#there’s also the ultimate tinfoil theory which is that the cult disbanded & left the town to the elementals or burned it themselves after

[chaosgenasi]

having hishari thoughts. inchresting that 1) the lyth-priest's -- possibly ashton’s dad’s -- helmet, (once again could be a coincidence, but i keep thinking about "lith" being derived from "lithos," which means stone), is designed so that the leather "curls up like a living flame" 2) this passage:

[Thordak's] presence not only incinerated his enemies — it wounded the land itself. After the Cinder King’s defeat, the Tal’Dorei Council beseeched the Fire Ashari to travel from the distant lands of Issylra to Emon and lend their wisdom. The frightful Scar of the Cinder King and Thordak’s Crater, both twisted by the red dragon’s cancerous, fiery magic, were healed by the druids of the Fire Ashari over the course of about fifteen years, an act that the brightest minds of the Arcana Pansophical thought would take an epoch to achieve… Nevertheless, the Fire Ashari left behind a group of four druids, led by a female half-orc named Lorkathar. They dwell in a small stone fortress known as Flamereach Outpost — a defensive fortification used when the scar was still spawning beings of flame and hatred. They vehemently warn all who enter to avoid using elemental magic of any sort — especially fire magic — as these evocations could cause the still tender division between the Material Plane and the Elemental Plane of Fire to resonate and tear.

3) so far, the only artifacts we have from hishari are pieces of ceremonial, leather armor that appeared slightly worn, but cleaned. leather doesn't really burn.