[[Purple Patch: Since I charted the family tree of White Wolf the Stormrunner, I've been granted access to more in-depth detail on famous figures in Wolfsong history. My assistant, Dawnwind….]]
[Dawnwind: I'm your colleague, not your assistant.]
[[Patch: Fine. My 'colleague', Dawnwind, has helped me gather and compile such histories of the Wolfsong rulers of old. I mentioned the basics of the Wolfsong past but there is far more to tell here.
Wagensroll has promised me that the information on the House of Armbrust can be found soon (We believe the Hochsammlung Lunichen may have it and if not, Wagensroll knows a few members of the Knights of Museum Island Society who owe him a few favours) and by my good fortune I was granted access to a tome from the private library of Star-Swirl himself that detailed the family tree of the Blades. This tome was granted to him by his friend and colleague, Vorpal Blade, a renowned swordsmaster, explorer, scientist and philosopher and a great hero of mine. So in my spare time, I shall collect the fascinating knowledge detailing the exploits of the many famous or infamous figures whose blood is now shared by the Eternal Knights of Princess Luna.]]

1. Singingwolf (Gaurglir)
Not a great deal is known of Singingwolf, save for myths and legends which are as obscure as they are infrequent.
The most widely-held belief is that she was a Moon Deer who led; or at least was related to the leader of; a group of nomadic Moon Deer seeking refuge in the Eldergrove forced to make a living in Warg territory. Either out of great bravery or desperation, Singingwolf decided, rather than live on the edge of the woods and live each night in fear of the predators, to force the wargs into submission so as to formally declare a sovereign territory within the wood. Singingwolf was an adept huntress and battle-maiden so this course of action seemed to come naturally to her. How much contention she faced in this decision is uncertain or what became of those who brought it.
Singingwolf possessed a bow of Silvanbeam, a weapon of great power and value, capable of conducting magic to virtually slowing time for one nocking, drawing and aiming an arrow upon it, allowing one to fire arrows with incredible speed and accuracy. With flint-tipped arrows, feathers from hawks and owls, and a bowstring made from a lock of her own hair, she slew any warg she faced until she met their pack-leader, a warg king known as Garmur the Savage or Garmur Yoramboth (Bloody-Chest). Singingwolf challenged him, wrestling him with her bare hooves for nearly a full night until Garmur threw Singingwolf to the ground and pounced. A moment later, Garmur fell dead, having impaled himself on Singingwolf’s antlers.
Her victory hadn’t come lightly. Singingwolf lost one eye in the process and very nearly lost the other.
Tales purport of Garmur’s tyranny among the lupine folk and his death being welcomed but however true that is, Singingwolf was nonetheless declared undisputed ruler of the wolves and wargs, the deer making a pact with the predators and the tribe forever becoming known as the Wolfsong. Singingwolf ruled the tribe for many generations, taking to husband a figure known as Lokar Moonfang, whose identity is a mystery. Some tales regard him as a deer, others as a wolf or warg, usually one of snow-white fur and gleaming dark-blue eyes like the last light before nightfall.
As the Wolfsong territory expanded, they faced many threats. Ancient but vague records mention the perilous foes the Wolfsong fought- hairless, flesh-eating boars; great bog leaches with a dozen mouths; creeping black lemurs with misshapen hands and eyes that turned you to stone; and swarms of carrion-insects that stripped flesh from bone in a lightning-fast cloud of death.
All of which the Wolfsong battled and drove out, no matter the cost.
But the most dreaded foe were the singing spiders. A vast queendom that set itself up in the darkest fathoms of the Eldergrove, blocking off the healing fountains the Wolfsong depended on. The details of the spiders are the stuff of nightmares. Apparently there were many kinds with many purposes.
Giant ‘Hog-Eating’ Spiders that took many a strike from a blade or maul to subdue, with a grip like a steel gauntlet and fangs like scythes.
Bloodbacks that hid in the shadows, spun nigh invisible webs, and whose bite drove a sentient beast mad with agony before expiring.
Spitting Screamers, small, fast, agile and horribly aggressive acid-spitters that were described as ‘wolves in spider form, wild and hungry for blood’
But the worst of them were the Siren Spiders. Huge brightly-coloured matriarchs with enormous abdomens that, through some unknown means, sang from the depths of their dens, heard for miles and mesmerising those who heard it, luring them into their webs where they’d be wrapped up in silken bonds, injected with spider’s venom that slowly melted them from the inside-out.
Soup for the spider queens.
It was against these spider queens that Chieftainess Singingwolf finally met her match, bitten again and again, fighting until barely able to move, dragged out of the den by her tribe as dozens of deer and wolves fell protecting her.
Paralysed, Singingwolf bemoaned her loss of strength that had kept the tribe powerful for so long.
But hope came to her in the form of her daughter who utilised the mithril veins discovered by the tribe to succeed where her mother could not, building high towers to safeguard the kingdom and drive away invaders for miles.
And so Singingwolf was able to die content, safe in the knowledge that Gleamingmoon would do her tribe proud.

2. Gleamingmoon (Ithilglin)
A lot of knowledge on Gleamingmoon’s fawnhood is obscure. This is largely because her lifestyle was very different to that of her huntress mother. Rather than battle or explore, Gleamingmoon preferred a life of study. Fascinated by the mithril veins that grew in the wolf dens, Gleamingmoon mined and tunnelled the veins and sought to discover the metal’s secrets. Her notes are actually one of the few pieces of Wolfsong literature I am privy to and only because Dawnwind described it in her own words as ‘Banal, monotonous and entirely uninteresting, precious only to sad, petty-minded hacks’.
I can’t think what she means. I find them fascinating.
[Dawnwind: I rest my case]
From what her notes can tell, she was a remarkably thorough tester, investigating nearly every possible solution to mithril in its ore, liquid or solid form, even its effect on the cervine body if ingested or injected (How this was accomplished is uncertain) She discovered the metal’s density and durability, how quickly it solidified and set and how high it could be built. She became an excellent engineer and it seems it is this that explains her lack of legends. She rarely, if ever, ventured out of the secluded Wolfsong realms. But it was her that built the first great Mithril towers that would mark the borders of their domain and later become the pillars that held up Elengar City some few hundred years later. While never officially leaving her domain, Gleamingmoon was nonetheless one of the first cervine rulers to receive equine visitors, greeting them cordially and paying well for knowledge of the outside world. While much of pony technology and philosophy was regarded as unnecessary to the Wolfsong, the knowledge of its concepts were seen as very useful and it was this that saved her family’s realm. When Singingwolf was fatally wounded, the Spider Queendoms advanced on the Wolfsong woods in their droves, hundreds of thousands strong. And so Gleamingmoon consulted books and tomes on military history and tactics and focussed on defensive siege tactics and artillery and built the towers high enough to cast the moonlight, debilitating the spider horde as they approached, halting their onslaught and making driving them away a much easier and safer ordeal.
She had achieved something far more valuable than defeat enemies, prevent them from destroying the Wolfsong.
Singingwolf was said to have thanked and praised Gleamingmoon on her deathbed, proud and relieved to pass the crown onto her.
Gleamingmoon ruled well for many centuries, a far more peaceful chieftain than her mother but then peace was far more possible with the changing tides. Contact and relations with the neighbouring Moon Deer was established and their kind prospered as one.
Then came Tirek.
Tirek’s horde of centaurs were capable of ploughing through forest like crops, drawn to the magic of the Mithril Towers. Tirek himself, at full strength, was capable of shattering them and swiftly became the most dangerous foe the Wolfsong ever faced to date, being the first and only enemy to actively expand over Wolfsong soil (Considering Equestria was almost wiped out twice by this very horde, this is nothing to be ashamed of) Gleamingmoon led full assaults on the centaur hordes when she could but limited the fighting to guerrilla warfare in the face of so much potential death.
Yet Tirek’s advance seemed unstoppable and at the highest Mithril tower, just outside the heart of the Wolfsong domain, Gleamingmoon and her warriors fought to the death. It is likely she was spurred on by the death of her husband. Here, Gleamingmoon was struck down by Tirek and fell before the base of the tower, powerless to prevent the killing blow. But before the chieftainess of the Wolfsong fell that night, the mithril towers shone a dazzling light and cast it towards the west where a great magic rainbow had formed.
{The mystery behind this is somewhat concerning. One could possibly argue that the magical forces at work in the Wolfsong domain wished to lure Tirek into Equestria to prevent the destruction of their own domain at the cost of Equestria’s. However, considering Tirek was first vanquished here, it seems equally possible the forces at work were leading him to his demise.}
Regardless, Gleamingmoon soon died of her wounds, leaving her infant son, Fairfortune, in the care of Watch-The-Sky, Greycloud and Whitecloud, solidifying the alliance of the Moon Deer through unofficial adoption, Fairfortune thereafter considered the son of all three tribes.

3. Head-In-Clouds (Dolminfainn)
The husband of Gleamingmoon and the father of Fairfortune is a figure I only recently found out about when Dawnwind granted me access to a few of the Owlstorm’s tomes of knowledge. Head-In-Clouds was the only son of Chieftainess Watch-The-Sky who met Gleamingmoon when she stumbled across him practicing scrying under a waterfall. This alliance allowed the Wolfsong to share in the knowledge of the Owlstorm’s divinations, the advice of the seers profiting them greatly. Through a great deal of convincing, Head-In-Clouds and Gleamingmoon extended the alliance to the Hawkflower after befriending Ironcloud and his family and thus the first joining of the three Moon Deer tribes was made.
Both parents raised Fairfortune together but the invasion of Tirek soon took up a great deal of their time to put it lightly. Here, one of the great tragedies that befell the Wolfsong took place. Locking himself in his mother’s observatory, Head-In-Clouds sought to uncover the secret of how to defeat Tirek for good, using every ounce of his knowledge and power. It proved too much for him and, during a great storm, his kinsdeer tried in vain to open the door and remove him from the scrying tower but too late, Head-In-Clouds suffered a fatal magic exhaustion, reduced to a withered cervine who lived just long enough to reveal his incantations ‘On the sweet wind, the moonlight splits and dances. Heads without antlers paint with all the colours of the wind’, possibly referring to the awakening of harmony in Equestria that would turn Tirek away from his conquest of the Eldergrove. A few days later, Gleamingmoon died and both were buried in Mithril sarcophagi in a funeral attended by all three tribes.

4. Ironcloud (Fanuangren)
The Hawkflower Tribe excel as bladesmasters as it is they that first discovered the great value of mithril that lay in Moon Deer lands. The blades are of a mithril and steel alloy to give it the perfect balance of lightness and durability. The Hawkflower dwell on the edge on the Eldergrove, overlooking vast verdant cliffs, host to dragon or harpy attack from time to time. Hawks are used as scouts and battle-pets by their warriors and their ‘flower’ aspect is drawn from their firm belief in maintaining honour, dignity and elegance in battle, a sacred ground to them where every foe slain must be done so cleanly and quickly, flowers representing every life lost in conflict.
Those who don’t know this have another name for the tribe; The Head-Hunters.
The Hawkflower have a tradition where enemy heads are severed after death in battle and the skin and hair completely flayed off and soaked in resin, the skull stripped of flesh, sinew and organs before being dipped in amber and the skin of the face wrapped around it again to permanently preserve it, the eyes replaced with spherical gems and the scalps crowned with flowers. For many foreign races, this was proof of the Hawkflower’s savagery but to the tribe and most other Moon Deer, it is considered a great honour to have one’s head preserved for all time by a Hawkflower warrior for it is proof that you were considered a most worthy adversary.
I am told that Warchief Ironcloud possessed an entire library of severed heads where skulls and faces of those he battled to the death adorn hundreds of shelves in perfect alignment. And like books, each head has a story to tell.
Ironcloud earned his name through his legendary propensity for sword-work. It is very rare for Hawkflower Warriors to carry only one blade (Only the most confident or the most impoverished will do so) and most leaders of the tribe carry at least five of various shapes, sizes and purposes, using magic to carry those his hooves will not hold.
Ironcloud possessed at least a dozen swords at once, literally venturing into battle as a cloud of whirling iron blades.
If the Wolfsong have any equal in skill and tenacity, it is the Hawkflower.
Ironcloud’s conquests shook the Eldergrove. Many mighty kings did battle with him and to remember them by, several heads in Ironcloud’s library still wear their ancient crowns. The Eldergrove was plagued by wyverns, malevolent cousins of the dragons of many varieties. Hunting them was always a necessity for the Hawkflower if they wished to protect their farms and houses and some very cocksure warriors made it a pastime...but Ironcloud made it an art. He ensured that the beasts would never threaten his tribe again and he brought them the same terror that they had brought his ancestors for so many generations.
{It is this, however, that led to the endangerment of several wyvern species in the Everfree which the Hawkflower were largely responsible for but have, in recent years, made effort to conserve and protect, guarding their nesting zones and driving them off deer lands through non-lethal means. The rules by which they uphold this law are strict and severe, violators punished often with execution}
Ironcloud knew Singingwolf personally (Though it would be many generations before their respective tribes were connected) and the two had something of a friendly rivalry. Some believe that they were in fact closer than that, a few tales purporting that he was the father of Gleamingmoon, wearing a wolf-skin to disguise himself in his clandestine meetings with his secret lover but nothing was ever proven and both the Hawkflower and the Wolfsong vehemently deny this.
We do know he actually had a wife of his own, a doe named Merillan or Rosetongue of the minor tribe Alphinga, Swanspray, who were driven out of their homes by the growing threat of the Snakelions, giant lumbering amphibians that crawled up from the waterfall caverns and wrecked havoc on the Swanspray dwellings. Ironcloud allowed the Swanspray to be incorporated into the Hawkflower and married Rosetongue to seal the alliance. It was said that Rosetongue was among the only deer that could make Ironcloud smile. Their coupling gave them a pair of sons, Greycloud and Whitecloud.
Ironcloud was actually far more familiar with the equine folk than the Owlstorm and the Wolfsong. While his tribe didn’t venture out of the Eldergrove all too often, Ironcloud served as emissary for the Moon Deer in the early days of the Alicorn Monarchy and even before, being one of the many of the ‘Faithful And Friendly’ kings and leaders of beasts who aided the Flutterponies in their exodus after the First Invasion of Tirek and fought alongside Laurelore in the second invasion.
Ironcloud’s life was to end through the treachery of a rival.
If the grudge the Wolfsong bear against the famously arrogant and intolerant Whitetail is a great one, it is nothing to the burning hatred the Hawkflower have for them.
When Ironcloud and his tribe, as a wedding gift, drove the Snakelions back into the swamps and reclaimed the waterfall caverns of the Swanspray, Rosetongue happened upon an enormous old clam in the heart of the caves, a god of clams in some circles, who the Snakelions had terrorised. In thanks, the clam gave Rosetongue a great pearl that shimmered every colour. This pearl, it was said, was capable of manipulating plant-growth to make trees to move in or out of the way of the wearer, nettles and thorns retract their stings in their presence and flowers and fruit to bloom and bear in moments. Ironcloud had it fasted into a mithril a bracelet which Rosetongue wore always, peacefully using it to allow the size and bounty of the Hawkflower to prosper. It was named the Tuilmarill, the ‘Spring-Pearl’.
But news of this travelled fast. Rivals challenged Ironcloud for the bracelet, Singingwolf among them, and all of them Ironcloud fought to submission. But the Whitetail were not warriors. They preferred other tactics.
High King Nolder desired the Spring-Pearl to subjugate the equine settlements close to the Whitetail Woods which he considered a threat to his domain. He wrote to Ironcloud to demand the Hawkflower immediately surrender it to the Whitetail. Ironcloud replied, mocking Nolder for not saying this in person and that the deal stood that if he wanted the Spring-Pearl, he should come to the Hawkflower tribe and fight for it.
This, however, was regarded by Nolder as a declaration of war. Demanding the High King to fight is to invite the Whitetail to do the same. Whether this was a clash of cultural values or if this was Nolder’s plan all along is uncertain. But he made plans among his household to claim the Spring-Pearl by force.
So, on the ‘Eve of Greenswords’, a Hawkflower Festival of the winter’s turn when no blade may be carried and all warriors must wear only silk, Nolder’s warriors, his three sons chiefly among them, infiltrated the tribe and struck, barring the armoury shut and setting upon the chiefly family. Ironcloud was slain there and then, defending his wife and sons with hoof and tooth, finally brought low when both Alder’s spear, Mallorn’s trident and Huorn’s battle-axe pierced his chest and hewed his shoulders. Rosetongue was abducted but the sons were spared. Alder told them that their mercy was a gesture of peace and that now that the Whitetail were sated, the Hawkflower would be left in peace, provided they knew their place.
Years later, Greycloud and Whitecloud would set about avenging their father upon the Whitetail Confederacy.
Evidently, they knew their place better than the Whitetail did.

5. Watch-The-Sky (Glingwilith Tiriminel)
Where the Hawkflower are warriors and the Wolfsong are hunters, the Owlstorm are mages. Druids and Druidesses of the Owlstorm are among the most renowned in cervine society, the means by which to make potions, poisons, cures and elixirs as familiar to the tribe as the back of their hooves. Spells to charm beasts and control plants are also a particular proficiency. However, a key detail to keep in mind is this. For cervines, the use of direct magic, as a means to foretell, charm and conjure, ages the user. It is this that causes Watch-The-Sky to show her thousand-year lifespan in appearance, though she still apparently looks little more than middle-aged to the equine eye.
Watch-The-Sky built the foundations of the Owlstorm tribe on the stormy hilltops in the northern reaches of the Eldergrove. The hilltops are subject to regular thunderstorms and showers of rain that are perfect conditions for scrying when the moisture in the air, pressure in the atmosphere and motion of the wind is abundant. Through this perfect placement of her work and her own impressive skills, Watch-The-Sky swiftly became the most famous and credible seers among the Moon Deer. Her prophecies were vague as most scrying is, most of her visions taking the form of metaphors which the seer is always meant to work out for consult with among others. It was said that she could predict the fall of the Flutter Valley, the birth of Laurelore, the carnage of Sombra, the banishment of Princess Luna and both invasions of Tirek. Others were more obscure such as a great white beehive falling into a lake and all the bees fleeing and flying at her eyes, a metaphor for the exodus of the Misty Isles.
Her consort was Aphadduin or ‘Follow-The-River’, son of the great Moon Deer explorer Aphindo, Follow-Your-Heart, who first ventured into the hilltops and chartered the Western Eldergrove. Not much is known about Follow-The-River other than that he was head of the seer’s guard and guides and apparently his strength was nigh on equal to six full-grown stags at once.
Like the other two chieftains, Watch-The-Sky’s deeds are great and numerous, perhaps beyond counting. She will never speak of them but Dawnwind has confided in me a few noteworthy achievements aside from her supreme prophecies. She tricked the king of the forest trolls into turning himself to stone. Her magic brought about a great storm that harried the Raptor Invasion. She located and retrieved the Spring-Pearl and placed it safely in the heart of the Everfree to protect the forest from destruction while leaving the settlements outside of it safe. She became the first deer to master dimensional travel and did this to not only meet with the parents of Celestia and Luna but scold them for not taking responsibility for their daughter’s perils and ordeals. And most recently, after a great deal of pleading from Prince Bramble, she cured the madness of his great uncle Mallorn, countering draconequus mind-breaking, no mean feat for an alicorn let alone a deer. She was the mentor of Dawnwind, my cervine colleague, who acted in her stead to free the Wolfsong from Whitetail captivity, Watch-The-Sky unable to do so as the Whitetail had her on unofficial house arrest in her seer’s tower.
Despite her hazardous profession, Watch-The-Sky still lives to this day, to Dawnwind’s knowledge, but she lives a very secluded life and prefers the company of non-speaking beasts and plants.

6. Greycloud (Fanuimith) and Whitecloud (Fanuiloth)
When one who is to face the deer is told that either Greycloud and Whitecloud will be facing them, then they should pray for their victory.
When one is told that both Greycloud and Whitecloud will be facing them, then they should run for their life.
The Hawkflower Brothers are a pair of the most skilled and ferocious cervine warriors to anybeast’s knowledge. Twins, their birth was celebrated by the Hawkflower, seen as a good omen to have born a pair of strong, healthy fawns on the evening of a full moon. Learning well from their father, the mighty Ironcloud, Greycloud and Whitecloud were trained with the blades as soon as they could walk while Rosetongue taught them in the respected fields of music, poetry and art. However, when they were (By pony standards) thirteen years of age, the Whitetail Confederacy launched an attack on the Hawkflower domain, assassinated Ironcloud and abducted Rosetongue. Thereafter, Greycloud and Whitecloud sought out and journeyed to Whitetail territory, training with each other every free moment. It’s unknown if they had any guide or mentor throughout this journey but their writings speak of one who does not allow his name spoken.
Numerous tales purport of the secret identity of this mentor, most commonly the ghost of Ironcloud though other theories are maintained.
In any case, over a journey that took two years (Teleportation or any form of long-distance travel lost to them owing to the trauma of their family’s destruction minimising the magic of their antlers so only close-range spells could be performed) they mustered a fighting-force of friends and companions and attacked the Whitetail Woods, seeking out their mother.
Their attack left anydeer who crossed them dead. Nolder and his three sons were spared but Nolder was removed of half his right-antler and Grinthorn, the Whitetail Master of Guards, was killed along every one of the Tanglewood Guard.
{Dawnwind informs me that there’s no reason to feel sorry about them as the Tanglewood Guard are indoctrinated from birth to live no other life but guarding and so have no family or loved ones...So that’s alright then...}
Rosetongue was recovered but her state was unfortunate. Upon acquiring the Spring-Pearl that he’d captured her for, Nolder had found that the jewel did not obey him and so tortured her for information he believed she was keeping from her or cursing the jewel. Rosetongue was brought back to the Hawkflower domain but did not live long afterwards, buried with her husband in a floral shroud between the mountains of his homeland and the waterfalls of hers.
Greycloud and Whitecloud now jointly rule the Hawkflower domain and take their father’s place as High Master of Blades, mentoring upcoming warriors in the field, Fairfortune, Runningwind and Palestride among them.
The Wolfsong owe the brothers their survival as, after the invasion of the centaurs and the deaths of Gleamingmoon and Head-In-Clouds, the infant Fairfortune fell into their care after they rescued him from the renegade Wormblood Tribe, slaying the mad prophet, Eat-The-Dead as they and Watch-The-Sky honoured their debt to the Wolfsong by helping them rebuild their shattered domain.

7. Fairfortune Nightflame (Galwafeil Dunya)
After the death of his parents, the infant Fairfortune was separated from his tribe and left at the mercy of a war-torn and maddened Eldergrove. Law had fallen apart in the Wolfsong domain as Tirek’s influence remained, driving elk against each other. A tribe that rose to power during this time were the Gwemyor or Wormblood. Led by an exiled Owlstorm seer calling himself Loicomatar or Eat-The-Dead, they worshipped an immense leech god that demanded cervine sacrifice. Fairfortune and several other stragglers from the war were captured by the tribe and due to be sacrificed in a ritual. Before the knives could fall however, the Wormblood were ambushed by the Hawkflower Brothers, Greycloud and Whitecloud, who’d been led to the location by Watch-The-Sky. Eat-The-Dead was slain and Fairfortune was rescued.
Afterward, he was raised by both Watch-The-Sky and the Hawkflower Brothers. It is this that essentially forged the alliance of the three Moon Deer tribes since Fairfortune’s life was influenced not only by the three tribe’s leaders but their individual philosophies and cultural traits. It is this that gave him the notion from an early age that the tribal domains would need to be connected and granted room to fully prosper without the worry of developing foes or disasters. With the destruction of many of the mithril towers, the remaining mithril was harvested sparingly and combined with iron, steel, bronze and other metals using Hawkflower methods of forging while the mountains were mined for marble and pearl. Through this, the deer crafted themselves plentiful stone with which to build their city. The Owlstorm meanwhile, utilised the practice of ivory harvesting, when antlers aged and shed over the seasonal cycles, the ivory that the antlers possessed was also used in the making of the cityscape.
{Dawnwind informs me that, while removing the antler by force is a corporal punishment that nulls magic permanently in cervines, this is due to the trauma of the agonising removal itself as the Twitter-Patterns fade and the mind is forever clouded. Antlers age, shed and drop off annually but once a cervine has acquired their Twitter-Patterns, magic will still come freely to them.}
Over several centuries, Elengar or Starwolf City was built. To either side was Elenral (Starowl) and Elenfion (Starhawk) as Fairfortune declared that, while the unity of the Moon Deer was imperative, individuality would still need to be maintained. Finding a golden mean between them would be the destiny of their kind, he purported.
Around the same time as the city’s foundation, the great exodus of the Misthorn was taking place. The deer of the Misty Isles had lost their homes and now journeyed to Equestria in a great exodus overseas, tens of thousands of ships, boats and rafts, all packed with survivors of their island’s submergence. The ways of ponies and other non-cervines unknown to them, they sought out the deer realms in the Eldergrove, having now split into many forests after the Birth of Harmony. First approaching the Whitetail, they were driven off forcefully and made a century-long march around the northern borders of Equestria, a perilous journey that cost too many lives to put to parchment.
Until at last, they reached the Wolfsong domain where Fairfortune was met by Winterpearl and Farseerer, pleading refuge in his realms. Fairfortune consulted for six days and on the seventh, opened the gates of Elengar to the Mist deer. Fascinated by the ways of the Mist Deer and their ways, Fairfortune took Winterpearl as an advisor and consulted with her on many occasions for knowledge of the Mist Deer. This respect for her turned into something more. Soon falling in love, the two were married in a pact that joined their confederacies and three fawns were born, Cinderstone, Palestride and Fallingleaf. Fairfortune was just as much a loving father as he was a tender husband and a just ruler and the fawns grew into the pride of the Wolfsong woods.
Then the fateful day came about when Fallingleaf rescued the young stag Runningwind from an Ettin cave and the two began a romantic relationship. Fairfortune, having become a firm friend and colleague of Runningwind’s parents, was delighted at the news but seemed oblivious to Palestride’s resentment of the couple. Whether he couldn’t bring himself to believe Palestride harboured such malignant thoughts, believed they would simply subside or just had other matters to attend to is uncertain but after his son’s attack on Fallingleaf and Runningwind’s wedding that left Winterpearl and several other courtiers dead, Fairfortune was nearly broken with shock and grief. Unable to comprehend how this could have happened and what part he may have had in it, he banished Palestride and his associates before taking to bed in trauma and swiftly grew weak and frail, dying a week later.
His funeral was attended by cervine and non-cervine alike including Princess Laurelore and Star-Swirl the Bearded.

8. Winterpearl Seaflame (Hrivemarilla Gaerya)
Winterpearl came from the obscure Malthesgarim or ‘Golden Shore-Deer’ tribe of the Misty Isles. While few facts are known, her parents were legends among the deer; King Osponen Watersmoke and Queen Menelya Skyfire who fought the long War of the Tides against the nefarious Kelpies and after them their far more terrifying masters known only as ‘The Deep Folk’.
Slight, lithe and delicate, Winterpearl was indeed a beauty worthy of song and prose, described as ‘a coat like a bountiful harvest, shimmering and glinting. Her legs hopped and danced like saplings of elm. Her mane was a tumbling torrent of gold, copper and amber, her muzzle and nape were white, as if washed by swirling sweet milk. Her wide, bright eyes caught every colour of the sunset’.
[Dawnwind: She wasn’t that pretty. Way too skinny in my opinion, a Greathorn mare could snap her like a twig. I swear this kind of stuff only gets written as a clopping aid.]
[[Patch: Charming.]]
Her tribe were among the many who fled the Misty Isles. Their skill in boat-craft and navigation proved invaluable in saving their kinbeasts from extinction.
[Dawnwind: Puh’lease! The Shore Deer were a bunch of arrogant posers! They didn’t realise the storm-tides were upon them until they noticed they suddenly all had swimming pools in their back-yards! It was father who foresaw the destruction and found a way to Equestria, no matter what the others will tell you. I was there, I would know.]
[[Patch: There’s an old Equestrian saying; The milk of experience is often soured by the mould of bias and preconceptions.]]
[Dawnwind: There’s an old Cervine saying; The voice of a know-it-all is often muffled by the hoof down his mouth!]
[[Patch: ...point taken.]]
Winterpearl along with all other Misty Deer made the exodus around the north when the Whitetail refused their refuge in the eastern wood. The Shore Deer were not built for the northern conditions and Winterpearl saw hundreds die by the day. By the end of the journey, she was willing to do anything to ensure her kin were saved.
At the court of Fairfortune, she pleaded the king to grant the Misty Deer a chance of a new life. To her joy, it was accepted sincerely with open forehooves. Fairfortune became fascinated with Misty Deer culture and soon, Shore Deer dances became a celebrated festival event, Winterpearl among the most skilled in the art. The Misty Deer also brought with them seedlings and saplings of flora that had grown on their homeland and its cultivation was one of Fairfortune and Winterpearl’s highest interests. They began spending more and more time exploring each other’s interests until at last, Fairfortune proposed just after the Singing Lily Festival.
Soon afterwards, Winterpearl was pregnant and birthed three fawns; Princes Cinderstone and Palestride and Princess Fallingleaf.
She loved her fawns dearly and taught each of them everything she knew about life as they grew older. Not a great deal is known about the period in which they grew up but according to most sources, the fawn that had the closest relationship with her was Cinderstone. Fallingleaf was a tomboyish doe who preferred independence and Palestride spent a lot of time learning under his father. Regardless, it was said that whenever her fawns went into battle, she would pray to every god the Cervine knew and clean the mantle of the great Elengar shrine with her own tears.
[Dawnwind: They were only going to battle for star’s sake! Shore-Deer are known to be overemotional.]
When Runningwind began courting Fallingleaf, Winterpearl was overjoyed and spent a great deal of time getting to know her future in-laws. She was quickly accepted and adored for her kindness and charity.
[Dawnwind: Lies! I couldn’t stand it! The crazy sap tried to groom me!]
[[Patch: ...wait....as in...]]
[Dawnwind: My mane! She tried to groom it! Clean it and comb it and tie it up with ribbons! It was horrible!]
[[Patch: Oh...Well, I mean I guess she felt obligated.]]
[Dawnwind: And just what do you mean by that? Think carefully!]
[[Patch: Nothing! Nothing at all! I think moss, thistles, indigo powder and pigeon bones look lovely in a doe’s mane.]]
[[Dawnwind: ...Cuckoo bones.]]
When it became apparent that Palestride took issue with Runningwind’s elopement with his sister, Winterpearl immediately sought to comfort her son but slowly realised his desires were far fouler and his hatred far darker than she’d feared. Still she did her best to console him, becoming the only deer who really talked to him during this period.
At her daughter’s wedding, she hoped that all these fears would finally pass and Palestride could realise the error of his ways.
But alas, all Palestride realised was that taking the throne could be far easier with a blade in hoof. During her son’s attempted coup, Winterpearl rushed to Palestride, pleading with him to stay his hoof.
It was here that she found herself stabbed through the heart by Palestride, either by accident, madness or sheer malice.
[Dawnwind: I was there. I never remember it fondly. I was never that keen on Winterpearl but I’d never deny she was a tender-hearted queen and a loving and caring mother. Just at that moment, I saw the heartbreak in her eyes as she bled out, eyes fixed on her son.
I can’t say if Palestride felt anything in that moment but I didn’t see anything that convinced me. That stag was already gone.]
Winterpearl’s death drove Fairfortune mad with grief. He died soon afterwards.
Never had the Wolfsong suffered such a cold and piercing blow as her end.
The future of the Wolfsong now lay with their fawns.

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Interesting. Very fascinating too.