House Dimir

Ravnica's Couriers, Archivists, and Information Brokers

Overview

House Dimir is Ravnica's dark secret: behind a facade of respectable businesses, primarily messengers, journalists, and archivists, lurks an association of spies, assassins, and intelligence agents whose existence is barely suspected by the city at large. Secrecy is both the House's best weapon and its best defense, and much of the guild's work is hidden even from other members. Dimir agents leave no trace of their covert crimes, even wiping or warping their own memory to remove any evidence of their completed assignments.

House Dimir has a clandestine aspect hidden from all but its most important members. The Guildmaster, Lazav, and his inner circle of contacts guide and manipulate the covert operations of the guild. Members of House Dimir ultimately receive their orders from this source without having any idea of who issued the order or why. Messages to agents are funneled through magical drop points, telepathic relays, or via thought strands. House magic is designed to implement or remove memories of certain interactions, sometimes manifesting them as ethereal ribbons of readable code to avoid their mission being detected by the Senate's Precognitive Mages or any other mind scouring magic.

For most of Ravnica's history, the guild officially didn't exist. The Ravnican people generally believed that there were only nine guilds and that if there ever was a tenth, it had dissolved thousands of years ago. The name Dimir was not known by most people and those that did know it believed it to be a myth, children's story or a paranoid conspiracy theory. This misinformation was actively propagated by the Dimir themselves as a method for avoiding suspicion. The spell that concealed their identity was finally broken when Agrus Kos arrested Szadek, which exposed him and House Dimir to the public, forcing them to manifest a public face in recent days.

Purpose

House Dimir is a guild of secrecy, manipulation and underhanded deals, a shadowy organization operating behind the scenes to twist Ravnica to its own ends. The guild provides espionage, smuggling, burglary, counter-intelligence, assassination and other illegal services for the Ravnican populace, although its patrons are unaware that they are in fact employing the guild, instead thinking they are employing guildless mercenaries or another guild such as the Rakdos. The guild is so secretive that even its own agents often do not know who they truly work for.

Not much is known about the long term goals of this secretive guild; however, what is known is their original purpose. By attempting to subvert and break it in the most intricate ways, they point out its weaknesses and make it even stronger. Additionally, they act as a stabilizing agent amongst the guilds. As they attempt to sabotage guild progress and gain a further advantage above the other factions, they are acting as a balance that prevents any one guild from getting too far ahead of the others too easily. These motives can lead them to assassinate, mislead, influence, or sabotage one guild or assist another; it all depends on what the situation calls for.

Core Values

To House Dimir, knowledge is power. The guild hungers to learn everything it doesn't already know, especially the weaknesses of its adversaries, and to exploit those weaknesses for its own gain. Conversely, the House holds its own secrets tightly, because it doesn't want its enemies to turn the tables. The Dimir lurk in the shadows, methodically gathering the knowledge they need to twist Ravnica to their advantage. This immense desire for the knowledge of others has created a paranoid sense of suspicion for everyone and everything in the city. Although their motivations for joining the House can vary, all agents possess an inherent distrust for societal structure and wish to see it subverted.

Goals

House Dimir is all about secrets and misinformation, even where its own members are concerned. Any given Dimir agent knows of no more than a handful of alleyway contacts and dossier drop spots and all memories of the sensitive information they witness on the job is passed onto their superiors. One agent knows another only by a code name, or receives communications only at a particular meeting spot at a specific place and time. Every self-proclaimed expert with an opinion on the matter has a theory about the guild's intentions, and all those guesses about Dimir's motivations and pursuits contradict each other, frustrating any attempt to get to the truth of things. The public face of Dimir remains inscrutable, which some interpret as the best evidence that the guild's true plans mean something dire for the Ravnican populace.

House Dimir's progress toward its goals depends on a web woven from meticulously gathered intelligence. Like how a struggling insect sends vibrations through the web to alert the spider, so too does unpredictable behavior from other guilds triggers an investigative response from the Dimir. To preserve manpower and maintain the flow of information through the web, the House focuses their agents on the less predictable guilds. The Senate, Conclave, and surprisingly enough, the Swarm behave predictably on the whole, although the last two can be hard to track accurately due to their sheer size. When the Syndicate hosts a sudden eviction, the Legion makes a rash decision, or the Combine has a sudden scientific breakthrough, it can disrupt the web, warranting more surveillance for these guilds than some of the others. Of all the other guilds, the League, the Cult, and the Clans concern the Dimir the most; their erratic methods of decision making, combined with their unflinching approach to danger can force any plan to contain them to change very quickly.

Organization Structure

House Dimir was founded by the ancient vampire Szadek. The vampire was one of the ten paruns that signed the Guildpact and remained in charge of the guild for the subsequent 10,000 years. One of the crucial clauses of the Guildpact was that none of the signatories (including Szadek) could reveal the existence of the Dimir to Ravnica's people, protecting the guild's anonymity while forcing it to remain hidden. This created a flaw in the Guildpact's structure that would eventually allow it to be broken.

The guild operates on a strictly need-to-know basis on three levels: the overt face of the guild that the general public is allowed to see, the covert inner guild that Ravnicans suspect exists, but rarely see, and a deeper, clandestine level that is hidden even from its own members.

At the top of its hierarchy is the Guildmaster. Only they are fully aware of all of the guild's activities. Beneath him are the Necrosages, who oversee the guild's activities from Duskmantle. They manipulate the flow of information, keeping the guild informed on all things whilst keeping the rest of the plane ignorant.

Few individuals are ever allowed to meet the guild's leaders, as instead a network of middlemen are employed to pass on messages to cells of field operatives. Agents at the very bottom of the guild only meet a mysterious individual in a back alley that gives them some basic information on their target and nothing else. The public face of the guild is represented by couriers, librarians, investigators, media reporters and archivists; however, even this public face is obscured by myriad aliases, fronts, and secretly backed businesses. The local paper in a small neighborhood is likely to be a guildless association run by locals who care about their community; but the Dimir can use this as a conduit for their information gathering or smear campaigns without the honest proprietor even knowing they are being influenced by the shadowy organization.

The Dimir's guildmages use their magic to influence the minds of others. They can send messages to operatives over distances or strike people with amnesia, magically alter memories or even perform lobotomies on victims to cover their tracks. The Dimir also practice necromancy, creating undead minions such as skeletons and wights to carry out missions. Such minions are employed as they are single-minded, easy to create and dispose of, cannot be interrogated in the event of capture and are easily blamed on the Golgari instead. Spirits are also used by the Dimir to pass on messages, carry out surveillance invisibly or even to possess important figures such as judges and senators. Nobody is beyond the reach of House Dimir.

Recruitment

Most members of this guild start their career as part of the legion of shopkeepers, librarians, couriers, and traders who maintain a legitimate business while the guild operates in their shadow, sometimes while they are none the wiser. Other times, low level Dimir agents of these professions operate completely out in the open, helping to discredit theories about the whole guild plotting to control the city, without any exposure to the guild's more covert operations. If at some point one of these lower level operatives are recognized for their gifts or talents, they may be invited into the deeper mysteries of the guild. Depending their level of potential, they could be invited to be anything from a simple spy to a hardened sleeper agent. New recruits of every kind are trained in espionage, stealth, and infiltration; however, the House can make use of a wide variety of social, martial, and magical talents.

These deeper guild roles engage in surveillance, theft, sabotage, infiltration, and other kinds of espionage; operating in cells, unaware of the identities of most other agents and the guild's leadership itself. By design, House agents don't have much interaction with other members of the guild. They might never meet their primary contact face to face, instead receiving assignments and sending reports by way of secret message drops and codes.

Public Relations

It's hard for a guild built on stealth and secrecy to maintain a positive relationship with any other faction in the city. All guilds are monitored with suspicion, and they are assessed for their current and prospective levels of threat, as well as for their usefulness to House Dimir's schemes. Each cell may foster its own relationships with the other guilds or factions in the city, both good and bad, but it ultimately defers to Dimir's enigmatic leaders to steer the overarching strategy.

House Dimir's goal of knowing everyone else's secrets and preventing them from consolidating too much power puts them at odds with all the other guilds. For instance, an operative could be tasked with stealing the transcript of an Azorius interrogation, the memories of a Golgari assassin, or the contents of an Orzhov ledger. If another guild knows anything they don't, House Dimir wants to know, and they don't take guild relations into account at all when they go about finding out.

On the reverse side of the same coin, some agents might cooperate with members of other guilds, openly or in disguise, as long as their goals don't conflict with the House's at the time. Sometimes the easiest way to assassinate one an enemy is to put the forces of law on their trail, so joining forces with the Azorius or Boros can be an beneficial arrangement for everyone concerned at times, should they be able to trust the Dimir enough. In fact, one of the few things the city can trust about the guild is their proficiency in getting results, and sometimes that's all people need to call on the shadowy organization.

Ravnica's Opinion of the Dimir

The city at large knows nothing of the extent of House Dimir's network and neither the scope or aim of their goals. Just 75 years ago, the entire populace, excluding just a handful of hire-ups in certain guilds, believed there were only 9 guilds and that one had long since gone extinct. While the magic of the Guildpact that concealed House Dimir's insignia and any mention of them in texts was dispersed during the Decamillennial, new leadership of the guild was quick to pick away memories and run misinformation to obscure the truth of what took place that day. To combat this, the Boros and Azorius began heavily publicizing both their knowledge of Dimir activities and any capture of their agents. This mixture of truth and plausible lies has caused a split in House Dimir's perception.

Even now, the majority of Ravnica's populace knows only this about the guild: they are messengers, journalists, and archivists that like to spy on, steal from, blackmail, and murder important members of law enforcement and creation. Any knowledgable citizen who sees a Dimir agent walking openly through a wealthy or upper class neighborhood will alert a guard; however, that same citizen might seek out a Library that is known to be owned by the Dimir if they want to find out something that they feel the higher-ups in their guild aren't telling them. Citizens in poorer or lower class neighborhoods both respect and fear the guild's power; they might not care to see an agent walking the street and may even seek the Dimir out for help before the strange Golgari, the greedy Orzhov, or the irresponsible Izzet if they needed something done with surgical precision.

The Dimir’s Opinion of the Other Guilds

To House Dimir, every other guild is a potential source of information, its members all potential foils and patsies. Most agents look at the rest of the city through cold, calculating, and constantly suspicious eyes.

Azorius: "They can't be allowed to monopolize the flow of knowledge. Clog their networks with misinformation. To stop someone from discerning the truth, drown them in plausible untruths."

Boros: "Not inherently dangerous. The true danger is that they'll drag down all we've worked for while chasing some romantic crusade. Continue to direct their righteous fury toward our strongest enemy - until they themselves threaten to become the strongest."

Golgari: "We once appreciated them for their ability to make a corpse disappear, but we have found that too many of our victims rose up to face us again. Now we use the city's fear of the swarm to keep them in their place. The more the Golgari try to rise from the mire of their reputation, the more we will make them wallow in it."

Gruul: "They've always been convenient scapegoats, but their recent aggressiveness threatens to become a larger problem. We must thin their numbers - selectively and without confrontation. Catch them alone in the dark and take them out one by one."

Izzet: "Even an overloaded, sizzled clock is still right twice a day. When Izzet experiments succeed, they can have unpredictable consequences for active missions. Their activities must be monitored at all times."

Orzhov: "We're amused at how well they've used their hierarchy to mask the corruption of their organization, but their need for the public's trust gives us an edge. They can be manipulated by playing on their fear of the people discovering their ruse."

Rakdos: "They've turned pointless activity into an art form, but their performances nevertheless make very useful distractions. Let them be bright and loud, drawing all attention, while we slip quietly through the dark."

Selesnya: "Strength without guile is perhaps the most dangerous kind. One can't bluff the player who can't conceive of bluffing. Currently, the covert war plays to our strengths; we must ensure that the conclave never becomes conscious of the advantages they possess."

Simic: "They are never short of intriguing surprises, so we know they are gearing up for something. Keep eyes inside their organization to see what their efforts are leading to - but don't be tempted to partake of their enhancements."

History

The Parun and first Guildmaster of House Dimir was the vampire Szadek. In the war-filled age of 10,000 years ago, before the signing of the Guildpact (Al Concordat, or AC), Szadek held command over a cabal of informants that fought to keep any of the other pre-pact factions from gaining control. When the fighting was stopped by the signing of the Guildpact, Szadek was approached by the pact's fabled author, Azor I. It is said that the auspicious sphinx glimpsed the depths of Szadek's mind and saw nothing but fathomless treachery. Azor I knew that this man would try to undermine the Guildpact at every turn, and decided to include him into the pact for the purpose of strengthening it and to balance the power of the other guilds. Shortly after the signing, House Dimir disappeared totally from the public eye, using powerful illusion magic to blot out the guild's symbol on all of the monuments and remove all traces of themselves from historical texts and the minds of those who remembered them. This magic was only undone recently, during the Decamillennial, with the shattering of the Guildpact.

[h2Culture

Out in the field this guild may be all about blending into the culture around them, but behind the scenes, in their home base of Duskmantle and in other safehouses where the Necrosages, scientists, and organization leaders stay and work together, some unique cultures and customs have blossomed. Within these cloisters, birthdays, holidays, and any event or milestone that comes close to revealing a personal detail about someones life are not observed or celebrated. Similarly, interpersonal relationships, both romantic or platonic, are outright forbidden between guild members and highly discouraged between agents and the general public; unless a deep cover situation demands it, of course. It's also considered impolite, or even a threat, to look upon the true face of a superior because doing so would put said leader at risk should the agent in question ever be apprehended and have their mind searched. The different monastic traditions and religions that have spawned within the guild all have similar cultural themes: governments are inherently flawed because people cannot be trusted, secrets are more valuable than any currency, and death is a tool we are meant to use.

Fashion: While a large portion of agents serve as spies in other guilds and have to blend in with their fashion, there are also those that operate in plain sight, wearing clothing that outwardly identifies them as a House Dimir agent. These outwardly identifying clothes are various shades of black, grey, and dark blue, usually including hoods and trench coats, Like the two sides of the eye in the Dimir emblem, this guild's open wear uses pairs of threes as a more subtle hint that you're looking at an agent. Only those with no incriminating knowledge of the guild are permitted to wear these uniforms, which usually falls to journalists, public archive representatives, and base level agents who have never met their superiors and receive their cryptic orders through a series of dropbox riddles as a way of subverting mind magic.

Demographics: Humans, in all their duplicity, are a natural fit for the House and make up most of its demographics. Devkarin that have defected from their own culture can also find a home in this guild. Faeries, Dopplegangers, Vampires, Zombies, and Spirits make up the other leading demographics, but the Dimir will accept anyone with an applicable skillset who desires the destabilization of the other guilds and the collection of secrets.

Making a Dimir Character

You're a spy. Secrets and misinformation are your stock in trade. You skulk in the shadows, infiltrate other guilds, and steal the most precious secrets, whether they're written in locked journals or hidden away in someone's mind. Even you might not be aware of all the reasons behind the missions you carry out. Sometimes a mission's sole purpose is to conceal the motivation behind another strike performed in a different part of the city, to frame another guild for something, or to simply spread fear and doubt.

Behind the public network of couriers, investigators, journalists, archivists and non-guild related businesses that are unknowingly being used as fronts, there is a dark, secretive world of clandestine spy craft. Secret symbols, runes, signals and other surreptitious ways of communicating with other agents in plain sight help the guild remain out of the public eye, while assassinations, cover ups, info trading, and black market dealing are ways the guild remains useful to the shadier side of that same eye.

Like any good spy, you have multiple identities: your true face as an agent of House Dimir, a guildless identity, and a role as member of another guild or faction. Within that secondary guild, you might already be on a mission for the Dimir, assigned to spy on the guild, collect information about a person, or recruit another spy from the ranks of that guild. Or perhaps, for example, you were tasked with infiltrating the ranks of the Azorius Senate in hopes of eventually gaining access to a notorious inmate in one of their prisons.

Dimir Classes

The task of knowing everything that transpires within the city is an enormous undertaking that requires skills of every kind. Duplicitous people that desire to see behind the curtain and pull at the strings that control society can see what that truly feels like while working for House Dimir. Some dedicate their entire selves, memory, body, identity and all, to become a perfect tool for the cause, while others participate on the baseline, only contributing when they can. Every member plays a part in weaving the ever flowing web of information throughout the city.

Barbarian - Don't underestimate a Barbarian's usefulness as a covert operative. They are fierce martial experts that excel at detecting and evading traps at just the right moment. Many terrifying Dimir assassins have come from this class, as well as cunning infiltrators, intimidating coursers, and very effective deep cover operatives.

Bard - Journalists, archivists, reporters, messengers, information brokers, and every kind of agent role in the book can be filled by this class. A Bard's skills cast a wide net, allowing them to be anything from a simple black market shop owner to a fully immersed undercover agent parading around as a member of another guild.

Cleric - Those who can pull mana from the leylines simply by believing in the ideals of shadow, darkness, or duplicity will find a friendly welcome in the House. Some of the greatest Necrosages are said to have been from this class, with a vast plethora of extremely skilled mind mages, infiltrators, and deep cover agents also among its ranks.

Druid - There is much to be learned from the nature of the Undercity. The camouflage of various beetles that hide from the stealthy nocturnal predators. The slow growth of mold devouring a once solid beam of wood. It is because of these lessons that Druids have made some of the guild's darkest Necrosages and most cunning operatives.

Fighter - The most common class finds no shortage of niches to fill in House Dimir. Don't write this class off just because it doesn't have much potential to become a mind mage or Necrosage; Fighters are the absolute paragon of martial expertise and have made legendary assassins, agents, and coursers throughout the guild's history.

Monk - House Dimir's core values of archiving secrets, suspecting everything, and leaving no stone unturned or path unwalked in its pursuit have spawned several shadowy monastic traditions. The most terrifying sleeper agents, assassins, and covert operatives have come from this dark sect of the guild.

Paladin - Stalwart warriors who are aligned with the views of House Dimir might be interested in taking an oath of secrecy, manipulation, or damnation to turn their ability to draw magic from the leylines through the sheer force of their ideals into one of the deadliest kinds of agents this guild has to offer.

Ranger - There always has and always will be a heavy demand in the guild for experts in traversal. This is usually the class that cases properties for infiltration weaknesses and chooses the optimal locations for drop spots, body dump sites, and new safe houses. Beyond that, they make expert marksmen, snipers, and assassins.

Rogue - Quite possibly the most numerous class in the guild, Rogue's can fill any role House Dimir has on its roster with ease. Cunning shopkeepers that never let a customer barter them down and cold blooded assassins that take life without a second thought can both be cut from the same cloth that is this versatile class.

Sorcerer - Like minded individuals with the inherent ability to control mana will be welcomed in House Dimir, no matter what their sorcerous origin is. This class makes great journalists, messengers, and front owners, but only as assassins, infiltrators, and deep cover agents do their skills truly shine.

Warlock - These magical bearers of dark forces from beyond the normal are fearsome and respected members of the guild. While some simply found themselves on the wrong side of a devil's contract, others may have actually received their magic from the inner circle of Necrosages. Whatever the case, this class makes sublime agents and fills every niche the guild offers and then some.

Wizard - The mind of a Dimir Wizard is a tightly locked archive of vile rituals, powerful mind magic, and arcane secrets. Among some of the most feared agents in the guild, this class can rend an assassination target limb from limb, remove a specific memory from a witness's mind with laser precision, or convince a politician to part ways with their tax returns, all with the power of their spellcraft.

Artificer - Practitioners of artifice are less common in House Dimir, but they fill a nonetheless vital role within the guild. Aside from designing gear for agents use on missions under an assumed name, this class can also dive fully into undercover roles in other technologically concerned guilds. Expanding the art of artifice into the future, it is up to Artificers to find new ways to exploit an ever growing technology level.

Blood Hunter - It is rumored that within the paranoid recesses of Dimir's Undercity territory, there is a Blood Hunter circle that breeds a variety the most terrifying coursers, assassins, and infiltrators that the guild has to offer. These versatile agents are often given only the most important missions,

House Background: Dimir Operative

As part of your covert work for House Dimir, it's possible that you will need to maintain a false identity as a member of another guild or faction. A secondary identity is the most effective way to learn another guild's secrets, monitor their movements or activities, and undermine its efforts from within. Operatives that take on a false identity are given a handler to check up on your progress and to change the focus of your investigation if the social climate calls for it.

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: Disguise Kit
Languages: One of your choice
Equipment: A Dimir insignia, three small knives, a set of dark colored common clothes, and the starting equipment described in the background of your secondary guild.
Feature: False Identity
You have more than one identity. The one you wear most of the time makes you appear to be a member of a guild other than House Dimir. You have documentation, established acquaintances, and disguises that allow you to assume that persona and fit into the secondary guild. Whenever you choose, you can drop this identity and blend into the guildless masses of the city.

House Spell List

Agents of the House spend countless hours of study and training to make their spells look like they belong to that of another guild, and the ever present illusory nature of Dimir magecraft gives an added boon to this duplicity. House magic is meant to be subtle and detectable, possibly even pulling in wisps of shadow, cloud, or mist around you as you weave your spells. The ethereal strands of readable thought that Dimir agents pull from their targets with magic usually contain various secrets. These thought strands can serve as a valuable form of currency between the agents of the guild.
Bond of Insight Clear the Mind Death's Approach Delirium Skeins Dreadful Machinations Dream Leash Glazing Incantation Glimpse the Unthinkable Hands of Binding Hidden Strings Induce Paranoia Mental Vapors Mephitic Vapors Mind Grind Mnemonic Betrayal Mnemonic Nexus Necromancer's Magemark Necromantic Thirst Paranoid Delusions Peel From Reality Perplex Pilfered Plans Plaguewave Prying Eyes Psychic Drain Psychic Possession Psychic Strike Reap Intellect Ribbons of Night Runeboggle Seal of Doom Seal of Intellect Selective Snare Shadow of Doubt Shadow Slice Shred Memory Sinister Curse Sinister Sabatoge Soul Ransom Spell Rupture Spell Snare Swift Silence Syncopate Thought Collapse Vicious Rumors Vision Skeins Voidwalk Warped Physique Whispering Madness Wit's End