The Cleansing Wars

A terrible period in recent Gatian history, where a human supremacist organization called the Xenos tore across all of Gate, focusing efforts on conquering El Nido, Medina and Guardia and purging all populations of non-humans.

Rajaat the Warbringer

No discussion of the Cleansing Wars can be complete without first discussing Rajaat. First of the Fallen, Rajaat was an Archon -- a robot infused with holy magic by Archbishop Meres and made to serve the Church of Spekkio. The story of his rise and fall from grace is the prelude to the Cleansing Wars.

Rise

Prior to becoming an Archon, he was R-583D, an R-Series robot who was raised as an adoptee by R-Series parents in Bangor. After he successfully completed a period of software adaptation and "maturation," he trained at Fort Arris to become a field medic in the GDF. He served actively in the KMT War, and was part of the Guardian battlegroup attached to Rimmel Coward's Seventh Army in Medina. He was not supposed to have seen active combat duty, but fought to protect a Grand Army mobile hospital when it came under attack by Ozzie-loyal biker gangs. He was awarded commendations by both the Grand Army and the GDF for his service in Medina.

Years later, when the Kingdom was ruled by the Archbishop, R-583D was noticed by those in charge of Project R-CON, and due to his commendations for valor he was selected to undergo the experimental R-CON program enhancement. Following this procedure, he became a Chalice Archon, and adopted the name Danarael of the Chalice.

As an Archon, he was known to be among the best, brightest and most pure. He specialized in Water and Healing magics, and held firmly to the Guardian knightly code that forbade wanton violence. He earned the respect and friendship of the Knights of the Square Table, and when the call came from T.O. Halberg for Esper's allies to rally in the EU's time of need, Sir Toadus himself recommended that Danarael lead a contingent of Archons in the Battle of New Year's Day. Prometheus forbade Danarael to go, but he disobeyed this order and went to Esper anyway.

Fall

The Leviathan War changed everything. For Esper, for the Web of Worlds, and for Danarael. None are sure how or why, but shortly after Danarael returned home to Gate, he knew that he had changed. He was unsure of how to describe the change that had taken a hold of him, but he felt empty and alone. Soon he noticed that his magic, granted as a boon of faith by Spekkio, had left him. And that was when he fled Gate III in fear.

Perhaps there was a bug on the software side of the R-CON enhancement. Or perhaps it was just a hazzard that came with being made one step closer to human, and he simply wasn't ready to deal with the soul-scarring effects of war in his newfound form, with his newfound soul. Whatever caused it, Danarael had fallen. He had lost his faith. And he would never get it back.

He drifted through Gatespace, intent to suffer the remainder of his existence alone, to repent for whatever sin he'd committed to earn this mysterious and harsh punishment. Eventually he came upon a Zealan ruin, a floating island that the ancient Zealans had blasted into space, rather than deal with on the world they were confined to. Within he found a golem body animated by a spirit that claimed to be King Zeal. King Zeal tormented Danarael, and eventually convinced him to embrace what he had become and see it as an opportunity rather than a curse. Slowly, Zeal's poisons worked their way through Danarael's tortured mind, and his sanity cracked.

King Zeal taught Danarael to wield magic on his own, without the aid of divine power. Futher, he taught Danarael his greatest secret: the art of Defiling Magic. He also gave Danarael a new name: Rajaat, a word Zeal claimed meant "Perfection" in some dialect of the Zealan language. In thanks for his tutelage, Rajaat destroyed Zeal and returned to Gate III.

The Xenos

When Rajaat returned to Gate III, he found an unlikely home among the ranks of the human supremacists of Xenos. He identified himself to them as an Archon, and implied that their cause had holy merit, and explained that he was to lead them in a crusade. Rajaat spent time teaching the Xenos Defiling magic, which most were able to pick up, and once they began to practice Defiling they progressed rapidly in skill and power. Rajaat chose fifteen members of the Xenos and named them his Champions, the leaders of the Xenos army that would conquer the rest of the Dimension.

Rajaat's Champions

• Slicer the First Champion
• Kalak the Second Champion
• Dregoth the Third Champion
• Myron the Fourth Champion
• Abalach the Fifth Champion
• Gallard the Sixth Champion
• Sielba the Seventh Champion
• Balic the Eighth Champion
• Sacha the Ninth Champion
• Oronis the Tenth Champion
• Lalali the Eleventh Champion
• Wyan the Twelfth Champion
• Borys the Thirteenth Champion
• Daskinor the Fourteenth Champion
• Kalid the Fifteenth Champion (not to be confused with Guardia's Chancellor, Khalid Morris)

The Flow of the War

The Xenos landed first on Acacia island in El Nido, and dismantled the government. Rajaat expressed an unhealthy interest in the daughter of General Emil Viper, Clarice, but she had escaped with Cartreo Lamont before Acacia's capital city of Termina was overrun.

When El Nido was captured, Balic, Sacha, Wyan and Borys were left behind to garrison the islands and begin the campaign of extermination. The rest of the Champions moved with Rajaat to the Zenan mainland, landing in Porre and taking the city without much of a fight. The Xenos began to move North, through Fiona's Woods, where they dealt successfully with guerilla attacks from Fiona's Druids. The Xenos sacked Fiona's Shrine, moved North again to take Dorino, and headed for Zenan Bridge. Here the army split off again: Dregoth, Myron, Abalach and Kalid headed East, for Medina. The remainder stayed with Rajaat for the main assault on Truce.

By this time word began to spread of the attacks. Meres called on help from the Grand Army; the 10th Army, under Liah Kyja, mobilized to fight the Defilers in El Nido and Porre, while the 6th under Model Steinmetz mobilized to form a defensive ring around Truce with the GDF.

Also at this time, Rajaat unleashed a secret weapon: other Archons had fallen during the run up to the Cleansing Wars, and had been drawn to Rajaat for guidance. The first of these fallen Archon minions appeared at this time, the Keymaster, a fallen Warden Archon with the power to seal Dimensional gates and strands. He first sealed all space strands leading into the Gate Dimension, then sealed all the land-bound portals. Gate was effectively sealed off to the outside, allowing Rajaat to complete his conquest without further meddling from Guardia's allies in the Web of Worlds.

The Battle of Porre

This battle is one of the lesser known conflicts of the Cleansing Wars, fought between the GA's 10th army and the Defiler garrisons of El Nido and Porre, but it was also one of the first victories against the Defiler armies. Balic, the highest ranking Champion in the south, commanded the Xenos defense of the conquered territories, and had managed to recruit a number of Nidoans and Porreans to the Xenos cause, giving them limited training as Defilers. The fight the 10th army mounted to re-take Porre and the south was staged on two fronts. First, the 10th army comprised the bulk of Grand Army naval assets in the Gate Dimension. They instigated a blockade of El Nido, keeping Xenos supply ships (from ports in Chorras) from reaching the Defiler garrisons. Grand Army submarines also engaged in patrols between the islands, hampering Defiler movement from Acacia to the more heavily non-human islands of the archipellago.

10th army land assets attempted several times to capture Porre, with minimal success. Balic himself held the defenses of Porre, displaying for the Grand Army the power of his Defiling magic. It was during one of the skirmishes that one of the 10th's forward regiment commanders, Colonel Baillen, noticed that Balic's spellcasting triggered wasting in the surrounding grassland, and it was surmised by General Kyja that Balic was draining life to give extra power to his spells. Determined to weaken Balic's ability to maintain Porre's defenses, Kyja dispatched her grenadiers to torch the woodlands around Porre's perimeter. Their orders were to annihilate everything green within two miles of Porre's outer defensive line, while the 10th's tank regiments kept up a bombardment to distract Balic's attention. It might be interesting here to note that Sub-General Liah Kyja is originally from Toroia, and torching woodlands is not usually a tactic that a Toroian would freely suggest.

The strategy paid off, Balic's ability to defend the captured city grew weaker, and the 10th army rolled into Porre with guns blazing. A pitched house-to-house fight for control of Porre then ensued; the Defilers may have been weakened by the burning of the land, but they were still wizards. Further, as Grand Army soldiers closed around him, Balic was actually able to draw on their life forces to bolster his magic, and he drained or otherwise killed scores of troops before finally fleeing and surrendering the city to the 10th army.

The Battle of Truce

One of the most crushing defeats in Guardian history, the Battle of Truce was the first time in over one thousand years that an invading army had occupied the Guardian capital. Among the losses at the Battle of Truce were Doan Pendouris and the Archbishop himself, killed in the confusion of the battle. Then flagship of the GSF, the GSFV Masamune, was destroyed and its contingent of the Gatespace Fleet knocked from the sky by Rajaat's magic. Grand Admiral Thames was able to escape the destruction of the Masamune, along with his ward Barry Svensgaard and a majority of the crew.

Further, following the battle, the Knight Captain Sir Toadus was cursed by Rajaat with the form of an enormous humanoid frog.

GA Sixth Army, along with the survivors of the battle, fled East into Truce Canyon. The Defilers and Rajaat showed little interest in pursuing them.

Queen Naraya had been removed from Guardia Castle prior to the invasion by the Archons, who kept her safe at the Archons' Roost.

To add further insult to the loss, another of Rajaat's fallen Archons, the Mesmerist, stole away aboard a Grand Army submarine carrying Ultima Missiles, and used his mind control abilities to commandeer the ship and its cargo. Even without the proper launch codes, the Mesmerist was able to hack into the launch computer and give himself primary override authority to launch. Displaying arrogance taught to him by the Warbringer, the Mesmerist issued a communique to General Model detailing what he had done, and the power he now had under his control. Following this communication, he launched one of the submarine's missiles at Bangor Dome, where the Grand Army Barracks for Gate were located. This missile was stopped mid-flight by The Shield, and the resulting blast kept Guardia's superhero out of the game for the rest of the war.

The Battle of Medina

This was the first major test of the Shadow Barons, and their fearsome patriarch Janus Cage. The Defiler armies of Dregoth, Myron, Abalach and Kalid invaded Coast Town and began to sweep further inland, toward the Medinan capital. Dregoth would command these forces, as he was the Third Champion and highest ranking.

The defenses mounted by most of the Shadow Barons were weak, and half-hearted. A number of the human Barons attempted to defect and join the Xenos effort, turning against their Mystic neighbors and bolstering the Defilers' ranks. The overall disorganization of the Shadow Barons lead to a number of pronounced Defiler victories early on in the war for Medina. Until, that is, Janus Cage got involved.

In a spectacular display, intended to draw attention more than anything else, Cage erupted like a fireball into the skies above Medina Village just as the Defilers marshalled their troops on the city's edge. Bearing a scythe pulsing with shadow energies, Cage descended on the Defilers, and a massive battle ensued. Many of the Defilers saw their bretheren cut down for the first time since the war began, and reacted poorly in response to the notion that they were suddenly not completely invincible. Some fired off spells wildly and in all directions, resulting in a number of instances of friendly fire. Still others attempted to flee and were cut off by their immediate superiors.

Seeing Janus Cage decimate the Defilers' front lines, the Medinan defenders rallied and charged. Unprepared, even more Defilers fell to the rag-tag (but well armed) Medinans. Janus Cage himself killed Myron, Abalach and Kalid, beheading each one with his jagged scythe. Dregoth fled before Cage could get to him, stealing away aboard one of the Xenos' ships and eventually ending up back in El Nido.

Janus Cage continued to rout the remaining Defilers in Medina, and exacted harsh punishment against the Shadow Barons who had betrayed him.

The Spanked Champions

After the fall of Truce, Rajaat and his remaining Champions (Slicer, Kalak, Gallard, Sielba, Oronis, Lalali and Daskinor) moved into Guardia Castle. They defiled the corpses of Doan and Meres and desecrated the Pendouris family quarters before a pair of Nu assassins arrived. One of the Nu was exceptionally powerful somehow, and managed to slay Rajaat and all of his champions save for Sielba and Lalali. After this the survivors in Truce Canyon returned, and the remaining Defilers were hunted down, rounded up or killed.

The Nu were taken to the Archons' Roost to give the good news to Naraya and Prometheus, but it turned out to be a trick. The Nu had been pawns of Rajaat all along, and he had imprinted himself into their memories through a technique first developed by the Guru Belthasar. With the ait of an assault by two of Rajaat's other fallen minions -- the Noble One and the Deceiver -- the Nu snagged Clarice Viper, and killed Naraya in the process.

Return of the King

Though the Defiler armies had been routed from Truce, Porre and Medina, and the 10th army was instigating its final siege on Balic's remnant in Termina, Rajaat was still out there, and still posed a threat so long as the Mesmerist had Ultima Missiles at his disposal. It was at this time that King Derik returned from his sojourn in Aryth, seeming to be very much alive despite a recent bout of amnesia. He was brought into Gate by Manta and his butler Albert, using the same method Manta had used to gain entry into Aryth when the Celpo had tasked him with scouting out the secret OmniSent base Atlantis.

The plan to end the threat of Rajaat once and for all was threefold:

• Derik and Prometheus agreed to confront Rajaat at King Zeal's Crypt (where Bekkler guessed he would be lairing)
• The matter of re-opening the Gate Dimension was also of importance, and so Bekkler's student, Yoshiko Morume, agreed to handle that task using her Astral Amulet
• Manta would lead a contingent of El Nidoan mermen in the hunt for the Mesmerist's captured submarine.

Opening the Gates

Yoshiko succeeded in her task to open the gates leading to the outside Web, using the extra-dimensionally manipulative properties of the Astral Amulet. She encountered some difficulty when the Keymaster showed up to defend his work, but Yoshiko defeated and killed the fallen Archon, throwing his broken body into the sea to rust.

The Hunt for the Submarine

Tracking the sub from the position of its last taunting broadcast, Manta and his mermen found the captured Grand Army sub just as it was preparing to launch its payload. The four remaining Ultima missiles had been tampered with by the Mesmerist, their warheads altered to give them Defiling properties, so that when they detonated they would sap the life force of everything within the blast radius.

Manta and the mermen draped large chain nets over the hull of the submarine, and in an attempt to ward off the attackers the Mesmerist activated the submarine's electric shock field. The shock field ended up welding the chain nets into place, inadvertantly sealing the launch doors of the missile tubes, which caused the Ultima missiles to detonate as they were being launched and destroy the sub. The ecological devastation in the patch of ocean where this occured was devastating; to this day the fishing between Truce and Medina's west coast is among the poorest in the Web of Worlds, and the water still has a brownish taint.

Derik vs. Rajaat

Together, Derik and Prometheus confronted Rajaat and his remaining fallen Archon, the Deceiver. (the Noble One, the only R-Series Archon among the Fallen besides Rajaat, was sacrificed so that Rajaat's memories could be transferred from the Nu into a proper Archon body) Besting the Deceiver's illusion-weaving magics, the pair made their way into Rajaat's lair and confronted him. Prometheus feinted and sacrificed himself to distract Rajaat, while Derik managed to channel a Balefire spell given to him by Elayne Crant'za. The Balefire wiped Rajaat's head from existence, marking the end of Rajaat's menace and the Cleansing Wars.

Aftermath

Derik's return to Guardia marked a period of sweeping reforms. There was initially some skepticism that it really was Derik back in control of Guardia, but now there is little doubt that the King has returned. In Pandora, a Cult of Derik arose briefly, centered around the belief that Derik was a King of mythical power who had risen from the dead to avenge the slain Naraya. The Cult resurfaces from time to time, but has remained mostly quiet since Pandora's decline following the New Wraith.

Derik did not adjust well to returning to his old life. His father and wife were dead, and he sunk rapidly into depression.

Dregoth found religion while hiding out in El Nido, and returned to Chorras to receive the Governor's pardon for his participation in the Cleansing Wars. A brief legal fight between the Governor's office and the Royal Bureuacracy ended in Dregoth's favor, earning him a full Royal pardon for his actions as a member of the Xenos. Dregoth rode the anti-Royal sentiment which followed that decision and was elected Governor himself during the next election cycle.

Balic was never found after the 10th army finally broke the Defiler defenses at Termina. It's unknown whether he died in the GA assault, or if he and his champions are in hiding somewhere.

Lalali and Sielba were both pregnant with Rajaat's spawn after the Cleansing Wars. The fate of their progeny is unknown, but Derik has had several disturbing dreams involving the eventual reincarnation of Rajaat. It may be possible that Rajaat's spawn will play some role in reviving their dead father, but thus far no signs of a returned Rajaat are evident.

Those Defilers deemed to dangerous to be incarcerated in standard prisons were secretly locked up in Valleyville. Following the riot and fire, a significant number of these Defilers were killed, and Malismo the Eye-Reaper managed to escape.