Ravnica (plane)
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In the card game Magic: The Gathering, Ravnica is the setting for Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, and Dissension, collectively known as the Ravnica block.
Ravnica is a plane, whose primary planet is covered by continuous, sprawling cityscape. This plane is separated from others in the multiverse, making it impossible for planeswalkers and ghosts to enter or leave. Ravnica is also the name of the plane's largest city, in which the ten guilds that signed a magical agreement known as the Guildpact vie for complete control.
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[edit] The Guildpact
Ten thousand years before the events of Ravnica: City of Guilds, the plane of Ravnica boasted untold violence and brutality, with ten factions constantly waging war against one or more of the others. Realizing that this neverending war would ultimately destroy everything, a council between all ten factions was held, where the leader Azor suggested establishing a living, breathing enchantment that would end the violence and ensure the survival of all the factions. While some of the order-phobic factions had initial disagreements, the other nine leaders eventually concurred that such a pact was the best chance of survival. Each of the ten factions signed the Guildpact, and over time, these factions became the ten guilds of Ravnica.
The power of the Guildpact is subtle; it prevents any guild from dabbling into the business of any other guild or disturbing the stable power balance among the ten by twisting circumstance and coincidence to nullify the disruptive guild's actions. While the Guildpact is credited with bringing relative peace and prosperity to the plane, sporadic clashes between guilds do still occur. Despite any conflicts between the guilds at a particular time though, the anniversary of the Guildpact's signing is celebrated every year with a day-long festival, where all the people lay down their weapons and make merry. This celebration is called The Festival of the Guildpact.
Not all of Ravnica's citizens are a member of a guild; the vast majority have no attachment. However, the guilds are a required part of daily life, and their presence is 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.
[edit] The Boros Legion
(Source: Ravnica: City of Guilds)
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, Boros Archangel, 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
Guild Leader/Parun: Razia, Boros 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, Wojek Veteran. 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.
Colors: Red and White
Featured Set: Ravnica: City of Guilds
Signet: The signet of the Boros depicts a fist in a sun.
[edit] The Golgari Swarm
(Source: Ravnica: City of Guilds) 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
Guild Leader/Champion: Contested. The Sisters of Stone Death, a trio of gorgons who claim oracular powers, currently lead the guild. But the dark-elf shaman Savra, Queen of the Golgari 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. Savra's brother, Jarad, becomes the guild leader by the end of the Ravnica novel.
Parun: 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. The Golgari have no true set gameplay due to their versatile and varied cards.
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
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
(Source: Ravnica: City of Guilds) 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 function 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
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 his 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 their own, and nurturing them to grow stronger. 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
Signet: The signet is a tree, whose branches extend into sun rays.
[edit] House Dimir
(Source: Ravnica: City of Guilds)
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
Guild Leader/Parun: Szadek, Lord of Secrets, 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, Dimir 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. As such the Dimir are never straight forward in their strategy.
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
Signet: The signet is a spider with an eye on its back.
[edit] The Orzhov Syndicate
(Source: Guildpact)
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 Church of Deals
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. An ambitious and cruel mage, she uses her looks and charisma to manipulate her constituents even after death.
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
Signet: The signet is an eclipsed sun.
[edit] The Izzet League
(Source: Guildpact)
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
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.) His vast intelligence renders him eternally bored, and he allows the rest of Ravnica's civilization to exist for his amusement.
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, hence the earlier mention of Seuss (an individual who's stories are very well thought out but still very emotional). 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
Signet: The signet is a stylized dragon, modeled after Niv-Mizzet.
[edit] The Gruul Clans
(Source: Guildpact)
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 and Orzhov) began to see the Gruul as less and less relevant.
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 descendants of the Gruul guild, some are escaped slaves, but all of them consider themselves Gruul.
Also known as: The Clans
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, the Hate Seed, 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.
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
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
(Source: Dissension, 3rd Magic set in the Ravnica block)
The Azorius Senate hates action. Action, they believe, leads to crime and disorder. By developing Ravnica's legal system to be so complex and incomprehensible to anyone but themselves, they hope to create a system where everything, anywhere, is illegal. From the legal to military to magical, Azorius members use tactics of delay, distraction, and prevention.
Also known as: The High Judges
Guild Leader: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. Augustin has presided over the Azorius for decades, dispensing judgement with cold efficiency. He is blind, like justice should be.
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.
Signet: Their signet is a labyrinth within a triangle.
[edit] The Cult of Rakdos
(Source: Dissension, 3rd Magic set in the Ravnica block)
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
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.
Colours: Red and Black
Featured Set: Dissension
Signet: The signet is a crumbling skull on fire.
[edit] The Simic Combine
(Source: Dissension, 3rd Magic set in the Ravnica block)
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. As improving nature requires understanding it first, the Simic are also researchers second only to the Izzet, and they are also responsible for most of Ravnica's medical advances.
Also known as: The Biomancers
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.
Colours: Green and Blue
Featured Set: Dissension
Signet: Their guild symbol is a tree that grows out and to one side, its branches twisting like a tidal wave.
[edit] Locations
[edit] References
- Ravnica: City of Guilds by Cory J. Herndon, ISBN 0786937920
- Guildpact by Cory J. Herndon, ISBN 0786939893
- Dissension by Cory J. Herndon, ISBN 0786940018
