Got my art and have been skimming through still but I figured I'd put the plot point the books spills. I will say a bunch of us figured out several things what happened. For the Bolas plot is groups it by the walkers;
<snip>
Thanks for sharing your art book contents 5colors.
Niv trying to power himself up. He knows a threat is coming. Can a powered up Niv-Mizzet fight Bolas 1 vs 1?
Also thinking it would be an swesome sight if Bolas arrives with his army of Eternals.
Why is Jace missing? He did not come home to Ravnica after the Ixalan adventure?
Dovin making spy thopters for the Azorious. The police of ravnica would surely be glad to have robot drones in their arsenal.
Simic getting militarized? This won't be good..
Kaya freeing people and ghosts from the loan sharks. I guess she is a good person.
Got my art and have been skimming through still but I figured I'd put the plot point the books spills. I will say a bunch of us figured out several things what happened. For the Bolas plot is groups it by the walkers;
<snip>
Thanks for sharing your art book contents 5colors.
Niv trying to power himself up. He knows a threat is coming. Can a powered up Niv-Mizzet fight Bolas 1 vs 1?
Also thinking it would be an swesome sight if Bolas arrives with his army of Eternals.
Why is Jace missing? He did not come home to Ravnica after the Ixalan adventure?
Dovin making spy thopters for the Azorious. The police would surely be glad to have robot drones in their arsenal.
Kaya freeing people and ghosts from the loan sharks. She is a good person in the story?
The timline is a bit wonky, really. This part of the Ravnica story is supposed to overlap with Ixalan, so Jace isn't there because he's marooned off-plane. All of Kaya's, Domri's, Dovin's, Niv-Mizzet's and Ral's actions primarily take place while Jace is missing, and Vraska becomes the new Golgari guildmaster when she gets back.
The pacing is odd, because we know from the Golgari short story that Vraska's been back for weeks now, but there's been no mention of Jace, so either Creative is just really bad at timelines, or he got back, quickly saw how bad things are, and went into hiding, only letting key people know that he had returned.
Doesn't everyone know when Jace comes back as the Guildpact turns back on.
I mean we saw all of the Gatewatch and New Dom Recruits go straight to Ravnica.
Granted though you would expect them to muster their attack plan from a different plane.
This can't be taking place concurrently with the Ixalan Block. Vraska would still be on Ixalan if that were the case. It simply doesn't work.
Here's the timeline as I understand it:
1.) Hour of Devastation. Mindwrecked Jace flees to Ixalan.
2.) Jace spends three months questing for the Immortal Sun with Vraska. The Ixalan story explicitly states, multiple times, that their time together equates to three months. Being generous, let's give Jace a half-month on Useless Island. So Ixalan Block ends roughly 3.5 months after Hour of Devastation. Ixalan Block ends with Jace Planeswalking to the Weatherlightand Vraska going back to Bolas/Ravnica.
3.) Jace arrives on the Weatherlight and informs Gideon of Bolas's plans. The Weatherlight Crew is en route to their showdown with Belzonlok. How much time elapses between this moment and the end of Dominaria's story? Let's be supremely generous and give it a full month of travel time (Dominaria's a big world), which gives Vraska just enough time to get set up on Ravnica and spend a couple weeks as guild leader before the Gatewatch shows up for the final showdown on Ravnica.
So at most, we're about 4.5 months after Hour of Devastation. And a month after the end of the Ixalan story.
Please let me know if I'm overlooking anything.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I'd rather die speaking the truth than live a lie." --Gix, to Yawgmoth (pre-Phyrexia)
I am amazed that Dovin basically turns Azorius into Minority Report police. I mean, I expected the thopters and surveillance, but not the precog-mages...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
This can't be taking place concurrently with the Ixalan Block. Vraska would still be on Ixalan if that were the case. It simply doesn't work.
Here's the timeline as I understand it:
1.) Hour of Devastation. Mindwrecked Jace flees to Ixalan.
2.) Jace spends three months questing for the Immortal Sun with Vraska. The Ixalan story explicitly states, multiple times, that their time together equates to three months. Being generous, let's give Jace a half-month on Useless Island. So Ixalan Block ends roughly 3.5 months after Hour of Devastation. Ixalan Block ends with Jace Planeswalking to the Weatherlightand Vraska going back to Bolas/Ravnica.
3.) Jace arrives on the Weatherlight and informs Gideon of Bolas's plans. The Weatherlight Crew is en route to their showdown with Belzonlok. How much time elapses between this moment and the end of Dominaria's story? Let's be supremely generous and give it a full month of travel time (Dominaria's a big world), which gives Vraska just enough time to get set up on Ravnica and spend a couple weeks as guild leader before the Gatewatch shows up for the final showdown on Ravnica.
So at most, we're about 4.5 months after Hour of Devastation. And a month after the end of the Ixalan story.
Please let me know if I'm overlooking anything.
There is a small problem - Vraska planeswalked from Ixalan to Ravnica (then to Meditation realm, then back). Jace planeswalked from Ixalan into Weatherlight just moments (well, an hour at most) after her, on Weatherlight he has a quarrel with others and immediately left (to Ravnica).
So now, according to the presumed timeline, Vraska is on Ravnica a month at least, and Jace is probably there too.
We do not know how exactly the "Living Guildpact" works. Is it immediately recognizable that Jace is/isn't absent? Maybe not, and Jace has been on Ravnica the whole time, in hiding...
Long story short:
- Jace: *planeswalks in* Do not trust Liliana, she is just using you all, like she used me and all of us before, etc. Bolas is going to attack Ravnica, I need you all there. Ostentatively ignoring Liliana.
- Liliana: ?!???
- Gideon: yeah, yeah, but the Cabal is bad and getting rid of Belzenlok is in greater Dominarian public good (in addition to being extremely for Liliana's good), and I trust her, and I do not want to repeat my mistakes from Amonkhet here.
- Jace: I understand, but there is no time to spare, I need you on Ravnica now. You coming, Chandra?
- Chandra: Sorry, I am not coming either, because I now have a chance to learn more about myself here.
- Jace: Whatever. See you on Ravnica. *planeswalks*
I'm interested in how Izzet is a Bolas-aligned guild with what we now know. If Ral is really a sleeper agent, why would Dovin need to stop the device? If he's a double agent, then Izzet isn't really Bolas aligned, right?
I'm interested in how Izzet is a Bolas-aligned guild with what we now know. If Ral is really a sleeper agent, why would Dovin need to stop the device? If he's a double agent, then Izzet isn't really Bolas aligned, right?
This is totally confusing me as well. Anyone with the art book able to shed some light on this?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I'd rather die speaking the truth than live a lie." --Gix, to Yawgmoth (pre-Phyrexia)
Well kaya’s wrath just officially confirmed the part on the obzedat is dead part of the art book
Dead and apparently they were complete morons.
Like Isperia.
Also I just had a fridge moment. Isperia doesn't even have the excuse of not knowing Vraska's intentions. All the guildleaders were there, when Vraska met with Jace and told him her plans to overthrow the guildpact and killing him. So not only was Isperia written to be oblivious, but literally dumb.
So not only was Isperia written to be oblivious, but literally dumb.
That is my problem with Ravnica post Ravnica 1, everyone has to have gone completely stupid for any of this to make sense.
Jarad apparently went Evil for the Lulz, The Boros eject Feather because reasons? The Ghost Quarter closes and shuts off the actual sequel hook in order to have a maze, The Simic have zero back up leadership apparently and completely fall apart till the Fishes show up, The Ghost Council go into a meeting with Teysa who last we saw they had put into a FREAKING SECRET GULAG without wondering how exactly she got released, Niv Mizzet has known about Planeswalkers the entire time and didn't think to maybe tell Jace of Ral that he knows what is up.
Rakdos of all people seems to be the most sane and sensible person on the entire plane sometimes. "Recruit the crazy people and let them run rampant and paint he town red with blood so I wake up once in a while."
Edit : Oh and don't forget the whole "Lets ignore the second Guildpact despite the fact the first one kept us(the guilds) in power for TEN THOUSAND YEARS."
So not only was Isperia written to be oblivious, but literally dumb.
That is my problem with Ravnica post Ravnica 1, everyone has to have gone completely stupid for any of this to make sense.
Jarad apparently went Evil for the Lulz, The Boros eject Feather because reasons? The Ghost Quarter closes and shuts off the actual sequel hook in order to have a maze, The Simic have zero back up leadership apparently and completely fall apart till the Fishes show up, The Ghost Council go into a meeting with Teysa who last we saw they had put into a FREAKING SECRET GULAG without wondering how exactly she got released, Niv Mizzet has known about Planeswalkers the entire time and didn't think to maybe tell Jace of Ral that he knows what is up.
Rakdos of all people seems to be the most sane and sensible person on the entire plane sometimes. "Recruit the crazy people and let them run rampant and paint he town red with blood so I wake up once in a while."
Edit : Oh and don't forget the whole "Lets ignore the second Guildpact despite the fact the first one kept us(the guilds) in power for TEN THOUSAND YEARS."
Jarad being evil hasn't been shown directly, he's still a Golgari though and they love nothing more than social darwinism, something most of us would think of as "evil" to some degree. I think it's more of a shame that we didn't see or hear anything from him personally in any story since Ravnica 1 until he is disposed of by Vraska, so we have no idea how being the guildmaster and a lich changed him.
The Simic HAD backup leadership. Too bad that every Simic with cytoplasts was killed by Momir Vig when he activated his experiment, and those were the absolute majority of them at that point, especially when it came to the higher ups. That's why they were more or less entirely destroyed as a guild and had to be rebuild from the ground up.
I wouldn't get too hung up on the story details in the art book right now, they've proven to be unreliable and sometimes simple not detailed enough to judge the story only by looking at them. I think there will be explanations for Isperias and the Ghost Councils behaviours.
Last of the info. There is a ton more like sections on the differnt races in each of the guilds and such so I encourage everyone who is a vorthos to buy the book, though most the info is focused on the current timeline and dosnt delve to much into the past. Of note it ties down that the all we know about the simic parun is they had the first or last name of Simic and they are non-human, as was all the paruns at the signing of the guildpact.
Izzet- The guild have been more focused on super weapons in since Jace is missing from Ravnica. An attack was made on Niv’s life and Its believed by the guild thats why Niv has tuck himself away and left Ral in charge (really its the guildpact experiment). I wonder if this was really na attack from Bolas to try and get rid of a threat aa well as get Ral into power. Because of this though, the Izzet now have it out for the Dimir.
Rakdos- As I said originally they have a new purpose in trying to humble and/or humiliate those in power (if not outright killing them) with their shows. A part of this is publicly exposing Dimir agents. And despite the more “good” layers they have added to Rakdos guild this time around, the art makes it clear the leader and parun is still a demon wanting destruction and death. While the Azorius and the Boros are the guilds most hated by the Rakdos, its born of fear which the Rakdos respond with violence, which has grown since Jace left.
Boros- Aurelia attitudute has changed, in part from working with Gideon, and now strives for lasting peace to help the everyday Ravnican. Since they are afraid of being infiltrated by spies, the Borors have devolpled more into small unit, lead by an angle (since its believes they can’t be corrupted).
Selesnya- It been mentioned but Trostani is inactive, with the three parts of her unable to agree and the guild its self has stopped. However Emmara and a few other have taken more active approaches with Emmrar wanting to make peace between the guilds and has been building many friendly non-selesnya relationships.
Simic- Vedalken can breath for a limited time under water by taking oxygen in through their skin. This lets them travel in the underwater simic territory. Benthid are large seas creature (ranging from tons of marine life) that are too big to fit through the zonots. There are rumors of unwilling test subjects unable to escape the underwater laborites.
I has missed it but Bolas is destabilizing Ravnica by causing chaos within the guilds, having fight against each other and to depower Jace as the guildpact, obv.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
As I said I cut the Obzedat more slack in the sense that Kaya had help from Tesya who should know what weaknesses the Obzedat have and set them up. Plus the Obzedat doesn't know anything about Kaya. So it seems it went down kinda how I expected Tesya trapped in a room and Kaya went to work. Granted the Obzedat should be good enough mages to put up more of a fight.
Meanwhile Isperia setup a secret meeting with Vraska and failed to use her telepathic abilities or research a gorgon protection spell despite knowing what a Gorgon is and that Vraska probably wants to kill her. That is far more pathetic and embarrassing.
But again this ties into the issue. Neowalkers are suppose to be weaker then Oldwalkers despite all evidence to the contrary where Neowalkers smash Legendaries with far more ease then even the strongest of Oldwalkers managed in the past.
I say the problem with Boros is more Aurelia is suddenly Feather. Aurelia imprisoned Feather for being too soft on crime and weak but now she is supporting all the policies that Feather would have. So it just feels weird.
As for Simic I am not really surprised here because after they tried to kill the whole planet you figure they had quite the leadership purge so them being a headless chicken for awhile makes sense.
I mean Borbo is getting old sure but Domri's whole plan was just dump a bunch of boar summons on the guy? Thats it. No one before Domri tried that? How does that work logically
Meanwhile we got Isperia who can read minds here and is actually a spellcaster getting tooled by Dovin and Vraska. Yeah yeah the Ghost Council might never considered a Ghost Killer existing but Isperia got no excuse for not casting a protection against stone gaze spell on herself. She knows what a Gorgon is.
Niv is more why is he not building the device himself.
Kaya killing the Ghost Council the one I buy the easiest but that is more cause she got help Tesya who presumably had some sort of plan to handle the Ghost Council during her failed revolt. Also why would the Ghost Council not be mages? Tesya is a mage one of her ancestors is on the council. Ergo I think the assumption yeah the Ghost Council is rich but also those Rich Guys are Spellcasters as well. One would assume Orzhov contracts are magical contracts not just pen and paper.
I agree that some of the old character's end seem a bit lackluster, but I don't think you can really complain that wizards didn't "sell" the story right if you are discussing bits of information and speculation during spoiler season. I'm pretty sure the story team will adress these guild leadership changes in more detail than what essentially seems to be a protcol in the art book.
Well I am not going hold criticism until the end, I am going with what I got and so far not impressed. Also for the record I was not impressed with Rivals, Dominaria or Core Set so I don't have much faith in WOTC here. I did like the Sanderson story though but that is one off until proven otherwise.
Meanwhile Isperia setup a secret meeting with Vraska and failed to use her telepathic abilities or research a gorgon protection spell despite knowing what a Gorgon is and that Vraska probably wants to kill her. That is far more pathetic and embarrassing.
But again this ties into the issue. Neowalkers are suppose to be weaker then Oldwalkers despite all evidence to the contrary where Neowalkers smash Legendaries with far more ease then even the strongest of Oldwalkers managed in the past.
I say the problem with Boros is more Aurelia is suddenly Feather. Aurelia imprisoned Feather for being too soft on crime and weak but now she is supporting all the policies that Feather would have. So it just feels weird.
As for Simic I am not really surprised here because after they tried to kill the whole planet you figure they had quite the leadership purge so them being a headless chicken for awhile makes sense.
I guess they're really gung ho with the "telling a compelling story" shindig and letting details scatter and assemble themselves
And add insult to the injury with Feather... I think she was even left out in the lore about Boros in the GM Guide (as I read around here). They really hate her a lot for some reason.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Serra Stan - Angel Enthusiast - Garruk and Tyvar thirsty follower - Flavor and Art Enthusiast
And add insult to the injury with Feather... I think she was even left out in the lore about Boros in the GM Guide (as I read around here). They really hate her a lot for some reason.
Then they would have to address the whole wing topic, which brings me back to a question I had since forever.
Last of the info. There is a ton more like sections on the differnt races in each of the guilds and such so I encourage everyone who is a vorthos to buy the book, though most the info is focused on the current timeline and dosnt delve to much into the past. Of note it ties down that the all we know about the simic parun is they had the first or last name of Simic and they are non-human, as was all the paruns at the signing of the guildpact.
Is there anything about the angel with 4 wings topic? In the original Ravnica it was stated that the angels are all clones of Razia, which means they would also have 4 wings. When Return to Ravnica came around they suddenly had 2 wings, like Aurelia. Is it stated anywhere if this is a new flock and the Razia clones "died out", which also wouldn’t work, because we saw one in the Boros story we got.
And add insult to the injury with Feather... I think she was even left out in the lore about Boros in the GM Guide (as I read around here). They really hate her a lot for some reason.
Then they would have to address the whole wing topic, which brings me back to a question I had since forever.
Last of the info. There is a ton more like sections on the differnt races in each of the guilds and such so I encourage everyone who is a vorthos to buy the book, though most the info is focused on the current timeline and dosnt delve to much into the past. Of note it ties down that the all we know about the simic parun is they had the first or last name of Simic and they are non-human, as was all the paruns at the signing of the guildpact.
Is there anything about the angel with 4 wings topic? In the original Ravnica it was stated that the angels are all clones of Aurelia, which means they would also have 4 wings. When Return to Ravnica came around they suddenly had 2 wings, like Aurelia. Is it stated anywhere if this is a new flock and the Aurelia clones "died out", which also wouldn’t work, because we saw one in the Boros story we got.
You are getting Razia and Aurelia mixed up.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Thanks for sharing your art book contents 5colors.
Niv trying to power himself up. He knows a threat is coming. Can a powered up Niv-Mizzet fight Bolas 1 vs 1?
Also thinking it would be an swesome sight if Bolas arrives with his army of Eternals.
Why is Jace missing? He did not come home to Ravnica after the Ixalan adventure?
Dovin making spy thopters for the Azorious. The police of ravnica would surely be glad to have robot drones in their arsenal.
Simic getting militarized? This won't be good..
Kaya freeing people and ghosts from the loan sharks. I guess she is a good person.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
The timline is a bit wonky, really. This part of the Ravnica story is supposed to overlap with Ixalan, so Jace isn't there because he's marooned off-plane. All of Kaya's, Domri's, Dovin's, Niv-Mizzet's and Ral's actions primarily take place while Jace is missing, and Vraska becomes the new Golgari guildmaster when she gets back.
The pacing is odd, because we know from the Golgari short story that Vraska's been back for weeks now, but there's been no mention of Jace, so either Creative is just really bad at timelines, or he got back, quickly saw how bad things are, and went into hiding, only letting key people know that he had returned.
I mean we saw all of the Gatewatch and New Dom Recruits go straight to Ravnica.
Granted though you would expect them to muster their attack plan from a different plane.
Here's the timeline as I understand it:
1.) Hour of Devastation. Mindwrecked Jace flees to Ixalan.
2.) Jace spends three months questing for the Immortal Sun with Vraska. The Ixalan story explicitly states, multiple times, that their time together equates to three months. Being generous, let's give Jace a half-month on Useless Island. So Ixalan Block ends roughly 3.5 months after Hour of Devastation. Ixalan Block ends with Jace Planeswalking to the Weatherlightand Vraska going back to Bolas/Ravnica.
3.) Jace arrives on the Weatherlight and informs Gideon of Bolas's plans. The Weatherlight Crew is en route to their showdown with Belzonlok. How much time elapses between this moment and the end of Dominaria's story? Let's be supremely generous and give it a full month of travel time (Dominaria's a big world), which gives Vraska just enough time to get set up on Ravnica and spend a couple weeks as guild leader before the Gatewatch shows up for the final showdown on Ravnica.
So at most, we're about 4.5 months after Hour of Devastation. And a month after the end of the Ixalan story.
Please let me know if I'm overlooking anything.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
There is a small problem - Vraska planeswalked from Ixalan to Ravnica (then to Meditation realm, then back). Jace planeswalked from Ixalan into Weatherlight just moments (well, an hour at most) after her, on Weatherlight he has a quarrel with others and immediately left (to Ravnica).
So now, according to the presumed timeline, Vraska is on Ravnica a month at least, and Jace is probably there too.
We do not know how exactly the "Living Guildpact" works. Is it immediately recognizable that Jace is/isn't absent? Maybe not, and Jace has been on Ravnica the whole time, in hiding...
Who did Jace have a quarrel with on the weatherlight, and why? I did not know that part of the story.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/return-dominaria-episode-9-2018-05-09
Long story short:
- Jace: *planeswalks in* Do not trust Liliana, she is just using you all, like she used me and all of us before, etc. Bolas is going to attack Ravnica, I need you all there. Ostentatively ignoring Liliana.
- Liliana: ?!???
- Gideon: yeah, yeah, but the Cabal is bad and getting rid of Belzenlok is in greater Dominarian public good (in addition to being extremely for Liliana's good), and I trust her, and I do not want to repeat my mistakes from Amonkhet here.
- Jace: I understand, but there is no time to spare, I need you on Ravnica now. You coming, Chandra?
- Chandra: Sorry, I am not coming either, because I now have a chance to learn more about myself here.
- Jace: Whatever. See you on Ravnica. *planeswalks*
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Based on that. I guess Jace must be in Ravnica now.. but maybe in hiding or someone made him disappear.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
This is totally confusing me as well. Anyone with the art book able to shed some light on this?
Dead and apparently they were complete morons.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Like Isperia.
Also I just had a fridge moment. Isperia doesn't even have the excuse of not knowing Vraska's intentions. All the guildleaders were there, when Vraska met with Jace and told him her plans to overthrow the guildpact and killing him. So not only was Isperia written to be oblivious, but literally dumb.
That is my problem with Ravnica post Ravnica 1, everyone has to have gone completely stupid for any of this to make sense.
Jarad apparently went Evil for the Lulz, The Boros eject Feather because reasons? The Ghost Quarter closes and shuts off the actual sequel hook in order to have a maze, The Simic have zero back up leadership apparently and completely fall apart till the Fishes show up, The Ghost Council go into a meeting with Teysa who last we saw they had put into a FREAKING SECRET GULAG without wondering how exactly she got released, Niv Mizzet has known about Planeswalkers the entire time and didn't think to maybe tell Jace of Ral that he knows what is up.
Rakdos of all people seems to be the most sane and sensible person on the entire plane sometimes. "Recruit the crazy people and let them run rampant and paint he town red with blood so I wake up once in a while."
Edit : Oh and don't forget the whole "Lets ignore the second Guildpact despite the fact the first one kept us(the guilds) in power for TEN THOUSAND YEARS."
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Jarad being evil hasn't been shown directly, he's still a Golgari though and they love nothing more than social darwinism, something most of us would think of as "evil" to some degree. I think it's more of a shame that we didn't see or hear anything from him personally in any story since Ravnica 1 until he is disposed of by Vraska, so we have no idea how being the guildmaster and a lich changed him.
The Simic HAD backup leadership. Too bad that every Simic with cytoplasts was killed by Momir Vig when he activated his experiment, and those were the absolute majority of them at that point, especially when it came to the higher ups. That's why they were more or less entirely destroyed as a guild and had to be rebuild from the ground up.
I wouldn't get too hung up on the story details in the art book right now, they've proven to be unreliable and sometimes simple not detailed enough to judge the story only by looking at them. I think there will be explanations for Isperias and the Ghost Councils behaviours.
Izzet- The guild have been more focused on super weapons in since Jace is missing from Ravnica. An attack was made on Niv’s life and Its believed by the guild thats why Niv has tuck himself away and left Ral in charge (really its the guildpact experiment). I wonder if this was really na attack from Bolas to try and get rid of a threat aa well as get Ral into power. Because of this though, the Izzet now have it out for the Dimir.
Rakdos- As I said originally they have a new purpose in trying to humble and/or humiliate those in power (if not outright killing them) with their shows. A part of this is publicly exposing Dimir agents. And despite the more “good” layers they have added to Rakdos guild this time around, the art makes it clear the leader and parun is still a demon wanting destruction and death. While the Azorius and the Boros are the guilds most hated by the Rakdos, its born of fear which the Rakdos respond with violence, which has grown since Jace left.
Boros- Aurelia attitudute has changed, in part from working with Gideon, and now strives for lasting peace to help the everyday Ravnican. Since they are afraid of being infiltrated by spies, the Borors have devolpled more into small unit, lead by an angle (since its believes they can’t be corrupted).
Selesnya- It been mentioned but Trostani is inactive, with the three parts of her unable to agree and the guild its self has stopped. However Emmara and a few other have taken more active approaches with Emmrar wanting to make peace between the guilds and has been building many friendly non-selesnya relationships.
Simic- Vedalken can breath for a limited time under water by taking oxygen in through their skin. This lets them travel in the underwater simic territory. Benthid are large seas creature (ranging from tons of marine life) that are too big to fit through the zonots. There are rumors of unwilling test subjects unable to escape the underwater laborites.
I has missed it but Bolas is destabilizing Ravnica by causing chaos within the guilds, having fight against each other and to depower Jace as the guildpact, obv.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Meanwhile Isperia setup a secret meeting with Vraska and failed to use her telepathic abilities or research a gorgon protection spell despite knowing what a Gorgon is and that Vraska probably wants to kill her. That is far more pathetic and embarrassing.
But again this ties into the issue. Neowalkers are suppose to be weaker then Oldwalkers despite all evidence to the contrary where Neowalkers smash Legendaries with far more ease then even the strongest of Oldwalkers managed in the past.
I say the problem with Boros is more Aurelia is suddenly Feather. Aurelia imprisoned Feather for being too soft on crime and weak but now she is supporting all the policies that Feather would have. So it just feels weird.
As for Simic I am not really surprised here because after they tried to kill the whole planet you figure they had quite the leadership purge so them being a headless chicken for awhile makes sense.
I agree that some of the old character's end seem a bit lackluster, but I don't think you can really complain that wizards didn't "sell" the story right if you are discussing bits of information and speculation during spoiler season. I'm pretty sure the story team will adress these guild leadership changes in more detail than what essentially seems to be a protcol in the art book.
UR Mizzix of the Izmagnus ~~~ Build your own win-condition: Finite Spellslinging
UR Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer ~~~ We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic ~~~ A Guide to dying slowly
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose ~~~ Marchesa's undying Marionettes
RGW Mayael the Anima ~~~ All Hail the Big Chungus
GWU Chulane, Teller of Tales ~~~ Permanents Only ETB Shenanigans
BGU Sidisi, Brood Tyrant ~~~ Sidisi's Restless Servants
WUBRG The Ur-Dragon ~~~ Dragons eat your face
I guess they're really gung ho with the "telling a compelling story" shindig and letting details scatter and assemble themselves
And add insult to the injury with Feather... I think she was even left out in the lore about Boros in the GM Guide (as I read around here). They really hate her a lot for some reason.
Serra Stan - Angel Enthusiast - Garruk and Tyvar thirsty follower - Flavor and Art Enthusiast
Details matter when telling a compelling story.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Then they would have to address the whole wing topic, which brings me back to a question I had since forever.
Is there anything about the angel with 4 wings topic? In the original Ravnica it was stated that the angels are all clones of Razia, which means they would also have 4 wings. When Return to Ravnica came around they suddenly had 2 wings, like Aurelia. Is it stated anywhere if this is a new flock and the Razia clones "died out", which also wouldn’t work, because we saw one in the Boros story we got.
Edit: fixed the names, thanks Maritrakul
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
You are getting Razia and Aurelia mixed up.