Lucretia Mathias
Biography
Lucretia Mathias is a willowy and wizened woman with piercing eyes and pursed lips. She is in her early nineties, and keeps her greying black hair in a coiled bun beneath a linen shawl. She wears simple grey robes, and clutches a heavy leather-bound tome. A glowing golden crystal dangles from a silver chain around her neck. Her garb lightly conceals the delerium shard embedded in her heart. Lucretia Mathias has proselytized that hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of devoted followers will need to complete the pilgrimage to fulfill her prophecy. Once they do, the Sacred Flame will set alight every righteous mortal heart, and a glorious new age of heroes shall begin. Until then, they must ensure many more can make the journey, and preserve the delerium, the sacred charcoal needed to enact their rituals. Thus, they wish to make Halarahh itself a holy site. Those who complete their pilgrimage to the crater’s edge participate in a ritual called the Sacrament of the Falling Fire. This controversial rite requires supplicants to impale a delerium fragment into their hearts. Those who survive the pilgrimage are spiritually transformed and physically empowered, rendered immune to contamination and able to survive in the Haze. Many who complete the pilgrimage suddenly discover they are able to tap into powerful spiritual energies, which they claim are the Sacred Flame. Thus many followers channel divine magic who had not before exhibited the necessary willpower to master such abilities. The Followers of the Falling Fire seek to convert others to take up their cause and their beliefs, no matter their former lives. They believe members of the Hooded Lanterns and the Knights of the Sacred Flame could be convinced to abandon their organizations to join the Followers of the Falling Fire. Should a new ruler of Halruaa emerge, the Followers of the Falling Fire wish to convert this individual to their faith. Doing so will legitimize the Falling Fire politically, and make sure that they can continue their pilgrimages. At the same time, they must defend their faith. The Followers of the Falling Fire have been declared heretics and excommunicated by the clergy of the Sacred Flame, and must protect themselves from attacks (both physical and political) by the Knights of the Sacred Flame.
(Lucretia Mathias)
Comments