The Whispering Plague
The Fel
Issued by High Keeper Sissel Freysdóttir av Ruric, on the 5th of Eiriksstanda, IAÁ 598, AGE OF DRAGONFYRE
PREAMBLE
Today, we confront a plague once proclaimed by High Keeper Arthas as the Second Dawning. Though his reign sought the eradication of the Fel, it can never be wholly excised. There is no Eldr without Edirt. Thus, we find the Faithful once more at risk, facing a perversion of creation. The High Hearth now sets into motion a renewed declaration of war against the Fel. As before, we have been exposed and infected, warped by unnatural presences and arcane forces that infest the tribe, like flesh-eating mites upon the soft skin of creation. Often, the Fel rewards its followers with oddities and power rather than mere discomfort. Yet, take heed: those who bear the Fel shall be consumed, alive or dead.
AND SO IT SHALL BE, BY THE WILL OF THE FATHER,
as Master of the Order of the First Flame, High Keeper of the Red Faith & the Flame Imperishable
Sissel av Freysdóttir Ruric,
As King of Norland, High Chieftain of the House of Ruric, Chieftain of the Clan Edvardsson, Jarl of Verdrfrad, Blood of the Herald & Lord of the Ashwood Throne, Protector of the Highlanders,
Haraldr av Edvardsson Ruric,
The Fel itself represents the quintessence of the Dark, made manifest within the corporeal reality of our realm.
The infection is not some form of malady or ailment of the flesh. It is not a consistent, obvious corruption, nor is it singular to one’s mind. Rather, it is an entire fundamental perversion of the natural order ordained by the Allfather within His grand purpose. Where the Father embodies creation and the epitome of justice and goodness itself, as evidenced by the sacred text of Dawning 1:10 and expounded upon in Aeyn’s Summae Patriae, the Fel is the true antithesis of these divine attributes.
CONTENTS
The Nature of the Fel
The Mechanism of Corruption
The Afflicted
Who is affected by the Fel
The Authority of Discernment and the Duty of the Faithful
The Imperative of Purification
The Keepers Sacred Mandate
The Ramifications
The Nature of the Fel
The contagion emerges from excessive exposure to the agents of the nefarious soldiers of the Dark, that tenebrous limbo in which nothing changes or grows, and stagnancy reigns for all eternity. It is the Dark’s insidious method of infiltrating our world, corrupting the Father’s children from within and transforming them into vectors of spiritual contagion. The infected become, whether knowingly or not, and often through tragic circumstance, agents of that which the AllFather forever battles in unending perpetuity. The Fel is like fragments of the dying abyss that have leaked into our realm, and none are beyond its reach. For this reason, the Fatherists must remain vigilant, as survival is inherently their responsibility.
The Mechanism of Corruption
Unlike the honest blade or the Father’s forthright flame, the Fel gradually appears upon one’s soul as a serpent lying in wait for its prey. Through deception and gradual subversion, it seeps its way into the guarded hearts and active minds of even the most Faithful. It is resistible through adherence to the Father’s tenets, yet its reach extends to all who falter in vigilance. When you think of plague, you think of the overt afflictions such as dysentery, a full attack upon one’s body, a weakening of the lungs, and soreness of bones and marrow alike. It is not something you seek, for it is indeed an illness that will latch itself onto anyone with a pulse. The Fel is much the same. However, with the Fel, it does not always spread by merely physical contact, but through the metaphysical taint that leeches upon the soul itself, as High Keeper Arthas so astutely recognised when he was first spoken to by the AllFather himself.
Those afflicted often fail to perceive that their connection to the Father’s light grows ever weaker. What once blazed as a glorious and unyielding flame, a portion of the Father’s soul and by virtue creation itself, now dwindles. Where an individual once bore this flame and illuminated a righteous path, now only a shadow remains, influencing every choice and aspect of mortal life. Such is the terrible efficacy of the Fel: it severs the infected from the source of all benevolence, rendering them incapable of true communion with the AllFather by his divine right. Many do not perceive how the cords tethering one’s soul to the Father are gradually cut, one by one. Those touched by the Fel share a lamentable kinship with Parian heretics, who through folly have severed themselves from the Father’s grace, though the Fel-infected may still bear the virtue of unwilling victimhood. Some are misled into thinking that mere honour will shield them.
The Afflicted
Sacred doctrine instructs us to recognise three categories of those touched by the Fel, each demanding distinct pastoral and martial responses.
The Salvageable: Those in the early stages of infection can be brought back through a deft return to the All Father’s light, drawn away from the precipice. Those souls that have been touched by the Fel but are not yet entirely consumed are redeemable. To effect a cure, they must be quarantined with all due speed and haste. The Hearth maintains this sacred duty not from sentimental weakness but from theological necessity, for each soul preserved is a victory against the Dark’s advance.
The Irredeemable: Those who have followed such a path beyond the threshold of any form of recovery, whose corruption has so thoroughly pervaded their flesh, marrow, soul, and mind that they become clear abominations to the Faith. These wretched creatures, though not always at fault through their own intent and sometimes victims of circumstance, have now become instruments bent to the Dark’s will. They cannot be simply left to the consequences of their sins, as such a doctrine of Tyrian belief would have us think. Such tolerance permits the contagion to spread among those most worthy, most pious, and most amenable to salvation itself.
The Willing Servants: These are those most perfidious of all. Those who, in full knowledge, embrace their condition with malice and in flagrant violation of the Father’s covenant, wield the Fel for temporal advantage. The edict concerning secular conflicts, written by Keeper Arthas, makes the All Father’s wish and will abundantly clear. Even now, the ardour of his holy command, an almost atavistic flame, continues to burn, carried with impelling fidelity from messenger to paper, its authority preserved by the mandate bestowed upon the writer. The fate of such apostates is clear: immediate expulsion from the Father’s embrace, enshrinement as anathema, and purification through the righteous flame.
Who Is Affected by the Fel
To approach the Fel as though it were a monolithic condition is to commit a grave error in both doctrine and praxis entrusted to the Faithful. The Fel defies any form of simplistic categorisation. It is neither white nor black, for it is not a singular affliction but rather a vast constellation of many collected corruptions. Like the branches of a malignant tree, grown neglected through the absence of Sól and Vatan, they bear no new sprouts, for they have been forsaken and deprived. What grows was once fruit, varying now only in its differing qualities of rot. The severity of the infection varies profoundly across individuals. Some rot is evident, the apple has fallen, and the maggots have set to feast. Others are slow, viscous, and lingering. And some still struggle for a lease on life, cursed to be sweet fruit yet taste so bitter. Sour. It is only the Keepers and the High King who possess the spiritual authority and acumen to determine the degree of one’s soul and affliction. Per evident Grendel Kith.
The Evidently Corrupted:
Certain afflictions announce themselves with unmistakable clarity. Those of Grendel Kith bear it within their dead flesh, and those of vampyric origin carry the plague as surely as the night follows day, for they are sustained by the vital essence of the Father’s children. Those touched by necromantic arts or bearing curses of sufficient magnitude harbour corruption that admits little doubt. In such cases, the Keeper’s discernment primarily concerns the severity of infection rather than its presence.
Practitioners of the Arcane:
Mages and sorceresses present more nuanced considerations. Those drawing upon the Void and other Ruinous Powers often engage in dealings with the agents of the Dark. Yet the degree of corruption varies substantially based on the nature of their practice, its duration, and their overall involvement. A naive youth experimenting with minor cantrips differs profoundly from a wytch who has spent decades consorting with infernal entities. Likewise, not all those touched by the arcane are unsalvageable from the Father’s holy flame while still living as His creation.
The Ostensibly Untouched:
The Fel does not speak solely of wretched Etir or arcane practitioners. Like all illnesses, it is multifaceted. The ostensibly untouched are among the most insidious cases, wherein men and women bearing no evident contact with arcane forces nonetheless become willing servants of malice. Pride, avarice, and wrath are the fundamental corridors that enable the Dark to enter one’s heart. Not all require tomes or grimoires to become agents of the Long Dark. The systematic violation of the Father’s tenets, pursued with sufficient persistence and willful blindness, can itself be a form of the Fel and its infection. It does not require study. It requires pure malice seated within the soul. This truth underscores the Tenets and their importance. The draw toward corruption is an inherent flaw of the mortal condition, and those who surrender to it, whether through arcane practice or simple moral degradation, become vulnerable as vectors for the Dark’s influence.
Considerations for Discernment:
A Keeper must consider the weight of an individual’s soul under adversity and hardship. A Keeper must understand the following:
The Nature of Exposure: Was the contact voluntary or involuntary? Deliberate or accidental, sustained or momentary?
The Degree of Knowledge: Did the individual understand the weight of trafficking with the Dark’s influence? Were they deceived by false doctrine and dulled of mind, or did they fall in full awareness of transgression?
The State of the Soul: Does evidence suggest a capacity for genuine repentance? Can the connection to the AllFather’s divine light be restored, or has it been irreparably severed?
The Practical Risk: Does this individual, regardless of culpability, pose an active threat to the Faithful of the AllFather’s community? Would tolerance of their continued presence facilitate the spread of corruption?
The Temporal Context: In times of relative peace, more extensive efforts toward cure and rehabilitation may be required as necessary. During periods of crisis, such as the present surge, which bears parallels only to the Second Dawning, does immediate and decisive action become justified?
The Authority of Enlightenment and Duty of the Faithful
By the power invested in the Keepers of the Holy Hearth, we bear the sole authority to render judgment upon the afflicted regarding the presence and severity of Fel infection. Yet we acknowledge the faithful tribe’s sacred duty to defend themselves and their kin against manifest threats. Equally, the tribe must remain mindful and must not allow their blades to dull upon those who are the embodiment of the Long Dark and its creation. If it smells like death and looks like death, kill it.
When confronted by creatures of evident corruption, such as attacking Grendel kith or rampaging abominations whose nature admits no doubt, the faithful must act in immediate defence of life. Let sagacity and a thoughtful mind prevail before judgment is rendered, even when slaying those of evident threat. However, all cases requiring discernment of the presence of infection, its severity, or the appropriate response must be brought before the Keepers for proper judgment. Vigilante purification without Keeper sanction is strictly forbidden, for it undermines the very mechanism through which the Father has chosen to order His Hearth militant and risks the burning of the innocent, a violation of righteousness itself. A Keeper can discern whether rehabilitation is possible at all.
The people of the AllFather’s realm have a duty to expel the darkness, but such a duty must be exercised with wisdom. For death, for most, is irreversible, and to burn the salvageable is to grant victory to the Dark, just as surely as tolerating the irredeemable.
The Imperative of Purification
The peace of fire and burning represents not mere punishment. It is mercy, bestowed upon the afflicted and, perhaps, upon the faithful as well. It is why, when we suspend the condemned upon the Ashwood, their bodies are soon entombed in heat, as life drains away and breath becomes a choking struggle, if the noose has not already snapped the neck. This is a moment of mercy, granted both to the afflicted and to the faithful of His devout community.
Firstly, this rite separates the corrupted soul from its tainted flesh and provides even the most far-gone victims a singular opportunity, in the moment between life and death, to accept the Father’s light into their heart before entering the halls beyond or falling into the abyss. For the AllFather is the embodiment of all that is good and justice incarnate. Even He understands that those among us may stray from His path. The cleansing flame strips away mortal corruption, allowing the soul to stand fully bare before His divine judgment.
Secondly, and of equal importance, purification protects the greater masses of the faithful tribe from contamination. The Fel spreads not merely through intention but also through proximity to its agents. It does not always reveal its corruption immediately. To allow the corrupted to persist among us is to invite the Dark into our very Hearth, into the places where Mothers and Fathers raise their children and Elders retire, if they are not granted the honour of dying with sword in hand. To seat corruption among us is to allow it to spread like a slow-moving river carrying true plague. From such a source, all are made unclean. This is a violation of the first tenet, “Suffer not the Unworthy.” For too long, the tribe has compromised sacred precincts where the Father’s presence dwells within the Hearthflames we keep.
Thirdly, the act of purification demonstrates to the AllFather that, in a time when the faithless have never been so apparent, we yet remain bound to the Father’s Grand Purpose. To shrink from such duty is sacrilege. To permit tolerance to supersede righteousness is to embody the very sin of unworthiness that the first tenet explicitly forbids. Tolerance has rightly been named cowardice. And tolerance is unworthiness. To know one’s duty as a Fatherist and to recoil from it out of fear, fear of discomfort or fear of upheaval, is the height of clerical failure, a failure we have only recently committed.
The Keepers Sacred Mandate
As Keepers of the Hearth, we derive our spiritual authority from our custody of the Hearthflame, the flamebrand, that portion of the Father's very essence entrusted into a Keeper's care. We are not called 'Keepers' through simple nomenclature, but because we have a portion of the divine harvested within our grips. A Keeper without a flame possesses no more sacred authority than any common layman; indeed, such a one is reduced to a madman bereft of their office.
It follows inexorably that our responsibility regarding the Fel admits no means of compromise. We must move forward:
Pursue the Cure with Unflagging Diligence: Those of the Hearth and its clergy and Fatherists among will maintain the commitment to discovering all means of redemption for those lost to the Fel and its plague upon the tribe of Norland in stages of salvageable infection. This research serves the Father's Grand Purpose. And as his rightful protectors upon the mortal coil, we must dedicate all we have to reclaiming any souls from the dark grasp of the abyss and oblivion.
Maintain Rigorous Quarantine: Those who possess the potential for a cure must be removed with deft speed and zero hesitation from the tribe in action. Absolute discipline must be adhered to. Laxity in quarantine periods serves neither the infected nor the faithful in mind, body and soul. It merely ensures that both shall fall to corruption.
Administer the Peace of Fire Without Hesitation: When confronted with the irredeemable or those of a willing apostate, we must act with decisive clarity. The purifying of the flame serves both mercy and justice, and to withhold it is to fail in our most fundamental duty.
Root Out Fel-Trafficking with Extreme Intolerance: The recent surge of the Fel infection is quite parallel to the one Arthas once witnessed. And so it is more imperative than ever, by the declaration of the Second Dawning, that we demonstrate our vigilance. Those who would employ the Fel for advantage in secular conflicts violate not merely the prohibition against fratricidal warfare, but the very structure of covenant with the Father and his Holy flame and spirit.
The Ramifications
We, the Fatherist faithful, must never lose sight of the ultimate consequence of growing complacent to the Fel. The consequence of failure is that this most holy and sacred struggle is most dire. The Father battles eternally against the Long Dark. A limbo where nothing can thrive or wither. A cycle of perpetual consistency that threatens to bring the end of days to the mortal realm as we know it. Consumed to an eternal tenebrous nothingness. Should the Fel continue to spread unchecked, we fail to raise our torches to illuminate the darkness and expose these grievous agents of the Long Dark; we do not merely fail our contemporaries: we hasten the arrival of the end itself. The Infected Fel are not just victims of a terrible affliction. They are the essence of soldiers upon battlements fighting against our Allfathers' shield wall. This is why our response must be comprehensive and unyielding. Rooted in unshakeable certainty rather than the shifting sands of pragmatic accommodation.
Let no singular false mercy still our warriors' hand. Let no doctrine of tolerance or those of corrupt purpose infiltrate. The Fel must be opposed at every turn through cure where possible, through quarantine where necessary. And when no other option presents itself. Holy Purification. We serve the Father in life, and if afforded such. Death. It is our sacred privilege that we continue to pass the Hearth flame to those of future bairn and kin alike.
AND SO IT SHALL BE, BY THE WILL OF OUR ALLFATHER,
HER EMINENCE, Sissel Freysdóttir av Ruric,
Master of the Order of the First Flame, High Keeper of the Red Faith & the Flame Imperishable
HIS MAJESTY, Haraldr Sigmar Haakonsson,
King of Norland, High Chieftain of the House of Ruric, Jarl of Vjardengrad & the Lowmarch, Blood of the Herald & Lord of the Ashwood Throne, Protector of the Highlanders
titles, descending from greatest to lowest
