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Alongside the crumpled remains of the Hawker Basilica, with the fires of the battlefield still smouldering, Hawker Priest-Commander Ludovicus led the remains of his private guard to the stone halls dug below the Basilica, his once-potent forewings crushed and lifeless, injuries he had received from Septimia's magical overload. The underground chambers remained untouched by the blast and were where the young and infirm had hidden as the conflict roared overhead.
The last thing Ludovicus saw before he went below-ground was Emerald Ranger Lucanus and his patrol lifting the Fogo Enchiridion from the Chamber of Flame and carrying it back to the Emerald Generals on the slopes above the battlefield. With a gnashing of his mandibles, Ludovicus howled a curse and reluctantly followed his private guard into the dark below.
Knowing that his life and those of his youngling Hawkers would not be spared by the Emeralds aboveground, Ludovicus, the leader of the Hawkers, ordered that all seven entrances to the underground chambers be sealed immediately, leaving only a single camouflaged portal to the north, previously known of only by Ludovicus and his lieutenants.
Drawing mighty gusts of Vivo from the surrounding soil and substrate, Ludovicus's Hawkers melted the stone walls and ceilings of the tunnel entrances with Chama Fogo magic, the red-hot stone oozing down and quickly cooling to form impenetrable barriers.
From that day on, Ludovicus, his mind and heart permanently scarred with the black corrupting slime that had assailed the Basilica, schemed to return the Hawker breed to its rightful place as the dominant force of the Odonata by whatever means necessary. Taking back the Fogo Enchiridion was the primary concern, to train the younglings to harness Chama Fogo, and to understand the foul Malada powers the Corruption had bestowed upon them.
Shunning the once majestic Basilica fortress above them, the Hawkers now spent their days in the echoing subterranean halls, only venturing out to forage for food when their supplies below-ground dried up.
At first, the area was closely monitored by Emerald Rangers, and any Hawkers seen above ground were hounded by the patrols. But after a season of training and growth the younglings, the Hawker sub-imagos, were old enough and strong enough to assist those few Hawkers that had survived the Battle of the Basilica, and inexorably the Emerald Ranger patrols were pushed further and further back, their patrols now the target of young Hawker squads, harassing and haranguing them away.
The Hawkers had once been pure of mind and soul, working to attain a level of enlightenment other Jraconi could barely perceive of. Now this drive had been perverted by the Corruption into aggression against the enemy and this, coupled with the Hawker martial discipline and thaumaturgical mastery made them truly terrifying foes
The Hawkers were ordered to make a bold show of themselves and were given free rein to use these encounters to practice the newly acquired Malada thauma on the enemy combatants. The Hawker technique of absorbing Vivo from their enemies was devastating at first, but the Emeralds developed a defensive technique using Terra thauma, a method nicknamed Earthskin, crafting floating shields of earth before them of such density that little lifeforce could be drawn through, and so the balance slowly returned.
Over time, an uneasy standoff was achieved, with a wide area around the Basilica ruins declared a no-flight zone for all Emerald Rangers.
Deep below ground, knowing their Chama Fogo powers would weaken as the Hawker Knights who had learned to channel Fogo from the now-lost Enchiridion passed away, the Hawkers turned their focus instead to their newfound Malada thauma. Malada, due to its insidious, pervasive nature was found to be passed down from parent Hawker to larvae, the thauma skills therefore innate and instinctive, without need for teaching.
The Hawkers took to practising the foul arts on their own Zyg servants. Very few Zygs had survived the Corruption, being of weaker spirit than their holy Hawker masters, but those that had were forced to breed against their will and their offspring, also tainted by the Corruption coursing through their bodies, used as guinea pigs and target practice in order to better understand and hone the Malada.
And so it continued for season after season. The borders of the Hawker-controlled lands expanded as the evil Jraconi regained their strength and pushed at the edges of their territory. But always their efforts were thwarted by the Emeralds and Clubtails, themselves healing and regrouping, who protected their now diminished nation to avoid it being further eaten away at by the growing Hawker presence.
Forever at the forefront of the Hawkers' damaged minds was the overwhelming need to reclaim the Fogo Enchiridion. The few Hawker elders left that had been alive before the Battle of the Basilica, and had studied the Fogo thauma before the book was stolen were now wilting and faded, and so bit by bit, elder by elder, the Hawker clan lost their hold on the Chama Fogo magics.
Priest-Commander Ludovicus, now an aged cripple whose authority over the chaotic Hawker clan weakened by the day, would pester the Hawker squads returning from patrols and sorties into enemy territory, demanding to hear the minutiae of their movements. He would interrogate them on what they witnessed and where what Odonata activity they had recorded, in the hope of finding a sliver of information that could give them back their mastery over Fire magic and with that take control of the wretched Odonata who had knocked them from their rightful rule.