Serren

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Sister: Flicker

## Application Sheet

Serren was a small sand-colored wolf with intense golden eyes and a large scar on their left hind leg. Once an aimless drifter in an arid land, Serren chose to throw in their lot with the Mhorians in the hopes of finding more meaning in their life. Since arriving in the Domain with the rest of Mhor, Serren has slowly learned to shed their thorny barriers and become a truly dedicated Mhorian — one willing to do anything to keep their precious packmates safe. Their story is still ongoing, with their familiar Zmeyevich by their side. They are RPed by sea-lamprey.

## Personality

***Adaptable***

Serren is, at their core, a survivor. Change doesn’t get them down, and they are good at rolling with the punches. They can mold themself to fit a variety of roles without much difficulty — a loner, a follower, even a leader. When faced with a new problem, their instinct is not to despair, but to find a way around it. It takes a lot to make them break.

***Restless***

If there’s something that needs doing, Serren will do it. If no tasks are given to them, they’ll make something up. They frequently find it difficult to fully relax. Keeping busy is how they get through hard times; when their mind is in turmoil, the only time they’ll stop moving is when they’re asleep.

***Confident***

Serren is a capable wolf and knows it. Their experience surviving in a harsh land alone has given them a strong understanding of their own abilities, how to compensate for their limitations and how to best utilize their strengths. Anyone who tries to shake their pride will find it a difficult task; they know who they are and they won't let anyone tell them otherwise. For the most part, this is a positive trait — but it does come with its caveats. Serren has learned to be comfortable with the idea that their packmates need them; they find the knowledge that they, in turn, need their packmates far more difficult to stomach. Furthermore, they have some issues with accepting others' authority. If they're given an order they don't like, even if it's given by a wolf of much higher rank...well, they might just pretend they didn't hear it. They know better, after all.

***Fiercely Protective***

Despite the hard survivalist image they like to maintain, Serren's compassion for their fellow Mhorians runs deeper than the ocean. It doesn't matter who you are; if you're of Mhor you're under Serren's protection, and they'll do just about anything to keep their packmates safe.

They've never had a home before, not really. They'd like to keep this one.

*We'll survive, together.*

***Superstitious***

It may come as a surprise to some that Serren is about as spiritual as Mhorians come. They believe wholeheartedly in the cycles, in Oaths and the Otherworld, in the spirits that inhabit all things — but not *only* that. Serren carries with them a collection of superstitions from their previous life that don't *exactly* align with what born Mhorians believe. They are a strong believer in good luck and bad, for one — ways to sway fortune in your favor, and actions that are sure to bring misfortune if the spirits aren't appeased quickly enough. Death as a conscious thing, and its many eyes. The existence of gods — though Serren doesn't personally align themself with any deity, they won't hesitate to pay lip service to them if needed. They don't talk about these "extra" beliefs often, so most aren't even aware they harbor them — it's nobody's business but their own, after all.

***Private***

"Ain't none of your business" — five words that Serren has said more times than they can count. To be open is to be *vulnerable,* and life has taught Serren that being vulnerable is a very bad thing. They aren't an unfriendly wolf, though — quite the opposite, most of the time. But most will find it's hard to forge more than a surface-level friendship with Serren, and they're quick to bare their fangs to those too eager to get past their defenses.

To be fair, they aren't a hypocrite about it. Serren is just as reluctant to pry into others' lives as they are to let others pry into theirs — sometimes to a fault. But in order to forge strong bonds, a certain amount of vulnerability is needed...

***Distrustful***

While they take the Harvest Guild's oaths of material generosity very seriously, when it comes to their faith in others, Serren is far stingier. Accustomed to a world where knowing who's worth associating with was often a matter of life or death, they observe both strangers and packmates alike with a critical eye, frequently making snap judgements about who is a potential ally...and who is just dead weight. Serren will provide for all without complaint, but there are few that they believe they can truly trust to have their back in a pinch — and if you *aren't* one of that number, they won't be shy about letting you know.

## Pre-Group History

The southern land where Serren was born was a harsh, arid place in which resources were frequently scarce. The local wolf population fluctuated dramatically depending on the season, packs forming, splitting, and disbanding based on how much food and water was available in an area. Having pups in such a place was always a toss of the dice, but Morra and Whistlegrass chose their time carefully, and their children were born during one of the more prosperous seasons, when they had food aplenty and a pack to hunt with.

    Unfortunately, the machinations of nature can throw a wrench in even the best-laid plans. Morra gave birth to a shocking nine pups — a burden far too heavy to handle in a land like this. The strain of the birth left her weak, and she knew that attempting to feed so many would leave her still weaker. She and Whistlegrass couldn’t expect the other pack members to support them through their bad fortune; they were all little more than strangers thrown together by circumstance. Still, they stubbornly attempted to push through it. There was still plenty of food to go around after all, and they were young and foolish.

    One by one, the pups were lost. The smallest of the litter was gone in a flash, stolen by a weasel before the exhausted Morra could react. Another fell victim to illness, fading away to nothing. A hawk got the third, and nobody ever figured out what happened to the fourth. A month later, only five pups remained. This was more manageable, Morra and Whistlegrass thought, feeling a mixture of sadness and relief at their losses. With fewer pups to watch over and feed, Morra was beginning to recover from her ordeal somewhat.

    And then the weather turned.

    A sudden drought swept the land, driving the herds away earlier in the season than usual. Wolves began to drift apart. Those that could leave followed the herds to greener pastures, and those that could not struck out on their own or split into small groups that could sustain themselves more easily during the leaner times. Morra and Whistlegrass were left mostly to fend for themselves, and they didn’t do well. In a sense, they were very lucky. When the long drought was over, the young pair were still alive against all odds, and two of the nine pups remained: the largest of the litter, Flicker, and Serren.

    The surviving siblings had an unstable youth, moving from place to place and saying so many hellos and goodbyes that the faces of all the wolves they met bled together in their minds. Flicker distrusted them all, but Serren felt themself drawn to these strangers, all so different and so new. Where had they come from? Where were they going? When they were strong enough, they said their goodbyes to their family and tagged along with a small pack to find the answers to these questions.

    Serren spent much of their remaining time as a juvenile with those wolves, but soon enough circumstances separated them from that pack and drew them to a different one. Life continued on this way for some time. Some days they were just a face in a crowd, one small part of a large pack brought together for a great hunt. Other days they were a leader, using their experience with the land to keep their small band out of danger. Yet others they were a fighter, brawling with wolves they did not know for food they and their comrades desperately needed.

    The worst days, though, were when they had no companions at all. Although Serren could take care of themself just fine, there was something in their soul that rejected solitude. It was on one one of these days that they came across the Mhorians.

    At first they seemed like nothing more than another ragged group passing through on a journey to who knows where, but something about the way they acted intrigued Serren. Most of the wolves they had met throughout their life were directionless, living one day to the next, but the Mhorians were different. They were looking ahead towards something else. Something greater, maybe.

    Serren kept returning to them as the days passed, asking them questions about their lives, where they were going, and so on. In return, Serren gave the strange pack advice about where they could find food and water in the area, and the best places to shelter at night. Before they realized it, they had followed the Mhorians well past the lands they had always known.

## Trivia

* Serren was voted the **Summer 2021 Character of the Season!**
* Serren has a “healthy respect” (read: fear) of felines of all kinds after a traumatic encounter with a starving cougar as a pup. Even foxes creep them out a little bit, being slightly too catlike for their liking.
* They enjoy swimming during warmer weather — though they're much more cautious of the ocean than they used to be, these days...
* They have a number of unspoken taboos about what they can and cannot hunt. They prefer to avoid harming unusual animals, such as those with albinism or other odd traits, in case they are sacred to a god or spirit. Harbor seals are off-limits too, since Serren believes they owe the species a debt after sheltering among them saved their life. Vultures, being sacred to the great spirit Death, are the most off-limits of all — they won't allow one to be harmed in their presence.
* They are fond of telling and listening to stories — storytelling was a large part of the culture where they were born.
* Serren won't shy away from lying when it's needed in most cases, but they'll never lie to those they care about.