White puts value in the group, the community, and its civilization as a whole. White's ultimate goal is peace—a world where everyone gets along and no one seeks to disturb the safety and unity that White had worked so long to forge. To govern and protect its community, White makes use of and puts value in a number of broad concepts; morality (ethics, religion), order (law, discipline), uniformity (conformity), and structure (government, planning).

Blue's philosophy, like that of each color, is determined by its world view. To blue, the world is opportunity. Within it, hide wonders and possibilities most fantastic: the stuff of dreams. Blue is characterized by the desire to know the world's secrets and to make those possibilities real. The belief that dream can be reality—to which blue holds fast—is belief in tabula rasa, the blank slate.

Black looks on the world and sees just a plain reality: Power controls. Power says who rules, and who dies. And whether the weak can see it or not, they are no more than slaves for the powerful. The essence of Black is to see one's own ego[6] as so supremely invaluable, that this prospect of enslavement, of subordinating that ego to another, is utterly inadmissible. So, to be in accord with its perceptions and beliefs, Black simply must discard all obligations but to acquire power for itself. It can be no less than the one supreme being who is subordinate to no other, the possessor of all power in the universe - it must become omnipotent.

Red looks on the world and sees adventure. Life is a chance to experience something - many things - and for Red, there is no more worthwhile endeavor than to enjoy life by the adventure it offers. Experiences are what life is about, and to appreciate the full range of life's experiences, Red lives by emotion. What makes one laugh, what makes one cry, what one hates and what one loves, these make up what a person is. A person can look only to these, believes Red, to find one's wishes and desires in life. Deny these, and life is meaningless.

Green is the color most in tune with nature. Whereas the other colors seek to modify the world around them, green believes that the best course of action is to simply allow nature to take its course. Thus, green is often seen as the least confrontational of the colors: it does not seek to impose its values on others; it just wants to coexist as peacefully as possible. This does not mean that green will not defend itself when it feels threatened, but it generally will not seek to impose its opinion on others.

Believing their legislation to be the singular force that prevents Ravnica from descending into chaos, the Azorius Senate mediates and regulates the activities of all of the other guilds and of the plane despite their numerous decrees being ignored. The Azorius Senate are characterized as being aloof, bureaucratic, excessively formalistic, and fastidious, spending hours upon hours with legal documents and ensuring action, if any should occur, stringently adheres to protocol.

The Boros believe passionately in law; to them it is the structure by which society functions and acts as the road map for the community's health and safety. Anything that violates the letter of the law, threatens the spirit of the law, or obstructs the enforcement of the law is considered an enemy of the Boros Legion. In effect, anyone who disagrees with the Boros is an enemy of the Boros.

In the dark, slick corridors of the undercity lurks the unfathomable network of the Dimir guild. House Dimir is Ravnica's dark but open secret: the people know Dimir exists but they pretend it doesn't. The Dimir's role in Ravnica is to provide covert services that other guilds can't or won't, using secrecy as both weapon and defense. Dimir is hidden even from itself, using pockets of covert agents who are aware of only a few other contacts. Dimir agents leave no trace, destroying memories of witnesses to their crimes, and even going so far as to eliminate their own memories of assignments.

The Golgari Swarm is the guild that fuses the opposite values of life and death, fostering growth in Ravnica's decaying communities but also fostering decay in places of growth. The elves, zombies, insects, and undead-plant hybrids of the Golgari are like one massive, growing, feeding organism, collectively spreading across the plane wherever it can fit. The Golgari provide a necessary service in Ravnica, in that they dispose of the carcasses that civilization leaves behind, and mysteriously they also provide sustenance for the forgotten and the needy. They are the scavengers and decomposers at the fringes of the food chain, but yearn to be the predator at the top.

The Gruul are a loose affiliation of savage clans that squat in Ravnica's alleyways, abandoned zones, and ruins. Many of the Gruul clans have come to occupy the Rubblebelt, a broken thread of war-ruined land and settlements that begins near the outskirts of Ravnica's Tenth District. Warfare among the Gruul is constant and almost ritualistic; the Gruul believe that only the strong should survive and rule. The Gruul are the most disenfranchised and hold the most anti-civilization views of all of Ravnica's guilds, and as such are the most ill at ease in a world covered by city.

The Izzet are obsessive experimenters, the epitome of a keen creative intellect combined with an unfortunately short attention span. The original mandate of the Izzet guild was to provide solutions for public works projects (sewers, boilers, roadways), but their experiments often produce mana geysers, spatial rifts, or arcane portals instead. As of late, their guild leader, Niv-Mizzet, has driven the Izzet to delve deeper and deeper into more dangerous and experimental magic. The purpose of these experiments is unknown.

The Orzhov guild was founded on the belief that wealth is power, that structure breeds wealth, and that guilt creates structure. The guild is run like a combination religion, credit-lending agency, and crime syndicate, with an ostentatious hierarchy of priests, enforcers, and ghostly councilors ruling over a congregation of guiltbound servants, indebted ghosts, and thrulls. Many Orzhov guild members truly believe that their rule is necessary for making Ravnica the best it can be, and they are unscrupulous in their methods of making sure they seize power. Most Ravnicans see the Orzhov for the corrupt organization they are, but many are lured in by their promises of wealth, prestige, and longevity.

The Rakdos Cult is a large group of hedonists, sadists, criminals, and psychopaths under the leadership of a powerful demon named Rakdos. The Rakdos Cult combines a destructive urge with the desire for pleasure. Its members are sadistic and cruel simply for the fun of it. Extreme entertainments and personal enjoyment are their goals. They want Ravnica to bow to their whims and anything that gets in their way—or happens to be walking by—is fair game.

The Selesnya guild believes itself to be the voice of Mat'Selesnya—a mysterious consciousness they believe to be the manifestation of nature itself. All within the guild are considered mouthpieces of that singular voice, and they seek to expand their guild by evangelizing their message and adding members. The Selesnya message is personal as well as public; they believe that by silencing the consciousness of the individual, they can become aware of the murmurings of the Conclave, a group of dryads who serve as the spiritual transmitters of Mat'Selesnya's consciousness. The guild's goal is to subsume the identities of individual members, transforming them into instruments of the Conclave. The Selesnyans are organized into vernadi, which are small communes throughout Ravnica. Each is organized around a central tree and led by a dryad leader.

The Simic Combine is Ravnica's steward of nature and the wild; its mission is to preserve the natural world even as Ravnica's cities continue to grow. The guild seeks to protect the elements of the plane that are incompatible or mutually exclusive with its overpopulated, urban conditions. This is not easy, of course, because the forces of civilization are so prevalent on Ravnica that they threaten to subsume anything that runs counter to them. But the Simic practice a strange combination of detachment and holism that provide a kind of separation from the larger urban systems—a separation on which their conservation mission depends.

The Abzan Houses model themselves after familial units to survive their harsh environment. Family as a concept is of extreme relevance to the Abzan, believing it to be the institution that allows them to thrive in the harsh desert environment. As such, a great cultural emphasis is placed on familial bonds and duty; referring to another clan member as "sister" or "brother" is a mark of high esteem, while ritual disowning is a grave matter, both parties throwing their blood into fire.

Without the destructive or selfish impulses of red and black mana, Bant has become a golden utopia. Angels rule the realm with benevolence and grace. Humans and the birdfolk called Aven resolve their conflicts with ritualized combat. Duty and honor are the bedrock of this kingdom of light. The Empyrial Archangel is the ruler of this shard.

In Esper, instinct is the last thing that creatures want. Sphinxes invent the most devilish riddles, while vedalken and wizards study and create. The most interesting thing of note about Esper is the ubiquitousness of the filigree metal known as "etherium". Esper's inhabitants use it to improve their skills and life spans. Because red and green mana do not exist in Esper, there is no untamed wilderness in Esper. Everything is well thought out and to exact specifications. In Esper, the artificers create many machines, ranging from birds to golems. Drakes circle the skies, while still humbled by the power of sphinxes, who dominate and protect Esper. Gargoyles and wizards are the knights of Esper. Under the control of the mages and vedalken, they are ready to repel any attack.

Grixis is a world of death, darkness, undead, hatred, envy, and a lot of other bad things. Due to the predominance of undeath, it is possible to find undead versions of Bant's leotaus and Jund's viashinos in Grixis. Before Grixis split off from the mega-plane of Alara, things were different. White and green mana still flourished there. The land was called Vithia, a white-aligned empire of humans and other races, a land proud of its dynasty of wise and honorable monarchs.

The Jeskai Way is a clan of martial artists, mystics and monks. The clan focuses on strategy over strength, planning battles against the other clans from their remote monasteries in misty mountain lakes. The basis of the Jeskai culture are isolated mountain strongholds, each with its own mystical styles and schools of thought. The prime stronghold is Sage-Eye Stronghold. The Jeskai believe that they alone understand the true nature of reality. As taught by Ugin, they speak of six fires that light the way to Enlightenment. These are the white soulfire, the red bloodfire, the blue mistfire, the black deathfire and the green vitalfire. While vitalfire and deathfire are taboo for the Jeskai Way, mastering the other three opens the way to the sixth fire: the colorless ghostfire.

Most of Jund is covered with active volcanoes that add difficulty to the lives of its human, crocodillian viashino and rat-like goblin inhabitants, but are of great advantage to the dragons that dominate it. Life on Jund is a never-ending struggle of survival of the fittest. According to the creatures and shamans of Jund, Jund is a world of pure freedom. Every animal can do whatever he or she wants to do. There is no authority of Jund, and therefore the world has become crazy and wild. Since Jund lacks white and blue mana, there is no peace and thought. Instinct is the choice over control and thought.

The Mardu Horde are fearsome warriors that live for the heat of battle and thrive on the rocky wastes of Tarkir. The clan's main encampment is at the cliffs where an ancient dragon died. They routinely conduct vicious raids against the other clans and regularly combine lightning magic and archery to strike at their enemies. Shu Yun saw them as a necessary part, since they spread far and wide and killed dragons that would otherwise grow to become a threat.

Naya is a place of life, worship, beasts, and forests. It is a lush world filled with red, green, and white mana. Here, the massive gargantuans and behemoths rule. Unlike, Bant, Naya has no fixed caste system, but there are still levels of power. These systems of power are not given. They are controlled by brute force.

The Sultai Brood is a decadent and merciless clan which lurks in ancient palaces in the steaming jungles of Tarkir. After striking a deal with the demonic Rakshasa, they employ necromancy to fuel their schemes of dominating the other clans. The clan rules from Kheru Temple, deep in the jungles. Shu Yun regarded them as the protectors of the other Clans from the horrors that lurked within the jungles and swamplands.

The Temur are fierce, rugged survivors that live in the harsh arctic environments of Tarkir and have constructed many of their structures out of the bones of fallen dragons. Embodying the aspect of savagery, the Temur are often forced to fight as feral animals would, doing anything they can to survive. Most of the year they hunt in the inhospitable Qal Sisma mountains. Shu Yun regarded them as alerters to the other Clans of threats and developments that had yet to take form.

Void of the deliberation of blue, this colour combination offers itself to pure aggression. Hesitation, mercy and restraint are not in the vocabulary of the users of this combination.

The absense of the order of white creates pure chaos. Experimentation with no remorse for the greater good.

Always look out for your fellow man, cast aside your selfish desires brought about by black, and embrace the community.

What will be will be, nature will take its course, and we will help it accelerate. Ignore your emotions as they will just leave you burned.

The world was made for us to improve upon it. Nature is powerless and stagnant, innovation and creation decide the world's fate.

Reserved for the omnipotent, the five colours of mana offer complete flexibility. however, this comes at a cost.

To be devoid of colour is to be alien to the multiverse. The Eldrazi are extradimensional entities that exist outside the multiverse, hungering for mana and do not hesitate to bring the destruction of planes of existence.