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Ravnican guild

Magic: The Gathering Ravnica: City of Guilds

The Guilds of Ravnica are ten sociopolitical factions that hold power on the city plane of Ravnica. Each guild has its own distinct ideology that unifies its members with one another, with the guild itself, with its functions and purposes, and with its structure.

The Guilds of Ravnica are ten sociopolitical factions that hold power on the city plane of Ravnica. Each guild has its own distinct ideology that unifies its members with one another, with the guild itself, with its functions and purposes, and with its structure. The strong identities produced by the creative and design team have made the guild names synonymous for player identity and two-color decks, even if the profile is not exactly true to all aspects.

In the game of Magic: The Gathering, guilds are represented by two-colored pairings of Magic's five colors and have, to date, been predominantly featured in the Ravnica, Return to Ravnica and Guilds of Ravnica blocks.

The ten guilds

The guilds are:


Each guild has a Parun, which is the founder of a guild and first guildmaster. Besides a guildmaster, each guild also features its own guildmages and a champion.

Some characters from Ravnica, such as the unguilded Krenko and Yeva of the Selesnya Conclave, are not featured in any of the cards from those blocks, but still bear the indelible influence of the guilds of Ravnica.

Set distribution

Due to the equal weight given to all ten guilds, this allows for the color pie to be expressed slightly differently. Ravnica block had an unusual 4/3/3 split, with the first set having only one blue and red guild, with the second and third having a color with two guilds to make up for it. The next two blocks were five-guild splits, and the ally and enemy mixing the normal structure of the pie. Return to Ravnica block had a pie where Red and Black were switched and "ally" was first, and Guilds of Ravnica block had one where Blue and White were switched and "enemy" was first. There are hence three more of these "switched pies" for use in the future.

History

Collectively, the guilds of Ravnica have ruled the plane for 10,000 years, since the signing of the ancient and magically potent Guildpact, a binding spell, document, and contract, that details the specific role and responsibilities of each of these guilds.

Prior to the events of the novel Dissension, guilds would try to find loopholes so as to increase their power without breaching it. Following Dissension, however, guilds are no longer bound by the document; and, although the guilds themselves did not completely collapse, their influence on the city and plane of Ravnica diminished, as demonstrated in the Return to Ravnica block storyline arc.

After the breaking of the Guildpact, Teysa Karlov of the Orzhov Syndicate drafted a new, non-magical document amongst the guilds in the interest of cooperation and stability for Ravnica; however, the powerful and wealthy became even more powerful and wealthy and, by and large, the guilds had disappeared.

Gradually, the general populace's distrust of the guilds diminished and, once again, the guilds returned and became ascendant. Old guild and factional loyalties rekindled, and new guildmasters assumed the mantle of a majority of the guilds; only the Izzet League, Orzhov Syndicate, and the Cult of the Rakdos retained their original guildmasters.

In the events of the Return to Ravnica block, planeswalker Jace Beleren collaborated with Niv-Mizzet of the Izzet League, while planeswalker Gideon Jura was in alliance with Aurelia, commanding Boros Legion soldiers. The Implicit Maze moved Jace into the central Living Guildpact role, with Lavinia acting as his manager.

By the events of Guilds of Ravnica block, Nicol Bolas's plan to funnel planeswalkers into Ravnica had almost reached fruition. Jace had been lost in Ixalan after his defeat on Amonkhet, allowing for non-native planeswalkers Kaya Cassir and Dovin Baan to usurp control over the Orzhov and Azorius respectively. Natives Vraska, Domri Rade and Ral Zarek also fell under his sway through various machinations. However, the War of the Spark united the guilds in a way not seen since the signing, letting Niv-Mizzet take on the Guildpact role. As Bolas desired sparks, most of the populace and the guild's power structures remained after the invasion.

New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse was a much more devastating attack. Guildmaster Vraska was compleated and led the compleated Golgari Swarm to the surface, using Realmbreaker's roots to expose the Undercity. The Azorius were the greatest focus of her ire, and the Izzet and Simic had high compleation rates from their curiosity. With no real cure for compleation, those infected were left catatonic after Elesh Norn's demise, suggesting a large portion of these four guilds taking the highest casualties.

Guilds of Ravnica

Graphical evolution

Sources

Notes

References

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