Thanksgiving to the Flame-bearers

I always find it fascinating the little things I get out of my research. The hours to days to weeks to months I have spent compiling so many Titanian Church written records, various local oral histories, and unofficial – yet somehow not destroyed – heathen texts have often weighed me down and pressed against my mind. Blocks of text sometimes jumble into a mush of blurred ink, forming solid black boxes instead of intricate script from which I can glean the truth.

However, there are those moments when I am researching a particular topic that I remember history, even in brief phrases, tells stories of hundreds to thousands of lives. These records I gather and interpret range from detailing to barely summarizing whole lives of people and cultures. I delayed researching one topic because I figured there would be so much written evidence about it. Little did I know that arguably the most important Ardent Sect holiday only has one direct quote from the approved canon:

“Let all ye who survived the previous great winter provide thanks to the flame-bearers, for through them alone did ye live.”

– Deacon Phoebe Federov, Third of Treber, in the 734th year After the Collapse

So much evidence of the noted “great winter” is found in contemporary historical texts. In the year 733, a sudden drop in temperature threatened to wipe humanity off Talam (Markham, 812). There had even been snow found in the most southern portions of Pialagas (Grant, 783), and the waters surrounding Mesr had even started to freeze (Bautz, 832)! Even places like Yaros and the northern portions of Nichugo and Roateo, which was more accustomed to frigid weather, had grown completely frozen (Markham, 812).

For a civilization that had not created centralized heating yet, those conditions easily could have killed off most of humanity. Yet this one line from Deacon Phoebe states that, in that year, humanity only survived because Flame Dancers kept everyone warm.

Now, for some conjecture on my part, I find the notion completely ludicrous. Five hundred years ago, Talam didn’t have nearly the number of Wielders as we do now, let alone Flame Dancers. Those few Flame Dancers could not have possibly kept the several million people across the various lands of Talam. The fact that people only survived because of the Flame Dancers is, put logically, pure hyperbole.

That being said, oral histories from every province in Talam – and even a few written accounts – detail the sacrifices made by the ancient Flame Dancers. In key locations, tales are spun of how Flame Dancers went to everyone’s frigid homes each night, lighting their fireplaces and working to make sure they remained lit. In one settlement in northern Yaros named Skozan, there is a massive pit at least fifty feet wide where apparently a Flame Dancer stood at its epicenter among piles of wood, then shot flames to the heavens from within to keep the town warm during the coldest night of the winter. According to Skozan’s elder, the flames were so large and so warm, even people from neighboring towns and villages made it through the night in comfort. By the next morning, the Skozan people swore the flame was still brilliantly lit, but the Flame Dancer never left the pit. According to the elder, even after freezing himself to death, the Flame Dancer’s fire remained strong.

Upon visiting Skozan, I cannot claim to see a statue in the center of the blaze, but I can confirm the gargantuan fire that continues to burn there until this day.

The visit was a reminder that incredible stories like that likely happened all over Talam. While Flame Dancers logically did not keep everyone in the country alive, there were undoubtedly many people who experienced similar stories to the one in Skozan, and who clearly owed everything to the brave few Flame Dancers who kept them warm.

Often at the cost of their own lives.

So whenever Treber 3rd comes along, raise a toast to the Flame Dancers, as thanks to their predecessors’ incredible sacrifice and a reminder of how a Flame Dancer – and in fact every Wielder – should act whenever Talam’s citizens need aid.

– Lillie Woo, University of Westalk, PhD student of Religion, in Titanian Compendium: A (Mostly) Complete History of the Titanian Church, Beliefs, and Practices