MTG Salvation

The Vorthos Guide to Magic: The Gathering
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Welcome back, fleshlings, to your unofficial guide to Magic: The Gathering! Today we will talk about Argentum, where Karn deposited the Mirari, a magical probe he sent to Dominaria (and around the Multiverse). The Mirari malfunctioned on Dominaria, so Karn brought it back to Argentum and transformed it into a golem as a reward for its service - making it the Guardian of Argentum. The problem? An unknown infection corrupted the golem, and it went mad, believed Mirrodin needed more life and stole beings from across the multiverse to fill the plane. The Guardian, calling himself Memnarch, renamed the plane Mirrodin. Now, that infection isn't quite as unknown these days, but at the time is a was a pretty big mystery but ultimately irrelevant to the main plot of the novels. Mirrodin was the first time we'd focused on a completely different plane for an entire block, kicking off the plane-of-the-year paradigm we'd see for the next decade or so.

When Karn first created Argentum, it was an empty world populated by golems.
Precursor Golem by Chippy

Setting the Stage

• Mirrodin Image
• The Human Cultures of Mirrodin
• The Nonhuman Cultures of Mirrodin

Most of our information on the cultures of Mirrodin came as a prelude to Scars of Mirrodin. Planeswalker Guides were created after Mirrodin was released, and there was a bit of a disconnect between the world as portrayed on the cards and the world portrayed through the story. Much of that can be explained by the various characters’ own ignorance, but it is also likely that plot points changed in development which could not be accounted for in the story. I will include details from the Scars of Mirrodin Retcons here as well, at least as they pertain to pre-Vanishing cultures.

Geography

When Mirrodin was Argentum, it was a dark world lit by ‘stars’, a world of tessellation and perfection, populated only by golems. When a golem known as the Warden began to go mad, he renamed the world Mirrodin, and abducted living beings from across the Multiverse. Mirrodin is not a large world, with only five major locations on its surface, each only days away from one another. Each region, save one, has a huge ball of colored mana that orbits the plane, cresting over the associated region. These balls of mana are known as suns by the inhabitants. The tunnels to the core where the suns emerged are called Lacuna, and there are four sites around the plane. The one region that does not have one of these ‘suns’, at least initially, is the Tangle. The Tangle is a copper forest, and the main hub of the Tangle is Tel-Jilad, the Tree of Tales. This is the central home of the elves and trolls of Mirrodin. The elves live in a settlement around the tree called Viridia. Nearby is the Radix, a mysterious site filled with power. When the green sun eventually emerges, the goblins nickname it the “Ugly Child”.

Tel-Jilad holds the collective memories of the Mirran Elves.
Tree of Tales by John Avon

Under the white sun (known as the Bringer by the goblins) is the Glimmervoid. The Glimmervoid is an expanse of low hills made of reflective hexagonal plates. Razorgrass fields dot the landscape, as do Leonin (a race of catfolk) dwellings. The largest settlement in the Glimmervoid is Taj Nar, the gleaming Leonin capital. The largest Auriok (white-aligned humans on Mirrodin) settlement is called Bladehold. The white lacuna is called the Cave of Light. Under the red sun, called the Sky Tyrant, is the Oxidda Mountain range, and the goblin city under Kuldotha, the Great Furnace. The goblins worship the Steel Mother, from which they are born and from which they will return. The red lacuna lies near the Great Furnace. Under the blue sun (known as the Eye of Doom by the goblins) is the opaque Quicksilver Sea. Crystal and solid quicksilver islands dot the seascape, and although there are various villages along the coasts, the central hub is Lumengrid - a giant Vedalken (a four-armed blue-aligned race) city built from solidified quicksilver. The blue lacuna lies beneath the Vedalken’s Knowledge Pool. Under the black sun (known as Ingle by the goblins) lies the Mephidross, a vast swamp of muck, stretching a few feet deep, and dotted with vile chimneys spewing noxious gases. At the heart of the Mephidross lies the Vault of Whispers — also known as Ish Sah — the largest and greatest of the aforementioned chimneys. The black lacuna lies hidden beneath the Vault of Whispers.

While the exact geography of Mirrodin is not exactly clear, we do know roughly how the plane is laid out. The Glimmervoid is central to the plane, and must be crossed to reach the Mephidross from either the Tangle, the Quicksilver Sea or the Oxidda mountain chain. The forest and the mountains are located fairly close together, although you must cross a small expanse of Glimmervoid between them. The Quicksilver sea lies across the mountains from the Tangle, and borders the Mephidross and the Glimmervoid. It is implied to border the Tangle as well. The Mephidross encroaches on the Oxidda Chain, and slowly expands there over the years. While theoretically one could circumnavigate the globe to get places, the fastest (or most known) routes do not do that, instead taking the most direct path through the Glimmervoid.

Mirrodin's Core, accessible through the lacuna and some secret passages, is a hollow in the middle of the sphere that is Mirrodin. Gravity shifts in the Lacuna as one heads downward, allowing travel to and from the core without falling. When one reaches the interior, gravity is reversed so that one is standing on Mirrodin’s crust. In the dead center of Mirrodin is the Mana Core, a giant ball of energy from which the suns were ejected. Reaching toward the core are giant Mycosynth towers, a fungus that transforms flesh into metal and metal into flesh, and is likely responsible for the blend of metal and life on Mirrodin. The Panopticon, Memnarch’s Darksteel Citadel, also resides here, located directly underneath the Radix in anticipation of the emergence of the green sun.

Politics

The elves and trolls of the copper forest known as the Tangle have a symbiotic relationship. The trolls are the guardians of memories, and they live in Tel-Jilad exclusively. Approximately once every Mirrodin year, the elves gather at the Radix during the convergence, when each ‘moon’ is directly above its respective land. It is then that a ceremony called the Rebuking takes place, where the elves purge unpleasant memories and the trolls record them into the Tree of Tales. The trolls are secretly guarding the elves’ true history though, and their true leader, a troll named Chunth who is free of metal, is hidden away. However, only the last few hundred Mirrodin years are recorded publicly, as the earliest were removed. The Rebuking is not done due to malice, but because elves experience flares — debilitating visions — of the past without it.

The Vedalken Empire is ruled by a council of four lords called the Synod.
Seat of the Synod by John Avon

Humans, called Sylvok, also inhabit the Tangle, although the main story of Mirrodin does not focus on them. The main character, Glissa, goes as far as saying she has never seen a human before when first meeting Neurok (blue-aligned humans) villagers. The Sylvok (green-aligned humans) are lead by druids. The more powerful the druid, the more powerful they are in Sylvok society. Intelligent wolves capable of speech also prowl the Tangle, and only make limited contact with the other sapient denizens.

The Leonin inhabit the Glimmervoid, with homesteads dotting the landscape. They all answer to the Kha, their warrior chief, who leads them from the capital city of Taj Nar. Second to the Kha is the elder Shaman, a healer and seer who is the only Leonin with enough (political) power to challenge the Kha on issues. Leonin society is segregated, with the men as warriors, and the women as healers and skyhunters. Humans called Auriok and sapient Elephants called Loxodon also inhabit the Glimmervoid, but they are never mentioned in the story. Auriok live in various small independent villages with a loose affiliation and shared set of laws.

The goblins inhabit the Oxidda mountain range. They worship what they call the Great Furnace (or Forge), an active volcano where metal is recycled back into the mountain. A group of outcasts known as the Krark-Clan live in the tunnels under the mountain, worshipping the mythological goblin Krark, who they believe found another layer under Mirrodin. Humans called Vulshok also inhabit the mountains, although we only meet one throughout the course of the original Mirrodin cycle. The Vulshok are divided into six tribes, each based on a forging/magical specialization: Shield, Hammer, Blade, Spear, Helm, and Anvil. The Anvil tribe are the de facto leaders of the tribes, and it is up to them to settle disputes.

The Mephidross is populated by the Nim, an unusual kind of zombie created thanks to the area’s toxic environment. Those Nim are controlled by humans called Moriok, as are a number of the Mephidross’s other dark creatures. The Moriok are ruled by the necromancer Geth, who is backed by what he describes as Mirrodin’s only vampire. Once Geth is ousted, the Moriok split.

The Vedalken Empire is ruled by the Synod, a small group of leaders that govern the rest of the Vedalken and their human subjects. Humans called Neurok live alongside the Vedalken, and while in the past they were considered partners, at the point where Moons of Mirrodin begins, they are little more than slaves. The Neurok themselves live in coastal villages or islands on the Quicksilver Sea.

Bestiary

When Mirrodin was simply Argentum, it was populated simply by a race of golems. When Memnarch went mad and began kidnapping beings from across the multiverse, he populated the plane with his own constructs and wild beasts alike. Almost all living beings on Mirrodin developed metallic body parts and appendages thanks to an infection called Mycosynth. This adaptation has allowed all of Mirrodin’s living inhabitants to survive on a plane made of pure metal. Humans, Elves, Leonin, Loxodon, Wolves, Goblins, and Vedalken number among the sapient living creatures on Mirrodin’s surface. Important to note is that while the goblins of Mirrodin were originally lanky and green, much like Dominaria's, their art direction changed with Scars of Mirrodin. The new goblin design had exaggerated heads and stubby bodies, more of a pale green ranging into shades of brown and red. One other race of animal, only mentioned in the novels, is the Leonin's ostrich-like mounts known as Zauk.

Planeswalkers

Karn is an artificial planeswalker and the creator of Argentum. He was created by the planeswalker Urza as a time probe, a golem made of silver to endure the rigors of Urza’s time machine, but he was made self-aware by the inclusion of Xantcha’s Phyrexian Heartstone. He was a part of Urza’s Legacy Weapon to defeat Phyrexia, but upon the completion and use of the weapon, he fused with the rest of the Legacy and Urza’s powerstone eyes, gaining the planeswalker’s spark himself. He created Argentum as a perfect world of artifice, and transformed his probe, the Mirari, into the golem Memnarch to become the Guardian on the plane in his absence.

Jeska is a young planeswalker apprenticed to Karn. She has a connection to the Mirari stemming from the Odyssey and Onslaught cycles. She knows of Argentum and its location, and helps Karn deliver the Mirari to Argentum. She has nothing else to do with this story.

 

Blinkmoth Serum is a highly sought-after, and highly addictive, mental boost.
Aether Vial by Karl Kopinski

Legends

Memnarch is a golem created from the Mirari by Karn. An unknown taint corrupted Memnarch’s mind, and he is obsessed with making Argentum more perfect. He created soul traps to steal living beings from other planes, and reshaped Argentum into Mirrodin when he populated it with life. Eventually, he believes that is not enough and wishes to become a planeswalker himself, so he hatches a plan to find and steal a spark from one of the creatures that populates his plane. In his madness, he frequently speaks to an imaginary Karn, but prevents the true Karn from returning.

Glissa Sunseeker is a Viridian elf from the Tangle, and their best hunter. She is resistant to the Rebuking Ceremony, not wanting to lose her memories like the other elves, and is suspicious that the trolls of Tel-Jilad are hiding something from the elves. She is one of the rare beings in the multiverse born with a spark, which sets off Mirrodin’s story as Memnarch tries to claim her.

Slobad is a goblin who was born under an ominous sign. His parents were supposed to kill him for being a bad omen, but abandoned him instead. The leader of the Krark-Clan, Dwugget, found and raised him. Slobad is a genius inventor, but even among the Krark-Clan he is not greatly accepted, so he chooses a life of solitude.

Bosh is a golem that pre-dates the living beings of Mirrodin. Slobad and Glissa find him sunk into the Mephidross, and clean out and repair the giant golem. He accompanies them on their journey, slowly remembering his past and revealing it to his companions.

Raksha is the leader of the Leonin people on Mirrodin, also known as the Kha. He is a great warrior himself, and previously owned Slobad as a slave, but eventually developed an affection for the goblin. He aids Glissa and Slobad on their journey, especially when it appears they are going up against the Leonin’s ancient enemy, the Nim of the Mephidross.

Tel-Jilad Chosen are the elite warriors selected to protect the trolls and the Tree of Tales.
Tel-Jilad Chosen by Matthew D. Wilson

Minor Characters

• Bruenna - A Neurok chief and master wizard.
• Chunth - The oldest living troll, and one free of metal.
• Dakan - The mythic first Kha of the Leonin.
• Dwugget - The leader of the Krark-clan and surrogate father to Slobad.
• Kaldra - An avatar made up of a Helm, Sword, and Shield.
• Geth - A necromancer and leader of the Moriok and their Nim servants.
• Kane - A Tel-Jilad Chosen and Glissa’s love interest.
• Krark - A goblin said to have discovered a layer beneath the surface of Mirrodin, thought to be a myth.
• Lyese - The younger sister of Glissa.
• Malil - Memnarch’s duplicate, created in the image of Memnarch’s original body.
• Rishan - The daughter of Ushanti and betrothed to the Kha, Raksha.
• Ushanti - The Leonin elder shaman.
• Yert - A hapless Moriok assigned to reaper duty.

The Story of Mirrodin

• The Moons of Mirrodin

Argentum

Karn and Jeska drop off the Mirari on Karn’s world, Argentum. They leave, having transformed it into the Warden of Argentum, who after an unknown period goes out of the castle to explore. Outside he finds a world of mathematical perfection, but sterile and lifeless. He observes stars flitting in the sky, and remarks on their beauty. He decides the world would be better with more things like that. He remembers being the Mirari, and has access to all of Karn’s probe data. As he heads inside, he wipes away a black smudge almost absentmindedly. An idea pops into his head to rename his new vision of the plane after himself: Mirrodin.

Levelers are advanced death machines sent periodically to cull Mirrans.
Leveler by Carl Critchlow

The Hunted Elf
Glissa, along with her friend and love interest Kane, is on the hunt for a vorrac when she is struck by a vision. She sees a bright living forest where she is drawn to a bright light. When she comes to, the vorrac has run off a cliff. She believes her visions are key to the elves’ past and distrusts the Tel-Jilad trolls and their rebuking ceremony. It is not a sentiment shared by Kane, who has become one of the Tel-Jilad Chosen - defenders of the trolls and the Tree of Tales.

They have dinner with Glissa’s family, and her younger sister Lyese tries to flirt with Kane. Over dinner, they discuss how there are fewer stars in the sky, and that the water supply is beginning to dry up. After dinner, mysterious figures appear in her bedroom and drag her into the Tree of Tales, through a secret entrance. She is brought before Chunth, and both Chunth and his chambers are absent metal. He explains that they discovered that levelers will come in the night and destroy her home. Shocked, she grabs a sword from the chamber and escape what she believes is imprisonment. Outside, alarms sound signaling the approach of the levelers.

Glissa runs home only to find levelers already ascending the tree to her parent’s home. Her new blade slices them apart with ease, but when she enters her home she finds bits of her family horrifically lying about. A green flame emerges from her, slagging two of the levelers while the rest move to leave. Glissa’s ankle is caught and she is dragged away, falling unconscious, but not before she spots a cloaked Vedalken.

Glissa awakens in a dark cavern, her leg still trapped in the leveler’s blades. A voice speaks to her in the darkness. He begs her not to to hurt him by waving her sword about, and introduces himself as Slobad. He helps her free and brings her back to his home. He explains that he chose this cavern, at the edge of the Oxidda Mountains, to hide because the levelers keep all other danger away. They argue over whether the glowing orbs in the sky are suns or moons, as the Tangle is dark year-round as it has no sun of its own. They discover Glissa’s ankle is badly wounded and she cannot heal it with her magic. In the morning they set out to ask for aid from the Leonin of Taj-Nar to heal her leg before she loses it.

Glissa questions Slobad on why he lives alone, and he explains he was born under an ill omen, the blue sun, and was meant to be thrown into the Great Furnace. His mother dropped him down a vent shaft instead, where he was found by the Krark-Clan. He tried living near the tangle, but fled from the untrusting elves. He wound up with the Leonin, where he was given to Raksha as a training dummy, getting healed each time after being beaten. When Raksha became Kha, he went to fight the Nim incursions, and Slobad snuck away, ending up in the Leveler’s cavern.

Geth uses his vampire, the only one at the time, to maintain control of the Moriok.
Mephidross Vampire by Matthew D. Wilson

At Taj-Nar, they find the city surrounded by a Nim army. With no other options, the two push through the Nim. Glissa slices them apart with ease while Slobad and his torch keep others at bay. They reach the city gates only to find them closed… but Slobad helped build the gates and installed a secret entrance of his own. He locates it, and the two slip through to find angry Leonin waiting for them. They are taken prisoner, but convince their guard of the urgency of Glissa’s wound. The regular healers are unable to repair the damage, and so Ushanti is brought in, but upon seeing Glissa immediately faints. Her daughter, Rishan, revives her mother, who then demands the Kha be summoned. Raksha stomps in the room, and Ushanti reveals that she saw a vision of an apocalypse caused by Glissa. Raksha gives Glissa an opportunity to defend herself, and the details of her story match an attack on his own life. He frees them and and has Ushanti heal Glissa’s leg. He himself cannot leave during the siege, but he sends the pair to find the cloaked figure. Ushanti divines that they might find answers at the Ish Sah, the Vault of Whispers. Geth likely knows something about what is happening.

Raksha has a pair of skyhunters take them to the edge of the Mephidross. They quickly find that a pack of Nim is following them, so Glissa hides and observes a Moriok leading them. She kills the man, and finds the Nim continue to follow the last order they were given, passing her and Slobad by. Slobad finds a golem in the muck, and spends a day trying to fix it to no avail. They are attacked by a reaper, and are only saved by the golem, somehow reactivated but amnesiac. Glissa captures the reaper’s controller, and finds that he is a rather pitiful man named Yert. She convinces Yert to take her to Geth by promising to get him a new reaper.

When they reach the Vault of Whispers, Glissa has Slobad and the golem stay behind. She goes inside with Yert under the pretense of being a prisoner, but when she confronts Geth, he simply has his vampire attack her. She frees herself — barely — by severing the vampire’s arm. Using the vampire as leverage (Geth needs the vampire to maintain control), she demands information. Geth reveals that he was hired in exchange for some serum to attack the Leonin. Glissa takes his serum but leaves Yert behind with a promise from Geth for a new reaper.

Glissa spots the cloaked figure again outside the vault, but is overtaken by another flare of a being lured and captured by a bright light. She wakes up in the golem’s arms, and tells Slobad what she learned. When she shows the vial of serum, the golem finally speaks the name Memnarch, but they can’t get it to say anymore. Back at Taj Nar, they are welcomed by Raksha, but that night aerophin attack. These aerophin, while not really showing up in the cards, are essentially Mirran Thopters with blasters. Glissa ‘borrows' a pteron (a pterodactyl-like flying mount used by the Leonin) and leads the aerophin on a chase through the city, but as she forces them to crash, Rishan steps out of a doorway and is killed by the exploding artifacts. Raksha asks Glissa to leave, but lets her know once mourning is over, she is welcome back. Ushanti is less forgiving.

This is pretty much the only story-related art in the set.
Shattered Dreams by Greg Staples

With nowhere else to go, Glissa returns home. Seeing more aerophin following them in the sky, they decide to travel by night and spend their days in abandoned Leonin homes (hiding under hills in the Glimmervoid). When she returns to Tel-Jilad, they meet with Chunth, who reveals she is a nexus of great power and the world is not what it seems. He tells her of the Vedalken, and that her mysterious cloaked figure must be one, as the aerophin are their creations. The serum, he tells her, are made of blinkmoths, and they are overharvested, leading to the drought and lack of stars. Before he can tell her more, a rogue troll blasts him with a Vedalken weapon. A dying Chunth tells Glissa that the world is hollow before passing on.

She is met by Kane on her way to find the troll assassin, and learns that the troll was one of the Elders, Strang. They track him to the Radix, but before he can give up any information, an aerophin blasts Strang from the sky. They follow the aerophin and in the dense tangle they manage to destroy the devices. When they return to Tel-Jilad, it is all too quiet. Glissa emerges from cover to discover it is a trap, and a dozen more aerophin appear. When Kane rushes to join her, the cloaked figure appears and hits Kane with a magic bolt from his staff that melts every piece of metal on his body, killing him in agony. In a rage, Glissa summons mana to herself, and flings green fire at the cloaked vedalken wizard. She melts his staff and, as he flees, rends apart the remaining aerophin. She also relieves him of a few fingers. Then she sits, mourning Kane.

Slobad and the golem find Glissa catatonic, and are asked to leave by the remaining trolls (two elders did just die because of Glissa). With nowhere else to go, Slobad leads them to the home of the Krark-Clan. Along the way, Slobad finishes cleaning out the remnants of the dross from inside the golem, and he tells them his name is Bosh. The legend of Krark was that the hapless goblin discovered a path to the center of the world, and they hope that the Krark-clan’s folklore can help. They are welcomed by Slobad’s surrogate father (and Krark-Clan chief) Dwugget. That night the aerophin attack again, but Glissa is too traumatized to fight. Bosh saves the day, helping his friends escape the mountain hideout of the Krark-Clan. Bosh himself is blown to pieces.

Outside, Slobad talks sense to Glissa, and she puts aside her defeatist attitude. They learn that the cultists were taken to be cast into the Great Forge as heretics. They rescue the cultists and learn that Bosh is with the refuse to be thrown into the furnace. Slobad charges down after Bosh, and Glissa grabs the attention of just about every goblin in the mountain to distract them from her friend. Slobad manages to get enough of Bosh reassembled to help Glissa escape, and as they flee, they spot the red lacuna. Bosh mentions that he reached the surface through a hole like that. He remembers Memnarch being at the center of the plane, but cannot remember what Memnarch is.

Slobad is the pragmatic heart of Glissa's team, affectionately calling her 'stupid elf'.
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer by Kev Walker

The cultists give Glissa the Book of Krark to read, which talks about the core. It triggers another flare, this time of the giant mycosynth towers in the core. She talks about it to Bosh, and he believes that he was created to fight the mycosynth infection, but that he failed. Knowing that they need to confront the Vedalken next, they head out toward the Quicksilver Sea. At the shore, they find a Neurok village. Unsure how to proceed, Bosh tells Glissa she could pass for human with a disguise. Slobad steals a human outfit, and Glissa sneaks in to speak with the village’s leader, Bruenna, to gain intel on the Vedalken. Bruenna tricks her into revealing she is not, in fact, another human, and she gets blown across the room by a summoned gust of wind.

The two face off for a moment, Glissa believing Bruenna is a servant of the Vedalken. When aerophins attack yet again, Glissa quickly learns that the Neurok are little more than slaves. With her village under threat, Bruenna has little choice but to ally with Glissa. Together Bruenna, Glissa, Slobad, Bosh manage to escape the village, leading away the aerophin and losing them in an island chain. With the immediate danger out of the way, Bruenna demands to know what is going on. Glissa explains, and in turn Bruenna explains that the Vedalken once worked with the Neurok, but the serum has since turned them cruel and they are little more than conquerors now. When shown Glissa’s vial of serum, Bruenna tells Glissa that the elf can find the answers she seeks in the Knowledge Pool at Lumengrid, but that the Vedalken city is heavily defended.

Bruenna just happens to have a plan to infiltrate Lumengrid, though. She constructed a crude submarine, but without a power source she could never get it to run. Bosh offers his mana battery, but Slobad offers a better idea than losing their colossal friend — Bosh can just pull it. Simple ideas are often the best, and the journey goes well enough. Bruenna makes it so they can see through the opaque sea for a distance, but Bosh becomes entangled by a quicksilver beast under the sea. Unable to see to fight it off, Glissa is forced to ingest her vial of serum to give her the awareness she needs. She frees Bosh, but ends up filling her lungs with Quicksilver. While unconscious, she has another flare, this time of the horror of waking up as a first generation elf on Mirrodin.

Bruenna revives Glissa, and they make it inside an underwater entrance to an abandoned lab, which used to belong to Bruenna’s father. When Bruenna learns that Glissa used the serum, she is furious, then sad. Her plan depended on the serum, but they figure that in the Vedalken hub they can always acquire more. Bosh and Slobad move to create a distraction, allowing Glissa and Bruenna to make their way to the Knowledge Pool. They are met there by a Vedalken named Lord Pontifex, and when questioned they say they are on an errand for the Synod. Unfortunately, so is Pontifex, and he has them accompany him… right into a trap. Pontifex lives up to name and pontificates at Glissa and Bruenna, now his prisoners. He believes handing over Glissa, who is wanted by Memnarch, will secure him a place on the Synod.

The plot of Mirrodin feels very padded in order to make three novels.
Mirrodin's Core by Greg Staples

 

 

When Glissa explains that a Vedalken was trying to kill her, he is disbelieving. Feeling secure, he reveals he was the cause of Bruenna’s father’s death; her father was executed after accessing the Knowledge Pool. Pontifex, his master, had wanted to study the effects of the pool on a human. Slobad and Bosh trigger their distraction and wreak havoc across Lumengrid. In the chaos, Glissa takes out their guards and captures Pontifex. He agrees to lead them to the pool. Along the way, Pontifex implies that if a Vedalken was after her, it would have to be Lord Janus, the head of the Synod. At the pool, Pontifex is denied access from the biometric scanner as only Synod members are allowed inside.

Counting on Janus being her mysterious cloaked Vedalken, Glissa pulls out the fingers she severed earlier. The doors open for her, but inside more guards are waiting, and Janus strides in having captured his quarry. Pontifex is knocked into the Knowledge Pool in the scuffle. Bruenna is taken hostage by Janus, and in a rage Glissa again summons the green fire, destroying all the guards’ weapons and the hoverguard among them. Janus admits to trying to murder Glissa (and all the races’ champions) because his plans to supplant Memnarch were not yet ready, and he did not know what Memnarch wanted with her. Pontifex, enraged, emerges from the pool and aids Glissa in subduing the traitor. Glisa melts Janus with his own staff in vengeance for Kane. She destroys the staff, only to find Pontifex turned on her and intends to deliver her to Memnarch.

Bruenna lies wounded, and Glissa and Pontifex bargain for her life. Glissa agrees to go with Pontifex peacefully if he heals the Neurok wizard, but they are saved by a last minute rescue for Slobad and Bosh. They dive beneath the Knowledge Pool to find the blue lacuna. Glissa has another flare, this time of the once perfect Argentum and the slow mutation of Memnarch from golem to monster. As they descend, gravity shifts so the tunnel down becomes a long walkway instead of a steep drop. When asked if Bosh remembers the lacuna, he says the Knowledge Pool had a profound effect on him.

Bosh remembers everything.

Thanks for reading! Next time, we continue Glissa's story on Mirrodin.

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