Ariana Grey, Wolf Queen

Ariana was the firstborn daughter of the Viscount of Vunderwahl. In a show of solidarity between Houses Valstik and Grey, Ariana was wedded to the to-be Count of Havenmond, Lord Lucian Grey. Though Ariana detested the arrangement of her marriage at first, on her first meeting of the young bachelor the two quickly became enamoured with each other, and in the years leading up to their wedding Ariana would often travel from the dreary Keep of Vunderwahl to the illustrious (by comparison) city of Havenmond.

In less than a season the two fell in love, in what they themselves felt was a tale written by bards and lorekeepers of old. Their love blossomed and their wedding was hurried when it was learned Ariana had already fallen pregnant with the couple’s firstborn. For birth out of wedlock would decry complications for the child’s heritage and their belonging noble house.

A few years after they were wed, Lucian and Ariana became the Count and Countess of Havenmond, loved by their subjects after the passing of Lucian’s father. Together the couple had four children, three sons and a daughter, their youngest child. In the springs Ariana would travel to Vunderwahl to visit her family when the snow and ice had thawed on the paths. Five days after Ariana left Havenmond with a retinue of guards and her daughter, Hurina their caravan was attacked by a pack of rabid wolves as they made rest for the night. The guards, steward and horses were slaughtered. Both Ariana and Hurina were injured in the attack, but managed to find shelter in the carriage where the wolves were kept at bay with fire and the pack lost interest and turned to the corpses of their fresh kills instead.

When morning came Ariana was found by pilgrims of Erdrydion, who healed her and Hurina and took them back to Havenmond, though in the journey both mother and daughter were gripped by a terrible fever that lasted another two weeks even after they had arrived back in Havenmond. No healers could treat the ailment, nor give any remedy to the intense pain that overcame them both nightly.

It was almost a month after the attack that the ailment mother and daughter shared became clear. When a healer watched over them both at night, the full moon brightly lit the skylight above their chamber. Mother and daughter both transformed into wolves on hind legs: werewolves, thought to have been a myth in Tharador for hundreds of years though recently confirmed through the colonisation of Duskweave Isle. The two lost themselves in their bloodlust state, tearing apart the healer and breaking through the skylight to the streets below. They were found in ragged states by morning, having amassed a body count of twelve between them. The two were rescued from mobs by the Count’s most loyal guards, but the city called for the death of Ariana and the couple’s daughter.

Lucian refused, instead abdicating his position to his younger brother. He left Havenmond, travelling east with his family never to be seen again. In the forests far to the east he and his sons built a cottage, where they’ve lived ever since. Though Lucian and the couple’s sons both willingly took on the curse as well, drinking the blood of Ariana and together all learning to control their seemingly insatiable needs. Though the curse only takes hold of them occasionally, they have learnt to curb it as much as possible, locking themselves in doors on full moons and acquiring large hoards of meat from game hunted in the forest in attempt to keep them held there, rather than to feast on an unfortunate hunter foolish enough to tread the forest floor at night.

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