Catastrophes of Brimstata

Sapient Species

A little girl looked on her favorite tree. Glittering lime and emerald, the tree danced and sang in the morning breeze. She giggled and smiled, dancing along with it. The winds changed. A woman, blindfolded several times over and enrobed in what looked like stitched-together meat, sauntered over to the girl. Without moving her lips, she asked why the girl loved the tree so much. The girl pointed to the leaves and babbled in nonexistent words. The woman smiled with an expression of peace, and walked over to the tree. She lay a single fingernail into the trunk, at which point the tree contorted and wailed, turning a bright crimson and dripping with burning blood. The girl shrieked in horror as the woman lifted up one of her many blindfolds. The burgundy eye that stared at the girl reflected only the ashes of her ashes, the girl's whining having been returned to the void by the Witch's empty fire.

## Biographical Information

### Home Planet

Brimstata

The **Catastrophes of Brimstata** were a collective of over 30 individuals bordering between monster and intelligent force of evil. While all once sharing a connection to the world's coreheart, the exact origin and goals of each Catastrophe vary wildly. The first multitude were created by the Witch of Armageddon as corruptions of concepts that she felt would scar the people of Brimstata the most. However, one other Catastrophe, the Mother of Hellfire, did have a hand in the creation of several more, even producing 12 more Catastrophes on her own.

# Witch of Armageddon

**Haemathesia**, more commonly known as the Witch of Armageddon, represented the combination of two other terrifying evils. She was the unholy and perfect merger between cold, cruel detachment and insatiable bloodlust. Born in Brimstata's skies with a will to turn the universe around her unrecognizable, the Witch of Armageddon's true aspiration was to become queen of a realm consumed by torment and impossibilities.

The Witch herself possessed two horrifying Echo-adjacent abilities. She could distort the very fundamentals of concepts she understood and touched. A particular habit of hers before she was first sealed was learning the beauty in an aspect of nature from local Brymasti before destroying it before their eyes. The other ability she once wielded was known as the "empty fire". It was not actual fire of any sort, but the way it flowed resembled it. The empty fire disintegrated objects into ash, and then reduced the ash to a simple airy powder that smelled of regrets and grief.

Had the Witch not been limited to Brimstata, she would likely have quickly realized her true capabilities and leveled planets. Even the small sliver of the Witch of Armageddon's power granted to her Vessel is enough to cause nations to tremble. It is for this reason that the Vessels of Dissent are seen as an authority above and outside of any nation on Brimstata. No nation, family, or settlement wants to risk the wrath of a Vessel of one of the Catastrophes. The full power of the Witch of Armageddon has the potential to cause an apocalypse that extends far beyond just Brimstata.

As the progenitor and most powerful of the Catastrophes, the Witch of Armageddon was feared across the world, even while sealed. Though the most tame and "benevolent" piece of her soul was rent for the Vessel creation process, it is said that a little bit of her malice lingers in the souls of her Vessels to this day.

# The Spawn of the Witch

The Witch of Armageddon created the majority of the other Catastrophes of Brimstata. Through her malicious wanderings, the ranks of chaos grew, festering over the world of fire. The power each one possessed varied dramatically, ranging from a simple unkillable violent beast to a threat that could end nations when pushed to its limits.

## Mother of Hellfire

The first creation of the Witch of Armageddon. Born of the flame from a sacred brazier in the middle of a sermon, the Mother of Hellfire was a corruption of an ancient religion of Brimstata. Her true name, **Solwyn**, was forbidden knowledge from all but the inner circles of that ancient religion. Her creation did not hinder its progress. It merely reshaped that old faith into the Children of Hellfire.

The Mother of Hellfire was originally worshipped as a nurturing deity who would help the flame of passion and magic grow in her faithful. After her rebirth by the hand of the Witch, this twisted into a frenzying perfectionism. She looked with scorn at the filthy Brymasti around her, so weak with magic, so unaligned with the flame. She strengthened them for a while, giving their Echoes more fire-attuning and making them resistant to burning, but it was not enough. The Mother of Hellfire sought a flame that could burn anything into nothing - concepts, structures, other fires, people, even the Witch of Armageddon herself. She called this project the "perfect fire", and began attempting to create it.

In her fervent research into flames, the Mother of Hellfire found that fire mixes quite a bit more with other aspects of magic than they would with each other. She decided to create more compound flames, seeing how the added magic would strengthen and alter the fire itself. None of her research lasted very long, so she devised a plan. If the Witch would go and create more Catastrophes, why not the Mother? Twelve times, her most proud research into fire became milestones engraved on the world in new Catastrophes. It was only when the Dragon of the Infernal Grove was born that she stopped, for she could not touch the Dragon without being scorched herself. Her research could go no further, and the child that could carry her legacy was a mindless beast.

The Mother of Hellfire wielded a vermillion flame that sputters and sparks with blood. The quintessential hellfire that she produced burned stone like wood and spread with a mind of its own towards living beings. Those consumed by the hellfire are said to have their soul burnt away before their body perishes. Despite the destructive nature of it, temples to the Mother have collected hellfire and placed it in their sacred braziers, welcoming her blessings despite her perverted perfectionism.

As a major religious figure, the Mother of Hellfire's fame spreads to her Vessel as well. The Vessel of the Mother is often heralded as a chosen prophet of sorts; ironic seeing as most of them gained the title after killing the previous Vessel. The Mother of Hellfire's Vessel is welcomed into every temple to the Mother and given very preferential treatment. They are the celebrity of the Vessels, and have been since the initial sealing of the Catastrophes so long ago.

## Amorphous Pestilence

Shambling around in a formal suit and wearing a suspicious scarf, **Jovannas** wandered from city to city, leaving behind only mangled and pus-filled corpses along the cobbled roads. Known worldwide as the Amorphous Pestilence, this Catastrophe's trail of death extended to all living beings. Anything that came near the mysteriously dressed man would be consumed by horrible convulsions and discoloration, their body ceasing to move and leaking foul pus-like compounds. The original forms of whatever suffered at his hands was lost, unrecognizable. While exposure to the remains of his wanderings isn't guaranteed to be lethal, they cause severe illness in anyone who comes into contact with them for thousands of years after the body dies.

Not much can be said about the Pestilence's personality. By the nature of his ability, he had to be alone for his whole life. Perhaps he travelled to the cities of the Brymasti and Astrins because he wished for social connection. Maybe he just enjoyed seeing their bodies deform and expire. Or perhaps he had no mind at all, merely wandering the world aimlessly and happening upon unfortunate amounts of people. Watchers from afar have noted that he looked up at the sky a surprising amount.

The Amorphous Pestilence "wielded" a power known as the Omnipresent Plague. While normally a passive radius of inescapable and universal pathogen, it could be channeled or strengthened, even altered to give different effects. The knowledge of the active portion of the Omnipresent plague is entirely due to the succession of Vessels of the Amorphous Pestilence, as the actual Catastrophe had no social connections or need to alter the properties of the plague.

## Laments of the Departed

**Meren** is an ancient Astrin word for grief. It is only fitting that this was the name of the Catastrophe that feeds off of such emotions. The Laments of the Departed was what appeared to be an amalgam of the souls of the deceased. This was not the case, however, as it was actually a small orb that added apparitions of the deceased to itself when it fed on grief. Over the thousands of years it existed before its first sealing, the Laments grew to an enormous size, becoming something resembling a whirlwind of ghosts. It called out to the living in the voices of their loved ones, urging them to save them from its grasp. All a ruse. It killed the gullible people and absorbed their energy into itself.

The Laments of the Departed was not just a wailing cacophony of apparitions. It had a set of abilities that seemed specially designed to kill unsuspecting prey. Its mimicry of the dead is the most well-known, but among its other abilities are inducing deep and physically impeding sadness and creating spiritual lightning from the energy it has absorbed over the millennia.

The power it wielded, known as Tortuous Lament, stems from the regrets and grief of its surroundings. The Vessels of the Laments have used the absorption process of these emotions to help people across Brimstata, strengthening their own power in the process. With the emotions they collect, the Vessels of this Catastrophe have been creating unique methods of subduing criminals or other enemies for many millennia.

## Dragon of the Tempest

The Dragon of the Tempest, **Kratatheryx**, was created when the Witch of Armageddon found herself in a thunderstorm. Taking inspiration from its lightning, she caught a bolt of it and molded it into a serpent-like form, whispering her soft lullaby of corruption into the white-hot arc. The lightning became the Dragon of the Tempest, and while its legless form may have hindered much of its destructive capabilities, it still cracked the skies in half with its raging storms.

Kratatheryx was not known for wreaking havoc in cities or on land. It passed through the upper skies at rapid speeds, leaving a trail of enormous storm clouds in its wake. Reducing deserts to flooded mud plains, setting forests on fire and hurling the trees around, and sending chains of tornadoes across open steppe, the Dragon of the Tempest was feared more for its effects on the local landscape more than the actual lethality of its proper form.

The sky-splitting lightning that Kratatheryx unleashed with its mighty roars became the weapon of its future Vessels. Granting with it the power to control the weather, at least locally, the lightning that the Vessel of the Dragon of the Tempest wields is the strongest pure lightning of any Catastrophe.

## Hadal Spectre

**Shiloth** slept at the bottom of Brimstata's deepest ocean undisturbed for thousands of years. Slowly meditating and absorbing the essence of the world around it, this Hadal Spectre grew in power without fighting at all. It was once called the Peaceful Catastrophe. However, the immense beast decided one day to lift its head out of the sea, carrying with its presence a crippling wave of madness for miles around. Connected with Brimstata on a psychic level, the Spectre had gained a form almost impossible to comprehend and knowledge beyond any mortal being.

The Spectre remained at the bottom of the ocean until the Hero of Brimstata travelled to it with his trusted friends and killed it, taking part of its soul and implanting it in the first of its Vessels. The person chosen to be its Vessel had fortified their spiritual self and knowledge of magic to an extreme degree, just barely allowing them to accept the power without mentally breaking.

The power that the Hadal Spectre wielded is known as Depth Glimmers, appearing as little glowing orbs of liquid light. Within them are the capabilities to command pressure and motion, to unleash madness and crippling psychological weight, and to peer into the minds of others. The Vessel succession process for the Spectre is more voluntary, as the previous Vessel gives their successor decades of spiritual training before allowing themselves to be killed for the harvest. Because of the requirements to contain the Hadal Spectre's Echo Fragment, its Vessels have always had a reputation for being mysterious and otherworldly.

## Lantern of Frost

At the heart of the blizzard at the North lay **Krisvatan**, the Lantern of Frost. Now the mantle of tending to the Northern snows passes to her Vessel, but the legends remain the same. A woman seemingly made of ice and draped in robes of snow, the Lantern of Frost found people lost in her blizzard and beckoned them with her ice-white lantern of cold flame. Guiding them back to her tower, she waited until they had settled in before locking them in a room. She allowed the blizzard to flow in, giving the traveler an impossible task to complete in order to earn their freedom. Of course, none made it out.

The Lantern of Frost delighted in her little game of hospitality. Her cold smile widened ever so slightly when she saw the realization in her prisoners' eyes that they could not escape. Even those with robust flames could not melt the ice she created, at least not for long enough to escape from her icy tomb. She danced through the long and tall hallways of her palace, humming to herself in the sounds of glaciers shifting.

The Lantern of Frost was a cruel deceiver to all except the Hero of Brimstata. Wielding ice and cold itself with enough strength and diligence to make blizzards blow for millennia, the Lantern shuffled across a graveyard buried in snow. Once killed, her power was transferred to the first of her Vessels. Known as the Core of Frigidity, this power allows the Vessel to be immune to all cold and frost, and control them as well. It is the antithesis of the Brymasti's culture of magic. It is said that the heart of the Lantern's Vessel will be partially frozen over, taking their empathy in exchange for the gelid mistress' abilities.

## Almighty Reflection

The dragon of nacreous mirrors, **Celespharix**, the Almighty Reflection that peers into the souls and thoughts of all who dare gaze up upon her magnificent form. The Witch of Armageddon delighted when the simple shard of glass she found became such a regal-looking creature. Millions of facets of shimmering reflective crystal make up the beast's body, creating warped reflections of the world within. When one peers into the eyes of their distorted self within the dragon, it is said that all of the flaws and thoughts they keep secret shift into the outward appearance of what they see.

Celespharix was the only one of the Three Catastrophic Dragons with a semblance of intelligence. While rumored that she gained this intelligence from the people she was around, memory archives from the Witch's Echo Fragment show that she had knowledge of Brymasti language from the time she became a part of the world. Her speech carried a tone of unshakable superiority and pity for those below her. She sighed with the sound of crystal shards scraping against each other, disdain in every second of her lustrous existence.

Almighty Reflection's main ability was to manipulate the glasslike crystal that makes up her body to an impossibly precise degree. She would often simply kill those who came near with a needlelike shard of her body like a tiny beam of light straight to the heart. When her victims were fast enough to avoid that, she would overwhelm them with a glistening blizzard of razor-sharp pieces of herself. Avoiding this would result in Celespharix's true wrath: summoning multitudes of crystal copies of her victims, forcing them to fight off many versions of themselves. This ability, called the Omnividite Shards, has been passed on to her Vessels and been expanded upon. The shards apparently had the latent ability to redirect Essence through either reflection or refraction, as if it were light.

The Vessels of the Almighty Reflection gain a sheen to their bodies. They make noises like ice sculptures as they walk and see through the thoughts of others. When cut, they do not bleed. When bludgeoned, they shatter. So long as the core in their hearts is not destroyed, the Vessels of Celespharix can recover from any injury. The cost of this is said to be the detached regal pity of the Catastrophe, and the violent nature that accompanies it.

## Harbinger of Drought

The once lush jungle now remains a billowing, scorched ocean of sand. The skies seem to mock the inhospitable wastes below as the crumbling ruins of a once thriving town are slowly buried under the pale beige sea. The Sun Ring beats down upon the world below in a way its decrepit visage never could. All hope is lost for the return of life to this place, for it has been tainted by the Harbinger of Drought.

Her true name was **Haeshasi**, but none who encountered her knew that. Wherever she walked, the dirt would dry and crack until all that was left was sand. In her wanderings, she made many trails across the world, which would later become the centers of long roads, However, the Harbinger of Drought was not remotely useful. She lingered in towns for weeks, draining the water from the atmosphere, the people, the world around her. Within three months, all the people were mummified husks and the heat of the day beat down upon the parched air like no other place in the world.

The Harbinger's hums and whistles can be heard in the winds of her deserts, even after her sealing and death. No reversal of her ability seems to work for longer than a week, requiring immense effort to push back even a small village's worth of the arid biome. Only two known permanent undoings of this exist on Brimstata: One oasis where the Hero first sealed her, and one where she was finally slain during the Wrathmoon.

It remains unknown what the Witch of Armageddon corrupted to create such a passive and yet destructive Catastrophe. Perhaps it was the essence of a desert she found her way to. Regardless, the subtle and slow cruelty of the Harbinger of Drought served to decimate many of Brimstata's shattered landmasses and turned them into a region known as the Desiccated Sea. The ocean becomes thick and briny here, and the only land for enormous stretches of distance is inhospitable desert. The permanent scars that the Harbinger left upon the world are more than any other Catastrophe could lay claim to.

The Vessels of the Harbinger of Drought wield her signature Dune Song, calling and bending many aspects of the environment. They can pull water from almost any material, set the air ablaze with unignited flame, move sand as their own limbs, and orchestrating sharp winds. They do not cause the passive desertification that the actual Harbinger did, but they may still wreak famine across the world as they see fit.

## Grieving Sun

An armored man with absurdly long golden hair and the ring of the Sun itself as his crown let out another defeated sigh. Corpses lay around him yet again, and not one had put so much as a scratch on his armor. He could not be killed by any warrior with even the slightest tinge of empathy. The miserable tale he wove of tragedy was a lie that even the Grieving Sun himself was convinced of. Born of the unattainable false light of the Sun Ring, **Lelibas** the Grieving Sun was the Witch of Armageddon's only other experiment with twisting a religious figure.

While the Sun Ring's Faithful did not alter their faith to fit the visage of this new Catastrophe, the Grieving Sun saw the faith as a testament to the weakness he felt inside. His tears flowed on the battlefield, becoming glowing drops of honey-colored light and spinning into unfathomably sharp rings. While recounting hymns to his supposed lost daughter and lamenting his alleged fall from the heavens, the bladeless hilt he wielded became the cradle for a circular saw of illuminant death.

The Grieving Sun's demeanor did not match his methods. Wielding a halo of gleaming light above a hilt of engraved stone, he mercilessly dismembered all who opposed him. For all his crying and stories, he was still a Catastrophe. A city was once unfortunate enough to cross paths with his bereaved wanderings. No survivors remained in the aftermath, and a poem the size of the city was written in rubble and blood. At times, it appeared the Grieving Sun did not even notice how he murdered people.

Eventually slain by the Hero's most heartless companion, the Solar Tears passed on to the future Vessels of the Grieving Sun. Ironically, the power needed to slay the Catastrophe almost completely prevented the use of his power. The first Vessel of the Grieving Sun was said to have used artificial liquids and gases to get the Tears of light flowing to decimate his foes. Rotational energy forges the tears of the wielder into nigh-unbreakable rings that can then be controlled by the one who released them. However, a sliver of the Grieving Sun's delusion is said to infect each one of his Vessels.

## Onyx King

As the Sun Ring created the Grieving Sun, the Midnight Eye was so corrupted to become **Modos**, the Onyx King. Unlike the sniveling wielder of repentant light, the King brandished a crown of a thousand onyx swords that bent to his will. Attacking only in the night, the Onyx King was a supposedly silent killer, though the howling winds at night were attributed to his victims' unfortunate cries.

The Onyx King was a master of undoing peoples' psyches slowly. Robbing them of sense after sense and slowly encircling them until all they could perceive was through the lens of pain, the wispy laugh of this Catastrophe was a signal of inescapable death. He was a vicious killer, unraveling the bodies of people with the size-changing onyx shards of his crown or skinning them with coarse clouds of ash. The victims could not sense it, but they knew that he was smiling with his wicked toothy grin at their mangled bodies.

Gifted with the ability to hinder the senses of people with clouds of incredibly fine particles, the Onyx King wielded a malevolent power known as Nightash. When entering the body, it can shut off certain sensations. Outside of the body, it allows acute alteration of local environmental factors as if it were an extension of the wielder's body. Testing by the Onyx King's Vessels has shown that Nightash is actually incapable of reducing pain, but can be used to amplify it to over a billion times its normal sensitivity. The cruelty of the Onyx King's methods is said to leak into the core of each one of his Vessels, turning their hearts just a little more sadistic when they fought.

## Wolf of the Typhoon

At the edge of the coasts, there were two wolves. One lay beyond the shore, frolicking in the violent seas. The other stayed on land, mournfully howling at the open ocean. The one of the sea, **Kerysbos**, was responsible for maritime destruction of impeccable degree. More often called the Wolf of the Typhoon, this giant seafoam-colored lupine beast plagued sailors of Brimstata for millennia. Able to call cataclysmic hurricanes and flood entire cities, the Wolf's visage is still seen in the howling winds of the monsoon.

The Wolf of the Typhoon was not malicious in nature; it simply reveled in the chaos of the seas, the turbulent waves and crackling stormy skies. Though it didn't mean harm intentionally, its kill count was likely in the billions. It traveled across the ocean, creating a permanent typhoon wherever it went. Cities noticed the storm before it arrived, but they could never evacuate in time. The Wolf was simply too fast, sprinting across the open ocean towards any landmass it saw.

The Wolf of the Typhoon was said to be attracted to valuable metals and gems like a magnet. Sailors had to be quick and make sure their route was far away from the Wolf, lest their ship be sunk by its gargantuan paws. Given the incredible speed of the Catastrophe, sailing was almost impossible for commercial purposes back in the Era of Cataclysm.

Though sealed by the Hero, its Hell Typhoon remains in the Vessels as a supreme power. Giving them boons when out at sea, giving them the power to call the raging maelstroms the Wolf once did, and granting the ability to run on water. The chaotic essence of the Hell Typhoon is hard to master, but Vessels of the Wolf manage to find freedom in its power.

## Hellhound of the Mist

At the edge of the coasts, there were two wolves. One lay beyond the shore, frolicking in the violent seas. The other stayed on land, mournfully howling at the open ocean. The one of the land, **Kharobos**, was the herald of a slow, creeping death over many coastal towns. While one of the weaker Catastrophes, it still killed millions during the millennia it roamed the world.

The Hellhound of the Mist's five white eyes pierced through the foggy nights it brought with it. The silver sheen of its fur allowed its slender body to blend in with the vaporous blanket it brought with it. The somber howling of the Hellhound brought true fear to many, for its curse was a slow and terrible one. Those caught within the fog of the Hellhound of the Mist would lose their memories, senses, or ability to command parts of their bodies. Each night one inhaled the fog, they would be afflicted with this curse again. While the Hellhound could travel across the entire world in a week, it seemed to linger for far longer than welcome in coastal port cities.

The Hellhound of the Mist was created by the Witch of Armageddon after she got lost in the fog whilst wandering near the sea. Taking inspiration from the obscuring of her surroundings, she created a creature to reside within and add an element of fear to the already eerie weather. The howls of the Hellhound can be heard only within the fog, pounding against doors and flowing through streets as a wispy echo.

The Hellhound of the Mist became a legend to incite fear into children, urging them to close and lock their windows when a foggy night approached. Elderly people who suffered memory loss were said to be sinking into Kharobos' maw. The Hellhound of the Mist eventually became synonymous with old age, as the silver hair and thinner bodies of the elderly resembled aspects of Kharobos itself; accompanying age-related diseases helped solidify the image.

The Vessels of Kharobos are said to have impeccable memory, lustrous silver hair, and a white glint in their eye regardless of light. The Unfeeling Mist they wield carries with it the weight of age and time that the Hellhound of the Mist encapsulates, despite not aging its victims whatsoever. The thematic burden of the power is said to be heavy on the shoulders of the Vessels.

# Innovators of Hellfire

The Mother of Hellfire's perfectionist drive to create the true, pure flame led her to create twelve children, Catastrophes more powerful than herself, in order to reach the apotheosis of fire. She would have continued, had her twelfth creation not been too powerful for even her to handle.

## Inverted Burner

After bargaining with the Witch of Armageddon to make a subject suitable for testing, the Mother began learning the true potential of altering flames. The Mother of Hellfire's first milestone in researching fire, the Unburning Flame, was kept within and made into **Lokann**, the Inverted Burner. The flames produced were deep blue, dark, and seemed to flow in reverse. They would return ashes to their original form, and this was later revealed to be a mere hint of their true power. Although the power contained within the Unburning Flame was great, the Mother of Hellfire viewed the Inverted Burner and their ability as a mere starting point.

The Inverted Burner grew to hate the Mother of Hellfire. While they were the first of the Hellfire Siblings, the oldest, they were seen as a simple starting point and the weakest of the twelve. Lokann stormed from city to city, uncooking food, littering the area with fresh corpses raised from their neat ashes, and putting out every source of light a settlement had in a massive temper tantrum. Though most of their flames' effects were inconveniences at best, the reversal of energy flow was fatal to anyone directly touched by the Unburning Flame. Still, the brooding rampage of the Inverted Burner was a nuisance for most, simply requiring more work to be done to get things back to normal.

The Inverted Burner was one of the first Catastrophes laid to rest by the Hero. The Vessels of the former have been historically much more competent with the Unburning Flame than the actual Catastrophe that wielded them, an extremely rare thing to happen among the Vessels of other Catastrophes. Even while the ability to reverse the flow of energy and un-burn things is a terrifying power in the right hands, the legendary childishness of its first wielder has severely diminished the weight behind it.

## Crackling Hound of Damnation

**Phidoros**, the second of the Hellfire Siblings, was an attempt by the Mother of Hellfire to refine her own hellish blaze. The result was the most unstable and explosive fire in the history of flames, contained within a feral beast with the least intelligence of any Catastrophe. The foaming spit the Crackling Hellhound of Damnation produced sparked and detonated in a neverending trail of destruction. Insanely useful fire being held within extremely unfitting Catastrophes is unfortunately something of a major theme with the Hellfire Siblings.

The Hound took an entire island as its territory, leaving a trail of destroyed rubble and singed rock in its wake. Within a couple of centuries, the entire island was a flattened mess of gravel and ash, shattered by the snarling rampage of the feral monster. With nothing to take its omnipresent anger on, it festered in a blind mess of burning spittle and growling. If an unlucky group of travelers made their way to the island, they would be torn apart in a frenzy of frothing explosions and booming yaps.

Had the Crackling Hellhound of Damnation actually used its ability properly, it would have discovered the incredible properties of the Erebal Fire. The deep red fire explosively reacts with organic matter, sputtering and blooming into a veinlike spreading structure, enveloping the unfortunate victim in a crackling cadmium inferno. The Vessels of the Hound have to actively suppress the reactivity of their saliva, as the Erebal Fire.

## Siren of Undeath

The third experiment of the Mother of Hellfire, **Laumes**, was a scourge on the seas. Her perfectly sculpted form was inspired by the deceptive beauty of another Catastophe, and just like her inspiration, the Siren of Undeath caused death by calling unfortunate victims to herself. As she sung out to sailors with her silky voice, they would be immediately smitten with an inner warmth and go towards her. This warmth felt like the warmth of love for around 36 seconds before their flesh would be consumed by a rotting indigo flame and be melted away. The miniscule embers carried in the Siren's song caused a spreading necrosial burn throughout the bodies of her victims.

The Siren of Undeath hated her beautiful form. She resented the Mother of Hellfire for giving her such a deceptive form, and wished she could look more cruel and malicious. The Siren wanted her casualties to squirm and run away and hold their breaths as she murdered them, not for them to run to her in an infatuated stupor. Her hatred caused her deep pearly heart to ooze a jet black darkness, enhancing her ability to such an extreme degree that her final outburst killed a whole island nation with a single sung word. This was, of course, just before her sealing by the Hero's band.

The Scorching Necrosis that the Siren once wielded has been turned over to her Vessels. Fueled by hatred and malice, the indigo embers degrade flesh in a disgusting process between rotting and cremation. The skeletal remains, filled with indigo fire, are controllable by the Vessel as they would control any of their own flames.

## Wanderer of Ebony

The fourth of the Hellfire Siblings, **Ikhoratt** is a refinement and expansion upon his older sister's despise for the Mother of Hellfire. He carries with him a black flame that seems to consume all light near it as it burns rock and metal to wailing ash. Taking several islands in his malevolent wake, the Wanderer of Ebony reduced them to monochrome charred masses of bone, stone, and a deep obsidian flame whispering over the hillsides. His hatred for all life reigned supreme in his near-silent waltz across Brimstata, earning him a visual reference in Brymasti depictions of death.

The Ebony Smolder was the cruel flame that the Wanderer wielded. It spread like hands reaching for the nearest life, with only occasional slate-colored embers looking out as eyes to search for new victims. The fire seemed to consume light and muffle sound, dragging everything it encompassed into the cloak of oblivion. The cruel horned glare of the Wanderer of Ebony was the only thing that could be seen through the phantom inferno.

The Vessels of the Wanderer of Ebony are said to be tainted by his malice and become withdrawn from the world, carrying with them a power that can cause only misery and destruction. The result of the Wanderer's pure disgust with the world is a purity of spirit that is fabled to make his Vessels angels of death.

## Bishop of White Embers

Taking the Unburning Flame and the Ebony Smolder, the Mother of Hellfire turned the pure black cloudy flame into a glittering ivory pyre. The pure brightness of this flame gave the Mother hope that it could be the key to the perfect flame, but alas it was not. The Catastrophe created to hold this flame was **Vindictus I**, the Bishop of White Embers. Carrying an immense devotion to purity and unity, the Bishop travelled the world as the fifth of the twelve Hellfire Siblings. In pure opposition to his predecessor, Vindictus I offered with his convincingly Brymasti-esque body to liberate Brimstata of evil. His snowy flame burned away all but the "purest" part of an object or person. He would immolate several villages he controlled, forming a sort of suicide cult around himself.

The purity of an object was determined by the Bishop himself. The thing he considered purest was a certain white crystal, made of the core matter of a dead Aestra. However spread through Brimstata it was, this matter existed in such trace amounts that it could not be drawn out into any substantial objects. The Bishop saw the specks of purity everywhere, but everything he burned away seemed to fade to nothing.

As the Bishop slowly went mad with powerlessness, the Hero found him. Vindictus I begged for the release of death, and though the Hero obliged, the binding he had to Brimstata as a Catastrophe brought him back to the living world again and again. Only when the Hero's party came back with the offer to seal him away did the Bishop find rest, willingly passing on the burden of purifying Brimstata to the first of his Vessels.

Each subsequent Vessel has had a handful of materials that they found to be the most pure and beautiful thing in the world, being unable to burn it away with the Ivory Ember. The more kindhearted and awe-filled the Vessel, the weaker they were.

## Eventide's Phoenix

After the apparently massive success of the Bishop of White Embers, the Mother of Hellfire began combining and using the previous milestone flames to further her efforts. Taking the unsullied flames of light and dark, the Mother created her sixth child, **Ractoris**. The phoenix created from the merger of light and darkness, complete and equal opposites, had a calm demeanor, as if it was born already enlightened. Its avian call unleashed a flame that was simultaneously dark and bright, a pale mauve light that came to be called the Duskflare. The Phoenix's fire could cling to and burn almost any material, spreading through fluctuations in light. However, it burned everything incredibly slowly, as it seemed to be fighting with its own internal nature

Eventide's Phoenix flew across the world much like any other large bird would. Its song was delectable to the ears, and yet it unknowingly set the trees it perched in on a course for slow destruction. The Duskflare was empowered by will, burning matter away as quickly as the user forced it to. Yet the Phoenix was an aimless observer in Brimstata, and so the forests it set aflame would replenish as quickly as they burned. The Evening Grove is the most famous of these forests, now perpetually burning and regrowing by the slim will of a Catastrophe that no longer lives.

The Eventide's Phoenix was a symbol of peace and unity, despite being one of the most powerful Catastrophes. Its Vessels have one of the most controllable and destructive flames, yet the reputation of saintly calm to live up to. It is said that the Vessels of the Eventide's Phoenix can hear the voices of the previous Vessels, guiding them towards enlightenment.

## Funerary Pyreholder

The seventh of the Hellfire Siblings, **Oviiz** represented the burning desire to overcome death. Hand-crafted with the themes of passing and souls, the Funerary Pyreholder was a horrifically grim reminder of mortality and the inagent nature of the deceased. While the Siren of Undeath controlled the charred husks of her victims, the Funerary Pyreholder completely reconstructed the bodies and partially remolded the minds of his departed subjects.

Sporting the signature appearance of a robed animal, the Pyreholder raised five lanterns above their head, held in place by the lanterns they were in. Little ribbons of the cyan flame darted through the ground, letting the dead burst forth. The parts of their bodies that had decayed were replaced with the flame, and their speech appeared to be coherent. The undead followers of Oviiz carried them in an ornate black palanquin, reciting their poetry in languages that had long since died out.

The most menacing part of the Pyreholder is that their claims of fully resurrecting the dead in body and mind could not be reasonably refuted. As the living dead walked and spoke, nothing seemed off about their behavior. However, the ground they tread upon was drained of life, and no soil touched by the Funerary Pyreholder or their reanimated followers would ever be fertile again. They claimed that the world was simply offering its energy to the Pyreholder's growing army, and that the world was theirs by rite of the Mother of Hellfire's creation. The Funerary Pyreholder was a devout believe in their creator as a god, believing the Hellfire Siblings to be prophets.

As found by their Vessels, the Flame of Soul contained with it the properties of memory. Taking the memories of the cells and bones within a body to recreate a projected consciousness was what the Pyreholder had done. However, the flame could inflict other memories on to things. Making plants return to saplings and seeds, reversing dirt to infertile stone, and inflicting every previous injury on a being with the cool cyan blaze was simply child's play. As usual, the nature of the Catastrophe severely underutilized its ability's potential. Burning away the memory of an object or person from the world was the most powerful feat of one of the Pyreholder's vessels. This would be, however, the final flame with use beyond destruction that the Mother of Hellfire would create.

## Alchemical Hellhound

The eighth Catastrophe created in the pursuit of perfection was **Kaeros**, the Alchemical hellhound. More tame than the previous Catastrophe of its kind and much more refined, the Hellhound sent liquid burning jade through the veins of its victims, turning them into a blazing puddle within seconds. The very nature of its bite was to disassemble all living matter into more of its terrifying Necrosian Venom.

The Hellhound wandered the world like the many Catastrophes before it, unleashing a corrosive wave of death upon Brimstata's settlements. Surpassing even the Amorphous Pestilence as the primary icon of plague, it burned its way through city after city with the acidic fire that undid the elements to achieve its will. The way its venom rearranged matter to serve as more fuel to burn is how the Alchemical Hellhound got its title, after all.

Once slain and sealed by the Hero's rising legion, the Hellhound's Necrosian venom was passed on to its first Vessel. The Vessels of the Hellhound were famed for their immunity to all poisons, and the seemingly innate ability of transmutation they came to possess. The mind of a scholar with the reconstructive power of the Hellhound has made many a Vessel that conquered and ruled nations.

## Angel of the Night

The Mother pleaded for a second Catastrophe as a subject from the Witch of Armageddon, as her research had come to a halt. The Mother of Hellfire believed that she was getting close to the perfect flame that could burn matter and concepts into nothing. The Witch begrudgingly obliged, taking a vision from the inaccessible night sky and turning it into a Catastrophe that resembled a knight. The Mother of Hellfire used his strange aestral energy as a base for the ninth of her ever more terrifying children: the Angel of the Night, **Aexriel**. With four arms, a spiked ring surrounding its spherical eye-smattered head, and a lack of anything below the middle torso, the Angel was a devastating figure of destruction.

The Angel of the Night was said to lay dormant in the daytime, but this was not the case; it simply flew around Brimstata to stay within the night. No place was safe from its presence. The Angel was said to be omnipresent, watching over the ones who slept in the night and slaughtering those who it noticed awake. No two deaths were ever said to be the same, as the silent watching Angel wielded nine incredibly diverse fires: the Nine Celestial Flares, famed for spawning entire schools of fighting styles that mimicked each one.

The Angel could annihilate entire cities with a blink if it so wished. It spoke only in warped reverberations that sounded like water being turned inside out. None figured out its code of who lived and died. Its silent arbitrating of the deeds of man were an enigma up until the Hero managed to seal it. The battle was one of the most intense that the Hero went through on his journey to end the Era of Cataclysm, even more so than the three Catastrophes above it in rank.

The Nine Celestial Flares are a collection of nine fragments of an ununitable flame. Each one carries a signature hue, as well as a protrusion of flame from the body that appears when one of the Flares is used. The Angel used varying weapons in addition to these protrusions, and so it is tradition that the Vessels craft their Flares into these weapons as well to fight. The Vessels of the Angel master each of the nine schools of fighting dedicated to following the Flares in order to become closer to their own abilities.

## Divine Burning One

It is unknown what revelation allowed the Mother of Hellfire to create this monster. A towering effigy of fire, enshrined in a pure gold blaze of light, adorned with two enormous wings of holy flame, was born into Brimstata as another destructive savior. **Aetos**, the Divine Burning One, was unleashed upon the world.

The Divine Burning One was an incredible force of destruction, being able to vaporize stone and metal almost instantly. It spoke in booming commandments that ravaged the skies with their force, demanding that the mortals submit to it. Several Catastrophes saw them as a figure of authority, more powerful than the Mother of Hellfire and more composed than the Witch of Armageddon. The Divine Burning One created a fringe religion all on their own, as the places they deemed "worthy" were untouched by Catastrophes for many millennia. Looming in the sky above, Aetos became a constant threat, even more than the previous creation of the Mother of Hellfire. Though they would likely fight if given the chance, the day-dwelling Divine Burning One and the night-stalking Angel would never meet.

Aetos was a tyrant of a Catastrophe. They demanded temples be built to worship and house their colossal body. Empires ruled by a Catastrophe rose, for a time. The Divine Burning One's hubris ended up being their downfall, as the golden holy blaze they rampantly wielded ended up becoming the catalyst and power source for an incredibly powerful binding spell, allowing the Hero to finally strike the god of flame down.

As the fifth most powerful Catastrophe, the Divine Burning One's golden flames are recognized worldwide as a symbol of unchallengeable power. The Godflame, as it is called, has a signature hue and was long considered a religious artifact all on its own. While the Vessels of the Mother of Hellfire are seen as an important part of a cycle, the Divine Burning One's Vessels are entire religious celebrities, carrying much command over the followers of their faith.

## Cosmic Serpent Mooneater

With the final commissioned Catastrophe from the Witch of Armageddon and a combination of several of her creations' fires, the Mother of Hellfire created her penultimate child, the gargantuan serpent **Uetyr**. This ungodly snake was large enough to encircle Brimstata multiple times, and was the only Catastrophe that felt legitimately cramped by Brimstata's barrier. The Cosmic Serpent Mooneater coiled around the world, thrashing around and crushing mountains with its mighty girth. The few times its head descended to the surface of Brimstata, enormous craterous bites were taken out of the world.

The Cosmic Serpent Mooneater was actually bound less strongly to Brimstata than the other Catastrophes, able to press against the barrier without being forced back as violently. During the reappearance of the Catastrophes during the Wrathmoon, the Serpent was able to reach far enough away from Brimstata to take a bite out of its moon Hiresi. This may be due to its gigantic size and length, or possibly a sign that the flames it produced could contest the coreheart's bindings.

More terrifying than the Serpent's size was its impeccable Violet Flames, powerful as the Godflame and with another special property. The Violet Flames of Lunation burned away all other magic without fail, spreading up the flow of it to burn whoever dare cast spells against the supreme reptile of Brimstata. Many tales of the skies lighting up with intense violet streaks of light were born during the Era of Cataclysm.

Vessels of the Cosmic Serpent Mooneater must revoke all other paths of magic, lest they be consumed by the Violet Flames of Lunation that burn within them. The immense power and authority that comes with the title of the third strongest Vessel, as well as the necessary dedication to their new power, has turned many of the Vessels of the Serpent into detached tyrants.

## Dragon of the Infernal Grove

The pinnacle, the peak, and yet so, so far from perfection. The final success and utter failure of the Mother of Hellfire. The Infernal Grove and the Dragon that its flames created. A beautiful oasis of the purest and hottest fire known to the universe, deep within the core of Brimstata, untouchable by any but the Dragon of the Infernal Grove, **Vaserix**, and his Vessels. A new dimension of fire had been reached, one that could vaporize mountains in an instant with its helical blooming infernos, and yet its sole inhabitant was a nigh-mindless beast. The Mother of Hellfire, though being made of incredibly refined flames herself, was burned when trying to so much as touch the newborn Dragon.

Vaserix lay to rest in the Infernal Grove for many millennia, only attacking when travelers got too close to his territory. The spiraling trees and grass of the Grove were sacred to the Dragon, and his unfathomable power named him its sole protector. It may be that the Dragon had a personality and inner life, but if that were the case, then the four-winged pillar of refinement refused to show it in favor of executing his singular mission.

The Dragon of the Infernal Grove was the only Catastrophe whose power even came close to rivaling that of the Witch of Armageddon. The flames he produced are said to have put the only scar on the Witch that any being did before the Hero or the champions of the Wrathmoon. The Grove Inferno which he unleashed is by far one of the most iconic flames on all of Brimstata. Coiling around with its signature blooming mango spires, the Grove Inferno is unmatched by any other fire. So pure and powerful is it that not even the Violet Flames of Lunation are more than a mildly uncomfortable warmth to the one who wields the Inferno. The Witch's Empty Fire may be more capable of destroying things, but it is not actually fire.

Though there are three draconic Catastrophes, only Vaserix comes to mind when "The Dragon" is mentioned. The other two may as well be glorified snakes in comparison to his might. The capability to topple every nation on Brimstata, the will to defend his Grove to death and beyond, and the mystique behind his rare appearances truly made the Dragon of the Infernal Grove the most worthy of the title.

However, the title also does summon an image of the Dragon's Vessels. The power they wielded was barely within their own control, for the most part. The spiraling inferno was difficult to shape or move, and so many Vessels opted for omnidirectional annihilation. One, however, has conquered the Grove Inferno and truly gained control over it. The scorned son of the Orikawa family, reclaimer of his title and major contributor in the Wrathmoon, Shu'dai Orikawa.

# Commissions of the Mother

Three times, the Mother of Hellfire begged for the Witch of Armageddon to give her new Catastrophes to study, to give her concepts that could be altered to help create the perfect fire. Three times, the Witch obliged, delighting in the Mother's maddening spiral of research and toil. The most unusual of the Catastrophes, these three bore the parentage of the Witch and the Mother, neither of whom acted to raise the damned curses.

## Paladin of the Heavens

Possibly the only Catastrophe with a definitive code of honor, **Khawaign** was created by the Witch of Armageddon at the behest of the Mother of Hellfire. His power was drawn from the mysterious and inaccessible Aestrai, inspired by the rapidly changing power the ancient Astrins presented and the allure of the untouchable night sky.

Clad in glittering horned cosmic armor and bearing a massive build, the Paladin of the Heavens set out across the world to vanquish the worshippers of the Sun Ring. He demanded that the Brymasti recognize the power that the heavens held, urging them to look past the curtain of daytime and into the canvas of the night. When those faithful to the halo of midday opposed him, the Paladin raised his hand and formed hundreds of blades of astral energy, cleaving the closed-minded heretics with unsettling efficiency. He would never harm those who had not already refused him, nor would he destroy the homes of innocents.

However honorable his intentions may have been, the Paladin of the Heavens still slaughtered millions whose only crime was devotion to an old religion. His raw zealous binding to his oath is what led him to battle through the wastes of Brimstata. When the Divine Burning One was born and demanded that all worship them, the Paladin was the first to dissent, attacking several of the Catastrophes that folded to the tyrant's golden fire. At one point, he even managed to find his way into a battle with the Grieving Sun, a catastrophic incarnation of the Sun Ring the Paladin so deeply despised. Although he lost the fight, the injury he left upon the Grieving Sun remained permanent and the contest he put up was surprising.

The only time the Paladin of the Heavens deferred to any other Catastrophe was when the Angel of the Night was created, a refinement of his power and the entire reason the Mother wished for the Paladin to be made in the first place. Khawaign believed the Angel to be a representation of the heavenly power he so brazenly wielded, truly enlightened to the secrets of the night.

The Heavenly Blade that the Paladin wielded was passed into his Vessels after his sealing by the Hero. Glimmering iridescent blades of astral energy become flying arcs of explosive light in the hands of his Vessels. Intense training is required to effectively use the Heavenly Blade to its fullest potential, but most of the Paladin's Vessels had a background in swordsmanship before taking up the mantle. One incredibly notable thing is that the Heavenly Blade and the Paladin himself got immensely stronger when Brimstata's barrier was undone, since it was now actually open to more than the tiny trickle of astral energy that leaked through before. While the Paladin of the Heavens was initially almost on par with the Mother of Hellfire, his reappearance during the Wrathmoon showed strength surpassing Catastrophes up to the Harbinger of Drought.

## Monk of Inversion

The first of the Catastrophes that the Mother of Hellfire directed the Witch of Armageddon to make, **Sebinath** became the start of a long spiral of terrible creation. The Monk of Inversion, as they were called, traveled the world in search of opponents to fight, people that could challenge them and make them stronger. Battling their way through villages and temples with fists of burning lavender, the Monk learned new techniques and strength from each fight.

They became a walking repository of fist styles, mastering each attack after their opponent used it once or twice. Slowly developing their prowess in hand-to-hand combat, the Monk of Inversion had yet to actually take advantage of their actual ability. The thrill of combat was too enticing to ruin it with the Counter Mirror, the fist that could turn things inside out. The Monk had a posse of warriors that would train until near death just to keep up with the growing Catastrophe. While at first the Monk of Inversion was barely stronger than the average Brymasti, they rose in power and skill to be stronger than even the Mother of Hellfire, dwarfing the supposed refinement of the Monk's ability with their sheer strength.

The warriors that the Monk kept around eventually could no longer keep up and enhance the Monk's ability. They had reached their biological limits of strength, and Sebinath had not. Enraged, they used the Counter Mirror for the first time, turning their followers into piles of unrecognizable flesh and shattered bones. Once breaking the sanctity of combat, realizing that they could no longer learn from the weaklings they lived with, the Monk of Inversion turned to a life truly befitting a Catastrophe. They rampaged through entire armies, scattering rocky fields with fresh blood to feed the few plants that grew. Overturning homes, causing peoples' limbs to turn backwards, making the air itself solid and sharp, and overall causing mayhem, the Monk became a menace to Brimstata, an incarnation of martial arts gone berserk.

Only the Hero managed to fight off the Monk of Inversion at its peak, somehow keeping up and deflecting the fists that inverted everything. Even when the Monk realized that they could turn attacks back in on themselves by allowing themselves to be hit, the Hero still had a massive advantage in combat, eventually sealing the Catastrophe and creating the first Vessel of the beast. The Vessels of the Monk see nothing as static, as everything can be overturned with the Counter Mirror. Thousands of years of study and practice have developed the Counter Mirror into its own martial arts style, known as the Palm of Reversal.

## Palladium Scales

The final time the Mother of Hellfire's research halted, the final time she panicked and groveled at the Witch of Armageddon's many bony feet, tears of scarlet in her vermillion burning eyes, the Witch cackled. She acted hesitant, hemming and hahing over the details of the proposed cost for creating yet another directed Catastrophe. "Perhaps I should erase you for overstepping your bounds, Solwyn," the Witch suggested, "Unless you can find something of more worth to offer in exchange." The Mother of Hellfire pleaded and begged and negotiated, sobbing over her failure to progress towards perfection any longer. The Witch reveled in the Mother's sorrow, and after the long night of deliberating, the Palladium Scales was born. The Mother of Hellfire left, drained of energy and with the newborn Catastrophe in tow. The Witch of Armageddon smiled over her new possession, the price the Mother paid for her new toy.

The Palladium Scales was kept in one of the Mother of Hellfire's labs, as she somehow managed to form in an immature state. The Mother failed to raise the Catastrophe, instead seeing her diminutive state as an advantage she could use. The Palladium Scales was given the name **Litaros**, locked in a special chamber to study her powers, and neglected until the time for research came. Litaros grew over the course of six years, during which she received less and less attention from the Mother of Hellfire. Though eventually freeing herself with her incredible control of gravity, the Palladium Scales was filled with an irreparable loneliness and a burning hatred for families.

The Scales sought out the weak and dependent people of the world, lashing out at them with gravitational batterings. She would crush them into the ground with forces so strong that it would create glowing fissures in some ethers of reality. Permanently enraged at the mere concept of connection, at the simple thought that people relied on and trusted each other, the Palladium Scales marched through armies, berating them for being so weak as to rely on teamwork. She destroyed villages at the slightest reminder that children were *raised* there. She was filled with rage, vowing to destroy all those who could not rely on themselves, but she had long forgotten why.

As time went on, the omnipresent rage of the Palladium Scales made her control over gravity stronger, more acute, more precise. She appeared to have control over all of space itself, twisting organs and folding cities inside out. However, she also grew a distorted appearance, a form more befitting that of a Catastrophe. Long gone was her flowing hair and soft face. The Scales had become a metallic golem with cracks revealing a gruesomely green inner light. She ceased to speak, only screaming in her violent attacks on society.

The Hero of Brimstata quelled the raging storm of gravity with his ever more powerful found family. The fight was intense, but the Catastrophe fell, leaving her Palladium Scales to the Vessels who inherited her power. The power to alter gravity took much time to learn, and the research of past Vessels is still the only thing keeping the current one from being incompetent. However, a word of caution is spoken about the Scales' Vessels. It is said that her isolationist anger burned so strongly within her that her Vessels are tainted by it, slowly growing more distant and hateful as they use her ability.