- Ike of Sardothien -

Ike

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Nicknames/Alias:
Forikike; roughly translates to ‘beyond our reach’ - the name of an ankhyran constellation and ike's namesake

Sexual Orientation:
Pansexual

Sex:
Male

Age:
Four years

Sardothien or Pixduas?:
Sardothien

Species:
Gray wolf

Rank:
Jaeger

Crush:
None

Mate:
None

Pups/cubs:
None

Eye Color:
Pale

Special markings/scars:
Small scars line the skin beneath his fur as proof of his struggles as a loner. There’s a small nick in his right ear as well.

General appearance:
He resembles his mother, Akio, when it comes to looks and boasts a beautiful, tawny pelt like flame, with some black streaking down his back and a pale cream under-pelt. But the resemblance ends about there. More compact and muscular than lean or thin, he has the build of a formidable fighter and a large size to boot. Though, his passion lies more in hunting than fighting, and he’s developed powerful hind-legs over the years. His fur is of average length and he tends to keep it presentable, since he can’t stand to look unkempt and pathetic. Similarly, his tendency to avoid physical confrontation if possible has allowed him a visibly scar-less pelt, but many imperfections line the skin beneath his fur due to past skirmishes. His eyes are a color so pale it is barely recognizable, and his gaze tends to be a little unnerving to those it lies upon. Ike walks with a pep in his step and an air of dominance - arrogance? - surrounding him. Unless a higher-ranked wolf than himself is within his company, he almost always walks with his tail raised authoritatively.

General personality:
Cocky – His authority was never forgotten in his youth, and this has made the tawny brute quite arrogant. He’s very self-assured and often overestimates his own worth and abilities. All too prone to overconfidence, Ike is often seen picking fights or challenging others, or downright ignoring any potential threats he may view as too easy for himself.

Cunning – Ike isn't the biggest fool, despite his attitude, and is as sharp as a bramble’s thorns. He’s astute in observation, and can easily win wolves over or piss them off further with a charming grin and some select honeyed words. More often than not, his sharpness is used through the means of deception for his own personal gain. He isn’t below the use of underhanded or dishonorable tactics, especially since he’s an excellent liar.

Spirited – The otherwise wayward brute is very animated. He boasts an excessively passionate and impulsive personality that can almost be seen as foolishly sanguine. He is very driven and persistent in his efforts, always preferring to stay optimistic than pessimistic, and can almost be viewed as stubborn.

Even-tempered - It's difficult to intimidate this boy, and even harder to spitefully push his buttons. A very easygoing body, Ike is tolerant with others and sometimes needs to be just to get his point across. If he is bothered, he probably won't show it outside of a retort or innocent suggestion. Of course, it is very possible for him to get angered, especially if you're bullying someone he cares about or make a snide comment about his appearance.

Trusting – Starved for love he should've received as a pup, Ike is very prone to trusting too early into a relationship, and luckily for him this has yet to be his downfall. He is extremely faithful to those he views as friends.

Vain - Ike is concerned about his looks, almost to the point of obsession, and takes a superfluous pride in his appearance. During his time in the Ankhyra Empire, he grew to hate his appearance due to the bullying of his caretaker and how alike he appeared to his mother, who she despised. His vanity was an attempt to mend his self-esteem that succeeded greatly. He can’t stand looking disheveled or negative remarks about his appearance. While usually able to keep his cool, the easiest way to make the brute snap is through the means of taunting his looks.

Likes
- Warmth
- The scent of pine
- Having authority over others

Dislikes
- The cowardly and hesitant
- Being around big cats
- Mud and dirt

History:
Ike’s story began beyond the womb, within a distant land known as Lustraidala to the wolves that lived there. Barren of any packs or empires for majority of its lifetime, change erupted within the land when the Ankhyra Empire was erected from a small band of rogues and loners seeking company. Years upon years later, that pitiful group swelled to a great empire through famine, sickness, and other threats. It was sometime after the empire’s latest epidemic that Ulysses the Quiet rose into power as Ankhyra’s next Lord. His reign began prematurely after the death of his mother, one of the greatest leaders of Ankhyra, and the naiveté that came with youth made the lord scarcely stray from convention. He followed the traditional and honorable code of Ankhyra to its very core, and when it called for a heir, he hesitantly sought a suitable fae to bare his pups. Ulysses eventually selected Akio, a respected commander, as his lady and future mother of Ankhyra’s next leaders.

A year later, the fruits of their union were born sometime during winter. During the months between then, Akio had began to grow bitter and dissatisfied with her mate. And this dissatisfaction would eventually blossom into loathing when all three of her pups ended up small and sickly due to an early birth. Ulysses was less than unimpressed at the outcome of their mating, but deduced shall one of the whelps survive they may be honored with the title of heir. But the likelihood of that happening appeared slim, as the pups only seemed to grow weaker as the days passed. Even Akio fell ill with an unknown sickness likely caused by the unrelenting cold of winter and exhaustion of labor. Only one of the pups appeared to be staying strong - a pup with a flame-colored pelt resembling his mother’s - and Akio took it upon herself to name this one, as it appeared he’d be the only one to survive. She named him Ike, which was taken from the ancient constellation Forikike (the wolves of Ankhyra pictured the constellation to be of a mighty wolf who jumped so high they got trapped in the stars). It wasn’t long after this that Ike’s siblings passed due to their fragile state, and Akio didn’t take long to follow them in death.

Ulysses wasn’t in any particular grief for the lost of his mate and two pups, and had Ike handed over to another she-wolf to be raised by. She was called Morgan and like many faes in the pack, she had grown to despise Akio due to the former commander’s luck in being taken as the lord’s mate. Her enmity toward the late she-wolf was routed toward her son instead, and Morgan would be a tyrant to the young Ike for majority of his time under her care. She particularly targeted his looks and jeered at it, ruining his views on his appearance, and his views on his biological mother. But what she fell for in mothering, the pack made up for in attention. The empire, feeling responsible for Ike due to his unofficial rank, spoiled the little pup relentlessly. This led him to become overconfident and daring, almost cocky, and he managed to grow stronger during this period. An intelligent little thing, he learned to fend for himself at an early age just so that he didn’t have to depend on his abusive caretaker. Ike's puphood was sweet and short, and despite everything, he grew to become a strong and lively adolescent.

His time as an apprentice was a lot simpler than one would expect. Little change came to the flame-pelted youth besides nearly tripling in size and developing a more individualistic personality. His bravado morphed into something resembling ambition as an apprentice, and a new drive sprouted within him. Through the chaos that was his early life he decided he wanted to lead the pack one day as lord. And so he pursued his goal, and trained diligently and tirelessly in all of his fields. He excelled the most in hunting and battling due to his well-muscled build, which complimented both rankings. During his free time, he sought to rebuild his tattered self-image, and decided the best way to go about this was to fake it ‘till he made it. He feigned vanity, and eventually developed it, but most agreed that the trait was only fitting for a wolf of his prestige anyway. When his time as a pupil reached its end, Ike selected the adult starting rank of hunter. He was sure that little time would pass before he began his rise in the ranking anyway, but to ensure it he took several precautions. One of the first was attempting to grow close to his distant father, Lord Ulysses. He had thought that establishing a relationship with his father - the only wolf in the empire whose blood he shared - he would be given a better chance at climbing the ranks and connecting with a wolf on a familial level. But this never came to be. Ulysses was a quiet, brooding wolf who was hesitant at his best and a coward at his worst. Ike’s passion and fearlessness wasn’t a secret to the Ankhyran wolves, and the contemplative lord had always found himself stuck between admiring and fearing his own son’s ambition. He avoided the lively hunter when possible, to Ike’s growing frustrations, and hardly acknowledged him as a son at all. Under the urging of his council, he reluctantly crowned Ike heir to the throne after his deputy and followed up on his promise to the late Akio.

Ike’s fixation with drawing his father’s attention ended once he found out that the lord had grown close to his caretaker, Morgan, and taken her as his lady, sometime after his promotion. The news hurt in a way he had thought he couldn’t be harmed, and dug deeper than Ulysses’ rejection. But non-stop prince continued onward; quickly deciding that if his father wasn’t to acknowledge him by will, he’d be forced to. He settled for growing more popular among his subjects and flaunting his authority in doing so. It wasn’t an entirely difficult task, as the brute seemed to draw wolves in like a light drew a moth. He gained prominence through this, further inflating his ego and boosting his reputation. But in the background, Ike befriended wolves of his prestige to gain influence over the empire. Among these wolves was a revered she-wolf known as Asa. She was one of the deputy duo of Ankhyra, and had gained her placing through sweat, blood, and tears. Ike liked to believe that they were one of the same, and apparently she did too, and she quickly became one of his closest friends. She fought alongside him many battles, and his passion and charm eventually won her over. Ike grew aware of her feelings as time passed and he rose higher in ranking, but knew that he’d never be able to return them. But instead of rejecting her, he used Asa’s affection to his own advantage. Ike offered to be her mate, if only to secure the rank of deputy once Zerek, Asa’s compeer, passed or retired. The two coupled, though no formalities were passed.

His younger siblings were born sometime after the empire’s latest skirmish, which was against a band of rogues that were pushing Ike’s patience. He assisted in the battle beneath Zerek and drove the rogues farther into neutral lands. When he arrived, he was ushered into the nursery to see his new younger siblings by Ulysses. Astra, Acacius, and Andrei were the names given by the lord and lady, and Ike stepped up to be the best older brother he could be to them whenever Lady Morgan wasn’t around. Though he suspected that Ulysses would groom one of the three into a kindred leader, he loved them nonetheless. As he approached his third winter, Ike realized how mortal he was due to a near-death experience. While patrolling the borders for rogues, he fell upon a cougar and was attacked savagely. Luckily for him, a hunting party wasn’t far off and detected the sounds of struggle. They came to his rescue and chased the big cat from the territory. But the damage was done, and for a while Ike would tiptoe around everything as if he could drop dead at any second for a while. He recovered decently thanks to the expertise of the shamans, but a wretched scar beneath his fur would always remind him of his battle. As he realized his mortality, Ike also realized that he may never make it to the position of lord or deputy. Zerek and Asa were both relatively young wolves and were roughly a year older than him. What guaranteed that he’d outlive them? The flame-pelted wolf, wary of the world’s unexpectedness, eventually came to the decision that one of the deputies must go if he were to lead Ankhyra. And he selected Zerek.

For the last weeks of the deputy’s life, the tawny male carefully planned out what he would do and where the slaughter would go down. He made sure to grow close and act almost uncharacteristically friendly to Zerek. The deputy had always been wary of the prince, and was almost akin to Ulysses when it came to handling things. That only made the deed easier to commit for Ike when the day arrived. He rolled in the deputy’s scent, heavily masking his own, and set off for the nearest bear shelter within the reach of the territory. There, he waited until the mother bear occupying the site fell asleep, leaving both of her cubs wide awake and without supervision. He lured both of the cubs away, but only managed to grab one, where he drowned it in a nearby river and left its lifeless body on Ankhyran lands. Shortly afterward, Ike led the deputy into the territory and straight to his death at the claws of a grieving mother bear. The prince believed that the death was a minor one, and only significant to the better future of Ankhyra. Ike returned to the pack in a rush and assembled a patrol to chase the bear away from the territory. By the time they arrived, she had mauled Zerek beyond recognition, but the prince was still able to chase her off with the help of the patrol and adorn the guise of heroism at the same time. The pack was none the wiser to his crimes that day, and would never be. He was ranked up to deputy for his bravery and served alongside his “mate”, Asa. As deputy, Ike proudly spearheaded the role of leadership within the empire, and continued to for the shortening remainder of his time within Ankhyra. He had the respect of all beneath him, and was becoming a growing threat to his father. The day his father had enough neared.

He was casted out by Ulysses when the time finally arrived, but not publicly. No, the brute was too much of a coward to challenge him in a battle to the death, and knew that upright exiling the deputy would be met with disagreement. Instead, the lord sent Astra and Andrei – the deputy’s own step-siblings – to drive Ike from the empire, knowing that it’d shock him. The flame-pelted male was patrolling nearby a steep drop into a river when the two stalked from the shadows and attacked. One of them, Astra, was foolish enough to tell the reason behind their betrayal and revealed Ulysses’ plan. Enraged, he fought his hardest and wounded the she-wolf gravely, but was eventually shoved down the drop. But he made sure that he’d take one of them in death, and his jaws locked around Andrei’s neck as he tumbled downward. He should’ve died when he hit the water, but his step-brother broke his fall. Ike dragged himself onto the riverbank before he could join the other brute up to the gates of heaven – or hell, he wasn’t sure at that point – and wandered off, injured and close to death. But he didn’t die – he couldn’t die, and recovered a little ways off from Ankhyran territory. He knew that he was done for and that either Astra had told the empire that he’d killed Andrei or that Ulysses cooked up a believable lie. It didn’t matter, because Ike resolved that if he were to leave Ankhyra, Ulysses would leave, too.

He spent days along the border and patiently awaited Ulysses lone arrival. It took weeks before that finally happened, however, but when it did, Ike was thrilled to find that the lord was unaware and alone. He attacked relentlessly and halted his strike when Ulysses teetered on the line between life and death. The few minutes of life poured from the lord’s wounds, and with those remaining minutes the fallen prince whispered, ”If Ankhyra is to fall, my subjects won’t fall under your reign. What will your last words be to the living – the wolves you’ve failed to love and the wolves you’ve failed to protect? Oorgh, your last wish, to be specific?” Ike had planned to simply leave the king to die of blood loss on Ankhyra’s lands, but his last words spited the prince to an unimaginable fury: I say this before Khyra herself – I wish you’d have died with your bastard mother and your siblings. I wish she'd never borne you. After the slaughter, Ike groomed himself free of the lord's disgusting blood and fixed his rather scruffy appearance. He traveled far from the lands following. His place there was tarnished forever, and for a wolf who had started with so much, he fell from the grace of the gods. As he regained his senses, he realized that Ulysses hadn’t struggled when he attacked. The weak fool had simply accepted his fate. He was disgusted.

The months following were spent as a loner. Ike was far from his home, beyond the Ankhyran constellations and the reach of the gods. He cured loneliness by travelling with rogue bands and polished his deception and manipulation skills while in their company. But he yearned for the organization and hierarchy (anything to put himself on top) of a true empire, which was something a group of rogues simply couldn’t provide. Ike led himself to an unknown land, filled to the brim with wolves (*and felines) of different stories and ways. To settle with what the lands provided him would be a challenge. But it was a challenge Ike was more than willing to take.

Family:
Lord Ulysses – Father. Deceased.
Lady Akio – Mother. Deceased.
Lady Morgan - Foster Mother. Unknown status.
(Unnamed) – Sister.  Deceased.
(Unnamed) – Brother. Deceased.
Asa - “Mate”. Unknown status.
Astra – Younger Half-Sister. Unknown status.
Acacius – Younger Half-Brother. Unknown status.
Andrei – Younger Half-Brother. Deceased.


Application keys?:
-Makes the keys invisible- Thalia
How did you find us?:
I saw an ad on age of the wolves c:


Other characters:
n/a


Roleplay post:
Loonheart shifted into a comfortable position on the stone, his forelegs tucked beneath his chest and his tail curled securely at his side. His dark ears twitched at her words, and his aquamarine eyes traveled to her in an uneasy glance. The sensation of standing above Twigbounce was awkward, especially since they were engaged in conversation. Not only that, but he felt as though he didn't deserve to sit above a cat since he had missed out on so much work. I mean, I was sick for like, forever, but.. "You can join me up on this rock, you know. It feels weird to stand above a cat you're speaking to." Loonheart suggested after a moment of hesitation. After that, the splotched feline regarded what she had said. Once he came into realization, he glanced at her once more, a little anxiously. She'd fallen off the stone wall? How does that happen without him noticing? He hadn't even noticed that she was gone as well. Was I that sick?

"Ouch. The camp wall? What were you doing up there, anyway? Wasn't it storming?" Loonheart bombarded her with his questions, his ears flattened against his head with worry for his clanmate. Now that he was recovering, he was finally beginning to come in tune with his surroundings. He had been unaware of Blueflight's absence as well. He shook out his patched pelt. "I'm glad you're alright now...?" he added, his words having a question to it. At least, I hope you're alright now. The events Twigbounce endured the past moon sounded like it may be a bit overwhelming, especially considering that she was a young cat.


(taken from a post from a while ago.)