Orestes

Matthias (Brother)

Ariadne (Sister)

## Application Sheet

Orestes was a bluish-gray male wolf with bright yellow eyes. He was the son of Vervain, brother to Matthias and Ariadne, and recent recruit to Chandor, where his story is just beginning. Orestes was conceptualized by 4everhound, and created and RP'd by Aschefall.

## Personality

On the surface, Orestes can be summed up in one word: unassuming. To survive the throes of Beserion, he's had to be. Modest even in his intellect, reserved in his passions. He hardly thinks twice about it anymore. What most others see as a calm demeanour is a facade carefully constructed over a lifetime of self-preservation. Orestes knows who he must be to survive, and even in freedom, he finds this hard to shake.

However, this doesn't mean his inner life is void of passion. Despite his humble demeanour, Orestes is a whirlwind within, with a fire lit alongside the storm. He is passionate and unrelenting in the pursuit of his goals - at times, to a fault - yet is patient in his calculations and efforts to reach them. Orestes is willing to stick with a plan for the long-haul. Both reliable and trustworthy, and expects the same from those he gives his trust to, as these allies are seldom and far in between. He is disappointed when anyone breaks it. While Orestes has a thick-skin and a long fuse, he has discovered that the stress of leading Beserion has left him cracking, especially without Ariadne beside him - a realization that scares him to his core.

Orestes is methodological and thorough in his decisions, actions, and words. When he sees a problem, he examines it from all sides to find the best way to an end. He is scholarly and intelligent and enjoys debates and arguments, whether for the sake of philosophical discourse or simple friendly chatter. Though he may not trust the world, he has a keen interest in learning more about it, and his time leading the rogues to Beserion has taught him that some indeed have their eyes on more than just themselves -- though recent events have made him question if it is worth investing the risk to find out who these wolves might be. He is willing to engage in conversation with just about anyone, making him surprisingly winsome, despite his reservations. Orestes prizes his mind and his reason above all else, and one of his greatest fears is losing both.

Since the fall of Beserion, Orestes has relinquished much of the hope that fueled him through his childhood and youth. He took his dreams from the stars and stole them down to earth, when he should have left them out above the world where they belonged. Though he had hoped his reign would change something for the wolves around him, it ended with a flicker and left him disillusioned, and conflicted. Was it worth the blood they shed together? Would they have been better off running away? Did they add to the endless cycle of Beserion's cruelty in the end? The world is a sadder shade than it ever was when he was a child. He tasted dreams, but they left him tasting maggots instead. The stars are only stars, and Orestes is tired. And, for once, directionless. He doesn't quite know what he is living for anymore. His siblings, of course - but in his heart, he is not even sure they will be the answer anymore.

## Pre-Group History

Orestes was born into Beserion alongside his sister, Ariadne, and his brother, Matthias. He would never know the face of his father. He would never know his mother's face, either, but he would know her name and the strings of slurs his packmates used to colour it.

He and his siblings were conceived out of wedlock, directly violating one of Beserion's most revered vows, and Orestes and his siblings were living proof. They should have been killed. Orestes sometimes wondered if that would have been kinder. Instead, the alphas chose to punish them, but spared their lives, for the sake of their own honour. Amelia would leave Beserion along with the child of her choice - a reminder of her vice - while the others would remain in servitude to Beserion, in payment of their parent's sins.

Amelia chose Matthias, leaving Orestes and Ariadne behind to bear the name Beserion placed on them: *bastard children*.

A wet nurse cared for them until they were weaned. Then, they were left to the pack. Orestes was a frail pup from birth, feverish. Diseased. He heard the adults say he'd have been better off dead. Others whispered his sickness was a curse. His earliest memories were filled with fevered dreams, and he fought to determine reality from falsehood. Only his sister helped. The other pups preyed on his frailty. Most of the time, they taunted him with words, but soon he became their scapegoat. Jeering faces and cruel paws, callous hearts in a place that should have been home.

He would have lost himself if not for Ariadne. She became his home, his fortress, and he sought to be hers. During his night terrors, she would quiet him by stealing him away from the den to spend the night under the midnight sky, where they could dream of better things. Stories written of hope and love, of a brighter world, of wishes made on falling stars, from imaginations that seemed as wondrous to them and as impossible to reach as the heavens above. Hope. Nothing meant for them.

The days dragged on. Ariadne often came home covered in dirt and bearing little berries and leaves she thought might cure Orestes, but they never did more than fill his belly with sweetness or tummy aches. Orestes would try to reassure Ariadne that it was okay. He was okay. Her hope was just a thing for the stars, after all - until that day when Ariadne came home with a tale so wild he thought he must be fever-dreaming again. A stranger, give her herbs? To help them? He laughed. Thanks, but no thanks. The stranger must have been one of Beserion in disguise only looking to kill him before his sickness did. But Ariadne insisted he take the herbs, and he did - and woke the next day, astonished. They had not killed him.

And slowly but surely, he began to heal.

With newfound strength, Orestes began to wonder if they really could pull down hope from the sky. Beserion wasn't home to them, so why did they stay? And if he was getting better now, they could be strong enough on their own, if only they could get past the Beserion guards. And how would they know unless they tried? It was dangerous, this thing called hope - but try they did. Beserion caught them, and the siblings found themselves in a worse punishment than they'd ever known. Yet the punishment only thickened his resolve to reach for *stronger* stars.

And the heavens brought hope in another way, through the creatures of the sky. Other wolves looked foul on him, but Orestes discovered that the birds and the bats were different. If you managed to catch the ear of one who braved the borders of Beserion, some would trade stories and wisdom of faraway places for gifts of trinkets and prey. A few would stick around for more than a night - even more, for an hour or two. Orestes saved his best scraps for them and with them, he learned, away from Beserion's eyes.

And in the thoughts they gave him, and the words he shared with Ariadne by night, and the thoughts she learned from the stranger who visited them with herbs and tales of her own, their whispers grew legs, and dreams became plans.

They could not leave Beserion. But from what they had learned, perhaps in time, they could *make* it home.

And so Orestes grew.

He remained unassuming, and learned to slink his way out of skirmishes with the other males. They still scrapped him about when they managed to catch him, but the times became fewer and farther between. His sister, however, gained a different kind of attention. She turned heads and prying eyes, and though he never said it, he hated how they looked at her. But Orestes couldn't help but notice how the pack treated *him* differently because of who Ariadne was becoming. They jostled him less, hassled him less. They let him alone. Little Orestes, forgotten by Beserion. Ariadne, a new treasure in their eyes.

Well, well. They could work with that.

When Ariadne finally confided her thoughts with Orestes, he was quick to offer a calming word. Had she noticed how the same males whose heads turned for her had in turn stopped harassing him? They could use these things to their advantage. They would only need patience, and cunning, which he was sure they both had in spades. And when Kirin's eyes fell upon Ariadne, too - well, it was something Orestes couldn't have even planned himself.

They would tear the princely pillar down and Beserion would crumble beneath him. And on the ruins, they would rebuild.

They would need help, of course, and thankfully, Orestes knew where to go. There had always been help beyond Beserion's walls. One of them just had to get there to find it, and Orestes needed Ariadne here.

When the night came for Orestes to leave, he and Ariadne shared a solemn goodbye. They both knew the risks. Orestes could die out there, even on his way past the guards. Ariadne could die here, too, if anyone discovered what they were planning, if any rogue let their plan slip between foolish breaths.

But somehow, Orestes made it through the change of guards and by cover of night, he ran. He knew he couldn't slow down until he was well past their borders. They would notice him missing, and look for him until they found him, like they'd looked for Amelia. And after? Well, they would surely kill him, and he couldn't have that. So he ran, until the world changed from sea to field and he could not see the ocean behind him anymore. Changed, to something he had only seen through self-made visions as he'd listened to the birds and the bats share stories of what *they* had seen in the great out there. Orestes had passed the edge of the world as he'd known it. Beserion was gone, and forever stretched out for miles before him.

If only he could see it all! If only Ariadne could, too - but he would not be distracted. Orestes set out and staged himself as one whom Beserion had never known him to be. Intelligent, cunning, full of wit, ambition, and plans. He called for justice in the corners of every forest he found himself in. Promising a new land for the wolves who would join him. Telling of the dishonour of Beserion, finding sympathizers in outcasts, dispersals, and rogues. It was a slow start. Helios came first, and then, a trio of sisters. A pair of brothers. They became loyal to him and to his cause, and soon he grew in popularity among those who rallied around him as a brother, a leader, a promised king. He wasn't seen as the frail boy he'd ever been known as in Beserion. Now, whispers of him spread through the underground currents of this foreign world, and they knew him as someone more.

Weeks passed and Kirin's wedding drew near. Orestes knew Ariadne could not stall the prince forever. Yet as he began to turn his army to the south again, he overheard one of the rogues passing word of having travelled for a time with a pair of exiles in the north. A woman - a mother - and a young man with fur as red as summer berries. At least a week's travel away by now - and yet if not for Ariadne waiting for him in Beserion, Orestes would have set someone else in charge of his band to wheel his own track North to find them. Who could they be, but Amelia and Matthias? But Orestes had better sense. No one commanded the rogues like he did. They had pledged themselves to *his* cause, and leaving them would mean leaving Ariadne behind. He simply couldn't both go North and reach Beserion in time. Ariadne's life would be a hope burning, then gone.

And so, the rumours would wait. They would continue south. He needed time to finalize the details, after all. To set his wolves on their proper paths, arrange his troops to attack at just the right angles, at just the right times. And he could not risk having either his mother or his brother join this fight, having either of them lose their lives in this place that would become theirs, as much as it would become his and Ariadne's.

He would find them later.

It was in the middle of these thoughts that he met Sir Zephyr of the West Winds, who found Orestes bowed low over one of the lakes just outside Beserion's claim. While Orestes had talked with many fliers, he felt a kinship with Sir Zephyr that sprung quicker and more certain than any had before, and it seemed the osprey felt the same. Orestes found more than a sympathizer in Sir Zephyr. He found a companion of like mind, equally loyal and desiring of justice. Orestes convinced the osprey to stay the night. He didn't need to ask any further. Sir Zephyr stuck around and pledged himself to Orestes and his cause - and right on time. Orestes had always trusted birds above wolves, and this was no different. Knowing, too, how birds could penetrate the walls of Beserion, he sent Zephyr on his first mission to deliver word of his return to his waiting sister.

And she, too, was ready.

Orestes sprung his trap on the day of Kirin's wedding. From the rogues, near perfect formation; from Beserion, weakness, as Ariadne promised. They struck them unaware, and the fighting was swift and brutal. A bloody massacre as Beserion fell on the cracks of its own foundation. Orestes went for the queen first with tooth and claw, while the rogues stole the lifeblood of many guards who swarmed in the chaos to protect the royals, all too late. When the dust finally settled, Orestes and Ariadne set themselves at the royal helm. Their first act, the execution of Kirin. An example to those who remained, and a declaration: Beserion now belonged to them.

And thus, a new beginning began.

Many of Orestes' recruits remained to fill the spaces left behind by the many who fell to the fray. Many in Beserion, too. This land was all they'd ever known, and Orestes tried to make it clear to those who remained that they would rule them the same way they would rule the rest. Slowly, the siblings began making changes to the pack, for what they believed was for the better of all - even if some didn't quite see it yet. Orestes reassured himself that in time, they would.

Still, knowing about kingship was much different than actually ruling a pack, and though Orestes did his best to be a fair and just king, it was clear unrest still stirred in pockets of the land. It was on one night after a particularly hard day that Orestes accidentally let slip the rumour he'd heard while on his way back south. A mistake, on his part; a slip of the tongue, but Ariadne had heard, and she wished to find their family and bring them home.

Orestes wanted to find them, too, but now didn't seem like the best of times. He and Ariadne no longer had the luxury of only taking care of themselves. They had a pack to tend to, and civil unrest to quell. They couldn't just leave. But Ariadne was persistent. Orestes knew he couldn't restrain her. He knew, too, he couldn't let her go alone. Though by now, he trusted some of his own wolves with his life, he wasn't yet ready to send them as his sister's entourage. Finding himself with two unfortunate choices, but unwilling to lose Ariadne the most, he set who he thought was his most capable ally in charge of the pack in their absence with the promise to return as soon as they found their family in the North.

Little did he know another watched on. Helios, his first brother beyond blood, saw how the King overlooked him for whom he believed a lesser choice. And this would not be the last time.

The siblings set off to find Amelia and Mattias and eventually found their mother wandering the North, but their brother was nowhere to be seen. Their mother was of little help, sneering at them like Beserion itself. In anger, Orestes confronted her and pushed her into submission with a clear threat: speak now, or die. Amelia told them everything she knew before Orestes released her to disappear into the whirling white, while leaving Ariadne and Orestes to pick up the pieces she had left behind. Though still rife with anger, Orestes reeled from the confrontation and the realization he had been more than willing to follow through with his words. But how was it any different than killing Kirin? Orestes tried to wipe his nerves away as he and Ariadne began to discuss what they would do next. They both couldn't spare to look for Matthias. Beserion needed their crown. Beserion needed their *king*.

Orestes wished to go with Ariadne - but once again, he agreed to return to Beserion and promised to prepare the pack for Ariadne and Matthias' homecoming. But even as they turned their separate ways, Orestes nearly doubled back to join her. Shaken, still, by his outburst. What *had* gotten into him? But he shook himself of the worry, and instead pressed into the hope of Ariadne coming home with their brother, at last, and he turned his steps back to Beserion to do as he had promised.

But things were different with Ariadne gone.

When he had only been leading the rogues, things had come easy. He could make himself what he wanted them to see. Someone capable. Someone strong. Someone only known as Orestes. But in Beserion, the shadows of his past more readily haunted him. He heard them around the corners. Heard their whispers as they jeered in the night.

*He will always be stained, and will drag us with him.*

*A servant should know his proper place.*

*Look at him go, the bastard king.*

They swirled about like the fevers of his youth - only this time, he knew them each to be real, and each weighed heavier than the taunts thrown at him when he was a child. Each whisper marked another pocket of civil unrest. Orestes set up a council to mediate with the dissenters, choosing those who he thought would fill the roles the best - but though Orestes did his best to diffuse the tensions, he still saw uncertainty and upset in the eyes of those around them. Every good choice brought questions from one wolf or another. With one situation diffused, another cropped up. Soon, the promise Orestes had shared with Ariadne when they had left each other in the North was the only word that carried him through each night she was gone. She would be back for him soon, with Matthias in tow, and once again, they would rule together. King and Princess, and Prince alongside, as it was always meant to be.

But then, day turned to week, and week to month, and soon, a season passed.

Another.

Ariadne had still not returned home.

Orestes thought he had outgrown the skin of the fevered pup, but without Ariadne, he felt his own cracks growing. He grew restless, worried. Overlooked things he normally would have seen. At one point, Helios approached Orestes with an offer to take the helm again, so Orestes might go look for Araidne - an offer Orestes refused, but thought on all the same. Finally, he couldn't wait any longer. But rather than go himself, he sent for Sir Zephyr and lay his mission before him: find Ariadne, and stay by her side, until she'd found Matthias and brought him home. And so, Sir Zephyr took the skies - and there was peace, for a few months after. Then, Orestes learned what it was to be on the other side of a coup.

Radagon, who had escaped Beserion at its fall, returned with war cries and an army of his own. Dissenters, and rogues who had been swayed by the whispers strung through the night, who were drawn to a bigger promise of power and recognition. Some of the very rogues Orestes had run with back when he had overthrown Beserion turned against him now. He fought - but when he saw their eyes, some whom he'd called brother and sister only seasons before, he fell.

Radagon seized power and threw Orestes from the throne. But rather than kill Orestes, Radagon chose to let him live. Exile would be too dangerous, and an immediate death, too light for his treason. Radagon forced Orestes into solitary confinement instead, in one of the caves by the sea, with the plan to slowly strip him of the resources and dignity that made a wolf a wolf. Intending, perhaps, to send him out the way he came. Helios led Orestes down. His old friend's eyes, now cool towards him, were the last he saw before darkness plunged around him.

On the land above, the pack struggled under Radagon's leadership. Those who had followed Orestes fled. Some who remained still sympathized with him, while others pitied him, and others stood by the idea of power as held in Radagon's paws even as the pack began to splinter and split apart. The same dissension that had seasoned Orestes' reign only grew and imploded under Radagon's. The unrest was no longer contained. Any betterment that had begun to grow under the reforms dissipated like sea foam. Some dispersed. Those who had left, and those who grew to sympathize with Orestes, planned a final coup to restore the kingdom back to what it was becoming under his rule. And Orestes was privy to none of this until the day his faithful followers arrived with booming voices declaring that Radagon had fallen - though the plan hadn't gone exactly right. New wolves already vied for the hole the ex-leader left behind - more drawn to power than to ruling with any sense of reason - and Orestes' followers wished for him to step up and into the place of king again, as he had done before.

But Orestes was done. He wasn't the same wolf who had led the rogues to Beserion moons ago. Perhaps dreams were meant to be dreams; perhaps he should have left his hope in the stars. He refused to step into power again. Radagon had fled with his own band of followers. Who knew when he'd be back to try and claim Beserion again? The fighting would only continue, and all Orestes had left on his mind was Ariadne. If she returned here, who knew what those who were left would do to her? To Matthias, if she had found him? To Zephyr, if he had found them both?

He had to find her before any of them found out.

## Trivia

* His favourite season is winter. Despite the growing cold, he loves the longer nights and the cold weather constellations. His favourite constellation is Perseus.
* Ever since the other children tried to drown him as a pup, he's been afraid of large bodies of water, and he hates that he has never been able to overcome this fear.
* Since they never found out what ailed him as a child, Orestes is afraid his sickness will return. He is a bit of a germaphobe and is careful to keep himself healthy as far as he can help it.
* Orestes' first bird friend was a common raven he'd trade seashells with for wild stories even Orestes knew were all made up.
* Despite believing in redemption and second chances, he still stands behind his decision to kill the royalty of Beserion, regardless of how it contradicts his values.

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* Aschefall's deviantART Gallery