Fifth Dawn (event)

For other uses, see Fifth Dawn (disambiguation).

[["Information",[{"data":"[[Rift Era]]","label":"Era"},{"data":"c. 4400 [[AR]]","label":"Date"},{"data":"[[Mirrodin (plane)|Mirrodin]]","label":"Location"},{"data":"''[[Darksteel]]'' / ''[[Fifth Dawn]]''","label":"Sets"},{"data":"[[Bosh]], [[Glissa]], [[Kaldra]], [[Memnarch]], [[Raksha Golden Cub]], [[Slobad]] and everyone else on the plane","label":"Characters"}]],["Outcome",[{"data":"\n*The built-up mana in [[Mirrodin's Core]] is launched through the [[Panopticon]], damaging it and injuring both [[Memnarch]] and [[Malil]].\n*The [[Kaldra]] Champion is annihilated.\n*Memnarch's plan to use the launching of the sun to [[ascend]] as a [[planeswalker (lore)|planeswalker]] fails.\n*The mana from the core blasts through the plane's surface, destroying the [[Radix]] and forming a new green sun (or moon) above the [[Tangle]].\n*The orbits of the four other satellites are thrown into disarray, spending 5 years of erratic courses until settling into an even rhythm with the new sun.\n*The Tangle's creatures see heavy mutations, growth bursts, and animal aggression as large amounts of rogue mana curl through the forest after the sun."}]],["[[Timeline]]",[{"data":"[[Corruption of Memnarch]]\n\n[[Fifth Dawn (event)|Fifth Dawn]]\n[[The Vanishing]]"}]]]

Fifth Dawn
The Green Dawn
Information
Era	Rift Era
Date	c. 4400 AR
Location	Mirrodin
Sets	Darksteel / Fifth Dawn
Characters	Bosh, Glissa, Kaldra, Memnarch, Raksha Golden Cub, Slobad and everyone else on the plane
Outcome
The built-up mana in Mirrodin's Core is launched through the Panopticon, damaging it and injuring both Memnarch and Malil. The Kaldra Champion is annihilated. Memnarch's plan to use the launching of the sun to ascend as a planeswalker fails. The mana from the core blasts through the plane's surface, destroying the Radix and forming a new green sun (or moon) above the Tangle. The orbits of the four other satellites are thrown into disarray, spending 5 years of erratic courses until settling into an even rhythm with the new sun. The Tangle's creatures see heavy mutations, growth bursts, and animal aggression as large amounts of rogue mana curl through the forest after the sun.
Timeline
Corruption of Memnarch Fifth Dawn The Vanishing

The Fifth Dawn was an event on the plane Mirrodin during the Rift Era.

Description

The Fifth Dawn was a transformative and tumultuous event that occurred around 4400 AR on the artificial plane of Mirrodin, formerly known as Argentum. It marked the birth of a fifth celestial body in Mirrodin's sky — a green sun — and set in motion events that would lead to the collapse of Memnarch's authoritarian rule. This event, both cosmic and personal in scale, was a direct consequence of decades of imbalance and tyranny on the plane.

Over time, Memnarch had seeded the plane with four orbiting mana-infused satellites: the white Bringer, the blue Eye of Doom, the black Ingle, and the red Sky Tyrant. Having been corrupted by Phyrexian oil, Memnarch lost his original purpose and succumbed to delusions of godhood. Driven by the desire to become a planeswalker, Memnarch began capturing beings from across the Multiverse through arcane soul traps, populating the plane with unwilling denizens and subjecting them to his twisted experiments. Among those caught in his web were Glissa, an elf of the Tangle; Slobad, a clever goblin tinkerer; and Bosh, an ancient golem.

Their resistance culminated in a confrontation deep within Mirrodin's Core, where Memnarch was channeling the plane’s built-up mana through the Panopticon to attempt ascension. During the clash, Memnarch turned the powerful and corrupted Kaldra avatar against them. Forced to retreat, Glissa and Slobad fled to the Tangle, where they believed she would have the greatest chance of survival. They arrived at the Radix, a node of green mana, unknowingly standing atop the point from which the plane's fifth sun would emerge.

As the battle reached its apex, the trolls of the Tangle sacrificed themselves to delay Kaldra. Glissa, thinking Slobad also dead, triggered a massive surge of green mana from the heart of the plane in a wild grief-driven fury. The torrent of energy drew forth the green mana from the core, which blasted through the Radix, annihilated Kaldra, and shot into the sky, birthing a new sun — green in hue and infused with life’s raw force. This was the moment that would become known as the Fifth Dawn.

The consequences were immediate and far-reaching. The beam of mana struck the Panopticon, severely damaging it and maiming both Memnarch and his assistant construct, Malil. Memnarch’s dream of planeswalker ascension was shattered as Glissa's spark still lay within her, untriggered. The new sun, which Glissa later named Lyese in memory of her sister, joined the orbit of the other four satellites, disrupting their paths and causing five years of instability in the heavens before they eventually settled into a new rhythm. The green sun brought unpredictable change to the plane: its light caused intense mutations in the Tangle’s wildlife, resulting in strange growths, enormous creatures, and violent behavioral shifts. To the Sylvok, this sun became known as "the True Sun", while the goblins of the Oxidda Chain mockingly referred to it as "the Ugly Child" for the strange cast of its light.

Though it marked a brief moment of liberation from Memnarch’s rule, the Fifth Dawn also opened a new chapter of uncertainty and chaos. In the aftermath, Glissa and Slobad were captured by Viridian elves, many of whom blamed Glissa for the disappearance of their kin, as many of Mirrodin’s inhabitants had begun vanishing inexplicably. Among them was Glissa’s sister, Lyese, who believed Glissa was responsible for the deaths of their parents.

Though Mirrodin would later fall to further horrors, including the rise of New Phyrexia, the Fifth Dawn stood as a defining turning point for the plane and its cosmology. It marked the reassertion of natural mana over artificial design, the first blow of a would-be god’s ambitions, and the emergence of a new force in the plane’s sky. The green sun, Lyese, continued to burn — a symbol of renewal, transformation, and the unpredictable power of life unbound.