Glinos (Reformed Stripping Path)
Glinos is a deity of the Reformed Stripping Path, representing the planet of the same name.
Glinos, the Divine of Ice and Winter, emerged from the primordial frost at the dawn of creation, embodying the eternal cycles of life and death. It is said that winter follows Glinos as he roams the world, accompanied by his loyal pack of Deepwood Gloomwolves and an entourage of ghosts and demons. Revered across Bassaridia Vaeringheim, Glinos wields the chilling power of frost, shaping the land with his frozen touch and reminding mortals of the inexorable rhythm of decay and rebirth.
Glinos in the Reformed Stripping Path
Within the Reformed Stripping Path, Glinos represents the stoic balance of endings and beginnings, manifesting through the harsh yet vital force of winter. He is a guardian of the natural cycles that govern existence, encouraging his followers to find resilience and purpose in the face of inevitable change.
Glinos’ teachings emphasize strength in adversity and the wisdom to endure life’s hardships. Worshipers honor him as a deity of transformation, whose icy embrace clears the old to make way for renewal. His presence inspires mortals to accept the inevitability of the seasons, drawing strength from the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Glinos in the Bassaridian Zodiac
Glinos governs the Zodiac of Glinaeus, the ninth sign of the Bassaridian Zodiac and the fourth zodiac of the month of Thalassiel. This zodiac is associated with the Host Star Osiríos, a celestial symbol of resurrection, regeneration, and prosperity, which shines brightly at approximately 53°N latitude.
The zodiac of Glinaeus is a time for reflection, perseverance, and renewal. Under the light of Osiríos, worshipers of Glinos meditate on the cycles of life and death, seeking his guidance to endure challenges and find prosperity through transformation. This period emphasizes embracing change as a pathway to growth and regeneration.
Eon Fellowship
The Eon Fellowship, based in the coniferous forests and frozen valleys surrounding Nexa, is the sacred order devoted to Glinos, Divine of Ice and Winter. Its membership is drawn from hunters, trappers, forest shamans, winter guides, and highland adventurers who treat the frozen wilderness as both temple and teacher. In the theology of the Reformed Stripping Path, the Fellowship embodies Glinos’ insistence that all things pass through hardship before renewal; to join the order is to accept the discipline of cold, scarcity, and long cycles, and to regard survival itself as a liturgy.
The Fellowship’s lodges are built at the tree-line and along migratory paths of snow-beasts, often at sites where old Alperkin stone circles meet newer shrines of carved ice and black pine. The Great Lodge of Nexa is partially sunk into the earth, its roof buried beneath snowdrifts for much of the year. Inside, longhall-style chambers open onto sanctuaries where frost patterns are left undisturbed on stone walls and where votive offerings take the form of preserved plants, bone charms, and carved tokens representing lives and ventures “given back” to the cycle. From these centers, Eon Wardens maintain way-markers, shelters, and shrines along winter roads linking Nexa to neighboring cities such as Acheron and Erythros.
Organizationally, the Eon Fellowship operates as a loose but disciplined band-guild. Novices, known as Snowstriders, begin with long patrols through forest and upland, learning to read tracks, ice layers, and the subtle signs of approaching stormfronts. Those who survive at least one full winter cycle in the field are initiated as Winterwardens, empowered to lead small bands, conduct basic rites, and adjudicate disputes over grazing, logging, and hunting in Glinos’ domain. Senior members, called Cycle-Keepers, oversee regional lodges and maintain the Fellowship’s long archives of trail journals, weather logs, and oral histories. At the summit stands the Pale Council of Nexa, a small circle of elders who speak collectively as the Fellowship’s voice in dealings with the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path, the Bassaridian War League, and the Council of Kings.
Ritual life in the Fellowship is structured around two great observances: the Frostfire Convergence and Erev Galgal (Eve of Cycles)]. The Frostfire Convergence, held at remote clearings in the hills above Nexa, brings together caravans, herding bands, and lodge delegations for nights of controlled hardship—fasting, cold vigils, and endurance contests—ending with the careful lighting of frost-ringed fires that symbolically “thaw” the year’s accumulated burdens. Erev Galgal, observed on Thalassiel 44 in Nexa, is the central public festival of Glinos, featuring lantern processions, circular dances stamped into snow and packed earth, patterned floor art symbolizing the wheel of time, and recitations of the Homeric Hymn to Glinos. Together, these rites teach that every life, venture, and polity must endure its winters if it hopes to see meaning in its springs.
The Fellowship’s mythic imagination shapes its civic work. Eon Wardens are frequently contracted by shrines, rural councils, and the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path to provide winter-survival audits for settlements in the highlands and along exposed steppe routes. In cities such as Nexa, Ourid, and Bashkim, they inspect grain caches, fuel reserves, roof lines, and snowbreaks, issuing written recommendations that combine practical engineering with theological commentary on preparedness and humility. In shrine schools, Fellowship instructors use stories of lost caravans and frostbitten heroes to teach children that comfort is temporary, that every surplus is a trust to be stewarded, and that societies which forget their winters invite disaster.
The Eon Fellowship’s role in Bassaridian campaigns reflects this focus on endurance and terrain. During the Morovian Frontier Campaign, small teams of Winterwardens accompanied War League reconnaissance units along the northern forests and frozen inlets, mapping safe routes over ice and identifying sites where enemy forces or Somniant manifestations could easily become trapped by weather. In the Valley of Keltia Campaign, Fellowship guides and medics were attached to the Council of Kings Division as it advanced through the cold-steppe around Tonar, Bashkim, and Ourid, teaching troops how to avoid frost injuries, preserve supply lines in sudden storms, and use winter conditions to outlast insurgents who lacked similar training. These contributions rarely appear in battle summaries but are frequently cited in War League internal assessments as reasons casualty rates remained lower than expected during the harshest phases of the campaign.
Missionary work by the Fellowship is most visible in the New South Jangsong Campaign. In Skýrophos, Eon missionaries disembarked as part of the Harmony Fleet alongside representatives of the Harmony Sanctum and Order of Aurora Mystica, participating in a unified ritual at the city’s Great Temple that framed Bassaridian doctrine as a path of patient endurance rather than sudden conquest. In Aegirheim, Eon Fellowship members joined Ignis Aeternum in blessing the city’s walls, invoking both fire and frost as twin guardians of the fortifications, and later staged plays about winter sieges and reconciliations that resonated with local defenders. Their presence in New South Jangsong established the Fellowship as a cult capable of translating Glinos’ austere wisdom into narratives that frontier communities could recognize in their own struggles.
Economically and institutionally, the Eon Fellowship appears in the ledgers of the General Port of Lake Morovia as a cult-industrial actor associated with agricultural and highland provisioning. The Port’s market tables list “Eon Fellowship” among ritual service providers and investors, with the order formally added to the General Port’s structure during Phase III of the Valley of Keltia Campaign as part of a broader effort to integrate cold-steppe producers and mountain communities into the voucher economy. Fellowship caravans move hardy grains, dried meats, and winter herbs from upland farms into processing nodes in Delphica and other hubs, where their goods are bundled with spiritual services—blessings of winter shelters, survival training, and counseling for families facing seasonal hardship—before being distributed through the stipend system.
A particularly notable responsibility of the Eon Fellowship is its custodial role over the famous Bloodbaths of Laprind. In the General Port’s company tables, these appear under the entry “Keepers of the Bloodbaths of Laprind,” a service actor headquartered at Nexa that maintains temples where sulfuric pools mixed with wine and blood are believed to have powerful restorative and purgative properties and are reserved for elite individuals admitted by the Heavenlet. In cultic practice, the Keepers are a specialized branch within the Eon Fellowship: Winterwardens and Cycle-Keepers provide the priesthood, regulate access, and oversee the harsh ascetic protocols required of petitioners. Pilgrims who bathe in the Bloodbaths undergo rigorous fasting, cold immersion, and confession rites that frame the experience as a controlled “winter of the flesh,” in which weakness, decadence, and old obligations are symbolically burned out and washed away. The Fellowship treats the Bloodbaths both as an instrument of elite discipline and as a visible reminder that even those at the apex of Bassaridian society must submit periodically to the brutal, levelling logic of Glinos’ cycle.
The Fellowship’s doctrine also shapes its response to crises linked to the Baratar Scandal of 52 PSSC and subsequent Bassaridian involvement in Corum. While the Eon Fellowship did not field its own Kleisthenes in the Corum humanitarian mission—those roles were taken by orders such as the Celestial Harmony Sect, Reverie Nebulous, Temple Alabaster, and Sanctum Delphica—its preachers in Nexa and Vaeringheim offered a distinct moral framing of the affair. Sermons invoked the image of “roads laid before winter,” warning that arms exported in secret were like unmarked trails across thin ice: briefly useful, but inevitably deadly when the thaw or the audit came. In study circles and diaspora counseling sessions, Eon priests urged Bassaridian communities in Corum and along the Strait to accept the constitutional prohibition on extraterritorial weapons as a necessary wintering of former habits—an hour in which old forms of power must be allowed to die so that lawful, corridor-based engagement could survive.
Within the broader theology of the Reformed Stripping Path, the Eon Fellowship is regarded as the archetypal “winter cult”: an order that insists every person, family, city, and state must pass through seasons of loss and scarcity if they hope to avoid decadence and collapse. Whether guiding caravans through blizzards above Nexa, auditing emergency stores in Ourid and Bashkim, standing beside fellow missionaries in wind-scoured New South Jangsong, or interpreting the Baratar scandal, Corum humanitarian corridors, and the elite austerities of the Bloodbaths of Laprind as parts of a larger cycle of reckoning and renewal, the Fellowship presents its work as continuous service to Glinos. In its teaching, to endure the winter well—without denial, panic, or cruelty—is itself an act of worship, and a necessary precondition for whatever spring the Host Spirit chooses to send next.
Mythology: The Hymn of Glinos
The Homeric Hymn to Glinos, composed by the Bassaridian playwright Eliyahu al-Bashir, tells the cautionary tale of Rhedan, a hunter whose pride drives him to attempt mastery over the frost. Hearing Rhedan’s boastful prayers, Glinos answers by unleashing the frost upon the forest, allowing Rhedan to feel the weight of winter’s power.
Unable to control the cold, Rhedan brings death to the forest he sought to dominate. In his remorse, he pleads with Glinos, who transforms him into the Pale Watcher, an eternal guardian of the forest’s cycles. The hymn serves as a warning against hubris and a reminder of the impartial power of nature.
This hymn is recited during the Frostfire Convergence and the Erev Galgal (Eve of Cycles), inspiring worshipers to honor the balance of life and death and the unyielding truth of winter’s embrace.
Worship and Festivals in Bassaridia Vaeringheim
Erev Galgal (Eve of Cycles)
Erev Galgal, observed on Thalassiel 44 in Nexa, is the central festival dedicated to Glinos, Divine of Ice and Winter. This celebration honors the eternal rhythm of life and death, reflecting Glinos’ role as the arbiter of renewal. The festival features processions where worshipers carry lanterns and symbolic objects representing the cycles of existence. Storytelling sessions recount tales of transformation and rebirth, while ceremonial fires illuminate the night, symbolizing the interplay of destruction and creation. Participants exchange symbolic gifts to embody the cycle of giving and receiving that defines the balance of life.
This festival highlights Glinos’ profound influence on the spiritual life of Nexa, blending themes of renewal, reflection, and harmony with the cycles of nature. It ensures that his teachings remain integral to the cultural and spiritual identity of the region, fostering a sense of connection between the divine and the natural world.
Epithets
Glinos is revered through epithets that capture his stoic power and connection to winter. He is known as the Frostfather, symbolizing his dominion over icy realms. As the Harbinger, he heralds the arrival of winter’s chill and the inevitability of transformation. Glinos is also called the Lord of the Frozen Veil, emphasizing his role as the guardian of the delicate balance between life and death.
Iconography and Depictions
Iconography and Depictions Glinos is often depicted as a towering, stoic figure shrouded in frost and snow, his form obscured by swirling ice crystals and wintry winds. He wields a staff adorned with frozen crystals, representing his mastery over winter’s forces.
Symbols associated with Glinos include the Snowflake, highlighting the delicate beauty of ice, and the Frost-Covered Tree, symbolizing the cycle of life and death. His loyal Deepwood Gloomwolves are frequently depicted at his side, signifying his connection to the wilderness and the spirits of winter.
Artistic representations of Glinos evoke his timeless presence and the profound mysteries of the frozen realm, inspiring worshipers to reflect on the resilience and beauty inherent in life’s eternal cycles.
