Burnt Priest?

[Valiantman]

I've come across mentions of this guy a couple of times. Here's what I've been able to gather:

- He was a leader of an Overlords cult, possibly a Speaker.
- He lead an army of summoned demons, possessed men (including Saverous) and other creatures against Bannor.
- He was defeated shortly before the start of the Fall of Cuantine scenario and the twisted men there are the remnants of his army.
- His killer was legionnaire Gil-ganthor of the First Light (of Bannor)

Now, what is unclear for me and what I'd like to know for purposes of a forum Let's Play taking place over at another forum is:

- How large scale war are we talking about here? Presumably very large?
- Who exactly WAS this guy? A human? Lanun? Bannor? Former priest of Danalin? Of Order?
- What time frame is it we're talking of here? How long did the war last and how long is it between the defeat of the Burnt Priest and the beginning of the Fall of Cuantine, approximately?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

My theory was that Hemah passed through the ruins of Brigdarrow, saw the burnt corpse of Father Prespin, and then had a nightmare that raised this dead Priest of Danalin as an undead Lich and high priest who founded the first cult of the Overlords.

Unfortunately, Kael refuted this theory without giving any clues towards an alternative.

(Father Prespin was a kindly but doddering old priest who maintained the temple of Danalin in the Illian town of Brigdarrow, where Auric Ulvin grew up. He died along with everyone else in the town when Gosea the Dwindling hired goblin mercenaries to burn it down and eliminate anyone who might have seen her with the Heartstone.)



It isn't really clear if their was one very large war, or a series of smaller wars. Saverous's pedia entry declares that he was captured by the Burnt Priest, taken to an asylum, experimented upon, abandoned, and nearly abandoned for months until the war began. The Tale of Saverous tells us that he remained a thrall serving in the Burnt Priest's army for 17 years before his master was killed. That gives us a pretty good estimate of the length of the war or wars.

I get the impression that the Burnt Priest was constantly fighting someone, but that the Bannor did not enter the war until relatively late.

According to the Tale of Saverous, The Burnt Priest had been reluctant to cross the cracked lands around the Osul mountains to attack the heart of the Bannor empire directly. He only did so for retribution, after a charismatic hero led an army in an attempt to vanquish him. This escalated the war, and led to the massacres of Prespur and Cuantine. Saverous seems to have fought as a thrall in both.

From this it seems like the Burnt Priest was not defeated until after Cuantine fell. I suppose the Twisted Men mentioned in the Fall of Cuantine scenario must have been captured by the Bannor and left the service of the Burnt Priest before he died.

The Rosier pedia entry does not seem compatible with the other sources though.

 

[Valiantman]

Hmm, so it's clear that there's some discrepancy between Fall of Cuantine scenario, Tale of Saverous and Rosier's pedia entry. One thing I really like about FFH lore is that we don't have all of it. There are holes and contradictions, as if all we're getting were rumours and tales that may or may not be fully true and ultimately some thing are left in the dark.

Anyway, since I'm showing the scenario in full, that's one thing I really can't discount and I just have to fit the other things in as well as I can.

The relevant parts of Rosier's pedia entry are here:

Spoiler :

"At the Osul mountains, a small company of Twisted men were captured. They had served the Burnt Priest, but with him dead and his summoned legions gone, they were left unprovisioned and far from their homeland. I gave them the oath, that they should give up their violence and travel back to their homelands, understanding that the way would be difficult, but that they would be unhindered by the Order if they stayed true to their oath. Each one agreed."

<snip>

"The Osul can't support much life, and the twisted men aren't competent hunters. Many will starve before they get back to their home. After serving the Burnt Priest, they can't expect to receive any charity from what few people live in that area. Faced with death or the threat of death, most will choose the threat and break their Oath."

<snip>

"Most of the Twisted men will break their oath. They will attempt to attack a village called Hallowell in 3 nights. Take a company of Oath-takers and wait for them there. Some of the Twisted men won't join the raid and will continue on, do not hinder them."

The last part, about Hallowell, that doesn't make sense in the scenario context but otherwise I think it would fit in right between these two conversations, which in game come back-to-back:

Spoiler :

The Confessor walks among the ruins of the lair. "This is surely the taint Junil has warned us of. We must eliminate the camp and everyone in it."

Rosier is reluctant to follow his command. "Many of these twisted men were slaves and captives. By what right do we put them to the sword?"

"The Bannor Empire is the sole beacon of hope for this world. Should we allow taint to spread this close to the heart of the Empire?"

"We should trust our god enough to let innocent men return to their homes."

" ...Perhaps you are right. Very well, Commander Decius, should they give their Oath to Rosier, I will permit them return to their homes. Then we should return to the Abbey."

(At this point Rosier would travel back to the abbey and there would be the trial for the Oaths the twisted men gave, the attack on Hallowell would be dealt with off-screen, and then Rosier would come back to Decius.)

Spoiler :

Your confessor approaches you as you prepare your army to move. "Commander Decius, we have uncovered the source of the taint we discovered in the jungles. In fact, it stems from the ports of the Lanun. We had negotiated trade relations with the Lanun, but apparently they have allowed their cities to be infested by the Overlords. We must wipe out every city with the Octopus Overlords religion."

Rosier says "So you only freed the twisted men in order to track them down and destroy them?"

"If these people have given their souls to demons, their lives are forfeit. If their Oaths hold true, they shall dwell with Junil forever. Either way we shall protect the Bannor from this taint, and the power of the good shall not fade nor flicker from the face of Erebus."

"This seems less of good than of power to me, Decius." says Rosier.

These would imply that Burnt Priest is either an unknown threat altogether or a threat that is thought to have been completely dealt with.

If we go with the first option it doesn't make much sense that the twisted men would be free from the Burnt Priest's influence since he's not dead yet. If we choose the latter, however, then part of the Tale of Saverous no longer makes sense:

Spoiler :

Cuantine was the worst. The town was unprepared for the attack.
The burnt priest showed some restraint, unwilling to travel far beyond the cracked lands of the Osul mountains. But a charismatic hero had gathered a sizable force, and led them into the mountains to kill the priest. Who was more responsible for the deaths at Prespur, the priest that ordered the attack, or the hero whose own pride set the events in motion?

I suppose we could interpret "charismatic hero" as Decius who succeeded in killing lots of the army of the Burnt Priest, causing Cuantine and Prespur in response? The war between Bannor and Burnt Priest would begin in earnest but Decius would have fled without knowing about it.

Then of course there's the problem that the Burnt Priest war and the Tale of Saverous (as far as we know it) must have been over by the time Auric & co. came to sack Torrolerial but some of the FFH timeline is so spaghetti anyway that I doubt that's noticeable.


How would that sound?

edit: bah, Rosier specifically mentions there that Burnt Priest is dead. Tale of Saverous and Rosier's entry directly conflict, then. I suppose either can work with the scenario but not with each other. Tale of Saverous is a lot older so I suppose I'll have to eithe ignore it and just link it as a bonus reading material later on or do the same with Rosier. I'm not sure which would make more sense.

 

[Valiantman]

Double posting but...

Something started to tingle in the back of my mind. I read the Tale of Saverous again and found what I was looking for:

After the destruction of the Burnt Priest the Light of Junil, an order of the Bannor holy warriors, was said to have charged one of the few living armies in the Burnt Priests legions, a tribe of twisted men. With their summoned allies gone the twisted men quickly surrendered. The Light gave them two options, repent or be killed. A few choose to die but most wisely opted for repentance.

Less than a weak later, with their supplies exhausted and in unfamiliar territory the twisted men raided a Bannor border village. The Light of Junil was there, as if expecting the attack. No sooner had the raid begun than the warriors charged through them. Not a single twisted man involved in the raid survived the attack. The only twisted men who survived were those that refused to be involved in the raid, who risked starving on their long trek to their homeland.

That's almost exactly what Decius and Rosier were tasked to do but earlier in the same tale it was said that Cuantine happened during the war.

Unless someone points out something else, I think I'm going to assume that Tale of Saverous is sort of a version I and is used as a source material for both Fall of Cuantine and Rosier's pedia entry, who in turn are the revised version II and it's up for reader to decide which to go with.

 

[McBeardly]

Double posting but...

Something started to tingle in the back of my mind. I read the Tale of Saverous again and found what I was looking for:



That's almost exactly what Decius and Rosier were tasked to do but earlier in the same tale it was said that Cuantine happened during the war.

Unless someone points out something else, I think I'm going to assume that Tale of Saverous is sort of a version I and is used as a source material for both Fall of Cuantine and Rosier's pedia entry, who in turn are the revised version II and it's up for reader to decide which to go with.

Tale of Saverous has been specifically noted as being written earlier and not entirely matching up with later lore.