Ashtoreth

Ashtoreth, high priestess of the Plaguebringer and co-leader of Clan Chaos Star.

Fumes rise out of the Wyrmwound as gases bubble up from the depths. The stench and heat of the Plaguebringer's cauldron is oppressive as the wind carries the vapors high over the Scarred Wasteland. Few dragons dare walk this close to the rim, where treacherous footing could send them plummeting into the pool.

Through the noxious mists shine the red eyes of a Pearlcatcher. She sits on the rim of the Wyrmwound, cradling her pearl in her front claws as she surveys the great expanse below. Her scales are greenish and her wings are red, but it all looks a strange yellow-orange as the light filters down through the fog.

She watches the waters churning, claws drumming gently on her pearl. She is on the verge of a decision.

Slowly, she digs a shallow cradle in the earth and sits her pearl there, carefully ensuring it will not roll away. Then she pads down to the Wyrmwound, to the center of the Plaguebringer's power in Sornieth, placing each paw precisely on the rocks. She breathes in the mists that hang close over the water, her whiskers twitching. In the gloom, her eyes glow all the brighter. She whispers something to the mists. It is too soft for any observer to hear.

"Lady of Rot, hear me. I call upon you to send your blessing of illness. Unleash your plague upon me, that I might prove myself worthy to survive. Mother of Decay, hear my prayer."

Then, slowly but with hard resolution, she dips her claws in the Wyrmwound. On her face is a kind of ecstasy – she grits her teeth, pins her ears back, and hisses soundlessly. One minute later, she lifts her claws out and blots them on the soil. Then with a dignified leap and flap of her wings, she makes her way back up the cliffs to where her pearl is sitting. She folds it back into its carrying satchel and takes off with a sweep of her wings.


The disease took her wings. It rotted the membranes, even as it threw up boils on her body, scarred her face, and dulled her scales. A clawlike growth emerged on one shoulder and wrapped its tendrils around her neck and forelimbs. But the Pearlcatcher survived the cleansing fire of illness. She proved herself strong. And for that, she earned the Plaguebringer's blessing. She became a high priestess of her deity, the deity she had always dreamed of serving. Losing her wings was, for her, a small price to pay. And in time, the Plaguebringer rewarded her and her clan's devotion by gifting her with the companionship of a Plague Sprite.

She took the name Ashtoreth and fell in with a Mirror named Reaper, who was just as fierce as she was in her worship of the Plaguebringer. Together, they founded Clan Chaos Star.

It was she who convinced Reaper to leave the Scarred Wasteland, at least temporarily, to take up the challenge of fighting an Emperor in the Sunbeam Ruins. As she saw it, the Plaguebringer was giving the clan a chance to take up a new battle, to prove themselves in a new area, after they had shown themselves more than capable of surviving in their homeland. And though she will not admit it aloud, she feels some attachment to the determined Sunforger dragons and wishes to help them fulfill their cause.