The Hidden Heart
Realm of Zaaman Rul
Location: Fire / The Hidden Heart [wandering]
It looks like Zaaman Rul has learned a lesson or two about subtlety since his defeat at the hands of Imix, and I don’t need to tell you that ‘subtle’ and ‘fire elemental’ go together about as well as a fireball and a dinner party. The first thing is the disinformation! The chant is that he’s gone and built a giant domed fortress of metal with the help of Amaimon, the King of the Azer, surrounded by a flaming moat, hidden somewhere in the Plain of Burnt Dreams. Well, as with all of the best lies, there’s a kernel of truth. In fact, the cunning azer have built a mobile fortress for Zaaman Rul, a vast sealed structure of fyrite metal and basalt spires which can make its way from hiding place to secret spot under its own power, or pulled by friendly dragons.
Presumably this is for a few reasons—until he’s regained strength of numbers through recruitment of sympathetic fire creatures, Zamman Rul is highly vulnerable to being snuffed out by Imix, or his proxy Asgeroth. Being able to relocate his base of operations at short notice is extremely useful defensively. But it’s also a great tool for recruitment; why wait for bloods to come and find you when you can go to them? Whether this structure is able to cross planar borders from Fire to other places isn’t known. It would be some feat of engineering to planeshift something this enormous, but if anyone can pull that off, it’s the crafty azer!
The Hidden Heart is said to be heavily shielded from scrying and other divination magics, and every entrance has many layers of wards against evil. Inside, the passageways are mazelike and highly polished to mirror-like surfaces, to further confuse invaders. The many false corridors, switchbacks and secret doors serve to slow down intruders. Slowly, Zaaman Rul is gathering an army of azers, rebel efreet and any elementals who share his outlook.
The Righteous Flames
Zaaman Rul’s new army calls itself the Righteous Flames, and its primary goal is to put a stop to the catastrophic destruction that Imix seems hellbent on inflicting upon Fire and planes beyond. Secondary to that, Zaaman Rul hates the slave trade that the efreet completely dominate and depend upon in the City of Brass. Many vassals of the efreet are smuggled out of the City of Brass by the abiorach rilmani underground network the Flowing Flame, and find their way to the Hidden Heart, either in its capacity as a temporary safehouse, or as a long-term recruits for the Righteous Flames. Sure, Zaaman Rul is an archomental of fire, but the message of transformation which the abiorach preach is not incompatible with his own philosophy.
The Righteous Flames are a truly eclectic mixture of creatures; from fire genasi and sollux to rebel efreet, sun giants and fire weirds. They share the same hatred of the oppression that is endemic in the Plane of Fire, and the mindless destructiveness of its more powerful denizens which desn;t just give Fire a poor reputation but actually threatens the stability of the Inner Planes and multiverse in general.
Canonical Sources: Dragon Magazine #353 p50; Manual of the Planes [5e] p161
Source: Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: I’ve made the fortress mobile as that would better explain why it’s not already been discovered and crushed by Imix. The rilmani faction Flowing Flame is also my own homebrew.