The Wild Hunt

The **Wild Hunt** is a inter-alignment event hosted in an alignment-neutral forest, where fae participate in various ways - usually by traveling on flying horses, flying themselves, or running on the ground, with the help of the cwn annwn to hunt down The King of the Forest / The White Stag. Whoever kills him first is the victor, and then they travel back to a common ground to share in drinks and food. The King of the Forest is immortal, and revives, although he doesn't join in the celebrations.

## Appears in

Major canon:

*Deeper into the Woods*

*Game Theory*

*The Court of Five Thrones*

Canon extras:

*A Broken Feather, Straightened*

*These Troubled Times*

## Description

After 'the Oak King came into power, Seelie participation in the Wild Hunt . . . dropped precipitously, even with the Raven Prince in power as the Unseelie King.' The Raven Prince used to run the Wild Hunt, but after Augus Each Uisge joins his Court in a semi-official role prior to the events of *Deeper into the Woods*, the Raven Prince has Augus helm the Hunt sometimes, and sometimes they even helm it together. After Augus helps destroy Gwyn ap Nudd's heartsong of triumph, and Gwyn gains a heartsong of wildness, Augus invites Gwyn to join him in helming the Hunt. The Raven Prince approves Augus' invitation because he thinks 'it might be a coup to get closer to the Oak King’s child of light'.

Gwyn admits that he becomes more attached and infatuated with Augus during their times running the Wild Hunt together. He even hopes for *more* than friendship. Gwyn 'more often than not was the one to capture and kill the White Stag'.

When Gwyn becomes King of the Unseelie, he makes Augus 'dual overseer of the Wild Hunt', alongside himself.

During Albion's war with the Unseelie Court, Gwyn hosts the Wild Hunt for the first time in some years. Augus is the victor, but in the aftermath of the event, Prince Vane, an Unseelie fie ellyllon, attempts to murder Gwyn with an arrow tipped with mothersbane poison. Mikkel, a Seelie Reader, jumps in front of the arrow, and is fatally wounded. Because a life is taken alongside the King of the Forest's, the White Stag appears to tell participants that the Wild Hunt is permanently ended, and the forest is no longer sacred. He vanishes, but at some point speaks with the Coalition of the Classless. The end of the Wild Hunt is key to the Coalition's decision to step in on the war between the Courts. His only other seeming appearance since the end of the Wild Hunt is when Eran Iliakambar sees a white stag in the new Aur forest on occasion.

## Quotations

* Augus: 'You should come helm the Wild Hunt with me sometimes. The Raven Prince is far too busy to helm it every time, and I take charge from time to time. I tell you, the energy there would be very good for you, and having a Seelie fae helm with an Unseelie fae, well…it’s unconventional, but it might attract more Seelie hunters back to the event.'
* Augus: 'Your former heartsong made you choose between one or the other. Victim or perpetrator. Winner *or* loser. You know as well as I do that life doesn’t always work that way. And that, in the balance of things, we are always *both.* That is why the King of the Forest allows himself to be hunted during the Wild Hunt, even as he could decimate *all* of us in a moment with his magic. Even as he regenerates and returns in that endless cycle of death and rebirth.’
* Marika: 'The Wild Hunt only exists because of the accord between the Seelie and Unseelie.'
* '*For the first time since its inauguration*,’ the King of the Forest said, his voice steady and calm, ‘*the sacred bond to be maintained between Seelie and Unseelie in my forest has been broken. There will be no more Wild Hunts in my forest*.'

## Folklore/Mythology

In relevant folklore, Welsh psychopomp Gwyn ap Nudd was considered the overseer, or even the inventor of the Wild Hunt in some tales. He was often depicted riding a demonic horse, and instead of hunting a stag, hunted the souls of the living or the dead with white and red-eared hell hounds. In his position in Arthurian legends as King of the Underworld, he ensures no human souls are destroyed as he hunts.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 not\_poignant. "Deeper into the Woods." *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 April 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/3652500/chapters/8404240. Chapter 6: VI - The War General.
2. ↑ not\_poignant. "A Broken Feather, Straightened.” *The Fae Tales Verse - canon extras. Archive of Our Own,* 20 September 2013. https://archiveofourown.org/works/973180.
3. ↑ not\_poignant. "These Troubled Times." *The Fae Tales Verse - canon extras. Archive of Our Own,* 11 November 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/2601050/chapters/5793404. Chapter 1.
4. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 27 August 2013. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/1843591. Chapter 6: Retaliation.
5. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 5 November 2013. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/2059069. Chapter 25: Soldier.
6. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 31 January 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/2083339. Chapter 26: Family.
7. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 14 March 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/2732377. Chapter 45: Coronation.
8. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 11 September 2013. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/1886908. Chapter 10: Display.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 24 July 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/10022663. Chapter 53: Arrow.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 31 July 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/10152347. Chapter 54: Fraught.
11. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 14 August 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/10409742. Chapter 56: Islands.
12. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 5 August 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/102269367. Chapter 40: A New Season.
13. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse.* Archive of Our Own, 12 December 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/6186821. Chapter 21: Fracture.