Geralf Cecani

Geralf Cecani
Details
Race	Human
Birthplace	Thraben, Innistrad
Lifetime	Mending Era

Geralf III Cecani (Gehr-alf Seh-sahn-nee) is a blue-aligned necromancer from Innistrad. He has a rivalry with his twin sister Gisa Cecani.

Description

Young Geralf is an expert "stitcher" or "skaaberen". He considers his skaabs — shambling corpses stitched together from disparate body parts - works of art. The crazed Geralf has no social bounds when showcasing his latest creations to the world. He is known to have grand ambitions while his sister is far less formal and driven by her whims.

History

The Cecani twins were scions of a noble family and distant relatives of the former Lunarch Mikaeus. They were banished from Thraben in a hushed scandal and then moved to the Moorland, where they waged war against one another by raising armies of undead. Their battles prompted many of the Moorland's inhabitants to move to the Nearheath, leaving the area even more desolate than before. Now, marauding ghouls range freely through the moors, lost playthings in the mad, epic battles of Gisa and Geralf.

Geralf took over Trostad, most likely massacring the inhabitants who didn't flee. In response, Gisa has attacked Trostad simply to best her brother.

NecroWarfare

Later on, the two would plan on waging a war against one another. Geralf had tried to set formal rules, named The Five Laws of NecroWarfare:

1. No spontaneous awakenings.
2. No luring, killing, or raising of bystanders or livestock.
3. Combatants face off at a predetermined place and time.
4. Combatants must have at least three limbs to play.
5. Headquarters are off-limits.

After Gisa retrieved the magical sword the Bloodletter, Geralf added the rule:

6. No magical swords.

Gisa however would have none of this and considered all was free game, frequently defying Geralf's rules if only to infuriate her brother. The engagement was called off when Geralf decided to invade Thraben and invited Gisa along. Geralf snuck into the city before the attack to kill Mikaeus. Later he met up with Liliana, who shortly thereafter brought Mikaeus back as a zombie. Gisa was left with tending to the siege, having gained control of Geralf's Skaabs along with her conventional undead. The army broke the outer wall of the city before being pushed back by the fire, causing Gisa to abandon the siege. Odric, a champion of the church, captured Gisa and held her imprisoned in Rider's Lock.

Geralf is the creator and master of the zombie Grimgrin, named such in honor of his sister's face.

Aftermath of the Necro war

Geralf sent a horde of skaabs to set his sister free, although she stated afterward that she didn't need his help. She wanted to reinstate the war, but Geralf was occupied with creating what he called his masterpiece, under the wing of the alchemist Ludevic. Gisa retreated to the manor of their parents, ruined by a fight between the siblings in their youth. She later revived her parents as zombies, but sent her father back into the ground. She found a new friend in the lithomancer Nahiri and provided the ghouls to build the Drownyard temple.

Shadows over Innistrad

When Liliana Vess was going to raise an army of zombies to fight the hordes of Eldrazi that had invaded the plane, Gisa and Geralf briefly managed to put their differences aside to join her and team up against the Eldrazi.

Midnight Hunt

Two years after fighting the Eldrazi alongside his sister, Geralf still lived with Ludevic. He hadn't seen his sister in this period until he received a letter from her brought by a zombie programmed by Gisa to cry without stopping. Geralf wrote to his sister that he wanted nothing to do with her and told her she deserved her boring life in Thraben. After Wilhelt's forces besieged the city and Gisa repelled his attack, the ghoulcaller declared her intention to move in with him, to Geralf's horror.

Crimson Vow

Although Ludevic has recently been acting erratically, Geralf has paid him no mind. He is fully dedicated to improving his craft (with the occasional detour to torment his sibling).

March of the Machine

By the time of New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse, Geralf lived in Havengul. Gisa briefly joined his laboratory after leaving Thraben, but he soon found the conditions too tight and forced her out. He was paid a visit by Ludevic and Sorin Markov, and they warned him about the impending Phyrexian threat. Shortly afterward, he received a letter from his sister complaining about oily skaabs that couldn't be raised from the dead and knew that she had encountered Phyrexians. The siblings collaborated to rout the invaders but went back to feuding as soon as they were gone.

Thunder Junction heist

In the wake of the Phyrexian invasion, Omenpaths opened across the Multiverse, prompting a wave of scholarly inquiry into the nature of planar travel. Geralf authored a paper putting forth the hypothesis, born from his observation of the Phyrexians' reaction to Innistradi necromancy, that each plane has its magical laws, and that the influence of these laws causes the magic of non-planeswalkers to weaken as they spend more time on foreign planes and are forced to gradually adjust. To test this theory, Geralf and his sister traveled through Omenpaths to Thunder Junction and joined Oko's crew, in which Geralf served as the team's medic.

After Oko successfully stole one of the keys to Maag Taranau, Geralf worked close to Gisa on a mission to extract the Outcaster Nolan from a heavily guarded train. When signaled, Gisa’s job was to raise a swarm of zombies after the train stopped, but the telepathic link provided by Ashiok to Oko’s crew led to confusion as Geralf and Gisa bickered. Provoked by Geralf and distracted, Gisa raised the zombies too early while the train was moving. Their plans were accelerated, and Satoru Umezawa was injured as zombies swept through the train. Despite the ensuing chaos, Oko's team successfully extracted Nolan and escaped.

From the knowledge Ashiok gleaned from Nolan's mind, the gang learned that there was a map to Maag Taranau hidden somewhere in the necropolis of Thief's Folly, which Gisa and Geralf volunteered to find. However, while investigating unusual graves, Gisa accidentally triggered a trap and unleashed a zombie abomination that chased after the siblings. With the help of Stella Lee, an Atiin nomad caught in the zombie's rampage, they managed to disable the necromancy animating it and secure the map, heading back to the gang's hideout. With the map, they were able to find the location of the vault, which was in the city of Tarnation. The gang traveled there to take the other pieces of the key.

Planes visited

• Innistrad
• Thunder Junction

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Games	Alison Luhrs	2016-04-27	Shadows over Innistrad	Innistrad	Geralf Cecani, Grete, Gisa Cecani, Ludevic of Ulm, Odric
The Dance of Undeath	Seanan McGuire	2021-09-24	Innistrad: Midnight Hunt	Innistrad	Gisa Cecani, Geralf Cecani, Wilhelt
Innistrad: Family Game Night	Seanan McGuire	2023-03-22	March of the Machine	Innistrad	Gisa Cecani, Geralf Cecani, Jeleva, Sorin Markov, Ludevic
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 2: The Jailbreak	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-13	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Annie Flash, Tinybones, Breeches, Malcolm Lee, Oko, Geralf Cecani, Gisa Cecani, Eriette, Vraska, Ashiok, Rakdos, Kaervek, Satoru Umezawa, Ral Zarek, Kellan
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 3: A Train to Prosperity	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-18	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Akul, Oko, Kaervek, Annie Flash, Vraska, Gisa Cecani, Geralf Cecani, Eriette, Malcolm Lee, Breeches, Satoru Umezawa, Tinybones, Kellan, Ashiok, Nolan
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 4: Finding Tarnation	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-18	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Oko, Kellan, Rakdos, Kaervek, Nolan, Breeches, Malcolm Lee, Tinybones, Vraska, Eriette, Ashiok, Annie Flash, Satoru Umezawa, Gisa Cecani, Geralf Cecani, Twist Fandango, Akul
A Pleasant Family Outing	Seanan McGuire	2024-03-21	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Geralf Cecani, Gisa Cecani, Stella Lee
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Episode 6: The Ballad of Thieves and Thunderslingers	Akemi Dawn Bowman	2024-03-25	Outlaws of Thunder Junction	Thunder Junction	Oko, Breeches, Annie Flash, Tinybones, Rakdos, Satoru Umezawa, Geralf Cecani, Gisa Cecani, Kaervek, Akul, Vraska, Malcolm Lee, Eriette, Kellan, Ral Zarek, Jace Beleren, Amalia Benavides Aguirre

In-game references

Represented in:

• Geralf, Visionary Stitcher
• Gisa and Geralf
• Halana and Alena and Gisa and Geralf
• Stitcher Geralf

Associated cards:

• Geralf's Masterpiece
• Geralf's Messenger
• Geralf's Mindcrusher

Depicted in:

• Inspired Idea
• Last-Minute Chopping

Quoted or referred to:

• Advanced Stitchwing
• Conjurer's Closet (Commander Party)
• Farbog Boneflinger
• Forgotten Creation
• Furtive Homunculus
• Ghoulcaller Gisa (Commander 2014)
• Ghoulcaller Gisa (Commander Collection: Black)
• Lupine Prototype
• Morkrut Behemoth
• Necroduality
• Prized Amalgam
• Ransack the Lab
• Reassembling Skeleton (Jumpstart 2022)
• Rooftop Storm
• Seagraf Skaab
• Search the Premises
• Stitched Drake
• Stitchwing Skaab
• Thought Scour (Dark Ascension)