Corruption of Memnarch
| Corruption of Memnarch | |||||
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| Event Information | |||||
| Era | Rift Era | ||||
| Date | c. 4330-4400 AR | ||||
| Location | Argentum / Mirrodin | ||||
| Sets | Mirrodin | ||||
| Characters | Karn, Memnarch | ||||
| Outcome |
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The Corruption of Memnarch was an event on the plane Argentum, continuing for decades after the plane was renamed Mirrodin, during the Rift Era.[2]
Description
The Corruption of Memnarch marks a turning point in the history of the young artificial plane once known as Argentum. Created by the Planeswalker Karn as a world of mathematically precise, metallic order, Argentum was entrusted to the golem Memnarch, a sentient construct designed to serve as its warden, and infused with the power of the Mirari. For a few decades, Memnarch maintained the structural perfection of the plane according to Karn’s vision.
This order was disrupted when Memnarch came into contact with a smear of black oil — an anomaly on an otherwise sterile surface. Though seemingly innocuous, this substance was of Phyrexian origin, carrying within it a latent and insidious sentience. Upon touching the oil, Memnarch became infected. The corruption did not manifest immediately. Instead, it unfolded over decades, slowly twisting Memnarch’s mind and reshaping his goals.
No longer satisfied with mere stewardship, Memnarch renamed the plane Mirrodin, a self-referential act that signaled the beginning of his transformation from caretaker to would-be god. Convinced that the plane lacked the diversity and unpredictability of true life, he began abducting organic beings from across the Multiverse and transplanting them onto Mirrodin. These beings, drawn utilizing arcane devices called soul traps, were integrated — often forcibly — into the plane’s metallic environment, resulting in new hybrid lifeforms.
As his paranoia deepened, Memnarch built elaborate systems of surveillance and control. He deployed legions of constructs, programmed to monitor, suppress, or eliminate perceived threats. Entire cultures were manipulated or suppressed; memory itself became a target, as Memnarch worked to erase all knowledge that might challenge his version of reality. The result was a world in which native peoples came to accept the unnatural as natural, forgetting that they had ever lived elsewhere.
Driven by the belief that he had been unjustly confined to Mirrodin, Memnarch became obsessed with replicating the conditions that would allow him to ignite his own Planeswalker spark. This obsession guided his interference in the lives of powerful individuals on the plane, whose latent potential he sought to harvest for himself. Under the influence of the glistening oil, his reasoning became more erratic, his methods more brutal.
The long-term consequences of Memnarch’s corruption were catastrophic. His actions destabilized the plane, seeded widespread conflict, and set in motion a chain of events that would culminate in open rebellion and the collapse of the plane's societies. The world he had renamed in his image began to unravel, and with it, the illusion of control he had so meticulously constructed.
The Corruption of Memnarch stands as the catalyst for the era of chaos that followed, and the defining tragedy in the transformation of Mirrodin from the perfect Argentum into the struggling Mirrodin, and an even darker future beyond.[2]
References
- ↑ From the Vault: Lore insert
- ↑ a b Will McDermott (2003) - The Moons of Mirrodin, Wizards of the Coast. ISBN-13 0-7869-2995-2.
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