Pyromancy

[Darth Nyrys]

Pyromancy

 

The first forays into pyromancy were explosive and short-lived affairs, leaving an initial legacy of charred bones and evaporated organs. Pyromancy remains an exceptionally difficult and lethal sorcerous pursuit, although that is not the true reason that the Dark Lord who first witnessed it forbade its study. He feared the flame so deeply that his edict against its study was so powerful that it prevented its study for millenia.

 

The original texts on pyromancy describe it as a product of rage, an incorrect logical leap made on account of the tendency of Sith warriors to manifest a flame motif when entering berserker states. This led to the disparity’s initial reputation as an uncontrollably explosive affair that dissuaded even those willing to break the Dark Lord’s edict in search of power. It would actually be the study of Sith alchemy that would provide the dark insight needed to properly understand the nature of fire.

 

The fire is not rage, or anger, or passion, or lust, it is the ever consuming addiction to those emotions. This truth came to be understood by sorcerers experimenting with malignant potions and draughts to ensnare and fog the minds of cultists. In watching the manias and depressions that the test subjects went through, the sorcerers received dark revelation on the nature of addiction.

 

Practitioners of pyromancy come to know a cyclic existence of extremes, riding extreme euphorias in a manic state, followed by feral and bitter states of ashen hunger and wrath. When in an enkindled state, the pyromancer is a charismatic titan of energy, personality, and enticement. The experience of everything around them is magnified, as is the impact of their presence. When that fire fades, the sorcerer will do whatever they deem necessary to get it back, and their earlier charisma is replaced with a desperate and violent hunger. Pyromancy students are taught that the cycle is like filling and emptying a cup, with the cup and in turn the cycles of the pattern getting larger as the pyromancer grows in power. Switching between the two cycles is not something that the pyromancer can do rapidly, with apprentices entering the ashen state for hours to a couple days, lords going for days to weeks, and masters often being consumed by ash for months to years.

 

The Rising Flame

 

Enkindle: The first step in true pyromancy is to create a fire from within through ritual acts of transgression. Pyromancers generally choose a specific vice that distances them from the natural path of the light side, and indulge in that vice in a transformative experience, intentionally creating an addiction that is mirrored in the spirit. There are many forms of addiction, some emotional, others chemical, and the personal poison of the pyromancer is of their own choosing. Wrath, various forms of unhealthy consumption, lust, gambling, faith, alcohol, and drugs are common choices. Enkindling is a definitive experience that provides direction and context to a pyromancer’s powers, and transmutes the energies that pyromancers thrive on.

 

Enkindled pyromancers replace the joy of the light with the pleasure of addiction, chasing a fast burning and ever more elusive high at the cost of mundane happiness and peace. The flames of pyromancy are unusual even by Dark Side standards in that they are a consumptive and transformative energy that feeds on the light to make itself more powerful. Predatory and selfish, the pyromancer’s flame will attempt to consume all light around it, meager or great, in a never ending pursuit of more.

 

Upon being Enkindled, the pyromancer finds themself possessing an alluring inner power that casts a profane light of its own, a mockery of the peace and joy of the Force. Pyromancy feels amazing, and promises its users that if they push harder, consume more, that it will feel even better. Using people, tempting others deeper into their own vices, and over indulgence all feed the flame, although the more the flame is fed, the more it demands. Apprentices usually begin their journey by sacrificing their own humanity, boundary by boundary, while lords and masters find themselves seeking fuel from external sources more and more.

 

The First Taste: Pyromancy asks more from a sorcerer than what they can offer on their own, and so one of the earliest and most vital spells of pyromancy is a parasitic Force bond that allows the pyromancer to feed on the experiences of the bound, and having a vague awareness of when positive forces are threatening their dependency. It is through this spell that pyromancers are able to fuel their powers beyond their own consumption. This bond can also be used to siphon focus and mental clarity, allowing the pyromancer to function at a higher level than everyone else even while partaking, although this requires the host to be sober at the time. The bond can only be created between pyromancers and NFU NPCs.

 

The bond made from this spell is parasitic, and functions more as nuanced manipulation than direct control. A pyromancer who knows that they will be in need of additional power can fan a bound person’s addiction to drive their need for a fix, with the hunger determined by the rank of the pyromancer. More powerful addictions that destroy people quickly offer more power, but require more constant replacing, while subtler addictions offer a steadier but leaner flow of energy.

 

As much as a pyromancer may want to dismiss the bond as being entirely one way, the more people bound to them in this way, the more their own addictions are stoked. Since pyromancy offers no true balm to its own poisons, pyromancers that overreach can fall victim to their vices to the point of death or the total collapse of their own motivations and agendas outside of getting a fix.

 

The ritual itself involves the pyromancer providing some form of addictive pleasure to the victim, with the experience being warped by the Dark Side to feel like a transformative experience that the target needs to experience again. To the non Force sensitive, the ritual is so subtle that it’s unlikely that they will even realize that anything occult is occurring. Even those who are in touch with the Force can have trouble detecting the insidious nature of what is happening.

 

Iniquity’s Siren: The hellish unlight that resides within the pyromancer can be fueled to become a seductive beacon of lost inhibitions. Using the consumed energies of pyromancy, the sorcerer fuels their magnetism and presence to tempt people to let go of what ensnares them from pursuing their own happiness. While using this power, the pyromancer possesses a manic and smoldering confidence, bearing an infectious grin and a look of someone about to confide some life altering truth to you so that you too can find this kind of fulfillment. This is all a lie of course, but people are desperate to escape their circumstances, their fears, their feelings that life should be more, give more. 

 

Pyromancers can give this power to individuals caught in their web of vice, with apprentices bestowing it upon victims going through The First Taste, lords able to give it to their Embraced when it suits them, and masters inherently gifting it to any of their victims when the bound indulges. The intensity of the power varies according to the degree of indulgence, the more the flames are fed, the more appealing the ensorceled becomes. Victims often learn to become dependent upon this power and the feelings that it gives them, with pyromancy subverting and replacing the original addiction.

 

Embraced by Flame: When a victim becomes more enamored with the allure of pyromancy than their original vice, the pyromancer can impart upon them a burning coal of their own enkindled soul, immolating their humanity and bestowing upon them a measure of Force sensitivity that while meek compared to lords and masters is life altering to someone who until that point had never touched the Force. The flame within can be fed to become something greater and more terrible through ritual sacrifice of sapient beings, or the ensnaring of more victims for the pyromancer with a diminished version of the First Taste ritual which allows the user to amass their own pyromantic energy, tithing a portion to their sorcerous patron.

 

Advancement on this path follows site rules for rank progression, and Embraced have no inherent energy, everything they do must be powered by energy taken from elsewhere. Embraced can only ever use powers from pyromancy and non class Dark Side/neutral powers. Should an Embraced somehow reject the flame, they lose all of their powers and their connection to the Force.

 

The Embraced are just as susceptible to the consumptive nature of the flame as true pyromancers, and even if their initial intentions are good and kind, the darkness will burn away the root humanity of their soul and leave them ashen and cruel. Many a pyromancer has intended to share their power with friends, lovers, and allies only to watch that power destroy everything within them that they valued. In truth, the fire cannot be embraced, only fed, because it is formless, inhibitionless hunger.

 

Lost to Flame: Cunning pyromancers use the fear of the pure that they might be corrupted to conceal and ward their lairs. Lost to Flame is a ritual that consumes an area with a sense of seedy impropriety, the kind of place that waylays and lures the innocent off of the path of the righteous. People that dwell or work in the area may use the shift in the energy to rationalize misdeeds, the ambience may draw people of vice to it, or the location may already be a den of sin, with the pyromancer just spiritually girding that sense. Places of nature and compassion tend to be highly resistant to this ritual, as are places kept by champions of the light.

 

Upon successfully performing the ritual, the area is imbued with a sense of transgression being the natural order within its bounds. It is a place to escape the hardships of normal life and the uncompromising demands of society. And to the pure, it is a poisonous threat to the spiritual framework upon which they wish to build their moral, mutual society. This acceptance of a place as lost creates a spiritual smokescreen behind which pyromancers can hide their sinister arts and operations. Because vice often starts as a choice, the moral arrogance of society sees victims of addiction as deserving of their situations, and this outlook both abandons addicts to the demons in the smoke and pushes them away from avenues back to the light. The denizens of such areas are broken people that society would rather hide away in conveniently lost places than fix.

 

Devil’s Strangling Embrace: Pyromancers are opportunistic parasites that feed on the weak and the wounded. For people who have been shunned by society, or are feeling crushed under the weight of it, pyromancers can offer honeyed false sympathies and temptations of a way out from the pain of existence, even if it might be a temporary one. This spell heightens the dependency that people they ensnare feel, and binds it more directly to them rather than just the vice.

 

Victims of this spell come to see any pleasure or relief in their life as something that the sorcerer brought into it. The dependency that they feel deepens over time, reducing them to husks that cannot imagine life without the sorcerer. Even if loved ones try to break the victim out of their fixation, this spell makes it easy for the caster to reel them back in.

 

Perverse Miasma: The pyromancer can conjure otherworldly vapors of wispy smoke that engulf the area in sensations, emotions, and tantalizing visions of their chosen vice. While people already under the sway of the pyromancer find this spell enticing, it’s true impactfulness is in securing new acolytes and victims, or confusing and bewildering opponents in battle, as its effects are more potent against those who have not built a tolerance to vice.

 

Panoply of Fools: Pyromancer lords collect addicts that are fully under their sway to act as chattel slaves, adoring entourage, or should the need arise, volatile explosives. These people are too far gone or too enamored with the sorcerer to do much beyond simple tasks, but their subservience is a source of amusement to the pyromancer. Should a threat approach the sorcerer, a simple nudge in the Force can send one of these thralls charging, until their body is flooded with dark side energy like a flask containing a terrible chemical reaction. A thermobaric blast radiates out of the proxy for three meters in all directions, often to the bemused laughter of the pyromancer. Afterwards the other idiots assure themselves that the sorcerer would never do that to them, and the sorcerer refills the ranks as time permits, there are always more broken people to use. An earlier unrefined form of this incantation is what led to the original fear of pyromancy as an uncontrollable form of sorcery.

 

Rising Flames: An attack on the psyche of the target, pyromancer lords can manifest the stress and fears of a target into hallucinations of flames all around them. Lords often use this to drive victims over the edge, causing panic attacks and fears in the victim that their life situation is driving them mad, so that the sorcerer can swoop in with a solution. In the hands of masters, this spell goes from perceived threat to actual danger as the pyromancer transubstantiates those energies into actual flames with smoke that manifests the victims fears and failings. In this form, the spell is an indirect attack on the environment instead of the opponent, setting the area aflame.

 

Unholy Smite: While any pyromancer can cast this spell, it is most heavily favored by the ones that use religion and cults as a means to demonstrate their supposedly divine power. Unholy Smite uses hatred and condemnation as fuel for a fiery orb of concentrated dark side energy that the sorcerer then flings at their target. This attack is more bombastic than bomb, its baleful heat focused into an area a meter wide, with the lethal core usually three to fifteen inches. A direct hit with this spell can cook a person from the inside out, their body popping as their insides rapidly expand beyond the means of their skin and structure to contain them. While Unholy Smite can be blocked or deflected, the orb radiates enough heat for such countermeasures to still result in wounding exposure to the heat.

 

For people of little will or destiny(Unowned NPCs), the pyromancer can conjure the orb inside of them, a trick that they often use while holding supposed holy objects to suggest a higher power acting through them.

 

Keys to the Black Paradise: The narcotics of the pyromancers take many forms, powders, serums, pills, perfumes, incenses, and more, but all of them contain a key ingredient, an alchemical agent that opens the imbiber’s soul to the dark side. Intentional users are affected far more heavily than people who are either unaware or suffering forced exposure. People who are unknowingly dosed subconsciously decide to either reject or embrace the feelings that the drugs bring, while people being forced into being exposed to them instinctively resist their supernatural effects in a contest of will against alchemical guile. It’s worth noting that even if a person resists the spiritual corruption, their body was still exposed to a highly addictive substance. Addiction treatment programs in the galaxy have varying degrees of successful outcomes(IE the exposed player chooses how much they want to engage the story thread).

 

Nearly all pyromancers have learned enough alchemy and chemistry to produce drugs(Although they may push them under other names, like health supplements, perfumes, beauty creams, holy sacraments and incense, energy booster products, etc), and are prepared to teach acolytes that they have embraced into the flame to assist them. Even a lone pyromancer with decent distribution can accrue a considerable amount of off the books wealth, given that their already addictive products are made more seductive by adding the dark side to them. 

 

Sith narcotics tend to be engineered to encourage Sith outcomes, stoking emotions, senses, and adrenal responses in enemy territories, or numbing people to a virtually somnambulant state in Sith holdings in order to control the populace. Pyromancers that deal with the upper class synthesize alchemical compounds that dampen empathy to the point of psychosis and lower inhibitions, turning normal people into the kinds of monsters that see the value in Sith ruthlessness for the sake of their own gain. For the pyromancers that use their own product, there tends to be a preference for chemistry that boosts energy, sensory perception, and pleasure, although they can dip into harder narcotics for the dark side version of a drug fueled vision quest.

 

Sith warriors sometimes seek out pyromancers for combat drugs, although the sorcerers tend to be more upfront and wary about such arrangements, either out of camaraderie or self preservation. Masters in particular are aware on some level of the self-destructive effects their drugs can have, and a strung out Sith warrior demanding a fix is never good for the lab equipment. That being said, if the only thing between a pyromancer and certain death is a badly wounded Sith warrior, they won’t hesitate to tip the scales with an adrenal cocktail that puts the warrior into overdrive. 

 

Hell’s Garden: The creations of the Sith pyromancers often require considerable space for both the cultivation of rare ingredients and the lab equipment to process it. As such, they tend to create lairs separate from the usual Sith temples that operate under the highest discretion even amongst their own kin, occult temples of vice, sinister biology, and dark alchemy for them to practice their dark arts in. It’s an exceptional honor (or bribe) for an assassin to be given access to these repositories of alchemical components and equipment, a prize that the pyromancers often leverage for services from the shadowy killers.

 

Many pyromancers take a keen interest in botany, both as a source of raw materials for product, and as a hobby either of itself or as a means to synthesize rare alchemical concoctions. The plants are corrupted with sorcery and blood sacrifice to increase their potency and twist their properties. Even without the ability to sense the Force, these gardens create a considerable sense of discomfort. For those that can, a choir of mouthless voices scream in unison with jeering harmony.  

 

Although some pyromancers operate through corporate holdings as fronts, most prefer underground operations, as proper business requires legitimacy, and legitimacy often requires data trails, inspections, and government safety testing. The bribes required as part of the cost of doing business are substantial at that level, and too many honest men and women can spell disaster as only so many disappearances of government employees can go under the radar before higher levels of government start investigating.

 

Euphoric Obliteration: When a pyromancer’s web has been spun, and the false flame within them roars like a bonfire, they are prone to indulge in manic bouts of violence by releasing powerful bursts of thermal energy. Manifesting as gouts of unnatural flame, this spell sends forth a hissing narrow cone of fire. These attacks carry with them the manic energies and pleasure of the sorcerer, and victims often die laughing uncontrollably with a rictus grin on their melting face. Survivors of such attacks can struggle to find pleasure in normal life after the experience, as the attack can severely alter how the brain experiences pleasure, leaving victims with an addiction that only the extremes of the dark side can sate. Those that refuse to succumb must deal with withdrawal as they are haunted by the most painful bliss.

 

Because of the aftereffects of this spell, many pyromancers prefer to leave their victims alive, too wounded to fight on but not too far gone to be carried away from the ashes of the battleground all the more broken. A favored prize of pyromancers is a victim that becomes a customer because of their inability to defeat their addiction to the dark side’s power. Such trophies are treasured in the way that other Sith collect victory crystals, although their appeal is all the greater for their fleeting mortality and masochistic submission to the Sith’s power.

 

Disfiguring Beauty: As merchants of vice and studied alchemists, pyromancers have found that rituals that create or restore beauty are particularly tempting bargains for their more elite clientele. With occult rites and bizarre alchemies the sorcerer creates a false mask of beauty and health that they melt and weld to the recipient. This process is in no way a method of healing or revitalizing flesh, it instead coats blemishes and the rot of time with unguents and sorcery to create a veneer of manufactured perfection.

 

This process is not without pain or consequence. After all, the pyromancer is putting dark side concoctions on the person’s bare skin and then affixing it with sorcerous fire. The levels of pain involved depend on the experience and talent of the pyromancer, but the pain is comparatively a lesser cost of the process. The truly sinister cost of this rite is that the application process burns and sears the soul itself, diminishing it and leaving wounds that open it to infection. After enough applications, the soul is too meager to maintain the bond, and so the sorcerer must inject other souls through ritual sacrifice, but at this point the client is too spiritually gone to be bothered by a little sorcerous murder.

 

Transubstantiation of Sin and Virtue: While the pyromancers primarily produce product for ordinary people, they do also possess the means to craft special indulgences designed specifically for Force users. The dark side itself is already a powerful narcotic that can do much of what any lab made drug can offer, so the pyromancers must provide an experience outside of the usual vices. The sorcerers, knowing this, sought a need that they could fulfill, and they found it in the abscesses and withering rot of the Sith soul. The pyromancers have wrought a new creation made through the rendering of souls into a resin or crystal that carries with it the emotional sensations that have long been abandoned by Sith. The resulting philters, serums, powders, and crystals allow the partaker to experience specific emotions as they once knew them, before they abandoned connection for power.

 

There are two markets for these drugs, Sith who find the ability to access their old passions as useful in their path, and Sith that indulge these emotions out of nostalgia or a bid to reclaim what they lost. Either way, a pyromancer can accrue wealth and favors hand over fist by dealing to other Sith, who can rapidly form either a dependency or an addiction to these indulgences. This has led many Sith to be wary of pyromancers, fearing a gilded cage.

 

To create these substances, a pyromancer must cultivate the desired emotions in a suitable vessel, who they will manipulate to concentrate and clarify the internal mixture. The soon to be victims are plied with drugs and mind control, or sedated and left in the care of an assassin who carefully crafts scenarios to elicit the preferred outcome. When the pyromancer is satisfied with the mixture, they fatally render down the body into concentrated crystals or serums that can then be processed into drugs.

 

In addition to creating product, the crystals are often used by pyromancers for the crafting of alchemically infused weapons, hallucinogenic shikkars, and amulets of manipulation and confusion. 

 

Perdition’s Razor: A cutting weapon with an edge composed of affixed shards of monomolecular razors made from crystals using the same rites and processes from the ritual of transubstantiation, except the mixture being cultivated is one of fear and suffering. Some pyromancers will heavily indulge an unwitting victim with drugs before cutting them off suddenly and without warning, harvesting from them the symptoms of crushing withdrawal. These weapons come in a variety of forms, and are a common form of payment to warriors and assassins.

 

Excruciator Cane: Given that pyromancers often operate in enemy territory and lightsabers are so high profile, many of them instead carry these flamboyant yet misleading weapons. At first glance, the Excruciator appears to be a fashionable cane with a jeweled head, a common enough mundane accessory that can be found regularly throughout the populace. Even an in depth scan reveals no discernible weapon infrastructure to the cane, allowing it to bypass weapon scanners. Only careful examination by trained Force users can ascertain that the cane is in fact a weapon.

 

The cane is in fact a Sith amulet, with the crystal serving as an emitter point through which the pyromancer can project a number of Force attacks, such as blasts of flame, rays of extreme heat, and thermobaric flashes upon impact with a target. Excruciatiors are made from lightsaber resistant materials, with the crystalline head often being made from the transubstantiation ritual.

 

Lash of Perfidy: A low intensity lightwhip favored by pyromancers as an offhand weapon that they use to taunt and disorient opponents. The lightwhip is alchemically altered to cause narcotic effects, using a crystal created by the transubstantiation ritual. Both to prevent the sorcerer from maiming themself and to allow the weapon’s sorcery to take hold in a person, the lightwhip’s cutting power is virtually absent.

 

Immolator Casque: The greatest limitation of pyromancy is that it conjures flames without fuel to sustain them. However, with the proper time and resources, the pyromancer can synthesize powerful incendiary devices through the use of Sith alchemy, which they often use to cover their tracks and destroy evidence. Despite their incredible power, pyromancers are generally loathe to carry immolator casques into battle on account of their instability and proclivity to pre detonate due to battlefield stressors. As such, they are treated more like a surgical tool than a weapon for direct confrontations. 

 

Torc of Whispered Honey: A Sith amulet often crafted in the form of a necklace, with a transubstantiated crystal over where the necklace overlays the neck. The amulet allows the sorcerer to weave narcotic effects into their words when speaking in close proximity to a target. In addition to being a powerful tool for controlling others, these amulets are often given as rewards to loyal enkindled underlings. 

 

Torc of Blissful Degradation: Nearly identical in appearance to the Torc of Whispered Honey, this amulet appears to be a piece of well crafted and ornate jewelry. Should the wearer try to activate the amulet they will find it to be less of a key to power and more of a collar of enslavement. Acting as an inverse to the Torc of Whispered Honey, the amulet turns every inhaled breath into a dose of narcotic pleasure, while also fraying the willpower of the wearer. It can quickly turn an unsuspecting victim into a drooling husk of a person, and pyromancers often use it to deal with overly ambitious underlings. Alternatively, some pyromancers may use them to convert followers or imitate divine revelation, ending the effect before it completely destroys the mind of the wearer. 

 

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Crucible Sages

 

Not all pyromancers choose the poisoned path, some opt for a more disciplined life of direction and carefully crafted purpose. Working closely with Sith warriors, these Crucible Sages collaborate to create arms and armor of terrible consequence. This symbiotic relationship thrives on the shared passion of warrior smiths and learned pyromancers for the art of the forge, as opposed to the more transactional exchanges between warriors and sorcerers of other disparities. For these pyromancers it is the pursuit of excellence that they ritualistically shed their humanity for. 

 

Despite their more reserved nature, Crucible Sages are also susceptible to the cyclical nature of fire, although their ashen cycles are brought on by things like the critical failure of a weapon they made, burnout, an inability to navigate a particularly vexing alchemical or metallurgical mystery, the loss of their forge, or the loss of their partner. When you are part of a guild of master artisans that has extreme expectations, you do not cope with failure well. It is more likely however, that the Sage will enter the ashen state by choice rather than as a form of consequence.

 

Crucible Sages are obsessive perfectionists and workaholics. If they aren’t devoting their time to a project, they are studying principles or researching innovations for projects that they want to pursue in the future. If they are prevented from doing either, their temperament becomes rather volcanic. The only exception to this is if they are given an opportunity to talk about their work, particularly with others familiar in the field.

 

In spite of their peculiarities, there is a certain innate mysticism found in the moments where a Sith seeking an artisan finds the right crucible sage. Some partnerships run on shared vision and mutual respect, others conflict and begrudging appreciation. No matter the form, the relationships that they forge tend to be intense and jealously guarded.

 

Crucible Sages have a particular and deep rooted disdain for lightsabers. They see the invention and mass adoption of the lightsaber as a terrible mistake and the discarding of valuable tradition for convenient mass produced slop. In their eyes, the lightsaber is lethal in spite of the skill of the crafter and the wielder, an indifferent equalizer that emboldens the meek and lays low the strong. You can commission a Crucible Sage to build a lightsaber, and it will be of a nearly peerless quality when it’s done, but the sage will forever think of you as a filthy casual and possibly have their warrior friends beat you down in a back alley while calling you a nerd. There’s some amount of leeway given to apprentices who don’t yet have the means to attain real weapons, and assassins who benefit from the concealability of a lightsaber, but everyone else that uses a lightsaber should be ashamed of themselves.

 

Rite of Exaltation: Similar to the transubstantiation ritual, this rite of sacrifice is used to render the living into dark side infused coals, unguents, and ashes, which in turn are used in all manner of rites, alchemic synthesizing, and in the forges of Sith warriors to craft sorcerous blades. Between this rite and the rite of transubstantiation, pyromancers often see people as resources to be harvested, and even success can be damning as potential is a measurable component of alchemical ingredients.

 

The Crucible Sages do not operate in the shadows of enemy worlds, instead overseeing forges housed at Sith strongholds and taking tithes of slaves and prisoners from Sith war campaigns to fuel their industry. Most of these unfortunate souls will be marched into kilns to be processed en masse to create fodder for basic alchemical smithing components, which in turn will be used to make arms and armor for the Dark Lord’s armies. Rather than seeing such weapons as beneath them, the Crucible Sages see it as an ongoing opportunity to practice and refine the fundamentals of their craft.  

 

Eye for Quality: Crucible Sages have developed a Force technique for “seeing” the inherent potential of people as sacrifices. It is not uncommon for them to accompany Sith warriors to battle, singling out enemy combatants of surpassing value. Sometimes other pyromancers will ask a Crucible Sage to identify sacrifices for the transubstantiation rite, but the sages dislike providing such a service and see it as wasteful. As such, those that do accept demand considerable compensation and are exceedingly grumpy the entire time.

 

Writ of Alloyed Purpose: The foundational rite upon which partnerships are based for the Crucible Sages, the Writ of Alloyed Purpose is performed through the ritual forging of a slab of Sith steel upon which a contract is engraved. All involved parties are expected to participate in the creation of the writ, traditionally with the pyromancer creating the alloy and performing the engraving, and the warrior hammering the metal into the slab. Writs between Crucible Sages and assassins are rare, but when they do occur, the assassin’s part is traditionally to procure the materials.

 

Beyond producing an eldritch tablet that thrums with the heat of the forge and the passions of the people that made it, the rite also engraves the Force bonds of those involved into the underlying energies of the universe. I’m sure some of you are thinking “Oh, that sounds so sweet and not very Sithy,” but it’s important to keep in mind two things. First of all, this makes the bond and the associated friendship something that no involved party can grow out of or move past the reach of should the relationship become toxic or parasitic. Second, the intense bond makes the Sith involved extremely protective and defensive of their partners around others, treating anything that threatens the bond or critiques members as a threat.

 

While a pyromancer can complete the creation of arms and armor on their own, warriors bring with them a strength of arm and intuition for the nature of steel that sorcerers cannot replicate. Therefore collaborative efforts are both finished faster and produce a superior product. Assassins may be able to secure rare alchemical components or suggest designs that innovate outside of tradition, but offer little when it comes to the actual forging process.

 

One time a group of Sith allowed a naive and innocent childhood friend to be part of the Writ, as a cruel joke their role was that of unwitting sacrifice. Through the power of the ritual, the presence of the innocent was perpetuated in the minds of the involved Sith, and her kindness, forgiveness, and ceaseless optimism drove them all to madness, suicide, or redemption. Crucible Sages are advised to not repeat that mistake.

 

Bonds Forged in Fire: When pyromancers take to the field of battle with their partners, the bonds between them enhance their powers and lethality. The bound can draw upon each other’s hatred and pain as long as they are alive. Furthermore, lord level and higher warriors gain access to molten grasp and lord level and higher pyromancers can wield Sith swords at warrior apprentice skill level. Should a partner be felled in battle, the surviving Sith’s rage begins to cause the world around them to spontaneously combust, a physical manifestation of the Sith’s world burning down around them at the loss. 

 

While a bound pyromancer could theoretically bring any Sith weapon with them to the battlefield, traditionally their warrior partner will present them with a blade that they believe will suit the sorcerer best in the time before the battle. This is followed by the pyromancer cursing the warrior’s blade to strike down their enemies. This small but emotional exchange embodies a connection that is rarely seen between Sith warriors and sorcerers.

 

Legacy of Krath: When Dagon restored much of the lost Sith arts of smithing, he tied it heavily to a system of interpersonal bonds that sorcerers were expected to treat as familial. Krath sorcerers addressed each other as brother and sister when speaking to contemporaries, and cousin or kin when speaking to Krath beyond their usual circles. In this environment of shared gain through mutual rediscovery of the old ways, the Krath flourished as artisan crafters of terrible arms and armor. The reclamation is over now though, and the Sith have turned their heads away from the past and to the future, using competition to breed ambition and innovation.

 

Old habits die hard though, and outside of the pursuit of new formulas and techniques, the pyromancers honor the old bonds, aiding each other in times of need as long as that need isn’t research related, and holding pyromancers that embarrass or weaken the value of the Sages’ word accountable for their actions. A Crucible Sage will house a fellow pyromancer whose forge was destroyed, or come to their defense when they are attacked, but there’s no way in hell that they are letting them borrow that sorcerous tome. In a few extremely rare cases, a handful of Sages will swear an Oath of Krath and enter into a mutual pact of family like in the era of Dagon. Krath families live together in a forge and share their discoveries and theories with each other openly.   

 

Engraved in Steel: Crucible Sages are taught to honor their contracts and agreements as if they were engraved in steel, and any deal made with people of worth is expected to be carried out honestly and in good faith in order to prevent them from developing a reputation of treachery and deceit. Reputation as an honest and reliable artisan is so important to the Crucible Sages that they will shun or murder any pyromancer smith that risks fracturing that image. Because a Sage is beholden to their word with any individual of merit, this makes them one of the best options to act as liaison in those rare instances where cooperation between Jedi and Sith are necessary. That being said, in true Sith fashion people without merit are fair game to backstab, deceive, and swindle. Adherence to this principle has cultivated in the Sages a peculiar acknowledgement of respect for enemies of worth, objectively evaluating foes and celebrating their successes as proof of having worthy adversaries. 

 

Dagon’s Hammer: This spell allows the pyromancer to conjure a focused telekinetic field around their fingertips that can imitate the blow of a smithing hammer. The study of Sith sorcery takes up too much time for sorcerers to develop the physical ability to smith, but this spell provides an alternative that instead calls upon their native mental strength. Some Crucible Sages use this spell as a workaround until they enter into contract with a warrior, or to smith beside their partner, while others use the precision it allows to craft amulets and talismans of sorcerous power.

 

In desperate situations, the spell can be used as an attack, but it’s not something pyromancers rely on as an armed opponent will always have greater reach, and they lack the coordination that would be required to use the ability to turn aside blows with reliability.

 

Infernal Revelation: The art of weaving sorcerous enchantment into weapons is a process that is unique to each Crucible Sage, with students learning the language of the occult from their mentors, but over time developing their own personal dialect through personal experience and the ritual of Infernal Revelation. The pyromancer can enter into contract with non Force users, investing in them a fragment of their power, in exchange for a favor to be determined later. Most people when given power untempered by wisdom are quickly consumed by the fantasies of what they always wanted to do if they had any control over the world. At the moment that the fruit of sin is most ripe, the pyromancer plucks it and consumes it in flame to gain a deeper understanding of darkness.

 

The rite is often finalized with the creation of an amulet of black obsidian that seems to flicker softly with inner fire. Victims are told that the amulet is what lets them use the pyromancer’s power, but in truth it is both a means to track them and record data on the spiritual state of the wearer. When the time comes, the pyromancer reveals the truth of the person in immolating fire.

 

In the time before the sorcerer comes to collect their debt, the debtor is considered an apprentice level Force user, with access to dark and neutral powers of the Force. Since the powers come from the sorcerer and not the immolation of the bearer’s soul like with Enkindling, the number of amulets that can be given out without reducing the sorcerer’s power is limited, one at apprentice, three at lord, and five at master.

 

Dark Familiar: As the pyromancer’s study advances, the need for more learned instruction becomes deeper, especially as few Sith master smiths are willing to share their secrets. As such, when the time is right, a Crucible Sage will seek to shackle a dark side spirit to their forge to serve as an infernal advisor and servant. It is unclear what the origin of these spirits are, some claim that they are Sith that failed in their attempts to claim immortality, others that they are darkness incarnate, or the personification of the Sage’s evils carrying wisdom that they cannot attain on their own. Whatever the case, the Sages have a ritual which manifests and binds the spirit to the forge and the sorcerer’s will. 

 

These bound spirits aid the Sage in their studies, assist in their crafting, and protect the forge in the absence of the pyromancer, conjuring visions and madness to overwhelm intruders. Their imperceptibility to those that don’t know how to look for them is often cause for people to think that Crucible Sages are quite mad as they chatter away with seemingly no one. With the tutelage of familiars, Crucible Sages better learn the sigils, runes, and scripts that allow them to imbue objects with dark purpose.

 

It’s important to note that the power dynamic of these relationships is unquestionably one of master and servant, with the sage being the dominant element. To serve under anything that is not Sith is to fail at following the foundational principles of what being Sith is.

 

Fleshbound Familiar (Siqsa’Taral): Crucible Sages that have attained mastery over pyromancy will sometimes transfer their bound familiar to a mortal vessel, allowing them to converse more directly, and also physically assist in the crafting process. These vessels develop dark side corruption at a rapid pace, so many Sages replace their physical components often, although some pyromancers let the mutations continue out of curiosity. Even during the early stages, the vessel is noticeably unnatural, speaking with a voice distinctly not its own, moving in a jerky and unnatural fashion, and manifesting unnatural phenomena around them.

 

These dark side spirits use their physical forms to better serve their masters and offer tutelage, but their guidance is not limited in usefulness to the pyromancers, and so Sith of all kinds may retain a Crucible Sage to consult their spirits for guidance and training, especially in arts and techniques thought lost to history. They are still bound to the forge like their unembodied kin (They can travel to another forge, but their powers are gone during the transition and they are afflicted with great suffering and weakness when outside of their territory), and will protect it violently from intruders. Siqsa-Taral are considered to be Force users at one level below their master when defending the forge.

 

Greater Binding: Pyromancy masters can ritually call upon a legion of dark side spirits to temporarily possess marked slaves for the purpose of erecting temples and forges. These thralls can rapidly construct large and complex structures, and take the secrets of their design with them when they leave their hosts, making knowledge of the locations secure from interrogation and necromancy.  

 

Brwsh Cythraul: A set of three tools made with the guidance of a dark familiar, the Brwsh Cythraul consists of an engraving tool for the workshop, a pen for scribing dark tomes, and an ensorceled blade for the battlefield. The engraving tool burns at the tip with sourceless heat, and is capable of engraving curses and spells on arms and armor seemingly regardless of the toughness of the material they are composed of. The pen is imbued with encrypting spells and curses of insanity, allowing the Sage to record notes, ideas, and theories without worrying about the prying eyes of others. 

 

The ensorceled blade is a long and thin bladed sword meant for channeling dark side energy into curses and spells on the battlefield. It is designed for elegant and precise movements, and to not easily tire out the sage with unnecessary bulk. When the pyromancer channels the Force through the blade, it cuts burning runes into the air of sorcerous power.

 

While this guide provides a couple of sample curses, they should not be considered the only options, and players are encouraged to use the crafting of these pyromancers as an opportunity for creativity.

 

Curse of Wrath: The pyromancer carves a sigil of wrath into the spiritual fundament, taunting and goading nearby martial enemies to commit to violence without thought or strategy. When applied to a weapon, the curse induces a manic state of violent urges.

 

Curse of Vainglory: The pyromancer carves a sigil of vainglory into the spiritual fundament, whispering to and seducing nearby infiltrators and spies to be so arrogantly pleased with their ability to conceal themselves that they burst into sadistic laughter.

 

Curse of Ambition: The pyromancer carves a sigil of ambition into the spiritual fundament, subtly and rationally pointing out to nearby Force users where so much more could be accomplished through using the dark side. Even if the victims rebuff the curse’s implications, its soft but insistent reasonings can disrupt concentration.

 

Curse of Ineptitude: The pyromancer carves a sigil of ineptitude into the spiritual fundament, clouding and disrupting the minds of nearby soldiers, hampering their muscle memory and familiarity with the functions of their arms and armor.

 

Curse of Indolence: The pyromancer carves a sigil of indolence into the spiritual fundament, sapping the energy and will of nearby enemies and driving them towards a somnambulant state. When placed upon a weapon, it becomes imbued with a soporific effect.

 

Curse of Hope: The pyromancer carves a sigil of hope into the spiritual fundament, deluding and manipulating nearby combatants into thinking that hopeless battles are in fact winnable.

 

Curse of Immolation: The pyromancer carves a sigil of immolation into the spiritual fundament, plunging the area into the blistering heat of the forge. In this form, the nearby area becomes swelteringly hot, and flammable objects begin igniting without warning. When placed upon a cursemarked shikkar, lanvarok, or Sith weapon, the properties are focused heavily and the marked arms become incendiary weapons.

 

Cursemarked Shikkar: A traditional Sith blade made of glass, designed to break inside the target as they are stabbed. These shikkars are forged with pyromancy curses, delivering the effects of a curse upon wounding the target.

 

Cursemarked Lanvarok: Most commonly a wrist mounted weapon that launches razor sharp disks, pyromancers have a personal affinity for the weapon as its munitions are easy to curse and to guide after firing. Pyromancers will commonly use immolation cursed disks to create flames that they can then manipulate.

 

Hyal’Won’Yun: A ritual dagger that is gifted by a warrior to a Crucible Sage to indicate interest in a potential partnership. Designed as an extrapolation of the Sith sword as a channel for hatred, when wielded alone the Hyal’Won’Yun acts as an occult focus, allowing the pyromancer to use battle spells with greater potency than normal. Mechanically speaking, their sorcery attacks are treated as being done at a rank higher, but this does not give them access to spells that they otherwise would not have the rank to perform.

 

Hyal’Won’Yun is Sith for “To crave to free two”, and represents the desire to become more through aligning compatible opposites. Upon receiving a Hyal’Won’Yun the pyromancer will inspect it and either accept or reject it. While some amount of difference in rank is acceptable, a warrior apprentice giving a Hyal’Won’Yun to a master pyromancer is considered a huge social blunder.

 

Nuyak’Taral: An ensorceled piece of metal jewelry given as a token of accepting an Hyal’Won’Yun. The warrior that wears it finds their ability to absorb and redirect Sith sorcery attacks with a Sith sword has increased potency, and channeling hatred into their blade causes it to ignite in flame. Can also take the form of a sigil or crest affixed to the warrior’s armor.

 

Nuyak’Taral is Sith for “My Protector”, and signifies the pyromancer’s interest in pursuing a partnership with the warrior that receives it. After receiving a Nuyak’Taral, it is taboo for a warrior to give another pyromancer a Hyal’Won’Yun, with the extremely rare exception being when both pyromancers belong to the same Krath family vow, however a pyromancer can give as many Nuyak’Tarals as they please. This is on account of warriors being more willing to work closely with each other, while Crucible Sages are incredibly paranoid and protective of their work. All parties involved are expected to finalize their partnership with a Writ of Alloyed Purpose within a few months of the exchange,

 

Qo’Sutta: An elegant polearm crafted by warriors and given as tokens of friendship to Crucible Sages, the Qo’Sutta is a well balanced weapon that distances the wielder from combat and rewards strategic flowing movements of give and take over sheer power. The blade is traditionally single edged and curved, relying on sharpness to wound rather than mass and muscle strength. Both blade and haft are made from lightsaber resistant materials, or treated with Sith alchemy to become lightsaber resistant.

 

Qo’Sutta is Sith for “path spear”, and represents the shared path of a warrior and a crucible sage. The creation and giving of a Qo’Sutta is an emotionally charged experience, in many ways the platonic equivalent of offering a wedding ring after a long courtship (Although some warrior/sage relationships are very not platonic, and in those cases a Qo’sutta serves the same purpose as a wedding ring). When not in use, the Qo’sutta is displayed in a place of honor either in the forge or the inner sanctum. In addition to its symbolic nature, the Qo’Sutta is traditionally used to mercy kill a warrior that has defeated all enemies on the field of battle but sustained mortal wounds, with the pyromancer speaking a prayer for the warrior to fight their way back from hell to find them again and cursing anything that would try to stop them. (The abilities of a Qo’Sutta vary wildly depending on the crafter and the Sage, and should represent their relationship, hence why this entry focuses on the general specifications and not definitive powers of the weapon)

 

Hyal’Shâsot and Hyal’Itsukut: An artfully crafted Sith war mask and accompanying rite of ritual branding and tattooing performed as a reciprocal gift for receiving a Qo’Sutta. The mask is the culmination of the Sage’s understanding of the warrior, a powerful Sith amulet tailored specifically to them. The markings of the Hyal’Itsukut give the warrior access to the wisdom and strategy of a dark side spirit that is bound to them through the ritual.

 

Hyal’Shâsot is Sith for “to crave struggle/passion”, and Hyal’Itsukut is Sith for “to crave chains”, and together they symbolize a warrior’s desire to seek out challenges and gain strength through overcoming them. They embody the fact that the pyromancer knows that upon seeing a giant untameable murder beast, the warrior is going to punch it in the face, and rather than telling them don’t, the Sage will provide them with the punchiest gauntlet. More than acceptance of the warrior path, the mask and markings represent an embrace and valuing of it. 

 

The Hyal’Shâsot reflects the way that the Sage sees the potential of the warrior, the face that they seek to uplift the warrior to embody. Each mask is unique to its wearer, bestowing power inspired by the storied shared past of the pair. Should the mask be lost or destroyed in combat through defeat of the warrior, tradition necessitates a blood pact between the warrior and sage to train and seek power until they can avenge the loss. Only then can a new mask be forged. Should the Sage choose to walk the ashen path for a time, they will recognize the warrior even in their feral madness.

 

The Hyal’Itsukut is more than a binding ritual, it is the Sage sharing the one thing that they hoard and covet, knowledge. The ritual itself is an intensely emotional experience, with both partners in a state of vulnerability with each other in spite of the Sith propensity of backstabbing, the warrior without their armor and weapons, and the Sage openly sharing some of their most potent secret knowledge. Upon completion of the tattooing and branding, the warrior will benefit from an immaterial dark side spirit that can warn of hidden dangers, offer counsel, and convey secret messages between the warrior and the Sage.  

 

Stoke the Fires: The nature of fire is that it requires fuel to burn, and so it is more proficient for pyromancers to manipulate pre-existing flames than to both conjure and continuously sustain a phantom flame. This spell manipulates an already burning fire, fueling it to either explosively expand the fire’s area or raising the temperature at which the fire is burning.

 

Molten Grasp: When the pyromancer uses the Force to telekinetically lift and move metal objects, they can rapidly increase the temperature of them until they are melted into a state of liquidity. This power can also ignite flammable objects as the sorcerer interacts with them.

 

Eldritch Hammerfall: A combat form of Dagon’s Hammer, this spell interweaves the range of Force push with the focused power of Dagon’s Hammer. The spell is often used to launch enemies into fires that the pyromancer has made or enhanced. Apprentices lack the experience to perform this spell, making it a mark of reaching lordship.

 

Hellthrower: A sorcerous weapon that projects flame by igniting alchemical reagents. The oily substance that the hellthrower vomits up feeds the fires that it produces and clings to objects that it falls upon. Most hellthrowers have adjustable nozzles for short and wide sprays and narrow but far cones of fire.  

 

Hellthrowers are rarely seen outside of the hands of Crucible Sage lords and masters. Apprentices are not allowed to construct hellthrowers ever since “the incident”, and the Sages don’t like giving a weapon that can bypass lightsabers to the rabble. Most planetary security forces consider hellthrowers a war crime, so they are often encased in frames to make them look like other, more legal weapons, or integrated into armor.  

 

Hold to the Old Ways: The Sage gathers pyromantic energies around them and conjures a pulse of severe heat that can damage the delicate internal components of powered arms and armor. The Crucible Sages reject the world of ever present technology and the demystification of knowledge, preferring that the act of creation be guarded by its masters and knowledge hoarded by the worthy.

 

Hellblade: An unfortunate necessity of understanding the principles required to craft a Tsawak’Tyûk is learning how to construct a lightsaber. Some Sages get this crucial step out of the way early on, when there is less stigma among their peers in owning and using a lightsaber. Others wait until the final stages before designing a Tsawak’Tyûk to deal with it, using their extensive knowledge to blow through the process quickly. Sages rarely if ever use hellblades as martial weapons, instead considering them to be more of a toy, interesting curio, or cutting tool. The one exception to this is that many Sages craft their sabers to have adjustable containment fields that can be weakened or directed to turn the weapon into a plasma heat inducer, rapidly heating the area around the blade. Hellblades tend to have orange blades.   

 

Flametongue: A script of writing with many varied dialects that Crucible Sages use to encode their messages to each other. The ease with which two sages can comprehend each other’s writing style suggests the level of compatibility in their styles. Warriors and assassins can be taught a specific Sage’s version of Flametongue, with warriors having an easier time of it given their knowledge of the forge.

 

Raiments of the Forge: In spite of the Sith’s disregard for safety railings, Crucible Sages do practice proper safety protocols in their work, and part of that is a protective outfit designed for the hazards of working in a forge. While not comparable to the all purpose armor of warriors, the armored apron suit of the Crucible Sages gives considerable protection against heat, flame, explosions, and fragmentation. This protection is provided in equal parts by competent design and wicked pacts with dark spirits. Many Sages will integrate an air supply into their suit when going into battle, where smoke inhalation is a more pervasive concern.

 

A Temple of Flame and Secrets: Each Crucible Sage has at least one personal forge, a place of industry, study, and theorizing. Despite the blasphemous nature of the Sith, a sense of sacred tradition and mysticism has been draped around the forge. This is not just a place to craft equipment, this is where legends are forged through secret means and ways. A Crucible Sage forge is composed of sections with increasingly guarded access, the most open being the public area in front of the forge, where the smith’s creations are on display and potential clients can seek an audience. Would-be thieves will quickly discover that the inventory is quite cursed until the proper transactions are made.

 

The forge itself waits behind a sealed door, restricted to the pyromancer and a select few. While the pyromancer themself does not use hammers and tongs, they are always kept on hand as a consideration for their warrior allies. The exact design and state of a forge varies from Sage to Sage, some are fastidiously kept workspaces, others are cluttered affairs created by the frantic momentum of manic innovation. Regardless, the forge is a place of great darkness, and are either built on dark side nexuses or become them through a relentless procession of profane acts. The forge’s anvil often also doubles as a sacrificial altar, although some larger forges have both anvils and work surfaces specifically for sacrifice, and the remnants of suffering are palpable in the air. Outsiders commonly feel a sense of being watched while in the forge, particularly if the pyromancer has bound familiars to it.

 

The most heavily secured area of the forge is the study and living area, where the Crucible Sage does their research, theorizing, scribing of their own discoveries, and tending to vital necessities. Only the most trusted allies are allowed past the doors of the inner sanctum, as all pyromancers are paranoid about their secrets being stolen, and none of them care to be shanked in their sleep or poisoned by rivals. Allowing another Crucible Sage into the pyromancer’s inner sanctum is an act of trust that few Sages ever willingly acquiesce to, and many forges that outlast their owners become repositories of lost knowledge that can only be unsealed through the efforts of a cabal of Sith. Even then, casualties and betrayals are common.

 

Sometimes the Dark Lord will call for a time of great industry, commanding all able bodied Sages to gather in mighty forges the size of cities. In these grand edifices of steel and fire, the Sages and warrior blacksmiths toil side by side to churn out weapons for the grand legions of the Sith empire. The quotas are high, and the expectations for creating unique pieces nearly non-existent, but it challenges the pyromancers to perfect their fundamentals and stress test their crafting fortitude. Since the weapons and armor being made are rather basic by Crucible Sage standards, the usual paranoia they experience around others of their craft does not apply here. In addition to whatever reprisals might come from the Dark Lord, it is considered extremely disgraceful to willfully and without just cause ignore the summons to serve in this capacity, and Sages that do so are often branded with a mark that signifies one of the greatest sins in the eyes of their peers, laziness. Marked Sages are shunned by both their peers and their warrior allies.

 

Mask of the Demon: A Sith warmask that has been crafted to house a dark side spirit bound to the Crucible Sage. Any person that willingly wears the mask becomes possessed by it, losing control of their body but remaining keenly aware of their actions. The mask becomes a part of the person, only able to be removed by the pyromancer or by practically tearing the person’s face off. Sages will often use the masks to convert conscripts into skilled soldiers, bypassing the need to formally trade them while also indoctrinating the conscripts and drawing them into the dark side. Not all masks are made for the purpose of warfare, but they are definitely the most common. Masked devotees that prove their worth can be empowered by the pyromancer to gain access to the Force and abilities that would be considered unnatural. 

 

Token of Favor: While much of what the Crucible Sages do is adjacent to warfare and battle, they largely consider themselves non combatants and have little interest in dying for flags or empires. Should they find themselves bested by enemy combatants, they may offer a token of favor, a contract to craft an item of worth for their would be killer in exchange for their safe withdrawal. The contract is breached if the Sage then returns to the battle, which earns the ire of the other Sages and their warrior allies, or if the enemy slays them anyway or willfully prevents their escape or allows others to kill them. In either case, the breaking of the contract brands the guilty party with a mark of betrayal on the face that Crucible Sages can intuitively sense. 

 

The contract demands that the item be made in good faith without curses or corrupting effects, and delivered in a timely manner. Since this involves crafting for non dark siders, the Sage is assumed to be devoted to research and material acquisition for the next three OOC days, similar to the penalty for dying.

 

Vow of Perfection: A rite performed by Crucible Sages to ensure their focus, the Vow of Perfection creates a sorcerous obsession with completing a specific task at the highest level of quality possible. While the rite unquestionably produces amazing results, the toll it takes on the pyromancer is considerable, especially for those that come to use it as a crutch. The power of the rite can force a Sage to obsessively work through a state of mental collapse and fragmentation, driving them to work even as all other aspects of their life fall apart. Pyromancers have been found dead clutching works unfinished, dying of dehydration or starvation in spite of having a fully stocked pantry.

 

Talisman of Power: Referring to any item of sorcerous ability crafted by the Sage, this catchall term covers the immense number of objects such as amulets, rings, bracelets, circlets, crowns, etc that carry some measure of power, either granting the ability to use specific powers or enhancing one’s ability with a power they already possess. Smaller objects like these are easier for pyromancers to craft without the assistance of warriors, and many Crucible Sages use their creation to bankroll their forge. With enough study and either a willing demonstrator or access to tomes that are often heavily restricted, the Sage can craft talismans that conjure spells from other disparities. New powers granted by talismans can only be performed at apprentice level and can never be powers that require a rank higher than apprentice. Talismans of power are corrupting objects that over time will twist and oppress wearers, with the weak willed being exceptionally susceptible.

 

Force users that wear these talismans can use augmentative talismans to enhance their pre-existing powers, although doing so makes using a power considerably more draining. Furthermore, since talismans feed off of the wearer’s power, there is a limit to how many can be worn at the same time without draining the sorcerer to a state of unconsciousness or a mental fugue. Using augmentative talismans requires a brief five minute attunement ritual, you can’t just dump a bag of trinkets onto a Force user to bushwhack them into a mystical coma. The “safe usage limit for active talismans is the character’s rank plus one.

 

Tsawak’Tyûk: One of the crowning achievements of a Crucible Sage’s research, the Tsawak’Tyûk isa sorcerous energy blade that simultaneously exists as energy and mass, combining the cutting power of a lightsaber with the utility of a physical blade that can be leveraged through martial techniques. While any blade color can be achieved through alchemy, the most common is the orange of molten steel, and the blade can be crafted to reflect its solid, energy, liquid, or near liquid states. The pyromancer can manipulate the physical state of the blade, alternating between solid and liquid states so that the Tsawak’Tyûk can function as both a blade and a lash. 

 

Crafting a Tsawak’Tyûk is not a casual undertaking, requiring extensive research, the sourcing of incredibly rare materials and alchemical components, long collaborative smithing sessions between the Sage and a warrior,and numerous layers of counter espionage to prevent theft by competitors. The Crucible Sage will nearly always craft their first Tsawak’Tyûk for themself as a proof of concept, as they would literally rather die than tarnish their reputation by providing a warrior with a faulty weapon. This first undertaking is often the final step of a Crucible Sage’s path to the rank of master, a trial of their skill as artisan and sorcerer. It is a taboo for any warrior that has not attained the rank of master to commission a Tsawak’Tyûk, and the blades are known to be treacherous to wielders that came by them through other means such as scavenging a battlefield. 

 

Asha’Saarai: The Crucible Sages by all accounts have no interest in the title of Dark Lord, a peculiarity that is only overlooked by other Sith on account of the usefulness of the sorcerer smiths. In truth, the Sages consider coveting the throne of Dark Lord to be a goal for the small minded. Instead, they seek apotheosis through learning the language of creation and hoarding occult knowledge, so that one day they can ascend to godhood as a divine being. They have seen spells conjure demons and contact unknowable intelligences in the darkness, and seek to use their research to evolve beyond mortal existence so that they may conquer darkness itself.

 

Each major breakthrough in their research produces a word of power or sigil in the flametongue script, which the Sage renders on parchment and then requests their partner to tattoo on their flesh. Any inquiries are waved away with a vague answer of it being complicated sorcery stuff. The effect of the marking is not immediate, instead it seems to mutate dark side corruption into evolution rather than cancer, slowly warping and twisting the body into the Sage’s idea of the countenance of dark divinity. 

 

Some Sages regard the Asha’Saarai as a path to be walked alone, with the eventual abandonment of their companions a necessary price of godhood. Others plan to use their allies as favored priests and agents after their ascension, but both of these options tend to fill the pyromancer with melancholic turmoil. Some take the most difficult path and seek to secure a place in the firmament not just for themselves but for those that they love, intending to bring about a new Sith pantheon. Even those that do plan to share godhood almost never reveal their intentions to their allies. (PCs will never fully complete the Asha’Saarai, its mention here is to provide a narrative motivation, add more complexity to the relationship between Crucible Sages and their allies than “Bestest murder buddies”, and explain why they are so willing to play the supporting role despite being Sith.)  

 

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The Cost of Business

 

Pyromancy is a hustle, but on some mad, bad days the pyromancer can’t catch their breath or a break, and reality comes crashing through the door with a ledger dripping red of debts to be paid. When the false flame goes out, the cavernous abyss within attests to the damage done by its maddening emptiness. It’s an intolerable state of being that pyromancers will do anything to escape, well anything other than get clean. If being enkindled is a state of extreme manic desire, being ashen is a state of extreme desperate need. Force users that have encountered an ashen pyromancer have described their Force signatures as an unnerving awareness of utter lack, both pregnant silence and a howling void like air rushing out of an airlock. Ashen pyromancers are practically feral, rarely speaking complete sentences yet still possessing a keenly predatory intellect.

 

Crucible Sages have a different, more mutual relationship with the ashen state. Rather than being a consequence of being way too far strung out on space wizard meth, for the Sages this existential mode is treated like a full body reset after going hard on a major commission or research project, along with the stresses of playing a supportive role in a society obsessed with selfish ambition. You could see it as vacation, or “Me time”. Since it’s more of a choice for the Sages, they will usually distance themselves from their usual haunts, selecting locales best suited for whatever “fun” they have planned, and possibly engineering the circumstances to better suit them or inviting warriors that they trust to come along for the ride. 

 

Crucible Sages describe the ashen state as like a muscle finally relaxing after months of straining and cramping. It is a time for them to experience the world as it is, through the eyes of a predator, rather than the purpose driven perspective of a crafter. Pregnant Sages will often choose to enter the ashen state in order to focus on themselves and the unborn child without distraction, consuming and terrorizing the people around them to imbue their child with dark energies with the intent to make them superior before they are even born.

 

Annihilator Maw: The pyromancer becomes a maelstrom of draining emptiness, instinctively gnawing and tearing at the spiritual energies around them. This void saps the effectiveness of Force powers, weakening barriers, dimming spiritual senses, and sapping preternatural vigor from nearby Force users, with the effects intensifying the closer one gets. At point blank range the pyromancer can intensify the vortex to try and maul the soul in a mental grapple that ignores material factors. Such an attack can temporarily deprive victims of access to specific powers, like severing specific muscle strands to make a limb go limp.

 

Smoldering Ruins of the Self: The pyromancer can project their inner wounds and unsated needs into the world around them, enveloping the area in a bitter smoke that catches in the throat like rusty barbs and claws at the eyes with a chemical sting. While using this power, the sorcerer’s Force presence is diffused throughout the smoke cloud, making them harder to pinpoint through the Force.

 

Repudiation of Mercy: A scathing dark side curse that seeks to unweave light side healing and feed on it to power attacks. While now the curse is commonly used to counter Jedi healing, its name comes from a pyromancer who cursed the Jedi that tried to heal him from his own suffering, and then fatally struck her down with the malformed energies of her own kindness.

 

Bitter Cinders: The sorcerer expels a billowing torrent of superheated ash and smoke at their enemies. While not anywhere as lethal as many other dark side attacks, the spell is incredibly difficult to defend against, its lack of focus both a weakness and an asset.

 

Feast of Debasement: Overwhelmed by feral hungers and unfettered by the pretenses of being above beasts, the sorcerer gives in to the maddening whispers telling them that consuming flesh will in some way fill the hole inside of them. This cannibalistic act consumes meat and soul alike, and the sorcerer greedily sucks the marrow out of cracked bones to get every last drop of sustenance. This vile act gives the sorcerer two boons. First of all, they can sense the bonds of joy and friendship that the person had in life, following them like trails of string to new victims. Second, the sorcerer can vomit forth the blood, bone shards, and acidic bile of their meal in a spray of caustic fluids and penetrating fragments, infused with the horror and pain of the victim’s last moments.

 

Nightmare Stride: Ashen pyromancers eschew their mortal natures and instead wear the mantle of monsters. Their movements develop a broken fluidity of stillness and haste that makes tracking them with a weapon difficult, and they use the Force to scale walls and ceilings like misbegotten spiders. 

 

Lair of the Devourer: For pyromancers that suffer longer fits of the ashen state, it is not uncommon for them to start instinctively constructing, for lack of a better term, nests in isolated locations where they can feed without interruption. Equal parts larder and trap, the area becomes increasingly coated in a tar like residue that turns the place into a localized dark side nexus. Insidiously, the pyromancer uses the stagnant energies and consumed memories to sculpt a false patina of hospitality and familiarity that calls out to the friends and family of victims through whispers and dreams. False visions conceal the black unguents and pools of bile where bodies lie half digested, and the dearest memories manifest like lifelike holorecordings.

 

Confronting an ashen pyromancer in their lair can be incredibly dangerous, the fabric of reality is uncertain, and the place is designed to be a killing ground. The dark side is strong in these places, and for anyone with the will to overcome the nest’s deceptions, the reality of them is enough to make most people puke from the stench of decaying corpses, offal, and vomit.

 

Parasitic Collaboration: In spite of their feral state, an ashen pyromancer still retains a Sith’s inherent need to dominate others into submission. They will often isolate and overwhelm weak willed individuals and former subordinates, breaking their minds with the Force and infecting them with the overwhelming hunger that they feel. They then force them to murder and eat someone, an act of trauma that they leverage to ensure loyalty. Filling the minds of their brainwashed lackeys with alternating bursts of cannibalistic desire and fear of getting caught, they position themself as the only one that can be trusted, a confidante that understands the victim’s precarious position. Sorcerers can amass a small cannibal cult through this process, composed of leveraged and then later enthusiastically willing fanatics. Those who earn the pyromancer’s favor and manage to live until the ashen state ends are often rewarded with Embrace once the pyromancer regains their senses. However, the reverse is often true as well, with Embraced allies being sucked into the undertow of the pyromancer’s madness.

 

Crucible Sages take a special interest in these thralls after leaving the ashen cycle, either taking them into their household as favored servants or acting as mysterious patrons that support them from the shadows with money, influence, and talismans. In light of their intentions with the Asha’Saarai, it’s very likely that they are using the relationship to practice for their ascension to godhood.

 

Mediocrity’s Reward: Thralls made from parasitic collaboration that neither impress the pyromancer nor fail enough to feed the Sith’s sadistic desire for reprimands suffer a particularly brutal fate where their stomach swells and distends, filling with acid. When the pyromancer wills it, a final rapid transformation occurs, filling the body with an unnaturally potent bile that exceeds the capacity of the person’s flesh, showering the area in lethal acid like a person shaped acid grenade.

 

Vitiator Blade: An aberration of the lightsaber, a vitiator blade reflects its creator’s insanity through the instability of the containment field, wreathing the blade in billowing black smoke that greatly conceals the light of the blade. The blade chews on the fabric of the world around it, cutting so deep that its movements leave behind chilling gashes of inexistence rather than trails of heat. Its malign aspect makes it exceptional for cutting through Force constructs like barriers and illusions, and damaging Force imbued objects. Possession of a vitiator blade is considered a mark of passage among pyromancers, evidence that they have gone through the ashen cycle and come out the other side at least once.

 

Since Crucible Sages are essentially slumming it when they are in the ashen state, they might create a lightsaber for the perverse experience of its childlike simplicity, in the way that an adult might eat ice cream for dinner because they can.

 

Ensnaring Glare: The pyromancer looks at a victim with an intensity that can be felt to the very bone, attempting to make them freeze in terror by teasing out primitive prey reactions to predators. 

 

Taker of Faces: Given the mounds of corpses that ashen pyromancers leave behind, it’s generally a good idea for them to adopt a new identity as they come out of it. In the Sith’s final sleep before clarity returns, they dream of the faces they have eaten, and can choose one to mutate their own appearance into, while also inheriting a muddled collection of the person’s memories. Specific details are fuzzy, but the sorcerer gains enough knowledge to pass as a version of the person who was traumatized by nearly being eaten by a serial killer. Because of the cyclical nature of pyromancy, many cultures have myths about cannibal monsters that infect their prey with a hunger that they will one day succumb to. 

 

Crucible Sages use this power to extend their lifespans and to secure vessels untouched by corruption so that the darkness can be guided by the Asha’Saarai. In some cases it may be necessary for them to acquire a new body due to a sigil not functioning as intended or being rendered improperly on their body.

 

Inconceivable Horror: Ashen pyromancers use their wickedness to conjure a mythology around them. People think that the stories are either grim fictions or exaggerated claims, because they desperately want to believe that monsters like the Ashen don’t exist. The sorcerer often focuses this mystical veil most heavily on the local authorities, practically ensuring that any reports or pleas for help go unheeded until it is too late.

 

Unmaker’s Scourge: Master ashen pyromancers can call upon the rot and degradation of the world around them to form violent storms of ash clouds that bite, blind, burn, and scour anyone caught in them.

 

Rot of Decayed Dreams: When people dream of a better life, a better way of doing things, a better government, and then that dream fails to come together, or does so in a monstrous way, a little more doubt, cynicism, and despair comes into the galaxy. An ashen pyromancer can metastasize this residue of broken dreams and abandoned ideals to call into the world a great rot that spreads like mold and filth, eating away at the integrity of all things and withering everything that it touches. This cancerous bloom can either be employed slowly across a large area to extend the sorcerer’s area of influence passively, or quickly in an extremely localized area to diminish the functionality of everything around them. In this latter form, buildings buckle under their own weight, technology falters, and despair accumulates.

 

Chittering Madness: The city vermin and pests that feed upon garbage tainted by the slower version of Rot of Decayed Dreams become bound to the will and temperament of the ashen pyromancer. They can be goaded with the dark side to swarm victims in a living wave of filth and repugnance. While the raw damage of this spell can vary on account of the creatures summoned, being swarmed by rodents and insects trying to burrow inside of you has its own… merits as a form of psychological warfare.

 

Llafn Tyrchwr: A cursed blade first forged when a Sith warrior chose to study and live amongst a small group of ashen pyromancers. The sorcerers could not overcome the warrior, and so chose to tolerate his presence while continuing to predate on the surrounding area. From the cabal the warrior learned of rot, desperation, and an all consuming need to devour, and with these occult truths he fashioned a brutal and malignant weapon. When a victim is wounded by one of these smoke clad weapons, burrowing insects conjured by the blade’s occult curses pour into the wound. The longer the blade finds purchase in someone the greater the numbers and longevity of the blighted creatures.     

 

Seeds of Damnation: While many people will be subconsciously driven to attempt to flee an ashen pyromancer’s territory, many find themselves trapped, unwilling prisoners to a blighted cage. Wickedness and madness permeate the air like spores, degrading people and poisoning their better aspects. Psychotic breaks and violent outbursts become common, and trust amid the community frays. This ritual often precedes the ashen pyromancer’s return to a more cognizant state, as if they are preparing the area to be more receptive to what the pyromancer can offer. People afflicted by this ritual are more susceptible to suggestion by dark siders.

 

Mask of Degradation: An ashen pyromancer can veil themself in the guise of a beggar or homeless person in order to be dismissed as irrelevant, both as a form of defense and ambush. In many ways this power allows them to move and stalk with practical invisibility, or to be shooed away instead of properly investigated.

 

Devourer Stone: A Sith amulet created by an ashen pyromancer regurgitating a sable resin composed of the digested essence of prior victims, the stone often takes the form of an egg shape roughly six inches tall and with an oily surface that looks like swirling black smoke. The sorcerer can channel their hunger into the stone and use it to project inky tendrils of darkness that grasp and coil around lifeforms in front of the sorcerer. Upon seizing something, it begins to drag them towards the stone, which acts as a sorcerous maw that chews upon anything that comes in contact with it.