Precinct Five

This Precinct is home to the brightest minds in the Tenth District, and serves as an information hub. Those who live or spend most of their time here enjoy a good book and thrive in the heat of a debate.

As the home of prestigious universities, ancient libraries, and hidden laboratories, Precinct Five is the hub of information and learning in the Tenth District. People of all ages flock to this precinct to spend time learning, whether by poring over texts and scrolls or finding a mentor who will guide a student. It's also the place to find information brokers, who sell specialized or secret knowledge available nowhere else. Multilevel buildings set next to each other with little regard for planning give way to an occasional square or open campus where socially minded residents congregate during daytime hours. At night, many continue their studies while others tinker with their latest creations or intellectual endeavors. Taverns and pubs tend to be more urbane than in other parts of the District and often feature poetry readings, storytelling, and musical performances.

People who live in Precinct Five have a zeal for learning and tend to be inquisitive. Getting into a heated debate or touting a recent success to your neighbors is part of showing your worth here. Good neighbors keep their projects and research hidden until a result can be displayed; it is considered uncouth to allow others to view a work in progress.

Affiliated Guilds

Zonot Seven, the home of the Simic Combine's Guildhall, Zameck, is located on the western edge of the precinct. The Izzet League maintains a network of laboratories and workshops close to Nivix in Precinct Four, and House Dimir agents are seen and unseen all around this district, and they secretly run the Ismeri Library. Some members of the Azorius Senate who prefer to study disciplines aside from the law make their homes here as well.

Neighborhoods and Landmarks

Life for residents of Precinct Five is spent mostly indoors, or in the case of the Simic, underwater. The precinct's occupants - including significant populations of students, instructors, researchers, scribes, and university staff - are crowded into dormitories and apartments squeezed in among laboratories, libraries, and magical machineries.

Zonot Seven

The Simic Combine's watery habitat is made up of huge sinkholes filled with the overflow from the recently discovered subterranean oceans. Zonot Seven is the only zonot within the Ravnica City Proper (the 10 Districts), and contains Zameck, the Simic Guildhall. In contrast to the rest of the precinct, the zonot is a bustling place, with activity at all hours. A huge chamber just below the street surface serves as a gathering place for all the Combine Speakers, as well as a place where visitors can meet with Prime Speaker Zegana or other emissaries. A Simic researcher might invite a land-dwelling colleague to visit the habitat, but such an occurrence isn't common. Canals lead from here farther into the precinct and to Precinct Six.

The Blistercoils

A series of gigantic waterwheels, built and operated by the Izzet League, turns just outside Zonot Seven in the north end of the precinct. The system generates magical and electrical energy to power public works, Simic laboratories, and, of course, Izzet workshops. Few outside the League realize that the amount of energy generated in the Blistercoils far exceeds what is actually used, with the excess stored in underground batteries that could explode if the became overloaded.

Blistercoils is also the name of the neighborhood near the waterwheels, which largely consists of workshops and private laboratories.

Prism University

A crystal-paned center of learning that concentrates on magic theory and application, Prism University draws potential wizards and other would-be mages who want to learn about all forms of magic, in contrast to the specialized and practical applications of magic espoused by the guilds. Even though the school maintains a formal state of neutrality, it's an open secret that many guilds have infiltrated the university and planted agents to woo prospective members. Partly as a result of this influence, many graduates of the university do go on to join a guild, finding a way to apply their broad experience to support the narrower focus of the guild. This is usually the explanation as to why any given member of a guild is using magic that seems to contradict the guild's focus.

Ismeri Library

One of the greatest libraries on all Ravnica, the Ismeri Library is open to all citizens at all hours. Hundreds of thousands of books covering every conceivable subject are found here. The place is also one of the centers of Dimir communication. Secret messages are hidden within its books by a variety of methods both magical and mundane. Dimir agents might have to gather message fragments hidden within several different documents, for example, to find their next assignments or targets. Intricate codes and magical wards protect other secrets.

Goods and Services

Specialty items that are commonly used by scribes, researchers, and inventors can be found in many small shops in the precinct, usually run by a tinker or academic. Precinct Five also has the best apothecaries, alchemists, and magic-mongers in the Tenth District. On the other hand, mundane adventuring gear, weapons, and armor are much harder to find. Information is an especially valuable commodity in Precinct Five. In addition to holding booksellers, the precinct is home to a variety of people who make a living (or at least a sizable income) selling information, including private investigators, rumormongers, and spies.

Meals and lodging of modest to wealthy quality are available here. Older and more experienced people - high ranking Simic researchers or established scholars - tend to maintain lifestyles toward the more expensive end of that scale. The poor are pitied and most affluent are envied here, so anyone who maintains an aristocratic, poor, squalid, or wretched lifestyle may have trouble interacting with citizens of this precinct.

Law and Crime

Much of the crime of Precinct Five is of a sort that is hard to detect: blackmail, espionage, identity theft (of a literal kind, perpetrated by Shapechangers), and the like. Most of the precinct's residents spend their time absorbed in study, unaware that such activities might be happening under their noses. Only rarely does violence break out, and Azorius Arresters try hard to keep the incident quiet and maintain a state of public calm. The typical response time to a reported crime here is 1d12 minutes, and the force consists of two Arresters.

Patrolled by the Azorius Senate with private security provided by a wide variety of sponsored sources.

Location under

Tenth District