Creation of the Schism
| Creation of the Schism | |||||
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| Information | |||||
| Era | Rift Era | ||||
| Date | 4448 AR (9965 ZC) | ||||
| Location | Utvara, Ravnica | ||||
| Sets | Guildpact | ||||
| Storyline Sources | Guildpact[1] | ||||
| Characters | Kaluzax, Vazozav, Zomaj Hauc, and everyone in Utvara at the time | ||||
| Outcome | |||||
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| Timeline | |||||
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The Creation of the Schism was an event in Utvara Valley, far from Ravnica City on the plane of Ravnica.
Description
The event known simply as The Schism began with a single Izzet goblin on a mission: Kaluzax, a low-ranking artificer and observer assigned to pilot an observosphere over the Utvara Reclamation Zone. The region had become an epicenter of the rapidly spreading kuga plague, a virulent arcano-biological contagion resistant to traditional purification magics, and spread across the whole Utvara area by partially immune Gruul squatters. In a last-ditch effort to contain the spread, the Izzet League authorized the deployment of a prototype mana bomb, a device engineered to dissolve biological matter instantly through transplanar arc discharge. Kaluzax was sent on this mission by his boss, Chief Observer Valuzax, on orders of Magelord Zomaj Hauc himself.
As the observosphere descended over the quarantine perimeter, it was intercepted by a pterro-riding Gruul warband, who immediately started attacking Kaluzax's observosphere. The Gruul were equipped with bam-sticks, created by the Izzet themselves, and managed to badly damage the vessel before being downed by Kaluzax's maneuvering. The struck vessel started losing height, and it soon became clear Kaluzax would not survive the mission, but he was ready to die for his cause. The bomb detonated mid-air, neither cleanly nor following its supposed design parameters. The result was catastrophic and unprecedented.
Rather than incinerating the infected zone, the explosion tore open a massive spatial fold in the air: a glimmering rupture in the fabric of Ravnica later known as the Schism. The same instant, every soul in Utvara was ripped from their bodies and thrust through the spatial gap, leaving Utvara barren of all life. From that moment forward, all ghostly echoes of those who perished within Utvara — whether from plague, violence, or misfortune — were inexorably drawn into this rift. The Schism had snagged the spectral pocket-realm of Agyrem, creating a one-way conduit through which souls could pass, but never return.
Kaluzax himself perished in the crash, just as he thought he would — yet awoke moments later as a ghost, caught within the arcane winds of Agyrem, able to witness the devastation his mission had wrought, but never able to leave. Each morning since, for precisely seven seconds, his observosphere could be seen reflecting within the Schism’s curve: a ghostly shimmer known as the kuga mott, or “Plague Herald,” marking the hour the world changed like a ghostly echo of his journey's end.
Although the mission's intention of killing off the plague victims had worked, the formation of the Schism affected the plague in other ways as well, mutating it to become airborne, creating a deadly plague wind that caused the Utvara area to be deadly without some type of prevention or protection from the sickening spores. The plague wind phenomenon drew the attention of multiple guilds. While the Simic traveled to the area to create a cure, and the Selesnya planted an ever-blooming tree with immunizing pollen named the Vitar Yescu, the Golgari were drawn to the many soulless corpses waiting for zombification, and the Orzhov quickly purchased large plots of land to rent out to the highest bidder.[1]
References
- ↑ a b Cory J. Herndon, (2006) - Ravnica Cycle, Book II: Guildpact, Wizards of the Coast.
