Inventors' Fair

[["Information",[{"data":"[[Mending Era]]","label":"Era"},{"data":"4560 [[AR]]","label":"Date"},{"data":"[[Ghirapur]], [[Avishkar]] (formerly Kaladesh)","label":"Location"},{"data":"''[[Kaladesh]]''","label":"Sets"},{"data":"[[The Gatewatch]]","label":"Affiliations"},{"data":"[[Ajani Goldmane]], [[Depala]], [[Dhiren Baral]], [[Dovin Baan]], [[Chandra Nalaar]], [[Gideon Jura]], [[Jace Beleren]], [[Liliana Vess]], [[Mitul]], [[Nissa Revane]], [[Pia Nalaar]], [[Rashmi]], [[Tezzeret]]","label":"Characters"}]],["Outcome",[{"data":"\n*[[Tezzeret]] steals the [[Planar Bridge]] from fair winner [[Rashmi]] for [[Nicol Bolas]]\n*[[Dovin Baan]] arrests [[Dhiren Baral]]\n*[[Pia Nalaar]] escapes [[Consulate]] custody\n*[[Rashmi]] and [[Mitul]] join the [[Renegades]]"}]],["[[Timeline]]",[{"data":"[[Battle of Thraben]]\n\n[[Inventors' Fair|Inventors' Fair]]\n[[Aether Revolt (event)|Aether Revolt]]"}]],["Scryfall Statistics",[{"data":"[https://scryfall.com/search?q=art%3A%22Inventors%27+Fair%22 artworks]"}]]]

Inventors' Fair
Information
Era	Mending Era
Date	4560 AR
Location	Ghirapur, Avishkar (formerly Kaladesh)
Sets	Kaladesh
Affiliations	The Gatewatch
Characters	Ajani Goldmane, Depala, Dhiren Baral, Dovin Baan, Chandra Nalaar, Gideon Jura, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Mitul, Nissa Revane, Pia Nalaar, Rashmi, Tezzeret
Outcome
Tezzeret steals the Planar Bridge from fair winner Rashmi for Nicol Bolas Dovin Baan arrests Dhiren Baral Pia Nalaar escapes Consulate custody Rashmi and Mitul join the Renegades
Timeline
Battle of Thraben Inventors' Fair Aether Revolt
Scryfall Statistics
artworks

The Inventors' Fair was a grand, month-long exposition held in the thriving city of Ghirapur, the beating heart of Kaladesh's Great Aether Boom. Billed as the pinnacle gathering for makers, dreamers, and tinkerers, the Fair drew in brilliant inventors and awestruck spectators from every corner of the plane. For the Consulate, this spectacular festival served a dual purpose: while the public marveled at ingenious new designs, the Enlightened Keepers quietly sought to collect, test, and license these technologies for broader control and distribution.

At its peak, the Inventors' Fair transformed Ghirapur into a living showcase of what artifice could achieve. From sunrise to well past sunset, the city's boulevards, plazas, and dedicated exhibition halls overflowed with dazzling displays. Gleaming constructs strode alongside crowds, airships hovered overhead, and brilliant illuminations framed the Consulate's gleaming spires.

Exhibitions and Divisions

Architecture

Not merely static displays, many of Ghirapur's newest structures were themselves submissions to the Fair's architecture division. These buildings combined a practical purpose with stunning visual splendor. Graceful arches, dynamic lighting arrays, and moving parts reflected the city's devotion to marrying aesthetics with function, making places like Artani Hall attractions in their own right.

Aether Science

The domain of aether science pushed the boundaries of what was possible, inviting theorists and engineers alike to imagine new ways to refine, channel, and manipulate the volatile energy. Innovations in refinement methods, power extraction, and even teleportation were presented, each vying for recognition from the Consulate's Enlightened Keepers.

Weapons and Defense

Under careful watch, inventors demonstrated new weaponry for both civilian and security applications. From discreet personal defense tools to towering aether cannons, each device was tested and judged for its originality, safety, and potential value to the Consulate's interests.

Living Machines

One of the Fair's most beloved attractions was the massive artificial zoo nestled within Greenwheel. Instead of flesh-and-blood animals, the grounds teemed with lifelike constructs crafted to mimic nature's beauty. Families, children, and curious minds wandered through this interactive park, marveling at the ingenuity that blurred the line between artifice and life.

Vehicles and Races

Speed and elegance collided on Ghirapur's racetracks. Inventors fielded all manner of vehicles, from sky skiffs to rugged ground runners. The races were more than entertainment — they were a proving ground where designers tested their machines' limits and sought the attention of influential benefactors.

Who Came to the Fair

The Inventors

The true stars were the inventors themselves. They came from all walks of life — humble backyard tinkerers, visionary crafters, and Consulate-approved designers alike. With an abundant supply of aether, they brought to life wild ideas that might otherwise have remained dreams.

Benefactors and Investors

While the inventors competed for prizes, benefactors competed for the inventors. Investors and patrons wandered the exhibits, ready to stake fortunes on the next transformative breakthrough. For some, the right deal struck at the Fair could shape Kaladesh's future.

Esteemed Judges

Every creation needed the approval of the Fair's panel of judges — wise, exacting, and instantly recognizable by their faces painted red. Their decisions elevated unknown innovators to citywide fame or dashed hopes in an instant. To win a judge's favor was to gain prestige that could last a lifetime.

The Public

The Fair belonged to the people as much as to the inventors. Citizens from every district, along with travelers from distant parts of Kaladesh, crowded Ghirapur's avenues to glimpse the wonders on display. For them, the Fair was a month-long spectacle of marvels and dreams made real.

The Grand Exhibition

Amid the celebration, hidden agendas unfolded behind the scenes. Tezzeret's theft of Rashmi's prize-winning Matter Transporter — repurposed into the Planar Bridge — revealed the darker designs of Nicol Bolas. Pia Nalaar was arrested, and Dhiren Baral put Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, and Oviya Pashiri, all known renegade-collaborators, under lock in the Dhund. Dovin Baan tightened Consulate control, and scrutinized any potential source of error. The Consulate guard was on high alert, and the Grand Exhibition was approaching. Tezzeret's schemes were paying off.

Then events spun out of control. Ajani Goldmane showed up in the Dhund, defeating several guards and freeing Chandra, Nissa, and Oviya from their deadly prison cell, and they soon learned that Pia would be forced to make an appearance at the Grand Exhibition, the final showcase of the Inventors' Fair, where prizes would be awared to the most innovative inventors. Pia was to be paraded in front of everyone like a prize herself, and forced into a rigged duel against Tezzeret. This would be a fitting conclusion to the fair, a final display of the Consulate's might and authority, with their head judge shown to crush the leader of the renegades utterly.

Meanwhile, Liliana Vess had gone to Ravnica to fetch the remaining two members of the Gatewatch - Gideon Jura and Jace Beleren. The Gatewatch intended to sneak into the Grand Exhibition and surprise Tezzeret and capture him while freeing Pia. Huge crowds had gathered at the arena - the same arena where Chandra herself had been set to be executed by Baral years earlier, only surviving from her planeswalker spark igniting. The Grand Exhibition proceeded with its program, with competing inventors being running through several rounds until the winner stood victorius - the elven genius Rashmi and her space-folding apparatus took the prize as winner of the Grand Exhibition. Tezzeret personally congratulated her with a rare smile, and the witnessing Gatewatch then realized that his personal investment in the artifact meant that this technology could be developed that could affect other planes, even if Rashmi herself was unaware of this potential.

Tezzeret then enacted his final act as head judge, initiating the artificer's duel with Pia Nalaar as the crowd jeered and heckled her. Although Pia was a supremely skilled artificer and held her own, Tezzeret was a master of metal and had magical abilities Pia could never hope to match. Then suddenly, Tezzeret sent an attack at Pia that was clearly intended to kill her. She was saved only by the sudden intervention from Chandra, who abandoned her disguise and charged at Tezzeret, sending fireballs to melt his metal constructs as the crowd started panicking in the stands. Consulate guards streamed on to the arena floor to defend the head judge, heavily outmanning Chandra, but Chandra had companions of her own. The Gatewatch all joined the fighting, quickly coming to Pia's aid while putting pressure on Tezzeret and his guards. Tezzeret, no longer as invested in the fight, took Rashmi's invention and escaped.

While the crowd was distracted by all of these events, a quieter event was happening to the side, where Consulate enforcers, acting on Tezzeret's orders, seized all the wondrous prizes submitted for judging in the Inventors' Fair. As the crowds fled the arena, the inventors were shocked to realized their works had all been seized by the Consulate "for safekeeping". The Consulate's official position was that as a whole, the inventions posed a threat to the citizens of Ghirapur, since they were all unproven, and had not been sumbitted through the Consulate's rigorous battery of tests. The artifacts were taken away, and Tezzeret withdrew to a secretive laboratory in the Aether Spire with Rashmi's space-folding device, which would allow the transport of non-organic material through planar space. Tezzeret planned to develop this technology to be able to pass through extraplanar space, creating a Planar Bridge.

Though the exact details of Tezzeret's plans were unknown to the Gatewatch, they nevertheless realized the danger to the Multiverse should he go through with his intentions. Chandra was especially enraged at the artificer's schemes, and she had the full support of her mother Pia, who was furious that the Consluate had deceived the public and stolen the fair's inventions. Together, Pia, Ajani and the Gatewatch set about making plans to stop Tezzeret and overthrow the Consulate's tyrannic regime.

The Inventions

Invention	Image	Inventor	Description	Results
		Sana Ahir, aerowright	Unspecified aeronautical design innovation	Aeronautical Design Division: 3rd Place; Consulate research grant recipient
		Jehvani, Vahadar artificer	A huge lifecrafted horse-like construct
Aether Vial		Avallis Beshai, Greenwheel Lifecrafters	Imagine true life, born from aether alone!	Stolen by Dack Fayden.
Arcbound Ravager			Top-performing automaton combatant.	Confiscated, intended to be modified for service.
Black Vise
Cataclysmic Gearhulk				(not competing)
Chalice of the Void
Champion's Helm		Adi Thandray	Designed as a tribute to Adi's mentor, the great Daljit Gavaskar.
Chromatic Lantern		Hadde Moush, Luminary League	It exemplifies the motto of the Luminary League: "Innovation requires insatiable curiosity and a good source of light."
Chrome Mox		Ferren Gibrar, Glint-Sleeves	Stunningly beautiful and unquestioningly powerful, this jewel provides a compact supply of aether to artifacts worn or carried.
Cloudstone Curio		Suja Pavani, Aetherological Society and League of Aeronauts	With innovative stabilizing techniques, Suja Pavani brings this piece of the sky itself to the Inventors' Fair.
Combustible Gearhulk		Eshan Baat		(not competing)
Crucible of Worlds		Jitya Reyath, foundry hand	By isolating liquid aether at room temperature, Jitya has given Ghirapur a glimpse of raw aetheric matter — the very stuff of the cosmos.	Stolen from the Ghirapur Institute of Art and Science and ended up in Gonti's collection.
Defense Grid		Consulate engineers	Woven together, strands of aether can form a mesh of surprising stability, though such a network tends to pull power from nearby devices.
Duplicant
Dynavolt Tower		Faiz	An artifact with a lot of potential.
Engineered Explosives
Extraplanar Lens
Filigree Familiar		Inventors of Ghillavar Foundry	This delightful companion is already a must-have gift.
Fireforger's Puzzleknot		Jani, free artificer	An entertaining challenge, containing the heat of its forging inside.
Fleetwheel Cruiser		Ira Joshi (pilot), Consulate Pilots' Union
Foundry Assembler		Bhavin Jani	They never tire, they never complain, and they never ask questions. Build more.	Consulate research grant recipient
Gauntlet of Power
Grindstone		All attempts to halt the machine failed. The Consulate must find a way to repurpose it.
Hangarback Walker		Grahn Durran, Panka Hangars	An ingenious device to send forth a host of whirling drones.
Lightning Greaves		Joli and Fara Anru, Glint-Sleeves	This matched set showcases the unity of impressive performance with elegant and inconspicuous design, and incorporates aetheric accelerators and deflection matrices in an elegant, wearable design.
Lotus Petal		Khellin Mei, House of Knowledge	Each of these intricate mechanical petals stores enough power to supply all of Ghirapur, if only for a fleeting moment.
Mana Crypt		An anonymous artificer	An utterly silent chamber.
Mana Vault		Atan Dejir, Aetherological Society	A fence was set up around the device for viewers' safety. Viewers were asked not to attempt to enter the vault.	Confiscated
Matter Transporter		Rashmi	Able to teleport small size non-organic items. Of extreme interest to the head judge.	Won top prize; repurposed by Tezzeret into the Planar Bridge
Meekstone			When it oscillated above a particular frequency, the stone induced acute listlessness in several researchers.
Mind's Eye		House of Knowledge, Consulate	These devices allow anyone to see with a visionary’s eye.
Miniaturized young elk		Himmat Neela, Greenwheel Lifecrafters	Elegant in its simplicity yet lifelike in spirit, the artifact perfectly captures the subtle beauty and wild essence of a real elk. Its thoughtful design reflects Himmat's deep reverence for nature's own artistry.	Himmat Neela won first place in the Animal Constructs: Miniatures Division at the Fair, delighting judges and visitors alike. Despite almost missing the deadline, his piece will enter mass production and inspire future lifecrafters.
Mox Opal		Unknown inventor	On loan from a private collection, this unique mechanism extracts power from a carefully prepared gemstone.
Noxious Gearhulk				(not competing)
Oblivion Stone
Ornithopter			Hostile until proven otherwise.	Confiscated
Pacification Array			A few small changes transformed it from a marvel of ingenuity to an instrument of oppression.	Modified by the consulate
Painter's Servant			This whimsical automaton helps create beautiful murals, then stands guard as they dry.
Panharmonicon		Ashwant Hubri, Committee on Innovation	All who listen hear their own song, a unique melody played just for them.
Paradox Engine		Agriah, Junior Edificer	The motion of this device fuels its own operation in a potentially endless cycle.	Confiscated
Perpetual Timepiece		Evatani Garan of the Garan Clade and Tiyu Arrun of the Aetherlogical Society	The public were warned to not be so caught up in keeping track of time that they would forget to make use of it.
Pithing Needle		Aditi Desai, Aetherlogical Society	An aether injection system	Consulate research grant recipient
Platinum Angel		Adi Thandray	Priority One confiscation from the Fair. Once you see it, you’ll understand why.	Confiscated
Rings of Brighthearth		Amrit Vatyam	Crafted in emulation of dwarven hearth decorations, these devices doubled the output of their inventors' forges.
Scroll Rack
Sculpting Steel		Shanti Makam, kinetic sculptor	Cat-sized self-assembling metal strands that can be coaxed into any shape imaginable.	Stolen from the Ghirapur Institute of Art and Science and ended up in Gonti's collection.
Servo companion		Ritika, Countless Gears		Winner
Sky Skiff		Pihu Laal		Aeronautical Trials: Featherweight Filigree Division
Sky-dock Assisters				Modified into the Ensnaring Bridge by a consulate engingeer.
Sol Ring		Honoree Venya Sangmi	It took the reclusive inventor a lifetime to realize her childhood vision: a band of sunlight made solid.
Solemn Simulacrum
Sphere of Resistance			At the outset, the Consulate was not aware of Chief Baral's motives for the project. It became apparent that he intended to use this device to hamper the 'mages' among the ranks of the renegades.
Staff of Domination
Static Orb		Kasdath Ambro, Countless Gears Society	Reduction of energy and motion within the stasis field creates the illusion of slowed time.
Steel Overseer		Venand Kapur the Gearherder, free artificer	In an unusual foray into the humanoid form, the intentor - often known as the Gearherder - built the Steel Overseer automaton to keep watch over his clockwork herds.
Sundering Titan			Truth be told, the Consulate's engineering team had hoped never to see the day it was deployed.
Sword of Body and Mind
Sword of Feast and Famine		Dallen Mas, Peema	Formed of dark metal and living wood, this elegant weapon is designed to bring death in order to protect life.
Sword of Fire and Ice		Anonymous inventor, Maulfists	Cool, dispassionate aether meets fiery inspiration in a weapon that's as beautiful as it is deadly.
Sword of Light and Shadow		Lodishi (deceased)	The intricate beauty of this weapon stands as a memorial to its inventor's brief life.
Sword of War and Peace
Torrential Gearhulk				(not competing)
Tradewind Airship		Neerav Soni
Trinisphere			This exhibition of Nehra's Threshold Principle must be expropriated and examined for its potential applications in enforcement.	Confiscated
Vedalken Shackles
Verdurous Gearhulk				(not competing)
Weldfast Monitor		Havas Mel, Committee on Innovation	The Committee on Regulation and Enforcement wishes to remind the public that inventions on display at the Inventors' Fair have not been subjected to the rigorous safety testing required for devices intended for household use.
Whirlermaker			Saheeli Rai commented that the inventors' creations are more than mere things. They have life in them, little bits of themselves.	Confiscated
Wurmcoil Engine

The Sky Derby

Racers	Image	Results
Burnouts
Bhejek (pilot), Ground Grinders
Grinning Ren (pilot), Ground Grinders
Rumble Runners
Depala (pilot), Derby Crows		Qualifiers: passed First Round: passed
Wind-Kin		Qualifiers: passed First Round: passed
Cloud Tumbler Society		Qualifiers: passed First Round: passed

In-game references

Represented in:

• Inventor's Fair

Associated cards:

• Commencement of Festivities
• Fairgrounds Trumpeter
• Fairgrounds Patrol
• Fairgrounds Warden
• Herald of the Fair
• Terror of the Fairgrounds

Referred to:

• Aerial Responder
• Ceremonious Rejection
• Chrome Mox
• Consulate Skygate
• Demolish (Kaladesh)
• Eliminate the Competition
• Foundry Screecher
• Fumigate
• Ghirapur Guide
• Highspire Infusion
• Larger than Life
• Pacification Array
• Start Your Engines
• Tasseled Dromedary
• Thriving Ibex
• Veteran Motorist

External links

• Discover Kaladesh — Wizards of the Coast