The Ember Current
“From pressure, form. From flame, faith.”
Overview
The Ember Current is a devout and punishing sect of Thal’vanna’s faith—a crucible within a crucible, found only within the volcanic trench-fortress of Nimbrassa. Where others worship the sea’s gentler flows or visionary dreamtides, the Ember Current exalts the transformative agony of pressure, flame, and sacrifice.
To its adherents, pain is revelation, and the scalding, crushing forces of the deep are sacred messengers of the Queen’s judgment. Only by enduring the trials of fire and tide can the faithful burn away their imperfections and become true vessels of The Oceanmind .
The Trials of Ascension
Rite of the Deep Queen
Those chosen to become Tidebound must first survive the Trials of Ascension, a sacred and excruciating process that forges the faithful into living conduits of the Queen’s will:
-The Drift Trial
Full sensory deprivation in open trenchwater, tetherless, for a full moon’s cycle. It is said the Oceanmind will whisper to those worthy of pilgrimage.
-The Scoria Path
Blindfolded navigation through toxic sulfur vents and shifting trenchglass terrain. Many bear the burns of this trial for life.
-The Shell-Vow Rite
The initiate must carve their purpose into a shard of trenchglass using bare fingers. These sacred relics are kept in the Ember Archives.
-The Ember Duel
A formal, non-lethal combat before clergy and flame-scribes. Success is judged not by victory, but by form, poise, and spiritual doctrine in motion.
-The Tithe of Flame
An offering of a personal relic, memory, or oath cast into a magma altar, never to be reclaimed. Some offer heirlooms, others bones.
-The Breathless Creed
The final trial—reciting the entire Queen’s Doctrine while submerged beneath crushing elemental pressure, alone, in the dark. To falter is to begin again.
Only after these trials can one receive the Amulet of the Drowned Throne and be sent upon the Pilgrimage as a Tidebound .
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