The Last Fire
The Last Fire is the defining catastrophe in the history of the Rediviva centaur tribe - a self-inflicted tragedy some seven generations past, and a wound the tribe holds sacred never to forget.
The Tragedy
At its heart was the flower Brownea Gradiceps - said to have been shaped from the fire of Hephaestus as a gift for Aphrodite in honour of their marriage, and a symbol of love ever since. So many came to covet the blooms, and so much was paid for “piles of flower-corpses,” that when only the last plot remained the Rediviva turned upon one another. The battle for those final flowers was soaked in blood.
Seven generations later, the tribe is still not half the people it once was.
Legacy
The name itself plays on the flower’s epithet, the Fire - the last fire being the last fight over the last blooms. To this day the Rediviva keep its memory as a creed:
“We must not forget the Last Fire. We must not forget our failures.”
It is in part to honour the dead of the Last Fire that the tribe still seeks out the rarest of blooms.