Franz Lohner's Chronicle - The Eternal Flame

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

Would you believe it, I managed to get Saltzpyre talking about Ulric? The God of Wolves and Winter’s always a touchy subject with Sigmarites, what with there being bad blood between the two churches.

You see, Sigmar is commonly held to have been a worshipper of Ulric, back when he was just a mortal man with a hammer and not the godly cornerstone of civilisation, bless his name. That being the case, there are plenty of Ulricans who claim that this jolly little Empire of ours actually belongs to Ulric, and not Sigmar, but Sigmar belonged to Ulric.

All stuff and nonsense as far as I’m concerned. The Empire’s literally on fire, and folk are squabbling over which holy rune gets scratched into the ashes? That’s what comes of the devout being promised a paradisical afterlife. They tend to forget about the perils of the here and now.

Our Saltzpyre, being the learned fellow he is, was musing aloud about the Flame of Ulric, which burns merrily away in the city of Middenheim. Supposedly, it was called into being when Ulric stuck his axe on the Fauschlag – yon mountain Middenheim was built upon. But then again, supposedly Middenheim’s never been successfully invaded, and I don’t reckon that’s one hundred percent truthful.

Anyway, this Eternal Flame’s been burning for millennia, and no one seems to know why. Not been put to much in the way of pertinent use either, unless you want to count crowd-pleasing ceremonies of making supposed heretics take the trial of walking through the flames. Saltzpyre’s got to wondering if the Eternal Flame might maybe, somehow, give us an edge in our never-ending labours. I mean, Ulric’s black-armoured bod hasn’t been see stalking the mortal world for time out of mind, but maybe he’s left us a bit of power we can wield in his name?

I suppose it’s possible, but I don’t see the Ar-Ulric letting us anywhere near the bloody thing. Emil Valgeir’s a stubborn old sod, even by Middenheimer standards, and if he gets wind that it was Saltzpyre’s idea, he’ll be even more resistant, what with church rivalry being a thing. On the other hand, No one seems to know quite where Valgeir is right now, so maybe we can take a bit of a look.

On the other, other hand, finding the Eternal Flame’s source likely means braving the depths of the Fauschlag, and there’s all manner of terrible things down there. I’ve even seen some legends claim that when the end of the world finally comes, it’ll start with the Fauschlag. Not sure I believe it. When the world ends, it’ll end everywhere, right? Stands to reason.

Maybe I should send one of the lads up to Middenheim? I’ll have a ponder.