Chasing-The-Night (Kimu Tetsu)
Ainu Uktena Lupus Galliard
Further Notes

Chasing-The-Night is following a vision.

Spends much of his early time with his Kin family. There he learns Ainu culture, including how to make metal jewelry. He works most closely with the Pack-Leader, who teaches him ancient ways of meditation and inner calm. Part of this, eventually, is the skill to use the Ainu Knife the leader already gave him. This time does a lot to cement his homid sense of self. His is happy and content here.

At the same time he moves gradually into the Uktena tribe. There he has is eventually taken into a pack, but prior to that spend a lot of time working with/for the theurges as they try to determine the nature of his link to the Umbra.

Here he eventually meets his spirit familiar. It is a spirit creature that has some lasting bond to him that neither really fully understand. It just is.

The pack he joins spend much of their time fighting against the Weaver in various incarnations and locations. His place within the pack is less well-defined than most, as his close work with the Theurge, and relative lack of Galliard confidence and presentation, are confusing.

[Ultimately, things come to a head all at once. The pack, and some other packs from the area, had been working against some strong Weaver presence for some time. It is clear that the Weaver forces will make a retaliation. It is at this point that Chasing-The-Night's visions become pressing. He talks with the council and requests to follow the visions. They release him, but bid him to return in a year.

When he returns from his travels (none the wiser, one might add), he finds that the village of Kin were destroyed the day after he left, along with most of his pack. The Weaver forces rose up to strike back. It is his feeling that his abilites with the Umbra might have made the difference, as it is from that quarter that the attacks began. His "family" and "pack" are both gone.]

There is a better story for that section now.

Chasing-The-Night adopts the craft of jewelry making he was taught, combining it with spirit binding to create tailsmans with a bit of Wlyd in them. Eventually he takes to selling these in the city, as a small thorn in the side of the Weaver. He also adopts a strong foundation of simple habits and observances that tie him to his departed "family", including a regimine of meditiation and training with the knife.

Eventually it becomes clear that none of the remaining packs are eager to include him, although he helps many out on occasion. His visions, and the fate of his previous pack are large barriers to overcome. He is somewhat on the outside here, now.

It is decided that he will pursue aspects of his vision in the Western part of the United States. He joins a largely Uktenna Sept there, being adopted by a pack of Scouts.

He takes well to the discipline of long-distance travel and scouting. He also spends much time learning the ways of the wild, and over time realizes that this is not the land of his visions.

While in the U.S.A., he works hard to fit into the local population, as he first did with his Aniu family - learning the language and trying to find a place in society. But here he is traveling much of the time, and there is not a dedicated community of Kin for him to join fully - he must always hold back something of himself.

During this time Chasing-The-Night takes a wolf mate and has a litter. It is his first lengthy return to his lupus side since the death of the Ainu Kin. Initially he keeps it secret from his pack and sept, almost unconsciously ashamed of his lupus heritage. But eventually it comes out. His reaction is to back away from it all some what, to the point of neglecting his litter and mate, leaving them to others.

He becomes increasingly disturbed by his visions, and finally requests that he be released to find another sept wherever his visions lead him. He departs this sept in good standing, but not close to anyone. He does not bid his litter farewell.

Consultation with the sept's wisest leads him to Australia.

In Australia he has been working with Tjinderi Knowing-Smile, the senior Uktena. It was clear to him from the time of his arrival that this was the land that he'd been seeing in his visions, and he immediately sought to find a place for himself here. He has spent much time running errands for Tjinderi, and has come to see her as something of a mentor. She provides him with ties to a large family here (the Uktena), and clearly bears the culture of the local people with dignity and pride. These things impress him, as does her obvious intelligence and wisdom.

Tjinderi Knowing-Smile has a talk for Chasing-The-Night. He has been here for some time now, and it is time to find a pack for him. There is a pack she needs to be watched closely, and who better than Chasing-The-Night for such a task.

Notes of the familar: A Will o Whisp - a dancing globe of moonlight that leads one on and on and on. It is Chasing-The-Night's guide in the Umbra, and is somehow (at least to him) tied to the moon, his visions, and Mercury itself. It speaks only ever with a whisper or a shout, depending upon the situation, and can provide him with both Gnosis (3 points) and Rage (2 points) when he requires it.