Edge

Edge
The Lore of the Knife, Bull
All conquest occurs at the Edge. One who dwells there is blind, and cannot be wounded. Another is strong, and grows stronger. [Edge is the principle of battle and of struggle.]
SUBVERTS
SUBVERTED BY
HOURS
The Colonel The Lionsmith The Wolf Divided
PRECURSOR
The Seven-Coils

'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 a 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.

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

• 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