Before and for a short time after the signing of the Guildpact, the Gruul Clans were a wild and noble guild charged with maintaining the wild places on Ravnica. They were supposed to keep civilization in check. Civilization and the other nine guilds, however, overran every wild place on the plane. This changed the Gruul.[1]
As the wilds were torn down, so too were the Gruul's responsibilities taken from them. The Simic claimed jurisdiction over nature's future. The Selesnya preached about nature in order to bring it into its conclave. With their responsibilities taken over by others, they were seen as outside of the Guildpact and the Azorius began to write them out of the law. Outside the law, the Boros were not required to protect them and the Orzhov were free to enslave them.
The Gruul decentralized, lacking any sort of real leadership. Now the guild is nothing but a loose affiliation of clans. They have been exploited and ignored. They take any reason to cause chaos, any reason to destroy a symbol of civilization. Most Gruul hold contempt for those outside the Clans, referring to them as "cobble roaches".
It is common for Gruul clans to raid an area, destroy it, and live there until the resources gleaned from the destructive raid are used up. Once that happens, they move on to a new area, leaving smoldering ruins in their wake. They observe few consistent traditions but love to celebrate Rauck-Chauv, an irregular festival characterized by several days of rioting, feasting, looting, and destruction.
For a long time, Borborygmos was the largest and angriest of many large and angry clan leaders. He wasn't the official guildleader of the Gruul as there is little official about the guild, but when he gave orders, the Gruul listened. As his orders were in line with the rage of the abused guild, they were happy to do so. With Bolas urging, the planeswalkerDomri Rade challenged and defeated the ageing Borborygmos by setting waves of beasts on the cyclops. Borborygmos wasn't killed but lost the Gruuls' respect. He is now living as a Trog in the Rubblebelt.[2] There is also Ulasht, the Hate Seed. Though it isn't a part of any clan, it is revered by many Gruul as a natural embodiment of pure destruction and mindless rage.
Rite of passage
The rites of becoming Gruul, whether you have come from outside the guild or are marking your entrance into adulthood, center around being buried alive.[3] When you enter the shallow grave, the person you were before is dead. Your past wrongs and errors are forgotten, but so are your past accomplishments. No matter how well you proved yourself in battle before, when you rise from the earth you are untested. The clan leaders recognize you only when you earn glory in battle as a Gruul.
Clans
There are seven Clans that currently make up the Gruul. New clans occasionally form under ambitious Gruul warlords, and meanwhile other clans are occasionally challenged, defeated, and wiped out.
The Burning Tree Clan is the most influential in the guild, and is also the clan of Borborygmos. It is the fiercest clan, as well as the largest and most diverse. They make sure that everyone in the Clans remembers who has held them down and destroyed their guild and then lets that rage loose on civilization. They are often tattooed with the Burning Tree symbol. The Ravnican population considers this as the crest for the entire Gruul guild.[3]
Scab Clan Mauler by Liam SharpThe Scab Clan is the most violent of the Gruul Clans. This is because every member of it has been tortured, mutilated, or crippled by the organizations of civilization. They display their scars and body modifications as expressions of their terrible rage. The members of this clan make up for physical deficiency by cooperating with each other.[4] Their leader is a corpulent Giant, known as Narbulg Nine Fingers.
Of all the clans, the Ghor Clan execute the most frequent and savage assaults on Ravnican citizenry. The clan typically creates encampments close to heavily populated Ravnican districts. Their leader is Ruric Thar.
The Bolrac Clan (named after an ancient Ravnican word for heavy hammers) is mainly composed of Ogres, Cyclopes, Trolls and Giants, who share a love for bringing down massive structures using mauls and battering rams. Their leadership changes frequently, sometimes even daily.
The Slizt Clan, in contrast, are more skulkerous and trust stealth attacks and using high ground to their advantage. They mainly consist of Viashino and humans. The other clans call them cowards, but are cautious to avoid Slizt territory.
The Zhur-Taa Clan (also called the skull bleachers) is the most religious of the Clans, claiming to practice pre-guild rites known as the "Old Ways". They worship the Utmungr, "gods of the deep earth," and await the awakening of Ilharg, the Raze Boar, an ancient boar god who will mount a fiery rampage and raze the over-civilized world once and for all. Their leader is a centaur, known as Nikiya of the Old Ways. Zhur-Taa druids are adept at summoning and training beasts as war-companions and mounts.
The Gravel Hide Clan, a relatively new group, believes that resilience is the truest measure of strength. They have a reputation for shrugging off devastating attacks. Their is a hot-tempered goblinSkorik Boulder Tooth.[3]
Besides the clans there are the solitary wandering Trogs, fierce independent warriors who traverse the rubbelbelts as apex predators.[3]
The End-Raze
The druids of the Old Ways believe that civilization will never be eradicated by scattered raids and petty skirmishes.[5] They cling to the idea of a coming apocalypse, the End-Raze, when llharg's hooves will trample every brick and stone of Ravnica's soaring skylines to rubble. The world will return to a state of nature in which the lawless code of muscle and savagery will reign once again. With the growing unrest between the guilds of Ravnica, and the ascension of Domri Rade as guildleader, it is thought that the time of the End-Raze has come.
The Gruul's special ability in Guildpact was Bloodthirst:[7][8] when a creature with bloodthirst comes into play, if an opponent was dealt damage that turn, the creature comes into play with a fixed number of +1/+1 counters (exception: Petrified Wood-kin has Bloodthirst X, meaning that it comes into play with counters equal to the total damage dealt to all opponents that turn).
