Ravnican guild

Legendary Ravnicans. L to R: Rakdos, Niv-Mizzet, Tolsimir Wolfblood, Isperia, Borborygmos, Savra, Circu, Teysa, Firemane Angel, and Momir Vig.

The Guilds of Ravnica are ten sociopolitical factions that hold power on the city plane of Ravnica. Each guild has its own distinct ideology that unifies its members with one another, with the guild itself, with its functions and purposes, and with its structure. The strong identities produced by the creative and design team have made the guild names synonymous for player identity and two-color decks, even if the profile is not exactly true to all aspects.

In the game of Magic: The Gathering, guilds are represented by two-colored pairings of Magic's five colors and have, to date, been predominantly featured in the Ravnica, Return to Ravnica and Guilds of Ravnica blocks.

The ten guilds

The guild crests and their place in the color pie

The guilds are:

• Azorius Senate
• House Dimir
• Cult of Rakdos
• Gruul Clans
• Selesnya Conclave
• Orzhov Syndicate
• Izzet League
• Golgari Swarm
• Boros Legion
• Simic Combine

Each guild has a Parun, which is the founder of a guild and first guildmaster. Besides a guildmaster, each guild also features its own guildmages and a champion.

Some characters from Ravnica, such as the unguilded Krenko and Yeva of the Selesnya Conclave, are not featured in any of the cards from those blocks, but still bear the indelible influence of the guilds of Ravnica.

Set distribution

Due to the equal weight given to all ten guilds, this allows for the color pie to be expressed slightly differently. Ravnica block had an unusual 4/3/3 split, with the first set having only one blue and red guild, with the second and third having a color with two guilds to make up for it. The next two blocks were five-guild splits, and the ally and enemy mixing the normal structure of the pie. Return to Ravnica block had a pie where Red and Black were switched and "ally" was first, and Guilds of Ravnica block had one where Blue and White were switched and "enemy" was first. There are hence three more of these "switched pies" for use in the future.

History

Collectively, the guilds of Ravnica have ruled the plane for 10,000 years, since the signing of the ancient and magically potent Guildpact, a binding spell, document, and contract, that details the specific role and responsibilities of each of these guilds.

Prior to the events of the novel Dissension, guilds would try to find loopholes so as to increase their power without breaching it. Following Dissension, however, guilds are no longer bound by the document; and, although the guilds themselves did not completely collapse, their influence on the city and plane of Ravnica diminished, as demonstrated in the Return to Ravnica block storyline arc.

After the breaking of the Guildpact, Teysa Karlov of the Orzhov Syndicate drafted a new, non-magical document amongst the guilds in the interest of cooperation and stability for Ravnica; however, the powerful and wealthy became even more powerful and wealthy and, by and large, the guilds had disappeared.

Gradually, the general populace's distrust of the guilds diminished and, once again, the guilds returned and became ascendant. Old guild and factional loyalties rekindled, and new guildmasters assumed the mantle of a majority of the guilds; only the Izzet League, Orzhov Syndicate, and the Cult of the Rakdos retained their original guildmasters.

In the events of the Return to Ravnica block, planeswalker Jace Beleren collaborated with Niv-Mizzet of the Izzet League, while planeswalker Gideon Jura was in alliance with Aurelia, commanding Boros Legion soldiers. The Implicit Maze moved Jace into the central Living Guildpact role, with Lavinia acting as his manager.

By the events of Guilds of Ravnica block, Nicol Bolas's plan to funnel planeswalkers into Ravnica had almost reached fruition. Jace had been lost in Ixalan after his defeat on Amonkhet, allowing for non-native planeswalkers Kaya Cassir and Dovin Baan to usurp control over the Orzhov and Azorius respectively. Natives Vraska, Domri Rade and Ral Zarek also fell under his sway through various machinations. However, the War of the Spark united the guilds in a way not seen since the signing, letting Niv-Mizzet take on the Guildpact role. As Bolas desired sparks, most of the populace and the guild's power structures remained after the invasion.

New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse was a much more devastating attack. Guildmaster Vraska was compleated and led the compleated Golgari Swarm to the surface, using Realmbreaker's roots to expose the Undercity. The Azorius were the greatest focus of her ire, and the Izzet and Simic had high compleation rates from their curiosity. With no real cure for compleation, those infected were left catatonic after Elesh Norn's demise, suggesting a large portion of these four guilds taking the highest casualties.

Guilds of Ravnica

Guild		Crest	Guildhall	Parun	Other Guildmasters	Mazerunner	Notable members	Formal Guildpact civic function	Notes
	Azorius Senate		Prahv / New Prahv	Azor I	Augustin IV Isperia Dovin Baan Lavinia	Lavinia	Bruvac	Ravnica's government and legal sector.
	House Dimir		Duskmantle	Szadek	Lazav	Mirko Vosk	Circu Etrata	Ravnica's couriers, information brokers, and librarians.	In practice, little information on the Dimir is known. It is, however, known that the Dimir are involved in assassinations, criminal activity, and espionage on a contractual basis.
	Cult of Rakdos		Rix Maadi	Rakdos	Izolda/Lyzolda	Exava	Judith Massacre Girl	Ravnica's entertainment, food industry, mining, and other blue-collar manual labor and pink-collar service sectors.	In practice, the Cult of Rakdos is also involved in criminal activity, civil disorder, and slave trade industry.
	Gruul Clans		Skarrg	Cisarzim	Borborygmos Domri Rade	Ruric Thar	Ulasht Nikya	Ravnica's foresters, gamekeepers, park rangers, wildlife officers, and wildskeepers.	The Gruul Clans were not formally organized and, with time, became increasingly unorganized and fractured, with no central authority. With the wilds declining, the role of the Clans has also diminished, and many Gruul Clans members and entire groups, or clans, have adopted an anarcho-primitivist ideology and become Ravnica's defenders of nature, intent on destroying civilization.
	Selesnya Conclave		Vitu-Ghazi	Mat'Selesnya	Trostani	Emmara Tandris	Tolsimir Wolfblood Yeva	Conservationists and charities, as well as a nature cult that competes with the Orzhova faith.	The Selesnya Conclave parun, Mat'selesnya, is an elemental formed from the fusion of numerous dryads, and powers the Guildpact.
	Orzhov Syndicate		Orzhova	Obzedat	Kaya	Teysa	Tomik	Ravnica's dominant religious order, as well as its largest bank.	The parun of the Orzhov Syndicate, the Obzedat, is a council of the ghosts of Orzhov patriarchs and matriarchs, not a singular individual. In practice, the Orzhov Syndicate is also involved in slavery, both in life and in the afterlife.
	Izzet League		Nivix	Niv-Mizzet	Ral Zarek	Melek	Tibor and Lumia	Ravnica's formative and physical scientists and engineers.
	Golgari Swarm		Svogthos/ Korozda	Svogthir	Sisters of Stone Death Savra Jarad Vraska	Varolz	Izoni Mazirek Storrev	Ravnica's agricultural and waste management sectors.
	Boros Legion		Sunhome	Razia	Feather Aurelia	Tajic	Agrus Kos	Ravnica's security force, constabulary, and standing army.
	Simic Combine		Novijen / Zameck	Simic	Momir Vig Zegana Vannifar	Vorel	Project Kraj Roalesk	Ravnica's life scientists and conservationists.

Graphical evolution

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  The older crests from the Ravnica block

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  Guild flags from the Return to Ravnica block

Sources

• Cory J. Herndon. (2005.) "Ravnica Cycle, Book I: Ravnica", Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 978–0786937929.
• Cory J. Herndon. (2006.) "Ravnica Cycle, Book II: Guildpact", Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 978–0786939893.
• Cory J. Herndon. (2006.) "Ravnica Cycle, Book III: Dissension", Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 978–0786940011.