For some time had Ashtan sought a solution to the vines imposed upon them by the Earthmother, for the work of an Elder God would not be undone by any trial of mere mortality. And so it was that in the year 969 after the fall of the greatest empire Sapience had seen that Haskor, the Self-Made Demigod, turned his gloried mien towards his next task: one set by Babel, Lord of Oblivion and patron to the Seat of Chaos.

The work of the Seat's faithful citizens had toiled on while chaos and carnage reigned without their walls and upon the shores of Lake Narcisse. Slowly but surely, a gathering of karma preceded a working of ritual and abjuration of Creation's more ordered adherents. For Ashtan would not merely seek to halt the effusive wildland growth within their city, but to turn it to the transformation of their own citizenry, making of their poor and downtrodden a weapon to turn against those who would trespass in their home.

Meanwhile, the task set to Haskor, to be completed alongside that of the Seat, would be simple. The Self-Made was to provide two catalysts for the forthcoming ritual. One was by far the simpler task, a brief excursion into the depths of Anzari-tarin, the lightless Underrealm. There Haskor's test would be to show restraint, to husband his unsurpassed strength as much as possible for the second part of the trial, even while Ashtan's collective dragons faced a single Tsol'teth in massed battle under his guidance and direction.

She is Tlaia-liekha, the Red Star.

Forsaken by the Meld and a worthless, failed experiment in the eyes of the Tsol'teth, she had been discarded by the fortresses with their other castoffs. For well over a day beneath Haila-ele did draconic might vie with the terrible mixture of Shadowmancy, Terminus, and more that the Red Star wielded before at last she was brought low. Claiming a prize of blood and viscera, the Ashtani fled to the light of the surface, there to be rejoined by Haskor for the ritual's commencement.

Gathered under the watchful eye of the Savants did the chanting of the Ashtani commence, the foul morass of the cauldron advanced by karma, bone, blood, and more. And then, at last, was the work and core of the soon-transformed Hollowheart brought forth: a Seed of Chaos. It was preparation for the Demigod's second contribution in his temporary alliance to Ashtan's purpose, and for fulfilment of the task set to him by Babel, the Lord of Oblivion.

Slowly did Haskor's fist clench, tightening about the very substance of reality, until in recreation of the acts of the Elder Gods during the Chaos Wars the walls of the Prime Material weakened. A flood of energy - of Chaos - was the Demigod's reward and Babel's lesson for his second task in the trial, spilling forth and into the bounds of the ritual and the growth of the Seed.

Planted within the earth bounded by the Seat of Chaos and amidst the Earthmother's gift, the vines of Martin's Sorrow shuddered beneath its parasitic touch. Drained, twisted, warped, hollowed out, the foliage reached for those marked by the careful work of the Consortium across days and months, embracing them and instilling them with Chaotic energies and purpose.

And so - willing or otherwise - the denizens of Martin's Sorrow changed. Were remade, warped, and transformed to bring forth the Sorrow-sworn and Sorrowborne Sentinels of Ashtan. Yet manifestly unlike the Sentinels who guarded Gaia's realm, never would these guardians seek to wield Nature or claim anything other than the work of their city as their watchword, their will and mind turned to their overriding goal: protection of the Seat of Chaos and its ruinous ambitions.

And what of Haskor, he whose trial, administered by the city's Divine Patron, had proved the catalyst for the Seed and its successful planting? Above the highest spires of Ashtan did a great rent precede the emergence of Oblivion's Lord upon His bronze chariot. There they conversed, God and Demigod, with words meant for no mortal ear.

When at last Babel departed, a nod His only acknowledgement of Ashtan's accomplishment, then did Haskor turn peerless gaze and troubled brow towards his final, and perhaps now more difficult task: that which the Earthmother, the Life of Creation, would set to him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: Tasked with assisting Ashtan to enact a grand working upon the Hollowheart, Haskor's next trial involved an adventure to the Underrealm, a deadly encounter with a Forsaken Tsol'teth, and the warping transformation of the downtrodden residents of Martin's Sorrow while chaotic energy tore apart the slums in fell metamorphosis.

Penned by My hand on the 2nd of Lupar, in the year 970 AF.