Way of the Warrior Saints/Saint Jaynke

Saint Jaynke was little known in his lifetime. It is said that he wandered wide across the lands, an archer dressed all in black, quietly performing the evil work of a mercenary assassin for a cruel liege. His cold heart knew no love, nor mercy, nor hope. All he knew was that the Order of Things was to be respected above all.

While hunting a man who had fled to the north during an exceptionally cold winter, Jaynke became lost in the frozen wastes. He struggled endlessly through the snow, gradually losing his ears, his nose, and all his fingers to frostbite, so that he could only use his bow by drawing the string with his bloodied teeth. Near starvation, he was attacked by bears, mauled brutally and left for dead, sinking to the bottom of an ice-covered lake.

For seven days, Jaynke lay awake and dead in the waters. He stared at the ice above and felt the torment and pain of the freezing lake, as things in the deep scavenged morsels of his icy corpse. The pain was maddening, and on the seventh day, Jaynke was lost to this world.

His mind raced across space and time, to edge of the firmament of the Gods, and was exposed to the horrors of What Lay Beyond. At the End of All Things, he saw the Father of Earth and Stones rising from his holy slumber. He saw the ravages of the Second Cataclysm to come, and knew that order must be preserved above all things, and at any cost.

When he rose, he was whole again, and walked out of the lake with a bow made from the bones of a Black Leviathan. From that day forth, he was called The Saint Tormented, and he spread his dark visions to those who were brave enough to hear them.

Jaynke hates all other Saints, and it said that he will be the Betrayer at the End of Days, refusing to fight with the Great Father, whom he fears above all.

His form is that of an Archer dressed entirely in black, with rotten black flesh and icy, frozen eyes.

He has no followers, as such, for he is too cruel and malignant a Saint for true worship, and there are no temples nor churches devoted to him. Most devout men eschew even the very mention of Jaynke, but there are also an untold number who have found banned copies of his works and been enlightened by his dire prophecies of the Impending Doom Unending. Many who have read his Book of the War of the End of the World believe that his revelations of the End of All Things are the only true telling. These Believers in the True Doom strive towards maintaining order and rigid control of the masses, for if chaos and anarchy reign over the world the Great Father shall awaken and his cruel chastisement will be beyond reckoning.

When a winter is especially cruel, the peasants call it "Jaynke's Vengeance".

Notable Scripture

"The man that draws nigh to death is the man to be trusted, if any." (The Cold Embrace, Saying 28)

"Kings do not freeze, but hold in them a frozen memory." (The Cold Embrace, Saying 31)

"Three feet of snow will make a man consider his friendships. Ten leagues of ice will make him forget." (The Cold Embrace, Saying 112)