The Black Flame Heresy

In 425 AC, a red dragonborn arrived at the Temple of Bahamut in the middle of the night. They claimed to be seeking asylum and requested a meeting with a chosen representative of Bahamut.

No representative was available, the last chosen had disappeared some years earlier.

The Dragonborn chose to remain at the Temple as a guest for the next twelve years as they waited for a chosen to arrive. They trained alongside fellow initiates to the temple and they were eventually elevated to the rank of a Paladin of Bahamut. Over their career they worked almost exclusively with eight other dragonborn Paladins who had risen up through the ranks with him. One black, one blue, one green, one white, one brass, one bronze, one copper and one gold.

Together they formed a group called The Holy Nine, with the red dragonborn at their head.

It was 450 AC by the time another chosen arrived at the Temple. A twelve year-old Silver dragonborn named Kvarra of Bahamut. She was quickly inducted as an honorary member of the Nine, honorary for she was still a trainee. The red dragonborn trained her personally and she rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a fully fledged Paladin within seven short years.

Then the betrayer finally revealed themselves. At the conclusion of Kvarra’s induction ceremony, the red dragonborn pulled a wicked device from beneath his gauntlet and Kvarra fell to the floor. The Holy Nine drew weapons and slew all who stood in the chapel, and then went on to kill all in the Temple complex. It was June 7th, 457 AC.

The Paladins fell from the grace of Bahamut the second they spilled blood on the chapel floor. In his final act as Head of the Temple, Marcus Brandt cursed them. Naming the Holy Nine as Fallen. They became shallow shadows of their former selves. Their scales turned flat and without luster. Their faces gaunt. And their true names were ripped from history. Today we call them The Fallen, and we call their leader, the red dragonborn, The Black Flame.

The temple became corrupted, a shrine to Tiamat from which the Fallen led many a campaign against the surrounding countryside. It took over two hundred years before each of the Fallen were cornered by members of the church, who had hidden and gone underground in the aftermath of The Heresy. Each was either killed or sealed away. The Black Flame was finally subdued in a battle in the Thorncliffe Mountains where he was felled by a group of adventurers that had been hired to work with the resistance.

It was only after the dust had settled that we truly saw the extent of the scorch marks the Black Flame would leave on our history. The temple had been de-fouled; bastardised and converted into a tool to spread Tiamat’s influence. Had the party not intervened when they had, the Black Flame may have used their dark magic to bring Tiamat back in corporeal form. The remaining acolytes of Bahamut spent decades cleaning up the mess that had been left behind, and even then, they couldn’t fix everything.

When The Black Flame killed the chosen, Kvarra died. But worse of all, the acolytes of Bahamut never found another chosen again. No child was ever born again that could be determined as chosen. Silver Dragonborn would come and go as they do, but none possessed the spark needed to truly bring the influence of Bahamut back into the world. The Temple would eventually fade into obscurity, much like the one in Velour. A historical curiosity, nothing more. Ever again.