In order for the Shadow Lord's plans for the Four Sisters to come to fruition, it needed the Plains city of Hira cleared of its population. To achieve this goal, the Shadow Lord sent nine of its servants into the city to breed rats. Over time, as the rat population increased, the servants took on the guises of rat catchers and slowly became the ruling bodies of the city. They also discovered the serpent Reeah during this time, and the Shadow Lord instructed the rat catchers to feed Reeah in exchange for the serpent's servitude.