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- big smile, big teeth
- fat head, wide paws
- skinny, fluffy coat
›› Äkä has a big head, big paws, and a wide smile. She's quite skinny under her fluffy coat and stocky build.
›› Äkä's blue eyes are small, here ears are torn and she has four scars on her snout.
›› Technically Äkä's name is words that mean things, but honestly it's just nonsense that sounds fun.
›› Äkä is loosely based on Öklö, but mostly just the colours and the fact that they both had three brothers who were bullying them
my my what big teeth you have
›› Äkä is always grinning and laughing, and does things solely based on how amusing they are to her. It's near impossible to get a straight answer from her, and even more impossible to get her to take anything seriously. She’s probably not safe to be around in longer term.
›› one of Äkä's brothers died, one left and one was very successful (whatever that means is up for interpretation) They were raised by their mother and never knew their father - Äkä left her home and didn't look back for reasons known only to her. Maybe it was something to do with being a disappointment to her mother and to her pack. Maybe it had nothing to do with that.
occasional travelling companion
Does Äkä want to bite Aaja, sink her teeth into her flesh to taste her blood and lap it all up, or does she want to kiss her, soothe the hurt and let Aaja rub her bleeding cuts into Äkä's open wounds, mingle their blood together in the soft, soft snow? Maybe, maybe she does, maybe she doesn't – maybe it's even already happened. Wouldn't that be amusing?
Aaja © robbin
Aava is a lush paradise with plenty of prey somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Wolves are the natives of Aava, whereas dogs are much more recent arrivals.
The time period is around the sixteenth century, but the Sun Storms have wiped out all humans many dog generations ago. Only some signs of them still remains, such as trinkets, buildings, and villages.
The Sun Storms are highly destructive solar storms which have many devastating effects on the environment and all living things – especially on any unprotected canines. One can try to take cover in a Shelter, which range from full protection, like Sysikaarti's Castle + , to Shelters made by a Creator Master + offering some protection, to any old hole in the ground – which is only just better than enduring the full wrath of the raging Sun. Typical Sun Storm lasts from few days to a week.
A canine caught in a Sun Storm will have physical and/or mental symptomps, the amount, length and severity depending on the strength of the Storm and the strength of the Shelter the canine spent the Storm in.
Some of the most common symptoms are weakened physical or mental state, loss of a sense or senses, loss of hair, loss of memory, disfiguration, and slowed healing..
›› Aava/Aurinkotuuli †
With the help of a trained Master the canines of Aava can learn Special Skills. Canines learning Special Skills start as students, and as their studies progress they advance to Experts, and finally as they finish their studies they become Masters, who can in turn take their own students.
The list of Special Skills:
Birdtongue: Communicating with birds, starting from learning how they behave and ending with getting them to follow commands or suggestions. Specializations are corvids, birds of prey, and small birds. A skilled Birdtongue usually has at least one bird companion.
Creating: As the name might suggest, Creators create things. They make useful or pretty things, keep the culture alive, and even build Shelters against the Sun Storms. Specializations are story-telling, building, and plaiting.
Healing: Healers know how to heal the sick, how to use herbs, splints, and how to dress wounds. Specializations are plants, body, and mind.
Firemaking: With the help of a flint, a Firemaker can start a fire – and knows how to put it out. Specializations are fire-starter, smoker, and saviour.
Ranging: Rangers know how to survive in the wild, how to read the environment and the weather, and how to track prey or other canines. Specializations are traveller, weather-reader, and tracker.
Sysikaarti is the biggest and one of the oldest wolf packs in all of Aava. They live in the old Castle of Rautahovi in the middle of Aava, the only completely safe fortress against the Sun Storms. Sysikaarti is known for its Masters, especially the Masters of Birdtongue.
Sysikaarti has a relatively strict hierarchy, with a leader ruhtinas or ruhtinatar, from the Sysi family, in charge, and almost every wolf having their own job and place in the pack. There are Birdtongues and Healers, but also Warriors, who mostly protect the pack members and guard the borders, Watchers who report about the goings-on and represent the pack when needed, and Hunters who keep the pack fed.
Members who don't have a job are usually only the ones too young or too old to do one.
Recently the all-wolf pack has accepted its first dog member, and then another one a bit later.
Cresthill was an old English style village, populated by dogs that are mostly decendants of pets and working dogs.
Cresthill operated under extremely strict hierarchy, with the Nobility being the ruling class living in a manor and pampered and spoiled by their servants, the Guards and Mediators keeping the order, and rest of the villagers living their lives working hard.
The village was destroyed when it fell into chaos after a devastating Sun Storm, and then the final blow came when another pack invaded and most of the dogs of Cresthill fled.
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