Mario Vargas Llosa's apocalyptic 1981 novel, The War of the End of the World, is set in the rough terrain of the Brazilian state of Bahia and begins with the arrival of a mysterious figure of great spiritual intensity, clad in a purple tunic, in the early 1890s. Preaching a gospel of love while invoking the pains of hell, the incantatory rhetoric of this man, named Antônio Conselheiro, soon draws a growing band of followers who come to refer to him as the Counselor.

The Counselor's doctrine of millenarian salvation, which calls for abolition of all institutions of the republican government—including marriage, the separation of church and state, census-taking, and the use of the metric system—attracts a ragtag army of criminals, outcasts, the poor, escaped slaves, and victims of disease and physical deformity. This group welcomes the news of an imminent transformation of society that will bring equality for all.

After a brief period of quiescence, during which the Counselor is accepted by the Brazilian religious authorities, the revolutionary tenor of his message eventually makes him persona non grata. He and his group of disciples, who by now number in the low thousands, take refuge at the isolated ranch of Canudos on the Vaza-Barris River. Fresh adherents continue to flock to the Counselor's new base of operations. Among them is a Scottish anarchist and veteran of the Paris Commune named Galileo Gall—who, although a dedicated rationalist, is galvanized by the force of the Counselor's words.

The growth of the millenarian group at Canudos, which now includes jagunços (hired mercenaries) and numbers in the tens of thousands, finally begins to alarm the officials of nearby towns, who call on the Brazilian government to remove them. When a first small detachment of soldiers is sent to Canudos to arrest the Counselor, most are slaughtered. Two successively larger forces are deployed to the region with the mission of eliminating the revolutionary group; both are repelled, taking heavy losses at the hands of a force that fights as though possessed. Finally, a brigade-sized unit armed with heavy artillery arrives and utterly obliterates almost the entire remaining populace of Canudos in a spectacle of horrifying carnage.

Llosa's novel seems to suggest what more recent geopolitical events may confirm: that powerful irrational and religious impulses that have survived for millennia may continue to pose serious threats to the fragile legal superstructure of democratic republics.