Ružan

## Application Sheet

Ružan was a brown she-wolf with short-spine syndrome, who lived in Heyl as a Cave Watchman until the pack's destruction. When Heyl disbanded as a result of the Royal Coup, Ružan remained behind, along with Orion, Leo, Kestrel, and Laur, as loners in Heyl's territory. When Leo and Orion, the last to leave, decided to go, Ružan, too, left the lands - and the Domain - behind. She was created and RP'd by KelpGull.

## Personality

* ***No-Nonsense.*** Ružan is a blunt and practical wolf with no sense of humor. Her mother taught her young that frivolity and hesitation can often lead to death, and these lessons kept her alive on her long journey south. She is the kind of wolf who will speak her mind when she sees a better way to get something done, and freely admit when she has been proven wrong.
* ***Reverent*.** She is deeply superstitious. This is not in contrast with her practical nature, but rather fueled by it- gods, demons, and supernatural forces are simply a tangible part of her worldview. As such, she is still affected by the pantheon and religious practices of her old pack, in which the weak and sickly died as a matter of course. Heyl's practices come as a major culture shock to her, particularly the careful tending to the elderly and sick, and the pack's fascination with water. While she is not afraid of water, in the far north immersion in water generally meant death, and swimming for ritual and pleasure is a bit of a novelty to her. She believes that finding Heyl on the brink of death was nothing short of divine intervention, and she wants nothing more than to devote herself to the ways of Icadorityl, whom she considers a deity. However, in doing so she believes that she will likely either be rejected by Icadorityl, or bring down the wrath of her former pack's god Rasxaoc.
* ***Hard-working.*** Ružan is determined to make herself useful to her new pack despite her deformities, as she was always a burden to her old one. No task is too menial for her, and she will work herself half to death before admitting that she cannot complete a job. She has a streak of fierceness in her, and longs to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a warrior. Though she understands that this path is simply not possible for her, she has not fully resigned herself to that fact.
* ***Maladjusted*.** In being kept away from other pups, and treated as an oddity, she is unused to interacting with other wolves on a personal level, which can lead to misunderstandings. She is curious about others, and interested in learning the ways of her new packmates, but she often comes off as cold, self-important, and standoffish in personal situations, and overly formal when addressed by superiors. This is a product of the strict hierarchy and cultural norms of her previous pack, and may wear away if she is given the space and time to come into herself.
* ***Conflicted*.** Having been raised to believe that she is the spawn of Rasxaoc, she suspects that she is not fully a wolf, and thus condemned to live without ever being fully accepted in the company of wolves. She resents this, and is determined to start her life anew within Heyl’s borders, where the northern gods seem far away. The issue of her parentage is something that she is not likely to discuss, as it is not something that she fully understands.
* ***Optimistic.*** Despite her many difficulties, Ružan is stubbornly optimistic about her future.

## Pre-Group History

Ružan was born to a pack that ranges in the far north. Her mother, Fer-osoba, was a silver-tongued warrior who won herself high regard through cunning. Her father, Ourse, was an exiled wanderer from the south. They met once as Fer-osoba patrolled the southern borders, and never again. Subscribing to her pack's view of all southerners as soft fools, Fer-osoba assumed that he did not survive the winter.

Come spring she gave birth to her first litter of four pups, though two were stillborn and one did not live through his first month. Her sole surviving pup, Ružan, was unlike anything the pack had ever seen. Her hunched form and fixed neck gave her legs and head a grotesque, enlarged appearance by comparison, which caused some to whisper of a likeness to Rasxaoc, their diety of decay and discord. These rumors were subtly fed by Fer-osoba, both to increase her renown and protect her daughter. Ružan's mother, while hardly sentimental, had as much maternal instinct as would be expected, and had come to love her fierce, perceptive daughter. And so the superstitious pack came to consider Fer-osoba the chosen mate of Rasxaoc, and Ružan his daughter.

The mother and daughter were grudgingly fed by the pack, and kept away from the other pups, to avoid incurring the wrath of Rasxaoc. It was a lonely existence, but not an idle one. Ružan's mother taught her daughter all she could of hunting and combat within the limitations of her stunted form, and provided her with harsh lessons and invaluable guidance. This went on quietly until her third winter, when particularly lean hunting and an unfortunate encounter with a bear threw the pack's hierarchy into disarray. New leadership changed the opinions of the pack. Ružan was denounced as an abomination. It was all her mother could do to transmute a death sentence into an exile, which would likely only be a slower death. This alternative was agreed to on the condition that Fer-osoba would accept the sentence and willingly remain with the pack, as their thinned numbers made her more valuable than ever. To this Fer-osoba agreed.

Come early spring, Ružan was chased off through the pack's southern borders. Remembering stories of kinder lands to the south, Ružan traveled at night and kept the north star to her back. She ate insects, rodents, carrion, and whatever else she could get her teeth on. While her mother had taught her well, her deformities and her solitude meant that she was always on the brink of starvation. She went on like this until midsummer, when, after circumnavigating a particularly forbidding mountain range to the east and setting her course back southward, Ružan took ill. This proved too much for her stunted, malnourished body, and she finally collapsed, emaciated and exhausted, deep in the southern territories. To her extreme good fortune, she was discovered first by an envoy of Heyl, and was brought back to the pack territory to recover under Laur's careful care, where she has since remained.

Her mother never told her the truth of her parentage, so she still believes herself to be born of Rasxaoc, and thus not fully a wolf.

## Group History

Ružan would be good acquaintances with her healer Laur. She was also thankful for the company of Khione, who was willing to spend time with her (and do most of the talking!).

Admittedly, Ružan found it quite strange to be in Heyl. Her whole life, she was raised to sell her life as dearly as possible, to die a warrior's death, and Heyl...didn't really offer that. Heylians didn't *do* battle, they were a place of peace and recovery. She admitted to Fitu that Heyl felt like an afterlife Paradise, with its kindness and gentleness; she vowed to serve the pack, and continue to learn the ways of a Heylian.

One day, Ružan met a spunky little bird named Lanius. The shrike was a fierce little bird who called her "Bighead" and inquired as to her appearance (all the while making insults and threats towards her). He amused Ružan greatly, though, and the two parted ways, very confused with one another.

She was walking through the territory when she was attacked by a mountain lion. Fortunately, Bellamy was around to warn her and help her fend it off, and the pair sent it running from the territory. This encouraged Ružan to become a Cave Watchman.

She took her duties as Cave Watchman very seriously. She was the first wolf to meet Dayanara and Navindru of Chandor when they came seeking Heyl's aid for her sickness. Ružan was wary, but allowed them to go to Heyl to speak with Fitu and the healers, calling to Laur first. Fortunately, their Chandorian guests would be welcomed, and tended to as Daya healed.

Ružan was, once, coerced to watch over the pups when they were little. She was terrified she'd mess it up, but fortunately, the only pup to wake up was Mirakel, who was contented listening as Ružan told her a story.

She was quite good with youngsters, as it turned out. Her appearance didn't alarm most of the pups in the pack, as they were born knowing her, and her packmates were used to her also. As a result, she interacted quite a bit with the youngsters, including Barbosa, who inquired about her job as a Cave Watchman and told her (for the first time, possibly) that Ružan had pretty fur. She was pleased to tell Barbosa the story of how she and Bellamy fought a 'demon'.

She interacted with Kesta, going as Heron in Heyl, and discussed thoughts and memories with him during a rainstorm, making both think hard about their pasts.

She continued life as it was, serving as Cave Watchman to the best of her abilities, when tragedy struck.

The Royal Coup occurred, and Eir tried to kill Poppy, and he led to the death of the pack's betas, Asterion and Samhradh. The pack Ružan had come to treasure so much began to dissolve, wolves scattering to the wind. The only wolves to remain in Heyl's lands were Kestrel, Laur, Orion, and Leo, besides her. Ružan vowed to stay in the territory and defend the remnants of Heyl as long as she could. And for awhile, she did, though she was shattered by the turmoil and the loss of her friends.

But then Laur left, and Kestrel went to find Fitu, and Orion and Leo finally decided their time had come to leave their homeland behind: Orion to find Barbosa, Leo to travel with his new mate Oscar. And so, her duty fulfilled, alone in the lands that had cared for her, Ružan left Heyl, and the Domain, behind, to find her purpose elsewhere.

## Trivia

* Ružan is very cube-shaped because she has short-spine syndrome - essentially, her spine is very compressed, the vertebrae shorter and some more fused together.
* Ružan was revived in another group.

## Quotes

* "This place, Heyl, is like a dream. Some days I am not sure if I truly survived, or if this is where honorable wolves go to rest when they die." (to Fitu, *A Warrior's Way*)
* “All creatures die. Those who do not fight, die cowards.” (to Lanius, *Bighead and the Bird*)
* “Thoughts are close behind, wherever you go. It is in their nature, I think. Sometimes, they can be a comfort, like steady friends. And *sometimes*...they can be *bitter* enemies." (to Kesta, *Dark Water*)

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* KelpGull's deviantART Gallery