Simic Combine

Vast sinkholes called zonots are the primary geographic divisions among the Simic. Each zonot pierces layer upon layer of crumbled city as it descends deep below the surface and connects to ancient, long-forgotten ocean waters. A zonot is a distinct Simic habitat with its own culture and ecosystem, as well as a leader called a Speaker. The Speakers of all nine zonots form the Speakers' Chamber, and they elect a Prime Speaker from among them to serve as the Simic guildmaster. Zegana, the current Prime Speaker, is the Speaker of Zonot Seven, which is located in a remote, sparsely inhabited part of Ravnica far from the political activity of the Tenth District. The Simic guildhall, Zameck, is located in Zonot Seven within Precinct Five of Ravnica's Tenth District. A huge chamber just below the street serves as the gathering place for all the Speakers, as well as a location where non-Simic visitors can meet with the Prime Speaker or other combine emissaries.

RANK AND RENOWN

  Tiers of responsibility and importance-functional ranks- create a hierarchy among the scientists of the Simic Combine. A scientist's course of advancement is the path of increasing responsibility within a clade or project. Guardians and deepsages have more limited opportunities for advancement, though they still gain the benefits of high renown scores.

RANK 1: TECHNICIAN

Prerequisite: Renown 3 or higher in the Simic Combine, Spellcasting or Pact Magic class feature
As a technician, you can begin performing experiments, following the instructions of a researcher as you operate instruments, care for experimental subjects, extract samples of bodily fluids, and run errands up and down the zonot and out into the city. Such errands can bring you into contact with members of other guilds and lead to adventures.
If you have any kind of pet, familiar, mount, or animal companion, you can add one random adaptation to it from the Minor Adaptations table (see the krasis section in chapter 6). Doing so requires ld6 days of work (8 hours per day) for each creature, and the work must be done in a Simic facility.

RANK 2: RESEARCHER

Prerequisite: Rank 1 and renown 10 or higher in the Simic Combine
After doing your time as a technician, you are eligible to lead your own experiments. You must be associated with a clade or a project, and must work on experiments related to its primary focus under the general guidance of the clade or project leader. Project leaders are more hands-on, ensuring that your research contributes to reaching the immediate objective. Clade leaders check in from time to time, but they give you wide latitude to pursue your own experiments under the general aegis of the clade's interests.
If your research requires it, your project leader or clade leader can equip you with a Simic charm (described in chapter 5) before you undertake a mission or an experiment. In addition, you can call on a category 1 krasis (see chapter 6 for the stat block) to assist you on any mission authorized by the guild. You choose the krasis's two adaptations.

LUMINARY (SPECIAL ROLE)

Prerequisite: Renown 10 or higher in the Simic Combine
As a guardian, deepsage, or other non-scientist within the Simic, you don't progress through ranks, but as a luminary you might be entrusted with the leadership of guerrilla or espionage missions, with other Simic hybrid agents under your command. Or you might be respected as a wise and enlightened teacher.
If your work for the guild requires it, a project leader. clade leader, or other superior can equip you with a Simic charm (described in chapter 5) before you under-take a mission or an experiment on the guild's behalf.
In addition, when you're on guild business, you can call on the following Simic hybrid agents to assist you: one hybrid brute or hybrid flier, up to two hybrid poisoners or hybrid shockers, or 1d4 hybrid spies (see chapter 6 for these stat blocks).

RANK 3: PROJECT LEADER

Prerequisite: Rank 2 and renown 25 or higher in the Simic Combine
A proven researcher, you are eligible to oversee your own project, directing the efforts of other researchers toward the solution of some problem facing the guild. The Speaker of your zonot gives you laboratory space, and you have a staff of 3d12 researchers (which use the stat blocks of commoners or merfolk from the Monster Manual). You can have this staff work on projects for you, which can include the creation of a category 2 krasis (see chapter 6 for the stat block) with adaptations of your choosing, which you can then bring outside the lab-oratory on important business, ideally under carefully controlled conditions.
Hosting the work of a successful and important project reflects well on the Speaker of a zonot, so your Speaker keeps a close eye on your work. On the positive side, you can count on access to the considerable re-sources of the zonot as long as your research is going well. On the other hand, you can expect your Speaker to try to meddle in your work to ensure that your efforts remain relevant to the overall goals of the Simic Combine.

RANK 4: CLADE LEADER

Prerequisite: Rank 2 and renown 50 or higher in the Simic Combine
As a famous researcher or a successful project leader, you stand ready to take on a supervisory role for an en-tire clade. New clades rarely form, so you must wait for your clade leader to retire (one way or another) before a position exists for you to fill, except in truly exceptional circumstances. Similar to a project leader, you are responsible for directing the efforts of researchers exploring a wide variety of projects related to the focus of your clade. Unless an experiment turns out to be especially interesting, these efforts can carry on without your supervision. If you need to, you can enlist the aid of 5d12 researchers (which use the stat blocks of commoners or merfolk from the Monster Manual), and you can also request the support of hybrids, krasis, or any other creature associated with the Simic Combine (see the list in chapter 6) from the Speaker of any zonot where the members of your clade live and work.
Because most clades span multiple zonots, you have status equal to the Speakers of the zonots. You have no voice on the Speakers' Chamber, unless you can persuade one or more of its members to speak on your behalf.

SPEAKER (SPECIAL ROLE)

Prerequisite: Renown 50 or higher in the Simic Combine
You are eligible to become the Speaker of a zonot. The selection of a new Speaker (in the event of an existing Speaker's retiring, dying, or otherwise leaving the position) takes place through a combination of popular election and the input of the other eight Speakers, with the current Prime Speaker having the final word. If you emerge as the victor after this rigorous process, you assume the leadership of your zonot and are empowered to bring its concerns before the Speakers' Chamber.
You are a political leader rather than a scientific one, so you have authority over other members of the combine only if they live and work in your zonot. If a clade has a laboratory in your zonot, you have the right (and responsibility) to supervise its activities to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, but not to interfere in its research beyond that point. And if the clade leader lives in a different zonot, you have no authority whatsoever over that person.

Two philosophical principles, in tension with each other, combine to give the Simic Combine its unique approach to science and nature. In traditional Simic thought, these principles are called the Holdfast and the Upwelling.
The Holdfast principle, named for the biological mechanism that keeps kelp and sponges anchored to the sea floor, advises members of the Simic Combine never to stray so far from nature that they become "adrift." It espouses the idea that nature left undisturbed will evolve toward adaptive traits and increased strength. Nature will flourish and grow, and every creature will find its proper niche in the ecosystem where it can thrive.
The Upwelling principle, named for the phenomenon of nutrient-rich water rising to the ocean surface, advocates that the new and enlivened should replace the old and depleted in an unending cycle, bringing constant refreshment and renewal. This principle accounts for the combine's analytical bent and its emphasis on knowledge as a means of transformation. Learning the secrets of the universe lets you shape the world as you desire. The Upwelling encourages every creature to discover its full potential.
The Holdfast encourages the Simic to promote nature; the Upwelling urges them to perfect nature. The end result is the same: a hastened system of evolution that brings out the best in every creature's nature. But different factions within the Simic Combine interpret these principles in their own ways.
The leadership of the Simic Combine represents the traditional philosophy of the Utopians. Their vision is of an ideal world in which nature and civilization exist in balance, in which natural life adapts to life in the midst of modern civilization and the civilized world adapts to accommodate these creatures. Utopians generally interpret the Holdfast principle as being about staying rooted in nature, and the Upwelling as concerned with slow, predictable, cyclical improvement. So they remain hidden in their subaquatic laboratories, pursuing their research while isolated from the volatile interrelation-ships among the other guilds. Prime Speaker Zegana encourages that isolationist attitude.
At the same time, a growing faction within the Simic believes that an all-out war among the guilds is inevitable, given the growing unrest in the city. These members, the Adaptationists, believe that the guilds exist in a fragile ecosystem in which the slightest imbalance can have cascading effects. With an absent Living Guild-pact failing to maintain the balance, only catastrophe can result. The Simic must change in order to survive, and slow, small steps in pursuit of an ideal vision aren't enough. The future of the guild is in imminent danger, and the Simic need to focus on survival. Adaptationists tend to interpret the Holdfast as being about defense and security, and the Upwelling as a call for sudden, disruptive growth.
As befits members of a guild of scientists, the Adaptationists' preparations for war include the creation of soldiers that a re magically and biologically adapted. The Guardian Project has yielded hybrids that combine human, elf, or vedalken stock with the characteristics of crabs, fish, jellyfish, and a variety of other creatures to give them natural armor and weapons, gills, venomous stings, and other combat-focused adaptations.

Historically, the guild's approach to its mission has been one of incremental progress toward a utopian ideal of thriving biology, and it remains more aloof from politics than other guilds. Its fundamental mission remains unchanged by the current political instability, and the isolation of its laboratories protects most Simic guild members from immediate harm.
Little is known about the combine's founder, except that this individual's first or family name was Simic.