Thousandfold Refraction of Rabiah

Thousandfold Refraction of Rabiah
Event Information
Era	The Dark Age
Date	c. 100 AR
Location	Rabiah
Sets	Arabian Nights
Characters	El-Hajjâj, Nailah, Taysir and everyone else on Rabiah
Outcome	The plane of Rabiah and all its inhabitants save one are reproduced one thousand times Taysir is reproduced only five times, one for each color of mana
Storyline sources
Timeline
Fall of Penregon Thousandfold Refraction of Rabiah Unification of Taysir

The Thousandfold Refraction of Rabiah was a mysterious event in which the plane Rabiah was reproduced one thousand times. So were all the people, places, and objects of the original Rabiah, creating a thousand and one virtually identical worlds. There were few exceptions to this reproduction — only five incarnations of Taysir of Rabiah were created, one of each color of mana.

Theory

While fully incorporated into the prerevisionist storyline, many theorize that the concept of the Thousand-fold Refraction came about as a flavorful explanation for why there could be multiples of the various characters in play at any one time, before the Legend rule existed that could handle such things. The "thousand and one" part is a nod to the real Arabian Nights, originally known as One Thousand and One Nights.

Timing

Although the exact year of the Refraction is not known, it for certain happened before the formation of the Shard of Twelve Worlds and the Summit of the Null Moon, as Taysir of Rabiah had arrived on Dominaria during the Ice Age and was trapped by the Shard. More precisely, the Refraction is mentioned as happening in Taysir's infancy, and he was born "not long after" the Sylex Blast. This puts the refraction for certain after 64 AR. On a cosmological scale "not long after" the Sylex Blast would indicate years or decades at the most, placing it roughly at c. 100 AR.