The Cinnabar Order

A priesthood of scourging flame from the red sand deserts of the Oasis States, the Cinnabar Order works its ways in flame-shrines and monasteries of ash. Their adepts bring sourceless fire to the in- habitants of the great pyramid-cities. Each likely boy or girl is obliged to spend long years in study before they are permitted to leave the shrine where they were trained. Some are enlisted by a city in need of another flame-sorcerer, while others travel to the wet lands for their damp green secrets. They revere the dead gods of fire and heat, mastering their ancient liturgies to call forth the flame that their people need to survive in a land where there is little to burn. Their arts are quick and easy to invoke, and they may cast spells spontaneously. While the Cinnabar Order is a vital part of the life of the great pyra- mid-arcologies of the Oasis States, its members are viewed with a mix of fear and distaste. The ancient adepts of the Order were strongly opposed to the transhuman breeding experiments that continue to this day among the families of the pyramids, and their refusal to cooperate in lending Cinnabar Order pupils to the genetic stock won them the displeasure of the cities' sorcerous flesh-shapers. The arcane descendants of these ancient fire-magi preserve their distance from the eugenic experiments of the Oasian nobility, obliging the Order's leaders to remain in the security of their ash monasteries. Despite this ancient hostility, the pyramids still need the magical fires that the Cinnabar Order provides in order to maintain their massive enchanted hydroponic gardens. As such, they are paid in necessities for their monasteries and maintain a certain legal impunity under Oasian law. So long as they don't interfere too overtly with the nobility, they and their servants may ignore almost all other laws.

Structure

Apprentice Every apprentice of the Cinnabar Order is skilled in desert survival, the finding of water, the liturgies of the dead red gods, and the sub- tleties of all things that burn and explode. They are not taught any magical secrets until they have mastered all these things, however. Adept Adepts can make torches or candles burn all day without being con- sumed, become immune to fires smaller than a bonfire, light a nimbus of fire around their limbs (turning them into 1d6 weapons), summon 2 HD Cinnabar Sparks from the bestiary chapter, or cause a one foot cube of matter to become flammable regardless of its composition. Master Masters of the Cinnabar Order can hurl bolts of flame (1d10), be- come immune to mundane flames, extinguish a fire no larger than a house fire, create a nimbus of flame for a scene that burns everyone around them within 10 feet for 1d4 damage, control the burning of a fire no larger than a bonfire, summon 4 HD Cinnabar Sparks, or command creatures of flame to briefly obey them for a scene. Archmage Archmages can hurl exploding balls of flame that do 2d10 damage to everything within a 20’ radius of their landing point, become immune even to magical flames, summon an 8 HD Cinnabar Conflagration, or extinguish all fires around them in a 50’ radius.

Type

Religious, Holy Order