History

Now one of the mightiest Paladins to ever have walked the surface of Arthos, Asher’s early life gave no indication of the stratospheric heights that she would reach. Tales of her early life are often spun into sermons and stories, with the Church of Light claiming that they are meant to be aspirational. Despite this, many critics claim that such stories are propaganda at best.

Recordkeeping is not a strong point in the society of the Wood Fae, and the chaos of the Brood’s siege upon Melinda threw everything into disorder. Thus, the exact lineage of Asher’s upbringing is hard to determine. Asher herself will not speak of it as the trauma of those days is still an open wound for many of her people. What is known is like so many others, the Brood took her entire family and it is only by blind luck that she survived. In the chaos that followed the necessities for life were in short supply, and it is said that only those who remained morally flexible were able to keep their bellies full and a roof over their heads. Asher was no different. At an age where she would have been considered to be barely an adolescent by her people, she was already an accomplished thief and no stranger to violence. In another life, perhaps she would have continued down that path of crime, and likely met her end when she finally stole from someone she couldn’t outfight or outrun.

When Roderick Hale, Archbishop of the Church of Light, arrived on Melinda to give aid to the refugees, his guards caught the young Asher trying to steal from Hale himself. Even to this day none can say exactly why Hale decided to show mercy to this young, haggard Wood Fae who had attempted to lift his belt pouch instead of having her harshly punished like so many other thieves. While the inner workings of Hale’s mind remains a mystery, what he said after he commuted her sentence at trial has been recorded for posterity:

“As my guards dragged you away, you seemed to me as the most pitiful thing that I had ever seen. And yet, despite your matted hair, distended belly, and tattered clothes, I saw in you an inner Light that few possess. I knew right then that you were not destined for the gallows, and instead I would show the world that even a pathetic urchin like you can be shaped into greatness by the hands of the God of Light.”

Asher followed along with Hale to Castle Lightguard, where she trained with the Citadel’s best Wytch Hunters, learning secrets that none outside their ancient order have ever mastered. She studied at the feet of the Citadel’s best sword masters, and listened intently when the Church’s most prominent Clerics spoke on matters of faith. Perhaps it is of no surprise that in three short years, she had earned Roland’s favour and been promoted to the Citadel’s highest office of Inquisitor General. It is said that Hale trusts her implicitly, and she him.

Current Events

2262 – July 2265

Asher of the Dawn is Hale’s shadow; where he goes, she goes. She is the fist to his voice, and when he strikes at a nest of heretics, Asher is always at the tip of his proverbial spear. Nevertheless, there are a few persistent rumours that Asher and Hale may not always completely see eye-to-eye, and that she has even begun to question some of his actions as of late. These are of course, little more than gossip.

Asher is the only person on Arthos that Hale trusts enough to bind and control the Black Wytch Nebbia Andranasta, for only she has the necessary combination of an ironclad loyalty to the Archbishop, and a pure incorruptible spirit infused with the very essence of the Light. While she may have expressed some reservation at the necessary sacrifices, she was there when the Mortigeist was bound to Roderick Hale, and she was the one who commanded the Black Wytch to cast the necessary spells that enabled the Demon Prince’s entrapment.

When the Church of Light put the town of Misthaven to the torch in June of 2265, it was claimed that Asher was there as well, and that she had slain their mightiest protector, a local Dragon Knight of Isana. With a single swing of her sword, the Defender weapon named “Last Hope,” she separated his head from his shoulders, and stood nearby as the Archbishop pronounced his sentence upon all that dwelt there.

Most recently, Asher of the Dawn has been seen escorting the forces of Roderick Hale northward. With them rides the prison of the Black Wytch herself, with scouts reporting that she never takes her eyes off of the blessed iron maiden that contains her, day or night.

August 2265

Asher of the Dawn was revealed to be the Hell King in esoteric magical disguise to the forces gathered against Archbishop Roderick Hale in the town of Mordenholt. Her ancient deceptions ran so deep that even Hale had no idea of her true identity, believing in earnest that he was a chosen servant of the Pantheon of Light instead of an empowered pawn of the King of Demons. With this reveal she uttered the following to the assembled warriors before demonic entities began emerging from fallen Church of Light clergy and soldiers alike:

“Quite honestly I don’t even need to be here. You’ve done everything I needed you to do. You removed from Arthos the only thing that might have thwarted my plans. The Divine Crown, given to the first King of Tiefanue by the Gods of Light themselves had the power to do what you do not. Here, upon the graveyard of a Firstborn, that Divine Crown, destroyed or not, allows me to finally remove any semblance of Divinity from this mortal realm. Then my real work can begin.”

Wielding powerful Blood Magic, the energy contained within the bones of the Firstborn Daedalon, and the leaking Deep Magic of the sundered crown of Tiefanue, the Hell King completed a blasphemous spell to sever the Divine Magic, be it Light or Dark, from the surface of Arthos. He then departed through a hell rift back into the Hellstack Plane.

August 2266 – July 2267

Having completely abandoned his disguise of Asher of the Dawn, the Hell King and his twisted forces of the Temple of the Black Eclipse sweep over parts of Arthos like a rolling flame. Demons, corrupted mortals, and bewytched converts march to its hellish drumbeats, and terror clutches at the nations of the world.

August 2267

The nations of the world came together to march on Lightguard City where the Hell King had made his seat of power on Arthos; the Hell King’s War had begun. With grueling preparations completed and tireless trials against the demonic legions of Hell survived, the allied forces of Arthos struck against the King of Demons on the night of August 3rd, 2267. After a long and drawn out battle, the Hell King was brought low, but refused to accept defeat. Calling to his children, the Demon Princes, he beseeched their aid. However, the Princes and their servants, in a collective moment of opportunity, opened hell rifts all about the King of Demons, trying desperately to grab the Hell Crown from his brow for themselves. Before any of the Demon Princes could steal the crown, the Hell King hurled it back into the Spirit Tempest. Furious, each of his eight demonic children tore the Great Beast’s form asunder, taking a piece for themselves back to their Principalities.