#Lore24 – Entry #86 – Fantasy Month #26 – The Wolf Princess of Kenbakku Wood
From the journal of Angeliqua “Goldeneyes” Cartacustos:
I wonder if Mother has been considering attending this year’s celebration, perhaps? While I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to see the festivities, I certainly won’t be the one volunteering (or volunteered!) to be the titular princess. Fortunately, the position is chosen long before the celebration begins, as I understand, due to the extremely physical nature of the honored position.
The story of the Wolf Princess of Kenbakku Wood is rather ancient, dating to a period in which the region of Agreacian, in which the titular woods lie, was not yet part of the Empire. The tale revolves around the guardians of the Kenbakku Wood, a mixture of druids and rangers, human, elven, and otherwise, who have seen their sacred woods encroached upon by order of the Princess Lupania, who had been given authority to develop part of the region as she saw fit. Though efforts to stop this desecration were initially peaceful, when Lupania proved that she would not be convinced to stop her plans to level a section of the woods, more drastic steps were taken.
In a bold maneuver, the Protectors of the Wood kidnapped Princess Lupania and brought her into the very heart of Kenbakku, where their sacred stone circle lay amongst the massive trees, and enacted their revenge upon the Princess, sealing her within a special wolf-hide costume that would grant her a more lupine nature, though still possessed of her own identity and (mostly) human form, albeit with some severe restrictions to her movements, at least initially as she struggled to adapt to her new situation. She was then given a head start, after which the Protectors would begin hunting her; all she had to do to escape her trapped and animalistic state was to escape the wood on the edge of her realm, after which all pursuit would end and she would be free to do as she would, likely leading to a war against the people of the Wood.
What followed was a frantic rush through the strange and unfamiliar forest, in which Princess Lupania struggled to come to terms with the strange suit which trapped her while trying to evade the seasoned hunters. She would soon learn that she had an additional ability, specifically to understand the speech of the animals of the forest. Though in the form of a predator, many of the woodland creatures sensed something different about her, and she was able to convince them to aid her in her flight. Though many dangers lay ahead and the hunters were all around, Lupania, with the aid of newfound friends of the wood, managed to escape, and as promised, the wolf suit fell away, returning her to her normal state, though with a drastically changed perspective. She would no longer seek to ravage the woods for expanding her kingdom, rather, having learned more of the nature of the forest than she could previously have imagined, she instead came to terms with the Protectors, and aided them with their task of protecting the sacred land. She would even return to the woods frequently, even learning the druidic ways of changing her shape to that of a wolf when she did so, becoming as one with the flora and fauna. It is said that her spirit still roams the Kenbakku Wood to this day, still in the form of a majestic wolf, encountered rarely by those traversing the forest, aiding those who respect the Wood, and hunting those who would seek to harm it.
The annual celebration commemorating this story, while mostly a local festival, has garnered some attention from the outside world, growing in popularity. In the centuries since the original story supposedly took place, the festival has evolved and now centers around the Flight of the Wolf Princess, in which the chosen woman is sealed inside a suit similar to the one Lupania wore, and the escape through the is reenacted, the story retold through a much shorter section of the woods. Once the ceremonial Princess has escaped, the festivities begin in earnest, lasting through the three nights in which both of Andyllion’s moons are at their fullest. The Wolf Princess returns to wearing her lupine guise each night following the initial retelling of the story, ever present throughout the festivities, and supposedly the spirit of the original Wolf Princess appears on occasion, perhaps even possessing the ceremonial princess on even more rare occasions.