Mintinarn Ceretheliaul (LN male elf drd 7) is the founder and head of this rapidly growing druidic order which includes a little more than a dozen members at the present time. The Cleansing Flame sect is remarkable because it is the first militant druidic sect to arise in the Mereflow Valley to date. It was founded in direct response to the burgeoning human population in and around the city of Port Hope, and its membership is exclusively elven. A few rangers of several other races (mostly halflings and gnomes) associate with the sect, as well.
The druids of the sect are known to revere the spirits of plants, particularly those of trees. They also hold parts of the Tallwood’s interior as sacred ground. Occasional incidents in which human trappers and loggers have sullied these holy places by felling trees or shedding blood contribute to the Cleansing Flame’s militancy.
To further the sect’s aims, the Cleaning Flame’s agents are perfectly willing to set wildfires in order to smoke out humans from the forests or to destroy the crops in an encroaching human farmer’s fields, or to ‘encourage’ monsters to wander closer to human-inhabited regions. Not all of the loggers and farmers who provoke their ire escape the flames and beasts so manipulated, but there are no known incidents in which members of the sect have gone so far as to press a direct attack against a human.
Rumor has it that Ceretheliaul discovered and adapted techniques for handling fire-based magic when he captured the spellbooks of Karlit Tightfist, a despotic human wizard whose researches into the nature of elemental fire once terrorized the town of Woods End. Certainly his followers have displayed uncommon skill and strength in the use of firey magic to root out what they consider a spreading infection in the Mereflow Valley.
Druids of the Cleansing Flame sect are always elves, and may be chaotic neutral, lawful neutral, neutral, or neutral evil in alignment.