The Hunters in Darkness are the quintessential werewolves, at least as popular culture imagines them. Beasts cleverer than any wolf and more savage than any man, they tolerate no intruders in their territory. They stalk and harry, picking off the weakest and most isolated first, building the rest to a fever pitch of terror and a headlong dash through the night. It’s not enough to simply drive interlopers off. The Meninna’s hunt only ends one way, for long ago they swore an oath: Nu Mus Halhala. “Let No Sacred Place in Your Territory Be Violated.”
Consider that scene in the slasher movie, the one where the teenagers have been hounded and picked off one by one as they’re chased through the forest by a lunatic with a chainsaw and a leather mask. They find what they think is a sheltering cabin where they can regroup and hide, but then they see the wind chimes made of human pelvic girdles and they realize oh shit, we’re not safe at all. We’re right where that bastard wants us.
The Hunters in Darkness are the guy with the chainsaw.
All werewolves claim territory. The smart ones treat that territory with respect, but the Meninna take it to another level. Their territory is theirs, and by virtue of being theirs it is sacred. The First Tongue term the Hunters use for their territory is mus-rah, or “holy killing ground,” and that should tell you all you need to know about their views on territory. Any violation of mus-rah must be avenged on the same ground: Letting the prey slip the borders before it’s slain is a violation of the oath. As such, Hunters in Darkness prepare their territory with all manner of devious traps, switchbacks, and dead-ends designed to keep the prey from escaping.
The Hunters in Darkness revere Hikaon-Ur, Black Wolf, whom they also name the Silent Mother or Mother Wolf — a fact that doesn’t always sit well with the other tribes, who hold that title as one of Urfarah’s. The most withdrawn of Father Wolf’s children, she was nonetheless accounted as the finest hunter among the Firstborn. Her children praise her with every silent kill, with every carefully laid trap, and with every glimpse of the hunter that drives the prey to the killing ground.
The Hunters in Darkness hunt anything that violates their territorial boundaries, but they reserve special ire for the most dangerous prey: the Hosts. Shards of the Essence of ancient Shadow gods, these creatures are blasphemy incarnate: Not quite spirit, not quite flesh, they are a reminder of Father Wolf’s greatest failing. That their infestation fouls the spiritual side of a Hunter’s territory is only further insult.