The Rubblebelt Strife

"This city will perish, and the Gruul will cheer as the boar-god crushes the last bricks into dust."

— Nikya of the Old Ways.

Overview

The Rubblebelt is a quarantined zone of a series of ongoing guerrilla skirmishes and raids committed by the Gruul Clans. These conflicts have been continuous since five years after the destruction of the original guildpact in 10000 ZC (70 years). Due to the large amount of individual Gruul clans, the sheer amount of members, and the difficulty of fighting against urban guerrilla warfare, The Azorius Senate and Boros Legion have had incredible difficulty quelling these conflicts and continue to suffer mounting losses against these attacks.

The Rubblebelt

The Rubblebelt is an ever expanding archipelago of death and destruction that reaches out past the 10th district which has also become known as the Red Wastes. North of Precinct Four is an endless warzone that stretches for vast miles of land where the Gruul launch raids and sieges against civilization itself. The only people who choose to live there are those that cannot leave, or those that are too stubborn to leave.

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Rubblehulk by Raymond Swanland

An elemental Root-kin summoned by Gruul druids.

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Gruul Turf by John Avon

Conflict Type

War

Start Date

10005

Ending Date

Ongoing

Belligerents

Geurillas

• Cult of Rakdos
• Gruul Clans

City Defenders

• Azorius Senate
• Boros Legion

Strength

~1,500,000 Gruul
~10,000 Rakdos

~2,750,000 Boros
~50,000 Azorius

Casualties

~90,000 Gruul
~1500 Rakdos

~250,000 Boros
~5,000 Azorius

Objectives

Destroy Ravnica

Defend Ravnica

Notable Conflicts

Combat in the Rubblebelt mostly consists of disorganized smash and grab raids, ambushes, and skirmishes. The vast loss of life comes from these small, but frequent attacks made seemingly at random from the behest of roaming bands of Gruul. Despite this, there have been documented battles made up of organized conflicts and military activity.

Operations and conflicts during the Rubblebelt Strife

Listed by starting date:
Battle of Skarrg -- January 2, 10005 -- Gruul victory
Operation Sunrise -- March 22, 10006 -- Inconclusive, civilian casualties.
Operation Feather -- November 5-8, 10006, Boros Victory
Siege of Mahovana -- Feburary 24, 10022 -- Gruul victory
Opertaion Extract -- December 16, 20024 -- Boros Victory
Battle of The Cairn -- August 13, 10054 -- Gruul Victory
Operation Ward -- September 9-15, 10060 -- Boros Victory

Background

The primary military organizations involved in the strive are Gruul Clans and the Boros Legion. Supplementary forces from the Cult of Rakdos and the Azorius Senate aid the Clans and Legion respectively during much of the fighting. When Ravnica's construction began rapidly ramping up during the latter years of the Guildpact, the Gruul were forced into less and less territory. Eventually it became too much for the guild and they began to indirectly fight back with acts of sabotage and vandalism. Under the accordance of the Guildpact, the Gruul were not able to have direct conflict with any other guild, and despite their violent acts they had continued to become more and more irrelevant until the Decamillenial.
News of the destruction of the Guildpact has spread like wildfire which had brought the clans together in a historic gathering where they planned their first strike against Ravnica. On the morning of 2 January 10005, the Gruul made a surprise attack on an enormous palace called Skarrg. With mostly civilian casualties, the Gruul quickly laid waste to the surrounding area, killing many defending Azorius guards and Boros reinforcements, and claimed the immediate five mile area as official Gruul territory. This marked the first ever guild conflict since the original signing of the pact.
In 10075, the new Guildpact was created and thus a ceasefire was established. For when the Guildpact is enacted no guild may make war against another. A year later, however, it was discovered that Jace, the living Guildpact, was missing and the laws of the document were voided once again and allow hostities to begin anew,

Rubblebelt Raiders by Chippy

A band of Gruul patrols.

Skarrg was quick to become a headquarters and home territory of sorts for the Gruul, and a place of tradition where the clans meet to discuss plans and politics. The Boros and Azorius were slow to act, thinking this was nothing more than rabble causing trouble as they had been for the long periods of time. However, as casualties continued to mount and more of the city succumbing to ruin, the two guilds of order were forced to take this threat more seriously. What resulted was a massive loss of Azorius and Boros life as the two guilds severely underestimated the fighting power of the Gruul as well as the unconventional fighting tactics of guerilla warfare.
The two defending guilds continued to mount devastating losses while the Gruul consumed more and more territory. The original location of Skarrg became known as the Red Wastes for the red haze caused by the constant fires and the blood that flowed through the gutters and stained the streets and walls. As the Gruul encroached closer to the heart of Ravnica itself, the Boros began construction of massive fortifications and defenses in the hopes to quarantine the Gruul before they could move further south. The project succeeded in slowing the Gruul assaults, but attacks in the other cardinal directions continued to mount.
Today, the Boros seem to be in an everlasting war with the Gruul, only having brief periods of reprieve when Jace, the living guildpact, finds his way back to Ravnica. With so much to defend and the nature of the fighting itself, the Boros simply cannot extinguish this raging fire the Gruul have started.

Weapons and Tactics

Gruul

The Gruul do not fancy themselves with the finesse of a sword or elegance of trained fighting styles. Instead they insist on weapons and tactics that cause the most amount of physical damage; clubs, maces, bricks, even trees (for those big enough to wield) are common among the Clans. They do not shy away from ranged combat either. Makeshift bows make up the majority of arms, but Gruul have been seen wielding crossbows, firearms, flamethrowers, and even using captured siege weapons. The use of druids and magic make for great support in these attacks as well. It is common for Gruul clans to raid an area, destroy it, and live there until the resources gleaned from the destructive raids are used up. Once that happens, they move on to a new area, leaving smoldering ruins in their wake.
During the early stages of the conflict, the Gruul mainly relied on infantry attacks of seemingly random locations to try and cause as much destruction and chaos as possible. After the Siege of Mahovana, Gruul tactics have shifted considerably as they began to employ the use or wurms, phoenixes, drakes, and elementals to cause mass destruction. Though small ambushes and raids still occur, the threat of devastation the Gruul can inflict is immense if left unchecked.
It has also been rumored that Nylea, God of the Hunt, is offering her aid through physical intervention as well as granting her power through Gruul clerics to assist in Ravnica's destruction.

Skarrgan Firebird by Kev Walker

The devastation of a Skarrgan Firebird

Boros

The Boros have the luxury of being very well equipped with arms and armor. As the standing military of Ravnica they have no shortage of well made equipment and material to fight a long war. They also employ the Izzet League to fashion and invent new technology to further increase the potency of their military. Boros Roc Riders patrol the skies nearly uncontested and can inflict hit and run attacks upon unsuspecting Gruul patrols as well as gather valuable intelligence of movements and activity. The Boros also have the very powerful Parhelion II which can unleash devastating damage upon their foes and deploy an army at a moment's notice. The Parhelion is a large target however, and the Boros are very careful to employ its use for fear of a coordinated assault.
The Boros are also incredibly disciplined and utilize formations and strategy to the fullest extent of their knowledge. In a vacuum, a Boros detachment can hold their own against an attack that is three times its size. Due to the unorthodox fighting techniques of the Gruul, it is very difficult for the Boros to fully utilize their advantages. For now, the Boros are fixated on preventing the spread of the Gruul by containing them to the north while they slowly adapt to this new level of urban fighting.

Solar Blaze by Adam Paquette

The Boros Parhelion using its main weapon.

"The Parhelion is capable of wiping out entire bands of Gruul in an instant. It is our most powerful weapon, but until you find a way to tell the difference between non-combatants and otherwise at these altitudes, then we will not use it."

— Aurelia.

Aftermath

While the strife is still ongoing, the effects of over seventy years of war has had a terrible impact. The loss of life, both militarily and civilian are immense, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. The Gruul's doctrine of mass destruction has caused most of these casualties, but the Boros do have the burden of accidental, and mistaken killings, most notably from Operation Sunrise. Life in the Rubblebelt and Red Waste have parallels to that in the Undercity. With no Azorius to keep the peace, these areas are considered to be in a state of anarchy. Many people struggle to survive through finding food and water, or avoiding hostile creatures that have made found their way into this part of Ravnica unopposed. Military conflict can happen at any time in any place, so there is no truly safe place in these zones.
Since the start of the conflict, the Boros have estimated that it has spent over tens of millions of gold on the war. With such an expense the Boros is under massive debt from the Orzhov Syndicate as the Boros are forced to continue to spend massive amounts of money to fuel the war effort. It is estimated to cost over a billion gold to reconstruct the damages currently caused by the Gruul, and with every passing day that cost rises. More than two million Boros soldiers served in the Strife so far, some 1 million of whom actually saw combat in the Rubblebelt. It is estimated that there is at least five attacks and battles occurring every day within the Rubblebelt.
The Gruul's usage of wurms and phoenixes cause the most damage. Not only do Wurms cause the most structural damage, they also create dangerous sinkholes and destroy the support structures that hold Ravnica up above the Undercity. At any moment large swaths of the city can collapse in on itself and fall into the Undercity where yet more people can be killed from the falling debris. Phoenixes inflict the most loss of life as their blankets of fire cause massive infernos. These fire storms, under the correct circumstances, can cause massive tornados of head and flame which can literally lift a person off the ground and suck them into the fires if they are too close.