Rime, Salt, and Dim Fathom

If you hold this tome in your hand, know that you are committing an act forbidden. Swiftly close it and place it back in the annex from which it has been stolen, or else destroy it, as I have already torn down every library of Jeimr that I could find. This knowledge is not meant for you, nor for any whom live today. What is known in these libraries will seem to you only superficial, facts of history and magic, but you will misunderstand them and -- perhaps worse -- misuse them. The truth of this knowledge requires meditation on a time scale that you annot fathom, and with the extinction of my age, no being survives that is apable of devoting it the time it needs. Put the tome back. Close it. Do not read on. Put it back.

-This article is transcribed from a tone stolen from a secret library of The Ebon Aquil, one of the Fabled Compendiums of Sof Sator. It contains uncommon, forbidden, or even dangerous knowledge.-

Some strange thing is growing in the minds of the Littorn tribes in the moores and cliffs on the East of the continent. We investigated this in response to a birth we sensed in the sea southeast of Jeimr. The Soothsayers awoke in horror at the song of the birth, something reverberating in the roots of the mountain that ran beneath the sea. The Masters of the Canticle themselves flew to the sea to witness the darkness there, the newborn creature that sang against the ocean floor. It lives strangely, possessed of three distinct minds that seemed at any moment ready to split and run away from another, one great body already tearing itself apart, arms numbering a thousand times a thousand and uncountable eyes that shook either in dream or siezure. Its song was so loud that the Masters of the Canticle immediately fled from its vicinity. There is nothing that can be done about it. The thing exists now. It is part of the world.
But from whence was it born? Seeking the progenitor song led the Canticle to a Littorn tribe on the frozen shore, where they sang and told stories of elemental spirits with such fervor that the spirts stirred awake and answered. Perhaps we should have paid more attention to these creatures. So like the Alpin who serve and adore us here in Jeimr, these Littorn speak and sing with power, but they are strange. They are hunched, crawling, climbing versions of our companions, each completely bald but for their head, their tails thin and barbed. They are carnivours. They are primitive. We did not think them worthy of such creation, or such communion.
The primal spirits they sing of were three in number, three in name, three in song, yet one in faith. In describing these, I may say that these are dieities or gods of a particular domain, or that they dwell in that domain, but to the Littorn tribe on this shore these are literal beings. Rime is literally embodied by the ice and snow. Salt is literally embodied by the surface of the sea. Dim Fathom is the depths of the ocean itself, an intellect with a body of such size, weight, and darkness that the Littorn believe it spans the world in all directions.

Historian's Note

In our modern age, we have to come to understand the Littorn, Alpin, and Sollin as variants of the anthral species. To the Aquil who called themselves the Vedrfol, however, the Littorn and Alpin were seen as two distinct species. The Littorn tribe being described here is not attested in any anthral histories, but faith in Rime, Salt, and Dim Fathom endures among Ayqir inhabitants among Vont, who are Alpin. There are differing theories to account for this inconsistency. One is that these Littorn are descendants of the Rhyqir of the Aegis Mountains, and would migrate there after passing on their faith to the modern Ayqir. Another is that an unknown Littorn tribe coexisted with the Ayqir in Vont for a time, only to later fade into immemorial history.

Rime

These Littorn live unnatural lives on this frozen coastline. Even we Vedrfol would be hard-pressed to survive such cold, though I imagine the Tercaelo would be well at home. The Littorn live with only fire to keep them warm and stone to hide behind, which would require a tenacious stubborness that will almost inevitably lead to religious reinforcement. Elemental animism is not unexpected. These people came to worship the cold, ice, and hoarfrost that surrounds them, naming it Rime and singing to appease it. The Canticle has noted that Rime is not a deity worshipped out of love and appreciation, but out of a desire to inspire mercy in its otherwise pitiless demeanor. There is a nuance to some of the songs, however, which implies that if the intellect named Rime did not exist to control the cold, then the weather would rage out of control and the Littorn would be destroyed.

Salt

The name given to the elemental spirit that controls the surface of the sea is "Salt." This is distinguished from the depths of the sea. The songs describe the waves and tides as being under Salt's domain, and requiring Salt's agreement to sail and fish, as well as to enact the practice of separating the salt from the water to supply their tribal settlements with the resultant fresh water and the salt required for preparing food. Their language does have slightly different words used for the deity they name Salt and the salt they use in their food, but they are closely attached, so there is clearly a connection. The Canticle proposed that Salt may also serve as a deity of food and sustenance, presiding over fish and preservation of foodstuffs the way a more developed society's harvest gods preside over wheat.

Dim Fathom

The strangest of the deities worshipped by these Littorn, Dim Fathom is the name of an intellect that is embodied by the unknown depths of the ocean. The Littorn believe it dwells beneath everything, even beneath the land, perceiving Sof Sator as floating atop an ocean of unthinkable depth, and that this is ocean is very much alive and aware. The Canticle records an unsettling darkness to the songs about Dim Fathom, that they are driven by fear and anxiety in a way that even Rime's songs are not. Dim Fathom seems to double as a deity of the unknown, which can include darkness, death, and nightmare. The Littorn do not seem to treat Dim Fathom as malicious, however; it does not seem that Dim Fathom is a deliberately harmful or malevolent spirit. It is, however, dangerous, and of Dim Fathom the songs are very few and very short. They seem reluctant to draw its attention, yet unwilling to avoid it entirely.
As with Rime and Salt, there is the implication that communion with Dim Fathom is mandatory to maintain a healthy relationship with its natural element. If Dim Fathom were completely abandoned, were not present, or did not intercede on the behalf of the Littorn, those things which Dim Fathom oversees would be loosed of all control and turn to destruction. One can only imagine what terror this must inspire in the Littorn when they imagine that some lethally extreme version darkness, death, and nightmare exists, held back only by the fickle attentions of a diety they fear to acknowledge.

In Conclusion...

These animistic deities are entirely the creation of Littorn myth, born from the tribe's fear of their environment and their inability to fully understand the complications of their brief existence. Yet here is the mystery: the being born in the frozen southern seas is very much the product of these deities. The songs the Littorn sing resonate with something in nature, whether it is a thing inherent in the environment or something that the Littorn have accidentally introduced. The Canticle attested to this in their investigations: there are distinct notes inherent to the magic of Sof Sator that carry the notes the Littorn sing. It is unlikely that this is a thing with any awareness, or anything that we would call a being, an intellect, or a sapioforme, but instead is some natural phenomenon. An energy, and nothing more.
Yet this inherent quality of the world did, somehow, birth an unaccountable, bizarre kind of life in the sea. This thing, whatever it is, is the child of those things which these Littorn sing with. The Canticle has begun investigations into the other Littorn tribes throughout the mountains, valleys, and saltwater moors in this part of the world. In the meantime, it falls to us to decide what to do about this act of creation. If this unexpected combination of magic is capable of bringing about such unaccountable beings in the fathoms, it would be best if we stopped this before it went any further.
-Advisor to the Founders
Circa 1500 U.C., around 2600 years ago

Historian's Note
Needless to say, no such being exists in modern day, nor is any such being attested to in the histories of any anthral nation. The sea south of Vont, known today as the Eating Sea, offers no such evidence of any act of magical creation, nor any evidence of any being, living or dead, that could be that which is here described.