Kastor: A Profile

[Vin]

Time has forgotten the seasons in which Kastor was a youth, and indeed even to Kastor they seem faded and distant, like the reflection of the sun dancing in the ice after it has slipped over the horizon. He was born in the icy wastes in the far north of the Whitelands, in a time when the land was drowning in chaos. Predators terrorized prey, and then were in turn terrorized by even larger predators. Bandits and murderers roamed free. It was a land where savagery reigned supreme.

Kastor saw this, and sought to end it. Using his strength, he united the beasts of the tundra and led them down to the forests below. Under his leadership, they joined the beasts of the forest and drove out the Greatmaws that ruled there. They built vast sprawling cities to protect themselves against the cold, and ceased the endless cycle of violence that had plagued the land.

Kastor has ruled over the forest and tundra ever since, maintaining the fragile peace between predator and prey with the help of his ardently loyal elite, the Knights of the Claw. Kastor knows that without his strength to lead them, the intricate system he built would fall apart and the land would revert to savagery. He is the lantern bearer, the only beast who can stop the flame of civilization from flickering out beneath the onslaught of the howling northern winds.

While wolverines are not the biggest creatures in the Whitelands, they are arguably the deadliest. Their bodies are made purely of muscle, tooth, and claw, and they have been known to take down even Great Horned Ones single-pawed. Kastor is no exception. He is a finely-tuned killing machine— or at least, he was. His fur has turned jet white with age, and his shoulders droop almost imperceptibly. If you peer closely, long enough and hard enough, you might see a slight tremor in his paws. He is by no means an invalid, but those sharp-eyed beasts who do notice his faltering steps, sparse though they be, could be forgiven for thinking he is not as powerful as he used to be.