Voskons

[Azura Rose]

Because there is so much about Voskons, They get their very own post xD

Eastern Voskons (canine)
Southridge Pack:
Pack members:
Alpha male: Kito
Alpha female: Asha
Children of the alpha pair: Mitra(deceased, killed by Kijah in the battle at Southridge)
Beta male: Jint'ra
Beta female: Antaris
Children of the beta pair: Nathi(male first born) (daughter but i need to look her name up LOL)
many subordinate members of the pack, because of the battle at Southridge Kijah, her mother Neasjah, and the former leader of the guards Xoric are now outcasts.

RockRidge Pack:
Pack members: Ceytravf


Western Voskons (feline)

[Azura Rose]

The Voskons

The Voskons are a people of shape shifters that live to the south of the Elven Forest. On the eastern side of the unforgiving South are the canine voskon, and to the west are the felines. Each species has their own ways, and each clan has their own traditions, laws and religion. Yet some do seem to have similarities in ways of tradition and religion.

Most Voskon spends most of their time in human form, for some it may be tradition others does it as not to be tempted too step over the boundary and become their other form permanent. Because very few Voskons can carry their animal form more then an hour at a time without risking being caught in that form, those few that can push that hours longer usually has paid a price for this since to frequently use of their animal form can lessen their humanity and also cause the change to be more painful.

Voksons are rare for many reason, one is that some humans fear them and think them an abomination to nature and therefore tries to kill them. Another is that Voskons have fewer children then most of the other races; this is due to a number of different reasons. Voskons lives in clans, packs or other groups and seldom interbreed with other clans, packs or groups. This has caused the fertility rate to drop a lot among them, and since they can’t interbreed with non-Voskons they can’t bring in new blood that way either to boost the fertility. So Voskons don’t get pregnant that often, those females that do have a good chance to carry through unless they change to often. Changing to often or doing it at all in the later part of the pregnancy can cause them to miscarry.

The consequences of changing frequently and/or keeping their form to long

• Their animal form starts to affect their human one first in small bits but it might grow larger as time passes.
  
• Their mind changes and they start to think and function more and more like the animal they can take the form of.
  
• They grow less fertile and might even grow sterile with time.
  
• The change becomes evermore painful with time as it is almost like the bones and muscles grow tired of the frequent change.
  
• The appeal to stay in animal forms longer and longer grows stronger and with time the character will probably end up being trapped in their animal form. Unless they have a great motivation that drives them to remain human.
  
• The change comes with more ease and takes less energy when you change often as the animal side grows stronger. This is also one of the reasons that the usually end up in animal form with time.

I'm still writing this but I wanted to post what I have so far to see what other people think.

Information written up By Anjan

[Azura Rose]

SOUTHRIDGE
Kijah's Story

Kijah was born to Neasjah of the Southridge Pack. The pack was a close group, full of traditions. The young stayed and helped the mothers and the elders of the pack with daily tasks. At age 15 all young male and female learned to hunt, everyone worked, everyone fed. What one member caught was shared by the whole pack, if it was a slim season no one would eat, save the elders and young, the young were important as they were the future of the pack and the elders kept the traditions and laws of the old fresh. Knowledge of old hunting grounds, old battles were shared at the fire at night. They were a very traditional pack.

Being born to a lower ranking female in the pack she always took the brunt of Mitra's bullying. Mitra being the only daughter of the alpha's of the pack was very spoiled and allowed to do as she pleased. Kijah never dared so much as look the wrong way at Mitra because being higher ranked in the pack Mitra got to dish out discipline no questions asked. No one dared to stop her, not even Kijah's own mother. With the wrath of the alpha's of the pack to face who would want too?

There were no such things as minor transgressions in Mitra's eyes, even something as small as walking too close to her got in the least a sound beating. Fights for dominance in the pack were fierce, always done in wolf form they were best to be avoided. Always loving to show her dominance Mitra picked fights with the weakest members of the pack, Kijah avoided these fights for many years, until that one fateful day.

Kijah had gone out hunting and was pleased to have brought down a nice buck, she prepared it to present to the elders when Mitra saw her. Now Mitra never hunted for the pack, rather she would attack the lower members and take their kills and present them as her own. Today, she wanted Kijah's buck.

"Why my dear little Kijah, have you brought me something?"

Kijah gritted her teeth, willing herself to be respectful, or at least sound like it, "No Mitra, my gift is for the elders."

"You mean my gift right? As you know there are pressures to being the only daughter to the alpha's of the pack, with everything i must do you can't expect me to have time to hunt and present a worthy gift to the elders now can you??"

"So get one of your lackeys to do it, they're always jumping at the chance to do your bidding."

" Now Kijah is that anyway to talk to your oldest friend? After all we've been through you would let me go back with nothing and disrespect the elders, look as if I'm not pulling my own weight?"

"Piss off Mitra we've never been friends, and pull your own weight?? You have got to be kidding me, everyone in the pack knows how you are. You are the laziest one here always taking what the other members bring in from the hunts as your own. You think the elders are so blind as to think you do that all yourself? The only reason you get away with any of this crap is your mommy and daddy, if anyone even breathes wrong you fight them or run and tell mommy and daddy that someone was mean to you and we all pay the price. Well you know what Mitra, I'm tired of paying you.

Mitra's eyes turned grey and in a rage she shifted to wolf form and rushed at Kijah biting deeply into her leg. Kijah screamed into pain and shifted into wolf form and prepared to fight back, but the pain was to immense and distracted her enough Mitra got in another attack this time to the shoulder. Knowing she was in no condition to finish the fight Kijah ran. She ran until she could no longer hold wolf form and sought a spring to clean her wounds. After looking around she found a cave to sleep the night in. For several days and nights Kijah travelled until she came upon small cave at the edge of a forest. Deciding she was far enough away from her pack Kijah decided to camp in the cave for a few days to gain her strength and maybe then scout the surrounding area, maybe make a new life for herself.

[Azura Rose]

ROCKRIDGE
Ceytravf's Story

Traf was the only son born to the Alpha male and female of the Rockridge Pack of the Eastern Voskons. Unlike his two littermate-sisters and his siblings from the Alphas’ successive litters, Traf’s care was only placed in the hands of the other pack members when need was dire. His father, Maegnas, kept Traf at his side at all times, hoping one day that his son might be strong enough to replace him as Alpha Male of the Rockridge Pack when Maegnas grew too old. There was great change sweeping through the East, a shift away from tradition, and Maegnas wanted to ensure that his pack would always hold to their ancient customs.
Traf was raised to hate non-Voskons, taught never to tolerate their presence in the East as a whole and to offer death to any who ventured into Rockridge territories. His first kills were of strange, dull-witted creatures the humans brought with them, called ‘cattle’. Rockridge Pack claimed a vast expanse of the East’s rare, fertile land, and they were forced to defend it regularly not only from rival packs, but also from humans who wanted to raise their beasts on it. Maegnas enjoyed leading raids against the humans, enjoyed slaughtering both people and livestock just for the thrill of the kill. And he always ordered that the corpses be left to rot even though logically their meat could have fed the pack for weeks, maybe months.
When Traf reached fifteen, an age where most young males either were called before their Alpha to formerly submit or be expelled from their packs, his father instead intensified his training. Maegnas chose to forsake this one tradition, because word had reached him that now there were other wolves in the East who now herded cattle and lived like the humans. He pushed his son to his limits, trying to build a worthy champion who would one day protect Rockridge and its culture. When Traf turned seventeen, Maegnas sent him to find out if the rumors were true.
Traf found the non-traditional packs to be ‘less wolf’ than his father had thought. They welcomed lone wolves into their fold, so long as they did their share of the work. Against his better judgment, Traf allowed himself to be welcomed into one of the herding packs. He lived among them for a year before returning home, eager to tell his father what he had learned--that humans were not all bad and could be trusted, that livestock meant no more having to kill or abandon weak pups because of lean times. But the Alpha male would have none of it.
Maegnas gave his son one chance to repent--to lead an attack against the pack he had lived within, and when Traf refused, he was expelled from Rockridge under penalty of death. Afraid he would lead his father to the herding packs who were ill-prepared for all-out war against the much more aggressive Rockridge pack, Traf instead left the Eastern lands. He has been wandering ever since, searching for his place in the world, doing odd jobs here and there and living off the land when he could.

[Azura Rose]

TSUME CLAN
Tsume Tanaka's Story

Tes is a Voskon from the western region. Voskon's run their lands in a somewhat different manner than human, they rely more on their animal instincts. So large clans, like the one she came from, are rare in the West as felines tend to be solitary creature. These larger clans where consider almost equal to what humans call 'royalty', Tes's clan was highly respected for their strict rules and customs and the majority of the West was 'under their command' in a way. But large clans weren't just uncommon due to their preference to being alone, the Westerners where prone to breaking into fights which often escalated into larger wars. The Tsume clan did their best to keep things in order, writing treaty's and arranging marriages in attempt to keep the peace. Tes was one of the unfortunate daughters of Shikon Tsume who was known for giving his daughters away to receive more allies. The knowledge that her family was practically giving her away infuriated her and she only stayed with them due to the strong attachment she had with her older brother, Edward. Still she panicked at times and took long trips away from home, sometimes going over the borders of the East Voskons. It was on one of these trips she met her lover, Kado. Kado was from the East region and was part of a wolf clan. Though she was cautious at first, the way Kado lived enthralled her. She loved how they worked, hunted and lived together in packs. Kado was also in a 'royal' in his own way, of course the term meant something completely different for his clan. He was very determined to take Tes as his mate, despite their differences. His family was skeptical at first, but once they saw how different Tes was from other Westerners, they learned to love her as one of the wolves. Unfortunately her youngest sister followed her out on one of her trips and saw, relived Tes's double life not only to her father but to her fiance. Her father was livid, but nothing close to the fury her fiance's clan felt. They blamed the Tsume clan for the betrayal and declared war with them and the Easterners. Tes decided the best thing to do was run away, she didn't want to bring a war to her clan (they where still her family, even if they disowned her) or her beloved wolves. She left the morning of the great battle, hoping to slip out before any blood was shed but Kado caught her and sent her over the border into the protection of his clan. She tried to convince him to stay with her, or run away with her but Kado was proud and wanted to defend his love and his family.
Kado never made it to the battle and was assassinated by Wesrern spies (from Tsume's own clan) who where waiting right at the border line. The battled continued as planned, but Kado's entire clan decided to join the battle in Kado's honor, leaving Tes unguarded on the East side. It was said to be the bloodiest battle in Voskon history, with not one survivor. But that wasn't technically true however, in the midst of the battle Edward ran off and met with Tes who was preparing to join the battle, to avenge her true love's death. Edward convinced her he meant no harm, and that Kado would not have wanted her to fight so both of them escaped and went far away from both regions. Heartbroken and lonely both travelled throughout the lands for a year, occasionally catching bits and pieces of news from their homeland. Until recently, they had never left each others sides but for some unknown reason they were ambushed and had to go separate ways. Tes has not heard from her dear brother sence and is now doing everything in her power to find the only person left who has ever cared for her.

[Anjan]

Thought I would point out a few more things hun. XD
Leopard voskons are actually really rare, and has the least genetic diversity of all voskons – or at least that is my guess. They have a very bad fertility rate, probably worse then all the other voskons. Also they almost only come in black since the spotted ones are thought to be cursed due to certain legends so often children that show to be spotted are treated badly and sometimes even killed or sold as slaves by their tribes. The leopard voskons often live in family groups of around 15 to 20 individuals or alone as wanderers and outcasts. There aren’t that many family groups known… but you could probably estimate that there are around 100, maybe a bit more, leopard voskons alive today. So quite a small population to sustain a race on, especially since they are so set on pure lines and heritage and such -.-