Who is Jace, the Living Guildpact?

[Madfellow]

With the release of the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, there have been a lot of threads popping up around here with questions about the world and its mechanics from prospective GMs and players, and that's awesome. There are a lot of finer points about the setting that even a 256-page hardcover can't get to, and seeing players get curious about this kind of stuff has been a lot of fun for me to read and interact with. :smallsmile:

One subject that's bound to come up is Jace Beleren, the Living Guildpact. Despite the fact that he's a major character in the world, the book doesn't really describe him in any kind of detail. The central conflict of Ravnica (and a very good one in my opinion) is that Jace, the living embodiment of law and order, is frequently absent from the world, and that in his absence the ten guilds are left to their own devices.

But where does he go when he's not on Ravnica? What is he doing, and why is it more important to him than his duties back home? These are questions that the book doesn't answer, and it may be important for your game if you decide you want Jace to make an appearance at some point as a quest-giver, ally, or victim in need of rescue.

Jace is, fundamentally, a good person. He's young (probably in his late twenties by this point), but brilliant. If I were to stat him out as a PC, I'd make him a 14th-level Illusionist wizard with the Urchin background. Jace grew up on Ravnica, though he wasn't born there. He considers it his home. He was raised in an orphanage after waking up in the street with no memory of his former home or life.

In his teenage years, he used his talent for mind-reading magic to extort money out of the rich and powerful. This eventually led him to Tezzeret, another planeswalker, who lured Jace into joining his criminal enterprise. Tezzeret betrayed Jace, leading them into a conflict in which Jace was forced to kill Tezzeret. This story was told in the tie-in novel Agents of Artifice, which I haven't read myself but I've heard it's really good.

The Guildmaster's Guide does explain in brief how Jace became the Living Guildpact. Azor's Implicit Maze was designed to require cooperation in order to solve. No one representing the interests of only a single guild could reach the end of it. Jace, with his fierce intellect, magical talent, and friends and allies among the guilds, was the only person who could have solved it, because his allegiance was to Ravnica itself, not to any one faction within it.

But his responsibility as the Guildpact is still something that's very new to him, and it's not something that he enjoys. And to complicate things, as a planeswalker he understands that the Multiverse is a vast and dangerous place, and his skill set puts him in a position where he can make a positive difference everywhere, not just on his home world.

If you have the spare time and enjoy reading, MtG puts out a weekly story column on their website. This one right here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/catching-2015-07-22 is where the status quo is first disrupted.

Jace's participation in the war for Zendikar leads him to co-found a group of planeswalkers called the Gatewatch. You can think of them like a high-level adventuring party, but given that most of its members have a talent for one variety of magic or another, they more closely resemble a team of superheroes. Most of the MtG fandom jokingly refers to them as the Jacestice League. :smallsmile:

Here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/oath-gatewatch-2016-02-03 is where the group is first formed, and here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/homesick-2016-08-29 is where we see what happens when Jace tries to juggle his two competing obligations.

So yeah, there is my very wordy but still woefully incomplete introduction to Jace, the Living Guildpact of Ravnica. GMs, I hope this helps in some small way if you want to incorporate this character into your games.

[HappyDaze]

To be honest, knowing more about him makes me want to make his absence permanent.

[Millstone85]

To be honest, knowing more about him makes me want to make his absence permanent.I didn't dare say it but... yeah.

[GreyBlack]

I do, somewhat, have to disagree with your assessment of Jace as a 14th Urchin Illusionist. Planeswalkers probably should not be considered to have character classes, but rather have stat blocks more akin to those found in the Monster Manual. Their ability to phase planes without expending significant resources alone makes them far beyond the ken of "mundane" spellcasters, and that's before we get into the relative immortality issue.

That said, as a Neo-walker, I get that those powers are significantly dumbed down, but just that single ability to "planeswalk" allows for some monstrous shenanigans.

[Madfellow]

To be honest, knowing more about him makes me want to make his absence permanent.

That's entirely fair. It's the same reason most games that take place in the Forgotten Realms won't involve Elminster or Drizz't: because your game isn't about them, it's about your players' characters.

[Spore]

That's entirely fair. It's the same reason most games that take place in the Forgotten Realms won't involve Elminster or Drizz't: because your game isn't about them, it's about your players' characters.

Still those are just celebs from your own universe. It is like meeting Stephen Hawking or Banksy. Meeting Jace in your campaign is like meeting an immortal super-being from another dimension:

"Hello, I am Steve. I was born here, but my next visit brings me to the plane of Cookiejar where the evil cake queen oppresses the gingerbread people. Also she somehow is in league with or a disguise of Nicol Bolas, again. So....toodles!"

[Chronos]

Whoa, that's the backstory behind Jace Beleran? I just knew him from the series of each-more-overpowered-than-the-last cards that represent him.

But yeah, he's sort of on a par with The Lady of Pain in Sigil. You don't give him a statblock, and you only get him involved when the campaign is seriously screwed. He's always in the background, and always stays there.

[Teioh]

To be honest, knowing more about him makes me want to make his absence permanent.

As someone who played MtG in the old days, I agree.

[MasterCat]

So, question. is "the Living Guildpact" pronounced in a Vincent Price voice?

[Unoriginal]

M:tG Planeswalkers don't actually do anything with the D&D Planes. The different settings of M:tG re actually their own worlds in the Material Plane, in a cluster that was separated from the rest.

Planeswalker have the equivalent of an innate Teleportation spell without mistake when going to another planet.

[Millstone85]

M:tG Planeswalkers don't actually do anything with the D&D Planes. The different settings of M:tG re actually their own worlds in the Material Plane, in a cluster that was separated from the rest.

Planeswalker have the equivalent of an innate Teleportation spell without mistake when going to another planet.That's how I would do it, with the aether being another name for the phlogiston.

But it is not official, is it? I thought GGtR and the Plane Shift files were just presenting M:tG settings with D&D 5e rules.

[Unoriginal]

That's how I would do it, with the aether being another name for the phlogiston.

But it is not official, is it? I thought GGtR and the Plane Shift files were just presenting M:tG settings with D&D 5e rules.

Define "official". I'm pretty sure it has been described like this by Crawford or maybe Perkins, in a video on lore.

Might be wrong, though. You're making me doubt my affirmation.

[Millstone85]

Define "official". I'm pretty sure it has been described like this by Crawford or maybe Perkins, in a video on lore.

Might be wrong, though. You're making me doubt my affirmation.What comes to my mind is Crawford's interview on Planes and Worlds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JHyJj8C21c). Interesting talk, especially on how Eberron's Orrery can be explained as a set of demiplanes made specifically for this world by its Progenitors, in an attempt to escape the rules of the Great Wheel, should a DM want to run such a crossover. According to Crawford, Baker is on board with this.

But I don't remember Ravnica being discussed there. Maybe it was.

[Chronos]

It's made even more complicated by the fact that some of the M:tG worlds have multiple subplanes, like the Spirit World in Kamigawa, the five Shards of Alara, and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.

[Aranfan]

Frankly, the best way to run Jace in a ravnica dnd game is as Sir Not Appearing In This Film. His position as the Guildpact makes his absence far more narratively interesting than his presence. And unless he's lost his memory (again) he's basically terrible.

[Lord Bushbaby]

In the Ixalan block for MTG a fellow planeswalker named Vraska had traveled to Ixalan to retrieve a relic that prevents planeswalking, for big bad mcevil, Nicol Bolas. Jace is also there for reasons, but has lost his memory and becomes a pirate on Vraskas ship. Its also important to note that Vraska has tried to kill him multiple times. This isn't very important, but you could assume that the campaign takes place during this period of time when Jace is trapped on Ixalan.

[Finback]

In the Ixalan block for MTG a fellow planeswalker named Vraska had traveled to Ixalan to retrieve a relic that prevents planeswalking, for big bad mcevil, Nicol Bolas. Jace is also there for reasons, but has lost his memory and becomes a pirate on Vraskas ship. Its also important to note that Vraska has tried to kill him multiple times. This isn't very important, but you could assume that the campaign takes place during this period of time when Jace is trapped on Ixalan.

It's also worth noting that this is when Jace got amnesia, relearnt all his skills, and stopped being a broody emo kid, because he had no memory of BEING said brooding kid. Of course, during the story, he Got *ALL* The Memories Back, leading him to realise what a terrible person he'd been, enough so he had wiped memories of the traumas that turned him into a brooding emo kid, but realised he was a better person now.

Of course, writers since have basically had him back to being a brooding emo kid, so BOO.

#JaceVraskaOTP

[BreaktheStatue]

Just out of curiosity, what would happen if someone killed him? I gather that this would probably be outside the realm of possibility in most circumstances, but sooner or later, there will be a PC party that will try it. What happens if they succeed? Or if some other force kills him? Is it just an all-out Ravnica civil war?

[mAc Chaos]

Yes. The Guildpact is the only thing that keeps the guilds from tearing each other apart.

[Ivor_The_Mad]

I will try to write Jace's backstory in a bit more detail below:

Jace was born on the plane of Vryn. Early on due to his curious personality he learned of his skill with mind magic and soon became quite good at it becoming a prodigy on his plane. This caught the attention of a sphinx known as Alhammarret. Under the teaching of Alhammarret Jace soon became exceptionally powerful. But not all was good with Jace. Alhammarret exploited Jace's powers using him for his own gains constantly braking Jace's mind and putting it back together over and over. Eventually, Jace got so fed up he faced Alhammarret where he pulled on his powers and shattered Alhammarret mind. The force of the magic also hit Jace wiping his memory of everything except the horrible suffering of Alhammarret and the symbol on Alhammarrets collar. This event also ignited his Planeswalker Spark sending him to Ravnica. On Ravnica, he met Lilliana, another planeswalker who he became romanticly attached to be he learned she was just manipulating him too. He went to the Gruul and got the symbol of Alhammarret tattooed on his arm as a reminder. Because of his lost memories and life he sought knowledge and this led him to the dragons maze which he solved and earned the title of "The Living Guildpact" Being a planeswalker he continued to travel the planes where he happened upon Zendikar and helped fight of the Eldrazi invasion where he met Gideon Jura and joined the newly formed Gatewatch where he swore an oath to protect the multiverse.

So that's his origin story and as someone said on Ixalan while fighting Bolas Jace nearly goes mind dead and involuntarily walks to Ixalan where he wakes with no memory and stuff happens and then he gets all his memories back including ones of his mom and Alhammarret.

So that's why Jace is not always on Ravnica

[Man_Over_Game]

Just a couple of cool snippets to tack on to what Ivor_the_Mad said, Alhammaret would wipe Jace's mind while sending Jace out to be his lackey in helping him work with shady magic types. Jace would go on a mission, and then gets the MIB flash. But he's super smart, and started pickup up on clues on what was going on.

Jace then confronts Alhammaret, and they both get into a mind-duel. Alhammaret goes for Jace's memory-all of it. Jace realizes what Alhammaret's doing and realizes he can't stop it, but Jace also realizes Alhammaret isn't leaving any room open to defend himself.

So he cuts off Alhammaret's process to breathe. Jace's spark initiates as part of his adrenaline rush, warping him to another plane for the first time, starting with a literal fresh mind as a planeswalker. Pretty cool if you ask me.

[ChildofLuthic]

Frankly, the best way to run Jace in a ravnica dnd game is as Sir Not Appearing In This Film. His position as the Guildpact makes his absence far more narratively interesting than his presence. And unless he's lost his memory (again) he's basically terrible.

I mean, I could also see you running an adventure to find him on whatever plane he's disappeared to, but then you would no longer be running a Ravnica game.

[HappyDaze]

Yes. The Guildpact is the only thing that keeps the guilds from tearing each other apart.

Do the leaders of the Guilds somehow get emails telling them the Living Guildpact shall henceforth be known as the Formerly Living Guildpact? The fact that he's gone is best IMO, whether he's dead or just missing, I don't think anybody will know for sure.

[CantigThimble]

Do the leaders of the Guilds somehow get emails telling them the Living Guildpact shall henceforth be known as the Formerly Living Guildpact? The fact that he's gone is best IMO, whether he's dead or just missing, I don't think anybody will know for sure.

The guildpact is basically like some kind of mass mind control over all the guilds that compels them to do their part in the upkeep of the city and not to kill eachother too much. If there were no guildpact at all people would just not feel that compulsion anymore and things would go to hell in handbasket in short order.

However, my suggestion is to just kill Jace and reinstate something like the original guildpact, which was not bound to a particular person.

Jace basically has the plot armor and absurdly long and unbelievably accomplished past of Drizzt, but without the quality of R.A. Salvatore's writing and with a ninja-turtles-esque escalation of new shinier versions of himself that only exist to sell merch. His installation as 'living guildpact' is just one of the many terrible things done with him in MTG lore as a result of that.

Just delete him from your world and move on to better things.

[HappyDaze]

How different was Ravnica before the Living Guildpact storyline? Did the Guilds operate differently? Was society in any way different?

What meaningful differences would there be in an alternate history where the original Guildpact was never broken?

[MoiMagnus]

You may want to read the official wiki: https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Jace_Beleren

One thing quite relevant if you want to stay near to "official Magic The Gathering D&D" is that Ravnica isn't the most important part of the material plane, far from it.

The material plane, is clustered into multiple "mini-universes" names "planes" (but they aren't the same plane as the ones from D&D).
The center of this multiverse is Dominaria, but there are roughly 10 relevants planes that are recurring in the history of the universe.
Ravnica is one of them.

It is assumed that only few peoples are actually able to travel from plane to plane. They are called planeswalkers, and there are not a lot of them (we probably know ~20 of them alive at the same time in the entire multiverse). So almost everyone is unaware of the existence of the other planes inside the material plane. (so even less aware of the D&D cosmology)

The pact of Ravnica is a full story quite complex. (there is a trilogy of books explaining how the pact worked and was broken before Jace arrived and fixed it becoming the living pact).

But in short: good luck. The lore of Magic The Gathering (Ravnica included) is fully contradictory to the lore of D&D, and would probably have required more than just one setting book to patch all the problems that arise.

It would probably have been clearer to cut Ravnica from the remaining of the Magic universe, get rid of the planeswalkers, Jace included, or rewrite them fully. The other good solution would have been to give up completly the standard D&D cosmology, and accept that in Magic, the planeswalker are actually on top of the gods, since gods are usually restrained to one plane and do not know the existence of the other planes.