The March of the Modrons is the cyclical great march of the modrons of Mechanus through the outer planes, an event of the cosmological calendar of the shared cosmos.
| Type | Event (cyclical) |
| Cycle | Every 289 years |
| Origin | Mechanus |
| Spanish entry | Marcha de los Modrones |
Description
- Cycle: every 289 years — seventeen times seventeen, a number sacred to the modrons.
- Route: the modrons, geometric creatures of Mechanus (the plane of absolute order), march in perfect formation through all the outer planes, including the chaos of Limbo.
- Purpose: a cosmological census; the modrons record the changes the multiverse underwent in the previous cycle.
- Friction: absolute order crossing pure chaos causes battles and transformations among the modrons themselves.
The cycle is modron doctrine, not a guarantee: at least one March set out off schedule. For this reason the archive dates planar events by their distance from the nearest March (“so long before, so long after”), without converting to any other calendar; the reckonings run in parallel.
The two documented Marches
The corrupted March
The oldest on record began in the years of the calendar of Amitlai, when the Realms counted 1403, and did not arrive whole. The marchers strayed, went up rivers not theirs, and filled the Lands of the Beasts with their waste, until Agatha — daughter of Amitlai and the Lord of Cats — bargained with the spirit of the winds to stop them and return them to their route. It began in the years when Clarisa fell prisoner of the Rilmani, and is part of her arc together with the Maimed, Sigil and Greece.
Two other records refer to the same March:
- In the Khanate gesta (Invisible Cities), the sage Ananta, mapping the enemies of Graz’zt, said that Mechanus is his chief enemy, but its axiomites are corrupt: he corrupted even the last Great Modron March.
- In the Dispute of the Sigil Contracts it was recalled that the previous March happened off schedule, because of a dark creature set where it should not be.
The new March
The second sets out at the close of the Dispute of the Sigil Contracts: two months after those events, the modrons leave Automata to travel the wheel of the outer planes. Sigil, as neutral ground where the factions are represented, sends a delegation of legates to accompany the March and assess how far the shadows have advanced on the planar borders. The announced route runs from Automata to Fortitude in Arcadia, then to Mount Celestia, then to the other towns of the Wheel. This March leaves on time and escorted. The whole Dispute is dated “two months from the March”, the first full use of dating by distance.
Role
- Cosmological clock: the 289-year cycle gives a macro structure to the multiverse’s time.
- Occasion for adventure: stray modrons, planar battles, modron fragments as artifacts.
- Link with Sigil: the March passes through the city and alters it; the Lady of Pain lets it pass.
- It is also a planar landmark at the Tavern of the World Serpent.
Open questions
- Whether the March is structurally related to the Game of Shadows, another recurring cosmological cycle.