Edge

*The Lore of the Knife, Bull*

## HOURS

* The Lionsmith
* The Wolf Divided

## PRECURSOR

 *'Cunning may answer Strength, Strength may answer Cunning, but how might we answer Agony?'*
 *'The Mark of Defiance'*

****Edge**** is one of the Principles of the invisible arts. It is the violence of battle, the aspect of cunning, strength, conflict, and pain.

## Themes and Imagery

 *'When our ancestors forged swords, taught the arts of martial movement, spoke curses on the eve of battle - all these things shared certain patterns.'*
 *'A Knife's Secret'*

****Edge**** is commonly associated with conflict and strife, as well as all that entails and surrounds violence such as war, murder or bloodlust. It can be used to summon various spirits - commonly of a more violent vein, murder or assassinate targets, or overcome hostile encounters. It is also the primary aspect for all weapons or tools of violence, such as guns, though knives in particular are especially significant to **Edge**.

However, the struggles of Edge go beyond simply war and combat, as explored in the Exile legacy of *Cultist Simulator*. One of its core components is the **Corrivality**, also called the Strife Imperishable. The Corrivality represents opposition and contention in all its forms, from the winds blowing through trees and the jostling of crowds to the greater machinations of all the Hours and the wars between their servants. The ultimate purpose and nature of the Corrivality is presented differently depending on the Edge Hour involved, from an engine propelling the course of the world forward under the Colonel to a wildfire which consumes all in its wake through the Wolf Divided.

Notably, ****Edge**** seems to be an principle associated with the opposition to Worms, given that the two of the three main ****Edge**** Hours take action against Worms; the Lionsmith is said to crush them, and the Colonel guards the Worm Museum, so as to not let the Worms there escape.

## Ascension

 *'My service ends in death, or in the resolution of strengths.'*
 *'Exaltation to Assassin'*

The principal element of an ****Edge**** ascension is the Corrivality manifested through eternal conflict between the ****Edge**** Hours, and their corresponding servants/followers. In order to achieve immortality under the mantle of an ****Edge**** Hour, one must become involved in the Corrivality in a manner of enough significance to be noticed and vouched for by the Hour in question, "locking" yourself into the World's processes of strife. Due to the necessity for a worthy adversary in order to significantly participate in the Corrivality, most ****Edge**** Long ascend in pairs called "**Edge** dyads", in which both parties ascend under their respective Hour (not necessarily a different one) to continue their rivalry in Longhood. The Horned-Axe attempts to prevent the ascension of these ****Edge**** dyads, since she 'prefers separation' while the dyads are a union.

## Subversion

 *'I've shattered what was shaped.'*
 *'Force Conquers All'*

In Cultist Simulator, **Edge** subverts Forge. As the Lionsmith learned when shattering his sword before the Colonel, all things can be overcome with sufficient force. The transformation of the Forge first requires destruction, and **Edge** is a power which may facilitate that destruction.

**Edge** itself is subverted by Winter, in a process reminiscent of the Colonel in his struggle with the Lionsmith, of patience overcoming strength (or possibly the Horned-Axe's opposition to the **Edge** Principle in general). It also reflects the inevitable conclusion of conflict – death.

## Hours

 *'The Colonel and the Lionsmith are gods-who-were-flesh, but the Wolf-Divided is a god-who-was-blood. Cunning, Strength and Agony are the three roots of victory, and here is their secret doctrine...'*
 *'The Mysteries of Force'*

* **The Colonel:** One of the primary Hours in The Corrivality, the Colonel represents the "Cunning" aspect of the Edge triarchy. Utterly scarred, blind and deaf, The Colonel personifies the cutthroat aspect of war, as well as the desire to preserve the status quo and repress revolution.

* **The Lionsmith:** The other half of The Corrivality, the Lionsmith represents the "Strength" aspect of the triarchy. Unwoundable and unscarrable, the Lionsmith personifies war as a valorous, romantic pursuit; he also desires constant revolution and the strife that comes with it, drowning the world in the fires of change.

* **The Wolf Divided:** The third, and perhaps more distant, part of the Corrivality; the Wolf represents the "Agony" aspect of the triarchy. In constant pain and hatred, the Wolf desires to consume all - effectively battling existence itself.

## Other Entities and Followers

 *'Where warriors fall, the many-winged striges gather to honour their flesh. Where heroes fall, the Many-Winged Ones gather to convey their souls before the Hours.'*
 *'An Operation of the Strix'*

* **Biedde:** A Name of the Colonel, in some accounts said to be a surgeon-highwayman from the 18th century. His name may be the bastardisation of the word “mosquito” in Arabic, and his blade is able to cause grievous wounds that do not stop bleeding until healed.

* **Quirinus:** A Roman god sometimes considered to be the deified form of Rome's founder, Romulus. Quirinus is also used as an epithet of the two-faced god Janus. He is a Name of the Colonel that can be encountered in the Exile legacy, wielding a two-headed spear and imparting wisdom upon the player.

* **Menhit:** A Nubian war goddess, who was also a lioness-goddess. She can be encountered in the Exile legacy at the Lionsmith’s shrines, where she may provide a revelation.

* **Striges:** Also called Many-Winged Ones, striges are **Edge** Names who gather around fallen warriors, who they honor by consuming their flesh and bringing their souls to the Hours of the Corrivality. They can be encountered at shrines to both the Colonel and the Lionsmith which puts them in a strange position of serving two (or none) Hours at once.

* **Wolf-Splinters:** Prowling spirits of grey malice who are lesser Name-emanations of the Wolf Divided.

* **Maids-in-the-Mirror:** The Dead who pass the test of the Ascent of Knives enter the service of the Sun-in-Rags through the Peacock Door. They are said to favor orchids, and in the Apostle Entheate Legacy assist in gathering Witnesses. Although primarily associated with Winter, Maids-in-the-Mirror are said to possess a "keen cruelty", and their birthplace, the Ascent of Knives, is notoriously agonizing to traverse.

* **Histids:** A category of servants belonging to the Colonel, who appear to use darts made from skaptodon’s teeth, a technique they taught to the Tragulari.

* **Skaptodons:** A type of monster with feline characteristics made by the Lionsmith, who have a long lifespan and are hard to kill. The teeth and claws of fallen skaptodons are shaped into weapons by servants of the Lionsmith, and the Tragulari and Histids of the Colonel tip their darts with skaptodon teeth. A skaptodon that eats things not found in the earth will degenerate into a human-like form.

* **Labhites:** The youngest of the Lionsmith's servants, known for their potency and beauty. Where skaptodons must eat things from the earth, labhites can only consume things from the sky, or else they lose their power. One corrupted by Echidna’s milks can be encountered in the Exile legacy in the form of a human.

* **The Merry Feaster:** One of the Lionsmith’s less dignified works, a monster lurking in the sewers of Aachen and consuming drunks and soldiers. Lalla Chaima asks for the player’s assistance in hunting the beast in the Exile Legacy.

* **The Unnumbered Legion:** A secret army that protected Rome from the Shadowless Empire, whose Legate answered to the Colonel.

* **The Tragulari:** Also known as Dartsmen, the Tragulari are immortal-hunters who learned from the Colonel’s Histids. They were thought to be wiped out by a group called the Troissaint Company, though not in every History it seems.

* **Shattered Risen:** A type of undead animated for a time by a rending force, raised from a corpse by the Colonel.

* **Antaios:** A great enemy of the Lionsmith, known as Antaios the Opponent, the Son of Earth. The Lionsmith respects his great enemies, though, and so the initiates of the Antaeum, who revere the Lionsmith, also venerate Antaios. The player in the Exile legacy and the Foe are both Antaeans, Blood of the Earth, which is said to mean a descent from the Flint and the Wheel as well, and the Exile’s mother was an initiate to the Antaeum.

* **Duffoure:** A Reckoner Lord of the occult underworld who had dealings with the Colonel, though he discouraged his mobs from visiting his shrines and largely stayed independent of the affairs of the Hours. While not a true immortal, Duffoure dealt in Stolen Years, which helped him maintain his youth and strength, and was an Antaean, “the Blood of the Earth”. He is the Foe of the player in the Exile Legacy, as well as their father, and likely the father of Teresa Galmier. Information about Teresa’s parents describe him as “an itinerant French-Italian noble remittance man.”

* **Lalla Chaima:** A Berber woman who hunts monsters in the name of the Colonel, who can be recruited as an ally in the Exile legacy. Her father Navil, a servant of the Lionsmith, can also be encountered.

## Other Notes

* **Edge** is counted among the Apollonian Principles, meaning that it is an aspect tied to reason and the upper levels of the House, alongside Lantern, Forge, and Winter.
* **Edge** was an aspect added later in the development of Cultist Simulator, with the first Hour conceptualized for it becoming the Colonel before the later addition of the Lionsmith and the Wolf-Divided.

## Sources

1. ↑ Summon a creature of the Sun-in-Rags?
2. ↑ Summon a thing from behind mirrors?
3. ↑ Ending an Annoyance
4. ↑ The Watcher's End
5. ↑ Profane Weapon
6. ↑ WF8: The Lionsmith
7. ↑ The Third Mark of Defiance
8. ↑ The Fourth Mark of Defiance
9. ↑ Ascencion Colonel
10. ↑ Ascencion Wolf
11. ↑ Read 'The Tantra of Worms'
12. ↑ The Worm Museum (influencewinterg)
13. ↑ The Corrivality (2), The Corrivality (4), The Corrivality (7)
14. ↑ An Immortal Enmity?
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 An Immortal Enmity (Colonel)
An Immortal Enmity (Lionsmith)
An Immortal Enmity (Wolf)
16. ↑ The Foe is said to serve the Colonel and that doesn't prevent Exile in ascending under the Colonel as well
17. ↑ At the Fane of Owls
18. ↑ Subvert the Lore which Burns
19. ↑ All Things End
20. ↑ Respects the Colonel
21. ↑ Biedde's Blade and Biedde's Blade (Exile), Biedde's Lesson
22. ↑ Make a Pilgrimage to an Iron Shrine, for a Revelation
23. ↑ Make a Pilgrimage to a Brazen Shrine, for a Revelation
24. ↑ An Operation of the Strix
25. ↑ Celebrate my Victory, Make a Pilgrimage to an Iron Shrine, Make a Pilgrimage to a Brazen Shrine
26. ↑ An Act of Sabotage!, Defending the Great Work
27. ↑ Summon a servant of the Sun-in-Rags, Maid-in-the-Mirror, Send a Maid-in-the-Mirror to lure a Witness
Read Poemander's 'On What is Contained by Silver'
28. ↑ Mantra of Ascent
29. ↑ The Ascent of Knives (influenceedgee)
30. ↑ An Operation of the Histid
31. ↑ Histid's Dart
32. ↑ Skaptodon Fang,Skaptodon's Sacrifice, Histid's Dart, Skaptodon Tomb
33. ↑ Labhitic Grains, Fallen Labhite
34. ↑ The Merry Feaster's Lair, Arrange an Initial Meeting, #contact.huntress sections
35. ↑ Read 'Book of True Blood'
36. ↑ The Dart in the Dark, The Victory of Crowns and Study the 'Victory of Crowns', by 'Arun'
37. ↑ Call on the Cartographer of Scars to raise a corpse to half-life, Shattered Risen
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Kinship
39. ↑ Antaeum, In the Antaeum
40. ↑ Only the Best
41. ↑ Shrine: Colonel
42. ↑ Arrange an Initial Meeting, #contact.retainer sections
43. ↑ Inquisitions for the Demiurge, Discord Follower Count Lore Snippets
44. ↑ Lalla Chaima, the Huntress, A Reunion