Ehkahk

❌

Ehkahk, called the Smoldering Duke, was an entity who claimed to rule the Paraelemental Plane of Smoke. His exact nature was subject to much rumor and dispute: certain old, rotting books named him a true archomental, while many other rumors said he was naught more than an unusually intelligent smoke mephit,  and yet other rumors claimed he was the hybrid offspring of a djinn and an efreet.

Description
Ehkahk was a gaunt creature, humanoid in form and comparable in size to a human child. His skin was ash-grey in color, and smoke poured from his back, giving the impression of wings, and from his eyes and mouth, leaving trails in the air when he moved.

Realm
The seat of Ehkahk's power was the Choking Palace, a floating castle of gray-black iron, whose every room and hall contained a brazier that filled the place with semimagical smoke—this smoke was transparent to any creature that sincerely served Ehkahk and completely opaque to any who did not, and he could view any goings-on within the smoke. The central keep of the palace held a great library full of all manner of lore.

Ehkahk's domain, small though it was, was called Fume.

Activities
Ehkahk sought to spread his influence across his homeplane, but he took his time doing so. Any goals he had beyond that were wholly unknown, and he did not seem to take any interest in events on any other planes.

It was said, mostly by the same sources that said Ehkahk was merely a smoke mephit, that his claim to rulership was a largely self-appointed one and regarded as a "joke", and that the djinn and efreet who came to the Paraelemental Plane of Smoke (mostly to war with each other) ignored.

Allies
The good archomental of Air, Chan, sometimes prevailed upon Ehkahk to provide her with information on Zaaman Rul's struggles on the Plane of Fire. Ehkahk's concern over his own self-preservation, though, made it a tenuous alliance.

Servitors
Ehkahk was mostly served by smoke mephits and smoke para-elementals, though some renegade djinn and efreet also served him. He also kept a large kennel of smoke hounds.

History
In the Age Before Ages, Ehkahk was one of the archomentals who chose to fight for the Wind Dukes of Aaqa on the side of Law until, during one of the war's major battles, he and Chilimba betrayed the four Princes of Elemental Good (who also fought for Law) and then ambushed and killed the then-good archomental of Fire, Bristia Pel.