The Ashen Blades

The Ashen Lord – Supreme leader and spiritual guide, said to embody both the will of the Ashen Flame and the voice of prophecy. The Ashen Lord’s word is law, their command followed as sacred mandate. Chosen not merely through succession, but through divine omen and elemental resonance, the Ashen Lord is often seen as a living embodiment of the Zahen people’s enduring will.   The Flame Caller – High priest and keeper of Zahen rites; the spiritual axis of the crew, presiding over sacred rituals, dream-visions, and the Songs of the Ember. The Flame Caller ensures that each act of bloodshed, sacrifice, or plunder is balanced with rite and reverence. They often maintain the shrine-quarters aboard each ship, and interpret omens found in soot, flame, or ashfall.   The Ember Brand – The warborn heart of the Ashen Blades. These elite captains lead boarding parties, oversee military campaigns, and maintain martial discipline among the fleet. Chosen from among the fiercest veterans, they are known for bearing ceremonial scorches—brands seared into flesh by the Flame Caller to signify undying loyalty and tempered wrath.   The Cindersworn – The hardened backbone of the Ashen Blades. These are veterans of countless battles, flame-channelers, former Zahen exiles, and loyalists who have bled for the Oath. They are respected and feared in equal measure, often mentoring Kindled recruits or leading smaller raiding vessels. Among their number are smiths, navigators, archivists, and war-ritualists.   The Kindled – The unproven sparks of the Oath. Whether orphans of the sea, Zahen-born wanderers, or those branded by prophecy, the Kindled begin at the bottom—testing their strength, faith, and resolve through fire trials, raids, and elemental rites. Each Kindled must face their own Trial of Flame to rise, a spiritual test that varies by fate and fire.   Together, these ranks form a hierarchy not of simple command, but of belief. Each role in the Ashen Blades is not just a title—it is a vow, a part of the Oath rekindled anew with every life taken or relic found. In their eyes, the flame is never extinguished. It only waits to be fanned anew.

The Ashen Blades are steeped in ritual and legacy. Every crew member learns the tenets of the Ashen Oath, not only as doctrine, but as sacred inheritance. Before they even lift a blade or cast a line, initiates are taught Zahen history, the songs of the Ember King, and the old flame-prayers passed down from the ashes of Angmir. Fire-rites—ceremonies involving embers, branding, and whispered oaths—are central to life aboard their ships. These rituals are meant to honor the fallen Zahen, appease the spirits of ancestors, and prepare each crew member’s soul for the trial of death and the hope of rebirth.   Their ships are not merely vessels of war, but floating sanctuaries. Spiral flame insignias and soot-marked sigils are carved into every mast and plank. Braziers burn in honor of the dead, and the coiled flame—symbol of the Oath—is branded, inked, or etched into the flesh of every loyal blade. Some wear it over the heart. Others across the eyes. All know its meaning: belonging, duty, and the fire that binds.   They venerate Ensin Solvaran not as a god, but as a martyr-king—a symbol of resistance, ambition, and flawed divinity. His tale is recited in full on the Ember Nights, a vigil held each month beneath a moonless sky. During these vigils, every member gathers on deck and throws a pinch of ash into the brazier to speak the name of a lost soul, whether fallen brother or forgotten ancestor. These acts forge their collective memory, and deepen their bonds.   The Umbra Noctis is both their lodestone and their burden. It is seen as the root of Zahen suffering and the key to their restoration. It haunts their dreams and drives their sails. Loyalty to this cause is absolute, and betrayal is the gravest of sins—punishable by ritual immolation, overseen by the Flame Caller and witnessed by the entire crew.   Songs of ash, tales of Angmir’s splendor, and prophecies of fire reborn are sung beside roaring deck fires. Initiates are often required to memorize at least three verses of the Ember Lament, and many carry small tomes of fire-scribed Zahen script. When a member falls, a ceremonial burning of their possessions is conducted at sea. A braided strand of flame-woven cloth is cast into the wind, carrying the memory of the fallen to the realm beyond the ash.   To outsiders, their culture seems brutal, fervent, even fanatical. But to the Ashen Blades, every scar is scripture. Every fire is a prayer. Every act—piratical or sacred—is part of the Oath that still burns.

To the world, they are raiders and marauders. But beneath the bloodshed lies purpose: recovering Zahen relics, uncovering ruins tied to the Ashen Oath, and hunting down any clue that may lead to the Umbra Noctis. They clash openly with Dominion fleets, Inquisitorial Orders, and rival pirate crews—especially those trafficking Zahen relics or profaning sacred ruins.   However, the Ashen Blades see themselves as more than seekers of power or plunder. Every ruin breached is a prayer reclaimed; every artifact recovered, a fragment of Zahen history restored. They operate in layers—overt piracy veils deeper efforts of restoration and knowledge gathering. In secret, emissaries of the Flame Caller infiltrate black markets and libraries of forbidden lore, extracting what the world would rather forget.   They are known to manipulate regional politics from the shadows, influencing coastal warlords, brokering dangerous alliances with elemental cults, and sabotaging religious institutions deemed heretical to the Zahen legacy. When not at sea, they establish hidden sanctuaries and flame-kept shrines where Zahen traditions are practiced in defiance of the modern world.   Though painted as villains by the powers of Veth’Arden, the Ashen Blades maintain an unshakable belief in their mission. They see their struggle not as one of conquest, but reclamation. And in their eyes, the restoration of the Zahen’s soul is worth any cost, no matter how steep the trail of ash and blood they leave behind.

The Ashen Blades were founded by Travyn Grace, a privateer who vanished in Zahen's Landing and returned claiming visions of flame and prophecy. He spoke of dreams set in the ruins of Angmir and of whispers carried on volcanic winds, calling him to rekindle a forgotten oath. Gathering elementalists, outcasts, Zahen exiles, and spiritual zealots, he assembled a ragtag fleet and declared the birth of a new fire—an oath rekindled through the blade. Thus, the Ashen Blades were born, not as a fleet of pirates, but as a sacred order cloaked in sails and shadow.   Captain Grace styled himself the Ashen Lord and began rebuilding what he believed had been severed by time and fear. He established floating sanctuaries aboard warships, lit ceremonial pyres in remote coves, and led pilgrimages into ruin-choked coasts. The earliest years of the Ashen Blades were marked not by conquest but by recovery—of relics, rites, and purpose. They unearthed glyph-inscribed masks from burial sites, rescued flamebound scrolls from forgotten monasteries, and carved fire-runes into the hulls of their vessels.   As their numbers swelled and their fleets grew bolder, their presence across the Eastern Gulf became impossible to ignore. What began as sacred thefts escalated into maritime sieges. Merchant lords cursed their name; Dominion admirals deployed entire squadrons to chase them down. Yet the Ashen Blades persisted, slippery and spectral, vanishing into the ash-fog before their enemies could strike.   Then, just as suddenly as he had risen, Travyn Grace died. No wound was found on his body. No poison in his cup. Some say he burned from the inside, consumed by the flame he once commanded. Others whisper he was claimed by the Umbra Noctis in his dreams. His death fractured the crew—until a new Ashen Lord emerged. Unnamed by the world, cloaked in silence and shadow, this figure proved even more ruthless and decisive than Grace.   Under this mysterious leader, the Blades transformed from a cult-like gathering into a disciplined, war-hardened force. They laid waste to coastal redoubts, stormed Dominion archives for lost Zahen manuscripts, and delved into submerged catacombs sealed since the Age of Ruin. Their influence spread to underground markets, secretive cabals, and forgotten island settlements once believed uninhabited.   Now, in 474 AEL, the Ashen Blades are more than just a pirate fleet. They are a living myth—a fire that refuses to go out, a shadow that moves behind the curtain of empires. To those who remember the past, they are the blade of vengeance. To those who fear the future, they are the omen of a fire reborn.