Profile of Imaq: Quick Facts
Played By: R/Rachel
Basic Info
Full Name: Imaq "Tupilak" Qeya Epithets: Selkie, Seelie, Waterwitch, Angakkoq Sexuality: Demisexual
Subspecies: 50% canis lupus orion (Greenland wolf) x 25% Kalaallit Qimmiat/Grønlandshund (Greenland dog) x 25% Australian shepherd
Size: Tiny, Stocky
Sex: Female
Gender: Cisgender Female
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Age: 4.3 (January, 2018)
Birthplace: Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) Affiliation: Atautsikut, Nimbus Summit, Tuktu Hinterlands, Teekon Wilds
Subspecies: 50% canis lupus orion (Greenland wolf) x 25% Kalaallit Qimmiat/Grønlandshund (Greenland dog) x 25% Australian shepherd
Size: Tiny, Stocky
Sex: Female
Gender: Cisgender Female
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Age: 4.3 (January, 2018)
Birthplace: Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) Affiliation: Atautsikut, Nimbus Summit, Tuktu Hinterlands, Teekon Wilds
At a Glance
Profile of Imaq: Details
Appearance
Imaq's appearance denies any trace of her lupine ancestry, the herd-stalker oft mistaken for a mere domestic dog or an alien creature of sorts amongst her more wild brethren. Her ears are limp and her conformation reminiscent of her shepherd lineage -- the isabella merle shorter and stockier than most, though not lacking in femininity or wool-soft curves of motherhood.
A buttercream confection, a foaming mug of gently steaming cappuccino and frothy milk speckled by a dash of sweet spice: cinnamon, nutmeg, mocha.
The warmth of her sugary tones only serves to highlight the exotic hue of her tropical gaze: lagoon water and jade seaglass, the corner of one eye eclipsed by a mark of rich cobalt. (Supposedly the blessing/curse of Sedna, her sea-mother.)
A few small scars from hunting mishaps, missing her left hindleg.
A buttercream confection, a foaming mug of gently steaming cappuccino and frothy milk speckled by a dash of sweet spice: cinnamon, nutmeg, mocha.
The warmth of her sugary tones only serves to highlight the exotic hue of her tropical gaze: lagoon water and jade seaglass, the corner of one eye eclipsed by a mark of rich cobalt. (Supposedly the blessing/curse of Sedna, her sea-mother.)
A few small scars from hunting mishaps, missing her left hindleg.
"but suddenly i'm older"
Personality
Quote:diffident. nurturing. feminine. spiritual. devoted. unassuming. timorous. loyal. skittish. shrinking. faithful. persistent.
"and it's cold and moonless"
Biography
Her mother was Eelisi, a cur who became separated from her master on a hiking trip as a girl and reverted to ferality in order to survive. By all means, the dog should've perished in the harsh landscapes of Greenland but somehow she managed to conquer the wilderness.
It was in her second year of life that she was badly wounded after being chased away from her kill by a hungry bear. She was found by an older male whom guided her back to his family's current territory despite her protests.
Eelisi could understand nothing of their language or ways but it appeared that the wolves had opted to nurse her back to health. She was given a warm bed in their large, communal den and her wounds were tended by the women - the men bringing her portions of their hunts to help her recover her strength.
The dog wasn't sure how to repay their kindness but she had vague plans of staying for a time, or perhaps traveling with them, to help replace the resources they'd used on her.
Unaware of their culture or what she'd agreed to exactly upon choosing to stay, a huge misunderstanding began to brew. When the night came that her savior, Salik, climbed into her bed and lowered his huge body over her own - Eelisi froze. She did not realize she'd become his wife, by their customs, nor did her husband seem to notice that her silence was not consent.
This happened several times more, Salik and his spouses rejoicing at having another lover join their Kalaallit. After the first few tentative nights, Salik began to notice a change in the piebald beauty.
She'd stopped attempting to learn their language, or learn more about the unique way of life that the northerners led. In fact, the shepherd had become despondent and apathetic.
Salik and his brother, Aakkuluk, as well as their shared wives, Bitti and Êrsta, all did their best to rouse their newest wife's spirits but it was to no avail. After several weeks with no improvement, the brothers began to discuss whether some evil spirit might afflict the woman and if Salik should return her to the place where he'd found her.
Before her husbands could decide, it was discovered that Eelisi had fallen pregnant. All notion of letting the Grønlandshund go was cast aside as the depressed dog's mates celebrated the happy news. Salik decided for himself that he would watch over their wife, to make sure she wasn't touched by a dark spirit. He feared she might try to harm their unborn children and promised that she could go if she wished, after the pups were born, though Eelisi couldn't understand him.
The mixed dog only fell into a darker abyss of despair as her pregnancy progressed. Her mates gave one last effort of wooing her, thinking that her budding motherhood might change her outlook - that she might realize the protective providers she had in the brothers, and the loving support system she had in her sister wives. That she might find lovers in all of them someday. But Eelisi was blind to the small, subtle acts of northron romance: how the men brought her the finest cuts of meat and slept to either side of her at night. How her sister wives preened her pelt soft and silky, using it to line a whelping den big enough for the three of them to raise their young in together. She was deaf to the tenderness in their rumbling, foreign words. Numb to the passion of the gentle affection they hesitantly offered.
Eelisi believed herself to be a slave, a concubine. There was no winning her over, she had long ago grown used to the freedom of the arctic around her - empty, frigid, utterly thrilling. She withered without it.
In the dark of a winter dawn, Salik woke to find his little wife gone. In a panic, he burst from the den and galloped in the direction of soft, keening cries.
He found her clinging to a log in the shallows of a chilled stream, ice still clustered along its banks. Though he was surprised at how she'd plunged into the waters to birth their children, he was quick to follow, gathering her to his chest as the first child slid from her.
He was quick to return his son to land, drying him with fervent licks and tucking him against his underbelly for warmth as the boy howled his displeasure. He left him only to retrieve his daughter from the pool and moments later, Eelisi.
The new father nearly crowed his happiness, tail wagging as he hugged his newborns close and groomed them dry. His joy only faded once he'd nudged them towards their mother a bit, to which she did not respond.
Eelisi had sunken back into her darkness, eyes focused unblinking upon the lightening sky. She did not appear to have any intention of nursing her young, let alone touching them.
Salik dared to move the babes ever closer, pushing one right up against her sodden coat. Long awaited, on bated breath, something inside the woman snapped at the feel of the unwanted pup.
Whirling, slavering and snapping, her jaws flashed down to the boy and before Salik could stop her, crushed him in their grasp - tearing and twisting like a savage beast.
With a cry, Salik tackled her back into the water but it was too late. When he let her go, he found that he'd accidentally crushed the shepherd's windpipe in his bid to save his son.
He knew not how long he stood there but it was only when he heard the soft mewling of the girl that he returned to the shores. Shell-shocked, immensely guilty, Salik gently picked up his damp daughter and headed for home - turning for a moment so as to watch the piebald and their tiny son bob slowly down the stream with a shudder.
He placed their only surviving child with his first wife, Bitti, who had already whelped a few days before. She immediately accepted the girl as her own cub and became a surrogate mother to Eelisi's daughter.
On the girl's nameday, she was dubbed 'Imaq', a gentle nudge towards her unorthodox aquatic birth. She grew into a curious little creature: quiet and contemplative rather than rambunctious or playful, keen and intensely focused. When her eyes opened and took on their vibrant hues, Êrsta (the Angakkoq of their Kalaallit) proclaimed the girl to be beloved of Sedna and daughter of the sea (since she had no true mother aside from Bitti).
Due to the circumstances surrounding Eelisi's death, the girl's many parents paid a particular attention to the wolfdog pup - namely Salik, who believed the girl to be 'born of his spirit'. Because of this, her siblings - namely her half-sisters, Iansîna and Iluuna and her stepsister, Rikîna - grew jealous of Imaq. Often she was bullied, outcasted, or else rumors were spread that she was actually 'Imaq Tupilak' or a 'seawitch'.
Rather than spend her time playing with her numerous siblings, the girl became increasingly closer to her parents as she grew. (This only served to make the rift between her and the other children worse but this way, at least, she could be away from them sometimes. Plus, her siblings usually backed off under their parents' supervision.)
Perhaps on account of her canine background, or maybe the ostracization she faced from her siblings, the child was a determined learner, studious pupil, and eager to please. She buried herself fully, needling and pestering where needed until they gave in, in the various tasks and roles her parents fulfilled with hopes of someday making a good Kalaallit woman, pleasing the spirits, and escaping her current woes.
With her fathers, Salik and Aakkuluk, she learned of the land and sea. Salik schooled her in tracking, hunting, in the ways of the caribou her family had migrated with for generations. And with Aakkuluk, she saw the ends of the world - where everything became flat and white and there was nothing but hellish iceabears and the occasional pillar of steambreath from the whales hidden below. Here was Sedna's land, where lights danced in the nights and life belonged to the black waters where no wolf could go, portals to this deathly realm found in the form of air holes where Imaq learned to hunt seal.
With Bitti she was mentored in her mother's art of brewery - on which grains and berries, roots and honey - was best for fermenting into the famous drink of their people. And Êrsta was her teacher in the traditions of their family, of their land. Her stepmother began training her as a shaman - to be a seer and healer of their faith - and showed her how to call the spirits, how to enter into the spirit world. (This is done via techniques such as ecstatic trances and meditation.) From both women she gained a fair knowledge of medicinal, edible, and toxic foliage.
It was from Ikíngut, whom her fathers and mothers would marry when she was a yearling, that she began to learn of the world beyond. Ikíngut was but a year or two older than she and they became fast friends, her newest stepmother teaching her the basics of the common tongue.
It was the responsibility of all her maternal role models to teach her of womanhood: of estrous and copulation, marriage and pregnancy. Of birthing and rearing children, preparing meals, digging dens and keeping them clean.
By the time she had reached maturity, Imaq had grown into a beautiful and valuable asset to her family. Not only was she exotically breath-taking but the girl was skilled and knowledgeable in many ways - a fine bride for any male to add to his own Kalaallit, or start a new one with.
She had only just turned two when one morning, just as the sky lightened with a gentle hue of fuzzy peach, the girl woke to her mother, Bitti, shaking her awake. With a flush, she realized she was in heat and allowed her mother to usher her out of the den. The halfbreed loped away into the wilderness, too embarrassed to cast a glance back at the solemn woman watching her go.
In a few days time, she would return - once her heat was over and the taboo was lifted. Per their customs, if she survived in the wilderness for the duration of her first heat and returned in one piece, she would be considered a woman in the eyes of the inua, or spirits, and therefore eligible for marriage.
Imaq's family imagined she would return soon, completely unscathed, but when the girl returned only two days later - beaten, crusted with blood and a stranger's seed - a somber air fell over the family's encampment.
Her siblings scattered, save for a few who lingered on the fringes bearing expressions ranging from indifference to concern to guilt to amusement. Her mothers fluttered about her like fretful hens, trying to groom the evidence from her coat in distress as they tended her wounds.
When Salik came upon the scene, they melted back obediently. He started towards his daughter, lips parting to ask what had happened when he stopped dead in his tracks - the wind shifting and bringing the smell of her violation to him.
He charged at her, the small woman cringing into the earth beneath him as the words flew from her lips in one rush of air - understanding for the first time why Eelisi had feared her sire.
Her words were enough to still his rage but not enough to stop what happened next.
In the end, it did not matter that the man in the woods had forced himself upon her. It did not matter that she had returned alive, battered but still breathing. She had not survived through her first heat and returned to them, whole and complete.
She was tarnished. Used. Stained.
Her fathers would be hard pressed to find any eligible suitors for their daughter, and her bride price would be reduced to next to nothing. It did not matter how beautiful she was, nor how skilled.
Even if they had wanted to marry her off, the inua would frown upon them. She had failed her trial, she could not be seen as a woman in the eyes of their people nor would any respectable Kalaallit ever bring her into their midst.
She would remain forever as a girl-woman, status less. A burden upon her family - passed from her father's care to her brothers', to her nephews' as she aged. Worse than that, it would bring great shame upon their family band.
Knowing all of this, Salik began to speak.
Would that he had screamed. Would that he had bellowed. But it was this, his cold and merciless tones of ice, that unraveled her and shattered her heart.
Before her family's eyes, he disowned her. He stated that she was no longer a member of their family and did not share their blood. She was 'Imaq Tupilak', the seawitch. He claimed that Êrsta had been mistaken and she was instead cursed by Sedna. That her mother's womb had been cursed and so was her own, which was why it had been ruined so. That it was all connected, a sign of the spirits that he should have drowned the witchbabe long ago, when she slithered from betwixt her mother's legs. If she was not exiled now she would bring about Sedna's wrath and they would all surely starve to death.
He placed a death curse upon the only child he'd sired with Eelisi and turned his back on her.
Slowly, Imaq watched as each of her family's eyes glazed over to the sight of her - seeing through her. They no longer believed her to be there, thinking her to be an evil inua - just a shell of what had once been their daughter and sister. They too trickled away, leaving her alone in the snow.
Imaq knew not how long she lay there, unmoving and unblinking, before at last she hauled herself to her feet - knowing she could not stay.
Aimlessly, she wandered west. In the following weeks she was forced to face the reality of becoming a single mother as she began to grow nauseous, tired, and dizzy.
As she neared the northwestern coast in her first trimester, she was mistaken for a feral dog and tranquilized before being boarded on a ferry that was bound for the mainland - inland Nunavut.
Here, she was admitted at a dog shelter where was determined to be too high risk for adoption. She was scheduled to be euthanized after the puppies weaned but due to a stroke of luck, Imaq managed to escape only a week before delivering her triplets.
A volunteer somehow forgot to lock the door properly on her cage and before he could stop her, the pregnant aussie had bolted down the hall. With no one around to hear, except for the employee in the empty kennels at the end of the hall (who was wearing headphones as he mopped and sanitized), Tupilak slipped out the ajar door which had been opened to air out the fumes of the sanitizer.
Selkie picked up traveling once more, southbound, but was forced to stop as her due date finally drew near. In the midst of winter, in the middle of a sudden blizzard, the shepherd birthed three sons in the dark of her den as the wind screamed alongside her.
As the storm continued to rage, two of her children unfortunately froze or starved to death in the close, cruel world of darkness. When at last the blizzard broke, the mother emerged gaunt and haggard with a single baby boy, Ikila, clasped in her jaws.
The young woman did her best but no Kalaallit would take them. Not all of them found the same lovely cast in her unique features, finding her instead to be unnerving and ugly. Others simply wanted nothing to do with the used woman, as her father had predicted. It was incredibly difficult trying to hunt with a young pup in tow. She could not carry him as she hunted nor did it seem wise to drop him somewhere random right before attacking her prey. She chose to risk leaving him somewhere that seemed safe before departing to hunt.
One day she returned to the site where she'd left Ikila, only to find an empty patch of grass where the babe had once been and a blurred print in the mud.
She spiraled outwards for hundreds upon hundreds of yards, perhaps even thousands, but to no avail. There was no trace of her pup and no hint as to what unfortunate fate might have befallen him.
Though she sat, still as stone and lost in some distant world of grief, for several days, eventually the woman was forced to keep moving on - uncertain as to what else she could do.
Selkie continued her journey south, wandering without destination - uncertain of what she seeks, or if she is even still among the land of the living as she wanders. Knowing no other way, the young woman hopes to find mates who can look past her taboo, to find or make her own Kalaallit.
Shortly before entering the Wilds, a sudden storm sparks a landslide on the bluffs she travels along and Imaq is knocked into the sea. She washes ashore on Sequoia Coast in the midst of a blizzard.
In January of 2021, in her third year of life, Imaq wakes on the southern shores of what the Nereides knew as Soteria - the Blackwater Islands of Teekon - during a break in the blizzard, Icewind (a winter BWP).
Once the blizzard passed, Imaq journeyed inland and traveled west along Sequoia Coast. At the landbridge of Wheeling Gull Isle, she unknowingly turns away from Yuélong as she follows Totoka River south into the Flatlands. Imaq follows the River all the way to Greatwater Lake in the southern end of Kintla.
Here, Imaq met Rowan -- leader of Ivory Rose -- whom befriended the cur and took her home, giving her a place in his ranks and teaching her the basics of his language. Despite some tension with pack mates for her halfbreed status, Imaq resided here happily for about a month before accidentally wandering too close to a psychedelic willow and breathing in the poisonous spores. She suffered from fearful hallucinations, the likes of which triggered/traumatized her so badly that she wound up mistakenly fleeing the territory and became lost in the Taiga.
She meets Wintersbane in Phoenix Maplewood and he recruits her for his fledling pack, Duskfire Glacier where she takes up a role of hunter and healer.
When Duskfire Glacier becomes official, Imaq is granted the rank of Delta. Later, she would go on to become Gamma after Iana was promoted to Beta.
In the late spring of 2021, Imaq went into heat which would result in her coupling with a packmate, Rye, and conceiving a single son: Sikuliak. When Sikuliak was born in the late summer, Imaq finally admitted her feelings to Rye and suggested that they become mates.
After Sikuliak was attacked as a toddler, Imaq left the Glacier temporarily to keep him safe from Makatza, the child who attacked him. She intended to return when everything had been resolved and thought the trip might do her son some good, that she might teach him to hunt as they explored in spite of his ruined leg. They got lost in a snowstorm however and ended up leaving Teekon. During this time, they were attacked by a male wolf who desired to keep and abuse Sikuliak. Imaq killed the he-wolf but this event traumatized them both. Later, more trauma was inflicted when Imaq was forced to gnaw her own leg off after it was pinned beneath a rock in a landslide as they traversed a mountain range. The pair found their way back to Teekon, the Glacier, Rye, and their tribe but only after suffering in the wilderness and taking dire measures to ensure their survival. Shortly after their return, DFG moved to Nimbus Summit and became Atautsikut. Imaq and Siku both began to recover from their ordeals outside the Wilds.
It was in her second year of life that she was badly wounded after being chased away from her kill by a hungry bear. She was found by an older male whom guided her back to his family's current territory despite her protests.
Eelisi could understand nothing of their language or ways but it appeared that the wolves had opted to nurse her back to health. She was given a warm bed in their large, communal den and her wounds were tended by the women - the men bringing her portions of their hunts to help her recover her strength.
The dog wasn't sure how to repay their kindness but she had vague plans of staying for a time, or perhaps traveling with them, to help replace the resources they'd used on her.
Unaware of their culture or what she'd agreed to exactly upon choosing to stay, a huge misunderstanding began to brew. When the night came that her savior, Salik, climbed into her bed and lowered his huge body over her own - Eelisi froze. She did not realize she'd become his wife, by their customs, nor did her husband seem to notice that her silence was not consent.
This happened several times more, Salik and his spouses rejoicing at having another lover join their Kalaallit. After the first few tentative nights, Salik began to notice a change in the piebald beauty.
She'd stopped attempting to learn their language, or learn more about the unique way of life that the northerners led. In fact, the shepherd had become despondent and apathetic.
Salik and his brother, Aakkuluk, as well as their shared wives, Bitti and Êrsta, all did their best to rouse their newest wife's spirits but it was to no avail. After several weeks with no improvement, the brothers began to discuss whether some evil spirit might afflict the woman and if Salik should return her to the place where he'd found her.
Before her husbands could decide, it was discovered that Eelisi had fallen pregnant. All notion of letting the Grønlandshund go was cast aside as the depressed dog's mates celebrated the happy news. Salik decided for himself that he would watch over their wife, to make sure she wasn't touched by a dark spirit. He feared she might try to harm their unborn children and promised that she could go if she wished, after the pups were born, though Eelisi couldn't understand him.
The mixed dog only fell into a darker abyss of despair as her pregnancy progressed. Her mates gave one last effort of wooing her, thinking that her budding motherhood might change her outlook - that she might realize the protective providers she had in the brothers, and the loving support system she had in her sister wives. That she might find lovers in all of them someday. But Eelisi was blind to the small, subtle acts of northron romance: how the men brought her the finest cuts of meat and slept to either side of her at night. How her sister wives preened her pelt soft and silky, using it to line a whelping den big enough for the three of them to raise their young in together. She was deaf to the tenderness in their rumbling, foreign words. Numb to the passion of the gentle affection they hesitantly offered.
Eelisi believed herself to be a slave, a concubine. There was no winning her over, she had long ago grown used to the freedom of the arctic around her - empty, frigid, utterly thrilling. She withered without it.
In the dark of a winter dawn, Salik woke to find his little wife gone. In a panic, he burst from the den and galloped in the direction of soft, keening cries.
He found her clinging to a log in the shallows of a chilled stream, ice still clustered along its banks. Though he was surprised at how she'd plunged into the waters to birth their children, he was quick to follow, gathering her to his chest as the first child slid from her.
He was quick to return his son to land, drying him with fervent licks and tucking him against his underbelly for warmth as the boy howled his displeasure. He left him only to retrieve his daughter from the pool and moments later, Eelisi.
The new father nearly crowed his happiness, tail wagging as he hugged his newborns close and groomed them dry. His joy only faded once he'd nudged them towards their mother a bit, to which she did not respond.
Eelisi had sunken back into her darkness, eyes focused unblinking upon the lightening sky. She did not appear to have any intention of nursing her young, let alone touching them.
Salik dared to move the babes ever closer, pushing one right up against her sodden coat. Long awaited, on bated breath, something inside the woman snapped at the feel of the unwanted pup.
Whirling, slavering and snapping, her jaws flashed down to the boy and before Salik could stop her, crushed him in their grasp - tearing and twisting like a savage beast.
With a cry, Salik tackled her back into the water but it was too late. When he let her go, he found that he'd accidentally crushed the shepherd's windpipe in his bid to save his son.
He knew not how long he stood there but it was only when he heard the soft mewling of the girl that he returned to the shores. Shell-shocked, immensely guilty, Salik gently picked up his damp daughter and headed for home - turning for a moment so as to watch the piebald and their tiny son bob slowly down the stream with a shudder.
He placed their only surviving child with his first wife, Bitti, who had already whelped a few days before. She immediately accepted the girl as her own cub and became a surrogate mother to Eelisi's daughter.
On the girl's nameday, she was dubbed 'Imaq', a gentle nudge towards her unorthodox aquatic birth. She grew into a curious little creature: quiet and contemplative rather than rambunctious or playful, keen and intensely focused. When her eyes opened and took on their vibrant hues, Êrsta (the Angakkoq of their Kalaallit) proclaimed the girl to be beloved of Sedna and daughter of the sea (since she had no true mother aside from Bitti).
Due to the circumstances surrounding Eelisi's death, the girl's many parents paid a particular attention to the wolfdog pup - namely Salik, who believed the girl to be 'born of his spirit'. Because of this, her siblings - namely her half-sisters, Iansîna and Iluuna and her stepsister, Rikîna - grew jealous of Imaq. Often she was bullied, outcasted, or else rumors were spread that she was actually 'Imaq Tupilak' or a 'seawitch'.
Rather than spend her time playing with her numerous siblings, the girl became increasingly closer to her parents as she grew. (This only served to make the rift between her and the other children worse but this way, at least, she could be away from them sometimes. Plus, her siblings usually backed off under their parents' supervision.)
Perhaps on account of her canine background, or maybe the ostracization she faced from her siblings, the child was a determined learner, studious pupil, and eager to please. She buried herself fully, needling and pestering where needed until they gave in, in the various tasks and roles her parents fulfilled with hopes of someday making a good Kalaallit woman, pleasing the spirits, and escaping her current woes.
With her fathers, Salik and Aakkuluk, she learned of the land and sea. Salik schooled her in tracking, hunting, in the ways of the caribou her family had migrated with for generations. And with Aakkuluk, she saw the ends of the world - where everything became flat and white and there was nothing but hellish iceabears and the occasional pillar of steambreath from the whales hidden below. Here was Sedna's land, where lights danced in the nights and life belonged to the black waters where no wolf could go, portals to this deathly realm found in the form of air holes where Imaq learned to hunt seal.
With Bitti she was mentored in her mother's art of brewery - on which grains and berries, roots and honey - was best for fermenting into the famous drink of their people. And Êrsta was her teacher in the traditions of their family, of their land. Her stepmother began training her as a shaman - to be a seer and healer of their faith - and showed her how to call the spirits, how to enter into the spirit world. (This is done via techniques such as ecstatic trances and meditation.) From both women she gained a fair knowledge of medicinal, edible, and toxic foliage.
It was from Ikíngut, whom her fathers and mothers would marry when she was a yearling, that she began to learn of the world beyond. Ikíngut was but a year or two older than she and they became fast friends, her newest stepmother teaching her the basics of the common tongue.
It was the responsibility of all her maternal role models to teach her of womanhood: of estrous and copulation, marriage and pregnancy. Of birthing and rearing children, preparing meals, digging dens and keeping them clean.
By the time she had reached maturity, Imaq had grown into a beautiful and valuable asset to her family. Not only was she exotically breath-taking but the girl was skilled and knowledgeable in many ways - a fine bride for any male to add to his own Kalaallit, or start a new one with.
She had only just turned two when one morning, just as the sky lightened with a gentle hue of fuzzy peach, the girl woke to her mother, Bitti, shaking her awake. With a flush, she realized she was in heat and allowed her mother to usher her out of the den. The halfbreed loped away into the wilderness, too embarrassed to cast a glance back at the solemn woman watching her go.
In a few days time, she would return - once her heat was over and the taboo was lifted. Per their customs, if she survived in the wilderness for the duration of her first heat and returned in one piece, she would be considered a woman in the eyes of the inua, or spirits, and therefore eligible for marriage.
Imaq's family imagined she would return soon, completely unscathed, but when the girl returned only two days later - beaten, crusted with blood and a stranger's seed - a somber air fell over the family's encampment.
Her siblings scattered, save for a few who lingered on the fringes bearing expressions ranging from indifference to concern to guilt to amusement. Her mothers fluttered about her like fretful hens, trying to groom the evidence from her coat in distress as they tended her wounds.
When Salik came upon the scene, they melted back obediently. He started towards his daughter, lips parting to ask what had happened when he stopped dead in his tracks - the wind shifting and bringing the smell of her violation to him.
He charged at her, the small woman cringing into the earth beneath him as the words flew from her lips in one rush of air - understanding for the first time why Eelisi had feared her sire.
Her words were enough to still his rage but not enough to stop what happened next.
In the end, it did not matter that the man in the woods had forced himself upon her. It did not matter that she had returned alive, battered but still breathing. She had not survived through her first heat and returned to them, whole and complete.
She was tarnished. Used. Stained.
Her fathers would be hard pressed to find any eligible suitors for their daughter, and her bride price would be reduced to next to nothing. It did not matter how beautiful she was, nor how skilled.
Even if they had wanted to marry her off, the inua would frown upon them. She had failed her trial, she could not be seen as a woman in the eyes of their people nor would any respectable Kalaallit ever bring her into their midst.
She would remain forever as a girl-woman, status less. A burden upon her family - passed from her father's care to her brothers', to her nephews' as she aged. Worse than that, it would bring great shame upon their family band.
Knowing all of this, Salik began to speak.
Would that he had screamed. Would that he had bellowed. But it was this, his cold and merciless tones of ice, that unraveled her and shattered her heart.
Before her family's eyes, he disowned her. He stated that she was no longer a member of their family and did not share their blood. She was 'Imaq Tupilak', the seawitch. He claimed that Êrsta had been mistaken and she was instead cursed by Sedna. That her mother's womb had been cursed and so was her own, which was why it had been ruined so. That it was all connected, a sign of the spirits that he should have drowned the witchbabe long ago, when she slithered from betwixt her mother's legs. If she was not exiled now she would bring about Sedna's wrath and they would all surely starve to death.
He placed a death curse upon the only child he'd sired with Eelisi and turned his back on her.
Slowly, Imaq watched as each of her family's eyes glazed over to the sight of her - seeing through her. They no longer believed her to be there, thinking her to be an evil inua - just a shell of what had once been their daughter and sister. They too trickled away, leaving her alone in the snow.
Imaq knew not how long she lay there, unmoving and unblinking, before at last she hauled herself to her feet - knowing she could not stay.
Aimlessly, she wandered west. In the following weeks she was forced to face the reality of becoming a single mother as she began to grow nauseous, tired, and dizzy.
As she neared the northwestern coast in her first trimester, she was mistaken for a feral dog and tranquilized before being boarded on a ferry that was bound for the mainland - inland Nunavut.
Here, she was admitted at a dog shelter where was determined to be too high risk for adoption. She was scheduled to be euthanized after the puppies weaned but due to a stroke of luck, Imaq managed to escape only a week before delivering her triplets.
A volunteer somehow forgot to lock the door properly on her cage and before he could stop her, the pregnant aussie had bolted down the hall. With no one around to hear, except for the employee in the empty kennels at the end of the hall (who was wearing headphones as he mopped and sanitized), Tupilak slipped out the ajar door which had been opened to air out the fumes of the sanitizer.
Selkie picked up traveling once more, southbound, but was forced to stop as her due date finally drew near. In the midst of winter, in the middle of a sudden blizzard, the shepherd birthed three sons in the dark of her den as the wind screamed alongside her.
As the storm continued to rage, two of her children unfortunately froze or starved to death in the close, cruel world of darkness. When at last the blizzard broke, the mother emerged gaunt and haggard with a single baby boy, Ikila, clasped in her jaws.
The young woman did her best but no Kalaallit would take them. Not all of them found the same lovely cast in her unique features, finding her instead to be unnerving and ugly. Others simply wanted nothing to do with the used woman, as her father had predicted. It was incredibly difficult trying to hunt with a young pup in tow. She could not carry him as she hunted nor did it seem wise to drop him somewhere random right before attacking her prey. She chose to risk leaving him somewhere that seemed safe before departing to hunt.
One day she returned to the site where she'd left Ikila, only to find an empty patch of grass where the babe had once been and a blurred print in the mud.
She spiraled outwards for hundreds upon hundreds of yards, perhaps even thousands, but to no avail. There was no trace of her pup and no hint as to what unfortunate fate might have befallen him.
Though she sat, still as stone and lost in some distant world of grief, for several days, eventually the woman was forced to keep moving on - uncertain as to what else she could do.
Selkie continued her journey south, wandering without destination - uncertain of what she seeks, or if she is even still among the land of the living as she wanders. Knowing no other way, the young woman hopes to find mates who can look past her taboo, to find or make her own Kalaallit.
Shortly before entering the Wilds, a sudden storm sparks a landslide on the bluffs she travels along and Imaq is knocked into the sea. She washes ashore on Sequoia Coast in the midst of a blizzard.
In January of 2021, in her third year of life, Imaq wakes on the southern shores of what the Nereides knew as Soteria - the Blackwater Islands of Teekon - during a break in the blizzard, Icewind (a winter BWP).
Once the blizzard passed, Imaq journeyed inland and traveled west along Sequoia Coast. At the landbridge of Wheeling Gull Isle, she unknowingly turns away from Yuélong as she follows Totoka River south into the Flatlands. Imaq follows the River all the way to Greatwater Lake in the southern end of Kintla.
Here, Imaq met Rowan -- leader of Ivory Rose -- whom befriended the cur and took her home, giving her a place in his ranks and teaching her the basics of his language. Despite some tension with pack mates for her halfbreed status, Imaq resided here happily for about a month before accidentally wandering too close to a psychedelic willow and breathing in the poisonous spores. She suffered from fearful hallucinations, the likes of which triggered/traumatized her so badly that she wound up mistakenly fleeing the territory and became lost in the Taiga.
She meets Wintersbane in Phoenix Maplewood and he recruits her for his fledling pack, Duskfire Glacier where she takes up a role of hunter and healer.
When Duskfire Glacier becomes official, Imaq is granted the rank of Delta. Later, she would go on to become Gamma after Iana was promoted to Beta.
In the late spring of 2021, Imaq went into heat which would result in her coupling with a packmate, Rye, and conceiving a single son: Sikuliak. When Sikuliak was born in the late summer, Imaq finally admitted her feelings to Rye and suggested that they become mates.
After Sikuliak was attacked as a toddler, Imaq left the Glacier temporarily to keep him safe from Makatza, the child who attacked him. She intended to return when everything had been resolved and thought the trip might do her son some good, that she might teach him to hunt as they explored in spite of his ruined leg. They got lost in a snowstorm however and ended up leaving Teekon. During this time, they were attacked by a male wolf who desired to keep and abuse Sikuliak. Imaq killed the he-wolf but this event traumatized them both. Later, more trauma was inflicted when Imaq was forced to gnaw her own leg off after it was pinned beneath a rock in a landslide as they traversed a mountain range. The pair found their way back to Teekon, the Glacier, Rye, and their tribe but only after suffering in the wilderness and taking dire measures to ensure their survival. Shortly after their return, DFG moved to Nimbus Summit and became Atautsikut. Imaq and Siku both began to recover from their ordeals outside the Wilds.
"and it is winter..."
Relations
Atâtsiaks/Grandparents:
Maliina x Naduk (Paternal)
Uiloq x Inequ (Maternal)
Atsaks/Aunts:
Inaluk, Atangana, Akitsinnguaq (Paternal)
Angaks/Uncles:
Ilasiaq (Maternal)
Katangutiks/Cousins:
Imina , Angutivik , Panigpak (Inaluk x Akka)
Qarsoq (Atangana x ???)
Akisouq , Ungaaq (Akitsinnguaq x Inellequ)
Atâtak/Father:
Salik
Atâtanguak/Stepfather*
Aakkuluk
Anânak/Mother:
Eelisi
Tiguak Anânak/Adoptive Mother:
Bitte
Anânanguaks/Stepmothers:
Êrsta, Ikíngut
Nukageks/Littermates: unnamed (Salik x Eelisi, 2018)
Apvak Nukageks/Half-siblings:
Bibe (Salik x Bitte, 2016)
Daavi , Eikili (Salik x Bitte, 2017)
Êrimat , Falêrr , Iansîna (Salik x Bitte, 2018)
Iluuna (Salik x Êrsta, 2018)
Imajuik (Salik x Êrsta, 2019)
Jâjaruse , Kajok (Salik x Ikíngut, 2019)
Kanik (Salik x Bitte, 2020)
Lâpáne , Likit , Mákok (Salik x Ikíngut, 2020)
Tiguak Nukageks/Adoptive Siblings:
Malerak , Karala , Jôrut (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2016)
Fare (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2017)
Gûtivfarît , Hānse (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2018)
Igalâk , Imi (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2019)
Aninguak Nukageks/Step-siblings*:
Rikîna (Aakkuluk x Êrsta, 2018)
Sisilla , Stene , Inuk (Aakkuluk x Êrsta, 2019)
Ivaana , Minik (Aakkuluk x Êrsta, 2020)
Nivi , Aaju (Aakkuluk x Ikíngut, 2020)
Sakiks/In-laws: Akka , Inellequ , Jakkubiina , Pilu , Râgîtdle , Agapeta , Naaja , Sissinnguq , Eeriuffi , Râseruuse , Naasoq , Najánguak , Igassok , Isortak
Kangiaks/Nieces & Nephews:
Ínaliáta , Ineko , Kajuak , Lúkarse , Magseranguak , Manumina , Isek (Bibe x Pilu x Râgîtdle x Jakkubiina, 2018 - 2020)
Jatse , Jenseraq (Eikili x Agapeta x Naaja x Sissinnguq, 2018 - 2020)
Kajuínak , K'ila , Lârto (Malerak x Eeriuffi x Râseruse x Naasoq x Najánquak, 2018 - 2020)
Lâsaruse (Jôrut x Igassok x Isortak, 2018 - 2020)
Kitunngak/Children:
Aanarsi , Henínge , Ikila (2020)
Sikuliak Yuku Qeya-Black (via Rye Hotah Black , 2021)
Angutik/Husband: Rye Hotah Black
* - Aakkuluk is both Imaq's stepfather and her uncle, making his children her cousins and step-siblings. Additionally, while Imaq thinks of all her siblings as siblings they are in fact half-siblings, adoptive siblings, and step-siblings as displayed above. (See below for more.) These are examples of dyadic relationships which are often observed in Kalaallit culture.
Maliina x Naduk (Paternal)
Uiloq x Inequ (Maternal)
Atsaks/Aunts:
Inaluk, Atangana, Akitsinnguaq (Paternal)
Angaks/Uncles:
Ilasiaq (Maternal)
Katangutiks/Cousins:
Imina , Angutivik , Panigpak (Inaluk x Akka)
Qarsoq (Atangana x ???)
Akisouq , Ungaaq (Akitsinnguaq x Inellequ)
Atâtak/Father:
Salik
Atâtanguak/Stepfather*
Aakkuluk
Anânak/Mother:
Eelisi
Tiguak Anânak/Adoptive Mother:
Bitte
Anânanguaks/Stepmothers:
Êrsta, Ikíngut
Nukageks/Littermates: unnamed (Salik x Eelisi, 2018)
Apvak Nukageks/Half-siblings:
Bibe (Salik x Bitte, 2016)
Daavi , Eikili (Salik x Bitte, 2017)
Êrimat , Falêrr , Iansîna (Salik x Bitte, 2018)
Iluuna (Salik x Êrsta, 2018)
Imajuik (Salik x Êrsta, 2019)
Jâjaruse , Kajok (Salik x Ikíngut, 2019)
Kanik (Salik x Bitte, 2020)
Lâpáne , Likit , Mákok (Salik x Ikíngut, 2020)
Tiguak Nukageks/Adoptive Siblings:
Malerak , Karala , Jôrut (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2016)
Fare (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2017)
Gûtivfarît , Hānse (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2018)
Igalâk , Imi (Aakkuluk x Bitte, 2019)
Aninguak Nukageks/Step-siblings*:
Rikîna (Aakkuluk x Êrsta, 2018)
Sisilla , Stene , Inuk (Aakkuluk x Êrsta, 2019)
Ivaana , Minik (Aakkuluk x Êrsta, 2020)
Nivi , Aaju (Aakkuluk x Ikíngut, 2020)
Sakiks/In-laws: Akka , Inellequ , Jakkubiina , Pilu , Râgîtdle , Agapeta , Naaja , Sissinnguq , Eeriuffi , Râseruuse , Naasoq , Najánguak , Igassok , Isortak
Kangiaks/Nieces & Nephews:
Ínaliáta , Ineko , Kajuak , Lúkarse , Magseranguak , Manumina , Isek (Bibe x Pilu x Râgîtdle x Jakkubiina, 2018 - 2020)
Jatse , Jenseraq (Eikili x Agapeta x Naaja x Sissinnguq, 2018 - 2020)
Kajuínak , K'ila , Lârto (Malerak x Eeriuffi x Râseruse x Naasoq x Najánquak, 2018 - 2020)
Lâsaruse (Jôrut x Igassok x Isortak, 2018 - 2020)
Kitunngak/Children:
Aanarsi , Henínge , Ikila (2020)
Sikuliak Yuku Qeya-Black (via Rye Hotah Black , 2021)
Angutik/Husband: Rye Hotah Black
* - Aakkuluk is both Imaq's stepfather and her uncle, making his children her cousins and step-siblings. Additionally, while Imaq thinks of all her siblings as siblings they are in fact half-siblings, adoptive siblings, and step-siblings as displayed above. (See below for more.) These are examples of dyadic relationships which are often observed in Kalaallit culture.
Pack History
KALAALLIT SALIK
Panik (daughter), Angakkoq (shaman) (2018 - 2020)
LONE WOLF
(2020 - 2021)
IVORY ROSE
Pledged (1/30/2021), Algea
DUSKFIRE GLACIER
Pledged (2/18/2021), Delta, Gamma, Delta, Iota, Theta
Panik (daughter), Angakkoq (shaman) (2018 - 2020)
LONE WOLF
(2020 - 2021)
IVORY ROSE
Pledged (1/30/2021), Algea
DUSKFIRE GLACIER
Pledged (2/18/2021), Delta, Gamma, Delta, Iota, Theta
Trades
Hunter
Deerstalker
Tracker
Caregiver
Medic
Hunter
Deerstalker
Tracker
Caregiver
Medic
Profile of Imaq: Additional Information
Registered on January 14, 2021, last visited (Hidden)
Notes:
Kalaallit = family.
• Family is of utmost importance and is the foundation of life in Greenlandic Kalaallits (packs).
• Within Kalaallits, there is no formal leadership but the nuclear family is the most important social unit. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family may reside permanently with a particular part of the family but it is the core of the family that has breeding and ruling rights.
• Typically, men are responsible for hunting - both caribou on land and seals at sea - but during caribou drives every able-bodied family member is required to herd the caribou along and fill the family's food stores for winter. Women hunting alongside their men is uncommon but not unheard of.
• Kalaallits are somewhat pantheistic, believing in inua (spirits) that are thought to inhabit everything - even down to the moon, sea, and air. As such, the caribou is respected and the icebear revered.
• Taboo is a social custom, similar to breaking a law. Taboos surround all major life events where inua are thought to be particularly present: birth, estrous (heat/rut), and death. To break taboo is to bring misfortune and suffering down upon the whole Kalaallit. Usually, a confession before the Kalaallit and the family's chosen Angakkoq will suffice in appeasing the spirits.
•Members of Kalaallits keep a sort of amulet for protection but rather than wear decorative talismans, they collect artful trinkets of nature and arrange them in shrines - believing them to be pleasing to the spirits.
• Shamans, or Angakkoqs, are trained by their families chosen spiritual leader - their knowledge and customs typically dating back to the Kalaallit's personal origins. A shaman will be 'called' by the great inua, usually while alone in an ecstatic trance in the wild. Many see themselves 'devoured' by an icebear or swallowed by a whale in these visions, typically hallucinating of some symbolic rebirth.
• The sea, moon, sun, and air are integral to religion amongst Kalaallit wolves. Sedna, the sea mother, is of most importance. She is often said to withhold seals and fish when angered or taboo is broken, and represents the feminine principal of the world - life and the bringing forth of it.
• Aningaaq is the moon, the male aspect which represents fertility and virility. When taboo is broken and Aningaaq is angered, he is believed to battle with Sedna for dominance and the sea churns with great waves.
• Air is said to represent the great universe and the heavens above, when air spirits are angry they often create blizzards.
• There are two 'nightlands', the places of dreams and trances, sometimes thought to be the spirit world. This is where one goes when they pass according to Kalaallit legend: to the seas with Sedna or else amongst the unknown inua of the stars.
• While complex relatioships, or dyadic relationships particularly, are common place and understood amongst family members but Kalaallit wolves are so dependant upon each other for survival that they acknowledge each other as full blooded relatives (i.e. step-parents being seen as equal to biological parents, adoptive relationships viewed as equivalent to blood ties, etc.)
• Mates are often shared amongst each other and the breeding group of a Kalaallit will often have anywhere between 3 - 6 spouses within its ranks. As such paternity is considered communal and motherhood is oft shared between the wives of the group - whom occasionally whelp at the same time. This is to further foster a sense of familial connection between relatives.
• A man may believe a child to be 'born of his spirit', however, and this is is the common phrase heard when a man declares a belief in his siring of particular offspring.
• While wolves are often considered grown at one year of age in southron lands, Kalaallit youngsters are not believed to be of age until they are two - the age of sexual maturity. At this age, juveniles undergo coming of age rituals.
• For a boy, he must successfully kill a large animal (or at least strike the killing blow). Afterwards, his kill will be shared by the pack and his older relatives will usually make subtle compliments regarding the meal he's provided. After a successful hunt, the man may leave home to find a territory and mates of his own (often with brothers close to his age) or may sometimes choose to reside with his family and search for brides to join his parents' Kalaallit.
• For girls, their first estrous cycle is considered taboo given that they have yet to be married or lain with a man. As such, they are not yet women and it is considered unethical and immoral for them to copulate in their first season. A pregnancy borne of such a union is considered even more of an affront to the inua. Due to this, a man's daughters are sent out into the wilderness to survive their first heat alone - where they won't risk tempting any of their male relatives with their pheromones. Upon returning to her family (as some women are snatched by rogues or perish in the wilderness), the girl is considered a grown woman and her father(s) will begin arranging a marriage for her.
• 'Bride price' is a Kalaallit custom, similar to a dowry. The more valuable or desirable a potential bride is, the higher the bride price. This is a sort of compensation for the loss of the woman within her family/community and also ascertains that high status males will bid for the bride.
Kalaallit = family.
• Family is of utmost importance and is the foundation of life in Greenlandic Kalaallits (packs).
• Within Kalaallits, there is no formal leadership but the nuclear family is the most important social unit. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family may reside permanently with a particular part of the family but it is the core of the family that has breeding and ruling rights.
• Typically, men are responsible for hunting - both caribou on land and seals at sea - but during caribou drives every able-bodied family member is required to herd the caribou along and fill the family's food stores for winter. Women hunting alongside their men is uncommon but not unheard of.
• Kalaallits are somewhat pantheistic, believing in inua (spirits) that are thought to inhabit everything - even down to the moon, sea, and air. As such, the caribou is respected and the icebear revered.
• Taboo is a social custom, similar to breaking a law. Taboos surround all major life events where inua are thought to be particularly present: birth, estrous (heat/rut), and death. To break taboo is to bring misfortune and suffering down upon the whole Kalaallit. Usually, a confession before the Kalaallit and the family's chosen Angakkoq will suffice in appeasing the spirits.
•Members of Kalaallits keep a sort of amulet for protection but rather than wear decorative talismans, they collect artful trinkets of nature and arrange them in shrines - believing them to be pleasing to the spirits.
• Shamans, or Angakkoqs, are trained by their families chosen spiritual leader - their knowledge and customs typically dating back to the Kalaallit's personal origins. A shaman will be 'called' by the great inua, usually while alone in an ecstatic trance in the wild. Many see themselves 'devoured' by an icebear or swallowed by a whale in these visions, typically hallucinating of some symbolic rebirth.
• The sea, moon, sun, and air are integral to religion amongst Kalaallit wolves. Sedna, the sea mother, is of most importance. She is often said to withhold seals and fish when angered or taboo is broken, and represents the feminine principal of the world - life and the bringing forth of it.
• Aningaaq is the moon, the male aspect which represents fertility and virility. When taboo is broken and Aningaaq is angered, he is believed to battle with Sedna for dominance and the sea churns with great waves.
• Air is said to represent the great universe and the heavens above, when air spirits are angry they often create blizzards.
• There are two 'nightlands', the places of dreams and trances, sometimes thought to be the spirit world. This is where one goes when they pass according to Kalaallit legend: to the seas with Sedna or else amongst the unknown inua of the stars.
• While complex relatioships, or dyadic relationships particularly, are common place and understood amongst family members but Kalaallit wolves are so dependant upon each other for survival that they acknowledge each other as full blooded relatives (i.e. step-parents being seen as equal to biological parents, adoptive relationships viewed as equivalent to blood ties, etc.)
• Mates are often shared amongst each other and the breeding group of a Kalaallit will often have anywhere between 3 - 6 spouses within its ranks. As such paternity is considered communal and motherhood is oft shared between the wives of the group - whom occasionally whelp at the same time. This is to further foster a sense of familial connection between relatives.
• A man may believe a child to be 'born of his spirit', however, and this is is the common phrase heard when a man declares a belief in his siring of particular offspring.
• While wolves are often considered grown at one year of age in southron lands, Kalaallit youngsters are not believed to be of age until they are two - the age of sexual maturity. At this age, juveniles undergo coming of age rituals.
• For a boy, he must successfully kill a large animal (or at least strike the killing blow). Afterwards, his kill will be shared by the pack and his older relatives will usually make subtle compliments regarding the meal he's provided. After a successful hunt, the man may leave home to find a territory and mates of his own (often with brothers close to his age) or may sometimes choose to reside with his family and search for brides to join his parents' Kalaallit.
• For girls, their first estrous cycle is considered taboo given that they have yet to be married or lain with a man. As such, they are not yet women and it is considered unethical and immoral for them to copulate in their first season. A pregnancy borne of such a union is considered even more of an affront to the inua. Due to this, a man's daughters are sent out into the wilderness to survive their first heat alone - where they won't risk tempting any of their male relatives with their pheromones. Upon returning to her family (as some women are snatched by rogues or perish in the wilderness), the girl is considered a grown woman and her father(s) will begin arranging a marriage for her.
• 'Bride price' is a Kalaallit custom, similar to a dowry. The more valuable or desirable a potential bride is, the higher the bride price. This is a sort of compensation for the loss of the woman within her family/community and also ascertains that high status males will bid for the bride.
Art Credits
Imaq's Signature
"...and all around was the bitter arctic cold and the immense silence of the North..."
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Player Notes
Please refer to Aerin's profile.
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