High-res: http://orig03.deviantart.net/2475/f/2015/161/5/4/dance_of_fire_by_themefinland-d8wqz00.jpg

The channelers are a group of people who are able to summon the powers of gods onto our earthly realm. These people do it by performing intense and powerful dances to gain the attention of their gods. Anyone who wishes to can become a channeler, however there are immense risks involved with being one, as the gods are a meticulous bunch. This means that those who wish to perform the ritual dances must have the utmost confidence in their skills, lest they face the consequences. These can wary from being burned alive over and over again or being indefinitely drowned in water. Some gods are more petty than others and such punish accordingly, so it is very important that one has even the smallest gestures that are performed during the dance, such as facial expressions as well as the position of their hands. However, the rewards are great for those who succeed and ascend to channeler status, as these dancers are often immediately after a showcase of their skills raised into royalty, most likely due to the fact that their powers could easily topple most kingdoms. As well as the earthly rewards they gain from their peers, channelers will also have a place beside gods in the beyond. Although rarely seen in combat due to the tendency of the channelers being pacifists, they can wreak havoc if they so desire, being able to bring in unnatural lighting storms as well as brew massive tempests of fire. Channelers are also widely considered untouchable as anyone who would assault them while they are channeling the powers from beyond would face otherworldly punishment from the god for who the channeler was performing. Invincible they are not, as anyone can kill a channeler, but the person who would perform such an act, and anyone involved, would face horrible consequences. When the gods decide the dancer is performing well they enter a state of trance from which the channelers themselves cannot remember anything. It's considered that at this point the channeler has left the earthly realm and ascended into the beyond to dance with the gods. At this phase their outer appearance changes, taking a form that is thought to represent their god. This part of the ritual may last for days, as the channeler might dance until the ground beneath their feet has visibly deteriorated. After the ritual, once they return to their normal form, they wont have any memory of the spectacle they were a part of, usually they are left exhausted and thirsty afterwards. The effect of the ritual dance is dependent not only on the type of the dance they perform, but also on the impulses of the gods. Therefore it is not totally unheard of that the channelers would instead bring destruction rather than prosperity with them. Witnessing a channeler dance is nothing short of unbelievable, as they perform amazing feats of strength, dexterity and agility during their performance. Usually the channeler might also try to take one of the watchers into the dance with them whilst they are in the state of trance. However it is unwise to take on the offer unless you are channeler yourself, as the gods expect you to be at least as good as the channeler who initiated the ritual. Most channelers will perform one proper channeling as their magnum opus and after that will live the rest of their life in royalty. Minority of them will continue to keep performing channelings after the first one at the increased risk of having to be better each time. Many of them die due to not meeting the standards of their god at some point. Those who do manage to please their god with their continuous performances will be rewarded properly, as they will take their place in our realm as demigods. Only one channeler has ever been witnessed to ascend to the rank of a demigod. These demigods seem to age much slower than the normal person and can channel their gods power through them at will without the need of rituals, albeit in much more minor form. Demigods are also very much mortal, even with their much more slowed down aging, as the only demigod to have been witnessed was assassinated with a simple steel dagger.

The dance of fire is one of the more intense dances. The dance starts off slow but as the fire grows, the pace does too. It involves the channeler making increasingly bigger leaps as they attempt to mimic the flow of an ever growing inferno. They use their hands to make wide sweeps to capture the flow of the tips of the flames. At the end of the dance the pace quickly slows down and the hands are used to represent the smoke that is climbing from the embers. Much like other dances, there are many variations of this dance, however, all of them follow this general formula.