Eubh the Ever-Living is a legendary White Howler.
Overview[]
I have already spoken of one of our earliest Legends, Tearlach Talespinner, who ended the Great Winter, but she is far from the first of our kind to earn such accolades. Born long before the Great Winter fell, Eubh is one of the most ancient legends of the White Howler tribe. His father was a warrior, slain not long after wedding his mother, but long enough to leave her with the parting gift of a swiftly growing belly. Times were hard, the land was at war, and it was as if Eubh could not wait to leave the safety of his mother’s womb and join the battle. He was born early, and in a sea of blood so heavy it took his mother with it. Her people feared for the boy. Their family had no other mothers to nurse him, and he was so thin and pale they feared he would not survive his first night.
He wailed in hunger and in longing for his mother throughout that first day. And as the full moon rose that night, the answer to his family’ prayers came stalking out of the dark foest.
A she-wolf, one which none of the family had ever laid eyes upon, walked neat as you please into the family’s firelight and lay down next to the squalling babe. Her dugs were heavy with milk, and having little other choice save for leaving the child to starve, they set him to suckle.
Each night, the white wolf appeared, and each night Eubh drank his fill before his lupine wet-nurse disappeared back into the forest. In time Eubh grew strong, and when he was weaned, the wolf disappeared, without anyone having ever been able to lean who she was or why she’d taken Eubh as her ward.
The boy learned to walk early on, and to talk well before other children, and in the same way he went through his First Change early. He took quickly to battle, as was his role as an Ahroun, and the tales of his glory would take up a dozen nights to tell on their own. But it was not his prowess that gained him his deed-name, when all was said and done.
Eubh met his destiny on a rocky cliff above the shoreline. The Wyrm-thing he faced was as big as a mountain, with claws like swords and eyes like lightning. When it roared, it drowned out even the sound of the sea below them. The two clashed, blood and ichor flowed, and the battle raged all along the cliff top. After a day and a night of fighting, Eubh tore deep into the monster’s chest, plucked out its blackened heart and stomped it into the rocky ground. The beast would not go without a price, however. With a blow strong enough to shatter the cliff beneath their feet, the beast cut Eubh’s head from his shoulders, and the monster, Eubh, and his severed head all tumbled into the sea.
Eubh’s people mourned him all through the night, singing the tales of his glory and tearing at their hair in their sorrow. But when the full moon reached its apex overhead, and the wailing was at its height, something strange happened. A white she-wolf appeared in the firelight, walking through the center of the camp as if she owned the place. And behind her, head once again back on his shoulders, was Eubh.
The wolf disappeared as Eubh’s Kin welcomed him back from the dead, but this would not be the last time that Eubh the Everliving faced death and returned. By fire, by poison, by drowning – Eubh died every way a man could as he fought the Wyrm and protected his homeland. But each time, he came back to serve again. Each tie the mysterious white wolf accompanied his resurrection.
It was only the Great Winter that ended Eubh’s story; an avalanche buried him deep, and even after the ice retreated, Eubh did not return. Legends say that somewhere, deep in a cavern beneath the ground, Eubh remains frozen and waiting for his wolven companion to resurrect him, so that he can once again serve his people and his land.
References[]
- WTA: White Howlers Tribebook, p. 88-89