Ashu-Karn

Ashu-Karn was a demon of hunting and feats of valour.

It had a humanoid figure. It's skin was covered in grey ash that constantly flaked off. A broken suit of armour, blackened from fire, concealed most of it's form but not the head - it's head was completely covered with small, beady red eyes. The arms of the being had far too many joints, and spikes of broken metal jutted from the forearms. The hands had long, skeletal fingers. Through a rent in the breastplate of the armour, a large, fanged mouth could be seen, though the creature never used the mouth to eat or communicate - it had a limited sort of telepathy it broadcasted it's vocalisations with.

The being wields a large cleaver, made from the carved bones of some monstrous creature. Will-o'-the-wisps float about it's head and shoulders. A dozen small knives, a mixture of bone, metal, and obsidian, hang from it's waist. Ashu-Karn enjoyed the hunt. It had large amounts of patience, though once enraged, it would not listen to reason. It was willing to bargain for it's own gain or for amusement: it enjoyed seeing heroics, even if they were against itself. It was this that caused the Swamp Scourge.

It studied: it uses its chaos magic to change the sacrificed humans into strange and terrible beasts, which it release into the swamps to hunt. It enjoys cutting up creatures to see how they work and how to change them.

Emergence, campaigns, and defeat
Ashu-Karn fell to the world in the Northern swamps in the year 1120. He was incarnated from power released in the slaying of Vaydesh. Through religious fear inspired by shape-changing magic, it successfully rallied the majority of the northern tribes behind it, holding court in an ancienct crypt, where it practised foul magic on prisoners and animals. It was known to dissect living creatures and change them intop monsters. Those who hunted the monsters and brought back their carcasses were rewarded with a sign of it's favour: a handprint normally across the face in it's ash, that stained the skin permanently.

Once it subjated the tribes, it resided for a while in it's crypt, studying the shapes of animals and it's chaos magic, hunting the monsters produced. However, it eventully became bored, and lead the tribes to war south-east into the Eastern Kindgom of Kilaana in the year 1122. The war raged for a year and three months before it's forces where forced back. During this time, a champion known as "Ketari " emerged on the side of Kilaana.

Forced back to the swamps, the demon and it's forces ambushed and destroyed the Eastern soldiers sent to eliminate it. The conflict dissolved into a standoff for the next three years, both sides building up their forces. Ashu-Karn personally trained up a champion to rival Ketari. The demon re-invaded Kilaana. It intially drove the kindgoms forces back, earning the title the Swamp Scourge. After the bloody Battle of the Red Hill (1123), the demon proposed a duel between champions. The offer was accepted; both the demon's champion and Ketari faced off. When Ketari won within three blows, the demon was enraged. During the ensuing battle, the demon was challenged by Ketari and slain. The tribes, held together only by fear of the demon, scattered and returned to the northern swamps. Ketari was supposedly coated with the ash of the demon, gaining the title of "Ketari of the Ashes."

Related

 * Demons
 * Swamp Scourge
 * Ketari of the Ashes