Sarkhan's History
Sarkhan Vol is a planeswalker hailing from Tarkir, a plane scourged by war. He is fascinated by dragons, something that has been a blessing and curse to him throughout his life. For his time before the timeline alteration, check
here.
Disillusioned by his time seving
Nicol Bolas and his mind shattered, Sarkhan returned to his home plane of Tarkir, to see if he could rekindle what he loved most about dragons. After wandering through Tarkir his mind was constantly besieged by
Ugin's visions. At some point, he passed by several Temur warriors whom he infuriated. Eventually, in his madness, he entered Jeskai lands and was quickly found by Narset, Khan of the Jeskai. Narset had been guided to him by visions of her own and a kirin. Narset's gentle nature helped Sarkhan to focus his mind temporarily. However, in his madness, Sarkhan revealed the secrets of planeswalkers and other worlds to her. He spoke of Nicol Bolas who had killed Ugin over a thousand years prior. Narset herself who had seen visions of other planes confided in him that Ugin was Tarkir's soul and with his death, the plane was thrown out of balance.
Narset helped to calm his mind and provide him some peace before agreeing to bring him to Ugin's Tomb. During their journey, they formed a bond of respect and friendship. At the tomb, they were attacked by a maddened Zurgo Helmsmasher who attempted to kill Sarkhan in revenge for Sarkhan's actions during his ascension as a planeswalker. Narset fought off Zurgo and injured him before urging Sarkhan to enter Ugin's Nexus, promising to guard his passage. At the apex of their fight, she was accidentally distracted by Sarkhan which enabled Zurgo to land a killing blow. With the last of her strength, she urged Sarkhan to keep moving into the nexus.
Horrified at this, Sarkhan continued into the Nexus while cursing Zurgo and swearing revenge on the orc while mourning Narset. Reaching the blazing gate at the end, and after a flash of light, Sarkhan vanished.
Sarkhan crash-landed in the middle of a vast, snowy Temur tundra alone. More alone than he could have suspected, as he quickly realized that Ugin's voice was completely gone. As he roared his fury towards Ugin's silence demanding answers, a sudden violent storm appeared and from within it, Sarkhan was stunned to see several dragons emerge. With their appearance, Sarkhan realized that he had arrived in Tarkir's past. With tears of joy in his eyes, the Dragon-shaman quietly thanked Ugin for giving him the chance to see this.
The dragons led him onwards until they encountered their broodmother. Sarkhan watched as the dragons attacked a Temur encampment and was enchanted by their destructive power. However, his revelry was short-lived as a magical, glowing claw ripped through the sky like a bolt of blood-red lightning, tearing into the sides of the dragon fledglings. He watched as the claw's wielder killed the dragon. Horrified, Sarkhan prepared to attack and assist the majestic beasts, but he remembered Narset's words, claiming that Tarkir had been stronger with the dragons and this was evidence of that strength.
Sarkhan began to follow the Temur woman who had routed the dragons. The woman left several strange double curve marks burned into the ground with her staff as she walked, making her easy to follow. Confused, he contemplated that she could be Ugin's herald and was leading him to the Spirit Dragon, but that thought fled when Sarkhan was attacked and trapped by the woman's saber-toothed cat. She demanded to know why Sarkhan was following her.
He informed her that he was following Ugin's whispers and thought her to be his spirit guide, and she called him mad to think such a thing. The woman introduced herself as Yasova Dragonclaw, furious with him as he had insulted her while trespassing in her lands and demanded a reason to spare his life. Sarkhan quickly begged for his life stating that he had only heard of her by reputation and apologized as he was a mere beggar who had insulted her. Both pleased and disgusted, Yasova bid him stand and spared his life with a warning that she would forgive his delusions but would not tolerate further disrespect, giving him permission to follow her if he wished.
Eventually, he saw her making another marking and inquired what the symbol meant. She retorted that she will only do so if he tells her of the whispers that he has been following. Sarkhan told her of visiting the Eye of Ugin but obscured several details by lying that it was on Tarkir and how it led him to her. His question about the dragonstorms shocked her and his reply to his 'homeland' having none of these caused her to reply that he really was mad.
He attempted to use the Temur concept of The Unwritten Now, taught to him by Chianul to make her understand. With such an explanation, Yasova quickly realized that Sarkhan was from Tarkir's future and eagerly questioned him about the extinction of the dragons. She then stated that it seems to be true that if Ugin dies, the dragon storms would stop and dragons would become extinct. A wary Sarkhan now understood the connection but questioned her on how she received this information. He quickly backtracked and tried to plead to her pride that the people of the future were weak shadows of her.
This further aggravated Yasova and she demanded to know how a life spent cowering in fear made her better than those who need not fear the very skies. She became so angry that she nearly struck Sarkhan down once more, but stayed her hand as she shared with him a vision of her own. A vision of Tarkir with no dragons, fields choked with dragon bones, skies with no more storms, no more fighting, no more war. The Temur conquered Tarkir and her female decendent became the High Khan of Tarkir.
The voice in her visions told her how to accomplish this. Sarkhan was extremely confused as this future was completely different from his. She told him that the voice in her visions bid her to track the dragon storms, leave a trail to the Spirit Dragon's lair, and in return, the voice's owner would kill Ugin. In a sudden horrific epiphany, Sarkhan asked who the owner of the voice was and Yasova replied that it belongs to a great dragon, with scales like burnished gold with an orb that floated between his horns. Sarkhan finally realized everything. Yasova's markings resembled curved horns of Nicol Bolas.
At first, he was horrified that Bolas followed him to the past before remembering Bolas recounting his victory in the past. Sarkhan finally understood everything. Bolas was coming to kill Ugin at that very moment. With sudden urgency, Sarkhan quickly assumed his draconic form and launched himself into the sky, away from the shocked Yasova.
Using the storms as his guide, he tracked his way across the Temur frontier until at last he found the eye of the storm, Ugin himself. However, he was not the only one to arrive, and reality itself rippled as Nicol Bolas came to Tarkir. The two dragons immediately reacted to each other and seemed to speak, though Sarkhan was so far away. He hoped to arrive in time to tip the balance in Ugin's favor, but the battle began even as he flew.
Ugin called to his draconic progeny and as they gathered, Bolas struck against Ugin, who fended the Elder Dragon off. However, as Sarkhan reflected at his own role in the battle, the balance of power abruptly shifted. Sarkhan saw that Yasova's part in the battle was not over, and as the shaman cast a spell, an intense, overwhelming command gripped Sarkhan's draconic mind: Kill Ugin.
With no choice, Sarkhan shed his draconic form, sloughing off the spell even as he began to plummet from the sky. Ugin's dragons converged upon their father even as Sarkhan struck the ground, broken and barely aware. Before his wounds overcame him though, Yasova appeared and began to heal him. She intended to take him prisoner and wring answers out of him, but for that, he had to be whole. However, before the healing spell was done, Sarkhan managed to get to his feet and cast banefire at his would-be savior. In a panic, he lurched away to find where Ugin had fallen, discovering a canyon that had not been there before. Sarkhan climbed down and found the dying spirit dragon, broken and about to breathe his last.
Overcome with despair, Sarkhan begged Ugin to tell him what to do, but Ugin had only one thing to say. Speaking directly to Sarkhan's mind, he told him he would always fail so long as he sought guidance instead of truth. In desperation to save the dragon's life, Sarkhan took the hedron he had carried with him this entire time and activated it, the simple stone shard unfolding to an immense device akin to the hedrons on Zendikar, and they wrapped themselves around Ugin, preserving him. However, that simple act was too much, history had been reforged and Sarkhan's life became an impossibility and he vanished.
Sarkhan's deeds in the past were immortalized by the Temur, whose shamans preserved the tale of the Dragon Man, the Sky Khan that had come to save Ugin, only to vanish again into the Unwritten Now.
Sarkhan found himself back in present-day Tarkir, but things had changed. Dragons now ruled the plane thanks to the actions taken in the past, with the old clans abolished and the very word "khan" banned. Sarkhan himself had become a living temporal abnormality. His trip through time had imbued him with the ability to use blue mana. Overjoyed, he traveled across the new Tarkir, marveling at the different breeds of dragons across the plane. After meeting with the Kolaghan (the former Mardu), he learned that no one seemed to remember him, not even Zurgo. He discovered that Narset had never died in this new timeline, so he set out to find her, but was swiftly disappointed when he discovered she'd been exiled from the remnants of her clan. Seeking answers, he turned to the only being that might be able to answer him: Ugin.
Sarkhan arrived at the canyon where he saved Ugin in the past where he was attacked by spiritual constructs created by the dragon. Ugin himself appeared and apologized stating that his constructs were overeager. The spirit dragon has been studying Tarkir's new history in the various carvings around the canyon. He eventually questioned Sarkhan on his actions and how a hedron from the Eye of Ugin arrived on Tarkir. Sarkhan informed Ugin of the events that had transpired in the previous timeline. As Ugin had no memory of the alternate timeline or the role his spiritual echo played in it, the Spirit Dragon theorized that Sarkhan had now created a time paradox of sorts. Sarkhan Vol had never been born nor had he served with the Mardu. The Dragon Man Sarkhan Vol had appeared from nowhere and saved Ugin the Spirit Dragon before disappearing to reappear a thousand years later. Understanding this, Sarkhan made his peace with Ugin and left. He soon encountered Narset nearby. Although delighted to see her alive he was saddened to learn that she did not know him. He learned that she had unlocked her planeswalker's spark and explained to her the events of the previous timeline. He then decides to accompany her to meet Ugin as they planned to explore the new Tarkir together.
Seeking revenge on Bolas for ruining his plane and his mind, Sarkhan conspired with Ugin to defeat the elder dragon. He helped Ugin bypass the wards that Bolas used to protect the Meditation Realm, which enabled Ugin to quickly take back control of the plane. This also allowed Ugin to see through the Spirit-Gem between Bolas' horns, giving him one way to effortlessly spy on his brother without any chance of being noticed. (This was because the Spirit-Gem was metaphysically tied to both Ugin himself and the Meditation Realm, as Bolas had taken it from Ugin's essence after killing him there.)
Later, Sarkhan worked with Ugin to enable
Niv-Mizzet's resurrection: After Niv's death, Sarkhan retrieved the device that Niv had used to preserve his consciousness. He delivered the "ghost box" to the Meditation Realm, where Ugin could keep it safe until Ravnica's leaders performed the ritual to bring Niv back to life.
After that, Sarkhan went to Amonkhet, where he helped the god Hazoret restore the Hekma in exchange for help against Bolas. Hazoret and Sarkhan then met up with a group of planeswalkers led by Karn, who had come to Amonkhet to disable Bolas' Planar Bridge. 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.
Sarkhan went back to Ravnica with the planeswalkers, helping the Gatewatch in the fight against Bolas. Alongside many other planeswalkers and Ravnicans, he fought against the Eternals of Bolas' Dreadhorde. He survived the battle, and he also attained the vengeance he desired, as Niv's resurrection, Hazoret's spear, and Ugin's control of the Meditation Realm all proved to be crucial factors in Bolas' defeat.
