Age of the Dark Sun¶
Contested
This page is named in the open questions Kalar dead or sleeping after the Dark Sun and Is the Age of Magic the Fourth Age?. The account below follows the newest source on each point.
"Kalar's death results in the darkening and corruption of the sun, which becomes a beacon of suffering, corruption, decay and madness." — Gods & Astral Domains (S420)
The Age of the Dark Sun is the cataclysm that separates the old world from the Fifth Age. It began when the Dark Gods found a way to strip the sleeping Kalar of his Astral Shards and the gods fell to fighting over them, the Godswar. It turned on the Death of Kalar, which darkened the sun, and on the sacrifice of his brother Orandos, who empowered the moon and scattered the light into the Scions of Light. It emptied the world: the first census of the age that followed counts "approximately 35,000" humanoid survivors (S326). It ended at 0 SM, when "the Lady of the Morning restores the Sun" (S132). The 2026 cosmology says it closed the Fourth Age (S001); the 2016 notes on Anariel call it the War of the Dark Sun (S422). Fifth Age writers date things simply as "pre-Dark Sun".
The Godswar¶
The Godswar was "started by the Dark Gods. Necatus discovered a way to transfer sharding away from the sleeping god Kalar. Like a floodgate, this has begun a contest between the gods who are now almost universally fighting over the unguarded shards of Kalar." It split the Kalari "between those intent upon defending Kalar's shards, and those that feel Kalar's fall is inevitable and taking from Kalar ensures that the gods with Kalar's goals end up with the most control of his power" (S420).
Kalar was already asleep when the war began. The 2020 history records that "many Gods also were committed to the endless sleep during this time, including Kalar", in the God Wars of the Age of Magic (S386), and the dreams of Inwe show the Kalari ascendants still speaking of "the god-sleep" and of acting "while Kalar still sleeps" (S031).
The Death of Kalar¶
"A pivotal event, Kalar's death, results in the darkening and corruption of the sun, which becomes a beacon of suffering, corruption, decay and madness. Orandos, brother to Kalar and Lord of Light failed in a last ditch effort to save and protect his brother, whom he had been sheltering. With his brother fallen, his own power is greatly weakened and senses his own imminent destruction." To stop "the cannibalization of all of Kalar's power", Orandos "sacrifices himself in a last ditch effort to empower the moon, increasing its radiance, and to split his shard and Kalar's to avoid the Dark Gods getting hold of it. He distributes these widely to those he has dominion over (his followers and Ascendants) so that they might bring some measure of light to the living and also in the hope that they will be able to piece them together again before the Dark Gods do. These become the Scions of Light" (S420).
With both gods gone and the shards of light "split into thousands of fragments, light sources become extremely faint and provide 1/10th of their previous luminosity. It is clear that the very source of light is at risk. The exception is in the proximity of a scion of light, where the light remains strong and powerful. The scions of light become bastions of hope and survival for the population. Without them, all would surely be lost" (S420).
The older notes on Anariel give the aftermath among the gods: she became "heir to the throne of Light after the War of the Dark Sun in which Kalar (Creator and Sun God) and Orandos (God of Light) perished", holding "about 30% of Kalar and Orandos's combined astral shards. The remainder of their shards were split among the Kalari, Rakkari and Necatus" (S422). The Sancturi-era notes add that Anariel "gave up dominion of the Sun so that no one can control it", and that the Dark Gods "have propped up a pretender Sun God hoping to wrest control" (S132).
The world unmade¶
The cosmology counts the consequences beyond the sun. "The uncontested rule of the Elemental Aspects ended during the Age of the Dark Sun and a subsequent release of many other Primordials. Conflicts are now common across the Elemental Planes as a new balance of power is being established. It is also rumored that a portion at the center of the Elemental Plane has reverted into a raw maelstrom of energies: a new Elemental Chaos" (S001). The Mithis Plane, the barrier between the Abyss and the Material, "began to significantly decay shortly after the Age of the Dark Sun" (S001). "After the events of the Dark Sun and the death of Kalar, Mithis became a corrupted substance controlled primarily by the Archdemon Asmodeus" (S208); the process by which it did so is the Hollowing, and its end is the Rift.
On the ground the age was "the mass extinction event" (S132). The kingdoms of the Isle of Danar, Pesh among them, "were utterly destroyed during the age of the Dark Sun. However, their legacy of abundant magic lives on in the countless Hollows that dot the ruined landscape" (S324). "When the Valnyr Wardens fell during the Age of the Dark Sun, Amarin was overwhelmed by demons pouring from abyssal rifts. Somehow those rifts were closed again" (S324). The kingdom of Thrace survived at "only a fraction of its size before the Dark Sun, but their King proudly claims that the line of succession is unbroken, which makes them the only known regal dynasty to have survived the Age of the Dark Sun" (S324). In the dark, "ancient creatures" took refuge in the Kilmarn temple complex, among them a lesser vampire bat that "has been hibernating for centuries" (S163, S164). Red dragons spent "the period after the Dark Sun" rebuilding their brood under Vixseranyol, who in alliance with Pravustiratel "overran and conquered much of central Astia including what remained of the Free Cities" (S031, S071).
The survivors remembered the age in small things. The castle at Hirai in Dalmar "predates the age of the dark sun" (S315); the statue of King Ullric Tugard in Pemeril's Temple Park shows a dragonslayer with a two-handed hammer, "pre-dark sun" (S184); and Sancturi-era merchants still reckon a bronze bit as "equivalent to a copper coinage in pre-Dark Sun times" (S320). The founding of Sanctorum two years after the Sun's return is where the record of the Fifth Age begins; "survivors of the Age of the Dark Sun universally rejoice in the return of the Sun" (S326).
Earlier accounts¶
The 2022 cosmology (S013) placed the destruction of the Mithis Plane inside the age itself: "during the Age of the Dark Sun, the Mithis Plane was destroyed and in its place, the Astral Folds formed (The Rift)", and said the barrier "completely disintegrated shortly after the Age of the Dark Sun". The 2026 revision (S001) replaces this with a slow decay through a five-hundred-year Hollowing Period, with the Rift "a 5th age phenomenon". The 2023 dreams of Inwe (S031, S071) have Kalar asleep rather than dead during the Hollowing, with his ascendant Aion still "steward" of his domain; the 2026 notes on the Astral Domains (S420) make his death the cause of the darkened sun. Both are kept here pending a ruling.
Gap
No source gives the age a length, a starting date in the MA calendar, or an account of how the Lady of the Morning restored the Sun. None names the pretender Sun God, and none says what became of the Scions of Light after the Morning.