WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Magic #1 by Jed MacKay, Ig Guara, Arianna Consonni of Arancia Sutdios, and Ed Dukeshire, on sale now.
The Multiverse of Magic: the Gathering has finally returned to comics in incredible form thanks to Boom! Studios. While the story so far has yet to unravel much, a dark conspiracy is already rearing its head to torment some of the most powerful and prominent Planeswalkers that Ravnica has ever seen.
An unknown force has unleashed a series of devastating assaults upon three of the guild leaders of Ravnica who have taken their positions after successfully defending the Multiverse from the threat of Nicol Bolas and his undead army. Thankfully, they have at least one close ally left to them. Unfortunately, that same ally has also fallen victim to the nefarious plot that has been brewing. Who are these heroes of Ravnica?
The descendant of nobles from a plane where the sky is cracked like broken glass, Kaya rose to prominence on the plane of Fiora as the Ghost-Assassin. Eventually she would be tasked with ending the afterlife of the slain King Brago who continued to rule Fiora with a spectral grip in his death. After leaving Fiora, Kaya travelled to Ravnica and came under the employ of the Orzhov Syndicate.
When she was first approached by Nicol Bolas, she was offered help for her family in exchange for the assassinations of the Ghost Council which at the time ruled over the guild. In doing so Kaya became the new guild leader, and with that title came the literal weight of all of the debts owed to the Syndicate by both the living and the dead. Kaya soon after developed a habit of dissolving debts and increasing taxes, which has made her widely disliked both by those under her purview within the Syndicate as well as by the general populace of Ravnica itself. No matter the issue, though, Kaya is always there to play the hero for as long as she can.
A native of Ravnica, Ral was bullied frequently in his youth before finding solidarity with the Izzet League and their electrifying penchant for experimentation. Ral's Planeswalker spark was ignited while under the employ of Nicol Bolas, and from there he quickly rose among the ranks of his guild.
Though Ral has worked towards less than altruistic ends before, his conscience has always gotten the better of him, and over time he has become a valued ally to the heroic group of Planeswalkers known as the Gatewatch. Ral Zarek hasn't always been successful in his endeavors as a hero, but his honest and charismatic nature has proven to be enough to keep him in the good graces of his Izzet constituents even in the face of abject failure.
Another native of Ravnica, Vraska's life was relatively simple among the Golgari Swarm until the Azorius Senate determined the guild had become too prominent in Ravnican society. When the Golgari were rounded up in droves to be jailed, Vraska was among them, and when the prison cells began overflowing, she took part in the riot that followed. Eventually she was able to escape to freedom, although most her time would be spent in the shadows as an assassin.
While on Ravnica, Vraska come into conflict with Jace Beleren, but when the two met again on Ixalan they formed a romantic bond while Jace was suffering from amnesia. After the War of the Spark, Vraska was crowned the Golgari Queen, though her crown is secretly being controlled by the Dimir leader Lazav by way of political and personal blackmail.
A uniquely talented and powerful telepath, Jace Beleren hails from the Plane of Vryn where he was trained under the ancient sphinx Alhammarret. The sphinx was revealed multiple times during his time as Jace's mentor to be acting maliciously, and in each instance the elder mage would wipe Jace's memories of this discovery as well as those of his own spark igniting. Eventually Jace would realize what was happening and ultimately end Alhammarret's life before journeying to nearly every corner of the Multiverse.
Jace has been a key figure in nearly every major event throughout the fourteen years that he has been part of Magic's story. As the Living Guildpact, Jace is the physical embodiment of the ancient contract between the guilds of Ravnica that has maintained the Plane's delicate balance over the years. With so much influence, Jace has become the center of multiple attempts to overthrow or undermine that ecosystem plenty of times before. At the same time, if that is what is happening now, it doesn't make the threat any less serious, just a bit more familiar.
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