Panopticon

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Panopticon
Darksteel Citadel The Galdroon Palace
Information
Plane	New Phyrexia
Colors
Status	Annihilated (main structure), repurposed (observation deck)
Part of	Mirrodin's Core
Scryfall Statistics
artworks

Panopticon, the Darksteel Citadel, was a fortress inside of the hollow plane of Mirrodin. It later became the Seedcore and Elesh Norn's Throne Room

Description

The spire of the Panopticon was made from an indestructible metal called darksteel. It was a tall blue tower, distinguishing itself from the rest of its surroundings. It stood above the pointed mycosynth lattice towers and ended in a rounded bulb at the top. Though all the other spires were covered at the base by the mossy ground covering, the Panopticon was not, and it shone brightly, reflecting the blue-white glow that touched everything. The sharp corners where the walls came together intensified that light, bursting forth with a million tiny stars that were so bright they were painful to look at. The most impressive things about the tower’s exterior were its perfect lines and unwavering straightness.

Panopticon rose into the air nearly to the same height as the mana core, yet its walls were unmarked by blemishes, bends, dents, or even seams. The whole fortress was perfectly straight, with no signs of wear, no indication that its gargantuan frame was made from anything but a single, contiguous piece of metal. Its structural perfection was astounding. Though it was made of steel, aluminum, and titanium, parts of the Panopticon looked like sparkling crystals. Memnarch’s fortress climbed high into the air, higher than any other structure on the interior. Where each of its five walls joined the next, the fine was so sharp and straight, it looked as if it would cut through flesh like a razor. The top rose to a needlelike point, perched atop a room made entirely of glass, opened to the world for all to see in — and for those inside to see out. From a distance, the tower looked like just one more perfectly formed mycosynth monolith. Up close, it looked more like the scepter of a giant king. Its base was thick and heavy. Its top was adorned with a hefty jewel. Its sides were intricately designed to give off a regal air of power and grace.

History

When Karn put Memnarch in charge of the plane, the palace was named Galdroon, a place of mathematical perfection. After the Corruption of Memnarch, he likely renamed the palace, like he did with the plane itself. From here the mad golem Memnarch controlled his artifact minions and watched over his world through the eyes of his creations, the myr. In his device, the Darksteel Eye, the world is viewable from the perspective of these artifact creatures.

With the coming of the fifth moon, the green lacuna blasted through the Panopticon. Though the huge burst of mana did not dent the darksteel core of the tower, it did blast through all the glass windows of the observatory, and the entire structure toppled to the ground.

Memnarch and Malil started reconstruction efforts on the tower afterwards, raising it back up, but it had lost some of its pristine luster and hard-edged perfection, and had to be mounted on a metal ring above the green lacuna since the ground it had stood on had been blasted away.

Memnarch also had his Ascension Web built here by Slobad while he hibernated in anticipation of Glissa's return to the core of Mirrodin. Upon the Vanishing, the main structure of the Panopticon, as well as its reconstruction disk, was annihilated. Only the pentagonal observation was left behind, although this was unnoticed by Glissa.

After Karn was infected by the glistening oil inside him, he retreated to Mirrodin's Core, from whenceforth the contagion spread to form New Phyrexia. During his time as Father of Machines, the Panopticon was converted into his throne, protected by Elesh Norn's priests, instructing him to be Phyrexia's head and keeping him in line. However, Jin-Gitaxias' servants hijacked it to control the flow of information.

After the rise of Elesh Norn, she restored the Panopticon to its full functionality. Tezzeret visited it with the recaptured Karn's head to use the Darksteel Eye. The restored Panopticon cannot view Urabrask's domain or Norn's sanctum in the Mycosynth Gardens.

It was later renamed the "Throne Room" and converted into a prison for Karn. Elesh Norn planted essence from Kaldheim's World Tree in Karn's empty seat. From this grew the Seedcore and Realmbreaker.

Gallery

• 
  The Darksteel Citadel

In-game references

Represented in:

• Panopticon
• Darksteel Citadel

Trivia

• In the real world, the Panopticon is a special prison design where the jailers can see all prisoners at all times from a tower in the center. Because the prisoners cannot see the guards in the tower, they must assume they are being watched at all times, even if the tower is empty. The idea of the Panopticon is often used as a thought experiment to explore the potential of ubiquitous mass surveillance.