Barrin

Barrin was a legendary Master Wizard, husband of Rayne and the father of Hanna, who possessed an extremely high ability to learn and utilize magic. He aided Urza in the defense of Dominaria from its Phyrexian invaders.

Barrinalo

Barrin was born Barrinalo in the Terisiarian kingdom of Kjeldor during the Ice Age. A minor bureaucrat, Barrinalo worked as a scribe and was called in to record the last words of the dying wizard Pharon. Pharon told Barrinalo to become the most powerful wizard in all of Dominaria and taught him the secret to cast the "Blare of Doom". Following his encounter with Pharon, Barrinalo decided to leave Kjeld for good. As he was leaving, he was ordered to sign out of Kjeld but in doing so, the ink ran and rendered him unable to finish writing his name. Inspired by the coincidence, he adopted the name "Barrin" in recognition of his new life and leaving his old life as a scribe behind.

Urza

Barrin was later contacted by Urza Planeswalker and enlisted to serve as headmaster of a school of wizards, the true goal of which would be to provide the defense of Dominaria during the upcoming Phyrexian Invasion. To achieve that, they founded the Tolarian Academy around 3285 AR.

Tolaria

Barrin and Urza worked on a time machine to prevent the Thran from becoming the Phyrexians. They created a silver probe, later named Karn from the Thran meaning "mighty", and used it to test out the machine. Jhoira unknowingly gave the plans of the machine to the Phyrexian Kerrick, who then attacked Tolaria and destroyed the entire staff. Urza was able to avoid these events by sending Karn back in time just a few days. Karn was successful in stopping Kerrick, but the massive temporal energies caused the Tolarian Temporal Disaster, creating a rift that destroyed the Academy and resulting in the deaths of hundreds of students and faculty. Urza and Barrin were forced to abandon the Academy for a decade while they regrouped.

The Academy Reborn

Urza, Barrin, and Karn later returned to Tolaria and reestablished the Academy with the aid of Jhoira. Urza incorporated Tolaria's unique temporal structure in aiding his research into possible defenses against the Phyrexian Invasion. Unfortunately, Kerrick also survived the disaster and built a self-styled "pocket Phyrexia" in one of the rift's fast-time areas.

Like Jhoira, Barrin used slow water early on to give himself an unnaturally long life and to keep up with his immortal companion.

Defense of the Academy

Five years after re-establishing the Academy, Urza left Tolaria for Yavimaya to persuade the sentient forest into allying with him in the defense of Dominaria. During this time Kerrick started the Invasion of Tolaria, his army of modified Phyrexians rising to the Tolarian overland in increasing frequency. Barrin summoned all of Tolaria's defenses, but it was not enough. Finally, Urza was able to return to the island after Barrin activated an emergency beacon. Urza and his Shivan reinforcements attacked and destroyed Kerrick just as the Academy was on the brink of another destruction.

The Battle of Serra's Realm

To empower the powerstone at the heart of Weatherlight, Urza invaded Serra's Realm. Though he offered to relocate the inhabitants of the plane from their Phyrexian-corrupted home, he was unsuccessful and was forced to invade. During this invasion, Barrin battled the Phyrexian overlord in charge of the Serran government's displacement.

The Bloodlines and Rayne

The Tolarian Academy's focus was later shifted from producing the Legacy to ensuring the success of the Bloodline Project. During this time Barrin fell in love with a Tolarian native named Rayne, who later became the Academy's chancellor. It was not until Barrin and Rayne were wed that Barrin realized that Rayne was selected as his mate by Urza and that the couple's unborn daughter was intended to have a part in the Bloodlines herself.

Hanna

After the completion of the Bloodlines Project, Barrin's role became that of a simple academic as the Legacy artifacts were scattered across Dominaria, Rath, and Mercadia to dissuade Phyrexian attention. Though Barrin hoped his daughter Hanna would follow in his footsteps as an accomplished mage, she opted instead to follow the route of artifice, a route Barrin had become increasingly wary of after his time with Urza. Barrin forbade Hanna from studying the artifacts, resulting in a severe falling-out between father and daughter and Hanna's eventual relocation to New Argive.