Mercadia

Mercadia by Edward P. Beard, Jr.

Mercadia was a plane near Dominaria ruled from Mercadia City, sitting strategically atop an inverted mountain. The city's leadership was highly corrupted by various infuences, mainly by the scheming kyren goblins who controlled the magistrate under Volrath's employ. It is notable that goblins are highly respected and intelligant beings in Mercadia, much different from their Dominarian relatives.

The Weatherlight and its crew narrowly escaped Rath and crash landed in Mercadia, where the ship was stolen by Cho-Arrim. Mercadia was the setting for the Mercadian Masquez set, which revolved around the Weatherlight crew's long and unpredicable ordeal with the Mercadian peoples to repair their ship, as well as help the rebels overthrow the corrupt Mercadian government.

Locations on Mercadia

Mercadia City- Here is where Thran nobles were taken to escape the political turmoil of their home. They were left in the care of goblins, who had reliable survival skills. Many years later, the Thran refugees built the powerful city of Mercadia. Mercadia, essentially a trading empire, is filled with many markets, where anything can be found to be bought and sold.

The rules of physics are bent in the plane, and noone can ever travel straight from east to west across the inverted mountain; rather, they will go in circles around the same blocks and marketplaces, unless they turn opposite of the direction they wish to go. It is ruled by a venerated magistrate, who is in fact a puppet leader secretly controlled by the Kyren, descendants of the original goblins who have increased intelligance and size compared to standard goblins.

Lower Mercadia, a lesser dwelling of travelling traders, sits underneath the shelter of the upside down mountain's top. Large piles of trash thrown from the upper city land in a heap, forming a makeshift barrier surrounding the bottom of Mount Mercadia. Criminals are occassionally executed by being buried under piles of waste and refuse dropped from above. Vast planes surround Mercadia city. Magical duststorms in this area can transport travellers to a western location.

Rushwood- A large forest to the South East of Mercadia, the forest is itself a living entity. Beasts such as Wumpus and horned trolls live in the woods. The Cho-Arrim, a spiritual and mystical people live under the care and protection of the forest itself. The Mercadians are always on the look out for the Cho-Arrim, rebels against the magistrate's rule. There ran a great river through Rushwood, which would shift as the forest willed for the people of the Cho-Arrim. It was believed that this river was the path to the afterlife, followed by recently departed souls.

Cho-Arrim were soldiers taken up by Ramos during the Golgothian Sylex's activation.

Rishada- East of Mercadia City is the port of Rishada. This seaside city is a province of sorts to Mercadia, filled with markets of it's own, though not on the grand scale of the later. Rishada is inhabited by mariners and pirates. At one point, the Rishadans and the Saprazzans further out to sea were in a state of hostillity, though this was resolved in the revolution against the Mercadians.

The inhabitants of Rishada are the descendants of a ship saved by Ramos in the Sylex Blast.

Saprazzo- Saprazzo is a city located within a lake in the center of a volcanic caldera, far out to sea from Rishada. Half of the city is underneath the caldera lake, the other is above the land, where most air-breathers stay. The upper half is concentrated around the sides of the caldera shore. A marketplace lies at the top of the city near the wall of the Caldera. Poorer citizens live on in the upper areas, and richer people nearer to the water. Saprazzan governmental structures lay toward the bottom. There are waterfalls and decorations through out the city. Living in Saprazzo is generally luxurious and the merfolk are light-hearted.

Merfolk are the leaders and main inhabitants of Saprazzo. They are dear friends to the Cho-Arrim, and retain a similar version of the Ramos myth, as well as a strong sense of religion. The leader of Saprazzo is the Grand Visier, ruler over lesser viziers and judges, in an intricate system of leadership. Politics are a very serious matter in the city.

Deepwood- Here is the sacred forest where Ramos fell. His resting place is gaurded by undead ghouls of victims of the planeshift to Mercadia. In the center of Deepwood is a clearing, where the city of Ouramos sits. Telepathic dryads of Deepwood gaurd this place; the grave and crash-landing site of Ramos, the place where his bones are housed.

The Myth of Ramos

It is believed, in differing versions by all the peoples outside of Mercadia city, that Ramos was a dragon god from another world. He battled his evil brother, Orhop. The wake of the combat left chaos and calamity, and upon seeing this, Ramos attempted to save as many people as possible from the devastation. He gathered the merfolk in the sea, the crew of a ship, and the tribesmen from the plains. Upon taking the peoples under his wing, he brought them to a new world: Mercadia. Once here, Ramos collided with something and fell from the sky. Set ablaze by the planar jump, Ramos fell into three pieces: Mind, Soul, and Body. The Cho-Arrim rode the Soul into Rushwood. The Saprazzans fell with the mind into the sea, and the Rishadans fell off with part of the body onto the shore. Ramos' Bones crashed into the Deepwood, where those unfortunate enough to not have fallen off earlier were left as zombies to gaurd Ramos' resting place.

This myth is not far off, Ramos was merely a dragon engine crafted by Urza to battle Mishra and save those caught in the battlefield. When the Golgothian Sylex was activated by Urza, Ramos hastilly gathered as many victims as he could, including a school of merfolk, soldiers from the battlefield on Argoth, and a pirate ship nearby. Then the great dragon was sent to Phyrexia by the immense blast of the Sylex, where he then went through a Phyrexian portal to Mercadia. Once there, he deposited the merfolk in the sea, losing his Power Matrix in what would become Saprazzo due to a 'broken heart' at seeing the many refugees set aflame by the blast of the Sylex. The Rishadans fell off in the shore, and the Cho-Arrim in the Rushwood. After crossing through know Mercadia, Ramos fell in Deepwood, where the fallen ghouls were animated by his last energies. He somehow created dryads from the trees to gaurd his bones, five power crystals, as well.

Map of Mercadia

A map of the plane of Mercadia taken from "Mercadian Masques" by Francis Lebaron.

©1999 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All Rights Reserved.