Thrith Mallidek
Thrith is a junior Disciple of the Flaming Brand, nervously awaiting her Feast of Welding where she will become a full Dek Bearer of the Flaming Brand.
She is assigned to one of the many Deks that serve the Fire Lord Mallius and is being trained by a Dek Keeper known as Keeper Saveri Mallidek.
As the final part of her training, Thrith has become the newest member of the Dek that Saveri is currently leading on a mission to accompany the Illuminator Lumin Serat as he investigates rumours of hubris and broken tithes in the deserts of Ardi-Kokufa.
Thrith has progressed quickly through her training, with a naturally disciplined sense of will, and a clarity of determination that has made her kinetic control of her body and the mental mastery of her internal reserves of Crystal uhd relatively easy. As such, her raw manupulation of Blood Magic is second to none within the junior Disciples.
However, she struggles with most aspects of the communal manipulation of the magics, and this has led to much consternation between her, her other Dek Bearers and Keeper Saveri. Physically she has no problem with the dances and kinetics of the Dek's magics, but it is in the submission of her will to others that she fails.
Her Keeper says it is a mark of a stubborn pride and arrogance within her - a barrier that must be removed if she is to work effectively within the Deks of the Flaming Brand.
Thrith is just as frustrated by it. She is acutely aware of her irrational feelings of anger when told what to do, or the thoughts that surface during her group exercises: "if I was the one in charge, this would be better."
She knows she is being arrogance and foolish, but can sense something within her that is indeed greater than the others in her Dek. She wants Mallius himself to witness it, and see herself rise as a Keeper of renown within the ranks of Mallius Flaming Brand regiments.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Thrith grew up in the outer tunnels of the Stonesky Drainage. not far from the The Verdant Gorge. Her village, known as Greengate has long tithed its worship to the Fire Lord Mallius.
Her parents were simple stonemasons, but more labourers than engineers. They spent their waking hours working the quarries of the Stonesky for building materials sent to the Gleaming City, and their nights joining in the collective mediations and prayers to their Lord.
In her youth, Thrith spent much of her free time exploring the vertical forests of the Verdant Gorge, and following the comings and goings of the Flaming Brand Bearers and Keepers that were stationed within the Greengate. She admired their power, and their devotion to the Lord Mallius.
Thrith came of age during the time of the Stonesky Riots, and she was witness to what her parents saw as the greatest of hubris, as one of the leaders of the riots, Impetine used the conflict to become a Lord of Fire herself.
Like her parents, she maintained her loyalty to Mallius, and each death she witnessed during the riots was accompanied by supplicants to the Lord of Death himself.
She volunteered to help the Gatherers of the Usokufa during the riots as they collected and dealt with the bodies of those who died.
It was during this time that agents of Mallius identified Thrith as a hopeful to enter his service as one of the Flaming Brand. It was her ageing parents proudest moment to see her don the orange robes of a disciple and move to The Gleaming City to begin her training.
Education
When she became a Disciple of the Flame, Thrith had to forgo all familial ties, though the memory of her parents has stayed with her ever since.
The training was hard, and took many, many cycles of the Moons.
There was the physical training in movement and dance which was relentless and ardous. But Thrith took to it with focus and determination, often at odds with her peers as she competed against them for the attention of their superiors.
She also took to the mastery of blood magics - transmuting energy through her will. None could best her when matched one-on-one, and she quickly graduated to working in the field as a junor member of a Dek, under the guidance of Keeper Saveri Mallidek.
Recently however, she has struggled within her Dek. The true power of the Flaming Brand comes from the communal magics they deply, where the Bearers like Thrith give over their magic and focus of will to the Keeper to channel into greater force.
But being part of a Dek has meant Thrith has been able to leave the Gleaming City for the first time since she joined the Flaming Brand. During her soujourns up and down the Godswollen River, she has helped defend against raids from the Warlords of the Deadlands, and even the occassional Soulhusk Chimeras.
But mostly it has been uneventful expeditions escorting members of the Merchantry of the Torrent or Gatherers of the Usokufa as they ply their trades.
On her first visit back to the Greengate, Thrith learnt that her parents had both died of old age. It was a peaceful passing, but the news has weighed heavy on her heart, even though as a Flaming Brand, she knows she should have severed all emotional ties.
Mental Trauma
Thrith herself is completely unaware, but there is much more to her origins than her story as a Bearer of the Flame would show.
Show spoiler
Thrith is in fact a sleeper agent of the resistance who has willingly undergone drastic mental brainwashing to hide her true motives from Mallius and the other members of the Flaming Brand as she rises through their ranks.
Thrith was a devoted member of the resistance during the Stoneky Riots, and one of the many who saw her leader Impetine's apeothis as a total betrayal of what they had fought for.
Her parents did not die peacefully of old age, that is just part of her cover that she set up before undergoing her brainwashing. They were actually killed by the Flaming Brand at the beginning of the riots, and their deaths are what drove Thrith to such drastic actions.
The process of her voluntary brainwashing was complex, and required the aid of many of her comrades within the resistance. She used blood magics to cordon off parts of her personality and memories, and constructed a new self in order to infiltrate the ranks of Mallius' forces.
Her goal was to rise as a trusted and devoted follower of Mallius until she would be in a position to assasinate him, or at least undermine his plans once the resistance had regained its strength. Her allies within the resistance have orders to trigger her re-awakening when the time is right.
It is this hidden mote of herself within her psyche that prevents her ability to work communcal magics with other of the Dek, but her new identiy has no idea of the truth.
This instability within her is getting worse, and Thrith is often beset by unerving dreams, and even waking feelings of dread and axiety that she cannot understand.
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Children
Gender
Female
Belief/Deity
Mallius
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Comments