Hedda

Maarit (Sister, NPC)

Adelram and Savas (Brothers, NPCs)

## Application Sheet

Hedda was a brown-furred she-wolf with pumpkin orange eyes. She was born outside of the Domain, and found a home in Dawnguard, later following her packmates when they merged into Heylguard and moved territories. She was steadfast through the Curse of Pajackok, but when Fitu decided to move the pack back to its original lands, Hedda elected to remain behind, with her friends Eryk and Felgar, as a loner. Eventually she parted ways from them and, sometime after that, she left the Domain. She was created and RP'd by Rodwendess.

## Personality

* ***Intolerant*.** Hedda finds it incredibly hard to hide her disdain for those she dislikes. She will not suffer fools and refuses to spend her time in their company - even going so far to up and leave in the middle of a conversation.
* ***Impulsive*.** Hedda's decision to leave her pack was an impulsive one; unfortunately her impulsive streak does not always turn out well for her and more often than not gets her into compromising situations.
* ***Unassured*.** The problem with being submissive by nature is that Hedda finds it difficult to be self-assured. She struggles with knowing whether the paths she sets herself on are the right ones and the decisions she makes correct.
* ***Loyal*.** When you have proved your worth and friendship to Hedda, she would move mountains for you if she had to.
* ***Naïve.*** Hedda is kind but to the extent of naivety. She has never experienced war or darkness. She has never known evil and thinks it is the stuff of fairytales.
* ***Playful*.** Hedda loves to play. She's only young and loves a bit of rough and tumble. Now that she is a young adult however, she will have to learn how be more responsible. Well, she's supposed to anyway.
* ***Intelligent*.** Just because she is a submissive personality type does not mean she is not in full possession of her faculties. Hedda is soft, but her mind is sharp.
* ***Witty*.** Hedda's snark comes out of nowhere like a nip to the tail, her sense of humor is dark and creamy, and ready to come out at a moments notice.

## Pre-Group History

Hedda was born in the Hagen pack, deep in the Mountains of the south to a lowly Gamma and Omega pair - Ake and Jadwiga - two wolves who knew their offspring would have to prove themselves remarkable to survive. Their pack's entirety was based around the hunt. If you could not hunt, you were useless. Their territory was harsh and the weak could not, and would not survive. Upon her birth, Hedda's parents took one look at her size, (she was the largest of the litter) and nodded in approval.

Hedda was one of four pups in a litter that would be raised to embody all that the Hagen pack valued above all else. Her brothers Adelram and Savas were growing to be huge wolves who, for what they lacked in intelligence, made up in bulk to bring down the largest of prey. Her sister Maarit was lithe and vicious in the hunt - the fastest wolf the Hagen pack had ever seen. Hedda however, proved herself to be troublesome - more willing to chase butterflies than tend to the duties placed before her, even as a growing juvenile. She was somewhere between her siblings, lithe and fast like her sister, but bulky about the shoulders like her brothers - for all their bulk, she still stood half a head above them. Her parents saw her potential, but despaired that she seemed to have no wish to reach for it.

Pups were not left to play for long and were taught from a young age the importance of the chase, the expectations of the hunt. Hedda's siblings took to it with delight, and though they often tried to help her when they could, slowly, with the competitiveness of the Hagen lifestyle, they grew distant from their strange sister. Maarit would play with her sometimes however - the young she-wolf jumping and racing with her larger sister and passing it off as training. Hedda knew better, but she did not say anything, she was just happy to have her sister with her.

Juveniles in training within the Hagen pack always stayed at the back of a pack hunt and were expected to watch and take note. The longer they watched, the more often they were allowed to take part. Maarit moved to the forward-most position quickly, Adelran and Savas moving to the wings, where the strongest wolves hunted and slowly, Hedda learned. How to track, how to hunt, how to take down a kill. She was not as impressive at it as her parents had hoped at her birth, nowhere near as skilled as her siblings, but still she made do. Hedda hunted as she had to, but at every spare moment, she would disappear to chase sunbeams across the forest floor.

The hunt was everything to her pack. The hunt and the Heulen - the one true spiritual ceremony her pack held where the wolves raised their noses to the sky and thanked their ancestors. Hedda always felt there was something more, something missing and she could never work out what it was. Her siblings teased her for her inability to make friends amongst the other juveniles of the pack, and her parents despaired at their errant daughter.

The time for the Heulen came quickly in Hedda's second year after a short Winter. The wolves of her pack howled to the heavens, thanking the ancestors for the quick passing of cold. Only one Hagen pack member had been lost this Winter and they had been old, deciding to relinquish their hold of their earthly body and ascend to sit amongst the wolves who had long since passed.

As her pack sang of sorrow for their loss, celebration of a good Winter and with hope for the future, Hedda remained silent. She looked about herself and saw fine silvery lines, like spiderswebs lined with dew that connected the Hagen wolves together, stretching up into the sky and making them pack. When she looked down to herself, she saw nothing. No silver twine connected her to her pack.

Tears filled her eyes and her spirits suddenly dropped. It was impulse bade her do it, and not for the first time in her life, Hedda heeded to it. So, silently, while the rest were distracted, she stole away into the darkness and disappeared. She raced away to the river, and as any good hunter knows how to do, she waded into the stream and covered her scent so that her siblings and the other Hagen might not follow.

Hedda didn't know what it was that took her North, but something drew her in that direction. Several days had passed before she began to regret her hasty decision, but it was too late to turn back. If she did, she would be met with nothing but shame from her parents, disgust from her brothers and disappointment from Maarit. Not to mention disapproval and disciplining from the Hagen pack. All of it was reason enough to stick by her decision, but it was her sister's disappointment she truly could not bear and so she stayed her course.

All Hedda knew, was that she did not belong, and somehow, she needed to find somewhere she did.

Stars turned to sun and back again, over and over, until one day, something bade her stop.

A wolf watched her from the trees.

*Welcome to Dawnguard.*

## Group History

After her arrival to Dawnguard, she was marked with a scar as part of initiation, on her shoulder. She wasn't in the pack long when the territory was ravaged by a violent earthquake. The Dawnguardians and their neighboring pack of Heyl gathered together in the aftermath of the quake, and migrated to unclaimed territory that was unaffected by the flooding that came as a result of the quake. The Dawnguardians were instructed to learn from their neighbors and allies about deflective fighting, and Hedda was matched up with Eryk, while a young she-wolf, Saphira, observed. Eryk came off as quite grumpy!

Hedda learned quite a bit, regardless, and she got to meet some of her packmates while the two groups were intermingling. She grew particularly close to Samhradh, another relatively new Dawnguard arrival, and the two realized they had a *lot* in common, including bubbly, sunny personalities! The two immediately decided that they were soul sisters! They enjoyed chasing butterflies.

Dawnguard and Heyl decided to merge together, after the alphas, Fitu and Nahimana, fell in love. Now part of "Heylguard", Hedda decided it was time to take a task. She approached a healer, Aphrodi, to ask him if he thought that was the path she should take. After hearing about what the duties entailed, Hedda decided that healing was *not* the path for her.

The pack was stricken by a plague, however. The Curse of Pajackok settled on the land and made the wolves of Heylguard very ill. Some wolves managed to avoid falling seriously ill, but Hedda was not one of them. She got sick...very sick. While in the healers' den, Eryk came to see her, offering her comfort while she fought the sickness.

Fortunately, in spite of it all, with the plague's grasp on Heylguard weakening with the warming of the weather, and some careful help regaining strength from the two Fellfang Witch-Doctors who came to offer the pack assistance, and Heylguard's own healers, Laur and Samhradh.

Hedda was one of four wolves remaining in the pack who had some faith in the Dawnguardian gods. The four ex-Dawnguardians - Hedda, Samhradh, Asterion, and Felgar - decided to climb to the top of one of Heylguard's peaks to pray to the Dawnguardian deities, and see what they had done wrong. Maybe some answer would be forthcoming.

In a way, there was.

While the four Dawnguardians stood upon the mountain, praying to the sky, they all seemed to witness the stars swirling together in the shape of two wolves. One had the north star as an eye - the Star of Icadorityl - and the other was made from dimmer stars. They realized it was Pajackok doing battle with Icadorityl; the Dawnguard and Heylian deities fighting in the sky. An avalanche started and the four wolves tried to flee, but all were caught up in it. Hedda and Felgar helped one another out of the snow and down the mountain, Asterion and Samhradh trailing just behind, their faith in Pajackok was shattered.

Not that Hedda's was particularly strong to begin with. But she *had* been loyal to Dawnguard, and these wolves were the three that had remained alongside her. Now, what was left to unite them, if Dawnguard's last remaining trace - its faith - was gone? Hedda's closeness to Samhradh?

When Fitu elected to strip Heylguard of its half-Dawnguard identity, and brought the pack back to its original territory. Hedda was torn. Was she going to join Heyl? When her dear friend Eryk...who she had been developing feelings for...was remaining behind? With Felgar? Or would she go with Samhradh to Heyl?

It was an impossible decision, but Hedda decided to remain in the old Heylguard territory, with Eryk. She said a difficult goodbye to Samhradh, vowing they would always be sisters. She would often be exasperated, but amused, when Felgar and Eryk butted heads (which happened quite often). Eventually, though, Felgar went off on his own, and Hedda wanted to travel as well. Only...she didn't want to leave Eryk, and Eryk didn't want to leave the mountain where he had lain his deceased mate and his old pack.

One day, Hedda approached the burial place Eryk had gone to so often, and she confessed to the silent, sober ground that she hated the deceased she-wolf, for keeping Eryk from continuing his life. Eryk heard her confession.

It was a tense meeting that followed, and despite everything, as much as Eryk cared for Hedda, he could not, would not, leave his mate's grave. It was, with a heavy heart, that Hedda and he parted ways.

Alone, Hedda met a few other loners, like Shiloh. The pair stumbled upon a pup and knew they needed to do something, but neither of them were sure how to provide for the pup. Neither of them were nursing pups! Fortunately, they *were* able to find the mother.

Hedda followed the herds, but when the herds moved towards Heylguard's old lands, she realized she could never go back there. It was, with a heavy heart, that Hedda realized the only place she could go...was away. Into the lands beyond the Domain, for a fresh start. She hasn't been seen since.

## Trivia

* The scar on her shoulder was where she was marked upon her entrance to Dawnguard.
* Hedda is not fond of physical pain. While she enjoys the thrill of the hunt, she will take a position that does not require her to be anywhere near her prey's (often sharp) hooves.
* Hedda cannot explain what she saw, that night she left her pack and she tries her best not to dwell on thoughts of it. She has never 'seen' anything of its like since.
* The Hunt is what she knows, but something draws her to the world she cannot see.
* Hedda misses her siblings desperately. Although they had not been close for a long time, she still holds onto the memories of puphood in remembrance of what could have been. It is a hole that has yet to be filled.
* When she was a juvenile, one of the Hagen pack hunts went awry after Hedda backed out of a difficult position in the last minute (she didn't want to be caught by the large moose's hooves). As the hunting pack watched their quarry lope away, another young wolf turned on her with a snarl and called her coward. There was a tussle then as she and her siblings set upon the other young wolf and his friends. To this day, the only thing that will result in a wolf facing Hedda's bared teeth is when one calls her a coward...
* Since the visions the avalanche gave her, Hedda aims to seek out those who are not as strong as herself and protect them. Protector of the small.

## Quotes

* "I hereby dub thee, Eryk, master squirrel and collector of acorns! That, is your destiny!" (teasing Eryk, *Master Squirrel*)
* "We cannot go up the way we came down, and the mountain sings a song of death. We best hurry.” (to Felgar after the avalanche, *Aftermath*)

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* Rodwendess's deviantART Gallery