## The Faceless Flame – The Living Fire of Forgotten Shape ### Overview The **Faceless Flame** is a mythic and haunting entity whispered of in forbidden texts and obscure goblin lore—a sentient blaze that devours identity, memory, and form. Unlike fire gods that bring creation through heat or divine wrath, the Faceless Flame is not worshiped in the traditional sense. It is **feared**, **invoked**, and sometimes **bargained with** in the darkest corners of arcane pursuit. Some scholars believe it is a fragment of an elder power—something not born of this world, but fallen into it. Others claim it is a broken shard of a forgotten god, burned beyond recognition, yet eternally hungry. --- ## Nature and Form - **Form:** A flickering, colorless flame that casts no shadow, yet twists all shadows around it - **Aura:** Heatless light that induces vertigo and causes reflections to distort - **Voice:** Whispers in languages unknown, often mimicked by the lips of the unwilling - **Presence:** Accompanied by the scent of burnt parchment and melted wax --- ## Domains - **Domains:** Memory, Identity, Transfiguration, Unmaking, Fire - **Opposition:** Deities of order, restoration, and lineage --- ## Worship and Invocation The Faceless Flame has no organized church or clerical order. Its adherents are often lone arcanists, heretic warlocks, or deranged prophets. Its rites are solitary, conducted in secret over silent candles and unnamed effigies. ### Known Rites: - **The Flame Without Name:** A silent meditation in which the petitioner offers a portion of their own memory for knowledge or transformation - **Ashbrand Pact:** A binding ritual to exchange a person’s true name for magical power - **The Unkindling:** A forbidden act where a soul is reduced to fire and reshaped, often resulting in mindless servitors or unstable mages --- ## Symbols and Artifacts - **Symbol:** A faceless silhouette wreathed in a flame spiral - **Artifact:** _The Emberglass Mirror_ – A blackened reflective surface said to show one’s self before identity was formed - **Relic:** _Ashcoals of the First Word_ – Burning embers that speak forgotten truths in riddled whispers --- ## Cults and Followers - **The Whispered Ash:** A secretive cult operating within the deeper districts of the [[Shadowspire Dominion]]. They believe fire is the great equalizer, and that through the Faceless Flame, they can transcend mortal weakness. - **Maskless Pyromancers:** A school of renegade fire-sorcerers who wear no symbols and wield shapeless flames that leave victims mentally broken rather than physically harmed. - **Fleshless Chosen:** Warlocks who undergo ritual branding to remove their names and appearances entirely, becoming hollow vessels for unknowable flame. --- ## Myths and Prophecies - **The Memory Pyre:** Some say a city once existed where every soul willingly fed their memories to the Faceless Flame and were remade into a perfect collective. No trace of this city exists. - **The Ember Ascension:** A prophecy states that the Faceless Flame will one day consume a god of identity or lineage and claim their domain, thus birthing a new age of form without past. --- ## Final Notes The Faceless Flame is not evil in the conventional sense—it is **the destruction of identity** as a spiritual offering, a trade of form for knowledge, or memory for power. Those who follow it rarely remain who they once were. > "In fire, the self melts. What remains… belongs to flame."