(I’ve been among the Purists for Fifty years as one of their kind, and an avid researcher of our kind and its history. Looking back into documents and oral lore from hundreds of years, and debates among others of our kind, I’ve come up with these annotations of our laws for those seeking a deeper understanding of us.)
In the days of the tenth generation from the Progenitors, when the second mate of the Birthing Mother walked the earth, he laid down these laws. Child of his Mother, he brought together werewolves from our chaos and gave us the laws of civilization we lacked.
For thirteen days he sat in the hall of the Gods, and each god gave unto him thirty and nine laws which they thought would bring peace to the wolves. Listening to each, he took those laws he thought best and brought them to us written on the skulls of three clothed elephants, when such creatures roamed our lands.
Each set of laws, dealing with the laws of our aspects, are held together and presented as such.
(“Mate of the Birthing Mother” a supposed bloodline of werewolves, last known holder of the title dying in 1856. Apparently called Premier Loup before their end, it was said the first born of this line was born with the memories of all their dead ancestors.
Have not found werewolves who ever met this supposed Premier Loup, despite werewolves theoretically being alive who would have known them. At best have found rumors one New Mexican Purist remembered news from their childhood of the Premier Loup being killed in Washington.)
In war and hunt we hold to these laws. To break them must surely mean death.
(Laws supposedly dealing with combat and warfare. As all laws make a vague reference to death being a sentence for breaking these laws, though the method is not described in most of them. These are generally left up to individual Covenants to decide the method of execution.)
1- So long as Enkidu is dead, so should you walk as Gilgamesh.
(Reference to ancient half-one text, potentially poetic translation of an older phrasing for it. Means that as long as civilization holds a stronger hold on the world than the wilderness we should act as humans. Obvious fucking bullshit in the modern day.)
2- Luna is our goddess, let her not see when we shed her children’s blood.
(Luna isn’t one of the six wolf gods, which makes the phrasing of this rule feel particularly strange. A potential reference to the Silver Moon, though they have their gender change with the phases of the moon meaning it’s strange to use Luna and goddess as terms.
As a law means one should never kill a werewolf at night when there is anything but a new moon. Rarely held to, but more as a matter of practicality, and ancient tradition back then seems to say duels were still often held at night.)
3- Luna’s tears are the weapons of cowards. Kill those who wield them.
(Luna’s tears a poetic description of silver as a weapon, potentially referencing our founding mythology that the Silver Moon used an arrow of silver to kill his mate and her lover before they were resurrected as the first werewolves. Both betrayal referencing tears, but also tears potentially being a reference to an arrowheads shape.
In practical terms, to use silver weapons is the ultimate dishonor to a true werewolf.)
4- The pack is your family, let any werewolf who kills their pack be treated as one who killed their brother’s father.
(Self explanatory for the most part, killing a pack member is pretty fucked up.
The phrasing “brother’s father” is a little confusing to new werewolves, though is a reference to old werewolf convention and idioms. To call a werewolf your brother or sister is the ultimate honor one can give someone who isn’t your mate, and was a common way to refer to non-pack members. Apparently was a traditional title to give to a romantic partner one could not mate with, though this isn't largely used anymore. Most younger Purists seem to find this tradition strange, though it saw some use among traditionalists until around the sixties or seventies.)
5- The Covenant must protect the flock.
(In the old days werewolves helped hunter-gatherers and acted as a protector for them, calling them our flock. They obviously lost that privilege, and for good reason, though it used to be an important aspect of our laws.
6- Mate not with those who do not hold your tongue, or those that feast on your flock.
(A law with a good deal of debate surrounding it, I’ve seen nearly every mentor I’ve ever encountered have a slightly different interpretation of it. My own mentor claimed its a law against bestiality, though I point out this would be the only time any sort of relations are ever explicitly banned, and why in a section on rules of war?
A possibility is this refers to the Wolf tongue, a language only werewolves learned and died out as a spoken language in the sixteen hundreds, with only a few being able to still read it. This was never taught to half-ones though as far as my research has shown, and half-ones and our kind mated rather regularly in this time.
That leaves the likely scenario that this refers to not mating with those from rival settlements, especially with the latter part of the law seeming to refer to the idea of warfare. This would also explain the placement of this law as being under this section of laws, compared to most interpretations.)
7- If someone should spit upon you show them mercy, if someone should spit on your flock show them their heart in your teeth.
(Idea held throughout these laws that one should fight fairly, but also the fact werewolves should protect their flock.)
8- Hunt for mortal flesh only in desperation and retribution.
(Fucking laws from a hopeful time, when people thought we wouldn’t need to take back our place in the world.)
9- When a throat is bared, do not strike it for blood.
(Accept surrender when offered, refers to the method of ending a duel or spar where you show your throat.)
10- Hubris is only a miasma for those that speak and do not act.
(Idleness is the enemy of action. If you spend your time saying what you could do and stamping your foot, you will never truly act to prove yourself.)
11- Do not use mortal weapons against mortals, for your own weapons are their greater.
(Originally a matter of being fair to mortals, we still follow this law out of a knowledge of what we are. We werewolves do not need mortal weapons to strike down the mortals, for they are less than us.)
12- If the city should fall, protect the covenant and return to the Purists.
(In ancient times the Purists were an elite force of werewolves, dedicated to the Premier Loup and their will. Enforcers, warriors, supporters of a holy cause, they held together their power for thousands of years. When this law was written it meant the Covenant needed to band together and return to a stronghold, but now our strongholds are all gone.
We are the new Purists, we are the holy cause, and we must bring the covenants back to us.)
13- When war breaks out, abandon thy name and take it back up only when the enemy is felled.
(This is why you forsake your name, this is why we go by our war names all our lives. Humans have forced us into hiding, they bare weapons that could massacre us by the thousands, and what do we do? We must strike back against them, and when the war is won we may take on our names once more.
Do not think of your war name as something to be laughed at, taken lightly, as though it is merely rebirth into our cause. Your war name is your role, and your role is what must be played until our cities stand once more.)
In times of peace and home we hold to these laws. To break them must surely mean death.
1- To spread our flocks and influence the lines must never die. Each pack should produce at least four children every ten years to ensure our survival.
(Werewolves already have trouble having kids, periods slow down with the aging, and even between two of us mating only half our cubs shall transform. Children are needed to stop our kind from dying out, and so we must breed well. Written in a time where the average pack was made up of four breeding pairs, our modern packs are much smaller.
Some Purist groups still hold to this old law, trying to encourage packs of two or three breeding pairs to produce such kids, though this is rare. In general the assumption is that a member of ours should rear enough children that our numbers are always growing, never giving into the assault of outside.)
2- One is a child until their eyes have seen two hundred full moons, at which point they may run the land equal to all.
(As said, though many Purists don’t quite hold up to this law as it’s said. While sixteen being an adult made sense in the days of cavemen, a sixteen year old is rarely seen as an adult by our kind raised outside our numbers and can’t walk among humans the same way they used to.
Most Purists add on fifty full moons to the requirement, additionally meaning no werewolf is ever first transformed as an adult. Those of our kind whose packs fall in that range of 200 to 250 full moons are often left to be as adults and allowed to do their own thing, but not yet recruited on missions to assault the Traitors nor brought in on council.)
3- To each werewolf a mate shall be assigned by their mentor, adult to adult and child to child but never otherwise except for the mates of the Birthing Mother.
(Mentors are in charge of making sure their charges are set up with viable mates, so they may continue the Purist lines. Mates need to be compatible both socially and physically (THIS MEANS IN COMBAT), and of proper ages to be paired and in the same pack.
Age gaps are common among Werewolves. When you live as long as we do and have our mortality rates it’s more a necessity. There’s often a morbid joke for pairs chosen between younger werewolves to be called “first mates”, due to the understanding one partner is likely to die by forty or fifty.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Second mates, or first mates for those who join the Purists later, often either marry those who were found unpairable by their mentors or more political or social arrangements. Long past the days of political marriages, Covenants exchanging members or marrying a sibling or adult child of a pack mate can bring groups closer together and mean one family does not stay in one region too long. This seems to have been the origin of the second clause, with mates being established at first transformation for the Premier Loup with their meeting not being until ascension to the throne.)
4- When one cries we all cry, when one suffers we all suffer, when one screams in anger we all scream, when one divides us we take his head.
(The pack must stick together, we share our pain and we share our lives, and so together we must suffer. One can not love someone without suffering with their pain too, for how else can you bring yourself to lift them up?
Additionally never let someone divide your pack, for the moment you do that you have let someone divide your head from your neck.)
5- Ensure the children of two nature survive, for they carry us not the half-ones.
(An old law from when we used to let the half-ones hold us back from our true nature, and the origin of the term. It’s not of much use though the meaning is important.
We come first, no matter what. The half-ones aren’t our future, but our kind will bring us to our future.)
6- Let your Covenant align itself with a tribe, and this tribe you shall guide as your flock and care for as your children. Teach them to love us, and feed them from your hunts, and take from them what they may give.
(Back when we thought half-ones deserve anything more than filling our stomachs, and we’d take on our flocks. The only part of this law you should pay attention to, until the war is over, is “Take from them what they may give”.)
7- Us of two nature hold the first call and feast in the gathering, for we are the protectors of the flock.
(We are the superiors of the half-ones, we are the ones who come first in all things. If anyone ever tells you that humans should ever come first for anything except what course to eat, they are not a true Purist.)
8- If ever two of our kind should be in disagreement let three of those elder by at least one hundred full moons, or of higher blood, hold the council. If one of our kind should disagree with those of half nature, the covenant must not be put at risk for a single member of the flock.
(This is still how disagreements are handled when packs of elders are available and the issue is big enough. Otherwise if you get into a disagreement you should get ready to fight it out. If you get into an argument with a half-one, and you’re not ripping off their head, I don’t know what you’re doing.)
9- Within the center of each Covenant build a shrine to the wolf gods, onto which you should add a souvenir of each hunt to the world.
(The wolf gods should be honored, and even a covenant who doesn’t actively practice our religion knows better than to spurn our creators. The wolf gods demand their worship, and will not allow peace otherwise.)
10- Youth is for the hunt, age is for growth, great age is for the community.
(When you are young you should hunt and fight while you live in your prime. When you begin to age, grow the Purists with your children and your wisdom. When you reach old age grow your community through your knowledge and through your years of experience.)
11- When a pack is formed among children ensure they are no more than forty full moons apart. Duty abandoned in the name of a child should only be for one within your belly.
(Younger packs should be close in age for a multitude of reasons, from compatibility, to potential pairing of mates, and most of all the fact they will age into adults. If the gap between a pack’s oldest and youngest is too great the pack will be held from greater duty far longer.)
12- If one must choose between child and womb, realize which will benefit the Pack. Our kind may produce more of our own, the flock may be replaced.
(The Purists do not mate with humans anymore, we’ve moved beyond such trivialities. Instead this is merely a history lesson for our young members at this point. All this law states is simple: if you have a chance to save a pregnant individual, save the one likely to create the most werewolves.
A Half-one pregnant with a potential werewolf is not as important as a pregnant werewolf, as the half-one can be replaced but a member of our blood can only be made by another.)
13- Spread not farther than the hand may grasp.
(When werewolves spread too far we risk death, and each risk taken is another that might bring about our death. A pack too far from their Covenant has no support, a pack that claims too much territory can not keep it, and a nation that tries to fight too openly will die.)
When the hand points or Purists gather we hold these laws. To break them must surely mean death.
(Almost this entire section is fucking useless these days, the Premier Loup’s dead for over a century now (at least) and a ruler independent of this has not been decided since the Purists were refounded. My notes here are going to be sparse just for the fact there is little reason to talk about any of this.)
1- The Covenant owes allegiance to none but the Birthing Mother’s mate.
2- The ruler shall from here on always be the Birthing Mother’s mate, the bloodline eternal.
3- In times of war when the Birthing Mother’s mate is lost or hidden, a new ruler may be decided upon. In a competition of strength, a competition of hunting, and a competition of speed, the one who wins all competitions shall take on the title.
(Two attempts have been made to call for the crowning of a new ruler since the Purists were refounded, calling in Purists from their continent, both ending in failure. The first was in 1917 when the original reorganization of the Purists was declared in the Gevaudan region of France, and ended when the competition of speed was so fierce none of the competitors survived. The second was in 1968 in New York, a winner being declared but a riot about the results ending with half those present (including the new ruler) dead.
The competition is held in the order listed when done, each competition an important display of ability and dwindling the numbers. In the competition of strength, groups are divided into pairs and fight until one opponent can no longer fight.
Those who win the competition of strength participate in the competition of hunting. Here members must hunt for a chosen prey, bringing an example back to the judge. The first five to do so move onto the next competition.
The competition of speed is a thirty to fifty mile race through the wilderness of the nearest wild territory, depending upon options. Meant to go through unnavigable regions, it often is purposefully designed to force them through mountains, swamps, deserts, or the like. How one reaches the destination is up to them, and sabotaging and fighting your opponents is a necessary skill.)
4- The ruler’s mate shall be decided when it is known they shall rule, and not a moment sooner. The mate of the Birthing Mother’s Mate shall be decided to expand the bloodline and upon their bloods awakening. Any other ruler shall decide upon a competition of their choosing from among those viable, and only upon their ascension.
(My research has shown the few times this happened in the past, and the competition reached this point, the competition was often done by either choosing one of the previously mentioned ones or some other challenge. One notable case I found was a case where a Premier Loup was supposedly able to pick their mate and had an archery competition held, useless as this is among werewolves.)
5- The ruler shall hold absolute power in all decisions, to lead us on as one army.
6- If anyone should wish to challenge the ruler they must beat them in Strength, Hunting, and Speed. If they wish to challenge the mate, they only need to fell them in a duel of the times.
7- If one kills the ruler’s mate while they bare a child, they shall be strapped to a rock for five days while their dogs are starved. On the sixth day the dogs shall be released onto them, and the seventh the victim untied if still living.
(One of the only cases in the Wolf Laws where a form of execution is explicitly detailed and spelled out. While no physically written myths seem to pertain to it in manuscripts I’ve found, common oral legend has it that the second Premier Loup saw his mate killed while she was several months pregnant. These stories hold he carried out this form of execution on the killer, and retroactively added this law to justify his actions. Justified if you ask me, though the scholar wonders what law was here before.)
8- If the Birthing Mother’s mate is killed, the mantle shall be passed down to their closest relative. The mate and children of the new mate shall have throats slit with silver and their blood shall be cried over for a cycle of the moon.
(This seems to hint the power of the Premier Loup was able to be passed on through some way, though I haven’t found anything directly relating to this. Why the children and mate were killed escapes me, though I assume it must have something to do with the mantle.)
9- If the ruler shall mate with another, and the false heir is born before a true one, the mates shall fight and the child will be put to the knife if their parent is killed. Only the strongest blood may be allowed to inherit the mantle.
10- The Birthing Mother’s mate shall be rotated through the kingdoms once every generation, holding court in each of the five Orders.
(When our kind held power in localized lands across the world we had divided up the world into five Orders. These orders were, from my research, complacent to different parts of the world and bore wildly different werewolf cultures and noble hierarchies in control of these regions.
As my research has shown, the following were the Orders:
Order of the Coast- The Order of the Coast was a group of werewolves located along the eastern coastline of Asia, Japan, and eastern Australia. Dedicated scholars, werewolves of the time would often have important documents transported here as it kept them away from regions of more open conflict between other orders and mortal kingdoms.
Order of the Myth- The first order established, the Order of the Myth took up most of western and sub saharan Africa. The original capital of the Werewolf Empire was located here, before the five Order system was created. Supposedly many werewolves did, and still do, live here in isolated communities primarily to avoid the politics of werewolves in other regions.
Order of the Peacekeepers- Taking up most of central and northern Asia, the Order of the Peacekeepers was a highly centralized location attaching to all but the Order of the Myth. Was used as a training ground for werewolves to learn techniques and strategy from werewolves across the known world, and to hold court for particularly drastic crimes. Was a common area of open conflict, as it and surrounding orders would fight for territory.
Order of the Pentacle- Largely made up of Europe, stretching around to modern day Istanbul and into Russia, the Order of the Pentacle was apparently named for its five main locations detailing its border. Known for being a common ground for witches, fey, and vampires looking for less subtle lives, werewolves here often had contacts and bargains with these creatures harder to find elsewhere and were the primary influence for “new world” werewolves among the Traitors.
Order of the Sea- its main territory in what is now called the Indian Ocean, the Order of The Sea had land in Africa, South West and South Asia, and Western Australia and stretched its territory up toward Europe. A major controller of the limited global trade at the time and movement of our military, they were often accused of being pirates and bandits by other orders.
As far as I can tell werewolves did have presence in the Americas before colonization, but had at some point seceded from the Orders as a whole, perhaps before their named founding. Whether this was over a disagreement or practicality I can’t be sure, and those few werewolves still descended from such groups have poor relations with Purists and Traitors alike.
Each generation of the Premier Loup would marry into a new Order and rule from there, working in a circle through the territories. This apparently continued for a very long period of time, though stopped sometime around 500 BC. I have heard legends that the last exchange was made to the Order of the Pentacle during the Persian Invasion of Greece, though I can’t be sure if this is truth or artistic license. What is confirmed is the resulting Premier Loup forsook her duties and the exchanges stopped, a war among us breaking the orders soon after.)
11- The Birthing Mother’s Mate shall ascend to the throne on their two hundred and fiftieth full moon; however, should avoid producing with their mate until their six hundred and twenty-fifth.
(Law which is used as justification for adding fifty moons to what is considered an adult. Interestingly, the period to which they are expected to have kids is rather late, even by werewolf standards. It would be harder for one with slowed aging to get pregnant at this point, as it would grant a few day period of potential fertility every several months. How this was sustainable for so long I have no idea.
12- When the Birthing Mother’s Mate takes the throne), their parent shall serve their child in all ways needed. Their death shall be done in the name of the Orders, and they shall prepare the world for the new ruler’s reign.
13- Do not bring rulers from their graves.
(When a Purist is dead they’re dead, it’s just up to you to live up to their names but don’t keep using them long after they’re dead as some sort of martyr.)
