Tin Street Market
| Tin Street Market | |
|---|---|
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| Information | |
| Plane | Ravnica |
| Colors |
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| Part of | Tin Street, Tenth District |
The Tin Street Market is a bustling, chaotic bazaar located in the heart of Tin Street, the longest and busiest thoroughfare in Ravnica's Tenth District. A hub of trade and intrigue, the market draws a dizzying mix of vendors, pickpockets, street performers, and guild agents. Here, citizens of every stripe haggle over goods ranging from fresh produce and alchemical trinkets to illicit wares and mysterious relics. Governed more by momentum than law, the market is a microcosm of Ravnican life—vibrant, unpredictable, and always on the brink of disorder.
Description
Tin Street Market is the pulsing heart of commerce and chaos in Ravnica — a sprawling, ever-expanding maze of vibrant stalls, rickety carts, and makeshift shops crammed into every available corner. Beneath a patchwork of colorful canopies and fluttering banners, merchants shout over one another to hawk every imaginable good: trinkets, baubles, spices, alchemical brews, street food, goblin labor, even “authentic wojek goggle-helmets only worn once by actual skyjeks.” The air is thick with aromas both delightful and questionable, from fresh-baked blini-cakes to the acrid tang of potions and charred meat pies.[1]
To a casual visitor, Tin Street feels like a festival of life, noise, and wonder. Locals, however, know it’s a place where fortunes are made and lost in a heartbeat — where only the sharp-eyed and quick-footed come out ahead. Cats dart through the throng[2], faeries flit overhead despite “No cloaks allowed” signs[3], dryads slip gracefully between customers[4], and goblins scurry underfoot, always a pocket away from mischief.[5] Barkers call out from every corner, and even the famous Orzhov banners of “protection” flutter discreetly over many stalls, signaling the Guild of Deals’ ever-watchful presence.
Yet beneath the market’s lively surface, danger lurks. With its dense crowds and constant distractions, Tin Street is a haven for pickpockets, con artists, and petty criminals. Goblins loyal to Krenko, the notorious Tin Street Kingpin, prowl the alleys and rooftops, running rackets and stirring up trouble. Rumors whisper through the stalls of doppelgangers slipping through the crowd[6], spirits haunting shopfronts[7], and overworked lawmages struggling to maintain order in the chaos[8].
Not even the weather slows Tin Street. Ravnica’s quick-forming acidic rainstorms only prompt merchants to raise awnings higher and customers to pull up their hoods. Even as new offshoots of the market swallow entire neighborhoods — like Gullmott’s former theater space — the business never stops. As Agrus Kos often reflected, at this rate, Tin Street might one day cover the entire city — and he might even live to see it.[1]
Locations
- Aul House - a loxodon vegetarian café where the Selesnyan Saint Bayul was mortally wounded by a Rakdos cultist goblin in front of Fonn Zunich and Agrus Kos.[1]
- Berk's Alley - one of the many dark alleys adjoining the Tin Street Market, where Luda was killed by a Rakdos cultist goblin in front of Bell Borca and Agrus Kos.[1]
- Falish's Workshop - a tool shop on the Precinct Six secion of the market, run by the renegade Izzet toolsmith Falish, who has connections to Krenko.[9]
- The Millstone - a seedy tavern on the Precinct Six secion of the market. The tavern caters to the rogh and rowdy, run by Wyroon, a male minotaur with a cracked horn and a surly disposition who was ousted from the Boros Legion years ago for insubordination.[9]
- Noggra's Remedies - an apothecary shop on the Precinct Six secion of the market. Run by the female goblin alchemist Noggra, selling alchemical substances and offering healing to injured gang members after their scuffles, occasionally also hiding them from the law.[9]
- Nollikob’s Fine Dromad-Leather Goods and Dried Meats - a leather and meat stall owned by Nollikob.[1]
- Oak Street entrance[10]
- Tupine’s Fruit Emporium - a fruit shop owned by Tupine.[1]
- Yescu Street entrance[10]
- Zuza’s Exotic Bestiary - an exotic pet store.[11]
History
According to Agrus Kos, his mother dumped him in Tin Street Market, and that was the last time he saw her.[1]
In 9999 ZC (4482 AR), Kos and Feather very publicly arrested Mr. Gullmott while he was enraged and enchanted on-stage in a production of the Signing of the Guildpact. The arrest order came for illegally blocking part of the Tin Street Market with the troupe's tent, exacerbated by the actor's violence against the officers, including Kos suffering a punctured lung. Simultaneously, Yertrude, the wife of silk merchant Wenvel Kolkin, vanished from the audience. She later turned up as a seeker ghost with its throat cut, which Kos had to destroy.[1]
The following day, a goblin member of the Cult of Rakdos killed the orphan girl Luda with a serrated dagger in an alley abutting the Tin Street Market. Agrus was led by the spirit of Myczil Zunich to the site of her death, and the goblin fled the scene and entered Aul House, where Saint Bayul and Fonn Zunich were having lunch and chatting with Bell Borca, Kos's partner. The goblin assassin then detonated a bomb, killing himself, Bayul, and Borca in the blast. By a stroke of luck, Kos survived the blast by the body of Bayul being in the path of the explosion, while Fonn Zunich was quitely removed from the site by a camouflaged Jarad vod Savo and brought to the Undercity.[1]
12 years later, in 10,012 ZC, Fonn investigated another murder on the street, this time of shop owner Zuza Uldossa, whose exotic pet shop was overrun by rats and whose corpse was examined by Dr. Helligan, actually another Lupul in disguise.[11]
Around the same time, Azorius court hussar Modar Bejiri used clause sixty-two of the Military Procedure section of the Hussar's Disciplinary Code, to request an emergency writ of arrest for the capture of a Hussar officer - himself. Having only three hours before the arrest would be made, the vedalken knight made a show in Tin Street Market of looking for a doppelganger murderer. The doppelganger arrived, and Modar let himself be killed by the creature who then took on his shape, just in time for the arresting Azorius soldiers to arrive.[12]
60 years later, in 10,072 ZC, the guildless ogre Ritjit attacked Tin Street Market after having been driven away from rampaging around Vitu-Ghazi. Running amok, he destroyed 81% of the Tin Street Market stalls in less than twenty minutes. Ritjit then became distracted by an overturned vegetable cart and was detained without further incident. He spent three years in a cell before smashing the door with the iron ball chained to his foot.[13]
Not long after, though, the market had bounced back and was bustling like never before when Bartek bought a necklace there for the Bane-Alley Broker Andra.[14]
In the wake of the War of the Spark, Tin Street became the site of numerous celebrations marking the hard-won victory. People raised their glasses to the fallen, to the heroes who had stood against Nicol Bolas, and to each other. The streets rang with the nervous but relieved laughter of survivors, while crowds of drunken Ravnicans drifted about — anxious, elated, and grieving all at once. Amid the revelry, Araithia Shokta slipped into a nearby alley and let herself have a long, cathartic cry, hidden from the chaos outside.[15]
In-game references
- Represented in:
- Associated cards:
- Quoted or referred to:
References
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Cory J. Herndon (2005) - Ravnica Cycle, Book I: Ravnica, Wizards of the Coast
- ↑ As seen on Charmed Stray
- ↑ As seen on Faerie Impostor
- ↑ As seen on Dryad Sophisticate
- ↑ As seen on Tin Street Dodger
- ↑ As seen on Doppelgang
- ↑ As seen on Ghosts of the Innocent
- ↑ As seen on Tin Street Market
- ↑ a b c James Wyatt & Jeremy Crawford (November 2018) - D&D Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica, Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b Flavor text of Doppelgang
- ↑ a b Cory J. Herndon (2006) - Dissension, Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (2006) - The Hussar's Last Mission, WotC.
- ↑ Jenna Helland (2012) The Azorius Ten Most Wanted. magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.|
- ↑ Kelly Digges (2013) - The Hard Sell
- ↑ Greg Weisman (November 2019) – War of the Spark: Forsaken, Del Rey.
