Lore:Wild Hunt

This article is about the Bosmeri ritual. For Hircine's ritual, see Great Hunt.

Wild Hunt monsters

"It was as if a crack in reality had opened wide. A flood of horrific beasts, tentacled toads, insects of armor and spine, gelatinous serpents, vaporous beings with the face of gods, all poured forth from the great hollow tree, blind with fury. They tore the Khajiiti in front of the temple to pieces. All the other cats fled for the jungle, but as they did so, they began pulling on the ropes they carried. In a few seconds time, the entire village of Vindisi was boiling with the lunatic apparitions of the Wild Hunt."
—A Dance in Fire, Chapter 4

The Wild Hunt, also called the Great Hunt, is a magical trait innate to all Bosmer. It is brought on by a collective ritual performed by many Bosmer, causing them to shapeshift into a horde of feral, eldritch beasts. This transformation cannot be undone. These monsters stampede, changing their form constantly, slaying and devouring all in their path, devouring the flesh of those in their way to the bone in seconds, and eventually, when left with no surviving targets, turn upon themselves in a "cannibalistic orgy". This transformation is seen by the Bosmer as a return to the chaos of the Dawn Era they call the Ooze, a state of existence where all life and land on Nirn were formless and shifted constantly between shapes, unable to hold one form for more than a moment, acknowldged also in Altmer myth. It was Y'ffre who granted all things their Names and gave them an enduring form. The Bosmer thus believe that after they made the Green Pact with Y'ffre, he taught them how to escape that chaos and retain their form, but also how to return to it by instigating the Wild Hunt. As all life started as part of the shifting chaos of Ooze and had their shapes taught to them by Y'ffre, getting caught up in the vicinity of a Wild Hunt ritual can also lead to non-Bosmer forgetting their taught shapes, the bonds of the Name bestowed upon them unraveled, and transform into Wild Hunt creatures.

Some sources claim that the origins of the Wild Hunt might lie with the emergent elves' observation of the Ehlnofey during primordial times. It is said that, while the Dwemer would learn how to defy the Earthbones by observing the Ehlnofey controlling the natural laws governing things such as decay and the passage between realms, the Aldmer clans from which the Bosmer would eventually emerge would witness the passing of Y'ffre, who was the first of the Ehlnofey to give of themselves to Mundus fully and become an Earthbone, learning how to defy the Earthbone he established to govern the physical form of things through observing him. It is said that this is the knowledge modern Bosmer invoke to enact a Wild Hunt, reverting to what life truly is beneath Y'ffre's imposed law. The reason for the seemingly undying nature of such Hunt creatures is said to be that in severing themselves from the control of one Earthbone, others also lose their power to impose their own laws on them, thus leading to the Earthbone governing lifespan also losing its power.

Shapeshifters of the Wild Hunt are stripped of their flesh from their bone instantaneously, and turn into creatures that "defy all attempts to identify them". Some may not even turn into creatures at all, and instead change into "great writhing tongues, unfettered by lips or teeth", or can take on a gaseous form which makes them impossible to contain without the aid of magic. There's even some suggestion they can take on the form of water, or waves of blood. The forms they take are not static, however, as they may appear like a serpent one moment, and shift into another creature the next moment. When Bosmer invoke the Wild Hunt, it causes a change in wild animals as well. Beasts typically transform into beings that are part plant and part animal.

The purpose of the Wild Hunt varies with each separate Hunt, from an act of vengeance to a tool of war. In either case, the Bosmer are not proud of their ability and are unwilling to discuss the Hunt at great length. One of the rare accounts on the nature of the Wild Hunt states that "every monster in the world that has ever been comes from a previous Hunt". As such, the Bosmer are reluctant to use the Hunt, except as an act of desperation; the change is said to be irreversible.. The monsters that do get created by a Wild Hunt, all former Bosmer, are said to be ferocious and long-lived. Notable examples included Willy the Bitten and King Dead Wolf-Deer, who were created by the end of the fourth century of the First Era and lived at least until the beginning of the Third Era. They went on to plague Silvenar Grove and the Lynpar March respectively. There was also a monstrosity captured by the Reachfolk during the Wild Hunt started to kill High King Borgas in 1E 369 in Skyrim.

Hircine is capable of creating creatures that mimic those that are created from Wild Hunts. He meddled with the nature of wolves, making them susceptible to shapeshifting. This modification is the origin for both Werewolves, and the Wild Hunt Wolf, who as their name suggests, are wolves that have become unraveled because they have forgotten their Y'ffre-taught form, much like creatures that get caught up in the Bosmer's Wild Hunt ritual. Hircine's Bloodroot Forge is also capable of creating Nirnblooded creatures much like those of the Wild Hunt.

Bosmer can transform to a creature of the Wild Hunt outside the need for the collective ritual. Doing so this way is not condoned by Y'ffre, and is punishable for breaking the Green Pact. Hircine is such a means of tapping into the transformation in this manner. Some artifacts tied to the Wild Hunt are known to plague the wearer's dreams with frightful images of hunter and prey, hearkening back to a crueler time. Curiously, such relics depict the god Y'ffre in an uncommon manner, as a ferocious figure that's howling or snarling behind a matted wreath of leaves. It is believed this might be a depiction of Y'ffre unleashing the power of the Wild Hunt.

Historic Cases

There have been three documented cases of the Wild Hunt:

• 1E 369, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim — A Wild Hunt was invoked in order to kill King Borgas who was a supporter of the Alessian Order and thus against Valenwood. As a result of his death via the Hunt, Skyrim was plunged in a civil war that lasted for more than 50 years.

• Late Second Era, location unknown — The last Wild Hunt to be officially documented until the end of the Third Era.

• 3E 397, Vindisi — A Wild Hunt was invoked in retaliation to a Khajiiti attack on the Bosmer hamlet of Vindisi by its inhabitants during a truce in the Five Year War. According to the Imperial Geographical Society this was the most recent sighting of the Wild Hunt to date.

Other

When the Lunar Champion walked the Moonlit Path to become the new Mane in 2E 582, the Vestige, accompanied by the future Mane, witnessed a vision of the Wild Hunt being invoked due to the fall of the First Aldmeri Dominion. It showed that after the fall of Mane Akkhuz-ri and Speaker Gharesh-ri's subsequent demise, the Khajiit fell away from the Dominion, while on Summerset, the Veiled Heritance led a successful revolt against Queen Ayrenn, leaving Valenwood vulnerable. This led to the Daggerfall Covenant and the Ebonheart Pact launching an assault on Valenwood. After losing hope, the Green Lady Gwaering and the Silvenar Indaenir recited the words and caused the Wild Hunt to transform their people into feral creatures. The two were hunted by their own people, and the province was engulfed in chaos. The Champion interpreted this vision as a possible future to come if she did not succeed in becoming the Mane.

Gallery

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  Wild Hunt Senche

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  Winterborn Wild Hunt Wolf

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  A Wild Hunt transformation

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  A vision of a possible Wild Hunt

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  Ring of the Wild Hunt

Notes

Selene, a Changeling who rejected the Green Pact

• The Wild Hunt of the Bosmer should not be confused with the Great Hunt periodically conducted by the Daedric Prince Hircine, which is also occasionally called the Wild Hunt.
  • ^Since Skyrim, Hircine's Wild Hunts have been referred to as the Great Hunt. In ESO, books previously mentioning non-Bosmeri Wild Hunts have changed their wording to mention Great Hunts instead, likely to differentiate the two.
• The Changelings are shapeshifting nature spirits that were once prevalent in Valenwood. When Y'ffre introduced the Green Pact many of them gave up their formlessness to become Bosmer, with those who refused it becoming known as Oathbreakers and being hunted down to be interred in the tarpits of Ouze.

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.