God Wars¶
"Many Gods also were committed to the endless sleep during this time, including Kalar." — History of Terrun (S386)
The God Wars were the long struggle between the two factions of the Einar, the Kalari and the Izhtarus, for the Astral Shards left by the broken Throne of Law. The newest history dates them from 1005 to 1611 MA, in the Age of Magic. In six centuries of fighting the Izhtarus gathered shard after shard, many gods went to the endless sleep, among them Kalar himself, and the Primal Dragons became gods and then died for it.
Also called: the War of the Gods (S372, S384, S429). Not to be confused with the Godswar of the Age of the Dark Sun, a later contest over Kalar's unguarded shards begun by the Dark Gods.
Background¶
The Einar had split in the Age of Demons. Kalar's faction broke the Throne of Law and forged the Worldstone; a group among the gods wanted "to restore the Throne of Law and undo the changes brought about by Kalar," and the Einar divided into Kalari and Izhtarus, after Izhtari, who had held the Throne (S386). Their war "was primarily played out among their mortal followers and pawns," and the greatest prizes were the Primal Dragons, which the Izhtarus recruited by granting them Ascendancy. Those rivalries fed the First Dragon Wars and, after the Shattering, the Second Dragon War.
The war¶
The God Wars "saw the death of the last Primal Dragon still loyal to the Kalari" (S386). For several hundred years the Izhtarus "seemed to have the upper hand," and "one by one, Astral Shards fell into their hands." Many gods were committed to the endless sleep, Kalar among them. The older gods-lore says the same in fewer words: "In the War of the Gods, Kalar was killed and is now a sleeping god" (S372), or in another version "was banished from all planes of Terrun" (S429). He "still possesses great influence over his creations, as well as among those Einar that remain loyal to him and seek a path for his return."
Then the dragons turned. Several Primal Dragons, including Pravustiratel, "became the first non-Einar to possess Astral Shards." Having become gods themselves, "these dragons no longer saw benefit in their relationship with the Izhtarus, especially since it implied giving away their power." Their betrayal brought bitter fighting "and the end of the Primal Dragons" (S386). Pravustiratel "was himself killed in his lair, which had been the great Dwarven capital Kuhn'Darahl," the city he had taken in the Second Dragon War.
Gap
The sources give no battles, no named Einar besides Kalar, and no account of how the sleeping gods were brought down. Which Primal Dragons took shards, and which Izhtarus were among the dead, is not recorded.
Aftermath¶
The war left the Kalari diminished and their chief asleep. The pantheon's later history, the Dreamers and the Dead Gods, is Religion's; its consequences for Terrun's history are that the Astral Shards passed in large part to the Izhtarus and to dragons, and that the Primal Dragons were, by the newest account, finished as a power in the Age of Magic.
Pravustiratel's death was not the end of Pravustiratel. The dreams of Inwe show him alive and allied with the red Primal Vixseranyol in the period after the Dark Sun, "an impossibly larger dragon ... black as night and leaving a smoking trail of shadows" (S031), and the Fifth Age lore of the Divine has him make a secret pact with Sharuvas after the world believed him "betrayed and killed by the Dark Gods" (S112). Dead Primal Dragons "regenerate eventually," their spirits "potent" and impossible to destroy (S031). The sources do not say when he returned; see his page.
Earlier accounts¶
The 2014 Compendium (S372, S384) and the 2019 gods-overview (S429) do not know a God War in the Age of Magic. They kill Pravustiratel at the end of their Dragon Wars, "in the ruins of the Dwarven capitol Dunar'Emaza," and date the War of the Gods, in which Kalar fell, to the very beginning of time, in an Age of Illumination before the Age of Titans (S429). The newest history (S386) is followed here: Kalar's sleep and Pravustiratel's death belong to the God Wars of 1005-1611 MA.
A superseded early draft of the histories counted this war as the Fourth God War, 1205-2311 MA, with a Third God War before it; the numbering is recorded in the manifest flags for S386 and not used here, and the Timeline keeps both date ranges.