The Cult of the Second Flame

The cult is very secretive, and not many people even know they exist. This is a collection of information that surviving infiltrators from Palanthas Intelligence have been able to gather in the past few months of the cult's rising to prominence.

 

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  Cult of the Second Flame, also called Zsa Oury by the members of the cult is a very peculiar and dangerous organization to the peace and safety of the The Free Cities of Palanthas and beyond.   The Zsa Oury cultists, in essence, are trying to bring forth an old prophecy that the exact wording of which has been lost but basically it goes like this: "the world will first burn in twisted fire, and then the sun will disappear and the world will be cast into eternal darkness." The cult has linked this wicked fire and the eternal darkness to two almost deity-like Demon Lords, Alzrius and Nocticula. The formerly mentioned being attributed to bringing forth the flames and the latter the darkness.   The cultists then believe, that by accomplishing this task, by bringing forth an era of doom and destruction upon the material plane and letting the Demon Lords do as they will with it, letting their armies ravage, that they are then rewarded by these powerful masters. The general belief is that the two flames of the cult depict two different lives and forms of existence. The first flame depicts their current life, life in the material plane. This flame is meant to be extinguished with death eventually, so it should be noted that the cultists aren't afraid of losing their lives for their cause.   The second flame depicts the cultists rebirth as demons. Some have aspirations become powerful and strong creatures such as Balors, to lead further invasions to other dimensions and layers of the Abyss once the apocalypse of the material plane is over. The others perceive that Nocticula will grant them an eternal status as Incubi and Succubi within her paradise-esque part of the Midnight Isles.   Funnily enough, it seems that the original people who founded the cult likely didn't know what they were doing, since the name Zsa Oury is written in the Infernal language and roughly translates to "two flame" or "second flame". Perhaps however they were trying to start up a cult to worship devils from the Nine Hells instead of their current aspirations, since in the Abyss Infernal is not very commonly used. The demons speak Abyssal, and while it does use the same script as the less rough sounding Infernal, it is instead a from of the Primordial language.   Regardless of their incompetent beginnings, the cult has mustered quite a formidable amount of followers and power. Maybe they were chosen by the previously mentioned demon lords. It certainly seems that at this point the cult has definitely made contact with the Abyss, and that the demons are mobilizing and preparing for war.   According to our spies, the cult has long been in pursuit of a very unique item. The exact details of this item are unknown to us, but it seems to be a jewel, more specifically a ruby, likely attached and worn as an amulet, presumably by the ever elusive Grand Inquisitor. This amulet seems to be capable of opening the rifts we believed were sealed forever during and after the Great Voraci War. These rifts open gateways to and from several different planes of the Abyss. The presumed locations of these rifts, as well as the confirmed ones, at the time of writing this report on the last day of Midyear 643, will be detailed further down.  

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  The recent strange and unnatural snowstorm that has devastated and surprised farmers and other citizens alike in and around the The High-Vale Mountain Range, expanding as far as Tide's End to the west, Fitchview to the south, and Valesburg to the east, seems to be a result of one of these rifts being opened. According to the most knowledgeable wizards, a large burst of powerful magical energy was unleashed somewhere in the north-western end of the mountain range.   However, our sages and historians have been having heated discussion regarding the subject. The main argument seems to be that according to all the available knowledge, the only rift in that area opens to a realm 'owned' by a deity called Kostchtchie. This particular rift was to the best of our knowledge never opened during the Great War. Records also state that it has been believed that Kostchtchie very much despises his fellow demons, and would never collude with them.   Additionally, this previously detailed large burst of magical energy was never detected during the initial opening of the first rift in The Red Desert. It has been hypothesized, that the reason for this could be the fact that the gateway was never properly sealed. It is unfortunate that in these dark times our connections to The Elven Republic are as shaky as they are, since their representatives were the ones responsible for closing the rifts during the last war.  

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  Current presumed and confirmed locations of Rifts to the Abyss, by Palanthas Intelligence:   -WIP