Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [46]
“Just as long as we make it through Ebonhawke,” said Dougal. To Ember Doomforge he said, “I have been trying to come up with a better plan but, short of a potion of invisibility, I am at a loss.”
Killeen put a hand on Ember’s free paw. “Are you going to be all right about wearing the chains?”
Ember bared her teeth for a moment before she spoke. “I hate it. I hate the very idea of it. But the general is correct that there is no other way, so I will do it.”
“It’s just a ruse,” said Killeen. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“If you believe that,” Ember snarled, “then you know nothing of the charr.”
Dougal tossed back another gulp of the liquor. “It’s about Scorchrazor, isn’t it?”
Ember started at the mention of the name. She cast Dougal an angry look, then nodded.
“Scorchrazor?” asked Killeen.
“Kalla Scorchrazor,” said Dougal. “Even the humans in Ebonhawke know about her. One of the most famous charr since the time of the Searing. Back in the day, when the shamans of the Flame Legion commanded the charr armies, female charr didn’t have much status among their people. They never went to war and were relegated to subordinate positions. Many of them served in chains. Scorchrazor changed all that. She destroyed the charr shamans and nearly took down an entire legion of them.”
“How typically human,” Ember said, “blathering on about things you know very little about. Your race has just enough knowledge to be dangerous.”
“All right,” Dougal said, his own curiosity rising. “Enlighten us.”
Ember pulled a tuft of fur from her arm and held it over a candle flickering in the center of the table. The hair ignited, and Ember dropped it into her glass. The liquor in it burst into a bluish flame.
Lit by the flame in her glass, Ember spoke, her voice no longer carrying its usual menace. “In the days when humans still presented a challenge for the charr, we did something terribly foolish that we have long since sworn never to do again: we worshipped gods.
“Before humans came to Tyria, we had no gods. We knew about creatures with power we could barely comprehend, but we thought of them as foes to be defeated, not gods to be placated. When we suffered our first defeats at the hairless hands of humans, though, many charr blamed this on the fact that they could plead to their gods for help while we fought alone, relying only on ourselves.
“A warband from the Flame Legion came to the rest of the charr one day and announced that they had found gods for us to worship. These were creatures later called titans, but they were powerful enough that such labels mattered little. The shamans who led their worship used braziers of fire as icons of their newfound gods. The other legions hesitated to follow their lead, but the Flame Legion had so much success at converting others—often by force—that many assumed that they must have gods on their side. It was the titans that gave us the cauldrons that allowed us to breach the Great Northern Wall.
“One famous charr stood against them: Bathea Havocbringer of the Blood Legion. She sniffed out the foul plans of the Flame Legion and their new shamans, who directed the worship of their gods in ways that brought themselves power and profit. She said, ‘I will bow before no one and nothing, be it mortal or god,’ and she persuaded many other charr to follow her lead.
“Because of this, the shamans gathered in the night to plot against her. They captured her and made a blood sacrifice of her to their new gods. They declared her a traitor and accused her of using her sexuality to tempt the males from the true path of the gods. To prevent any more such treachery, they marked all females with the same brand of deceit and banned them from serving in the legions, where they would mix with the males.
“Many females objected to this, as did some males. Several shared Havocbringer’s fate, and eventually the others saw no choice but to submit themselves to their new gods’ will. We lived like this for centuries, long enough that most of us could not remember there ever having been another