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3rd Movement - Second Wolf Age

Vulfen do not know religion. The closest they come is a belief in prophetic dreams, which is hardly baseless on the boreal plains. However, Vulfen do have an eschatology, a racial destiny if you will. All packs tell this story, and they often dream of it as well. The humans of Vulfland tell the story, too; indeed, theirs is often the more evocative and detailed telling.

Father Wolf Agarim was the first being who killed and ate of his kill. This happened when the world was new, cold and dark. Agarim then was just an animal, content to merely exist in all the ways that wolves do.

Things from the deep waters attacked and forced animals to leave Agarim’s territory. They were large and of many forms. Agarim fought back and hunted his rivals to the soft places of the world.

Later Agarim beget all beasts, which started the first Wolf Age. All other animals multiplied greatly and became food to the carnivores.

The first Wolf Age was timeless, and therefore had to end. This was signified when the sun rose, bringing with it warmth and people. Where the sun reached, it brought people with their houses and tame animals. Wolves retreated to places that people did not want.

When animals came to contact with people, their ways changed and they came to depend on the humans for succor. Men sent heroes into the soft places to tame them; their presence caused the soft places to fold up and give way.

When the great empire rose in Near, natural ways were cast aside. Even many men knew then that the natural order had been shaken; they looked for refuge on the southern continent, far from the grasp of the emperor.

Everything comes to an end, but for few things it comes in as spectacular manner as it did for the Empire of Maldor. Agarim, who had slept through the Sun Age, opened his Eye: it was like a burning disk in the sky, slowly opening into something greater than the Sun itself.

Agarim swallowed the Sun and cast the world back into the darkness, intent on a new Wolf Age ruled by his children. This act was significant, for it revealed a change in Agarim as well: like the other animals, he was also changed by men, becoming something more like them and less like himself. Agarim of old would merely exist, content in the ways of the wolf.

Vulfen are the children of Agarim in the second Wolf Age. As the Shadow came over Near, they multiplied and encroached upon lands settled by people. They even crossed the frozen sea to the northern continent.

No creature could resist Vulfen during the shadow night. Humans cast down their totems and took to worshipping Agarim, the oldest of them all. Vulfen did not think to own the land like humans thought, but they did not think to allow the humans to own it, either; human villages were mercilessly culled by the Vulfen, ensuring that none would grow powerful enough to pose a danger to Agarim’s ilk.

Something went wrong, however, and the sun returned. Agarim’s Eye returned as well, but now it was pale and sickly. Gorenites came back out of their holes with the sun and started building and farming again. They even captured Vulfen and tamed them.

Taming was something of a revelation to Vulfen, who feared the condition greatly, thinking that it made them slow and stupid.

In time they learned to be suspicious of humans and only interact with them through fetches, people taken from their villages to serve a Vulfen pack. In time the land Vulfen would not allow people to own came to be known as “Vulfland” to the humans up north. The land humans could hold against the Vulfen was known as “Jošland”, for its apocryphal founder.

Vulfen do not have religion, but they do have dreams: when all packs dream together, that dream is known to be true to all. Agarim swallowing the sun and Vulfen ruling the earth – this dream was known to all Vulfen of the last generation, and the generation before that. Today Vulfen are uncertain: is this the second Wolf Age? Some claim to know the dream of Agarim, but as many as have dreams have abandoned their packs to live with humans, dreaming of nothing. The sun is weaker than ever, but nobody knows if it is weak enough.

Agarim, who had slept through the Sun Age, opened his Eye: it was like a burning disk in the sky, slowly opening into something greater than the Sun itself.