Wolf

Overview

Wolves are cursorial hunters, built for long pursuit rather than ambush, with territories that can run from fifty to well over a thousand square kilometres depending on prey density.

They organise into packs that look very little like the family groups wild wolves form, and every wolf carries some tie to the moon.

Physical traits

Deep-chested and long-legged, with large paws relative to body size and a straight, low-carried tail. The double coat pairs coarse water-shedding guard hairs over a dense insulating underfur, and moults heavily in spring. Colouring spans grey, black, white, cream and brown, frequently mixed within a single population and even a single litter.

They are digitigrade, walking on the toes, which lengthens stride and quietens footfall. Scent is a primary channel, and marking defines territory.

The moon-blessed in particular tend to run larger and stronger than other wolves.

Packs

Wolf packs here are not organised the way wild wolf packs are. The family-group model that describes real wolves does not carry over; wolves here organise much closer to luperin.

A pack has an alpha, and the position is earned rather than seized. What earns it varies from wolf to wolf, but it is not raw dominance — that part works much as it does for luperin.

A pack also has a Luna, who shares the alpha’s authority rather than sitting beneath it, and who is typically the alpha’s mate. The role says nothing whatsoever about gender. An alpha and Luna pairing is as readily two men or two women as any other combination.

Below both sits the beta, or second.

Magic

Every wolf here carries some tie to the moon. That much the species fixes, and it is the one thing it fixes.

The moon-blessed carry the strongest form of it by a wide margin — rare, exceptionally powerful, and capable of things no other wolf can do. They are recorded as a breed of their own.

Everything else is individual. Some wolves carry a great deal of magic and some carry very little beyond the moon-tie itself.

Shared instincts

Wolves share the cursorial build, the pack structure, the moon-tie, and a set of genuine instincts: they measure before moving, they judge when not to commit, and they invest heavily in raising young across the whole pack. A hunter that fails most of its hunts survives by knowing which ones to abandon, and that carries into how they operate generally.

Those are instincts, not temperament, and the distinction matters. A wolf can act against any of them if they choose to. Restraint is what the instinct pulls toward; it is not who anyone is, and plenty of wolves are nothing like restrained.

Breeds

The moon-blessed are the one wolf breed that is not simply a natural subspecies.

Field notes

Individual size, colouring, markings, pack and magic belong on each member’s own page.