Hilvi the Rime-Called

<i>‘My fellow scholars, I put it to you that the unsolved mystery of <color=#774418>Tormin the Cold</color> is an indictment of our scholarly traditions and Dwarven pride. Strange, powerful, wondrous things lie hidden where Tormin once trod, far in the north. We cannot shrink from the perils of the unknown, and let the truth of Tormin’s fate vanish into the snowy shroud of historical uncertainty. We must act!’ – Hilvi, before she was the 'Rime-called'</i> * Hilvi was a scholar of Gloomdeep Hold who became obsessed with the story of Tormin the Cold. She set off on an expedition to the Winterlands to uncover the truth, bearing a magical torch-staff enchanted with a flame that neither water nor wind could extinguish. In Port Wraith, Hilvi heard tales from gossips and grand-dams of Tormin’s passage through town on his way towards the northernmost wastelands, and she followed in his footsteps. Time lost its meaning to her beneath a sun that never set. The unchanging bleak white emptiness and endless howl of the wind gnawed at her sanity. After unknown days of arduous progress she came upon a great mountain range, and made her way through them via a low pass. Beyond the mountains she beheld a vast expanse of glacial ice as clear as crystal glass. She was struck with awe and approached the glacier as though in a trance. She placed a shivering hand upon the glimmering ice and, as with Tormin before her, the magic of the Great Glacier touched Hilvi and changed her forevermore. Rime and frost crawled across her flesh and bored to her bones, and even the enchanted flame of her staff transformed instantly to eldritch, frozen fire. Words, spells, images, and concepts flooded into Hilvi’s mind. She saw Tormin being transfigured just as she had, and the Dwarf’s subsequent triumph over his ancestral forge and his crafting of magical frost-armor. Knowledge of the ‘Waters of Life’ was embedded in her consciousness, and she beheld the <color=#774418>Arbiter</color>, in ages long past, wielding her magic to freeze them for eternity, forming the Great Glacier that she now stood before. The voice of the Arbiter echoed in Hilvi’s mind, telling her that the Glacier had chosen her, and called her to service in a time of dire need. The Fae prince, <color=#774418>Loki the Deceiver</color>, the Arbiter had lately learned, was gathering allies in a bid to free the Fire Knight. He intended to use its power to melt the Great Glacier, unseal the Waters of Life, and unleash chaos upon Teleria – Hilvi then beheld a vision of a possible future, a surge of new and terrifying monsters pouring forth from the north and ravaging the world. Hilvi was frightened and shocked by her transformation and the irrevocable change in the course of her life. But she wished to help the Arbiter any way she could, and was deeply excited by the chance to learn more of the deepest secrets of the world directly from the most ancient being still residing in Teleria. She swore her service, but in truth she had made that choice when she touched the Glacier – if she had not been prepared to devote her life to her cause, the Glacier would never have infused her with its power.