Rau'shan

Rau'shan, Emperor of Fire
Type	NPC
Character Information
Titles	Emperor of Fire
Creature type	Elemental
Race	Primordial
Languages	Primordial
Place	Mount Ygora, Domunas
Connections	Ka'Mort
Status
Status	Dead
Cause of death	Diffused across many realms by the Astral Leywright
Death episode(s)	"Fire and Ruin" (E3x04)
Appearances
First seen	"Blood and Shadow" (E3x03) (in a vision)
Last seen	"A Test of Trust" (3x80)
Stream	Exandria Unlimited: Calamity (2 episodes) Campaign 3 (3 episodes, in visions)

Rau'shan, Emperor of Fire was a Primordial sealed in the Founding and finally destroyed on the eve of the Calamity.

Description

Rau'shan was a towering figure made entirely of roiling flame. In his final moments, bound together with Ka'Mort, Empress of Earth, they were combined into a great quantity of magma.

Biography

Background

In a vision from Rau'shan's perspective of an extremely ancient time before even language existed, he looked upon a burning, turbulent landscape in which smaller fiery elementals played.

During the Schism, Rau'shan and Ka'Mort were among the few Primordials who were not killed, but Pelor and Melora defeated the two and sealed them both beneath Mount Ygora.

The elemental power Rau'shan and Ka'Mort continued to emanate drew the druids of the Gau Drashari, some of the earliest of whom were genasi, to the mountain. The Gau Drashari treated Mount Ygora as a holy place and, deep underground, tended to the seals holding the Primordials. The druids took care of that place well, which led to the founding of Toramunda, and the growing city and the elemental power also drew the wizards of the Age of Arcanum. The elemental power permeating the mountain also gave the mountain the ability to collect and store magical Ether, which formed the foundation of the deal wherein the Gau Drashari allowed the wizards to take the top of the mountain as a flying city.

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

When Vespin Chloras released Asmodeus from his prison plane, Asmodeus plotted to corrupt the Replenishment, whereby Avalir released massive quantities of stored Ether into Domunas, to instead release Rau'shan and Ka'Mort back into the world, so that they would join the Betrayer Gods in an attack on Vasselheim and ultimately a renewed war against the Prime Deities and the mortals of Exandria.

The oracle Karwen prophesied that if Rau'shan ("crowned fire") and Ka'Mort ("throned earth") were able to join that war, Melora and Pelor ("Mother and Father") would fall to the Betrayer Gods ("their imprisoned kin"), and Exandria would be hopelessly lost to unending horror.

The Ring of Brass foiled Asmodeus's plot. Laerryn Coramar-Seelie used the Astral Leywright to bind Rau'shan and Ka'Mort to a surging ley line during an Apogee Solstice, when the barriers between the planes are thinnest, and fire the Primordials away from the Material Plane, scattering them across as many realms as possible, thereby disenchanting and undoing them. The resulting catastrophic eruption also created a plume of ash that covered Exandria for a hundred years.

Campaign Three: Bells Hells

Fan art of Ashton and Fearne retrieving the shard, by Melissa Hahn.

Even after being destroyed, a fragment of this primordial titan (a bright orange-white crystal) remained in Exandria, a spark that flew through the sky, punched into the ground, and ended up inside the Chynes Maw on the island of Igthuldus. This caused permanent heat and magma there, and a community of magma mephits to be born. In 843 PD the Great Tree of Atrophy revealed to Ashton Greymoore (bearer of the shard of the Empress of Earth) the location of the elemental relic, predicting that both the shard of Ka'Mort and the spark of Rau'shan would be needed in order to defeat Ludinus Da'leth. The adventurers managed to recover the spark, although they destroyed the community of mephits in the process when they took the piece of their "Creator". Chetney Pock O'Pea was able to sense some of the memories of the Emperor through his Grim Psychometry.

Fan art of Ashton after taking Rau'shan's power, by Edu Benavente.

The following day, in Whitestone, Ashton used the Quintessence Array to absorb Rau'shan's power, something that almost destroyed his body. However, the Emperor of Fire rejected the genasi as a host and Ashton vomited out a reformed crystal containing Rau'shan's spark. Later, when Chetney used his Grim Psychometry on this new crystal, he had visions of the Emperor of Fire ruling over a fiery domain inhabited by societies of elemental spirits, followed by his memories of being sealed and later destroyed.

When Fearne Calloway finally decided to take Rau'shan's power, she did so in the garden of Ligament Manor, and although she survived the process, the heat emitted destroyed most of the surrounding terrain (damaging the faun and her friends in the process). She had a vision of the Emperor of Fire and interacted with him; after some sad hesitance, the titan embraced Fearne, accepting her as his legacy.

Relationships

Ka'Mort

Fan art of the legacy of the Emperor and the Empress, by Sech Bravo.

Emperor Rau'shan's relationship with Empress Ka'Mort seemed to be one of partnership, and according to Orym, legends describe them as mates. They were defeated and sealed in the same place, and when the Astral Leywright caused their destruction, the two titans reached for each other before being sundered. After Fearne absorbed the power of Rau'shan, her touch awoke Ka'Mort's power inside Ashton.

Appearances and mentions

• Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
  • "Excelsior" (E3x01), mentioned only (first mentioned)
  • "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02), mentioned only
  • "Blood and Shadow" (E3x03) (first appearance) (in a vision)
  • "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04)
• Campaign Three: Bells Hells
  • "For The Tempest" (3x68), mentioned only
  • "Mist and Whimsy" (3x71), mentioned only
  • "Phantasmal Parley" (3x72), mentioned only
  • "Roots Between Worlds" (3x74), mentioned only
  • "An Ancient Flame" (3x75) (in a vision)
  • "A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76), mentioned only
  • "Fractures" (3x78) (in a vision)
  • "To Hurt Is to Heal" (3x79), mentioned only
  • "A Test of Trust" (3x80) (in a vision)
  • "Rush for the Bloody Bridge" (3x82), mentioned only
  • "True Heroism" (3x91), mentioned only
  • "Where The Red Fearne Glows" (3x94), mentioned only
  • "Collecting Legends" (3x105), mentioned only
  • "In the Shadow of War" (3x110), mentioned only

Trivia

Fan art of Fearne in her "titan" form, by Tyler Walpole.

• The deal the Gau Drashari struck with the wizards on the creation of Avalir was called the Pact of Crown and Throne. Avalir was called the City of Crowns, and Cathmoíra the City of Thrones. But "crown" and "throne" also appeared in Karwen's prophesy to refer to Emperor Rau'shan and Empress Ka'Mort.
• Just as Rau'shan and Ka'Mort, bound together, became magma, there was another Primordial called the Molten Titan who was defeated late in the Founding and also sealed beneath the earth; that event created the Daggerbay Mountains of Tal'Dorei.
• Rau'shan and Ka'Mort are two of three entities known to be defeated by Pelor and sealed beneath a mountain; the other was Tharizdun, beneath Gatshadow Mountain.

References

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