The Flame Spurned

## Born in Fire

The Flame Spurned are created through hellish conditioning. Designed to kill those unfit and weed out those without the hardest of resolves, the trials to become a Flame Spurned are nothing short of a nightmare for those that endure them. A week long torture session in which the women you have either volunteered or been forced into service are subjected to one inhumane treatment after another. Those that emerge on the other side are devoid of any emotion save for absolute loyalty to the Twin Goddesses and the Order of the True Flame.

## Trials of the Flame

* Day One - The women are covered in boiling oil and made to recite verses from *The Birth of Light and Truth.* After their oil treatment the woman are doused with ice cold water to shock their bodies into a catatonic state. Those that resist move onto the next day.
* Day Two - The women have their heads repeatedly plunged into a bucket of water, drowning them. They are only released from the torment for temporary respite if they use their precious breaths while underwater to pray to the Twin Goddesses.
* Day Three - The women are entirely shaved and have the names of the Twin Goddesses carved into their scalps. They must recite an oath of loyalty to the Order of the True Flame throughout this process, and if they falter from pain the wounds are healed forcing the procedure to start again.
* Day Four - The women are repeatedly flayed by the inquisitors of the Order of the True Flame until the skin on their backs is removed, an atonement for the sins against the Goddesses they have committed their whole life. Their wounds are then healed and the process begins again, for a total of seven times.
* Day Five - The women are given a knife and told to kill one of the other women they have trained with. The inquisitors of the Order will typically take this time to choose favorites and provide them with boons. To overcome the choices of the Order is to prove to the Goddesses that you are a more worthy follower. Boons have included providing armor, healing potions, blindfolding the other fighter, or even being allowed to have additional women help against your target.
* Day Six - The surviving women are brought before a High Inquisitor who interrogates them as to the depth of their devotion to the Order and the Goddesses, if they fail they are executed for being heretics.
* Day Seven - The women graduate the training and are named official Flame Spurned. They are assigned a High Inquisitor to serve for the rest of their life, and await his commands.

## In Action

After overcoming the trials, the Flame Spurned begin their work under the scrutinizing eyes of a High Inquisitor. The next year is dedicated to combat and infiltration training, turning the women into trained experts in assassination. They will be sent on increasingly morally grey missions to determine their allegiance to the Order until, they the women are comfortable in killing unarmed children if the Order declares it must be done. The aftereffects of the trials are permanent and transform the women in deadly ways. Their skin has become so marred by burns and scars that it becomes harder than steel, turning deadly blows from their foes into flesh wounds. Their touch has a paralyzing effect on those they deem hostile, and their gaze can rob the essence of any who would look them in the eye.

With so many adverse effects originating from their trials, the women will typically stay heavily covered when not in action. Thick heavy clothing obscuring all skin and glasses to hide their perilous gaze are the tell-tale signs that a Flame Spurned walks among you.