THE QUEST FOR RAVNICA

01 - You wake up in a small crater, dust still hanging in the air. You are in a valley, deep within an immense, ageless forest. You know you must explore this alien wilderness and its natural splendours if you are to survive, and to find your way back home.

• You follow your primal instincts, hunting for food and sport. You have never felt so alive!

• You contemplate the landscape and the forest's indigenous life. You achieve a better understanding of your surrounding and of yourself.

• You accept the challenge with a smile and start your adventure in the forest. You see nature as a source of spiritual growth and harmony, becoming one with the forest and its wild life.

• You don't care about any splendours. Nature is harsh. Survival must be earned. Here it's kill or be killed. It is not cruel, it is simply the way of Mother Nature.

• While a walk in the woods might be less boring than it looks, you realize that time is of the essence. Was it a city you just saw on the other side of the valley, while falling from the sky? You choose to head directly for the city.

02 - After a week of exploration, you arrive upon a gigantic, well-fortified city. While buying food at the city's market square, you hear a guard talking about their ruler, the Sorcerer-King. After a small bribe, the guard reveals to you how powerful his master is, and how evil and dangerous he has become. You decide to spend as much time as needed to gather information and study this infamous Sorcerer-King and his legendary powers.

• You are wise and wish to understand this Sorcerer-King and his city. This is a dangerous place, and you need to adapt if you are to survive.

• This Sorcerer-King's powers are an inspiration for you! You will use this sudden burst of creativity to innovate and experiment with your own powers!

• You uncover dark secrets about some people in the Sorcerer-King's administration. You use this information for blackmail, and doing so you are successful in obtaining more and more valuable secrets about this King's powers. You are secretly jealous

• You make sure to find proof for every secret you uncover, and convince some key authority figures in the city to act accordingly. You coordinate a discreet alliance of important people who wish to protect themselves from this Sorcerer-King.

• As much as you would like to know more about this powerful King, you feel there are more urgent things to be done than information gathering. The danger is real. You must harness more power, and now. And you know just how...

03 - The Sorcerer-King has just learned about your existence, and about your mysterious powers, which are not unlike his own. He has ordered your arrest. Does he fear you? After weeks of hiding and fighting with his minions, you attack his castle and manage to retrieve one of his most powerful artefacts, his dark magical book. After reading the book, you realize it is sentient. The evil, magical book offers you unimaginable powers in exchange for the sacrifice of an innocent.

• You grab the first unknown citizen and murder him on the street, laughing at such a low price to pay for great power!

The Sorcerer-King has to be stopped. At all costs. You painstakingly buy a slave and have him killed, to fulfill the books request. Greater good demands sacrifices.

• You arrange the disappearance of one of your enemies, after careful selection. Morality has nothing to do here. Knowledge has always a price.

• If power will be given with an offering of blood, then the weak shall give his blood for your power. You are strong. You take what you need from those who are weaker than you. Everyone does.

• You do not need the book's power that bad. You shall defeat the Sorcerer-King your own way, with your own power.

04 - Since you stole his magical book, the Sorcerer-King has sent hundreds of minions to get rid of you. You have found out, from a careful study of the book, that the Sorcerer-King also comes from another world, and could hold the key to leaving this world and finding your way back home again. Alas, your powers are still too weak to confront him directly. You must find allies within the city's populace.

• You incite wrath and indignation among the people against the Sorcerer-King's administration, becoming a leader of rebels, causing guerrilla strikes and riots.

• You uncover and spread information about the Sorcerer's King's administration, revealing secrets and weaknesses. Your propaganda is well organized, and you achieve a certain control of the local authorities which begin to see things your way.

• You use your renown and vast fortune to raise an army of slaves and mercenaries. If need be, you extort and blackmail a few noble families to gain their financial support.

• You rally the local heroes and some friends to your cause. Your small band of powerful fighters quickly become champions of the people.

• You really can't see how the local populace could ever be of some use to your cause. You will find the resources you lack elsewhere...

05 - Such a tragic ending! You have failed. The Sorcerer-King has found you, taking you by surprise. You have been captured. Enslaved and chained at his castle, days pass by and the evil Lord keeps you in his private chamber, treating you as a pet, trying to break you in revealing the secrets of your mystical powers. Each night, a servant discreetly comes to you out of compassion, to give you water and bread, and friendship. But tonight, the servant was caught... The Sorcerer-King, displeased by such display of compassion, cold-bloodedly murdered the poor sod, engulfing him in a magical crimson fire until his screams were no more... This time, the Sorcerer-King has finally gone too far. Your emotions take over, unlocking unknown, terrifying energies from deep within yourself. You feel your inner power raging, growing. Your puny shackles are no longer able to restrain your fully unleashed might. It is time to destroy your archenemy once and for all!

• You savagely murder him the first time his back is turned, with your own powers. That way it's an easy kill.

• You challenge him publicly, screaming for vengeance. It will not be an easy battle, but it has to end now.

• You wait, then unleash the fury of your powers precisely at his weakest spot for maximum damage. You secretly hope everyone has seen what you just accomplished!

• You bring down the whole castle with your powers, fuelled by your anger. Then you search the rubble, hoping to find his unconscious body and break his tiny neck with your bare hands.

• You refuse to succumb to your emotions. The Sorcerer-King will fall, but not like this. You have a much, much better plan...

06 - A year has passed since you defeated the Sorcerer-King. Your full powers unlocked, you finally learn how to travel through space, and you embark on a journey throughout the infinite planes of existence, visiting countless worlds beyond your wildest dreams, in search of your home... Ravnica. You just arrived on a new world, the desert-planet of Athas. There you meet an old hermit, a planeswalker like yourself. He offers you his teachings, and becomes your mentor. Your new mentor tells you of this desert-planet, a dying world once green and full of life, now a dry wasteland of suffering and slavery. Before you leave, you decide to take action.

• You hunt down the legendary, ruthless and cruel Dragon of Tyr, said to be the most fearsome beast of the desert. You prove your superiority and kill the beast for sport, looting its treasures and declaring its den your new home.

• You overthrow the Tyrant of the city-state of Urik, and free the numerous slaves, sending them home to the desert to be reunited with their families and friends.

• You select a peaceful city-state, judging it an easy target. You attack by surprise and crush all who oppose you. You have the royal family killed and take the crown, satisfied with your gain.

• You pose as an ambassador at the court of many major city-states, meeting wise leaders and tyrants alike. You succeed in gaining significant political and economic power.

• You embark on a long quest to find the mystical, wise and all-knowing Avengiel. Deep in the desert you find the magnificent creature of light and request its teachings, asking it how to save this dying world.

07 - Still searching for your home world Ravnica, you stop by a shadowy plane named Ravenloft to rest and gather supplies. Your mentor warns you to leave this cursed land, or suffer the curse yourself. The souls that dwell here are damned, he insists, telling you about vampires, necromancers and ghosts. You refuse to heed the warnings of your mentor, and visit the dark city of Innistrad. You knew the risks, yet you would never have believed the curse to strike you so deeply: within Innistrad, you meet a very attractive person, and... despite your reluctance, you realize you have fallen madly in love. All goes well, until you learn your loved one is dying from a terrible curse. Nothing can be done. Your heart is torn apart with conflicting emotions.

• You can and will triumph over death. You refuse to lose hope and face the inevitable. You swallow your pain, never stopping to search for a way to save your loved one...

• Compassion is useless. You should never have set foot on this cursed world. You regret being so stupid and weak...

• Losing your loved one has shattered your will to live. Your mentor wishes you'd have the wisdom to understand that life goes on, but you don't. Your only wish is to martyr yourself, to be reunited with your loved one in death. Your mentor saves you

• You don't care about the others. You don't even think about your own selfish desires. All you can think of is your loved one. You know you are powerless, and deep inside, you feel your heart pounding like a mad, caged beast.

• You don't even try to imagine a cure. You are a realist. Death is inevitable. You end your loved one's suffering. It is the hardest thing you've ever done.

08 - You leave the accursed plane. Traveling once more between worlds, you stumble across a well-guarded secret: the name of the Dark God responsible for cursing Ravenloft, the God responsible for the deadly curse of your loved one... Your mentor tries to stop you, but you've made up your mind. You venture into the unknown once more, but this time traveling not between the lands of the living, but down into the planes of the dead, to reach the Dark God's realm. You have gravely overestimated yourself. Once you enter the Dark God's realm of the dead, the powerful, ageless entity battles you with a might you have never seen before. You are easily crushed by the Dark God's superior power. Broken and defeated, you see your entire life flash before your eyes...

• You cower before your imminent doom, and hopelessly try to flee with your life.

• You desperately try to talk your way out of this situation, arrogant enough to believe yourself still in control.

Proud of your choices, you fight to the end. You have no regrets.

• You have been bested by a superior being. You close your eyes, and wait for the killing blow.

• You enter a state of senseless and meaningless rage, throwing rocks and spitting at your enemy.

09 - Oblivion. The end is upon you, as the Dark God strikes you down with his deadly scythe. Suddenly, a great flash of light blinds both you and your adversary! How can it be, you ask yourself? You still live! What madness is this? You rub your eyes, unsure of what you are seeing. The Dark God has stepped back from the light. And a spirit of blinding light dances above you! Yes, it is the spirit of your deceased loved one, protecting you here in the realm of the dead! Then, a mystical portal opens: your mentor walks into the realm, powered up and ready to fight. He yells at you, urging you to cast the powerful fusion spell he has taught you. Your loved one smiles at you, and you smile back, understanding each other perfectly. With a blinding display of power, both accepting each other's burden with but a touch, your loved one and yourself begin to fuse with each other, becoming a single entity, at long last reunited - forever. The dead of the realm, seeing you now as a protector of their souls, start to gather around you and lend you their strength, crying out for vengeance against their dark captor. With the help of your mentor and your newfound, fused powers, you unleash unspeakable energies upon the Dark God. Bards of every world will tell this tale for ages, for you are victorious. You have defeated a God!

• Your enemy fought well, and you respect him for that.

• You took no pleasure in this. It had to be done.

• You take pleasure in your enemy's slow, painful downfall.

• You scream vengeance. You utterly destroy every last bit of your foe, leaving nothing but your own anger.

• You pity the fool. He shouldn't have underestimated you. They all do.

10 - After leaving the damned realm of the dead, you fly through the planes, feeling your loved one deep within you. You have now achieved godlike powers, and you start to wonder what are the limits of your inner strength. While resting on a small uninhabited plane, your mentor demands to talk to you. He believes you have surpassed his own power and knowledge. You no longer need his guidance. He will depart and continue his own journey elsewhere. But before he leaves, you ask of him one last word of advice. You ask him what is your greatest flaw. He answers:

• You are careless.

• You are alone.

• You are boring.

• You are cold-hearted.

• You are close-minded.

11 - Your Quest for Ravnica is almost at an end. You meditate about yourself and your long adventures, wondering what you will do once you enter Ravnica, what you will do with the rest of your life. You remember the harsh last words of your mentor... Suddenly, you experience an epiphany, realizing your own inner conflict. You tell yourself :

• Control your emotions.

• Conceal your true strength.

• Let go of the shame. Be yourself.

• Your instincts are not senseless. Trust your guts.

• Selfishness leads to loneliness. Open up to the others.