✦Lineage
Character Creator
Who are you?
This is the root of everything to come. Your kind shapes your body, your homeland, and the life you are about to live.
This branch of the tree is still being carved. All three paths are now carved.
The Lion’s Rock · Founded 1,182 BA · 700,000 mammals · Democratic Republic
The sovereign capital, founded under Wordermund’s own name of Wordermar after he returned from his pilgrimage at Mount Gwared at the age of twenty-seven. It was settled at the foot of enormous mammal statues whose faces were chiselled away long ago — the Faceless Kings, believed to represent rulers now wholly forgotten. Of all the cities it has the greatest diversity of population, and it is the seat of the Sovereign Council and its Consul, commonly a lion, where representatives of every city meet to set the laws that stand above local ones.
The name has drifted a long way from its meaning. Worda is “Universal Place” in Word, and Wordermar “Universal City”; this shifted to Wordustrum, “Our Place”, and at last to Vornstrom, “Our Home”. The humility is entirely apparent. Vornstrom has a well-earned reputation for arrogant and boastful excess, and jokes told in the other cities of the Circle turn on Vornstrom citizens one-upping and looking down on one another in comically exaggerated ways. At its height during the Age of Attainment the city held two million mammals; the collapse of the Empire has since seen it surpassed.
It is theoretically an Empire still, for the city maintains Wordermund’s vacant chair, the Solemn Throne, suspended upon a great pillar that cannot be reached. In practice the Consul rules in his absence, elected by the fifty representatives of the seven cities, and on election appoints a fifty-first member, the Proconsul, who presides in the Consul’s absence and breaks ties but does not otherwise vote. Vornstrom is the heart of the Basilean cirice and its ecclesiastical capital, yet Wordermund ensured his religion could never practise in the city government by appointing himself sole Supreme Pontiff with no possible successor — so the Basilians have been confined to secular means ever since.
Its districts are Vwarestrin, the walls, barracks and armoury; Vondothlimbar, the largest part of the city and home to the lower classes; Var Ainion, the city square guarded by the Faceless Kings; Lothengriol, which holds the great gardens; the Citadel, or Wondobar, the ancient palace of Wordermund where the Sovereign Council meets, built facing a ring of statues eight thousand years old; and Var Thurion, its chancel, which houses Wordermund’s stela. Its sigil is a roaring lion’s head framed by a seven-pointed mane, close kin to the sigil of the Order of Basileus, and its motto Avi Vornstrom — “Her Our Home”. Its great houses are the Kirgons, the White Lions; the Utherions, the Golden; the Maedrers, the Black; the Rorschers, the Red; and the Fuchers, the Magenta.
The Soaring City · Founded 2,099 BA · 200,000 mammals · Linrathrous Legalism
The oldest city in the Circle, founded by Ulmior the Wise on the Island of Minri in Lake Linra as an attempt to establish a permanent repository of knowledge. The Library of Ulmior is less a library than a vault, built so that everything within it is protected from any assault or disaster for ever. The city was renamed from its ancient root of Linrathrous — “Soaring City”, for the illusion by which the clear water seems to suspend it in the sky — after the Terraces of Gorin were completed. It is famed for its libraries and universities above every other city.
Terregor is also sinking. The lake has expanded since the founding, and the city has gone down into it by degrees, which is why it is known for canals and drowned quarters, and why a significant part of its population is semiaquatic: beavers and otters above all. Its architecture is sorted, for simplicity, into Minrina, the original construction dating from the founding, and Resemar, the far more distinct and expressive styles of the artificial extensions that let the city keep growing. Its government is theoretically meritocratic, with a well-developed bureaucracy and a civil service examination that must be passed to enter it. Its sigil is a quill pen crossing a broken sword.
Foundry of the People · Founded 1,182 BA · 400,000 mammals · Absolute Monarchy
Renowned for the quality of its metalwork, refining and smelting the raw ore that comes out of Adlivun. Torugost is Word for “Mighty Foundry”, and the city grew out of the foundry Wordermund built to supply his armies. It was added to constantly over the long years of his life as more forges and furnaces were needed, until the barracks raised for its workers became the oldest residential district of a city in its own right. Torugost no longer exists as such — the foundry was refurbished into Titus Castle — but it was never demolished or lost; it simply grew until it was a city.
The monarchs trace their line to those foundry days: when the Empire collapsed, the leader of the foundry declared herself queen, and the dynasty has been unbroken since. Their power is absolute and they have historically been wise enough not to interfere with the city’s industry. Tormurghast is divided into five administrative zones, each overseen by an appointee of the reigning monarch; the selection is rigorous and open to anyone in the city to apply, and the best kings and queens have stayed mindful of what their citizens want. The administrators keep offices in Castle Titus, each in one of the towers at its tips. Its sigil is a hammer striking an anvil.
The city where the river bends · Founded 1,720 BA · 75,000 mammals · Constitutional Monarchy
Widely known for a national dress that covers virtually the entire body, worn in remembrance of Wordermund. Horned mammals may technically expose their horns, though it is thought boastful and impolite to do so. The tradition is traced to the Day of Dwindling, the Era of Remembrance, but how it began is unclear: it is said to have come from the royal family’s concern for Aberrants, since masking every distinguishing feature lets them appear no different from anyone else. A popular alternative, spread by rumour, holds instead that the royal family suffered a disfiguring disease and out of vanity forced their subjects to hide their own unblemished bodies.
The name means literally “city where the river bends” in Old Tope, the ancient language of the antelope. The modern city contains Wordermund’s Mausoleum, though the far smaller settlement it grew from did not. Its nobility is an unbroken line of antelope descended from those who surrendered to Wordermund during his conquest rather than fight, so that the city was taken without loss of life on either side; their descendants rule now as ceremonial Tomb Keepers, the Wardens of Wordermund. Between strict laws, high taxes and harsh weather it is the smallest of the Seven Sovereigns. Its sigil is a horned mask, recalling both Wordermund’s elite warriors in their fearsome horned helmets and the covering tradition of the present day.
Founded 1,423 BA · 375,000 mammals · Demarchy
A mostly subterranean city-state, home to the largest mines in the Circle, producing high-quality iron ore, precious metals and gems that once fed the furnaces of Torugost. Though it exports mostly raw material, the jewellery made here is prized well beyond the Circle. Its population runs to badgers, rabbits, skunks and moles, with a scattering of foxes and coyotes; so many rabbits come from Adlivun that Eni is frequently assumed to be one of them. Alone among the Sovereign Cities, Adlivun pays directly for the armour of every member of its military, which is accordingly acknowledged the most glamorous anywhere.
Its council is chosen at random from a pool of candidates who put themselves forward; to enter, a mammal must be of age, own property, and submit their own name of their own will. The citizens hold the result of that random draw to be the Mother’s will. Its sigil is the night sky over a mountain, with diamonds set for the stars.
Founded 1,585 BA · 125,000 mammals · Cyclic Aristocracy
Larger only than Ghabarahata, and significant far beyond its size for its massive farmlands. Renaica grows the majority of the fruit and vegetables eaten in the Circle, produces wool from its high population of sheep and dairy from its cattle, and is famous for its gardens, which draw on the same vast irrigation system that waters the crops to make parks and green places within the city itself. Though it is the second-smallest of the Seven Sovereigns, the district it governs holds a large population spread across the farming settlements around it.
Its major noble families take the rule of the city in turn, alternating on a set schedule; whichever family holds power, the others choose the city’s representatives to the Circle’s council. Its sigil is a sheaf of wheat and a sickle.
Founded 1,305 BA · 175,000 mammals · Kraterocracy
The lone predator-majority city in the Circle, though its population is mixed as every city’s is. Outside the Circle it is sometimes feared as the most dangerous of the cities for prey, but Lagadha keeps the same strict anti-predation laws as all the rest. Wolves are the commonest predator here, with smaller numbers of lions and bears. The original name, Lagador, means “Purified” in Word and was given to the city after it was conquered long ago; the pronunciation has drifted over the centuries into its present form. It is home to the Barbican of Lagadha, the tallest tower in the world.
Its leader is chosen by tournament, judging candidates for wit, strength and whatever else a leader needs. One is held on the death of the sitting leader, or whenever a hundred citizens have qualified to challenge them. Qualifying is difficult and overseen by judges forbidden to compete. The challenges need not be lethal, but a contestant may mark themselves red to signal they accept battle to the death; this confers certain advantages, and killing an unmarked contestant is an automatic disqualification. A challenged leader traditionally steps down if there is a winner, though they may instead duel the victor to keep their seat. Tournaments are held at the foot of the Barbican, which carries a massive timer and leaderboard for the purpose. Lagadha also houses the Academy of Ortensia — Ortenza in common speech — the Circle’s military academy, founded in Wordermund’s time by General Ortensia, who saw the need for skilled commanders; it and the University of Terregor let each other’s students take courses. Its sigil is a tower, for the Barbican.
The Disowned City · The Gate City · Founded 57 BA · 390,000 mammals before the Blight
Called the Eighth Sovereign, Ctesiphon lies technically outside the Circle and is the way into it. It stands in the valley of Nacrousmaw, a gap in the Aureole Mountains, and grew outside the gate when the sentinels posted there brought their families to live beside them. It now takes in orchards and farmland around the wall, and buildings set into the wall’s sloping curve. Wall and gate alike are elaborately carved with scenes from the city’s history: the building of the wall, the sacking of the city, and the glorious battle in which the Herald was defeated. It is ruled by a Chief Magistrate from the Palace of Pearl in the Altstadt. The name comes from the ancient Sirda language and means “Resurrected Heart”.
Ctesiphon has no seat on the Sovereign Council, and its citizens grow less content with that as the city grows. Every time the question has come before the council it has been denied, the members preferring the status quo in which Ctesiphon remains the mutual territory of all seven. It is presently suffering a terrible blight, and its leader has become deeply unpopular as rumours spread that the affliction is a sign of the Mother’s displeasure with him and his rule. Its sigil is a seven-branched tree without leaves, a heart worked into the trunk.
Its Grand Bazaar is neither the largest market in the Circle nor the best stocked in any one kind of good, but it is remarkable for sheer variety, which the city enforces by controlling the stalls itself. The layout changes daily, so merchants must be able to set up and strike their goods quickly, and few stay above a month; the selection shifts constantly, running from books to brothels to restaurants to jewellers to armourers. It is a large and ornate indoor mall of several levels, with underground passages to the warehouse district and an enormous central hall opening onto the gates. The city sells seized goods here, and despite the City Guard’s best efforts stolen goods inevitably appear alongside them.
The Crown of Fangs · Capital of the League of Jaws · Seat of the Caiserate
Founded in 1712 AA on the banks of the Raeniron Lake, New Rushaya is the engineered marvel of the predator world, a city carved in ambition, blood and bone, and the seat from which the twelve predator nations are ruled. Where Sovuvesta evokes serenity and balance, New Rushaya exalts grandeur and dominance. It is built in concentric rings, and each ring declares a rank: the Outer Rings, where the bulk of the population live and train, give way inward to the Ivory Core, the fortress-palace that holds the Caiser’s seat. Its buildings are angular, colonnaded and spiked, stone and blackened steel touched with crimson banners and gold filigree, and torch towers blaze through the night above boulevards lined with statues of great generals, kings and beasts. At the centre the Eclipse Ziggurat rises like a flame caught in stone, visible from every quarter. It is a vast city, and there is no predator kind you will not find in it.
Two dark truths cling to its glory. Its food comes from the prey farms beyond the walls, heavily guarded industrial operations that raise and harvest livestock, and which are controversial even among some League citizens. And its foundations were laid by prey labour, taken in war or seized through debt — struck from the official record, but remembered in whispers as the Builders Beneath, so that predator children are still warned: don’t complain, or you’ll be put to the pick like the Builders. The city exists to declare that the League will rise, will prepare for war, and will never again kneel to prey nations. It holds the League’s military academies, its strategic planning rooms, and the central offices of the Zahnrem, the predator high command; its great plaza, the Field of Teeth, can hold an entire Legion, and often does. The cost has been greater than any project in League history, and no Carn has dared halt it, for to stop building would be to admit doubt in the predator destiny.
The Caiserate is presently held by the House of Tainia, a tiger family who took power during the Scourge after the wolf line fell in the collapse of Old Rushaya. At the heart of Fort Incis stands the Wolfram Throne, a great chair shaped like a massive wolf’s jaw and wrought in untarnishable tungsten, commissioned by Mordem Alsphar to mark his near-miraculous victory in the Throatcutting War. Its making is the stuff of legend and the tales disagree: some say the Mother personally appointed Mordem as the chosen leader of the predators, others that it is a chair stolen from a god of the underworld, though the most proclaimed telling holds that Raenir himself descended to bite Deiken, lost a fang in the doing, and that the fang fell to earth and became the throne, blessed so that only the Anax may sit upon it. It was thought lost with the fall of Rushaya in 1749 AA, until the Qurutzalcar’s defeat by the Slayer a hundred and three years later, whereupon Caiser Tygrim reinstated it as the axis of power in honour of the Slayer and the wolves who ended the Scourge. The Tainian Caisers rarely sit in it, preferring that it stand as a ceremonial symbol of the League itself. It is believed to be magical in nature, and to bless every holder with a long natural life.
The Kingdom of Wolves · Capital: Vegrnar, the Red Maw
Also known as the Kingdom of Wolves, Wovengar is the largest and most powerful realm within the League of Jaws. Its vast northern territories encompass mountains, forests, frozen coasts, fertile valleys, volcanic highlands, and ancient hunting grounds, inhabited by countless wolf clans whose traditions can differ as sharply as the lands they call home.
For much of its history, Wovengar was a patchwork of rival territories, warbands, and ancient wolf states. Centuries of feuding left the wolves powerful but divided, until the reforms of Duchess Almara brought the disparate regions into a common political order. The old kingdoms did not disappear, however. They retained their identities, laws, rivalries, and ambitions, making modern Wovengar less a single homogeneous nation than a great federation of wolfdoms bound beneath one crown and one League.
Wolves are so numerous across Wovengar that many remote tribes can live for generations without encountering another kind of animal beyond those known through trade, travelers, stories, or rumors of war. To the wolves, the world is consequently vast and strange even when their own homeland seems endless. Foreign peoples are often encountered first as legends before they are encountered in the flesh.
Wovengar is fiercely martial. Its clans have produced legendary warriors, raiders, tacticians, knights, hunters, and warlords, and nearly every region possesses its own conception of what a wolf ought to be. Some worship discipline and honor; others prize cunning, prophecy, scholarship, commerce, or sheer strength. The result is a civilization united by ancestry and political necessity, but constantly negotiating what wolfdom itself means.
At the heart of the kingdom stands Vegrnar, the Red Maw, the great city on the River Van and the sacred birthplace of Raenir, the Wolf-Father. Every major clan maintains a presence there, and the Great Moot gathers wolves from across Wovengar to debate matters affecting the whole kingdom. Vegrnar is consequently the closest thing Wovengar possesses to a common identity: a place where its countless peoples meet without having to cease being themselves.
The spiritual life of Wovengar is equally divided. The ancient traditions surrounding Raenir, the Spiral, the Eclipse, and the ancestral powers remain dominant, but the legend of the Slayer has become an increasingly powerful force in wolven culture. Cults dedicated to the Slayer are widespread, ranging from small warrior brotherhoods and household traditions to movements seeking recognition as genuine religions.
For all its strength, Wovengar remains a kingdom perpetually wrestling with itself. Its clans remember old wars, old humiliations, old glories, and old claims to supremacy. Some dream of restoring ancient kingdoms. Others want greater unity. Some seek expansion, while others simply want to be left alone. The League may call Wovengar the Kingdom of Wolves, but within its borders are many different answers to the same question: What does it mean to be a wolf?
Capital: Azgra · Dominant lineages: Avar, Arktar, Gezigar, Wulrikai
Once the seat of the wolven people, the capital of Old Rushaya, and later the heart of the lost Caiserate, Avaroth's golden age has passed, but its luster has not faded. It remains one of the most politically important kingdoms in the League of Jaws, and the word of an Avarothi elder carries weight far beyond the kingdom's borders.
The mighty Walholl Fortress dominates the southernmost tip of the Erethegren Mountains, its ancient stones steeped in the memory of every oath sworn within its halls. Avaroth is home to the Warwolves, the elite warrior caste whose name commands respect and fear throughout Wovengar. The Avarothi consider themselves the keepers of Wovengar's memory, and their greatest ambition is not conquest but restoration. Yet Avaroth's greatest weakness is also its pride: it possesses enormous prestige, but considerably less power than it once did.
Capital: Worgrem · Dominant lineages: Arktar, Avar, Sturma
A militaristic and honor-bound kingdom, Artarus is the steadfast ally of Avaroth, often described as its stoic older brother. Where Avaroth dreams of what Wovengar once was, Artarus concerns itself with ensuring that what remains does not collapse. Artaran warriors are trained from cubhood in the old disciplines: the shield-wall, coordinated hunting, fortification, and the sacred duty of protecting one's pack even at the cost of one's life.
Worgrem is a city of iron and stone, its forges rarely cool. The Artaran Code, a rigid system of honor, duty, and sacrifice, governs life from the lowest whelp to the ruling Warlord. To break the Code is to invite exile or death.
Capital: Saren · Dominant lineages: Mulkari, Avar, Nerengar, Sangai
Once famous for feasting halls, Ulfhedinn, and sea raids, Berkja has become a grim and wealthy guardian of the trade routes through the Mulken Sea. It controls the Bay of Fangs, the gateway to Wovengar's eastern wealth, and profits from tariffs, shipbuilding, fishing, salt, and maritime trade.
But Berkja is haunted by the Broken Whine, the shore where 9,000 dugen landed in peace and were ruthlessly slaughtered. The poles upon which they were hanged still stand, and the Berkjan government refuses to remove them. The atrocity remains one of the clearest monuments to Wovengar's hatred of dogs, increasingly controversial even within Berkja itself.
Capital: Renzron · Dominant lineages: Wulrikai, Avar, Havakar
Wulrik was once among the greatest raiding powers of the ancient world, its longships darkening every coast within reach. That power has faded, but the culture that produced it remains. Wulrik was the birthplace of the mighty Ulfhedinn, elite warriors who could rouse a terrible, unnatural savagery in battle, though their numbers are now greatly diminished.
Since the War of Unifications, Wulrik has lost access to the sea, and the Wulriki have never accepted this loss. Their greatest ambition is to regain a coastline, whether through diplomacy, purchase, conquest, or eventual war. They do not necessarily want their empire restored. They simply want the sea back.
Capital: Kostris · Dominant lineages: Morren, Avar, Carsakai
Morr is a shadowed kingdom with a long history of blood pacts, assassinations, prophecy, and religious secrecy. The Morric are renowned seers and interpreters of dreams, reading omens in animal behavior, weather, blood, stars, and ancient relics. Their oldest blood-pacts bind families to ancestors and powers older than the modern clans.
Kostris is built among cliffs and ravines, its temples concealed within the stone. Morr's greatest power is information. Other clans may distrust Morric prophets, but they seek them out when ordinary knowledge fails. Some Morric traditions maintain connections with the ravens and the ancient Takhar-followers who revere Raenir.
Capital: Kalagar · Dominant lineages: Hurak, Arktar, Avar, Stikari
Hurcan is a devout kingdom centered upon celestial signs, divine ancestry, and the sacred Warwald Forest, the largest and most dangerous forest in Wovengar. Its depths contain creatures unknown even to the wolf languages, and the Hurcani patrol its borders to prevent whatever lives within from spilling into settled lands.
Hurcan is home to the greatest chapter of the Order of the Eclipse, the knightly religious order devoted to Raenir. The Hurcani read the stars as others read books, and believe the Eclipse, when Raenir swallowed the sun, marked the beginning of true freedom.
Capital: Vrimrir · Dominant lineages: Gezigar, Arktar, Avar, Havakar
Gezigor is the rising military power of Wovengar. The Gezigori believe the old kingdoms have become complacent, and they are building fortresses, expanding roads, recruiting armies, and steadily extending their borders. Vrimrir is designed for war: thick walls, immense barracks, military academies, and forges operating day and night.
Unlike Wulrik, Gezigor does not dream of the past. It wants a new Wovengar, one in which strength rather than antiquity determines authority. Everyone knows the question is only: when will Gezigor decide that its next enemy is another wolf?
Capital: Khorric · Dominant lineages: Hulian, Avar, Gurlai, Sangai
Hulian is the great center of law, scholarship, jurisprudence, and diplomacy in Wovengar. Khorric is filled with libraries, courts, academies, and monuments to ancient lawgivers. The Hulian Codex is the closest thing Wovengar possesses to a common legal tradition.
Hulian's influence comes from institutions rather than armies; its judgments can carry trade penalties and collective sanctions. Its goal is simple: keep Wovengar arguing in courts rather than killing one another in fields.
Capital: Erscentem · Dominant lineages: Sangai, Avar, Mulkari, Arktar
Sanghund is a warrior kingdom built around sacred oaths and ritual combat. It possesses the largest coyote population in Wovengar. The coyotes, known collectively as Sangai, are regarded by many wolves as lesser kin; Sanghund rejects this distinction. Here, status comes through the Blood Oath, and anyone willing to swear it may become part of the pack, regardless of lineage.
Erscentem is filled with dueling grounds, oath-stones, and public arenas. Sanghund wants the other kingdoms to acknowledge what it already believes: kinship is proven by loyalty, not ancestry.
Capital: Ermar · Dominant lineages: Gurlai, Avar, Arktar, Hulian
Gurlen is the intellectual center of wolven warfare. Its warriors are taught strategy before combat, and its generals are sought by kingdoms across Wovengar. Ermar is filled with military academies, map rooms, archives, and schools of logistics.
Unlike Hulian, Gurlen is concerned not with how society should be governed but with how conflicts are actually won. Its great weakness is the danger of becoming predictable, forever tempted to fight the next war as though it were merely another version of the last.
Capital: Vegeir · Dominant lineages: Sturma, Arktar, Carsakai, Avar
Sturmaz is a volcanic kingdom whose warriors are forged amid ash and fire. Vegeir lies upon the slopes of an active volcano; its streets are paved with cooled lava, and its forges draw upon the mountain's heat. The Sturmazi believe the volcano is sacred, and those who survive its fury are thought favored by Raenir.
Their black-armored elite are famous throughout Wovengar, their armor produced from rare volcanic materials. Their philosophy is grimly simple: the mountain will eventually destroy them, so they intend to meet it standing.
Capital: Zrad · Dominant lineages: Havakar, Avar, Gezigar, Wulrikai
Havoc is the most unruly of the major wolf kingdoms. The Havoci were once among the most feared wolves of Carnaron, and many ancient Warwolf bloodlines trace their ancestry to them. Zrad changes constantly: warlords rise and fall, alliances form and dissolve, feuds become wars.
Other kingdoms consider Havoc dangerous but cannot simply destroy it, for its warriors remain valuable in major wars and its bloodlines are intertwined with Wovengar's military history. Havoc's greatest desire is freedom from restraint.
Capital: Erzan · Dominant lineages: Ruldan, Avar, Hulian, Gurlai
Ruldin serves as Wovengar's great intermediary. Its envoys travel between rival clans, negotiate treaties, arrange prisoner exchanges, and attempt to prevent wars before they begin. Erzan is filled with embassies, meeting halls, neutral markets, and residences for foreign delegations.
Ruldin's strength is its neutrality: an attack upon a Ruldini diplomatic mission is considered an attack upon mediation itself. The Ruldini believe war represents the failure of diplomacy, and their greatest fear is that Wovengar will grow so divided that diplomacy can no longer bridge the gap.
Capital: Xerith · Dominant lineages: Tempari, Stikari, Arktar, Avar
Tempus is the greatest wolven kingdom ruled by a single pack. The Tempic worldview is built around time: every part of life is regulated by ritual calendars, sacred intervals, astronomical observations, and carefully maintained schedules. They believe time is the framework within which Raenir's gift of freedom becomes possible.
Xerith is a city of clocks, astronomical towers, calendars, and precisely organized streets. Tempus is a major producer of preserved meat, hides, ice goods, and astronomical instruments. To the Tempic, everyone else is simply wasting time.
Capital: Welvesren · Dominant lineages: Stikari, Tempari, Avar, Arktar
Stixis is the northern kingdom bordering the dark Marennoch Sea, a frozen body of water filled with the remains of ancient creatures. The Stixis bone-seers believe every bone retains an imprint of the creature from which it came, and through careful examination claim to read memories, omens, and futures.
They also perform a vital service: recovering the remains of drowned sailors and lost expeditions from the Marennoch, so their families can know what became of them. Stixis seeks knowledge of one thing above all: what, if anything, remains after death.
Capital: Earith · Dominant lineages: Carsakai, Morren, Sturma, Avar
Carsun is a mountainous kingdom whose wolves inhabit high valleys, passes, and isolated settlements. The notorious Vampire Wolves, or Blood Drinkers, originate here; their reputation claims that they consume the blood of their enemies to inherit their strength, though whether the practice is widespread or merely exaggerated is disputed even among Carsuni.
Despite its isolation, Carsun is one of Wovengar's most outward-looking kingdoms. Its mountain passes connect Wovengar to distant civilizations, and Carsuni markets contain foreign goods rarely seen elsewhere.
Capital: Zreta · Dominant lineages: Nerengar, Mulkari, Avar, Arktar
Neringi is the wealthiest power of eastern Wovengar and the center of the great seal-hunting trade. Enormous quantities of meat, hides, and oil arrive through its ports, producing powerful merchant houses, vast markets, and a formidable military.
Neringi's sacred Howl is performed by thousands of wolves simultaneously; the Neringi claim it summons storms from the Dawn Ocean, and the storms, inconveniently, have a habit of arriving anyway. Its ambition is to remain eastern Wovengar's undisputed power, and its greatest danger is that wealth breeds rivals.
Capital: Azhazir · Dominant lineages: Dirakai, Avar, Ruldan, Arktar
Dirus is the kingdom no other kingdom quite wants to claim. The Dirani are exiles, shunned from many sacred places and surrounded by stories concerning an ancient crime or curse whose truth is deliberately obscure. Despite this, Dirus is not weak: Neringi supports it as a buffer against eastern threats.
Azhazir is dark, quiet, and heavily guarded, its people having learned to survive without the approval of the rest of Wovengar. Dirus wants only two things: survival and, someday, vindication.
Capital: Gaurhoth · Dominant lineages: Gauren, Nerengar, Mulkari, Avar
Grimwatch occupies the eastern cliffs overlooking the open sea, and its wolves serve as Wovengar's first and final line of defense against maritime threats from beyond. They fight creatures of the deep that have no proper name in any wolf tongue; some appear only in certain seasons, and some have never been successfully killed.
Gaurhoth is a fortress-city of cliffs, watchtowers, signal fires, and sea walls. The Grimwatch receive little glory. Their reward is simply that the villages behind them survive another year. They do not seek conquest. They hold the line.
Population: all major wolven lineages
Vegrnar is the great capital of Wovengar, standing upon the River Van, where Raenir, the Wolf-Father, is believed to have been born. It is the most cosmopolitan city in wolfdom, with no dominant lineage: Avar, Arktar, Mulkari, Havakar, Tempari, Stikari, Carsakai, Gauren, Sangai, and countless others live side by side.
Every kingdom maintains a presence in the city. The Great Moot meets in Vegrnar, where the clans are formally equal, and the Wolf-King, when such a figure exists, is crowned in the Temple of the Spiral. Avaroth claims to possess Wovengar's memory; Hulian its law; Hurcan its faith; Gurlen its wars. Vegrnar claims to contain all of it, and that is why every clan wants a place within its walls.
Conciliator · The Lion's Cirice
The most widespread and institutionally powerful of the four faiths. Rooted in the legacy of Wordermund's empire, its seat of authority is the High House of Vornstrom. It is a highly organized, predominantly female clergy whose priestesses serve as religious teachers, midwives, tutors, and caretakers.
The Order understands the Mother as the supreme creator and guardian of mammalian existence, placing her within a divine family. Its worship is centred upon the Cirice, a circular sanctuary with the Mother represented at its heart.
Its reading of the Severance is conciliatory: the Mother permitted her children to leave her immediate care so that they might mature, but never intended that they remain separated forever. The Order therefore seeks to find her and restore the world to a greater paradise, one in which her children have grown beyond their original innocence.
Its strength is institutional. It preaches "Magnanimity" and cultivates it through education, charity, medicine, and the care of the vulnerable — including Aberrants, who it holds must be cared for rather than condemned. It is the most recognizable expression of the Cirice as a civilizational religion: a faith that seeks to shape society, preserve knowledge, and prepare creation for the Mother's return.
Conciliator · The Threefold Mother
The Devout worship the Mother through three manifestations: the Child, the Womb, and the Crone — the stages of her existence, associated with the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon. The other planets are understood as former incarnations of the Mother during her time in the Void.
This distinguishes them from the Basileans, who regard the Mother as perfect and ageless. To the Devout, her changing aspects reveal the sacredness of life itself: birth, maturity, fertility, age, and renewal.
They are particularly influential among herbivorous communities, with strong support within the Confederation. Their religious life emphasizes fertility, motherhood, and the raising of children; their Three Hares motif, popular among the lagomorphs, symbolizes both the Three Aspects and the lost blessing of fertility.
They regard Raenir as a villain whose actions brought the world into peril, and seek to undo the damage by restoring the Mother and the lost age of fables. Their particular emphasis on the sacredness of same-species reproduction has proven controversial; other Circian traditions regard the Three Aspects as incompatible with the Mother's perfection, producing considerable theological and social conflict.
Severer · The Mother's Maxim
The most explicitly martial of the four traditions. Their faith centres on the Mother's Maxim, which they hold as the authoritative foundation of their teachings; unlike the Basileans, they do not recognize the Lion's Libri as sacred scripture.
They believe Raenir possessed the wisdom to enact the Severance, and regard it as necessary to create an honourable world — one in which the Mother's children must confront danger, prove themselves, and attain Magnanimity without her protection. Their virtue is bound to courage, discipline, martial prowess, and the willingness to face death. Their clergy, the Soothsayers, are themselves respected warriors, and serve as spiritual advisers to rulers throughout the League of Jaws.
Their eschatology is elaborate: the Valkyries, the Mother's female servants, select the strongest warriors who die in battle to become Einherjars, to be reincarnated for the final battle against Deiken, the great evil. Central to this is their reading of the Slayer as Raenir reborn, who will lead the Mother's forces and deliver the final killing stroke. Their faith is more permissive toward relationships among predators, while holding a strong taboo against predator-prey unions.
Severer · The Lady of the Lake
Perhaps the most unusual of the four. Centred on the Book of Ninian, they teach that after the Severance the Mother did not abandon her children but sacrificed her divine powers to become the Lady of the Lake — humbling herself to live hidden within creation as an equal.
Preserving her presence and her mark upon the world is their sacred duty. They see magic not merely as a dangerous remnant of the Severance, but as a gift inherited from the Age of Fables — a trace of the Mother's continuing presence, corrupted, and to be understood rightly through her love and guidance.
Their relationship with the Mother is intimate but not dependent. She may intervene when necessary, yet reliance upon her intervention is sinful; her hidden presence is a reminder that her children must continue to grow. An exclusively female order, their temples stand along the shores of the Mulken Sea; they accept aquatic mammals — dolphins, orcas, and whales — and their most sacred artifact is a vial of blood believed to be that of the First Incarnate, the Mother made flesh after the Severance.
They share much doctrine with the Basileans — indeed the Order of Basileus is understood to have begun as an offshoot of this older faith. Their essential distinction: they seek neither the Mother's permanent return nor the restoration of her former rule. She is already among her children, and the greatest devotion is to honour her presence without demanding her intervention.