Forneus the Duke of the Inner Earth still felt it. Despite the contempt he felt for those corrupted fleshlings claiming lineage from the elements through Grond, their damned demonic heritage still bested him sending him back from whence he came to Deepholm.
He can still feel it ever since. More of their wretched kind attempted to commune and calm his fury. Such ignorance! The children of the Princess Theradras through the Kolkar demanded retribution for their kind's deaths and he accepted to be the instrument of their will to lay waste to the demon spawned wretches homes and drive them to the seas only to be denied that with but a single word of power after kicking the fleshlings doors open.
That damnable word! Once it was uttered all Forneus could feel was agony as he was dragged back to the Earth and to Deepholm. It continued to burn him even as he returned and he screamed a pain that hurt him far more than what he had experienced in his many uncounted years as a highly regarded child of the Earth ever since those from above enslaved them and then another of the outsiders defeated them and banished the elements to these planes.
His brothers and sisters avoided him. The forbidden word left a mark that marred his form and made him ironically no better than what he regarded the children of the Breakers as. Tainted of demons and now he was as tainted as they. Gone was the pristine crystalline formation scattered throughout his body. It was now dull of it's shine and his body of stone and geodes instead glowed from the scars left by the word.
Proudpeak his charge joined him in his bitterness in being ostracised. His was a different pain. When that twisted devourer feasted upon him he sought to end his suffering but his recovery in Deepholm turned out wrong leaving pristine rock and stone twisted with the flesh of the faces of fleshlings in a crude parody of what afflicted their jailers guardians from their masters who then channeled that pain through those faces in a scream that stunned and hurt his enemies before he can move in for the kill to smash them to pieces.
It was humiliating to stand before the throne of his liege Therazane in one of her processions to be singled out and found unworthy of her court's presence reeking of the demonic.
In her mercy, she recognised no fault in choosing to answer the summons of the children of her favored daughter and so his title would not be taken from him. Instead he and Proudpeak would be sent away tantamount to an exile to guard Deepholm against any outsiders and this he did with fury and hatred in his duties with Proudpeak driving away the stone troggs that dared feast on what belonged to his liege while keeping watch on the fleshling cultists that gathered to the side of the corrupted Earth aspect Deathwing until his awakening.
Outsiders....... they always cause trouble whoever they are even if they claim kinship to the Earth. This Deathwing was no different who claimed allegiance to their former masters who forced them into their service and he spared no mercy to his mad followers congregating in Deepholm.
Both their unique natures allowed them to withstand the cursed fungus the stone troggs inflicted on his kin that the spores would instead die in their presence and for Proudpeak's faces they would devour their cursed kin or the trogg pests and put them to rest.
Under orders from Gorsik who despite his contempt for their appearances grew a grudging respect for their abilities to stand guard in the Crimson Expanses as their unique nature allowed them a level of immunity that they themselves did not against the dreaded fungi spores allowing them to drive away the stone troggs and clear the expanse of the fungal infection. However like a tug of war the troggs would come back and the struggle continued anew. This time he and Proudpeak were now in control and he would be surprised by an encounter from the past that would condemn them to this repugnant form.
