So, a long time ago, there was a contest put together to celebrate the alternate histories caused by the ripples of the rifts. Now, honestly, this is like one of my favorite thought exercises and even though it's a story, it's SOOOOOOO not meant for the M:EM. I put together like 4 stories for the project back then, and I continually go back to dig up what I'd done before. Well, I've come back to it again, and I think I'd like to spawn some discussion over it all. Totally just a cut loose sort of thing. I'm also thinking of dragging this remnant over to YMTC and seeing what they dream up based off the prompt.

Saint Vig, Selesnyan Prophet

Sunlight streamed down upon the gently swaying leaves of Vitu-Ghazi. The Crystals planted throughout the branches of the city tree captured the radiance of the day to be used each night. In the time since Momir Vig had joined the life song of Mat'Selesnya, this was but one of his brilliant creations. Vig stood upon the great terraced branches of the conclave's home and watched as the wind softly stirred the delicate green leaves that made up the enormous canopy. It was an excellent day to be alive, Vig thought to himself. His gaze wandered downwards to those scurrying below upon the streets and he momentarily frowned. There were too many that could not see the Conclave's vision, or even worse, chose not to. It was a shame.

The branches swayed momentarily and bathed the relaxing figure in a shaft of gold. Momir Vig was of average height for an elf, and unlike many of his elven compatriots, he was bald, a small genetic quirk from times immemorial. It was this quirk that made the brilliant emerald gem embedded in his forehead shine so much more prominently than any of the other chorus member's gems, their connection to the lifesong. Of course, those that followed his words would say it was his brilliance, or the light of Mat'Selesnya shining upon his brow. He chuckled silently to himself aand folded his hands behind him.

"Saint Vig?" A voice cut through Momir's thoughts and he looked around in mild surprise. There, a young man stood, a very young man. He could not have been more than ten or eleven.

"Yes my child? What may I do for you today?" Vig smiled beneficently at the child. The young one smiled back and held something up for Momir.

"You asked to be notified when the orzhov sorceress had located these texts for you." The young man waved the scroll back and forth in front of the elven master and he patiently waited until the child stopped before he plucked it from his small hands.

"So Mistress Lyzolda managed to find what I was looking for."

"Yes sir! She sent a courier over with all of it!" Vig chuckled once more at the boy's eagerness to please.

"It was a rhetorical question my lad. Very good though, You may go now. Be diligent in your studies." The beaming child took off down into the halls of Vitu Ghazi. After another moment of basking in the glow of sunlight, Saint Vig followed him. The child had Momir thinking of the decamillenia. The event that took place when that boy was but a babe. It was the year that Momir Vig had earned his title. When Szadek, it still stunned Momir that he truly existed, had provoked the demon Rakdos into rioting through the streets, it had seemed a grim time. So many injured had poured in through the living halls of this wooden haven. It seemed as if they would never stop. Momir Vig had ceased being a mere evangel at that point, he could do nothing to stop those in the streets, but he could heal those in his tree.

Momir Vig worked ceaselessly for ten days, resting but a mere few hours in that entire time before the Boros General Augustin had ordered the deployment of the spirit troops. They had driven back the demon and his hordes and the eternal Arbiter Razia and her Azorious angels had used the guildpact to seal Rix Maadi. Finally, the procession of injured had slowed to a trickle, and Vig collapsed from exhaustion soon after. Vig smiled at the memory, for it was then that the seeds of his great plan had been sown. In his exhaustive sleep, he had dreamed. A brilliant dream, one that had shaped the past ten years of his life. He dreamed of Mat'Selesnya, and she told him of the truth of the life song.

It was that truth which had caused him to go to the greatest and oldest magical minds of Ravnica. For ten years, he searched for those documents which now sat in his room thanks to Mistress Lyzolda. As he slipped into his room, a simple cell in the highest reaches of the tree, his eyes were immediately drawn to the stacked scrolls, all of them bearing Ozhov signets. Of course these were copies, the originals must be so old that they'd have turned to dust. With great reverence, he sat and broke the first seal, being careful and solemn. It was not everyday a man learned knowledge that predated the very guildpact.

Laid out before him, was the spell that had created Mat'selesnya herself, an elemental fusion of the first chorus of dryads. They had woven themselves together and gave birth to the life song and their sacrifice of individuality powered the guildpact. Everyone was tied to the guildpact through the life song. Soon though, if Vig's plans came to fruition, they would all be members of the conclave as well, compelled to hear the unity of the very aria of existence itself. The spells he researched now would free Mat'Selesnya and a new being would take her place. Vig considered a moment.

"A being with such a destiny deserves its own name. Something poetic, something... fitting." Yes, he rather liked that idea. He contemplated for a moment, before speaking aloud the old elvish name given new form. "Kraj'Selesnya. It has a certain ring to it, I think."


Feel free, if anyone wants, to expand on this and the implications there of. It's here for discussion after all. Thought exercises etc.

So, dwelling on it all and the way the original Ravnica would have played out with its different players in place, Guildpact, I think, would have looked a little like this:


And a set up for Dragon's Maze

Absolutely brilliant. Some of the changes feel a bit forced, but Momir Vig in Selesnya is both hilarious and yet incredibly sad.

So how does the revelation that Azor was a planeswalker affect your original scheme? Does it still make sense for him to play second fiddle to Razia?

He's NOT a planeswalker. He's just NOT native to the plane.
But lots of people weren't.

And in this scenario, Azor was Boros. The Azorius was named such out of respect.

Rurik thar should be izzet, because two heads are better than one, right?

Not really any space what with both Isperia and Niv still hanging around in the Izzet. It also sort of works with the parallels of the maze runner being Domri in the same vein Ral became the guild runner.
Ruric-Thar is a bit of a hard placement, but in my head, I think he'd make for a good Boros Commander. I mean, he has experience as a commander with the Gruul, and I think the two heads as master tacticians makes for an interesting paradigm...

Needless to say, I think Mirko Vosk would take up the mantle of demiurge in the Orzhov after Szadek's fall.

The biggest problems I have in placing people are Varolz, Zegana, and Lazav.

You could fix the problems of Niv and Rakdos by simply switching the guild names. The Cult of Izzet, formed for the entertainment of it's narcissistic, worship-craving Dragon lord, would work fine.

The Rakdos League would be trickier, and would require some major rewriting of the Parun. Changing him into a Efreet/Djinn hybrid would work for the guild, though...

Zegana at least would seem interesting as Golgari.

Eh, since she's a merfolk, that basically limits her to being a permutation of one of the blue guilds and since the Simic is already getting kicked out and the Izzet are full, that just leaves the Dimir or the Azorius.


Honestly, I think that would just be more forced than leaving them where they are and twisting everything around them.

So, for RtR Boros, what do people think of Guildleader Ruric Thar and Champion Lavinia?

Well, it is an underground ocean, so it is somewhat possible to rationalise Ravnica merfolk as aligned with Black mana instead, though if nothing else a Dimir take on the character would be interesting.



In all due honesty Lavinia was already very "Boros-ish", so yes.

Okay, so the layout for the RtR allegiances could be:

Holy necromancy Batman!
I've dragged this back up because... well, I keep coming back to it. It's a thought exercise that is just damned fun to do.

However, after looking at my list, then and now, I've decided the previous one didn't have enough structure. So I decided to approach it with a few new rules.
1) No two members switch to the same guild from the same generation.
2) Switches have to be only one step removed.
3) Characteristic and icon have to adhere to their norms.

With that in mind, I decided to make another go of finding out where everyone fit.


Feel free, if anyone wants, to expand on this or discuss the changes and how they might have potentially impacted the story. It's here for discussion after all.

I'm sure I'll make a stab at doing the Return to Ravnica stuff, though I'll probably follow through on some of the changes made, other places might end up having some different results. I'm going to consider where the various characters end up while also trying to reconcile who survives until the end as well.

Nice writeup. I wouldn't really prioritize RTR; this reader's got a take it or leave it relationship with the Return material. Is your Duskmantle still a guildhall that "doesn't exist?"

Wait why's this back