The War Against the Authority
The War Against the Authority, from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.
The War Against the Authority represents the climactic convergence of cosmic rebellion in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It is a multidimensional conflict where Lyra Belacqua, Will Parry, and their allies challenge the tyrannical rule of the Magisterium and its figurehead, the Authority, to liberate humanity from spiritual oppression.
Lore & Background
Though the Authority asserts divine dominion across every world, his reign proves to be a hollow edifice built on fear and the systematic suppression of Dust. Lord Asriel travels to an empty world and builds an enormous basalt fortress with an adamant tower, gathering armies from many different worlds for his rebellion against the Kingdom of Heaven. Rebel angels under Xaphania, Ruta Skadi's witch clan and the Gallivespians side with Asriel, while Lyra and Will travel to the world of the dead and open a window so that the dead can leave. The dead step through and joyfully dissolve, their atoms becoming one with the universe.
Reader's Guide
Lord Asriel prepares for the war by building his fortress in an empty world and gathering allies from across the multiverse. While Asriel commands the assault on the Kingdom of Heaven against angels loyal to the Metatron, Lyra and Will undertake a parallel mission into the Land of the Dead to liberate trapped ghosts. Mrs Coulter and Asriel drag Metatron into an abyss and are destroyed with him, and the Authority, freed by Lyra and Will from the crystal litter in which he is carried, is so feeble that exposure to the wind causes his form to dissolve.
More in Narrative Arcs & Timeline
Elsewhere in His Dark Materials
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