History Characters / MagicTheGatheringFactions

To see the tropes for the Preators individually, click [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/MagicTheGatheringOtherCharacters Other Characters]].

* EnemyCivilWar: New Phyrexia primarily fights against the Mirrian Resistance, but the Preators sometimes fight each other for the position of top dog.
* EvilCanNotComprehendGood: The Preators of New Phyrexia can't understand why [[HopeSpringsEternal the Mirrians continue to fight against them even though they lost their home to them]].
* FiveBadBand: The Preators form one:

* AssimilationPlot: Generally their ''modus operandi'', as all must be "compleated", though it varies. Old Phyrexians resorted to brainwashing/lobotomy and then emplying the BodyHorror; new phyrexians simply inject people with their oil, though the descriptions for the White and Blue factions imply that they still opt for "au naturale" conversions before administering the oil.

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Oh yes. The Song of the Conclave was an outright plane-wide brainwashing spell, making the Gateless more docile, which led them to lynch the Selesnyans. Their new incarnations presumably still do things of the sort, but they've learned their lesson.

* MalevolentMaskedMen: The thrulls of Orzhov wear faceplates that resemble golden masks.

* LightIsNotGood: Notice a pattern yet? Although white and green are the stereotypically the "good colors", Selesnya at its worst is willing to create a WorldOfSilence.

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Feather, one of the protagonists from the original Ravnica trilogy, was pretty much the most compassionate and sane angel "on-screen".

** Also, in the ''Return To Ravnica'' block, they're stated to feed the poor and outcasts and help them.

* PlayingWithFire: A lot of their cards have a fire motif.

* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Guild]]: Dimir is the only guild that isn't violently insane, politically extremist, or suffering from backstabbing over in-guild leadership. Unfortunately, they're also the guild where the rather [[JamesBond Bond]]-esque DiabolicalMastermind spawned from.

* AssimilationPlot: Generally their ''modus operandi'', as all must be "completed", though it varies. Old Phyrexians resorted to brainwashing/lobotomy and then emplying the BodyHorror; new phyrexians simply inject people with their oil, though the descriptions for the White and Blue factions imply that they still opt for "au naturale" conversions before administering the oil.

* AssimilationPlot: Generally their ''modus operandi'', as all must be "compleated", though it varies. Old Phyrexians resorted to brainwashing/lobotomy and then emplying the BodyHorror; new phyrexians simply inject people with their oil, though the descriptions for the White and Blue factions imply that they still opt for "au naturale" conversions before administering the oil.

After its infection began to spread, many of Mirrodin's natives gathered in the lower layers of the world, and transformed themselves into Phyrexians. After a long period of time rebuilding, they emerged and battled the Mirrans, sparking a war that ended with the [[TheBadGuyWins compleation of Mirrodin into New Phyrexia]].

* LightIsNotGood: The guild is half-white, but can overtly violent and hypocritical.

* LightIsNotGood: Notice a pattern yet? Although white and green are the stereotypically the "good colors", Selesnya at its worst is willing to create a WorldOfSilence.

* PathOfInspiration: Ostensibly; while well intentioned, they still reduce or outright demolish individuality and are rather hypocrital about their means and goals.

!!'''Esper''': Blue, with white and black

!!'''Jund''': Red, with black and green

!!'''Naya''': Green, with red and white

* DiscardAndDraw: Izzet has a few cards that let the player draw cards from the deck but then has to discard cards.
* ElementalEmbodiment: It's no surprise that several of their creatures are elementals being a [[PlayingWithFire red]] and [[MakingASplash blue]] guild. They also created Weirds, a breed of elementals that combine two opposing elements (example: fire and ice) together into one creature.
** OurMonstersAreWeird: The werids' forms range from [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=289222 vaguely-humanoid blobs of mercury]], to [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=368955 winged dijin made out of electricity]].

* TheHeavy: In the Return to Ravnica set much of the new hostilities are kicked off by the Izzet retreating from the public eye after redirecting all their efforts towards the search for... ''something''. Not even the Dimir seem to know exactly what. This, naturally, makes all of the other guilds nervous.

* InsufferableGenius: Niv-Mizzet is known for its incredible knowledge as well for its unquenchable vanity.

For the Cult of Rakdos, the whole world is a party. The kind of party where you die. Led and founded by the demon Rakdos the Defiler, this guild is a sadomasochistic cult that thrives on causing pain and chaos just for the thrill of it. Their hedonistic outlook leads them to care very little about how many cards they need to discard or creatures they need to sacrifice to do what they want. This is exemplified in their [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Ahellbent+e%3Adis&v=card&s=cname Hellbent]] mechanic--when you've exhausted all the cards in your hand, that's just an excuse to party even harder! And by "party" we mean "kill people". Despite their penchant for causing mayhem, the other guilds tolerate the Rakdos Cultists because they run a useful slave trade that provides the rest of the city with cheap labor.

** Supposedly there are some more reasonable members of the guild, it's just we largely only see the ''really'' wild and crazy ones because those tend to be the fighters, who of course are more likely to have relevance in the plot or be shown on the cards.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Rakdos demons are usually inexpensive but powerful fighters with some exceptions like Rakdos himself who has high power and toughness.

* CannibalismSuperpower: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Golgari with "scavenge" advertise the ability to have their corpses to essentially bestow as many +1/+1 counters as they had power points when sent graveyard to the to any creature who has basically eaten their dead body.

* HumanResources: Their new ability [[CannibalismSuperpower "Scav]][[LetsMeetTheMeat enge"]], as [[ImpliedTrope implied]] their official [[http://youtu.be/kZ0YMjIsRWU R&D video.]]

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Let's see...[[PlantPerson plants Zombies]]...[[BigCreepyCrawlies insect zombies]]...[[OurElvesAreBetter Elf zombies]] ... even Vraska, an honorary golgari, is a [[GorgeousGorgon zombie gorgon!]] The list does not end there...

* WhosLaughingNow: This is the main reason why the Gruul Clans are so violent. The guild was originally created to protect the environment of Ravnica, but after it was destroyed save for a few pockets of wild for the sake of city expansion, the members of the guild were no longer treated like citizens and instead are treated as slaves. This made the Gruul Clans vengeful towards anything that has to do with Ravnican civilization and they aren't above raiding and destroying the city to reclaim land for the wild.

* {{Druid}}: What they once were. They now returned to their roots.

!!'''Grixis''': Black, with blue and red

!!'''Bant''': White, with green and blue

Bant is a world where White mana reigns supreme -- its own virtues, combined with the absent forces of chaos and selfish ambition, have made this Shard an exemplar of law and order. The architecture is straight out of a MedievalEuropeanFantasy, complete with Knights in Shining Armor, glory and honor in battle, and expansive castles. The planeswalker Elspeth Tirel discovered Bant, and soon made it her adoptive home, never desiring to planeswalk ever again. Because it lacks black and red mana, there is no unnatural death, no disease, no natural disasters and no anarchy. However, there is also no creativity, and almost no offensive magic (there ''is'' nighttime on Bant and the people have enough access to heat and fire to warm their homes, cook their food and forge their weapons, but that's about it). Because of the importance placed on honorable combat, Bant's keyword ability is [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3AExalted&v=card&s=cname Exalted]], which makes creatures more powerful if they attack alone and with other Exalted creatures staying behind.

* BadassBookworm: The Rhox

* KnightInShiningArmor: All over the place, with Rafiq of the Many the exemplar.
* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: Taken to its logical extreme; combat on Bant is so honor bound that some suits of armor don't even have coverage on ''[[BackStab their backs]]''.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: More willing to charge into battle; fits in with the holy justice theme of the Shard
* RedshirtArmy: The nations' armies are primarily "Mortar caste" (commoners who have yet to earn a sigil)

An intellectual's dream come true, the Blue-dominated Shard of Esper is all about the pursuit of knowledge and technological advancement. However, the absence of green and red mean that emotion and instinct are completely under the control of Blue. Even the nature parts of Blue are controlled and documented like pieces of data; the night sky resembles a star chart, with every subtle nuance documented and accounted for, as are the tides and the winds (in fact, there are only 23 possible wind currents on the plane). White lends its desire for order and structure, but it also brings in the subversion and deceptive techniques of black. The pride of the plane is a highly malleable and durable metal known as Etherium, which often times is implanted into a body in place of the much-aligned flesh...and the supply is running out. Tezzeret calls this plane home, but stumbling upon an ancient conspiracy led to his near-death...and the ignition of his Planeswalker Spark. Esper doesn't have a keyword mechanic to call its own; its main gimmick is that every creature native to Esper is an artifact creature (this also introduced the notion of colored artifacts to ''Magic'').

After the Shards developed their mana deficiencies, the people grew desperate and lost hope. With the rise of demon lords and death spreading, one king attempted to [[DealWithTheDevil barter]] with the new dark lords. This ended predictably (the last of the civilized nations were overrun). Thus, the shard was given the name "Grixis", after an old-language word meaning "traitor." Without the presence of new life energy (green) and protection (white), the necromancers and demons of Grixis make use of beings that have died over and over in their armies, leading to their special keyword ability [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3AUnearth&v=card&s=cname Unearth]].

On Jund, natural selection is the order of the day. On Jund, only the strong survive. The savage Shard of Jund is cruel and merciless, with each other living being acts as a food source for something else. Living to see another day means killing something that was going to kill you first. Civility? Order? Those will not help you (and don't last long on the plane anyway). Getting stronger from consuming prey is the hallmark of Jund's keyword ability, [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Adevour+%28e%3Aarb%2Fen+or+e%3Acfx%2Fen+or+e%3Aala%2Fen%29&v=card&s=cname devour]]. At the very top of this food chain? Dragons. They are the ultimate predator, whose power and majesty ultimately drove the Planeswalker Sarkhan Vol to the plane, where he wished to worship them akin to gods.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Seated firmly atop the Jund food chain

* VastBureaucracy: They are apparently aware of this, as the Azorius's symbol is designed as a maze, representing how their bureaucratic processes intentionally draw things out and ultimately accomplishes nothing, preserving status quo.

So, what do you get when you combine the equalizers (white) and those who want power at any cost (black)? You get the Orzhov Syndicate, a "religious" organization which resembles a mafia more than a church. They manage business and commerce in the city by means of a protection racket--authorized businesses pay taxes to the Orzhov, and unauthorized businesses risk being shut down or worse. Ability-wise: [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Ahaunt+e%3Aguildpact&v=card&s=cname Haunt]] is perfect for either, because it combines black's ability to manipulate the game from the graveyard with white's incremental advantage. Strategy-wise: bleeding to death, slowly and painfully. The Orzhov takes white's ability to slow down the entire game and let the opponent be chiseled away, bit by bit. Plus you probably owe them money.

* BatOutOfHell: Bats are often used as fighters in Orzhoz.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: The Orzhov has a council of ghosts as it's leading body.

* SoulPower: Both White and Black are the colours most associated with spirits, so naturally these guys have complete mastery in this type of magic.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Their ghosts are employed as spies, cutpurses and assassins.

However, the process of phyresis required an oil created by Yawgmoth himself, an oil that infects creatures and changes their minds, making them want to become Phyrexians. Karn's "heart" had a bit of this oil in it, and it infected his created plane Mirrodin. It infected the guardian of the plane, [[MadScientist Memnarch]], leading him to become insane, and once he died the organisms of the plane became vulnerable to the oil's influence, resulting in the rebirth of Phyrexia.

To see the tropes for the Preators individually, click [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/MagicTheGatheringOtherCharacters Other Characters]]

* ThePerfectionist: Each praetor is obsessed by reaching their perfect view of Phyrexia.

Many aeons ago, Alara was a single, whole plane. Then, a cataclysmic event known as [[NoodleIncident The Sundering]] occurred, which ended with the plane fractured and stripped of all its mana. Over time, the plane fractured and separated into five sub-planes, known as the Shards. Each of the five Shards regained mana over time, but with a twist. Only three of the five colors of mana returned--one dominant color and its two allied colors. Each Shard is defined not only by what mana they have but the traits of the other two colors they ''don't'' have. Throughout the events of the ''Shards of Alara'' block, the planes drifted back together, bringing massive culture shock with conflicting ways of life and finally all-out war. [[spoiler:It turns out Nicol Bolas was behind The Sundering, as he sought out the plane as a new base of operations after the disastrous events of ''Time Spiral''. He planted spies in each of the five Shards, sowing dissension and mistrust wherever they went.]]

Bant is a world where White mana reigns supreme--its own virtues, combined with the absent forces of chaos and selfish ambition, have made this Shard an exemplar of law and order. The architecture is straight out of a MedievalEuropeanFantasy, complete with Knights in Shining Armor, glory and honor in battle, and expansive castles. The planeswalker Elspeth Tirel discovered Bant, and soon made it her adoptive home, never desiring to planeswalk ever again. Because it lacks black and red mana, there is no unnatural death, no disease, no natural disasters and no anarchy. However, there is also no creativity, and almost no offensive magic (there ''is'' nighttime on Bant and the people have enough access to heat and fire to warm their homes, cook their food and forge their weapons, but that's about it). Because of the importance placed on honorable combat, Bant's keyword ability is [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3AExalted&v=card&s=cname Exalted]], which makes creatures more powerful if they attack alone and with other Exalted creatures staying behind.

-->'''Teysa''' ''(regarding Borborygmos)'': It's easy to see why those Gruul dirtbags follow him — the only orders he gives are "Crush them!" and "We eat!"

* TimTaylorTechnology: Their Overload mechanic in ''Return to Ravnica''.

Bant is a world where White mana reigns supreme--its own virtues, combined with the absent forces of chaos and selfish ambition, have made this Shard an exemplar of law and order. The architecture is straight out of a MedievalEuropeanFantasy, complete with Knights in Shining Armor, glory and honor in battle, and expansive castles. The planeswalker Elspeth Tirel discovered Bant, and soon made it her adoptive home, never desiring to planeswalk ever again. Because it lacks black and red mana, there is no unnatural death, no disease, no natural disasters and no anarchy. However, there is also no creativity, and almost no offensive magic (there ''is'' nighttime on Bant and the people have enough access to heat and fire to warm their homes, cook their food and forge their weapons, but that's about it). Because of the importance placed on honorable combat, Bant's keyword ability is [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3AExalted&v=card&s=cname Exalted]], which makes creatures more powerful if they attack alone.

* ProudScholarRaceGuy: They're more eccentric than most cases, but still count.

* PaperRam: Most Rakdos creatures are strong attackers and don't need much mana to play, but they tend to have low toughness and if they get a +1/+1 counter via Unleash, they can't block.

** BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad: Considering that the Rakdos members are demon cultists, they might as well see that as a good thing.

* AssimilationPlot: Generally their ''modus operandi'', as all "must be completed", though it varies. Old Phyrexians resorted to brainwashing/lobotomy and then emplying the BodyHorror; new phyrexians simply inject people with their oil, though the descriptions for the White and Blue factions imply that they still opt for "au naturale" conversions before administering the oil.