Frostmane

The beast emerged from the mist as if stitched from starlight itself, hooves leaving no mark in the snow. Its horn glinted like a frozen spear, and where its breath touched the air, icicles bloomed in midair. I dared not look it in the eyes, lest it see deeper into me than I wished to know

— Eldred Wayfarer, “Journeys at the Edge of the Grey”

The Frostmanes are spectral creatures glimpsed only rarely in the thickest mists, their forms glinting like starlight reflected on frozen water. Their crystal horns are rumored to pierce through both body and spirit. Though they carry an air of strange nobility, Frostmanes are not benevolent; they are judges, silent and unknowable. Ancient prayers scratched into crumbling stones speak of them leading the lost either to salvation or ruin — but the meaning of such rituals has long since faded. To see a Frostmane is to be changed, though none can say how or why.

Habitat

• Forgotten glades hidden within deep mist-shrouded valleys
• Sacred springs long frozen over by the mist
• Bound to the last living trees in a dead forest

References

When hope freezes in the heart of a dying soul, a Frostmane will come. But beware: it chooses not out of kindness, but necessity.

— From the heretical tome, “Songs of Silver Breath”