Jund

Jund is a plane-spanning web of predation crowned by dragons. Nature is in its rawest, most treacherous state here, devouring all not prepared for its dangers. Whether you face Jund's human warrior tribes, its packs of viashino hunters, its mighty dragons, or simply its carnivorous flora, your survival skills will be tested to their fullest. It's saying something that feisty goblins, who cling desperately to the bottom of Jund's food chain, are the safest foes you'll face there.

Jund has jagged volcanic mountains, deep-cut valleys, and a pungent sulfuric atmosphere. The cavernous valleys support dense and tangled vine jungles, which are, perhaps, the only refuge for life in this plane. Deadly poisonous and man-eating plants litter the land along with the dominant life-form, reptiles.

On Jund, humans form themselves into warrior-clans. They prize hardiness, and sometimes even seek out danger to prove themselves. They bear their scars proudly, even modifying their clothing and armor to display them. The humans are lithely muscled and bear a sweaty sheen of constant exertion. The strong survive, and only the strong. Anybody who wasn't in great shape is already dead. Many of Jund's human warriors weave trophies of past kills into their hair—they know that the only sense of ownership that matters on Jund is what's on their immediate person, the stuff you can run with that won't slow you down. Most human clans avoid the peaks and the dragons there, instead dwelling in the relative safety of the bejungled valleys and lowlands. However, the viahsino and carnivorous plants are dangerous there.

In the absence of white or blue mana, Jund has devolved into a roiling, primordial cesspit. Dragons top the food chain, at home in Jund's countless volcanoes. While dragons stalk the skies, humans, goblins, and the lizardfolk called viashino lie low in Jund's tar-spotted, vine-choked canyons. The hot climate, bubbling tar-baths, and volcanic activity combine with the reptilian populace to create a sense of a primeval world.

Jund is a voracious, creature-eat-creature world - almost every living thing on the plane is both predator and prey at once, constantly on the lookout for bloody fare while trying to avoid becoming someone else's. Dragons form the top of the food chain, as almost nothing (except for a few crazy human warriors on their Life Hunt, and Sarkhan Vol) dares hunt them down. At the bottom of the food chain we find the lowly goblin, a being so fit to be consumed that their culture has taken it as a mark of pride. Goblins hang out in the most dangerous part of Jund - the tops of mountains. In other words: dragon territory. Goblins journey to the sacrificial peaks in pairs so that the rare survivor might be able to relate the details of the other's grisly demise.

There's no long-term on Jund. The inhabitants only worry about surviving as long as they can. There is no civilization - its everyone for themselves. The most social races form clans and packs for mutual protection and kill-sharing. Clothing and tools are ragged and crude. Humans use poorly fabricated iron weapons while the other races take advantage of obsidian and wood that is more readily available and more easily fashioned into tools.

Some of the humans have reptilian traits, such as forked tongues.

The goblins of Jund actually revere the thought of being eaten by dragons, live up on the mountain peaks, welcoming the draconic attention. Physically, they are somewhat ratlike.

The viashino of Jund are among the most physically impressive, appearing as huge alligator-people.