Mythalanir

Eternal Flame Mythalanir () was the Thayan high priest of Kossuth at the Flaming Brazier in Bezantur, the largest and most influential temple of Kossuth as of the mid-to-late 14 century DR.
==Personality==
Mythalanir was an ambitious, visionary, and gifted leader. His intelligence, wisdom, and strength of personality left a strong impression on others and made him an astute politician. He understood that it was wise to form as many alliances as he could, and that it was unwise to attract too much attention to himself. However, he was also petty, tyrannical, and liable to hold deep grudges over the slightest of insults. 
As a devotee of Kossuth, he was enamored with the beauty and power of fire, but he also enjoyed opulence and luxury in stark contrast to the ascetism normally demanded of his faith.
==Activities==
Mythalanir was perhaps the most powerful and influential Kossuthan high priest in Thayan history, and strove to be the most powerful in all of Faerûn. He worked to maintain a close political relationship with the Red Wizards of Thay, who were interested in courting Kossuth's support for their military ventures. Many of Mythalanir's decisions were made with the intention of pandering to or otherwise building alliances with the Red Wizards. He hosted weekly festivals as well as an annual birthday party for himself, and used invitations to these events to curry favor.
In his daily duties, Mythalanir ensured that the Flaming Brazier was kept in perfect condition and that his underlings kept the temple's many sacred fires burning at all hours. He personally led nightly services in which sacrificial victims were burned alive.
==Possessions==
Mythalanir's personal chambers were located in the deep third level of the Flaming Brazier's catacombs. The room was opulently appointed, with no expense spared. It featured stone divans and a freestanding pool for hot baths.
For his personal protection and amusement, Mythalanir kept a clutch of three juvenile firedrakes in the antechamber of his quarters. Once a clutch of drakes grew to be too large for their underground chamber, they were released onto the Thaymount and a new set of eggs were acquired.
==Relationships==
===Subordinates===
As the head of the strict hierarchy within the Flaming Brazier, Mythalanir oversaw nearly 300 priests, 1000 slaves, and hundreds of fiery creatures and elementals. He cared little for his underlings, and knew that he could always replace his lower ranks with desperate folk from the streets of Bezantur. Those who displeased him were liable to be burned alive as sacrifices during midday rituals at the Flaming Brazier. 
His immediate subordinates were the three Most Fervid Fires, each of whom directly commanded one of the three traditional branches of the clergy. Mythalanir had also made the politically expedient but unorthodox decision to create a fourth branch known as the Order of Crimson Warlocks, which existed solely to allow members of the Red Wizards to join the clergy for the sake of prestige.
===Allies and Enemies===
His original and chief mentor was Klanak Famouth, Eternal Flame of the Burning House of Kossuth, however the two became enemies later in life. Mythalanir maintained alliances with as many powerful individuals in Thay as he could, including multiple Zulkirs and Tharchions. His most notable and close ally was Aznar Thrul, the Zulkir of Evocation and Tharchion of Priador, who ruled over Beznatur. However, his closeness with Thrul made him a target for Thrul's enemies, such as the Zulkir of Illusion, Mythrell'aa.
The Harpers worked to undermine Mythalanir's power, and their main ally against him was a tshala named Flamedancer who took up residence within the Flaming Brazier sometime after the Salamader War. Mythalanir mistook the tshala's presence as a boon from Kossuth, and permitted it to remain in the temple even as it plotted to free his slaves. 
In the , Mythalanir gained a powerful new servant: Xakamt, a flaming ghost beholder bound to his will by unknown means (presumed to be by the blessing of his god). Mythalanir took great care to keep Xakamt's existence a secret from his enemies, and was very successful in doing so.
==History==
Mythalanir was born into slavery in the Thayan city of Tyraturos. His parents were Mulan slaves in the kitchens of the Burning House of Kossuth, which at the time was the grandest Kossuthan temple in the land, and he grew up under the watchful eye of that temple's priests. By the age of eight, he had impressed the right people, and his identity was covertly swapped with that of a merchant's son so that he could be inducted into the Kossuthan clergy (a privilege not afforded to slaves). Any of his childhood innocence was quickly lost as he learned to navigate the cruel and two-faced realities of Thayan society.
Upon reaching the high rank of Numinous Blaze, Mythalanir volunteered to transfer from the Burning House in Tyraturos to the Flaming Brazier in Bezantur, which at the time was rundown. Within a fortnight, the Flaming Brazier had burned to the ground with Mythalanir being the most senior member of the clergy to survive the blaze. He then spearheaded the effort to rebuilt a new and much more splendid temple on the same site, and by the time of its completion, no one contested his claim to lead the Flaming Brazier as its Eternal Flame. Using his new position, he formed alliances with many powerful Red Wizards and sought to position himself as the preeminent leader of the Kossuthan faith in all of Faerûn.
Following the Salamander War of the , the prestige within Thay of the Kossuthan faith and of Mythalanir personally received a boost after Kossuth allied with the Thayans. Mythalanir used this as the basis to pressure Aznar Thrul to acquire a powerful artifact, Yrix's ring of fire, for his coffers. In deference for the now hostile public attitude toward salamanders in Thay, Mythalanir expelled the salamanders that had dwelt beneath his temple. He also leveraged this anti-salamander sentiment against his own underlings in the Disciples of the Salamander in order to weaken their ability to challenge him. At some point, Mythalanir was said to have been targeted for assassination by a salamander lord, but was saved by Savyels Aka'Pillihp.
By , as Mythalanir approached his fiftieth birthday, he had succeeded in establishing the dominance of his temple among all Kossuthan houses of worship. This was in part because the previously most prestigious temple, his former home of the Burning House in Tyraturos, mysteriously burned down not long before then. The leader of the Burning House, Eternal Flame Klanak Famouth, suspected Mythalanir of having orchestrated the destruction of his temple, and so conspired to murder him. To achieve this, he allied himself with Mythrell'aa, the Zulkir of Illusion and an enemy of Mythalanir's ally, Aznar Thrul. The pair hatched a plot to use adventurers to do their dirty work.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===References===
Category:Clerics
Category:Clerics (2e)
Category:Clerics of 16th level (2e)
Category:Humans
Category:Mulani
Category:Worshipers of Kossuth
Category:Priests of Kossuth
Category:Members of the Church of Kossuth
Category:Priests and priestesses
Category:High priests and priestesses
Category:Eternal Flames
Category:Inhabitants of the Flaming Brazier
Category:Inhabitants of Bezantur
Category:Inhabitants of Priador
Category:Inhabitants of Thay
Category:Inhabitants of the Unapproachable East
Category:Inhabitants of East Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril
Category:Year of Metropolises