Pravustiratel¶
Contested
This page is named in the open question Pravustiratel's death and the Cult of the Dragon. The 2023 Post-Sancturi Lore deliberately reverses the 2018 account of his death at the Dark Gods' hands; the page gives both.
"Everyone thinks Pravustiratel was betrayed and killed by the Dark Gods … when in fact he made a secret pact with Sharuvas and is now the Chosen of the Divine." — Post-Sancturi Lore
Pravustiratel, called Pravus, is the Obsidian Primal Dragon of Shadow who became a god. He led the draconic hosts in the Dragon Wars of the Age of Magic, took an Astral Shard in the God Wars as one of "the first non-Einar to possess Astral Shards", and was killed; his spirit roams, his heart lies in Necatus's keeping, and his cult gathers his scattered bones against the day of his return. The 2026 revision lists him among the Dark Gods as Lord of Despair. The Fifth Age believes him dead at the Dark Gods' hands; a few know he is the Divine's Chosen.
Also called¶
Pravus. "Black as night and leaving a smoking trail of shadows", to Inwe, who saw him over the Hollantine Hills.
Nature¶
Pravustiratel is the Obsidian black dragon of the Primal Dragons, the Dragon Gods, "each ... of a unique color, and ... the head of their brood", whose aspect is Shadow (see Primal Dragons). The Primal Dragons were "created to combat the demon hordes" and are "immortal in form and age"; "even dead Primal Dragons are dangerous things. Their spirits are potent and cannot be destroyed. They regenerate eventually, but if left undisturbed it could take tens of thousands of years." Pravustiratel is one of the large number of primals who "have fallen from their service to the Gods" or, in the older reading, "been corrupted by Rakkar". As a god he is Lord of Despair, in the Domain of Union, a moon-marked lesser god of the Dark Gods.
History¶
The Dragon Wars¶
In the early centuries of the Age of Magic many draconian and dark elven societies practised dragon worship and came to be ruled by dragons; "the Draconic forces under the leadership of the Primal Dragon Pravustiratel, included numerous Dragons, Dark Elves, Draconians, Orcs, Goblins and Ogres. Their armies swept easily across much of the Northern and Eastern halves of the continent." His campaign stalled before Gor'Turra; "Pravus's goal was to cut off and siege the fortress of Gor'Turra", and though he took the dwarven capital and many of the Great Dwarven Kingdom's cities, the fortress held. At the thirty-six-hour Battle for Gor'Turra three Rakkari primal dragons were slain and "the badly wounded Pravustiratel became the last living Primal Dragon, and he fled to the Underdark to recuperate". The archmage Lothos is credited with "doing severe damage to Pravustiratel"; the dwarven High King Khorun and the elven archer Lanaserel were "Killed by Pravus". The war is History's: Second Dragon War.
Godhood and death¶
In the God Wars that followed, "Several of the Primal Dragons, including Pravustiratel, also became the first non-Einar to possess Astral Shards. After becoming 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. Pravustiratel was himself killed in his lair, which had been the great Dwarven capital Kuhn'Darahl." The Sancturi Age plot notes tell the death differently and later: "Pravustiratel is dead, Torn asunder in a great ambush by the Dark Gods during the Fae Wars. Her spirit they could not contain and roams Gor'Turra. They hid her Dragon's Heart and scattered her bones." Necatus took the heart, "a crystal made of Kalamite", and with it "could kill Pravus at any moment, though only a true God/Einar could pull it off". "Destroying the heart would weaken Pravus, but not undo her existence."
The Dreams of Inwe see him alive after the Age of the Dark Sun, allied with the primal red dragon Vixseranyol, "who had been rebuilding the brood of red dragons in the period after the Dark Sun. She had made an alliance with Pravustiratel. The reds ultimately overran and conquered much of central Astia including what remained of the Free Cities." Inwe wondered "how the alliance between Vix and Pravus had formed and upon what principles it was based", knowing that the location of a dragon's lair is "a closely guarded secret, especially between Primal Dragons who are more often rivals and enemies than allies".
The Fifth Age¶
In the Sancturi Age his alliance with the Dark Gods was fracturing: "She feels betrayed by the outcome of the Fae Wars and the banishment of her kin from the West." Asmodeus courted her, his devils collecting her bones, and she set terms: that her dragons' Mithis bloodlines be kept incorruptible, that Necatus's leverage be removed, that she be made Broodmother of all Dragons, for which "she needs a part of Kalar's shard which is still locked ... known only as the Comet of Origination", and that they "work together toward the death of Necatus and the Imperium. She hates him/them bitterly." The Eldritch battle-magus Allannia "sees Pravus and Asmodeus as the real threats that they are".
The Post-Sancturi notes list Pravustiratel among the destroyed powers of the Fifth Age with a secret: "Everyone thinks Pravustiratel was betrayed and killed by the Dark Gods … when in fact he made a secret pact with Sharuvas and is now the Chosen of the Divine" (see The Divine).
Worship¶
The Cult of the Dragon is Pravustiratel's cult, and its goal is his reunion: "Should her spirit, heart and body be re-united … This is the ultimate goal of the Cult of the Dragon." "Her whole skeleton is not required, only about 25%." In the Sancturi Age underdark the cult "controls the Rushing Void … huge underground chasm. Black Drakes, Black Dragon." In the Rift Period it has "a secret pact" with the Elder God Teneb'Vari, whose cultists in the forbidden forest of Arne'Athosia acquired a claw of Vixseranyol and "are using it with an ancient dragon skeleton to animate a red bone dragon. Cult of Dragon is working on this." The cult is Cult of the Dragon.
Earlier accounts¶
The 2015 Compendium dates the Dragon Wars to 951 to 1092 MA and has Pravustiratel "eventually killed in the ruins of the Dwarven capitol Dunar'Emaza" at the end of them, with no godhood; the 2020 History of Terrun moves his death to his lair at Kuhn'Darahl during the God Wars (1005 to 1611 MA), after he took a shard; the 2018 plot notes have the Dark Gods kill him in the Fae Wars of the Fifth Age. The dates of the wars are an open question held by History. The 2018 and 2019 documents call Pravustiratel "she" and "her"; the 2020 and 2023 documents, and this page, "he".
Gap
No source describes Pravustiratel's shard or domain beyond its name, what his godhood changed in him, or what the Divine asks of her Chosen. Where his bones and his roaming spirit are now is not said.