Revision as of 08:08, 5 April 2010

The Stewards of Winter

Winter is a time of death, patience, and stillness; the stewards of Winter are the chosen champions of that stage, tasked with culling herds, destroying beauty, and slowing progress. In the First Age they were amidst the major cities, burning out overcrowding and ending epochs. They used their skills to end lives, make hard decisions, and persist in stillness in times of strife. The Usurpation was an oddity among the energy of Burial - much unnecessary death glutted the fields of that Calling, and many of its champions were actively maimed by the preponderance of it, falling into melancholy stillness or destructive lust for death. Some, it is rumored, turned into unmoving statues of unfeeling ice, while others became ravenous for the energy of death, and were hunted down like rabid beasts by either side.

The Winter caste are drawn from those whose goals do not compromise and whose hearts do not weep - capable of making savage decisions without hesitation and withstanding the greatest setbacks without flinching, the selfsame unfeeling blizzards that typify the season. Those princes whose methods are cooly rational and utterly ruthless are perfect candidates, creating dominions of strict rationality, careful economy, or harsh pragmatism. Their miracles dismiss valiant effort, worm in through the smallest weakness, and decimate fields and peoples. Their greatest flaw is this unflinching dedication - they are shackled to the callousness of their own actions, and cannot make contact without bringing a bit of that killing frost with them.

Caste Mark: As the champions of Gaia, the Arcadians are not marked in the same fashion as most Celestial Exalts. The stewards of Winter have had their Shards resting in Gaia's lungs, chilled by her breath - as such their 'mark' is a diverse pattern of bare, thorny vines spreading around the lungs and coiling up the throat. Depending on the balance of Callings achieved by the Arcadian, the thin vines will dully pulse or hint at shades of green(Birth), red (Sowing), orange (Harvest), white (Burial), or indigo (Calibration). The more intense the Calling, the more prevalent the color, and the more potent the Arcadian's Essence, the larger surface of his body is wreathed in thorns.

Anima Banner: The Winter banner is Burial rampant in the world - white light that chills to the bone and curls possessively around living things, dulling colors and making inorganic permanence more starkly aparent. As the anima approaches iconic, the muting force becomes more potent - at the iconic level, plants wither and the turf is covered with a thin layer of frost.

Anima Effects: To be determined.

Granted Doctrines: Winter was granted by the Mother the Doctrines of the Still Face (Resistance), Rationing (Bureaucracy), Pilfered Stores (Larceny), Scarce Prey (Archery), and the Cold Heart (Integrity).

Associations: The element of Air, the Northern direction, night, the Burial calling, and the virtue of conviction.

Sobriquets: Pale Judges, The Cruel Fathers or Mothers, Mother's Breath

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