Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt is a midwinter hunt celebrated of old by the denizens of the Wilds of Eldraine.

Description

The celebrations of the Wild Hunt last three days around the winter solstice. The Elves ride horses with eight legs, two-headed goats, big cats with horns on their sleek heads, slithering serpents with a hundred eyes, silent chimera on rooster legs, and bleating rams as big as draft horses. Barking black hounds with hideous burning eyes run beside them. The hunt doesn't leave hoof prints or broken branches, but its magical trail can be followed by those with the appropriate skills.

The midwinter hunt rides all night and kills its prey at dawn. It always ends with a blood sacrifice, because blood spilled at the midwinter solstice in the Wilds is said to fend off death itself. The hunt cannot disperse until life is claimed and its blood offered to the earth and to the heavens. A blow inflicted by the midwinter hunt is always fatal. The meal that is consequently shared binds the elven clans together. It also binds the earth and the sky. Blood seals the year, for those who die will give way to those who will live, and the dying sun on its shortest day must be fed so it can grow again. The most powerful blood is deemed that of a selfless ruler or an innocent child.

The practice of the Wild Hunt is outlawed in the Realm.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Hunter's Edge