Bonding with elves, and Communication

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Bonding

All elves are capable of bonding with a wolf-friend, and all of them do so, no matter what the elf's tribal status. Some elves may go for periods of time (up to several years) without a wolf-friend, depending on circumstances, and whether they are waiting for the "right" wolf to be born.

Most elves tend to bond with wolf cubs, by preference, and this means waiting for the alphas in the pack to have a litter. Elf children will almost always bond to a cub. Usually, a full bonding doesn't occur until the cubs are about 4 weeks of age, or until they are weaned (between 5-6 weeks).

When an elf bonds with a cub, they must wait for the cub to become full-grown before they can be ridden. It generally takes a full year of growth before the wolf can bear an adult rider on all normal activities. Adult elves who bond with a cub, but who may need to ride a wolf in the meantime, will either ride double with someone else, or else may temporarily ride one of the pack's adult unbonded wolves. The bonded cub, meanwhile, will accompany the elf as soon as it is able to keep up.

The other option is for elves to bond with a yearling, or one of the unbonded wolves (usually between the ages of 1-5) who have remained with the pack prior to dispersal. This may appeal more to active hunters, who do not wish to wait through several seasons to bond to a new wolf-friend and for that cub to grow up; but it also depends highly on the personal dynamics between the elf and the wolves.

Elf children bond to their first wolf-friends at age 7-9 on average; thus, first bonding as early as age 5 or as late as age 12 is not unknown.

Elvish wisdom tends to state that bonding with a wolf-cub forms the strongest emotional attachment between elf and wolf. This is not to say that an elf bonding with a yearling or older wolf will not form a strong attachment; just not **as** strong as the one formed with a cub, and there will be a bit more independence in the relationship. However, the strength of attachment also depends on other factors – the strength of the individual elf's wolf-bonding magic, as well (in some cases) as the bonding strength on the wolf's side.

• 4 weeks: the alpha female will allow elves to begin to visit the den to observe the pups, but it is too early for bonding to occur.

• 6 weeks: earliest that a bond with a pup can occur. Pup is not completely independent of the mother, though. Will still stick close to her much of the time.

• 8 weeks: pups are weaned, and may start going around with elf-friend more and more.

• 12 weeks: pups may begin to accompany the pack on hunts, but do not do much hunting themselves. Probably do not have the stamina for very long hunts, however. Cannot be ridden.

• 7-8 months: pups start to join in hunting activities, and can accompany longer hunts. Look closer to full-growth size, but are not yet done growing. Still cannot be ridden.

• 11-12 months: yearlings may be ridden by their elf-friends.

Rank & Status

Elves who specialize in hunting tend to bond to wolves with a potential to rise to High or Mid rank. Elves who are more "stay at home" -- crafters, fishers, and trappers -- tend to bond to lower-ranked wolves. This is not a reflection on the elf so much as it is on the tendency of the wolf's preference for the socially competitive nature of hunting, as opposed to the less-competitive nature of spending more time "guarding the Dentrees" and in the company of the elves there.

This is not necessarily a universal rule, though. There are always exceptions. Elf status or activity does not always guarantee bonding to a wolf of like status every time – especially since a wolf's exact pack status will change over time. (That is – the tribe's chief will not always be bonded to one of the pack Alphas; but, the tendency will be for the chief to bond to a wolf with high rank potential, and his or her wolf will often achieve Beta or Alpha status eventually, though not always.)

The wolves do not entirely understand or acknowledge elvish social structure, and they tend to treat a bonded elf as an extension of the wolf-bond's rank. If an elf is bonded to a high ranking wolf they are accorded some respect (able to ride the lower-ranked, for example); while an elf bonded to a low-ranked wolf might find the high-ranked wolves snapping at them for approaching downed prey, etc. This interesting ranking can result in amusing moments when a high ranking wolf feels the need to 'remind' a lower-ranked wolf's bond of 'their place'. There have been stories of the chief getting nipped in reproach after a hunt, since over the course of an elf's life, even a high-ranking elf such as the chief will not always be bonded to one of the alpha wolves.

(Elf cubs are exempt from this, as all pups are. While the wolves regard elf childrens' slower maturing rate as "strange", by and large they tend to grant them the normal behavioral leniency accorded to all young, until the elf reaches the late-teens age of sexual maturity/exploration. This is usually taken by the wolves as a sign of adult status, and they will begin to treat the young elves accordingly.)

When a high-status elf loses a high-status wolf-friend, though, the elf is not automatically demoted to lowest status. The wolves do acknowledge elf-status on at least a basic level, in part because of the behavioral cues they pick up from their own elf-friends. Thus, the elf chief will probably always be treated as a high or mid-ranked wolf, even when bonded to a pup. However – wolves will never issue status-challenges to elves, or vice-versa.

Older wolves whose elf-friends die will almost always stay with the RTH pack, instead of dispersing. While there are some circumstances in which a wolf will perish with its elf-bond, it is not uncommon for a wolf to survive the death of its elf (through disease or freak mishap), just as elves may lose their wolf-friends but not perish themselves. However, it is rare for an older wolf to form a bond with another elf. High-ranking wolves in this situation will retain their pack-rank even after the death of an elf-friend. (The alphas would not stop being the pack's alphas, if they are still strong and healthy.)

One of the significant points of difference between elf culture and wolf behavior is that wolves will not continue to support weak or crippled members of the pack. Such wolves are demoted in status, and if not driven off, are subject to high mortality rates. Elves, on the other hand, will continue to support weaker or crippled tribe-members, allowing them to find a way to contribute to the tribe's life according to their abilities. Even these elves will bond to a wolf-friend (usually a very low-ranked one), and although this is another elvish behavior that the wolves consider "weird", they will accept the presence of "imperfect" tribe-members.

Wolves from Outside the Pack

Only in very rare circumstances will an elf bond with a wolf that does not come from the RTH pack. When this happens with a wolf from one of the neighboring natural packs (if, for example, an elf loses his or her wolf while outside of the Holt's territory on a long hunt), it is probably because there is a thread of elf-blood running through that pack as a result of a dispersing wolf from the RTH pack having successfully joined a natural pack and become a breeder.

The integration of an "outsider" wolf-friend with the RTH pack can be very difficult, and most elves would avoid this option if at all possible. But, accepting wolves from outside the pack is an important part of the RTH pack long-term genetic viability; they need infusions of new blood every so often. An outsider wolf will have an easier time integrating with the pack if it has already bonded to one of the elves. Such outside wolves, however, will only rise to become alphas a fraction of the time.

Names

While the RTH wolves do have a sense of self, by and large they do not "name" themselves to each other in words. Most often, elves bestow names on their wolf-friends, especially in the case of wolf-cubs. Elves who bond to older wolves may choose a name for the wolf based on strong self-concepts that the wolf communicates through wolf-sending.

Just as with elves, wolf-friend names can change over time, if something happens that ought to be commemorated with a new name (such as a notable event or deed; or a change in the wolf's appearance).

The elves will also give informal nicknames to the unbonded wolf-cubs who stay with the pack. These nicknames tend to be simpler and less creative than those given to wolf-friends, simply because the elves do not know the unbonded wolves as intimately as they do the bonded members of the pack. But, because an unbonded wolf may stay with the wolf-pack for up to 5 years, elves do give them nicknames that help distinguish them as individuals. (These nicknames are frequently based on obvious physical attributes, or on distinctive behavior.)

For a full list of wolf-names used so far, see this thread on the RTH messageboard.

Communication

For the most part, wolves rely on body language for communication with both wolves and elves alike, and elves will become experts in reading wolf body-language from a young age. Some limited sending between elf-blooded wolves and elves is possible, however. The important thing to remember is that wolves are non-lingual -- they do not have language/grammar, and they do not send with words. Instead, their sends will be pure emotion, pure sensation, pure imagery, or a rich mixtures of all three (very similar to the sendings of an elf-child before they've learned speech).

How to render this in written stories is a challenge, of course. Avoid what would sound like dialogue if it were coming from an elf. Even though it takes more words to write, descriptive phrases in italics will better convey the distinct quality of a wolf-send. A single word may be used to convey that a wolf is communicating a focused idea, but it should still be italicized and indicated as an image/concept rather than a spoken word.

Throwback wolves' sendings will not look different from other wolves'. They will differ primarily in the more complex reasoning and imaginative ability of the throwbacks.

Wolves from outside packs, although they may contain enough of a thread of elf-blooded-wolf ancestry to make it possible to bond to them, cannot send at all. (Wolves born of at least one RTH pack parent will be able to wolf-send.)

Sending range is much more limited than that of sending between elves; generally, to when the elf and wolf are in very close proximity. (Long-distance communication between elf and wolf, as between wolf and wolf, is accomplished through howling, which can be expressive and contain a surprising amount of information.)

In canon, a prominent example of wolf-sending was that between Nightrunner and Cutter in "Fire & Flight": **Humans! Fire! Fire!** (This is WaRP's present-day revision of the original comic's more complex phrase "Human! They bring fire!") We would consider that "shorthand" for the images/concepts that Nightrunner is communicating to Cutter.

Examples for how to approach wolf-sending:

"Slychase danced eagerly from paw to paw, and sent an image to Snowfall of, **Go hunt now?**"

-- this falls on the side of "too verbal", even though it is italicized.

"Slychase danced eagerly from paw to paw, and sent an impatient image to Snowfall demanding, **Hunt?**

-- this would be acceptable, but...

"Slychase danced eagerly from paw to paw, and sent images to Snowfall of, **running, chasing, prey-catching** along with the wolf's sense of impatience to be off."

-- this would be the best way to convey the distinct quality of a wolf-send.

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