Garth

Garth
Details
Race	Human Planeswalker
Birthplace	Estark, Kush, Aerona, Dominaria
Lifetime	Born in 4044 AR
Colors
Center: "Currently":

Garth (born Galin nicknamed "One-Eye") was a powerful wizard and planeswalker from Kush on Dominaria.

Appearance and characteristics

Garth was a thin man, not tall, with a bony face, bronzed by the sun, and scruffy dark hair ill-cut. He was usually dressed in black and wore his spells satchel at his belt. In Norreen's opinion, Garth resembled a "scarecrow". His only arresting features were his eyes, turquoise blue. The lost eye, in fact, grew back thanks to his ascension, leaving a white scar-star around it.

History

He was born as Galin, son of Cullinarn, the master of the green-blue House of Oor-tael. The house was destroyed by Kuthuman, the Grand Master of the Arena of Estark, who was on a quest to become a planeswalker. Garth was five years old at the time of the event that would be known as the Night of Fire, and Zarel, the servant of Kuthuman, gouged his left eye out to torment his father. Garth ran back into the burning House and Zarel believed he was dead.

After twenty years in exile, he returned to Estark under the false name of Garth and manipulated the remaining houses and the new Grand Master, Zarel, so that he could win the tournament and meet Kuthuman, in what would be then known as the Time of Troubles. During his fights in the Arena he became known to the mob as Garth One-eye. Garth was successful in defeating Kuthuman, and even managed to somehow use a spell to steal the ability to walk the planes. Later, he willingly gave up planeswalking to live with the Benalish woman known at the time as Norreen, whom he had met during his adventure.

The two retired in the countryside of Gish, with their child Hammen, to grow a vineyard. However, Garth found leaving behind his powers much harder than he had thought and started journeying between the planes again. It was during one of his absences that Norreen and Hammen were kidnapped and brought to Benalia.

After the death of Sabriam and the rescue of Norreen and Hammen, Garth started a fight with Gull and Greensleeves, thinking they had been the kidnappers. However, Greensleeves quickly brought the wizard to his senses. When confronted by Norreen on his negligence for family duty, Garth admitted the wrongness of his ways, giving up his spells satchel to Greensleeves and promising he would never abandon his family anymore. He then offered his knowledge of Dominaria, gathered during his wanderings, in order to bring the people from Greensleeves army to their homelands. Then he and his family returned to their vineyard, offering their help if Greensleeves requested it.

On Garth's spark

Garth appeared only in prerevisionist books, in which there was no mention of a planeswalker's spark: any mage could break the plane's veil with the right spells and sufficient mana and travel across the planes. To make the prerevisionist books fit Revisionist Continuity, many people believe that wizards who became planeswalkers by spells actually possessed sparks that were flared by the spells they cast, but didn't know of these sparks or their role in becoming planeswalkers. However, Garth might be an exception to this theory. The novel Arena states that the spell researched by Kirlen could grant the planeswalking powers to anyone casting it. It's not likely though, that Kirlen created a real spark with her spell because even planeswalkers don't understand its nature fully. The explanation of this might be that the spell just simulated powers of spark to some extent.

In 2021, it was stated in a retcon that Garth's planeswalker spark ignited at the moment he won vengeance against the killer of his kin.

On Garth's mana

Garth, despite being born to a family and guild of blue-green casters, demonstrated the use of all 5 colors of mana.

• Green mana: summoned a war mammoth, called Llanowar Elves, cast Fog, Ironroot Treefolk, Wall of Wood, Wall of Brambles, Giant Growth, Giant Spider, Craw Wurm. Conversely, didn't have regeneration to fix his eye, at least until his ignition.
• White mana: frequently erected Circles of Protection, summoned white knight, used Healing Salve, Reverse Damage and Armageddon.
• Blue mana: used Flashfreeze, Psionic Blast on opponents in the arena. He used invisibility to hide from Zarel. He also used unnamed Counterspells on several occasions. Can use Levitation on summoned creatures.
• Black mana: caught several guards with Terror. Was able to turn and control Relentless Rats. Summoned an Manor Skeleton, Infernal Medusa; summoned a Lich against Gull.
• Red mana: Fireball, Wall of Stone, Ærathi Berserker.

Artifacts he possessed: Juggernaut (won from Naru), Disrupting Scepter.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Garth One-Eye