Order of the Silver Flame

Overview:

A slightly obscure religious organization dedicated to the preservation, growth, and propagation of a divine flame said to have fallen from the heavens themselves. On the night of flamefall, an unknowing band of tribesmen within the Moltara jungles found themselves nearly wiped out by the cascade of fire sent forth by the impact. Those that managed to survive were infused by silvery flames and found themselves granted with immense power. While initially overcome by feelings of shock and loss, the empowering energies of the flames quickly wiped away any thought of despair and instead replaced them with singular, holy purpose. These enkindled ones became the first followers of the silver flame and formed the foundations of the order. The strongest amongst them became known as the flamekeeper whose sacred duty it was to tend to the great silver flame, interpret its messages, and spread its divine light across the land.

While many were quick to bow to the radiant aura of these first followers, plenty still had doubts about their intentions and apprehension over the great destruction their god’s arrival had caused. Where words and demonstration failed, the fiery fury of the silver flame would enlighten the faithless instead. Although starting out as only a small, obscure cult on the edge of the Moltaran Jungle, the order quickly grew into a significant force of faith in the area. After converting the natives and consolidating the local region, pryers and pilgrims were sent out throughout the realm to spread the word of the rising flame of The Argent Pyre and the enlightenment that its cascading fire would bring about the land.

It is rumored the souls of mortal beings eventually become one with it and themselves existing within the paradise of the immortal flame

Tenets:

Life - the true fuel for the flame for without life there can no faith to feed its divine power; those who wield the fire are expected to share its divine grace with those in need, the radiant energies of the holy fire burn away sickness, impurity, and even death itself
Light - A world bathed in radiant energy is the proper order of things; Darkness is a sickness, a creeping plague that seeks to consume the world and the eternal souls of its inhabitants; the followers of the flame are to serve as a beacon of hope and guidance for those still lost in the ways of the world
War - It is the nature of fire to spread even though some elements may resist being consumed by its grandeur, the crucible of the battlefield fed by the intense emotions and experience of its combatants can forge them into the most effective tools, its followers are well trained in the ways of martial prowess and war magic

Leadership & Structure:

Flamekeeper:

The greatest servant of the order who interacts directly with the flame, guiding the rest of the Order based of their interpretation of the flame’s message.

Flame Keepers cannot bear children. Their close proximity to the flame and channeling its great power burns away their ability to do so. It is the ultimate sacrifice to commune with the flame directly.

Flameward:

The Keeper’s sworn protector, second only to her and answerable to no other. There is only ever one.

The Flameward is chosen by the Keeper from among the Flamebearer Exemplars and holds the title until death. Where the Keeper tends the flame, the Flameward tends the Keeper.

Enkindled Ones :

Those faithful who have been directly touched by the flame and had its essence suffuse their forms. No longer bound by many of the limitations of a mortal body, these individuals can take up a variety of duties within the order. Being expected to exemplify the power of the flame and faith in it.

Herald: The high priests of the order, in charge of delivering the proverbs of the Keeper and most proficient in wielding the radiant energies of the flames.
Flamebearer Exemplar: The most powerful and zealous of the orders holy warriors who have enhanced their martial prowess with faithful fury
Argent Pyromancer: The most gifted wielders of the silver flames raw power, these fire mages are able to weave the essence of the divine pyre to deliver unmatched infernos of beauty and destruction

Flametouched:

Pryers: Trusted priests of the order sent out to spread the word and guidance of the flame. These clerics are able to wield a small fraction of the pyres power to both empower and incinerate.
Flamebearer: Warriors and paladins of the order focused on dedication to the flame itself and the mastery of physical combat. Though most possess enough zeal to invoke the flames magic to some extent.
Pyromancer: Individuals who learn the ways of the flame through both faith and study of its more physical attributes eventually gaining a more direct communion with the divine fire. These powerful battle mages spread the word of the silver flame through the its destruction and
Emberites: Promising followers who are indicted into one of the paths of the flame to take their place in the order.

Important Members

Anias
Atver Lu’Dassh
Caelis Varrow
Korvoss Helius
Tharios Venn
Vizratha

Operations & Activities

The life of the Order is measured by the flame. Every duty, from the humblest Emberite sweeping ash to the Keeper herself, is counted as fuel given to the fire. There is no idle hour within Mt. Pyrstomat, only hours in which the flame is fed and hours in which it waits to be.

Daily Rites

The Three Feedings: Thrice each day the Flamekeeper descends alone to the Pyrarkardia to tend the great flame; at first light for Life, at high sun for Light, and at dusk for War. No other hand may feed it. A bell is rung through the mountain at each feeding, and all who hear it stop their work and turn to face the Heart until it falls silent. While she is below no audience is granted and no door of the inner halls is opened, no matter who stands waiting.
The Lighting: The braziers of every home in The Argent Pyre are lit from the temple’s fire. Should a household’s flame go dark, it is carried to the Ember Hall by an emberite and rekindled by a Pryer before the day is out. A home that sits unlit is a home that has invited the dark in.
The Mending: The sick and wounded are received in the outer halls, where Pryers burn away fever, rot, and injury alike. No coin is asked for this. Faith is the payment, and the flame collects it all the same.
The Tempering: Flamebearers and Pyromancers drill daily in the kindled halls, and settle their rivalries upon the stage of The Cinder Ampitheatre for all the town to witness.
The Chapter: After the third feeding each hall of the Order gathers before its brazier. One Law or proverb is read aloud, the day’s duties are accounted for, and any who have failed in theirs confess it before their fellows and are given their penance on the spot. A fault confessed at Chapter is forgiven. A fault discovered is not.

Duties of the Flame Keeper

The Keeper does not rule the Order. She tends what does.

Tending: The Three Feedings come before all else. This is the first duty and the reason she is so rarely seen.
Interpreting: In communion she receives the will of the flame. Her Heralds record each word as proverb and carry it out to the Order and the town.
Enkindling: Only the Keeper may raise the Flametouched to stand among the Enkindled Ones, and only she may kindle the ember set within each holy symbol and relic of the Order.
Sending: No Pryer departs the valley without her blessing, and none returns without giving account of the embers they have spread.
Judging: She hears the final appeal of the condemned, and it is by her word alone that one is released from the Argent Mines.
Governing: She holds council with her Heralds, and receives the envoys of Cleoathyia Drekora and those sky captains who bear the Order’s ring.
Committing: When the greatest of the faithful die, it is the Keeper who gives them to the flame, that their souls may join it.
Presiding: Every Tevitas she rises from the mountain and sits behind the great pyre at The Cinder Ampitheatre. She tends it with her own hands and meditates while her Heralds preach the Sermons of the Faithful. The service ends with a duel between promising members of the Order. She rarely speaks herself; the return of the Luminark was one of those times.

The Nine Heralds

There are nine Heralds and never more, one for each of the nine silver braziers that ring the Chamber of Immolation. Each Herald keeps their own brazier lit by their own faith, and each is given a charge by the Keeper; three in the name of Life, three in the name of Light, and three in the name of War. When a Herald dies their brazier gutters low, and it does not burn bright again until the Keeper has named another to the seat. An empty seat is a wound in the Order, and it is not left open long. The Nine hold their own Chapter in the Heart each night, and what is confessed there is carried to the Keeper alone.

The Heralds of Life

Herald of the Mending: Keeper of the wards and all who heal within them. It is their word that decides who among the dying is brought before the flame itself.
Herald of the Hearths: Shepherd of the town. They oversee the Lighting, bless each birth and union, and know which households have let their braziers grow dim. The granary is theirs to keep, and it is from their hand that bread is given to those of the town who have none.
Herald of the Pyre: Warden of the dead. They prepare the fallen for the flame and stand beside the Keeper at every Committing.

The Heralds of Light

Herald of Proverbs: The Keeper’s scribe. They record every word spoken in communion, keep the Archive, and settle what a proverb means when the faithful disagree. The wills, oaths, and contracts of the town are sworn before the flame and given into their keeping, for no hand would dare alter what the fire has witnessed.
Herald of the Road: Master of the Pryers abroad. They choose where the embers are sent, and they receive the account of every Pryer who returns.
Herald of the Threshold: Keeper of the gate and its Laws. All petitions pass through their hands, the lodging of every guest and outsider is theirs to grant, and it is they who stand at the Keeper’s Hearth when an offering is refused.

The Heralds of War

Herald of the Vanguard: Voice of the Keeper to the Flamebearer Vanguard. They answer for the walls, the valley, and the peace of the town.
Herald of the Crucible: Master of the Tempering. They oversee the training of every Flamebearer and Pyromancer, preside over the duels, and set the brand upon those who fall.
Herald of the Forge: Keeper of silver and relic, and bearer of the keys to the Order’s treasury. They answer for the yield of the mines, the housing of each ember in its vessel, and the crafting of the Order’s rings and Beads of Force.

Duties of the Flameward

The Flameward has one charge, and it is the Keeper’s life. He goes always before her to clear the way; all who cross her path give ground, and to lay a hand upon her is death by his. He stands at the head of the stair when she descends for the Three Feedings and lets none follow, be they Herald or Exemplar. He stands at her shoulder at the Keeper’s Hearth, and no audience begins until he has looked upon the petitioner and allowed it. In all that touches her safety his word outweighs that of the Nine, and he may end any rite, audience, or journey on the instant without giving cause. He holds no charge of his own and commands no hall, for nothing may divide his attention from her.

Yet should one condemned to the mines chance to meet the Keeper upon the road, the Flameward halts and steps aside, for the flame has placed them in her sight and she must hear them.

Duties of the Enkindled

Flamebearer Exemplars: There are nine Exemplars, one sworn to each of the Nine Heralds as their shield and their strong arm. An Exemplar goes where their Herald goes, stands at their back in council, and carries out by force what their Herald’s charge cannot accomplish by word. Each commands the Flamebearers given to that charge; the Exemplar of the Road leads the escorts abroad, the Exemplar of the Threshold holds the gate, and so on through the Nine. Together they hold the threshold of the Heart, and they are called upon when something descends from the mountains that lesser blades cannot turn. Should a Herald die, their Exemplar keeps vigil beside the guttering brazier and takes no other duty until a successor is named, to whom they swear anew.
Argent Pyromancers: There are five Argent Pyromancers, the hands that work the flame’s rawest power. They are sworn to no Herald and answer to the Keeper directly. They set the Chamber of Immolation ablaze for the Pyr loutro, tend the wards that hide the Pyre from the sky, instruct the Pyromancers beneath them, and alone know the rite by which a new great fire is consecrated; a labor of many fires gathered from many places and made one, without which no second seat of the Order can ever be raised. The rite demands all five voices, and so their number is never allowed to fall. They are loosed upon the enemies of the Order only when nothing is meant to remain.

Duties of the Flametouched

Pryers: The face of the Order to the world. Within the valley they sit in the Petition Hall, heal in the wards of the Mending, rekindle the town’s braziers, and name the penance of the impure. They press the cinder oil and bless it for the offerings, and they mark the brow of each worshipper with ash from the temple’s fire. No outsider may bring a petition alone; a Pryer must stand as their sponsor and answer for their conduct within the halls. Beyond it they walk the roads of the realm carrying an ember of the Pyre, healing where they are welcomed and preaching where they are not.
Flamebearers: The shield of the faithful. They stand at the gate and at the threshold of each depth, walk the streets of the town as its peace keepers, turn out those who defile the halls, and march beside every Pryer sent beyond the valley. They guard the pilgrim roads into the valley as well, and see the faithful safely to the gate. Their watches turn with the seasons; one season upon the temple thresholds, one upon the walls, one upon the roads, and one in drill, so that no Flamebearer grows soft at a single post.
Pyromancers: Scholars of the fire as much as wielders of it. They keep the peace alongside the Flamebearers, study the flame’s nature in the workshops of the kindled halls, and labor at the forge under the Herald’s eye. It is the Pyromancers who recite the long invocations at every rite, word for word and without error, for a rite misspoken must be begun again.
Emberites: Those not yet proven. They sweep the ash, carry the oil and the fuel, tend the lesser braziers through the night, serve in the wards, and copy proverbs in the Archive. Each morning they draw the washing water from the fall and bear it to the gate, and the vessel may not touch the ground between; water that has been set down is poured out and fetched again. The ash they sweep is never cast aside but carried down and given to the river. They do whatever is asked by any who outrank them, which is everyone. An Emberite serves three years, one beneath each path in turn, before they are permitted to choose their own.

The Committing

The Order does not bury its dead. What the flame gave is returned to the flame. The humblest of the faithful are committed by a Pryer upon the pyre ground beside the river. The great of the Order are committed by the Keeper herself, and the whole of the valley attends.

The Washing: The body is bathed in cinder oil by the Herald of the Pyre and dressed in white. Nothing of metal goes with them save their holy symbol.
The Vigil: For three days the dead lie in the outer halls so that any may come and look upon them. The one who will succeed them stands watch at the bier and does not sit. Throughout the valley each household veils its brazier in grey cloth; the flame is dimmed but never smothered.
The Procession: At dusk on the third day, when the bell of the last feeding has fallen silent, the bier is carried out through the gate and down to The Cinder Ampitheatre by those who served beside the dead. The Keeper walks behind it on foot. It is one of the few times she is seen upon the open road.
The Naming of Deeds: The Herald of the Pyre speaks the deeds of the dead before the town. Then any who knew of a fault the dead never confessed must speak it aloud, so that nothing unclean is carried into the flame. To stay silent is to foul the rite.
The Lighting: The Keeper sets the pyre alight with fire carried up from the Pyrarkardia. From that moment none may weep, for the flame has them and there is nothing left to mourn.
The Contest: While the pyre burns, duels are fought before it in the name of the dead. No brand is given that night. To fall before a pyre is honor enough.
The Oath: If the dead held a seat that must be filled, their successor swears across the pyre while it still burns, so that the dead may hear it.
The Gathering: At first light the ash is gathered. The ash of the common faithful is given to the river. The ash of the great is smelted into silver and cast as a new brazier, which is set in the hall they served.

Seeking the Flame Keeper

There is no throne within the mountain. The Keeper receives the faithful at the Keeper’s Hearth, a round chamber with a great silver brazier at its center. She sits no higher than those who come before her, for in that room it is the flame that is exalted. A petitioner feeds the fire first, with oil, silver, or a written prayer, and only once the flame has taken the offering may they speak, and only across the fire.

Few ever stand in that room. The way to it is climbed as the Order itself is climbed:

The Pryers hear all who come to the outer halls, faithful and outsider alike, and most troubles end with them.
The Heralds hear what a Pryer cannot settle, and it is theirs alone to decide what is worthy of the Keeper’s ear.
The Flame Keeper hears only what a Herald brings before her.

The lone exception is Tevitas. When the sermon is ended, the Keeper remains upon the stage and receives a small number of petitioners from the crowd, chosen by her own eye.

The Three Depths

The temple is carved downward into the mountain, and the deeper one walks the hotter and holier it becomes. Each depth is closed to those whose flame is not yet strong enough to bear it.

The Outer Halls: Open to all who have washed at the gate. Here lie the Petition Hall where the Pryers sit, the Ember Hall where the town’s braziers are relit, and the wards of the Mending.
The Kindled Halls: Open only to the Flametouched. Here are the drilling floors and dueling rings, the workshops of the Pyromancers, the cells and refectory of the Order, the Archive of Proverbs, and the forge where relic embers are housed in silver.
The Heart: Open only to the Enkindled Ones and those they escort. Here the Heralds hold council, and here lie the Keeper’s Hearth, her own bare cell, the Chamber of Immolation, and the stair that descends to the Pyrarkardia.

Laws of the Threshold

Set in silver upon the temple gate, that none may claim they were not told.

Come bearing fuel. None stand before the flame with empty hands.
Smother no flame. To put out a fire lit from the Pyre, be it a brazier, a lantern, or a single ember, is to do the work of the dark.
Draw no steel in anger. Quarrels are not settled in the halls. They are carried to the Cinder Ampitheatre and settled before the flame and the faithful.
Walk no deeper than your flame allows. Each depth is earned. To trespass below is to ask for a burning you are not ready to survive.
Speak across the fire. None address the Keeper save through the flame, and none before it has taken their offering.
Do not press what the flame refuses. Its silence is an answer.

On the Impure

The Order does not punish. It purifies. Those who disturb the peace of the temple are not thought wicked, only unclean, and what is unclean may always be burned away. The severity of the burning is theirs to choose.

The Refusal: When the insolent or the false come before the Keeper’s Hearth, their offering does not catch. The Herald ends the audience without a word of blame, and the petitioner is bid to cleanse themselves and return another day.
The Turning Out: Flamebearers stand at the threshold of every depth. Those who rave, threaten, or defile the outer halls are walked back through the gate and barred from it until they have made penance.
The Penance: A Pryer names the price of return; days of labor in the wards of the Mending, fuel carried up from the valley, or for the proud, the Mark of Tempering, the same brand borne by those who fall in the dueling ring. Once paid, the matter is ash. No grudge is kept against one who has been tempered.
The Rekindling: A rite that has been disturbed is a rite that has been fouled. It is cleansed and begun again from its first word, and the one who fouled it bears the cost of every drop of oil.
The Giving Over: Those who refuse penance, and those who commit true sacrilege by smothering a flame, laying hands upon a Herald or the Keeper, or trespassing within the Heart, are given over to the Flamebearer Vanguard at The Asimi Garrison. They are tried under the Amazonian penal code as any criminal would be, and they are sent below to the mines. All who return from the mines return faithful.

Known For

The silver braziers that burn in every home of the valley, and the Pryers who carry their embers abroad.
Healing freely given to any who will kneel to receive it.
The silver and platinum of the Argent Mines, and the Beads of Force crafted by the Order’s mages.
A town with almost no crime, and no one who can quite say where its criminals went.

Key Locale

The Argent Pyre: The seat of the silver flame itself placed within the belly of a previously dormant volcano now reawakened by its presence. Its sprawling tunnels and crevices transformed into a mighty temple and home for the vast swathes of the Order.
Islandfall Steppes: The site of the flames’ arrival is still a largely charred and ruined landscape dotted by the massive boulders of the island that fell here. Though despite the desolate atmosphere, a profound sense of power lingers here and within the cracks and crevices new life emerges in the flame’s wake.

Allies & Rivals

Allies

The Existence of Light: The values of both coincide very closely.

Rivals / Enemies

The Chromatic Flame: The Same and Opposite of the Sliver Flame these two cannot get along

Symbols & Identity

Key Powers / Abilities

Radiant flame: preference for fire and radiant abilities both damaging and healing
Conflux of faith: the more individuals contributing / believing in the power of the flame, the stronger it and its followers become. (not sure how exactly to make this a campaign mechanic)
Spreading embers: Holy symbols / relics of this order contain a fragment / piece of the divine flame itself; as small as an ember or as large as a brazier which acts as a conduit for the flames power

Alaeternia

Explorer