Cult of Rakdos

The Cult of Rakdos is, first of all, a literal cult of demon-worshippers. That's bound to happen when you have an immortal all-powerful demon lord walking around! Don't worry though, Rakdos members aren't all that bad once you get to know them. Their street performances sometimes blur the line between performance and riot, but to get the full experience you really need to see a show in one of their many nightclubs. Just keep your wits about you and an eye on the nearest exit, the shows can sometimes be dangerous!
The Rakdos have plenty of enemies, especially the Azorius who hate nothing more than a Rakdos street riot. The Boros also dislike having to clean up after them, but they at least have to admire their energy and passion. If only it could be directed to something more useful...
Members of the Cult of Rakdos have witnessed the grandiose speeches and self-important plans of other guilds and concluded that their rivals take themselves far too seriously. Since death comes for everyone, and since order tends inevitably toward chaos, the Rakdos believe that unrestrained, moment-to-moment hedonism is the only sane way to live. Of course, few other Ravnicans would describe the Rakdos as sane.
The Cult of Rakdos bears the name of the demon lord who founded it. As laid out in the Guildpact, the guild was intended to fill roles concerning entertainment, mining, and manual labor. Some argue that any effort to give a demonic cult a respectable role in society was doomed to failure, but the cult remains part of Ravnica’s social fabric nevertheless. The Guildpact prohibits the cult’s extermination, and its entertainments — even as dark and destructive as they are — hold broad appeal. From rowdy mobs who love to see the Rakdos skewer the powerful elites to decadent socialites who come to the Rakdos for illicit amusements, most of Ravnica’s people don’t really want the Rakdos to go away, as much as they might publicly protest otherwise.

THE RAKDOS VIEW ON OTHER GUILDS
The Cult of Rakdos serves a demon lord who is feared, if not respected, by most citizens of Ravnica. Its cultists express their zeal through riotous, bloody, and deadly performances and revels. To other guilds, they are a fearsome threat to the city. To the Rakdos, the other guilds invest too much effort in a vain search for meaning and might.
Azorius. “Insufferable killjoys, and every artist’s eternal enemy. Everyone thinks we are the guild of ultimate evil, but we’re not the ones who want to monitor, legislate, and control your every move.”
Boros. “We love a parade, but their demonstrations always come across as stiff. They’re the deserving straight man for our every punch line.”
Dimir. “They crave secrets, but there’s nothing they can get by eavesdropping that we won’t freely scream at the top of our lungs. They lurk in the shadows trying to look mysterious, practically inviting our mischief.”
Golgari. “We know they’re tired of being the downtrodden, misunderstood misfits. If they’re truly ready to anger the powers that be rather than lick boot soles, we invite them to run away and join our circus.”
Gruul. “Our well-meaning cousins in chaos! We want to take society down a peg, and they want to raze civilization to the dirt. That’s practically common ground!”
Izzet. “Every performance benefits from prop masters and pyrotechnicians. They can be useful backstage, but they lack the charisma for the spotlight.”
Orzhov. “The more the Orzhov try to coerce free people to act against their desires, the easier it is for Rakdos to gain recruits.”
Selesnya. “Such crowds! They would scarcely notice if they were missing a few by night’s end. They’d make the perfect audience, if only they had a better appreciation for bleeding-edge art.”
Simic. “Imaginative creators who nevertheless fail to appreciate the meaning of their living creations—nor do they appreciate the tragic irony of not knowing how funny that is.”

Culture

The Cult of Rakdos is centered on a demon lord who exemplifies the concepts of chaos and evil. At its worst, the cult is driven by a lust for power, extreme selfishness, and a lack of compassion. Cultists take delight in causing pain to others to make sure they know their place, which is subservient to the powerful adherents of this self-centered philosophy.
The cult’s chaotic nature fuels its passion, impulsiveness, and obsession with freedom. A guild of unbridled hedonism, it does what it wants, driven by base desires and a strong streak of cruelty.
The Cult of Rakdos was originally recognized as a guild as part of an effort to channel the impulses of demons, giants, ogres, and humans into an acceptable direction. That effort has never been completely successful. Now, as tension builds in Ravnica and several guilds attempt to crack down on chaos and criminal activity, the Rakdos cult reacts to this building pressure with increasing violence.

Public Agenda

The Cult of Rakdos already serves a megalomaniacal demon of chaos, so its members have no interest in seeing any other ambitious figure achieve supreme rulership over Ravnica. They fear that any other guild might gain enough power to overwhelm all the others and impose its own values on everyone. For this reason, they focus their efforts on subverting other guilds’ schemes, by undermining popular and powerful leaders and interfering — often violently — with any effort to build a centralized concentration of authority. The Azorius Senate currently stands as the greatest threat to the Rakdos way of life. The cult targets Azorius senators and arresters for ridicule, harassment, and occasionally assassination. The Boros Legion’s zealous pursuit of order and justice poses a similar threat. Although Boros’s attention is focused on the Gruul at the moment, Rakdos cultists are well aware that any sufficiently disruptive performance with a high enough body count could bring the wrath of the legion down on their heads. The overreaching of the Azorius and the self-righteous wrath of the Boros engender true fear in the anarchic Rakdos cultists, and the Rakdos respond to fear with bloodshed.

Tomorrow is an illusion; everything is ridiculous.

Type

Entertainment, Troupe

Leader

Rakdos, The Demon

Location

Rix Maadi

Controlled Territories

• Rix Maadi

Notable Members

• Rakdos, The Demon