Twenty-Ninth High Priest - Matthenus Tolir (Thonus Malnir)

Religious event

With the murder of Thonus Malnir, Matthenus Tolir took the position for himself.

With the knife dripping with Malnir's fresh blood, the Dragon Knights descended upon the six Major Priests. With a quick word from Tolir, they were condemned to death for the attempted coup of the Church. In front of the congregation, they were swiftly beheaded. After an initial uproar, Tolir spoke over the crowd declaring Malnir a False Priest sent to destroy the Church. He declared himself the next High Priest until things could settle and come back into place and the Church doors swung back open.   Unfortunately for Tolir, the Sack of Serrano took place only one year later in 1034. During this battle the Arcosians held the Church as a headquarters for three months before they were rooted out by a band of Serranese warriors. The battle released high levels of magic within the church and there were plenty of magical traps left behind. With the Church in a partial state of disrepair, Tolir brought in the Dragon Knights to help rebuild the magical damage.   During a survey of their work a year and a half later, a Dispel Magic spell went awry and hit close to Tolir's feet. In a flash Kall Drogold, the High Knight of the Dragon Knights saw Tolir in a different light. Tolir wasn't another man at all, but was Malnir in the flesh disguised is his own killer. Drogold firmly placed his hand upon Tolir's shoulder turning him around. The paladin cast another Dispel Magic spell directly on the High Priest destroying his disguise. Immediately there was an attempt to arrest him. In a flash of rage, Malnir forced Drogold through the south wall of the Church out into the square. Malnir slammed the doors of the Church closed and rained fire upon those left inside.   The barricade lasted for one and a half years in to 1037. Malnir held the Church captive as his personal castle from the outside world. Anger grew in a city that was tired of war. Mobs marched upon the Church, bashing at the doors. As the mob of hundred burst through the doors they were welcomed to a scene of rotting, burnt bodies strewn around the main hall and a raging Malnir sitting on a throne of shattered painted glass and bones. Led by the Dragon Knights they stormed the throne.   With a raised fist and fire in his eyes, Malnir ignited himself and with a roar of white hot rage, he released a burst of magic energy that tore through the men and women surrounding him. The energy field rapidly condensed back upon Malnir as he stood. He boomed above the din, "You do not know the Dragons. You do not deserve the Dragons. The world will burn again and I will be its savior". The energy took over the building in a white heat vaporizing the building and the buildings surrounding it.   A crater smoldered for the next several days, nearly three hundred meters across. The central district of Serrano was a hole in the ground with nothing of any identity left behind.