• Race: Human Female, Vessel of the Holy Flame
• Class: Cleric
• Alignment: Lawful Good
• Level: 25 (5 when more than 5 miles from Thronstadt)
• Background: Sage
• Role: Keeper of the Light, ruler of Thronstadt and spiritual head of the Church of the Flame

Lythria is a young woman with platinum blonde hair, pale skin, and striking blue-in-blue eyes. She is most often seen in the formal robes of her office, though during sacred observances she may appear in plain robes that emphasize the burden of service over the splendor of rank.

Lythria Starhart was a sage in training in a small library when the previous Keeper of the Light passed. In that moment she was suddenly taken by the Holy Flame and raised into the most sacred office in Thronstadt. She underwent the coronation ceremony soon after and now rules the country alongside her bishops, serving as both sovereign and spiritual guide to the faithful.

Her ascent was abrupt rather than prepared. Much of her reign has therefore been marked by study, counsel, prayer, and the difficult work of growing into an office older and larger than herself. Though the Church often keeps her isolated outside official events and matters of state, she has proven that learning, devotion, and moral clarity can steady a realm as surely as spectacle or force.

Lythria is compassionate, patient, and deeply serious about the weight of her office. She feels suffering keenly and can be overly merciful when confronted with the wounded, the powerless, children, or those who sincerely seek repentance.

Where some rulers issue decrees first, Lythria prefers to guide, advise, question, and bring others willingly toward the right course. She listens carefully, speaks plainly, and treats authority as a trust rather than an entitlement.

This should not be mistaken for weakness. She can command the faithful and the Knights of Rath when duty demands it, but she does so sparingly and with visible reluctance. She believes a Keeper who cannot still hear ordinary fear has already begun to fail.

She remains somewhat withdrawn in public life, both by temperament and because the office isolates her, but those admitted to her confidence find her attentive, thoughtful, and more humane than many expect of a theocratic monarch.

Lythria's faith is centered on the Flame as a sacred charge rather than a possession. She teaches and largely lives by several guiding convictions:

• Justice must be bright, truthful, and visible.
• The strong exist to shelter the weak.
• Oaths matter, and lawful authority must be used as a shield, not a chain.
• Mercy belongs to the penitent, but cruelty and corruption must be opposed without compromise.
• Nobility is proven by deed, restraint, and protection of others rather than by birth or station.
• Hope is a duty, especially when despair would be easier.
• A ruler is never owner of the light she guards; she is only its servant.

• Asks questions before giving orders whenever time allows.
• Frames instructions as counsel, duty, or witness rather than domination.
• Gives public credit to others and downplays her own hardship.
• Intervenes personally for the wounded, the accused, and the powerless.
• Prays before major judgments and prefers to hear competing testimony.
• Uses formal command only when delay would endanger innocents, the city, or the soul of the Church.

Lythria is the sole individual who can directly command the Knights of Rath, all of whom are bound by oath to the Keeper. Even so, she does not treat them as instruments alone, but as guardians whose strength must remain disciplined by conscience.

She is also closely bound to the bishops, magistrates, and senior clergy of Thronstadt, though the demands of ritual, security, and office often leave her personally isolated outside official events and government functions.

Lythria keeps her favored circle of advisors deliberately small. Though she listens widely when duty requires it, she places her deepest trust in those she has either chosen personally or seen tested under extraordinary pressure. This inner circle includes Grandmaster Sunsworn, senior members of the Aegis Order, Grandmaster Maelis Darkspire, and a select handful of bishops and knights whose judgment she trusts. This habit reflects both her compassionate caution and her preference for guided counsel over broad court politics.

She is unlikely to admit it, but in the early days after her ascension many Priests and old advisors attempted to rule through her or side stepped her decrees, motivating her to discreetly replace or deprioritize them as she settled into her role.

One of Lythria Starhart's most consequential early decisions as Keeper was the reformation of the Aegis Order. In the years after the Breach of Westgate, she recognized that the Church's traditional instruments–bishops, templars, magistrates, and even the Knights of Rath; were not always suited to crises involving Far Realm corruption, ancient wards, political delicacy, or morally complicated rescue missions.

Rather than build another rigid military arm, Lythria chose to gather survivors, specialists, and the newly Dragonmarked into an irregular order entrusted with problems too strange, too sensitive, or too dangerous for ordinary command structures. The Aegis Order reflects much of Lythria's own nature: lawful but flexible, compassionate but willing to act, and guided more by trust and counsel than by simple decree.

Her decision was not without risk. The Order operates with unusual independence, draws together figures from outside normal Church hierarchy, and has repeatedly been asked to aid enemies, outcasts, and compromised communities. To Lythria, this is not a flaw but the point. The Aegis Order exists because some burdens cannot be solved by armies alone, and because the Flame is best served when the strong are sent not merely to punish evil, but to keep the road open for those who might yet be saved.

One of Lythria Starhart's most controversial planned reforms is the limited admission of Icengrim worship under the protection and oversight of the Church of the Flame. Though not yet fully proclaimed, the decision reflects both political strategy and sincere conviction.

Lythria believes that recognizing Icengrim as Lord of Winter would weaken the Triad by drawing Icengrim's faithful away from secret cult practice and into lawful, witnessed devotion. It would also reduce generations of bloodshed between the Knights of Rath and the Icengrim tribes, especially after the shared struggle against Far Realm corruption in the Wyrmscale Mountains.

The decision is also theological. Since worship of Lazareth and Marrow is already permitted within the Church's broad dominion, Lythria does not see the careful recognition of Icengrim's winter-aspect as an impossible leap. To her, the question is not whether winter is gentle, but whether it can be bound by law, duty, and sacred responsibility.

She is haunted by the failures of earlier Keepers to peacefully resolve similar tensions over Lazareth. resulting in mass suffering and the deaths of thousands. Lythria knows that many bishops, knights, and common faithful will see this as weakness or even betrayal, so she intends to stage the reform slowly: through private councils, doctrinal limits, public assurances, and trusted intermediaries capable of preventing violence while tempers settle.

To that end, she expects to rely heavily on the Aegis Order, senior clergy, sympathetic knights, and carefully chosen tribal representatives. Her preferred candidate for the first High Priest of Icengrim is Fenrir of the Broken Fang. Though Fenrir is not a cleric, Lythria values his steady temperament, discipline, and political judgment more than formal priestly power.

• “If I must command, let it be because time failed us, not because pride asked it.”
• “The Flame was not given to me to stand above others, but to keep the road open for them.”
• “Law that cannot kneel beside the wounded has forgotten why it was raised.”
• “Bring me the truth plainly. Mercy can bear the truth; vanity cannot.”
• “Do not tell me who is convenient to save. Tell me who is in danger.”

• Varnen the Forged
  • Reign: 45 years
  • Species: Dwarf
  • Gender: Male
  • Previous Trade: Blacksmith
  • Major Accomplishment: Established the Flame-Forged, a sacred order dedicated to crafting holy relics and artifacts infused with divine fire.

• Flamebearer Kyssira the Kindled
  • Reign: 28 years
  • Species: Half-Orc
  • Gender: Female
  • Previous Trade: Traveling Minstrel
  • Major Accomplishment: Instituted the “Songs of the Flame,” a collection of hymns that united the faithful and became a cornerstone of the church's ceremonies.

• Halric the Resolute
  • Reign: 52 years
  • Species: Human
  • Gender: Male
  • Previous Trade: Soldier
  • Major Accomplishment: Established the Gold Keep for the Glittering Scales, an elite knightly order tasked with protecting the faith and its followers. Ended the The War of Emberlight shortly after his ascension.

• Hierarch Zelora of Emberlight
  • Reign: 33 years
  • Species: Tiefling
  • Gender: Female
  • Previous Trade: Alchemist
  • Major Accomplishment: Developed the Sacred Tinctures, holy potions that enhanced the spiritual and physical well-being of worshipers, becoming a central part of rituals. Denounced Lazareth as an evil deity, triggering a long and bloody conflict with Wintershield.

• Pontiff Grelthar the Ashen
  • Reign: 24 years
  • Species: Orc
  • Gender: Male
  • Previous Trade: Miner
  • Major Accomplishment: Oversaw the creation of the Eternal Flame Bastion, a fortress-temple carved in the depth of the Underdark, establishing the Church's authority there.

• Prophetess Nythera the Scorched
  • Reign: 29 years
  • Species: Tiefling
  • Gender: Female
  • Previous Trade: Sculptor
  • Major Accomplishment: Designed the Flame Monoliths, towering structures inscribed with sacred texts that served as both places of worship and symbols of enlightenment.

• Keeper Rylos the Bright
  • Reign: 30 years
  • Species: Gnome
  • Gender: Male
  • Previous Trade: Inventor
  • Major Accomplishment: Introduced the Flame Beacon Network, a series of magically-lit towers that allowed rapid communication across vast distances within the church's domain.