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Garth
Garth One-Eye
Galin
Garth One-Eye
Details
Race Human Planeswalker
Birthplace Estark, Kush, Aerona, Dominaria
Lifetime War with Phyrexia
Born 4044 AR
Spouse Rakel
Parents Cullinarn
Colors
Center: {G}{U}
Currently:{W}{U}{B}{R}{G}

Garth (born Galin, nicknamed One-Eye) was a powerful wizard and planeswalker from Kush on Dominaria.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[4]

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.[2]

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.[1]

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

Story appearances[ | ]

Title Author Publishing date Setting (plane) Featuring
Arena William R. Forstchen October 1994 Dominaria Garth, Hammen, Zarel Ewine, Kuthuman, Norreen, Varena, Naru
Shattered Chains Clayton Emery March 1995 Dominaria Gull, Greensleeves, Lily, Rakel, Garth, Hammen, Sabriam, Chaney, Haakon, Stiggur, Bardo, Ordando, Channa, Dacian

In-game references[ | ]

Represented in:

References[ | ]

  1. a b Ethan Fleischer (May 25, 2021). "Garth One-Eye". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. a b Ethan Fleischer (June 10, 2021). "The Returning Legends of Modern Horizons 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. William R. Forstchen (1994). Magic: The Gathering - Arena. Harper Prism.
  4. a b Clayton Emery (1994). Magic: The Gathering - Shattered Chains. Harper Prism.
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