Vannifar

Vannifar
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Prime-Speaker-Vannifar.jpg}}|250px]]
Details
Race	Elf Ooze Formerly Elf
Birthplace	Ravnica
Lifetime	Mending Era
Colors

Vannifar is the current guildmaster of the Simic Combine, and speaker of Zonot Three, on Ravnica.

Description

Vannifar considers herself a superior life-form: an elf whose extensive self-experimentation has mutated parts of her body into proto-plasmic ooze, which gives her a jellyfish look. She believes that she embodies the Simic's utopian ideals, and the work that transformed her could never have occurred through slow, incremental progress like the Utopians advocate. Only bold and decisive action could create such a being, who absorbs nutrients and oxygen through her membranous skin and rests parts of her brain at different times so she doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe.

History

Vannifar was born an elf. An adaptationist, she enhanced her body.

Prime Speaker

Simic Guildmaster

Vannifar was an outsider and iconoclast, considered a worthy counterbalance to the weight of Zegana's ideas, but not a respected voice within the guild. As speaker of Zonot Three, she was one of the founding thinkers of the adaptationist movement, believing that the Simic mission had taken on a more urgent dimension in an unstable political climate. This led her to more directed experimentation on sapient beings, to make a better Ravnica, she argued, first make a better Simic. The emergence of the Living Guildpact led many to believe that a new age of stability was dawning, and Vannifar's faction lost a great deal of influence. Vannifar herself retreated to Zonot Three to continue what she still saw as a pressing matter of guild survival. She stopped coming to the Simic guildhall and pushed the bounds of legal experimentation. About a year ago, Zegana had to summon Vannifar to Zonot Seven for a reprimand before the Speakers' Chamber. But the Living Guildpact proved to be an unreliable agent of peace on Ravnica, as often missing as being present, and tension mounted among the guilds. Vannifar slowly regained influence. Matters came to a head when Zegana again summoned her to the guildhall, this time to grudgingly ask for her help in quickly deploying new life-forms to defend Zonot Four against Golgari incursion. Vannifar went further than that. Before the Speakers' Chamber, she made Zegana's leadership the subject of open debate. A vote was called, and Vannifar was made the new Prime Speaker. Under Vannifar's leadership, the entirety of the Simic Combine has aligned with the adaptationists. Some Utopian experimentation continues, but the majority of the guild has been turned to more urgent work.

The Guardian Project

Replicate

Deep within Vannifar's home zonot of Zonot Three lies the laboratory of Navika, the hub of the Guardian Project. Lit by bioluminescent glow, the lab was built into, or possibly grown in the shape of, an enormous nautilus shell. Even within the guild, Navika has a mysterious and slightly sinister reputation as a place where Vannifar's elite biomancers push the boundaries of the law, biology, and ethics in the name of adaptation. Most Simic have never even seen Navika, and even fewer have been inside. The work of the Guardian Project, authorized by Prime Speaker Vannifar, is the creation of increasing numbers of sapient humanoid hybrids intended to form an army of highly evolved soldiers. Each of these hybrids is a different fusion of humanoid characteristics with a mix of traits from other species. The traits vary considerably, though all are meant to confer some advantage in battle: camouflage, gills, wings, claws, and carapaces are among the most common improvements. These hybrids, sometimes called guardians after the project that created them, are seen as essential to the guild's survival, though no one is sure what will become of them when and if the current crisis passes. The first successful result of the Guardian Project was Roalesk.

War of the Spark

Under Vannifar the Simic started to mutate their more intelligent members into super soldiers. During the War of the Spark, the Simic participated in the guild meeting after the Elderspell was cast, and Vorel was sent as a representative for Vannifar. Vorel told Ral Zarek that Vannifar was a fighter and had been preparing for war long before Bolas was known to be a threat. Ral then wondered the obvious question of who exactly was Vannifar preparing to war with before Bolas.

The Simic were loyal allies in the War, and afterward, Vannifar served as the representative for the guild at the resurrection of Niv-Mizzet as the new Living Guildpact.

Murders

During the Phyrexian invasion, many of the Simic willingly became Phyrexanized. Vannifar and Zegana settled their old grievances, and the guild leader allowed Zegana to research the Phyrexian oil in hopes that they would be able to find a cure to phyresis.

With the support of the other guilds, she managed to maintain her position after the invasion, though she was aware of how precariously her continued leadership depended on the favor of outsiders. To maintain favorable relationships with the rest of the Ravnican guilds, she found herself forced to hand off her usual duties to trusted underlings and spend her time socializing instead. Her detractors within the guild were quick to claim that she was neglecting her true duties to her guild, but so far no one has openly challenged her leadership.

A year and some months following the Invasion, she was present at Karlov Manor when Zegana was assassinated, and avoided questioning when the Azorius began investigating. She was invited to Vitu-Ghazi by Alquist Proft to learn the truth of the murders, where the detective revealed that Oba, the central dryad of Trostani, had organized them in retribution for those she considered traitors to the plane during the Invasion. When Oba attacked the guild leaders, Vannifar was captured, but was freed after Oba was defeated by Kaya and Etrata.

Trivia

• In the video game Magic: The Gathering Arena, Vannifar is voiced by Rebecca Riedy.
• According to Seanan McGuire, writer for Murders at Karlov Manor, while Vannifar is classified as an Elf Ooze, she has mutated herself to become the first known elf-jellyfish hybrid in the Multiverse.

Gallery

• 

  Vannifar in the Ravnica Allegiance manga.

• 

  Magic: The Gathering Arena avatar.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
War of the Spark: Ravnica—Operation Desperation	Greg Weisman	2019-06-05	War of the Spark	Ravnica	Rat, Teyo, Kaya, Ral, Vraska, Whipsaw, Exava, Rakdos, Tomik Vrona, Hekara, Varryvort, Nissa, Lavinia, Borborygmos, Gan Shokta, Ari Shokta, Emmara Tandris, Boruvo, Vannifar, Vorel, Aurelia, Lazav, Kefnet, Niv-Mizzet
Episode 1: Ghosts of our Past	Seanan McGuire	2023-12-05	Murders at Karlov Manor	Ravnica	Teysa Karlov, Kaya Cassir, Ezrim, Lavinia, Tolsimir Wolfblood, Aurelia, Judith, Tomik Vrona, Kellan, Vannifar, Zegana, Krenko, Yarus
Episode 2: Monsters We Became	Seanan McGuire	2024-01-08	Murders at Karlov Manor	Ravnica	Teysa Karlov, Kaya Cassir, Ezrim, Aurelia, Zegana, Vannifar, Kellan, Alquist Proft, Etrata, Lavinia
Episode 8: Gods of Chaos	Seanan McGuire	2024-01-16	Murders at Karlov Manor	Ravnica	Judith, Kaya Cassir, Ezrim, Yarus, Krenko, Massacre Girl, Vannifar, Aurelia, Alquist Proft, Etrata, Lavinia, Trostani, Tolsimir Wolfblood, Ral Zarek, Izoni
Episode 9: Beauty in Destruction	Seanan McGuire	2024-01-17	Murders at Karlov Manor	Ravnica	Ezrim, Kaya Cassir, Tolsimir Wolfblood, Alquist Proft, Trostani, Judith, Krenko, Izoni, Aurelia, Lavinia, Vannifar, Etrata, Ral Zarek, Massacre Girl, Yarus, Kellan

In-game references

Represented in:

• Prime Speaker Vannifar
• Vannifar, Evolved Enigma

Depicted in:

• Replicate

Quoted or referred to:

• Biogenic Upgrade
• Breeding Pool (Ravnica Allegiance)
• Essence Capture (Ravnica Allegiance)
• Simic Guildgate (Ravnica Allegiance, #257)
• Simic Guildgate (Ravnica Allegiance, #258)
• Simic Locket
• Skatewing Spy
• Steeple Creeper