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Characters

Kitefall Pack

• Jaiden (he/him) - one of the two leaders of the pack, alongside his partner Edge. Typically sorted into the role of Nightparent by outsiders, he doesn't care much for either label. Chronic overthinker. His primary approach to any challenge is to try to outsmart it, and as far as keeping his pack fed, it seems to be working - his schemes of using traps more than any other pack in the area is netting them enough kills to keep them sustained. Enjoys the thrill of a hunt though is not the most skilled at it. Wouldn't know a poisonous plant if it bit him in the face. Has a bad habit of pushing through whatever he's started alone as long as he thinks it'll ease the burdens of his pack, rather than ask for their help.
• Edge (he/him) - the other leader of the pack and Jaiden's partner. Aspires for the ideal of Dayparent but feels like he constantly falls short, experiencing a mix of euphoria and shame when referred to as such by others. He is the largest wolf in the pack, his power is great and his jaws strong, but his frequent pains that worsen with the weather keep him from feeling much useful to his pack. He cannot hunt much and thus tries to give his all to protecting his packmates who are staying at the den, fearing he's not actually strong enough to. Looks up to Yarrow a lot and adores the pups. Jaiden above all makes him feel at peace.
• Yarrow (he/him) - older male who's lived most of his life as a loner and then as a duo with his partner, Beetle, trailing the edges of pack territories and surviving on mostly being tolerated for being polite and avoidant. A dreamer and storyteller who just wants to help everyone. Knows a lot more about a great many things than he lets on until that knowledge is deemed necessary.
• Beetle (he/him) - older male and Yarrow's partner. The second largest wolf in the pack. Beefcake, charmer, and takes a lot of pride in his ability to bring home good prey to his pack. Endlessly flirty with Yarrow and knows how to use his charm to get exactly what he wants, but most of the time sticks to being a cheesy uncle type instead.
• Krolik (she/her) - joined the parent pack as a yearling along with two other siblings, only one of whom survived into adulthood. When that pack too began facing overpopulation, she struck out with Jaiden and Edge to make their own way this time, despite already being pregnant with her first litter. Stubborn just like Jaiden and yet the two of them seem to play off of each other really well, driving each other to get things done right. The fastest runner out of the pack and skilled at flushing prey, but in her previous pack was largely known for her idiot schemes of trying to climb trees.
  • Kiddo 1
  • Kiddo 2
• The Pale Stranger (they/it) - some think them a spirit or a cryptid, others simply a strange loner, and yet others completely made up. Some say a wolf this pale (a rarity in their colourful kind) must be an aspect of Day, while others argue that its uncanny proportions could only ever signal the erosion of their values if that were the case. Sighted rarely, most do not waste thought on them, and many of the rest turn them into scary tales to keep the pups up at night and holed up in the safety of their dens. But the Kitefall Pack catch glimpses of them more and more. They, in turn, grow wary, wanting neither harassment from a stranger nor a bad omen from the spirits. That is, until the Stranger's intentions finally become clear - they're here to help.

The Kitefall Pack dispersed from a larger pack on the verge of overpopulation and currently occupy a small area at the edge of said pack's territory - their dispersal had no bad blood and thus they are still tolerated for some time as they get their feet under themselves, despite the parent pack's struggles with resources. They are named for the carcass that secured their survival in the first few, harsh days, a fully grown dead kite. Though not carrion any sane wolf would turn up their nose at, the otherwise unusual prey was the beginning of their somewhat odd diet as they struggle to find a niche to fit into between the edges of pack territories, fighting to keep their own.

Upon dispersal, the pack consisted of only three wolves - the young couple Jaiden and Edge, and a first-time pregnant female who I still need to figure out. Not long after they were joined by the transient, middle-aged couple Yarrow and Beetle. The pack grew to a size of seven with the birth of two pups.

Culture and Mythology

Origin Myths

There is no universal agreement among wolves on how the world came to be. Some say it hatched from an egg, some that it was a shed scale of a fish, yet others that it has simply always been there. But a common throughline between multiple packs and cultures is the story of how wolfkind was born. With variations, most tell it something like this:

Once upon a time, the world was always locked in dusk. No day, no night, just a pale sky and comfortable dimness. And in that world, two wolves lived. A cunning, swift black female and a powerful, patient white male. Together they played and wandered and hunted.

But eventually, the two grew lonely. They sought far and wide for company. For other wolves. All tell it differently - some say new wolves came rushing down from the skies like fallen stars, some say the first two wolves dug holes until new ones emerged from them like puppies from dens, some say all other wolves are descendants of the first two. No matter how the story goes exactly, one day there had been two wolves, and the next there were many. A whole pack. None but the swift female were fully black, none but the patient male were fully white. All were happy.

And they lived long that way, under the guidance of the first two.

But there came the day that the swift black female and the patient white male had to leave. Some will tell you they grew old, they died. Others say they were simply needed elsewhere. Their pack had grown strong. It was time for others to lead.

And so, they left. They travelled up into the sky, leaving their pack with all four paws on the ground. The swift black female became Night. The patient white male became Day. Since then, the world has no longer been only dusk, but instead an endless cycle of Day and Night chasing each other in circles, playing. Night, always just a little bit faster, will sometimes catch up to Day and knock him to the ground, and then the two will wrestle for a moment before separating again. But most of the time, they're evenly matched, with Night tiring during one half of the year and Day during the other.

And their pack, left on the solid ground, became the ancestors of all wolves. None purely Night. None purely Day. Each carrying with them a little bit of both.

(A lot of myths in a variety of packs and cultures also incorporate elements of the place where the first pack once lived not being the same as where all wolves live now. There are frequently tales of long journeys to get to their new home. The reasons in those stories for why the wolves had to move vary wildly.

Though it's been too many generations for wolfkind today to remember, these myths are what remains from their origins on a whole other planet - Terra.)

Pack Construction

Though outliers exist, almost all packs are lead by a lead pair. While most commonly these two wolves are in a romantic relationship, it is not a requirement, and nowadays the emphasis is on a strong bond between leaders and their ability to support both each other and their packmates. Generations ago, lead pairs who couldn't produce offspring of their own were seen as unfit to lead, but nowadays this is considered to be an outdated view by even the grouchiest elders.

Packs led by single wolves do exist, but most often as a result of one lead wolf dying early and suddenly. Lone lead wolves will typically seek a new fellow leader or, more commonly, step down from their leading position altogether (pair bonds between leaders are built on years upon years of companionship and teamwork, and these bonds last for life. They are not something you can make appear with someone else at the drop of a hat. And of course more importantly, the loss of a partner alone is traumatising enough to make one want to step back from being responsible for a whole pack.)

While the lead pair may or may not produce offspring of their own, how, how often, and with whom the rest of the pack can have pups varies between cultures. Depending on where you look, you may find non-leader pair bonds, packs that only breed with outsiders, ones where breeding at all is a sort of taboo that must happen but only does in secret and with the fathers often only known by the mother herself, or complete free-for-alls. Pair bonds that physically cannot produce offspring are often seen equal to pair bonds that could but choose not to produce offspring - this then ranges anywhere from "perfectly fine and normal" to "an affront to our views and a waste of good wolves."

Day and Night

It is a widespread belief that what matters the most for a leading pair isn't their genders, exact nature of their relationship, or their ability to produce offspring. Instead, many believe that one must embody the aspects of Day while the other of Night. Since the exact interpretation of Day and Night, the first two wolves, varies from culture to culture, so does exactly what the leaders should embody and what is the most important out of those.

Traits typically associated with Day include physical and mental strength, patience, skills at teaching, and a protective spirit. In a more abstract sense, Day is can be described as a sense of community, play, and peacetime decadence. Back before gender was largely abandoned as an important aspect of pair bonds, the wolf assigned to Day was highly preferred to be the male in the pair, and the opposite was considered subversive and often judged harshly.

Traits typically associated with Night include cunning, speed both in body and in the ability to make sound decisions in emergencies, curiosity, and skills at storytelling. In a more abstract sense, Night can often be described as the darkness of a den that puppies are born in, guidance before their eyes are opened, and survival even against odds. Traditionally, Night used to be assigned to females, with ones more aligned with Day also facing harsh judgement,c though in some traditions, Day-aligned females would be tolerated as long as non-reproductive, and viewed as a pseudo third gender.

Though the focus on gender has long since been abandoned, lead pairs may still face resistance if they don't fall into the stereotype of a Day-Night pair. Non-leading wolves are often also sorted into one or the other, with rigidity largely dependent on culture. The less community-oriented a wolf, the less likely it is for anyone else to care which ancestor spirit they're more clearly aligned to.

Movement to reject the confines imposed by the Day-Night binary has started up more and more in recent years across multiple packs. Opinion on this varies anywhere from being a weird fad by the young ones, to being seen as attacking traditional values and seeding dissent, to the elders going "huh, they've got a point, actually."

Wolves that are (close to) pure white or black are very rare in the current, colourful population, which is mostly made up of greys and browns accented with jewel tones. Near-white and near-black wolves are often seen as related to Day and Night (depending on their colour), the details ranging anywhere from reincarnation, to mortal fragments, to omens. Puppies born of either colour once their adult colouration starts clearing up rarely get to live normal lives.