Welcome to Canis Major

a wolf and animal rpg (role-playing game)

Canis is a writing community for play-by-post (forum-based), freeform roleplay set in a fictional dream world in the intrusion fantasy genre. Most characters on Canis are wolves; many play elements are focused around wolves and canids, but the world makes room for a large variety of other animal characters such as dogs, horses, cats, bears, deer, and many, many more.

Our community is focused on flexibility, creativity, and collaboration. That boils down to a few important features:

  • There is no set activity requirement to write
  • The setting and plot are member-created and staff-supported
  • The game is continuously improved to increase fun and decrease stress

Learn more in our Rulebook!

AW
Far Horizons

#1
AW
09-26-2022, 12:55 AM
set on the borders


 It was a cruel thing to wake up and realize you hadn't died. 

 Constance often wanted to skirt the bell curve of life - that maudlin infantile era of the elderly where one resorts back to needing care. She wasn't supposed to be alive. None of the others were. 

 Yet she remained, time and again, not the clock but its pendulum - the scars and creases in her skin marking the metronome of time, the passing of years. 

 Constance got up and shook herself, scattering the sparse flakes of snow that had drifted to find purchase on her craggy shoulders. One hip slid out and she snarled at her own failing body, hopping until it came steady under her again. 

 “You could do more than gawk.”

the staff team luvs u
#2
Adventurer
09-27-2022, 08:59 PM
 

 The little warrior found herself far from the den. Another day of sneaking as far away as she could. It wasn't that she wanted to get away from her family, but it was quite crowded in the den and there was something that always tugged at her heart when she thought of the beyond.

 She'd been sniffing every tree she came across, trying to chart them in her mind so she'd know them even in darkness — darkness did not scare her, even if it was a formidable foe. Northfall's scent was powerful here, but waning, meaning that she must have been as close to the edge of the kingdom as she'd ever been. It was hard to believe that there was a world outside their enormous home. 

 In her travel, she heard shuffling in the snow, someone moving. All of her attention was now set to it, sneaking through the evergreens, snow blanketing the top of her coat. Her little head poked around a tree, seeing an old woman — way older than anyone she'd ever met. It was odd to see someone older than her father. Then she spoke, catching Sylvi spying from the treeline. 

 The girl's eyebrows furrowed as she revealed herself a little more from behind the trunk. "Ha?" Foreign tongue used first, but then realizing that the lady had spoken in common, she licked her lips before speaking again. "How did you see me?" She asked, nose wrinkling at being caught. 

the staff team luvs u
[Image: sylvi.png]
#3
09-27-2022, 09:17 PM
 “I didn't.” Constance replied, gnarled ear swiveling as she pivoted slow, anchoring on her bad leg and turning like a compass. Even facing the whelp she was nothing but a hazy outline, the suggestion of a stranger. 

 The only sharp sense she had left was her nose. 

 “You smell.” She said, with the same flat tone as if rattling off the color of the sky. “What is the name of your pack?” For she could smell the claim here just as well as she'd sensed her approach on the wind.

the staff team luvs u
#4
Paladin
09-27-2022, 10:11 PM
 

 The old woman answered and Sylvi looked at her with an eyebrow raised. If she didn't see her, how was she spotted? The growing youth squinted at the other, watching the way she moved, like she had just woken up or she'd gotten a cramp in her leg. Her nose stayed wrinkled — even though they were on the borders, she suddenly realized how small she was compared to the woman. It'd never really resonated that she was... well, tiny. Every time she was challenged, it was by her siblings, and they were her size, much easier to fight. But someone who was an adult.. that was scary. But this was her home. In the back of her mind, a big voice spoke, and her chest puffed a little.

 'You smell.' Sylvi was almost taken back, her face wrenched in a look of horror, almost. She smelled?! Her mum had given her a bath within the last day! "Jæja, hvað veist þú?!" She growled, like a little bear. 

 With eyebrows furrowed and her hackles licking up into little cowlicks, her spine straightened, and her little canines showed. "Northfall." She said, with her chest almost commanding. There was probably no way this woman was scared of her. She was smaller than half her size. Though it was intimidating, the scars that decorated her like war medals. 

the staff team luvs u
[Image: sylvi.png]
#5
Paladin
09-29-2022, 04:38 PM
Already, Ragnar's children had grown so much. All eight of them. Not to mention Serenity's two pups and young Primrose. Now that they had gone mobile it was harder to round up the little ones within the territory. But they were all at least in the territory, for Northfall had just as many adult eyes to watch their claim as children to romp within it.

At the moment, Ragnar was set to testing the security of the pack's borders as he meandered along, scratching and rubbing along trees, kicking at the dirt and passing wherever he so pleased.

As he moved, he would end up hearing the words passed between one of his daughters and that of a stranger. He moved more swiftly, though as he drew nearer along the treeline, any concern faded away. There was a fairly old wolf at his borders and though her teeth could still do much harm to a pup, the elder would have to catch Sylvi first.

A chuckle under his breath from Sylvi's display, Ragnar casually comes to the side of her with interest to the stranger at Northfall's edges. “Sylvi...” He smiles a toothy one. “I'm sure she didn't mean you smelt badly.”
the staff team luvs u
*Ragnar frequently has black feathers woven into his scruff, curiosity of his good friend, Krakarak.
#6
09-29-2022, 06:41 PM
 The whelp spat gibberish, fizzing with bubbly, effervescent rage. Constance's face and stance remained unchanged. “There are senses other than sight.” She replied. Her left ear swiveled, catching the faintest crack and sckitch of someone's approach, someone with more bulk than a pup.

 Another wolf emerged moments after the youth uttered the pack's name. Constance looked at him. He had all the stature and energy of a king, a subtle and unspoken dominance.

 “End me now or welcome me in, I cannot travel.”

the staff team luvs u
#7
Paladin
09-29-2022, 11:02 PM
 

 The little girl bit her bottom lip to keep from spitting out more than just noises that were supposed to be threatening, but no proper words. Thankfully, her father saved the day. The man's mighty paws crunched behind them, the two wolves adverting their gaze to his large stature. 

 The anxiety melted from her body when he showed up. She felt like an unstoppable force, and moved underneath him, still small enough to do so, and wiggled her way in between his two front paws, keeping her chest puffed out. Mimicking her father's great stance. Her hackles were still standing on edge, as if they could attack at any moment. 

 His voice broke her thoughts and demeanor as she looked up at him when he spoke. A 'hmph' left her mouth because she was surely not convinced that the stranger was smelling her in any different way. 

 'End me now or welcome me in, I cannot travel.' Sylvi looked even more confused by this — she'd never seen such an old wolf. Is this what happened? The child's head turned to the side as she gazed at her before looking back up at her father. What would he do? He wouldn't kill her... would he? And maybe for the first time, empathy was granted into her heart, and she didn't the heavy weight of it making her heart drag. 

the staff team luvs u
[Image: sylvi.png]
#8
Adventurer
10-04-2022, 11:39 PM
The dramatics of his daughter placed a smile on his face, given her youth. While the father was quick to address the girl that she was likely wrong (which she gave a 'humph' too) he was happy to know that she was growing to be a fearless girl and protective of her pack's border. One day soon, especially given her chonky size now, she would be quite the guard upon Northfall's steps.

Ragnar presses his black nose to the top of her head while she is situated between his legs and "snorts" on her as wordless response to her huffing.

Ragnar's head lifted to the old warrior again, the scars along her body and words she spoke making he believe such that she had been one. The way she stood and the way she looked to him now, he did not believe off bat that she had gained those scars simply for being someone's punching bag. He was not the type to judge hastily and personally thought less of those who did.

She was lucky Ragnar was not a cruel man. There was a chance however that she did not care either if he was nor if she lived or died this day. “Old or not, you'll earn your keep.” And then his eyes turned down to the daughter between his legs. “We have many young here and winter is coming. Then back to her. “I'm sure you have much you could teach them of surviving it.”
the staff team luvs u
*Ragnar frequently has black feathers woven into his scruff, curiosity of his good friend, Krakarak.
#9
10-06-2022, 02:10 PM
 Constance wouldn’t have accepted charity, but the buff wolf did not offer it.

 The old woman thought to all the bright souls she’d guided through the years. They’d been stars, all of them, some flickering brighter than others, but every one of them burned.

 Some expanded, exploding to dust before their time.

 She remained, the mentor, the sun.

 “I am Constance.”

the staff team luvs u
#10
Adventurer
10-07-2022, 02:11 PM
 

 The girl's father let her stay between his legs, a mini-me of him, copying what he did. She wanted to learn, be let in the conversations of adults. Things were not all about getting tussled by your siblings and Sylvi was starting to notice the world around and how it did not truly revolve around her or anyone, but all of them as a whole. 

 Sylvi's nose wrinkled at her dad's antics, snorting into her fur and grunting softly, with a dull look on her face. As he speaks, she can feel the words reverberating through his chest and leaned up against it, the warmth and familiar scent soothing her hackles back down onto her shoulders and neck. 

 Though his words made her squirm at the thought of being left with someone that she barely knew... She wanted to ask her about her scars. And about age. How it all worked. Many questions that were running through her head as her father deemed her one of their own. '

 I am Constance.'
 So matter-of-factly. She knew who she was. Sylvi made sure she was standing at full height and that she was puffed up to know what she was talking about. "I am Sylvi." Accent thick on her tongue, but clearly trying to mimic the way the older woman conveyed that she'd lived many long years, and knew way more than Sylvi. Which intrigued the young girl. She too wanted to see the sights offered to her, adventuring as far as she could each day. Which is how she found herself out here in the first place. 


the staff team luvs u
[Image: sylvi.png]
#11
Adventurer
10-11-2022, 10:12 PM (This post was last modified: 10-11-2022, 10:14 PM by Ragnar. Edited 4 times in total.)
Can fade here with your ending posts if you'd like? Welcome to NF!


Constance.

Ragnar knew nothing of this woman, savor her name. Though this was much the same with any other new member of the pack. Trust would come in time, should she stay... should she survive the winter.

“Constance,” He then spoke the name allowed, “I am Ragnar Stormborn, King to this north-land.” Ragnar then takes a step backwards and lowers his muzzle to nudge Sylvi then along. Lifting his head up again and arcing his body towards the tree line, “Come, I'll show you within.”

He would show their newest member to a cache if she were hungry and inform her of their troublesome neighbors on the islands south. He would speak of Sindri and her position here if he was unavailable, of @Aarkron as their healer and of @Einar @Ghidorah and @Hank, warriors that she might use as a guard should she wish to stray beyond their borders. Then, he would leave her to her own devices, to learn of her new home in her own way.
the staff team luvs u
*Ragnar frequently has black feathers woven into his scruff, curiosity of his good friend, Krakarak.
#12
10-12-2022, 05:41 PM
 They offered their names and the king offered her entry. She did not nod, she simply heaved herself forward, dragging her bad leg behind as she hobbled into her new home.

the staff team luvs u
#13
Adventurer
10-12-2022, 05:54 PM
 

 The youth grunted when being nudged forward by her father, getting on all fours again and wiggling herself out from underneath him, leading the way back. Sylvi tagged along as her father explained the lay of the land to the new, old woman. Though her eyes never strayed far from Constance, wondering how far she'd been and how much she'd seen... The old woman had no clue what was coming to her when Ragnar left the two of them together. Sylvi would bombard her with questions. But for now, she makes note of the cache, sniffing deeply and placing it in the map of her mind, before moving with the lot to the mpty dens, and then sauntering back home, exhuasted from a long day.


the staff team luvs u
[Image: sylvi.png]
scroll to top