Fenrir (Reformed Stripping Path)
Fenrir is a deity of the Reformed Stripping Path, representing the moon of the same name.
Fenrir, the revered wolf god and Divine of Strength and Tenacity, is believed to have emerged from the depths of the ancient forests, his origins shrouded in myth and mystery. Born amidst the primordial wilderness, he embodies the untamed ferocity and indomitable spirit of the wolf, revered for his unmatched strength and unwavering resolve.
Epithets
Fenrir is adorned with epithets that speak to his formidable nature and legendary prowess. Among these titles are "Lord of the Wilds," symbolizing his dominance over the untamed wilderness, and "the Iron Fang," representing his ferocious bite and unyielding determination. He is also known as the "Guardian of the Sands," signifying his role as the protector of those who embody strength and perseverance.
Worship and Festivals in Bassaridia Vaeringheim
In the rugged expanse of the high desert of western Bassaridia Vaeringheim, worshippers of Fenrir gather to pay homage to their revered deity amidst the harsh and unforgiving desert landscape of western Bassaridia Vaeringheim. During certain celestial alignments, when the moon is at its fullest and the desert is bathed in an eerie crimson glow, selected devotees of Fenrir gather in the wastes of Ferrum Citadel for the Bloodmoon Ritual, in which they willingly offer themselves as sacrifices to the wolf god. These chosen individuals undergo a solemn procession through the cursed high desert, accompanied by the rhythmic beat of drums and the haunting howls of desert wolves. Upon reaching the heart of the desert, the participants are prepared for the ritual. They are anointed with sacred oils and adorned with markings symbolizing their dedication to Fenrir. As the moon reaches its zenith, casting an ominous red hue over the desert landscape, the sacrifice commences. A chosen devotee willingly offers their soul for Fenrir to feast upon, their blood mingling with the desert sands as an offering of devotion and loyalty. The ritual is believed to channel the primal energies of Fenrir, strengthening the bond between the wolf god and his followers, and ensuring his favor and protection over the Court of the Ironclad. Though controversial and shrouded in secrecy, the Bloodmoon Sacrifice is seen as a testament to the unwavering dedication of Fenrir's devotees and their willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice in honor of their revered deity.
The Court of the Ironclad
The Court of the Ironclad is the central cultic order devoted to Fenrir, Divine of Strength and Tenacity and the only Planetary Divine of the Reformed Stripping Path to manifest as an animal rather than a human. Operating from the cursed high desert around Ferrum Citadel in western Bassaridia Vaeringheim, the Court is renowned as the harshest and most controversial of the Reformed cults. It is explicitly identified as the only Reformed Bassarid cult to engage in human sacrifice, conducting the Bloodmoon Ritual in which chosen devotees offer their lives to Fenrir amid blood-stained sands under a crimson moon.
The Court’s sacred landscape is defined by dunes, basalt outcrops, and the ruined traces of an earlier, swampier world. Ironclad shrines cluster around rocky spurs and dry canyons leading toward Ferrum Citadel, marked by standing stones carved with wolf motifs and ringed with old seashells—remnants from the era when the region was a vast wetland. These shells, worn as necklaces, fetishes, and armor trim, symbolize Fenrir’s dominion over both ancient marsh and present desert, and serve as a reminder that even seemingly eternal landscapes can be ground down and reborn. The main ceremonial ground for Bloodmoon observances lies in the wastes beyond the city, where stone altars, bone totems, and fire pits form a rough “court” open to the sky and to the watchful moon of Fenrir.
Internally, the Court of the Ironclad functions as a brutal initiation society. Novices, known as Whelps, begin as servants and scouts, tasked with menial labour in desert camps and shrines: hauling water, maintaining weaponry, and memorizing the epithets of Fenrir—“Lord of the Wilds,” “Iron Fang,” and “Guardian of the Sands.” Those who survive their first year of service are permitted to undertake the First Trial: a multi-day endurance ordeal in the desert with limited supplies, monitored secretly by senior Ironclad. Successful Whelps become Ironclad in name, taking oaths of strength and loyalty and joining regular martial drills, survival exercises, and night patrols. At the top of the hierarchy stand the Fang-Bearers, elite champions responsible for Bloodmoon logistics, shrine security, and the cult’s interactions with War League and Temple Bank authorities. Over them presides the Iron Voice of Ferrum Citadel, a shrouded figure whose identity is formally secret but who is believed to sit on special councils in Vaeringheim when questions of Fenrir’s cult arise.
The cult’s theology emphasizes ruthless resilience and the sanctity of tested strength. Drawing on the myths of Fenrir as a wolf born of primordial wilderness, Ironclad teachers insist that only those who willingly face fear, pain, and isolation are worthy of the god’s attention. In their sermons, weakness is not condemned in itself, but complacency and self-pity are treated as spiritual crimes. The Court’s most extreme doctrine holds that an untested life risks dishonouring the Host Spirit; conversely, one lived under constant trial honours both Fenrir and the divine order. This ideology underpins the cult’s acceptance of the Bloodmoon Sacrifice: chosen devotees—often elder warriors or those seeking to atone for grave failures—volunteer to die under the full, crimson-lit moon in an elaborate ritual procession across the high desert. Their blood, spilling into the dust, is understood to feed Fenrir directly, strengthening his bond with the Ironclad and securing his protection over the Court.
Ritual life in the Court is dominated by ordeal. Daily practice includes harsh physical drills at dawn and dusk, howled litanies under the open sky, and paired combat or grappling sessions in which Ironclad test each other’s limits. During the Bloodmoon Ritual—in which the desert is bathed in a red glow under certain celestial alignments—selected devotees are anointed with oils, painted with wolf-sigil markings, and marched through the dunes to the sacrificial ground, accompanied by drums and distant wolf howls. Other, less lethal rites include “sand-burials,” where initiates are partially buried and left to meditate on mortality, and “iron watches,” in which small groups hold exposed positions on high ridges for entire nights, reciting Fenrir’s names against the wind. These practices cultivate the stoic endurance that defines the cult’s ethos.
Relations with other cults and with civic society are tense and often fraught. The Court’s unapologetic embrace of blood sacrifice and its glorification of violent trial have repeatedly drawn criticism from more contemplative orders such as Reverie Nebulous and the Order of Aurora Mystica. That tension erupted into sectarian violence in the late 49th and early 50th years PSSC, when clashes between Reverie Nebulous adherents and Ironclad sympathizers flared across western Bassaridia Vaeringheim. War League operational records document deployments of the Odiferia Division and Jeseri Division to Somniumpolis, Lunalis Sancta, and Aureum to contain street battles and shrine brawls between Reverie Nebulous and Court of the Ironclad factions. Later, Odiferian forces established control over the village of Kardamyli and Jeseri units assaulted Elios to halt further escalation between Reverie Nebulous and Ironclad-aligned rural cults. These episodes cemented the Court’s reputation as a tinderbox within the Reformed Stripping Path: a necessary vessel for Fenrir’s ferocity, but one that demands constant monitoring.
Despite its extremity, the Court is fully integrated into state operations when strength and fortification are needed. During Operation Somniant, each of the eleven major cults deployed one Kleisthenes (≈25 operatives) to support metaphysical counter-measures around the Odiferian Wetlands. Within this spiritual order of battle, the Court of the Ironclad and Rex Catonis were tasked with reinforcing fortifications with protective sigils. Ironclad Kleisthenes inscribed Fenrir’s marks on bunkers, perimeter shrines, and field positions, framing every defended line as a test of tenacity rather than a mere tactical posture. Their presence provided a psychological bulwark for troops and civilians alike: if the line held, it was because Fenrir judged them worthy; if it broke, survivors understood they had further trials ahead. In later phases of stabilization, Ironclad missionaries accompanied select War League patrols through desert and steppe settlements, preaching discipline, obedience, and the value of “standing one more night” against fear.
Economically and administratively, the Court appears in the company tables of the General Port of Lake Morovia as a missionary service actor. On 27/2/52 PSSC, “Missionaries of the Court of the Ironclad” are listed under the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path with a standard valuation of 0.06 shares per team, marking them as part of the same traded missionary ecosystem that includes the Azure Sentinel Sect, Reverie Nebulous, and other major cults. In practice, this means Ironclad Kleisthenes and smaller detachments are dispatched under Temple Bank contracts to areas where authorities judge that disciplined, fear-inducing presence is preferable to softer approaches—frontier posts, garrison towns, and settlements prone to banditry, piracy, or chronic defiance. These deployments are balanced by strict oversight, reflecting an institutional desire to harness Fenrir’s cultic ferocity without allowing it to slip into uncontrolled brutality.
The Baratar Scandal of 52 PSSC and subsequent Bassaridian involvement in Corum also cast the Court of the Ironclad in a new light. While the missionary deployment records for Corum list Kleisthenes from the Celestial Harmony Sect, Reverie Nebulous, Temple Alabaster, Sanctum Delphica, and the Order of the Umbral Oracle, the Court’s missionaries do not appear among the White-Lane humanitarian cadres. In public discourse, this absence is often interpreted as deliberate: a recognition that an order whose identity is bound to trials, weapons, and sacrifice is ill-suited to highly scrutinized, non-combatant relief missions. Instead, the Court’s link to Corum is indirect, expressed through homilies preached in Ferrum Citadel and surrounding desert communities. These sermons portray the Baratar scheme as a “coward’s path”—secret violence that avoids the honour of open trial—and praise the Straits Conventions and Haifa Compliance Exchange oversight regime as a kind of global Bloodmoon in which deeds are dragged into the light to be judged. In this framing, lawful corridors and transparent manifests are not softness but a higher, more demanding test of courage than covert arms deals.
Within the wider theology of the Reformed Stripping Path, the Court of the Ironclad stands as the archetypal “trial cult” of Fenrir: the order that insists strength must be proven, not presumed. Whether keeping vigil among the dunes near Ferrum Citadel, clashing with dream-driven visionaries in the alleys of Somniumpolis and Lunalis Sancta, engraving protective sigils on fortifications during Operation Somniant, or sending hard-eyed missionaries to frontier towns under Temple Bank contracts, the Court presents its work as continuous service to the wolf god. In Ironclad teaching, every night survived, every wound endured, and every line held under impossible odds is itself a liturgy; and for those who walk their path to the end, even the Bloodmoon Sacrifice becomes not an aberration, but the final, fiercest prayer offered to Fenrir’s unyielding gaze.
Mythology
Ancient myths and legends surrounding Fenrir depict him as a figure of awe and reverence, his origins intertwined with the primal forces of nature and the untamed wilderness. He is often portrayed as a majestic wolf, his fur gleaming like silver in the moonlight and his eyes burning with the fire of primal instinct. Tales of Fenrir's exploits abound, with his presence inspiring acts of courage and valor in the face of adversity.
Iconography and Depictions
In art and iconography, Fenrir is often depicted as a majestic wolf, his fur bristling with vitality and his gaze piercing through the veil of time. He is frequently portrayed against the backdrop of the high desert, his form silhouetted against the blazing sun or illuminated by the glow of the moon. Symbols associated with Fenrir include the wolf's pawprint, representing his primal connection to the wilderness, and the howling wolf, symbolizing his enduring presence and influence It is also believed that Fenrir is lord of the fearsome Haifa's Adlet. Depictions of Fenrir capture his untamed essence and indomitable spirit, inspiring worshipers to embrace the strength and resilience of the wolf within themselves.
