Undercity (Ravnica)

For the Undercity of Towashi, see Towashi Undercity.

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The Undercity
Information
Plane	Ravnica
Part of	Tenth District, Ravnica City
Scryfall Statistics
artworks

As the City of Ravnica was built ever upward over countless generations, its lower levels fell into darkness and disrepair, becoming collectively known as the Undercity.These shadowy depths sprawl beneath the streets and towers of the Tenth District, forming a hidden world of buried ruins, tangled tunnels, abandoned infrastructure, and thriving subterranean communities. The Undercity shelters the outcasts and guilds that flourish away from the open sky, such as the secretive Dimir, the decay-harvesting Golgari, the riotous Rakdos, and the mutagenic Simic. Over the centuries, these forgotten depths have grown into a realm of secrets, monsters, and hidden power that shapes the fate of the city above.

Description

The Undercity is a vast, layered labyrinth hidden beneath Ravnica's gleaming spires and bustling streets. It stretches from ancient catacombs and abandoned sewers to natural caverns and fungal forests, forming a world unto itself below the Tenth District. Many parts of this realm are shrouded in perpetual gloom, illuminated only by flickering fungus, phosphorescent moss, or the eerie glow of arcane wards.

Though treacherous and inhospitable to the unprepared, the Undercity teems with life — outcasts and dispossessed citizens make their homes in forgotten tunnels, monstrous creatures stalk the deepest shadows, and entire guilds have carved out hidden domains in its dark expanses. Dimir spies pass unseen through its winding passages, Golgari tend their gardens of decay among tangled roots and ancient tombs, Rakdos cultists revel in cavernous halls lit by infernal flame, and Simic researchers plumb its flooded depths to unlock nature's secrets.

Beneath Ravnica's civilization lies this otherworldly realm of secrecy, decay, and unexpected resilience — a shadow reflection of the city above, where power is hidden, plots are hatched, and the line between life and death blurs among root-choked ruins and endless darkness.

Locations in the Undercity

Far beneath the busy avenues of the Tenth District, the Undercity sprawls in countless directions. It is divided into hidden strongholds, secret passageways, underground waterways, and abandoned ruins now reclaimed by the guilds that flourish in the shadows. Many of these sites have become infamous over the centuries for their strange architecture, sinister denizens, and otherworldly dangers.

• The Boilerpits - a series of underground passageways formed by intertwined high-pressure metal pipelines. A web of tangled pipes and exposed steam vents, the air is hot, heavy, and remarkably fragrant.

• The Corpsefloat Valves - valves constructed of fungal membranes closing off certain sewerways. They open and close by the Golgari command, allowing carcasses and other traffic to float through.

• The Devkarin Rot-Gardens — Here, the Devkarin elves tend their shadowy rot-gardens. These hidden plots of cultivated decay are vital to the Golgari, nourishing fungi, mold, and other detritus that sustain their communities. The gardens are both cemetery and greenhouse, where the cycle of life and death is laid bare beneath tangled roots and hanging moss.

• Duskmantle — The secretive guildhall of House Dimir lies hidden somewhere in the Undercity. Shrouded in layers of magical obfuscation, Duskmantle is protected by powerful memory wards — glyphs that store and manipulate visitors’ recollections. Anyone summoned to the Dimir guildhall often leaves with only fragmented memories of what transpired within its walls. Many believe Duskmantle lies within Nightveil's maze of caverns, but its true location is carefully concealed and could be anywhere beneath the city.

• The Felden Pipe Entrance - a drop-off point for corpse haulers.

• Fiend's Crawl - a labyrinth of black walls, the lair of many vampires.

• Gognir Alley - a passage that also works as Golgari hunting grounds.

• Grek'ospen - a Kraul hive in a large cavern.

• Grigor Canyon — This deep cleft within the Undercity cuts through layers of ancient city ruins and unstable tunnels. It serves as a treacherous shortcut for smugglers, scavengers, and the desperate, but the shifting walls and sudden collapses make it perilous even for seasoned guides.
  • The Hellhole — Rakdos mining operations have hollowed out a massive vertical shaft in the mountain at the Center of Ravnica, transforming it into the infamous Hellhole. These mines descend deep below the city's core and are rumored to connect with some of the Undercity's oldest and darkest passageways.

• House of the Ochran - headquarters of the Golgari assassins.

• Korozda, the Maze of Decay — Deep within the fungal depths lies Korozda, the sprawling underground guildhall of the Golgari Swarm. This maze of tangled roots, dripping caverns, and decaying ruins forms a natural fortress. Now been raised to the surface.
  • Penvar, the Hanging Keep - suspended ominously above Korozda's main gate, Penvar is an inverted fortress anchored to the cavern ceiling, patrolled by vigilant kraul soldiers who fiercely guard the entrance from intruders.
  • Svogthos, the Hollow Tomb — the Golgari's former guidhall at the heart of Korozda, an ancient Orzhov cathedral with an amphitheater where the Swarm gathers to decide matters of life, death, and decay. It was the lair of the lich parun Svogthir during his reign. The tomb now lies abandoned, reclaimed by crawling roots and fungal overgrowth.
    • The Statuary - a cavernous chamber with a causeway down the middle, with both sides of the causeway full of the statues of Vraska's victims.

• Nightveil — Beneath parts of the Tenth District sprawls Nightveil, a vast network of natural caves and winding tunnels where many of Dimir's high-ranking operatives maintain hidden estates, sealed crypts, and secret meeting chambers. These gloomy halls echo with spectral guardians and restless spirits that drift silently through the shadows, ensuring that trespassers rarely survive to speak of what they find.

• Rix Maadi, the Dungeon Palace — The cavernous stronghold of the Cult of Rakdos, as much a smoldering den of depravity as it is a fortress.
  • The Demon's Vestibule - the staircase down from the Smelting Quarter. Veins of lava running down the wurm-carved walls shed a dull-red light. The walls are lined with hundreds of torn and overlapping banners. Descending from the Smelting Quarter of Precinct Six above, the colossal stair of blood-red stone plunges into the depths until it reaches the Festival Grounds
  • The Dungeon Ballrooms - venues for smaller Rakdos parties.
  • The Festival Grounds - a vast, derelict courtyard in front of Rix Maadi. Here, the Cult stages its most brutal spectacles, indulging in violent revelry and grotesque performances beneath the watchful gaze of their demon lord.
  • The Jester's Crypt - a dark tunnel where Rakdos takes cultists who displease him. Few ever return.

• Stonefare - a network of ancient brick tunnels that wind through the Golgari-controlled areas, polluted with sticky slime, fungi, and cobwebs and lined with petrified bodies of gorgon victims.

• Umerilek, Mausoleum of the Erstwhile — this hidden tomb houses the Erstwhile, a caste of undead nobles loyal to the Golgari. Guarded by fungus-choked passages and lurking kraul sentinels, Umerilek stands as a grim monument to the Swarm’s power over death and decay.

• The Undersea — Beneath Ravnica's Undercity flows a hidden network of underground rivers, lakes, and vast subterranean seas. Many of these waterways connect to the Simic's zonots — massive sinkholes that lead down into watery chambers used as laboratories and habitats. Aquatic creatures, mutant monsters, and Simic researchers alike navigate these secret channels to travel unseen beneath the city above.

History

The Undercity played a dramatic role during the New Phyrexian Invasion, when massive sections of its hidden tunnels and ruins were torn open and thrust skyward by the spreading branches of the Invasion Tree. This sudden upheaval revealed vast stretches of long-buried terrain, exposing ancient subterranean flora and fauna to sunlight for the first time in centuries. This so-called Risen Undercity gave rise to new species and unusual plant mutations as native lifeforms adapted to the sudden presence of sunlight. This sudden exposure to sunlight has sparked strange transformations among the Undercity's hidden flora and fauna, with botanists and Simic researchers continuing to study these newly awakened species and their mutations.

Gallery

• 
  Undercity concept art by Aleksi Briclot.
• 
  Undercity concept art by Aleksi Briclot.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Undercity Reaches

Associated cards:

• Clutch of the Undercity
• Cren, Undercity Dreamer
• Scourge of the Undercity
• Undercity Eliminator
• Undercity's Embrace
• Undercity Informer
• Undercity Necrolisk
• Undercity Plague
• Undercity Scavenger
• Undercity Sewers
• Undercity Shade
• Undercity Troll
• Undercity Upheaval
• Undercity Uprising

Quoted or referred to:

• Banehound
• Carrion Imp
• Dimir Cluestone
• Dimir Guildgate (Dragon's Maze)
• Fatal Fumes
• Golgari Charm
• Golgari Longlegs
• Golgari Raiders
• Golgari Rotwurm
• Lotleth Troll
• Lurking Informant
• Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
• Moroii
• Nav Squad Commandos
• Necropolis Regent
• Presumed Dead
• Sporeweb Weaver
• Stonefare Crocodile
• Ubul Sar Gatekeepers