Frieth

"She slipped down the narrow ice tunnel that led into the frozen core. Inside she found innumerable white corridors and pale doors opened to her. A chamber stacked with masks of a thousand different faces, only a few of them estathin. A room where many voices spoke, bodiless. A vast space covered in stairs leading everywhere, and nowhere. And wonders she couldn't put words to."

- a story told in Frieth

Frieth is large settlement within the glacier of Niress.

Background
Considered to be one of the largest residencies of the estathin, Frieth lies within a series of ice vaults and serves as their "Holy City". Each ice vault contains a dome that serves as a temple, served by elderly, predominantly-female estathin priesthood. The priesthood itself is known for teaching the Virtues of Nalranin, helping the wounded and ill, offering food and shelter to those who need it, applying ministers to the spiritually deficient, etc. The priesthood will sometimes even as the central government, considering the city lacks for one. Their organization is lead by an estathin named Salanthe, a head priest with wrinkles and white hairs - as a result of her century-long age - who nonetheless still retains much of her vigor and energy. In the past, Salanthe has ministered to other priests around Frieth, supported the community and even a reasonable amount of visiting estathin from further throughout Niress. Despite her tough and harsh words towards any who stray from the Virtues of Nalranin, for the most part, everyone seems to love and respect Salanthe.

A huge reason as to why the priesthood is specifically located in Frieth is all thanks to the presence of a Frozen Core dubbed the Talas. Talas itself partly protrudes downward from the icy ceilings of Frieth's vaults. Relatively large in stature, the priesthood speaks of how it physically represents Nalranin's love and virtue, and anyone that walks up the icy stairs of the highest temple and touched one of Talas' protrusion will telepathically be granted an an answer to one question. However, the answers are usually to vague for anyone to understand, with the priesthood trying to offer their best interpretation of the knowledge to any and all pilgrims. But a good reason as to why only one question is allowed is for safety purposes, as those who've asked more than once in the past, were absorbed into Talas and never seen or heard from again.

Within one of Frieth's side temples is a plinth that's made from metallic synth rather than ice. On occasion, foreign humans will appear from here and claim to be residents from Arxil. While the estathin are suspicious of the plinth, the priesthood has nevertheless taught tolerance for these new arrivals. Most of whom appear within Frieth usually wish to retrun the way they came, but he priesthood isn't very eager to allow this, claiming that Nalranin might've brought them to Niress for a reason.

And then there is Mala Mayda, a newly-appointed estathin priest bearing long black hair with blue streaks in it. Considered to be a tall-tale teller, she she often passes along stories that tend to be alarmist in nature, centering mostly around how the humans who arrive are dangerous and should be killed - for the threat they pose to Niress - before they can return and tell the rest of their mainland brethren.

Miscellaneous
Arxil is a city within the Frozen South of the Ninth World Continent. It's home to about 15,000 people and was built amid the ruins of one of the prior worlds. Many of the numenera items within this locale rely on the cold and ice to function properly.