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{{Infobox Conflict
{{Infobox Conflict
|Conflict name = Rutan-Sontaran War
|image    = Sontar-Rutan.jpg
|image=
|aka      = Great Sontaran War
|location = [[Mutter's Spiral]]
|part of  =
|result = [[Sontar]] destroyed
|date      =  
|combatants = [[Rutan]]s[[Sontaran]]s
|location = [[Mutter's Spiral]]
|commanders = [[Sontar (individual)|General Sontar]], [[Rutan Queen]]
|result   = [[Sontar]] destroyed
|side1    = [[Sontaran]]s
|side2    = [[Rutan]]s
|leader1  = [[Sontar (The Infinity Doctors)|General Sontar]]
|leader2  = [[Rutan Queen]]
|strength1 = Weapon power and large count
|strength2 = Shape-shifting abilities
}}
}}
The '''Rutan-Sontaran War''' between the [[Rutan Host]] and the [[Sontaran|Sontaran Warburg]] lasted for either thousands or millions of years across [[Mutter's Spiral]].
The '''Rutan-Sontaran War''' was fought between the [[Rutan Host]] and the [[Sontaran]]s. It lasted for thousands, perhaps millions of years, and was waged across the [[Mutter's Spiral]]. The Sontarans called it the '''Great Sontaran War'''. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Great Sontaran War (audio story)|The Great Sontaran War]]'')
 
The Doctor had considered the war a pointless waste of time, as the Sontarans never fought for anything other than the joy of battle. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Poison Sky (TV story)|The Poison Sky]]'')


== History ==
== History ==
=== Origins of the War ===
=== Origins of the war ===
The Sontarans, at that stage not yet a species of [[clone]]s, but already, in the [[Seventh Doctor]]'s words, a "fierce, martial race", began to sweep over Mutter's Spiral. Only the Rutans stopped them. Reacting to this, the Sontarans stopped reproducing naturally and began to turn themselves into a clone species. ([[DWM]]: ''[[Pureblood]]'')
The Sontarans, not yet a species of [[clone]]s, were already, in the [[Seventh Doctor]]'s words, a "fierce, martial race". They began to sweep over Mutter's Spiral. Only the Rutans opposed them. Reacting to this, the Sontarans stopped reproducing naturally and turned themselves into a clone species in order to constantly supply their frontlines with fresh soldiers. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Pureblood (comic story)|Pureblood]]'') One account implied that the Rutans began the war with the Sontarans out of boredom, and because it gave them a sense of superiority. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Taking of Chelsea 426 (novel)|The Taking of Chelsea 426]]'') The [[Sontaran Subliminal Education Matrix]] taught newborn Sontarans that the war had begun when the Rutans descended on the Sontarans, leading to the Sontaran clans uniting into the empire to fight them together. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Soldier's Education (short story)|A Soldier's Education]]'') Major [[Kreg]] would later admit that the Sontarans did not truly know how the war had started. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Great Sontaran War (audio story)|The Great Sontaran War]]'')
 
A definitive date of the start of the war remains unknown. The [[Tenth Doctor]] separately described it as having begun fifty thousand years before [[2009]] [[AD]] and the early [[26th century]] respectively, clearly a rough estimate. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Poison Sky (TV story)|The Poison Sky]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Taking of Chelsea 426 (novel)|The Taking of Chelsea 426]]'') [[Kaarsh|Field Major Kaarsh]] gave the same figure in [[1605]]. However, the [[Rutan]] known as [[Elizabeth Winters|Lady Winters]] gave the contradictory figure of ten thousand years, which would mean that the war would have begun circa 8395 BC. ([[GAME]]: ''[[The Gunpowder Plot (video game)|The Gunpowder Plot]]'')
 
The [[Seventh Doctor]] described this event as "ten centuries" before the [[25th century|25th]] or [[26th century]], meaning that the conflict would have begun in the [[15th century|15th]] or [[16th century|16th]] centuries. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Pureblood (comic story)|Pureblood]]'') This contradicted evidence given elsewhere, such as a Sontaran speaking of war with the Rutans in the [[12th century]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Warrior (TV story)|The Time Warrior]]'') and the Rutan plan to destroy the Sontarans in the [[13th century]]. ([[GAME]]: ''[[The Gunpowder Plot (video game)|The Gunpowder Plot]]'') [[Kygon Brox]] described the [[Earth]] as a "primitive world" during the [[Fifty-first Star Fall Campaign]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Instruments of War (comic story)|The Instruments of War]]'')
 
The Rutans and Sontarans both involved themselves in the [[Millennium War]] of [[Distant past|150 million years BC]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'')
 
=== Events of the war ===
During the dying days of the [[Fifty-first Star Fall Campaign]], the Sontarans suffered heavy losses against the Rutans. Sontaran scientists created the world engine weapon the [[Warsong]] to change the course of the war. The Sontarans were unable to deploy the weapon, and the "brave warrior" [[Surnat Gaq]] escaped the Rutans, and while mortally wounded, he took the Warsong to primitive [[Earth]], where it lay dormant and undetected. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Instruments of War (comic story)|The Instruments of War]]'')
 
During the [[13th century]], the Sontaran [[Linx]] claimed Earth for the Sontaran Empire when he crashed there after being shot down by a squadron of Rutan fighters. He time travelled into the future to kidnap scientists to repair his ship after discovering how crude the materials of the period were.
 
Linx formed an alliance with a robber baron named [[Irongron]], promising to supply him with weapons Earth would not see for centuries, if the human provided him with shelter so he could repair his ship. He was unable to hold the planet, and was killed as he tried to leave Earth by the [[archer]] [[Hal (The Time Warrior)|Hal]], the [[Third Doctor]] having helped return the scientists. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Warrior (TV story)|The Time Warrior]]'')


A definitive date of the start of the war remains unknown. The [[Tenth Doctor]] described it having begun 50,000 years before [[2009]] AD, clearly a rough estimate. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Poison Sky]]'') [[Kaarsh|Field Major Kaarsh]] gave the same figure in [[1605]], which matches. However, the [[Rutan]] known as [[Elizabeth Winters|Lady Winters]] gave the contradictory figure of 10,000 years, which would mean that the war would have begun circa 8395 BC. ([[VG]]: ''[[The Gunpowder Plot]]'')
Around the same time, a Rutan ship containing two doomsday weapons collided with [[the Doctor's TARDIS]], causing it to crash-land on Earth. The Rutans on board were placed in [[suspended animation]] for four hundred years and lost one of the weapons. When they awoke in [[1605]], they sent out a distress beacon, which both the [[Sontaran Empire]] and the Rutan Host discovered. Sontarans and the Rutans raced to retrieve the weapon and use it on the other species. The [[Eleventh Doctor]] modified the weapon, as well as a second weapon [[Charlie (The Gunpowder Plot)|Charlie]] stole. He gave one to each race, telling both that if one attempted to use it, they faced a possibility of killing their own species instead of the enemy. ([[GAME]]: ''[[The Gunpowder Plot (video game)|The Gunpowder Plot]]'')


The [[Seventh Doctor]] described this event as "10 centuries" before the [[25th century|25th]] or [[26th century]], meaning that the conflict would have begun in the [[15th century|15th]] or [[16th century|16th]] centuries. This contradicts evidence given elsewhere, such as a Sontaran speaking of war with the Rutans in the [[12th century]] ([[DW]]: ''[[The Time Warrior]]'') and the Rutan plan to destroy the Sontarans in the [[13th century]]. ([[VG]]: ''[[The Gunpowder Plot]]'')
By the early [[20th century]], the Sontarans were winning the war. The Rutans, who had once controlled all of [[Mutter's Spiral]], had been driven to the far fringes of the galaxy. In the [[1900s]], a Rutan scout attempted to establish a beachhead for a Rutan invasion of Earth in order to launch a "final assault". The [[Fourth Doctor]] prevented it from doing so, knowing the Sontarans would simply bombard the planet with missiles, destroying humanity in the process. The Doctor destroyed the Rutan mothership, finally ending the Rutans' plans for Earth. ([[TV]]: ''[[Horror of Fang Rock (TV story)|Horror of Fang Rock]]'')


Finally, both the Rutans and Sontarans involved themselves in the [[Millennium War]] of [[Distant past|150 million years BC]]. ([[PDA]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel]]'')
By [[1941]], when [[human]]s developed destructive enough [[technology]] to cause the Warsong to begin its activation, both the Sontarans and Rutans were able to detect the Warsong stirring on Earth after its "overture" reached out across the galaxy. A Rutan [[spy]] disguised himself as a decorated [[Nazi]] veteran called [[Heinz Bruckner]]. As Bruckner, he ordered [[artillery]] strikes in the [[Sahara Desert]] to pinpoint the location of the Warsong so he could use the Earth as a weapon against the Sontarans. After activating the weapon, the [[Twelfth Doctor]] stopped Bruckner's plans by using a Sontaran [[osmic projector]] to send Bruckner's trigger mechanism through time. He then blew up the weapon with [[The Doctor's sonic screwdriver|his sonic screwdriver]] so that neither the Sontarans nor the Rutans could claim the weapon for themselves to use against the other side. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Instruments of War (comic story)|The Instruments of War]]'')
=== Events of the War ===
During the [[13th century]], the Sontaran [[Linx]] claimed [[Earth]] for the Sontaran Warburg, though he was unable to hold the planet, being killed after being stopped by the [[Third Doctor]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Time Warrior]]'')


Around the same time, a Rutan ship containing two doomsday weapons collided with [[the Doctor's TARDIS]], causing it to crash-land on Earth. The Rutans on board were placed in [[suspended animation]] for four hundred years and lost one of the weapons. When they awoke in [[1605]], they sent out a distress beacon, which both the [[Sontaran Empire]] and the Rutan Host discovered, and both the Sontarans and the Rutans raced to retrieve the weapon and use it on the other species. The [[Eleventh Doctor]] modified the weapon, as well as a second weapon [[Charlie (The Gunpowder Plot)|Charlie]] stole, and gave one to each race, telling both that if one attempted to use it, they faced a possibility of killing their own species instead of the enemy. ([[VG]]: ''[[The Gunpowder Plot]]'')
In the [[1980s]], the Sontarans investigated the possibility of using [[space-time vessel|time ships]] to win the war. They attempted to gain the secrets of [[TARDIS]]es from the [[Second Doctor]], but were betrayed by [[Chessene of the Franzine Grig]]. At the same time, the Sontarans were involved in a battle with the Rutans in the [[Madillon Cluster]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'')


In [[1900s]], a Rutan scout also attempted to take the planet Earth, this time for the Rutans. The [[Fourth Doctor]] prevented him from doing this. ([[DW]]: ''[[Horror of Fang Rock]]'')
In [[2001]], when the [[Kulan]] attempted to invade Earth, [[Sa'Motta]] noted that the Rutan-Sontaran conflict often spilled into the [[Sol System]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Escape Velocity (novel)|Escape Velocity]]'')


In the [[1980s]], the Sontaran Warburg investigated the possibility of using [[space-time vessel|time ships]] in order to win the war. They attempted to gain the secrets of the [[TARDIS]]es from the [[Second Doctor]], but they were betrayed by [[Chessene of the Franzine Grig]]. At the same point in time, the Sontarans were involved in a battle with the Rutans in the [[Madillon Cluster]], with the Rutans winning this conflict. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Two Doctors]]'')
In the [[2000s]], a Sontaran scout, Major [[Kreg]], trapped on Earth by [[Torchwood Three|Torchwood]] attempted to summon Rutan forces. He was disappointed when they only sent [[Elemental Mercenary|elemental mercenaries]], which he and [[Ianto Jones]] were able to defeat. Kreg predicted the Rutans would now leave Earth alone, though anticipated the Sontarans would still come for the planet. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Great Sontaran War (audio story)|The Great Sontaran War]]'')


In the early [[21st century]], the Sontarans were apparently losing the war (based on speculation by the [[Tenth Doctor]]) and so set about [[Sontaran invasion of Earth|invading Earth]] turning it into a cloning world. They failed and the Sontaran fleet was destroyed by [[Luke Rattigan]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Sontaran Stratagem]]/[[The Poison Sky]]'')
By [[2009]], the Sontarans were apparently losing the war, based on speculation by the [[Tenth Doctor]], though naturally they refused to concede such a possibility. Apparently without authorisation from High Command, the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet set about invading [[Sontaran invasion of Earth|Earth]], hoping to turn it into a cloning world to produce more soldiers. The Doctor stopped their plan, and the Sontaran fleet was destroyed by [[Luke Rattigan]], ([[TV]]: ''[[The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)|The Sontaran Stratagem]]''/''[[The Poison Sky (TV story)|The Poison Sky]]'') with [[Kaagh]] as the only known survivor. Later that year, [[Sarah Jane Smith]], who had personal experience with the Sontarans' future history, informed Kaagh that the Sontarans and the Rutans would still be at war for another ten thousand years, a prospect which she suggested the Sontarans would like. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Last Sontaran (TV story)|The Last Sontaran]]'')


Circa the late 21st century, the war saw conflict near the [[Sol]] system once again leading to the Rutans attempting to capture planet [[Earth]]. ([[QR]]: ''[[The Sontaran Games]]'')
In [[2021]] during [[the Flux]], the Sontarans took control of a [[Lupar]]i shield that protected [[Earth]], and therefore themselves, and sent out a transmission to survivors. Despite [[Flux Offensive|claiming]] to offer an alliance to the [[Dalek]]s and [[Cyberman|Cybermen]], Commander [[Stenck]] denied the Rutans the chance at survival, wanting to see them die in the Flux. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Vanquishers (TV story)|The Vanquishers]]'')


During either the [[25th century|25th]] or [[26th century]], the Rutans destroyed the Sontaran homeworld, [[Sontar]], with [[photonic bomb]]s, though some escaped with the Sontaran [[racepool]]. ([[DWM]]: ''[[Pureblood]]'')
In the late [[21st century]], the war saw conflict near the [[solar system]] again, leading to the Rutans attempting to capture planet Earth. A Rutan agent was sent to Earth and attempted to cause a war by infiltrating an international school of athletes. Sontarans were sent to the school, however the [[Tenth Doctor]] was able to cause the deaths of nearly all of them. The Sontaran [[Stenx]] survived and killed the Rutan, though died in the process. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Sontaran Games (novel)|The Sontaran Games]]'')


In the [[26th century]] the Rutans took over the colony of [[Chelsea 426]] above [[Saturn]] by using spores from [[flower]]s to take over the people. However the [[Fourth Sontaran Intelligence Division]] tried to stop the Rutans and attacked the colony. Due to the Tenth Doctor's intervention, the Sontarans were victorious, although later there was evidence that [[Strom|one Sontaran]] had been taken over by the Rutans. ([[NSA]]: ''[[The Taking of Chelsea 426]]'')
In [[2371]], the [[Battle of Antares]] occurred. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Lords of the Storm]]'') During either the [[25th century|25th]] or [[26th century]], the Rutans destroyed the Sontaran homeworld, [[Sontar]], with [[photonic bomb]]s, though some escaped with the Sontaran [[racepool]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Pureblood (comic story)|Pureblood]]'')


''It's unknown if this took before or after the destruction of Sontar''.
In the 26th century the Rutans took over the colony of [[Chelsea 426]] above [[Saturn]] by using spores from [[flower]]s to take over the people. However the [[Fourth Sontaran Intelligence Division]] opposed the Rutans and attacked the colony. Due to the Tenth Doctor's intervention, the Sontarans were victorious, although later there was evidence that [[Strom|one Sontaran]] had been taken over by the Rutans. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Taking of Chelsea 426 (novel)|The Taking of Chelsea 426]]'')
 
Many thousands of years after the [[20th century]], at a time when the Earth had been abandoned for 10,000 years, the Sontarans were separated from the many [[human]] worlds like [[GalSec]] throughout [[Mutter's Spiral]] by a [[buffer zone]]. The [[Grand Strategic Council]] planned to invade the galaxy, which had suddenly acquired some strategic importance in the war against the Rutans, but they had to abandon that plan when a scout, [[Field Major]] [[Styre]], was killed while trying to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the humans. After this, the [[Fourth Doctor]] bluffed, telling the Sontarans that their battle plans had been captured, so they would have to call off their invasion. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Sontaran Experiment (TV story)|The Sontaran Experiment]]'')
 
At some point after its colonisation by [[Third Zone]]rs in the year [[72640]], the planet [[Zintorra]] was caught in the crossfire of the Rutan-Sontaran war. The Third Zoners appealed to [[Gallifrey]] for help, seemingly without success. These events were known to [[The War Chief (The Legions of Death)|the War Chief]] by the [[Third Doctor]]'s day. ([[GAME]]: {{cs|The Legions of Death (game)}})
 
=== Undated events ===
The Rutans attacked [[Luachmhar]] for [[chyism]]. The Sontarans then came to the [[planet]] to fight the warring races there, upset at having been left out of the conflict. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Anything You Can Do (short story)|Anything You Can Do]]'')
 
The Rutans used time travel to recover DNA from dead time-displaced Sontarans in Ireland, ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|In Name Only (audio story)}}) which the [[Eighth Doctor]] had encountered in [[Ireland]] in [[55 BC]]. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|The Battle of Giant's Causeway (audio story)}}) The Third Doctor encountered a group of these time-travelling Rutans in [[20th century]] Earth and pretended to fall for their story of being human refugees from a future Sontaran invasion so he could try to find out what they were up to. After being discovered by [[UNIT]], the Rutans withdrew. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|The Children of the Future (audio story)}}) The Rutans used the DNA to create Sontaran-Rutan hybrids, ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|In Name Only (audio story)}}) which they had infiltrate Sontaran ranks on [[Taxodon]]. The [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Charley Pollard]] arrived on Taxodon and helped Sontaran [[Skole]] expose the scheme and foil the attempt to start a civil war among the Sontarans, though the Doctor’s reasons for doing so was to protect the natives of Taxodon from further conflict. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Born to Die (audio story)}})


=== Involvement of Gallifrey ===
=== Involvement of Gallifrey ===
[[Gallifrey]] has been involved with the war in several instances. During the [[Dark Times]], the Gallifreyan hero [[Prydonius]] was sent to act as an observer in the war. ([[NA]]: ''[[Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]'')
[[Gallifrey]] was involved with the war several times. During the [[Dark Times]], the Gallifreyan hero [[Prydonius]] was sent to act as an observer in the war. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible (novel)}}) Before the passing of the [[non-interference policy]], Gallifrey had attempted to arbitrate an end to the war to no avail. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)}})
 
During the [[Time War]], the Sontarans attempted to trick the warring Time Lords into winning their war for them. Using DNA recovered from Rutan-Sontaran hybrids the Rutans had planted in Sontaran ranks on [[Taxodon]], they created their own shapeshifting Sontarans and used them first to replace Cardinal [[Blaxill]] and her crew on a diplomatic visit to Sontar and then to impersonate a Rutan attacking a Time Lord facility, giving the Blaxill impersonator the grounds to advocate the Time Lords erase the Rutans from history by destroying Ruta III. Their plan was discovered by the [[War Doctor]] who investigated the Rutan attack with the aid of a Sontaran veteran from Taxodon, [[Skole]]. After the Doctor realised the full extent of the paradox surrounding the hybrids’ existence, he and Skole intervened in the [[assault on Ruta III]], seeing to the failure of the hybrids by destroying the Time Lord flagship they controlled. This prevented the sequence of events that led to the hybrids’ existence, but the Doctor preserved the paradoxical events using the [[anomaly cages]] the Time Lords had intended to allow the paradoxical destruction of the Rutans. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|In Name Only (audio story)}})
 
==== The Infinity Doctor's gambit ====
In an [[The Infinity Doctors universe|altered state of reality]], the Warburg, led by the Supreme Commander [[Sontar (The Infinity Doctors)|General Sontar]], and a representative of the Rutan Host convened on Gallifrey to meet face to face without violence at [[Infinity Doctor|the Doctor]]’s instigation. After the conference broke down, the Doctor took them in his [[Infinity Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] to see the future their continued war would result in, however they found the future entirely destroyed due to [[the Effect]] instead. The Doctor left them locked in his TARDIS whilst he went to find out what had happened, and only remembered to release them once the crisis was resolved. By this time Sontar and the Rutan had begun to talk and make the beginnings of a peace, as the [[temporal grace]] of the TARDIS had stopped them killing each other. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Infinity Doctors (novel)|The Infinity Doctors]]'')
 
=== Aftermath ===
By the time the war ended, no one knew or cared which side won. ([[AUDIO]]: [[The Artist at the End of Time (audio story)|''The Artist at the End of Time'']])
 
== Other realities ==
In an [[alternate timeline (Master of the Daleks)|alternate timeline]] where the [[Dalek]]s working under the [[Dalek Time Controller]] and {{Macqueen}} took over [[Earth]] in [[1921]], the Sontarans continued focusing on their conflict with the Rutans, initially having "no quarrel" with the Daleks until, in [[1961]], they started attacking Sontaran spacecraft as a means to harvest [[bio-matter]] to create new Daleks. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Master of the Daleks (audio story)|Master of the Daleks]]'')


During another period of [[Time Lord]] history, the Warburg, led by [[Sontar (individual)|General Sontar]] himself, the Warburg's supreme commander, and the Rutan Host convened on Gallifrey to meet face to face without violence. ([[PDA]]: ''[[The Infinity Doctors]]'').
In an [[Cyber-President's timeline|alternate timeline]], the [[Cyberman|Cybermen]] wiped out the Rutans before turning on the Sontarans in the [[24th century]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)|Supremacy of the Cybermen]]'')


:''When these two encounters with the Time Lords occurred in unknown, due to the difficulty in dating the [[Rassilon Era]].''


[[Category:Galactic conflicts]]
[[Category:Rutan-Sontaran War| *]]
[[Category:Sontaran conflicts]]
[[Category:Conflicts]]
[[Category:Rutan conflicts]]
[[Category:Galactic wars]]

Latest revision as of 17:14, 21 October 2024

The Rutan-Sontaran War was fought between the Rutan Host and the Sontarans. It lasted for thousands, perhaps millions of years, and was waged across the Mutter's Spiral. The Sontarans called it the Great Sontaran War. (AUDIO: The Great Sontaran War)

The Doctor had considered the war a pointless waste of time, as the Sontarans never fought for anything other than the joy of battle. (TV: The Poison Sky)

History[[edit] | [edit source]]

Origins of the war[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Sontarans, not yet a species of clones, were already, in the Seventh Doctor's words, a "fierce, martial race". They began to sweep over Mutter's Spiral. Only the Rutans opposed them. Reacting to this, the Sontarans stopped reproducing naturally and turned themselves into a clone species in order to constantly supply their frontlines with fresh soldiers. (COMIC: Pureblood) One account implied that the Rutans began the war with the Sontarans out of boredom, and because it gave them a sense of superiority. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426) The Sontaran Subliminal Education Matrix taught newborn Sontarans that the war had begun when the Rutans descended on the Sontarans, leading to the Sontaran clans uniting into the empire to fight them together. (PROSE: A Soldier's Education) Major Kreg would later admit that the Sontarans did not truly know how the war had started. (AUDIO: The Great Sontaran War)

A definitive date of the start of the war remains unknown. The Tenth Doctor separately described it as having begun fifty thousand years before 2009 AD and the early 26th century respectively, clearly a rough estimate. (TV: The Poison Sky, PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426) Field Major Kaarsh gave the same figure in 1605. However, the Rutan known as Lady Winters gave the contradictory figure of ten thousand years, which would mean that the war would have begun circa 8395 BC. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)

The Seventh Doctor described this event as "ten centuries" before the 25th or 26th century, meaning that the conflict would have begun in the 15th or 16th centuries. (COMIC: Pureblood) This contradicted evidence given elsewhere, such as a Sontaran speaking of war with the Rutans in the 12th century (TV: The Time Warrior) and the Rutan plan to destroy the Sontarans in the 13th century. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot) Kygon Brox described the Earth as a "primitive world" during the Fifty-first Star Fall Campaign. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

The Rutans and Sontarans both involved themselves in the Millennium War of 150 million years BC. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)

Events of the war[[edit] | [edit source]]

During the dying days of the Fifty-first Star Fall Campaign, the Sontarans suffered heavy losses against the Rutans. Sontaran scientists created the world engine weapon the Warsong to change the course of the war. The Sontarans were unable to deploy the weapon, and the "brave warrior" Surnat Gaq escaped the Rutans, and while mortally wounded, he took the Warsong to primitive Earth, where it lay dormant and undetected. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

During the 13th century, the Sontaran Linx claimed Earth for the Sontaran Empire when he crashed there after being shot down by a squadron of Rutan fighters. He time travelled into the future to kidnap scientists to repair his ship after discovering how crude the materials of the period were.

Linx formed an alliance with a robber baron named Irongron, promising to supply him with weapons Earth would not see for centuries, if the human provided him with shelter so he could repair his ship. He was unable to hold the planet, and was killed as he tried to leave Earth by the archer Hal, the Third Doctor having helped return the scientists. (TV: The Time Warrior)

Around the same time, a Rutan ship containing two doomsday weapons collided with the Doctor's TARDIS, causing it to crash-land on Earth. The Rutans on board were placed in suspended animation for four hundred years and lost one of the weapons. When they awoke in 1605, they sent out a distress beacon, which both the Sontaran Empire and the Rutan Host discovered. Sontarans and the Rutans raced to retrieve the weapon and use it on the other species. The Eleventh Doctor modified the weapon, as well as a second weapon Charlie stole. He gave one to each race, telling both that if one attempted to use it, they faced a possibility of killing their own species instead of the enemy. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)

By the early 20th century, the Sontarans were winning the war. The Rutans, who had once controlled all of Mutter's Spiral, had been driven to the far fringes of the galaxy. In the 1900s, a Rutan scout attempted to establish a beachhead for a Rutan invasion of Earth in order to launch a "final assault". The Fourth Doctor prevented it from doing so, knowing the Sontarans would simply bombard the planet with missiles, destroying humanity in the process. The Doctor destroyed the Rutan mothership, finally ending the Rutans' plans for Earth. (TV: Horror of Fang Rock)

By 1941, when humans developed destructive enough technology to cause the Warsong to begin its activation, both the Sontarans and Rutans were able to detect the Warsong stirring on Earth after its "overture" reached out across the galaxy. A Rutan spy disguised himself as a decorated Nazi veteran called Heinz Bruckner. As Bruckner, he ordered artillery strikes in the Sahara Desert to pinpoint the location of the Warsong so he could use the Earth as a weapon against the Sontarans. After activating the weapon, the Twelfth Doctor stopped Bruckner's plans by using a Sontaran osmic projector to send Bruckner's trigger mechanism through time. He then blew up the weapon with his sonic screwdriver so that neither the Sontarans nor the Rutans could claim the weapon for themselves to use against the other side. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

In the 1980s, the Sontarans investigated the possibility of using time ships to win the war. They attempted to gain the secrets of TARDISes from the Second Doctor, but were betrayed by Chessene of the Franzine Grig. At the same time, the Sontarans were involved in a battle with the Rutans in the Madillon Cluster. (TV: The Two Doctors)

In 2001, when the Kulan attempted to invade Earth, Sa'Motta noted that the Rutan-Sontaran conflict often spilled into the Sol System. (PROSE: Escape Velocity)

In the 2000s, a Sontaran scout, Major Kreg, trapped on Earth by Torchwood attempted to summon Rutan forces. He was disappointed when they only sent elemental mercenaries, which he and Ianto Jones were able to defeat. Kreg predicted the Rutans would now leave Earth alone, though anticipated the Sontarans would still come for the planet. (AUDIO: The Great Sontaran War)

By 2009, the Sontarans were apparently losing the war, based on speculation by the Tenth Doctor, though naturally they refused to concede such a possibility. Apparently without authorisation from High Command, the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet set about invading Earth, hoping to turn it into a cloning world to produce more soldiers. The Doctor stopped their plan, and the Sontaran fleet was destroyed by Luke Rattigan, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) with Kaagh as the only known survivor. Later that year, Sarah Jane Smith, who had personal experience with the Sontarans' future history, informed Kaagh that the Sontarans and the Rutans would still be at war for another ten thousand years, a prospect which she suggested the Sontarans would like. (TV: The Last Sontaran)

In 2021 during the Flux, the Sontarans took control of a Lupari shield that protected Earth, and therefore themselves, and sent out a transmission to survivors. Despite claiming to offer an alliance to the Daleks and Cybermen, Commander Stenck denied the Rutans the chance at survival, wanting to see them die in the Flux. (TV: The Vanquishers)

In the late 21st century, the war saw conflict near the solar system again, leading to the Rutans attempting to capture planet Earth. A Rutan agent was sent to Earth and attempted to cause a war by infiltrating an international school of athletes. Sontarans were sent to the school, however the Tenth Doctor was able to cause the deaths of nearly all of them. The Sontaran Stenx survived and killed the Rutan, though died in the process. (PROSE: The Sontaran Games)

In 2371, the Battle of Antares occurred. (PROSE: Lords of the Storm) During either the 25th or 26th century, the Rutans destroyed the Sontaran homeworld, Sontar, with photonic bombs, though some escaped with the Sontaran racepool. (COMIC: Pureblood)

In the 26th century the Rutans took over the colony of Chelsea 426 above Saturn by using spores from flowers to take over the people. However the Fourth Sontaran Intelligence Division opposed the Rutans and attacked the colony. Due to the Tenth Doctor's intervention, the Sontarans were victorious, although later there was evidence that one Sontaran had been taken over by the Rutans. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

Many thousands of years after the 20th century, at a time when the Earth had been abandoned for 10,000 years, the Sontarans were separated from the many human worlds like GalSec throughout Mutter's Spiral by a buffer zone. The Grand Strategic Council planned to invade the galaxy, which had suddenly acquired some strategic importance in the war against the Rutans, but they had to abandon that plan when a scout, Field Major Styre, was killed while trying to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the humans. After this, the Fourth Doctor bluffed, telling the Sontarans that their battle plans had been captured, so they would have to call off their invasion. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

At some point after its colonisation by Third Zoners in the year 72640, the planet Zintorra was caught in the crossfire of the Rutan-Sontaran war. The Third Zoners appealed to Gallifrey for help, seemingly without success. These events were known to the War Chief by the Third Doctor's day. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"])

Undated events[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Rutans attacked Luachmhar for chyism. The Sontarans then came to the planet to fight the warring races there, upset at having been left out of the conflict. (PROSE: Anything You Can Do)

The Rutans used time travel to recover DNA from dead time-displaced Sontarans in Ireland, (AUDIO: In Name Only [+]Loading...["In Name Only (audio story)"]) which the Eighth Doctor had encountered in Ireland in 55 BC. (AUDIO: The Battle of Giant's Causeway [+]Loading...["The Battle of Giant's Causeway (audio story)"]) The Third Doctor encountered a group of these time-travelling Rutans in 20th century Earth and pretended to fall for their story of being human refugees from a future Sontaran invasion so he could try to find out what they were up to. After being discovered by UNIT, the Rutans withdrew. (AUDIO: The Children of the Future [+]Loading...["The Children of the Future (audio story)"]) The Rutans used the DNA to create Sontaran-Rutan hybrids, (AUDIO: In Name Only [+]Loading...["In Name Only (audio story)"]) which they had infiltrate Sontaran ranks on Taxodon. The Sixth Doctor and Charley Pollard arrived on Taxodon and helped Sontaran Skole expose the scheme and foil the attempt to start a civil war among the Sontarans, though the Doctor’s reasons for doing so was to protect the natives of Taxodon from further conflict. (AUDIO: Born to Die [+]Loading...["Born to Die (audio story)"])

Involvement of Gallifrey[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gallifrey was involved with the war several times. During the Dark Times, the Gallifreyan hero Prydonius was sent to act as an observer in the war. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible [+]Loading...["Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible (novel)"]) Before the passing of the non-interference policy, Gallifrey had attempted to arbitrate an end to the war to no avail. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"])

During the Time War, the Sontarans attempted to trick the warring Time Lords into winning their war for them. Using DNA recovered from Rutan-Sontaran hybrids the Rutans had planted in Sontaran ranks on Taxodon, they created their own shapeshifting Sontarans and used them first to replace Cardinal Blaxill and her crew on a diplomatic visit to Sontar and then to impersonate a Rutan attacking a Time Lord facility, giving the Blaxill impersonator the grounds to advocate the Time Lords erase the Rutans from history by destroying Ruta III. Their plan was discovered by the War Doctor who investigated the Rutan attack with the aid of a Sontaran veteran from Taxodon, Skole. After the Doctor realised the full extent of the paradox surrounding the hybrids’ existence, he and Skole intervened in the assault on Ruta III, seeing to the failure of the hybrids by destroying the Time Lord flagship they controlled. This prevented the sequence of events that led to the hybrids’ existence, but the Doctor preserved the paradoxical events using the anomaly cages the Time Lords had intended to allow the paradoxical destruction of the Rutans. (AUDIO: In Name Only [+]Loading...["In Name Only (audio story)"])

The Infinity Doctor's gambit[[edit] | [edit source]]

In an altered state of reality, the Warburg, led by the Supreme Commander General Sontar, and a representative of the Rutan Host convened on Gallifrey to meet face to face without violence at the Doctor’s instigation. After the conference broke down, the Doctor took them in his TARDIS to see the future their continued war would result in, however they found the future entirely destroyed due to the Effect instead. The Doctor left them locked in his TARDIS whilst he went to find out what had happened, and only remembered to release them once the crisis was resolved. By this time Sontar and the Rutan had begun to talk and make the beginnings of a peace, as the temporal grace of the TARDIS had stopped them killing each other. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]

By the time the war ended, no one knew or cared which side won. (AUDIO: The Artist at the End of Time)

Other realities[[edit] | [edit source]]

In an alternate timeline where the Daleks working under the Dalek Time Controller and the Reborn Master took over Earth in 1921, the Sontarans continued focusing on their conflict with the Rutans, initially having "no quarrel" with the Daleks until, in 1961, they started attacking Sontaran spacecraft as a means to harvest bio-matter to create new Daleks. (AUDIO: Master of the Daleks)

In an alternate timeline, the Cybermen wiped out the Rutans before turning on the Sontarans in the 24th century. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

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