Bloodpool Part One

Jax sat alone in his tent, dark aside from a single lantern hanging from the pinnacle. A miniature carnival shaped tent, colored black and red. On one side were his trunk and cot, spartan furnishings at most. On the other side sat the tools of his trade: a barbed whip, a spiked collar, a hammer that has seen more blood than there is in one body.

He was preparing himself. Preparing himself for The Games. His first Slaughter Games to be more exact, filling the space his father left in Pakza's ring. He would fight for the man in a week yet he barely knew him or what he was doing. So green for a man to fill big shoes.

His father was the illustrious Rax who won many, if not all, of the games he performed in. But he never taught his son a single thing. Now Jax sits alone in his tent glumly pondering what he's going to do, how to even survive his rookie event.

Then, a knock outside his tent, a firm rap against the ridge pole to shake him out of his melancholy and the rest of the structure.

"Wakey-wakey! It's time you started learning a thing or two out there...can't have any more spaces in my ring for a while!" called Pakza, Jax's ringleader.

Excited and nervous, the young Rakdos stepped out of his tent, ready to learn how to survive in the rings of a blood carnival.

Vernadis Besieged Part Three

Zavi was surprised to find he wasn't the only one paying Trostani a visit. When he reached the Capital, he was greeted by two of his fellow Vernadi leaders. Alani Davosi had his, Ke-Li, out near a major Simic lab and Dinia Ti-Libera has hers, Vali-Os, nestled on the cusp of some Gruul-inhabited ruins. They had both been attacked, the methods of the attackers very different.

Alani had been attacked by a man bearing the same poison as one of Zavi's attackers, but the similarities stop there. The other attackers altered his walls, turning them into creatures that attacked his Vernadi instead of protecting it. Another attacker used innovative magic that Alani couldn't even grasp to tear his walls to shreds. The fourth and final attacker slashed through the thorny vines with the air itself, the last attacker felt too pure for this deed to Alani, a small fact that hasn't sat well with him since the attack.

Dinia experienced the blaze-making attacker like Zavi as well as the complex magics that Alani had to deal with. One of the assailants at Vali-Os used magic to revert her primary wall into a more natural and less magically-altered ring of shrubs. Worst of all was the pyromancer with the golden flames: hauntingly pure with  a sense of duty and righteousness that made her feel as though she had done something wrong and this was her punishment.

They all had the conclusion to enter the capital and consult their guildmistress, they all feared another attack, they all needed advice to figure out how to prevent another attack.

"Keep faith in the Worldsoul," Trostani advised "let it tell you how to best fortify your city and protect the ones you love."

Zavi, Alani and Dinia all sat and wondered what to do. They resolved to fortify the walls, no longer the shrubs with thorns, a weak and useless protection as the past few days have shown. Instead a ring of small trees, enchanted saplings to keep away intruders and protect the Selesnyans living within their confines.

With this resolution, a shadow passed over the clearing where they sat, noise erupted from the base of Vitu-Ghazi.

"Alani, go to the crown. Dinia, the roots." Zavi said, leaping into action. He himself ran for the throne room, ready to protect the head of the Conclave at all costs. It was a good decision.

Vernadis Besieged Part Two

Four strangers. Four strangers stood outside Nazia, Zavi’s Vernadi. Just four people, yet they seemed to completely surround the new settlement, forming a barrier with their dark and foreboding auras.

Then, without warning all four stormed the outer wall. To the north, a dark poison swept across the thorny, woven perimeter and wilted the barricade. The south sector burned with a bright and chaotic flame. The western wall seemed to part before the attacker and die, shriveling and turning from a bright and jovial green to brown like the dirt it grew from. The wall to west was easily hacked apart by the fourth stranger using long, golden whip-like weapons with curved blades on the end, the weapon of an assassin.

Zavi now understood the grim circumstances of the day. “Begin a Conclave Call, now!” he ordered his top men who stood beside him. Only seconds later did the surrounding area boom with the voices of the Vernadi’s inhabitants, an ominous yet powerful song cutting through the air. Zavi, from atop the highest limb on the tree, began to work his magic.

The roots that formed the inner wall immediately rose from the ground, fueled by Zavi and the Call below him, and wrapped themselves around the intruders. Slowly constricting and rising, slowly killing the ones that tried to harm the city and its living center. With a final boom, the roots crashed to the ground, had the Selesnyans’ voices not been so loud, making four sickening crunches.

Satisfied that the threat was gone, Zavi reformed the inner wall and put a silence to the din of voices.

Time to address my people and console them that the threat is gone and we are safe. But Are we really?

Vernadis Besieged Part One

"I entrust you- Zavi Natu- with the charge of our newest Vernadi and the duties and responsibilities thereof," Trostani's voice boomed across the Palisade of Vitu-Ghazi, the mighty city-tree that serves as the home of all Selesnya. The planning had begun months ago, the forms processed through New Prahv in triplicate as the Azorians required. Zavi had been hand-picked by Trostani herself. "You will be granted a force of 100 guards and fifteen guildmages for the protection and building of your settlement. May you be successful in your endeavors and remember: always keep the Worldsoul in your heart," the guildmistress continued, ending a celebration speech before the guild.

Zavi would be off the next morning with his followers to populate a small area near a Golgari gate to the Undercity, a risky place for a purity guild to be. But Zavi wasn't worried, he had some of his best men and friends going on this pilgrimage with him. Yet, he couldn't seem to sleep that night, he kept telling himself go to sleep, it's a tough walk is a hard hike as it is... almost unbearable without sleep. But he couldn't do it, the nerves and excitement combined to keep him awake the entire night, but they kept him going the entire day until they reached their checkpoint for the first night, a rather large Vernadi close to the Firemind's Aerie, Nivix. This night went better for Zavi so he was well rested on the last leg of the hike where he reached the settlement site.

The young guildtree was planted and enchanted without a hitch. The tree itself grew tenfold, the lower boughs branching into many huts, identical to the ones lower down at the base of the beautiful oak. The crown was woven and stacked into a beautiful treetop statehouse for Zavi and the commanders of magic and guards. A ring of barracks were made around the base out of roots that had surfaced and hidden back under the ground. A similar structure was used to form an inner wall while the outer wall was composed of large thorn bushes: Trostani is taking no risks this close to the Undercity.

A beautiful day full of progress, what could go wrong?

The Land of the Gleaming City

Ravnica- a land of gleaming cities..or should I say city. It seems never-ending because what may have once been many cities is now an intermingled web of city, the wildest places maintaining the urban feel through rubble and carnage that used to be a city.

Now one would think that as one city, the plane would be at peace...wrong! The world has divided itself into ten guilds that need one another to run the city yet are constantly in disagreement, even war. The plane exists as a series of feuds between guilds and yet it appears to coexist through the turmoil.