At the beginning of time when it was only the Fire, the Stars and the Gods between, the Fire raged at the Stars. The Stars taunted the Fire with their logic and their order – something the Fire could never have while the stars themselves remained impervious to the retaliation of the Fire (emotion never being the stars strong point). The Gods kept the two from coming to serious conflict however once the land and water hid the fire from view it suddenly saw an opportunity to target the stars through the things it had created rather than directly and so the fire's crusade on the world began.
In stark contrast to the Stars, the fire is all that is chaotic about life. Where the stars bring predictability and order the fire brings spontinaity and wild energy. The fire can be both a force of destruction and creation yet each is done with equal relish for the energy with which it is done. Some aspects of the fire can be seen to be childlike in its play however it makes it no less dangerous in its uncontrolled exuberance – the joy of watching a bonfire burn as the wood crackles into ash or the thrill from feeling the power that the fire posseses at your fingertips and the potential it contains; other aspects of the fire revel in the pure destruction it can bring of both body and mind of those it focuses upon; a final aspect of the fire is one of creation yet the frantic creation brought about by a kind of madness, seen in the last great works of an artist who completes is masterpiece shortly before burning down his studio with him inside to ensure he never paints an inferior picture. The fire is seen in the beauty of a volcano which destroys even while it entices you to watch; its seen in the fascination humans have with violence and the joy with which some persue it; its seen in the thoughts and actions of those who have lost their minds.
Those who play with fire must be prepared to get burned but without risk how can you ever grasp the potential it can offer? Would you rather live in the cold or dance in the light?
The fire hates the stars as much as they hate the fire. The fire does not consist of individuals but one faceted whole with many aspects that are both dangerous and enticing. The fire works to reduce the order imposed upon the world by the Stars, spreading lies where lies would provoke chaos, undoing the logic otherwise emposed upon any system. The fire feeds upon emotion – the raw energy there is intimately linked to the fire and it is unclear as to whether the fire feeds emotion or the other way round.
The fire welcomes (to a certain extent) those who would call upon it in the hope of destroying some of the star's influence through them. However it is quick to change its mind and bite at those who it was previously helping.
It's mischievous nature is seen primarily in the Fae of the trecherious lands where tricks played on others stem from a strong fire ancestry in some. Those Fae (and occasionally some humans) with a very strong fire ancestry have flame red hair (although this isn't the only reason for red hair) so red hair is often viewed with that in mind by most of the Fae folk (humans are usually less aware of this connection)
Old Ones
Many years ago the Gods lay down the land and trapped the fire beneath. This angered the fire which saught a way to reach the world above it. The land created great mountains, majestic creatures, who stood proud upon the land guarding it from what lay beneath. Over time they forgot what they guarded against and wondered what was under their feet that warmed them so wonderfully and gave them hot springs and protected against the chill of the stars. So they dug down. They found the Fire.
The Fire saw this as an opportunity and took hold of the mountains that reached too deep and claimed them. It poured itself into them until the very rock began to melt and the Fire found its way to the surface. In this way some of the mountains (which the Fire had secretly coveted) became servants for the Fire and conduits for the fire to the world. The land mourned the loss of some of its creations and holds a grudge to this day.
The volcanoes may or may not regret their actions, all that remains is the fact that they are now of the Fire. Calling upon a daemon such as this is dangerous as the spirit of the volcano is wrathful and once angered is slow to calm however will often sleep for years at a time and is VERY powerful if you can persuade it to help.
The Muses
These are often spoken of by artists who find themselves suddenly able to write when in the presence of these strange creatures. They often take the form of beautiful young humans (women or men but deffinitly not ambiguous in whatever they decide) with hair that isn't just red but *flaming*. (it isn't hot to the touch but seems more liquid than hair should ever be and flows through the fingers like you would expect liquid fire to do). In the company of such creatures poets have written their best words – unfortunately this often takes the energy from them and they never quite recover in body or mind; spending too much time around a Muse can be very detrimental to ones health. These creatures are also often very playful and will cause small trouble wherever they go although not always targeted at the person they are focused on. These represent the more creative side of the Fire while the Creatures of Ruin represent the destructive influence that the Fire can have. Muses often take more longstanding names for themselves – often from the greatest of the works that they inspired (often these great works leave behind the most destroyed ruins of the creator)
The numbers of Muses and Creatures of Ruin varies depending on the needs of the fire and the petitions of others. The number of Old Ones does not vary although the number is not accurately known. To summon or talk to any sprit one must generally light a fire and sacrifice something of significance to it to attract attention.
Increasing Affinity at this stage:
- Perform a small act of anarchy (either puublic or private but it must have an impact).
- Allow your emotions to have an unusually large impact on your decision making.
Decreasing Affinity at this stage:
- Deliberatly constraining a system with orrder and logic where there previously was none or at least not much.
At 10 points you are very good at empathy – you can judge a person's emotive state and manipulate it therein, or you can see a system and know how the best way to foil it is – you can see the imperfections and the flaws in the logic that can be exploited, depending on which you have emphasised.
At this stage you tend to make snap decisions based on first impressions and gut instinct. You also have a habbit of losing your temper and moving from one emotional extreme to another at a moments notice.
Increasing Affinity at this stage:
- Bring down or severely hamper something ((a system, a building, a group etc) for little or no reason (specifically not because it is the logical thing to do).
- Travel to a place in the world where the world is changing and watch it. (this could involve watching a lava flow move, watch two armies colliding, being in the middle of an earthquake or something like that)
Decreasing Affinity at this stage:
- Warn someone of a fate about to befall thhem that they would otherwise be unable to predict or help rebuild a large fallen organisation/structure
At 15 points, you can't be burnt and crave the heat.
Increasing Affinity at this stage:
- Completely destroy someone's mind and sannity or ruin someone's life utterly. (usually for no descernable reason)
- Play a trick on the untrickable (a highlyy star orientated person (who the fire will take great pleasure in tricking) OR a very fire orientated person (who should know better than to be tricked by the fire)
- Create your finest work (something that iit is agreed upon is truly wondrous and desirable) and then throw it off the tallest building/cliff you can find. You may never see it again, then again who knows where it will end up.
Decreasing Affinity at this stage:
- Lead a movement to restore order upon a ccity, put a fair ruler on a throne, restore order to a completely disordered system (like organising a fraction of the citadels library or something similarly impressive)
Increasing Affinity at this stage:
- Touch the fire beneath the earth.
- Trick a Silver Knight or similar into doiing something against the will of the stars (stealing a kiss from them for example or persuading them to show any form of mercy).
- Persuade a God to side with the fire overr the stars.
Enflame
This accentuates the emotions of any living being in the vicinity of the caster. Whatever the person was already feeling they are now feeling it MORE. Rational thought is impaired (has less effect on star affinity people) Lasts for 1 hour.
Spark
Allows the caster to summon up the essence of fire from within themselves and create sparks from it that can then be used for any purpose (setting things on fire, disturbing a wild creature, burning a person etc.). The downside of this is that it requires the casters own blood to do this – the more blood they have direct access to the more sparks they have (so a small cut will give enough sparks to jolt a horse, give someone a fairly nasty burn if held onto by it or light – a larger gash is more likely to give someone bad burns and set furnishings on fire)
Cloud the Mind
Logical thinking becomes nearly impossible and the person more suggestable and will rush into things they would usually give more thought to. Lasts for only a few minutes depending on the fire affinity of the caster. In this time they are very suggestable.
Inspiration
Puts one individual into a uniquely creative frame of mind with the burning desire to complete their project (whatever that may be – the caster has very little control over that) instantly and to the best of their ability regardless of the concequences or their own personal safety.
Raise the Fire
This allows the undercurrent of the fire to bubble that little closer to the surface across the area of about a district. All those with fire ancestry will feel compelled to act accordingly being closer than normal to the fire. Generally across the area people feel more incline to act in a rebellious and anarchist manner. Those with artistic talents will find themselves working in a self destructive frame of mind creating things. All fires – suddenly finding themselves that much closer to their essence get illusions of gradure and flare up – this has the potential to be really really bad if you're closer to anything larger than a candle flame. This can, in some areas, have the unforeseen effect of actually causing the fire to breach the earth where it is thin causing volcanic eruptions – this only happens when there is a fault in the land originally.
Twist
This spell results in the permanent twisting and warping of something from an ordered thing into an entity of chaos. If cast on a person they lose their mind irevicably, if cast on an organisation its infrastructure collapses and there is anarchy and dissention in the ranks. If cast on a machine it will distort so badly it will either not work at all or work in such a way that its original design couldn't possibly allow it to do that – an example of this is the rearranging of internal clockwork into something utterly different and, well, twisted. As a general rule of thumb the bigger the thing you are trying to twist the less twisted it will be. Trying to twist a city will either have a small chaotic effect over the whole or give you pockets of twistedness, twisting a pocketwatch will result in you getting a pocket watch whose internal workings probably can't actually exist in this dimension but it doesn't seem to have noticed yet… this will quite possibly lead to it doing something odd like it no longer telling you the time but actually giving you a very accurate account of the positions of the heads of the mob families. Or something.