This article is about the planeswalker silver golem. For other uses, see Karn (disambiguation).
The silver golem Karn is a Planeswalker who can wield all five colors of magic. He was created to endure time travel and to serve as the key to the Legacy.
Over a thousand years ago, the Planeswalker Urza created a new weapon in his war against Phyrexia: the silver golem now called Karn. Urza's plan was to send his creation back in time to when Phyrexia was a nascent threat. The plan backfired and the island of Tolaria was devastated. But Karn had many other purposes to serve.
The golem was also the first artifact of the Legacy, a collection of objects whose arcane might would eventually be used against Phyrexia. He was given the heartstone of the rogue Phyrexian sleeper agent Xantcha, once Urza's ally and companion. Centuries later, it was Karn who rescued the human component of Urza's Legacy from Phyrexian raiders: Gerrard, who would become captain of the Skyship Weatherlight.
Both part of the Legacy and an individual in his own right, the silver golem Karn is haunted by a single, terrible incident: while serving to protect the young Gerrard, Karn accidentally took the life of another. Wakened from years spent as a statue, the golem has vowed to never kill again as he rejoins Gerrard.
As part of Gerrard's Legacy, the silver golem Karn was charged with protecting the child Gerrard from harm. When he was tricked into killing an innocent man in a burst of anger, Karn vowed never to take another life, no matter what the circumstances. He rejoins Gerrard on the Weatherlight after spending years deactivated.
He is both the vessel for many Legacy artifacts (via an internal compartment) and is part of the Legacy himself. Entrusted to Gerrard years ago, he is unswervingly loyal to him, though he regrets his master's ambivalence toward the Legacy and his destiny. Karn is fascinated with the workings of the Weatherlight and believes, perhaps correctly, that he can communicate with the ship in unknown ways.
Karn is a gentle giant, and served as the keeper of the Legacy as well as Gerrard's guardian. But things went awry when Vuel is able to steal the Legacy, Karn included. He Vuel off all of it hoping he can scatter it to the four winds, thus keeping Gerrard from every fulfilling his destiny. When Gerrard rejoins the Weatherlight he is surprised to find Karn in the hold. Sisay, in her quest to recover the Legacy, reacquired Karn.
Decades after, when Phyrexia invaded the plane of Dominaria, Karn fulfilled his destiny by taking his place within the Weatherlight hull, surrounded by the artifacts of the Legacy. The ship became a weapon, delivering a devastating blast of white mana that destroyed Phyrexia's "god," Yawgmoth, the Father of Machines. At that moment, Karn became a planeswalker, inheriting the Planeswalker spark from his creator.
Karn later created a plane of his own: a metal world he called Argentum. When he brought the Planeswalker Jeska to see his plane, he introduced a contagion from Dominaria to his world—a Phyrexian substance to which, as a Planeswalker, he was immune and unaware. As Karn explored the Multiverse, the Phyrexian contagion took hold, reshaping the plane and corrupting the mind of the Warden that Karn had left to watch over his creation. Even when Karn returned to Argentum, now called Mirrodin, and set things right with his world's inhabitants, the contagion continued its quiet work.
During Dominaria's temporal crisis, Karn was called on by his friends Jhoira and the Planeswalker Teferi, both of whom were once students at Tolaria. Together with a new ally, Venser, they worked to prevent time itself from collapsing by finding those who were willing to surrender their Planeswalker sparks to heal the temporal damage. Karn accepted the task of healing the greatest of these time rifts: the one he had helped create at Tolaria. And although he succeeded, at that moment he became aware of—and susceptible to—the contagion he carried. In his last moments as a Planeswalker, he hurled himself through the Multiverse to Mirrodin, instructing his friends not to follow.
His mind addled and broken by the Phyrexian corruption, Karn found himself inside Mirrodin amid a fully fledged Phyrexian ecosystem. The contagion had caused Mirrodin to grow tendrils into the plane's core of raw mana, vastly accelerating its Phyrexian metastasis. Karn was hailed as the next Father of Machines by the new Phyrexians. The new Phyrexian civilization that arose on Mirrodin warped Karn's mind, leaving him with only flashes of lucidity, positioning him to become his worst nightmare: a new Phyrexian leader.
The Planeswalker Koth, a native of Mirrodin, sought allies to help him save his world. He recruited Elspeth Tirel as well as Karn's Dominarian friend Venser. When the trio arrived on Mirrodin, they were forced to acknowledge that the world was poisoned beyond saving. In the end Venser sacrificed himself to transfer to Karn his Planeswalker spark as well as his immunity to the contagion, in hopes that Karn could prevent the corruption from taking hold on other worlds. Grief-stricken by the fate of his world and the death of his friend, Karn set out into the Multiverse again, retracing his steps to find the Phyrexian oil and render it inert.
"By this glyph I affirm your role." -Urza, to Karn (Brand)
Karn's creation is now his master. (Corrupted Conscience)
"Every act of destruction has a repercussion." -Karn, silver golem (Aftershock)
"One cannot cleanse the wounds of failure." -Karn, silver golem (Humility)
Frozen by conscience, Karn did not resist as the moggs carried him to the Predator. (Pacifism)
"We are kinfolk," explained Karn to the sliver queen. "Just as you need your progeny to complete you, so do I need the pieces of the Legacy to make me whole." (Victual Sliver)
"Until you have lived as a statue, do not talk to me of pigeons." -Karn, silver golem (Xanthic Statue)
"Although I would give my life to protect Gerrard, my conscience will not let me take another's. There are many who would not hesitate." -Karn, silver golem (Steel Golem)
As he repaired the ship's planeswalking engine, Karn saw for the first time how he could catalyze the Weatherlight's evolution. (Power Matrix)
"An innocent man died because of my anger. That knowledge will haunt me for all eternity." -Karn, silver golem (Agonizing Memories)
"Because I am incapable of tears does not mean I have no need to shed them." -Karn, silver golem (Tendrils of Despair)
As the Phyrexian contagion corroded Karn's body, the praetors whispered psalms to corrupt his mind. (Praetor's Counsel)
"You've failed Gerrard. You've failed the Legacy. You've failed yourself. I can do no more." -Volrath, to Karn (Propaganda)
Karn felt more secure about his value to Urza when he realized he didn't need regular trimming. (Thran Golem)
"Consider the fable of the greedy herder. As her flock grew, so did her weariness; she slept, and the sheep wandered off." -Karn, silver golem (Fade Away)
"My world is corrupted beyond cleansing. I must prevent this from happening to other worlds." -Karn (Argent Mutation)
"Whereas I was created to protect, the biskelion was created to destroy." -Karn, silver golem (Serrated Biskelion)
Karn and Hanna stood over the recovered Legacy artifacts like loving parents over sleeping children. (Treasure Trove)
"Many have been lost to pity." -Karn, silver golem (Wall of Tears)
"I am reminded of the fable of the silver egg. Its owner cracks it open to see what jewels it holds, only to discover a simple yellow yolk." -Karn, silver golem (Bottle Gnomes)
"History is a potent weapon." -Karn, silver golem (Scrivener)
"At first I simply observed. But I found that without investment in others, life serves no purpose." -Karn, silver golem (Intervene)
"Twice I have let the Legacy slip away. Never again." -Karn, silver golem (Sift)
"One touch to the stone and the sidar's son turned me from stalwart to statue." -Karn, silver golem (Touchstone)
"Remember the moral of the fireslinger fable: with power comes isolation." -Karn, silver golem (Fireslinger)
Karn said nothing -he just grasped the powerstone and squeezed tightly. The wild flashing ceased. (Energy Flux)
"Everything the wise woman learned she wrote in a book, and when the pages were black with ink, she took white ink and began again." -Karn, silver golem (Spellbook)
"If it is meant to be nothing but a machine," Karn finally asked Jhoira, "why did Urza build it to be like me?" (Beast of Burden)
"Remember the fable of the elf who came upon a cave of gold. In trying to free the largest piece, she was crushed by its weight." -Karn, silver golem (Flowstone Blade)
"Anger is fleeting; remorse is eternal." -Karn, silver golem (Fit of Rage)
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