Elysian Dreams ⚙️

“He was a mortal wolf who joined with the sky and made Lykaon Swiftflame bleed.”

-

The sky was a beautiful spirit, the daughter of the Celestials—the sun, the moon, and the countless stars in the universe—ever changing and free. She stole water from the earth and wore clouds like finery, before discarding that water as rain when she grew bored with its burden.

In her time, she watched the earth produce strange, fleshy creatures who lived short lives and had many feuds before leaving the earth to come to the sky. She loved those creatures, and they were called wolves.

It was said one day, many years ago as the earth and her son, the lava, rose mountains towards the sky that she fell in love with the lava’s brute strength and gentle ability to fertilize the land to provide food for the wolves who lived upon that land.

Often, she would steal the steam spewed from the lava as help water the lands so green things would grow. Sometimes she hurled that rain so it would stop the lava in his tracks so he might pause and glance her way.

They fell in love and were said to have had a wolf so beautiful and powerful that she ruled the land for many generations, settling in a valley that the lava carved in his infinite love for the sky, known as Red Ridge. The celestials and earth both disapproved of the love between the sky and lava and tore them asunder.

Their love, their mortal daughter, died in their absence, and the sky’s devastation filled the world with dark clouds that rained and rained for many seasons. The lava threw that rain back as steam and shared in the sky’s pain, their separation too much.

One day, the sky ran away from her parents in search of her beloved, and on that day it seemed the sky above the wolves drained of color, and on that day, a mortal wolf came into the sky’s power.

-

Elysian lived during the time of Lykaon Grayfoot, said to be a direct descendant of the first Lykaon. He was a wolf like any other, born in a territory far from the central Red Ridge valley. His pack was small, populated by wolves like himself, gray and drab, as if themselves drained of all color.

Like many wolves, he left home when he came of age and entered into stranger territory before settling in Red Ridge after many years of wandering. There, Lykaon Grayfoot, a wolf full of kindness, welcomed him into her small pack, where he became her closest confident.

The Lykaon was interested only in the well-being of her pack, but one day whelped a litter by an unknown wolf—said to be a god of some kind. That day, the volcano that overlooked Red Ridge’s valley went cold, and the elders agreed she had had the lava’s child.

During that litter’s youth, Elysian looked on, horrified as the second eldest, who had fur as if ember and eyes like the hottest flame, murdered his siblings. In Red Ridge, such a thing wasn’t uncommon, but not altogether common, as they cherished fitness. This was one way a pup might earn that fitness.

And when that pup came of age, Lykaon Grayfoot too became a victim of that pup’s strange broiling rage. He was said to be the lava and crowned himself as next Lykaon, the first male Lykaon.

As Elysian had been his mother’s confident, so too did he become Lykaon Swiftflame’s. During his rule, Elysian was charged with disposing of the weakest pups, those deemed too weak to bare names, thus birthing the tradition of gladiator fights between young pups vying for the Lykaon’s approval and gift of a name.

One day, bogged down by the guilt of the countless bloody bodies of nameless pups, Elysian changed. He saw their spirits and felt a coldness in his chest. It was said the spirit of the sky had joined with him in her search for the lava. The pups’ spirits had churned her heart and caused her to flee from her prison to help right the wrongs caused by Lykaon Swiftflame’s laws. In their joining, Elysian felt that he, too, was the sky, and he felt longing for a daughter who had died centuries before he himself existed.

In his pain, Elysian felt uneasy with the Lykaon, but could not reveal his knowledge, and as the reign of Swiftflame continued, so too did the number of young spirits grow.

It was said that a wolf would rise, another child of the lava and sky, to bring back balance to the scarred lands of Red Ridge. For the sky and Elysian, this meant finding their beloved, the lava.

-

It took many years and Elysian’s body grew old and more gray, while it seemed Lykaon Swiftflame only grew stronger and more tyrannical.

Elysian parted from Swiftflame’s side after a dispute which left the Lykaon scarred all over. Elysian ran and ran, fleeing for his life. The vast territory of Red Ridge without a place to hide.

One day, Elysian found protection with a massive wolf who recognized his soul as the sky and claimed to be his father, the celestials of times old. From this encounter, Elysian learned of the lava’s spirit, wandering the edges of Red Ridge, cast out by the Lykaon due to his distrust.

The journey took many seasons and wore heavily on Elysian’s weakening body, but finally he found the lava’s spirit, gone into a wolf whose pelt looked like fire and eyes black as coal. In that instant, Elysian felt whole and as if he had known that wolf, Scoria, for all of his life and beyond.

Shortly after reuniting with their true soulmate, Elysian’s body gave way and his soul, now joined with the sky’s, left the mortal plane, leaving Scoria and the lava’s soul behind once again.

It is said, now that the Lykaon Swiftflame’s rule is over, the sky is bluer and she wears the gifts from the lava more freely, as she cares for the land that the lava made anew as a gift for their mortal child, made from the ash of the earth and dew bestowed from the sky.

Elysian is remembered by Red Ridge as the wolf who laid to rest countless nameless pups, burdened by his conscience and he who struck out after the Lykaon Swiftflame, and who was banished for that treachery.

—

1/45 pups, produced first Selene

1/69 pups, produced second Selene

1/237 pups, produced third Selene

Sex change to M, Chased NBW (1y 0.5m)

Level 01: 275 @ 1y 0.5m
Level 10: 393 @ 1y 3.5m (Rainforest Scout)
Level 11: 422 @ 1y 5.5m (Finisher)
Level 12: 455 @ 1y 8.0m
Level 13: 490 @ 1y 11.0m
Level 14: 530 @ 2y 2.5m
Level 16: 615 @ 2y 8.5m
Level 17: 664 @ 3y 0.5m
Level 18: 714 @ 3y 4.5m

Level 20: 825 @ 4y 2m