One occasion eternally modified Krynn, killing untold hundreds, and driving folks away from worshipping the gods. That occasion? The Cataclysm.

What may make the folks flip their again on the gods? The folks of Krynn know the reply effectively. It got here to them one fire-streaked day 300 years earlier than anybody had ever heard the phrase Dragonlance. The Cataclysm, because it got here to be recognized, redefined life on Krynn. So a lot in order that the calendar in present use was modified to revolve across the Cataclysm. Events are measured in years PC in the event that they’re pre-Cataclysm, or AC if they arrive after.

But what was the Cataclysm? How did it come to be, and why did they flip their backs on the gods afterward? The reply to all of it could possibly be discovered throughout the Holy Empire of Istar.

The Kingpriest Who Damned A World

The Holy Empire of Istar was one of many biggest empires on all of Krynn. With borders that stretched throughout continents, encompassing deserts, hills, forests, grasslands, and jungle. It spanned a whole bunch of years, after which round 280 PC, an the final emperor, Vemior, was overthrown from energy by Symeon I, a person who would take the title of Kingpriest and declare Istar the ethical heart of the world.

Since Symeon, each Kingpriest was ostensibly a virtuous bastion of the religion. Most had been Clerics or monks of Paladine, the platinum dragon god of fine. Each Kingpriest wielded the facility of each church and state. There had been twenty-one all in all, however solely the final one, a person named Beldina Pilofiro would result in the disastrous occasions of the Cataclysm.

Beldinas Pilofiro was a Kingpriest of ambition. And well-earned. He was broadly held to be probably the most highly effective Kingpriest to ever rise to energy within the Holy Empire of Istar. He was a person who grew up orphaned on the streets, and was aware of the injury evil may do to widespread folks.

And maybe that was why a deep hatred for evil burned in his coronary heart. So when he took the throne, Kingpriest Beldinas declared conflict in opposition to all types of evil on the earth. A declaration that was rapidly adopted by the creation of an order of knights meant to battle evil.

Visions of Evil

Kingpriest Beldinas Pilofiro took energy in 40 PC. By the 12 months 19 PC, the Holy Empire of Istar was embroiled in a number of conflicts, often called the Lost Battles the place they fought with the Wizards of High Sorcery. And by 15 PC he had declared that slavery was allowed, however provided that the enslaved had been anybody of evil or impartial faiths, which rapidly expanded to incorporate heretics of any stripe.

By the 12 months 3 PC, Beldinas was satisfied of his ethical fortitude. He wielded highly effective magics and was clearly touched by the divine. But he noticed evil in every single place. If folks weren’t for him, they had been in opposition to him. And Istar’s conflict branched out to incorporate even the gods of fine. Eventually Istar’s personal folks rose as much as try to depose Beldinas, however their plot was defeated. And Beldinas realized that the folks round him had been nought however obstacles. What he wanted was to demand godhood from the gods themselves.

He believed that Paladine had solely agreed to stability as a result of the platinum dragon wasn’t robust sufficient to destroy evil. But with the Kingpriest as his proper hand, certainly evil can be eradicated eternally.

With his thoughts made up, the gods despatched warnings. Many Warnings.

Unheeded Warnings

In the 13 days main as much as the Cataclysm, the gods despatched warnings to the Kingpriest and his fanatical followers. During the primary night time, often called the Night of Doom, the true Clerics left the land for the realms of the gods past. The second warning noticed a whirlwind destroy the tower of the Temple of the Kingpriest devoted to Kiri-Jolith.

For the third warning, darkish fog unfold and settled throughout the kender realms, breaking their spirits. And throughout a full night time eclipse, Nuitari obscured each Solinari and Lunitari.

Meanwhile the dwarves of Thorbardin had been hunted by an historical beast of darkness. And in Solamnia, no fires would burn—although in Abanansinia, fires unfold destroying every little thing.

And in Dargaard Keep, Lord Loren Soth took up arms in opposition to the Knights of Solamnia. While Palanthas noticed the seas develop nonetheless and a sizzling mist engulfed the isle. And because the Cataclysm grew nearer, the timber within the forests close to Istar wept blood for days. And the forest animals close to Qualinesti turned bloodthirsty. While all throughout the northern cities, fish disappeared and the water turned crimson. And eventually, dormant volcanoes turned energetic once more.

But the Kingpriest, totally satisfied of his personal infallible reality, believed these to be the efforts of evil gods. And so, he started his rituals and made his petition, demanding godhood from the gods. For his conceitedness, the gods punished Krynn.

Cataclysm

As the Kingpriest made his demand, the gods answered. A fiery mountain struck Istar, driving the town and all of the land round it deep into the bottom. The sea roared in to reclaim the house. And thick, crimson soil churned up within the wake of the devastation, giving the water a reddish tint. This turned often called the Blood Sea of Istar. Where the Temple of the Kingpriest as soon as stood, a perpetual, large whirlpool shaped.

But the destruction of the Cataclysm was not restricted to Istar. Across the continent, the Kingdom of Ergoth was damaged from the mainland and cut up in two. Water flooded inland creating the Newsea. The metropolis of Caergoth, an inland farming city, turned beachfront property. But within the south, the port metropolis of Tarsis discovered itself landlocked because the seas withdrew.

Across Krynn entire nations had been destroyed. Falthana and Seldjuk fell. The Kingdom of Icereach was destroyed, buried below snow and ice. On Taladas, the place the Cataclysm is called the Great Destruction, the middle of the continent was struck a fair higher blow, destroying the Empire of Aurim and sending ash and gasoline clouds erupting into the air.

No nation on the earth escaped being touched by the Cataclysm. And the had been gods silent. Peoples’ pleas for help and mercy went unanswered. And so, for one man’s burning ambition, the world suffered. Thus did the folks of Krynn flip their backs on the gods for greater than 300 years.

To at the present time, the gods are nonetheless barely spoken of.

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and now and again eats sandwiches. You can ask him about both at [email protected]

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