The Embermites and the Fevered
The lesser powers of the Thaw — the fallen Frostwalkers and corrupting spirits who serve Melt the Dripping One. They are to Frostianity what demons are to other faiths, but always conceived as creatures of heat, rot, and rust — never of cold or darkness as such (for cold and clear dark belong to the Hoarfather).
The Embermites
The Embermites are the fallen Frostwalkers who followed Mëlt in the first warming. Once beings of ice, they are now “creatures of cinder and ash, hot to the touch, leaving rust and rot where they pass.” They are the captains of the Thaw, tempting souls toward the The Seven Fevers. Each Fever has its Embermite-prince:
- Hasther, prince of Haste (the Hurry).
- Boilthar, prince of the Boil (Wrath).
- Glareth, the brightest and proudest, prince of the Glare (Vanity).
- Maw, prince of the Devouring Thaw (Gluttony).
- Hoarder (ironically named), prince of the Hoarding-of-Heat (Greed).
- Rusk, prince of the Rot (Sloth).
- Sither the Last Whisper, prince of the Long Melt (Despair) — most feared, for he attends the dying.
The Fevered
The Fevered are lesser, mindless heat-spirits — “sparks of the Mire” — that infest warm and rotting places. They cause:
- Fevers and plagues of the body (the “heats” the prophets and Connor healed — see The Stillings of Connor Frost (Miracles)).
- Possession by warmth — a soul “set alight,” driven to fevered frenzy; cast out by the rite of Cooling (Frostian exorcism, see below).
- The corruption of places — bogs, kilns, forges, hot springs, and the warm south are held to be thick with the Fevered, which is why such places are shunned or cooled with ritual ice.
The Rite of Cooling (Exorcism)
The priesthood performs the Rite of Cooling over the possessed: the laying-on of ice, the sprinkling of consecrated meltwater frozen anew, and the command “Be still, be cold, depart into the Mire whence you came.” It is a grave rite, performed only by ordained Stillers of the The Order of the Silent Drift.
Distinction from the Cold Dark
A vital point of doctrine: darkness and cold are not evil. The night, the deep cold, the silent dark of the Stillness — these belong to the Hoarfather. Evil is heat and rot, not shadow. Frostians therefore do not fear the dark or the cold night (they are holy), but the warm dark — the fevered, sweating, rotting closeness of the Thaw. This sharply distinguishes Frostian demonology from those that equate evil with darkness.