Orranox is the immense wolf seen against a blood-red moon, hunting the dying and teaching hunger to outrun fear.
When the moon reddens, do not ask what hunts you. Ask what in you has already begun to run.
The hunt beneath the red moon
Orranox is older than any temple and possibly older than the ordered gods. It appears as a wolf large enough to stride between hilltops, its fur black except where moonlight reveals the faces of those it has consumed.
A red moon is said to be not an omen of its arrival but the sight of the moon through its open jaws.
Hunger and the dying
The Wolf follows famine, battle and long illness. It is drawn not simply to blood but to the moment a living creature understands that it may not survive.
Some traditions call Orranox merciful because it ends lingering death. Others answer that a predator is not merciful merely because its prey was weak.
The moon packs
Worshippers form temporary packs during hard winters. They share food absolutely within the pack and deny it without pity outside, believing survival proves the Wolf's favour.
Initiates spend one red-moon night alone without weapon or fire. Those who return carry a black tooth; whether taken from a beast, found or given is never explained.
Keeping the Wolf outside
Villages threatened by Orranox light a continuous ring of low fires and ensure no dying person is left alone beyond it. Names of the ill are spoken at every watch change so they remain part of the human pack.
Serath opposes the Wolf's claim upon death. His funerary orders say that dying belongs to the dying person, not to the hunger waiting nearby.
Notes and record
This article combines campaign record, spoken lore and the mythic account preserved in the Earin archive.