Izzet League

### Guild Role

Provision of convenience, infrastructure, civil engineering and technology services.

## MTG Informations

### Mechanics

* Replicate
* Overload
* Jump-start

### Featured Sets

* *Guildpact*
* *Return to Ravnica*
* *Duel Decks: Izzet vs. Golgari*
* *Guilds of Ravnica*

## D&D Informations

### Backgrounds

Izzet Engineer

The **Izzet League,** also known as **The Magewrights**, is one of ten powerful guilds that govern the city of Ravnica. Founded by Niv-Mizzet, a dragon with a brilliant mind and colossal ego, the Izzet League is known for its passion for scientific research, magical experimentation, and technological innovation.

## Description

The Izzet League are charged with attending to Ravnican civic works, including water supply systems, sewers, heating systems, boilers, roadways, and all other modern conveniences and infrastructure. However, any guild member who is even remotely ambitious finds such mundane assignments tedious to say the least. This is because the guild is home to masters of theoretical science, invention, metamagic, and sorcery, preferring most of the time to occupy themselves with exotic, megalomaniacal, and/or gaudy projects. The nature of the guild is a passion for discovery, knowledge, and reckless curiosity. As such, many members can best be adequately described as mad scientists.

The Izzet are only focused on their work, which makes them the guild that manifests the least interest in the daily intrigues and politics of the big city. On the other hand, the direction of this work changes constantly. The Izzet are easily bored, and jump from one inspiration to another and from one theory to the next; and as a result, the Izzet's best designs end up passing through countless hands before being completed. It was this impatience and desire for results that made Ravnica the city it is today, grander than any other. However, ironically, these same impulses all too often ended up leaving marks in the form of large craters, explosions and a lot of confusion.

## History

The ancient dragon Niv-Mizzet was present during the formation of the guilds at the signing of the original Guildpact. Thinking it might be fun to lead one, he founded the Izzet League, initially composed of mages who admired the Firemind's brilliance and majesty. After the signing of the Guildpact, the League was responsible for preventing natural catastrophes from disturbing order in the world. Drawing on the most advanced magical and inventive science of any guild, Izzet mages laid the foundations for the City of Ravnica – complete with all the necessary infrastructure. Most of the plan's inhabitants saw that Izzet science, despite being unstable, actually brought more well-being and comfort. With the time and speed characteristic of the impetuous work of the Izzet, the city grew and swallowed up all fields, forests, mountains and every other type of natural landscape until there was nothing left on the horizon. Nature, even ruthless as usual, was not able to contain the civilization fostered by the magesculptors' technology.

From then on, the Izzet League was responsible for running almost all of the devices that kept Ravnica operating. Your mages developed the sewer system, built smelters, and filled the markets with every kind of necessary or unnecessary trinkets imaginable. They are fiery craftsmen and researchers, never satisfied and always in search of better equipment or a more powerful spell. Indeed, they have become the only ones who deeply understand how magic works, and hold knowledge of "planar universes" as well as speculations of how other realities might have affected life and death on Ravnica. This ended up further strengthening the impression people have of the Izzet as delusional wizards.

The Dracogenius Niv-Mizzet has always been a reclusive and relatively unreachable creature, even keeping to himself and not appearing in public for long periods of Ravnica's history. However, it is known that years after the Decamillennial he disappeared completely, supposedly abandoning the guild. After fighting the Nephilim in 10,012 Z.C. during the Utvara Disaster, Niv-Mizzet was not seen for a while. Former guildmages wondered what this newfound freedom could mean for the Izzet, but without their guildmaster's word, the Izzet League became scattered and chaotic.

Most Ravnicans saw Niv-Mizzet's demise as the end of the Izzet guild. It wasn't until the rise of great Izzet works being built and strange warehouses buzzing with fountains all night that the Ravnicans began to change their assumptions. The ancient parun dragon didn't need to be visible to control his guild. During his absence, he used the power of his Firemind extrasensory link to reach out to his guild mages with a complex series of new and mysterious projects for the Izzet League to work on. Later, in 10,076 the real purpose of such seemingly disconnected projects was revealed by Niv-Mizzet himself when he announced the discovery of the Implicit Maze that ended up electing Jace Beleren as the Living Guildpact.

Shortly thereafter, the guildmaster of the guild, through the Izmundi, began to demand more significant discoveries and faster results towards the development of superweapons, with chemisters increasingly resorting to experiments day and night under threat of losing their powers. their laboratories.

In 10,076, Niv-Mizzet learned that a threat to Ravnica was coming from another plane. He started an experiment that was supposed to remove the status of the Living Guildpact and allow him to grow stronger, but he would need the help of the other guilds to carry it out. To work on his research, he moved away from the main part of the city and left Ral Zarek behind as acting guildleader. Zarek initially appeared to be secretly in league with the ancient dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas, but later declined offers of service passed down through Tezzeret.  After an intruder infiltrated Nivix, the Firemind revealed to Zarek that he had been aware of Ral's little secrets all along.

When he failed to acquire the power of the Living Guildpact from the Interlocus, Niv-Mizzet was forced to fight Bolas on his own merits. The battle was brief, leaving only Niv's charred bones behind; however, the Firemind had been preparing for this. Zarek's role as guildmaster was confirmed by Bolas, but Ral continued to fight the elder dragon by carrying out the final orders of the Firemind. In the War of the Spark, Zarek's role was pivotal in enlisting the help from the other guilds to fight the Dreadhorde and to resurrect Niv-Mizzet as the Living Guildpact.

During New Phyrexia's Invasion of the Multiverse, Vraska led the Phyrexian forces against Ravnica but was defeated by Ral Zarek with a sonic weapon attuned against the glistening oil. Along with many members of the Simic Combine, numerous Izzet willingly underwent compleation out of sheer curiosity, resulting in great distrust from the other guilds.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 (2006). *Guildpact Player's Guide.* Wizards of the Coast.
2. ↑ Rei Nakazawa (September 5, 2005). "Life in the Big City". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
3. ↑ Magic Arcana (March 02, 2006). "Pipes and Boilers". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
4. ↑ Monty Ashley (November 13, 2012). "Working in the Lab". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
5. ↑ Adam Lee (August 29, 2012). "Ravnica, Then and Now". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 James Wyatt (January 2019). "*The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Ravnica*". Wizards of the Coast
7. ↑ Nicky Drayden (October 17, 2018). "Testing the Dark Waters". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
8. ↑ Flavor text for Command the Storm
9. ↑ Chas Andres (October 3, 2018). "A Flavorful Guide to the Guilds of Ravnica". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Django Wexler (June, 2019), *The Gathering Storm/Chapter One*. Del Rey.
11. ↑ Alison Lührs (March 24, 2023). "March of the Machine Ravnica: One And The Same". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
12. ↑ Emily Teng (April 11, 2023). "Planeswalker's Guide to *March of the Machine*: The Phyrexian Invasion of the Multiverse". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.