The Legend of the Shia-Nuk and the First Changer:
How the People of the Forest Were Forgotten.

from Chapter 15 of R.A. Dodson's History of Lycanthropia: A Examination of Cultural Lycanthropic Peoples and Histories, pages 345-347.


In the darkest past of humanity, when men and animals were separated by little more than sticks and stones, the world was a different place. There was time before time, an age before an age, when there was no civility, no war, no trust or light, only survival of those that did not die first. Humans were a dying race, suffocated by their own weaknesses, their pitiful scrambling to claw out a meager existence barely keeping their primitive species alive.

There were other people in the world in those days. The greatest of these, were the Old Ones, the Shia-Nuk. They were not human but Wolf. They lived in a great cities, deep within the forests of the world, and they were many clans. The most powerful of the clans, the Deshani, lived in the largest city of them all, hidden deep within the darkest forest, in the darkest part of the world across the Great Water, just on its shores.

They hunted, created, lived and died in peace, raising families, passing down their traditions and magick through the generations. The Deshani were a special clan, a warrior clan, with the power to turn from the wolf on four legs to a Wolf Man on two at will. They were a proud people, living in harmony with nature, avoiding man, fearing what He could become.

One day while hunting, a Deshani warrior, Manantak, was wounded by his prey, a Great Bison. The angry beast leveled itself with Manantak, lowering its head for the kill, surely to kill the son of the Warrior chief, the Council Elder, Sonara. It charged at him, its deadly horns seeking his throat when suddenly the monstrous beast dropped dead to the ground, falling violently, a long wooden spear lodged in its throat.

Astounded, Manantak looked to the hill above him and saw a lone human male standing there, naked except for the furs he had somehow seen to clothe himself with, his arm still outstretched with the sheer force he had used to hurl the spear into the Great Bison, saving Manantak’s life. Manantak wanted to run, to escape; his father and his elders warned him against Humans, as they were dangerous beasts incapable of caring or love or compassion or mercy.

The Human did not attack him, but rather moved slowly, carefully, and finally knelt next to Manantak in curiosity, seeing the broken leg that had nearly cost Manantak his life. The Human did nothing but stare and for a moment, the two Beings did nothing. Manantak knew that his leg would heal due to the old magick in his people but he was vulnerable until it had, and he realized he was at the mercy of this savage Human, the Hairless One.

Manantak spoke to the Human, who only turned his head to the side, unable to speak in return. Frustrated at first, Manantak eventually saw how to use his hands to show the Human what was needed. He showed the Human how to build a fire and tend the flame, keeping the more dangerous predators at bay. Strangely, this Human stayed the entire night with Manantak and did not leave his side.

By morning, Manantak was able to help the human cut the bison and clean it, roasting its flesh on the fire, and Manantak realized he was breaking the sacred Laws of the Elders by being with this human but something was different about this Human. They were not what they seemed. Having dined with the Human, Manantak tried to get the Human to speak, teaching him words of the Wolfen tongue.

At first, the Human could not manage the sounds and when Manantak was about to forgo his efforts, the Human managed to speak a single Wolfen word: larunmae.

The Wolfen word for friend.

Within a fortnight, the bison was nearly gone and Manantak’s leg had healed. Deciding that perhaps the Elders were wrong about Humans, Manantak took the Human back to Racianir, the Deshani city, deep within the forests, far from other Humans. At first, the other Deshani had wanted to kill the Human, seeing him as a threat. Manantak vouched for him in the tribunal and spared his life on the condition that he could teach the Human to be civilized.

After months and many moon cycles of work and effort, the Human learned to speak, to write, to read, to carry himself as a Deshani. Manantak taught the Human the ways of the Wolf Warrior, the sacred Deshani and finally, he was as the Wolfen were, a civilized being, a proud and capable warrior.

The Deshani then gave the human a final test, to prove that his kind could be taught and sent him back to his own tribe, to pass on what he had learned. The Human, now called Kanis, was able to teach the ways of the Wolf to his people, the ways of community, order, and knowledge. Kanis eventually brought his people and the Wolf people together in a union of societies that brought a period of great bounty to both peoples, a time of plenty and security. This was known as the Beginning Time.

As a reward for making peace between the Humans and the People of the Forest, the Wolf people, Kanis was finally made into a Deshani warrior and having passed his trial, was bestowed upon the greatest of the gifts the Wolf people could give: the gift of the Change, allowing Kanis to become the first Man to be able to change into a Manwolf and back to a Man again at will. Kanis used his new gifts, becoming a guardian of the Deshani and the Human tribes as Humans and Wolf People began to live together in an open society, as a single heart and mind. Humans and Wolf People married, had children and families, extending the legacy of the old magick of the Change to new generations.

It was said in the day, that the most powerful warriors had Wolves for mothers .

The Time of Beginning was past, and the Time of Plenty soon turned into a dark despair as the greed and corruption and fear began to spread through both Shia-Nuk and the Humans. Poverty and hunger began to spread as the world grew cold and lifeless, as unending snows fell, freezing the world.

Finally, after many long years of life, the last of Elders died, leaving no Council to rule the people of Racianir. A young but cold hearted Changer, the last son of the Elders, took over the society, ruling it with an iron fist, punishing those who would not bow to his wishes or commands. In time, after the ice left, the people grew oppressed and fearful of the Changers and the Wolf People, the People of the Forest. Finally, unfettered by the Council and tired of ruling  Racianir, the Dark One set his black heart on conquest, attacking the city with his own troops, turning on his own people, killing them.

For months, the streets ran with blood and for the first time since its foundation, the City of the Racianir knew death and evil.

Despite being older now in his last days, Kanis formed a group of the last Warriors of the Deshani to stand against the Dark One and free his people, both the Wolfen and the Humans, from the Dark One’s oppression. He challenged the Dark One, taking his rightful place as the first Human Changer as the last Elder and led a fight against the Dark One, one last time to save the civilization that had been built over hundreds of years.

The war was long and drawn out and when it was over, the Dark One lay dead, his hold  on the people broken. So horrible was the fighting, the death and the loss of life, that Humans began to openly hate and fear any Changer and so, the bond that brought Wolf and Man together was broken forever, shattered beyond repair. The Warriors of Deshani were outcast from the society they formed to protect and Kanis, being the first Human Changer, died at last, some say from a broken heart, as he lay down in the very spot where he first met his Wolf Brother, Manantak.

Again the snows and ice came, driving the people of Racianir out of the ruined city, crushing the old homes, temples and towers into rubble, burying them in the ages of time. Humans fell back into their savage ways, entering a dark age of superstition and terror, with horrified whispers of men that changed into wolves lurking in the forests, always out to get children and do evil deeds, forgetting the once glorious society that brought the two People’s together from a single act of tolerance and peace as darkness finally took the land and drove from it the magick of the Elders, the first Changers.

Last edited by ShadowWolf2010 (2011-03-27 16:11:48)