Rinn's Blessing

23:39] Pushing open the heavy wooden doors that had withstood the flames of Garljing when he burned Theria down those years ago. At the top of the stairs would be the Elder Fireblooded himself, and Revan would promptly march towards him, kneeling to him at the base of the stairs. Golden hues would glance around at the torches and other flames that lit the room, as well as anything his Father may have brought for the ritual.

It had long been awaited, but it was something Revan eagerly looked forward to, the blessing his Father had created in memory of his sister, and former warlord Rinn.

"I have cleared my mind with meditation, and done what I could to prepare for this lesson.. Where do we begin, Father?"

The horned helm would now look back to the one who previously wore it, looking for guidance so that he could lead the future generations of Theria faithfully.
(Revan Task)
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[00:01] Dun would strip his crimson cloak as his son entered, nodding steadily as he revealed his scarred frame once more to his son. It was an odd gesture on most occasions, but in truth it was merely a preface for what was to come.

"You have arrived my son. It is at last time. With Garljing's rest preserved, it is time to at last test my theory in this blessing. You see, this is not the classical....celestialist sort. Revan, I won't lie to you, this is going to hurt. Bad. And you will not be allowed to heal the burns or dull the pain. The suffering will be part of a successful blessing."

The elder would nod firmly as he manifested a ghostly flame within his palm, burning with searing intensity as the elder clicked his teeth softly for a moment with contemplation.

"I can sense your mana pathways, the circuitry that lines your body, because I am a master energy magi and have been blind for decades. You are no such wizard of ancient rapport, so how, I wonder, are you going to remember where to burn and how deeply? Well Revan, you're going to learn the old fashioned way, as the first and last I will offer Rinn's Blessing in my life."

Dun would click his teeth.

"When you strip, I am going to burn you deeply with etheric flame as I recite chants of power along every inch of your mana circuitry. It will be embarrassing to most, brutal and agonizing to all, and unbelievably shaking both mentally and physically. But from pain comes power, and what burns half as long is twice as bright. Through this ritual burning, a Fireblooded can draw true strength from suffering."
(Dun Task)
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[00:21] The son of Dun was no stranger to pain, beneath the armor and the Fireblooded robes he still wore the bandages of his childhood. The scars, bruises, and burns left behind from training day in and day out under the Energy Sage's rigorous regiment. His father speaks of not being able to negate the pain with any anesthetic, and he would simply nod.

"Very well.. Pain has always been my greatest teacher.. If it is to be the messenger for the blessing, then so be it."

It was something that had been ingrained into him since birth, to fear nothing, not injury or death, but shame. As Dun spoke of removing his armor and experiencing the burn himself, Revan would simply smirk. It was funny to him that he became a medic largely patching himself up, learning the proper way to suture an injury close was by doing it himself.

"Very well.. I will do my best to learn everything I can."

Rising to his feet, he would move to the side and would remove his priestly cloak, surcoat, tabard, and nyeshk armor. With his underclothes tossed to the side, he would leave the bandages that wrapped his body from the neck down on. Revan was aware what would become of them, but he felt it was symbolic to finally let them go.

Where the bandages that substituted the warmth of a mother's embrace, let the flame of Dragons bless you in their stead.

Sitting with his legs crossed over one another, Revan would assume the Therian pose of prayer, with both fists clenched over his heart. His father would continue to glorify the excruciating pain that would come his way, but the Fireblooded would only face it with stoic valor.

"A blade does not sharpen itself on a smooth stone, it is through conflict, and those that challenge us that we can hone our spirit. My training, whether I knew it or not, has lead me to this moment." A slow inhale, followed by an exhale that would empty his lungs as he calmed himself.

"I am ready, test my metal."
(Revan Task)
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[00:41] Dun would nod steadily as he increased the searing heat of his palm, clicking his teeth together as he started at Revan's right shoulder before, with no more ceremony, the burning would begin. Revan's mana pathways were clear to the elder energy magi, and with searing purpose flesh would part as a practical blow torch began to sear through muscle, flesh, and bone to the very depths of Revan's essence, carving down the length of his front torso with a symmetric pattern as his mana pathways were traced.

"The dragon's head is sacred, desired, feared. The teeth are part of the body, the flame, the scales, each part an integral component in the assembly. It is through being one with this flame that they can draw the pinnacle of its power."

The burning would continue as a curve and deep gouge went up to the other side of Revan's shoulder, making a pair of curving horns as the rest of the tracing continued. Flesh sizzled like hot bacon asskin slougihed off as ash, the burns continuing deeper and deep as even bone and nerve was savaged by etheric flame.

"To be consumed by the flame is to be ash. To fail the flame is to be nothing. To embody the flame is to progress, through pain and suffering and all that lays beneath the dragon's gaze."

The abdomen was seared as parallel lines, curves, and features were burned into Revan's chest, one part decorative to two parts tracing over the full extent of Revan's mana pathways as blackened flesh and red nerves exposed from the ruthless bombardment of burning heat.

"The dragon's head bows to none."

When the burns were at last complete, a dragon's head appeared to be burned with immense detail into Revan's blackened torso, deeper gouges that went to the bone and nerves along the paths of his mana circuitry while lesser burns added to the layering.
(Dun Task)
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[00:58] It was important for the Priest to feel the suffering for himself, to understand and empathize with those who followed the Dragon's Path. Revan had an affinity for those who had suffered, who despite great trial and tribulation, would overcome their circumstance to grow beyond.

Trying to observe the process through the same mana sight that his father used to see, his focus would be broken by the sharp sensation that erupted through his right shoulder. This wasn't any normal sort of fire that ate away at the outside and eventually killed the nerves. No, is felt as if every fiber of his being would be set ablaze, and like a slow wild fire, it would slowly creep it's away across the front of his torso.

"Hrrrnnghh."

He'd grunt, gritting his teeth as he tried to practice the breathing techniques that kept his heart rate steady, trying his best to remain still as his circuitry was traced. Bandages would ignite at the etheric flame would purge the weakness from his very flesh.

The smell of his own burning flesh would begin to get to him, though he would find solace in the chant of his father. The lines of the Dragon's head would run over old injuries, the cleave into his left shoulder from Adremmelach, the occultic burn across his stomach from fighting Valero when he insulted the Dragon's Tooth guild.

All of the old pain would suddenly ignite, and he thought he would risk shattering his teeth as his jaw tightened once again. He wanted to scream out for, some cathartic release for his agony, but instead he would take his father's word's to heart.

The dragon's head bows to none.

Straightening his back, his chin would be held a little higher. It would be his way of fighting back against the pain, there was nothing for him to do other than accept it- so he would do so with enduring gusto!
(Revan Task)
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[01:28] Dun would proceed to move around to his son's back, ignoring his suffering as a dragon would his own wounds until the trials were done. Every moment of pain and irritation, agony and pulsating heat within, would push Revan forth to understand the cost of true power for the rest of his life, even past this blessing.

He would emerge a new man. Having borne the trials of flame as Task had, burned alive in Garljing's reckoning as he learned his palm's limit.

The blue, concentrated etheric flame would brighten an even richer shade, the heat almost palpable in the smoky confines of the Pyrelight Citadel as Task began to carve his way down revan's shoulders and sides with the searing flame as smoking flesh and burning fat in an ichorous, horrible stench issued forth from Revan's scourged frame.

"The dragon's wings are free to span wherever they please. To do this is to beckon the dragonslayer that seeks to steal the skys. To ensure one's rightfulk claim as apex, you must spread your wings wide and strong."

The burns would continue in layers overlapping the mana circuitry of Revan, digging deep where the flow was most intense and lesser, more typical scarring in the place of symbolic burns. Few would know the difference but Revan, who would understand from the differing depths of agony how to perform a less fully brutal version of the blessing by tracing only the circuitry.

This suffering was for his progress too.

"When a wing is broken, a dragon falls. Yet, those of scales and flame do not yield to such trifling mortal wounds, for dragons are eternal, and the pain can be withstood to hunt the hunter on claw and foot."

With brutal, curving swerves as the burn scarring was spread across to the other side of his body, to the sensitive flesh and boyish remnants that would be scourged by the flame that he would now never forget. This was the burden of the patriarch ofthe Fireblooded, to be burned alive and stand tall as ash reborn.

When Dun was complete, blackened scarring traces dragon's wings upon Revan's back, deeper burns with more severe injury carving along the lengths of his circuitry with an artisan's tact.

"A dragon's wings span wide."
(Dun Task)
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[01:46] Revan would feel his old injuries ignite within his mind's eye, the defeat at the hands of Valero, and a demon, failures he had survived and overcame. However, not every pain suffered was from weakness, but sacrifice, the lingering mana reaching down to the left left he had given to spare a guild mate.

Just as he had put his body up for stake then for someone he cared about, he would do so once again for the Dragons and the faithful of Theria. There would be a brief moment of reprieve from the Azure torch's flame, though it's searing heat would still radiate through the black burns that had been branded into muscle, bone and circuitry.

Spread your wings wide and strong.

Grow and prosper, let those beneath you dare to match your brilliance, the gospel was the only sanctuary Revan could find, his body racked with flame, and his mind tormented of past pains. His soul would flicker and wane, the pain would certainly put it's wear on it's glow, but the words would only force it to grow brighter.

Do no yield to such trifling mortal wounds.

The injuries of the past, emotional and physical, were important to making him who he was, but he could not let the pain stop him from fighting for what he desired, the Brighter Theria he wished to see, one in it's golden age, like his father spoke of creating with Rinn.

The branded wings would bare down on him with great burden, much alike the responsibilities he would bare as the new Patriarch of the Fireblooded. Though he would shoulder them with honor and dignity, as he always did, a few grunts and growns would still escape him as he did his best to surpass the pain, and sit tall and proud like the dragon disciple he was.
(Revan Task)
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[02:10] Dun would return to Revan's front as he dug through the confines of his crimson cloak, removing an arcanium alloy arm with an ashen, dull lack of sheen before slotting it into the open socket of his otherwise empty shoulder. Raising his two palms, one scarred flesh and the other blackened metal, two brilliant blue flames would appear in each of his palms, visible heat emanating from the man's hands. Yet, it seemed to almost visible condense as he flattened his fingers.

Growing brighter, more searing and vibrant in near blinding concentration, two palms would be folded before being sudden thrust into Revan's chest, quite literally burning right beside his heart as both hands seared him from inside, held right next to the beating valve of life within his breast.

"The dragon's heart burns like a wildfire. It does not possess fear of the dark or the light, for flame banishes all such trifling matters with its brilliance. Each beat of molten fireblood flows with burning ambition, the righteous pursuit of all that there is to pursue."

There were no extensive burns this time, this was a slow roast as Task pushed his hands through Revan's chest front to back, the flame remaining beside his heart as it cooked with deeper agony than Revan was likely to ever experience again.

"It thunders like the drums of war, for dragonslayers envy its pride. To be the rightful sovereign of the sky is to be above that which is beneath. To not bother one's self with needless moral trifles in pursuit of the aerial hunt. A dragon knows no right or wrong, only the flame."

Dun would rip his hands violently from Revan's chest, leaving him to tumble down the stairs of the Pyrelight Citadel in a bleeding lump of near death, charred flesh as he began to paced out of the temple with a cold blooded click of his teeth.

"A dragon's heart is fire, for that is what beats its blood."

The last words, and he was gone.
(Dun Task)
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[02:48] The wings would be finished, and he would have a brand on his back to match the Dragon's head on the front. There would be a moment he would sigh with relief, fighting against the stings of his charred flesh. However, both hands would press into his chest, and the heat that sought to envelope his hear would ignite from the air in his lungs.

Golden hues would go wide as he gasped, searching for all the air he could inhale as the burning and searing continued. No sound would be heard from the Task, only a hollow gasp as his lungs instinctively inflate from the heat.

Normally when there was a warmth in his chest, is was a heart touching moment, something that brought him deep delight. However, this was much different, a paralyzing trauma as the flame sought to snuff out even his consciousness.

His war spoke of the drums of war, and Revan's hearing would seemingly focus on his own heart beat. Steadily thumping in tune with the dancing flicker of his soul, Revan would remember how Dragons believed that the soul shined brighter the higher the stakes.

Hands would violently remove their support from the branded Task, not having any strength as his circuitry and body were burned to a crisp, he would roll and tumble down the stairs. There he would lay, ever so inelegantly as his legs were crossed in a mess and his arms strewn about. A few more times he would gasp, the fire had been removed, it wasn't consuming him any longer, yet he would feel himself fighting to stay conscious.

Revan would fight the pain until he had a euphoric thought, he had said pain was a teacher, pain was a friend, and here he was fighting it for dominance.. In his adrenaline riddled mind, he has the thought that pain is not his enemy at all, it is not something to fight or overcome, but it is simply apart of him.

For so long he was fighting something that was inherently apart of him, but through embracing the pain and the flame, Revan realized he could be so much more. The ember around his heart would grow hot, but Revan's own mana would ignite, glowing with it's own cyan heat.

Whatever fire may burn around me.. I will burn brighter.

His fingers twitching ever so slightly, he would begin to claw and crawl his way back to the stairs, giving everything he had to pull himself up. His breathing was short and labored, and his consciousness was dizzy the more he moved, yet he refused to go down.

His back against the wall, he would slowly push himself to his feet as he couldn't even stand without leaning on the wall. A man was only great as his ambition, however the only thing Revan wanted was to get dressed again. Yet in his current state, he couldn't hope to carry his armor, let alone don it. So he would stumble his way to one of the barracks in the church to try and rest his injuries away.

This pain would certainly not be one he forgot anytime soon, as the scars would be with him for years to come.


(Revan Task)
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[02:51] {Lost Restrained RPB against Dun Task}
[02:54] ** Dun Task has inflicted an injury upon Revan Task. ("Rinn's Blessing", "Revan has been ritually burned to a crisp by his father to ensure he remembers the patterns of his mana circuitry to internalize the knowledge of the Fireblooded blessing in scourged flesh. His front and back have been blackened by searing flame, and two gaping, but luckily cauterized gouges go narrowly past his heart front to back. He will experience intense suffering until he masters the blessing and surpasses the pain as a dragon. (Dev for Fireblooded blessing.)", "Temporary", "Duration: Long (12 days)") **