The warrens beneath the hills used to sing.
Oh, what a song it was! The chittering of the Ysoki hordes would bound through tunnels and carveouts. Chattering would echo off rock formations and stone doors. The sounds would reverberate and suddenly something hideous became beautiful. The confines became home.
They dug too deep.
There was something else below. Something sinister. Whatever they were, they flooded The Warrens with numbers that not even the Ysoki could contemplate. The end was swift. The song died quickly.
Silence followed.
Just like that, the Ysoki of the Deep were gone. The Warrens were poisoned. With rot. With death. With the horrible memories of families taken too far below. Beauty died. Hideousness returned. Home became confines.
She ran.
Asuba was just a young one at Warren's End. Her family was new to the Warren and had a den close to the surface, as befitted their status. Asuba made it to the surface, and set about adapting. Then searching. Looking for a new hill and a place for a new Warren. She would heal any of her kind she came across, and would look after the more traditional races as well. Wounds and disease were her puzzles, and Asuba always had a solution.
She ran far.
But the land? Asuba couldn't fix the land. No matter how hard she tried. Wherever she went, the poison had arrived force. The faceless hordes from the deep had visited their devastation. So she stepped through a portal. Traveled towards a New World. Towards hills untamed. Towards Warrens unfounded.
She had spent a lifetime exploring and searching and asking questions and finding answers. And this new land, this new world, was one massive mystery. Asuba would damn sure find her answers there. And this time she would be first. She was sure of it. Once more, the hills would sing. The confines would become home.
May it not follow.