I’m just curious if anyone has read how long Rajaat ran his open schools of preservation magic? I wonder how long it took him to recruit and empower his Champions before unleashing them on the world?
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125th King’s Age (-5,005)
-Guthay’s Reverence
After three eons of study, Rajaat emerges from the Pristine Tower to teach magic to the Rebirth races. He teaches preserving magic openly, and defiling magic in secret to those of “questionable” character. For the next 1,500 years Rajaat studies how magic interacts with the Rebirth races, and decides that humans have the most potential of all to suit his needs.
134th King’s Age (-4,312)
-King’s Agitation
Rajaat begins a jihad against the preservers of Athas for the next thousand years. Preservers across the land go into hiding while fighting a losing battle against the followers of Rajaat.
There’s your answer 
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Thank you sysane. I appreciate the help.
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Say Systane,where did you find that passage?
What @Sysane Bryan said I would have pulled from the timeline docs too, with some slight amendments:
125th King’s Age, the year of Guthay’s Reverence (-4,976)
After three eons of study, Rajaat emerges from the Pristine Tower to teach magic to the Rebirth races. He teaches preserving magic openly, and defiling magic in secret to those of “questionable” character. For the next 1,500 years Rajaat studies how magic interacts with the Rebirth races, and decides that humans have the most potential of all to suit his needs. [Athas.org timeline]
Rajaat emerges from the Pristine Tower to teach magic to the Rebirth races. Daskinor becomes one of Rajaat’s students, but is slow to learn. For the next 1,500 years Rajaat studies how magic interacts with the Rebirth races, and decides that humans have the most potential of all to suit his needs. [amended timeline text, taken from Lost Cities of the Trembling Plains]
134th King’s Age, the year of Ral’s Fury (-4,312)
All of Rajaat’s best students perish at the Pristine Tower in Rajaat’s attempt to create champions. The accident creates beings now known as the crimsons. Daskinor had wanted to be part of the group, but had not advanced sufficiently in arcane magic. [taken from Lost Cities of the Trembling Plains]
134th King’s Age, the year of King’s Agitation (-4,275)
Rajaat begins a jihad against the preservers of Athas for the next thousand years. Preservers go into hiding while fighting a losing battle against Rajaat’s followers. Daskinor assists. [amended timeline text, taken from Lost Cities of the Trembling Plains]
144th King’s Age, the year of Priest’s Contemplation (-3,531)
Rajaat sends all but a few of his students away. Using the power of the Pristine Tower and the mysterious Dark Lens Rajaat creates his Champions. Each Champion is ordered to eliminate one specific race from the face of Athas in an effort to bring about the return of the Blue Age. The Cleansing Wars begin. [Athas.org timeline]
Noteworthy
What is interesting is that most, if not all, of the second (and successful) batch of Rajaat’s Champions came from the defiling school.
One or two initially started out as preservers I remember, but must consult notes to definitively state the case. One could almost conclude that something in the process needs defiling magic and not preserving magic. Of course, becoming a Champion of Rajaat is not the same as becoming a dragon.
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Not necessarily the same; depending on preferred edition, YMMV.
I think “of questionable character” accurately describes folks willing to become genocidal immortal demagogues/demigods. 
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In Dead Lands we had much of the Navel’s staff leadership being Rajaat’s more “academic” students - basically the bureaucrats, scientists, ect running his day to day affairs while the Champions are the rabble-rousing military leaders. In general his entire seeding of Athas with preservers over that roughly 1,000 year period seems to have been to destabilize the ruling psiocracies and social order and allow the Preservers to become complacent as a new class of elites to blame for the disruptions and inequities brought on by the age of magic.
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And figure out which race/individuals were best suited to becoming defilers/Champions as ‘accidents’ would inevitably happen with that many wizards running around.
Oddly enough I’m having a dispute with a friend over that timeline. He believes it wouldn’t take Rajaat a millenium to figure out who he wanted for his champions. He was saying how his time in the swamp was when he experimented and determined how magic would affect the various rebirth races. He believes he would have had the schools open for a century at most. Personally I think the 1000 years makes more sense to me since his champions would naturally be exceptional, human, evil and master psionicists. I would think granting them increased lifespans would be just one of the many benefits they would see before launching the Preserver Jihad.
Rajaat’s time in the swamp was when he created magic. Te empirical study of which races were magically adept came after he left the fouled swampland and moved back to civilisation.
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