Firebrand Church

Religious zealots who worship the last living god: the All-Flame Queen, also
called the Burned One — a fire deity who survived the God-Emperor's god-killing
purges (see World History). Established year 976. Its clerics can actually cast
magic, fueling rapid growth. A signatory of The Coalition — "Orathos would be
foolish to turn away an organisation so willing to take the front lines, no matter
how unsettling their cultists may be."

Ranks

• Blessed — one in eight hundred children are born conduits of the Burned One,
  raised from childhood in the ways of flame (fire magic, sermons, the right to
  perform ceremonies including branding). Their standing goal: convert and brand
  willing converts. Kain is a Blessed.
• Branded — converted later in life via dousing in oils, immolation, and branding
  by a Blessed; for some a punishment, for others a dream. Trained for relentless
  war (bonus fire damage, fear from commoners who recognize the scars).

Tenets of the Fire Domain

The church's stated doctrine of flame, set out as five tenets. They read less like scripture than like a working manual: what fire is, and what it costs the person who channels it. Two of them are load-bearing enough to explain a great deal of Firebrand behaviour the party has already witnessed.

1. POWER — Fire is always powerful, "a force capable of consuming and destroying all in its path." Wield it responsibly; it can turn against those who do not understand it.
2. CONSUMPTION — Without fuel, fire dies. To channel the Fire domain you must be burning, exhausting or consuming a resource — physical objects or emotional energy. And then the sting: "What you burn as fuel does not necessarily have to be your own."
3. EMOTION — Fire is invoked by strong emotions: rage, love, fear, joy. "To effectively utilise the Fire domain, you must be able to lose control of your emotions."
4. LIGHT — Burn brightly enough to draw attention, illuminate darkness, cast aside shadows. The domain is strongest during the day.
5. LIMITATION — It still obeys fire's rules: an ignition source, a physical resource to burn, and an oxidising agent (usually air).

Reading the doctrine

• "What you burn as fuel does not necessarily have to be your own" is the church in one sentence. It is the doctrinal licence for everything unsettling the party has seen below decks: the bone pit beneath the burning statue (a third beast bones, two-thirds humanoid), the wrapped, writhing creature burned alongside Kain at the ceremony, the branding of converts by dousing in oils and immolation, and the shipping of zealots to the Orathos front lines because dying in battle pleases the Queen. The Firebrands are not merely willing to burn; the domain requires fuel, and the tenet explicitly declines to say the fuel must be yours.
• Kain's sacrifice sits exactly on the fault line. In Session 07 Kain gave himself — "complete of body and soul" — and the ceremony still consumed a second body to work: Nina's own doctrine was that the rite fuses "the soulless husk of a body with a pure soul of a true believer," and out of that pairing stepped Draak. By Tenet 2 that is two fuels, one volunteered and one not. Kain is the church's best case for the tenet and its sharpest problem with it in the same act.
• Tenet 3 makes Kain's rage doctrine, not temperament. He was played as a rage-fuelled fire melee combatant, and the Blessed are raised in the ways of flame from childhood. If effective Fire-domain casting requires losing control of your emotions, then a church of relentless war-trained Branded is not recruiting society's worst by accident — it is recruiting fuel that burns hot.
• Tenet 4 is a practical warning. A faith that is strongest by day, in a Veilwood under a curse whose horrors come out after dark and whose settlements enforce curfews, is a faith fighting on its weak foot for the party's current campaign.
• Tenet 5 keeps it physical. Ignition, fuel, oxidiser — the domain can be starved. Nothing in play has tested this yet.

Notes from play

• Brands recruits (often society's worst); ships zealots to the Orathos front
  lines — dying in battle pleases the Queen
• Offers free housing, food, components — and dental
• Voluntarily pays Varia's higher "noble" tax rate
• Pamphlets are flameproof vellum (the party ruled this "doesn't count as paper")
• Local figure: The Flamespeaker. Other members: the very tall Lurch
  ("Larch"/"Ljorstud" — spelling unsettled), now reaching
  shelves no one has ever reached. Kain recruits constantly.

Session 4

• Kain recruited the cowardly gladiator from The Urina and his wife; both
  now attend introductory night sermons hand in hand. "Little Bub" declined.
• The pink-mohawked orc charity lady spent hours at the church listening — past the
  10-minute walk-out window, a promising sign by Firebrand standards.
• Free perks on display: weekly teeth cleaning for Kain, dramatic Warbrand
  faith-healing for Magra after sermons — a performance that pulled in youths
  who'd been headed out drinking.

Session 5

• Full-service day: a 25-gp dwarven wedding by Kain, Ash Warden overhealing for
  Magra, a steps-of-the-church redemption branding of a back-alley thug by
  The Flamespeaker, and a free Alchemist's Fire worth 10–15 soldiers' gear.
• Silithane scammed supplies with an illusory brand and a fake Flame Queen voice —
  caught; the High Sun charged Kain with teaching him honesty.
• The church's big play revealed: a 20-ft burning statue of the Flame Queen
  (half angel, half dragon) craned into The Expedition Ship's lowest deck to make
  "super soldiers"/summon a super Firebrand at sea — hatch guarded by Ashwalkers and
  twin priests; "the Blessed may enter... with up to 6 idiots." There's a bone pit.
• Notably absent from the top-deck war planning, to deck officer Pam's disgust.

Session 6

• The Holy Chambers run "showings" of the fire ceremony roughly every 8 hours;
  the twin door-priests keep a drawer of consolation lozenges for those who miss one
  (Kain missed by 2 minutes).
• The Ashwalker deck guards can sense who doesn't embrace the Flame Queen — they
  wave Kain through and eye his companions; Lash's "official
  inspection" bluff worked anyway.
• Priests below decks were horrified to learn "Fire Eyes" blinded himself — the
  Flame Queen had nothing to do with it.