Info
Info:
This page is a part of my work-in-progress canon (no hub, I don't have seven pages for it yet). If you want to read more of this canon, read Object 216 and Entity 216.
Warning:
This page contains violence and acts of arson.
THE FIRE DESCEND UPON THEM, ITS FLAMING SCOURGE IN HAND, TO SMITE THEM ALL IN HIS NAME.
THE INTRODUCTION
The INFERNO.
The INFERNO is the NINE-HUNDRED-AND-SIXTY-SEVENTH LEVEL of the Backrooms. A land of fire and war, tradition and nature, the INFERNO was forged from the olden embers of the FLAME-O'-THE-GOLDEN, a vestigial remnant of a primordial source once called the ALL-BRILLIANCE. Its likeness, in the form of a fireball, smashed against the once-fertile land of the level, like a hammer on an anvil, scorching the earth and melting great mountains of old. It made the soil so hot that any skin that landed upon it turned into a deep black char. But it also made the land thrive with beings of flame and smoke, fire hounds, ash serpents, molten basilisks, and smoke fish to name a few. Even some of the previous wooden creatures of the land survived and adapted, most prominently Lord Wormwood and his old treen armies.
Inhabitants of the INFERNO, fire-seekers and fire-keepers alike, seek to maintain what is left of the FLAME-O'-THE-GOLDEN, or simply THE FIRE, ablaze—and what better way than to feed it wood? The wood-burners, hunters of the INFERNO, aim to take down Lord Wormwood and his castles and armies to feed the fire, but the wooden lord has been playing hide-and-seek for hundreds of years with the wood-burners, hiding in what is remaining of his leafless kingdoms. However, those who serve the fire are not without conflict either, some fire-seekers have abandoned the old ways and decided to take the flame for themselves, upholding their legacy as lords of cinder. Those who tend to the fire are lessening as more fire-keepers have proclaimed to join the cause of the lords of cinder, abandoning their ancient duties. But those who do remain are granted the power of the FLAME-O'-THE-GOLDEN, from its creator called RAJARAHAN THE GOLDEN KINDLE, PRINCE OF FIRES AND LIGHT.
THE HISTORY
Lord Wormwood's castle and home, Stonewyrm, aflame.
The landscape of the INFERNO has changed drastically since the fire crashed into its heart a few centuries ago, but the parts that remain intact give enough details as to how it might have looked previously. The INFERNO used to be a dense rainforest, with great tall trees and wild grasses giving life to many animals and critters, mountains were seldom seen in its vicinity but a great range used to cut through the eastern region of the land, now mostly melted and liquified into flat stone. What used to be the INFERNO was ruled by Lord Wormwood. Lord Wormwood was respected amongst his subjects and more, a powerful and fair king until the doom eventually came. The wooden lord tried to run with his people, but most of them met their end at the wrath of the fire of RAJARAHAN.
The fire-keepers were the first to rise from the crash of the fire. They were the ones who fought the first waves of the wooden lord's army of giant treants, the most well-known fire-keeper at the time who slew the treant king was EIYA THE FLAMESTORM. She was a spear-bearer who studied the weapon arts of the PRINCE OF FIRES.
Second, came the fire-seekers, who sought after the flames that scattered throughout the land, so that they may be brought back to the fire. But they were envious of the fire-keepers and stole the flames for themselves, thus naming the first lord of cinder, GUIN THE WHITESTAR.
The fire-keepers and fire-seekers pushed Lord Wormwood and his armies to their last bastions of defenses before the wooden lord himself came down the fields with his great sword Tarragon and cleaved through the hordes of flame, slaying THE WHITESTAR in single combat and suffering a fatal wound from THE FLAMESTORM. Lord Wormwood retreated deep into the DARKWOOD FOREST to the west with his remaining armies, unleashing Tarragon as a giant wild wyrm to buy enough time to seal themselves from the infernal armies of RAJARAHAN. EIYA THE FLAMESTORM gave chase to the wooden lord but the tall and thick trees of DARKWOOD refused the flame's presence. Lord Wormwood and his armies were never seen again since then.
Wood-burners setting fire to the remaining forts of Lord Wormwood.
The wood-burners were the last born of the three main species that came from the FLAME-O'-THE-GOLDEN. As stated, they are the hunters who burn the woods of the DARKWOOD FOREST so that they may eventually come to surround the wooden lord. But DARKWOOD TREES are tough, their barks are as hard as bedrock, and their branches protrude like sharpened spears. DARKWOOD TREES grow as tall as the clouds can go and grow as thick as a small hill, thus their presence in itself acts as gargantuan walls of wood, fending off the wrathful flame of RAJARAHAN, THE FIRST PRINCE.
THE CREATURES
What came after the wood-burners were merely simple creatures to populate the burning land. Fire hounds are canine creatures who feed on sticks and chunks of wood, usually accompanying the wood-burners in their hunt. These hounds are fierce creatures with rarely any of them being docile. Fire hounds are subservient to the likes of fire-keepers, fire-seekers, and most obviously the wood-burners, but other creatures such as treants and wood elves do not meet the same behavior from the fearsome fire hound. Ash serpents are parasitic beings that feed on the flames of the three species of the FLAME-O'-THE-GOLDEN. These serpents burrow inside their hot bodies and use the flame to grow larger and healthier, thus breeding more of their kin into the world. Ash serpents are easily killed by blowing them away, as they are made of ash. But they can be unseen, usually burrowing inside the body of a fire-keeper, a fire-seeker, or a wood-burner without their knowledge.
Molten basilisks were previous inhabitants of the land before the doom. The basilisks were a lizard race who lived inside the mountain ranges of the east, within caves of stone where they served a nameless god of the earth. All of that ended when the fire melted the mountains on top of their heads, leaving only but a few to survive as molten basilisks, deformed creatures of immense catastrophe. EIYA THE FLAMESTORM slew the last molten basilisk, ZISHAK THE VENGEFUL, in the BATTLE OF SUMMER'S END; the BATTLE OF SUMMER'S END was the war against the remaining basilisks.
Smoke fish, also known as smoke wyverns, "swim" through the skies above the land with their whale-like appearance, with some obtaining limbs and wings, thus their second moniker. Smoke fishes were born of the smoke that rose from the FLAME-O'-THE-GOLDEN, docile creatures that cover the lands in a dull grey—sometimes black—smoke. These beings swim in groups with no certain purpose other than the theory that they might reproduce through the union of one another's smoke as little smoke fishes of varying hues of grey and black accompany the pod of adult smoke fishes in their seemingly aimless travels. Smoke fishes do not serve any of the factions within the INFERNO.
THE FACTIONS
In current times, three main factions rule over the INFERNO. The first known as ORDO IGNIS PRINCEPS (ORDER OF THE FIRE PRINCE) of the fire-keepers, or the loyalists to RAJARAHAN, their coat of arms is a fireball streaked golden on a red field. THE ORDER's sovereign-of-current is QUEEN EIYA THE FLAMESTORM, and they are housed on the southern flatlands.
The second is the fire-seekers of WHITESTAR, their namesake from the first lord of cinder GUIN, their coat of arms: a bleeding white star on a golden field. Its current king is SIYN THE SUNSMOKE; they are within the northern hills.
The last is the treants of Wormwood, whose coat of arms is a white great-wyrm on a wooden field, they are forcibly exiled to the west inside the DARKWOOD FOREST. Their lord and king: Lord Wormwood, Lord of the Wyrms, God of the Treants, King of the Forests, King of the Verdant Flatlands, Conqueror of the Basilisks, and Protector of the Realm.
Meanwhile, the wood-burners formed a minor faction called the HUNTER'S GUILD, or the NIMROD'S UNION by those serving Lord Wormwood. Their faction is located to the west, near the DARKWOOD FOREST to continue their attempt at hunting down Lord Wormwood. THE GUILD works for the fire-keepers of THE ORDER. Their banner: an orange phoenix grasping a brown treant on a white field.
THE CRISIS
The INFERNO currently lay on the brink of conflict. With the DARKWOOD FOREST soon enough broken through, war will be imminent in the lands once more. WHITESTAR has unofficially declared war by taking territory from THE ORDER, sparking disputes between the two rivals at the current time. And Lord Wormwood was rumored to be seen outside the DARKWOOD FOREST for the first time in centuries, plotting revenge, so said the wood-burners.
The land is boiling as it did time and time again, awaiting who would burst first—the rest will follow soon after. There are still many questions to ask and too many things to explain but only time will tell what awaits the fate of the INFERNO and its inhabitants. Fire, wood, all.
To be continued.