Balduf

Balduf was the leader of his pack, often referred to as the King of Wolves by other packs who feared him or from humans who had heard rumors of the wars that took place between the packs. But before he could actually claim this title, he died along with the rest of his pack during an unknown conflict.

## Appearance

### Physical Appearance

Balduf stands at about 6'2'' in height, and had a broad and bulky build from a young age caused by his extensive training. He also has many visible scars covering him from the many battles he had fought, and often tried to make them as visible as possible, showing them off like trophies. Unlike his daughter, Balduf has darker brown hair and green eyes.

### Clothing

Like many of the pack, Balduf pushed away from the traditional clothing of his heritage and chose a more modern style similar to what the humans were wearing at the time, or at least what their armies were wearing. It was practically impossible to catch Badluf not wearing his armor, as he spent all of his free time training or preparing the war.

## Behavior and Personality

As an adult, and especially after becoming the leader of the pack, Balduf had an aggressive aura about him. As a child, everything was a competition to him, and was often pushing himself in his training to prove to his father that he was better than the other pups his age. This followed him into adulthood, causing him to want to prove his dominance over the other packs, hoping to please the gods who watched over them in the process.

## Representation

### Language and Heritage

During Balduf's childhood, the elders had begun to lose hope in their own culture. It had been generations since the last time they had heard from their gods, and many of their daily lives were intertwined with humans and their culture, which was slowly erasing their customs and language with each generation. While a few elders still tried their best to teach Balduf's generation their language, he did what he could to avoid those lessons in order to focus on his combat training.

> **ⓘ *The culture of Cookie's pack is based off of Choctaw, a real life Indigenous tribe. Please keep in mind that in real life Cookie is Choctaw and has done a lot of research into all of the Choctaw bits that she brings into her character's story!***
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## Backstory

As a pup, Balduf grew up surrounded by conflicts with other packs, but mostly caused by territorial disputes. He and the other pups his age always admired the warriors of the pack, those who were there and fighting out these conflicts, and spent most of his time growing up training to be the best warrior the pack had ever seen, often competing with the other pups. When it was obvious that Balduf seemed to care about nothing about himself and his own training, the other pups began to ignore him and left him isolated in his training. His father, the current leader of the pack, saw great potential in him, and pushed him even harder in his training. Knowing Balduf would one day take over the pack, his father pushed him harder than any of the other pups his age and put him through intense training in order to try and prepare him to one day take over the pack and lead them to victory. Although his father had aimed to try and expand their territory and take over some of the neighboring packs, he never seemed to have a good opening to do so, but he wanted to leave Balduf with enough knowledge and training to follow through with that goal after he passed.

When Balduf took over as leader, the pack's ruthless multiplied. They attacked other packs unprovoked for their own gain, disregarded any sense of safety when training their younger warriors, and spread violence and bloodshed wherever they went. Not only did he feel the need to show up his father and prove he was the better pack leader, but he also followed the teachings of the gods, and believed that complete control over your subjects was the only way to rule. He ignored any complaints and criticisms he received, and often found a way to get rid of anyone who spoke badly of him, wether he actually heard them or not.

When his mate Zalia had their first, and only, pup, he immediately started planning out her future in the same way his father had done for him. Even though Zalia tried to stop him, he was eagerly trying to start Cookie's training in order to get her ready for when she took over the pack. She often fought back and refused, but eventually she gave in and tried to at least do the bare minimum to make her father happy. He knew one day she would understand why he pushed like he did, and didn't give it a second thought until Zalia's death. With her mother being gone, Balduf believed this would be the motivation Cookie needed in order for her to finally take her training seriously and become the warrior the pack needed her to be, when in reality it had the opposite effect. He became more persisent , trying desperately to get her to comply and follow his orders, until finally she reached her breaking point and she left the pack.

Leaving the pack without an heir, Cookie's disappearance drove Balduf to insanity. While it wasn't unheard of for pack leadership to move to a different bloodline if the current pack leader didn't have a heir, Balduf wouldn't hear of it. He went on an even worse rampage until eventually his path of destruction got his entire pack killed, leaving Cookie as the last remaining member of her pack.