Ashnephos
| Ashnephos | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | Dragon | |
| Gender | None | |
| Weapons | None | |
| Birth | Unknown | |
Physical Characteristics
Giants describe Ashnephos as equally beautiful and terrible. His scales seem to shimmer like oiled steel in the sun, and his fangs gleam bright like polished silver blades.[1]
History
Ashnephos was not spawned by the Dragonfather Toruk. His sire was Erdross, a dragon who made his lair in the Suneater Mountains and came into contact with the giants of Bemoth, and who participated in the alliance of dragons organised by Blighterghast in 1000 BR to drive Toruk off mainland Immoren. Eventually the giants endured great sacrifice to defeat Erdross, but they only succeeded in splitting his athanc in two and threw the shards into a volcano, from which Ashnephos and his twin Charsaug spawned.[1][2]
The giants and the dragons have since warred for millennia. While the dragons have not yet gained the upper hand, they do slowly win this war as the number of giants thins and the dragons remain undiminished. The giants blame Ashnephos for accelerating the decline of their species, already suffering badly after the calamity that shattered eastern Immoren. Even after this disaster, the giants still stretched across the river valleys and circled the lake of the Suneater Mountains in myriad tribes and villages, which fell prey to Ashnephos when he descended on them.[1]
In 607 AR, Blighterghast calls all the dragons again, including Ashnephos, not against Toruk, but against Everblight, one of the weakest dragons who has proven himself a dire threat to the rest of the dragons by taking control of the Nyss and consuming the athanc of his brother Pyromalfic.[3]
Ashnephos and Charsaug heed the summons, head west and make their lair in one of the few active volcanoes in the Wyrmwall Mountains, near Blighterghast's lair. Charsaug soon receives an emissary from Blighterghast - the blackclad Krueger the Stormlord, the architect of the plan to insert draconic blight into Caen's ley lines which Blighterghast has agreed on. While Charsaug quickly loses his temper with Krueger and decides to kill him and return east, Ashnephos only reminds him of the oath Erdross made with Blighterghast and the rest of the dragons sixteen centuries earlier, then asks Krueger about how his plan could lure out Everblight, on which his twin is doubtful. Krueger answers that Everblight has learnt to divide his athanc without dividing himself, and his plan will allow the dragons to locate all of the separate parts of Everblight's athanc, and then capture and consume them. Ashnephos tells Charsaug Krueger is right, before both of them fly out of the volcano to enact Krueger's plan.[2]
Personality
Uniquely among dragons, Ashnephos and Charsaug seem willing to cooperate and live in relatively close proximity. Both seek to consume the other after the giants are defeated.[1]
Ashnephos is described as more rapacious and cruel if also less clever than Charsaug. Ashnephos menaces the giants with particular enthusiasm and seems to find no greater joy than burning their flesh with his blighted breath. None know what plans Ashnephos has beyond the obliteration of Bemoth, for he spends all of his time engaged in one campaign or another against the giants.[1]
Ashnephos is insane but this insanity grants periodic visions, which come to him as though instructions from Erdross. Ashnephos plans to utilise his divinatory powers to eventually obliterate Charsaug but finds the arrangement useful for now, and the threat of Everblight has most likely put any such plans on hold.[1]
