Nahiri's History
Nahiri, called The Lithomancer, was a talented Kor stoneforger, lithomancer, and planeswalker from Zendikar. Being a lithomancer, she has special power over stones and metal. She used to be one of The Three — a group of planeswalkers that included Sorin Markov and Ugin — that decided to rid the Multiverse of the threat from the terrible Eldrazi. The duty-bound took it upon herself to keep the Eldrazi bound to her plane. She believed strongly in keeping one's word, becoming enraged the moment she realized Sorin had broken his own, going as far as to seek him out and confront him for his lie.
Sorin and Nahiri first met when the young Kor's planeswalker spark first ignited, and they forged an unlikely friendship. Viewing her almost as a daughter, Sorin taught Nahiri about the Multiverse and introduced her to many new planes. Together, they discovered the Eldrazi, witnessing Ulamog's destruction of a long-forgotten plane. They met Ugin soon after, and the three Planeswalkers concocted a plan that bound the Eldrazi in Zendikar for millennia.
The Three decided to force the Eldrazi into physical form and trap them on a plane, sacrificing that plane for the well-being of the Multiverse. They searched for a plane with lush ecosystems and uniquely dynamic mana—a powerful lure for the Eldrazi's insatiable hunger. Wanting to start their work immediately, the three decided upon Zendikar. Sorin Markov lured the Eldrazi to the plane, directing their hunger to that unique mana, Ugin used his invisible breath to combat the Eldrazi and his colorless magic to bind them to the plane, and Nahiri constructed a massive network of stone hedrons, whose power would form the bars of a planewide prison, forever preventing the Eldrazi from leaving. Ugin arranged the hedrons to direct leylines of energy, which were not to be disrupted.
The planeswalkers concentrated the power of their imprisonment spell in a secret location deep inside Zendikar's mountains of Akoum: a subterranean chamber called the Eye of Ugin. To make sure that the imprisonment would not be broken, the three planeswalkers sealed the chamber with a mystical lock: the Eye of Ugin could only be reactivated by the presence of three planeswalker's sparks — and the colorless, invisible Ghostfire breath of Ugin, the spirit dragon himself.
The planeswalkers' trap worked. Emrakul, Kozilek, and Ulamog manifested in physical form on Zendikar, became confined by the magic of the network of hedrons, and thanks to the magic of the imprisonment spell, sank into harmless dormancy. Their mission complete, The Three disbanded. Sorin and Ugin left the plane.
Nahiri stayed and lived happily among her people for a long time. The wild mana of Zendikar lured other beings to the plane as well, and Nahiri took it upon herself to protect Zendikar from those who would cause it harm. Of those, the most infamous was the interplanar conqueror Ob Nixilis, but before he could do much damage, Nahiri intervened and bound his power with that of a hedron. She took on pupils and taught them to maintain the hedron network.
Centuries later she became tired of living and withdrew in a meditational slumber. The centuries passed and her teachings about the Eldrazi became garbled; Talib (Kozilek), Kamsa (Emrakul), and Mangeni (Ulamog) became the revered gods of the Kor. Nahiri was worshipped as the "prophet of Talib", who taught the Kor the arts of lithomancy. When vampires (which hadn't been seen on the plane in the earlier days) built a shrine on the nexus of the hedron network, the prison of the Eldrazi became unstable, and the brood lineages spilled over the plane again. Nahiri awoke and called for help to Sorin and Ugin but they didn't respond. She succeeded on her own at restoring the prison. Confused why Sorin hadn't shown up when she called for him, she decided to find him and planeswalked away from Zendikar.
When Nahiri arrived at Innistrad, Sorin explained that her signal for help had been likely absorbed by the Helvault. Discontent with the truth, Nahiri guilted Sorin for his actions. Offended, Sorin angrily reminded her of who raised her as a planeswalker and advised her to go pester Ugin instead. Nahiri saw this as a betrayal of their bond and chose to physically threaten Sorin. This resulted in Avacyn's intervention, who sensed the threat that Nahiri posed to Innistrad. The two fought until Sorin ended the battle by imprisoning Nahiri in the Helvault.
