The Cleansing Wars, also known as the “Red Age”, was the name of a period in Athasian history marred by a series of prolonged genocidal conflicts that ravaged Athas following the Green Age and the Time of Magic.
History[]
Rajaat, the Warbringer[]
The Cleansing Wars were the culmination of centuries of plotting and scheming on the behalf of Rajaat, the First Sorcerer of Athas, he who had not only discovered magic but also spread it across the then-lush and prosperous world. Rajaat had spent many a King’s Age uncovering the secrets of Athas’ lost past and had come to the conclusion that the Green Age, as well as the people who inhabited it, was a disastrous mistake – one he sought to rectify through bloodshed.
Through his arcane academies, Rajaat amassed a huge following, and across the many years he taught his art, he was constantly surrounded by some of the most potent spellcasters and psionicists of the Green Age. All of his most advanced students were humans, for he had told the world that only humans possessed the potential to become truly great mages. Rajaat’s true reasons for choosing only human students was that he knew them to be incredibly driven and power-hungry, and therefore easily manipulated by a mind such as his.
And then, in the Year of Priest’s Contemplation of the 144th King’s Age, Rajaat abruptly closed all of his schools and sent his students away. That is, apart from the fifteen of his most powerful pupils – those he had groomed into becoming his weapons in the coming conflicts.
The Champions of Rajaat[]
The last fifteen students of Rajaat were dubbed his Champions, and each of them excelled in both the arcane arts as well as in the study of the Way. The First Sorcerer told his Champions of his worldview and what he hoped to achieve – he wanted to return Athas to its Blue Age. To accomplish this, Rajaat told the fifteen, they would have to rid the world of the abominations brought on by the Rebirth. “The only way to return Athas to the glory and harmony of the Blue Age is to wipe out the blight of these monsters from the world!”, he bellowed, and proclaimed that his Champions were to engage in a series of wars that would cleanse Athas. He then explained that he meant to give the cleansed world to the humans, and specifically under the control of the Champions, of course. The Champions took his cause to heart, because of course they believed Rajaat, their gracious master.
Rajaat’s true intentions, however, was to return Athas to its original rulers: the halflings. The Champions were never told this, naturally, and if they ever saw hints of it they dismissed them in favor of their own visions of how the world was going to be. It would take many King’s Ages before they would come to realize the betrayal.
The fifteen Champions would travel alongside their master to the Pristine Tower, an ancient source of power dating back to before the dawn of the Green Age, and there, their ascension would be completed. Then, using the powers inherent in the tower, Rajaat channeled the energies of the sun itself through an item of his own creation which he called the Dark Lens. The energies poured into the Champions and they arose more powerful than any being alive on Athas at that time – apart from Rajaat himself that is. With these new, nearly godlike powers, and following the twisted plans of their master, the Champions set out on their march of destruction.
However, the Champions were not the only thing to change that day, for the ritual that made them true Champions also altered the nature of the sun. The bright yellow star grew dark and crimson in the sky, and its red light would truly be an ill omen of what was to come. Beyond this, Rajaat himself would also change, for on that day, the First Sorcerer became the Warbringer.
The Cleansing Wars[]
The War on Preservers[]
The first battle of the Cleansing Wars raged in the Athasian wilderness some 3,500 years before the Liberation of Tyr. The forests of Athas withered and died as the Champions’ defiling magic ravaged both the land and its people. Those who tried to oppose the Champions were cut down, and it is said that the rivers ran red with blood on that first day of combat.
The first prolonged conflict of the Cleansing Wars stood between the Champions and the preservers of Athas, seeing the insanity that had been set in motion and trying to combat it with the only means they had available to them. One group of preservers were led by Suthera, the most powerful of all Athasian preservers at the time, and despite her immense power they stood no chance, as many fell before the onslaught of the Champions. Suthera ordered her preservers, who up until that point openly tried to disseminate their knowledge among the population of Athas, into hiding. From their hideaways, the preservers would work to educate those willing to learn, and stepped in to protect those in dire need of shelter.
As the preservers went into hiding, and the good deeds of those practicing preserving magic became less noticeable, what remained in public view was the destructive powers of the defilers. This ultimately led to the common people of Athas to fear magic in all its forms, and they cursed Rajaat for the plague he had unleashed upon them. The fear would soon turn to burning anger and violent hysteria, and preservers and defilers alike were targeted by frenzied mobs. This led to many good people dying, including both heroic preservers and people with no magical abilities whatsoever – mere targets of ignorance or malicious lies. This further pushed the preservers to the edge of society, and while they still opposed defilers, and the Champions of Rajaat in particular, they learned to remain hidden. Through this, the way of secrecy among preservers was born, a tradition and survival tactic that survived for millennia, eventually evolving into the organization known as the Veiled Alliance once the Age of the Sorcerer-Kings began.
While Rajaat’s Champions were indeed defilers, not all defilers stood by the side of Rajaat, and some even joined the war on the side of the preservers, often protecting those people or places most dear to them. However, as the preservers scurried away underground, so did the defilers. The defilers rarely fell into forming groups, though, and preferred the road of solitary study.
The Destruction of the Rebirth Races[]
The main goal of the Cleansing Wars had always been, in Rajaat’s twisted mind, the obliteration of all people born of the Rebirth. To emphasize this, Rajaat tasked each of his Champions with the destruction of one race in particular and dubbed them with titles befitting their mission: Sacha of Arala became the “Curse of Kobolds”; the 2nd Champion, Kalak, became the “Ogre Doom”; Dregoth was dubbed the “Ravager of Giants”; Myron of Yorum was titled “Troll Scorcher”; Uyness of Waverly, the 5th Champion, would be known as the “Orc Plague”; Gallard became the “Bane of Gnomes”; Sielba, the “Destroyer of Pterrans”; Albeorn was assigned the role of “Slayer of Elves”; Tectuktitlay gained the title “Wemic Annihilator”; Keltis would go on to be known as the “Lizard Man Executioner”; Lalali-Puy became the “Aarakocra Scourge”; Wyan of Bodach gained the title the “Pixie Blight”; the 13th Champion, Borys of Ebe was hailed as the “Butcher of Dwarves”; Daskinor was knighted “Goblin Death”; and, finally, Kalid-Ma took on the mantle of “Tari Killer”.
From this point on, the war was waged almost exclusively against those races targeted by the Champions, and while some would live on, some would teeter at the edge of extinction, and others would vanish from the surface of Athas altogether. Only the halflings, and to some extent the humans, were spared the utmost ravages of the Champions, the former due to Rajaat’s intentions of returning the world to them, and the latter as a result of the lies the Warbringer told his Champions. Additionally, among the first to come to the world’s defense were the pyreen, Rajaat’s own people, who also hadn’t been marked for execution. Why this was is unknown, but that mattered little for they too fell to the Warbringer’s dark powers. Despite their failure, the pyreen lived on, and continued their fight against evil in less obvious ways. The rumors and legends of their goodwill and their quest for new ways to overcome the damage done by Rajaat and his Champions garnered the mysterious pyreen the moniker “Peace-Bringers”, a legacy that stood well into the 190th King’s Age.
The first to succeed in his genocidal war was Sacha, Curse of Kobolds in the 147th King’s Age. It would take an additional 8 King’s Ages before Daskinor, the Goblin Death, and Wyan, the Pixie Blight, would complete their tasks. The last orcs, killed by Uyness of Waverly, met their ends in the 156th King’s Age. Kalak would end the last ogre, and Gallard would destroy the last gnome on Athas in the 160th King’s Age, and Tectuctitlay laid waste to the last remaining wemics in the 162nd King’s Age.
Then, in the year of King’s Vengeance of the 163rd King’s Age Myron of Yorum was ousted from his position as Champion and Troll Scorcer, in his stead stepped Manu of Deche who would eradicate the last troll, Windreaver, some 80 years later.
Dregoth, Sielba, Albeorn, Lalali-Puy, and Kalid-Ma would all be unsuccessful in their attempts at destroying their assigned race, some more overtly than others. Keltis, in his search for the lizard men of Athas, would also fail, but not through any fault of his own. Several large tribes of lizard men had been living under the protection of the Mind Lords of the northern city Saragar, shielding their existence from the Champion.
The final Champion, Borys of Ebe, would inch close to his ultimate goal, but as he stood at the cusp of victory, other matters arose that required his immediate attention.
The Betrayal of Rajaat[]
Fifteen centuries of warfare had passed since the first blood was shed in the Cleansing Wars. Many of the non-human races had been destroyed and the Champions stood at the verge of victory. The last great battle of the war stood between Borys, the 13th Champion, and the dwarves of Kemalok, under the rule of king Rkard. During the siege of Kemalok, Borys and Rkard both managed to grievously wound the other, and while the dwarven king died – with Borys’ sword buried in his chest – Borys was spirited away by his most trusted lieutenants. It was while recovering from this near-fatal wound that Manu appeared, having learned of Rajaat’s true plans for Athas. In a rage, Borys gathered the other Champions and returned to the Pristine Tower, where the elder Warbringer still waited for news of their victory. In retrospect, the Champions had always known that their master was mad, and this was the time to end the madness.
Rajaat would greet his Champions upon their return, his hair gray with age and his eyes burning bright white in eager anticipation, but what he faced was an open rebellion. The Champions, led by Borys of Ebe, attacked their former master, fueled by hatred and contempt for the aged sorcerer. Despite his power, and even though Sacha and Wyan weren’t among the betrayers, Rajaat could not stand against the combined efforts of the other Champions. However, it was made clear that the Champions couldn't destroy the First Sorcerer, he was still too powerful, even in defeat. Instead, Gallard, the 6th Champion, devised a plan that split Rajaat's essence from his physical body. Aided by the same Dark Lens that had turned them into Champions in the first place, Gallard forged two magical prisons where Rajaat's two halves could be imprisoned. The Warbringer’s essence was sealed within the deepest reaches of the Black, which was dubbed "the Hollow", and several of his halfling servants were also banished to the Black as punishment for standing by Rajaat. Rajaat’s physical remains were then encased in a tomb of dark stone, the Black Sphere.
The Champions decide to hide the Black Sphere in a place unknown to all but Gallard and Borys, however Sacha and Wyan, still loyal to the Warbringer, attempt to breach it before its hidden away. For their treachery, Borys beheads them, but Kalak steals their heads away and keep them in a state of undeath to serve as his advisers over the coming two millennia.
As their victory was assured, the Champions gathered around Borys who used the Dark Lens once more to reward them for their deeds. This process links each of them to living vortices on the Elemental Planes, enhancing their powers even further and beginning their transformation into true dragons. Even with these new powers, they realize that they will be unable to hold Rajaat sealed away indefinitely, no matter how many wards they place on his tombs and the gateways between realms. The only solution was for one of them to assume the role of Rajaat’s warden, a role that befell Borys. By using the Dark Lens one final time, the Champions poured enough energy into Borys to instantly transform him into a full-fledged dragon – and so, the Dragon of Tyr was born.
Borys’ transformation had one unforeseen consequence, though, as the metamorphosis caused him to lose his mind. In his mindless rage, the Dragon lashed out at any and all that faced him, and a century of unbridled chaos began. In this turmoil, as the Champions scrambled to save themselves, the Dark Lens were stolen away by two dwarven knights named Jor’osh and Sa’ram. Realizing the havoc that was about the be brought upon Athas by Borys, the remaining Champions each claimed a city as their own and barricaded it from the rampaging Dragon. As the Champions took the thrones of Athas’ greatest cities the Cleansing Wars came to an end. While the world that had seen the beginning of the onslaught had been lush and green, what remained were desert wastes, stony barrens, and lifeless salt flats. Where once had been green, growing forests and blue seas now lay dire fens and an endless sea of silt. The killing had ended, but the slavery was about to begin – as was the Age of the Sorcerer-Kings.
Sources[]
- Beyond the Prism Pentad. Bill Slavicsek. TSR, Inc. 1995.
- Dark Sun Campaign Setting. Richard Baker, Ari Marmell, Chris Sims. Wizards of the Coast, 2010.
- Dark Sun Campaign Setting: Expanded and Revised. Bill Slavicsek, and Dale Donovan. TSR, Inc. 1995.
- Defilers and Preservers: The Wizards of Athas. Nicky Rea. TSR, Inc. 1996.
- Psionic Artifacts of Athas. Kevin Melka, and Bruce Nesmith. TSR, Inc. 1996.
- Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs. Monte Cook. TSR, Inc. 1995.
- Timeline of Athas. www.athas.org