anachronauts by stefan gagne - witchipedia

(witch hat logo)
The Fae Encyclopedia
(For Curious Humans)

Winterhounds

There's not a lot known about these things, and Lady Winter prefers it that way. They're her pets, after all.

What lore I could find says that now and then, Lady Winter will take a freshly murdered Faerie and reanimate it, giving it a sort of 'life-in-death' or 'death-in-life' (the accounts vary) which allows it to continue living -- specifically, living to serve as part of her pack of personal hunting dogs.

Whenever she appears physically in the world, rather than manifesting in spookier ways, it's usually with an honor guard of her finest hounds. Sometimes she'll find some tresspasser in her domain and personally lead the hunt against them, for a bit of amusing sport.

They don't strictly appear at her side, however. Sometimes they hunt by themselves, loose and wild. Sometimes they form packs. Appearances are so rare and so infrequent beyond Winter Court territory that accountings of Winterhound social structures are sketchy, at best. But even loose hounds have a leash on them... an invisible one, held by their mistress, from afar.

You can't kill the things, because they're already dead. You can technically put them down with any fatal wound, but at some point after (minutes? hours? I don't know) the Lady will crack her whip of ice across their backs from afar, shocking them back to an animate state to hunt again. It's the penalty for failing her, i.e. being killed rather than being the killer. You can thus identify Winterhounds by the series of whip-scars on their backs... assuming you're close enough to see without them tearing out your throat.

Beyond that, the main supernatural ability they have is a "shadow step". Some people say they move so fast that they can't be seen, but the main working theory is that they can step into one shadow and emerge from another, a form of teleportation. This may or may not be restricted by line of sight between source and destination; details are sketchy. It should only works in darkness, though -- without that they're limited to their normal movement speeds and methods. Which are just as dangerous as they'd be in the dark.

The Winterhounds are driven by what's called the "Wild Hunt," an instinct to stalk, pounce, and kill living things. (That's assuming that's all they do -- other tales speak of wild lust for more than mere violence. I'd like to think those stories are exaggerated. The alternative is scary as hell.) Records vary as to how much of their original personality remains after reanimation... some say the mind is completely replaced, like a Wendigo, others claim someone with a strong enough willpower can resist the Wild Hunt. As for saving them from this fate, hah, good luck -- breaking Lady Winter's curse would require power on the level of Lady Summer, and those two don't interfere with each other's toys since the so-called alliance was established.

Anybody in the presence of a Winterhound is in great danger. If I ever meet one, I'll probably fly away very, very quickly. You'd have to be insane to do anything other than run for your life from these remorseless murder machines.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I've never met one of these -- I live as far south as you can get, and they primarily hunt in the north. But the Summer Court fears them, and justifiably... they're the knights of the Winter Court, the epitome of cruelty.

Back when the courts were in open war (as much as the war is ever really open, even before the alliance it ran hot and cold randomly), Winterhounds were the shock troops of Lady Winter, white-hot berzekers of rage. Rumor had it if you were lucky, they killed you. If you were unlucky, they dragged you back to whatever they called a lair and made you their plaything. Kinda doubt they were playing Monopoly, though...