Myths - The Lupercal (Promptober 2025 #6)

The She-Wolf Statue.

According to Ionian myth, the twins Ionius and Iulius founded the city of Ionia and consolidated the rule of the area under Ionius, the first Ionian king. An oracle said that twin sons would dethrone King Amulius, so he decreed that all twins should be killed for two years. Not even the king's niece, Rhea, was immune from this decree, but servants abandoned her twins on the bank of the Allia river instead of killing them outright.

A mother wolf found the twins and carried them to a nearby cave to suckle them back to health. They stayed for months, growing strong under the she-wolf's care. She eventually found a shepherd, Faustulus, who adopted the boys as his own. They grew up not knowing of the oracle nor their importance, eventually becoming soldiers in one of the many civil wars. In the years to come, they dethroned King Amulius and united the people on both sides of the civil war into the Kingdom of Ionia. In the hour of their triumph, Ionius and Iulius had a dispute about where to build the capital city, leaving Iulius dead and only Ionius's name to live in perpetuity as the name of the city and the kingdom.

Years after Ionius's death, the story of his birth took on a mythical quality. Hundreds of years ago, an enterprising huckster named Calvus found a cave and called it the Lupercal, making a mint on giving tours and telling everyday Ionian people the story that this was where the she-wolf raised King Ionius as an infant, for a measly few coins per head. Nobody knows if Calvus's cave is the actual location of this sacred site, but every Ionian knows about the Lupercal today, with Calvus's descendants still giving tours and telling the story of Ionius and the she-wolf.

Some come in a fit of almost religious reverence, thankful that the Kingdom, Empire, and Republic of Ionia still flourishes today thanks to its remarkable first king. Some come to revere the she-wolf, giver of strength and teacher of ferocity, hopeful that her spirit may grant them a boon of fortitude to endure whatever befalls them. Some come as historians, eager to study the cave and find an artifact that proves the twins were raised here, and so lift their name into academic fame as the discoverer of proof. But most come for the entertainment of a story whose details have been lost to the retelling of a myth over the previous centuries.

NOTE: This is a myth from the city of Ionia in Beneterra, in the world around Fellport. It's the story of Romulus and Remus with the names filed down and replaced with names that fit the game world. Myths take the truth and repackage them in a way that tells a story about the people of an area, and Ionians love to get lucky and make money.

Part of the Promptober project for 2025.
Contains a little history from Ionia, so it's listed in the Fellport Almanac as well.