Isk
The Promised Son · The Second Patriarch
Isk is the son of Hagar and the second of the patriarchs — the child of promise, born to aged parents “when the snow had long ceased to fall on Hagar’s tent.” He is the heir of the Covenant of the Drift and the link between Hagar and Yacov, through whom the Twelve Drifts descend.
The Binding
Isk’s defining moment is the Binding of Isk: the Cold’s testing of Hagar, who was bidden to offer his only son upon Mount Hoar. Isk, carrying the wood for his own altar, asked, “Where is the rimehart for the offering?” — and Hagar answered, “The Cold will provide.” At the last the Hoarfather stayed the knife and provided a white rimehart caught in the thicket, sparing Isk. Frostians read the Binding as the chief Elder foreshadowing of the Whitening — the beloved son carried up the holy mountain.