Glacies Fidus

"A monarch upon the crumbling throne in the seas..."

—Somnium Fluxus

Glacies Fidus (グレィシスフィデス, Fuīdesu Gureishisu), is the Lieutenant of the Thirteenth Division of the Gotei 13, serving under Seia Tulia Honoria; he is most notably the only Venator Scientiae affiliated with the organization. Despite not having acquired Bankai, Glacies was the original nominee for the position of Tenth Division Captain, but was rejected in favor of Ginkōgō Kusahara VII following her return to Soul Society as Glacies himself was considered an "uncertain element." A one-of-a-kind being amongst his race, Glacies' soul was synthesized from an Anima Casus of an ancient Nefas of the same name, believed to have been one of Diluculum Sanctus' forgotten founders, and a Nefas-turned street dog named Fidus, whom Randa Primarosa adopted for a short time; hence his current name. To his chagrin, he is nicknamed by some of the more flippant officers within the Gotei 13 as Shippo no Efude (尻尾の絵筆, "Paintbrush Tail").

While Glacies has little memory of his life as a Diluculum Sanctus founder relative to that as a street dog, he is highly intelligent and fully aware of his true nature, a secret which he has shared with only a handful of individuals. His primary ambition is to one day complete his Bibliotheca and regain his human form along with all of his memories while defying every Venator Scientiae's eventual fate of losing their supernatural abilities. Glacies joined the Gotei 13 in search of a new purpose—unlike most Venatores Scientiarum, he is not obsessed with hoarding knowledge.

Personality
"Use whom you can; trust no one."

- Glacies speaking to Seia.

Life as a Human
According to what little has been discovered of his life as a human Nefas, Glacies was a confidante of Axenus Divus Crux and one of his most trusted companions. It is said that Glacies originally opposed the idea of awakening an abstract deity and thwarted Axenus' earlier attempts to contact Agostinha, but later relented to a degree and chose to watch over Axenus during the process. Upon inheriting a superior fragment of Agostinha's power himself, Glacies became the youngest and most respected founder of Diluculum Sanctus; with a sagely wisdom unfit for his age, Glacies often served as an adviser for Axenus and the unknown third founder, compensating for his lack of power strictly relative to that of the aforementioned individuals.

The circumstances behind his death and transformation into an Anima Casus are unconfirmed; however, according to his own recollection, he was betrayed by an underground faction within the collective and killed long before the disappearance of the other two founders, supposedly for having knowledge of the faction's malicious agenda and plans to expose them to the other founders. In an effort to eliminate any evidence of their treachery, the conspirators entirely obliterated Glacies' body, greatly delaying the confirmation of his death by his loyal followers. Both Randa and Eriphyla supposedly had some sort of involvement in this event, but it is unknown if they were allied with the conspirators or made an effort to protect Glacies to no avail.

Life as a Dog and Soul Fusion
The albino dog that would later be named Fidus was born into a small family of stray dogs in Nimes on May 7, 1505. Fidus and his relatives primarily sought refuge around the Porta Augesta under the care of locals. With his unique appearance, Fidus caught the particular eye of an unknown noble family and was adopted, gaining his name and separating him from his real family. Fidus lived harmoniously in his new home for four years until, on January 2, 1509, his household was raided by an experienced party of human thieves wielding Nefas weaponry, including the Sacrificium Cultri. Despite his best efforts to defend his new family, he was stabbed with the aforementioned weapon and left for dead, along with the rest of the tenants who were slain shortly thereafter.

Effectively resurrected as a Nefas Inferior of uncanny power, Fidus traced the assailants and soundly killed them one at a time, leaving their fates unknown to the general populace. Fidus' exploits quickly attracted the attention of Randa, who had recently returned to Europe on a vacation. Upon locating the stray dog on August 19, 1510, Randa, unwilling to harm an animal unreasonably, adopted him as her own and decided to reside in Nimes for a longer period of time to carefully observe his development for her own enlightenment. Fidus was quickly allured by the woman's similar powers and became closely attached to her. Whenever Randa temporarily left Nimes to pursue other interests, Fidus would lie in wait around the Porta Augesta for his master to return, which normally did not take longer than several days.

Following her meeting with Silvio da Parma and learning of Rex Nothus' whereabouts in October 2, 1511, Randa became increasingly restless, departing for much longer periods of time and shortening her time spent recuperating in Nimes alongside Fidus. Following her second encounter with Eriphyla and Ichchha-un-Idika Edha Guha Thakurta during the creation of Diluculum Aeternus in 1563, Randa once again left Europe; Fidus, alive at this point only due to his Nefas powers, waited for his master to return around the Porta Augesta on the same day. As he had always done in the past when his master failed to return, Fidus wandered off into the city during the night and returned to the Porta Augesta the following morning to wait once again. He continued to make consistent returns to the Porta Augesta throughout his final years unaware that his master would not return until fifteen years later, on November 7, 1578, directly after his death of natural causes and transformation into an Anima Casus. Because of Fidus' powerful attachment to her, Randa easily located and identified his Anima Casus. As a final act of compassion, Randa selected a random Anima Casus to merge with Fidus' own Anima Casus in an effort to reconstruct his soul, unaware that the Anima Casus she selected belonged to the late founder Glacies. Because of the simplicity of Fidus' Anima Casus, merging it with the Anima Casus of Glacies was more than enough to form a completed soul and thus give birth to Glacies Fidus. With her task completed, Randa departed from Nimes, leaving the unconscious reborn dog on his own before he could catch a glimpse of his former master.

Becoming a Shinigami
Glacies Fidus awoke in his new spiritual body fully aware of his past as a dog, but with little recollection as to how he was created. For his own pleasure and to make sense of his newly-gained memories pertinent to the late founder, Glacies, like most Venetores Scientiarum, began an obsessive journey to acquire as much knowledge for his Bibliotheca as possible, provoking Nefas and Shinigami into battling him solely for the purpose of recording their techniques rather than winning against them or outright killing them. In the case of encountering weaker Venetores Scientiaerum by chance, Glacies murdered them, pillaging the amassed knowledge from their Bibliotheca and adding it to his own. When encountering more powerful Venetores Scientiarum, Glacies simply settled for bartering knowledge. Despite having accumulated considerable fame for his puzzling nature, Glacies acknowledged that he had learned little of his human life and began to tire of his existence within the Human World, eventually crossing over to Soul Society on his own during the 1590s.

Upon reaching Soul Society, Glacies resumed his ambition in a less ostentatious manner, acquainting himself with and befriending as many souls as possible to glean their knowledge; once he was satisfied with what he had learned from them, he simply abandoned them indefinitely. For more hot-headed individuals, Glacies enacted his usual method of provoking them into a fight, recording all of their techniques before vanishing abruptly.

Powers and Abilities
As a Shinigami deemed worthy enough for a promotion to Captain even without a Bankai, Glacies has power well within the range of Captain-level despite being a Lieutenant, making him one of the strongest of his peers; however, he is still weaker than his own Captain by his own admission. Glacies' unnatural capabilities are resultant from both his past as an astronomically powerful Nefas and his unique status as a Venetor Scientiae. Despite having some of his Nefas abilities intact, his power does not compare to that he once possessed as a human.

Natural Abilities
Immortality:

Enhanced Senses:

Natural Agility:

Genius-Level Intellect:

Zanpakutō
Sibilus Vertex (しぶれすべるてくす, Latin for "Whirlpool Whistle") is Glacies' Zanpakutō. It possesses exactly the same name and appearance as the sword wielded by Glacies during his human life, the whereabouts of which are currently unknown. It is one of only two known Latin-named Zanpakutō, the other being Shigeko Yasuda's Lacrimae et Rosae Suavis. Because of its size, Glacies does not normally carry it with him, instead leaving it during outings unless he deems it a necessity or asking Seia to carry it for him. As it is in a constant Shikai release, it does not have a release command.
 * Shikai Special Ability:

Randa Primarosa
As he has little memory of his life as a human, Glacies' opinion of Randa is solely based on his time spent with her as Fidus. Glacies became fiercely loyal to Randa upon her saving his life and followed her whenever possible. Upon Randa's abandonment of him, Glacies spent the following fifteen years before his death awaiting her return to no avail, a further testament to his devotion. As the circumstances of his rebirth are unknown to him, Glacies currently feels little more than contempt for his former master for having seemingly rejected him and is even intent on killing her should he ever regain his full power.

Eriphyla
Despite having little memory of Eriphyla and interacting with her only once during her "infiltration" of Soul Society, Glacies is highly distrustful of her and even believes that she played a part in his assassination. He is naturally appalled with her carefree lifestyle and vulgar attitude.

Trivia

 * Images drawn by the author.
 * Glacies' dog background was partially inspired by the life of the Italian street dog Fido. The name Fido is a derivative of Fidus.
 * Glacies was born on exactly the same date of Fido's death.
 * Glacies' full name means "Faithful Ice."
 * Glacies was the character originally planned for the RPCQE Exam in place of Silvio da Parma; he was delayed due the author's lack of ideas for the character at the time.
 * Glacies' Zanpakutō was originally intended to be a Water-Type, but this would have been redundant given his identical soul element.