Alpha Jakharo of Rainwinds, Rain Heart Jakharo of Meteor Clan (formerly) (a.k.a. Jakh, Jake, Kharo)
Author's note
This character dies in the prologue, however he gets the first and longest character sheet of my novel, because... Because he's interesting, mostly, and he fitted the competition rules. I've had his basic story written in Spanish for about a year, and I made like half his timeline when the timelines challenge took place. Here's Jakharo, father of Dacko and foster father of Nadja, two of my three Point of View characters in my novel Corazón de Lluvia (Rain Heart). His rise and fall is relevant not only for the story, but for the whole world of Rain Heart (and for me, because I spent way too long writing this...).
I hope you enjoy reading this article, and I would like to thank you for spending some of your precious time here reading my work. I will welcome any feedback you may have!<3 Please leave a Like if you, well, like it, and don't be shy to ping me in the Discord server to ask anything you don't understand or are curious about.
Physical Description
Jakharo was a tall, fit, strong man covered in battle scars.
His human form has a tan skin covered in scars of all sizes and shapes, a short brown beard and wild semi-long hair, and also bright blue eyes that turn greener in his animal form, which has dark brown fur with a white chest patch.
Very short beard, hairy eyebrows, a scar under his left eye, dry lips, light blue eyes and brown hair.
A birthmark in his neck and his warrior tattoo, a seven-pointed star in his shoulder.
Right-handed, always tense, had back problems.
Standard shifting ability. His animal form was a big, dark brown wolf with blueish green eyes and a white fur patch in his chest.
As the Alpha of Rainwinds, he used to wear the traditional Alpha clothes, unless he was going on patrol or felt too lazy to be careful with his clothes.
Specialized in close fighting in both forms and use of a battle Meteor Clan knife.
Mental characteristics
Great Alpha Jakharo, the Rain Heart of Rainwinds, the hero of the Last War for the Valley, was once a small, weak and trembling baby, cold in the middle of the forest with the frozen body of his mother by his side. The child wouldn't have survived long, and couldn't have become a hero and father of heros if a patrol of Meteor Clan hadn't passed by. The Clan wasn't really keen on the idea of accepting a dirtyblood kid, but a veteran warrior called Dacko accepted to take care of him as his own son. What no one knew is that Dacko was actually the baby's father. The kid was named Jakharo, "gift from the stars", and soon he grew to catch everyone's love. It was after the Battle of Jakhamrich when young Jakharo decided he wanted to be a warrior, like his dad and like the heroes that fought against the evil Darkforest Tribe.
Little did he know that it was his own Clan the one bullying and fighting the Tribe every time it seemed to recover its strength. They simply allowed it to exist so they had someone to fight and defeat once and again and again and again. But for the Meteor werewolves the Tribe was the enemy the Star Lords had sent for them to prove they were worthy of the stars gifts, the greatest of them being the Star Steel, a class of iron the Clan obtained from the huge meteor under their territory, in the deep caves of the Canyon. Meteor Clan is the only known pack to craft and use steel weapons. That gave them the advantage in every battle and was their most precious sacred secret: every Meteor Clan wolf was taught to defend it with their lives.
Little Jakharo, age 6 at that time, saw only the party and the heroes prizes, and asked his father to tell Great Leader Alrich to make him a warrior trainee. This finally happened when the young wolf was eight years old, and he startsed training with the other future warriors of the Clan. He fought his first battle against the Darkforest Tribe at age twelve, in the Battle of Blackspikes, and was made a full warrior after the Battle of Jakharo, fought when he was fiveteen. The battle was given to him because of his heroic actions and skills shown by killing two full-grown Darkforest warriors, and Jakharo was made a warrior in the closest solstice, so he had time to prepare for his ceremonies. Also, Great Leader Alrich promised him to find a good mate for him, as it was the Leader who made the matches under His domains.
The chosen day, Jakharo went down into the Starry Caves and spent a day and a night in the forge, and then he came back with a new, bright, sharp and perfect Star Steel knife. His very own sacred knife, which his son would inherit and then give to his own son. As Jakharo was an outsider in the Clan, he was unable to inherit Dacko's knife, because he wasn't known to be his blood father at that time. Being the knifes so sacred to the Clan, they immadiately thought the perfect weapon was a sign from the stars: the Star Lords were saying Jakharo was indeed a gift from them to their loyal Clan in Earth. To thank the Lords, and also to reward Jakharo, Great Leader Alrich gave His own niece, Ía, to him as his fiancee. Being the girl currently eleven years old, he had to wait until she has her first blood, which would mean her spirit was old enough to fight male spirits and create a life.
Young Jakharo had a fiancee at a very young age, and a pretty good one, and that should've kept him away from other females, but actually it wouldn't be long until he made his worst mistake ever. He met Hara. She was a pretty smoke-gray loner, he was a young warrior, and that was a hot autumn day by the border of Clan territory. She hadn't trespassed, and he was alone in the patrol, so he stayed a bit to talk. They ended up arranging a date for the next day and that was the beginning of the end.
For the next year and a half, Jakharo spent all his free time in the forest, going for "daily walks" in which he met Hara and taught her about the Clan ways. He was a stupid boy in love, and believed that the Clan would accept her just because they accepted him as a baby. He should have known Meteor Clan would never accept a female that wanted to hunt for herself, but they didn't even have the chance to test it out. Dacko, Jakharo's father, followed him a day at the end of summer and found them together; he warned his son that those relationship never end well, and revealed he had fallen in love with a loner himself once. Jakharo doesn't listen, and Dacko, although worried for his son, agreed to keep shut.
The seventeenth day of the third month of autumn of his eighteenth year of life, Jakharo signed the death of an entire tribe by making a stupid teenager mistake: he revealed the sacred secret of the Star Steel to an outsider, Hara the loner, in hopes that that would make her craft a perfect knife as well and be accepted in the Clan. But the female smiled, made a signal, and a patrol of Darkforest Tribe warriors surrounded them. She revealed she had been working with them to discover the secret that had made their Tribe lose every single battle, and that she had faked everything in their relationship, but when the Darkforest wolves left and asked her to kill Jakharo, she didn't. She disappeared in the forest without a word, without asking a single question among the hundreds the broken boy asked. He was left alone. Alone with his crime.
After he confessed his crime to the Clan, his knife was immediately taken from him and Jakharo was confined in a cave, rankless and hated, awaiting to be judged for the highest treason crime possible.
The next day, Jakharo was taken out of his cell early in the morning and he's told that there's a planned attack to the Tribe. Jakharo was asked to fight for his Clan in order to recover some honor and be accepted again. He reluctantly agreed, was retrieved his knife and was escorted outside after Dacko talked to him, revealed he was his true father and gave him his own Star Steel knife. The Clan assaulted the Tribe's camp early in the morning, catching most of the Darkforest werewolves by surprise. It was a slaughter. The Clan outnumbered the Tribe and although they defended their families fiercely, they haden't got Star Steel weapons yet.
Until then, in every battle between the two packs, although the Clan won, they always left enough living wolves to let them restore the Tribe. This time, they came to erase them from Earth. When Jakharo realized this, he was shocked and horrified, and then the Great Leader Alrich lead him to a bunch of prisioners, mostly kids, and told him to kill them. He said that was the only way for him to restore his rank, as he grabbed a 11-years-old child. Jakharo doubted but chose not to kill him, and when he said so, Alrich murdered the kid and called him a traitor. The Clan leader then ordered his wolves to kill the traitor, but suddenly Dacko attacked him and yelled his son to run.
He did.
Jakharo ran for hours as he was chased until he found a kid. He smelled like Darkforest Tribe and although he ran and fought, finally he ended up running with him when the Clan scouts reached them and Jakharo had to fight them back. The kid called himself Darkforest in the Tribe's way to introduce themselves without saying their true names.
Darkforest and Jakharo were now runaways without a goal.
After some days of running away, Darkforest started to trust Jakharo, at least enough to give him his true name: Heko of Darkforest Tribe. This way they started a beautiful father-son relationship that lasted like a month because the Clan hunters caught them and the child got killed. Jakharo managed to escape and reached the city of Little Waterfall in his own, wounded and tired. Being the very first time he sees one, Jakharo had to face a choice: to hide in an unknown and possibly dangerous place or stay in the forest and risk being catched by Meteor Clan wolves. He didn't get to choose, though, because he collapsed when he shifted into his bipedal form. Jakharo was soon found by a young human named Erik, who took him into his apartment and treated his wounds. Jakharo would stay in the city for five years.
During his time in Little Waterfall, Jakharo called himself Jake and learnt to live among humans while he taught Erik about wolves. They became close friends, and even something else... Until Jakharo finally decided to leave and go back to the wild after suspecting the Clan was getting closer to the city. Jakharo decides to leave Erik's apartment and Little Waterfall and go back to the wild, heading North. Erik was about to move too, but gave Jakharo a copy of the house keys, some money and his phone number in case he needed her friend's help someday.
The twenty-second day of the first month of winter of Jakharo's 23rd year of life, the former warrior reached a territory border and chose to cross it instead of deviate his path. As Jakharo crossed the Rainwind border, he discovered a group of wolves had ambushed a smaller group in a gorge. He was about to leave the place when he noticed there was a kid in the smaller group, and when he thought about Heko, Jakharo was unable to leave him behind. He jumped into the battle and helped Rainwinds defeat the Moonlight ambushers. When the last Moonlight fleed, Agherr of Rainwinds, leader of the patrol, thanked Jakharo and invited him to meet his father, Alpha Agheran of Rainwinds.
Jakharo stayed with the pack for some weeks, fighting in some other small battles and getting closer to Agherr, his beautiful sister, Nuva, her fiancé, Daichi, and another friend of them, Garevan. After a while, Agherr offered him to become a full warrior of Rainwinds, and, having longed for being part of something for so long, he accepted. He stayed an apprentice for more than a year, although he was an adult, and after that compulsory time he was given the Rain Heart by Alpha Areghan. In this time, Jakharo and Nuva hade fallen in love, but when he asked her father for permission to take her as his mate, Alpha Areghan sadly had to decline, as Nuva had already been promised to Daichi and he couldn't offend a great warrior to reward an outsider.
Rainwinds and Stormclouds are known to give their members titles or honorific names when they reach adulthood. The names tell the story of what the wolf did to deserve being considered an adult. Rain Heart is a special name, given only to foreginers who joined the pack and became valuable members; the name itself comes with a real rain heart, a blue gem inside a rock that can be found in the deepest caves under the Valley.
Two days after becoming a full warrior of Rainwinds pack, Jakharo watched his best friend, Agherr, die in battle against Moonlights. Jakharo lost his best friend, Nuva lost his brother and Alpha Areghan lost his son and heir. The pack is left without a certain future Alpha.
After his son was killed, Areghan fell into depression and didn't care about the pack rules anymore. Therefore, he allowed his daughter, Nuva, to become Jakharo's mate. Right in time, because she was already pregnant. This made Jakharo the official heir, as he was mates with the Alpha's eldest daughter (now that her brother was dead). This angered Daichi, who broke his friendship with Jakharo and swore vengeance.
Two months later, sick and old, Alpha Areghan died in his sleep, and the pack was left without a leader and in the middle of a war they were losing. Jakharo was named Alpha of Rainwinds the next morning, and got the blessing from the spirits to lead the pack in such difficult times.
Soon, he started to change things: he had a plan to win that war once and for all.
Jakharo chose Garevan as his Beta and designed an ofensive to use all the strength Rainwinds could gather to defeat Moonlights. He employed the tactics of guerrilla warfare to make the invaders retreat from the forest and prepared a final battle to lead his wolves into the heart of Moonlight territory. He acosed and wounded Moonlights for months, and it's said that all of Rainwinds ancestors fought in his fangs. Moonlights say he was a demon of red eyes and a stone claw. In fact, his «claw» was made of Star Steel and was actually a knife.
His first son was born twenty days before the truce was signed. Despite the Rainwind tradition of not giving a baby another person's name, Jakharo finally convinced Nuva to name the boy Dacko after his father.
After years of war, Rainwinds and Moonlights arranged a truce as Moonlights lost one battle after another and their Mother was forced to surrender. This happened the 27th day of the first month of spring in the second year of the reign of Alpha Jakharo of Rainwinds, and lasted for a little more than a year. Rainwinds commited the mistake to take over some sacred Moonlight territory, the Mother of Moonlights is forced to declare war again and a Rainwind patrol is brutally attacked.
Alpha Jakharo lead Rainwinds' forces to battle. The pack reached the Moonlight Enclave and quickly beat Moonlights in battle. The Mother was forced to surrender just a day after resuming the fight.
What no one knows is that Jakharo, knowing that the truce wouldn't last long, took the Mother's great-granddaughter, her heir, as a Rainwind hostage to keep Moonlights from declare war again. He claimed to have found out that Niara of Rainwinds, who died in the battle, was pregnant and gave birth in the battlefield. The newborn baby is renamed from N'ai-yah to Nadja and adopted by Jakharo himself and Nuva. She would be raised alongside with Dacko, a year older, and Gärn, Garevan's daughter.
After this Short War After the Last Great War for the Valley, there was peace in pack territory for 18 years, and all Rainwind children would be taught it was all because of Alpha Jakharo, the Rain Heart of Rainwinds.
In his seventh year of reign (2004 of the human calendar), Jakharo had another son, a beautiful child he named Heko after his first dead foster son. And, in his 17th year as Alpha (2014), his eldest son and heir Dacko earned his adult name, Wind Runner, and became a full wolf of Rainwinds pack just a bit before Heko died from an illness after the Great Storm.
A couple of loners looked for shelter in the forest after the storm, which had killed their daughter. Having lost a son himself, Jakharo allowed them to stay for some days until they're recovered. This angered Daichi, who spat that there were enough outsiders in the pack already. The male, Asris, spoke about a violent pack far South that used steel weapons, and Jakharo immediately thought about the Meteor Clan.
He couldn't allow the Clan to know he was still alive and had a pack of his own, so he left the pack in Nuva and Dacko's hands and travelled to Little Waterfall to gather information. There, he saved the life of a young urban wolf called Reirü and convinced him to accept some food. He also asked Reirü about the Clan, which he had only heard vague stories about.
When he met some other urban wolf kids, Jakharo remembered all the children that had died because of him and his own Heko (both of them), and, as he still had Erik's appartament's keys, he offered Reirü a place to stay if he gathered the others in the next days. Reluctantly, the boy agreed.
Jakharo went back to the city and met Reirü again. The boy had gathered other young urban wolves who settled in Erik's old appartament. Jakharo also called the human and he agreed to send some monthly money to feed the urban pack. They called themselves White Hawks and Reirü acted as their leader from then on.
Jakharo kept visiting them from time to time over the months and the years, training them to fight and hunt in the wild and preparing the White Hawks to be Rainwinds' surprise allies in an hypothetical war situation that put the pack in danger.
They became sort of a second pack for him, and he realized too late that he couldn't be the Alpha of two packs nor could he put those kids in danger. What had he been thinking about? It had been a mistake, a huge mistake, and he should have been protecting his own pack instead of worrying about a Clan that most probably had alteady forgotten him and he had only heard rumours about. The day he decided to tell Reirü to forget that stupid promise and take care of his people, he left the Valley too distracted to notice someone was following him.
Daichi was waiting for him back in the forest when he came back, and they had an argument about White Hawks, betrayal and loyalty. Jakharo ordered him to promise he wouldn't tell anyone, and even though he refuses to make that promise, days and weeks passed without anyone else learning the truth: that their beloved Alpha had trained a second pack made of children to fight for them.
No one would know it until a long time later, but Daichi had spent that days and weeks negotiating with Stormclouds, a neighbor pack known for its poisons and its hunger for territory, to get a poison he poured in Jakharo's food the third day of the first month of summer in Jakharo's 20th year as Alpha. It was a secret and dark recipe that wouldn't kill the Alpha, nor would it affect him in any way until he shifted into his animal form.
That day, after the meal, Daichi challenged Jakharo under the spirits' duelling laws for the Alpha position. The healthy Alpha accepted the challenge, and when he shifted he started to feel bad. It was a long fight in which Daichi waited until his enemy was too weak to fight back and then beat him up. The Great Jakharo, Rain Heart of Rainwinds, was defeated and half dead when Daichi, the traitor, the warrior that had sworn vengeance, pinned him down and asked him for his last wish.
Tradition forced the winner to grant the defeated wolf a last wish, which was usually used to beg for mercy. However, the winner keeps the loser possessions and position, and a new Alpha could choose freely his mate and could use his power to get rid of former heirs that could be a problem. Jakharo knew he had to choose before saving his own life, saving his son's or saving his mate from becoming Daichi's forced mate to be raped whenever her new partner wished.
His last words were «don't touch my son». It was the last and hardest decision of his life.
And then Alpha Jakharo of Rainwinds, the Rain Heart, born as Unnamed the Loner and raised as Jakharo of Meteor Clan, was murdered by a vulgar traitor that got to rape his mate and make his son's life a living hell.
He had fallen forever.
---
Months later, his son and foster daughter would find out the truth and try to save his name and their pack... but that's a different story.
Biromantic, heterosexual.
He got the best known fighting training and became a Meteor Clan warrior at a young age. He also learnt Rainwinds' history and traditions when he was accepted, and a lot of secret knowledge from Alpha Areghan and the Cavern.
Meteor warrior at age 16, forged a perfect Star Steel knife, war hero among Rainwinds, Alpha that put last Rainwind-Moonlight war to an end, managed to keep the Valley in peace for almost twenty years, wonderful father (exept for the fact that half his children died young).
Betrayed his Clan by telling an outsider about the only thing he had been told to keep a secret and made a whole Tribe be slaughtered by that. Got his first foster child killed, got his youngest child killed, trained a bunch of children to be warriors (and some died), kidnapped a child and made her believe she was Rainwind... Made some people die because of his choices, let Daichi discover White Hawks and chose to protect his remaining son instead of his mate, which got her raped.
Jakharo couldn't stand bright golden and orange colours, which are Meteor Clan's symbols. He was also terrified of being chased and hunted down.
He was a strategical man, level-headed and quick-witted. Sometimes, however, he was too relaxed or too nervous and Nuva or Garevan had to make him focus back to the topic.
Jakharo tried to be a moral man, but his good-willed actions didn't usually have a completely happy ending. He tried to save a kid and that got him killed, he wanted to protect his family and that put a pack of children in danger, he tried to end a war and that prepared another one that has not yet exploded but is about to.
Jakharo believed in justice and tried to be the fairest Alpha for his pack, and also thought it was the best for his son to learn about his future Alpha position before getting the Spirits' Blessing, but that only made Dacko grow up away from his friends and siblings because he had secrets to learn and hide. He was, in short, a good man with bad luck.
A taboo he could never entirely erase from his mind is the prohibition to talk about the Star Steel. After causing a slaughter in Darkforest Tribe the first time he did so, he's never explained the secret again to anyone.
Personality Characteristics
As a teenager, all he wanted was to become the best warrior he could be for his Clan. After being exiled, he changed his motivation to protect Heko. After Heko died, he found himself with no motivation and spent five years living the life of a human after believing there wasn't a place as a wolf for him. He then felt like a danger for those near him (Erik) and left to protect him, finding a new pack with new friends to protect. The true thing is that Jakharo's motivation is protecting those that he loves. His family, his pack... He lived and died for them; he made his second worst mistake for them.
Extremely good at fighting and leading a pack through a war, sucked at cooking and was terribly scared of taking care of a baby (who would blame him, huh?).
Loved learning and teaching, hated being challenged or disobeyed.
Had nearly perfect reflexes and was a great father.
Jakharo had his sons lives planned and didn't realize Dacko wasn't ready to be a leader and didn't really want to be one. He didn't notice his son was gay and could never love Nadja, as it was his plan (so Nadja's powers entered in the Alpha's bloodline). He watched everything and saw too little.
Touched his ears and nose when nervous, in a similar way his son does.
Jakharo was pretty obsessed with his hygiene, sometimes getting sick because of the cold water. Nuva couldn't stand his stubbornness in that aspect. She would yell «you can be clean without being crazy, stupid furball!»
Social
Jakharo was a heavily respected Alpha among his packmates, except for Daichi and his closer circle. Stormclouds also respected his strengh, while Moonlights openly hated him. White Hawks see him as a father and benefactor, specially Reirü.
» His father, Dacko of Meteor Clan, dead.
» His mother, Davara the loner, dead.
» His former promised mate, Ía of Meteor Clan.
» His former mate, Hara the loner.
» His former foster son, Heko of Darkforest, dead.
» His mate, Nuva of Rainwinds.
» His eldest son, Dacko of Rainwinds.
» His youngest son, Heko of Rainwinds, dead.
» His foster daughter, Nadja of Rainwinds.
His beliefs were a mixture of Meteor Clan's and Rainwinds', as he could never forget the teachings he learnt as a kid or ignore the stories of his new pack. He never tried to teach his sons about Meteor Clan, though, and Dacko, Heko and Nadja were taught about the Rainwinds' ancestral spirits instead.
Jakharo was a extremely charismatic leader, level-headed and fair, and wasn't scared of speaking to crowds.
Like his son, Jakharo tended to speak to himself and forget he was in company. He was a great speecher, though, able to convince anyone of anything.
As the Alpha of Rainwinds, he used to own the prettiest and richest clothes and lived in the Alpha's Home, the biggest house-cave of the Rainwinds' Home. He had access to the Cavern archives of the pack and the information about all past and present members of Rainwinds. He always got the first bit of food and the best part of the hunt.
Wow, there was so much content that really helped me understand who Jakharo was in all his strengths and weaknesses. He is a very well rounded character! The parts I enjoyed reading was about the secret of the Meteor Clan, the explanation of the honorific name Rain Heart, and the various struggles he had with children.