The Thanatos Pack; Royal Hellwolves
The hellwolves of Kurai are the monstrous, elite demon-wolves who serve the Lords of their Kingdoms with loyalty unmatched. Many packs exist in Kurai, but each Kingdom has only one royal pack - the Thanatos Pack belongs to the Kingdom of Death.
A pack that worships death, and holds the ability to kill above all. The Thanatos Pack, as they are called, are seen often as dishonorable by other hellwolf packs, but have their own, strange code of honor every wolf is expected to follow, lest the N'gua send their souls to Lethias for judgement.
Kills are strictly regulated, though are much more common than the other Kingdoms' royal packs; the 'Hunt' is restricted to certain times, variable to the extreme, seeming chaotic and unpredictible to outsiders who are not privy to the Thanatos' inner workings. Every night, weak demons can be culled and weak hellwolves dispatched (within the royal pack or in other packs; they do not discriminate). Daytime culls are heavily punished, and rarely forgiven. Once each month, there is a certain day where the entire pack can target much stronger demons and non-culls, as a show of the royal pack's and royal family's power over the citizenry. A reminder of their might. This particular day is decided on by the Lord (or the Tuthan/Tutha if the Lord is unavailable), and nobody knows it before the day itself happens.
Likewise, Death hellwolves are encouraged several days of each month - similarly scheduled - to press beyond the Kingdom's borders, and take the lives of those straying too close. Borders between packs are tense and dangerous, and confrontation between packs is common.
A pack member's death, be it from within or without, is often honored and ritualized - only those criminalized by the pack will be slain without honor, torn to shreds and marked, unburied and unburned, to lay in a stinking corpse until the Lord decrees it be taken away. Death is seen as a return to the Mother Wolf, Lethias, and her judgement means everything to a Death hellwolf's long life. To anger Lethias is to forfeit one's life itself, and render one's soul corrupt and unworth the honor of a true and noble end.
alpha/alphess = the Tuthan/Tutha.
betas = the N'gua.
'wraiths'* = the tey'che.
trainers = the xel'ua.
warriors = the nhan.
the 'Faint' = simply called the Faint.
* No true equivalent in a traditional pack; their name means 'Deathhand' though often referred to as Wraiths even by members of their own pack.
Tuthan/Tutha;; The leaders of the pack; equal in strength and in total control. Often vicious and ruthless, answerable only to the Lord and no other.
N'gua;; Three elite 'wolves who act as the masters of discipline in the pack. They will kill anyone or anything upon being ordered to by the Tuthan or Tutha, and are perhaps more feared in the pack's ranks than the leaders themselves.
Tey'che;; Elite, shadowy assassin-wolves who are often absent from pack society as a whole. Nothing is known of them aside from the fact they are in the direct service of their Lord, and often appear to the alphas with outside news before disappearing once more into obscurity.
Xel'ua;; Ruthless hellwolves put in charge of the younger, more impressionable pack members; some seem to almost enjoy leaving scars on their students, and are often arrogant and egotistical to an extreme.
Nhan;; The multitudes of regular members of the Death pack. Specialize in both offense and defense, and make up the majority of the pack.
The Faint;; Elders, pups too young to train, the injured and sick, as well as any healers who might tend to them. Often watched by the Betas closely, and any who grow too old and feeble, or too weak from injury and sickness, are slain by them.
Pack Members
A hellwolf who is nearly indistinguishable from a walking corpse. The subject of past experiments, he is nonetheless completely loyal to Death Kingdom. He has lost all connection to the concerns of living, breathing wolves or demons, leaving him with a very skewed view of reality.
