The Lore of Ashen Winds
Fiery new foes have invaded — but who exactly are they?
The elite of Flameheart’s army have been resurrected and called forth — the Ashen Lords. It would seem that Stitcher Jim’s machinations have in part come to fruition as four Ashen Lords now rove the islands of the Sea of Thieves looking to scorch pirates with their blazing powers.
Catch up on the Lore
How did we get here? Get caught up, or refresh yourself, on all the Lore that has transpired in the previous months by visiting the linked articles below.
Duke’s Tavern Talk
Duke maintains his safe position within the taverns, seemingly quite afraid to even muse on the thought of coming face to face with an Ashen Lord. Among this he even questions just how much of the Bilge Rat name he is living up to anymore. Has his confidence been shaken that much? What would it mean for the Bilge Rats if Duke hung up his pirate boots?
Ashen Lords
Talking to Duke reveals some of the identities and history of the four Ashen Lords who have begun appearing — with a warning that these aren’t the only ones and there may be more to follow.
Old Horatio
Old Horatio — when you meet him — should be a familiar face for many pirates who have completed The Seabound Soul Tall Tale, he’s the Commander of the Ashen Dragon and is seen directing the ashen skelly pallbearers. He must have been highly thought of by Flameheart to be the one to escort his body to it’s resting place.
Red Ruth
If Duke’s info is to be trusted, then Red Ruth has quite the legacy due to creating cursed cannonballs. As it led to Wanda the Weaponsmith becoming Captain Warsmith, who has undoubtedly had a hand in bringing Flameheart back to the seas, you could say Red Ruth is in part responsible for his return. What other cursed weapons could she have designed though?
Captain Grimm
A few months ago Mike Chapman revealed that Flameheart had the forts and strongholds built in his honour, it would seem likely then that Captain Grimm was put in charge of overseeing the construction of these places. Maybe they even had a hand in the traps that fill the tunnels of the Heart of Fire.
Warden Chi
As per their title Warden Chi is said to have presided over a prison, but that begs the question of just where is this prison now? Is it one of the many Skelly Forts? Hidden underneath a familiar shore? Or, and this is most likely, in the Shroud somewhere? Will we get to visit it one day is the real question. If Flameheart kept his enemies alive in there it could well be that clues to sealing him away again lie in this prison.
It would also seem that the reason Flameheart has been able to summon the Ashen Lords is because of the Tomes, Ashen Jewels, and Dark Relics that his followers have managed to obtain, done during the time Stitcher Jim took up Duke’s post.
What Makes An Ashen Lord?
Now, without going too wild with speculation here, what exactly are the Ashen Lords and what makes them stand out from other Skeleton Lords?
The Ashen Lords seem separate from the Skeleton Lords in that they are disproportionately larger than any other living or undead humanoid seen so far on the Sea of Thieves. As Duke earlier described them, they easily tower over most pirates. All of them have a kind of fiery or seared-by-flames right arm whereas the rest of them is much more skeletal. And, they have a beating heart in their rib-cage. Presumably their own. Hopefully. It’s worth noting the figurehead of the Burning Blade is a dragon-like creature clutching a heart…
All these things lead me to believe that the Ashen Lords are not exactly the product of a ‘curse’ like most Skeleton Lords are, but rather they have been ‘created’ that way. Or at the very least tampered with. Chris Allcock, author of the Sea of Thieves novel Athena’s Fortune, as well as lore writer within the game, states here (around the 5:25:30 mark) that the Ashen Lords are “a little bit of an odd fish in that they are kind of Frankenstein’s monsters, but they are more like Flameheart’s monsters in that he has augmented them”.
Stitcher Jim’s ritual to bring forth the Ashen Lords lends a little bit of credence to this theory. Right now we don’t know if what he did was successful or not, we’ll only know if the next time we see him he’s become a towering inferno out. But it is telling that something happened to his right arm, something painful. It could be the ritual he was set to carry out never was going to bring the Ashen Lords back, but was going to test him to see if he was suitable to join their ranks.
Ashen Winds Skull and Ashen Jewels
On the official Sea of Thieves web-page for the Ashen Winds content update (found here) there are some very telling tidbits about the evolving lore which even brings in some Extended Universe lore.
According to the web-page’s description for the Ashen Winds Skull, the power source behind the flame-spewing skull is an Ashen Jewel.
The Ashen Jewels are featured in the main campaign and as a mechanic of the tabletop Sea of Thieves Role-Playing Game. We’ll be covering the Lore of that game in a future post, but the short backstory is that a character who eventually became known as the ‘Jeweled Rover’ found Ashen Jewels when they dove into the wreck of the Burning Blade. The Ashen Jewels drove them to seek out more of them, to add to their power, and it gradually turned them into a Skeleton Lord.
Connection between Reaper’s Heart Pets and the Ashen Curse Pets
Much like the Ashen Lords, the Ashen Curse Pets have a visible heart. It is stated that they look this way because they “have been filled with a fiery essence borne from the ashes of The Devil’s Roar, causing them to turn undead and smoulder with inner flame” (source). Now, this may be stretching too much to find a connection, but their is are another type of ‘cursed’ pet in the man-made Reaper’s Heart pets. Reaper’s Heart. Given the Reaper’s and Flameheart are certainly linked in some way, is this a hint at their true intentions? Or was it an early attempt to use their gathered knowledge about how to make an Ashen Lord?
That’s all the juicy bits of lore introduced in the Ashen Winds update, providing new characters and few answers on the lingering mysteries around Flameheart.
For our Guide to the Ashen Lords Battles and Ashen Winds Skull, click here
