Garden of the Firewalkers

In southeastern Oristhane lies the site closer to the heart of the Cult of Istha than any other. To one who doesn't know its significance, the Garden of the Firewalkers appears deceptively unremarkable, nothing more than a rural shrine. But to an adherent of the Cult of Istha, to look upon this site is a revelatory experience, one to which thousands of believers make pilgrimages every year.

The Garden is a small meadow ringed by thick deciduous forest. In the very center of the meadow, a large and ornate bronze brazier burns endlessly with brilliant flame, its golden firelight dancing amidst the trees that surround it. Offerings-- golden rings, plates of fresh berries, decadent furs-- lay carefully arranged on the natural stone plinth beneath the brazier. This site is the single holiest site of the Cult of Istha: the birthplace of the faith.

History

In early Sunsummer of 285 YC, a group of seven rangers prospecting in the area around the site that would come to be known as the Garden got caught up in the midst of a raging forest fire. The weeks before had been one of the area's worst droughts seen for decades, and the trees were dry; the fire spread impossibly fast. It was at this meadow that the rangers realized they were surrounded by the fire.
But, as the fire burned ever closer and closer, it was not a future of obliteration by flame that bore down upon them. The moment of revelation has been described individually by each of the seven, but a few facts thread through each of their narratives.
The rangers heard a powerful voice ring out through the meadow, proclaiming "Fear not. This will not be the day of your death. This will be the day of our awakening!" Nearly blinded by the white-hot light of the fire, they could see no obvious source of the voice at first, but after a few seconds, they witnessed something that would linger in their minds' eyes forever: the shape of a woman made of flame walked out from the the edge of the wildfire, coming to stand before them. "I am Istha," she said to them, "And you will tell everyone of my arrival."
As the wildfire that had been rapidly closing in upon the rangers seemed to freeze in place, the woman of fire walked from one ranger to the next, running three fiery fingers down the foreheads of each ranger, painlessly searing three scar-lines into their skin. "Go, firewalkers," she said, "You cannot be harmed by that which comes from me." She turned and walked right back into the flames from which she came. As the wildfire closed in on the awed and terrified rangers, they discovered that what the woman of flame said was true: the fire was, to them, nothing more than a gentle warmth and light. They walked five miles through the wildfire, coming out the other side unharmed.
So was the genesis of the Cult of Istha and the firewalkers, for they did as she had said: they spread the word of what happened to them, and with it the faith in the miraculous intervening force which saved their lives. Not only was their survival story proof of the touch of the divine. Over the next several weeks, each of the seven firewalkers developed more and more control over heat, light, and flame, powers which only continued to grow, just as their faith did. In time, one of them, a charming young Kharaian woman by the name of Ebrini Cirithath would rise to the role of the first High Priestess of the Cult of Istha.
The miracle that happened in this site marked it as the holiest site of the Cult of Istha. Over the following four hundred years, time and talk conspired to weave a shroud of mythos around this place stranger and more beautiful even than the known truth of what happened in the meadow that was to become the Garden of the Firewalkers.

Type

Meadow

Owner/Ruler

Marini of Khara

Ruling/Owning Rank

High Priestess of Oristhane

Owning Organization

Oristhane