Golgari Swarm

The Golgari Swarm rules the undercity, inasmuch as anyone can be in charge of such a place. They also serve an important function in dealing with the waste, detritus, and death that the city produces. All things eventually flow down the undercity, where the Golgari repurpose it.
The Golgari believe in life and death as part of the same cycle, where one is not greater than the other. They maintain the underground flora and fauna, mostly fungi and insects, but also have no qualms about necromancy, as undeath is just another part of life.
The teeming masses that compose the Golgari Swarm see themselves as pragmatic above all else, uncowed by the simple fact that death is part of the cycle of life. They believe the idea of life and death as opposing forces to be nothing more than naive sentimentality. They know everything crumbles and rots in the end, and then new life springs from that rot. Time inevitably passes, bringing both destruction and new creation to all things.
The original mandate of the Golgari Swarm under the leadership of Svogthir, its Devkarin founder, was to maintain Ravnica’s agriculture and manage its waste. But Svogthir’s interest in necromancy, and his eventual transformation into a lich, shaped the course of the guild’s activities and gave birth to its philosophy of embracing death as part of nature’s cycle.

THE GOLGARI VIEW ON OTHER GUILDS
To the Golgari, the other guilds of Ravnica are shortsighted and inevitably doomed to collapse.
Azorius. “Such hubris! As if all their laws could shore up this crumbling society. Their regulations and institutions are just detritus in the making.”
Boros. “The Boros speak a language we will never understand. Their militant dedication to empty concepts like ‘justice’ and ‘righteousness’ is both confusing and disturbing.”
Dimir. “They collect information like trinkets, so how can they ever grasp the deeper truths we possess? But their presence in the undercity is an all-too-real threat to our dominion beneath the streets.”
Gruul. “The clans serve as effective instruments of the natural cycle, though in their anger, they are blind to the extent of the role they play.”
Izzet. “Perplexing. They are attracted to whatever flashes brightest and booms loudest. Their fascination with their toys will only hasten their own end.”
Orzhov. “They flout the natural order and use their knowledge of death to resist its pull. While their bodies rot, their spirits persist, clinging to the fiction of material wealth.”
Rakdos. “They understand the inevitability of death but seek to hasten its arrival for their petty ends. What the demon destroys, we nurse back to life again.”
Selesnya. “Their reverence for nature is the mark of immaturity and naiveté. They fear death, so they can’t understand life. They can be dangerous when they fervently cling to their narrow-minded and inadequate view of life.”
Simic. “They seek patterns in the natural world, which is commendable enough, but they believe the search will lead them to find perfection through all of its flaws. They strive to move forward but fail to see that the path they tread is cyclical.”

Culture

The teeming hordes of the Golgari Swarm believe it is finally their time to shine. They have dwelled under the streets and under the sway of the other guilds for too long. They are convinced that Ravnica’s institutions are now on the verge of collapse and that the absence of the Living Guildpact proves it. However, the Golgari are neither surprised nor panicked by this, for they believe that all things eventually rot and die, and from this decay, new life blooms. As such, the Golgari see the looming interguild conflict as a necessary final push to bring about a new era — their era.
The Golgari are preparing for upheaval. They have sealed many of the passages leading into the undercity, making their territory seem like an impregnable subterranean fortress. Within it, the Golgari domain retains its grandeur, a mysterious and wondrous kingdom. The rare visitors who stumble into it are awed by its beauty and its aura of ancient power. Palatial architecture fills cavernous sewer chambers, and luminescent spores float through the air to shed an otherworldly light on the moss-covered masonry. Entering Golgari territory feels like stepping into a secret world of dangerous beauty.

Public Agenda

The Golgari Swarm celebrates the growth and vibrancy of the natural world, but gives equal attention to nature’s facets of destruction, decay, and death. It finds allies and agents in the form of fungi, oozes, insects, diseases, and other unsavory aspects of nature, and it uses the power of nature actively toward the goal of advancing its own place in the world. But the Golgari have also learned patience from nature; they are content to work from the shadows, harnessing the energy that comes from decay while the civilization of Ravnica slowly erodes and destroys itself.

Type

Corporation, Agriculture

Leader

Jarad vod Savo

Location

Svogthos

Controlled Territories

• Svogthos

Notable Members

• Jarad vod Savo