Psychic Wolves for Lupercalia
| Challenge | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Psychic Wolves for Lupercalia |
| Date(s): | February 2012 |
| Moderator(s): | |
| Founder: | Petra |
| Type: | |
| Fandom: | Multiple Fandoms |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Psychic Wolves for Lupercalia is a February 2012 "In the vein of A Companion to Wolves and similar epic fantasy [...] a fanwork challenge in which various characters are bonded to wolves", and is maintained by Petra.[1]
Background
This is the (slightly edited) FAQ text from the AO3 collection profile:
What's Lupercalia? A classical Roman festival that took place around the Ides of February (Feb. 13-15th) celebrating fertility and the wolf who was the symbolic mother of Rome's founder.
But when you say the wolves are psychic... In the source canon, the wolves communicate their emotions with their bonded humans and the humans who are bonded to wolves in the same pack, up to and including causing them to have sex with each other.
Wolves make them do it! Yes. In the source, only men are bonded to wolves, as a commentary on epic fantasy tropes; you may wish to expand upon this. Feel free to change the source universe's rules to include people of any gender identity bonded to wolves.
Another hallmark of the source text is that some of the female wolves are konigenwolves, or queen-wolves, the alpha of alphas. You may or may not want to play with this.
Konigenwolf is a strange word. The source has a mishmash of German and Scandinavian roots scattered liberally through it. You are not required to use any of the terminology. If you want to write wolves in a universe that has never heard of Germany or Scandinavia, go for it.
How long should my fanwork be? If you're writing a story, aim for about 500 words. If you end up with more, great; if you end up with fewer, that's okay, too. If you want to make a vid, write a poem, make fanart, compile with a fanmix, record podfic, or write meta, those would also be great, and we'll find a way to link them into the challenge collection. If you're making icons, try for about five, and if you're vidding, thirty wolfish seconds or so would be great. But above all, think lupine thoughts and have fun with it.
What should it look like? Ideally, there should be wolves in it. They should be psychic. They should at least have the potential of causing sympathetic lust in the humans they're bonded to.
Beyond that, you can create it as an amalgam of your chosen fandom or fandoms and the canon in the book, as in Petra's Where winter wolves bark, which puts Benton Fraser of due South into the framework of the original canon.
If all the made-up high fantasy language throws you, try the style of Dira's Which In Your Case You Have Not Got, which takes the wolves and updates them, showing us a universe in which the modern day US Marines of Generation Kill are all bonded to their very own psychic wolves.
Okay, I have a fanwork with psychic wolves. Now what do I do with it? You can add it to the Psychic Wolves for Lupercalia collection on AO3. If you're using the dubcon trope that the canon does, please make a note of that somewhere. As the collection is at the AO3, please follow their normal content notice standards.
I won't finish my fic until after Lupercalia. Now what? Lupercalia comes every year, whether or not the wolfbrothers (or sisters, or siblings) do. Add your work into the AO3 collection at any time.
Whose idea was this? Petra and Dira Sudis came up with it, and Ellen Fremedon cheered them on.
Notable Psychic Wolves Works
- Where winter wolves bark - by Petra - ([due South])
- Every Marine a Wolfbrother - series by Dira Sudis - (Generation Kill)
- Like a Comet Streaming On - by Sineala - (Marvel/Avengers)