The city and the guilds

The **Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica** is a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition sourcebook that adapts the Magic: The Gathering plane for tabletop roleplaying. It provides DMs and players with the tools to run campaigns within the City of Guilds, focusing on the intricate social and political web that defines the setting. The lore within this book is a snapshot of Ravnica at a specific point in its history, just after the events of the *Return to Ravnica* block and before *War of the Spark*, making it an ideal starting point for a campaign.

### The City and the Guilds

The central premise of the book is that Ravnica is a single, massive ecumenopolis, a city that covers the entire world. There is no wilderness, only urban sprawl, from towering spires to the deepest sewers. The book focuses heavily on the Tenth District, a central hub where all ten guilds maintain a significant presence and where much of the day-to-day life and political intrigue occurs.

The book details the ten guilds, but unlike the broader lore, it frames them specifically for D&D gameplay. Each guild is presented as a potential character background, complete with a unique worldview, responsibilities, and a system of renown to track a character's advancement within their guild. The lore provided for each guild is tailored to help DMs craft adventures and for players to build characters that feel integral to the setting.

#### Azorius Senate

The Azorius are the quintessential bureaucrats and lawmakers. The book portrays them as a powerful, but often slow-moving and frustrating, force. Their guild is divided into three distinct wings: the **Jalhoran** (legislators), the **Sannor** (law enforcers, or the "arresters"), and the **Lyev** (judges and investigators). The lore emphasizes the conflict between these wings, as the Sannor can be overzealous, the Jalhoran are mired in procedural delays, and the Lyev struggle to find justice in a city with so many opposing forces. For players, this means an Azorius character can be a noble law enforcer, a cunning investigator, or a tedious paper-pusher.

#### Boros Legion

The Boros are the military and law enforcers of the righteous. The guide's lore highlights their commitment to swift, fiery justice and their unwavering sense of honor. The Legion is depicted as a highly-structured organization, led by the Archangel Aurelia, who is a hands-on commander. The book provides details on the Boros hierarchy, from the rank-and-file soldiers to the elite angels. It emphasizes the Boros belief that they are not simply a police force but a moral army, and that their mission is to defend the helpless and crush tyranny, no matter the source. This is a guild for players who want to be valiant heroes fighting for the common good.

#### Cult of Rakdos

The Cult of Rakdos is a chaotic and nihilistic force, and the book's lore embraces their role as the city's dark entertainers. The guild is a chaotic circus, a place of performance art, gruesome spectacles, and uninhibited revelry. Their leader, the demon Rakdos, is depicted as a slumbering force that can be roused to a destructive frenzy if not constantly entertained. The book details the various roles within the cult, from the Ringmaster to the Blood Witch, and offers an open-ended narrative for players who want to be part of the mayhem, either as performers, thrill-seekers, or even quiet laborers who find a place among the chaos.

#### Golgari Swarm

The Golgari's lore focuses on their role as the city's interconnected ecosystem of life and death. The book describes their vast, decaying network beneath the streets of Ravnica, where they manage the city's refuse and grow their own food. The Golgari are a guild of outcasts and misfits, but the guide's lore also presents them as a powerful and pragmatic force, unafraid of death and capable of raising vast armies of the undead. The book highlights the internal power struggles of the guild, as various factions vie for control of the swarm. It offers a unique character-building experience, where a player can be a grave cleric, a spore druid, or a fungal-themed ranger.

#### Gruul Clans

The Gruul are a collection of anarchic clans who have rejected urban civilization. The lore in the guide details their bitter resentment of a city that has consumed their ancestral homes and their ultimate goal of tearing down the concrete and returning Ravnica to its wild state. The book describes the various clans, each with its own monstrous leader and unique fighting style, from the goblin-led Ghor-Clan to the cyclops-dominated Burning Tree Clan. A Gruul character is an outsider who channels primal rage and a desire for freedom, making them a perfect fit for a barbarian, a wild-themed druid, or a primal fighter.

#### Izzet League

The Izzet's lore is built around their unhinged scientific ambition. Led by the dragon Niv-Mizzet, the guild is a whirlwind of magical innovation and chaotic experimentation. The book's lore emphasizes the unpredictable nature of their work, with magical breakthroughs and catastrophic explosions happening in equal measure. The guide describes the various "projects" that the Izzet work on, from public works to military weaponry, and details their unique "rank and file" of weird, golem-like creations and sentient magical items. This guild is an excellent choice for a wizard, an artificer, or any character with a penchant for high-risk, high-reward magical technology.

#### Orzhov Syndicate

The Orzhov are presented as a blend of a church and a bank, with a sinister undercurrent of organized crime. The book's lore focuses on their power, which extends beyond death through their debt-based system. The Orzhov believe that wealth is the ultimate power and that souls are a form of currency. Their leaders, the Obzedat, are a council of powerful ghosts who have used their influence to control the city's economy. The guild is a perfect fit for a character who wants to delve into high society, political intrigue, and shadowy business deals.

#### Selesnya Conclave

The Selesnya are a peaceful, communal society, but the guide's lore reveals a more complex reality. The book describes them as a sprawling, decentralized cult that seeks to bring harmony to Ravnica by uniting everyone under their banner. The guild's magic is tied to nature and community, and their leader, the three-part dryad Trostani, embodies their core belief in unity. While they preach peace, the Selesnya can be frighteningly zealous in their desire for conformity, and they are not above using their vast armies of elementals and creatures to defend their ideals. A Selesnya character is a good fit for a cleric, a druid, or a paladin who values community above all else.

#### Simic Combine

The Simic's lore is about the biological adaptation of life to the urban environment. The guide's lore describes the guild's "zonots," vast underwater labs where they perform grotesque and wondrous experiments. Their ultimate goal is to create new lifeforms and to "improve" on existing ones, a mission that has led to the creation of monstrous chimeras and the proliferation of Simic Hybrids. The book provides details on the different **clades**—sub-guilds focused on specific types of research—and the leadership of the guild's biomancers, who are constantly pushing the ethical boundaries of science. This guild is a compelling choice for a player who wants to be a bio-engineer, a mad scientist, or a character who is a living experiment themselves.

#### House Dimir

Finally, the Dimir are presented in the guide as a truly secret organization. The book's lore explains that the public believes the Dimir are a myth, which allows the guild to operate in the shadows as information brokers and spies. The Dimir's true nature is not one of overt power but of influence and control, using manipulation and stealth to achieve their goals. Their guildmaster, the shapeshifter Lazav, is the ultimate secret agent, and the book encourages DMs to use the Dimir as a shadowy puppet master in their campaigns. For players, this guild is the perfect choice for a rogue, a wizard specializing in illusion, or a character who loves to unravel secrets and operate behind the scenes.