The Battle of the Barbed Fields was a climactic clash or series of clashes across Eastern Wynandir near the end of the Calamity, opening the way for the final assault on the Betrayer Gods' capital of Ghor Dranas.[1]
History[]
The final battles of the Calamity are said to have been fought in the valley where the Barbed Fields now exist.[2][3] The Prime Deities, along with their most loyal champions, laid siege to Ghor Dranas, which was protected by the Betrayers' Rise, a fortress[4] that had also served as a dark, many-leveled temple to a number of the Betrayer Gods and the seat of the Demon Princes of the Abyss on the Material Plane.[5][6] Followers of the Prime Deities defeated the garrison at the Betrayers' Rise, captured it, and routed the Betrayer Gods' forces there, opening up an advance to the walls of Ghor Dranas. Countless soldiers were involved, as were celestials and fiends.[7]
Assault on the Betrayers' Rise[]
Fan art of a battle at the Umbra Gates, by Vanessa Schiefer.[art 1]
The human hero Alyxian, who had received the blessing of the Moonweaver much earlier in the Calamity, led his allies in battle against the Crawling King's horde to the gate of the Betrayers' Rise. The field of battle was already desiccated and the sky "ashen". Alyxian sought the heart of the battle and fought through waves of enemies who employed moorbounders, and broke the horde's back by targeting their commander and the horizonback tortoise on which he rode. The battle was hard-won, and many of Alyxian's allies were slain; a veteran named Talmyth barely survived and pledged to follow Alyxian to the end.[8][9]
Alyxian then took a company of armored soldiers into the Betrayers' Rise; none of them expected to survive. The rest of the company did die, but among the corpses of both demons and mortals, Alyxian continued to fight, struggling against a gorilla-like demon (presumably an udaak or a barlgura). He prayed for the divine intervention of another god, the Changebringer, who came to him and bestowed on him her blessing,[10] symbolized by adding elaboration to the amulet that the Moonweaver had given to Alyxian to embody her blessing.
The Crawling King interrupted this interaction between Alyxian and the Changebringer to counsel despair, saying that even if she saved the human, he would suffer, die, and be forgotten, and everything he'd worked to save would fall, making his efforts futile.[10]
Banishment of the Crawling King[]
Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the Crawling King was banished soon after Alyxian delved into the Betrayers' Rise.
- This was among the final battles of the Calamity, and all the Betrayer Gods would be banished by the end of the Calamity.
- In the Crawling King's confrontation with the Changebringer and Alyxian, he referred to the Betrayers' Rise as "my sacred, devouring darkness",[10] and very near to the Betrayers' Rise was the King's Cage,[11] a temple that the Crawling King believed was dedicated to him, but which was covertly built by the Moonweaver and the All-Hammer as a trap to which the Crawling King would bind himself, to make it easier to banish him.[12]
- The Dawnfather and the Everlight lured the Crawling King aboveground, where the Dawnfather pierced the Crawling King with ten thousand lances of sunlight, following which the Everlight imprisoned the Crawling King beyond the boundaries of Exandria.[13]
Destruction of Ghor Dranas[]
The Battle of the Barbed Fields enabled the destruction of the Betrayer Gods' legions and fortifications at Ghor Dranas. The city and indeed, the whole dark kingdom was reduced to ash.[14]
Consequences[]
Creation of the Barbed Fields and Brokenveil Bluffs[]
Depiction of the spires of the Barbed Fields, by David René.[art 2]
The violence of the final battles here scarred the whole region. These battles sundered the mountain range dividing Wynandir, creating the Brokenveil Bluffs and separating the range into the Ashkeeper Peaks and the Dunrock Mountains.[15] (This may be when the mountains which the dwarven clan of Grimgol had called home were destroyed.[16])
Eastern Wynandir was left a cracked and ashen wasteland.[17] The forces unleashed in the battle flash-eroded the landscape and left thick spires that, over the following centuries, were eroded further into more hook-like spines.[18]
Several centuries after the battle, in 836 PD, sticking out of the ground deep into the Barbed Fields are the large, rocky spines that give the area its name. Some of the spines are pointed and straight, while others are hooked,[19] between 15 and 40 feet tall, and they are made of a deep, dark gray stone like that of the Penumbra Range, contrasting with the red and brown ground around them. The spines appear to have pushed out of the ground or to have been deliberately placed, and they are widely separated, often miles apart but sometimes with two or three in a one-mile stretch.[20] These areas have larger craters and places where the land seems to drop off into heavy pits;[21] the earth would unpredictably open into sinkholes.[2]
Closer to the edge of the Barbed Fields, it was apparent that ancient heavy impacts caused some large areas of jutting, jagged stone. The trees there were barren and gnarled, and the rain settled into puddles[22] and eventually larger tar pits; the rain common to the region could also create mud traps and flash floods.[23][2]
Even at the nearby edge of Vermaloc Wildwood, as of 836 PD there were jutting rock monoliths where it appeared like earth and rock had been punched up from below.[24]
Destruction of distant civilizations[]
The final battle of the Calamity sent magical shockwaves throughout Exandria, unintentionally causing the collapse of much of the faraway underground caverns beneath the Bladeshimmer Shoreline. In those caverns was Salar, the Unseeable City, the great capital of a continent-spanning empire of aboleths and other aberrations that had been quietly expanding its influence toward the surface for millennia, but the plot and the civilization fell as they were buried; the few survivors could only slowly rebuild over the course of several centuries.[25][26]
The magic forces loosed in the final battles of the Calamity also caused massive tidal surges that flooded and wiped out civilizations along the Menagerie Coast and its islands.[27]
Creatures, relics, and rifts left behind[]
As the Crawling King was painfully defeated, it is said his tears burned tunnels through Exandria, and his followers fled into them.[13] After Eastern Wynandir was blasted in these final battles, lingering demons and monstrosities scattered into the nearby mountains and marshlands. Some goblinkin created by the Strife Emperor were among the nomadic bands left to battle man and beast alike for sustenance and shelter in the desolate wasteland.[28] Udaaks were left to wander the plains.[29] The creations of the Betrayer Gods, separated from their masters, claimed territory and hunted mortals.[16]
Potent armaments and other relics from the final battles were also left behind in the Barbed Fields.[2]
Moreover, there are places in the Barbed Fields where the veils between planes remain thin, so the area is rife with entities from other worlds that bleed through.[2]
The dormant Betrayers' Rise[]
The dark temple was left to gather dust, and the gateway to the Abyss within lay dormant until about 796 PD.[6]
Depiction of the site within the Betrayers' Rise where Alyxian prayed to Avandra and received her blessing, by Kent Davis from Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, p. 74.[art 4]
Vestiges of the Changebringer's power remained in the Betrayers' Rise after she gave her blessing to Alyxian there.
- As of about 836 PD, one could find immediately behind the Umbra Gates a double door bearing a symbol of the Changebringer that was apparently resistant to damage; the door would open only in the presence of the Jewel of Three Prayers, which Alyxian had carried. Behind that door is a hallway, the walls of which have a mural depicting the Battle of the Barbed Fields, and show Alyxian accompanied by the Moonweaver and the Changebringer.[30]
- Hidden deep within the Betrayers' Rise, accessible via a reality-bending passage, is a chamber containing the altar where Alyxian prayed to the Changebringer during that divine intervention. Circa 836 PD, the altar is made of and surrounded by glowing crystal, and the lingering power of the goddess can lift a lingering curse of the Crawling King.[31]
Alyxian moves on; final confrontation with the Ruiner[]
Allies of Alyxian in the battle against Torog demanded tribute from a village they had saved. Alyxian's fellow commander, Kalagothe, led an attempt to pillage the settlement that turned into a massacre, which Alyxian witnessed.[32]
At least one of the Betrayer Gods was not corralled at the end of the Battle of the Barbed Fields. The Ruiner went on to vengefully attack a utopian city in Marquet that worshiped his nemesis the Arch Heart, resulting in not only the destruction of the city but also the desertification of one-third of the continent. Alyxian, bolstered by the blessings of not only the Moonweaver and Changebringer but also newly that of the Arch Heart, prevented the strike from annihilating all life on the continent, but the clash of energies created a rift to a new realm, the Netherdeep, into which Alyxian was lost beyond the sight of even the gods for centuries.[33]
Entombed heroes[]
A heroic group of champions who sacrificed themselves in the final battles of the Calamity was entombed, along with their arms and instruments, in the Flotket Alps, in the hidden lair of the androsphinx Yondis the Winter Star.[34]
References[]
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 65.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 134.
- ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 0:41:00.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 59.
- ↑ See "Beneath Bazzoxan" (2x66) at 2:11:54. See also 2:14:37.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, pp. 134–135.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 59. See also p. 65.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 152–154.
- ↑ Even about 50 years before the Divergence, when Aeor fell, the sky had long been choked with ash. See "Downfall: Part One" (3x99) at 0:43:25.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 73.
- ↑ The surface entrance to the extensive tunnels that lead to the King's Cage is only five to six miles from Bazzoxan, where the Betrayers' Rise is located. See "Beneath Bazzoxan" (2x66) at 3:19:25.
- ↑ See "The King's Cage" (2x69) at 0:28:10.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 28.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 142. See also p. 13.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 82. See also p. 136.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 14.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 19.
- ↑ See "Critical Role Campaign 2 Wrap Up" (Sx56) at 3:49:48.
- ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:10:19.
- ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) from 1:19:28 through 1:22:12.
- ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:14:19.
- ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) from 0:58:08 through 1:01:58.
- ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:14:00. See also 1:18:00.
- ↑ See "Wood and Steel" (2x58) at 3:30:28.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 86.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 141. See also p. 217.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 17.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 19. See also p. 173.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 301.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 63–65.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 72–73.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 148–149. See also the visions described on pp. 142–143, which may include a reference to the event.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 7.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 114.
Art:
- ↑ Fan art of a battle at the Umbra Gates, by Vanessa Schiefer (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Depiction of the spires of the Barbed Fields, by David René (source). Used with permission. This page contains unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
- ↑ Official art of the Barbed Fields, by Clara (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Depiction of the site within the Betrayers' Rise where Alyxian prayed to Avandra and received her blessing, by Kent Davis from Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, p. 74. Used with permission. This page contains unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.