The Burning of the Holy Furnace

The Tale of the Chained Engine

The Burning of the Holy Furnace

The City of the Holy Furnace, was located in Northern Hestiah a few miles south of the Stellian border. This city was built on Mt. Vertikus, a long time dormant volcano. This city was once the Mecca of the Furnace, the religion of Durnvin. This city was dedicated to mining and the art of the forge. It’s citizens using the dormant volcano as a resource of valuable heat and unique materials/metals. This city became synonymous with forging, some of the best Blacksmiths in history were birthed and worked here, Jorah Whitehammer, and Eeg Milrune both called the Holy Furnace home for their whole lives. Noticing such events, Durnvin became enamored with the city and began getting very involved with its society, culture and religious sects. Bestowing gifts and knowledge on the most influential people in the city. Murm Roughknuckle, the once reigning king and Syllen Ferdyki the future Arch-Priestess of the Furnace religion, were both particularly bestowed with great wisdom of the forge. This along with Durnvin’s direct blessing of their personal forges, propelled them to prosperity within the City of the Holy Furnace. Both of these individuals then in turn began spreading the word and knowledge through the city. Marking the joining of the government with the Furnace Religion. Which then in turn correlated with the changing of the cities now long forgotten name, to, The City of Furnace.

The city experienced a few decades of prosperity. Before an event happened that would vault the city to greater heights and fame, before its eventual collapse. In a deep valley riddled with fissures, a particularly volatile and powerful demon melted its way into the material plane, and crawled its way out of the depths of the valley and wandered through Hestiah for a few days. Permanently scarring the land in odd patterns with blackened trails of perma-ash (these would later become historical sites/the objects of cult fascination, specifically to the Society of the Chained Engine). After a few days this demon would be known as Myrkthos The Scorching Eternity, a demon composed of hardened minerals, once molten rock and hellfire. Myrkthos would eventually wander into proximity of Mt. Vertikus.

Catching the eye of King Murm and Arch-Priestess Syllen. Recognizing the incoming danger/threat of Myrkthos. The cities powers gathered together to assess the threat that was Myrkthos. Instead of devising a plan to banish Myrkthos they wanted to capture and enslave it. This conclusion was arrived at due to a subtle blacksmithing arms race that was gaining momentum. The top powers and individuals in The City of the Holy Furnace, had begun competing with each other in displays of masterwork forging and smithing. At the time Eeg Milrune, had gained a significant following within the City. Which in turn concerned King Murm and Priestess Lord Syllen, for they feared Eeg catching the eye of Durnvin and being bestowed with further blessings than what he had already so clearly received. So the King and Arch-Priestess devised their plan. They would lure the demon to the outskirts of the city, specifically above where they knew to be a vacant cavern in the mountain, that once used to be a large lava pocket of the long time dormant volcano. The demons immense weight would collapse the mountains surface and send it plummeting into the large cavern. 
The Cavern was capable of withstanding immense heat due to its natural purpose. The King and Arch-Priestess, being as powerful as they were, went to the Cavern ahead of time to seal off its natural exit into the rest of the volcano. While they were down in the cavern they also used their combined might and blessings to forge immensely powerful runes composed almost entirely of holy magic, capable of immobilizing Myrkthos and not nullifying, but countering its own magics.

The plan to capture Myrkthos was a success, the city sent 3 dozen troops with the purpose of pestering Myrkthos to lead him in the direction of the pitfall. Most of these men would later be memorialized as out of the 36 that were sent, only 4 survived the ordeal. About 25 were killed and consumed by Myrkthos, his deadly flames and presence flash fried the first 6 troops that got too close to The Scorching Eternity, the immense heat it naturally produced cooked the soldiers before they realized the danger of their situation. The next 19 were killed in brilliant spouts of flame and demonic magic. The last 7 deaths occurred during the springing of the trap. Where those 7 troops plummeted to their deaths as Myrkthos fell into its prison. Surviving the fall, Myrkthos had become furious by this point. It was already annoyed by the troops of the city, but it quickly realized it couldn’t get up from its fall. Some immensely powerful magics had pinned it down.

Upon the successful capture of Myrkthos. Murm and Syllen celebrated for days with lavish feasts and smithing tournaments. Afterwards they then began a special construction over the surrounding area of Myrkthos’ prison. A divine furnace was constructed above the demon. Turning him into a chained engine, that powered the most prominent and powerful furnace/forge in the history of Altheria. This kept Myrkthos trapped in a vicious cycle of anger and rage, further powering the furnace with its demonfire. Providing the people above with the ability to craft immensely powerful artifacts and relics. This furnace became known as the Holy Furnace, and was strictly controlled and observed by the King/Furnace religion. It was at this point in time the city changed its name for the final time, dubbing itself as The City of the Holy Furnace. Things remained this way for an immensely prosperous 3 centuries for the city, before its fateful burning.

King Murm had passed away over this time and his son Yrren Roughknuckle had taken the throne and was serving as essentially the right hand man to Syllen. Who over this time had become one of the most influential persons across all of Altheria. Her name becoming synonymous with other powerful religious figures from Altherian history. She always remained very vigilant of Myrkthos’s prison. Understanding the demon's immense danger and seething hatred over what had become of it. She ordered/created a series of Runescribes and keepers to maintenance Myrkthos The Chained Engine. It was one of these disgruntled keepers that became the catalyst to the deaths and consumptions of thousands and thousands of people.

In the year 992, a runekeeper by they name of Oude Mestermin. A 51 year old human male, who was experiencing a variety of hardships at this point in his life. The at one time husband had been cheated on by his wife. The ensuing separation was crushing to him, his ex-wife had stolen much of their gold and valuable posessions before running off. Oude was alone and in a very broken state of mind when he went down to Myrkthos’s prison on that fateful day. Oude’s job as a runekeeper was to make sure the etchings of the runes and flow of the magic suppressing and countering, Myrkthos was unhindered. Oude was quite good at his job, it demanded him to be, but he was very competent and efficient with the bulk of his work.

While Oude was working on one of the many runes, re-etching the sigils and cleaning up the carvings. Myrkthos spoke to him. Something that it had never done to him before. Oude was aware that the demon could talk, there were passed down stories from the original Runescribes and keepers, of Myrkthos constantly berating and attempting to curse them. But when it spoke for the first time in centuries it didn’t seem fueled by anger.

“Hello Oude, you seem…unhappy.” Oude froze in fear, cold beads of sweat beginning to form above his brow. He had been trained for this kind of situation, he knew he was safe from Myrkthos, and had been trained to simply ignore the demon. But a poisonous curiosity was seeping through him, Myrkthos hadn’t spoke in over 200 years. Why him? Why now? What did it want? These questions fired off in Oude’s mind. Besides, was Myrkthos truly that dangerous, it had only killed people after the city started harassing it. It had never even attempted to harm Oude in the 22 years he had worked as a Runekeeper, and so despite his training, Oude responded.

“Yeah…I really have been unhappy for awhile now.” His response was relatively curt to the demon, but it was the first living thing to seemingly care about him since the discovery of his wife’s secret.
“That’s no good…I too have been unhappy for some time.”
“Well that makes sense, you’ve been in a prison for 3 centuries. I can’t imagine you’ve been happy.”
“Hmm, 3 centuries? Is that long for humans? You seem to be much more fragile than I.”
“Yes, 3 centuries is a very long time for humans. We at best only live for one century.”
“I too would be sad if I only lived for 100 years.”
“Well, that’s not why I’m sad, my life has been ruined and I don’t have much left to keep me going. The person I love, hurt me and took everything.”
“Love.”
“Yeah…love, I thought I was enough for her. But she found someone else while I was working here, and kept seeing him for months before I found out.” Oude wasn’t sure why he was rambling about so much of his life to this demon. He was typically a reserved person, was he this emotionally deprived that he had to resort to a demon for therapy? Oude chuckled to himself and turned away going back to his work. Myrkthos said nothing for the next 20 minutes.
“You’re here alone today?”
“Yes, Jemmaleen, had to take care of her kids today, and none of the other scribes were able to cover her shift.”
“Abandoned again.”
“Yeah…I guess you could say that…”
“I am alone too…are you considered successful by your brethren?”
“Brethren? If you mean by other people, then no, especially recently, people have looked at me with pity, but never come forward to help me.”
“You want help?”
“It’s all I’ve wanted for a long, long time.”
“I can help you.”
“With what?”
“Not being unhappy…not being successful.”
“That doesn’t seem like a great idea.”
“You said yourself, humans aren’t around long…you spend that time being unhappy and unsuccessful?”
“Well I don’t want to bu-“
“Then don’t. I can help.”
“What would you even do?"
“I give you power, you become successful.”
“What kind of power?”
“Magical power, the power of flame”
Oude chuckled to himself and went back to checking runes. Ever so slightly daydreaming of real power. He stayed in this day dream for another 20 minutes. The more Oude thought, the more he rationalized. Myrkthos really only acted in self-defense all those years ago. Additionally, if Oude was in control of the demon’s power he could prevent any good people from being hurt. Eventually Oude thought himself into being swayed by the demon’s…meaningful but broken speech.
Oude resolved to help Myrkthos, but only ever so carefully. He went around to the runes designed to counter Myrkthos’s magic and ever so slightly altered them to allow Myrkthos to seep some of its power through to Oude. Despite how desperate Oude was, he wasn’t stupid enough to just unleash a powerful demon next to a populated city.

With this very thin path available for Myrkthos’s magic. It bestowed a fragment of its power into Oude. He dropped to his knees, billows of steam pouring out from his mouth, eyes and ears. Demonic magic coursed through his veins, Oude rose, brimming with a newfound power.
“Now, be successful.”
Oude then left Myrkthos’s prison, ascending back up to the Holy furnace itself. While inside, pondering what he should do next. He was approached by Syllen herself, she was looking at him with a sharp cold look. Oude bowed before her.
“What on earth have you done?” Oude opened his mouth to respond. But instead, keeled over in pain, clutching his heart with a serious pang of heartburn. A small gurgle escaped his mouth before a massive eruption of hellfire spouted from Oude, annihilating the Holy Furnace in one grand eruption. Seemingly killing everyone inside. This explosion sent rubble and boulders down into the cavern below destroying the runes incapacitating Myrkthos. In one swift motion Myrkthos rose from the rubble and climbed out of his longtime prison….brimming with excitement at the thought of finally satiating 300 years of demonic fury.

The City of the Holy Furnace believed the initial explosion to be an unexpected volcanic eruption. They sent emergency response teams to check out the wreckage. Those poor souls were quickly dispatched by Myrkthos. The City was really unable to mount any form of resistance against the demon. The close proximity of Mykrthos's prison to the city was its down fall. As Myrkthos reached the city in a matter of minutes after the explosion and proceeded to bury the holy city in a sea of ash and fire, in a way that could be described as anything but systematic. Within an hour and a half of the explosion of the Holy Furnace, the city that made it its name sake, was nothing but smoldering ruins. The only recorded “living thing” last seen in the vicinity of Mt. Vertikus, was a bipedal person who’s skin and features had all been burned away, their muscles blackened and matted with ash. Their veins pumping lava through whatever remnants of their organs remained. Not much has been made of this entity yet.