Crime and Punishment

In the Great City, crime and punishment is doled out and decided based on the ruling Guild in the area and, as such, each guild usually has a different approach to law and order. Only the Azorius Senate and the Boros Legion are given authority by the Guildpact to overstep into the turf of the other guilds for the sake of safety and peace.

The 10 Guilds' Take on Crime and Punishment

There are a few factors that influence the way a guild looks at prisoners, crime, and punishment. One factor is resources such as, how many cells they have, food they have to give, and payroll to hire people to supervise and round up criminals. Another factor is desire. How much does the guild desire to take prisoners / punish citizens, and what purpose would it serve to them. This combination can lead to some unique takes on the law enforcement discipline within certain neighborhoods.

Azorius Senate

Obviously, the Senate as an invested interest in seeing the law upheld and breakers of the law put away. Although they have more of a hand in creating the laws and judging those that break it more than they do in rounding up law-breakers, they still treat their role in criminal containment very seriously. In the early days of the Guildpact, the Senate worked out with the Boros Legion that they would take the more dangerous criminals into their facilities while allowing the Legion to detain, release, and jail small time violators as they see fit. Because of this, the Azorius have no small "Jails", all they have are state of the art, warded, maximum security prisons. In the most secure of the Azorius prisons, criminals are held in time-slowing stasis spheres that are purposefully too small to assume a comfortable position in. Here, they can serve multiple life sentences with just a single lifespan.

Boros Legion

Being the primary constabulary in Ravnica as well as a self proclaimed bastion of justice, the Legion takes its role criminal determent very seriously, perhaps more seriously than any other guild does, even the Senate. Where the Senate follows laws, the Legion follows justice, this means that sometimes the two disagree on what is best for crime and punishment and the city in general. Knowing the zeal of the Legion would get in their way was part of the motivation behind the Azorius Senate making sure they got to take care of the more dangerous criminals; however, the Legion fired back, creating their own privately owned prisons high in the sky, away from Azorius regulation and patrolled / visited only by angels. Here the Boros hold criminals they believe are dangers to society, primarily ones that they believe wouldn't be convicted in an Azorius court. From small time thief and gang roundups to fully fledged criminal investigations, the Boros isn't messing around. They're a name that every criminal fears.

Cult of Rakdos

A Rakdos neighborhood is a dangerous place to be, not just because of the guilds reputation, but because of the fact that they don't enforce many rules. As such, criminals flock to Rakdos turf for an easy place to hide. The Cult will only step in and take control of incidents that would be catastrophic for the Guild or a show it is putting on in the near future. It could even be said that there are more law breakers within the guild than law enforcers with many of the only bouncers and hired muscle just following a general set of guidelines that they routinely break for their own benefit. Rakdos turf is a dangerous and unpredictable place to be if you don't know how to manage your presence and hold your own among the ruffians. When the guild does feel so inclined to act on a matter of law and order, they usually just send out a few Roustabouts to kill the victim and the perpetrator and silence the disturbance and they rarely take any prisoners that aren't killed within 24 hours or so.

Golgari Swarm

The Swarm can be easily compared to a spider. They wait in the Undercity, only leaving for specific reasons and never drawing much attention to themselves when they do. And when something from up above finds its way into their lair, if it poses a threat to their way of life, they attack. Many of what qualifies as a threat to the Swarm are spies and law enforcement from other guilds, but it can extend even to scientists researching a site they hold sacred or just too many tourists poking around somewhere they shouldn't be. The Swarm doesn't feel the need to explain why they are arresting, they simply do. If the target fights back too hard, they are killed. If someone commits a heinous enough crime, the Swarm will capture them and hold a trial, even bringing the violator back as a zombie to stand trial if they perished during the pursuit. When the Swarm decides to take something seriously, they can dole out harsh punishments much much much worse than death. Because of their abundant sources of food, they can, and usually do, keep prisoners alive for a long time, letting them waste away into nothing.

Gruul Clans

The very idea of a Law is abhorrent to the fearsome Clans. To them, the strong do what the strong want to do and the weak can either get over it or get stronger. Because of this, the Gruul Clans have no laws or law enforcers aside from the Keepers of the Old Ways that arbitrate Clan meetings at their Guildhall, Skarrg. The Old Ways are the closest thing the Clans have to a code, and it's not a peaceful one. On top of that, not every Clan has to adhere to them, so the Old Ways are only considered a reason to stop in the middle of a blood thirsty rage when they're invoked by a Shaman on Sacred Turf. When it comes down to the most common denominator, the Gruul are like a wild animal. They live in the wilds and if you see them anywhere else, you should run. If you do happen upon them in the Rubblebelts, you only have reason to fear if whatever Clan that sees you has already had their fill of raging that day... which is admittedly not often.

House Dimir

This guild has what might be the most interesting method of dealing with their rule-breakers. Because House Dimir doesn't outright own any turf and the majority of its info flow is on a need-to-know basis, there aren't many rules beyond "Don't Get Caught" and "Don't Tell Anyone". To even have a hope in the world of joining this guild in the first place, you'll be unknowingly surveilled for months to ensure your intentions so the chances that a rule breaker would earn a spot here in the first place are slim to none. The few cases where an operative does break the rules, whether willingly or not, are dealt with elegantly, if not anticlimactically. With extreme precision, any operative who breaks the rules or learns more than they were supposed to will have their memory of the guild and all its secrets stolen from them and they will continue on with their life as if nothing happened. For the unlucky few who have been with the guild too long to pick their memory clean in this situation, their life force is normally sacrificed to the Nethroii.

Izzet League

To the Izzet, most rules are meant to be broken. Though they prefer those rules to be the ones other than their own, they still have an abnormally large tolerance for members that bend the tried and true way of doing things. When they do care enough to apprehend someone, those guilty of basic crimes are passed on to the authorities while anyone who has gravely offended the League is dealt with personally by the Dracogenius himself. Izzet turf is close enough to civilization to be lightly patrolled by the Boros, but far enough away to be that they can test their experiments on the streets in relative safety.

Orzhov Syndicate

Selesnya Conclave

Simic Combine