The powers that be have tried to fix the soldiers-are-not-a-race a number of times. One of the more successful attempts is the kor, a slender, agile, pointy-eared race with pale blue skin, white hair, and a strong sense of wanderlust.
Many roam the plains of Zendikar and Dominaria, driven to explore (or as they prefer to call it, returning to lands forgotten). They are excellent rockclimbers, skilled in the use of hooks and ropes. They are also considered to be excellent blacksmiths, though their methods of forging weapons are unusual.So are thier choices of weapons - they are as likely to fight with their rock climbing gear as they are with swords. A kor wielding hooks and rope in battle is surprisingly effective.
For many years, Wizards of the Coast teased us with the existence of a kor planeswalker known only as 'The Lithomancer'. She had joined with Ugin and Sorin Markov in imprisoning the Eldrazi (a race of incomprehensible extradiminsional Cthulu-like tentacle monsters) on the plane of Zendikar, and was responsible for the vast networks of 'hedrons' that were spread across that world. These hedron networks kept the Eldrazi docile by siphoning off their energy and releasing it in bursts of wild magic that became known as 'the roil'.
For many years it was assumed that the Lithomancer was long dead. The Eldrazi had been imprisoned thousands of years ago, and the Lithomancer was a kor. Sorin and Ugin were still around, but that was because vampires are immortal and dragons live for a very, very long time. We didn't think that she would ever actually appear, and the Stoneforge Mystics inspired by her were the closest we were going to get.
Then in Commander 2014, the white Commanderwalker was revealed to be the Lithomancer - and her name was Nahiri.
Naturally many people were upset that it wasn't Serra. Wizards had built the Commanderwalkers around concepts first, and only assigned them to actual planeswalkers after they were already designed. The white Commanderwalker was 'equipment matters', and that is very much not what Serra did. And with the kor ties to equipment, Nahiri was the obvious choice. (Though, they probably should have done a better job of managing expectations, after revealing Teferi, of course everyone would think Serra was coming.)
I like kor. Plus, she's left-handed, so I wasn't too dissapointed with getting her instead of Serra. (Plus, they were giving me Freyalise. Did I mention I like Freyalise?) The thing that struck me the most about Nahiri, however, was that her expression in the artwork was somewhat disdainful. I chalked it up to oldwalkers generally being so powerful as to be somewhat detached from reality, and often no longer understanding mortals very well.
We still thought Nahiri was probably dead. Commander 2014 was a bit 'blast from the past', including Freyalise (who was dead) and Teferi (who had been depowered). But then the online Uncharted Realms stories started telling us a bit more about her. Apparently, she wasn't dead. She had become the warden of the Eldrazi's prison, using lithomancy (about which we still know very little) to somehow seal herself in rock, going into a deep meditation. Think of it like cryogenic suspension, except with stone instead of cold.
We also started to see some hints that Nahiri wasn't entirely stable. Maybe she had always been like that. Maybe being the warden of incomprehensible beings for so long had unhinged her mind a little.
And then (about 1000 years ago) the Eldrazi cracked their prison open, thousands of brood lineage swarming across Zendikar. Many of Zendikar's people, especially the angels, fell in battle. The famous floating Cathedral of Emeria was destroyed, leaving what is now called the Sky-Ruins. As penance for their failure, the angels of Zendikar would forever wear their halos over their eyes.
Nahiri took a while to come out of stasis, but when she did, she set off a signal to call Sorin and Ugin, and then set about dispatching the broods and strengthening the hedrons to ensure this would not happen again. Sorin and Ugin, however did not show up, despite former promises. So Nahiri went off in search of them.
We know now that, at the time Ugin was dead, having been killed by Nicol Bolas. (Hes alive again now, due to some convenient but nonsensical time travel.) Sorin, on the other hand, was busy safeguarding his home plane of Innistrad, creating the archangel Avacyn and the silver Helvault prison, and erecting some sort of magical barrier. This inadvertently blocked the signal from reaching him.
When Nahiri arrived to speak to him however, he was...less than sympathetic, telling her to go pester Ugin. Their conversation also revealed that Sorin had been a mentor to Nahiri, teaching and aiding her while she was still a young, new planeswalker. Sorin's seeming indifference now greatly upset her. To make matters worse, Avacyn detected Nahiri as an extraplanar threat, and attacked her. Stoneforged blade met moonsilver spear, but Nahiri was more than a match for the angel, forcing Sorin to come to Avacyn's rescue.
What happened between that moment and the present is still uncertain. A thousand years is a pretty long time. The prevailing theory is that Sorin imprisoned Nahiri in the Helvault and she was let out when Liliana Vess destroyed it. (Though, that theory has a few problems - in the Teeth of Akoum novel Sorin seemed surprised she was not on Zendikar).
Regardless, Nahiri is back, and she's not happy at all. Her stone 'crypoliths' are strewn across most of Innistrad, twisting the magic of the land in a eerily similar way to how the hedrons diverted Zendikar's leylines to construct a magical prison. She single-handedly killed the entire Markov bloodline by petrifying them and then imprisoning their stone forms half-inside the walls of their manor, before warping the manor in a way reminiscent of Zedikar's floating landscapes. And now she is called the Harbinger.
I leave you with one final question: Nahiri, the Harbinger of what?
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