Selesnya Conclave
Selesnya troops poured into the streets, emptying the nature temples, wildlife preserves, and other green spaces controlled by the conclave. The centaurs’ hooves clattered on the cobblestones and the wolf-riders bounded over stone bridges. Human and elf infantry flooded through the arteries of the district, streaming past intersections and flowing around buildings. Griffons and their riders swooped down out of a blanket of low clouds, strafing past the spires. Emmara rode on the shoulder of a massive creature made of a snarl of marble, wood, and vines, her hand resting on its great head. Two more of the nature behemoths strode ahead of her, swinging their limbs in slow motion, indenting the streets with their footfalls as the other Selesnya troops ran between their legs. Below her, Captain Calomir led the Selesnya army. He rode his white war rhino, driving the Selesnya ranks forward, guiding them through the streets toward the Rakdos horde.Like a thriving garden, carefully tended and abundantly fertile, the communities of the Selesnya Conclave are a harmonious union of nature and civilization. The members of the conclave dream of embracing all of Ravnica in their peaceful union. In the meantime, they are growing an army, preparing to resist the ambition and destructive impulses of the other guilds and fight to defend their way of life. At the heart of the Selesnya faith and philosophy is the Worldsoul, called Mat’Selesnya, which its devotees believe to be a manifestation of nature itself. At the signing of the original Guildpact, Mat’Selesnya was embodied in an elemental form and acted as the guild’s first guildmaster. The current guildmaster, Trostani — three dryads fused together with Mat’Selesnya into a single being — is said to embody the will of the Worldsoul in a similar way. The original mission of the conclave involved conservation and charity, but its focus has long been on expanding its community, in which all members are cared for and nature is preserved in harmony with civilization.
Inside the Conclave
The Selesnya Conclave is organized into enclaves called vernadi, which are communes built around central trees. The vernadi are smaller versions of the guildhall, the great city-tree Vitu-Ghazi. A dryad, called a voda, is called forth from that central tree to be the leader of the community, connecting the vernadi and its devotees to the Worldsoul and uniting them with the will of the entire conclave. A voda is accessible to all the guild members in her care. You have regular contact with your voda, who knows your name and has a good idea of your interests, goals, and strengths. And since your voda is mystically linked to the guildmaster, Trostani, through communion with the Worldsoul, it’s safe to assume that Trostani knows who you are as well. In addition to the voda, military and religious leaders in each vernadi regularly communicate with its members. Ordinary members of the conclave spend a few hours every day training with a military instructor and studying with a religious teacher.
Goals of the Selesnya
Despite the growing tensions that now grip the world, in the long view of the Selesnya Conclave, not much has changed. Ravnica is troubled, but Ravnica has always been troubled. The Living Guildpact is absent, but the Guildpact comes and goes. The Worldsoul has not changed, nor has the will of Mat’Selesnya: the conclave’s main goal is to grow, as it has always been. Its strength lies in its numbers.
The conclave clings to the ideal of a peaceful collective in which individual desires are subordinate to the good of the whole group. The guild wants to see this beloved community grow, flourish, and thrive in peace. But as much as it values peace within the community, it displays incredible ferocity when that harmony is threatened. Selesnya’s vision is centered on the idea of harmony between civilization and nature. To advance the cause of civilized society, the conclave believes in the need for an ordered structure that orients the group toward the pursuit of the common good. At the same time, the guild’s connection with the natural world gives the conclave a fervent appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. Selesnya doesn’t tolerate selfishness or ambition, instead urging its members to put the needs of others ahead of their own desires and to use the power of nature — including nature’s wrath — to drive away those whose selfishness threatens the coherence of the group.
The greatest danger that Selesnya faces lies in the ambitions of other guilds, which are flourishing in the absence of the Guildpact. Selesnya’s way of curbing this grasping selfishness has always been to outnumber the other guilds. Its members aren’t naive; they fully realize that the ambitions of other guilds will lead to violence. And they aim to be prepared for that violence when it erupts.
“For my seedlings to survive,” Mat’Selesnya says, “we must grow an army capable of overwhelming such ambitions.” Some of that army is literally grown, in the case of plant creatures and elementals. A great many members grow up in the guild from childhood and learn their martial skills at the guild’s training grounds. And still more join the guild through recruitment — especially in these troubling times, when rumors of war and a sense of imminent doom make Selesnya’s message of harmonious community sound ever more appealing.
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