Mercadia

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Mercadia
Information
First seen The Thran
Last seen March of the Machine
Rabiah Scale 9[1]
Status Recovering from New Phyrexia's invasion
Demonym Mercadian[2]
Scryfall Statistics
Cliffside Market

Mercadia is a plane near Dominaria ruled from Mercadia City, sitting strategically atop the inverted mountain Mount Mercadia. The city's leadership was highly corrupted by various influences, mainly by the scheming Kyren, who controlled the magistrate under Volrath's employ. Notably, goblins are highly respected and intelligent beings in Mercadia, much different from their Dominarian relatives.

Description

Mercadia's atmosphere was constantly full of dust, which kept the sky from ever looking blue. Instead, the sky held a color ranging between lemon yellow and bright orange at daytime.[3]

Notable locations

A map of the plane of Mercadia taken from "Mercadian Masques" by Francis Lebaron.

Languages

  • High Mercadian, spoken by the residents of Mercadia City
    • According to Takara, the language was intelligible with Rathi.[3]

History

The Myth of Ramos

It is believed, in differing versions by all the people outside of Mercadia City, that Ramos was a dragon god from another world. He battled his evil brother, Orhop. The wake of the combat left chaos and calamity, and upon seeing this, Ramos attempted to save as many people as possible from the devastation. He gathered the merfolk in the sea, the crew of a ship, and the tribesmen from the plains. Upon taking the people under his wing, he brought them to a new world: Mercadia. Once here, Ramos collided with something and fell from the sky. Set ablaze by the planar jump, Ramos fell into three pieces: Mind, Soul, and Body. The Cho-Arrim rode the Soul into Rushwood. The Saprazzans fell with the mind into the sea, and the Rishadans fell off with part of the body onto the shore. Ramos' Bones crashed into the Deepwood, where those unfortunate enough not to have fallen off earlier were left as zombies to guard Ramos' resting place.

This myth is not far off, as Ramos was merely a dragon engine crafted by Urza to battle Mishra and save those caught in the battlefield. When the Golgothian Sylex was activated by Urza, Ramos hastily gathered as many victims as he could, including a school of merfolk, soldiers from the battlefield on Argoth, and a pirate ship nearby. Then the great dragon was sent to Phyrexia by the immense blast of the Sylex, where he then went through a Phyrexian portal (which would later connect Mercadia and Rath) to Mercadia. Once there, he deposited the merfolk in the sea, losing his Power Matrix in what would become Saprazzo due to a 'broken heart' at seeing the many refugees set aflame by the blast of the Sylex. The Rishadans fell off the shore, and the Cho-Arrim in the Rushwood. After crossing through what is now Mercadia, Ramos fell in Deepwood, where the fallen ghouls were animated by his last energies. He created dryads from the trees to guard his bones, as well as five power crystals.

The Mercadian Revolution

The Weatherlight and its crew narrowly escaped Rath and crash-landed in Mercadia, where the ship was stolen by the Cho-Arrim. Mercadia was the setting for the Mercadian Masques set, which revolved around the Weatherlight crew's long and unpredictable ordeal with the Mercadian peoples to repair their ship, as well as help the rebels overthrow the corrupt Mercadian government, which ended in the Revolution on Mercadia.

Rift Era

In 4308, more than 100 years later, Karona traveled to Mercadia carrying Sash and Waistcoat. In this time, the merchants of Mercadia tended towards overweight and wore yellow robes of many layers and were wreathed in clouds of perfume, much like the earlier Magistrates had. Then, Karona encountered "the Masters", which were mechanical goblins with giant metal claws, fused into the bodies of frog mounts, which also were mechanically modified. The goblin Masters wore beaded necklaces which marked their station, and stood aboard wicked flying machines. When Karona mentioned Gerrard Capashen, one Master called him a "saboteur" and mentioned that Cho-Arrim, who left the forest, was condemned to death. Karona killed that Master and left.[9]

New Phyrexian invasion

Mercadia was a target in the New Phyrexian Invasion.[10]

Inhabitants

The humans of Mercadia City, though not those found elsewhere on the plane, are the descendants of upper-class Thran from Halcyon who were brought to Mercadia by the planeswalker Dyfed in an act of penitence to keep them safe from Yawgmoth during the Thran-Phyrexian War. The Kyren were descended from the Thran's servants and their goblin engineers, workers in Glacian's factories.

Mercadians are an evasive, aloof people: the nobles are hedonistic, apathetic, and lazy, while the commoners are selfish, grasping, and paranoid. Mercadian goblins are much larger and smarter than most goblins throughout the multiverse, and they seem to be running the city despite their servile attitudes.

Furthermore, a guild of professional assassins, thieves, and horrors called Caterans roams the back alleys of the marketplace, ready to terrorize or murder anyone for the right price.

Planeswalker visitors

Non-planeswalker visitors

Gallery

In-game references

Represented in:
Associated cards:
Referred to:

References

  1. ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 29, 2016). "The Rabiah Scale". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  2. ↑ "Mercadian" is derived from the set name Mercadian Masques.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Francis Lebaron. (1999) Mercadian Masques, Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 0-7869-1188-3.
  4. ↑ Doug Beyer (September 02, 2009). "The Planes of Planechase". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2019-03-01.
  5. ↑ As seen on High Market
  6. ↑ a b Jess Lebow, J. Robert King, ed. (2003). "Delraich", The Monsters of Magic, Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 0-7869-2983-9.
  7. ↑ a b c Francis Lebaron, Jess Lebow, ed. (2000) "Myth and the Many-Chinned Magistrate", The Myths of Magic, Wizards of the Coast
  8. ↑ Silverglade Elemental, Silverglade Pathfinder
  9. ↑ a b c J. Robert King. (2003) Scourge, Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 0-7869-2956-1.
  10. ↑ First Look at March of the Machine (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (February 19, 2023).
  11. ↑ Seanan McGuire (2022). Magic: Nahiri the Lithomancer. Wizards of the Coast.
  12. ↑ J. Robert King (1999). "The Thran", Wizards of the Coast.
Story publications
Blocks and Sets
Weatherlight Crew
Nine Titans
Other characters
See also
Mercadia sets
Storyline
Magic Story
set settings
Seen on cards
Other planes
Non-canon
Related
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