Cinderheart
A corrupted variant of the sunheart possessed only by the Cinder King — a stone that glows with a harsher light than a true sunheart and consumes anyone who touches it, burning away their previous life and turning them into one of his Charred. He carries one in his own chest, which lets him feed on thousands of souls, and another set placed in his servants ties them to his command at a distance. Their dark overlay can be drained off without destroying the underlying sunheart in the bearer's chest, breaking the controller's tether but not the stone. STD:TSM:Ch 24
Known facts
- charred-feel-cinder-kings-emotionsThe cinderheart bond is two-way enough for emotion: Elegy, standing at the Cinder King's side, can feel his satisfaction, his anger, even his confusion at being unexpectedly outmanoeuvred. The other Charred sense the same; on the rim of Union, when his mood shifts, they all turn together to look where he is looking.STD:TSM:Ch 46
- implant-can-be-arrested-mid-burnThe conversion is not all-or-nothing. If the burning is interrupted before the cinderheart sinks fully into the captive's chest, it can come to rest embedded in their skin like a gemstone in a setting — leaving a starburst of ashen tissue radiating outward but not destroying the underlying body. The carrier retains their self, the link to the Cinder King forms only partially, and they end up able to feel the Charred network without being subject to it.STD:TSM:Ch 50
Events
- STD:TSM:Ch 50 A single cinderheart, descending on a spear, is what almost takes Rebeke — and afterwards is what stays in her, gemstone-embedded in her chest skin, granting her a partial link to the Charred network.
- STD:TSM:Ch 51 Rebeke parts her shirt in front of the bridge crew to show her embedded cinderheart — the scarred starburst on her chest is the credential that turns the negotiation.
Backreferences
- factGlowing Eyes
- factElegy
- factElegy
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 36
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 37
- factember people
- factember people
- factthe Chasm Kata
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 38
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 42
- factcinderheart bomb
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 45
- factsunheart recharge
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 46
- factElegy
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 48
- factElegy
- factthe Hall of Burning
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 50
- factRebeke Salvage
- factCinderheart
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 51
- factRebeke Salvage
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 52
- factGlowing Eyes
- summarySTD:TSM:Epilogue
- factRebeke Salvage