many generals revere her and would heed any command she gave. Every Boros legionnaire has a function in combat.
Goal: To sustain order using strict law enforcement.
Colours: Red and White
Featured Set: Ravnica: City of Guilds
Keyword: Radiance (not a true keyword). A spell or ability with radiance targets one creature (or in one case, enchantment), then affects that creature and all other creatures that share a colour with it. For example, if you play Cleansing Beam targeting a green and black creature, it will deal 2 damage to all creatures that are green and all creatures that are black, though the effect does not double up if any creatures are both green and black.
Signet: The signet of Boros is a fist in a sun.
[edit] The Golgari Swarm
The Golgari believe strongly in the necessity of death as a part of life. The guild is home to Ravnica's topmost necromancers and swarms of undead creatures, amongst others. The Golgari regularly annex abandoned regions of Ravnica, growing their territory like a fungus. The Golgari's role in the Guildpact is to manage waste and provide free food to Ravnica's poor, grown in massive underground farms. Food grown here is typically consumed only as a last resort (the farms are fertilized by dead creatures). The food may be of questionable origin, but the Golgari take pride in being able to clearly show that they are not exclusively devoted to death: they are, at heart, dedicated to life.
Also known as: The Swarm
Real World / Literary Analogue: Farmers, people on Dirty Jobs, Frankenstein's Monster.
Guild Leader: Contested. The Sisters of Stone Death, a trio of gorgons who claim oracular powers, currently lead the guild. But the dark-elf shaman Savra has grown powerful enough to challenge them. Also, rumors abound that the legendary necromancer Svogthir, founder of the guild and "God-Zombie", was never destroyed. **spoiler** Savra's brother, Jarad, becomes the guild leader by the end of the Ravnica novel.**
Parun/Guild Champion: Svogthir, the legendary necromancer. Revered by the Golgari as the god-zombie.
Guild Hall: Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
Values: Power through growth. The Golgari grow by folding the dead into the ranks, as well as through occasional minor incursions into new territory.
Structure: A predatory organism with many predators within it. Subgroups of the guild (dark elves known as the Devkarin, undead-plant hybrids, and various other creatures known as the Teratogens) struggle for control. The Golgari believe that the strongest should lead, so constant struggles are fought and coups are plotted. But in the end it only makes the Guild stronger.
Goal: To regrow the world stronger than it was before. They destroy the weak so the strong may become more powerful.
Colors: Green and Black
Featured Set: Ravnica: City of Guilds
Keyword: Dredge. A card with dredge can be returned from the graveyard to the player's hand by skipping a draw and instead putting a certain number of cards from their library into their graveyard. This number is specified after the word "dredge" on the card. For example, Greater Mossdog is a creature with dredge 3. If the Mossdog is in the graveyard, its owner can skip drawing a card and putting the top 3 cards of their library into their graveyard, and return the Mossdog to their hand. (Oracle Text: Dredge X - If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly X cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
Signet: Their Signet is an insect's head with two snakes circling it. The snakes represent the Golgari cycle of Life, death and rebirth. This symbol reflects the ancient symbol of the Ouroboros.
[edit] The Selesnya Conclave
The Selensyan Conclave believes in brotherhood, unity, and peace. They believe this so much, no person in the Conclave is more important than the other. They gain new members by evangelism, or by creating new life in the form of saprolings and elementals. Exhibiting a strong dislike of individuality and technology, they believe that society should fuction as nature does: slowly and conservatively. To those outside the guild, however, the Conclave appears to be nothing more than a brainwashing nature-cult, adamantly refusing to realize that there is anyone who wouldn't want to join them.
Also Known As: The Conclave
Real World / Literary Analogue: Evangelical hippies, Ewoks.
Parun: Mat'Selesnya, an elemental dryad which was made when the other dryads combined together to form her. She is also like a power source for the Guildpact.
Guild Leader: The Chorus of the Conclave, a collection of beings that share one mind.
Guild Champion: Tolsimir Wolfblood, with wolf mount Voja.
Guild Hall: Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree. Once the greatest tree in the world. Although struck down ages ago, dryad and elf magic keeps Vitu-Ghazi alive. Its trunk houses the Selesnya's most important places.
Values: Welfare of the whole. Taking into account both white's and green's concern for the community, the Conclave is perfect at both protecting and nurturing a great amount of small creatures.
Structure: Decentralized, communal, collective. Within the Conclave, ideally all are equals regardless of individual roles.
Goal: To achieve absolute peace with everybody being equal.
Colours: Green and White
Featured Set: Ravnica: City of Guilds
Keyword: Convoke. To play a card with convoke, you can tap some of your creatures instead of paying the cost. Each creature you tap reduces the mana cost of the convoke spell by either one mana of the creature's colour, or by one colourless mana. For example, instead of paying the mana cost of Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi, you can tap three green creatures, two white creatures, and pay 3 mana. Or you can tap four green creatures and four white creatures to play it for free. (Oracle Text: Convoke - Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature’s color.)
Signet: The signet is a tree, whose branches extend into sun rays.
[edit] House Dimir
House Dimir doesn't exist. At least, that's what members of House Dimir want the people of Ravnica to believe. Even though their symbol sits alongside the other nine guilds, few see House Dimir as anything but a Ravnican Illuminati. House Dimir is, paradoxally, required by the Guildpact to attempt to destroy the Guildpact. Preferring indirect methods of control and knowledge acquisition, they prefer to not even be discovered.
Also known as: The Unseen
Real World / Literary Analogue: Illuminati, Majestic 12, and almost every form of conspiracy that some believe to be intent on taking over and/or destroying the world in secret.
Guild Leader/Parun: Szadek, an eldritch psionic vampire and alleged tenth parun (alleged because few citizens on the plane are even sure he even exists, the Guildpact contained a clause which prohibited the other paruns officially revealing his presence)
Guild Champion: Circu, a lobotomist who makes sure those who come too close to Dimir's secrets won't remember a thing.
Guild Hall: Duskmantle, House of Shadow
Values: House Dimir wants utter control of Ravnica. Such absolute control requires complete invisibility so as not to arouse opposition. Therefore, the guild works very hard to ensure that Ravnicans don't believe the guild exists.
Structure: Isolated cells. Each Dimir agent works in almost complete isolation. Often, any operative within the guild has just one contact, so that none have too wide a view of its dealings. Only Szadek knows the guild's entire scope of operations. Dimir leaders issue commands through messenger spirits known as Necrosages or other magical means to preserve anonymity.
Goal: To control and learn every aspect of reality.
Colours: Blue and Black
Featured Set: Ravnica: City of Guilds
Keyword: Transmute. Instead of playing a card with transmute, you can instead pay the transmute cost and discard it to search your library for any card with the same converted mana cost, reveal it, put it into your hand, and shuffle your library. (Oracle Text: Transmute X - Pay X, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
Signet: The signet is a spider with an eye on its back.
[edit] The Orzhov Syndicate
Under the facade of an organized religion, the Orzhov hold the economic reins of Ravnica. No matter how poor a person is, the Orzhov will benevolently offer whatever that person needs to survive. They remember who owes them, however, and every person who makes a deal with a member of this guild will have to repay that debt some day, even after death. Like some form of magical Mafia, the Orzhov use the resources taken from their debtors to finance whatever interests the Guild requires, but making sure that none of their "cattle" becomes too be free from their grip.
Just as death is no barrier to those who owe the Orzhov favors, it has no sway over the Guild's leaders. Profitable leaders survive after death to run the "businesses" of the guild.
Also known as: The Guild of Deals
Real World / Literary Analogue: The Catholic Church, Mafia, Magneto, Rasputin.
Guild Leader: The Ghost Council of Orzhova, or the Obzedat. They are a group of powerful, wealthy undead Orzhov patriarchs, and each is an archbishop and kingpin rolled into one, all vying for more influence and gold than he or she already wields. The Orzhov parun, while unnamed, is likely still part of the Obzedat.(Vuliev of the Ghost Council is a name used for several occasions of flavor text. It is likely that Vuliev is the Orzhov Parun.)
Guild Champion: Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Equal parts ambition and execution. With a few well-chosen words and a couple of well-planned smiles, she can make practically anyone dance to her tune.
Guild Hall: Orzhova, the Church of Deals, central cathedral of the entire religion/syndicate. It’s not clear even to the guild faithful whether Orzhova is a cathedral with financial interests or a bank with religious ones.
Values: The Orzhov use their oppressive social order as a means to ensure power-the entire guild is set up to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. The guild’s rites and rituals, its laws and structures, exist to maintain the status quo.
Structure: Oligarchic, with a sharp division between the privileged and the indentured. The guild is practically two guilds; one for the 'haves', one for the 'have nots'.
Goal: Creating a peace (with itself as ruler) that nobody, except itself, can destroy.
Colours: Black and White
Featured Set: Guildpact
Keyword: Haunt. A card with haunt has an effect (for instants and sorceries this effects happens when it resolves; for creatures, it is a triggered ability when it comes into play). When the card with haunt goes to the graveyard, you remove it from the game and choose a creature in play to "haunt". When the haunted creature goes to the graveyard, you get the effect again. For example, Cry of Contrition makes your opponent discard a card, then it haunts a creature. When that creature goes to a graveyard, your opponent discards another card. (Oracle Text: Haunt - When this card is put into a graveyard from play, remove it from the game haunting target creature.)
Signet: The signet is an eclipsed sun.
[edit] The Izzet League
While each Ravnican guild attempts to rule the plane - by money, force of arms, or magical skill - the Izzet are content with pure, unfettered research. As long as something exists, the Izzet will stop at nothing to identify, experiment, understand, and replicate it. Because of the Izzet, there are no natural disasters in the entire plane -- they have figured out how to prevent them.
Because of their obsessive passion for knowledge, however, the Izzet aren't methodical researchers. Excited to begin work on the Next Big Project and clouded by their inflated egos, Izzet mages will often take shortcuts in their work. This has lead to all sorts of unnatural disasters.
Also known as: The Magewrights
Real World / Literary Analogue: Mad scientists, Doc Brown, Indiana Jones, Gordon Freeman
Guild Leader/Parun: Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, a seemingly immortal dragon with a flair for inventions. He is by far the most intelligent being on Ravnica and will be the first to let you know of his superiority, although his temper has cost him more than his share of charbroiled apprentices. Among his creations is the weird, an artificial elemental that he intends to be the next generation of Izzet servitor. He is extremely vain, as shown in how many parts of the guild were crafted in his image (the name of the guild, the hall, the signet etc.)
Guild Champions: Tibor and Lumia, a powerful husband-wife wizard pair.
Guild Hall: Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind. This impossibly tall spire is said to be protected by the most sophisticated sigils ever devised. Within its uppermost chamber, Niv-Mizzet holds court with his most intelligent magewrights, eating those who displease him.
Structure: The Izzet are an association of like-minded passionate philosophers, all of whom idolize Niv-Mizzet’s genius and caprice. Fiery competition and the drive for knowledge keep the guild’s alchemical labs and colleges humming.
Values: The Izzet are great believers in passionate study. Often this manifests in random experiments and strange revisions to reflect their ever changing minds. They combine blue's need to learn more about the world with red's impulse, making a guild which learns through emotion. When an Izzet scholar finds something that it wants to study, they'll start studying it with unbridled relentlessness, until they find a new thing, usually a very short time afterwards, in which case they'll drop whatever they're doing and start on the new thing. This tendency to be easily distracted is the reason many Izzet experiments never get finished, but those that do tend to be grandiose and bombastic.
Goal: To learn and understand everything they desire to know.
Colours: Blue and Red
Featured Set: Guildpact
Keyword: Replicate. An instant or sorcery spell with replicate lets you make more copies of it by paying more mana. This cost is currently always the same as the mana cost. For example, the spell Gigadrowse taps a permanent and has a replicate cost of a single blue mana. For each time you pay the replicate cost, you get another copy of Gigadrowse (and therefore you get to tap another permanent). One creature, Djinn Illuminatus, gives all instant and sorcery spells you play the replicate ability. (Oracle Text: Replicate X - When you play this spell, copy it for each time you paid its replicate cost (X). You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Signet: The signet is a stylized dragon, modeled after Niv-Mizzet.
[edit] The Gruul Clans
When the magical ink on the Guildpact was still drying, the Gruul were intended to represent the wild, unpredictable facets of the natural world. After all, much of Ravnica was still natural and pristine, and the wild animals in the world had to be part of the future of the plane.
As time went by, however, the Gruul's power began to wane. With more and more of the wilds of Ravnica replaced with concrete and homes, there was less for the Gruul to represent. The Selesnya and Simic began to make the non-sentient their charges, and the less passionate guilds (the Azorius, Boros, and Orzhov) began to see the Gruul as less and less relevent.
By the opening of the Ravnica set, the Gruul guild has shattered into multiple clans, with little or no connections between each other. A 'beggar's guild', Gruul clans raid abandoned areas, live off the resources, and move on when things run dry.
Many different clans exist. Some of them are decendents of the Gruul guild, some are escaped slaves, but all of them consider themselves Gruul.
Also known as: The Clans
Real World / Literary Analogue: Any oppressed, viotile people, the Hulk.
Guild 'Leader': The Gruul have no leader, but if they did, it would be Borborygmos, a cyclops who rules the Gruul's largest clan. He is one of the Gruul's fiercest fighters, thus, this savage cyclops is usually at the head of the largest, most destructive raids. Borborygmos is said to be the grandson of the legendary Cisarzim.
Guild 'Champion': Ulasht, a legendary hydra who inhabits ruined areas of Ravnica, is revered by the Gruul as a symbol of ultimate anarchy. It is not technically a member of the Clans, simply a living, breathing example of the Gruul beliefs.
Parun: According to the first novel, Cisarzim, a gigantic cyclops, was the Gruul parun.
Guild Hall: None. The Gruul guildhall was supposed to be a lodge-style guildhall, but it was destroyed long ago and its location has been lost to time. Now, the only thing the Gruul have that even comes close to a guildhall is Skarrg, the Rage Pits, the closest thing to natural landscape left on Ravnica and the center of Borborygmos's power.
Structure: Loose, disconnected gangs. The Gruul are sometimes called "the guild which is not one," because they eschew any structure at all. Inside large cities, the beggars' guilds are often loyal to the Gruul. Outside the cities, the raiding gangs carve out swaths of smoldering ruin and rubble in which to subsist.
Values: The absolute breakdown of society. The Gruul believe that society has no place in the natural order. Call it instinct or impulse, the Gruul preach it just the same. They show an unrivaled bloodthirst, and that is represented well in the keyword of the same name. Bloodthirst grants your creatures a size boost if you damaged your opponent that turn.
Goal: The only law that matters in the world is the law of nature. Instinct should always overpower logic.
Colours: Green and Red
Featured Set: Guildpact
Keyword: Bloodthirst. A creature with bloodthirst comes into play with +1/+1 counters if an opponent was dealt damage that turn. The number of +1/+1 counters is shown after the word "bloodthirst" on the card. For example, Ghor-Clan Savage is a creature with bloodthirst 3. If an opponent was dealt damage this turn, it comes into play with three +1/+1 counters. The number of opponents damaged, the number of times they were damaged, or the amount of damage doesn't matter. One special type of bloodthirst is bloodthirst X. In this case, X is the amount of damage dealt to all opponents that turn. (Oracle Text: Bloodthirst X - If an opponent was dealt damage this turn, this creature comes into play with X +1/+1 counter(s) on it.)
Signet: Their signet is a burning tree with a single eye in the middle, not actually the symbol for the entire guild, but simply the sign of the most prominent group: the burning tree clan, led by Borborygmos.
[edit] The Azorius Senate
To the intellectual Azorius guild, knowledge is power. Absolutely hierarchical, the Azorius believe that their laws and the preservation of those laws are responsible for maintaining the Guildpact. In fact, they believe their rigid system of governance is responsible for keeping nearly everything on Ravnica running smoothly. Justice is blind, as the saying goes, and that includes the guild's blindness to dissent, chaos, and crime.
For this hierarchical and bureaucratic guild, history, stability, and the rule of law are paramount. Even Azorius field marshals are as likely to legislate against their foes as they are to fight them. After all, why damage that pristine, pearlescent armor? Many of Ravnica's citizens have forgotten that the Azorius are Ravnica's official government. Who could blame them, when the guild seems designed solely to prevent anything from happening?
This guild, which was created by Azor I the Judge, who was a human Parun, can be described to have a totalitarian government, as it is described through the flavortexts of several cards that this is the guild that much is done to prevent anything being done. The card Prahv, Spires of Order embody this guild's ethos.
Also known as: The High Judges
Real World / Literary Analogue: Politicians and judges, Jean Luc Picard, Jedi, The Beast
Guild Leader: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. Augustin has presided over the Azorius for decades, dispensing judgement with cold efficiency. Rumors abound that Augustin relies too heavily on his spirit-councilors, but none dare question his methods. Without eyes to gaze upon sympathy or legs to stray from the path of justice, he embodies the essence of justice.
Guild Champion: Isperia, the Inscrutable. A sphinx who provides cryptic advice to the Azorius leaders which only they can understand.
Parun: The Human High Judge, Azor I
Guild Hall: Prahv, Spires of Order. It is a veritable city of marble and alabaster, a maze of long, echoing corridors and domed chambers. Tight rows of soldiers, spotlessly outfitted, guard the whole campus. But the guild's powerful law-magic, not the swords of its standing guard, protects Prahv.
Values: The Azorius believe that their laws and the preservation of those laws are responsible for maintaining the Guildpact. In fact, they believe their rigid system of governance is responsible for keeping nearly everything on Ravnica running smoothly. Justice is blind, as the saying goes, and that includes the guild's blindness to dissent, chaos, and crime.
Goal: Creating absolute order by placing countless laws and rules to hinder any change of the status quo.
Colours: White and Blue
Featured Set: Dissension
Structure: Absolutely hierarchical. Most Azorius functionaries report to one superior and have two guild members that report to them, creating a pyramidal command structure.
Keyword: Forecast. A player can pay a card's forecast cost and reveal the card from their hand to generate some effect, either a lesser effect of the actual spell or a support effect to the main spell. A forecast ability can only be played once per turn, and only during your upkeep.
Signet: Their signet is a labyrinth within a triangle.
[edit] The Cult of Rakdos
Formed by the followers of the demonlord Rakdos, if someone in Ravnica needs warriors, mercenaries, or assassins, this murder-happy guild is the only place to turn to. Their whole philosophy is wanton destruction, for the sheer pleasure of destroying things. They're too chaotic to have a long-term goal, though they're playing right into the Gruul desires.
Also known as: The Thrill-killers
Real World / Literary Analogue: Sith, The Joker, bodyguard and bounty hunters.
Guild Leader/Parun: Rakdos the Defiler. A fiery abomination whose origins are unknown to all but him, Rakdos has entertained himself with Ravnica's citizenry for thousands of years, maintaining a cult of personality whose numbers don't increase only because of the guild's high mortality rate. Though Lyzolda does most of the work leading the guild according to the third novel.
Guild Champion: Lyzolda, the Blood Witch, the mistress of ceremonies to the Rakdos party. In the book, her name is misspelled as "Izolda"
Guild Hall: Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace. A grotesque palace in the dank part of the Undercity. Very few guild members have seen the inside of the palace. Many who manage to emerge are too incoherent to describe it. If Prahv is the coldest place on Ravnica, Rix Maadi is the hottest.
Structure: Like an out-of-control party. The guild's only structure is determined by those powerful enough to hold leadership. Such beings tend to have short lifespans.
Goal: To do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, no matter what.
Values and Gameplay: Instant gratification. The Rakdos don't just want their way, they want it RIGHT NOW. How this translates gameplay-wise is an all out suicide strategy. Combine Red's recklessness with Black's masochistic tendencies, and you find yourself in front of a determined enemy who will go to any length to achieve the goal as quickly as possible. This, of course, is reflected in the guild's keyword, hellbent. Hellbent grants bonuses to cards assuming you have an empty hand. The best way to do that? Play masses of small threats that grow bigger as your hand shrinks.
Colours: Red and Black
Featured Set: Dissension
Keyword: Hellbent. A card with hellbent gets better if its controller has no cards in their hand, whether by gaining extra functionality, added strength, or, if a creature, extra power or toughness.
Signet: The signet is a crumbling skull on fire.
[edit] The Simic Combine
The Simic's original role in Ravnica was to protect and preserve what was left of Ravnica's natural ecosystems. They failed, and there is no place on Ravnica that is left to nurture. Now, the Simic Combine spends their resources "improving" the already existing life in Ravnica - whether or not the life in question wants to be improved at all! The rest of their time is spent creating new - and often frightening - species of creatures that not only survive in the concrete jungles of Ravnica, but thrive.
Also known as: The Biomancers
Real World / Literary Analogue: Genetic scientists, Doctors Moreau, Frankenstein, and Otto Octavius.
Guild Leader: Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. The visionary pioneer of cytoplastic technology. The guild quickly took up Vig's banner after his first success at creating specialized lifeforms. Vig believes the key to evolving life on Ravnica is to "design" it for the city.
Guild Champion: Experiment Kraj, an experimental monstrosity of a creature that has the power to choose its own evolution. The brainchild of Momir Vig himself, a product of his desire to create the ultimate life form.
Guild Hall: Novijen, Heart of Progress. A bizarre hybrid of living matter and chiseled stone, it is held in place by thick, umbilical cables that keep it isolated from the surrounding buildings. Here, the Combine design and perfect their most secret biological projects.
Structure: A cross between a college, a laboratory, and a zoo. Hundreds of years ago, a sharp line existed between the guild's experimental subjects and the researchers studying and protecting them. Since Vig's ascension, however, that line has blurred.
Goal: Make every living thing "better" than it already is. This cannot be completed until they have created the "perfect" living organism.
Values and Gameplay: Nurturing evolution. The Simic see evolution as a great thing. If they can influence evolution to produce better results, they feel satisfied in their work. The Simic style of play seems to focus on building better creatures over time. The keyword graft is a means of evolving the creatures on your side by making them stronger as each comes into play, with strategies revolving around the use of +1/+1 counters.
Colours: Green and Blue
Featured Set: Dissension
Keyword: Graft. A creature with graft comes into play with a certain number of +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever another creature comes into play, you may move a +1/+1 counter from the graft creature onto it. Most graft creatures can grant abilities to any creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, reflecting the genetic transfer properties of cytoplasts. (Oracle Text: Graft X - This creature comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever another creature comes into play, you may move a +1/+1 counter from this creature onto it.)
Signet: Their guild symbol is a tree that grows out and to one side, its branches twisting like a tidal wave.
[edit] Races and Occupations
Most of the plane's forests and wildlife have been cleared for architecture. Those spiecies that survive have adapted to the city environment. Many races live on Ravnica, including goblins, humans, angels, 3 types of elves (Devkarin amd Silhana. The third has died out-Momir Vig is the last, and the name is lost to time.), ogres, demons, viashinos, loxodons, vedalkens, faeries, among many other humanoids. Humans tend to breed with the others and so a large number of half-elves, half demons, ect. inhabit Ravnica Also, ghosts remain on the plane for an unnaturally long time.
[edit] Locations
Aside from the aforementioned guild-related places, Ravnica, being a huge city, also houses a lot of other places:
- The Tin-Street Market, a huge place stretching on for miles. You can find pretty much any and every commodity somewhere in the market.
- Utvara- An Izzet bomb went off here, killing all in proximity. It is now causing strange (secretly planned) results in the area. A plague infects the air.
- Moon Market, which is basically Ravnica's black market.
- The Rubblefield, once a place where the wealth of Ravnica lived, earned its name in a single day when a Siege Wurm wreaked havoc and laid the location to waste.
- Gnat Alley, is the longest alley in Ravnica, and serves as a home to criminals and the unruly.
- the Parhelion, a flying ship, home of the Boros angels.
- Agyrem, a secret district, Ghost Quarter.
