Crow's Covenant [LORE]

The mountain biome is a labyrinth filled with empty spaces that nurse the void, connected like the threads of a spider's web and inescapable to those without sense of direction.  Lost, a wolf lifts their head in search of stars to guide, but there is nothing but blackness peering down at them. They are alone. No sun nor moon to light their way, no twinkling stars to set their mind at ease. 

Ahead, darkness watches. And in this darkness, two yellow eyes of blinding light appear. 

"Welcome," the darkness greets, its booming voice surrounding them in the same way that space surrounds the earth. "We are so glad you're here. The Void is hungry." Its maw is opened impossibly wide as it grows with the pulsing of a heart, surrounding them in less than seconds. 

THE VOID IS HUNGRY

-×-×-

We are the wolves of the Void, 

Those who want nothing but crave everything

We are the hunters,

Always hungry,

For knowledge For experience For life For death

Do not be afraid,

Rest here,

Open yourself to the Void,

Let it consume what grows within you,

And become one of us

Become one with the Void

Understanding Crow's Covenant 

The pack exists as extensions of the Void. They have no ultimate desires or goals, no great expectations for life. Only an insatiable hunger. 

While they aren't blood thirsty, they thrive on violence. There's no grand goal of unity, but they seek strong ties, either of allegiance or hatred.

They adopt pieces of everything they touch and see. They want to learn everything about everything and consume it, sometimes to carry it on, other times just for the sake of taking.

They are simple a void. Everything and nothing. Illusions and existence.

They worship the Blind one with many eyes. Who is the night sky and all its stars. But not the actual sky, its reflection. They (the Blind one) are of the Void, but not the Void itself. The Blind one watches but never sees. And that's why the pack must be the ones to learn. To gather knowledge of everything and tell it to the Blind one. 

Blind wolves are treated with special care because they are blessed with sense instead of sight. As proper extensions of the Blind one. 

Dark / black hued pelts with amber, orange or yellow eyes are high in rank. They feel the Void's pulses of hunger and they feed it. 

Light / white hued pelts are lights to guide the path. They are beacons for the pack who begin the hunt and foretell a sinister coming that is the void.

Much like their god who is a reflection, they experience emotions and such in the second hand. Reflecting what they see others do to showcase how they 'feel'. Typically they are devoid unless they experience a surge, when they suddenly feel an abundance of emotion and need.

The tale of Crow's Covenant begins with one wolf; the alpha, the king, the bottomless pit in blood and flesh and fur.

Genjir

As a pup, Gengir would always feel some pull, this lure that often tugged and swept him away into the night, much to his mother's dismay and distress. On one night, when all had gathered and burrowed to wait out a snow storm, the pull had struck again. And like a moth entranced by the light that would more than likely bring about its demise, he went into the storm.

Many would later whisper that he'd been lost in the storm, but truly, he'd been found. Found by the Blind one with many eyes, who always watched, but never saw. Though the true sky had been consumed by the storm clouds and the heavy assault pf fallen snow, in a hidden pool the sky could be seen, entirely black except for the blinking stars who looked back. As their gazes collided, both began to truly see. 

The Blind one witnessed a wolf of equal darkness, with two bright stars for eyes and a massive cluster that marked his shoulders and back. And young Genjir saw the void, empty in itself but flooded with many that failed to sate its insatiable hunger. And his hunger reared itself and raged. Called for fuel to temper it, searching first inside the pup and taking all that he was, all except the need for more. What his mother would call his adventurous heart even as fear gripped her own.

But what he had inside was not enough and he set his sights to the storm. The storm of the clouded sky so burdened by all it held it finally broke and spilled down an endless torrent of snow. The storm with the winds that howled and snarled their pent up aggressions, battering all that stood proudly. All but the pup who sat and devoured all that it had to give. 

For days he did nothing but watch and consume, until finally the storm had no fight left and all were freed from its torment. Free to search for a pup who'd been lost and they prayed so desperately survived. And he was found. unharmed. Unbothered. Unsatisfied. Unseeing until the bright light that shone in his eyes grew dim and his connection to the void had gone quiet.

But silence was never eternal.

As Genjir grew older, he became hungrier. He turned desperate and volatile. Pulsing with seemingly endless energy that rattled within him like hornets disturbed. He was erratic and inconsolable, rabid in ways that frightened his pack. Until the decision came to handle his problem, to handle him. Permanently. 

The lead hunter was chosen to deal the lethal blow and end the young adolescent's suffering, but upon meeting those blank yellow eyes of liquid torment, they witnessed something they would not dare tell another soul. They witnessed the Void, starving and merciless in its quest for sustenance. And the price for this peek into what they should never witness, was their sanity. Mindless and feral, the hunter turned on the pack instead, acting as the Void's hand to deal wreckage upon those who refused to sate its appetite. None were spared, not even the hunter themselves who succumbed to their fatal wounds after their task had been complete.

Genjir had been satisfied that unfortunate night. Feasting on the fear and regret, the violence and brutal purging itself, the grief and anguish, the desperation and desolation, devouring it all until his soul became gorged and stable. Sated.

For now.