MSB: Cosmo Valentine is a Mastiffarian

Cosmo Valentine is a Mastiffarian from the Maplewood forest pack. 

Mastiffarians are humanoid dogkind, evolved from ancient dogs with features similar to mastiffs, boxers, and other hearty breeds of dog from Earth 1. 

Cosmo stands several heads taller than humans, with muscular body, and hanging jowls. His brown fur is marked by stripes of black haphazardly painted on as if he ran through a sprinkler of black oil. His brown eyes put people at ease, with a friendly face and demeanor. 

Cosmo has a large body that while muscular is also adorned with hanging skin and a tail that is both brutally strong and yet has a mind of its own. He is often embarrassed by the way his tail causes unintentional damage to people and things alike; or by the ways his mere movement through spaces can knock over or into others in his excitement. 

As a Mastiffarian, he is king, loyal, trustworthy, and calm under the most absurd circumstances, unless food is involved. While not strictly a pacifist, because he loves a good evenly matched fight far too much, Cosmo prefers to find non-violent solutions to his and other’s problems. When working as a bouncer at a club a few years ago, he would pick up misbehaving people by the color or arms or whatever seemed gentlest, then take them outside and set them gently on the ground. He would warn them to stay outside until they learned to behave like civilized people. Sometimes, he would even sit with them and talk it out if they seemed amenable. 

On the occasion where the powerful abused the powerless; however, Cosmo was often less gentle. In fact, should the situation be brutal enough to offend Cosmo’s loyalty to the powerless, his eyes would turn blood red, and he would become quite violent with the offender. Yet his friendly and casual demeanor never quite fades. As such, he is just as likely to be making jokes or puns while out with friends, or while slaying the evil power abusers. Once, Cosmo found a particularly vile human preying on pups and children. He held the man up to his eyes, smiled, and said, “Alligator’s gotta eat!” just before tossing him into the water to become prey to an apex species. 

Cosmo is for food, games, play, and the enjoyment of community regardless of species or origin.

Cosmo is against any person or system that puts powerful people in a place to abuse the powerless. 

On his black sleeveless robe, embroidered in large colorful decorative letters, is his favorite quote: “It is a great sin when neighbors go cold or hungry while we are fed in our warm homes.” - Mastiffarian Priest, Basil the Benevolent

Cosmo’s favorite hobby is cooking, and you can find a cookout in Cosmo yard at most times of most days, wherever his yard is for the day. He travels from place to place frequently, but he always establishes a campsite or communal space for others to join him for food and fun times. 

Depending on how you meet Cosmo, you may be tempted to think he’s a monk for his clothing, a cook or bartender for his hobby, or a guardian for his work. He is all of these and none of these. Cosmo sees himself as a protector of the innocent. He protects their peace with his presence and hospitality, and their lives, goods, or even bodies with his strength. While non-violence is his first go-to, he will escalate as much as needed to stand between the powerless and powerful. 

In fighting scenarios, Cosmo is usually found wielding only his hands and fists. When his power is fully unleashed in a war scenario, his fists begin to glow bright green with healing magic for his friends, and healing drain for his enemies. As a healer and non-violence-first personality, he will often stand behind a team and support them through healing, shields, and defensive techniques. As a result, many enemies think he is the weak-link to take down in order to defeat the team. In this, they are sadly mistaken. For his offensive capabilities are just as powerful as the strongest of the team, he just prefers to reserve them for when it is absolutely necessary. 

In cases where offense becomes needed, Cosmo can use his knowledge of anatomy (due to his healing affinity) to unmake people at the cellular level. He may thwart their own innate healing, or if he gets his hands on them, directly drain life energy from them to use for himself or his allies. He can also send an energetic punch that will stop their heart from beating. Due to the rarity of need, even Cosmo does not know all his offensive capabilities, and he may need to learn them on the fly when an occasion presents itself.

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

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MSB: Gwendol of the Wetlands Pride is a Leonid warrior.

Gwendol of the Wetlands Pride is a Leonid warrior. She and her twin brother, Gareth, are sent by the Pride to take part in Tertius’ offer to train two of their most promising members, whichever two the Pride chooses to send.

Gwendol stands heads taller than the human race average, and eye to eye with her brother. While somewhat leaner than her brother, she is still packed with muscles seen easily even through her white fur. As a woman Leonid, she does not possess the large mane of her brother. She instead has a head of silvery-white hair that she keeps cut short and spiked. While both Leonids wear earrings, Gwendol wears many on each ear, and a necklace of gold with a fine blue jewel, which powers her private dimensional storage space. 

Unlike Gareth’s brutal great hammer, Gwendol carries a bow for ranged attacks, and two one-handed axes, made of the same titanium with gold inlays, like her brother’s hammer. Where Gareth is brute-strength, Gwendol is a dancing wind carving through hordes of monsters or enemies as if she is threshing wheat. 

The Wetlands Pride twins are a force to be reckoned with on any battlefield, but the logistics are up to someone else. They consider themselves the first into battle and last to leave, but they leave decisions about what battle to join to their leaders. 

That having been said, leaders do need to keep them busy doing something, or they will find themselves getting up to mischief and trouble, as they are still curious cats. 

Whereas Gareth is the first to stand up in a tavern to protect a server from harassment but a brute, Gwendol stands back and watches the room. She scans for exits and blind spots when they enter. She scan for additional combatants Gareth might not see coming. She calls out the shots as she sees them, or intervenes as needed. 

If Gareth is quick to punch, Gwendol is cautiously curious before acting. Gareth opens the fights, but Gwendol usually ends them decisively. She protects Gareth, mostly from himself. He’s always getting into situations where she feels the need to intervene. 

While all Leonids, male and female, are strong, Gwendol is doubly so. As a result of her status as a warrior and accomplishments on the battlefield, and her competitive nature, many intellectuals find her intimidating physically. While her mind for puzzles and situational awareness often make her incapable of bearing too much attention from non-intellectuals. She hopes to find friends who are both, but often ends up alone on the edge watching from the sidelines of social functions, assuming the role of guardian instead.

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

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MSB: Gareth of the Wetlands Pride is a Leonid warrior.

Gareth of the Wetlands Pride is a Leonid warrior. He and his twin sister, Gwendol, are sent by the Pride to take part in Tertius’ offer to train two of their most promising members, whichever two the Pride chooses to send. 

Gareth is a tall white Leonid with golden eyes and a proud mane of white hair. His muscles show through his fur, and he carries multiple weapons for all forms of combat. His most precious weapon is his great hammer, which is titanium with gold inlays magically fortified and sealed with runic enhancements. In addition to his great hammer, he also carries a long sword on his back, a dagger at his side, and dimensional bag at his hip with exploding metallic balls. Gareth was born and bred for combat, and it shows in the way he carries himself even at rest. 

Despite his gruff demeanor and sturdy posture, Gareth is no brute. He resents when anyone uses strength to prey on the weak, as strength should defend the most vulnerable of any Pride. While he will be among the louder patrons in any tavern, he will be the first to step into a fight he wasn’t invited to if a vulnerable party is at risk. This gets him into situations that may sometimes require a more diplomatic hand to settle. 

Gareth’s sister is his fellow warrior, and he does not consider her a weaker opponent. They are true equals on the battlefield, and often operate as with one mind under stress, seamlessly taking symbiotic roles on the field. 

Gareth was told by his great grandmother that she was shown in a vision that his name should be Gareth, for his ancestor also bore that name in a different world and time. He never knew if she was telling him the truth or spinning a tale for a youngster, and she died many years before he was old enough to think of the question. So he likes to think that grandmother went on a journey to find this older Gareth in the greater multiverse. 

Being a mammal, Gareth is prone to the normal realities that brings, including being vulnerable to cuts and breaks of the mammal body. That being said, his magically enhanced body can take a lot of punishment before he needs a rest. On the battlefield, he may run to his opponents, but he often simply walks into the fray, as though he were stalking his prey, and then he acts in sudden bursts of movement that are blinding and overwhelmingly strong. 

Extreme heat and cold are both dangerous to Leonids after prolonged exposure, so while their fur offers natural protection to most elements, they may still be found with coats in the winter and cooling devices in summer. 

Gareth knows he is not ‘smart’ in the ways many count brain power. He is an adept magic user and powerhouse fighter, but he leaves complicated things to his sister, Gwendol, and other leaders and thinkers. Because of this, he often feels intimidated by smart people, because he doesn’t often know how to respond. He can be a tad clueless when it comes to puzzles and riddles. Therefore, between this and his quick-to-act nature, he can sometimes find himself trapped in situations that are legitimately beyond him and requiring rescue. 

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

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MSB: Veppam - Draconian Alchemist of Zora

Veppam (Tamil வெப்பம், heat)

Veppam is a Draconian from the Volcano province of Zora. He was a third prince of his realm which gave him royal duties but not a high chance of having to ever take the throne. Due to his station, Veppam was never given a proper challenge. While Draconians are fierce and take their training seriously, even for princes, there was a hesitance in Veppam’s sparring partners to take it too hard on the prince, lest he take out his anger on them later using his station. When he met Tertius in the palace library one day, Tertius noticed Veppam’s countenance was troubled. After some discussion, Tertius invited him to personal training that only an ancient one could provide. He was given permission to train with Tertius as often as possible, and they spent many such sessions training both on Zora and in Tertius’ Scriptorium over the last few years. That was why he was quick to accept Tertius’ invite to a special class-training in his chosen hometown. 

Veppam is on par with the average height of a human. His body is covered in obsidian metallic scales, with iridescent sheen. In between his scales a dark red glow pulsed with his heart beat. His retractable claws are made of this same material. On his back, fully folded in most of the time, are leathery wings that end in sharpened points. His tail runs down his back and wraps around his waste, but when extended it can whip around up to twice his height. He has no physical external ears, so his hearing while good but not better than humans. 

As both a prince and a Draconian in general, Veppam is cordial to a fault, as their race attempts to overthrow their violent reputation (primarily due to old lore) using etiquette and hospitable practices. Some Draconians (also known as Dragonborn) present themselves more like a posh butler than a fierce warrior. Nevertheless, their war-time capabilities are not to be taken lightly. Veppam has been raised in a culture that knows their society is safest when outsiders view them as harmless, or at least, not a threat. In this, Veppam faces increasing pressure as he attempts to quell the fire burning within him to uphold this cultural facade. Eventually, he learns that feigning powerlessness or softness is not in-itself wise. True strength comes from knowing your own limits, healing your triggers, and using selective but assertive force when the occasion calls for it. This comes into acute view when his cordialness fails to calm down people who mean his party harm, at which point he is left with the decision to protect his people or hold up his inherited facade. 

Veppam is a prince and therefore a member of the highest society on Zora. Personally, he is a devotee of the cult of The Great Dragon, or the cult of Leviathan. This cult is considered quaint on Zora and is often associated with backwards thinking folks. Most Draconians either worship Ra-Ah the sun deity (less common) or find themselves in a direct reverence for the nature of heat, fire, light, etc., in a mix of quasi spiritualistic reverence and scientific fascination. Therefore, Veppam holds these in his heart as well, but remains fascinated with the Leviathan mythologies, and wonders if there is more than myth to its histories.

As a Draconian, Veppam requires heat, often extreme heat. He can withstand the cold for brief periods, but may find even a cool rainy day to be unbearable after enough time has passed. Therefore, he carries heat-cores full of fire manna both within his dimensional storage in stasis, and on his person, acting like magical hand warmers, layering him in a thin coat of fire manna when in use. 

Veppam’s primary realm of study is Alchemy, and he is able to brew potions, elixirs, tinctures, and work with transfusing concepts into inanimate objects or weapons. Veppam, as a prince and scholar, is not wild and reckless with his craft. He is clean, orderly, organized, methodical, and bases his craft as much on precession as on instinct. He is most successful with heat-based and fire-based and light-based products.

While Veppam may have a calm and cordial demeanor with people, and an orderly methodological approach to his craft, he remains pensive, locked, rigid, and must learn to allow for the variable of chaos in his approach to life. This becomes a point of contention he must work through.

Common Alchemical Products

• Potions – temporary effects
• Elixirs – long-term or permanent effects
• Tinctures – subtle, stacking effects
• Catalysts – enable other magic or crafting
• Philosophical Stones – rare, narrative-tier items
• Alkahests – universal solvents (can unmake things)
• Homunculi – artificial life (always morally loaded)
• Infused Materials – alchemically altered metals, glass, ink, bone

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

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MSB: An-Ying, Mantisai, Cult of Shadows, Path of Smoke & Shadows...

Chinese (Mandarin) - 暗影 (Ànyǐng) — “dark shadow”

An-Ying is a Mantisai from the Cult of Shadows, a reclusive cult in the Mantisai homelands under Mahakala (The Great Darkness, lord Protector), who is a god dedicated to protection from the shadows. As a servant of Mahakala, An-Ying watches and observes the world around him, with an eye to prevent or judge injustices. 

Many misunderstand the cult of shadows, due to their reclusive nature. Rumors abound that world leaders have been assassinated and nations turned over by the secret machinations of the Cult of Shadows. Due to these (not entirely untrue) rumors, any dark robed Mantisai seen within a rural city may be blamed for all sorts of calamities that fall on their community. Ironically, it is the work of the Cult of Shadows that usually prevents or mitigates these same disasters, but that does not stop rural superstitions.

An-Ying is a full member of the cult but has struggled with developing his path due to blockages in his use of shadow essence. Tertius was asked by the elders of the cult to take over An-Ying’s training in the Manna Arts, as a favor to them. They’ve had many working arrangements for as long as the cult has existed. Tertius agrees to help An-Ying get unstuck and progress on his path. Why is An-Ying stuck?

An-Ying is quiet, growing bitter at his failure to follow his father’s path. An-Ying’s father was executed by a foreign government for a misunderstanding over his involvement in their political upheaval. Members of the cult knew the real story, that Hiro, An-Ying’s father, was the scalpel behind the scenes removing the gang leaders who were attempting to overthrow the governmental structures of the town. When the cult learned of Hiro’s treatment, they quietly removed the king every leader involved in it, and planted a king who would follow the way of justice in their place; all without the people of the kingdom being aware of anything more than in-fighting and factionalism. The pressure to live up to Hiro’s legacy has given An-Ying a father wound and identity crisis. He cannot find his own path because he’s too distracted by failing to live up to his father’s.

An-Ying is trained to be quiet, observe from the shadows, and have patience of a stone. But he does not find quietness or patience to be virtues he can hold for long. His impatience with his own lack of progress leads him to bitterness and resentment; a feeling that he is fundamentally broken and has no value in his role. This bitterness leads to outbursts of anger, sometimes shouting, and sometimes violent reactions. Rather than still rock in the shadows, An-Ying finds himself the burning embers that lead to a smoke filled room. The Shadow essence path requires stillness and patience; but when An-Ying attempts to build these virtues to manipulate shadow he always falls short, because body wants to burn instead. This burning is recognized by Tertius as a misaligned path, and he encourages him to embrace the burning and see where it leads.

Working with Tertius, An-Ying learns to embrace his fire affinity and blend it with his shadow training to develop a smoke affinity. Where there is smoke, there is fire. In this way, he re-purposes his training rather than letting it go to waste. He forges it in the fires of his true affinity, and creates a new path no other Mantisai in memory has followed. 

An-Ying, as a Mantisai, retained the basic shape and form of his Preying Mantis ancestors; walking on four legs and using his front two arms for more humanoid tasks. All six limbs have retractile blades for attack and defense. At core, though evolved and sentient, the Mantisai are hunters. They require a prey and a hunt to keep them motivated and in motion.

An-Ying is usually found wearing black-leather-like armor, with dark red cracks glowing throughout like the embers of a smoldering fireplace or volcano. He wears a belt upon which are thousands of thin ceramic leafs, which he imbues with his smoke manna and throws at his enemies. He also wears two long daggers which mirror his razor edge arm braces.

While most with the fire affinity are known for their bright fire and flames and sun manna; An-Ying develops an entirely unseen path  of Smoke & Shadows; where “Flame is truth. Shadow is secrecy. Smoke is the verdict.”

He can burn objects by touching them, and throw intense balls of manna that are smoky-shadows on the outside by burning infernos on the inside. In low visibility darkness, you will feel the attack before you see it. 

Through Smoke & Shadows, An-Ying is able to blend with most shadows becoming nearly invisible even feet away in bright daylight. When no natural shadow is available, for an extra manna cost, An-Ying can use smoke to blur the eye and create an absence of light which mimics shadow in most respects. But its heat can still be felt from up close. On a hot day, this could be overlooked as a passive heat absorbed by the building or object which obscures him. But on a cold night this heat creates suspicions for guards. To overcome this, An-Ying, at times, has to create a building fire to hide within. 

The insidious nature of his Smoke & Shadows technique allows him to create area of effect attacks where his smoke takes on substance and clings to the oils in skin or clothing, and it dries out and burns natural resources (such as those made of wood). 

Given that smoke, via heat, are his primary tools; wind and cold are his antidotes. When the wind or cross breeze is too strong, it can either dispel his hiding or reveal it in some way. It can lead to ineffective area attacks. And a strong enough wind can threaten to put his fire out entirely if his manna reserves are too low to resist. Like wind, cold can be a problem. The cold evening won’t hinder his ability to burn but it will make his heat more obvious and suspicious, ruining his ability to hide using smoke. In extreme cold, as when attacked by ice or cold water, his fire can be snuffed out. This still leaves an advanced martial artist with blades for weapons, but without his fire his throwing leafs are useless, and his options are far more limited. In addition, his body growing cold could cause him to freeze up or in extreme cases die.

An-Ying only answers to An-Ying, and his verdict is slow in coming, for he was trained to observe before acting. Yet, when he does act, his judgment is final and the smoke he leaves in his wake is the sign of his judgment.

At higher grades of the Manna Arts, An-Ying learns to manipulate smoke to such a degree that he can create long-distance avatars to speak through fire-pits and fire-places; communicating with allies and terrifying foes.

At the highest grades, he learns to make his shadows tangible to the point that he can manipulate objects as though he had extra hands. The number of additional arms and hands is only dependent upon his ability to hold them in his mind’s eye. 

An-Ying can also take advantage of the fact that heat rises, and change his own body to adapt to this feature of smoke. But since the heat for the reaction is coming from him, he can direct his smoke levitation in the directions he wants to go. This may allow him to float up to or down from a tall roof, or even fly, albeit more slowly than a bird, to far off destinations limited by his manna capacity, which can be drained harder in unfavorable conditions.

While not the silent stone his father’s legacy would have predicted, his more aggressive approach still allows him to operate within the shadows, while taking far more aggressive action against injustice, as he sees fit.

In later years, he finds followers who want to join him on his path, and he is forced to decide if he must start a new cult or school dedicated to this path. He does not know if it still falls within Mahakala’s domain. But he is assured that this is the will of Mahakala, to become a new cult under his brand and divine protection. So he accepts his somewhat unwelcome status as leader of a new cult. Blah. 

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

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MSB: Lehavah, Threxan niece of Ko'Akh

לֶהָבָה — Lehavah — “Flame” (also used as a modern given name)

The Reclusive Artist

A creative individual who lives in seclusion, often possessing a unique perspective or talent.

Lehavah is the niece of Ko’Akh the Mighty and has served as Ko’Akh’s shadow and apprentice within Threxan territory until her hundredth year—barely old enough to be taken seriously among the Threxan herds, but old enough to be tested in the wider world. 

Lehavah is a full head taller than even her uncle, with green-gray scales, and she has braided Copper rings on each of her prominent horns. She wears a toga like wrap loosely draped around her body, but in a way that says fashion and attention to detail. Her pale blue eyes provide a sharp contrast to her green-gray dark scales. She wears braided copper rings around her horns: apprentice marks that glint with quiet pride and a little too much eagerness. 

Where Ko’Akh is judgment and patience, Lehavah is craft and curiosity and driven passion.—more forge than courtroom—carrying a rune-carved siege hammer of her own making. Her magic doesn’t bloom as effortless force the way Ko’Akh’s appears; it lives in preparation: wards hammered into copper, sigils etched into steel, and oaths bound into braided metal. Lehavah is detached but driven focus by nature, but her inner fire hits like an explosive supernova when her emotions boil over. She must often be reminded to recenter, reembody, and engage in sensory therapy to regulate her dysregulated nervous system.

Lehavah is the niece of Ko’Akh and her uncle’s apprentice. She turned 100-years-old last year and was finally called from the herd to be at Ko’Akh’s side to begin her formal training in the wider world. She is often hyper-focused on her own interests without noticing the world around her. She often ignores or doesn’t bother with interpersonal interactions unless they are interesting to her. Sometimes her focus can make it hard to switch to interruptions to her work or even to her expectations, which can take her from a calm focus to outbursts of emotion. 

Lehavah comes from a culture that does not recognize gender as relevant to tasks, capabilities, roles, or professions. Due to the fact gender norms don’t exist in Threxia, Threxans who are new to the wider world are often confused when they meet the gender norm expectations that often exist within human cultures.

As a trade, Lehavah is a blacksmith, craftsman, and metal worker. She creates decorative, utility, and weapon crafts. At her side or in her hand, she carries a massive siege hammer, covered in runes which glow bright blues, reds, and yellows while she works. When working, which she nearly always is, she wears thick hide from a wild beast, which has been expertly crafted to prevent the flames of her forge from singing her other clothes. 

In contrast to Ko’Akh’s warm and congenial manner towards friends and strangers alike, Lehavah is often oblivious to the people around her unless they are directly relevant. Relevance may be the result of their assisting her with a project, being on a team together, or if they are either telling Lehavah something interesting or they are an attentive audience while she tells them something interesting. Otherwise, the world could be crashing around her and she would be lost in her thoughts, forge plans, or crafting her metals. 

Because other races seem so irrational to her, she often probes for more clarity and understanding, asking people to explain their perspectives. But this can come across as a challenge or offense to more subtext driven cultures, leading her to be at a total loss as to why the other party is suddenly aggressive towards her.

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

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Worldbuilding: Manna, Sarcasm, and Burritos (MSB) - Wolf-Folk

Worldbuilding: Manna, Sarcasm, and Burritos (MSB)

Wolf-Folk (Werewolves, Wolves) are a humanoid evolutionary branch from their Great Wolf ancestor. This divergence predates the divergence into the common dogfolk by millions of years, but sentience hit the many of Creator’s Offspring around the same demarcation 100,000 years ago, scholar say. 

Important History

Wolf-Folk have a unique development within Ha’Aretz as they are considered to have extra-normal developmental anomalies in their history of origin. The trouble is, for scholars, separating fact from mythology. 

According to widespread mythology, the Wolf-Folk began as a simple evolutionary branch of the Great Wolf that developed sentience around the time of the Creator’s Offspring gifting explosion. At some point, Creator decided to gift them with the ability to better bond with their closest geographical neighbor, the humans. As such, they could morph their form into the approximate shape of humans, but always with traits of their wolf heritage visible. 

Still other more localized colloquial mythologies speak of a secret pact between the rebel elohim (The Anunnaki) and a smaller subset of the Wolf-Folk, giving them an edge over their competition in exchange for an eternity of service for them and their descendants. Sometimes this mythology is tied to the Anunnaki named NasuApu. 

However, some scholars believe that this ability to trans-mutate came from exposure to a particular strain of manna vein known to have been in abundance in their territory of origin at the time of the Creator’s Offspring explosion. This is an educated guess at this time, the evidence may lean to supporting this hypothesis but it is circumstantial at this time.

Note: In truth, unbeknown to most in Ha’Aretz, but known to the reader of this secret chronicle, the accounts above are all true in part. Creator did give this gift to the Wolf-Folk as a gift to make stronger ties with the humans and he used the manna vein in their region as a mechanism for this gift evolution. However, NasuApu did make pacts with some Wolf-Folk giving them even more and stranger abilities. He has also made pacts with human-born agents to turn them into his Wolf-Folk agents. It was such a pact like this, with a disillusioned human male named Dallu (whose name meant weakness) where The White Wolf Clan originated, giving Dallu the new title Bel-Dallu (Lord of Weakness). This made him a werewolf, and gave him supernatural control of the Manna Arts empowered not only from Bel-Dallu’s new evolved manna channels but drawing from NasuApu itself. 

Wolf-Folk did originally have peaceful and harmonious pacts with the human-born. However, various infightings, wars, and even natural disasters drove them apart. For a time, they became myths and legends to the human world until they reappeared out of the mountains after the great frost melted. In the thousands of years between, mythologies (such as those above) developed, and human-born distrusted the Wolf-Folk. For their part, the Wolf-Folk lost all sense of story or mythology about a human world and were surprised to find groups of people that looked similar to their upright form but without the ability to take their wolf form. They thought them broken or dysfunctional. Thus, the groups remained apart for centuries after coming back into contact. 

Today, regions of the world experience different outcomes. In some regions, Wolf-Folk have formed lasting bonds with both the human world and others of Creator’s Offspring. They are welcome members of societies, even holding prominent authority and government roles. In other regions, there is peace but still distrust, and so while they pass each other in the markets, even doing business between each other, the humans and Wolf-Folk do not intermingle personally. Still in other regions, they are outright hostile to each other, keeping to their own territories in tenuous peace treaties, with occasional outbreaks of war. 

In Kaldea, the Wolf-Folk were largely run off into other lands until a decade ago when a new White Wolf Clan moved into the mountains east of the capital of Kaldea. While efforts were made to either create peace treaties or if not, run them off, all efforts failed. The King, already busy with other matters, is content to leave the region to them until such time as they create a nuisance worth the investment of his entire army. Meanwhile, Bel-Dallu wins converts by the day and brings them into his fold, turning human-born into Wolf-Folk through dark arts and darker pacts of gods. 

***

About the Wolf-Folk, General Overview: 

Wolf-Folk are hunters by nature and operate from Den sites. These Den sites are usually territorial and continue for generations within any given clan until circumstance drive them onto other geographies. The Wolf-Folk are shape shifters; any given clan may have a culture of staying in wolf form or human form more often, as their needs and risks and cultures dictate. 

When in wolf form, they look like any natural wolf, but 2-3 times larger, sometimes as large as cattle in extreme cases. Due to this form similarity, all wolves, even the non-sentient wolves, are treated as potentially dangerous or signs of Wolf-Folk activity, even if no Wolf-Folk are present. In this form and size, they are powerful runners, have jaws of brutal bite force, and can often overpower an untrained manna artist or non-manna trained human one-to-one.

When in human form, they still retain their pointed wolf ears, and wild hair and thick side burns, and pointed teeth. Their transformation can either take minutes or fractions of a second, depending on the age and experience of the individual. In this human form, they are stronger than the average human, faster runners, and retain their enhanced sense of smell, sight, and hearing. They do not have the power of their wolf form, but their human form is still formidable. 

In either form, they can see farther than most humans. Their sense of smell is still their primary cognitive framework for the world, as with their cousins the dog-folk. They can follow scent trails that are days old when hunting. Their hearing can pick up voices from up to 5 miles away, if the wind and terrain conditions are right. 

As fighters, in either form, they tend to rely on their sheer strength and sharp teeth and claws to slash at opponents. They are also capable of wielding the Manna Arts, but this varies by individual. Wolf-Folk are not known to be patient by nature, and patience is required to wield the Manna Arts. 

Youth culture prizes aggression; elder culture prizes restraint. Among them, patience is not natural—it is earned, and therefore revered. Younger individuals will usually rely on the size and strength of their wolf form to surprise and overwhelm an enemy, and operate in packs to isolate them. However, as individuals age they grow in their patience and many become wielders of the great arts. When they do, they can become powerful mages, as their will can be hard to near unbreakable. These individuals may single-handedly overwhelm whole groups of enemy combatants with their deft handling of brutal manna attacks and defenses. They also use the defenses to shield their more impatient younger brethren. 

In our local case, The White Wolf Clan is a particular clan of werewolf zealots whose stated aim is to break Kaldea and tear it down. They spread their message of how Kaldea has failed the lower classes, and some disgruntled residents have developed sympathies for the clan if not outright joined them. 

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Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

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