The Fire Monks are supposed to keep watch from their mountaintop, and yet we find them in Liurnia. With camps to both the east and west, the warrior monks lead the thorn sorcerers in patrols around their area, the red tents and Prelate-head braziers confirming that these encampments weren’t taken over from local Cuckoos. They have even brought burning slugs and flame chariots, the latter used in clashes with the locals — besides the handful wrecked at the Liurnia highway chokepoint, we can spy several repurposed by the Cuckoos at other checkpoints. Why come all the way down to the lowlands as invaders? Presumably, to catch a thief. The description to Flame of the Fell God reveals that the prayer text was stolen by Adan, threatening the secret Arghanthy had been tasked to protect. And we find this Adan in a Liurnia Evergaol, meaning that the Fire Monks in the region are most likely a search party sent by their leader to recover the stolen incantation.

One of the prayers directly wielding the power of fire giants. One of the “legendary prayers”.

Fires a blazing fireball that an evil god is believed to dwell in. It slowly flies toward the target and flares up surroundings with an explosion.

It is a secret of Arghanthy, leader of the Watchers, that Adan stole. The evil god is hiding within the fire giant even now.

Adan isn’t any ordinary thief either. Although wielding an unconventional weapon in a flail, the man is undeniably a Fire Prelate, wearing the full armor save for helm — donning the standard Fire Monk Hood instead — and casting the guardians’ incantations with the Giant’s Seal. His hair may not have turned red like the others, but that might be simply because he hadn’t remained at the Guardians’ Garrison for as long. In other words, Adan had been a relatively new member to the warrior monks, worthy of the Irish name meaning “little fire”. This explains how the thief was able to get access to the hidden prayerbook in Araghanthy’s possession; after being banished to monstatic life by Erdtree society for past crimes, he ascended the ranks until he was permitted to read those hallowed pages shared only with the elite monks. But once a thief, always a thief. Rather than keep that mystic knowledge of the giants locked away in his own heart, Adan tore out the pages to their most powerful prayer and ran off, with Arghanthy only realizing the truth when it was all too late.

This wasn’t some elaborate ploy. The high faith requirement to cast Flame of the Fell God alone precludes Adan as some sort of charlatan. But as demonstrated by him removing the red cloth with fire key crest from his armor and helmet bearing the exalted face, he wishes for the flame but not the responsibility as its guardian. The burns on his face, blinding him in one eye, conveys the Prelate’s obsession with flame, his fervent desire stare at its captivating brilliance all too closely. The man wants nothing more than to touch the giant’s power and experience it in full, bear witness to the phenomenon’s potential. Yet that cannot be allowed as a mere monitor. And so, ironically because he was a flame watcher, Adan ultimately betrayed his vows. Rather than lock away that almighty fire on a chilly summit, he decided to be the sole steward to such power.

Prayer book detailing the power of the fire giants. Secret book of the Watcher prelates.

But try as he might, he couldn’t escape his brothers of the cloth’s dogged pursuit. Their path to Liurnia wasn’t so straightforward. We come across burning slugs in both the Consecrated Snowfield and Capital Outskirts. In a vacuum, the isolated enemies’ presence is bizarre, but given the larger context, they are in all likelihood traces of the Fire Monks’ search — something feasibly left behind when they packed up to move camp. In other words, the warrior monks had already thoroughly searched the Mountaintops and Altus Plateau before following Adan’s trail further down into Liurnia. Perhaps the thief had planned to share his knowledge with the academy of sorcerers, hoping to woo them despite its reliance on faith. But with the academy sealed and the monks hot on his tail, he had nowhere to seek refuge. That is probably why we find him inside the Malefactor’s Evergaol, sealing himself to escape a worse fate at the hands of the Fire Monks. We do see that they have brought their briar stakes, so executing him as an example was very likely another aspect of their mission.

Still, this setup begs an important question: where is the Prelate? Considering that the mission was to retrieve knowledge limited to Prelates, one would think that Arghanthy tasked another Prelate to handle this. And yet, none can be seen leading the search party at either camp. However, it is possible that this isn’t the complete search party. After all, even if the Fire Monks confirmed recent sightings in Liurnia, that didn’t bar the chance of Adan already fleeing further south into the frontier. This puts the party in a bit of a predicament; do they stay and continue the search, letting his trail go cold, or do they potentially pass him by and let him escape anyway? But that can be resolved by simply splitting up, the hypothetical Prelate taking a portion of his flock to check the south while commanding the rest to stay. Sure enough, we do find more burning slugs beneath the Divine Bridge on Stormhill, and the nomadic merchant just beyond Saintsbridge sells a note on flame chariots. This suggests that the warrior monks’ journey took them eastward in the direction of Caelid, where their presence is more overt.

A scarab by the Redmane camp on the north Caelid highway rolls up the Fire Monks’ Whirl, O Flame! incantation. Follow the road to Caelem and it is in ruins, burned with all its rotting residents by flame chariots. The mad pumpkin heads resting in the ruins guard a chest with the Visage Shield, its design obviously of the same origin as the giant-faced vehicles above. We can see more flame chariots with Radahn’s forces at nearby Fort Gael, helping burn deserters and dogs alike in large pyres. Between two in particular, laying behind the fort, is a corpse with Flame, Grant Me Strength, another Fire Monk incantation. Add to that, the warriors coming down this far south from the mountaintops is stated outright in the cut Finger Maiden of the Smoldering Church’s testimony, the flame guardians apparently teaching the self-immolative priestess their incantations — though such fire never found lodging within her, resulting in the burns her bandaged body would have endured before we met. Put simply, some group of Fire Monks have visited the area sharing some of their secrets with the locals.

Bronze trick shield modeled on the face of a fire giant. Several tongues protrude from the open mouth.

The horrifying countenance and the burning flames remind people of the fear of giants and fire. In other words, this is a shield for instruction.

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The fire prayers? I encountered them amidst searching for a flame to burn myself. The Giant’s Fire Warrior Monks who came from the snowy mountaintops. Their flame never did dwell within me, but I am happy to burn myself if it will be of help to you.

Altogether, there is no doubt that the search party traveled as far as northern Caelid, where they began cooperating with the Redmane army in their purification efforts. This includes creating the walls now smoldering throughout the region. Close inspection reveals the smolders to have a particularly red glow, a point emphasized in the Finger Maiden’s dialogue. And while the Scarlet Rot has ruined the walls, the stone blocks yet smolder, speaking to the power of the flame infused within; according to the Maiden, it will never go out. Where did Radahn’s forces acquire such red fire? The obvious source would be the visiting Fire Monks, whose arts produce those exact kind of flames, which continue to smolder within the giants’ forge. Once again, the Finger Maiden confirms that the fire smoldering in the walls and her church is the same that burned her, reinforcing this idea of the party’s assistance to the Redmanes. Indeed, witnessing the horrors of the Scarlet Rot might well move the monks to lend the red lions their aid despite their own mission. In fact, it probably caused them to forget their duties entirely.

Yes, that’s right. The fire that burned me was in order to stop the Scarlet Decay. It is a special fire that will never go out. Here, can’t you see? The red flame smolders even now, but burned by this, I have finally become your kindling. So please, do kindly offer me up. At that time you try walking to Destined Death.

Whirl, O Flame! evokes the enchanting nature of fire, and Flame, Grant Me Strength is forbidden among the guardians for empowering the caster’s body without inflicting burns. This prayer — in stark contrast to Flame, Cleanse Me, acquired back at their camp in eastern Liurnia — dangerously flouts the monks’ teachings to fear flame. And yet, some appear to have employed it so as to better burn the Rot spreading across the land. What does this signal if not the abandonment of the tenants for practical convenience? Fire may be a threat, but is it really worse than the decay threatening to consume all the Lands Between? It is the one tool the Redmanes have consistently relied upon, so could the monks afford to be reserved in the face of such danger? Evidently not. In the end, such a taboo prayer is presumably shared only amongst the Prelates, meaning that one must have made the decision to prioritize power over fear. We see the results in the Redmanes’ new vehicular support. But still no Prelate, or any living Fire Monk for that matter. Did they all perish fighting the Scarlet Rot, or have they again gone elsewhere?

One of the Fire Warrior Monks prayers. Thing considered superior of them.

Sparks a fire within self and turns it into power, boosting attack power of the physical and fire attributes.

This prayer doesn’t burn the caster personally. Thus, it is the Watchers’ forbidden art.

Back up north, we arrive at Fort Laiedd just as a group of Fire Monks are finishing their takeover. The last of the Leyndell soldiers are being killed, with Morgott’s additional Stormveil detachment already slaughtered; only the troops’ weapons litter the grounds of their broken defenses. Bodies of the civilian conscripts, among others, have been placed in pyres, while the fort itself has already been cleared. And standing alone inside the newly conquered walls is a Fire Prelate, his red cloth removed the same as Adan. These are apostates, following their bishop as he betrays both Arghanthy and the Erdtree kingdom they both serve. As to why they are at the foot of Mt. Gelmir, we need only look at the corpse inside the fort: it carries the last Armorer’s Cookbook, detailing how to craft the Giantsflame Fire Pot. Apparently, one of Radahn’s arms craftsmen was traveling with the monks to learn their powerful tools, meaning that their paths previously crossed in Caelid. In short, this is the missing search party led by the assumed Prelate.

With that, all the pieces fall into place. Having abandoned the limitations of his faith, the Fire Prelate led his followers straight back up the plateau to the volcano, presumably hoping to acquire more fire power from there. If the Redmane army’s existing fire skills were inadequate to stop the Scarlet Rot, even with their help, then they will obtain further strength to finally incinerate the decay; they were already committing blasphemy, so why not seek out a blasphemous flame? The Prelate left some of their flame chariots behind to continue stemming the spread in their absence while the whole of the party pursued a power to surpass the Fell God’s flame. This brought them to Gelmir, where they likely learned of the Fire Scorpion Charm kept by Fort Laiedd — a talisman whose boost to fire attacks would be a boon to the Prelates’ purposes. And so, the apostates took a detour to ransack the stronghold. If not for the quick thinking of the treacherous noble in charge, the lead monk would already have his talisman and be ready to move on. Instead, we arrive to potentially thwart his plans.

This party didn’t seem to stop to collect their kin left searching Liurnia, so they may still consider themselves part of Arghanthy’s order and not wish to disrupt the hunt for Adan. Of course, the plan might be to remerge on the way back to Caelid, after they have surely found the thief and reclaimed Flame of the Fell God — more power to counteract the Scarlet Rot. Even if the Fire Prelate was simply too laser-focused on the volcano to bother scouring Liurnia for the others, the eruption of his helm’s cauldron to start our fight betrays how he no longer holds any reservations about flame. There are evils worse than a force which might burn the Erdtree, and they are far more imminent. Arghanthy sent pursuers after Adan in an effort to stop the spread of such heresy, never expecting that it would lead to more. Perhaps she should have considered the risks of exposing secluded monks to the outside world. Regardless, their fate is now out of her hands. Adan himself may never realize it, but his selfish actions have left an outsized mark on the Lands Between and Fire Monks both.

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