Rajaat
Rajaat is the Big Bad Evil Guy of the Dark Sun setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Filling the role of "ancient evil who fucked everything up", he is essentially the Athasian equivalent of Morgoth.
Rajaat is a Pyreen from the Green Age of Athas. Possessed of an elemental connection to water, he was a total emolord who absolutely hated the Rebirth - the transformation of most of the rhulisti into various demihuman races, including his own. He became obsessed with the idea of wiping them all out and restoring the Blue Age of Athas. As part of his experiments, he learned methods for tapping into the very life force of Athas and manipulating it to create effects different to the psionics that had dominated Athas until that time; he had created Magic. Although he publicly spread the arts of Preserver Magic, he secretly kept the arts of Defiling to himself, teaching them only to a few - most notably, a group of 15 humans who agreed to become his Champions.
When he was ready, Rajaat empowered his Champions through the combined power of the Dark Lens and the Pristine Tower, rendering them eternal and enhancing their powers before unleashing them in the Cleansing Wars, a genocidal campaign against all demihuman races, which has since been regarded as kind of a dick move.
This centuries-long campaign scorched most of the planet, rendering it the barren wasteland it is today, before the Champions realized that Rajaat was simply using them and would end up wiping out humanity in favor of the rhulisti once the non-humans were gone. At this they turned on him, ripping his soul from his body and imprisoning the former in The Hollow (a distant, lifeless netherworld) and the latter within a mighty artefact called the Black Sphere. One Champion, Borys, manipulated the others into supporting him in a ritual to become an even-more powerful creature that he could better guard against Rajaat's return, which is how he became the first Athasian Dragon; The Dragon of Tyr. After that, the remaining Champions retired to become the Sorcerer-Kings of the Tablelands. The champions handled the truth in different ways some went insane from despair, some embraced their heroic delusions declaring themselves living gods, two others fully embraced rajaat's genocidal plan and had their heads chopped off and very few repented.
During the events of the Prism Pentad novels, Rajaat was temporarily freed, during which he banished Andropinus to The Black (Dark Sun's afterlife) and slew Tectuktitlay, before having his body destroyed and his soul banished once again. A side-effect of his temporary escape was the creation of the Cerulean Storm, a massive, free-roaming, elementally fueled storm that is slowly restoring water to Athas, but causing great destruction in its wake.
The Champions of Rajaat[edit]
- 1st Champion of Rajaat - Sacha of Arala "Curse of the Kobolds"
- 2nd Champion of Rajaat- Kalak "Ogre Doom"
- 3rd Champion of Rajaat- Dregoth "Ravager of Giants"
- 4th Champion of Rajaat- Manu (Hamanu) of Deche "Troll Scorcher"
- 5th Champion of Rajaat- Uyness (Abalach-Re) of Waverly "Orc Plague"
- 6th Champion of Rajaat- Gallard (Nibenay) "Bane of Gnomes"
- 7th Champion of Rajaat- Sielba "Destroyer of Pterrans"
- 8th Champion of Rajaat- Albeorn (Andropinis) of Brunswich "Slayer of Elves"
- 9th Champion of Rajaat- Tectuktitlay "Wemic Annihilator"
- 10th Champion of Rajaat- Keltis (Oronis) "Lizard Man Executioner"
- 11th Champion of Rajaat- Inenek (Lalali-Puy) "Aarakocra Scourge"
- 12th Champion of Rajaat- Wyan of Bodach "Pixie Blight"
- 13th Champion of Rajaat- Borys of Ebe "Butcher of Dwarves" (Dragon of Tyr)
- 14th Champion of Rajaat- Daskinor "Goblin Death"
- 15th Champion of Rajaat- Kalid-Ma "Tari Killer"