Heart

'The heart moves; the world moves.'

- Pounding Airs

Heart is one of the Principles of the invisible arts, named after the Heart Relentless. It is the aspect of life, ceaseless motion, protection, and preservation.

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Themes and Imagery

'There are common sentiments in every thunderclap. - Let us acknowledge them.''

- A Thunderous Secret

The Principle of Heart is most commonly represented through music (particularly drums) and dance, expressions of vitality and motion.[1] Storms, thunder, and the sea are also common symbols, as the Heart Hours contend to stir and quell these forces.[2] The aspect is commonly used to heal and invigorate the body and can also ward against a variety of perils both natural and supernatural.[3][4]

Despite Heart’s focus on life and protection, the Principle can be as dangerous as any other. Common themes of its rituals include flaying and other forms of brutal sacrifice, and its servants often express manic, obsessive tendencies. Those who take up Heart’s vigil do not cease, and interruptions to their work are rarely excused. [5][6]

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Ascension

'In the vision the trunks of the pines are lit by the fire but the shadows of the dancers come and go in a zoetrope flicker. With each stroke of the drum I am freed from another slip of skin, but it is not St Agnes who holds the knife, and at last I can bear no more and all the pent screams burst from me.'

- A Vision of the Pines

In the Dancer DLC of Cultist Simulator, the player can choose to pursue the dances of the New Form, the Heart variant of the Change Ascension.[7] This involves venturing out in various animal shapes to learn seven lessons of Change from the Hours, culminating in a final performance and sacrifice with the Flaying Key to join the dance of the Thunderskin in the Mansus.[8][9] It is unclear whether this is the “standard” method of ascension for Heart-Long, or even if the player becomes a true Long from this process, though they do pass the Tricuspid Gate.

Subversion

'Even in the snow, in the silence, in the white without colours, life will never quite cease.'

- Subvert the Ragged Lore

In Cultist Simulator, Heart subverts Winter, and the two principles are often interpreted as opposites. Winter is the aspect of death and endings while Heart embodies life and eternity. Though Winter may fall upon the earth, Spring inevitably returns, as does life in the wake of death.[10]

Heart itself is subverted by Grail, for the Heart is Blood’s Drum, as life succumbs to hunger and desire.[11][12] The Thunderskin itself was once a Name of the Red Grail, who orchestrated his sacrifice and ascension in part to challenge the Twins for dominion over the aspect. The Twins also served the Red Grail before growing too powerful.[13]

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The Hours

'The Grail ripped the Thunderskin from flesh. The Sister-and-Witch was born from two wombs. The Velvet woke when the Wood-roots tasted blood. The Heart is Blood's Drum, and here is its secret doctrine....'

- The Unceasing Mysteries

• The Thunderskin: The Heart Relentless beats to protect the skin of the world, and so the aspect of protection and preservation is named after him. The Thunderskin is the beating of the drum, the beating of thunder, the beating of the heart, the Hour of storms, dance, and eternity.
• The Witch-and-Sister/Sister-and-Witch: Before the Thunderskin, the Twins ascended, lovers united even beyond life. They are Hours of the moon and the sea, of unity and dissolution. Of their two faces, the Sister is stronger in Heart, a healer who ensures their survival.
• The Velvet: Though some may yearn for the Light of the Glory, the Velvet is content to dwell in the darkness of the Wood. She expresses Heart as an old Hour of the earth that guards against the forces of Nowhere, and those who find her may also find shelter and safety.
• The Ring-Yew: An old and fecund Hour of the Wood, the Ring-Yew represents Heart as a god of fertility and rebirth. She is a wild Hour of nature, full of restlessness and whimsy, who can sustain those who call upon her through the most harrowing of ordeals.
• The Lionsmith: Strong and seamless, the Lionsmith is full of courage as well as rage, waging an eternal war of rebellion. He embodies Heart through perseverance and endurance, a maker of monsters who embraces any challenge.
• The Wheel (?): Once there was a Wheel that turned beneath the Sun, though now it turns only beneath the Moon. The Wheel was the old protector of the world, an Hour of eternal change, the thunder-king whose skin was stolen by the Moth, though some fragment of its power and duties may also live on in the the Thunderskin and perhaps the Velvet.

Other Entities and Followers

'That which does not cease, is not ceased.'

- Read 'The Ceaseless Tantra'

• Percussigants: Strange creatures of the Thunderskin which resemble headless, flapping bears who dance ceaselessly.[14]
• Arun Peel: One of the Great Hooded Princes, who chose to break from his comrades and instead flay himself and follow the Thunderskin. He is mentioned several times in the Exile legacy as an acquaintance of the player, and may be encountered in the game under mysterious circumstances.[15][16][17]
• The Sisterhood of the Knot: An occult order originating in Phrygia which existed in all the Histories and venerated the Ring-Yew, the Horned Axe and the Red Grail, as well as the Thunderskin. They were a powerful force in several Histories, though they were severely weakened after the War of the Roads.
• Count Gottlob Jannings: A member of a European society of physicians and duelists. Jannings originally appeared in Cultist Simulator as a Patron commissioning articles on the invisible arts, and has an expanded role in the Exile Legacy, where he is a correspondent of the Exile and can be recruited as an ally strong in Heart.[18][19]

Other Notes

• Heart is counted with Moth and Grail among the Dionysian Principles, associated with passion, instinct, and the Wood.
• Though the aspect is seemingly named after the Thunderskin and his duties as the Heart Relentless, he is not the oldest extant Heart Hour. The Twins and the Ring-Yew both existed before his ascension, and the Velvet may have as well.
• It is theorized that Heart and Moth were once a singular principle united under the Wheel.

In-Game Sources

1. Dorothy, a Tarantellist 2. The Sailor's Surety 3. Heal a Wound with Vitality 4. We call upon the Ring-Yew, who is renewed 5. Study "Apollo and Marsyas" 6. Duende Midnight 7. The New Form 8. The Kingskin Gate 9. LIFE, UNENDING 10. The Life Beneath 11. Unceasing Mysteries 12. The Life Beneath 13. Read 'Those Who Do Not Sleep' 14. Summon a creature of the Thunderskin 15. Read 'The Flayed Tantra' 16. Search for Something Unseen 17. At the Fane of Owls 18. Count Jannings 19. Jannings, the Vivisectionist

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