Sarkhan Vol

Lore & Background

Sarkhan Vol is a planeswalker from Tarkir, first introduced in Shards of Alara. At the beginning of the Khans of Tarkir set, he returns to Tarkir and learns that the extinction of Tarkir's dragons was linked to a battle between Nicol Bolas and Ugin the Spirit Dragon some thousand years ago. Both Sarkhan and Sorin Markov arrive on Tarkir, the last known location of Ugin, in search of his help. He finds a world where the five human clans do not fight each other, instead fending off constant attacks from Tarkir's many dragons.

In the past, Sarkhan makes his first friend, Yasova Dragonclaw, the Temur Frontier leader who dreams of a world where humans are no longer prey to dragons. Sarkhan is successful at preventing Ugin's death, though Ugin is forced to retreat into a hibernative state to recuperate. Satisfied, Sarkhan travels back into the "present day." But the Tarkir he finds, as chronicled in Dragons of Tarkir, is drastically changed: dragons are no longer extinct, and the five god-dragons worshiped by the clans are now the leaders of those clans.

Sarkhan learns that he is the only person who remembers the version of Tarkir where he himself was born, and consultation with both Ugin and Narset reveals that, in this continuity, no Sarkhan Vol ever was born. Though both he and Narset are capable of planeswalking anywhere else in the multiverse, both decide to remain on Tarkir.