Blackfeather Woods For the night is dark and full of stories

Next round (ends April 5th!) @Ohen @Lusa @Grimnir (if you want to respond) @Burke @Cicero @Damien @Twist

A few of her wolves stepped up and shared brief stories. Lusa's was about the beginning of the loner trend, and Ohen about a dragon. Twist's was....well...morbid and macabre, but wasn't that what her pack was all about? It was a bit disjointed, but she was being critical. Meldresi was enjoying the little storytime until Grimnir got upset. She frowned as he approached; he had recently returned from his brief exile after attacking Slade, who she presumed had died from his wounds soon after. That would make him a murderer, if she had proof (which she didn't). Nonetheless, Meldresi did not trust the tan wolf one bit, and her trust diminished even more when he snarled at her daughter tucked under her paws.

The tension rose then: Potema indignantly growled back, but Burke was already risen, standing protectively in front of her princess until Grimnir left. Meldresi was unphased by the threat, on the outside. She took a deep breath and shut her eyes for a moment, calming herself before she began her story.

"I will tell a creation story, of how, in the beliefs of some sects of the Dark Brotherhood, the moon and stars were made." The priestess raised her voice slightly, letting it ring through the Grotto. "Long ago there was a land (whose name is lost to the dusts of time) where the worshippers of the Daedric Gods, like Mephala, and their opposites, the Aedra, or Nine Divines, lived together in harmony. Despite worshipping conflicting deities, the two different factions managed to live in harmony underneath the rule of a line of noble kings. At this time, in the beginning of the world, there was only one light in the sky: the Sun. This time was when the Aedra worshippers were most active. When the Sun disappeared, the land belonged to the Daedra, the followers of Mephala, the Dark Brotherhood, chief of all. The Dark Brotherhood was one of, if not the most powerful Daedric cults at that time, and all feared them, for no one ever knew if they were going to be a target.

One of the kings, Remalias, was a devoted worshipper of the Aedra, specifically the gods Stendarr and Arkay, two gods that starchily opposed the Daedric beliefs. He started mistreating the Daedric worshippers, denying them food and water rights, restricting them to tiny, desolate lands to live, and outright attacking and killing any Daedric worshipper who dared show their face in the light.

After years of oppression, the head priests of each Daedric god came to the Dark Brotherhood, and paid for the death of Remalias. The Dark Brothers stole into the King's den, and tried to kill him in his sleep, but he was protected by many guards, and the Dark Brothers were forced to flee. Regardless of their first failure, the Dark Brotherhood made the King their main target, and all of their attention was focused on killing him. But time and time again, they failed, either by chance or circumstance. Scores of Dark Brothers and Sisters fell, killed by the King's guards, or from other factors, like an elk, choking on their own poison, and so on.

Eventually he died, but not by a Dark Brother's paw, but of old age. In their arrogance, the Aedra took the King's soul and placed it in the night sky, bringing light to the darkness the Dark Brotherhood lived in for millennia, where Remalias could look down on his adversaries and gloat for eternity. The Aedra decreed, that any soul that escaped the hands of the Dark Brotherhood would be rewarded with the same fate, becoming stars in the sky, forever laughing at their failed assassins. The souls of the Dark Brotherhood's past failures were flung into the sky then, creating the stars we have now.

The Dark Brotherhood was shamed then. Their numbers were reduced to less than one hundred, with many dying over the years trying to kill the King. The other cults, either Aedra or Daedra worshippers, mocked them for years.

Sithis took pity on the Dark Brotherhood then, and with the help of Mephala, put a shroud over the moon, the largest soul that laughed at them in the night. It did not last forever, as Remalias would pull it off so he could see the Dark Brotherhood below, but Mephala sent a group of her Spider Daedra in the sky, where they were tasked with shrouding the moon so the Dark Brotherhood could walk through the shadows without laughter on their backs.

That is why we celebrate the new moon: it is when Remalias is blocked from our view, so we can live without laughter every time we walk. Thank you for listening."

look at that wall of text Anyway, there will be a hunt set directly after this thread is finished and it will be the pups' first hunt as well. :)