General Karn

"This grub, my army threw all we had at him. They called him Karn."

- Garron Paduk describing Karn General Karn is a major antagonist of the Gears of War series serving as the main antagonist of Gears of War: Judgment. He's a vicious and ruthless field commander of the Locust Horde who served as one of the Locust's first commanders during the early days of the Locust War. He was the orchestrator of Emergence Day and was personally responsible for destroying the Republic of Gorasnaya and Havlo Bay as well as the deaths of millions of humans.

Early Days
Karn was born in the Hollows as a malformed member of the Theron Guard and was generally considered to be an outcast. Young and feeble, he spent much of his early days exploring the Hollows and came across an injured beast during his trips. It suffered a broken leg and he ended up nursing it back to health and nammed it Shibboleth forming a relationship with the beast and fashioned it a brand new leg. Karn eventually rose through the ranks of the Locust Horde and rose to become a military leader through intelligence instead of combat and would later plan and orchestrate Emergence Day, the Locust's initial assault against humanity.

Destroying Gorasnaya
Following the outbreak of the Locust War with Emergence Day, Karn was one of the first Locust to lead the horde into battle against the forces of humanity. One of his first campaigns was in the Republic of Gorasnaya where he persoanlly lead an assault against the small nation where he decimated the Gorasni population killing millions. Garron Paduk fought against Karn alongside the Gorasni army and it's where Karn got his name from.

Methodical Destruction
Siz weeks after E-Day, Karn lead an invasion of Tyrus, the leading member state of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, where it was home to Havlo Bay Military Academy. Karn personally lead the Locust offensive against the city and saught to destroy the academy and all coalition forces in the city. He first targeted the academy and he killed every single cadet in the academy and personally killed Spc. Alexieff, the last Gear defending the academy. After destroying the academy, Karn turned his attention to the Museum of Military Glory and commanded the Locust forces to attack and destroy the musuem and that's where he ended up killing countless Gear soldiers and even the elite Onyx Guard units who were defending the museum having killed the entire Black-Four unit and even crushed them with his Shibboleth beast. He then had Seeders deployed and used them to cut off the COG's communication and overran much of the city.

Return to the Musuem
After the Seeders were destroyed by Omega-Two, Karn ended up returning to the Museum of Military Glory which was under Locust control by the time he returned to the site. He returned to personally kill the Gear soldiers that destroyed his Seeders but knew of another Gear squad that was in the wharf district and sent some of his best forces to deal with them while he planned on facing Omega-Two. While marsheling his soldiers that were at the musuem, Karn was hit by a Lightmass Missile that was launched at his position by Kilo Squad but, Karn survivied and sent his forces to elimate Kilo Squad for good.

Final Stand and Death
Karn and his forces eventually made it to the courthouse where Kilo Squad was being held at for a trial and lead an assault to destroy the courthouse and kill all of the Gears that were present. While Locust Drones assaulted the Gears inside the courthouse in a frontal assault, Karn emerged from underground on the Shibboleth and destroyed a King Raven while killing five Gears int he Plaza for the Tyran Dead. There, Karn personally attacked Kilo Squad and Colonel Ezra Loomis using the chaingun on Shibboleth. After the chaingun was destroyed, he instead launched incendiary grenades at the squad and tried to trample them with his beast. Despite his best efforts, Shibboleth was eventually killed and Karn found himself critically wounded and left bleeding on the ground. Padduk was about to take his time torturing Karn for revenge but was stopped by Sofia Henrik who said that there was a difference between war and cruelty but was interrupted with Col Loomis shot Karn dead stating that war wa cruelty thus, ending Karn's reing of terror.

Aftermath and Legacy
After Karn was killed, the Locust forces refused to retreat and instead pushed forward in their quest to destroy Havlo Bay. Colonel Loomis, Karn's killer, had regrouped with some Gear soldiers and made his last stand where he and his men were all killed thus, avenging Karn. Havlo Bay was eventually destroyed and the majority of COG forces were all dead. Karn was eventually succeeded by General RAAM who continued Karn's goal and lead the Locust Horde in their war against humanity.