Flametongues are an extinct species of demon hailing from The Boiling Isles that were once renowned for their numbers rivaling that of witches, making them the second most populace race to be born of the Titan.
They were best known for their mastery over fire magic and their innate fiery breath, as well as their ability to perform circleless magic via incantation. It is from these traits that they earned their name.
Unlike witches and most other demons, which live on the surface of the body and the limbs of the Titan, the Flametongues inhabited the mandible, jaw, lower skull, and throat of the Titan - all places which, during the Imperial Era, were deemed sacred and closed off to the public, requiring special permissions in order to visit.
One of the reasons Flametongues were so populace was their proclivity for rearing large families. It was rare for a pair of Flametongues to have less than 6 children, and multiple generations often lived on the same property for their entire lives.
They were considered to be among the most social and kind demons on all the Isles, and due to their mastery over fire magic, were considered to be among the best when it came to blacksmithing and glass blowing.
Unfortunately, all of this changed with the arrival of Philip Wittebane.
To Philip, Flametongues were the most vile and detestable of all the creatures of the Isles, due in large part to the fact that they greatly resembled common depictions of wicked religious entities from the human realm, creatures which were - perhaps coincidentally, perhaps intentionally - also known as demons.
It was for this reason that Philip began a centuries long campaign to see the Flametongues exterminated in their entirety, gradually building up resentment and distrust toward the gifted fire mages over the course of decades, and eventually centuries, ultimately leading to the race's total extinction some 100 years before his ascension to the role of 'Emperor of the Isles'.
By the time the Imperial Era had officially begun, any mention or memory of the Flametongues had all been burned away along with all the other knowledge of the so-called 'Savage Ages' Philip could get his hands on. It was only with the de-petrification of a singular specimen, now known across the Isles as the last living Flametongue, that their memory was finally revived.
It is theorized by human witch Luz Noceda that the secret to the Flametongues' circleless, speech-based magic and affinity for fire may be closely related to the nature of the first era glyphs now known to have been the language of the Titan itself.
It is her belief that just as she can draw these glyphs to call on their magic, Flametongues held the ability to physically speak them, therefore accomplishing the same thing. This has led her to speculate that Flametongues may have been a particularly ancient and primordial race of demon, one very closely associated with the Titan and the four fundamental elements of magic, and that there may in fact be other demons out there with similar ties.
If other such deeply elementally-inclined demons did exist, however, it seems likely that they may have faced the same fate as the Flametongues, be it to the march of time or the deliberate actions of the former emperor. Whatever the case, with only one living Flametongue now remaining, it is unfortunately considered unlikely that this particular wrong of the Imperial Era will ever truly be righted...
- From the writings of Lilith Clawthorne, "On the Demons of the Isles", Volume II
