In the multiverse of Magic: The Gathering, a stunning variety of people, monsters, spirits and unspeakable things exist across the worlds. Humanity itself is highly diverse and colorful, from the noble knights of the Bant shard of Alara to the desert warriors of Amonkhet. But other humanoids rub shoulders with the human race, and that includes the vedalken people.

Wizards of the Coast combines traditional fantasy creatures such as elves and vampires with Magic-unique races, and the vedalken are among them. While they have no clear point of origin (or even a single unifying culture), vedalken can be found on a variety of planes and have a few traits in common.

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The Vedalken of Esper

esper vedalken sages

The blue shard of Alara is the world of Esper, defined by rigid control and dogma, the magical metal Etherium, cold sandy shores and 23 unique winds. The sphinxes rule this world, but the vedalken people have a strong presence here too. They are tall, blue-skinned people with tall craniums and squared jaws (at least among the men), and they are wealthy and influential enough to have constant access to Etherium upgrades.

Not everyone on Esper has enough social standing to get their hands on Etherium, but the vedalken rank just below the mighty sphinxes, so they routinely enhance their bodies with brass-c0lored Etherium. These people guard the Filigree Texts in the Arcane Sanctum, trusted to study, analyze and ultimately protect Esper's innermost secrets.

These metal sages obsess over every last detail of these texts, playing right into their race's affinity for knowledge, artifice and cunning. Esper's vedalken don't typically do their dirty work themselves; they prefer to serve as scholars and artificers. Their golems or human allies do the fighting instead.

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The Vedalken of Ravnica

vedalken ravnica

The plane-wide city of Ravnica is home to many assorted races, and the vedalken are among them. For the most part, the Multiverse's vedalken prefer artifact-themed planes, but they found a niche in Ravnica's metropolis as well. These cunning humanoids tend to stick to the blue-aligned guilds, such as House Dimir. The Dimir vedalken are cold, calculating minions who routinely erase the memories of anyone who stumbles upon sensitive secrets.

Vedalken may find employment in the Izzet League as tinkerers and researchers, alongside their human and goblin peers. The Azorious Senate trains vedalken lawmages and judges to administer justice in the city. In the Simic Combine, the vedalken are open to bodily experimentation of all kinds. They are like an organic, green-aligned version of their distant Esper cousins, trading Etherium for crab claws, frog legs, octopus tentacles or anything else that unlocks the future of science.

The Vedalken of Mirrodin

vedalken mirrodin

The vedalken have a strong presence on the metallic world of Mirrodin alongisde others like the loxodon (elephant people), vampires and goblins. Once again, they are blue-aligned and have a strong affinity for artifice, though unlike most vedalken (or any humanoids), they have four arms.

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In particular, the vedalken of this world are fixated on the Origin Query -- the desire to understand where they came from and how they came to be. They experiment on living subjects and perform endless research, meaning other races of Mirrodin view the vedalken as cold, ruthless and somewhat frightening. To the vedalken, all other races are just test subjects, and once Memnarch fell, the vedalken were totally free to continue their pursuits.

The Vedalken of Kaladesh

vedalken kaladesh

Kaladesh is yet another artifice-heavy world where the vedalken people are a common sight alongside elves, human and dwarfs. The vedalken here are blue-skinned humanoids with sharp minds and an affinity for metal, but unlike their cousins on other planes, the vedalken here have hair on their heads (especially the women), and they have six fingers on each hand, not five. This makes them especially nimble and dexterous when tinkering with delicate parts while building or upgrading something, a fact that humans and dwarfs may envy.

These vedalken are also noted for being more human in their mentality, as opposed to the strict, cold and ruthless vedalken of Esper and Mirrodin. These vedalken are witty and insightful, but they have more personal warmth than most other vedalken, and may even show happiness, anger or sorrow openly. What is more, these vedalken abhor the idea of perfection, since perfection is a dead end that puts an end to all creativity and innovation. They seek to improve and progress, but never reach a perfect state. It's a paradox that they have learned to accept.

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Vedalken in the Game

vedalken cards 1

In the game, vedalken are nearly always in blue mana, often mono-blue. Sometimes, they have white and/or black mana in them as well, especially in the Shards of Alara block, where the Esper shard is blue, white and black. Typical creature sub-types include Wizard, Artificer and Rogue, and these creatures tend to have modest stats but useful abilities.

Few vedalken are sheer beaters; instead, they can add extra mana for casting artifacts, drawing  cards, tapping enemy creatures and the like. The only vedalken planeswalker is Dovin Baan, from the Kaladesh block. It can weaken enemy creatures, gain life and draw cards, and limit how many cards the opponents can uptap. Dovin appears again in War of the Spark, as an uncommon planeswalker: Dovin, Hand of Control.

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