Ashnar Dragonsoul Champion Lore
The Deadlands is no place for a scrawny and sickly child. Ash’nar learned this all too well during his brutal childhood. The warrior life apparently unavailable to him, he was briefly apprenticed to a clan fire-sorcerer, but only mastered simple cantrips. During one particularly scorching summer, hunts failed, water was scarce, and the clan could not support ‘weaklings’. He was cast out to die amid the sweltering temperatures and suffocating fumes of the Thundermount’s foothills. A few days later, starved, thirsty, delirious, and wretched, Ash’nar saw a mighty, reptilian figure with coal-black skin rippling with flame approaching through the haze. He doubted his senses, but it was no illusion. He was carried off by his rescuer: Sulfuryion, the Lizard-Demon bent on recreating the ancient Dragonkin Empire for the glory of Siroth. To Ash’nar, it was a miracle. He swore his undying devotion to his ‘savior’.
In truth, Sulfuryion saved Ash’nar to increase his followers’ ranks, preying upon an outcast who could be easily molded to his cause. Ash’nar’s fealty to Sulfuryion swiftly became a burning obsession. He nodded eagerly at every mote of apparent wisdom and knowledge, obeyed every instruction, and even the smallest praise and vaguest promise of future power were intoxicating to the once-outcast Orc.
To solidify Ash’nar’s servitude and mark him an honorary Dragonkin, Sulfuryion gave Ash’nar a vial of his own blood to drink. Abandoning decorum, the Orc took it and gulped it down as if it was water and he’d been lost in the desert for days. He apologized and thanked his master a dozen times before he felt its searing power within him.
Later, Ash’nar felt compelled to recall the lessons from his apprenticeship as a pyromancer, and rapidly surpassed his old limits. He put the enemies of Sulfuryion’s new Dragonkin order — Sacred Order inquisitors, mercenaries hired by merchants Sulfuryion had robbed, Lizardman chieftains who saw his cause as blasphemous and dangerous — all to flame.
When Ash’nar was not defending his master, or acting as an enforcer of his will, he served as Sulfuryion’s emissary to sway more Orcs to the cause. Though Lizardmen were to be the promised ruling class, Sulfuryion’s new Dragonkin Empire would need warriors and laborers, loyal vassals just as the Empire of old once enjoyed. Ash’nar worked miracles of shadow and healing flame, promising power and unshackled freedom to weak, and embittered Orc clans. Many pledged themselves to the cause, and Ash’nar made scorched examples of those who rejected his offer. As word of Ash’nar’s cruelties spread, more Orcs joined his forces without resistance, many wishing for the kind of power the emissary wielded. Sulfuryion rewarded Ash’nar’s successes with new sips of his blood, and with each Ash’nar’s strength increased and his connection to Sulfuryion grew.
Ash’nar witnessed the Thundermount experience a minor eruption after several years of service to Sulfuryion. Voluminous magma flows scorched paths across the landscape and burbled with the Darkness that dwells in Teleria’s molten heart. Ash’nar saw a chance to truly show his devotion by communing directly with the essence of fire itself, and gain even more power to help realize Sulfuryion’s goals. Curious and amused, Sulfuryion agreed his servant could bathe in the Thundermount’s searing lifeblood, and stood by to watch. Fortified with one final dose of Sulfuryion’s blood, Ash’nar waded into the largest, deepest magma flow and fully submerged himself in the molten rock, his flesh unscathed even as his robes burned off his body. Long minutes passed. Sulfuryion and his retainers, observing from safety, dismissed the Orc as an over-ambitious fool and turned to leave.
It was then that Ash’nar burst from the blazing river. His aspect was now of a mighty warrior, clad in armor of pure flame made solid, mimicking the scaled body of the mightiest Dragonkin of old. In his clenched fist was a massive mace wreathed in tongues of fire. Taller, broader, muscled, poised, and radiating intense heat from his magic-forged garb, Ash’nar approached Sulfuryion. The Lizard-Demon concealed his astonishment, remaining imperiously stone-faced. Ash’nar knelt before him, placing his great mace at his feet.
Sulfuryion crowed with delight. He named the weapon the Thunderstar, declaring it a gift Siroth had bestowed upon them and an omen of their righteousness. Ash’nar retrieved the weapon and stood up, engulfed in a sulfurous curtain of flame. When it subsided he was once again the Ash’nar who had waded into the magma, clad in mystic robes and of less conspicuous stature. In turn, the Thunderstar transmuted into a pyromantic staff. In this form Ash’nar could conceal his monstrous power, the better to beguile and recruit his fellow Orcs. Should battle erupt, he could transform into an armored, Thunderstar-armed juggernaut.
Ash’nar returned to his work, more effective than ever in swaying Orcs to Sulfuryion’s cause and keeping order among Sulfuryion’s lieutenants. But Sulfuryion became concerned by the power his servant had acquired. He brooded enviously on Ash’nar’s transfiguration and acquisition of the Thunderstar, wondering if Siroth’s favor had shifted to his disciple. He worried also that Ash’nar’s single-minded loyalty was to Siroth, not himself, and that some other Demonspawn might sway Ash’nar’s fealty in presenting themselves as stronger or more loyal to Darkness. In mentoring, nurturing, and finally indulging Ash’nar, Sulfuryion believed he had created a monster, possibly one even stronger than himself. Tellingly, Ash’nar had ceased desiring to sup on Sulfuryion’s blood.
Ash’nar, however, is oblivious to Sulfuryion’s unease and paranoia. He remains completely loyal to the ‘great leader’ who rescued him from death and enhanced his power beyond his wildest imagination. He longs only to see the realization of Sulfuryion’s dream of a Dragonkin Empire reborn under Siroth’s guiding hand, stronger even than it was at its height. This empire created the Brimstone Portal after all — the largest gateway to Anathraad the world has ever seen. A new Empire could create more, greater portals, and Ash’nar is determined to stand at Sulfuryion’s side when they finally open, so he may cross through and bathe deeply in Anathraad’s roaring, otherworldly flames.