Vraska

Template:Character Vraska is a black and green-aligned gorgon planeswalker assassin from Ravnica. She is part of an mercenary organisation known as "the assassins of the Ochran."

History

Persecuted

Vraska's life had been fairly simple in the Undercity, as part of the Golgari Swarm. However, on a world such as Ravnica, even a simple life can be destroyed by politics.

The Azorius Senate issued a writ of mass arrest for any and all members caught bearing allegiance to the Golgari. Vraska was amongst those apprehended, and they were taken to an Azorius detention compound, the place where all victims of the writ had been imprisoned. Unfortunately, the cells quickly filled beyond capacity and, vastly outnumbered by their prisoners, the Azorius were swept under the tide of a prison riot. Vraska and her fellow inmates were quickly ferried away to a secure location while much of the riot continued, but in the tight confines of the basement, they were trapped. Hours passed and tensions grew thick, the guards becoming nervous and abusive. Soon enough, the prisoners had taken enough from their callous jailors.

Escape

Many of the Golgari captives worked together and freed Vraska, but realizing the threat, the guards quickly turned their attentions to her. She was severely beaten and lay near death when her spark ignited, throwing her away from the world she knew. She lay in the darkness, unable to understand what had happened and much time passed before she learned to control her abilities.

Assassin

Two years after her disappearance, she returned to Ravnica. In her travels, she had learned an important lesson, a creed by which to live her life. "A person should die the death they deserve." She began gathering followers in her quest to bring justice to those she felt deserved her retribution. Many died in her name, all deaths thematically linked to how they lived their lives. Amongst her many victims and those of her followers, there was always a special place for the Azorius. Slowly, she sought justice against those who had a hand in the riot, the guards, the arbiters, any who were connected to it in any way.

In between her missions of bloody vengeance, she has become something of a shadowy urban legend amongst the Golgari. She only surfaces when something stirs her interest, the exact reasoning a mystery to all involved. She chooses her missions carefully and stays well away from guild politics. Her activities have begun to gain notoriety even outside the undercity and her targets die swiftly once she commits herself. After her mission is completed, she disappears back into the aether, taking her expertise to other planes to gain experience and add to her ever growing collection of trophies.

Grander plans

Vraska attempted to force Jace Beleren into her service. She gathered citizens of Ravnica whose names would be known only to a planeswalker and arranged them to spell Jace's name. It forced him into a confrontation with the assassin and she used various threats and attempts at coercion to bring him under her sway. Jace ultimately escaped her clutches and shone light onto her existence, possibly undoing everything she'd try to accomplish. It is unclear if she can ever return to the shadows now. In this time, she contacted the disenfranchised among the Golgari, to rally them against Jarad and his elves. She found willing allies in the Kraul, who delved into darker necromancies to unearth the Erstwhile in their hidden catacombs beneath the Undercity.

Ixalan

Captain Vraska

An agent of Bolas placed a note in the House of Ochran that invited Vraska to the Meditation Plane. Here, Nicol Bolas offered to make her the guildmaster of the Golgari and bring those to justice that preyed on the downtrodden, if she would travel to Ixalan and deliver the item stored in the Golden City of Orazca to one of his agents. To aid her in this, Bolas gifted Vraska with a Thaumatic Compass and the knowledge of sailing.

On Ixalan, Vraska posed as a member of the Brazen Coalition, serving a Lord Nicolas. Assembling her crew and her own ship named The Belligerent, she turned out to be a very democratic leader, which earned her a great deal of respect and admiration from her crew.

Guided by the compass, her ship found the shipwrecked Jace in the sea. Seeing that he had no memory of who he was, she spared him. Using his powers as an illusionist, she plundered ships of the Legion of Dusk. Slowly, Vraska and Jace began to develop a new relation, based on a sense of respect and attraction. After The Golden City revealed itself, Vraska and Jace fell in its churning waters. To Vraska's horror, the shock caused Jace's memories to return. Now uneasy with each other they struggled on to Orazca, where they unexpectedly were confronted by a legend of their own home plane: Azor, the Lawbringer. Vraska witnessed how Jace used his power as the Living Guildpact to banish the Sphinx to Useless Island.

Realizing that Nicol Bolas would learn about her love for Jace if he would read her mind, Vraska asked Jace to remove all her memories of him. Jace implanted a trigger to reinstall her memories at the right moment, planning to defeat Bolas together. After this, Vraska summoned Tezzeret, who removed the Immortal Sun from the plane, using his Planar Bridge. Having removed the planar barrier, Vraska planeswalked away.

In Bolas' Meditation Plane, the dragon read her mind and witnessed the false memory created by Jace, in which Vraska had found Azor and turned him, along with all her challengers, into gold using the power of the Sun. Pleased, the dragon called her "Guildleader Vraska" and rewarded her with the information where Jarad was imprisoned. As Vraska set out to petrify Jarad, she couldn't help but feel that both she and Bolas missed something very important during their meeting.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Vraska the Unseen
• Vraska, Relic Seeker
• Vraska, Scheming Gorgon

Depicted in:

• Costly Plunder
• Golden Demise
• Induced Amnesia
• Killing Glare
• Mastermind's Acquisition
• Night's Whisper
• Perilous Voyage
• Vraska's Contempt
• Vraska's Scorn

Associated cards:

• Vraska's Conquistador

Quoted or referred to in:

• Explosive Impact
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• River's Rebuke