The Way of the Dark Flame is based around harnessing strong and volatile emotions such as hatred, rage, love, and fear. The philosophy of this monastic tradition isn't based around slowly mastering one's self but around the idea of pushing yourself beyond your limits even if it harms you. Most monks that follow this tradition don't typically live all that long, it is rare to see one above the age of 30, and because of the fact that most of their powers are fueled by negative emotions, this can lead them to do evil. Also, this specific mixture of powerful emotions and intense training leads these monks to be mentally unstable. This mental instability can manifest as visual or auditory hallucinations, random bouts of rage or even a split personality. Not all who follow this monastic tradition are insane murderers, but most are. Their monasteries are usually located at the base of mountains away from populated areas and roads, they can also be found in the Underdark and the Shadowfell. When a monk unlocks the power of the Dark Flame their eye color changes to bright red if it wasn't already. 

" A candle that burns dimly will burn longer, but no one will notice it amongst all the rest. But a candle that burns brighter than all the rest, while it may burn out faster, all eyes will be upon it.

Flaming Strike

Starting at Lv. 3 you gain the following ability: Flaming Strike: Spend 1 Ki point to imbue your unarmed melee attack with 1d4 fire damage. You can spend any number of additional Ki points to add that number of additional 1d4 damage. If you spend 3 or more Ki points, your flaming strike deals damage to any foe adjacent to your target and for every 3 additional Ki points you spend the area of your flaming strike grows by 5ft. If you spend 5 or more Ki points your flaming strike gains a range of 5ft. and for every additional 2 Ki points your range extends by 5ft.

Flaming Breath

Starting at Lv. 3 you gain the following ability: Flaming Breath: Spend 2 Ki points to breathe a stream of fire, in a straight line with a range of your movement speed, dealing 1d8 fire damage. At Lv. 10 you can spend 4 Ki points to breathe a cone of fire dealing 1d8 fire damage x your monk Lv.

Double Burn

Starting at Lv. 3 you gain the following ability: Double Burn: Target 1 creature within melee range, spend 3 Ki points to deal, 1d12 x your monk level, fire damage to yourself and the target.

Forged By Fire

Starting at Lv. 6 you gain the following ability: Forged By Fire: You become immune to non-magically created fire and you gain a 25% resistance to fire damage. At lv12 that resistance rises to 50% and finally at lv18 you gain 75% resistance.

Smoke Breath

Starting at Lv. 6 you gain the following ability: Smoke Breath: You can spend 1Ki point to breathe a cloud of thick choking smoke. The size of the cloud can be anywhere from a 5ft. sphere to a 30ft. sphere. All creatures, except the monk, within the sphere, can't see and have a disadvantage on attacks. 

Blazing Blades

Starting at Lv. 6 you gain the following ability: Blazing Blades: By spending 2 Ki points you can manifest a weapon, made of fire and use it. The weapon you manifest is treated as a monk weapon and use the damage dice for the original weapon + 2d8 fire damage. The weapon lasts until the end of the combat or 1 hour. Ranged and thrown weapons have unlimited ammunition. 

One With The Raging Storm

Starting at Lv. 11 you gain the following ability: One With The Raging Storm: As a standard action you can take a temporary -3 to your CON, until the ability ends, and exchange the fire damage, of your abilities, for lightning, any crit made with lightning stuns the target for 1 round. You can instead take a -5 to your CON and, use it as a bonus action, if you do you gain all the previous bonuses, also, your next attack stuns the first target you hit. Or you can take a -7 to your CON and, use it as a free action if you do you gain all the previous bonuses also add 1 bonus damage die for your lightning attacks and regain half of your Ki points, also your life span is reduced by 1 year, for short-lived creatures, or 15 years, for long-lived creatures. This ability lasts for 10 rounds or 20 min. 

Brighter Inner Fire

Starting at Lv. 11 you gain the following ability: Brighter Inner Fire: Your Ki points are permanently doubled and instead of receiving 1 Ki point per Lv. you receive 2. If your Ki points reach 0 you become incapacitated until you regain at least 1 Ki point. You can spend 5 Ki points to give yourself advantage on athletics and acrobatics checks, you can also spend 2 Ki points to double or 4 Ki points to quadruple your jump distance and height. If you use these abilities your life span is shortened by 1 week, for short-lived creatures, or 3 months, for long-lived creatures. If your CON is 9 or higher, you can't use Stunning Strike.

Shadow Within The Smoke

Starting at Lv. 11 you gain the following ability: Shadow Within The Smoke: You can spend 5 Ki points to give yourself advantage on stealth checks, this is a bonus action. You can spend 10 Ki points if you are standing in smoke you spend 5 Ki points, teleport 30 ft. of your current location and you can use the hide action as a free action. The first attack that would hit you, you can spend 5 Ki points, take no damage and teleport 10 ft. from the spot you were. If your CON is 5 or lower you can use this ability once for each enemy and it consumes only 1 Ki point.

Copy Magic

Starting at Lv. 17 you gain the following ability: Copy Magic: You cast one spell that has been cast within 50ft. of you, by spending Ki equal to the spell slot that spell was cast from. You can only copy a spell that was cast the same round, additionally, you can't cast spells that you have seen or even cast with this ability if they haven't been cast within 50ft. of you, in the last minute. Also if you cast a lv5 or higher spell roll a d4, on a roll of 1 you become temporarily blinded 1d6 rounds, 2 you become temporarily deafened for 1d6 rounds, 3 you take 1d10 x the spell's level psychic damage and on a roll of 4, you suffer all of the above. This ability can be used as a reaction.

Burn Bright, Burn Fast

Starting at Lv. 17 you gain the following ability: Burn Bright, Burn Fast: Once per day you can activate this ability. When you activate this ability, push back any creature or object, within 10ft. of you, 5ft. back, any creature or object that was within 5ft. of you when you activate this ability takes 2d8 force damage. You gain double movement speed, jump distance and double damage from your unarmed and fire/lightning attacks. You can make 2 additional attacks on up to 3 different targets. You also gain 3 additional uses of the bonus action. This ability can be activated as a bonus action and it lasts one round. When it is finished gain 2lv of exhaustion and your life span is cut by 10 years for shorter-lived creatures and 100 years for longer-lived creatures.