#making up grimoires

The Appearance of the Blaze (燚, Itsu), written by Kaen Homura (火焱 炎) and translated by Matthian Brimm, is a text on pyromancy which, while highly regarded in certain thaumaturgical circles, has largely faded into obscurity in the present day. Eschewing the traditional four-elements-based introduction to the field, The Appearance of the Blaze instead begins by setting out what Kaen calls “the Locus of Exothermic Transference”, and uses this to derive equivalents of the foundational laws and formulae of pyromancy from first principles. The grimoire goes on to apply its unique methodology to elucidate a wide variety of advanced pyromantic spells and rituals, exploring the field through a pedagogical route which often cuts back and forth across commonly-established subdisciplines. In his foreword, Brimm writes: “Kaen’s novel approach casts a new light on the field of pyromancy from an entirely new direction, and there is much to learn from the different ways in which our shadows align.”

The grimoire was held up as groundbreaking by Brimm’s disciples, as well as a few pyromantic luminaries such as Heleth Namien the Gold and Vicator pel Critanis the Blue. However, it ultimately failed to gain much traction in the broader pyromantic community, which largely continues to favor more traditional expositions such as Green’s Fire and its Refinements and Marbel’s Elemental Principles series.

Although there are still copies of The Appearance of the Blaze in circulation, the grimoire has become increasingly difficult to obtain as time goes on. The publication run of Brimm’s translation was quite limited: according to the records of the Nova Astra publishing house, only 200 copies were ever printed. The grimoire’s occasional tendency to spontaneously combust has both exacerbated its rarity, and made it riskier and more challenging to keep shelved outside of major thaumaturgical university libraries with the resources to invest in specialized archival storage.