The plane of Taramir has reached the end of its time. The struggles of the Waning Age have been forgotten, for the sun has set for the final time, leaving the world in darkness. Much knowledge was lost in the Last Dawn, but magic endures in the darkness, wizards and wise men screaming their revelations into night. Hidden away, the University of the Lorekeepers holds its vast treasure-trove of knowledge for no one to read while in the darkness the slow corrosion of Taramir itself unleashes strange, psychic entities into physical reality.

☼Taramir Block☼
Taramir Block consists of three sets: Taramir, Waning Light, and finally Age of Darkness. All three sets feature the new mechanics Salvage and Decay as well as the returning mechanic Cumulative Upkeep. In addition, Waning Light brought Fateseal into the picture. To this, Age of Darkness adds the return of Vanishing.

Salvage: Salvage is an activated ability that can be activated only when the card with salvage is in its owner's graveyard, when he or she could cast a sorcery. Salvaging a card exiles it and has the listed effects. Taramir introduced Salvage while Waning Light added off-color salvage costs and Salvage spells with effects dissimilar to their initial effect from being cast. Age of Darkness introduces Colorless and Nonmana salvage costs.

Decay: Decay is an ability word that causes one or more depletion counters to be added to the permanent with Decay, and causes it to be sacrificed when too many depletion counters have been accumulated.

~Blue Uncommons~
Let me level here... it was HARD to design blue creatures for this set, because I didn't give myself aven, birds, or sea-creatures to fall back on, and had already used a lot of human concepts in Taramir and Waning Light while not including Nightstalkers in blue. This is the genesis of the weird, squiggly illusion monsters like Sanity Drinker here.

One of the big things in Taramir, though, is time, so I decided pretty early that for Age of Darkness, playing on that chord was going to be Blue's big thing: it has the most access to tricks related to vanishing and fateseal, and also developed a mill subtheme. It does both aggressive mill and self mill, and I really wish in retrospect I had done more milling in the block as a whole, since it's so very inevitable. But Age of Darkness is where people go insane, so if it's going to be anywhere it might as well be here.

Wall of Tears (Reprint)

Sanity Drinker

Creature – Illusion Horror [U]
Vanishing 4
Sanity Drinker can’t be blocked
Whenever a time counter is removed from a permanent you control, each player puts the top 3 cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/4

Spirit of Hourglass Sands

Creature – Spirit [U]
When Spirit of Hourglass Sands enters the battlefield, Fateseal 2
At the beginning of your upkeep, Fateseal 1
When Spirit of Hourglass Sands dies, Fateseal 3
2/2

Fortress Scribe

Creature – Human Advisor [U]
Decay – , , put a depletion counter on Fortress Scribe: Reveal the top card of your library. If it’s nonland card with converted mana cost less than the number of depletion counters on Fortress Scribe, sacrifice Fortress scribe and put that card on the bottom of your library. Otherwise, put it into your hand if it’s an instant or sorcery card and on the bottom of your library if it’s not.
2/3

Timebond

Enchantment – Aura [U]
Enchant Creature
Decay – If enchanted creature would become untapped, put a depletion counter on Timebond instead. Then, if Timebond has four or more depletion counters on it, sacrifice it.

Refused Arcana

Instant [U]
Counter target spell.
Salvage – Discard two cards: Put target permanent on top of its owner’s library

Mnemonic Focus

Enchantment [U]
Cumulative Upkeep – Put the top card of your library into your graveyard
At the beginning of your end step, you may return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.