The Vermillion Lady of Ebon Flame
Divine Prime
(a.k.a Divine Prime)
Much could be said of the First of the Ma'ab Ascended though many sources are conflicting, as the Ma'ab gods build their dogma upon the right of those divinely chosen to lead their people to victory for eternity. Of all the Ascended, the Divine Prime is often viewed as the least active, seated upon her throne in the main citadel, and yet she is also the most powerful of the divine leaders by far, both magically and martially. The Vermillion Lady is the pinnacle to which any worthy Ma'ab should aspire. Her current impassive state is due to the burden she chose to take to “save” her people.
When the Ma'ab revolted against their Greylord master, it was at great cost. How can one oppose a god of death when the deaths of one's allies would only fuel his forces and their souls would suffer in his captivity? The once-enslaved Ascended had made a plan to sever their ties and change not only the path of their lives, but their deaths as well. During the revolt, the Lady would become the vessel for their people; to her, all Ma'ab would pledge their souls and, from her, they would be born anew.
To do this the Lady lost much of her flesh, her form remade from pneuma flint. Through her force of will, she was able to pull and hold those Ma'ab who died, combining and then unifying their essence. Such a task is madness of the purest kind for there is not a moment that the Lady is free of the burden of each Ma'ab soul. Their every desire and fear scream in her ears, their deaths playing in her eyes over and over again. It would be no small wonder that she seems distracted from mortal affairs.
The benefits, however, are plain for all to see as the Lady's body of pneuma flint glows a brilliant red due to the sheer number of souls she has absorbed, giving her massive power. Much of it is spent acting as a beacon and working to contain them all. The sheer amount of necromantic force this takes has led to a visible corona effect in her aura in the shape of flickering, black flames. This makes her presence potentially deadly to the living as a mere moment of distraction would see her loosening the control of her aura and smothering the life around her in black flames.
Although Ma'ab souls on Miurag may answer the call of another deity, the vast majority are drawn to the Vermillion Lady in death. She is aware of her own limitations and thus systems were put in place to control the pace of souls passing through her. Noble families made the Toh-Rah Set, or Living Monotlith, and other repositories to hold the souls of their ancestors. Nobles make gifts of these trapped souls for favors and power, with the lion's share going to the Ascended.
One of the few items associated with the Vermillion Lady is her sword. The saber sits in its sheath across her lap, rarely drawn now, save to service it and keep its edge keen. While most Greylands weapons are designed to wound and subdue to facilitate the capture and trade of souls, this rare silver blade possesses obvious lethal intent. While it is rumored that she was gifted the blade by the Deathless, no actual records of such an event exist and none of the Ascended attribute it to the Miurag-born Zauryian. More curious are the inscriptions upon the blade in the tongue of the Greylands:
"Lay down your time and you shall know rest from your memory."
There are no descriptions of what enchantments the blade may hold as most scriptures only describe the Lady in battle in vague terms laden with metaphors. These accounts could be as easily attributed to her own spellcasting as could the magic forged into her blade. The sword never leaves her possession and thus it is difficult even for other Ascended to discern the weapon's aura separately from the Lady's.
