Melina’s father was a traveller and spent his youth wandering the lands. Along the way, he met Melina’s mother who joined him on his travels. She began collecting herbs and delved into herbalism. She was incredibly smart and wise beyond her years.
The two temporarily settled down in a forested area of the mountains when Melina’s mother began to need a den. They had a litter of three pups together, a boy and two girls. The pack was small but familial and once their pups were old enough, they set out to continue wandering.
A year or so later, Melina’s mother was pregnant again, this time with a single pup; Melina. That winter was harsh and food was scarce. With only four wolves available to hunt, three of which were still young the pack barely scraped by. Melina herself almost did not make it. Even though she was young, that rough winter is seared into her mind, causing anxiety whenever the snow begins to fall.
Her parents were incredibly loving and kind. Her father was a little aloof, wandering further than the rest of the pack, sometimes disappearing for a day or two. Sometimes her siblings would go with him, but other times they all stayed with their mother, learning from her. She taught them what she could about herbalism, as it was her passion. She and Melina were very close, spurred on by their combined fear from the past winter's close call.
They were a peaceful pack, but travelling in the way they did was bound to make them a target. One morning as the pack strolled along the edge of a river, they heard howls. A rival pack stood on a ridge, watching. Melina’s parents tensed, taking the warning for what it was and ushering their children to move along. It was the wrong move.
The rival pack of sixteen wolves bore down on the tiny pack of six. Melina’s father pushed through to protect them as her mother and children ran. Her father tried to fight, but they all knew he wasn’t going to make it. The noises he made, the wails and howls will continue to haunt Melina forever.
But the pack wasn’t happy with just her father paying for their crimes. No, they continued to chase them down, running for miles over the mountainous region. Melina began to slow, being younger than her siblings she didn’t have the same stamina. The rival pack began to catch up, teeth snapping at her heels, a bite at her tail. Her mother encouraged her, almost pleading, but she could do nothing to help her daughter. Melina was grabbed and dragged into the group of wolves.
She was snapped at, bitten, dragged. Teeth, teeth, teeth everywhere. She whined and whimpered, praying that they would let her go, that she would live. But they continued. Blood was drawn and Melina simply lay there, pain radiating through her body.
And then they left; walked away howling and celebrating like they didn’t have a young wolf's blood in their mouths. Melina lay there shaking, her blood coating her in sickly red. After an unknown amount of time, she pulled herself up on unsteady legs and found an old cave. There she rested until she gained enough energy to find some food and herbs and then retreated back into her temporary home to repeat the whole process the next day.
Once Melina was healed enough, she headed out to try and find her family. She missed them all terribly, but especially her mother. They had a special bond, one created from the near miss of death. Melina searched and searched, day and night for months. But she never found them, only scents that had long gone stale.
It was during this search that she met Suren, her mate and fellow leader. He convinced her not to waste her life wandering like her father. To let herself have a life, have a family. Together, they created a safe and loving pack, similar to what Melina had in her original family.
She has not given up, though. She still explores, sometimes taking long trips away, searching for any sign of her lost family. Maybe someday she’ll meet her mother again.
The time has come: after obtaining her third major injury on a hunt, Hazrohi -- almost six years old, when she would be mandated to step down anyhow -- steps down from her position as is the law.
The question immediately comes: who will replace her?
Three candidates come forth after ranks and ages are properly evaluated: Hazeet’ohija the Herbalist, Johgwohi the Finisher of the Thawed River Runners, and Seh:ax the leader of the Far Flight hunting pack....
First -- an evaluation of their general abilities and their trust among the pack. Hazeet’ohija takes this easily: he has been in the Aagwatz since it was founded, as one of the two dispersal siblings taken in under Hazrohi’s claw. Additionally, he easily dominates the second trial -- that of wisdom. As hostile as Johgwohi may be, she cannot name herbs with such ease, nor can Seh:ax hope to compete with a wolf who has spent his life among the plants and roots when it comes to finding the herbal tinctures to heal minor infections.
All Hazeet’ohija needed to do to take the leadership for his own, but he couldn’t do so. The trial of strength, a test of breaking bone and enduring pain, was won effortlessly by Johgwohi, who stood with her paws on hot rocks and endured bites from her packmates with no noise at all.
As the sun rose, the hopeful leaders embarked on their final trial: a test of agility and endurance in that way. They ran into the mountain passes together, and Axlooziyooc the Hunter followed K’ioo the scout to see who would emerge first from the mists at the pass’ end.
Seh:ax outpaced the others easily, not so much as panting by the time she came from the stony trails and skidded to a quiet halt before the observers.
With each of them winning a single trial, this left the leader position to the only of the wolves who had taken two victories:
Hazeet’ohija, the young herbalist, was draped in thin metal ornaments. In the evening, after a day of celebration and feasting, he led his closest supporters -- including his pregnant mate, Eevz -- on a victory parade about Aagwatz territory.
After the end of it, he stood before the pack and gave himself a second name, as was the new tradition: Hazeet’ohija Heart-Keeper, in reference to both his kind nature, his love for his wife, and his having saved multiple lives of the pack.
He quickly made Johgwohi his beta, and declared that she could have a litter whenever she so chose, without seeking permission, even if the litter came during winter-time. The same went for Seh:ax, but as pack tradition mandated, she needed to be over three years of age to do so.
Hazeet’ohija Heart-Keeper, leader of the Aagwatz Pack until his sixth year of age. May the seasons shine upon him.
Hazrohi and T’ehlioo are getting close to the age where they have to step down, so i should take a look at my heirs for their spot. None of their kids will be in the age bracket to inherit, so then it falls to looking at the herbalist, the head pup-sitter and the leaders of each hunting team. since the heads of two hunting teams are Hazrohi and T’ehlioo, that means there’s only three competitors (because the lead pupsitter has gotten seriously ill three times, which disqualifies her from trying to become leader).
- Hazeet’ohija, the herbalist, who has been in the pack the longest (and as such has a +10 weight to his results on rolls)
- Seh:ax, the youngest of the trio and the leader of the Far Flight hunt, which means she suffers a total of -10 to all of her results (-5 for being the youngest, -5 for being the leader of the Far Flight hunt, which leaves the territory the most and spends the most time away and as such leaves them with the least amount of trust among the pack.)
- and Johgwohi, leader of the Thawed River Runners. As the oldest competitor, she has a +10 to her results. As the Finisher under an Authoritarian leadership style, she gains an additional +2 to her results on top of that (each leadership style has a role that it favors when it comes to calculating replacements; Spiritualists have the Herbalist role, Democratic styles have the Pupsitter role, etc).
Normally, the results would be skewed much less dramatically, but I forgot that the two leaders that will be stepping down are filling two of the roles that would be able to replace them -- and as of this morning, the fourth competitor can’t be in the tournament smh.
eevzoohi got a little decor today. i misclicked on her pup training and accidentally had her train with Svera (who is canonically like... a ghost beyond the veil lol) but i actually decided to just run with it -- so now one of the leader’s kids (the leader who is a materalist and doesn’t put much stock in spirits) is entirely locked into spiritualism, and also has a necklace she was given by a very gnarly ghost.
with the added bonus that once i’ve polished this, i’ll be editing it to work it into my flight rising content
there are eight political markers that wolves will be measured on, divided into four “scales” with two each. each political alignment will range from positive to negative ten or twenty, depending on how much room i want for wiggling and how the numbers work after my rough tests this weekend.
these are as follows:
authoritarian - democratic
warhawk - peacemind
insular - embracing
materialistic - spiritualistic
warhawk / peacemind is an indicator of willingness to begin/pursue wars with others -- insular/embracing is the desire to be closed off to others or open to outside influence.
to use Hazrohi’s rough stats:
authoritarian - democratic: -15 (highly authoritarian)
warhawk - peacemind: 5 (slight peace lean)
insular - embracing: 10 (open to influence)
materialistic - spiritualistic: -5 (slight material lean)
what this means is that when i use rolls for random events and they involve her stats, if i have a predetermined modifier for certain political leanings, they’ll come into play. this also means that her leading style could be best summed up as
“Xenophilic Authoritarianism” -- there is absolute control, but outsiders are allowed and encouraged.
it’s worth noting that at plus or minus fifteen points, the political view becomes locked in (barring a few random events that can change it).
right now i’m still working on the event tables for pack rolls, though, as well as a roll table to help me with political stats for the wolves of the pack, plus a backstory generation table.
The second litter of the Aagwatz pack has been announced -- and rather boldly. Ehv:xarohi (the top wolf, with the red mask) strode into the main mine and declared -- not asking, declaring -- that she was not only bonded to Ehxlk'ov (the brown wolf), but they were already expecting a litter. Considering that Hazrohi and T’ehlioo’s litter had just weaned, the two were cutting it rather close.
The rash action got both of them demoted from their positions; Ehxlk'ov lost his standing as head of a hunting team, and Ehv:xarohi was rotated into the hunting team that stays within the mountain range.
Since they didn’t make the announcement during the winter, there wasn’t anything done beyond that.
( Ehv:xarohi would later feel drawn to a large chamber in the mines, though -- a strange place with a dark stone slab. A room that stunk of blood, with small bones gathered in organized mounds about its edges. When she listened, she could almost hear -- squealing. Chanting? It made her feel a chattering deepbone fear, despite her rash and headstrong nature. )
i’ll be choosing my least favorite aesthetically of each of the lore litters to have disperse upon hitting 1 year of age -- they’ll be chased, which does mean someone unfortunately may encounter a very plain chased wolf (my apologies) but that works better in my lore so alas, no starvation den for them.
i’ve planned out how i’ll be incorporating the pack more firmly in with my old lore -- they’ll be stumbling upon some spooky eldritch wolves from beyond the veil, so that’ll be fun to write lmao.
i’m working slowly on a random roll system to determine some pack events, because i am an autist for random roll tables, especially in rpg style settings. this table will probably be uploaded to docs and the chatter forum in time once i’m done.
i’ve changed how i want to do inheritance of the pack as well. my Lead Wolf (as in the Wolvden Lead Wolf) must be of Yvar’s bloodline. more than likely, i’ll have the Lead Wolf be from the next litter that they have, which will be their last as well if i’ve counted the time out correctly though i may be wrong on this. this is because in the lore, the Aagwatz (and then whatever they become) are protected by Yvar and the old guard; the ‘lead wolf’ is more of a god-figure, so to speak, and will need that blood tie to inherit Yvar’s place as pack leader.
with regards to how inheritance will work in the lore, however, i’ve slowly begun work on devising a system that i like. in vague terms, it takes the strength and wisdom of each eligible heir into account (the heirs in lore being the children of the leaders + the heads of each hunting team + the herbalist + the lead pupsitter) and then the top four of these wolves face off using a rolling table. each wolf also will be given a “political weight” -- authoritarian or free-roaming tendencies, so on -- which will influence how i write my lore in the future when it comes to the pack.
it’s possible in time that a democratic solution will come to the pack, but right now with the authoritarian and stern Hazrohi in charge, this is... highly unlikely to say the least.
there is an event on the random roll table for the pack, though, which essentially acts as a “loaded gun” for the possibility of a coup: the first time it’s rolled, i choose a wolf to act as an instigator of a coup. the second time, i choose collaborators. the third time, the coup goes off -- and a combat table comes into play, with the losing side being killed to the last.
now that i have two full hunting teams, i’m only going to be taking in wolves from explore if they’re special or really attract my eye.
from today on, enclave pups that are adopted will be raise-and-chased.
only explore in the mountains and closest region, unless needed for quests or for events. further restrictions will be placed on scouting once some plot related things happen, which will most likely happen after coigreach.
the yvar/svera pair children will be folded into the pack once a certain plot event happens in my lore (which will take place when Yvar dies as my lead wolf).
each wolf, once obtained, may have up to two RMAs applied to it, or one event marking/regular marking applicator.
wolves may not breed until they are of at least 3 years of age and have 300+ stats. the number of required stats will change in the future as more generations are bred.
pups who are eligible and bred in the pack (ie, not chased-at-adulthood enclave pups) must be trained daily.
pups obtained from the enclave will not be named.
if a wolf in a hunting party is injured 3 times in their lifetime, they will be retired and made a pupsitter. a pupsitter of applicable personality will be rotated into the hunting team. if there are none, the wolf will be kept around for tutoring purposes only.
wolves who are not hunting, scouting, or pupsitting may not breed, even if they are in pair bonds.
upon the deaths of both Yvar (my actual on-site lead wolf) and Hazrohi (the lead wolf of this lore group), the replacement lead will be decided by a little “contest” system i am still working with the fine details of. the highest-statted wolf from each hunting team will participate, as will the highest-statted of Hazrohi’s children at the time of both deaths occurring.
i cannot rechase a wolf. each wolf must be given a name from my conlang proto-lang, and be given a snippet of lore at bare minimum, as well as at least one piece of decor if supplies allow.
