Planar Chaos

Ignitions: Raiding Party

Slaughter had been his life. It was his first love and his truest, but like all long term relationships, it had lost its spark. Rinok just didn't feel the same way about the passionate yet mindless slaughter that was a core part of the Cult of Rakdos. He needed a direction for his violent impulses, a cause to champion. Raiding fulfilled both of those needs, but mimicking the Boros could not give Rinok what he really wanted. It wasn't just the organized killing. It was the glory he craved. The Rakdos knew of glory for their dread lord, but individual glory was a foreign concept. Rinok longed to lead men and women, to form armies that would increase his strength and the glory of his own name.

He'd first joined a Boros raiding party on accident. There had been a large group of warriors gathered in the Tin Street Market and Rinok eavesdropped to see what was going on. Apparently they were going to be raiding a Golgari compound. Rinok slipped into their ranks and listened intently. He never cared much for the bottom dwelling Golgari who created abominations out of Ravnica's refuse. Their meddling with life and death gave him the creeps even more than Simic experiments or the Orzhov ghost council ever could.

A minotaur seemed to be their leader. His shaggy brown fur was swept back from his large eyes. Rinok saw in those eyes a flame he'd been missing. These soldiers around him were united by a common cause, something the Rakdos had always lacked.

"Men, today we battle for the sanctity of Ravnica's dead," the minotaur said. His voice was low and strong. Rinok felt his heart start to pound like a war drum as the speech continued. "Today we remind the Golgari of their limits under the statutes put in place to protect us from their foul desecration. They will not go unpunished for these transgressions against our sacred halls where the honored dead lay to rest. We will not yield, we will not be passive, we will fight!"

The men and women around Rinok all raised their fists in a mighty war cry, "For the Boros!"

"Aurelia gives us her blessing. Do not waste it." The minotaur turned over his shoulder, leading the band southward towards their target. Rinok became swept up in the current of moving bodies and had no choice but to follow.

Once in Ravnica's undercity, Rinok was shocked at the ferociousness with which the Boros soldiers fought and the camaraderie between them. Each soldier would defend his brothers and sisters in arms to the last. This was certainly absent in the Rakdos. They knew no sense of family, only devotion to their slumbering Lord of Riots. That devotion was made concrete by offerings of blood in ceremonies led by the guild's blood witches since time immemorial. The blood could come from anywhere, so long as it was shed in a frenzy.

This raid wasn't a frenzy. It was well planned and methodical, but that didn't mean it lacked passion. The Boros soldiers truly believed in what they were fighting and killing for. More than once they came to Rinok's aid even though they didn't know him. Rinok felt his heart soaring as he helped the Boros press further and further into the undercity.

The raid finished and Rinok found himself exhilarated and breathless. The old minotaur pulled him aside.

"That was your first raid. I've never seen you before." He looked Rinok up and down. The shaggy hair and ragged clothing easily gave this boy away as one of the Rakdos, but the minotaur saw something in the young man's eyes that reminded him of a younger version of himself. The quest for glory could choose anyone, even a Rakdos boy, if their heart was made of the right stuff.

"It was amazing. All of us fighting together instead of against each other," Rinok couldn't catch his breath.

"That is the beauty of the struggle," the minotaur said. "It can unite people from all walks of life under the banner of a single cause. I should like to see you joining our raids again, and possibly our guild one day."

"I look forward to it," Rinok said.

It had been less than a week since the raid and Rinok was growing restless. He paced the floors of the Rakdos compound, cringing at the noises made by the chains hanging from the ceiling. The Chainwalkers were not practicing their act today, leaving their props to sway and clink in a grim reminder of the celebration to come.

The door to the compound burst open and a combination of Boros soldiers and Azorius Justicars flooded inside. From seemingly out of nowhere hundreds of Rakdos poured into the room and a battle began. Law magic hindered the reckless Rakdos in their defense against the relentless assault. They unleashed the full extent of their power, but had left themselves wide open to counter-moves and counter-magic. Rinok wondered why the Boros were raiding the Rakdos compound in the first place. He'd heard nothing from the minotaur since he returned home after his first raid.

Rinok had a choice to make. He could fight on the side of the Boros and the minotaur warrior who had opened his eyes to what life could truly be or he could remain loyal to the guild who raised him and hadn't killed him for sport. Yet.

The decision needed to be made soon. Justicars, Soldiers, and cultists were converging around him. It seemed like each one looked upon Rinok with accusatory eyes, demanding he join their side. Rinok was backed into a corner, and like many beasts it was dangerous to corner a member of the Rakdos. A legionnaire brandished a long pike and lunged at Rinok. Rinok lashed out and knocked the pike aside. He was about to smash his fist through the legionnaire's helmet when the world suddenly changed around him.

He was pulled through a gray void at an alarming speed yet it also felt like it took forever to reach his destination. He awoke on a battlefield laying among the dead. Rinok stood, staggering towards a thin trail of smoke in the distance.

Rinok found that the smoke came from an encampment. Soldiers of different races wearing various kinds of armor sat together around their cooking fires singing songs and telling stories. Rinok felt a certain electricity in the air that reminded him of the Boros soldiers.

"Good to see you alive, soldier." A man wearing regalia that obviously meant he had some rank clapped Rinok on the shoulder. "Get yourself some new armor commissioned from the smith. It seems the enemy tore yours right off thinking you were dead."

"Where... am I?" Rinok asked. He raised a hand to his forehead and winced.

"Blow to the head will do that," the man said. "But I'll humor you if only so you can get back out there faster. This is Valla. We've been at war as long as anyone can remember, and it's not going to stop anytime soon. Certainly not long enough for you to be asking dumb questions. Do I make myself clear?"

"Mhm." Rinok nodded.

"What was that, soldier?"

"Y-yes sir," Rinok stammered, still disoriented. He would have to figure out the details of what happened to him later.