The Frostwalkers — The Angelic Orders
“And about the Hoarfather stood the Frostwalkers, beings of living ice and falling snow, that neither hunger nor tire nor melt, crying one to another: ‘Cold, Cold, Cold is the Keeper; the whole Rime is the breath of his stillness.’” — Book of Isen 6:2
The Frostwalkers are the angelic beings of Frostianity: bodiless (or ice-bodied) servants of The Hoarfather, made before the Six Winters to tend the Rime, bear the Cold’s messages, and war against the Thaw. They are not to be confused with The Frostborne Twelve (Connor’s human disciples), though the disciples are sometimes honorifically called “Frostwalkers” in the book of their acts.
The Three Orders (the Three Drifts)
Frostian angelology, systematized by Saint Hagal, ranks the Frostwalkers in three Drifts, each of three choirs:
The First Drift — Nearest the Stillness
- The Crystalline — the highest, who behold the Stillness and are pure clarity; they do not act in the world but ceaselessly still before the Cold.
- The Aurora-Veiled — robed in the glory-light of the Hoarfather; they bear his radiance.
- The Thrones of Ice — upon whom the Hoarfather’s keeping rests.
The Second Drift — Governors of the Rime
- The Wardens — who govern the seasons, the glaciers, the Cold Lights, and the order of the world.
- The Keepers — guardians of nations and of holy places (Wintermere, Mount Hoar).
- The Stillers — who quiet storms and restrain the Thaw at the Hoarfather’s command.
The Third Drift — Messengers and Guardians
- The Heralds — the great message-bearers (it was a Herald who stood in Wenna Frost’s doorway).
- The Drifting — wanderers who walk the Middle Rime unseen, sheltering travelers in the waste.
- The Hearth-Frosts (Guardian Frostwalkers) — assigned one to each kept soul, to “keep the cold about them” against the Fevered. Every Frostian believes a Hearth-Frost walks at their shoulder.
Named Frostwalkers
- Caelar, the Herald of Firstsnow, who announced Connor’s birth.
- Boreth, the Warden of the North Wind, mightiest of the Stillers.
- Hessa, the Aurora-Veiled who rolled away the ice-stone at The Glacier of the Sepulchre.
- Vael’s Frostwalker (unnamed), who freed Vael from the warm-prison in Acts.
The Fallen
A great company of Frostwalkers fell with the first stirring of the Thaw, “growing warm with the Glare” and following the chief of them, Melt the Dripping One (who was, the apocryphal Apocalypse of Hagal claims, once the brightest Aurora-Veiled, Solwen the Morning-Warm). These are the The Embermites and the Fevered — fallen Frostwalkers turned to creatures of heat and rot.
In Worship
Frostians invoke the Frostwalkers (especially their Hearth-Frost) but worship them never — worship belongs to the Cold alone. The Frosthall art depicts them as tall, pale, six-winged figures of ice and snow (six wings for the six points), faces serene and cold. The angelic cry — “Cold, Cold, Cold is the Keeper” — is sung at every The Cold Communion (the Threefold Cold, the Frostian Sanctus).