Who Is Rajaat? (Dark Sun)

[Leliel]

You know, I've read a lot about Dark Sun on Athas.org, in preparation for the 4E reboot, as well as anecdotal information on wikipedia, but all this seems to exclude a very important detail:

Namely, who the heck is Rajaat!?

I mean, I know who he is (the inventor of defiling magic, too powerful for the champions to kill so they imprisoned him, a pyreen), but I have no idea who he is, backstory and personality-wise (other than that he was, well, a genocidal maniac).

I know what a pyreen is (a creature created by the ancient halflings to oversee life on Athas), but I don't know what caused Rajaat in particular to go "KILL ALL SAPIENT LIFE (except for halflings, I like those)".

So...

Could someone explain who Rajaat was and what turned him into a homicidal cosmic horror?

[Leliel]

It's just a simple question!

I know Dark Sun players are on here, but honestly-no one out of 12 people (as of this post) wants to answer?

[Tiki Snakes]

I'd love to reply, and have now done so.

I still don't know who the hell Rajaat is, though, so you'll have to be patient and wait for one of two things;

The Release of Dark Sun 4e, or the Old Athasian Grognards to roll around, (in their own time.)

In the meantime, perhaps chill out some, and watch with the double posting? ;)

[Zeta Kai]

Well, there's this (http://moa.dracandros.com/Rajaat).

And this (http://www.geocities.com/dregoth_2000/aspaceh.htm).

And this (http://www.darksunwiki.com/darksun/index.php/Main_Page).

In short, Google is your friend. :smallamused:

[LibraryOgre]

Leliel, you waited less than 45 minutes on a Friday night before getting huffy about not getting answers. Now, the stereotype may be that geeks have no social life, but when you posted, a great number of people in the Central Timezone (GMT -6) might have been:

1) At dinner.
2) At a game.
3) On a date.
4) Babysitting for people who do have dates.
5) Playing with their children
6) Putting their children to bed.
7) Going to bed early so they could be at work tomorrow.
8) Going to bed early so they could fish tomorrow.
9) Not yet home from work.

So, chill.

That said, Rajaat is a pyreen. That means he's part of an ancient race of mutant halflings (but, then, all races are mutant halflings). Rajaat, however, was insane, and decided that the other races of the world were unclean, and the world needed to be wiped clean of non-halflings (and non-kreen) to make a return to the Blue Age, when all of Athas was wet. To this end, he recruited a number of people to help lead armies to destroy the other races; he chose humans as his tool for this, because it meant that they would clear out the non-halflings, and could then be manipulated to turn on themselves.

This ploy failed when his true purpose was discovered (apocryphal sources say he was discovered by Hamanu), and his champions turned against him, then imprisoned him in the Hollow, which is beyond the Grey (Athas's necromantic Border Ethereal), and beyond the Black (the source of shadow magic).

Soon after the death of the King of Tyr, Rajaat was released from the Hollow. He killed several of his Champions (now known as Sorcerer-Kings and Queens) before being dissolved into a huge, elemental disturbance known as the Cerulean Storm. This storm is causing violent rainstorms along Athas's east coast. While this is somewhat increasing the water available in the Tyr Region, the storms spun off tend to have the destructive force of hurricanes, and their water quickly evaporates.