Timberwolves

[sound_of_fire 9]

Whom out there enjoys the perplexing creature that is the timberwolf? I find them highly intriguing and thought provoking,although most see them as evil or useless. So please leave your thoughts on these magnificent creatures in the comments and please keep it logical and pg.

[\/ 651]

You wonder if they're the spirits of ponies who ventured into the forest after being banished from their homes.

[silvadel 1,393]

Naw -- they are too primal to be ponies. 

 

I'd say wild magic collects around the tree branches and manifests as a wolf.

[sound_of_fire 9]

I believe they come from fallen or dead trees that housed magic. That is the only logical way that I can fathom for their existence unless somepony made them and they are similar to our world's genetically modified organisms. Plus with the addition of the tree of harmony we know trees can house magic so long as the right tools are used. I also had the idea that the everfree is using laws from our universe as well as the mlp universe so it was half magic half evolution,which would explain why we never see nor hear of one in the fourth eqg movie. magic is new in that universe so evolution and magic wouldn't be able to create the magical flora and fauna of the mlp universe in said reality. Unfortunately until I can meet the writers of the show all my ideas are pure speculation and head-cannon.

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

What do you find magnificent about them?

 

Personally I just see them as golems of a type, except instead of being humanoid in shape and design they are canid. To me they seem artificial, and animated by magic alone.. I don't know if they have actual minds or not, or if they just operate under some order given recently or long ago. I am curious as to where they come from and exactly how they operate? Can they actually be killed, or will they always reanimate given enough time?

 

They are one of the more interesting creatures we have seen in the Everfree Forest.

[Widdershins 9,960]

  I agree with GrimyGrimy on the point that their golems of a sort. In most stories I've read/heard about golems are almost always created to serve some purpose, such as hauling freight, preforming some type of manual labor or eeking vengeance on some murderer. But if we consider from where they originate from, they can't have been made from another sentience. The depths of the Everfree are seen by the local populace as a sort of off-limits area. True, with Zecora moving into the area, a pony that is far more comfortable with living out in nature, more ponies & even fillies have been wandering into the depths of the forest. But... well to put it this way, I consider it as far out of most ponies minds to go for a walk in the everfree as it is for any human hunter to set up a duck blind on the street corner of a big city. There's nothing stopping anybeing from doing it, sure, but its a dumb risk to take with nothing gained but trouble! Were they mindless constructs made & ordered about by a malevolent, omniscient force to what ends would they be stalking about ONLY in that forest or be dog shaped? Especially when we haven't heard of any other wolf-like species in Equestria other then the diamond dogs, who are close, but are no where near in stance, size or feralness.

 

   It's been said before in the show that Everfree follows its own natural laws. I posit the idea is sort of opposite of that notion. That pegusai can but don't really need to control the weather. Sure, they can move around the clouds and control where, when and even manufacture the weather, but much like how humans have their own personal weather of sorts from house to house to car, its become widely accepted that how nature OUGHT be. If not under constant manual control, the clouds and even the Sun & Moon would likely still move around, just not at a manageable & predicable way that life, especially ponydom, would require it to be.(Most likely thrown out of whack by the antics of a certain Draconequus..) In the Everfree, that truly is where the, both metaphorically & literally, Wild Magic is!

 

  It seems like, in Equestria that trees aren't entirely living creatures as they are in our world. More like magical material that just juts out of the ground at places. Especially if we call that thing that produced the Elements of Harmony can be called a tree, in fact, Twilight's new digs erupted out of the ground in a very magical-tree-like fashion. I posit that in Equestria, a world practically dripping with magic, so much so that each individual of its dominant species is practically coated in the stuff, that magic works like water. We see that in particularly damp countries that water will funnel to the lowest point and clump together and make a low laying swamp. All the magic in Equestria, perhaps in an effort to avoid the manipulating hooves of well-intentioned ponies, drains down into the Everfree. Those trees have become veritable spires of near-solid magic. We see examples of this in many RPG game worlds where obscene amounts of magic get poured ontop of an ecosystem; this results in some natural, sentient elementals. The branches, leaves and other debris off these magic-infused trees fall to the ground, in blown or elsewise get pushed into piles where they soak up yet even more of the invisible magical mire and eventually develop their own sentience & reassemble themselves into a quadruped shape and become protectors of their forest. They have enough sentience to know how to hunt, to work together, to react seperately from each other, but they are not entirely separate entities. I will have to look this up sometime, but I am quite, quite certain that at one point during the show I have seen three or more timberwolves get broken up into debris & reassemble themselves(which already is something a living creature can't do) together into one big timberwolf. Which implies that they can freely just meld their sentience or souls together into one being. Not to dampen anybeing's efforts into making a timberwolf OC, as it would make sense that enough time spent apart from other timberwolves would mean them interacting separately & becoming more of their own being.

 

  Timberwolves exist sort of as their own classification. A sort of construct in between that of an elemental & a shade.(a shade, in my mind at least, being like a ghost but entirely magical in origin and in no way connected to an actual soul) In short, do think of them as sort of like the Ents from the Lord of the Rings world or perhaps like Groot. (I know he's an alien race, but as he can regrow from pretty much nothing, I see him as more construct/elemental like.)

 

  But above all else, and this is something that peeves me a smidgen, Timberwolves are NOT wolves! Its just their name because of their shape, much in the way Hippos aren't water horses, what their name means in the greek that they were originally named in.

 

Edit: Just saw that... in short, TL;DR form: Everything Silvadel said...

 I took near 4 thousand letters to say what she said in one sentence.../facepalm

 

 

Edited December 3, 2016 by Widdershins

[sound_of_fire 9]

@GrimGrimoire

 

I find their ability to puzzle everypony with their simple design that leads to perplexing queries,and their unique branch of magic that is basic yet complex due to it's indeterminable nature intriguing to say the least. Every time something new is added to them on screen it open 10 doors of head-cannon and theories for the fandom to expand upon. Such things would be the fact that they are capable of thought,but not to the levels of ponies,they have an unknown amount of magical energy and they could if they wanted to take over most of equestria by becoming one giant timberwolf. I can't wait to see how the fandom expands their lore,I chose to expand on the brainwave activity and ability to manipulate magical forces by making a half breed oc. (no she is not a Mary Sue.) While she has an abundance of magical energy she has yet to discover how to tap into all of it. Plus it makes it easy to add her into the cannon universe by saying she grew up in the everfree forest and is just leaving it to pursue her ideas and find her mom.

@Widdershins

 

I find that idea to be fascinating and completely agree that they could just be constructs of magical energy clumps being poured into the local flora,but unfortunately there is a plethora of possibilities to their origin and we may never know which one is correct.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

It’s like you people have never seen a nature elemental before.

[sound_of_fire 9]

@Goat-kun

 

we actually touched upon the idea of them being elementals,golems,magic based fauna,etc. if you wish you may give your thoughts and opinions as well as supportive facts in a calm reasonable conversation as we try and unravel the mystery that is their origin.

[cider float 2,538]

Like a type of undead. Maybe spirits collect into wood branches and create a kind of wood golem. Golems are classed as undead as well. Undead means anything that should be dead that comes to life. 

[cmarston1 5,959]

They do have a pretty cool design, and the whole able to reassemble themselves thing is also pretty awesome.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

@Goat-kun

 

we actually touched upon the idea of them being elementals,golems,magic based fauna,etc. if you wish you may give your thoughts and opinions as well as supportive facts in a calm reasonable conversation as we try and unravel the mystery that is their origin.

If something looks like a nature spirit, acts like a nature spirit, then it’s probably a nature spirit. Spirits’ forms are composed from the materials that represent their element, and they cannot be killed the same way as us since they exist primarily beyond the mortal realm and only use such physical bodies as disposable vessels. Also, a swarm of many lesser spirits merging to possess a greater vessel isn’t all that strange a phenomenon. Given how prevalent such spirits are in fantasy, this theory offers the simplest, most neutral, and least contrived explanation.

[Vlazamal 338]

Ugh. Timberwolves stink.

[sound_of_fire 9]

Ugh. Timberwolves stink.

If you do not like them you could just avoid the post...

 

 

If something looks like a nature spirit, acts like a nature spirit, then it’s probably a nature spirit. Spirits’ forms are composed from the materials that represent their element, and they cannot be killed the same way as us since they exist primarily beyond the mortal realm and only use such physical bodies as disposable vessels. Also, a swarm of many lesser spirits merging to possess a greater vessel isn’t all that strange a phenomenon. Given how prevalent such spirits are in fantasy, this theory offers the simplest, most neutral, and least contrived explanation.

Interesting idea,but elementals wouldn't run away like they did in the reality where nightmare moon ruled. Nor would they leave the domain they are attempting to protect like they did in spike at your service. This is why I find them fascinating,every bit of them that is shown makes and debunks several theories about their origin and lives.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Interesting idea,but elementals wouldn't run away like they did in the reality where nightmare moon ruled. Nor would they leave the domain they are attempting to protect like they did in spike at your service. This is why I find them fascinating,every bit of them that is shown makes and debunks several theories about their origin and lives.

Elementals do not see the world as we do, and their powers are tied to the astral form of their environment that does not always reflect what we observe on our mortal plane. All those dead trees that have been cut down by first settlers could still linger beyond as a spectral forest. Plus Equestria is quite green. You don’t need to have lush old forests to have little nature spirits running around.

 

Eternal night would put nature to sleep, thus weakening the nature elementals. Also, such things are feral, but that does not make them completely stupid. Seeing an old alicorn’s astral form would make lesser elementals reluctant to attack.

 

Of course, you don’t really need such loretastic justifications. Timberwolves are a plot device that is used however our glorious writers see fit without any consideration for lore or worldbuilding. It’s just a coincidence that they are best described as nature spirits. That doesn’t mean they fit perfectly, just that there is no better simple explanation for their existence.

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

 

 

But if we consider from where they originate from, they can't have been made from another sentience. The depths of the Everfree are seen by the local populace as a sort of off-limits area. True, with Zecora moving into the area, a pony that is far more comfortable with living out in nature, more ponies & even fillies have been wandering into the depths of the forest. But... well to put it this way, I consider it as far out of most ponies minds to go for a walk in the everfree as it is for any human hunter to set up a duck blind on the street corner of a big city. There's nothing stopping anybeing from doing it, sure, but its a dumb risk to take with nothing gained but trouble! Were they mindless constructs made & ordered about by a malevolent, omniscient force to what ends would they be stalking about ONLY in that forest or be dog shaped?

 

 

I stand behind the thought they are a type of golem. Golems have an original archetype but over the years they have been rewritten by many different fantasy authors and gaming companies. Golems can be mindless automatons created from almost any material, to intelligent sentient self aware creatures capable of making their own choices and living their own lives. Although all of the other ideas being posted are just as possible as this one, I personally like to think they are artificial and created by some other sentience.. pony or otherwise.

 

I don't really like to use the cliche "evil wizard' but nothing is to say that is not what got the ball rolling. We known the Everfree forest has been around a long time, and who is to say what type of beings have made it there home? Just as Zecora likes it and finds some comfort in place there, so to would any creature (pony or otherwise) that just wants to be left alone to their own devices. Who is to say exactly how big the woods are, and what is on the other side of them.... the official map makes them the size of a small park (or about the size of Ponyville itself) , but as I said in the thread about that, I find the dimensions horribly off and actually feel they are much much larger.

 

Either way, I feel they were created by a larger sentience... for what purpose.. i don't know. To guard the forest and keep out intruders... a twisted experiment that went perfectly well or possibly horribly wrong.. who is to say? If they were created and made for all intents immortal and indestructible, then there are a finite number of them in the forest, still doing whatever it is they do. We have seen them show fear and self preservation acts, but that does not truly show they have a mind, and are not operating on some instinctual level. We saw several of them shattered and rebuild themselves into the mega-timberwolf, which itself was destroyed... but what happened after that, we don't know. Did it die? Reform and head back into the woods? Reform into smaller forms and return to the woods?

 

Is it possible the timberwolves are a product of Nightmare Moon from a thousand years ago before she was banished? Or some other being with evil or chaotic aspirations. Starswirl apparently was a pony who practiced for all intents and purposes "good" magic... so by that right, there has to have been some who studied "dark' and "evil" magic. Perhaps the timberwolves are products of that.

 

Or they could just be the products of overflowing magic or nature spirits or any untold number of things. We may or may not ever get any sort of source for their origins, so for now everything is open to interpretation.

[Vlazamal 338]

If you do not like them you could just avoid the post...

 

I don't think you got the pun.

[FizzyGreen 909]

I think Timberwolfes are something that emerged from the everfree forest. But then again, we first need to know what makes the everfree forest so special in the first place.

Edited December 4, 2016 by FizzyGreen

[sound_of_fire 9]

I don't think you got the pun

There isn't a pun. You only made reference to the smell that they produce.

[horses are weird 23]

On 2016-12-04 at 1:18 PM, GrimGrimoire said:

We have seen them show fear and self preservation acts, but that does not truly show they have a mind, and are not operating on some instinctual level. We saw several of them shattered and rebuild themselves into the mega-timberwolf, which itself was destroyed... but what happened after that, we don't know. Did it die? Reform and head back into the woods? Reform into smaller forms and return to the woods?

Yeah, why is that never explained? Are we just supposed to assume they died? That doesn't sound right as I doubt any of the ponies (and spike) would be okay with killing.

[Orchid_Fiore 200]

They are quite mystical, their morphology is also very interesting.