Of course, anything land related is still a secret. But, there are many hints that are available to us in the Tomes of Chaos and in lore that is contained in the lore tab for each of the cards. And some of the hints can be incredibly compelling!
In the first volumes of the Tomes of Chaos, the Venari are referenced in Messenger and in Creeping. In Messenger, they murder Kai Jiang, the poor stable boy-turned-messenger when he arrives at Wildflower Wood. In Creeping, they are clearly involved in the plans of Silas and Dr. Blight. They are seen by FiaFia Haoa in the warehouse dealing with Ralk.
If you only know them from the Tomes, then you most likely think that they are evil little (well… big) rats! But, if you dig into the lore, you find out very quickly that this race is everywhere in the Splinterlands and may hold clues to the future (and their value) us as we await the rollout of land.
Except for the Neutral splinter, Venari smiths are in the Reward series of cards. Each splinter, except for Dragon, has a Venari smith. Five of them have lore that is written in a series headed as “Banished from Below”. The lore for Venari Crystalsmith, in the Light splinter, begins with “Banished from Below 1 of 5”. The Neutral splinter Smith came out with the Chaos Legion and lore is not written as part of the series but may hold an incredible clue!
Of all the cards, why would anyone start with the Venari Smiths?
Glad you asked! One of the few things that we have been told is that land may help to keep the value of Alpha and Beta cards high. So, it’s possible that they’ll have some sort of buff when it comes to land management. So, we do not really know what the impact will be but it is no great secret that there may be one. We have not been told that buffs will be solely given to those early decks. The game developers seem to want to keep the needs of the original players and those of newer ones in mind when developing game mechanics. And in fact, when digging through some of the newer cards it is hard not to be slightly intrigued by some of the possibilities.
The Tomes of Chaos - Creeping
In Creeping, Fiafia comes across a “parchment jutting from a thick, leather-bound book” in Ralk’s supply shack. The letter read “Receive Doctor Blight in your warehouse at midnight. The Venari have connected a tunnel from the Realm of Silence. Afterward, rendezvous with us to the south... unless you want to be among the plague-ridden.”
So, the Venari are not just guys who are moving loads around the warehouse for Dr. Blight. They are clearly deeply involved in his activities. But, the Venari Smith cards came out before Chaos Legion, so what is happening with this group of characters?
The lore on the cards tells us that the Venari are everywhere in the Splinterlands because they live under the earth. They have lived their since before the lands all split apart into different continents. (Banished from Below 1 of 5). They live deep in the earth, in a region that is called the Power Depths and “few among them are even aware of life on the Planet’s surface.” (Banished from Below 2 of 5).
Shockingly, this piece of lore also tells us about a little-known splinter! “Beyond the Power Depths is an even larger area known as the Strite. Among Splintral experts that know of its existence, the Strite is often referred to as the Dream Splinter.” The description of this area is much like you would expect of a dream area, where laws of physics seem irrelevant, and illusions and incredible wonders exist. Also interesting is that the Strite is buried deep in the earth – think back about the tunnel from the parchment letter. And, to go a step further, consider that the initial sightings of the Chaos Legion seemed to coincide with volcanic activity and what felt like an earthquake.
“Many parts of the caves beneath Molten Mountain lead to the Underworld, as do openings on the surface of the Raysco Mountains of Mortis. The most famous of these openings is the mouth of Monster Mountain and its Dread Hall, wide enough for a marching army in formation.” (Banished from Below 2 of 5)
Could this eye candy be a depiction of one of these openings into the underworld?
## Their Roots run Deep
The Venari have a deeper connection to the Strite than just being underground neighbors. The lore for the Wavesmith tells us that “A massive race of rat-like people called Venari have lived in the Strite for thousands of years.” (Banished from Below 3 of 5)
And, they seem to have developed special skills and talents as a result of exposure to this area and the splinter. The can manufacture devices and tools “the likes of which Splinterlanders have never seen. And they have magical talents “synthesized from the minerals and mana flows of the Strite.” And, the smiths are special in that this is a developed science through which they can “create and recreate many types of natural and magical phenomena from any magical element”.
So, here we have a specific reference to the Venari smiths having special skills related to creating magic and items! Will they be required in the process to manufacture these special items? If so, it is hard to imagine their prices staying where they are now.
They also have special experience in dealing with the inhabitants of the realms of Mortis, the underworld. In fact, they have been in a decades long struggle with the leader of the dream area (the most powerful of the Mortis realms), the Dream Warden. He was able to use his power to expel them from the underworld and caused them all to be “banished to the surface”. (Banished from below 4 of 5)
These refugees spread throughout the splinters and carried with them their technologies and will provide them “wherever they can be paid handsomely for their assistance”.
If you want to read more about Mortis and the regions of the underworld, you can refer to the Splinterlands Encyclopedia. I found it in 
The last Venari smith comes from the Neutral splinter and is part of the Chaos deck. This splinter includes general masters of magic who are trained at the Institute of Application. They use their knowledge with magic “in order to unlock new ways to harness mana and the elemental forces”.
What is incredibly interesting about these smiths is that they are so dedicated to spellcasting that it “becomes part of them.” So much so, that “Upon death the radiating Mana explodes from their bodies, harming everyone around the Venari.” Could this be a hint about the use this card? There are just over 50,000 regular foil, and 3,600 gold foil in print right now and they are still being minted. Could it be that we can burn a Venari Spellsmith card to capture mana at some point when manufacturing spells/items? If so, the price of $.24 for a regular foil and $4.19 might be expected to rise in the future.
## If I only had a Crystal(smith) ball
No one can accurately guess what the upcoming land expansion will involve but it is somewhat safe to assume that the effort and attention that is going into lore is being done with some basis in the future concept. If so, the Venari lore appears to position them positively for both utility and possibly economic value. They have representatives in each splinter, have been described as especially useful with regard to making spells and items, and are currently plentiful! So, while the Alpha and Beta cards have been described as possibly having some form of buff in the future of land; who is to say that there wont be readily available, required cards, that are core to the basic development of these items? If true, my bet is on the Smiths of Venari.
If you're interested in what other characters and geography can be found in the Tomes of Chaos, you can see my two previous posts on the subject.
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