Mer Bleue Bog

Areas Page Editors: please follow the Guidelines, whether you are editing an in-game area or World Territory.

Mer Bleue Bog
Basics
  • Creator / Owner: Raze
  • Status: OPEN
    • In general, you may freely reference, use, or create characters originating from this area.
  • Location: Ottawa, Canada
  • Travel Information:
    • Approximately 430 miles (700km) to New Brunswick, which takes about eight or nine days on foot.
Demographics
  • Population:
    • Small and fluctuating, with 5-6 bands or packs with ~5-10 members at any time
  • Species:
  • Languages Spoken:
    • English, French, Algonquian languages (Cree, Ojibwe)
Related Links

Summary

On this page... (hide)

  1.   1.  Essentials
    1.   1.1  Geography & Climate
    2.   1.2  Fauna & Flora
  2.   2.  Culture
  3.   3.  History

Mer Bleue Bog was a conservation area in the time of humans, and served as one for wild canines untouched by the Luperci virus until recent years. Still, it remains a haven for traditionally-minded canines who still live as their ancestors once did.

Canines in Mer Bleue often live traditional, feral, non-shifting lifestyles. Most are wolves in small family packs with a fluctuating population of dispersal yearlings as well as coyote loners who sometimes form bands to raise children. Canines who use their Luperci forms are sometimes driven out.

Historically, several characters who used to be non-Luperci originated from this area, including feral members of the Moineau family -- perhaps most famously, Vesper.

1.  Essentials

1.1  Geography & Climate

The main feature of the conservation area is a sphagnum bog, which lies in an old channel of the Ottawa River. It boasts a boreal ecosystem that is typically found farther north, which unique species that have adapted to the acidic waters. It is largely a mixture of black spruce forest and open heath.

Little to no human influence remains in the land. The famous boardwalk that once allowed visitors to explore the bog has completely deteriorated. Old hiking trails have become overgrown natural pathways through the wood. Farm and visitor buildings on the southern ridge of the bog have been reclaimed by nature, too, with little more than foundations and a few crumbled half-walls that provide shelter from the wind.

Reference & Inspiration Images

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

1.2  Fauna & Flora

Fauna

Typical marshland prey, such as beaver, muskrat, turtles, and waterfowl, live in the bog. Notably, many beaver dams naturally control flooding in the area. Dragonflies zip over the water. Snowshoe hares can also be found, and the trees are full of a variety of bird species as well as common forest residents.

Flora

The forest is dominated by black spruce, along with other trees able to tolerate the acidicic conditions of the bog: tamaracks, trembling aspen, larch, and birch. Sphagnum moss thrives in the bog, decomposing to form peat. Cattails, willows, and sedges line the marsh around Mer Bleue. Islands in the bog feature aspens and bracken.


2.  Culture

The overall culture of Mer Bleue is feral and traditional; the canines here act as canines did before the Luperci virus spread, relying on instinct and rejecting human concepts.

Isolated by chance from the original spread of the Luperci virus, Mer Blue historically had a population of almost exclusively non-Luperci canines, with xenophobia maintaining this as lone Luperci were driven out by the packs. However, due to the natural spread of the Luperci gene through bloodlines, the population of non-Luperci began to dwindle. In some cases, the transition was met with neutrality, as individual families adjusted to their children being born with the ability to shift. Some gladly adopted the new ways and incorporated their Luperci forms into daily life. Others clung to the "purity" of their blood, isolating their packs from ones with Luperci members or even attempting to drive Luperci neighbors out -- often with poor results.

These days, conflict and controversy arise not from a canine's ability to shift, but their choice to shift.

Species

The two predominant species are the Eastern Timber Wolf and the Northeastern Coyote, which are the most common subspecies found in the eastern portion of North America.

Click for more...

Most individuals in Mer Bleue are either wolf or coyote, as traditional-minded canines still regard one another with wary ambivalence. However, coywolf hybrids are not uncommon, often born of loner pairs. It's theorized that the two species are already hybridized anyway, resulting in the large, social, wolf-like Northeastern Coyote and the slender, coyote-like Eastern Timber Wolf.

There is little outside influence of other species, though other North American subspecies of wolf and coyote sometimes travel through the area, and through liasons have contributed their genes -- including the ability to shift -- to the families in the area.

Dog heritage is uncommon; ancient bloodlines of domesticated dogs were either erased through early post-apocalypse competition or diluted into the breeding stock of wolf and coyote. Individuals of starkly doggish appearance find a hard time fitting in among the wild canines. Meanwhile, jackals are completely unheard of, due to most subspecies being unable to adapt to the region while living as wildlings.

Lifestyle

Most canines live non-shifting lifestyles -- scorning technology, civilization, and organization beyond traditional packs.

Click for more...

Technology: Even among the small number of Luperci who utilize their Optime form, tool use is extremely primitive -- like spear-fishing, or carving antlers and wood. Inventions typically fill a need that cannot otherwise be met; a Luperci isn't likely to attempt bow-hunting when they can hunt in Lupus, or tan hides for cloaks when their fur keeps them warm. That said, among packs that shift frequently, works of art like simple carvings and utilization of medicinal plants is becoming common.

Structure: Most of the wolf packs in the area consist of a breeding pair, their offspring, and sometimes a few other relatives, like non-breeding siblings, that help watch over the pups. Their numbers shift frequently as yearlings disperse to find mates of their own. Coyotes in the area might band together for survival, but such alliances are usually short-lived.

Relations & Conflicts

Most packs and individuals look out for their own, and while tensions between groups are common, rarely do things escalate.

Click for more...

Conflict between packs in the region is inevitable, but most canines avoid unnecessary bloodloss where they can, as injuries can mean death in the wild, and few are prideful enough to risk it. Smaller packs or bands often shift their borders away from potential aggressors when tensions rise. In extreme cases, packs have killed individuals or driven each other out of the region, but "massacres" of an entire group are unheard of.

As families often remain friendly even after branching away to form their own packs, "soft" alliances between certain groups are common -- but they aren't likely to stick their necks out too far for individuals outside their nuclear group. Unrelated packs sometimes work together for a specific cause, such as driving out a mutual enemy, but these bonds fizzle after the cause is dealt with.

Loners are afforded no protection, and so they get the raw deal when conflict arises.

Example Customs

Though religion beyond vague animism is uncommon in Mer Bleue, families still partake in other customs and pass mores on to their children.

Click for more...

For example, a youth's first shift is a significant event, but the attitude toward it varies between groups. Families who celebrate the change that shifting brings might celebrate and invite the youth to play and groom in their Optime forms, or tell stories about the specific ancestors who introduced the ability. However, other canines view shifting and the Optime form as a curse, and may shun the youth until they shift back to their Lupus form -- or make the experience otherwise traumatic enough that the youth is deterred from shifting again.

3.  History

Mer Bleue was isolated from the spread of the Luperci virus. No one could really say why, though it might have been a result of the area existing in Ottawa's greenbelt and a dash of pure chance. For years, it remained this way -- a safe haven for non-Luperci.

Slowly, however, outside individuals made contact with the packs of the conservation area. Xenophobia meant that their stays were short-lived, and conflict sometimes arose between Luperci bands attempting to muscle into the territory and the native packs, which sometimes banded together despite their borders to drive them out. However, the seeds were planted that would introduce the ability to shift into the gene-pool of Mer Bleue's canines.

This often led to further conflict; in 2012, a group of Luperci Verto rejected from their birth packs formed a coalition that attacked non-Luperci for the sake of revenge. While this group was quick to move on, fear and hatred toward shifters lingered.

The isolated nature of Mer Bleue and the small size of its constantly shifting packs meant that -- even as individuals' lives moved on, alliances formed and broke apart, harsh winters brought famine and gentle springs brought peace -- nothing much changed for a long time, and what change existed crept in quietly.



Back to Top of Archive

Categories: Open Territories | Raze