The Wolves of Danu

portraits from the O’Faolain estate.

@seandunkley​ and I making many an awkward sketch to find a werewolf design that suits us haha

good boye

Inquiring minds want to know!

Oh, wow look at all this totally unexpected, totally unprompted interest in my current hyper fixation!! Truly blessed coincidence! Lemme tell you all about it!! It's a historical horror/fantasy that takes place in 1880's British Isles and follows a Druid named Áine as she tries to survive in a world that has been long starved of the fae magic which once flowed abundantly through the lands both above and under hill. The faefolk--the Sidhe were once powerful creatures in these lands, and their mercurial meddling in human affairs had made life on the Isles much more treacherous to navigate. For the average person, the absence of magic and of the Sidhe in daily life has long brought a kind of peace they otherwise may have never known. But for the druids, this was a calamity. Cut off from the sustaining magics of their Mother Danu, the Sidhe slowly withered into starved husks of their former selves; and over the following centuries, became animated only by their clawing hunger for the last remaining wells of magic present in the overhill: druids. Relentlessly hunted by the undying Sidhe, a Druid's best hope of survival comes in the form of creatures who exist in the between; neither human nor Sidhe but both at once. Áine's search brings her to the country-side estate of a wealthy aristocratic family where their best-kept secret locks himself away for weeks at a time. Their seventh son; a wolf of Danu. Back when the the Sidhe ruled the Isles, aaages ago, they brokered a deal with the [human] clans that sought to wrestle control over the land. The Sidhe would live Underhill and leave the world above to human rule so long as certain rituals, offerings, arrangements were maintained. Among these was the agreement that the seventh son of the seventh son thenforth would be a son of Danu; compelled to follow her laws and serve as her most loyal eyes and ears in the lands above. They would exist among their human communities, advantaged by their fae charisma...to live most privileged lives as long as the goddess Danu lived. But as the moon drew closer to the earth, the would be compelled to take on a sidhe appearance and return to their Mother Danu until the moon pulled back from the earth once more. Though Danu had been vanquished centuries ago, this accord still survives among the descendants of the clan who agreed to it. Though most else surrounding this ancient agreement has long since decayed. The problem is, for these half-sidhe creatures, the drought of magic has affected them, too. While their human needs may be well met, the wolf slowly starves as all Sidhe do. Over time, this starvation is known to drive these sons of Danu mad as the hunger-driven wolf commands control more and more aggressively with the passing years. Unfortunately, the Ó Faoláin family are unaware of this inevitability regarding their youngest son. But, in a mutually beneficial arrangement, a druid could, perhaps, satiate the wolf's hunger with consistent offerings, in exchange for the wolf's protection against the other, far less restrained Sidhe. Such begins the relationship between Áine and Lomair.

here, have a bunch of sketches of explorative/unfinalized designs!:

this too, even though I only just posted it. why not!: