Murasa

Murasa
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Murasa.jpg}}|250px]]
Information
Plane	Zendikar
Formerly part of	Makindi Empire

Murasa a.k.a. The Walled Continent is one of the seven continents of Zendikar.

Description

Murasa is a vast, steep-walled plateau that rises sharply from the sea. It is smaller than the other continents of Zendikar. Behind its outer cliffs, the land drops in elevation and is dominated by hills and deep, jungle-filled valleys. Several highland areas are, however, also present. It is said to be impossible to sail past the continent of Murasa, as travelers attempting to pass the island are inexplicably drawn to its shores.

Murasa is home to a series of immense flora, including the massive, multi-trunked harabaz trees, whose entwined roots join to form one titanic organism. The trees grow blade-shaped prows that break waves from reaching the shore and also deter ships from landing in Sunder Bay. It also hosts jurworrel trees, whose thorns leak a thick green sap that can knock creatures unconscious. Jurworrels possess a mean intelligence, but they can move only by growing, which they do very slowly. Kazandu is known to house jaddi trees, towering trees that continuously grow and never die.

History

Murasa once was part of the ancient Makindi Empire. The Makindi reign ended when an enormous sea monster — perhaps an ancestor of Lorthos, the Tidemaker, or maybe Lorthos itself — dragged the Murasa Skyclave into the sea.

Notable locations

• The Murasa Wall, the towering cliffs surrounding the continent. Inland from these cliffs, the land drops off sharply.
• The Cliffs of Kazuul and the Kazuul Road, the only cliff-side ascent that allows access into Murasa. Built by elves and maintained mainly by humans, they are controlled by Kazuul, an ogre slavemaster who demands tribute from those seeking to use the log-and-rope elevators to enter the continent.
• Sunder Bay or Sunder Cove, a huge bay full of submerged harabaz trees whose seaward sides grow into large blades that split waves that would otherwise crash against the trees. This is the largest break in Murasa's coastal cliffs and an important route into the continent, despite the danger posed by the trees. Elves of the Tajuru tribes and assisting merfolk have set up a network of flags and beacons to mark the safest route.
  • The Tumbled Palace, the capital of the Tajuru elves, is based on the cliffs of Sunder Bay. It is located above a large jurworrel tree that has been trying to push it into the ocean for centuries.
• Glint Pass, a huge sea cave leading under the east side of Murasa's Wall. The caverns gained their name from the light given off by flame-quartz, clusters of crystals found throughout much of the underground passage. At its rear lies a cavern opening accessible when the tide is low, which can provide passage into interior Murasa if crossed before the tide rises again. Vampire guides often provide safe passage to the inland.
  • The Cipher in Flames, an ever-burning and complex glyph set in the heart of the rock of the pass. It is said those who can decipher the glyph can be teleported to anywhere on the plane, though none have yet succeeded.
  • Visimal, the Hidden City, an ancient structure of diamond-shaped passages on the far side of Murasa's Wall, where vampires have lived for as long as any can remember.
• The Pillar Plains, an area where Murasa's Wall is broken into thousands of massive pillars, the tops of which are grassy plains. The plains have historically been home to clans of kor herders, who have recently vanished. They are now home only to their feral oxen.
  • The Vazi River splits many times as it passes through the Pillar Plains, but these side channels typically rejoin with the river in crashing waterfalls. Its waters are difficult but navigable for a few miles inward from the ocean, but then most of its length consists of thundering rapids supplemented by roaring waterfalls.
  • Thunder Gap, a passage into the continent following the route of the Vazi River as it heads out to sea. Boats can navigate the dangerous rapids for a couple of miles inland through the canyon, but travelers must then disembark and take the precarious trails and rope bridges further inland. Once the safest route to Murasa's interior, after a mysterious kor massacre in 4537 AR the trail has been considered haunted and left unmaintained.
  • The Wall of Omens
• The Skyfang Mountains, high, steep-sided mountains covered in forests. They begin from the western side of the Wall and extend deep into the interior, cutting the western part of the continent in two. The mountains are home to dangerous animals and are marked by the Fangs, large shards of rock that float in midair when in the sunlight but crash to earth at night and when clouds cover the sun.
  • Shatterskull Pass, a wide trail passing through on a relatively shallow incline. While this is the safest part of the mountains to cross on foot, travel through the pass is made dangerous by the numerous Fangs hanging above it and by the presence of rocs.
  • Zektar Shrine, an elemental-infested shrine in the black-rock Shatterskull Mountains.
• The Na Plateau, east of Murasa's center, is a quarter mile high. Its cliffs are home to wurms that range into the surrounding plains to hunt, while the plateau proper is home to goblin tribes. It is known for its many-armed, gargantuan statues.
  • The Singing City, a cyclopean maze of strange structures and tumbled towers built by the ancient Kor. Named for the eerie, almost musical sounds that come from underground chambers below the ruined buildings. Song-mad goblins stumble throughout the city, absently crooning the city's song as they waste away.
  • Raimunza Falls, a raging torrent of water that cascades off the southern side of the Na Plateau.
  • Raimunza Hive, a human and elvish ore-mining operation surrounding the Falls. The cliffsides around the falls are honeycombed with passages drilled by miners, which are often overtaken by swarms of wasps seeking to use them as nesting spaces.
• The Living Spire, a huge mountain with Hedron-shaped caverns, which draw great draughts of air like a breathing thing. The Spire is covered with titanic vines.
  • The Grindstone Crucible, is a thundering mass of huge, rune-covered boulders and shards of rock compacted together and grinding rapidly. A font of wild mana.
• Kazandu, a collapsed region that stretches across most of Murasa, was created when an ancient cataclysm caused the earth to collapse into itself. It is a mass of irregular canyons, twisting valleys, and high broken steppes, all dotted here and there by plateaus that tower above the landscape — surviving pillars of the previous ground level. Most of the lower areas are dominated by the jaddi trees, which can grow nearly as tall as the plateaus. Jaddi trees dominate the environment of Kazandu: they grow constantly and are not known to have maximum lifespans, and have covered the region in a web of tree growth so thick that the ground is cloaked in constant shadow. The cliffs that encircle the Kazandu lowlands are the only things keeping the jaddi trees from covering the rest of Murasa. This area is home to the Kazandu Splinter, a group of elves who have separated themselves from the greater Tajaru nation and who build their villages in the tree's branches, and to entire species of animals that can live and die in the jaddi canopies without ever seeing the ground.
  • The Raimunza River flows from the base of the Na Plateau and into Kazandu, where it falls upon the branch of a jaddi tree that grew beneath it. The river flows across miles of the trees' branches, often cascading off of one branch before being caught on another. The river eventually falls into Blackbloom Lake in the center of Kazandu.
  • Root caves are large, cavernous gaps extending beneath the roots of the jaddi trees. Three such caves are known to exist:
    • The Doom Maw is the dominion of demons and bone-hoarding dragons.
    • The Silent Gap is plumbed by a group of vampires that seek some secret beneath the earth.
    • The third cave is not named and is home to migratory populations of three dangerous animal species, caustic crawlers, giant bats, and shadow scorpions, which inhabit it at different times.
• The Murasa Skyclave, a floating ruin of an ancient fortress. Risen from the sea again, and quickly covered in dense foliage.

Gallery

• 

  Pillar Plains concept art.

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  Jaddi tree concept art.

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  Murasa Skyclave section concept art by Sebastien Hue.

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  Murasa Skyclave section concept art by Sebastien Hue.

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  Murasa Skyclave interior concepts by Sebastien Hue.

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  Nahiri reaches the Murasa Skyclave.

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  Nahiri, Akiri, and Zareth San explore the Murasa Skyclave.

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  Nahiri and Zareth San explore the Murasa Skyclave.

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  Nahiri and Zareth San explore the Murasa Skyclave.

• 

  Nahiri enters the Lithoform chamber.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Murasa

Associated cards:

• Greenwarden of Murasa
• Might of Murasa
• Murasa Behemoth
• Murasa Brute
• Murasa Pyromancer
• Murasa Ranger
• Murasa Rootgrazer
• Murasa Sproutling
• Pulse of Murasa

Referred to:

• Canopy Vista
• Iridescent Hornbeetle
• Jaddi Offshoot
• Kazandu Nectarpot
• Kazuul's Cliffs
• Skyclave Squid
• Wood Elves (Duel Decks: Nissa vs. Ob Nixilis‎‎)

Sources

• Doug Beyer (September 02, 2009). "The Planes of Planechase". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Doug Beyer (January 27, 2010). "The Tyrant of the Cliffs". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Magic Creative Team (January 27, 2010). "A Planeswalker's Guide to Zendikar: Murasa and Sejiri". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.