Red Raids

"Sometimes we Carja are more concerned with what is tradition than what is right."

―Mournful Namman

The Red Raids (alternatively referred to as the Buried Years by the Utaru) were a series of attacks conducted by the Carja military against other tribes, under orders from the 13th Carja Sun-King Jiran. Units of Carja soldiers invaded foreign territories, such as those of the neighboring Nora and Oseram, and abducted their tribespeople to be used for human sacrifice. It was only when Jiran was overthrown and killed by his son Avad that the raids ended.

History

The Derangement

Main article: Derangement

In the eleventh year of Sun-King Jiran's reign, the machines, which had heretofore stayed away from humans, began to become more aggressive toward them, culminating in attacking humans on sight. This became known as the "Derangement" of the machines. Sun-King Jiran believed the Derangement to be a punishment from the Sun, worshiped as a deity in the Carja religion. Already notorious for his harsh treatment of his own people, Jiran decreed that human sacrifice would appease the Sun and ordered the military to raid other tribes for victims.

For ten years the Carja descended upon other tribes' settlements, rounding up residents for transport to holding facilities, notably the outpost at Daytower, before being sent to the Carja capital Meridian, where they would be sacrificed in the Sun-Ring, killed by machines. The Carja soldiers and their commanders often practiced severe cruelty toward the tribes that they raided; unit commanders such as Zaid and Jiran's champion Helis became legendary for their brutality.

Carja Reaction

Eventually, even some of the Carja tribespeople were disgusted by the raids. Among them were members of the Carja Hunters Lodge. Led by the hunter Talavad Khane Padish, members of the lodge raised strong objection to Jiran over the raids. However, Jiran had no issue with using dissenters among his people as well as foreign tribespeople for sacrificial victims, and threw the hunters into the Sun-Ring. The fight the hunters put up against the machines became part of the proud history of the Lodge, though it went unrecognized until long after the raids ended.

But the members of the Hunters Lodge were not the only Carja who objected to the raids. Opposition also came from within Jiran's own house. Prince Kadaman, his eldest son and heir demanded an end to the killing. Jiran responded by having him executed. Another example of Carja who objected to the Red Raids are the soldiers Amadis and Nessa, who secretly worked together to undermine the Carja military from within and save potential victims of the raids whenever possible.

The Forbidden West

Jiran ordered that the Forbidden West be raided as well. The first to fight the Carja were the Utaru tribe but were easily defeated. One Utaru, Zo rallied fighters to face the Carja in spite of her tribe's unwillingness to war with the Sundom. This would be somewhat successful, pushing some Carja out of their Capitol, and away from the region around Plainsong.

Carja forces soon entered the Tenakth Clan Lands and faced fierce opposition. The Carja brutally killed numerous Tenakth soldiers in the fighting, and would mercilessly beat Tenakth captives before burning them alive, but the outlanders were pushed back into Barren Light with the help of Utaru. A brave soldier, Kotallo, scaled the walls of the fortress and opened its gates. The onslaught against the Carja was horrible on both sides, with many Tenakth bleeding out, and the Tenakth occupied Barren Light afterward. The Tenakth were ordered by Chief Hekarro not to continue the fighting into the Sundom, much to the disapproval of Marshal Regalla. Hekarro would seek peace with the Carja after the Red Raids, causing the vengeful Regalla to betray him, and the Tenakth gave Barren Light back to the Sundom out of fear.

Main article: Liberation of Meridian

The night of Kadaman's execution, Jiran's middle son, Avad, realizing that the atrocities would end only with his father's death, fled the Sundom with his honor guard, who all opposed the raids. In exile, he formed an alliance with Oseram freebooters and, after several months of planning, led a successful attack against Meridian. The Carja forces loyal to Jiran fled to Sunfall on Jiran's orders, while Jiran himself stayed behind in Meridian to face Avad. Avad tried to reason with his father, but was forced to kill Jiran when the latter refused to step down (in reality, it was the Oseram warrior Ersa who killed Jiran, but Avad was given credit, likely for political reasons).

Taking the throne, Avad ended the raids. Furthermore, he sent envoys bearing messages of apology to the tribes that his father had terrorized and expelled soldiers who had participated in the raids from the Carja military.

Legacy

The Sun-Ring in Meridian, now a memorial to the victims of the Red Raids

"The Red Raids only made us stronger. So it is with every trial the Banuk endure."

―Banuk hunter

The Red Raids left an indelible stain on the history of the Carja. Jiran was labeled "the Mad Sun-King", and was despised by almost every tribe (the exception being the Shadow Carja, the Carja splinter tribe formed from his loyalists). Animosity toward the Carja has remained strong for years among the tribes that were raided, particularly among the Nora.

Furthermore, the raids had repercussions that did not occur until years after their end. An Oseram inventor named Dervahl had attempted to lead his people against the Carja in retaliation for the raids while they were happening. In retribution, Jiran had Dervahl's wife and child captured and sacrificed in the Sun-Ring. This caused Dervahl to be consumed with revenge and lose all sense of balanced justice; he craved the death of every Carja man, woman, and child, and the complete destruction of Meridian. His hatred grew to the point where he even became an enemy of his own people, to the point where they actively searched for him to kill him. Years after the raids, he attempted to enact a plan to destroy Meridian, but was foiled by the Nora huntress Aloy, finally leading to his capture.

The Red Raids thus indirectly almost caused the destruction of Meridian and the deaths of many Carja tribespeople who had nothing to do with them. While Dervahl was responsible for his own actions, it was the Red Raids that catalyzed his change into a terrorist willing to butcher innocent people to get revenge, an enemy that even his own people wanted dead. Indeed, while speaking to Aloy about him, Avad mused on what great contributions Dervahl might have made using his talent, has it not been for Jiran's cruelty.

The Red Raids are also the catalyst for many events in Horizon Forbidden West. The former Tenakth Marshal Regalla revolted against the tribe's Chief, Hekarro, after he made peace with the Carja, in an effort to claim the chiefdom for herself and lead an army of Tenakth to invade the Sundom and destroy Meridian as a revenge for the brutal deaths of her younger brothers during the Red Raids, who were burned alive by the Carja to serve as an "example". Hekarro prevailed in the resulting duel but chose to grant Regalla mercy and exiled her. Regalla's grudge against Hekarro and the Carja left her vulnerable to the manipulations of Sylens, who, through the Sons of Prometheus, helped her raise an army of machines to begin a rebellion against Hekarro, as part of a plan to led the whole of the Tenakth in a suicide attack on Far Zenith.