Plane Shift: Ixalan

Contents The World of Ixalan Races of Ixalan Land of the Great River An Ixalan Bestiary Appendix: The Colors of Magic PLANE SHIFT: IXALAN ©2017 Wizards of the Coast LLC. Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, their re- spective logos, Magic, Ixalan, D&D, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual, Volo’s Guide to Monsters, and characters’ distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries. All rights reserved. www.MagicTheGathering.com Written by James Wyatt Cover art by Tyler Jacobson Editing by Scott Fitzgerald Gray The stories, characters, and incidents mentioned in this publication are entirely fictional. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast LLC. First Printing: January 2018 Contact Us at Wizards.com/CustomerService Wizards of the Coast LLC PO Box 707 Renton, WA 98057-0707 USA USA & Canada: (800) 324-6496 or (425) 204-8069 Europe: +32(0) 70 233 277 Deeproot Champion Raymond Swanland Introduction This is a pretty special installment of the Plane Shift series for me, because I was the creative lead for Ixalan world building. Perhaps betraying my fourteen-year history working on DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, Ixalan is a world of exploration and treasure, marked by ancient sites waiting to be explored by intrepid heroes. One of those sites, shown on a card in the Ix- alan set, is obviously inspired by a classic D&D adventure, The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. This plane lacks only dragons to be a fully realized D&D milieu—there’s even a world map! Ultimately, that means that writing Plane Shift: Ixalan was both a ton of fun and relatively easy. The people who populate Ixalan have a lot in common with D&D characters already, and mapping them to existing classes and backgrounds was a pretty straightforward task. Similarly, the creatures of the plane—especially the dinosaurs—had a lot of analogues in the game already. And still, this is the longest installment of Plane Shift yet! That’s partly because I had the freedom to really cut loose on ideas and inspiration to help you play a character in this exciting world. You’ll find more tables in here than ever before—tables of personality traits and ideals to flesh out your character, of treasures to flavor your hoards, and inspiration to bring your party together. This sort of thing is both really enjoyable and really challenging to write—a lot like the flavor text on Magic cards, actually, because each one is a self-contained nugget, a complete idea in a single sentence. I hope that all this stuff enriches your game. The appendix in this document is an extended musing on the colors of Magic and their relationship to D&D characters and spells. This is the sort of thing that dominates a lot of lunchtime conversations with members of the Magic creative team who are also avid D&D fans, and also the sort of thing I get a lot of questions about on Twitter. As with much of the rest of this document, the focus is more on role- playing and character building than on rules. It’s a first stab, though, toward a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the worlds of both games. As always, The Art of Magic: The Gathering—Ixalan is the definitive resource for information about the plane. With this document, you can use that information to build a campaign with a minimum of changes to the fifth edition D&D rules, which you can find here. And even without the book, you can find lore about Ixalan onthe Magic web site. There’s a lot of open space on that map. I hope you have fun exploring the world of Ixalan! —James Wyatt The game mechanics in this supplement are usable in your D&D campaign but are not fully tempered by playtests and design iterations. For these rea- sons, material in this supplement is not legal in D&D Organized Play events. Sunrise Seeker Filip Burburan Thunderherd Migration Lars Grant-West Sun Empire The Sun Empire is a powerful civilization that domi- Cleric. Sun Empire clerics are typically devoted to nates the eastern coast of Ixalan. The empire’s fierce one particular aspect of the Threefold Sun. Kinjalli, the warriors are supported by priests who wield the power Wakening Sun, represents the deity’s creative aspects of the sun and command the mighty dinosaurs that in- and grants access to the Life and Light domains. Ixalli, habit the continent. A new ruler has brought the empire the Verdant Sun, represents its sustaining and nourishing into an era of expansion, seeking to reclaim the lands aspects, granting access to the Life and Nature domains. in the continent’s interior that it once held. At the same Tilonalli, the Burning Sun, represents its destructive as- time, a foreign incursion into those same lands sparks pects and grants access to the Tempest and War domains. a search for the artifact known as the Immortal Sun, Druid. Certain shamans of the Sun Empire are which the people of the empire view as a potent symbol closely attuned to the forces of nature, and use wild of their identity. shape to take on dinosaur forms. These druids typically Races: Human follow the Circle of the Moon. Suggested Backgrounds: Acolyte, entertainer, folk Fighter. Highly trained soldiers and warriors are hero, guild artisan, hermit, noble, sage, soldier, ur- the backbone of the Sun Empire. They are typically chin Battle Masters or Champions. Paladin. Knights of the Sun Empire are drawn to Suggested Classes the Oath of the Ancients and (increasingly, as vampires Consider the following class options for your Sun Em- and pirates mount incursions into their lands) the Oath pire character. of Vengeance. These paladins often use the find steed Barbarian. Certain warriors devoted to Tilonalli spell to acquire dinosaur mounts (typically a hadrosau- (the destructive aspect of the Threefold Sun—the deity rus, described in Volo’s Guide to Monsters). worshiped by the folk of the empire) enter a berserk Ranger. Scouts of the Sun Empire are often rangers, rage in combat. The Path of the Berserker is appropriate including both Beast Masters and Hunters. The pteran- for these characters, or the Path of the Totem Warrior odon, dimetrodon, and velociraptor are all appropriate (replacing bear, eagle, and wolf totem spirits with cer- ranger’s companions. atops, aerosaur, and raptor spirits, respectively). Bard. Poetry is a respected art among the warriors of the Sun Empire, so bards of the College of Valor might be found within their ranks. Four Peoples, One Party The trickiest thing about playing D&D in a highly factionalized setting like Ixalan is bringing player characters together who belong to different d10 Reason for Cooperating groups and would have no obvious reason to want to cooperate—let 1 The characters begin the campaign captured, whether as alone trust each other with their lives. One possibility, of course, is for all prisoners of the Legion of Dusk, captives in a pirate ship’s brig, the characters to belong to the same faction. An all-vampire party bent or trapped in jungle snares. on conquest or an all-pirate party set to explore the Stormwreck Sea can find plenty of adventure in Ixalan. But if one player is intent on playing a 2 The characters are fighting each other when a dinosaur attacks. merfolk and one is determined to be an orc, some extra effort is required 3 The characters are trapped together by a cave-in, a sinkhole to bring them together. opening, or some similar disaster. The most straightforward approach is to put the characters into a situation where they need to work together to survive or to achieve some 4 Each character has one piece of a treasure map, or one key of goal they all share. Necessity makes strange bedfellows, as the saying several required to open a treasure vault. goes, and characters who find themselves in a bad situation have a strong 5 A strange dream leads each of the characters to the same incentive to put aside their differences and work together, at least until they get out of that situation. They might all be trapped in the same place, destination. or each character could have something that the whole group needs. 6 The characters are all hopelessly lost in the jungle. You can roll on the following table to generate ideas for bringing characters together at the start of the campaign. Ideally, by the time they 7 Leaders of the characters’ factions have ordered them to have overcome whatever circumstance has thrown them together, they will cooperate on a secret mission. have learned to trust each other and perhaps even become friends. 8 A pirate captain or other villain is a common enemy to all the characters. 9 A magical or natural phenomenon threatens all folk of Ixalan. 10 The characters are all trying to avert the catastrophe of a full- scale war among their peoples. Drover of the Mighty Eric Deschamps Suggested Ideals Suggested Bonds d6 Ideal d6 Bond 1 Nation. The invaders must be driven out and the ancient capital 1 I left behind a family (living or dead) when I set out on my of Orazca reclaimed. journey of exploration. 2 Glory. I wish to earn great glory in battle—ideally, by making my 2 I have ties to the imperial line.

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