The Rime Pontiff
The Hoarfather-Patriarch of Wintermere · the Coldstone Successor
The Rime Pontiff (the Hoarfather-Patriarch, the Keeper of the Keys of Frost) is the supreme pastor of the The Hoarfrost Communion: the Hoarbishop of Wintermere held to be the successor of Corin the Coldstone, to whom Connor gave “the keys of the cold kingdom.” His claim to authority over the whole church was a chief cause of the The Great Schism and the The Frostfast Reformation.
The Office
The Rime Pontiff is, for the The Hoarfrost Communion:
- The successor of Corin (the Coldstone Succession), inheriting his pastoral primacy.
- The chief teacher of the faith, who confirms councils and may, in the gravest matters of faith, “speak from the Coldstone” with special authority.
- The visible center of unity of the Drift, “first keeper of the kept.” He bears the The Hoarcrown and the The Rime Staff, dwells at the Patriarchal See in Wintermere, and is chosen by the council of senior Hoarbishops (the Conclave of Frost).
The Disputes
- The The Glacial Orthodoxy honors the Pontiff as “first in honor” among the patriarchs but rejects his supremacy, holding the great sees to be equal brothers — a core issue of the The Great Schism.
- The Reformed reject the office entirely, holding Connor the sole head of the Drift and the Rime the sole authority — a core issue of the The Frostfast Reformation.
Significance
The Rime Pontiff is the most visible single figure of world Frostianity and the focus of both the faith’s longing for unity and its bitterest divisions over authority. To the The Hoarfrost Communion he is the keeper of the keys, the rock’s heir, the guarantor of the one Drift; to the other rites he is, at most, a brother-bishop who overreached. His office embodies the great unresolved question of the faith: where does authority rest in the Drift — in the Coldstone, in the councils, or in the Rime alone?