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Spatzenjagr

Tiers

  • Novice: Spatzenjagr as a young man.
  • Competent: Spatzenjagr at the beginning of the Nine Arrows Great Faring.
  • Veteran: Spatzenjagr as he was before his heroic death, as he succumbed to wounds suffered in the slaying of the sinister high priest of Tzoruul, Bakuda Rabusha.

Born a Wuflwaren to the she-wolf Silberenebel as a wolf pup in a litter of three. His two litter mates were found to be too feral and thus were put down by the Druids in the ensuing first few months, but the burly russet red pup was found to have a promising geas and given a chance to prove himself worthy of existence.

At around six months he began to hunt for his own food, and soon found the most elusive of all prey to be the nimble sparrow. Rabbits he could catch, lizards he could pounce on, fish he could grab, but the sparrows would always fly away. Hour upon hour the pup would try to hunt down this flighty fiend, and finally learned the trick of it. Soon he'd eat his fill of the small birds.

And so the pack named him Spatzenjagr, "the Sparrow Hunter".

At around a year old he first changed into a human. Though but a yearling as a wolf, as a man-cub he appeared to be a boy of around eight or so. His mother assumed human form and took Spatz to stay in a hut at the edge of a village where human Ulthferen lived, and began to teach the boy human words and customs. This continued for several years until Spatz could pass the Druids' tests to determine if he were civilized enough to continue living. Spatz was never gracious or artful, but he did not suffer from the mad rages many Wulfwaren fall prone to, and he had learned to resist the lure of the moon when she shows her full face to the world. The Druids deemed him fit to live a while longer.

Afterwards Spatz was required to attend Skald-taught classes with the human children of the village each winter, but the rest of the year he was free to roam as he wished and he spent every minute of it ranging across the lands of the Ulthferen in wolf form, hunting and frolicking. Eventually he was given passing marks and allowed to live as he wished, no longer having to return to the village each winter.

Thereafter Spatz lived free as a lone wolf for a good while, but after the passing of a couple of winters he began to feel restless. His urges were driving him to find or start a pack of his own, and he had no interest in settling down to live as a human. Left to his own devices he would have drifted into the deep forest and either risen to dominance as alpha of a pack or been slain in the trying.

However the Elder Druid Tjallen had kept a distant eye on the man-wolf for years, as the wise old nature priest had a strong suspicion that Spatz might prove to be prophesy-chosen. A verse of a very old prophesy called The Loosing of the Nine Arrows mentions by name a man known in the eldensprech (the old speech) as the "Hunter of Sparrows", and damned if Spatzenjager isn't an on-the-nose version of that in the modern Macthig tongue.

In fact, unknown to anyone outside of the inner circles of senior Druids, that single verse was the reason why the Druids interceded a century prior to prevent the complete eradication of lycanthropy among the Ulthferen when all the other Great Clans except the Herodi had aligned against the Ulthferen to finally end their age-old curse. The verse strongly suggested the Hunter of Sparrows would be a Wulfwaren, and thus to avoid a disruption of the prophesy the Druids ensured that the most promising pups of the most promising lines of Wulfwaren survived from generation to generation. The ways of the Druids are secretive, and mysterious, but not devoid of purpose or reason.

As the auspices of the prophesy began to align and the Druids began actively searching the Vold to identify the Nine and prepare for a Grand Convocation, Tjallen went to the Ulthferen Laird Wolkengreifer and bade him to have his Huscarl find Spatzenjager in the trackless deeps of the clanhold and bring him forth to the Laird's hall.

The Laird dutifully sent forth five of his Huscarl including his best trackers to carry out the Druid's wishes. Several weeks passed and the harried Spatz, knowing not why he was being hunted, led his pursuers a merry chase. But the Ulthferen Huscarl are all wolf-touched themselves and though few in number they are not to be trifled with. The surly Spatz was dragged back to the Laird's Hall at Wulflager bound in silvered chains in due course.

Thinking himself about to be put down by the Druids like his litter mates and so many other young Wulfwaren, Spatz was not initially cooperative. But as it was revealed to him that instead he'd be sent on a Great Faring to hunt a foe intent on destroying all the Macthig...well, that was an idea Spatzenjagr could get behind. And Wolkengreifer, hearing the reports of his Huscarl as to how well Spatzenjagr had resisted their attempts at capture, promised Spatz a place upon his Huscarl should he return home in glory. Thus Spatzenjagr's feet were placed upon the path to Fallenheim and the beginning of a great adventure.