The Dimir Observer - Ravnica Headcanon

One of these days I've got to run a Ravnica-set campaign.

As you'll know if you've read this blog, House Dimir is my favorite Ravnica guild (if you've read my fiction, you could have probably guessed that.)

While the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica gives you a great jumping-off point for creating a campaign in the setting, DMs will certainly need to fill in some details. So here's one I came up with:

House Dimir is, as we all know from being outside the narrative, basically Ravnica's Illuminati-like ancient conspiracy. But since the events of the first Ravnica block (which, canonically for GGtR, was about 70 years ago - Teysa is looking real good for her age) the existence of House Dimir is now public knowledge (in fact, I believe that reveal is actually what invalidated the original Guildpact.)

And so the Dimir must now have a public face.

That face is an affiliation of librarians, booksellers, private investigators, and in some interpretations (mine included,) journalists.

Ravnica is not a totally medieval setting - the work of the Izzet League has given the city some modern conveniences, like elevators and mass transit (I think there's canonically a subway.)

And while the internet is changing the way that journalism works, one modern(ish) thing to add there is a major newspaper.

So in my version of Ravnica, the most prominent and prestigious newspaper is the Dimir Observer.

The Observer would basically be the New York Times of Ravnica - it's the most prominent journalistic publication in the city, and the one that people generally trust the most. Indeed, most citizens probably think of House Dimir as "that guild that runs the Observer."

I should also note that my take on House Dimir is more of a True Neutral guild than Neutral Evil.

So the Observer would be the paper that everyone reads - if you want some big bit of exposition for your party, you can say that everyone's reading a bombshell article in the Observer.

Given Dimir's capacity for infiltration, it makes sense that they'd have the best investigative journalism, with contacts (who might in fact be Dimir operatives) close to the powerful people in every guild.

Even though the Dimir are obsessed with their own secrecy, they are also ravenous for the secrets of others. Maybe that sometimes takes the form of exposing others.

My sense is that Lazav and other prominent Dimir leaders would have editorial control over the Observer, but exposing the right secrets could be a massively powerful tool for the Dimir to influence the public. It also allows for more idealistic and altruistic player characters to be undercover journalists who work for the Observer.

Of course, my sense is that 99% of what House Dimir does is build up resources and advantages, rarely taking advantage of their assets, and only when it is crucial to accomplishing their goals (that goal most often being to secure additional assets and influence.) As such, in most cases you really can trust the Observer to be telling the truth. The whole point is that they want the public to trust the Observer, and the best way to get them to do that is to just have very solid, professional journalism done right.

But if Lazav gives the order, the Observer can and would run a false story in order to manipulate the public when it serves House Dimir's goals. Similarly, while the Observer probably exposes countless Orzhov conspiracies, Azorius rights violations, or Golgari plots, House Dimir remains its one clear and intentional blind spot. Observer reporters are great at infiltrating other guilds, but the Observer only reveals aspects of House Dimir if the story serves a clear (and usually misleading) purpose for Dimir ends.