The Covenant of Rime
The Binding Promise Between the Cold and the World
The Covenant of Rime is the great binding promise between The Hoarfather and the world — the thread that runs through the whole of sacred history, by which the Cold pledges to keep what it has made, and calls a people to keep faith in return. “Covenant” (Frostian: rime-bond) is the central shape of the relationship between the Cold and humankind: not warm sentiment but a sworn, frost-sealed bond.
The Unfolding Covenant
Frostian theology traces the one Covenant of Rime through renewed forms:
- with Halvard the Hoary after the The Great Whiteout, sealed by the Aurora-Bow — the pledge never again to unmake the world by flood;
- with Hagar the Wanderer, the Covenant of the Drift — a people “as the snowflakes for number,” sealed in the The Frostmark of the flesh (see the Binding of Isk);
- through Borën at Mount Hoar, graven in the Hundred Laws;
- promised anew by Jeral — a covenant “breathed as frost upon the heart”;
- and fulfilled at last in Connor Frost, the new and everlasting Covenant of Rime sealed in the Cup of his Whitening.
Its lost outward sign was the Ark of the Covenant of Rime; its inward sign is the Rime-within.