Nanuk

Orso (Brother, NPC)

## Application Sheet

Nanuk was a dark gray-brown male wolf with a single bright orange eye, and another blinded milky eye. This heavily-scarred wolf entered the Domain as a loner, and travels with an adoptive son, Aiden. His story is ongoing. Nanuk was created and RP'd by Lotus-Wolfdragon.

## Personality

* ***Resilient*.** For his entire life, Nanuk has experienced everything life has thrown at him - love, hate, heartbreak, peace - and has taken it all in stride. No matter how many times he is beaten down, Nanuk rises back up to face the day. Whatever hurt he has endured, whatever scars he gains, Nanuk continues to fight for another day.
* ***Level-Headed.*** Nanuk doesn't let his emotions take control of him. He is able to keep calm and rationalize the situation before making a move or saying the words. At times he almost seems bored, but Nanuk absorbs everything that is happening to and around him. He is not one to pursue rash decisions.
* ***Protective*.** Having lost so many wolves in his life has made Nanuk very protective of the ones he is able to keep close. At times he may come off as being too overly protective and clingy, but Nanuk has some level of self-awareness of this fact, and backs off once he realizes it. He is not afraid to throw himself before danger if it means keeping another safe.
* ***Loyal*.** Once you have gained Nanuk's trust and friendship, then you have gained a friend for life. Right or wrong, Nanuk will always side with his friends. He will be a loyal pack member if he has found one that he feels could be a home for him. However, this trait is to be earned and is not given freely to just any wolf.
* ***Lazy*.** This wolf likes to move to the beat of his own drum, so don't expect Nanuk to do that thing you want him to. He might've just conveniently "forgot" about it. As he is unambitious, Nanuk doesn't have the drive to do anything quickly. If it can be put off until tomorrow, then it will.
* ***Quiet*.** Good luck trying to get a lot of conversation out of Nanuk. It's not that he is a shy wolf - far from it - but it's that he doesn't have a lot to say. Most of his feelings are kept close to his chest, so at most Nanuk will offer a little and nothing more. He is not the first to shout in anger or to cry with joy.
* ***Guarded*.** Due to everything he has suffered in his life, Nanuk keeps his feelings close to his chest. He is wary about opening himself up to others, and thus comes off as secretive, even suspicious at times. His walls are fortified around him, and they cannot be so easily chiseled at.
* ***Cynical*.** Even if it's the best day of his life, Nanuk will expect something to go wrong because it always does. When he should be happy and relaxed, Nanuk finds he cannot because he anticipates something will come along to ruin it for him. Nanuk lives by the rule "everything comes in threes".
* ***Rude*.** Whether he may mean to or not, Nanuk doesn't mince his words and will say what's on his mind. This makes him come off as blunt and rude, as he has no threshold when it comes to his opinion. Nanuk also tends to sprinkle his words with a few curses here and there, so he would definitely not be an ideal babysitter. He would probably have no shame teaching youngsters said bad words anyways.
* ***Distrustful*.** Nanuk's trust is a hard thing to earn. He doesn't believe in easy friendships and always expects someone to stab him in the back, even if they appear genuine. His time as a loner has hardened him to good intentions and believes everyone is out for themselves. However, because he judges everyone as bad at first, it can lead to him chasing off potential friendships.

## Pre-Group History

Nanuk was named Nita at birth, the runt of a small litter born to the conniving she-wolf Ursa of the pack Shardik. The pack was large, compromising of mostly family members and their extended families. The group was tight-knit and close, yet insane in their beliefs that they could conquer the world with violence and bloodshed, worshipping a deity that only they knew of and had named themselves after. Their God was the three-eyed bear, Shardik, who consumed the blood of her kin to gain their powers. These wolves of Shardik believed that they could gain the wisdom and memories of their peers by consuming their hearts, and were not above doing it to one another as they would do to unfortunate loners.

However, being such a family-orientated group meant that there were little options as far as partners if the pack were to keep their bloodline pure. They knew that breeding amongst themselves would only lead to their inevitable destruction, so the pack was open to the idea of breeding with loners and introducing new blood into their circle. Nita was the product of this affair - Ursa seduced a white loner named Quidel with the intent of providing new kin to the pack. Quidel, though, had quickly seen through the facade Ursa and her sisters had put on, and tried to make a case that he be allowed to see his children. This argument was tossed back and forth between the pair, as Ursa had no more use for Quidel, but pack law prevented her from immediately disposing of him. As the pack welcomed new blood into their circle, they, too, would welcome the sires and dams of the new bloodlines. But Quidel refused the offer to join Shardik, and thus Ursa and her sisters were given permission to drive him from their lands.

From birth, it was Nita and Orso versus the world. Ursa was only a mother in title - she gave them milk and provided food for them, but otherwise held no love for them. If it came down to favorites, Ursa favored Orso as she felt Nita was weak and pitiful, a blemish on her reputation. A shame, as Ursa had longed for a daughter, but once she saw how weak and scared Nita was, she decided she would rather have no daughter at all, and thus Nita was cast aside as the black sheep.

She did not grow up in Orso's shadow in spite of this. Ursa didn't love Orso anymore than she did Nita - she just gave him more as if to spite her daughter. And so the siblings were close, uniting under their mutual fear of their mother and desire to be loved. Their aunts were more "caring" than Ursa, but to say that the siblings received love and appreciation would be a lie. And thus Nita's life had begun with a cruel twist of the knife that only continued to turn with each passing day. It was when Nita became an adolescent that she experienced changes with her feelings. She had always felt different, but in what way she didn't know, nor was there anyone she could talk to about it. Not that there was any time for self-reflection, for the pack had encountered another who were looking for allies. This pack, who called themselves the Nagato, were mighty, 40 wolves strong. Compared to them, Shardik was pitiful and weak. So Ursa and her sisters extended the invite to the leaders of Nagato to arrange an alliance. It was an agreeable discussion that brought upon two things:

Shardik and Nagato were united without the other pack losing their identity in the process.

But one of their own would have to be bethrothed to the young son of Nagato's lord - a dark male named Esben. For Ursa, there was no deliberation. Nita had hardly made herself useful since she was born, so why not send her towards the boy?

The pair could not have been any more different. Esben was a charismatic but violent individual with a grim secret; Nita was soft-spoken, meek, and no longer felt comfortable being treated and referred to as a female. Fortunately their marriage was a loveless affair as neither were interested in the other, but Esben still wanted to save his reputation. When Nita began experimenting with changing her name and identity, it brought on many fights between the pair that often grew aggressive. They never went far to scar, but sometimes the pair were found bloodied and disheveled. On one occasion, a particularly bad fight had to be broken up by Ursa, and she punished Nita by ripping her ear off.

The older she got, the more apathetic and tired Nita became of the toxicity of her world. She wasn't living, she realized. This wasn't what life should be like. She needed to change. So came the day when Nita died and Nanuk was born. Only Orso, his confidante and only friend, was privvy enough to know Nita had become Nanuk, and was the one who encouraged him to become a stronger individual. Taking his brother's words to heart, Nanuk decided enough was enough and he was going to abandon the family. He snuck away from Esben to confront his mother to call her out on all of the abuse before leaving Shardik forever. However, what he expected versus what did happen were two different things. Of course Ursa didn't take any of this well - the fact that her daughter was now a son, that he was leaving his mate and pack behind, that he had no loyalty or love for Shardik. All of this drove the already unstable mother into a furious rage that left Nanuk with a bloody face and nearly dead had Orso not intervened on his brother's behalf. Orso took the fall that Nanuk was meant to, but his brother's sacrifice had given Nanuk the opportunity to escape.

He wandered for a long time after that. Broken, tired, and aimless, Nanuk didn't know what he wanted to do with his life now that he had the freedom he had longed for. His face had healed, but the damage Ursa inflicted upon him remained. That was not to mention the guilt Nanuk felt for watching Orso die. But fate seemed to favor him, for the path he journeyed on led him towards his father. At first there had been conflict upon meeting one another, but once tensions had died down, they shared their piece, with Quidel happily accepting his son into his life. Quidel had a new family, new children, but Nanuk was warmly accepted as if he had always been a part of it. While it was hard for him to accept Quidel as his father because of the circumstances, Nanuk was happy enough to call him a friend.

Nanuk had spent the next two seasons healing, and while he had felt tranquility of living a simple life with Quidel, there was something missing. A part of him - a spiteful part - did not want to let the past die. Nanuk wanted revenge, to put his mother in her place as retribution for Orso's death. When he had voiced these concerns, Quidel tried his best to quell his son, but in the end it only took the reppearance of his aunt, Berengaria, to have Nanuk return to Shardik.

After Nanuk's departure, the relations between Shardik and the Nagato soured immensely, and all blame was placed upon Ursa. A power struggle between sisters had begun to divide their pack. As the second oldest, Berengaria felt that the time had come for Ursa's reign to end but she knew it would not be without a fight. Ursa had her supporters, and it seemed it would be the four sisters versus the pack. Esben had already been swayed to the cause as he hated Ursa to the core, but Berengaria needed another wolf. Which led to her seeking out her estranged nephew to bring him back for a final fight.

And a fight it was. Ursa did not readily let go of her power, and with the remaining strength of Shardik at her back, she made sure to hold off her sisters for as long as she could. Nanuk's reappearance in the fight had her falter for a slight moment. But that one moment of surprise, a hint of weakness, was all Nanuk needed to gain the upper hand for his side. He killed Ursa without remorse or emotion, and with her death came the end of the fight. Her most loyal detractors fled while others turned their support to Berengaria. Nanuk left with blood stained teeth, never looking back to see Berengaria take the power that had once been his mother's. Orso could rest easy now, that was all that mattered.

Nanuk did not return to Quidel after the event. He needed to get away from these lands, so once again he began his trek as a loner. It was a long time before Nanuk stumbled upon a pack of wolves that, on the surface, seemed stable enough. Thinking he could make a life with them, Nanuk settled in, did what was asked, and took up a task. He even started a friendship with a she-wolf by the name of Lazuli, a kind soul who seemed to understand him in a way no one else did. Life seemed to be back on track... but all good things must come to an end, of course. Another power struggle had been brewing privately behind the scenes between the top heads of the pack and it all boiled over to the alpha pair being overthrown and exiled, with the beta and his mate rising to the role. Nanuk was skeptical, fearing the past was repeating, but Lazuli convinced him to stay and wait to see what would happen.

Nothing did happen for a while. Peace seemed to settle in again while Nanuk's relationship with Lazuli began to grow beyond friendship. He had been planning to ask her to be his mate for a while, but could never muster the courage to do so. And he never would, for once again life decided it had another sick joke to play on him. The lands the pack had settled in were hit violently by a hurricane that was passing over and it began to change the landscape. Mudslides, overflowing rivers, and lightning storms that struck mercilessly at the land and trees. The pack scattered in all directions in an attempt to survive, and it was during this that Nanuk and Lazuli were separated from one another. There had been too much chaos happening for Nanuk to keep track of where his companion was. No matter how loudly he called for her, she would never hear his voice.

So... he left.

Nanuk did not stick with the other survivors of his former pack. He had no true allegiance to them. Lazuli was gone, so his purpose was as well. Once more a loner struggling to find his place in the world, Nanuk traveled far and wide. While he never lost hope that he would reunite with Lazuli, a part of him was slowly accepting that he might never see her again. It was time to move on and find another life. And so, Nanuk let the wind guide him into the lands of the Domain, near the ruins of Highvalley.

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* Lotus-Wolfdragon's deviantART Gallery