Karn's History
Karn was created as a probe by
Urza and
Barrin to enable their time-travel experiments. His form was chosen because Urza's studies had shown that only silver could pass through temporal energies unharmed. In an effort to make the golem fully sentient, Urza included Xantcha's heartstone as part of his construction, allowing him to develop a personality which would grow and evolve and make decisions on his own should the need call for it. This profile deals with only his Post-Mending history. Anything before the Mending is covered
here.
After the events of Time Spiral, Karn retreated to Mirrodin's Core, being worshipped as the new Father of Machines. When Phyrexia grew upon Mirrodin, Karn was trapped in his own mind, battling between himself and the role a Compleated
Glissa, along with the other Phyrexian praetors, were trying to force upon him.
Sheoldred told a Mirran spy to kill Karn so she can take his place, and pointed toward a citadel.
The dark oil leaked from his heart, changing Karn's silver body as he sat upon his throne. While the Phyrexian Praetors and their minions vied over him, each trying to use him to further their own causes, Karn had a moment of clarity. He sent out a mechanical guide to lead Venser and his party to the fully corrupted core of the plane once called Mirrodin. After many hardships, they found the golem in bad shape at the center of the tainted world.
The Sylvok outcast Melira told Venser and his party that the oil only turns a being into a full Phyrexian if its heart is fully corrupted. By the time Venser reached Karn in the core of Mirrodin it was already too late. Melira cleansed the golem's body of the Phyrexian taint but she couldn't cleanse the golem's heart. Knowing his own life would soon be forfeit due to his increasing affliction symptoms, Venser made the ultimate sacrifice. With his last remaining mana, he gave his life and spark to Karn. Moments later Karn was released from the Phyrexian tyranny and mourned the loss of his friend briefly, but turned to battle the Phyrexians, stating 'he still has a lot of work ahead of him'.
While searching for Jaya Ballard,
Chandra Nalaar met Karn in Yavimaya where he had been trying to contain Multani's regrowth spasms while searching for the Cylix. After finding the Cylix, he planned to use it to destroy New Phyrexia. After the defeat of Belzenlok, Karn agreed to help the Gatewatch in the fight against
Nicol Bolas. He didn't take the oath, because he meant to leave soon to continue his effort to destroy New Phyrexia.
Karn traveled with the Gatewatch to Ravnica for the final confrontation with Bolas, and immediately became trapped there due to Bolas's use of the Immortal Sun. Alongside many other planeswalkers and Ravnicans, he fought against the Eternals of Bolas' Dreadhorde.
At the start of the battle, Karn granted the Gatewatch (along with himself, Jaya,
Ral,
Kaya, and Teyo) the ability to see the auras of other planeswalkers, making it easier for them to protect and coordinate with the other trapped planeswalkers. He was able to create this spell after studying Ral's spark-detecting goggles.
During the invasion, the trapped planeswalkers got together with Ravnican leaders to strategize. At
Jace's recommendation, they decided to split up into teams to focus on specific tasks. Karn,
Ob Nixilis, Dack Fayden, and Samut volunteered to go through Bolas' Planar Bridge to Amonkhet and shut the portal down from the other side. While Nixilis and Samut fought off the Eternals, Dack distracted
Tezzeret, giving Karn an opening to fly one of Saheeli's explosive micro-drones into the Bridge control mechanism in Tezzeret's chest. The portal collapsed, and the wounded Tezzeret revealed that he was glad they defeated him: he hoped they succeeded at killing Bolas so he could finally be freed from his servitude to the dragon. With that, Tezzeret planeswalked away.
The planeswalkers were then visited by the god Hazoret, who arrived with the rogue planeswalker
Sarkhan Vol. At Sarkhan's request, Hazoret gave them her spear to aid them in their fight against Bolas. Karn transported it back to Ravnica and gave it to the newly-resurrected
Niv-Mizzet.
Karn survived the battle and was present during the Planewide Celebration that followed.
Karn joined the Gatewatch in their memorial service for
Gideon on Theros, but soon after wanted to leave for a scouting mission on New Phyrexia.
Teferi and
Ajani persuaded him to have a talk on his strategy first.
Later, Karn began searching the Caves of Koilos for information about the use of the Golgothian Sylex. On the brink of a discovery, he encountered Phyrexianized members of the Society of Mishra. Delving deeper, he found a staging ground for a New Phyrexian invasion with a wounded Sheoldred at its center. Rona collapsed the cavern on Karn, incapacitating the golem and giving Sheoldred and the Phyrexian skyships time to escape to a secondary staging ground. The ancient interplanar and Phyrexian technology within the Caves caused low-grade interference and distortion, preventing Karn from planeswalking away.
Months passed by before Karn was found and freed by Ajani Goldmane. The two attended a peace summit between the Keldons and New Benalia in Oyster Bay. Karn hid the Sylex on the Mana Rig in Shiv, before the summit was interrupted by Phyrexian sleeper agents. Escaping with Jaya, Jodah, Stenn, and Teferi to Argivia, Karn fought off waves of Phyrexians, eventually revealing Stenn to be a sleeper agent himself, before calling the Weatherlight. After regrouping on the skyship, Karn and Teferi travelled to Shiv to secure the support of Darigaaz and the dragons, Ghitu, viashino, and goblins for the coming fight. During the Battle of the Mana Rig, Karn was unfortunately captured by the compleated Ajani and Sheoldred. He was then and brought before Elesh Norn on New Phyrexia.
On New Phyrexia, Karn was bound on a bone-white slab, veined with minerals, that intervened with his planeswalking ability. With Ajani's double-bladed axe still embedded into his chest, Elesh Norn's Suture Priests dissected him. Tezzeret took Karn's dissected body from the Suture Priests and brought it to the Panopticon . Still conscious, Karn instructed Tezzeret to disconnect his head and helped him to enter the tower. After unsuccessfully using the Darksteel Eye, Tezzeret reattached Karn's head to his body and brought him to Elesh Norn.
