Murasa

Murasa

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. A number of highland areas are, however, also present.

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. 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, a huge bay full of submerged harabaz trees whose seaward sides grow into large blades, which split the 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, 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. 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.
  • Visimal, the Hidden City, located within the Wall itself and home to the vampires.
• Thunder Gap, a passage into the continent following the route of the rushing Vazi River as it heads out to sea. Boats can navigate the dangerous rapids for a couple miles inland through the canyon, but travelers must then disembark and take the precarious trails and rope bridges further inland.
  • Thunder Gap cuts through a section of Murasa's Wall known as the Pillar Plains. There, the wall is cracked and 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.
• The Skyfang Mountains, high, steep-sided mountains covered in forests. The 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.
• 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 named for the eerie, almost musical sounds that come from underground chambers below the ruined buildings.
  • The Raimunza Falls, a raging torrent of water that cascades off the southern side of the Na Plateau. 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, 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 trees' 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 the trees' branches, often cascading off of a 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 know 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 a fortress. Risen from the sea again.

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

Quoted or referred to:

• Canopy Vista
• Jaddi Offshoot
• 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.