The Free Flame Heresy (1200 to 1900)
Before the Free Flame was a federation, it was a form of heretical mysticism. It began on the
Tolzel Fire Plains in the 1200s ME, as a response by local nomads to aggressive attempts to colonize the coast by East-Garadek
Zihari groups. This early form of Free Flame spirituality was barely even perceptible as a change; it was more a statement of dominance over foreign invaders than anything particularly revolutionary. But the rituals and practices of this Free Flame mysticism continued among the nomadic groups of Tolzel long after the colonies withered away. And when Western Garadel was aggressively settled and made increasingly sedentary in the massive economic boom in the 1600s, the nomads experienced something of a Free Flame ritual renaissance.
The Free Flame renaissance of the 1600s was further encouraged and organized by the budding new faith of
Saraka. The Temples of Saraka used the Free Flame movement as tool of conversion, and armed and funded Free Flame mystics as a way to mobilize the nomads against their Zihari enemies. But the Saraka Heirophants had far less control over the Free Flame movement than they thought they did. The Free Flame movement became more than a statement of traditionalist nomad pride; it became a belief system in itself. While the Temples of Saraka preached that the Cycle of Life and Rebirth was an inevitable cosmic truth, the Free Flame movement insisted that it was fundamentally tied to the land and to ways of life. The Sacred Cycle, they argued, was a necessary part of existence but one that could be threatened by mortal actions and was reliant on physical ecological cycles. And while ecosystems everywhere represented that cycle, Tolzel was the manifestation of the body of the Supreme Goddess and therefore the most raw and important part. In essence, the entire principle of physical redemption and rebirth for the entire universe depended on the Tolzel fire plains existing as they always had, and any attacks on traditional ways of life were short-sighted attacks on the fabric of reality as we know it.
The Saraka Temple did not take this Free Flame ideology seriously and was more impressed with the way it mobilized warriors than concerned with its broader implications. But, as Western Garadel settled further and further inland, many Sarakan states closer to the Temple authorities began interfering with the Fire Termites, dragomanders, and wildfires that made the Fire Plains what they are. They also began walling or fencing off traditional nomadic herding lands, stealing from or over-hunting the semi-wild herds of large animals in the open plains, and killing off nomadic bands to prevent raids or livestock-theft. The ideology of the Free Flame intensified among the nomads, who appealed in vain to the Sarakan Temples. After years went by and the Temples did nothing, the Free Flame mystics rallied the tribes in vengeance wars for those bands who were killed off. It became harder for the settled groups to divide and conquer, and they stormed off to the Sarakan Temple authorities to make them get rid of this troublesome cult.
In 1830 ME, sustained pressure from settled states finally moved the Sarakan authorities to condemn Free Flame mysticism as a dangerous heresy. This only made the Free Flame cults more zealous, militarized, and aggressive: they now saw themselves as the only thing stopping depraved outsiders from ending the world. And for a century, that resentment and extremism festered as settled groups pushed ever inland.
The Riders of the True Flame (1900 to 1955)
While the century of rage set the stage for a grand nomadic invasion of Western Garadel, it needed a leader capable of navigating the intricate clan politics of the plains to actually take form. That leader emerged an unlikely form: a
Pearl Pangolin bound to a
Loanuan bird as a
Meako, a curious good-hearted warrior by the name of
Tezeka.
Tezeka was born to the
Sartozo clan in the Western reaches of the Central Fire Plains. She was blessed with a prestigious family group, whose skill in battle was matched only by their zeal. She was raised in the Free Flame heresy, and she took part in raids justified by its ideology from a young age. As an exceptional warrior and student, she managed to earn herself an exceptional piece of loot at the young age of 13: a young Moa bird that she stole off of a ranch in the
Kingdom of Linorn. She nurtured and protected this Moa, and accidentally bonded to it as a
Meako. This relationship sparked a curiosity in
Loanua and druidic magic, and she eagerly purchased books or knowledge whenever she visited a city for trade. These druidic tracts and accounts of the pillaging of Loanua shaped and refined her faith. The more she learned, the more intense her commitment to the cult of the Free Flame she became. Eventually, her anxieties about the world demanded action. She left her old life behind to wander the plains as a mystic, rallying whomever she could into action.
By the mid 1930s, Tezeka had following enough to return to the Sartozo clan as a warleader. And by the early 1940s, the clan was convinced to follow her in her grand crusade. From 1942 to 1949, the Sartozo clan persuaded, bullied, or bribed the other clans of the central plains to join together under one banner, and in 1949 the clan leaders swore a sacred oath to ride against the False Sarakan Temple together. Not long after this swearing of oaths, the regional power, the Kingdom of Linorn, began to collapse. A civil war and financial crisis in Linorn in 1950 offered a perfect opportunity for the Riders of the True Flame to prove their faith on the battlefield. From 1950 to 1953, Tezeka tore through the Linoran countryside destroying ranches, pillaging towns, and freeing Meako and Moa birds. In 1953, Linorn retreated to its insulated coastal core and began negotiating a truce. In 1955, Linorn agreed to evacuate its plains territories, to free a number of Loanuan birds into the fire plains, to pay a large sum to the nomads, and to oppose the Free Flame's excommunication.
The Empire of the True Flame (1955 to 1963)
Victory over Linorn (even a victory that could be interpreted as being paid to just leave) legitimized the Riders. The Sarakan Heirophant doubled down on their condemnations of the Free Flame cult and Tezeka in particular. The Riders began to make their way North, stopping in the lake-filled region of
Zoseto too loot and further build up their forces. This war lasted only one year before it was resolved peacefully by the Druids of Zoseto, who had organized into a holy order known as the Circle of Wildfires. Tezeka restrained her forces from further raiding and pillaging in exchange for the Druid's assistance in healing the fire plains and integrating the new Loanuan birds into its ecosystem.
Tezeka moved on, consolidating the Northern tribes as she went. Finally, in 1957, it was time for the grand confrontation: the
Sacred Kingdom of Nalastra, seat of power for the Sarakan heirophant, was at its strongest and most militarized, and so was Tezeka. The two powers smashed into each other, and war burned across Northern Tolzek from 1957 to 1960. Finally, in 1960, Tezeka captured the Heirophant in battle and was able to march into the Nalastran heartlands.
For three years, Tezeka took control of the ruling mechanisms of the Sarakan religion. She installed her own new Hierophant, had the excommunication of the True Flame cult lifted. She never had the chance to really reshape the faith in her image, though. She was assassinated in the Nalastran capital in 1963 by members of the old regime. The assassination attempt was a comical series of failures that ended with her curled-up form being kicked into another attempted assassin like a soccer ball, with both stumbling and accidentally detonating a barrel of gunpowder. The death was deemed comical by the
Cat Heavens, and Tezeka (and the assassins) were turned into Ghosts.
Tezeka and her ghostly moa wander the Fire Plains to this day. Legends say that she races those who chase her, and that she teaches her secrets to those who prove their worth.
The Modern Riders
From 1963 to 1965, the Empire of the True Flame disintegrated into a series of small states and clans. The Nalastra it left behind was forever changed, but Tezeka left behind no direct heirs to rule in her stead. By 1985, the last claimants of the Empire passed on and the title of the Empire of the True Flame fell out of use.
The clans went back to their lands, becoming
Riders of the Free Flame. The riders are a major religious and political force on the Fire Plains, and have become a path towards become a paladin, Meako, or druid for many nomads seeking a higher calling.
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