First Flame

Written by Endrise

She is powerful, but not omniscient. Even her presence has limits, even her light cannot reach everyone. That is our duty, not hers.

— Ori Santoro

The First Flame is the direct connection to the Celestial Fasma, the fire that burns evermore. The most sacred of relics amongst the Wandering Flame's Church, if not one of its most powerful.

For ages it remained unlit, only reignited the last few decades thanks to Ori Santoro. It now resides within the First Flame's Church, providing Fasma a direct look into Fabulae.

The Divine Flame

The First Flame is a meteorite that crashed ages ago in what became modern Nexu, made out of an unknown flammeable material. Since its crashlanding, it has remained lit for centuries, emitting a cyan flame. One that does not burn the skin, no matter how bright it burns.

Its namesake both refers to the meteorite and the flame emitting from it, but only when the former is lit. The meteorite is not the First Flame by itself, but it is together with the fire.

Powers

Window into the Celestial Realm

The First Flame's main ability is to allow Fasma to look into the the material plane. Any fire lit with it acts as a window for her, able to see anything through it.

Those that gaze back into the flame see through the veil of existence, if not straight into the Celestial Realm. Though others only see a mere cyan flame, with no clear reason for why. Even the one that were able to look into it may fail to do so another time, assuming the gateway can open and close depending on unknown circumstances.

Warding Presence

Anything within the light of the First Flame wards off corruption of the natural world. Illusion, enchantment and other spells that warp one's perception and reality fail around it. Only those with immense power may even stand a chance at casting it.

Eternal Warmth

Despite the Flame's cold touch, it can heat up any room it is in to a comfortable temperature. This warmth is magical in nature, allowing people to wear light clothing while things like snow or ice do not melt in its vicinity. Only in open spaces does this effect have a range limit.

Item type

Religious / Ritualistic

Current Location

Church of the First Flame

Owning Organization

Church of the Wandering Flame

History

Origins

During Prehistoria, the Celestial Fasma gazed upon Fabulae as her children guided the first of mankind. However, some began to rebel, wishing less to guide and moreso rule over mortals. Amongst them was the traitor Titan, one of the first gods whose name remains lost with time.

Her frustration with her son drove her to anger, only to slay him in a moment of rage. She brought down a star from the heavens and pierced it right through him, unleashing a power that turned night to day and ignited the land in Celestial flame. A divine spark shattered itself in doing so, embedding itself within the primordial life across the continent. The most noticeable amongst them were the first Dragons, as well as several other forms of life that changed because of the broken spark now living within them.

As the fires calmed down and the Titan War broke lose, a massive crater stood upon the northwestern side of Sichelan, with the meteorite remaining lit at its center. The First Flame was born, left behind by Fasma as she moved on to deal with her children.

Quiet Years

The First Flame's presence was known for millenia on Sichelan, backed up by many findings over the years. Cave murals tied to Raucher's native population associate its origins with their Dragon worship, while Elves have reports discovering the anomalous rock centuries ago.

While many noted its unusual behaviour, its weight and size made it hard to remove from its spot, with fewer being able to understand what it was. As such, it remained only a landmark amongst what would later become Nexu.

Rediscovery

When settlers from Origionne arrived on Sichelan, amongst them was one known as Iscah. Tales of the First Flame intrigued her, making her venture with a small group towards the crater itself. While the others saw it like many others that came before her, Iscah felt something different when being near it. She approached it, held her arm out, and touched the flaming rock before anyone could stop her.

In that single moment, her soul gazed beyond the cosmic veil right into the Celestial Realm, witnessing the sight of Fasma's true form before her. Before the girl could panic though, the Celestial noticed the eyes staring back at her, helping the confused mortal come to her senses. She quickly learned how Iscah achieved such a feat, and explained in return what the First Flame was. Understanding though how such a tale could be heavy, Fasma offered the woman a gift of any kind, even to erase this knowledge if she so wished. She refused.

Considering such knowledge good to have, Fasma then offered her a duty. Seeing as her sight on the world became more narrow over time, she asked Iscah to report back about the world to her. Let her learn more about reality, so she could help it where possible. Wanessa took on the offer, creating the foundation of the Wandering Flame's Church.

Rise of the Wandering Flame's Church

Iscah's efforts began gathering followers, causing the First Flame Crater to end up being settled. As the Fire Maiden gathered info to share with Fasma, the Celestial in return helped Sichelan to prosper. Around the flame rose the city of Luxaltar, at its center the Church of the First Flame itself. As the rock was deemed immoveable however, the building instead got built around it.

Luxaltar became a safe haven thanks to her influence, as the First Flame wore off threats from outside. It did also not take long for following Fire Maidens to learn that the fire worked elsewhere too, leading to Flamebearers helping spread the flame across Sichelan. Shrines and temples erected in major cities helped spread Fasma's view on the world, allowing her to influence things on a larger scale.

It was not without sceptics though, as many questioned the capabilities of the First Flame and its Maiden. They saw it as mere spells and trickery, only to be met with a display of the Celestial's power to prove otherwise.

To ensure a line of succession, the Fire Maiden title helped ensure Fasma always had an oracle to act as her mouthpiece and informer. As Iscah retired, a new one would touch the Flame and serve their years, continueing this tradition for the centuries to come.

The Age of Silence

Things went well until the Great Sangfroid War, as escalating conflicts between the Great Sangfroid Empire and the rest of Sichelan caused widescale troubles everywhere. The current Fire Maiden Wanesa was not pleased with it either, in frustration lashing out to Fasma for not intervening more. The Celestial could not answer, questioning her own reasons why she let things get this worse over time.

The back and forth only got more heated as the war escalated, to the point that Wanesa's words came out shouting. And with it, she did something impossible: she put out the First Flame for the first time, severing her bond with Fasma and the Celestial Realm.

Without the light of the First Flame, the High Council went in a panic, knowing that such knowledge coming out would only worsen the situation for everyone. As such, they hid the truth from the public, using regular fire to kindle the flames in other shrines as they went out one by one. They also attempted any method to rekindle it themselves, with very few results and even worse drawbacks at times.

It also did not take long before cities began noticing the First Flame's absence: as flames burned out one by one, many became vulnerable to corruption and outside influence. In an effort to bury the truth, Flamebearers were also tasked to use more mundane warding spells alongside the rekindling of a local flame. While many held against more minor threats, few endured the greater evils of the world.

The Blind Oracle Incident

One attempt to rekindle the First Flame was done with Fire Maiden Cecilia Dunn, using a myriad of rituals and spells to do so. They tried to light the meteorite with another arcane flame, hoping to create a gateway between the Celestial Realm and the material once more.

Instead, the light of the fire burned away Cecillia's sight, blinding her permanently because of it. Not only did she lose her ability to see, she lost a filter to her sight entirely, seeing essentially through reality.

Trying to understand her condition better, Cecillia attempted to put together a diary describing what she experienced. It did not take long for her to grasp this to be the Celestial Tongue made manifest, having her write down what she could. She managed to learn 32 words throughout her life doing so, all written down in a single document.

Supposedly her discovery of the Celestial Tongue did make contact with Fasma, who heard the words echo through the Cosmic Hourglass straight towards her. Though others believe Eldred Van Assen's mastery of the word death managed to grab her attention more.

Rekindling

The First Flame remained unlit until not long ago, upon the discovery of the Second Flame being given a way to get rekindled. With Fasma sending down the stone towards the earth to be found by Ori Santoro, she made her way to the Church of the First Flame immediately to try and rekindle it. A task proven more difficult than she thought with the council's corruption over the years, leading to the full-on siege.

After proving her chosen right as the next Fire Maiden, Ori made her way to the First Flame and rekindled it for the first time in centuries. With it, Fasma was able to reestablish her look over the world, beginning a new age for the Wandering Flame's Church.