Grixis

Grixis is one of five shards of Alara. It is primarily black-aligned, with blue and red as secondary colors.

Description
Grixis is a world of death, darkness, undead, hatred, envy, and a lot of other bad things. It is dominated by demons, horrors, necromancers and other forms of undead. Due to the predominance of undeath, it is possible to find undead versions of Bant's leotaus and Jund's viashinos in Grixis.

The still-living beings on Grixis are called Vitals, and the life-force of those beings is called Vis. It manifests as a gas-like material. Vis empowers Demons and fuels all of the magic on Grixis. Necromancers actively hunt down Human and Ogre encampments to take slaves to obtain this Vis through arcane rituals. They hunt for the ultimate power to conquer all others. Demons have the power to drain a vital of its vis at will. A Human or Ogre whose life force has been drained is still considered alive. These Damned oftentimes aren't distinguishable from the real living. Besides the necromancers, there is a group of humans called the Vithians that actively hunt the undead. They uphold the ways of a lost kingdom.

Incurables are the Ogres on Grixis, inflicted by a terrible form altering curse that happened when the shards split. Dreg Reaver are huge undead designed to lay waste to other armies or necropolises in times of war. Banewasps are insects that feed on carrion and are used by necromancers as a weak source of Vis.

History
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. Much like the kingdoms that make up the Shard of Bant, Vithia functioned on a similar system of castes and had a focus on knighthood and chivalry up until the sundering occurred.

When Grixis was separated from the rest of Alara and cut off from white and green mana, the demons, witches, and necromancers gained power in the ensuing chaos. However, even though the powers of Vithia's mages were losing their potency, there was still a chance for the kingdom to survive, due to the martial skill of its many knights. Sedris was once the good and righteous king of Vithia during the early years following the Sundering. It is unknown when exactly he fell from grace, but when demons tempted him with dreams of power, he submitted. Sedris handed thousands of innocents over to the demons, killed his own family and advisors, and performed a dark ritual that allowed his consciousness to continue into unlife. Vithia's paladins, unable to stop the fallen monarch, fled the kingdom, the ancient Vithian word for traitor - Grixis - on their lips. Vithia was overrun by demons and the undead shortly afterward, and the capital was transformed into the now greatest necropolis on the plane. Sedris still rules this dark city of the dead, as the most powerful lich warlord on the plane.

Conflux
When the Conflux hit the shards, the life energies of green and white mana flooded into Grixis. The process of harvesting vis was disrupted, and the creatures became fueled with energy by the power of the life that was coming in. They invaded the nearby planes, turning dead soldiers into new undead of their own. Meanwhile, the great Dragon, Nicol Bolas, had already disrupted the other shards, and the plane fell into chaos. It has become part of the New Alara, and cults of demon worship have risen all across the new landscape, with the most notable being dedicated to Nefarox.

Geography
Grixis features a vast wasteland known as the Dregscape, made up of the remains of various large corpses, eroded earth, and the stench of death. The few living humans take shelter in hidden cities known as hermitages while the mutated ogres, known as incurables, dwell high in the mountains. The kathari, a race of scavenging vulture-people, occupy the islands out to sea.

The undead of Grixis live in the hellish landscape. They regenerate and rot to death, then rise again. There is no order, yet things are not as wild as in Jund, for without green, things are more controlled and not completely designed around instinct.

Notable locations

 * The Boneheaps, the dumping grounds of the Kathari.
 * The Droning Isles, the massive hives of the banewasps.
 * Kederekt, a necropolis of undead-afflicted, half-sunken manor houses near a greasy sea.
 * Sedraxis, once the shining capital of Vithia, now the greatest necropolis on the plane.
 * Torchlight, the greatest hermitage of living beings.
 * Unx, a necropolis most well known for the massive dragon skeleton that circles the city. It was once a grand stadium.
 * Ilsun Gate, home of Eliza of the Keep.
 * Joffik

Notable inhabitants

 * Eliza of the Keep
 * Kess
 * Malfegor
 * Nefarox, overlord of Grixis
 * Sedris, the Vithian traitor king
 * Thraximundar
 * Yidris

Planeswalker visitors

 * Dack Fayden
 * Jace Beleren
 * Liliana Vess
 * Nicol Bolas
 * Sifa Grent
 * Tezzeret
 * The Unluckiest