Calesh of the Subtle Flame
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Character: Calesh of the Subtle Flame
Account: cardamon-ygg_Thayans are, as a rule, pragmatists. Whatever else you know of them, or believe them to do, they are a pragmatic people. It is that pragmatism that draws the Cult of Kossuth to them, and that pragmatism that gives it power, one of the few methods of the common and unprivelaged achieving status and power within Thay. And it was so, pragmatically, that the Monastic Orders of Kossuth takes in orphans or the unwanted (though they are not so cruel as to ever make the distinction). In this manner, the infant Calesh came to the Disciples of the Phoenix, never knowing his true parents.
Calesh grew of age in the monastery, and was taught to always be mindful of his station. But the young often either buck or bend to their station in life, and Calesh bucked. He saw how thing were done, and sought to raise his own station the fast way. There are places for such eager chattel in Monasteries of the Firelord, and it was in that manner that Calesh was seduced by and fell in with the Disciples of the Salamander and gained all but two of his brands, the licking flames of the Salamander.
But Calesh was not entirely free to do so, and viewed as a talented potential asset, and so a conflict ensued between the heads of the two orders. Like a fire, it started low at first but then spread to a conflagration that threatened to consume both chapters. In this conflict, Calesh saw the unbridled and terrible ways of the Salamander, and how it treated its own breathren as wood to stoke the fire. Calesh was himself was forced to fight and maim a childhood friend, and it was was in this manner that Calesh came to first know shame for his actions.
The Phoenix beat the Salamander, and Calesh was returned as a reparation, but he felt far from welcomed. Calesh's maimed friend was made the head warriormonk's servant, a position of great honor, for his sacrifice. Calesh himself was reduced in rank and station. Calesh regretted his actions, but the head priest spoke to him. "You are still one of us. The Phoenix of Kossuth is jealous, but it also not without compassion. Your punishment is mild, but still we have welcomed you back. But it seems this will not be enough. Your trial by fire, your forging, it seems is not yet complete. The High Priest in Surthay has a disciple, a promising wizardess in the cold lands of Narfell. He has decreed we shall send one to aid her, and though there are more deserving, I have decided to send you. You will go and prove yourself, or you will be consumed by the flame of your own soul. Discard your shame before you leave. You will not need it."
And it was in this manner that Calesh came by his last brands, the symbol of the Phoenix, layered over the licking flames of the Salamander._
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Reviewed, XP Pending!
