| Based off the Wolfwalker Series by Tara K. Harper |
| Old Earth had been torn apart by man's greed and stupidity, and the population that remained took to the stars in huge vessels. They took with them technology, plants, animals.. it was a veritable spatial Noah's ark, a plethora of accumulated knowledge to help them colonize whatever places they found. The planet was small compared to Old Earth, perhaps only a quarter its size, but the environment was stable, and orbited a sun that had trillions of years left in its age, with nine moons of varying size and speed of motion governing the skies. The men of old earth, called the Ancients, landed, and began to colonize the new world. Of the animals they brought with them the Wolves came to be the most integral. Used to scout and bring down food, the settlements could not have survived without their aid. In return, the Ancients gave wolves the respectful title of Grey Ones, and the gift of the Voice. It was similar to telepathy, creating a racial memory entwined in the Packsong, allowing for communion from one wolf to another, and group to group. And, from Grey One to Human. So while the Ancients erected Domes of science, spreading across the new lands like a plague, the Grey Ones ran the hills and valleys, forests and mountains, Calling those select few humans with whom they felt attunement to come and |2un with them. What was created was called a Bonding, when a single Wolf and Human forged a direct telepathic link, and remained together for as long as the human was responsive to the Wolf, and the Wolf to the human. It was a bond of love, not necessity, one which lasted the lifetime of the wolf, and sometimes beyond. But the land was not without its perils: this was not the Old Earth man could conquer and tame. This was one that forced its inhabitants to learn harsh lessons for survival, and its creatures were more deadly and ferocious than any of old earth. The huge, beetle-like Worlag were the most notorious and dangerous of hunters, creating packs as large as the packs of wolves and stalking riders and prey for miles at a time. They had huge pincers and six legs, able to balance back on the bottom four into a fearfully erect, towering form with terrible red eyes and pincers fit to rend one's being to ribbons. The badgerbear was another of the harsher of the dangers, a sightless creature whose gaping mouth was the only sign of its livelihood; like the Worlags themselves, it would lay traps and ambush although, as a solitary hunter, it created sand traps in which it buried itself beneath the ground, waiting for riders to pass. Lepa, an enormous bird-like creature whose serrated beak and clutching talons, coupled with its tendency to flock in groups numbered in the thousands in the spring, force riders to keep beneath the trees during the time. Roofbleeders, huge, tendril-like creatures that could drain the blood from a man in mere minutes, inhabited most of the larger, steeper cave systems. While light was their death, no blade could cut through their nebulous forms, as they simply warped and conformed to anything that hacked at them. A man who took shelter in one of their caves would never know what hit them - their bite held a neurotoxin that would paralyze, and heavens have mercy on someone who awoke, unable to move, and remained conscious while their blood was drawn away. The bihwadi were dog-like creatures that, like the Wolves, pack hunted, only their lust for blood drove them to attack man as well, while a Grey One was bound by the Ancients' laws to never willingly hunt or attack a human. Mudsuckers inhabited the murkier waters, eel-like creatures with a round ring of teeth for amouth that, once attached, would never release and had to be cut open. Nightspiders were about the size of a man's fist, and a single bite would deliver a swift, fatal end. Gelbugs, largon beetles, and a score of other, smaller denizens could also make an ignorant night in the woods one of misery and hell. But there existed an even greater threat, looming in the mountains of the far north - the Aiueven. Bird-like creatures that seemed, oddly, part human, they were surely the most intelligent inhabitant of the world, and watched with growing aggression as man set about at claiming the planet as their own. When they interacted with man, it was under guise of deception; the Aiueven were never to allow the Ancients to regain their technology, never allow them to reach the stars again. Once the starships had moved on to find other worlds, the Aiueven released a plague across newEarth, decimating the Ancients and the wolf-human bond that once had been so common. Content for the time being, the Aiueven withdrew back to their snow-capped prisons of silence and snow. Centuries after the extermination, the bond between the Grey Ones and humans has grown rare. The Domes of the Ancients, still packed with technology and samples now lost to the people, remain to this day infected with the Plague. Any who enter suffer fits of convulsions accompanied by a heavy fever and hallucination, before death comes. There are no exceptions - it is always the same. The few that survived such contact was due to a healing form of the Ancients that had once been commonly known, yet after the Plague always ended with the death of the human, and a bout of insanity to the Grey One used to perform it, requiring that it be extinguished. Ovousibas, meaning "down to the left," was the internal healing art that used the Grey One to draw their mind in along the Voice's telepathy, and use their presence as a barrier against the pain of the patient while the healer's mind, drawn into the body of the injured, could stimulate either antibodies or nerves to heal and create additional antibodies. By constructing the antivirus within the blood of the inflicted, one could be saved from the Plague. It was the healer Dione who discovered why the healer used to die, and the wolf go insane - the healer would draw on the energy of the wolf, thus activating the Plague that lay dormant in the lupine memory. By using their own energy, or that of another person instead of the wolf, the healing could be done correctly, if learned. But those who knew it weren't speaking, so it was by pure dumb luck that any of the Wolfwalkers would learn it. The land itself, by this time, had been divided into counties - Ramaj Ariye, the land of the government and the people, one of prosperity and wealth. Ramaj Randonnen, a rocky, mountainous region filled with forest and holding the largest amount of Grey Ones not killed off by the Plague, where men farmed what rocky grounds they could, mountain climbed, and water rafted. Ramaj Bilocctar, a land of slavers and tradesmen, the greatest seaways in the colonies. Ramaj Kiren, a place of silence and fortitude, farmers and common tradesmen. And then there were the northern mountains, where the fabled bird-men dwelt, the lands surrounded by a thick of thorn bushes that was impenetrable. A time when Wolfwalkers were scarce, and the dangers very real, the Grey Ones still called whom they would to the packsong, and it was up to those of the Ramajs to /\nswer. |
| The World of the Wolfwalkers |
| History / Background : |
| Common phrases / terms : |
| Moonwarrior / Moonmaid : Fabled beings who lived in the moons, similar to oldEarth angels. Where the moonwarrior brought painful death, and the moonmaid brought the gentle, they were seen only when one was about to die, and were fabled to have violet eyes and dark hair. Dnu : A large, furred, six-legged creature similar to the horses of old earth that had been tamed and now are used as pack and riding beasts. They have been bred into multiple types for speed, stamina, and strength. Rootroads : Mostly found in the county of Ariye, they are the new equivalent of concrete. The roots are planted in areas where a road is desired and, after about half a year, they have grown and solidified as a thick bed of roots and can be smoothly ridden. Promised : Waiting Year : Respectful Adressing : |