Cataclysm (Dragonlance)

In the Dragonlance books, the Cataclysm was a catastrophic event that occurred when the Kingpriest of Istar demanded to be given godlike powers in order to eliminate evil from the world.

Template:Spoilers

Background

Beldinas, last Kingpriest of Istar, never liked the concept of balance. He believed that Paladine accepted it in a time when he was weak. As time passed, and the forces of good flourished after the Third Dragon War in which Huma Dragonbane defeated Takhisis, he thought the time to break that outdated pact was nearing.

His decision to end the balance became strengthened when the previous Kingpriest, known as Kurnos the Usurper, sent Sathira, an evil spirit, to kill him. Ilista, First Daughter and the woman who traveled from far Tarsis leaded by a prophecy to find the true Kingpriest, sacrificed herself in order to save Beldinas.

Though at the begining Beldinas only fought evil, as time passed he began to include those who did not think like him. Thus, he destroyed temples and expelled followers of the Neutral Gods as well. With time, his obsession drove him to also destroy followers of the Gods of Light.

Warnings

For thirteen days prior to the Cataclysm the gods sent warnings to the fanatical Kingpriest and his followers, all of which went unheeded.

• The true clerics left the land to the realm of the gods beyond. This night became known as the Night of Doom.
• In the elven kingdom of Silvanesti, trees wept blood.
• In Solamnia, no fires would burn.
• In Abanasinia, fires spreaded destroying everything.
• Palanthas was covered in a thick fog. The weather was oppressively hot and the seas were unsettlingly still.
• The forest animals near Qualinost suddenly turned savage.

The petition

The Kingpriest misunderstood the warnings, convinced of his own truth. He believed those were the last efforts of the evil goods, and only adamanted his resolution.

He called Paladine too weak to destroy evil, but with the Kingpriest as his right arm evil could be defeated. The Kingpriest called for the genocidal destruction of the Ogre races and the relocation of the Dwarves and Kender. For his arrogance, the gods punished the city of Istar.

Consequences

Soon after the Kingpriest made his request, a fiery mountain struck Istar. The city and all the land around it was pushed down and the ocean roared in. The thick, red soil was churned up by the water, giving it a red color. It became the Blood Sea of Istar. Where the Temple of the Kingpriest once was, there was a perpetual massive whirlpool that kept the red soil churned up, leaving the Blood Sea permanently blood colored. On the opposite side of the continent of Ansalon, the Kingdom of Ergoth was broken from the mainland and split in two. More water flooded inland and created the Newsea. The city of Caergoth, an inland farming city, suddenly found themselves on the oceans doorstep. To the south, the thriving port city of Tarsis found that the sea had retreated and they were now surrounded by plains as far as the eye could see. The effects of the Cataclysm continue to be felt on Krynn to this day.

Post-Cataclysm time in Krynn is often rendered AC, to denote After Cataclysm.