Editing Ravnica

{{Topquote|A perpetual haze of dreary rain hangs over the spires of Ravnica. Bundled against the weather, the cosmopolitan citizens in all their fantastic diversity go about their daily business in bustling markets and shadowy back alleys. Through it all, ten guilds--crime syndicates, scientific institutions, church hierarchies, military forces, judicial courts, buzzing swarms, and rampaging gangs--vie for power, wealth, and influence. These guilds are the foundation of power on Ravnica. They have existed for millennia, and each one has its own identity and civic function, its own diverse collection of races and creatures, and its own distinct subculture. Their history is a web of wars, intrigue, and political machinations as they have vied for control of the plane.|WotC's description of Ravnica in its D&D 5e splatbook.}}

'''Ravnica''' is a [[plane]] in the universe of [[Magic: The Gathering]].  It's essentially a giant city (in fact, its tagline is "City of Guilds"), continuously expanding outward and upward. When someone says a deck is a [part of guild name] deck, that might only mean the deck's colors is the same colors as that guild, e.g. any black-green deck can be called a golgari deck. It is by far the most popular plane in the Magic, regarded by the design team as a shining example of everything a plane should be.
== Colors ==
First, we need to explain the color mechanic, which is a bit like Magic's version of the D&D alignment system, except it operates nothing like that.

* '''White''' represents goodness, altruism, and other [[This Guy]] stuff. However if unchecked White can quickly become Authoritarian and inflexible. 

* '''Green''' represents nature, harmony, and druidic treehugger stuff. Keep in mind that Nature also consists of a whole lot of deadly creatures that find you tasty, and cares more about tradition than progress. 

* '''Blue''' represents scholarly knowledge-seeking and other nerdy things. Users of Blue Mana tend to indulge in [[Just As Planned]] type behavior. This makes it one of the most frustrating decks to play against.

* '''Red''' represents chaos, disorder, and LOLrandom. Also freedom, emotion, and passion. 

* '''Black''' represents evil, dickery, and other [[That Guy]] stuff. It also represents throwing off society's expectations, self determination, and using every resource you have at your disposal. 

One's "alignment" is formed from combining two different colors, there being a corresponding guild for each possible combination. speaking of which...

== Guilds ==
Ravnica is run by ten guilds, each of which embodies two of Magic's colors:

; The [[Azorius Senate]]: White and Blue. Boros may be THE LAW, but the Azorius Senate is the legislature and court system. They are known for being extraordinarily stuffy, unproductive, and bureaucratic, having so many laws that it's virtually impossible not to break one. Members include sphinxes, archons (armored entities riding flying felids), Vedalkens (blue humanoids a bit obssessed with perfection) and humans.
; The [[Boros Legion]]: Red and White. THEY ARE [[Judge Dredd|THE LAW]]! Law itself is more of Azorius domain however, the Boros are more concerned with what they believe to be justice. They are the military of Ravnica, and are unparalleled in tactics, if lacking in vision. Essentially self-righteous knight templars that will punch you first and then tell you your rights if you commit any crime. Members include angels, humans, giants and to a lesser extent goblins, viashinos (a race of lizardfolks) and minotaurs.
; [[House Dimir]]: Blue and Black.  The guild of spies and assassins, although officially they work as the reporters and messengers of the city, which helps them spy even more (one of their stated functions is to undermine the [[Guildpact]] to tease out errors, which some militant organizations might define as instigators/insurgents), so secretive that its very existence was considered a myth until a big storyline reveal. Since the fall of the [[Guildpact]], and during the rise of its replacement, they have schemed against the greater good and nearly destroyed much of Ravnica in Dragon Maze. All this subterfuge applied to the goal of being the last guild standing unopposed. Members include vampires (the Big, mind eater kind), humans, shapeshifters, specters and fairies. 
; The [[Izzet League]]: Blue and Red.  Mad scientists, [[wizard]]s, artificers and inventors, ruled by the [[dragon]] [[Niv-Mizzet]]. They're a little fuzzy on the idea of "safety", while also being tasked with maintaining and improving the city's infrastructure. When asked how much power is required, Izzet mages always answer "More". This leads to [[Dwarf Fortress]] style FUN. Members include goblins, humans, fairies, minotaurs, cyclops and viashinos.
; The [[Golgari Swarm]]: Black and Green.  Bugs, critters, moss, and undead. Functions as the waste management/food production guild by growing edible stuff using the city's trash. Was given one of the most broken keyword mechanics in any cardgame, then a dud one. They are mostly sewer-dwelling, and frequently pessimistic. Members include Devkarin elves (the somewhat dark type), gorgons, Krauls (a race of intelligent insects), trolls and humans plus a smattering of rarely portrayed "teratogens", which is a catch all term for beast-people and anyone who is not an elf in the guild. 
; The [[Gruul Clans]]: Red and Green. Formerly in charge of keeping Ravnica connected to nature, the Gruul are not so much a unified faction as a bunch of clans of [[Chaotic Neutral]] anarchists. They were formally barbaric park rangers. Really. After getting their duties usurped by the other guilds and essentially exiled to the fringes of the city, the Gruul are now mostly in favor of tearing down structures and the city in general, returning to the wild nature that they revere. Some of them believe in the return of a [https://scryfall.com/card/war/133/ilharg-the-raze-boar giant stompy boar god] that will mark the end of all civilisation. Members of the Gruul includes pretty much whoever doesn't feel at home in a more civilised group, which means pretty much any race can end up with them: humans, centaurs, ogres, cyclops, viashinos, trolls, goblins and all the wild beasts you could expect them to befriend until they feel hungry.
; The [[Orzhov Syndicate]]: White and Black. They act like a church, but they're really all about the money and function as a debt-collecting, guilt-inducing mafia. Their power is both in holiness, and shadow, and extends beyond death. Beware a contract with them. In short, think Supernatural version of the Mafia, who revel in making offers you can't refuse. Members include spirits, humans, vampires (the boring blood drinking kind), angels (the kind that look like if death decided to try sexy) and a bunch of homonculus made from the flesh of the people whose spirits they "collected" called Thrulls. 
; The [[Cult of Rakdos]]: Black and Red. They're a [[Chaotic Evil]] [[Slaanesh| pleasure cult]]/carnival/assassins guild that other guilds keep around for cleaning up loose ends, and because they would be just that painful to remove, not that some aren't trying. They also used to handle menial workers, but this has been dropped in newer sets. The Rakdos value showmanship, acknowledge that life is short, and specialize in shortening it more for a bloody show, all with the purpose of keeping their demonic patron Rakdos entertained. Depending on who you ask the spectacles either draw him closer to awakening or keep him busy and out of world ending mood. Members include humans (with a high pain tolerance), goblins, ogres and a bunch of devils and demons that wouldn't look too out of place in a more grimdark setting.
; The [[Selesnya Conclave]]: Green and White. A nature cult that allegedly brainwashes people who join it. Note: not a cult like that of Rakdos, more in the hippie sense. Selesnyans value unity in all things, though not much diversity. They, not the church Orzhova, are the most spiritual on Ravnica. It should be noted that even taking into account the alleged brainwashing, they are the only guild which is not staffed by crazy people, criminals, sadists, madmen, and [[Lawful Stupid|lawfags]]. They are also the only guild who has the phone number of the Worldsoul of Ravnica and get to use this fact to throw their weight around. Members include dryads, elves, loxodons, centaurs and of course humans.
; The [[Simic Combine]]: Green and Blue. Genetic engineers who now dabble in holistic methods. Like Selesnya and (formerly) the Gruul, the Combine maintains what remains of nature on Ravnica, but instead of letting nature take its course, they adapt it to fit with industry and civilization (generally that means creating a bunch of mutant hybrid animals named Krasis, or grafting their members with appendages such as pincers, tentacles or shells). Members include elves, humans, merfolks, vedalkens.

== Guildmasters ==
Each guild of Ravnica has a leader, some of whom are the original founders, or Paruns, of the guild.

; The [[Azorius Senate]]: Founded by Azor, about whom little is known to the fan community, but has been confirmed to not be from Ravnica originally. Formerly led by the sphinx Isperia, who then got turned to stone by Vraska. Dovin Baan took control of the Azorius following Isperia's death, but was killed in the after-effects of the War of the Spark, and Lavinia is now their guildmaster.
; The [[Orzhov Syndicate]]: The Orzhov were led by a council of ghosts known as the Obzedat. Who this comprises is mostly unknown, and current members may include some of the original signers of the guildpact. The Obdezat were killed by [[Kaya]], and Tomik is their current Guildmaster.
; [[House Dimir]]: Founded by Szadek, a vampire. Currently led by Lazav, a shapeshifter.
; The [[Izzet League]]: Founded and for the longest time, continuously led by the great dragon [[Niv-Mizzet]], for whom it is named. In recent developments, Niv had disappeared, having actually been killed by [[Nicol Bolas]] and was later ressurected and ascended to the new Living Guildpact. following the War of the Spark [[Ral Zarek]] has been given the job of Guildmaster.
; The [[Cult of Rakdos]]: Founded and continuously led by the cruel and chaotic demon Rakdos, who gave it its title.
; The [[Golgari Swarm]]: Founded by Svogthir, a human Lich, and currently led by Jarad, an elf lich. This guild has an abnormally high turnover rate for its leadership positions, for which being technically dead does not disqualify you. Notably, Jarad became a Lich because [[Awesome|when he died in the first Ravnica's story, his spirit quickly returned to the scene and possessed his own corpse.]] Jarad can't seem to catch a break, and got petrified by [[Vraska]] who has taken over as leader. 
; The [[Gruul Clans]]: Founded, per se, by the cyclops Cisarzim. Currently unofficially led by the cyclops Borborygmos, although his "reign" was split by a short time in which [[Domri Rade]] was in charge.
; The [[Boros Legion]]: Founded by the angel Razia, Currently let to war by the more direct angel Aurelia.
; The [[Selesnya Conclave]]: Founded by Mat'Selesnya, currently led by Trostani, each multiple dryads made one.
; The [[Simic Combine]]: Founded by an unknown person with the name "Simic", was led by the merfolk Zegana, but the current Prime Speaker is the elf Vannifar.

{{Template:Ravnica Guilds}}

== Native Races ==
As a [[dungeonpunk]] fantasy Ecumenopolis (that's the fancy word for "city planet," like Coruscant from Star Wars), Ravnica is home to a vast array of races, who have been forced to learn to get along as the city streets swallowed up the wild places and the dungeons. There's never been a proper "official list" given out by WotC, but looking at the cards and the setting fiction presents the following native races:

[[Human]]s: Because every setting has to have humans, right?

[[Elves]]: Divided into three different tribes, each associated with a specific guild. The Silhana are the traditional "wood elves"; nature worshippers who embrace Green Mana, who have become synonymous with the [[Selesnya Conclave]]. The Devkarin are Ravnica's [[Drow|"dark elves"]], being a reclusive tribe of elven [[necromancer]]s who embrace Black Mana, and thus have intertwined themselves with the [[Golgari Swarm]]. The final tribe has lost its original name, but its embrace of Blue Mana makes them Ravnica's "high elves" and has seen them fall in with the [[Simic Combine]].

[[Vedalken]]: Hyper-logical, intelligent, magically adept humanoids, the towering Vedalken are the iconic Blue Mana humanoids of Ravnica, and are found in the [[Azorius Senate]] and [[Simic Combine]] predominantly, although some mavericks gravitate towards the [[Izzet League]] instead.

[[Centaur]]s are mostly associated with the [[Gruul Clans]] and the [[Selesnya Conclave]].

[[Minotaur]]s are predominantly found amongst the [[Gruul Clans]], but they are also known to join the [[Cult of Rakdos]] and the [[Boros Legion]].

[[Goblin]]s have adapted well to Ravnica, mostly by staying in the shadows or falling in with those organizations that value their Red Mana natures (to whit: impulsive, mischievous, emotional, and fond of breaking things, blowing things up, and setting things on fire). They are found amongst all four of the Red Mana guilds; the [[Gruul Clans]], the [[Cult of Rakdos]], the [[Izzet League]], and even the [[Boros Legion]].

[[Loxodon]]s are towering, gentle-natured [[beastfolk|humanoid elephants]], whose strong sense of community leads them to the ranks of three of the White Mana guilds; the [[Selesnya Conclave]], the [[Azorius Senate]] and the [[Orzhov Syndicate]]. 

[[Viashino]] are raptor-like [[lizardfolk]] characterized by their whip-like tails, which are tipped in razor-sharp bone blades they use as formidable natural weapons. Red Mana aligned, they naturally gravitate towards a violent lifestyle, courtesy of strong predatory instincts; they gravitate towards the [[Gruul Clans]], but are found in all of the Red Mana guilds.

[[Angel]]s are embodiments of White Mana associated with the [[Azorius Senate]], the [[Boros Legion]], and the [[Orzhov Syndicate]].

[[Demon]]s are embodiments of Black Mana exclusively associated with the [[Cult of Rakdos]], though the occasional (possibly illusory) weirdo has been spied skulking around [[House Dimir]].

[[Giant]]s are predominantly found amongst the [[Gruul Clan]]s. [[Ettin|Two-headed giants]] are known to inhabit Ravnica, as do [[Cyclops]]es - in fact, Cyclopses have been known to work for the [[Izzet League]], equipped with giant-sized [[Power Armor]] to make them more useful to the guild. [[Troll]]s, by comparison, are exclusively found amongst the [[Golgari Swarm]]. [[Ogre]]s have been known to join the [[Cult of Rakdos]].

[[Medusa]]s, called [[Gorgon]]s here, are inhabitants of the Undercity and aligned with the [[Golgari Swarm]].

[[Elemental]]s consist of two distinct varieties. The [[Selesnya Conclave]] houses "pure" elementals of earth, wood and water, whilst the [[Izzet League]] creates artificial elementals called "Weirds" by hybridizing different kinds of elemental energy.

[[Sphinx]]es are associated with the [[Azorius Senate]].

[[Undead]] of the sapient kind are associated with different Black Mana guilds; [[ghost]]s with the [[Orzhov Syndicate]], [[vampire]]s with [[House Dimir]], and [[revenant]]s and/or [[lich]]es with the [[Golgari Swarm]].

[[Merfolk]] were revealed to have existed in the covered-over seas of Ravnica in 2013, and were responsible for shaking up the [[Simic Combine]] to try and bring it back from its modern "evolution-worshipping mad biologist" characterization to its historical "holistic bio-transhumanist" characterization. Cynics have suggested that they were an attempt to compensate for the distinctly lackluster reception to [[Vedalken]], who have never really managed to be too popular as the "Blue Mana Race".

[[Fey]] are predominantly associated with the [[Selesnya Conclave]], which is particularly home to [[Dryad]]s, but a number of [[fairy]]-type fey are known to belong to the [[Izzet League]].

[[Kraul]]s are a race of giant, sapient, vaguely humanoid beetles who are aligned to the [[Golgari Swarm]].

[[Doppelganger]]s are reputedly part of [[House Dimir]].

In addition to all of the above, the [[Simic Combine]] is known to create its own unique races by splicing together [[Broken One|humanoids with animals or other humanoids]], or mixing animals together and evolving them to develop human-level intelligence. Given that apprenticeship in the Combine consists of "let your superiors experiment on you and hope you come out of it with a useful graft or mutation instead of dying horribly", many Simic researchers look like [[beastfolk]] or [[mutant]]s.

[[Djinn]] pop up from time to time, occasionally affiliated with the [[Izzet League]], but just as often as free agents.

== Tabletop ==
Ravnica was first featured in the card game with the ''Ravnica'' block in 2005 and 2006,  which was in turn composed of the "City of Guilds", "Guildpact", and "Dissension" sets. The block was accompanied by the "Ravnica Cycle" trilogy of books, one for each set. It has since become one of WotC's favorite settings, and has been revisited more times than any setting other than [[Dominaria]] - indeed, it seems to have usurped Dominaria's former place as the "core setting" for Magic: The Gathering. October 2012 saw the "Return to Ravnica" block's release, which spanned into "Gatecrash" (February 2013) and "Dragon's Maze" (in 2013).

Ravnica has also become officialy associated with [[Dungeons & Dragons]] as well. After WotC broke the unwritten rule of "no D&D/MtG crossovers" for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]], they were delighted by the relatively warm reception to their [[Plane Shift]] articles. This culminated in the release in late November 2018 of the official [[splatbook]] "Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica", which adapts the city-plane as an adventuring setting for D&D 5e.

This decision was... controversial, in no small part because of outrage from [[Planescape]] fans (who had been expecting an official 5e release after two editions of being shunned) and, to a lesser extent, from [[Eberron]] fans (who were angry that, by comparison, their setting just got a glorified [[Unearthed Arcana]] that they had to pay for).

After many leaks, debates and teasers, the GGR debuted with the following content:
* A detailed look at the world of Ravnica, in particular fleshing out the 10th District, a region on the city-world that had never been detailed before.
* New backgrounds for each of the 10 Guilds, all of which converted the "Guildmage" lore by adding bonus spells to the spell-list of any caster with that background.
* Integration of the Renown mechanic, to support working for your Guild.
* Guidelines on how to actually run campaigns when your players all want to belong to different Guilds.
* Two new subclasses; the [[Cleric Domain]] of Order, and the Circle of Spores [[Druid]].
* Five new races; [[Centaur]], [[Goblin]], [[Minotaur]], [[Simic Combine]] Hybrid and [[Vedalken]]
* Two new spells; Chaos Bolt and Encode Thoughts.
* 17 new magic items based on Ravnica lore.
* Nearly 80 new monsters.

There were, of course, complaints. For example, the racial array was considered distinctly lackluster, considering all of the possibilities that it offered - previous [[Plane Shift]]s had given rules for [[merfolk]] and [[vampire]] PCs, which would have fitted in just fine, many fans were hoping for a [[medusa]] race, and [[viashino]] had been part of a race playtesting [[Unearthed Arcana]] only to be dropped from the actual book. Another complaint is the lack of referencing any material that wasn't in the PHB or Xanathar's Guide to Everything, when, for example, the Undying [[Warlock]] would have been a perfect fit for the [[Golgari Swarm]]. 

But, for what it's worth, it is a solid book, and certainly better than the [[Forgotten Realms|Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide]], WotC's only other dedicated setting book for 5e <s>to this date</s> until Eberron: Rising from the Last War, and Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

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