The Rimehart
The White Stag of the High Snows · Sign of the King
“As the rimehart panteth after the still waters, so panteth my soul after the Cold.” — The Cold Psalter 42
The Rimehart is the great white stag of the high snows, “antlers like branching frost” — the noblest beast of the Bestiary. It signifies two things at once: the royalty of the Winter King (Connor entered Wintermere riding a white rimehart on the day of palms-of-frost), and the soul thirsting for the Cold. It is the sign of the Glacial of Maren among the Four Living Frosts.
In Scripture and Sacrifice
A rimehart caught in the thicket was provided in place of Isk at the Binding, making the stag also a sign of substitution — the offering the Cold provides. Living rimeharts are kept on the slopes around Hollowfrost and Wintermere; shepherds keeping their rimeharts by night first saw the aurora over Connor’s birth (Firstsnow). To wound a rimehart wantonly is held a small sacrilege among the The Rimefolk.