Pyri¶
"Mistress of Fire and Destruction." — the Terrun Compendium (S372)
Pyri is the Goddess of Fire, one of the six gods the newest register of the gods names outright among the Unaligned, and a goddess of the Domain of Matter (S420). Earlier accounts call her Mistress of Fire and Destruction and count her among the Dark Gods. Her symbols are the flame, the phoenix and the drake. She was once the wife of Erolan, Lord of the Sky, and her betrayal of him led to his imprisonment. She is the maker of drakes, of the fire-giants and of the fire-demons, and her priests and monks keep a temple among the lava flows of the Drakkani Wastes.
Domain and allegiance¶
In the Domain of Matter the register lists Pyri as "Goddess of Fire", chaotic and neutral in temper, with the hollow-circle mark of the Unaligned (S420). She is also named in the register's short list of the Unaligned proper, beside Achelus, Tyche, Arcantus, Menae and Erolan, "patrons of the lesser races, beasts and niche causes".
In the Fifth Age she is one of the Old Gods, the pantheon "known widely as the Night Gods, as Necatus is the head of the pantheon": gods "which have been well known for much of recent history and remain active (survived the age of the dark sun)", who "have been forced to band together for survival" after many of their Ascendants fell to the awakened Elder Gods. Listed in order of relative power she stands seventh, below Thanatos and above Uaros (S020). Among the sources of magic of the Fifth Age, the Astral Dust of Pyri is named as a source of fire, with a question mark against it (S112).
Creations and kin¶
Pyri is "Creator of Drakes, Fire-Giants, Fire-Drakes, Fire-Demons" (S429). The fire-giants are one of the four giant races the Einar made by endowing giants with faerie power; the fire-demons are the demon kind of which the archdemon Luciferon was the most powerful (S429). The drakes are hers, and the dragons descend from Primal Dragons mating with drakes or dragons.
"Once married to Erolan, she betrayed him, leading to his imprisonment" (S372, S429). The sources say no more of the betrayal than this.
Worship¶
The temple in the Drakkani Wastes¶
Pyri's one described temple stands in the Drakkani Wastes, the volcanic wasteland of basalt lava rock whose smooth flows "tend to be treated like roads by the ground based local inhabitants" (S546). "The temple of Pyri and accompanying monastery sits on a volcanic rock outcropping just a few hundred feet inland from the coastline. The temple sits on a island of rock between two large lava flows which flow into the ocean." A small dock with a crane sits at the base of the cliffs to hoist up supplies, "for the most part the monks are self-sufficient however", and "there are many pools of lava near (and in) the temple, fed by the lava rivers and underground tubes". The monks keep several tamed fire wolves as guardians.
The temple's Friar is Tenebrut and its High Priestess is Cuordmay; the notes also name Hemset, apparently a visitor. The temple shares the Wastes with a red dragon, fire-giants and their azer servants, two rival colonies of salamanders, an orcish garrison, rock trolls, iron drakes, the pirate port of Blackrock Bay and an invoker academy of the Nexa-Vinians "for training fire mages".
Order of Vyranc¶
The gazetteer of the Drakkani Wastes closes its entry on the temple with the words "Order of Vyranc (phoenix)" (S546, S469), which is the only mention of the order in the sources. The phoenix is one of Pyri's symbols, and the placement suggests the order is the temple's monastic community or its rule.
Gap
The sources do not say what the Order of Vyranc is, who leads it, how it relates to the Friar and High Priestess of the temple, or whether it exists anywhere beyond the Drakkani Wastes.
Monks of Pyri¶
The Drakkani temple is a monastery as well as a temple, and an early class draft from the archive (S368) describes a monastic path devoted to Pyri whose disciples wreathe their blows in her fire, walk through flame and extinguish "unholy fire". Monks in that draft draw their power "from their connection to the Spirit World (Outer Planes) and the connection with their deity", channelling "with their deity's astral shard". The mechanics of that draft are legacy material for the Mechanics section, not canon for play.
Among the Naher¶
The Naher, horse-riding clans who revere hunters and bind themselves to a single foal for life, count Pyri among their gods, with Artenys, Astrin, Khardas, Lunaris, Erolan and Damara (S524).
Earlier accounts¶
The 2015 Compendium (S372, S384) places Pyri among "The Dark Gods, The Rakkai", the Einar "which have taken over domains which once belonged to Kalar and/or embraced the dark sides of their domains", who "seek to supplant Kalar's vision with their own and become the new masters of Terrun". There she is "Mistress of Fire and Destruction", with the flame, phoenix and drake as symbols, and "Creator of Drakes, Fire-Giants, Fire-Drakes, Salamanders". The 2019 Overview of Gods (S429) keeps her in the same section but replaces the salamanders with fire-demons, and carries a note that the section "is no longer correct", the Dark Gods and the Rakkai being separate. The 2021 Fifth Age list (S020) makes her a Night God; the 2026 register (S420) makes her Unaligned, and that reading is followed here.
Gap
The sources give no account of Pyri's betrayal of Erolan beyond the fact of it, no description of her rites or priesthood outside the Drakkani temple, and no word on how a goddess of destruction who once sat among the Dark Gods came to stand apart from them.