| Dire wolves | |
| |
| Names | |
| Common Name: | Dire wolves |
| Scientific Name: | (Canis dirus) |
| Appearance | |
| Enormous in size with fur coming in a range of colors from grays and blacks to browns, tans, and whites. Dire wolves all possess bright green eyes, a broad head, large fangs, and massive, sturdy legs | |
| Behavior | |
| The dire wolves tend to live together in large clans within their territory in the Beyond. They often go out to hunt caribou, moose, and other prey for their clans, each having very specific designated roles. When showing respect to those above them in their hierarchy, they give a deep bow and flash the whites of their eyes. | |
The dire wolf (Canis dirus, meaning "fearsome dog") is a fictional species of wolf based on the extinct prehistoric dire wolf. They are enormous predators much larger than the average grey wolves found in the Northern Kingdoms, the dire wolves rule the Beyond as its dominant species. Their most notable feature, aside from their size, is their bright green eyes that are capable of breaking a hagsfiend's fyngrot.
Culture[]
The dire wolves of the Beyond have many mannerisms, social rules, and traditions that set them apart from their wolf cousins in the Northern Kingdoms. Unlike other wolf species, they are a very social species that have names and form highly organized clans with a complex social hierarchy.
Packs and Clans[]
Dire wolves live in packs, which are part of larger groups called clans. Clans are ruled by chieftains who adopt the name of the clan after their own to show their rank. The packs themselves are lead by Lords, wolves who take the role of alpha males in reality (or alpha females in the MacNamara Clan). The leaders may have one or more mates. Packs consist of many other ranks, such as gnaw wolves, outflankers, skreeleens, and packers.
The Sacred Watch[]
The Sacred Watch is the group of the gnaw wolves that guard the Ember of Hoole from evil owls. It's noted that wolves who are assigned to the Sacred Watch become stronger despite their deformities. When the Ember is retrieved by the rightful king, the wolves will be released from their duties and become strong again and will grow out of their deformities. For example, if they had a missing eye, that eye will be restored. Wolves assigned to the Watch can be from all clans, but most of them are from the MacDuncan Clan.
Abandonment of Deformed Pups[]
The name of this tradition is unknown. When a wolf pup is born, an Obea comes and sees if it is deformed or not, since the clans will not allow any weakness in the bloodlines. If the pup is deformed, the Obea brings it out to the wild, and leaves it out to die. If it survives, it is allowed back into the clan and becomes a gnaw wolf, the lowest-ranking wolf of all. Sometimes, a gnaw wolf will be assigned to the Sacred Watch. A deformed pup is called a malcadh, which is an ancient wolf word for "cursed."
In The Outcast, however, the gnaw wolf Hamish says that his mother abandoned him instead of an Obea. This could be due to there being no Obea in the clan at the time or because his mother decided to leave him herself.
History[]
The First Collier[]
During the time of legends of Hoole, the original Fengo befriends Grank and tells him of the great journey he made to lead his clan from their homeland to the Beyond. Their home had become fiercely cold and barren as an ice age came upon them, so they had no choice but to set out on a search for better land. Fengo states that he felt he was led by the spirit of a hoole, the wolf word for owl.
The Coming of Hoole[]
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To Be a King[]
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The Hatchling[]
Dire wolves are first seen when Coryn (at the time known as Nyroc) peered into the flames at his father's Final Ceremony. He discovers his firesight, which shows him images of the dire wolves in the Beyond with their bright green eyes.
At the Great Tree, Otulissa dreams of the Sacred Watch guarding the Ember of Hoole that lays hidden in the volcanoes of the Beyond. When she comments on how illogical it is to guard the volcanoes since "no owl can dive for this coal. They will die in the vapors and the flames," the Sacred Watch wolves all laugh at her.
Later, Otulissa gives a lesson about the Ember of Hoole. When her student, Buck, comments on how the Ember is guarded by dire wolves, Fritha denies that claim and calls it stupid, saying that dire wolves are clearly extinct. Otulissa adds that they are merely assumed to be extinct, and her other student, Wensel, asks if the legends are true then, to which she replies that they have the potential to be true.
When Coryn ends up in the Spirit Woods, he is confronted by the scroom of Strix Struma, who speaks with him about his journey. She helps him figure out that it involves the dire wolves, and that Otulissa is supposed to guide him, but due to her stubbornness when it comes to believing in things not entirely proven by science, she is taking a while to get the hint about her role in Coryn's destiny.
As time goes on, Otulissa finds herself bothered by her dream of the wolves, so she makes her way to the library to do further research on them. She picks the book, Four Leggeds: Ancient and Extinct, and begins reading. The book tells about their appearance and differences compared to average wolves, but inevitably states that most owls believe the dire wolf to be extinct. Scholars claimed that they might have migrated to Beyond the Beyond around the time of the last Ice Age, an event which was responsible for the extinction of many large carnivores. Most theorized that they did not survive the journey, but as there were no expeditions to the Beyond, no one could be entirely sure. Despite there being no absolute confirmation of their extinction, Otulissa takes this as enough evidence for her to put her research to rest, until Ezylryb interrupts her, cryptically implying that they may not be extinct and directs her to a passage from the Fire Cycle. This passage leads her to question the final stanza, and in her questioning she is confronted by Strix Struma's scroom and told that she must venture to the Beyond.
The Outcast[]
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The Golden Tree[]
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The War of the Ember[]
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Trivia[]
Size comparison between an average Grey Wolf (canis lupus) and a Dire Wolf (Canis dirus)
- Real dire wolves were only slightly larger than an average grey wolf, and around the same size as the largest species of grey wolves: the Yukon wolf and the northwestern wolf.
- The Wolves of the Beyond series was created as a spinoff of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, prominently featuring the dire wolves as the main characters and focus of the books.