Ash

### **Early life**

Born the 20th son of the Great Lord Abaddon of the House Phlegethos, Ash is the only child sired by Abaddon who was not of full devil blood. Due to their partial human heritage Ash was often overlooked and neglected despite simultaneously being given special treatment from their father. Having faced much abuse from their family at home, Ash found themself at the library having developed a deep love and knowledge for reading as well as for the head librarian Lloyd Flawton (though even Ash had to admit this friendship was one sided as Lloyd was an intensely angry man).

As they became a teen, their job was to perform,  monitor,  and torture the worst criminals within the nine hells. Their penchant for knowledge made the more psychological devices they came up with quite efficient and while they personally held little interest in their work Ash was highly commended for their skills. When they were 18, the blood war began to ramp up and it seemed that the devils were coming up ahead. Ash had felt even more uninterested in their duties by then.

Staying up later to read about their new fixations with astronomy as well as the flora of the material plane. When they realized the new prisoners that were taken in were from the material plane, it took all of their self-control to not jump for joy at the new brains they were able to pick. They were appointed to take care of their leader, an archdruid elf named Admaris Fairborn. Before Ash could begin their interrogation, Admaris had managed to druidcraft a red rose.

Ash was equally astonished at the beauty of a flower as well as the druid's ability to spell cast with the shackles he had on him (though after he produced a second flower Ash assumed that the calibration had been off enough that cantrips could break through and cautiously adjusted them). Lost in Admaris's beauty, Ash focused more on questioning him on the material plane and the nature of druids. While this had originally been part of the routine to ease information before painting, Ash couldn't bring themself to hurt Admaris. When Admaris finally admitted to fighting alongside demonic forces he convinced  Ash that he and his party were fighting for them against their will. Hopelessly in love, Ash created a map of the prison and helped break Admaris and his companions out.

Seeing Ash's usefulness,  Admaris let him stick around. After freeing everyone and obtaining the things, Ash thanked Admaris for letting them tag along. "They'll surely kill me, but meeting you was worth it," they choked out as tears stained their face. Footsteps neared and the cries of devils shouting.

"HURRY! THEY'VE TAKEN BARTZABEL PRISONER! STOP THEM AND BRING BACK LORD ABADDON'S SON!"

The ritual complete, Admaris said close your eyes. Ash was expecting the cruel knife of betrayal when they felt hands touch theirs as well as theft lips and a horrible woosh of fast movement. When Ash opened their eyes, they looked up to a dark sky full of stars in a beautiful grove in the forest. Ash collapsed into Admaris's arms happy in their new home.

### **A brief note from their time in the material plane before the demon war**

After five years with Admaris, Ash began second guessing their involvement in the ear. While they didn't mind taking the devils down a peg, they became nervous about what winning would mean. While Admaris swore they were only trying to help his adventuring friends tie loose ends, Ash decided that they were done helping Admaris.

Knowing that their love would understand, they were about to enter the tent with a handmade bouquet when they heard an unfamiliar voice speaking in abyssal. They peered into the tent to see Admaris and one of his companions with a demon. Feeling betrayed, Ash burned the flowers and dropped them in front of the tent. They ran to their home and grabbed their few possessions and ran as fast as they could to distance themself from Admaris. The hurt and pain made them realize the years of abuse and gaslighting and felt strange that it wasn't until their freedom how toxic that relationship had really been.

They  finally stopped when they ran into a colorful tent in the Kilborn dells. "Ah a customer," a tall strange looking elf shouted and soon Ash found they were under a spell, "welcome to Dante's Dazzlers! Please enjoy the show!" Dutifully they paid for a ticket and saw a cat with a gun, some other strange shows, and was called on stage and for a minute wasn't sure if they just believed they were a dinosaur or as temporarily transformed? The whole affair was quite strange.

They were handed a balloon and met Dante again who politely suggested they buy souvenirs. Not concerned with money, they went to the fortune teller's tent and purchased a pack of tarot cards which "belonged to the great Esmerelda" which seemed like a lie and a strange thing for a deck of playing cards to advertise. The spell having worn off, they were about to leave when they saw a stand of masks. Ash gleefully ran over, happy to find a disguise when they noticed the porcelain mask resembling the terrifying elf that appeared in the library one day.

"Ah a tiefling of good taste," the peddler said, "This is the mask of the Great Solitaire the Harlequin! He once was a sword specialist in our circus! I heard once, he quelled the beast the size of a cruise ship with the beautiful tones of his dulcimer."

"I heard he once killed a man just to bring him back to life so he could have a threesome," a random bystander said.

"I heard," Ash smiled as they put the coin on the counter and took the mask, "that he killed so many devils in the nine hells they had to beg him to leave and never return."

And so a new story in the tales of Solitaire was spread and Ash's personal hero became far more interesting. They spent the next 5 years in hiding, meeting with many druid hermits in an attempt to find which druidic circle they wanted to practice. They were experimenting with mushrooms and plants that were able to grow in darkness with the hermit Kostya when the rain of blood and fire started finding their secluded life filled with a group of strangers looking for shelter uncertain of who had one the war but feeling guilt and panic that they were in part responsible for the current events.

**Epilogue**

**Part 1: The Deal**

As the contracts were being signed among friends, Ash was to be last. The greatest pawn in the game should get their own special treatment after all. While those were being sent home or to their new kingdoms, Ash took a small moment to craft a tiny rose for Mephistopheles. He was a bastard for sure, but they felt the need to give him a kindness they were unable to when he was alive. Knowing the truth of the Libris’s bond, Ash decided to make a gambit in what they would ask of Asmodeus as payment for signing. Afterall, Jabels got his freedom and Art got their status back and then some, what was the harm in asking? They were granted 3 things, resurrecting Duraz, returning Dis to the nine hells, and the ability to heal Avalon with the caveat that they return Dis with themself unharmed.

Upon signing the contract, Ash had a flashback that revealed a memory buried deep within his consciousness of the day Ash had signed their first contract with Asmodeus when Abbadon had brought Ash to Asmodeus’s high court. It was that day Abbadon made a deal with Asmodeus, the soul of his youngest child, for a seat in higher power. They were only 8 years old when they were forced to sign over their soul. In that moment they felt a sick sense of relief mixed with fury and grief. They had really been played this whole time and they hadn’t even known the half of it. The sealing of the new contract brought with it their birth name Bartzabel as they no longer felt worthy of the false freedom they pretended to carry.

**Part 2: Bartzabel in Avalon**

They spent a month with Kirin in Arroyo before setting out to the City of Arcadia (formerly known as New Dis formerly dis of the 9 hells) where they convinced the citizens of the town to leave for safer places as Dis would be returning to Baator. Bartzabel, knowing they had the power to enter the tower at their own behest, decided to wait for Admaris in the druid grove in hopes to force him out on their terms for once. They almost gave up on that idea when they found Admaris disguised as a snake. Bartzabel quickly dispatched of Admaris's snakey form while they tried to get him to admit why he took Dis and did nothing. After Admaris admitted to how he too was played, he kissed Bartzabel in a ruse to stab them in the back with a dagger. Bartzabel, incensed by their last betrayal cast a sunbeam so bright Admaris’s head was sundered. Bartzabel felt sickened by their actions as they picked up the crown of thistles Admaris once wore, placing it on their own head as their wings began to grow and their final transformations as Archdevil were complete.

Asmodeus, now impressed that Bartzabel had dispatched of Admaris so easily, allowed them one last concession. They were allowed one year on Avalon to continue their pilgrimage of healing the land. They disguised themself as a human and they never came across their friends and headed south. They ended up in Andalus and further into the town of Ibarra where Melek was from. For a split second, Bartzabel believed they saw Melek only to have mistaken her mother as their old friend. Having shouted her name aloud, Melek’s mother questioned Bartzabel about her whereabouts and confessed she had been sorry to have not stood up to keep Melek by her side. She asked them to pass on the message to Melek that she would be welcomed home and how much their family missed her. They were on their way to do so when they reached a crossroad and found themself with Asmodeus as they were transported to the nine hells.

**Part 3: The New Cania**

After several meetings with the new lords of the nine, Bartzabel was escorted to Cania by Asmodeus who had presented him with several gifts. The frozen land was now warm and barren, ready for future growth. As well, Bartzabel was handed Mephistopheles who had a tiny tree which had Admaris’s soul in it as an engagement present. Before Bartzabel could be too amused by their punishment, the contract of how the rule of Cania would be set was in play.

Bartzabel and Mephistopheles converted the old stronghold into a home which represented the two of them in different ways. The center hall was where Admaris’s soul is planted and in the ceiling above is a gigantic moonstone from which Bartzabel casts the daylight spell. The rest of cania has been grown into a giant labyrinthine forest which is nearly impossible to navigate without help from either rulers of Cania or Asmodeus himself. At the center is their home and the exit leads to the entrance of Nessus. The souls which Bartzabel now has charge over are the souls of failed rebellions.

**Part 4: A meeting with Melek**

After feeling fairly accomplished at the task of making Cania into what Asmodeus had in part designed, Bartzabel left their new home for the first time to travel to the city of Dis and visit their old friend Floyd. After paying an exorbitant fee from the overdue books they took when they first left the 9 hells, they checked out the book of names. They learned there that Asmodeus was in fact Melek’s actual father and that her lineage as a celestial came from her birth mother who was the woman she was raised by. Hearing about Melek’s failed attempts to siege the 9 Hells, Bartzabel made a deal with Morrigan to save Melek and sent a letter with a contract to have a conversation with their old friend.

Melek came willingingly to Cania where Bartzabel informed Melek of her true parentage as well as her soul still being free. Through some fraught conversation, they convinced her to give up her crusade against Asmodeus in return for a peaceful life. It was then they realized that while they made a deal for Duraz’s resurrection, they were not sure what the details of it were. Regardless of this caveat, Melek agreed to live a life in service of Erishkagal and the people of Avalon. Afterall, she already denied the crown of Hell so what greater disobedience to her father than a life well lived and a good shot at her soul ascending to the upper planes?

When Melek departed, Asmodeus smote Bartzabel with a curse, turning their fingers into petrified bark. Mephistopheles on the other hand, had never felt more proud of their betrothed in what they hoped would mark a new act of rebellion within the nine hells. Bartzabel never told Mephistopheles that this would be the first and last time they would be able to act against Asmodeus as they felt the last of their free will taken from them, having proved themself unworthy of such trust.