Character:Astherek Abtherek

Astherek Abtherek

"Your curiosity is unfortunate, as you are not privy to the information you seek."

Basic Information
Homeland	Vethrala	Home City	Vouudakfel
Heritage	Duuema	Gender	Male
Profession	Harmonic Artificer	Title	Lord Master
Family
Culture	Clan Abtherek	Rank	Clan Master
Father	Kavvjng Abtherek	Current Partner	Kjrje Abstalin
Mother	Mthstale Ghoreth	Previous Partner(s)	None
Siblings	Ftenzl Abtherek	Children	Kjmjra Danzeft, Lzalthen Abtherek

Profile

Astherek is the younger son of Kavvjng Abtherek, the founder of the Abtherek Clan from back in the Exordium. Being much younger than his older brother, Ftenzl, he was mainly taken care of by his brother as his mother was not particularly interested in caring for him herself. Despite his advantages over his brother, such as his good health, he was not the favorite of either of his parents and was in trouble with his father regularly. He saw these times as challenges to overcome, and would double down on his behavior in an attempt to "win" against his father.

Warning: The content below contains spoilers for the media that this character is involved in.

The Exordium

Early Life

Astherek was born sometime during the Exordium as the second son of Kavvjng and Mthstale Abtherek. Since his brother suffered from a strange blood condition that made him especially vulnerable physically, the responsibilities of the house came to rest on Astherek instead. Very high standards were placed upon his behavior, as his father was determined to ensure that he was perfectly suited to becoming the next clan master after his time was finished. However, the stress of the expectations pushed his son to argue with him over almost everything instead of making him obedient. Kavvjng, a strong-willed man that had no desire to let a child be correct about anything, would physically abuse him in an attempt to make him behave the way he wished.

As Kavvjng's abuse of his younger son grew, Ftenzl stepped in and used his condition to shield the younger boy from the violence. He knew that Kavvjng would not hit him, as such aggression would surely kill him, so he felt safe stepping between them and ending the conflict. This served to deepen the bond between the two boys, leading Astherek to rely on his brother when things got bad. He developed hatred for his father, but he still believed that his mother was innocent and worked diligently to gain her approval. However, Mthstale was not interested in her younger son, as she had skipped out on bonding with him when he was an infant and thus only truly cared for her older son. This was not evident to Astherek, though, so he did not give up on trying to win her love.

Eventually, Ftenzl convinced Astherek to stop arguing with Kavvjng, as their father still found many ways to injure the younger boy whenever he got an attitude with him. Ftenzl had tried to convince his brother to stop arguing with him many times to no avail, but finally got through to him once Kavvjng had beaten him so badly that he lost the ability to read or write. The loss of such an important skill scared him immensely, and so he decided to take his brother's advice and suppress his desire to fight with his father. He started to simply agree with Kavvjng or keep his mouth shut, both of which drastically reduced the amount of times he was assaulted.

After losing the ability to read and write and being forced to relearn both skills from scratch, Astherek took up drawing as a method of conveying his thoughts. He used this skill exclusively for leaving himself notes, with many of his drawings not meaning anything to anyone else. Even after he had regained his linguistic abilities he continued to draw, eventually reaching a point where his art caught the attention of his father. In fact, the man noticed that he was drawing things that truly happened, although there was no way for him to have been present at those events nor would he have heard of them. Indulging in his curiosity, he had his son explain to him why he was drawing such things. It was then that Astherek revealed that he saw those and other things in his mind and that they felt so real it was as if he was there himself. Kavvjng determined that he was an oracle and, knowing how powerful oracles could become, knew that he needed to take advantage of his son's abilities as completely as possible.

Thus Kavvjng began to make demands of Astherek, forcing him to focus in on his visions and draw them exactly as he saw them. he would push him to explore his visions until he physically could not continue, as the visions were already causing him headaches and spending more time with them gave him intense migraines. Despite the pain the visions caused him, Astherek knew that it was best to do as his father commanded and to not show any weakness, as he knew that Kavvjng would be harder on him if he found out how much pain he was in. Eventually, it became nearly impossible for him to ignore the visions that he would get, as he had been conditioned to explore every part of them when he would have them. To make the suffering worthwhile, he ensured that he drew exactly what he saw each time so that he could take the drawings to his father and explain them to him.

Unbeknownst to Astherek, Kavvjng had many plans for him that he knew would be difficult to put into effect while certain factors remained in play. Firstly, he needed to give his nephew, Zefthar, a window of opportunity to leave his service. He had used Zefthar for his skill in ritual magic but had recently lost the need to manipulate him. Instead, he had brought a new ritual master into his fold, Ithng, who was ready and willing to do anything that Kavvjng requested of him. Zefthar, having been looking for an opening to leave the cult of Shadow previously, quickly found this window left open for him and obtained Ftenzl's help in using it. Unknown to him, Astherek had been in the other room and had overheard his conversation with Ftenzl. His brother's willingness to disobey Kavvjng by helping Zefthar leave confused him and made him angry, as Ftenzl had consistently told him to mind Kavvjng in all things. So, Astherek went to him in the library of their home and confronted him about this choice. Ftenzl claimed that he was doing the right thing, but Astherek would not hear it. They argued for a bit before Astherek found himself becoming uncharacteristically angry, only to realize that a chunk of time had been lost and he had beaten his brother to death during that period.

Distraught that he could kill his brother, whom he loved more than anything, he cried for his mother to aid him. When she arrived, she called him a "monster" and turned her back on him. She fetched Kavvjng, who punished him for his crime with physical abuse before telling him that he would now need to take up a different role in the family if he intended to remain there. Still young and having nowhere else to go, Astherek opted to stay at the manor and do whatever his father requested. However, his mother could not stand to live with him after what he had done, and decided to leave to live somewhere else after it was clear that he would not leave her alone. Before she could leave, though, Astherek killed her as well, although he couldn't remember doing that crime either. Kavvjng put him on an extremely short leash, so to speak, and forced him to take Zefthar's now-vacant position as the family assassin.

Astherek worked for many years as an assassin under Kavvjng's direction. While he did not have any hope that he would ever become the clan master after what he had done, he was still determined to maintain some form of dignity. He would perform assassinations that he did not remember doing and then come back to the manor to illustrate visions for his father. This went on for several years, until Kavvjng gathered all of the Fangs of Shadow in his manor and announced that they would all be going into crystals that Ithng had pulled directly from Fahlch that would allow them to return one day in the distant future to continue their machinations. However, the plan required that one of them stay behind and guard the crystals, and Kavvjng had determined that Astherek should be the one to stay behind. He would not elaborate on why he had chosen his son, leaving out the truth that the choice had not been made by him but had been told to them by the shadow tome. So, he entrusted the crystals, the Abtherek Manor, and the entirety of King's Quarter to Astherek and allowed Ithng to perform a ritual of immortality on his son before he and the others put themselves within the crystals.

The New Clan Master

After his father and the other Fangs of Shadow had gone into the crystals, Astherek had no other people that he was close with. He secured the crystals as he was told to do, but was left with no other direction. Now that his father was gone, it became his responsibility to run the Abtherek Clan, despite him not feeling as if he could do such a thing. Every decision he would make regarding the clan for the following few years would be made with caution and the feeling that any minor mistake would result in his father returning to punish him. No matter what he did, though, his father's spirit remained within the crystal. With time, he learned that he was truly free to make whatever choices he wished, with the only consequences being negative outcomes instead of physical violence. It did not take him long to realize that no one else in the district would dare lay a hand on him, with all of them knowing about his work as an assassin for Kavvjng if not the fact that he murdered his mother and brother as well. He took no issue with this, and in fact used the people's fear of him to his advantage. He easily took whatever he wanted, forced others to do whatever he told them to, and took advantage of everyone's unwillingness to stand in his way. In many ways, he allowed this newfound power to go to his head, but he did try to not manipulate everyone too intensely. He found that leaving the citizens to their daily routines and only throwing his authority around when necessary kept the clan running much smoother than if he stuck his fingers into every aspect.

Things settled into a form of normalcy after a couple years, although he was still insecure about his ability to run the clan. One day, when he was taking a walk through the streets, he overheard some citizens gossiping about someone who was in the square. One of them stated that the person "didn't belong" there, while another said that she "wouldn't last long," as surely Astherek would deal with her quickly. Sensing a moment for him to prove himself as the clan master, he headed to the King's Quarter square to see what exactly was going on. When he arrived, his attention was immediately directed to a Kraginth woman named Kjrje performing a dance near the central fountain. It was clear to him that she did not belong there, as his father had stressed to him the importance of keeping their quarter free from those of other cultures. He knew that he needed to get her out of the square to prove that he was the clan master that his father required him to be.

Despite his initial dedication to getting rid of the young woman, he simply could not follow through once he gave her a chance to speak. He had gone up to her and commanded her while they were in the square, forcing her to bow before him as he was taught to do. In some lapse of judgement, though, he brought her into the manor and decided to try and assist her in finding an alternate place to perform. Truthfully, he had no issue with her dancing in the square, as he had found it to be beautiful. He gave her the options that were available, at least as far as he was concerned. He told her that she would make the most money by going to the Foreign Quarter to dance, as they would reward her well. The trade would be that she would likely not be able to secure any sort of private quarters, as they did not have much in the way of housing. He then told her that she could make a moderate amount of money in the Merchant's District, although their lodgings were quite expensive and she would likely spend most of her income on that alone. Seeing her uncertainty and developing a bit of sympathy for her, he decided to give her a third option. In this one, she was permitted to perform in King's Quarter but required to pay him a percentage of her earnings. If she chose this option, he would allow her to live in his manor so long as she never told anyone that he was doing such a thing. After a brief moment of thought, she accepted the third offer and began living in his manor.

Astherek knew that it was not likely that she would make any money at all in King's Quarter, mainly due to the fact that all of the Abtherek citizens wanted nothing to do with people from other clans. In order to compensate for this, he decided to personally sneak money into her collection box so that she would not become discouraged. He thought quite highly of her dancing skill, especially after she told him that she had learned it on her own and did not have a teacher. He would find himself venturing to the square when she was there simply to watch her, hopefully encouraging others to donate to her. He had made it clear that she was permitted to be there and was paying taxes like everyone else, so he anticipated his people investing in her performance. However, while many people would linger in the square and seem to be enjoying her display, it did not seem like anyone was willing to financially support her. This did not seem to matter to her, though, as the money that he put in her box himself was enough to make her excited. As it was not hurting anything, he allowed her to believe that her dancing was popular and desired in the quarter so that she would continue.

In hindsight, he realized that their arrangement was not something that his father or anyone else would have permitted. He knew that allowing her to be so close to him and to stay in his quarter was a mistake, but he had grown past doing things out of fear for his father. He decided that he would go against Kavvjng's teachings, as they were clearly only meant to limit him, and start a relationship with the young woman. While he felt no shame for his actions, he still did not feel confident in exposing such a thing to the rest of his people. He continued to keep their affair a secret, making Kjrje swear to speak nothing of it to anyone or else. She took no issue with this command, as she did not want to tarnish his reputation now that she had learned how severe the standards were in this area. She felt lucky that he was willing to support her to begin with, and flattered that he thought enough of her to have some sort of relationship with her. Their secret went on for over a year before things fell apart. While sitting at home one day, a citizen came to his door and told him about "some Kraginth woman" that had seemingly died in the street. He went in search of this occurrence and found that she had already been picked up and taken to a healer. It was clear that it was not any random Kraginth woman, though, but instead Kjrje. The healer told him that she had experienced an ectopic pregnancy and had died very suddenly, likely without ever knowing that something was wrong. Knowing that he could not reveal that it was definitely his fault that this had happened, he instructed the healer to cremate her and have another dispose of the ashes. This event reminded him of what his father had always said, that it was forbidden for any of the Abtherek to mix blood with someone from another clan. He blamed himself for her sudden death and drew into his jealousy, as he was forced to see others who were not beholden to their rules court people from other clans. He made a hard and fast rule stating that there was to be absolutely no one from any other clan residing in King's Quarter. If anyone wished to court someone from another clan, they would have to move out of the quarter entirely in order to do so. Thus began his lifelong obsession with denigrating people who were in bi-cultural relationships or were a product of such relationships. His disdain for those of mixed blood became one of his central personality elements, the one that everyone would reference when speaking of his bigoted nature.

The Awakening

Rank and Conflict

During the Awakening, Astherek took on the name "Terek Bthrek" and pretended to be an average noble in the Abtherek clan, which he had renamed to be the Bthrek clan in a time prior. During his -many thousands of years that he had lived, he had become quite skilled in a vast number of different professions. During this period, though, he decided to focus on the career thought to be the hardest and most prestigious one in all of Duuema society. Indeed, he decided to put his lifetimes of knowledge to work as he attempted to become a harmonic artificer. His goal was to work as an artificer until he could reach the rank of Lord Master, and then keep working until he could attain the level of harmonic architect.

Most of those ambitions were fulfilled. However, he eventually hit a wall when it came time for him to attempt to become the harmonic architect. The man who held the position at that time, Mzark Kthren, did not have any intention of relinquishing his position. He was not elderly, and he thoroughly enjoyed his job, so it was unlikely that he would simply step down and let someone else take his place. This required Astherek to wait, which was not something he was too averse to. He had been forced to be patient for all the previous years, so a few more would not hurt him. However, a wrench was thrown into his plans when he accepted a young Kavrenthak to be his apprentice.

It was obvious from the first time they met that Kavrenthak was not a noble, nor was he even from the city of Vouudakfel. His ashy skin and hair revealed him to be an Abstuutha, perhaps the one Duuema clan that Astherek hated more than anything. This disdain was due entirely to the existence of a single man named Bthkath, who had been a prominent leader of the Abstuutha back in the Exordium. As Kavvjng had told him, they were opposites in the game that they all played together. Where Astherek was an oracle of Shadow, seeing things that benefited the side of Shadow, Bthkath was the opposite. He served the side of Light in much the same way, which made him a primary target of Kavvjng's. While Astherek knew that the man wasn't dangerous nor could he affect his plans, he still had come to hate all of the Abstuutha regardless. Kavrenthak being one of them angered him, as he could not believe that he had inadvertently recruited such a man to be his apprentice.

Kavrenthak's presence only served to bring out the worst parts of the older man, although Kavrenthak himself had no idea of why he was being treated so harshly. Astherek refused to teach him anything substantial, forcing him to do work without direction and punishing him for asking for help from the other artificers. What angered him more than Kavrenthak being an Abstuutha, though, was the fact that he was exceptionally good with harmonic magic. Despite his long years, Astherek had not yet reached the level of harmonic mastery that Kavrenthak had at such a young age. The younger man's skill infuriated him and caused him to be even more abusive toward him. He restricted his abuse to only verbal things, despite knowing that he could easily kill the young man if he so desired it. He did not wish to harm him physically, though, and he had gone every day since his father had left without using physical violence. He had not even smacked anyone, let alone committed a murder that he did not recall doing later.

Things got even worse when Architect Mzark announced that he would be stepping down, much too soon for how long he had intended to stay. He spoke to the king and arranged for the Tonal Trials to be held to elect a new harmonic architect. Astherek knew that he should participate, even though he was aware that he wasn't necessarily good enough to earn the position at that time. It came as a shock to him to learn that Mzark had convinced Kavrenthak to participate too, especially seeing as Kavrenthak did not hold a mastery in anything, let alone a mastery in something relevant to the position. Despite his arguments that Kavrenthak should not be permitted to test, Mzark pointed out that it was not a requirement of the position for someone to hold a mastery of anything. Therefore, Kavrenthak was perfectly eligible. With the support of the harmonic architect and his existing skill in harmonic magic, it was almost child's play for Kavrenthak to win the position and become the next harmonic architect.

This, of course, made Astherek exceptionally angry. It did not seem right to him that someone so young, with so little experience, and without any mastery certifications, should have won such a challenging competition. With his apprentice now serving as his master, he made the decision to ensure that Kavrenthak knew what he thought of him at ever chance he got. He hated him, he knew, and he lived every day to try and make Kavrenthak's life difficult. Kavrenthak, a generally peaceful man, did not understand the depth of hatred that the other man held for him. In an attempt to get him to treat him with respect, he adopted some of his aggressive behaviors, although that did nothing but make things worse. Eventually he resigned himself to the fact that Astherek would be a regular menace. It was not within his power to remove him from the council, as his title of Lord Master protected him from a great many things such as that. Many years passed with that unfortunate dynamic.

Goodwill

At some point between Kavrenthak's election and the year 1,202 of the Awakening, Astherek heard rumors of a couple in his district that was having trouble with their daughter. According to word on the street, the girl had been born without the ability to speak and her parents had exhausted all of their funds on solutions. Now that they had spent all of their money, they were looking for someone who would be willing to take their daughter off their hands, as they had stretched their funds too far and now could no longer support all three of them. Most people did not know how to communicate with someone who couldn't speak, with only a few people being fluent enough in Duuemarj sign language to communicate with it exclusively. As such, no one was willing or able to take in a disabled child.

When Astherek found out about this girl, he decided to investigate it himself. He had previously had visions of a woman speaking entirely with her hands, and he had a feeling that this child could very well be the woman from his visions. In fact, he had been given so many visions of her speaking to him and others that he had created the exact sign language that he saw her using to use among his spy network, based entirely off of what he had seen in his mind. As the creator of the language, he felt that it was his duty to take in this child and teach her the language that he had possibly learned from visions of her in the future. So, he traveled to the home she resided in and obtained a meeting with her parents.

They were, of course, shocked that their pleas for help had reached his ears, but they were not about to brush off his offer of aid. They explained their situation, how she had been born without a voice and it seemed to be impossible to solve the issue of communication. He told them that he was fully capable of teaching her to speak and requested that she come to live with him, effective immediately. Her parents were more than willing to send her off, as she had costed them a great deal of time, money, and energy that they would not be getting back. They had, in fact, developed animosity toward her, simply because they could not find a way to communicate with her. They packed her a small bag of clothes and sent her with him that day.

He brought her to his manor and assigned her a room, the room that had once been his before he had moved into his older brother's room thousands of years before. He quickly noticed that she had not been taught any life skills at all despite being a few years old, plenty old enough to have learned small things like making the bed. He took it upon himself to teach her everything, as it seemed improper for her to be living in his fancy manor without having any manners at all. Beyond the household skills he taught her, he also began teaching her Hohathrj.

He was not necessarily cruel to her, as was his usual method for dealing with others. He was patient with her as he taught her new words but did not hold her hands when she struggled. Whenever she was hungry, she would be made to inform him, as he did not have set meal times for himself and so there was not any particular time when they would sit down to eat. If she could not recall how to ask for food or otherwise inform him that she was hungry, he would pretend that he did not know what she wanted and therefore not fetch her any food. He would, later, use the correct gestures to prompt a response, but he would not allow her to answer him in anything less than full thoughts. By using this method, she became exceptionally skilled at conveying her thoughts to him and to others who could use Hohathrj, although she still could not properly communicate with anyone who could not parse the hand gestures. This did not matter, though. He ensured that she was never in a position to need an interpreter, and he taught her that the only people worth her time to speak to were those who could understand the sign language.

Eventually, he hired a master healer to teach her the healing arts. This was not something he had seen her do in his visions, but rather something that he required of her for his own benefit. The constancy of delving into his visions, even when he was not wishing to, caused him immense pain. At times, it would reach a point where he was so sensitive to sounds that he would lock himself in his bedroom to be as far away from noise makers as possible. By having her learn to heal, she could sit by his side and use magic or tinctures to subdue his headaches so that he could be more productive. Luckily, she caught onto the healing arts very quickly and soon became his personal healer.

The Vanishment

One day, near to the year 1,202 of the Awakening, miners discovered a strange rock and Kavrenthak was put in charge of it. Astherek was not permitted to be near it, but even he caught onto the architect's shift in personality. Once Kavrenthak revealed that he was in possession of the mythical Soulstar, Astherek wrote many essays on why he should not be touching it and should return it to where it came from. Since the warnings were coming from the one man that no one on the council had any love for, his warnings were disregarded. As if to spite him, everyone else turned harder into supporting Kavrenthak's efforts to build a machine that could transport everyone to Thera.

Astherek distanced himself from the council members that supported Kavrenthak's folly, and was not aware of the incursion led by Raevoth, the Caeluvex leader in service to Umbrex. In fact, he had been so completely left out of the loop because he did not even receive visions telling him about the impending conflict. He was at home, keeping his distance from the harmonic council, when the Caeluvex army began its assault on the city. Because of this, he had absolutely no idea that such an event was occurring, nor did it affect him in any capacity.

The Realignment

Return to Zyrkthraan

Astherek was sitting in his manor when suddenly everything around him changed. His home became broken, dirty, and full of pests, which was definitely not normal. Luckily, he did not have to exert much effort to fix things and expel the pests. Doubting that his home was the only thing affected by whatever had happened, he left the manor to seek out Duumast, the current king, and demand answers of him. However, upon entering the palace courtyard, he found the main palace doors to be closed and only one person loitering nearby. Recognizing that person as Rhzoreck, the apprentice to council artificer Yagramar, he decided to utilize him to gain entry into the palace. However, after commanding the young man to open the gate, it was revealed to him that everyone inside was dead. Knowing that he would not gain answers from corpses, he set off to find Kavrenthak, who he knew was now considered the leader of their people.

It did not take long for him to find the harmonic architect, who was in the process of collecting children off the streets and bringing them to safety. Kavrenthak directed him to the Hall of Oration, where he promised him that everything would be explained to everyone at the same time. Not having the energy to fight with him at that time, Astherek passed through the city to enter the Hall of Oration and find himself a seat close to the stage. It was there that he waited until Rhzoreck arrived and announced what had happened to everyone. While he did not wish to trust a man who was clearly of mixed heritage, he could not deny that what he said seemed to be true. He was ready to accept that things were this way now, until the crowd around them started demanding that they make Rhzoreck their new king. It was clear that no one trusted Kavrenthak with such a responsibility, and he knew the other man well enough to know that he wouldn't accept it anyway. Traditionally, if the king was dead and the harmonic architect refused the position, it would fall to the highest ranked member of the council, which was himself. He foolishly trusted in the people to recall this piece of their law, but they did not. Instead, they proceeded to name Rhzoreck king simply because he had the King's Key tucked into his belt.

Having now been victim to two unworthy people stealing a well-earned position away from him, one of which was an Abstuutha and the other a half-Roketh-half-Kraginth man, he made up his mind to hate the both of them. What made things worse was that they clearly had some kind of chemistry despite Rhzoreck's pointed anger toward Kavrenthak. He knew that it would be exceptionally bad for the two of them to form a positive relationship, but he determined that he could steer Rhzoreck in a different direction through the use of his public servants. Primarily, he used Rahk Vvarmz, the head of the King's Circle, to influence Rhzoreck's opinion of Kavrenthak.

Unfortunately, Rhzoreck refused to let Kavrenthak out of his sight, which resulted in him becoming far too partial to him. To solve this issue, Astherek knew that he would have to simply take his life. While he no longer used physical violence on others himself, he knew that it would not be hard to incite loyalists to his cause. He designated Rahk as the orchestrator and instructed him to have Rhzoreck assassinated in whatever way would be the most effective. He sent his letters to him in unmarked envelopes sealed with only a spider imprinted into black wax, the ancient sigil of the Abtherek from when Kavvjng was the clan master. Astherek did not send letters often, and he typically used a different, public seal and golden wax whenever he did so. He knew that the black spider would not be identifiable to anyone who would get in his way or stop him, so he was secure in using that method. His faith in Rahk seemed to be misplaced, though, as the politician inevitably failed to have the new king assassinated.

When Rhzoreck returned and Kavrenthak found the evidence proving that Rahk was the mastermind, Rahk smoothly turned things around to frame his son, Demjr. Astherek did not care about the life of the boy, so Rahk's request for him to find some way to get him out of jail and off the hook for the crime went unanswered. Then, when Demjr took Kavrenthak's advice and pointed the blame back to his father on the stand at his trial, Astherek once again did not attempt to help him. While it may have been possible for him to save the politician or get his punishment reduced, it seemed like too much of a risk for very little payoff. Now that Rahk was the center of attention, it was unlikely that anyone in power would ever trust him again. In fact, Rhzoreck was so distrustful of Rahk, that even after he had been executed, Rhzoreck chose to dismantle the King's Circle entirely in case others on the governmental body were influenced by him.

By this point, Astherek had returned to the council hall and spent most of his time attempting to convince the other artificers that he was in command of them. Rhzoreck had named Bthand as the temporary leader, though, and no one on the council was willing to take any direction from Astherek. When he was unable to get them to listen to him, he decided to hassle Rhzoreck about it directly. He had no problem bringing up this issue whenever he had the chance, although Rhzoreck's answer was always the same. He was to treat Bthand as his superior despite their difference in rank. This, of course, irritated Astherek to no end, as he had worked extremely hard for his rank and was now being forced into subservience to another simply because no one else seemed to like him. In his opinion, his rank should mean far more than whether or not anyone liked him as a person, although that did not seem to be the case.

It was not long before Rhzoreck announced that Kavrenthak's debt to Ereboseth was paid and he would be giving him back his position. During the event where the king formally returned his title to him, Kavrenthak proposed to him unexpectedly. Astherek, whose personal chef was the father of one of the palace maids, had overheard his chef speaking to his daughter about the king having a baby. Seeing as Rhzoreck did not look like he was pregnant at that point but knowing that if he had a child it must be Kavrenthak's, he decided to confront the two of them about the topic at the party after the announcement. However, his tactless word choice resulted in Rhzoreck falling catatonic, leading Kavrenthak to punch him in the face for his indiscretion. Having no idea why this happened, as he was not privy to what had truly been going on between the two men, he determined that this interaction only happened because they both hate him. While he normally wouldn't care much about others disliking him, the fact that Kavrenthak broke his nose made him especially angry. He felt that his work restraining himself from physically assaulting the other man should have protected him from that sort of violence, but it seemed he was incorrect.

He was temporarily arrested by the palace guards and escorted to his healer, Kjmjra, who did her best to repair his nose. Once she was finished, he was taken back to the palace and placed within a holding cell to await Rhzoreck's decision on what to do with him. Of course, he did not hesitate to openly complain about his situation to any of the guards who would listen. None of them had any sympathy for him, mainly because there was not a single one who was more loyal to him than to Rhzoreck, despite Rhzoreck being a relatively new king. The next morning, Rhzoreck decided to have him stripped of his rank and title through a social execution, where he would be brought into the city's main square and the executioner would cut off most of his beard. As the element considered by the Duuema to denote how much respect one should get, having his beard cut down was entirely unwelcome. He was not willing to show weakness even then, though, and did his best to keep his dignity about him during the event.

Afterwards, he played along with Rhzoreck's little plan for as long as he deemed necessary. He spent his days lounging in the King's Quarter square, most of which was full of well-kept grasses and trees. To the other Abtherek in the Quarter, he seemed as if he was merely enjoying taking a bit of time off work. To those outside of his quarter, though, they believed he was destitute. This was merely a ploy to convince Rhzoreck and Kavrenthak that he was no longer someone they needed to pay any attention to, and he returned to his manor and began crafting a new plan soon after.

The Game

Having successfully convinced the local leadership that he was homeless and no longer a threat, Astherek returned to his manor silently and left only on rare occasion. He allowed the nobleman who had initially been posing as the clan master continue to do so while he worked secretly toward the next plot that he would be involved in. He pulled Kjmjra out of her healing clinic and brought her into his home full-time, mainly so that she could run errands for him but also because he enjoyed her company. He maintained this setup for over 50 years, biding his time for the perfect moment.

Eventually that moment came. After keeping a close eye on Rhzoreck and his family, he watched as new events unfolded and brought back many people from the ancient times. One of these people, his cousin, Kelthmenz, came back inside the city jails. Kelthmenz had been arrested back in the Exordium for many things, most notably murder, and was an important tool of Kavvjng's. Sensing that the time had now come for everyone to come out of the crystals, Astherek put on clothing that he had worn in the ancient times, took his hair down from the modern style he usually kept it in, and ventured to the jails to request Kelthmenz's release. His pseudo-disguise worked, and he successfully tricked the guard captain, Kathrj, into handing over his cousin for a mere handful of money. After freeing him, he commanded him to put on his palace guardsman armor and return to the palace, promising to swear loyalty to Rhzoreck. He also gave him a brief note to hand off to someone else, which eventually came into the hands of Vanza.

Once Kelthmenz was in position and the letter was on route to Vanza, Astherek gathered the crystals that the Fangs of Shadow had been placed into and performed a small, simple ritual that had been left for him. This ritual brought the others out of the crystals, including his father, Kavvjng. Kavvjng quickly reestablished control of the manor and everyone in it, except for Kjmjra, who held no respect for him. Unlike everyone else, Kjmjra only knew Astherek as the master of the quarter, and was completely unwilling to do anything that Kavvjng instructed her to do unless Astherek also told her to do it. This created contention between the two men, as Kavvjng believed that Astherek should return to being subservient and anyone who respected him should also be such. Despite this, Kjmjra completely refused to obey him and only looked to Astherek for direction.

Feeling a bit frustrated with her bullheadedness, Kavvjng commanded Astherek to tell her that anything he said to her should be obeyed. Astherek offered him a deal in return: they would play a game of dechka together. If Kavvjng won, then Astherek would command Kjmjra to obey him, and he himself would also do anything asked of him without question. However, if Astherek won, he would be permitted to do whatever he pleased, as would Kjmjra. He would not be subservient to Kavvjng in any way, and Kavvjng would not be permitted to strike him for any reason. Seeing this is as a ridiculous bet, Kavvjng accepted. However, he quickly found out that Astherek's dechka skills had far surpassed his own over the many thousands of years that he had been living without him. Instead of honoring the deal, Kavvjng reneged on it and asserted himself over Astherek once more. He claimed that he would never be anything more than a willful child that needed to be taught his place.

That night, Zefthar sneaked into the manor and abducted Kjmjra. Astherek nearly caught him, but could not prevent him from fleeing. Knowing that Kavvjng would punish him severely for losing their other oracle, Astherek personally delivered the news to him to show that he was taking responsibility for the occurrence. Kavvjng did not harm him, though, because he knew that his son would be expecting it. He instructed him to sit in the study and draw his visions until he told him he could stop, as he also knew that Astherek would wish to go after Zefthar and regain Kjmjra as quickly as possible. By taking away that option and subverting his expectations, he hoped to firmly assert himself over him once more.

Despite his orders to sit in the study and illustrate his visions, Astherek found it increasingly hard to work. The study was not a quiet place because of the Fangs and Descendants of Shadow having minor conversation in the other room. Things became even harder when Vanza put herself in his space and pushed herself on him for the second time. He had been scolded by Kavvjng the first time, as he had every intention of killing the ancient princess, so he was not going go allow her to play her games with him again. He took his things and left the manor, announcing to everyone that he would not be returning. He ventured across town to an area that was not in good shape, a place where no one lived, and returned to his illustrating. Once he was finished, he returned to the manor only to be told that Kavvjng wished to see him in the basement.

He knew that Kavvjng was angry with him for disobeying, as he was to stay in the study until he was told otherwise. Astherek did not care, though. He knew that he would go to the basement and Kavvjng would challenge him to a physical duel, one that would end with one of them dying. He anticipated this, and he was ready. He ventured to the basement and engaged Kavvjng in this altercation, and in the end he was the victor. He did not waste his new freedom, though, as he left the manor to fetch Kjmjra from the palace and returned with her to inform the remaining associates of their new orders.

It did not take long for the others to become fed up with him and seek to gain protection from the king. He had meticulously planned everything, including their leaving, and already had another plan in motion for when they were accepted into the palace. Not long after, he instructed Kelthmenz to get Kjmjra out of the palace. With Ithng inside the palace and still on his side, he used him to help Kelthmenz murder one of the Saints of Light and frame Zefthar for the crime. He then proceeded to have many more people killed, including one of his own people. With Zefthar perfectly framed for the murders, the side of Light let down their guards and allowed him to utilize Kelthmenz to kill two more of their people. He also instructed the guardsmen, who he had silently been changing out for his own loyalists over the past 50 years, to abandon the palace in the morning and not return until the king and his compatriots were sufficiently frightened. At that point, he simply walked into the palace himself and forced Rhzoreck to abdicate his throne to him, under the threat of harming his daughter.

Now that he had become the king through force, he set about cleansing the city and playing with the agents of Light that still remained alive. He ordered that anyone of mixed heritage be executed as well as anyone who didn't respect his authority. Meanwhile, he had Ithng prepare a box of lethal tools to deliver to the agents of Light he had trapped in the royal library. He knew that they would not follow the directions, so he had other plans in place for them. Eventually, though, he had successfully whittled down both the side of Light and that of Shadow to only those who he did not fear. He forced Zefthar to perform the ritual of the new god so that he could ascend to godhood himself. However, he was caught off guard by Rhzoreck, who also entered the ritual space and challenged him. He was unable to hold his ground and was removed from the space by Zefthar.

Once the ritual concluded and Rhzoreck became a god of Light, the previous king, seeing the story of his life and the future he was capable of, forgave him for his crimes, removed the burden of jealousy from his soul, and gifted him an artifact capable of undoing anything that he truly regrets. He, of course, did not believe that such a thing was possible, but inadvertently used it anyway. This resulted in everyone he had ever committed a crime against, that he truly regretted committing, to return from the dead. It was shocking how many regrets he had, especially to those he had so recently committed crimes against, but indeed he did regret many things and wished to make them right.

By the blessing of the artifact he also resurrected Kjrje, although she died from a medical complication that was not genuinely his fault. Upon seeing her again, he decided to eliminate another regret by telling her outright that he was in love with her, as he had never done so before. Through his regrets, he also brought back his father, who perhaps did not deserve to be brought back. Kavvjng saw this exchange between his son and the Kraginth woman and was immediately spurned to violence. However, Rhzoreck intervened and wiped all knowledge of Kavvjng from everyone's minds with a complex harmonic veil, as well as banished him from the physical realm so that none would ever see him again.

With the loss of the knowledge of his own father, Astherek fully transitioned from a cruel, jealous man borne of abuse and misfortune and into a far more generous man than anyone ever thought possible. He married Kjrje, breaking the rule that there could be no one of another clan in King's Quarter, opened the door for anyone else to do so as well, and began handing out apologies and righting the wrongs he had caused. Despite this change, he maintained firm control over the Abtherek clan and ensured that everyone knew that he was still capable of causing harm if the situation required it. He would simply no longer cause harm for the sake of it.

Another Vision

After 49 years of having no visions at all, Astherek suddenly began having visions again on the day of Kalrha's coronation. He attempted to illustrate the visions, but there were so many consecutive visions that he instead drew all of them over top of each other on the same page. He was brought out of his trance by Kjrje, who reminded him of Kalrha's coronation. Seeing as he could not finish his work right then, he decided to get dressed in his formal robes and attend the coronation. For the first time in his life, he fulfilled the role of the clan master at the coronation and announced that he was willing to serve Kalrha in any way that was asked of him.

Immediately after the ceremony, he became struck with the visions again. Having no method to draw them, he simply sat down and became entranced by them. Demjanth and Knfe noticed his strange behavior and brought Kjmjra to his side, who had them fetch some paper and a pen for him. Once they left, Zefthar came to investigate the situation, and fetched him a wheelchair so that Kjmjra could bring him back home. There he continued to draw the visions while Kjmjra flipped the pages for him, resulting in a large stack of illustrations.

Once the visions finally subsided, he knew that he needed to bring these visions to Kalrha. Knowing that he was an oracle of Shadow, who could only see things that would benefit the Shadows, he wanted to bring these things to her attention as soon as possible so that she could prepare against them. Despite the long day she had already had, she agreed to meet with him. He shared his drawings and explained in an almost poetic way that there was going to be something terrible happen very soon.

After his message was delivered, she sent him home to rest. It wasn't until the next afternoon that things started to go awry again, as he noticed a strange apparition following him around. As soon as he had let them know that he could see them, they revealed to him that they were Arkeva, an essence of Shadow. They then began to harass him in an attempt to sway him back to the side of Shadow as he tried to escape from them. Eventually he found himself in the mines, inadvertently granting the essence far more strength than they had in the better-lit areas. As they tried to take control of him, though, another person appeared and warded them off with a blood talisman. Believing that he was safe enough with that bit of protection, he returned home and went straight to bed despite the early hour.

Instead of falling into a comfortable sleep, he became trapped in the dream realm by Arkeva. They followed him around, haunting his dreams and preventing him from waking up. He tried desperately to avoid the essence until he was struck with an idea. He decided that he would venture to places where Zefthar might be in the dream realm and convince him to do something about this. Unfortunately, he could not find him anywhere inside or outside of the city, so he went to the home he shared with Bthkath as a last resort. Given the history between himself and Bthkath, he doubted that things would go well if the healer was at home in the dream realm.

When he arrived, it was indeed Bthkath who answered the door. It became clear that the other man thought that he was awake and was casually washing the dishes, something that struck the clan master as something strange. He repeatedly asked for Zefthar, but Bthkath informed him that Zefthar was not there and that he was at the palace, working, despite no longer having a job there. Eventually he convinced the healer that they were in a dream, which prompted the other man to change his tune altogether. Instead of his usual standoffish behavior, he began flirting with Astherek and telling him that he's in his dreams regularly. Seeing that he was not going to get anywhere here, and determining that Zefthar did not dream, he decided to leave. As soon as he turned to do so, though, Arkeva appeared once more to hassle him.

Strangely, Bthkath could see the Shadow essence despite being of the Light. This was curious to the essence, so they directed their attentions toward him. It did not take them long to deduce that Bthkath was a turned stone, and therefore susceptible to their power of Shadow. Seeing what the essence was trying to do, Astherek smacked Bthkath and forced him to wake up. Once he did so, he was able to wake up again, and he knew it was due to Arkeva moving on from him to instead corrupt Bthkath. When he awoke, Kjmjra was at his bedside tending to him, as he had seemed very sick while he was sleeping. She recommended that he eat dinner and return to bed, but he did not. He dressed himself and went back to the palace, even though he knew he could not speak to the queen at such a late hour. Instead, he slept in the palace courtyard and waited for morning.

He was woken up the following day by Demjr, who was now the queen's advisor, and only had to wait a little bit to be seen by the queen herself. Once he was before her, he informed her of what he had seen in the dream realm with Bthkath, although she was doubtful that he of all people would have fallen victim to the Shadows. Regardless, she brought him into the meeting she was already having with her other allies and allowed everyone to discuss the illustrations that Astherek had brought before. They eventually called in assistance in the form of the scholar Amaeus, who promptly solved part of their riddle and set many of them off on an adventure. Astherek returned to his manor and did his best to handle the new issues brought about by Ruevlen and the resurgence of the visions.